Análise do transcriptoma das glândulas venenosas do escorpião Tityus stigmurus

In Brazil, accidents with scorpions are considered of medical importance, not only by the high incidence, but also for the potentiality of the venom from some species in determining severe clinical conditions. Tityus stigmurus is a widely distributed scorpion species in Northeastern Brazil and known to cause severe human envenomations, inducing pain, hyposthesia, edema, erythema, paresthesia, headaches and vomiting. The present study uses a transcriptomic approach to characterize the molecular repertoire from the non-stimulated venom gland of Tityus stigmurus scorpion. A cDNA library was constructed and 540 clones were sequenced and grouped into 37 clusters, with more than one EST (expressed sequence tag) and 116 singlets. Forty-one percent of ESTs belong to recognized toxin-coding sequences, with antimicrobial toxins (AMP-like) the most abundant transcripts, followed by alfa KTx- like, beta KTx-like, beta NaTx-like and alfa NaTx-like. Our analysis indicated that 34% include other possible venom molecules , whose transcripts correspond to anionic peptides, hypothetical secreted peptides, metalloproteinases, cystein-rich peptides and lectins. Fifteen percent of ESTs are similar to cellular transcripts. Sequences without good matches corresponded to 11%. This investigation provides the first global view of cDNAs from Tityus stigmurus. This approach enables characterization of a large number of venom gland component molecules, which belong either to known or atypical types of venom peptides and proteins from the Buthidae family

Análise das manifestações auditivas em individuos com hipertensão arterial sistêmica

Objective: To determine the prevalence of auditory manifestations in individuals with hypertension and analyze the association between hearing loss, systemic hypertension and quality of life in hypertensive patients. Method: This was a prospective, observational, case-control study, carried out from June 2010 to December 2013 at the University Hospital Onofre Lopes, in Natal, Brazil, which involved 120 patients of both sexes were analyzed with a diagnosis of hypertension and 120 patients without a diagnosis of hypertension. The audiological function was assessed by tonal and vocal audiometry. The quality of life was defines by the MINICHAL BRASIL questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of hearing loss was high in both groups (82.5 % and 75.8 %, in hypertension group and control, respectively, p=0.003). The sensorineural was the most common type of hearing loss (48.5 %) in hypertension group while conductive hearing loss was predominant (61.5 %) in the control group. There were no difference in the intensity of hearing loss between the groups (p=0,21). The main hearing complaint was hearing loss (51 %), followed by ear pain (14 %). There was worse quality of life in hypertensive individuals with hearing loss (p= 0.0001). Conclusion: Hypertensive individuals showed higher prevalence of auditory events, including hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss is predominant . Hearing loss is associated with worse quality of life of hypertensive individuals even when these pressure values are within normal limits

Cultura e consumo: o fluxo dos bens

It is an ethnographic work that has an objective of verifying devices throngh the residents of a low income suburban area, and the way they deal with their social relations through sonsumerism (and the aspiration connected to it), the symbolic character acquired through consumer goods, understood as one of the fundamental components for the comprehension of the web as relations that established, Though consumerism, individuais will reveal ways of communication, of the status, of creating new forms of action and identification. Using the principal that believes in a web of symbolic significance where own individuais develop their impressions, as a resource to look at their own bodies, a social order (yet unstable), and the process of inclusion in a broader society. In conclusion, the act of consuming is more than a perspective that establishes statistics on consumer goods, with their ways of production, circulation and economic functioning: it is also a way of perceiving a collection mapped by consumers individually and socially, and by those means organizing, classifying and identifyring the social world

CORPOREIDADE E A MELODIA DA EXPERIÊNCIA ESTÉTICA NA FORMAÇÃO HUMANESCENTE DE CANTORES-EDUCADORES

In order for this study to be developed, the central goal on our investigation was defined as analyzing and interpreting the aesthetical experiences meanings lived by singers-educators in the human formation. The interest for the aesthetical experience theme was built from my own experience for the last twelve years as a member of the School of Music Madrigal, the oldest group in the State Federal University, created for research and cultural extension with structural perspective which brings closer teachers, students and the outer community that comes from different social realities to face the challenge of combining the ability of singing, the corporeity involvement and the aesthetical experiences meanings. This paper points out the understanding of art as perceptive expression of human emotions, such as the creation of existential demand, the restructuring of oneself and the constructions which shape beauty. We seek a dense contribution of new challenges to the peculiar demand of human potential in terms of sensibility repertoire, of involvement, of expectation in magnifying the possibilities and the human and social competences. In the formation human process, we find a living field blooming with natural artistical possibilities, experimenting emotions and feelings shared in collective life, and bringing out impulses to unexpected ludic creation, establishing a powerful aesthetical ambience which highlights the symbolic and imaginary with the deepening of rich ludopoiese properties in several meanings. From the guiding principles of etnophenomenology we find structural and indispensable perspectives which contemplate values, desires, archtype images and ideas that impress originality and fertility to the study. On this path we understand the abundance of living moments of intense commitment, acquaintance, challenges, reunions and connections that stand out from fundamental aspects to freedom, autonomy, creativity and new discontinuities. This acknowledgement brings us closer to the enlighted fullness which makes us humans

Sistema inteligente para diagnóstico de patologias na laringe utilizando máquinas de vetor de suporte

The human voice is an important communication tool and any disorder of the voice can have profound implications for social and professional life of an individual. Techniques of digital signal processing have been used by acoustic analysis of vocal disorders caused by pathologies in the larynx, due to its simplicity and noninvasive nature. This work deals with the acoustic analysis of voice signals affected by pathologies in the larynx, specifically, edema, and nodules on the vocal folds. The purpose of this work is to develop a classification system of voices to help pre-diagnosis of pathologies in the larynx, as well as monitoring pharmacological treatments and after surgery. Linear Prediction Coefficients (LPC), Mel Frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and the coefficients obtained through the Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) are applied to extract relevant characteristics of the voice signal. For the classification task is used the Support Vector Machine (SVM), which aims to build optimal hyperplanes that maximize the margin of separation between the classes involved. The hyperplane generated is determined by the support vectors, which are subsets of points in these classes. According to the database used in this work, the results showed a good performance, with a hit rate of 98.46% for classification of normal and pathological voices in general, and 98.75% in the classification of diseases together: edema and nodules

Cosmoeducação: uma abordagem transdisciplinar no ensino de astronomia

This work proposes a transdisciplinary approach that integrates transpersonal psychology exercises with astronomy teaching, seeking to allow one to reintegrate the sky in his/her daily life, expand his/her environmental awareness and eventually experiment the unity between human and cosmos. This proposal intends to collaborate with the supplying of education, which lacks initiatives of this kind, with the promotion of an integration of the scientific knowledge with the human experience that transcends the materialistic and fragmentary objectives of the current educational system. As a result of that lack, the teachers formation is also poor as for an integral and transdisciplinary approach. Besides, we also approached in this research the necessity to propose alternatives so that the educators may work in a more assertive way with the environmental and anthropological crisis in which we are living. Our working hypothesis is that the contents of astronomy, when they are dealt in a holisticanthropological focus and are related with transpersonal psychology practices, can come to be an efficient cultural-academic vehicle, capable of propitiating an expansion of consciousness and changes in the way one conceives the world. Such changes are necessary so that a more solidary, fair and ecologically balanced life may come to exist and prevail in the planet. Part of the collection of data was done through the ethnographic method, once an anthropological interpretation is inextricably associated with this kind of educational intervention, which will naturally include ethno-visions of the universe as well as specific cultural elements. In the beginning the scope of this research was a group of students attending the Astronomy assignment in an undergraduate Geography course (UFRN), in which we accomplished participant observation, half-open interviews and the first experimental practices mentioned. After the evaluation of the first data collected from that initial group, we elaborated an academic extension course, Laboratory in Cosmoeducation, and we offered it to teachers of the 1st and 2nd cycles of the fundamental level of the Alceu Amoroso Lima State School, located in the North Zone of Natal. We prized self-experimentation in that course, so that the teachers could enrich their repertoire of personal experiences, stimulating meditative reflections and eventual changes in the ways of conceiving the world and in their pedagogical practice. The transdisciplinary attitude permeated all our educational action, because this approach transcends the boundaries of disciplines, seeking essentially the integral development of the human being. The process has made us realize that the practice of looking at the sky , as a way of reintegrating it into daily life, provokes a process of expansion of the consciousness and of reintegration of the self in a wider level of environmental interrelation. According to the results, the occurrence of conceptual and existential changes of the world vision of the participant teachers was evident, reassuring ourselves of the idea that the interface between astronomy teaching and the practices of transpersonal psychology can contribute to the recovery of a holistic relationship between the human being and the cosmos and to inspire the arising of a more wide-ranging ethics, based on universal, impartial and sustainable values

Resistência e performance na arte de João Cota

Researching about the art of tell and the tales told by João Cota is somehow revisiting the oral tradition and social practice in the story-telling art. It takes into consideration the resistance this art still exerts, mainly by using the performance of oral transmission and receptiveness to tales. The study of this practice contributes to the vivacious and dynamcis permanence of this authentic and traditional storyteller of his repertory and of his form to tellin our culture. Story-telling is part of the humankind living heritage communicated by means of popular wisdom. Despite the risk of vanishing into thin air, along with their narrators, the tales still manage to resist the contemporary mass culture model. How long further will stories like the ones narrated by João Cota be able to resist to strong and stronger structures dictated by writing and other communication means? João Cota s practice in story-telling will be studied not only as a proposal to identify the presence of this practice and the oral cultural resistance but also, through the performance prospective, to identify the oral transmission and receptiveness to the tales that are part of this storyteller s repertoire. In other words: what he tells, how he tells it, and why he tells it. The advent of new technologies such as internet, through which people can easily communicate with others in different parts of the world, and the greater and greater expansion in the writing skill concept interfere the maintenance of the oral tradition elements present in João Cota s narratives and inserted in the Brazilian culture. This has become more visible in the latest decades although we still notice the living tradition and permanence of the story-telling practice in several parts of the country through their wise storytellers. Our research target will require - in each of its study stages reference to works by several theoreticians namely Paul Zumthor, Mikhail Bakhtin, Câmara Cascudo, theoreticians from the receptiveness aesthetic, from the written culture history, from oral cultures and reading practices, from tradition and the Brazilian Culture of oral story-telling. In order to get to know and draw a profile of this storyteller, we ve chosen to use the comprehensive interview method by French Sociologist Jean Claude Kaufmann. The originality in the method consists of the qualitative data put together in situ , concentrated on the storyteller s narratives/speeches recorded on tape, which will be the focal point of this study. Our analysis method is based on tireless sessions of listening to interviews out of which we gathered information related to the storyteller, his practice in telling the tales, and his repertoire

Processos cognitivos que operam na configuração de narrativas: uma pesquisa exploratória dos fenômenos que subjazem à compreensão de textos

This paper investigates the cognitive processes that operate in understanding narratives in this case, the novel Macunaíma, by Mário de Andrade. Our work belongs to the field of Embodied-based Cognitive Linguistics and, due to its interdisciplinary nature, it dialogues with theoretical and methodological frameworks of Psycholinguistics, Cognitive Psychology and Neurosciences. Therefore, we adopt an exploratory research design, recall and cloze tests, adapted, with postgraduation students, all native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The choice of Macunaíma as the novel and initial motivation for this proposal is due to the fact it is a fantastic narrative, which consists of events, circumstances and characters that are clearly distant types from what is experienced in everyday life. Thus, the novel provides adequate data to investigate the configuration of meaning, within an understanding-based model. We, therefore, seek, to answer questions that are still, generally, scarcely explored in the field of Cognitive Linguistics, such as to what extent is the activation of mental models (schemas and frames) related to the process of understanding narratives? How are we able to build sense even when words or phrases are not part of our linguistic repertoire? Why do we get emotionally involved when reading a text, even though it is fiction? To answer them, we assume the theoretical stance that meaning is not in the text, it is constructed through language, conceived as a result of the integration between the biological (which results in creating abstract imagery schemes) and the sociocultural (resulting in creating frames) apparatus. In this sense, perception, cognitive processing, reception and transmission of the information described are directly related to how language comprehension occurs. We believe that the results found in our study may contribute to the cognitive studies of language and to the development of language learning and teaching methodologies

Modernismo e tradição da oralidade na poesia :uma leitura de Clã do jabuti, de Mário de Andrade, e Catimbó, de Ascenso Ferreira

Estudio sobre los libros Clã do jabuti, de Mário de Andrade, y Catimbó, de Ascenso Ferreira, publicados en el año de 1927. Dentro del contexto del Modernismo en los años de 1920, se evidencia la filiación de los poetas con las tendencias literarias modernista y regionalista. Eso se confirma por los elementos introducidos en sus poesías, en las referidas obras, que traen el sentido de brasilidade discutido en la época, específicamente en el momento post1924. Tales elementos se refieren a las marcas de la oralidad que fueron aprovechadas esteticamente en los referidos textos, en lo que toca a la representación que poseen en el ámbito de la tradición de la cultura popular brasileña. En ese sentido, fue establecida una relación entre la moderna literatura nacional y la tradición de la cultura popular. Los textos observados muestran la diversidad cultural del país por medio de tales marcas, distinguiéndose por el aspecto nacionalista de Mário de Andrade, en consonancia con el proyecto de nación idealizado, y por el aspecto nacionalista/regionalista de Ascenso Ferreira, saliendo al encuentro de elementos nacionales y regionales. Siendo así, Clã do jabuti es un repertorio de todo Brasil y representación de la cultura nacional, de acuerdo con la brasilidade propuesta a partir de 1924; y Catimbó es la cristalización poética, en tonos de una brasilidade más norteña, de las particularidades de la región

Pré-fabricados lingüísticos: estrutura e funcionamento de sintagmas verbais idiomatizados - por uma abordagem cognitivo-funcional em sala de aula

This work aims at under the cognitive-functional perspective describing, inside the vast domain of the linguistic prefabs, the structure and the functioning of the Idiomatic Verb Phrases (SVIs), produced by speakers of the Portuguese from Brazil, located in Natal (RN). From the functionalist presupposition that the language is used essentially to assist to communicative demands, it is observed that its morphologic-syntactic structure is conditioned to the inherent pragmatic vicissitudes to the verbal interaction of subjects, socially heterogeneous and historically established. It is focalized, in the composition of SVIs, the relationships VT + OD (transitive verb + direct object), characterizing the syntactic-semantic nature of the verb and of the respective verbal complement. Those verb combinations + complement can be interpreted as lexical structures, reflexes of the idiomaticity inherent to conventional constructions already systematized in the users' of the language cultural repertoire. It is sought, still, to glimpse the cognitive and discursive motivations pertinent to that linguistic phenomenon. In the investigative process, are analyzed exclusive data of speech collected in Corpus Discurso & Gramática a lingua falada e escrita na cidade do Natal, organized by Furtado da Cunha (1998). The adopted methodological procedures configure as methods of empiric analysis and use of the intuition, being emphasized the qualitative approach (explanatory) of the data with quantitative support of statistical indicators. It shows, finally, a grating of didactic suggestions on SVIs, for Portuguese's classes, as subsidies to the educational practice in the Medium Teaching and in the course of Letters.

Imagens mí(s)ticas do gato

La valeur évocative, magique ou my(s)thique attribuée à la relation homme/animal peut être observée dans la culture depuis les époques lointaines. Dans la symbologie animale on trouve une immense charge sémantique justifiant les croyances les plus anciennes que les êtres humains ont déjà eues. Les animaux sont à la base du symbolisme mythique et ils se constituent en tant qu une source pour la riche production artistique englobant une grande variété iconographique et des textes de nature diverse. Ayant comme référence de la symbologie animal l image my(s)thique du chat, on observe la façon par laquelle le langage poétique contemple les profils mythiquesymboliques qui ont un rapport avec ce langage, tout en mettant en relief ceux qui ont des rapports aux relations entre le monde humain et le félin. À partir de l antologie tématique Assinar a pele ; des concepts théoriques ; et des abordages mitocritiques, nous cherchons à analyser les façons par lesquelles les différentes images mythiques associées au chat ont été explorées par la poésie. La définition d une typologie englobant des catégories telles : chat domestique, chat de rue, chat femme, chat nocturne, chat démoniaque et chat divin, parmi d autres, soutient la reconnaissance d identités possibles entre ces poèmes et signale la répétition d un répertoire symbolique divers en soi, mais, cohérent avec la présence du chat dans la société humaine à travers les temps

Eu não vi, eles me contaram. Uma experiência de transmissão e recepção oral no cotidiano dos sem-terra

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

Machado de Assis em contos :Uma constelação de partituras

This work aims at encouraging the reading or rereading of tales such as Um homem célebre , Cantiga de esponsais , Terpsícore , Trio em lá menor , O machete , and Marcha fúnebre from the Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, hoping to find in them the manifestations of musicality, which is understood, from the viewpoint of contemporary musical theories, as dinamicity indications resulting from the melopaico (melodious verse) stimulus to the understanding of words and/or images, which are inserted in the writing static body from the literary procedures transferring to the text specific characteristics from other arts, such as music, poetry, performatic dance e theater. Such procedures, which are reflected in the writing as a product of Machado s close repertory, often favor, through the fiction, the delineation of the musical context from Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century, as well as the social implications that the transformations of the musical scene impose on the subjectivity constitution

Ética: neurocência e neuroética

L étude de la neuroétique, est placée dans le champs de l étique philosophique, où l émotion et la ration se trouve comme des elements important dans le processus des decition moral. Les champs d étude de la neuroscience et neuroéthique ouvre la discussion sur le changement et les emergences conceptuels, le progrés da la science, le devéloppement de la tecnique, de la tecnhologie et la biotecnologie, et ses relations vis-a-vis des dilemes morales concernat au champs des études et recherches dans ce domaine. On compprende que les procedures adoptés em ces études et recherches ne sont pas concernant solement aux individus soumises aux procedures et or traitement, mas a tout la societé. Le champs d étude de la neuroscience comme quelque d outre est soumis a des principles morales et étiques, sourtout c est relatifs aux prises de decition par rapport aux êtres vivants. Dans ces processus les scientifiques sont charchées des responsabilités et des risques, en face des dilemes morales concernat a tout les recherches. L analise a été faite, appui dentre outres, en la pensée de Immanuel Kant et Jonh Stuart Mill em ce que dit respect au devoir et l utilité

Boto cinza (Sotalia guianensis, Van Benédén, 1864) (Cetacea, Delphinidae): Atividade aérea, forrageio e interações inter-específicas, na Praia de Pipa (Tibau do Sul RN) e estudo comparativo entre duas populações do Nordeste do Brasil

Sotalia guianensis is a small cetacean of the Delphinidae family, with coastal habits and whose area of distribution ranges from Florianópolis (27º35'S, 48º34'W), in Brazil, to Honduras (15º58'N, 85º42'W). At Pipa beach, on the south coast of RN state, in Brazil, the species occur throughout the year. The present study was carried out in two bays, which are bordered by cliffs. The animals were monitored from vantage points, using the "Ad libitum" and "all the occurrences" methods; during the years of 1999 and 2004. The study was divided in 4 chapters: Behavioral standards of two populations of gray dolphin, (Sotalia guianensis, Van Benédén, 1864) in the northeast of Brazil; Aerial activity of the gray dolphin: its possible function and the influence of environmental and behavioral factors; The influence of daily and monthly variation of the tides, of the period of the day and group size on the gray dolphin forage activity; kleptoparasitism interactions of frigatebird (Fregata magnificens, Mattheus, 1914) during the gray dolphin forage activity. The results have shown that the gray dolphin has a varied and complex behavioral repertoire. The leap is the most frequent behavior; the aerial activity is diffuse during daylight and is influenced by some factors, such as the level of the tide and social factors. The gray dolphin, when in the bay, most frequently feeds isolate or in small groups. The forage is diffuse during daylight; however, being more frequent in the morning and is influenced by the daily and monthly variation of the tide. At Pipa beach, kleptoparasitarian interactions were registered between the gray dolphin and the frigatebird (Fregata magnificens). The frigatebird forage strategy consists basically of two ways: to fly over great extensions searching for dead fish and to steal food (kleptoparasitism). These interactions were predominantly carried out between immature and female adult birds and adult and immature dolphins, and occurred during daylight. The present study can be considered an initial landmark to a better knowledge on the gray dolphin surface behavior, especially regarding the aerial behavioral repertoire and forage strategy of this species. However, it is necessary to continue these studies, so that we can understand better the complex social life of these animals and thus create effective measures for its conservation