Risk-seeking behavior of preschool children in a gambling task

A recent neurobiology study showed that monkeys systematically prefer risky targets in a visual gambling task. We set a similar experiment with preschool children to assess their attitudes toward risk and found the children, like the monkeys, to be risk seeking. This suggests that adult humans are not born risk averse, but become risk averse. Our experiment also suggests that this behavioral change may be due to learning from negative experiences in their risky choices. We also showed that though emotional states and predetermined prenatal testosterone can influence children’s preferences toward risk, these factors could not override learning experiences.Risk; Children

Bovine Embryonic Development to Implantation

Throughout this chapter, we will express the embryonic development from fertilization, commonly called conception, to the implantation. It is well documented that preimplantation is considered a critical period for embryo development in ruminants, in which high pregnancy loss occurs; in fact, several authors point out that 50–75% of blastocysts fail to implant. The high rate of implantation failure is one reason why pregnancy typically requires on average two ovulation cycles to achieve. Events involved in the embryo growth and survival are directly or indirectly related to cytokines, steroids, metabolites, and growth factors. When one of these compounds fails, it normally leads to the death of the embryo or fetus. As known, the period required for full development of a fetus in utero is referred to as gestation, and it is commonly subdivided into two distinct periods. The first 2 weeks of prenatal development are referred to as the pre-embryonic stage. By the end of the embryonic period, all of the organ systems are structured in rudimentary form, and the embryo shifts to the fetus from the ninth week of gestation until birth

Apoptosis as the Major Cause of Embryonic Mortality in Cattle

Besides several mechanisms such as autophagy, necroptosis, and pyroptosis, programmed cell death (PCD) also includes apoptosis which is characterized by membrane blebbing, chromatin condensation, and DNA fragmentation which involves a number of membrane receptors and a cascade of signal transduction steps resulting in the activation of an ample number of proteases known as caspases. Even though this mechanism plays a significant role in the progressions of gamete maturation and embryo development, contributing to the formation of different organs and structures, they also lead to the death of blastomeres and, consequently, the occurrence of structural abnormalities, increasing embryo and fetal mortality. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms involved in apoptosis dysregulation may contribute to the development of new therapeutic methods to prevent various developmental abnormalities. The purpose of this chapter is to review recent research into the mechanisms of programmed cell death, focusing on apoptosis during embryo development leading to embryo mortality. The final section includes a discussion of the implication of the findings for future research on reducing embryo mortality in the bovine

Sex differences and correlates of poor glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study in Brazil and Venezuela.

OBJECTIVE: Examine whether glycaemic control varies according to sex and whether the latter plays a role in modifying factors associated with inadequate glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Brazil and Venezuela. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a cross-sectional, nationwide survey conducted in Brazil and Venezuela from February 2006 to June 2007 to obtain information about glycaemic control and its determinants in patients with diabetes mellitus attending outpatient clinics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was measured by liquid chromatography, and patients with HbA1c ≥7.0% (53 mmol/mol) were considered to have inadequate glycaemic control. The association of selected variables with glycaemic control was analysed by multivariate linear regression, using HbA1c as the dependent variable. RESULTS: A total of 9418 patients with T2D were enrolled in Brazil (n=5692) and in Venezuela (n=3726). They included 6214 (66%) women and 3204 (34%) men. On average, HbA1c levels in women were 0.13 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.24; p=0.015) higher than in men, after adjusting for age, marital status, education, race, country, body mass index, duration of disease, complications, type of healthcare, adherence to diet, adherence to treatment and previous measurement of HbA1c. Sex modified the effect of some factors associated with glycaemic control in patients with T2D in our study, but had no noteworthy effect in others. CONCLUSIONS: Women with T2D had worse glycaemic control than men. Possible causes for poorer glycaemic control in women compared with men include differences in glucose homeostasis, treatment response and psychological factors. In addition, sex modified factors associated with glycaemic control, suggesting the need to develop specific treatment guidelines for men and women

Processamento da informação e desenvolvimento da competência de leitura

[Resumo] O nosso tempo tem reconhecido aleitura lugar de destaque. Estudos realizados apontam no sentido de que a qualificação dos indivíduos e da sociedade muito depende das competencias que, nesse domínio, se desenvolverem. A isso nao é estranho o facto de termos entrado na era da sociedade da informação, onde o conhecimento desempenha papel importante. A pesar de envolver factores externos, o desenvolvimento da competencia de leitura dos indivíduos permanece com a sua relevancia intocada. Embora essa competencia de leitura nao possa ser reduzida totalmente a capacidades de compreensao leitora, o certo é que ela ficará seriamente afectada caso se verifiquem deficiencias quanto ao processamento da informação contida nos textos escritos. Nao obstante esforços desenvolvidos, o grau de compreensao de leitura nos nossos alunos permanece baixo, tomando-se urgente repensar a situac;ao e reformular estratégias. o autor propónse fundamentar a ligação entre as realidades referidas e o desenvolvimento da competencia de leitura, e apresentar propostas no sentido de se desenvolverem nos alunos estruturas mentais que lhes possibilitem: a) aprender a intervir nos textos de modo a mais facilmente captarem a informac;ao neles contida e b) optar a cada momento pelos modos de intervenção mais adequados para se tornarem capazes de ultrapassar as dificuldades surgida

Contexts for questioning: Two zones of teaching and learning in undergraduate science

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012.Higher education institutions are currently undertaking a challenging process in moving from teacher-orientated to student-focused approaches. Students’ ability to asking questions is fundamental to developing critical reasoning, and to the process of scientific enquiry itself. Our premise is that questioning competences should become a central focus of current reforms in higher education. This study, part of a broader naturalistic research project, aims at developing a theoretical framework for conceptualizing different contexts for questioning, illustrating the application of the proposed framework (contextual questioning zones) and reflecting about some of the dimensions of teaching and learning, for overcoming some of the challenges that higher education institutions are facing presently. The discussion of two ‘opposite’ contexts of enquiry is based on qualitative data, gathered through close collaboration with four teachers of undergraduate biology at a Portuguese university. These teachers were observed during their ‘daily activity’ during an academic year. Data was also gathered by interviewing these teachers and 8 selected students, at the end of the year, and used to sustain the argumentation. The paper concludes with some reflections and suggestions to promote authentic enquiry-based learning experiences.Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi