Assembléias de aranhas em manchas de cerrado amplamente separadas no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

Spider Assemblages in widely-separated patches of cerrado in São Paulo State, BrazilAssembléias de aranhas em manchas de cerrado amplamente separadas no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

High incidence of classic Kaposi's sarcoma in Mantua, Po Valley, Northern Italy (1989–1998)

The incidence of classic Kaposi's sarcoma was estimated in the province of Mantua, Po Valley, Northern Italy, yielding age-standardized rates of 2.5/100 000 men and 0.7/100 000 women (1989–98). Elevated rates in the rural zone of Viadana/Sabbioneta (5.0/100 000 men and 2.8/100 000 women) are among the highest so far reported for Italian communities. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Portugal e os BRIC: numa perspectiva da diplomacia pública e da autopoiesis

O sistema internacional post-­‐11 de Setembro vem acelerar a movimentação em torno da sociedade civil, alterando, consequentemente, o próprio conceito espácio-­temporal da actuação da diplomacia, na sua acepção clássica, na arena internacional enquanto instrumento pacífico de execução da política externa. Assiste-se a uma complexidade crescente no processo de edificação da nova ordem mundial cujo epicentro se circunscreve numa espécie de sub-­‐mundialização à escala doméstica de cada Estado quer pela (in)capacidade da elite governante em responder aos estímulos provenientes do ambiente externo ao ritmo vertiginoso da velocidade dos fluxos de informação entre os mais diversos actores das relações internacionais. Daí que a prática da diplomacia tradicional tal como a conhecemos caminha para além da evolução teórica, situando-­se cada vez mais em termos concretos num mundo inconstante de caminho incerto com regimes antagónicos de convergências pontuais e imprevisíveis que levam à emergência de outras formas de actuação como sendo o caso da diplomacia pública que representa um recurso estratégico vital para os estados enquanto actores das relações internacionais e concretamente para o caso de Portugal nas suas relações com os BRIC onde se pretende melhorar e influenciar a imagem de um país quer internamente quer externamente como um país/marca num mundo competitivo

The interference of asthma in children's everyday

A asma é responsável pelo acometimento de grande número de crianças em nosso meio, o que a torna uma das doenças de maior relevância na infância. O objetivo investigar a interferência da asma no cotidiano das crianças e identificar a representação que elas e seus pais fazem da doença. Adotou-se uma metodologia qualitativa capaz de evidenciar, com base na fala dos sujeitos, a Representação Social da doença. Para tanto foram realizadas entrevistas com 45 crianças em idade escolar matriculadas na rede pública da cidade de São Paulo, bem como com seus pais e/ou responsáveis. Na análise foram identificadas as representações sociais dessa população, utilizando-se o Método do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo. Os resultados desta pesquisa revelaram o conhecimento adequado das interferências da asma no cotidiano da criança, contribuindo para o enfrentamento de suas repercussões negativas e para elaboração de estratégias de promoção da saúde e qualidade de vida dessas crianças. Essas questões quando conhecidas e compreendidas, trazem alertas à equipe médica responsável pela criança asmática, dada a relação intrínseca entre a representação construída da doença pela criança asmática e por seus pais e a maneira como se sente e interage com o mundo e com a sociedade à qual pertence.Asthma afflicts a great number of children in our society which makes it a significant childhood disease. The present study aims at investigating the disruption caused in the children's daily lives by asthma as well as identifying the way the disease is represented by the children and their parents. A qualitative methodology, based on the verbal discourse of the subjects, was chosen to identify the social representation of the pathology. Interviews on the disease were conducted with 45 school children, enrolled in the public schools of São Paulo, together with their parents and/or guardians. Social representations of asthma by this population were identified, using the Collective Subject Discourse Method. The results of the research showed enough knowledge, on the part of the subjects, of the interference of asthma in their children's daily lives, helping them to face the negative effects and elaborate strategies to improve their health and quality of life. Once these issues are known and understood, they provide warnings to the medical team responsible for the asthmatic child, due to the intrinsic nature between the representations of the disease built by the asthmatic child and his parents and the way he feels and interacts with the world around him and the society to which he belongs

Beam commissioning of the 35 MeV section in an intensity modulated proton linear accelerator for proton therapy

This paper presents the experimental results on the Terapia Oncologica con Protoni-Intensity Modulated Proton Linear Accelerator (TOP-IMPLART) beam that is currently accelerated up to 35 MeV, with a final target of 150 MeV. The TOP-IMPLART project, funded by the Innovation Department of Regione Lazio (Italy), is led by Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Health and the Oncological Hospital Regina Elena-IFO. The accelerator, under construction and test at ENEA-Frascati laboratories, employs a commercial 425 MHz, 7 MeV injector followed by a sequence of 3 GHz accelerating modules consisting of side coupled drift tube linac (SCDTL) structures up to 71 MeV and coupled cavity linac structures for higher energies. The section from 7 to 35 MeV, consisting on four SCDTL modules, is powered by a single 10 MW klystron and has been successfully commissioned. This result demonstrates the feasibility of a “fully linear” proton therapy accelerator operating at a high frequency and paves the way to a new class of machines in the field of cancer treatment

Genome-wide signatures of complex introgression and adaptive evolution in the big cats.

The great cats of the genus Panthera comprise a recent radiation whose evolutionary history is poorly understood. Their rapid diversification poses challenges to resolving their phylogeny while offering opportunities to investigate the historical dynamics of adaptive divergence. We report the sequence, de novo assembly, and annotation of the jaguar (Panthera onca) genome, a novel genome sequence for the leopard (Panthera pardus), and comparative analyses encompassing all living Panthera species. Demographic reconstructions indicated that all of these species have experienced variable episodes of population decline during the Pleistocene, ultimately leading to small effective sizes in present-day genomes. We observed pervasive genealogical discordance across Panthera genomes, caused by both incomplete lineage sorting and complex patterns of historical interspecific hybridization. We identified multiple signatures of species-specific positive selection, affecting genes involved in craniofacial and limb development, protein metabolism, hypoxia, reproduction, pigmentation, and sensory perception. There was remarkable concordance in pathways enriched in genomic segments implicated in interspecies introgression and in positive selection, suggesting that these processes were connected. We tested this hypothesis by developing exome capture probes targeting ~19,000 Panthera genes and applying them to 30 wild-caught jaguars. We found at least two genes (DOCK3 and COL4A5, both related to optic nerve development) bearing significant signatures of interspecies introgression and within-species positive selection. These findings indicate that post-speciation admixture has contributed genetic material that facilitated the adaptive evolution of big cat lineages

The Top-Implart Proton Linear Accelerator: Interim Characteristics of the 35 Mev Beam

In the framework of the Italian TOP-IMPLART project (Regione Lazio), ENEA-Frascati, ISS and IFO are developing and constructing the first proton linear accelerator based on an actively scanned beam for tumor radiotherapy with final energy of 150 MeV. An important feature of this accelerator is modularity: an exploitable beam can be delivered at any stage of its construction, which allows for immediate characterization and virtually continuous improvement of its performance. Currently, a sequence of 3 GHz accelerating modules combined with a commercial injector operating at 425 MHz delivers protons up to 35 MeV. Several dosimetry systems were used to obtain preliminary characteristics of the 35-MeV beam in terms of stability and homogeneity. Short-term stability and homogeneity better than 3% and 2.6%, respectively, were demonstrated; for stability an improvement with respect to the respective value obtained for the previous 27 MeV beam

Navigating Mealtimes to Meet Public Health Mandates in Long-Term Care During COVID-19: Staff Perspectives

Context: Mealtimes in long-term care (LTC) settings play a pivotal role in the daily lives of residents. The COVID-19 pandemic and the required precautionary infection control mandates influenced many aspects of resident care within LTC homes, including mealtimes. Limited research has been conducted on how mealtimes in LTC were affected during the pandemic from staff perspectives. Objective: To understand the experiences of LTC staff on providing mealtimes during the pandemic. Methods: Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 22 staff involved with mealtimes between February and April 2021. Transcripts were analysed using interpretive description. Findings: Three themes emerged from the analysis: (1) recognizing the influence of homes’ contextual factors. Home size, availability of resources, staffing levels and resident care needs influenced mealtime practices during the pandemic; (2) perceiving a compromised mealtime experience for residents and staff. Staff were frustrated and described residents as being dissatisfied with mealtime and pandemic-initiated practices as they were task-focused and socially isolating and (3) prioritizing mealtimes while trying to stay afloat. An ‘all hands-on deck’ approach, maintaining connections and being adaptive were strategies identified to mitigate the negative impact of the mandates on mealtimes during the pandemic. Limitations: Perspectives were primarily from nutrition and food service personnel. Implications: Overly restrictive public health measures resulted in mealtime practices that prioritized tasks and safety over residents’ quality of life. Learning from this pandemic experience, homes can protect the relational mealtime experience for residents by fostering teamwork, open and frequent communication and being flexible and adaptive