Abordagem da história da ciência na construção de um terrário, numa perspetiva de educação para o desenvolvimento sustentável

Mestrado em Ensino de Biologia e Geologia no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino SecundárioEm Portugal, avanços têm-se feito notar no que toca à tecnologia, o que leva a que novas aptidões e competências sejam desenvolvidas pelos cidadãos de forma a adaptarem-se à Era da informação. Para tal, é necessário que os alunos saiam já bem preparados das escolas de modo a que as suas aprendizagens atendam a essas mudanças, pois o ensino também implica mudança, evolução e crescimento, não só por parte dos estudantes mas também dos professores, das escolas e de todos os órgãos associados. Desta forma, vários métodos poderão ser implementados nas salas de aulas e um deles é a abordagem à História da Ciência. O presente trabalho investigativo procurou conhecer quais as aprendizagens, comportamentos e atitudes que os alunos desenvolveram ao longo das aulas, dando a conhecer os contributos que a construção de um terrário, através da História da Ciência, pode levar à educação de cidadãos informados, numa perspetiva de Educação para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável. A abordagem foi aplicada a alunos do 8.º ano, na disciplina de Ciências Naturais, utilizando várias técnicas e instrumentos de recolha de dados, nomeadamente, a observação, a análise documental e questionário. O recurso à construção e utilização de um material didático-pedagógico e a abordagem à História da Ciência, permitiram cativar o interesse dos alunos e centraliza-los no processo de ensino e de aprendizagem, no qual o aluno tem o principal papel. Dessa forma, foi possível averiguar como se contextualizam as aprendizagens através da abordagem utilizada, recolher e descrever as perspetivas dos alunos e em desenvolver as aprendizagens, comportamentos e atitudes, numa perspetiva de Educação para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável.In Portugal, advances have been made when it comes to Technology, which leads to new skills and competences to be developed by citizens in order to adapt to the Information age. To this end, it is necessary that students need to be well prepared when they conclude their studies, so that their acquired knowledge could meet these changes, for the teaching also implies changes, evolution and growth, not only by students but also by teachers, schools and all the associated teaching groups. This way, various methods can be implemented in the classroom and one of them is the approach to the History of Science. This research work was aimed to know which learnings, behaviors and attitudes that students developed during the lessons, so that it could be possible to publish the contribution of the construction of a terrarium, based in the History of Science, leading to the education of informed citizens, in a perspective of an Education for Sustainable Development. The approach was applied to 8th grade students, in the discipline of Natural Sciences, using various techniques and data collection instruments, like observation, documental analysis and a questionnaire. Building and using didactic-pedagogic material and applying History of Science knowledge, allowed to captivate the students' interest and it helped centralizing them in the process of teaching and learning, in which the student has the main role. Thus, it was possible to find out how to contextualize the learning through the used approaches, to collect and describe the perspectives of the students and developing the learning subject, behaviors and attitudes on a perspective of Education for the Sustainable Development

Genetic screening for Bartter syndrome and Gitelman syndrome pathogenic genes among individuals with hypertension and hypokalemia

<p><b>Purpose</b>: Bartter syndrome (BS) and Gitelman syndrome (GS) are hereditary diseases characterized by hypokalemia with decreased or normal blood pressure (BP). However, BS or GS patients who present with elevated BP levels have been increasingly reported recently. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the presence of BS and GS among individuals with unexplained hypokalemia with hypertension in a clinical setting. <b>Methods</b>: Patients presented with unexplained hypertension and hypokalemia admitted to Hypertension Center of Fuwai Hospital from November 2015 to February 2017 were enrolled. High-throughput sequencing for five BS and GS causative genes were performed. Variants were classified using American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) consensus guidelines. <b>Results</b>: Thirty-four patients with unexplained hypertension and hypokalemia were included for genetic analysis. A total number of 10 rare variants were identified in six individuals (mutation detection rate, 17.65%). One homozygous variant carried by one of the 34 patients, <i>KCNJ1</i> c.941A> G (p.Tyr314Cys), were categorized as likely pathogenic variant and resulted in a diagnostic yield of 2.94%. Eight of the remaining nine variants were predicted to be deleterious by ≥ three bioinformatics software and may give additional potential diagnostic yields. <b>Conclusions</b>: This is the first study performing combined genetic screening for BS and GS pathogenic genes among individuals with unexplained hypertension and hypokalemia. Our data suggested that BS or GS may contribute to the etiology of patients presented with hypertension and hypokalemia. Genetic testing for BS and GS pathogenic genes are recommended to facilitate precision diagnoses and targeted treatment.</p

Tandem Nitrogen Functionalization of Porous Carbon: Toward Immobilizing Highly Active Palladium Nanoclusters for Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid

Highly dispersed palladium nanoclusters (Pd NCs) immobilized by a nitrogen (N)-functionalized porous carbon support (N-MSC-30) are synthesized by a wet chemical reduction method, wherein the N-MSC-30 prepared by a tandem low-temperature heat-treatment approach proved to be a distinct support for stabilizing the Pd NCs. The prepared Pd/N-MSC-30 shows extremely high catalytic activity and recyclability for the dehydrogenation of formic acid (FA), affording the highest turnover frequency (TOF = 8414 h^–1) at 333 K, which is much higher than that of the Pd catalyst supported on the N-MSC-30 prepared via a one-step process. This tandem heat-treatment strategy provides a facile and effective synthetic methodology to immobilize ultrafine metal NPs on N-functionalized carbon materials, which have tremendous application prospects in various catalytic fields

Incidence of Total CVD Events, Myocardial Infarction, and Stroke among Three Groups According to the CVH Score at Baseline.

<p>Incidence rate is per 1000 person-years.</p><p>Incidence of Total CVD Events, Myocardial Infarction, and Stroke among Three Groups According to the CVH Score at Baseline.</p

Hazard Ratios (95% CI) of Incidence of Total CVD Events, Myocardial Infarction, and Stroke among Different Groups According to the CVH Score at Baseline.

<p>Model 1 was a single-factor analysis model; model 2 was adjusted for age, gender, alcohol consumption, income, education and history of cardiovascular disease on the basis of model 1; model 3 was further adjusted for heart rate, uric acid, and high-sensitivity CRP on the basis of model 2.</p><p>CVH score, Cardiovascular Health Score; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval.</p><p>Hazard Ratios (95% CI) of Incidence of Total CVD Events, Myocardial Infarction, and Stroke among Different Groups According to the CVH Score at Baseline.</p

Hazard Ratios for CVH Score in Different Groups According to the CVH Score at Baseline when One Cardiovascular Health Metric Is Omitted.

<p>CVD, cardiovascular disease; MI, myocardial infarction; HR, hazard ratio (after adjustment for age, gender, alcohol consumption, income, education, history of cardiovascular disease, heart rate, uric acid, and high-sensitivity CRP); CI, confidence interval; BP, blood pressure; FBG, fasting blood glucose; TC, total cholesterol; BMI, body mass index.</p><p>Hazard Ratios for CVH Score in Different Groups According to the CVH Score at Baseline when One Cardiovascular Health Metric Is Omitted.</p

Genetic Variants Associated with Myocardial Infarction and the Risk Factors in Chinese Population

<div><p>Background</p><p>Recent genome-wide association (GWA) studies in Caucasians identified multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). The associations of those SNPs with myocardial infarction (MI) have not been replicated in Asian populations. Among those previously identified SNPs, we selected nine (rs10953541, rs1122608, rs12190287, rs12413409, rs1412444, rs1746048, rs3798220, rs4977574, rs579459, in or near genes 7q22, LDLR, TCF21, CYP17A1, LIPA, CXCL12, LPA, CDKN2A, ABO, respectively) because of the relatively high minor allele frequencies in Chinese individuals and tested the associations of the SNPs with MI and MI related risk factors in Chinese population.</p><p>Methods and Results</p><p>We conducted a case–control association study on a cohort of 2365 MI patients and 2678 unrelated controls from the Chinese population. Genotyping of 9 SNPs were performed by the TaqMan Real Time PCR method. After age, sex, and BMI adjustment, we observed the SNPs rs12190287, rs12413409, rs1412444, rs1746048 and rs4977574, were significantly associated with MI in additive models and rs12190287, rs12413409, rs4977574 were significantly associated with phenotypes of MI at the same time. We also found three SNPs rs1122608, rs3798220 and rs579459 were significantly associated with risk factors of MI, although they had no association with MI in Chinese population.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Results of this study indicate that 5 SNPs were associated with MI and 3 SNPs were associated with associated with lipoprotein levels but not with MI in a Chinese population. The present study supports some CAD-related genes in Caucasian as important genes for MI in a Chinese population.</p></div

Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Parameters of the Control and Hypothyroidism Groups.

<p>Abbreviations: CI, cardiac index; EDV, end diastolic volume; EF, ejection fraction; ESV, end systolic volume; IVS, interventricular septum; LVAW, left-ventricular anterior wall; LVIW, left-ventricular inferior wall; LVLW, left-ventricular lateral wall. PER, peak ejection rate; PET, peak ejection time; PFR, peak filling rate; PFT, peak filling time; SV, stroke volume.</p

Bivariate analysis of the correlation between T1 value within interventricular septum and FT3, Peak Filling Rate, Stroke Volume and Cardiac Index in controls and patients with HT.

<p>Spearman or Pearson analysis was used to assess the correlation between T1 value and FT3 (<b>A</b>), Peak Filling Rate (<b>B</b>), Stroke Volume (<b>C</b>) and Cardiac Index (<b>D</b>). The central line represents the regression line. Black dot: HT patients; Gray dot: Controls.</p