Efeitos dos esteroides anabólicos androgênicos sobre funções cognitivas de ratos

The use and the demand for substances that enhance masculinity, strength and sexual power are not novel. Over the years, this search has assisted the research directions in this area, leading to the discovery of the primary male sex hormone testosterone in 1935. Since then, numerous testosterone analogue compounds were synthesized, which are generically called Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS). The AAS were produced for therapeutic purposes, but an increase in the use of these compounds for other purposes occurred over time. Initially they were used mainly to improve performance in athletes. However, recent studies have shown that the use of AAS by non-athletes with aesthetical purposes have been increasing as well. The abuse of AAS with non-clinical purposes can promote a number of physiological alterations, such as heart, liver, respiratory and psychological problems such as changes in mood, levels of anxiety and aggression. Exposure to supraphysiological doses of AAS is associated with behavioral changes, however, little is known about the effects of AAS on cognitive functions. In this work, we aimed to mimic the AAS abuse in humans with intramuscular administration of a supraphysiological dose of testosterone propionate (TP) in rats. We investigated the effects of this treatment on different aspects of cognitive function, specifically learning, memory and anxiety. Adult male Wistar rats were tested in the spontaneous alternation, novel object recognition and plus-maze discriminative avoidance tasks. The control group received intramuscular injections of vegetable oil (vehicle), and the TP group received injections of TP (10 mg/kg, i.m.). The injections were administered for 40 days, with intervals of 48 hours (chronic treatment) or in a single injection (acute treatment). In addition to the behavioral assessments, we performed biochemical analyzes as indicators of the endocrine effects of the treatment. Our results show that chronic treatment with a supraphysiological dose of TP caused memory impairments in the novel object recognition and the discriminative avoidance tasks. The spatial working memory (evaluated by spontaneous alternation task) was not affected. Also, we did not observe changes in anxiety levels. Regarding the biochemical parameters, chronic treatment increased serum levels of glutamicpyruvic transaminase, an indicator of hepatic and pancreatic lesions (as those observed after chronic use of these substances in humans). On the other hand, acute treatment with PT did not promote significant changes in any of these parameters when compared to the control group. In summary, we conclude that chronic treatment with a supraphysiological dose of testosterone propionate produces memory deficits in novel object recognition and retrieval of the discriminative avoidance task in adult male rats

Avaliação do banco de dissertações e teses da associação brasileira de antropologia: uma análise cienciométrica

VITULLO, Nadia Aurora Vanti. Avaliação do banco de dissertações e teses da Associação Brasileira de Antropologia: uma análise cienciométrica. 2001. 143 f. Dissertaçao (Mestrado) - Curso de Mestrado em Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Campinas, 2001.

O processo avaliativo institucional de desempenho do sistema público municipal de Teresina-PI (2001 a 2005): entre a lógica da excelência e a lógica da aprendizagem

This work focalize the institutional and educational evaluation, aiming to investigate the Municipal System Institutional Evaluation Performance of Teresina City Piauí (2001-2005), and to reflect about Institutional System Performance and its contribution to compose a new learning evaluation practice. In this sense, classifies elements about the evaluation practice in two Elementary Education municipal public schools, involving Education Municipal Bureau technicians as managers, pedagogues, teachers and students. Based on the ethnographic studies principles in the educational area, the work employs investigative procedures like document analysis, interviews with groups and individuals and also participator s comments. Intending to comprehend the complexity produced by the institutional and education evaluation processes, the wok reveals the Institutional Evaluation legal and educational political basis and the several positions assumed by the Learning Evaluation, as a classification tool or as a learning enhancement. This work points, as results, to a evaluation culture bipolarity carried out by the Municipal Education System as a explicit control and regulation toll, related to the classification and learning in a interaction process that operates both in the pressure and the reflection, as a culture practice established between excellence of logic and learning. The evaluation history has been construct on the evaluation actions dialectics, joint simultaneously between the Institutional Evaluation Performance and the learning evaluation. The senses, meanings and actions bipolarity is a interaction process product sustained between the institutional evaluation, under the scholar ranking application, and the learning evaluation. In this relativity, the teacher evaluation practice is found, ruled by interesting, thoughts and actions on the school evaluation, allowing a higher security and support to the learning results. Grounded in the researched reality, its possible to say that the teacher s evaluation practice is diversified, with different characteristics, when it is done in the learning search and in the learning intention. In the first case, reflects, rearranges and constructs new actions that lead the student to produce learning. In the second, shows the will, the wish of learning, but is a weak action, producing a not really significant learning and development; as a result, remains the mark approach as a determinant in the student future. The work s hope is to contribute not just to rethink these two evaluations dimensions the institutional and the learning ones but also to organize the school and to improve the pedagogic process

