O pensamento social de universitários sobre beleza e cirurgia estética

O estudo objetivou identificar as representações sociais de homens e mulheres com diferentes formações acadêmicas, a respeito de beleza e da cirurgia estética. Pesquisa de natureza descritiva e comparativa, com delineamento transversal, com a participação de 120 universitários; plano de investigação multimétodo desenhado por A.S. de Rosa através de questionário semiestruturado, autoaplicável, dividido em cinco par- tes; envolvendo análise estatística descritiva, relacional e análise textual de redes associativas. Os resultados destacam diferenças significativas nas representações sociais dos grupos em relação aos objetos sociais, beleza e cirurgia estética, em termos de conteúdo, avaliações e dimensões sociopsicológicas. A proximidade dos indivíduos e grupos com o corpo confirma parcialmente as evidências das variáveis influentes em termos de gênero e formação acadêmica dos participantes nas repre- sentações dos objetos pesquisados. The study aimed to identify the social representations of men and women with different academic backgrounds, regarding beauty and aesthetic surgery. This study is a descriptive and comparative research, with cross-sectional design, based on the par- ticipation of 120 university students; Multi-method research plan designed by A.S. de Rosa through a semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire, divided into five parts; involv- ing descriptive and relational statistical analysis, and textual analysis of associative networks. The results highlight significant differences in the social representations of the groups in relation to social objects, beauty and aesthetic surgery, in terms of contents, assessments and socio-psychological dimensions. The proximity of individuals and groups to the body partially confirms the evidence of influential variables in terms of gender and academic training of the participants in the representations of the objects surveyed

Phylogeny in Aid of the Present and Novel Microbial Lineages: Diversity in Bacillus

Bacillus represents microbes of high economic, medical and biodefense importance. Bacillus strain identification based on 16S rRNA sequence analyses is invariably limited to species level. Secondly, certain discrepancies exist in the segregation of Bacillus subtilis strains. In the RDP/NCBI databases, out of a total of 2611 individual 16S rDNA sequences belonging to the 175 different species of the genus Bacillus, only 1586 have been identified up to species level. 16S rRNA sequences of Bacillus anthracis (153 strains), B. cereus (211 strains), B. thuringiensis (108 strains), B. subtilis (271 strains), B. licheniformis (131 strains), B. pumilus (83 strains), B. megaterium (47 strains), B. sphaericus (42 strains), B. clausii (39 strains) and B. halodurans (36 strains) were considered for generating species-specific framework and probes as tools for their rapid identification. Phylogenetic segregation of 1121, 16S rDNA sequences of 10 different Bacillus species in to 89 clusters enabled us to develop a phylogenetic frame work of 34 representative sequences. Using this phylogenetic framework, 305 out of 1025, 16S rDNA sequences presently classified as Bacillus sp. could be identified up to species level. This identification was supported by 20 to 30 nucleotides long signature sequences and in silico restriction enzyme analysis specific to the 10 Bacillus species. This integrated approach resulted in identifying around 30% of Bacillus sp. up to species level and revealed that B. subtilis strains can be segregated into two phylogenetically distinct groups, such that one of them may be renamed

Genetic relationships between sympatric populations of Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis, as revealed by rep-PCR genomic fingerprinting

The bacterial strain Bacillus cereus is closely related to Bacillus thuringiensis, although any genetic relationship between the two strains is still in debate. Using rep-PCR genomic fingerprinting, we established the genetic relationships between Brazilian sympatric populations of B. cereus and B. thuringiensis simultaneously collected from two geographically separate sites. We observed the formation of both B. thuringiensis and B. cereus clusters, as well as strains of B. cereus that are more closely related to B. thuringiensis than to other B. cereus strains. In addition, lower genetic variability was observed among B. thuringiensis clusters compared to B. cereus clusters, indicating that either the two species should be categorized as separate or that B. thuringiensis may represent a clone from a B. cereus background