O Aprendizado Formal de Controladoria e a minimização do Efeito Framing: um estudo de decisões gerenciais envolvendo Custos de Oportunidade

The object of this research was to investigate the impact of the formal learning of Auditing, Accounting and Control in the minimization of cognitive biases in management decisions. For this the experimental scenario together with a situation that involved the concept of the Cost of opportunity was delineated. With the help of this concept, this research seeks to understand the behavior associated with the cognitive bias caused by the framing effect. The experiment counted on a control group where the introduction of biases did not exist in the questions submitted to the respondents, and two experimental groups where the questionnaires had biases, the sample being made up of 115 Accounting and Law undergraduate students of the Federal University of Bahia. For the analysis of the experiment Multiple Logistic Regression was used. The results obtained pointed to the inexistence of contributions to the formal learning of Auditing, Accounting and Control in the reduction of the occurrence of the framing effect.El objetivo de esta pesquisa fue verificar el impacto del aprendizaje formal de Contraloría en la minimización de los sesgos cognoscitivos en decisiones gerenciales. Para eso fue delineado un escenario experimental con situación que involucra el concepto de Costo de oportunidad. Con el auxilio de este concepto, se pretende entender el comportamiento asociado al bies cognitivo provocado por el efecto framing. El experimento contó con un grupo de control, donde no existía la introducción de sesgos en las cuestiones a las cuales los respondientes fueron sometidos, y dos grupos experimentales, donde los cuestionarios contenían los sesgos, siendo la muestra compuesta por 155 estudiantes de los cursos de graduación de Ciencias Contables y Derecho de la Universidad Federal de Bahia. Para el análisis del experimento, fue utilizada la Regresión Logística Múltiple. Los resultados encontrados señalaron la inexistencia de contribuciones del aprendizaje formal de Contraloría en la reducción de la ocurrencia del efecto framing.O objetivo desta pesquisa foi verificar o impacto do Aprendizado Formal de Controladoria na minimização dos vieses cognitivos em decisões gerenciais. Para isso, foi delineado um cenário experimental com situação que envolve o conceito de Custo de Oportunidade. Com o auxílio deste conceito, busca-se entender o comportamento associado ao viés cognitivo provocado pelo Efeito Framing. O experimento contou com um grupo de controle, no qual não existia a introdução de vieses nas questões às quais os respondentes foram submetidos; e dois grupos experimentais, nos quais os questionários continham os vieses, sendo a amostra composta por 155 estudantes dos cursos de graduação de Ciências Contábeis e Direito da Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA). Para a análise do experimento, foi utilizada a Regressão Logística Múltipla. Os resultados encontrados apontaram para a inexistência de contribuições do Aprendizado Formal de Controladoria na redução da ocorrência do Efeito Framing

Dysaesthesia in the mental nerve distribution triggered by a foreign body: a case report

INTRODUCTION: Foreign bodies' entrapments in the mandibular and submandibular regions are quite common. CASE PRESENTATION: We report an unusual case of foreign body (amalgam filling) entrapment over the mental foramen causing dysaesthesia in the distribution of the mental nerve. An interesting sign was blue discoloration of the overlaying oral mucosa which was interpreted as amalgam tattooing. CONCLUSION: Surgical removal of the foreign object eliminated the reported symptoms

A efetividade do laser de HeNe 632,8 nm no reestabelecimento da integridade dos tecidos cutâneos em animais experimentais: revisão sistemática

O objetivo desta revisão sistemática foi analisar o efeito do laser de HeNe na cicatrização de feridas em ratos. Foram selecionados estudos experimentais que adotaram o laser HeNe para o tratamento de feridas agudas em ratos adultos saudáveis, com lesões induzidas por bisturi, nas bases de dados PubMed/MEDLINE, LILACS e SciELO. Foram utilizados os seguintes descritores: cicatrização de feridas e colágeno, de acordo com o MeSH e o DeCS, além dos unitermos laser HeNe e reparação da pele e seus equivalentes em inglês e espanhol. Três estudos foram incluídos na revisão sistemática, não sendo possível a realização de metanálise, devido à impossibilidade de comparação entre as metodologias dos estudos selecionados. Todos os estudos realizaram análise por meio de cortes histológicos das cicatrizes. A presença de falhas metodológicas nos três artigos dificultou a interpretação fidedigna dos dados encontrados. Os estudos destacaram uma redução na intensidade da resposta inflamatória e uma melhor organização das fibras colágenas no grupo irradiado. A terapia com laser HeNe mostrou boa resposta no reparo tecidual. No entanto, tais resultados devem ser analisados de modo criterioso, uma vez que há presença de heterogeneidade, principalmente em relação aos parâmetros adotados

Conservation Patterns of HIV-1 RT Connection and RNase H Domains: Identification of New Mutations in NRTI-Treated Patients

Background: Although extensive HIV drug resistance information is available for the first 400 amino acids of its reverse transcriptase, the impact of antiretroviral treatment in C-terminal domains of Pol (thumb, connection and RNase H) is poorly understood. Methods and Findings: We wanted to characterize conserved regions in RT C-terminal domains among HIV-1 group M subtypes and CRF. Additionally, we wished to identify NRTI-related mutations in HIV-1 RT C-terminal domains. We sequenced 118 RNase H domains from clinical viral isolates in Brazil, and analyzed 510 thumb and connection domain and 450 RNase H domain sequences collected from public HIV sequence databases, together with their treatment status and histories. Drug-naıve and NRTI-treated datasets were compared for intra- and inter-group conservation, and differences were determined using Fisher’s exact tests. One third of RT C-terminal residues were found to be conserved among group M variants. Three mutations were found exclusively in NRTI-treated isolates. Nine mutations in the connection and 6 mutations in the RNase H were associated with NRTI treatment in subtype B. Some of them lay in or close to amino acid residues which contact nucleic acid or near the RNase H active site. Several of the residues pointed out herein have been recently associated to NRTI exposure or increase drug resistance to NRTI. Conclusions: This is the first comprehensive genotypic analysis of a large sequence dataset that describes NRTI-related mutations in HIV-1 RT C-terminal domains in vivo. The findings into the conservation of RT C-terminal domains may pave the way to more rational drug design initiatives targeting those regions

Nutritional status and growth of indigenous Xavante children, Central Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to characterize the nutritional status of Xavante Indian children less than 10 years of age in Central Brazil and to evaluate the hypothesis of an association between child nutrition and socioeconomic differentiation in this population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2006 that included all children under the age of 10 from the Xavante village Pimentel Barbosa in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The data collected included weight, height, and sociodemographic information. Sociodemographic data were used to generate two indices ("income" and "wealth") and to determine the proportion of adults in each household. Descriptive analyses were performed for weight-for-age (W/A), height-for-age (H/A), and weight-for-height (W/H) using the NCHS and the WHO growth references. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted using H/A and W/A as a response variables.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of a total of 246 children under the age of ten residing in the village, 232 (94.3%) were evaluated. Following the NCHS reference, 5.6% of children under the age of ten presented low W/A and 14.7% presented low H/A. Among children under the age of five, deficit percentages for weight and height were 4.5% and 29.9%, respectively, following the WHO curves. Among children < 2 years of age, H/A index variability was found to be directly related to child's age and inversely related to the proportion of adults in the household. Maternal BMI was positively associated with growth for children from 2 to 4 years of age, explaining 11.5% of the z-score variability for the H/A index. For children 5 years of age and older, the wealth index and maternal height were positively associated with H/A. No significant associations were found using W/A as the dependent variable.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study demonstrated that undernutrition, in particular linear growth deficit, is a notable health issue for Xavante children. These findings contrast with the nutritional profile observed among Brazilian children nationally, which is characterized by a sharp decline in child undernutrition in recent decades, even in the poorest regions of the country. This discrepancy calls attention to the persistent health disparities that exist between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Brazil.</p

ICT-based system to predict and prevent falls (iStoppFalls): results from an international multicenter randomized controlled trial

