ASSESSMENT OF DIGITAL ICONS

The central question addressed in this paper is how the designer can and should ensure that the solutions are efficient and designed to meet the originally proposed goal, taking into account the user as the centerpiece of the project, after all it is for him that solutions should be designed. To provide the assessment of digital icons, this article is part of a larger research that aims to bring together methods and tools of ergonomics and usability, discuss their interactions with the main methods and tests of informational ergonomics that have been used in order to measure the comprehension of digital icons by their users, its procedures, and assessing the effects of the context of use included in each approach

ENTRE-VISTA(S):INTERAÇÕES SEMIÓTICAS COM ANALICE DUTRA PILLAR, MOEMA MARTINS REBOUÇAS E MURILO SCÓZ

Na condição de editora do número 22 da Revista Palíndromo, decidi apresentar uma entrevista múltipla, uma entre-vista(s). Primeiro, porque gostaria de dialogar com essas várias pessoas mesmo, mas a chance de se fazer uma entrevista para uma revista científica é rara. Não conseguiria, uma por ano, dar conta de todos. No número 10, entrevistei Ana Claudia de Oliveira (PUC/SP), minha orientadora de doutorado, mas agora gostaria de trazer pessoas ligadas à semiótica, sim, mas mais próximas do ensino e do ensino de arte ou da semiótica do cotidiano. Queria ouvir Analice Dutra Pillar, Professora Titular da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul/UFRGS, atuando na graduação e na pós-graduação, com vários livros publicados e editora da Revista GEARTE; Moema Lúcia Martins Rebouças, Professora Titular da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo/UFES, igualmente com atuação na graduação e pós-graduação e com várias publicações, além de membro de sociedades de ensino e pesquisa no país e no exterior; e Murilo Scóz, Professor Efetivo da UDESC, atuando na graduação em Design e na pós-graduação em Design e em Moda, líder do Grupo de Pesquisa UDESC/CNPq NEST, Núcleo de Estudos Semióticos Transdisciplinares. Como explicar, explicitar ou mesmo, como denominar essa ideia de entrevista múltipla? Semioticamente, poderia dizer que se trata de um quadrado, o quadrado semiótico, quatro pontos, os três colegas e eu; mas aqui ninguém seria oposição semântica, no máximo estaríamos gravitando na elipse semiótica, em torno dos sentidos. Pensei em justificar com as interações arriscadas, onde os acidentes dar-se-iam em virtude de ser uma entrevista tríplice, inesperada. Mas resolvi justificar mesmo pela arte e sua ânsia do inusitado, do creare, do produzir o que não existe. E do ensino de arte mesmo, que visto ainda pelos preconceituosos como convencional e padronizado, igualmente tem ânsias de infinito, de sonhar o impossível e de, ao menos, humildemente acompanhar e dialogar com os sentidos do cotidiano de hoje em dia, com suas tecnologias, angústias, crises de identidade e incertezas quanto ao futuro. E vamos ouvir, então, nossos colegas semioticistas, com quem partilho o espaço de intersecção onde se encontram arte, semiótica e educação

Seminal traits, suitability for semen preservation and fertility in the native Portuguese horse breeds Puro Sangue Lusitano and Sorraia: Implications for stallion classification and assisted reproduction

The Puro Sangue Lusitano (PSL) is the major national breed of horse in Portugal, but no studies exist on its seminal characteristics, or on the possibility of conserving semen for future use. The aim of this study was to evaluate semen parameters, fertility and the aptness to semen preservation in Lusitano Stallions. In order to compare characteristics defined by a single or by multiple semen collections per stallion 152 ejaculates obtained from 152 Lusitano stallions presented at an annual breeding soundness examination as well as data related to 371 ejaculates obtained from 9 PSL were analyzed. These latter samples were also evaluated in terms of their possible use in assisted reproduction and were compared with 113 ejaculates obtained from 4 Sorraia horses, a rare and endangered Portuguese breed. The percentage of motile spermatozoa (PMS) was assessed after collection (AC), after semen dilution (AD) and at 24 h of cool-storage. Mean values obtained for sperm motility and morphology and semen pH observed after semen collection differ significantly (P < 0.05) between single collection/multiple stallions and multiple collections/limited stallions, and no age related effects were detected. Overall, Lusitano semen quality was comparable to that of related breeds, while Sorraia stallions had very poor semen quality. The response to cool-storage of diluted semen samples differed among stallions and breeds, and the best results for progressive motile sperm cells at 24 h were in a range of 35-53% for PSL stallions and were lower for Sorraia stallions. Fertility rates obtained with artificial insemination (AI) averaged at 85% for PSL. With the exception of PMS AC, sperm vitality and semen pH no other seminal trait seemed to influence fertility rates in the Lusitano breed.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6T43-4SPJ1TD-3/1/6a0fc54305a5730ccff6ba975a4abd0

A study on the influence of prosthetic interface material in transtibial amputees’ gait

Interfaces of transtibial prosthesis have an important role in the transmission of ground reaction forces, damping gait loads and tissue protection.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reductive biological treatment of textile effluents

