INTEGRAÇÃO, ACOLHIMENTO E EMPODERAMENTO LINGUÍSTICO EM TEMPOS DE COVID-19

Considerando o panorama imposto pela Covid-19, as necessidades de integração regional no contexto latino-americano e o direito à educação garantido pela Constituição Brasileira, este artigo apresenta relato de experiência com base em ações promovidas pela Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal do Amazonas em parceria com diferentes instituições. As mencionadas ações foram desenvolvidas em plena pandemia, no final do ano de 2020, atendendo a demandas de membros das comunidades colombiana e venezuelana no Amazonas, garantindo, assim, o acolhimento, o empoderamento linguístico e a integração de pessoas em diferentes situações, como as de refúgio, por meio do ensino da Língua Portuguesa

Terapia experimental da epilepsia com estimulação magnética transcraniana : ausência de melhora adicional com tratamento prolongado

Objetivo: investigar o efeito de três meses de estimulação magnética transcraniana repetitiva (EMTr) de baixa freqüência, na epilepsia de difícil controle. Método: Cinco pacientes (quatro homens, uma mulher, idades entre 6 e 50 anos), participaram do estudo; suas crises epilépticas não puderam ser controlados por tratamento medicamentoso e não tinham indicação cirúrgica; a EMTr foi realizada duas vezes por semana durante três meses, sendo que os pacientes anotaram o número diário de crises neste período, assim como nos três meses anteriores e posteriores ao tratamento. A aplicação da EMTr foi feita no vértex com bobina circular, com intensidade 5% abaixo do limiar motor. Durante as sessões de EMTr, 100 estímulos (5 séries de 20 estímulos, com um minuto de intervalo entre as séries) foram realizadas na freqüência de 0,3 Hz. Resultados: A média diária de crises (MDC) decresceu em três pacientes e aumentou em dois durante o uso da EMTr; um destes casos foi tratado somente por um mês; o melhor resultado foi encontrado em um paciente com displasia cortical focal (redução de 43,09% na MDC). Em todo o grupo de pacientes, houve decréscimo significativo na MDC de 22,8% (p<0,01). Conclusão: Embora o tratamento prolongado com a EMTr seja seguro e tenha sido registrado decréscimo moderado da MDC em um grupo de pacientes com epilepsia de difícil controle, respostas individuais de pacientes foram imprevisíveis e a relevância clínica deste método é provavelmente baixa. Nossos dados sugerem, contudo, que pacientes com lesões corticais focais podem ser beneficiar deste novo tipo de tratamento. Estudos futuros devem se concentrar neste grupo de pacientes.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of three months of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) treatment in intractable epilepsy. METHODS: Five patients (four males, one female; ages 6 to 50 years), were enrolled in the study; their epilepsy could not be controlled by medical treatment and surgery was not indicated. rTMS was performed twice a week for three months; patients kept records of seizure frequency for an equal period of time before, during, and after rTMS sessions. rTMS was delivered to the vertex with a round coil, at an intensity 5 % below motor threshold. During rTMS sessions, 100 stimuli (five series of 20 stimuli, with one-minute intervals between series) were delivered at a frequency of 0.3 Hz. RESULTS: Mean daily number of seizures (MDNS) decreased in three patients and increased in two during rTMS- one of these was treated for only one month; the best result was achieved in a patient with focal cortical dysplasia (reduction of 43.09 % in MDNS). In the whole patient group, there was a significant (p<0.01) decrease in MDNS of 22.8 %. CONCLUSION: Although prolonged rTMS treatment is safe and moderately decreases MDNS in a group of patients with intractable epilepsy, individual patient responses were mostly subtle and clinical relevance of this method is probably low. Our data suggest, however, that patients with focal cortical lesions may indeed benefit from this novel treatment. Further studies should concentrate on that patient subgroup

Genome of the Avirulent Human-Infective Trypanosome—Trypanosoma rangeli

Background: Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagellate protozoan parasite infecting humans and other wild and domestic mammals across Central and South America. It does not cause human disease, but it can be mistaken for the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi. We have sequenced the T. rangeli genome to provide new tools for elucidating the distinct and intriguing biology of this species and the key pathways related to interaction with its arthropod and mammalian hosts.  Methodology/Principal Findings: The T. rangeli haploid genome is ,24 Mb in length, and is the smallest and least repetitive trypanosomatid genome sequenced thus far. This parasite genome has shorter subtelomeric sequences compared to those of T. cruzi and T. brucei; displays intraspecific karyotype variability and lacks minichromosomes. Of the predicted 7,613 protein coding sequences, functional annotations could be determined for 2,415, while 5,043 are hypothetical proteins, some with evidence of protein expression. 7,101 genes (93%) are shared with other trypanosomatids that infect humans. An ortholog of the dcl2 gene involved in the T. brucei RNAi pathway was found in T. rangeli, but the RNAi machinery is non-functional since the other genes in this pathway are pseudogenized. T. rangeli is highly susceptible to oxidative stress, a phenotype that may be explained by a smaller number of anti-oxidant defense enzymes and heatshock proteins.  Conclusions/Significance: Phylogenetic comparison of nuclear and mitochondrial genes indicates that T. rangeli and T. cruzi are equidistant from T. brucei. In addition to revealing new aspects of trypanosome co-evolution within the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, comparative genomic analysis with pathogenic trypanosomatids provides valuable new information that can be further explored with the aim of developing better diagnostic tools and/or therapeutic targets

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Mesenchymal stromal cells’ therapy for polyglutamine disorders: where do we stand and where should we go?

Polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases are a group of inherited neurodegenerative disorders caused by the expansion of the cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) repeat. This mutation encodes extended glutamine (Q) tract in the disease protein, resulting in the alteration of its conformation/physiological role and in the formation of toxic fragments/aggregates of the protein. This group of heterogeneous disorders shares common molecular mechanisms, which opens the possibility to develop a pan therapeutic approach. Vast efforts have been made to develop strategies to alleviate disease symptoms. Nonetheless, there is still no therapy that can cure or effectively delay disease progression of any of these disorders. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are promising tools for the treatment of polyQ disorders, promoting protection, tissue regeneration, and/or modulation of the immune system in animal models. Accordingly, data collected from clinical trials have so far demonstrated that transplantation of MSC is safe and delays the progression of some polyQ disorders for some time. However, to achieve sustained phenotypic amelioration in clinics, several treatments may be necessary. Therefore, efforts to develop new strategies to improve MSC's therapeutic outcomes have been emerging. In this review article, we discuss the current treatments and strategies used to reduce polyQ symptoms and major pre-clinical and clinical achievements obtained with MSC transplantation as well as remaining flaws that need to be overcome. The requirement to cross the blood-brain-barrier (BBB), together with a short rate of cell engraftment in the lesioned area and low survival of MSC in a pathophysiological context upon transplantation may contribute to the transient therapeutic effects. We also review methods like pre-conditioning or genetic engineering of MSC that can be used to increase MSC survival in vivo, cellular-free approaches-i.e., MSC-conditioned medium (CM) or MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a way of possibly replacing the use of MSC and methods required to standardize the potential of MSC/MSC-derived products. These are fundamental questions that need to be addressed to obtain maximum MSC performance in polyQ diseases and therefore increase clinical benefits.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology: SFRH/BD/148877/2019; CENTRO01-0145-FEDER-000008 CENTRO-01-0145FEDER-022095 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016719 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029716 POCI01-0145-FEDER-016807 POCI-01-0145-FEDER016390 UID4950/2020 CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-022118info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Measurement and interpretation of same-sign W boson pair production in association with two jets in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents the measurement of fducial and diferential cross sections for both the inclusive and electroweak production of a same-sign W-boson pair in association with two jets (W±W±jj) using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis is performed by selecting two same-charge leptons, electron or muon, and at least two jets with large invariant mass and a large rapidity diference. The measured fducial cross sections for electroweak and inclusive W±W±jj production are 2.92 ± 0.22 (stat.) ± 0.19 (syst.)fb and 3.38±0.22 (stat.)±0.19 (syst.)fb, respectively, in agreement with Standard Model predictions. The measurements are used to constrain anomalous quartic gauge couplings by extracting 95% confdence level intervals on dimension-8 operators. A search for doubly charged Higgs bosons H±± that are produced in vector-boson fusion processes and decay into a same-sign W boson pair is performed. The largest deviation from the Standard Model occurs for an H±± mass near 450 GeV, with a global signifcance of 2.5 standard deviations