Administração repetida de baixas doses de reserpina: um possível modelo para o estudo de déficits cognitivos e motores associados à Doença de Parkinson

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative brain disorders and is characterized primarily by a progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons nigroestriatais. The main symptoms of this disease are motor alterations (bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor at rest), which can be highly disabling in advanced stages of the condition. However, there are symptomatic manifestations other than motor impairment, such as changes in cognition, mood and sensory systems. Animal models that attempt to mimic clinical features of PD have been used to understand the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying neurophysiological disturbance of this disease. However, most models promote an intense and immediate motor impairment, consistent with advanced stages of the disease, invalidating these studies for the evaluation of its progressive nature. The administration of reserpine (a monoamine depletor) in rodents has been considered an animal model for studying PD. Recently we found that reserpine (in doses lower than those usually employed to produce the motor symptoms) promotes a memory deficit in an aversive discrimination task, without changing the motor activity. It was suggested that the administration of this drug in low doses can be useful for the study of memory deficits found in PD. Corroborating this data, in another study, acute subcutaneous administration of reserpine, while preserving motor function, led to changes in emotional context-related (but not neutral) memory tasks. The goal of this research was to study the cognitive and motor deficits in rats repeatedly treated with low doses of reserpine, as a possible model that simulates the progressive nature of the PD. For this purpose, 5-month-old male Wistar rats were submitted to a repeated treatment with vehicle or different doses of reserpine on alternate days. Cognitive and motor parameters and possible changes in neuronal function were evaluated during treatment. The main findings were: repeated administration of 0.1 mg / kg of reserpine in rats is able to induce the gradual appearance of motor signs compatible with progressive features found in patients with PD; an increase in striatal levels of oxidative stress and changes in the concentrations of glutamate in the striatum were observed five days after the end of treatment; in animals repeatedly-treated with 0. 1 mg/kg, cognitive deficits were observed only after the onset of motor symptoms, but not prior to the onset of these symptoms; 0.2 mg / kg reserpine repeated treatment has jeopardized the cognitive assessment due to the presence of severe motor deficits. Thus, we suggest that the protocol of treatment with reserpine used in this work is a viable alternative for studies of the progressive appearance of parkinsonian signs in rats, especially concerning motor symptoms. As for the cognitive symptoms, we suggest that more studies are needed, possibly using other behavioral models, and / or changing the treatment regimen

Obtenção e caracterização do sistema compósito alginato de sódio-dióxido de titânio em formas de pó e de membrana

The alginates are copolymers of 1→4-linked β-D-mannuronic acid (M) and α-Lguluronic acid (G) residues that are arranjed in a block structure along a linear chain. Titanium dioxide, TiO2, is a ceramic material and can exist in three distinct crystallography forms: anatase, brookite and rutile. composites of organic and inorganic materials have better properties than the components alone. Thus, this study aims to synthesize, characterize and analyze the composite NaAlg-TiO2 in the form of powder and film. The synthesis of composite powders was performed using the sol-gel process and obtain the composite film was performed using the slow evaporation process, then the composites were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence x ray, thermal analysis, attenuated total reflection (ATR), x ray diffraction and impedance spectroscopy. The X ray diffraction patterns of composite powders show that with increasing calcination temperature, there were no complete transition of rutile-anatase crystalline phase, since at all temperatures studied (300, 500, 700, 900 and 1100ºC) were observed peaks of anatase phase. Thermal analysis shows that at 400°C caused the decomposition of sodium alginate in sodium carbonate and above 600°C, we observe an exothermic peak related to the decomposition of sodium carbonate and in the presence of titanium dioxide becomes sodium titanate. The XRD results confirm the formation of sodium carbonate at 700ºC and the formation sodium titanate in the temperature range 900-1100ºC. The sodium titanate influenced the electrical properties of the material, because with increasing temperature there was a decrease in conductivity, probably due to the creation of Ti vacancies, since the sodium can induce the reduction of surface Ti4+ ions into Ti3+ species. The infrared spectra of the composites in the form of powder and film showed a small shift in the bands compared to the spectrum of pure alginate, indicating that these shifts, even small ones, have evidence of miscibility between the polymer and ceramic material

Gestão por Competências em Organizações Públicas: O Processo de Transformação Organizacional e seus Impactos Junto aos Servidores na Secretaria Estadual de Administração e Recursos Humanos (SEARH/RN)

