Planejamento e motivação: construindo aliados na prática docente

Trabalho apresentado no II Congresso Nacional do PROJETO RONDON, realizado em Florianópolis, SC, no período de 23 a 25 de setembro de 2015 - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.Este trabalho irá relatar oficinas desenvolvidas com os professores das redes municipal e estadual, no município de São Bento do Tocantins, durante a Operação Itacaiúnas do Projeto Rondon, em julho de 2015. Foi realizado um encontro na Câmara Municipal da cidade, com duas horas destinadas a cada oficina. A partir da demanda apresentada pela secretária de educação do município durante a viagem precursora relatando dificuldades dos professores em desenvolver planos de aula e em construir o Projeto Político Pedagógico, e, também queixas de desmotivação e cansaço frente à rotina escolar, idealizou-se a realização de um encontro para abordagem dos dois temas, a fim de que se pudesse estabelecer uma relação entre o planejamento e suas implicações no cotidiano escolar, trazendo a motivação desses profissionais como pano de fundo de toda a discussão. Iniciamos com a videoconferência “Planejamento como ação educativa”, com o objetivo de reconhecimento da importância do planejamento na prática docente. Trabalhou-se diferentes tipos de planos e suas caraterísticas, buscando evidenciar a importância disto na rotina escolar. A videoconferência foi realizada com a professora Ana Delacoste, da Faculdade de Educação da PUCRS. Uma das solicitações da professora foi a interação com os participantes, tornando esse momento mais significativo devido à troca de experiências e às relações estabelecidas entre teoria e prática no decorrer da oficina. Como multiplicadores, os rondonistas devem levar para os municípios em que atuam novos meios de conhecimento e acesso à informação. Apesar das dificuldades relacionadas à conexão via internet, esse momento atendeu às expectativas dos participantes, esclarecendo dúvidas, promovendo uma reflexão em torno do tema, além de apresentar uma nova forma de interação e formação continuada. A segunda oficina, “Motivação para educar”, objetivava proporcionar um espaço para que os professores refletissem a respeito dos desafios enfrentados no cotidiano escolar e o quanto isso reverbera em sua motivação durante o trabalho. Por meio de dinâmicas de integração e vídeos de sensibilização, construiu-se um espaço onde todos puderam compartilhar suas experiências e conscientizar-se da importância desse profissional na comunidade em que vive. As duas oficinas foram complementares pois proporcionaram um espaço de reflexão acerca dos desafios vivenciados pelos docentes. E, mais do que reflexões, foi possível presenciar um empoderamento desses profissionais que hoje, têm maior ciência de sua importância na comunidade escolar e almejem uma melhora em suas práticas através de uma formação continuada e significativa

Optimal Trajectories for Near-Earth-Objects Using Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) and Gravity Assisted Maneuver

The future interplanetary missions will probably use the conventional chemical rockets to leave the sphere of influence of the Earth, and solar electric propulsion (SEP) to accomplish the other maneuvers of the mission. In this work the optimization of interplanetary missions using solar electric propulsion and Gravity Assisted Maneuver to reduce the costs of the mission, is considered. The high specific impulse of electric propulsion makes a Gravity Assisted Maneuver 1 year after departure convenient. Missions for several Near Earth Asteroids will be considered. The analysis suggests criteria for the definition of initial solutions demanded for the process of optimization of trajectories. Trajectories for the asteroid 2002TC70 are analyzed. Direct trajectories, trajectories with 1 gravity assisted from the Earth and with 2 gravity assisted from the Earth and either Mars are present. An indirect optimization method will be used in the simulations

A pilot study evaluating the safety of vaginal administration of a multi-particulate pellet formulation

Aim: Quantitative evaluation of the effect caused by vaginal administration of gelatin capsules loaded with starch pellets and lyophilized powder, respectively, on vaginal pH and microflora. Method: Administration of gelatin capsules loaded with fast-disintegrating starch pellets (group P) or lyophilized lactose/skimmed milk (group L) was compared to no intervention (group C) in a 3-way randomized, double-blinded, parallel study with 18 volunteers. Follow-up visits were at day 6 (immediately after administration), day 14 (pill stop), day 22 (after withdrawal bleeding) and day 35 (midcycle). Vaginal pH was measured and swabs were taken for Gram staining and culture to assess the presence of hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli. Colposcopy was performed to assess the occurrence of adverse effects on the vaginal and ectocervical mucosa. Results: No severe adverse events occurred. For all women, vaginal pH and Gram stain were normal from screening until pill stop. Although immediately after withdrawal bleeding, 8 out of 18 women had an elevated pH, a disturbed microflora or lacked hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli, all women had hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli and a normal vaginal pH at midcycle, and all but two had a normal Gram stain. Conclusion: No major differences could be observed between the groups, whereby all changes in pH and microflora could be ascribed to withdrawal bleeding, indicating that gelatin capsules, starch pellets and lyophilized powder are acceptable carrier materials for the vaginal delivery of probiotic strains