Poster apresentado no "Simpósio Corantes e Pigmentos Orgânicos", na Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, em Vila Real, Portugal, em Novembro de 2004.Our group is undertaking an investigation on the potential application of ascomycete yeasts to the decolourisation of azo dyes. Two of these strains, Candida zeylanoides (UM2) and Issatchenkia occidentalis (UM41), were isolated from contaminated soil and have been shown to mediate dye decolourisation through reductive cleavage of the azo bond. The rates of colour loss in the presence of yeast cells are independent of their previous exposure to the dye, suggesting that the decolourising activity, under the conditions tested, is constitutive. The process requires intact cells and an external carbon and energy source and depends on pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen. Interestingly, anaerobic conditions do not allow decolourisation. The kinetic study of the cells decolourising activity demonstrated that such activity has a maximum in the late exponential growth phase. Although glucose is the standard carbon and energy source we have also observed decolourisation by cells growing at the expense of ethanol. Decolourisation rates are considerably dependent on the dye structure. Of considerable practical interest is the observation that some of the amines produced by azo dye reduction can be used as carbon and nitrogen sources by the yeast. In order to get further insight on the yeast decolourising activity we have prepared some mutants of a laboratory strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and performed inhibition studies. The experimental evidence suggests that major part of the decolourising activity of intact yeast cells is due to a very well characterized plasma membrane redox system.BIOEFTEX Project

Role of the component Fre1p of the plasma membrane ferric reductase on the azo reductase activity of intact Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells

In Press. Aceite em 2005 para publicação na revista Applied and Environmental Microbiology.Unspecific bacterial reduction of azo dyes is a widely studied process in correlation with the biological treatment of coloured waste waters but the enzyme system associated to this bacterial capability has never been positively identified. Several ascomycete yeast strains display similar decolourising activities. The yeast-mediated process requires an alternative carbon and energy source and is independent of previous exposure to the dyes. When substrate dyes are polar their reduction is extracellular, strongly suggesting the involvement of an externally-directed plasma membrane redox system. The present work demonstrates that, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the ferric reductase system participates in the extracellular reduction of azo dyes. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant strains Δfre1 and Δfre1Δfre2, but not Δfre2, showed a much reduced decolourising capability, suggesting that, under the conditions tested, Fre1p is a major component of the azo reductase activity.European BIOEFTEX Project

Is Saccharomyces cerevisiae azoreductase the plasma membrane ferric reductase?

Poster apresentado na International Conference on Plasma Membrane Redox Systems and their Role in Biological Stress and Disease, 7, Asilomar, Califórnia, Estados Unidos da América, 14-18 Abril 2004.Unspecific bacterial reduction of azo dyes is a widely studied process in correlation with the biological treatment of coloured waste waters but the enzyme system associated to this bacterial capability has never been positively identified. Several ascomycete yeast strains, isolated by our group from contaminated soils, display similar decolourising activities. A study of the yeast-mediated process in batch culture demonstrated that colour loss was due to a reductase activity, expressed constitutively, which could transform azo dyes into colourless amines. In order to get a better understanding of the azoreductase activity of yeast cells we selected a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain (BLC0276) with a high decolourising capacity. A likely candidate might be the plasma membrane ferric reductase system. Both azoreductase and ferric reductase have peak activities in the late exponential growth phase, and their substrates -ferricyanide and soluble azo dyes - are impermeant to the cell plasma membrane. This hypothesis was confirmed through two different lines of evidence: the use of different inhibitors and the construction of mutants defective in the iron reductase system. Inhibitors like carbonylcyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP), diphenylene iodonium (DPI), p-chloromercuribenzoate (pCMB) and chloroquine (CQ), were tested. In most cases the percentage inhibition of both activities was similar. The genes Fre1 and Fre2 were deleted and the effect on the decolourising activity was analysed in the mutant strains. The effect of Fre2 deletion was negligible, but fre1 and fre1fre2 strains showed a much reduced decolourising capability. These results demonstrate the involvement of the ferric reductase system in the azo decolourising capacity of S. cerevisiae. However the capacity was not completely removed indicating that cells have an alternative reducing system.BIOEFTEX Project

A contribution for the identification of the azo reductase activity in intact yeast cells

Poster apresentado no International Congress on Yeasts (ICY) -Yeasts in Science and Biotechnology : The Quest for Sustainable Development", 11, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Agosto 2004.Azo dyes are synthetic organic colorants which are extensively used in textile, food and cosmetic industries. A large fraction of these dyes is released into the environment even after conventional wastewater treatments. This is a worldwide problem and particularly a problem in regions where textile industries release large quantities of coloured wastewater to water courses. In an attempt to develop a biological treatment for colour removal we isolated several ascomycete yeast strains from contaminated soil based on its capacity to decolourize soluble azo dyes. We studied the process in batch cultures and have demonstrated that the colour loss was due to a reductase activity, expressed constitutively, which could transform azo dyes into colourless amines [1]. In order to understand the process involved in this reduction we selected a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain (BLC0276) with this capacity. This strain reduced model azo dyes in 8-16 h. We decided to further investigate which enzyme(s) could be involved in this reduction. It was found that in S. cerevisiae there is a membrane redox system with an externally directed reductase – the ferric reductase system, responsible for the extracellular reduction of ferric to ferrous iron previous to uptake, and involving the genes fre1 and fre2. Several know inhibitors of this system were investigated like excess of iron in the medium, CCCP, DPI, chloroquine and p-chloromercurybenzoic acid. Several of these compounds managed to inhibit the decolourizing activity. We also deleted the genes fre1 and fre2 in our strain and analysed the effect on decolourizing activity. Once again the process was retarded in fre1 and fre1fre2 strains. The effect of fre2 deletion was negligible. The deletion of fre1 retarded the decolourizing capability showing the involvement of this system. However the capacity was not completely removed indicating that cells have an alternative reducing system. [1] Ramalho, P.A., Scholze, H., Cardoso, M.H., Ramalho, M.T., Oliveira-Campos, A.M. 2002 Improved conditions for the aerobic reductive decolourization of azo dyes by Candida zeylanoides. Enz Microbiol Technol 31: 848-854.BIOEFTEX Project

Fragmentos de uma poética que não cala: Osmar Pisani

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O Sonho que sobrevive: uma resenha do livro póstumo de Dora Bay

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