Tear identitário:a prática docente em arte como conhecimento compartilhado

This investigative tissue is about the formation of identification processes of teachers and pedagogical practice of Art, in Teresina city. This search comprised the sum of the needs presented, agreed upon with the teachers engaged in the process, it was developed through the establishment of interactive environment Loom Team where collaboration and critical reflection were steering actions to promote the understanding of existing connections or relations within the processes of identifications and the pedagogical practice of Art. The tissue is formed by the polyphonic plot of the critical reflection of nine teachers of Art who engaged voluntarily and this investigation of formative nature and a production of knowledge. All these teachers have degree and the course of artistic education and especial qualification in Fine Arts and/or Drawing. The texture, which we denominated Identification Loom: The pedagogical practice of Art as share knowledge is (de) (re) construction of knowledge resulting from the critical reflection, in an environment of collaboration, which may have implications and ethical political attitudes in the pedagogical practice of the group. Within this context, we pose the following question: - How does the pedagogical practice in Art influence and/or be influenced by the identification processes of the teachers, and how do they interfere with the search and manifestation of the knowledge involved and the investment in professionalization? In view of this query, we make use of the cooperative investigation, having social history as theoretical reference and as analytic perspective of interactive and dialogical-reflexive processes. Thus, social historic theory, cooperative approach and pedagogical practice were the major components of the plot. The methodological texture counted on the threads of dialogical reflexion, of mediation and of collaboration. The conceptual formulation, the recording in videos of classes and the narratives of formations were the main threads of the analytic substrate of the investigation. With this articulation, theses threads appear as developers of processes leading to a major approximation of the thought on the identity/alterity dialectical pair of the participants involved. The language within this plot had a decisive importance in all the moments of the search of signification, embracing and connecting the identification/alterative processes, the pedagogical practice of Art and the knowledge shared. In such processes involving (de) (re) construction, one can notice a close correlation of the triad social identity, pedagogical practice and knowledge shared. For this reason, the vigotskian, guetmanovian and kopnian theoretizations were the major framework for the analysis of conceptual formulations; and, as for discourse analysis, Baktin and Orlandi were our masters. For these teachers, the experience shared throughout the process of this typology of tri-axial investigation focused the experience of many theoretical and practical assumptions. Such an experience enabled them to state that this, with collaboration, can make reflection on the practice a starting and promoting element, within the individual level of self-management, in addition to being a space of (de)(re)construction of meanings, of knowledge and of reinvention per se

Itinerários e marcas na formação do sujeito formador: reflexões acerca de um caminho na educação matemática

This Study inserts in Mathematical Education & Education that search to investigate the (self) formation of formers that gets graduation e pass to graduate others that get graduation and are formers in Mathematical Education. This Is a qualitative search in a perspective from search-formation.The work is formed of four topics. First topic talks about : The self-formation of formers. Second topic: at way of suppositions theorical-methodological from search. Third topic tells over: The life of a former life. Fouth topic A Station called Ubiratan D´Ambrosio created in his reverence and for build all the Knowledge´s Corpus developed by his studies and searches. It´s in sense of come and go from knowledge created at action by mankind to get finality of Transcendency and Survive. Look for to investigate aspects of academical, professional and personal life where are translated in language, thinking and practices oriented for one know-how holistical and transdiciplined in a reflexion, search and the critical it constitute to be a Professor, Teacher, Searcher and Etnomathematic that confered him the merit in 2005 the Prize Félix Klein, that declared Valente (2007), maximum distinction that can receive someone from Mathematical Education. The results point that the narratives of life´s stories are prominences to one re-direction of teach practical in formation´s courses of Mathematical teachers, opening spaces for what the teachers and particularly of Mathematical thinking and take position about your process of formation to be Formers. The Study also given possibilities to propose fourteen stoppages in Station that are beginnings with direction that emerge from studies and searches about the trajectory of life of Professor Ubiratan D´Ambrosio in perspective of re-signify the formative process in education and Mathematical Education

Impactos da legislação ambiental brasileira na exportação de camarão: um estudo com exportadores de camarão do Rio Grande do Norte

Brazilian exportations come growing in a constant form in the last years, stimulated for the globalization and public politics directed toward the increase of the internal surplus. In this context the objective of this work was to investigate the perception of the shrimp exporting entrepreneurs of Rio Grande do Norte, with relation to the impact of the Brazilian environmental legislation in the companies competitiveness at the external market. From data collected from the controllers of the companies, it was used a survey methodology, with exploratory and descriptive character. The results found in this study indicate that the companies, in general way, understand that the environmental legal requirements do not confuse nor help in the search and conquest of new international markets. A little more of the half of the researched companies, does not see the legislation rigid as important factor of competitiveness. However a sufficiently significant percentage, already has a more strategical vision on the subject, or at least already it heard to speak on such possibility

Algoritmo Q-learning como estratégia de exploração e/ou explotação para metaheurísticas GRASP e algoritmo genético

Techniques of optimization known as metaheuristics have achieved success in the resolution of many problems classified as NP-Hard. These methods use non deterministic approaches that reach very good solutions which, however, don t guarantee the determination of the global optimum. Beyond the inherent difficulties related to the complexity that characterizes the optimization problems, the metaheuristics still face the dilemma of xploration/exploitation, which consists of choosing between a greedy search and a wider exploration of the solution space. A way to guide such algorithms during the searching of better solutions is supplying them with more knowledge of the problem through the use of a intelligent agent, able to recognize promising regions and also identify when they should diversify the direction of the search. This way, this work proposes the use of Reinforcement Learning technique - Q-learning Algorithm - as exploration/exploitation strategy for the metaheuristics GRASP (Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure) and Genetic Algorithm. The GRASP metaheuristic uses Q-learning instead of the traditional greedy-random algorithm in the construction phase. This replacement has the purpose of improving the quality of the initial solutions that are used in the local search phase of the GRASP, and also provides for the metaheuristic an adaptive memory mechanism that allows the reuse of good previous decisions and also avoids the repetition of bad decisions. In the Genetic Algorithm, the Q-learning algorithm was used to generate an initial population of high fitness, and after a determined number of generations, where the rate of diversity of the population is less than a certain limit L, it also was applied to supply one of the parents to be used in the genetic crossover operator. Another significant change in the hybrid genetic algorithm is the proposal of a mutually interactive cooperation process between the genetic operators and the Q-learning algorithm. In this interactive/cooperative process, the Q-learning algorithm receives an additional update in the matrix of Q-values based on the current best solution of the Genetic Algorithm. The computational experiments presented in this thesis compares the results obtained with the implementation of traditional versions of GRASP metaheuristic and Genetic Algorithm, with those obtained using the proposed hybrid methods. Both algorithms had been applied successfully to the symmetrical Traveling Salesman Problem, which was modeled as a Markov decision process

Separação cega de fontes lineares e não lineares usando algoritmo genético, redes neurais artificiais RBF e negentropia de Rényi como medida de independência

Conventional methods to solve the problem of blind source separation nonlinear, in general, using series of restrictions to obtain the solution, often leading to an imperfect separation of the original sources and high computational cost. In this paper, we propose an alternative measure of independence based on information theory and uses the tools of artificial intelligence to solve problems of blind source separation linear and nonlinear later. In the linear model applies genetic algorithms and Rényi of negentropy as a measure of independence to find a separation matrix from linear mixtures of signals using linear form of waves, audio and images. A comparison with two types of algorithms for Independent Component Analysis widespread in the literature. Subsequently, we use the same measure of independence, as the cost function in the genetic algorithm to recover source signals were mixed by nonlinear functions from an artificial neural network of radial base type. Genetic algorithms are powerful tools for global search, and therefore well suited for use in problems of blind source separation. Tests and analysis are through computer simulations

Monitoramento por dgps e análise dos processos erosivos da linha de costa na praia de Pirangi do Norte - Parnamirim / RN

Through out the course of a steady increase in search and recovery of space in the coastal zone, there is also an expanding concern about the erosion processes of this area. The main problem in coastal areas is that urbanization occurs in a disorderly fashion and unsustainable, further aggravating the problems of coastal dynamics. The study area of this work is located on the southern coast of Pirangi do Norte beach to about 20km south of Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte in the Parnamirim City. This area has the length of approximately 1km, divided into three sections (Western, Central and Eastern) with a morphology consisting of a tableland at the top, sea cliffs in the West and Central parts and sand dunes in the Eastern section, both vegetated, and a coastal plain on the inferior part associated with the presence of beach rocks. This study aimed to analyze the erosion processes operating in the excerpt of Pirangi do Norte beach and assess the feasibility of their monitoring making use of DGPS (Global Positioning System Differential mode). During the work it was carried out a physical description of the area through photo-interpretation and site survey after measurement of the shoreline in the period between November 2004 and November 2009 and beach profiles between August 2005 and July 2006. The analysis of the results of the annual surveys showed the occurrence of variations of the shoreline along the stretch traveled. Sites are identified in advancement coast from the sea and it was verified in loco the presence of erosion with deposition of materials on the lower part of the coastal bluff, the former position of the shoreline, showing a false notion of advancing it. This leads to the conclusion that the data collected in a survey of the shoreline should always be accompanied by photographic records of the local area and with the highest rate of erosion, thus avoiding the mistake of treating the deposit materials as evidence of progress coast. At the end of the study, after a review of various works to mitigate the erosion in the coastal zone, it is recommended to the area of study the adoption of an artificial feeding of the beach, aiming the minimization of the erosive effects of the tides. Moreover, it is suggested that even the continuity of monitoring, maintenance of existing vegetation and control of the occupation on the edge of sea cliffs

Elaboração de uma sequência didática sobre os conceitos geométricos preliminares ao estudo da trigonometria

This study is qualitative, including literature search and preparation of teaching materials. Your goal is to report the study of geometric problems of character presented in the application of trigonometry and work on the preparation of detailed activities that help in overcoming these difficulties. For this, we read some papers on teaching and learning of trigonometry in order to identify the difficulties encountered during their journey. Then separate the geometric difficulties of character and prepare a list of geometric content and procedures associated with them. Thus, we can organize a notebook with activities that would address most of these concepts. Finally we present the specification of activities called Activity on introductory concepts to the study of trigonometry

