Validação da versão portuguesa da Escala de Motivação Situacional (SIMS) em contextos académicos

The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS), seeks to evaluate the motivation experienced when carrying out a specific task. The purpose of this research was to validate a Portuguese-language version of the scale, using a sample of 409 students, by attempting to reproduce its factor structure. The reliability analysis revealed acceptable internal consistency indexes in all subscales. Construct validity was assessed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The contributions of the factors and index of goodness-of-fit demonstrated the need to eliminate two items, which seems to agree with the results in other validation studies. Overall, results revealed that the SIMS is composed of four consistent factors and attested its psychometric quality. The scale does seem to represent a self-report measure of situational intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, external regulation, and amotivation, and can be widely used for the assessment of this construct in Portuguese academic contexts.A Escala de Motivação Situacional (sims) procura avaliar a motivação experimentada no desempenho de uma tarefa específica. O objetivo deste estudo foi validar a versão portuguesa, com uma amostra de 409 estudantes, ao tentar reproduzir a sua estrutura fatorial. Os resultados demostram uma consistência interna adequada relativamente às subescalas. A validade de constructo foi avaliada com a Análise Fatorial Confirmatória. Os valores de contribuição de cada fator e os índices de ajustamento assinalam a necessidade de eliminação de dois itens, que, por seu turno, vai de encontro a resultados de outros estudos de validação. Em geral, os resultados indicam que a sims é composta por quatro fatores consistentes e demostram a qualidade psicométrica. A escala parece ser uma boa medida de auto-relato para avaliar a motivação intrínseca, regulação identificada, regulação externa, e amotivação situacional, podendo ser utilizada na avaliação do constructo no contexto acadêmico português. Palavras-chave: autodeterminação, motivação situacional, medidas de motivação, alunos de ensino secundário, alunos universitários.Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portuga

Validação da versão portuguesa da Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) em contextos académicos

A Escala da Motivação Situacional – SIMS (Guay, Vallerand & Blanchard, 2000), procura avaliar, de acordo com o modelo hierárquico da motivação intrínseca / extrínseca de Vallerand (1997), a motivação experimentada no decurso da realização de uma tarefa específica. Na presente comunicação pretendemos dar conta dos principais resultados do estudo de tradução e adaptação à população portuguesa da SIMS, junto de uma amostra de 312 estudantes do ensino superior. Globalmente, os resultados das análises psicométricas dos itens e das diferentes subescalas (amotivação, regulação externa, regulação identificada e motivação intrínseca) atestam a qualidade psicométrica da SIMS. No que se refere à validade de constructo (CFA), os contributos dos fatores e os índices de qualidade do ajustamento demostraram a necessidade de eliminação de dois itens, o que parece estar de acordo com os resultados encontrados em outros estudos de validação (e.g., Martín-Albo, Núñez & Navarro, 2009). Em síntese, os resultados obtidos parecem suportar a utilização da versão portuguesa da escala SIMS para avaliar a motivação situacional em contexto académico

On the mechanistic nature of epistasis in a canonical cis -regulatory element

Understanding the relation between genotype and phenotype remains a major challenge. The difficulty of predicting individual mutation effects, and particularly the interactions between them, has prevented the development of a comprehensive theory that links genotypic changes to their phenotypic effects. We show that a general thermodynamic framework for gene regulation, based on a biophysical understanding of protein-DNA binding, accurately predicts the sign of epistasis in a canonical cis-regulatory element consisting of overlapping RNA polymerase and repressor binding sites. Sign and magnitude of individual mutation effects are sufficient to predict the sign of epistasis and its environmental dependence. Thus, the thermodynamic model offers the correct null prediction for epistasis between mutations across DNA-binding sites. Our results indicate that a predictive theory for the effects of cis-regulatory mutations is possible from first principles, as long as the essential molecular mechanisms and the constraints these impose on a biological system are accounted for

Caracterização de raças fisiológicas de Hemileia vastatrix.

Até o ano de 1983, eram conhecidas no Brasil as raças I, II, III, X, XV, XVII e XXIV de Hemileia vastatrix. Desde então, e apesar da suplantação da resistência de variedades de cafeeiros por novas raças do patógeno, nenhum outro estudo de caracterização foi realizado. Para conhecer as raças de H. vastatrix que ocorrem nas lavouras comerciais e experimentais de cafeeiros foram coletadas 150 amostras de ferrugem em genótipos susceptíveis e resistentes nos estados de Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo São Paulo e Paraná. Em nove, das 150 amostras que estão sendo caracterizadas, foram identificadas, neste trabalho, as raças I (v2,5) em amostra proveniente do Híbrido de Timor, e a II (v5) e III (v1,5) em derivados de C. arábica. A raça II prevaleceu sobre a I e III, sendo identificada em seis das nove amostras analisadas. Em estudo anterior (Tropical Plant Pathology, 2008. p. 212-212, v. 33), em onze da amostras analisadas, foram caracterizadas, além de I e II, as raças XIII (v ?) e XXXVII (v 2,5,6,7 e 9)

Multipole correlations in low-dimensional f-electron systems

By using a density matrix renormalization group method, we investigate the ground-state properties of a one-dimensional three-orbital Hubbard model on the basis of a j-j coupling scheme. For $B_4^0 \ne 0$, where $B_4^0$ is a parameter to control cubic crystalline electric field effect, one orbital is itinerant, while other two are localized. Due to the competition between itinerant and localized natures, we obtain orbital ordering pattern which is sensitive to $B_4^0$, leading to a characteristic change of $\Gamma_{3g}$ quadrupole state into an incommensurate structure. At $B_4^0 = 0$, all the three orbitals are degenerate, but we observe a peak at $q = 0$ in $\Gamma_{3g}$ quadrupole correlation, indicating a ferro-orbital state, and the peak at $q = \pi$ in $\Gamma_{4u}$ dipole correlation, suggesting an antiferromagnetic state. We also discuss the effect of $\Gamma_{4u}$ octupole on magnetic anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of ASR-WYP-2005 (September 27-29, 2005, Tokai

Natural polymorphisms of HIV type 2 pol sequences from drug-naive individuals

Until today, the susceptibility of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) to protease and nucleosidic reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (PI and NRTI, respectively) has not been clearly documented. In this report we studied HIV-2 proviral sequences (n = 30) from drug-naive patients. Our results revealed that several amino acid positions in the protease and reverse transcriptase coding sequence harbored residues that have been associated with drug resistance in HIV-1-infected patients. In particular, the M46I substitution in the protease was detected in 90% of the sequences analyzed, which, together with the other substitutions identified, may indicate a reduced susceptibility of HIV-2-infected drug-naive patients to PI. Furthermore, interpretation of genotypic data with four available algorithms, developed for interpretation of HIV-1 sequence data, suggested nonoverlapping profiles of drug resistance

Lattice Distortion and Octupole Ordering Model in CexLa1-xB6

Possible order parameters of the phase IV in CexLa1-xB6 are discussed with special attention to the lattice distortion recently observed. A \Gamma_{5u}-type octupole order with finite wave number is proposed as the origin of the distortion along the [111] direction. The \Gamma_8 crystalline electric field (CEF) level splits into three levels by a mean field with the \Gamma_{5u} symmetry. The ground and highest singlets have the same quadrupole moment, while the intermediate doublet has an opposite sign. It is shown that any collinear order of \Gamma_{5u}-type octupole moment accompanies the \Gamma_{5g}-type ferro-quadrupole order, and the coupling of the quadrupole moment with the lattice induces the distortion. The cusp in the magnetization at the phase transition is reproduced, but the internal magnetic field due to the octupole moment is smaller than the observed one by an order of magnitude.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

7-Methyl-5-[(4-methylbenzene)sulfonyl]-2H,5H-[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-f]indole: crystal structure and Hirshfeld analysis

In the title indole derivative, C17H15NO4S, the fused dioxolo-indole system is essentially planar [r.m.s. deviation of the 12 fitted atoms = 0.0249 A ˚ ] and is effectively perpendicular to the appended 4-tolyl ring, forming a dihedral angle of 89.95 (6). Overall, the molecule has the shape of the letter L. In the crystal, supramolecular layers in the ab plane are formed via weak 4-tolyl-C—H....(C6ring of indole) and S—O.... 1,3-dioxole) contacts. The aforementioned interactions along with interatomic H...H and H...O contacts are all shown to make significant contributions to the calculated Hirshfeld surfaces

Resonant X-Ray Scattering on the M-Edge Spectra from Triple-k Structure Phase in U_{0.75}Np_{0.25}O_{2} and UO_{2}

We derive an expression for the scattering amplitude of resonant x-ray scattering under the assumption that the Hamiltonian describing the intermediate state preserves spherical symmetry. On the basis of this expression, we demonstrate that the energy profile of the RXS spectra expected near U and Np M_4 edges from the triple-k antiferromagnetic ordering phase in UO_{2} and U_{0.75}Np_{0.25}O_{2} agree well with those from the experiments. We demonstrate that the spectra in the \sigma-\sigma' and \sigma-\pi' channels exhibit quadrupole and dipole natures, respectively.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Supp