Lipid Raft Size and Lipid Mobility in Non-raft Domains Increase during Aging and Are Exacerbated in APP/PS1 Mice Model of Alzheimer's Disease. Predictions from an Agent-Based Mathematical Model

A connection between lipid rafts and Alzheimer's disease has been studied during the last decades. Mathematical modeling approaches have recently been used to correlate the effects of lipid composition changes in the physicochemical properties of raft-like membranes. Here we propose an agent based model to assess the effect of lipid changes in lipid rafts on the evolution and progression of Alzheimer's disease using lipid profile data obtained in an established model of familial Alzheimer's disease. We have observed that lipid raft size and lipid mobility in non-raft domains are two main factors that increase during age and are accelerated in the transgenic Alzheimer's disease mouse model. The consequences of these changes are discussed in the context of neurotoxic amyloid β production. Our agent based model predicts that increasing sterols (mainly cholesterol) and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) (mainly DHA, docosahexaenoic acid) proportions in the membrane composition might delay the onset and progression of the disease.This work was funded by research grants from BIO2014-54411-C2-2-R and SAF2014-52582-R from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO, Spain). GSR acknowledges the support of Obra Social La Caixa-Fundación CajaCanarias that granted him a Posgraduate Fellowship at the Universidad de La Laguna.Peer reviewedPeer Reviewe

Parametric Study of the Errors Obtained from the Measurement of the Oscillating Movement of a Bridge Using Image Processing

The movement of a pedestrian bridge retrieved by means of image processing technique has been analysed in this paper. An optical target has been attached to the deck and its oscillation has been tracked with fast cameras. The movement of the bridge has also been measured with a radar interferometer and this result has been taken as the reference signal. Using these data, a parametric study of the errors introduced by the image-based methods has been performed. The influence of some variables in the measurement error such as the distance to the target, the image size, the type of camera or the movement amplitude has been analysed for four different distances, and two types of excitations. Results show that the relative error decreases with the amplitude and the target diameter and it increases with the target distance. Additionally, the maximum relative error obtained in most of the analysed cases is below 10 %.The authors acknowledge the support of the Generalitat Valenciana through the project PROMETEO II/2015/015 and GV/2015/116 and the University of Alicante through the project GRE13-10

Influence of chronic azithromycin treatment on the composition of the oropharyngeal microbial community in patients with severe asthma

Background: This study of the oropharyngeal microbiome complements the previously published AZIthromycin in Severe ASThma (AZISAST) clinical trial, where the use of azithromycin was assessed in subjects with exacerbationprone severe asthma. Here, we determined the composition of the oropharyngeal microbial community by means of deep sequencing of the amplified 16S rRNA gene in oropharyngeal swabs from patients with exacerbationprone severe asthma, at baseline and during and after 6 months treatment with azithromycin or placebo. Results: A total of 1429 OTUs were observed, of which only 59 were represented by more than 0.02% of the reads. Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Fusobacteria, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the most abundant phyla and Streptococcus and Prevotella were the most abundant genera in all the samples. Thirteen species only accounted for two thirds of the reads and two species only, i.e. Prevotella melaninogenica and Streptococcus mitis/pneumoniae, accounted for one fourth of the reads. We found that the overall composition of the oropharyngeal microbiome in patients with severe asthma is comparable to that of the healthy population, confirming the results of previous studies. Long term treatment (6 months) with azithromycin increased the species Streptococcus salivarius approximately 5-fold and decreased the species Leptotrichia wadei approximately 5-fold. This was confirmed by Boruta feature selection, which also indicated a significant decrease of L. buccalis/L. hofstadtii and of Fusobacterium nucleatum. Four of the 8 treated patients regained their initial microbial composition within one month after cessation of treatment. Conclusions: Despite large diversity of the oropharyngeal microbiome, only a few species predominate. We confirm the absence of significant differences between the oropharyngeal microbiomes of people with and without severe asthma. Possibly, long term azithromycin treatment may have long term effects on the composition of the oropharygeal microbiome in half of the patients