The state has changed over time in order to meet a society with increasingly stringent demands. Techniques of private means begin to be employed in an attempt to overcome the dysfunctions entrenched bureaucracy, making the machine faster. By federal law by the People Management Skills was established as a reference for the administration of Human Resources of the public sector in an attempt to develop professionally servers, based mainly on the three pillars of the model: the knowledge, skills and attitudes. This thesis aims at understanding, in the view of employees, the perceived impacts on the organizational changes occurring in the Department of Administration and Human Resources of the State of Rio Grande do Norte in order to implement a People Management Skills-based. It is a simple case study, characterized by the research during a certain period of time, collecting data in a real environment of an organization, in this case SEARH/RN. The procedures used in collecting data were the literature review, documental research and field research. We used a qualitative approach with exploratory and descriptive approach. Every reform was implemented in the institution and reported from there analyzed the impacts observed by the servers. As a result we observed a considerable advance in institutional activities, mainly relating to physical structure / organizational and human resource policies, with minor advances on labor policies, in much the result of the guiding focus of the reform on SEARH/RN. The impacts in total were more positive than negative and direct paths to improvement in public organizations. Making a general analysis of the modernization program implemented in SEARH/RN, we can conclude that there was a distinct change in all dimensions studied, mostly pointing out positive aspects, and contrary to the opinion of some authors, who claim to be very difficult to implement reforms in public organizations, since they are highly institutionalized environments. What was found was a big organization, with gaps and weaknesses, but with a much larger number of hits and recognition from institutional actors

Aspectos constitucionais da anulação de decisão definitiva da administração pública federal no processo tributário

Cet article traite de la possibilité de proposer le Trésor à la justice pour annuler une décision administrative définitive sur les questions fiscales. Il s'agit d'un sujet qui s'oppose au principe de la vérité matérielle - qui doit prévaloir en cas d'impôt - avec une certitude morale représentée par la chose jugée administrative. Commence par le processus administratif d'impôt comme une garantie constitutionnelle du contribuable, insérée dans le panorama d une compétence adoptée dans la législation brésilienne en tant que pilier de l'Etat de droit démocratique. Met l'accent sur la position du Trésor avant l'autorité de la chose jugée administrative, ce qui démontre la fragilité de La décision finale sur les questions fiscales. Décrit les effets de la révision (ou de l'annulation) dês actes administratifs, en particulier la libération de l'impôt et de la décision administrative qui vise à le confirmer. Enfin, nous discuterons de la composition et la légitimité du contentieux administratif, en conclusion, avec le soutien de la prévalence d'un fait important dans le cãs d'impôt, est non seulement possible, mais le Trésor devrait examiner leurs propres actions si nécessaire

Sustentabilidade e responsabilidade socioambiental: crenças provendo a formação de graduandos em administração

This research aims to focus on the education problem, since its source of development is the Research Base: Teachers Training and Qualification of UFRN. Therefore, we seek guidance in the beliefs in sustainability to propose plausible alternatives to promote the education process of UFRN administration undergraduates in order to meet the demands of a market-oriented society, since the market trend is to evolve from environmental guided activities, and future administrators should be trained to meet those conditions. The need to develop an instrument capable of understanding the beliefs of undergraduates on the sustainability problem becomes the object of analysis. This research aims to develop a normative questionnaire to study administration students beliefs in sustainability. The complexity and sensitivity of this research required the integration of various methodological procedures. These proposals were made as follows: analysis and selection of literature, expert validation procedures and psychometric methods and statistics. As for the literature, types of sustainability were identified and categorized, such as: political, social, economic and environmental sustainability. However, it is understood that the educational type, although included in all of those, needed to be converted into another type to fit the theme, since education is believed to be the best way to raise awareness about sustainability. Thus, it was required the categorization of the types, which was defined using criteria such as: contexts, objectives, goals, pathways and hypotheses. The normative questionnaire was the guiding instrument to investigate the role of administration students, regarding the level of knowledge established and regulated by social educational context, especially by becoming a basic condition for carrying out research on beliefs. The study confirmed that the types of sustainability - political, social, economic, environmental and educational - for having institutionalized literatures as sources, in international and national levels, are representative in the identification of future administrators. Therefore, it is believed that the types of sustainability categorized to provide a characterization of sustainability include the structuring of knowledge for undergraduates. The economic and political types, however, were not as representative with respect to their typicality and polarity indices as the educational, environmental and social ones. Although the beliefs of the undergraduates show how much they share ideas on all types, they present more identification with the educational and environmental types. Finally, it is expected that this instrument be subject to application in similar contexts so that it can ascertain whether such statements are part of the knowledge structure of future administrators from other institutions. Therefore, it is expected this strategy to strengthen the validation of the normative questionnaire