Background: Falls and fall-related injuries are a serious public health issue. Exercise programs can effectively reduce fall risk in older people. The iStoppFalls project developed an Information and Communication Technology-based system to deliver an unsupervised exercise program in older people’s homes. The primary aims of the iStoppFalls randomized controlled trial were to assess the feasibility (exercise adherence, acceptability and safety) of the intervention program and its effectiveness on common fall risk factors. Methods: A total of 153 community-dwelling people aged 65+ years took part in this international, multicentre, randomized controlled trial. Intervention group participants conducted the exercise program for 16 weeks, with a recommended duration of 120 min/week for balance exergames and 60 min/week for strength exercises. All intervention and control participants received educational material including advice on a healthy lifestyle and fall prevention. Assessments included physical and cognitive tests, and questionnaires for health, fear of falling, number of falls, quality of life and psychosocial outcomes. Results: The median total exercise duration was 11.7 h (IQR = 22.0) over the 16-week intervention period. There were no adverse events. Physiological fall risk (Physiological Profile Assessment, PPA) reduced significantly more in the intervention group compared to the control group (F1,127 = 4.54, p = 0.035). There was a significant three-way interaction for fall risk assessed by the PPA between the high-adherence (>90 min/week; n = 18, 25.4 %), low-adherence (n = 53, 74.6 %) and control group (F2,125 = 3.12, n = 75, p = 0.044). Post hoc analysis revealed a significantly larger effect in favour of the high-adherence group compared to the control group for fall risk (p = 0.031), postural sway (p = 0.046), stepping reaction time (p = 0.041), executive functioning (p = 0.044), and quality of life (p for trend = 0.052). Conclusions: The iStoppFalls exercise program reduced physiological fall risk in the study sample. Additional subgroup analyses revealed that intervention participants with better adherence also improved in postural sway, stepping reaction, and executive function

Co-expression network of neural-differentiation genes shows specific pattern in schizophrenia

Background: Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with genetic and environmental factors contributing to its pathogenesis, although the mechanism is unknown due to the difficulties in accessing diseased tissue during human neurodevelopment. The aim of this study was to find neuronal differentiation genes disrupted in schizophrenia and to evaluate those genes in post-mortem brain tissues from schizophrenia cases and controls. Methods: We analyzed differentially expressed genes (DEG), copy number variation (CNV) and differential methylation in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) derived from fibroblasts from one control and one schizophrenia patient and further differentiated into neuron (NPC). Expression of the DEG were analyzed with microarrays of post-mortem brain tissue (frontal cortex) cohort of 29 schizophrenia cases and 30 controls. A Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) using the DEG was used to detect clusters of co-expressed genes that werenon-conserved between adult cases and controls brain samples. Results: We identified methylation alterations potentially involved with neuronal differentiation in schizophrenia, which displayed an over-representation of genes related to chromatin remodeling complex (adjP = 0.04). We found 228 DEG associated with neuronal differentiation. These genes were involved with metabolic processes, signal transduction, nervous system development, regulation of neurogenesis and neuronal differentiation. Between adult brain samples from cases and controls there were 233 DEG, with only four genes overlapping with the 228 DEG, probably because we compared single cell to tissue bulks and more importantly, the cells were at different stages of development. The comparison of the co-expressed network of the 228 genes in adult brain samples between cases and controls revealed a less conserved module enriched for genes associated with oxidative stress and negative regulation of cell differentiation. Conclusion: This study supports the relevance of using cellular approaches to dissect molecular aspects of neurogenesis with impact in the schizophrenic brain. We showed that, although generated by different approaches, both sets of DEG associated to schizophrenia were involved with neocortical development. The results add to the hypothesis that critical metabolic changes may be occurring during early neurodevelopment influencing faulty development of the brain and potentially contributing to further vulnerability to the illness.We thank the patients, doctors and nurses involved with sample collection and the Stanley Medical Research Institute. This research was supported by either Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq #17/2008) and Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ). MM (CNPq 304429/2014-7), ACT (FAPESP 2014/00041-1), LL (CAPES 10682/13-9) HV (CAPES) and BP (PPSUS 137270) were supported by their fellowshipsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Identification of an Intracellular Site of Prion Conversion

Prion diseases are fatal, neurodegenerative disorders in humans and animals and are characterized by the accumulation of an abnormally folded isoform of the cellular prion protein (PrPC), denoted PrPSc, which represents the major component of infectious scrapie prions. Characterization of the mechanism of conversion of PrPC into PrPSc and identification of the intracellular site where it occurs are among the most important questions in prion biology. Despite numerous efforts, both of these questions remain unsolved. We have quantitatively analyzed the distribution of PrPC and PrPSc and measured PrPSc levels in different infected neuronal cell lines in which protein trafficking has been selectively impaired. Our data exclude roles for both early and late endosomes and identify the endosomal recycling compartment as the likely site of prion conversion. These findings represent a fundamental step towards understanding the cellular mechanism of prion conversion and will allow the development of new therapeutic approaches for prion diseases