Detection of therapeutic targets in human highly prevalent diseases through mathematical modelling of their molecular basis

Las enfermedades se producen por un mal funcionamiento del organismo. Con el fin de comprender los mecanismos de las enfermedades se debe tener en cuenta la complejidad de los organismos biológicos, no sólo como el conjunto de interacciones moleculares, sino también su dinámica. Las enfermedades se producen por un desequilibrio en la dinámica del sistema, ello implica que hacen falta métodos que permitan inducir la dinámica a partir de la red de interacciones de forma que sea posible encontrar nuevas estrategias para el tratamiento de las enfermedades. El enfoque que se ocupa de este inferir la dinámica a partir de las redes de interacciones es la biología de sistemas; esta hace uso de metodologías de modelización matemática para hacer frente a la complejidad estructural y dinámica de los organismos biológicos. En primer lugar se resumen y analizan las cuestiones generales sobre modelización matemática en biociencias, luego se presenta una revisión de aproximaciones mediante modelización matemática en el tema de infección por malaria dentro del hospedador. Cuatro enfermedades altamente prevalentes son evaluados bajo este enfoque desentrañando la complejidad molecular y celular que explica su fisiología. La malaria es altamente prevalente en los países en desarrollo, y es producida por la interacción dinámica del parásito y las células del sistema inmunológico en el torrente sanguíneo; la infección por VIH es producida en primer lugar por la invasión de los linfocitos T4 por el virus, este proceso está promovido por muchas rutas de señalización molecular desencadenadas por el virus en el interior del linfocito, que culminan con la apertura de un poro por el cual entra el VIH; la enfermedad de Alzheimer es una patología neurodegenerativa sin causa conocida, la hipótesis principal alude a la producción de un péptido neurotóxico, el β-amiloide, en ciertos dominios lipídicos formados por el movimiento lateral diferencial de los lípidos en la membrana de las neuronas; por último, el melanoma es un tipo de cáncer de melanocitos muy agresivo. Inicialmente, un microtumor crece en el torrente sanguíneo interactuando con el sistema inmune; la evolución de la enfermedad depende de esta interacción dinámica. En cada caso se proponen potenciales dianas terapéuticas en las que puede centrarse la búsqueda de nuevos fármacos contra estas enfermedades haciendo uso de los modelos que reproducen la enfermedad en determinadas condiciones

Longitudinal qPCR study of the dynamics of L. crispatus, L. iners, A. vaginae, (sialidase positive) G. vaginalis, and P. bivia in the vagina

Background: To obtain more detailed understanding of the causes of disturbance of the vaginal microflora (VMF), a longitudinal study was carried out for 17 women during two menstrual cycles. Methods: Vaginal swabs were obtained daily from 17 non-pregnant, menarchal volunteers. For each woman, Gram stains were scored, the quantitative changes of 5 key vaginal species, i.e. Atopobium vaginae, Lactobacillus crispatus, L. iners, (sialidase positive) Gardnerella vaginalis and Prevotella bivia were quantified with qPCR and hydrogen-peroxide production was assessed on TMB+ agar. Results: Women could be divided in 9 subjects with predominantly normal VMF (grades Ia, Ib and Iab, group N) and 8 with predominantly disturbed VMF (grades I-like, II, III and IV, group D). VMF was variable between women, but overall stable for most of the women. Menses were the strongest disturbing factor of the VMF. L. crispatus was present at log7-9 cells/ml in grade Ia, Iab and II VMF, but concentrations declined 100-fold during menses. L. crispatus below log7 cells/ml corresponded with poor H2O2-production. L. iners was present at log 10 cells/ml in grade Ib, II and III VMF. Sialidase negative G. vaginalis strains (average log5 cells/ml) were detected in grade I, I-like and IV VMF. In grade II VMF, predominantly a mixture of both sialidase negative and positive G. vaginalis strains (average log9 cells/ml) were present, and predominantly sialidase positive strains in grade III VMF. The presence of A. vaginae (average log9 cells/ml) coincided with grade II and III VMF. P. bivia (log4-8 cells/ml) was mostly present in grade III vaginal microflora. L. iners, G. vaginalis, A. vaginae and P. bivia all increased around menses for group N women, and as such L. iners was considered a member of disturbed VMF. Conclusions: This qPCR-based study confirms largely the results of previous culture-based, microscopy-based and pyrosequencing-based studies