Formatividade e interpretação: a filosofia estética de Luigi Pareyson

The concept of formativity, coined by Luigi Pareyson, is a key to the development of countless contemporary aesthetic studies. The aim of this dissertation is to present a deep understanding of the notion of Formativity and Interpretation, as evidenciated by the title Formativity and Interpretation: the aesthetical philosophy of Luigi Pareyson. The work Aesthetics - Theory of Formativity, first published in 1954, is considered a mark in the rebirth of aesthetics. In this dissertation, the concept of Formativity is examined as a component applicable to every human action, and not limited to pre-determined practices, nor referred to the application of preexisting. I ve performed an investigation of the triple concept of doing-inventing-interpreting, which simultaneously grounds Formativity. In the first section, Pareyson s Aesthetical Propaedeutic is presented; in the second, the Theory of Formativity: the aesthetical character of the whole human experience is analysed; and in the third chapter, The Aesthetical of Form and the Metaphysics of Figuration is related to the formativity character of the knowledge. Through this analysis, I ve intended to evidence how human operability can be understood as search and trial, figuration and invention, in the search for success. In this sense, this thesis seeks to present an interpretation of the idea of work-form, speculating the inexorability of invention and interpretation in an attempt to establish a new bottom line for the studies Pareyson s Aesthetics in Brazil

Edentulismo funcional e seus fatores de risco em adultos

The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors to the functional edentulism in adults aged 35 a 44 years old of Natal-RN, 278 adults took part in the study. They were all selected from a previous dental loss prevalence study thus being complemented by an active research. The study was a case-control based and data collection was made though a survey as well as with a clinical examination. The cases were identified through individuals with 20 or more teeth. Age and gender were used as variables of pairing off. The data was analyzed through chi-square, significant level of 95% to the checking of its force associations. The independent variables were grouped in three levels. The first one, more macro, is related to the region where the individual lives, which was also related to the second level, the family-based one, linked with a third level, at this low socio-economical level, where the domiciliary density was favorable, living in capital cities, regions with prime sanitary condicitions, with predominant possibility of accessing the public dental service, but in despite of this, only looking for this service when tooth ache is felt, where preferentially an aid dressing treatment is executed in detriment of preventive procedures. From all the samples, less than 25% of the individuals make use of tobacco and alcoholic beverages for quite a number of years. There was an association of functional edentulism with all the studied variables in a regional method. In the family-based with Critério Brasil (OR=4,45) and monthly wages (OR=9,62) and to an to an individual level, the associations took place with the current use of kind of attendance (OR=1,78), looks for dressing treatment (OR=2,51), does not look for preventive treatment (OR=3,31), pain as the main cause of demand (OR=1,92), previous treatment as the demanding reason for dental service (OR+0,28), interval of the last visit to the dental service (OR=1,35) and when advise was received (OR=1,66). It was noticed from the results that the functional edentulism is much more expressive in those families which live in environments with precarious social economical sanitary conditions. Such conditions seem to have a direct influence upon the family social economical conditions which are also shown in detriment to functional edentulism. In the same way, the collection of variants influence the social economical conditions of the individual, as well as the kind of dental service searched by them, the reason of the search and the interval of the last visit to the dental service were strong determiners to the functional edentulism. Beyond that, individual habits like the use of tobacco and its frequency on its previous use influenced in a significant way the existence of functional edentulism in the studied population

Estrutura da Comunidade de Lagartos de um remanescente de mata atlântica do Estado do Rio Grande Do Norte, Brasil.

As part of a broader project, Diversity and Distribution Patterns of Floristic and Faunistic composition of remnants of Potiguar s Atlantic Forest, as subsidies to conservation , that subsidizes a group of institutional research, This study aimed to evaluate the structure of the assemblage of lizards a remnant of the of the northern Atlantic Forest, identifying ecological factor (s) that contribute to the coexistence of sympatric species. Additionally, we studied the thermal ecology and thermoregulatory behavior of umbrophily and heliophily species live the Parque Estadual Mata da Pipa (PEMP), a remnant of Atlantic forest located in the Tibau do Sul municipality of, Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil. It is one of the largest remnants of the Atlantic Forest and has an area of approximately 290 ha. The study was performed by four excursions to the field for 20 days each, when active search and pitfalls traps were used to record and colleted specimens in different habitats of the area. We recorded the presence of 19 species of lizards, of which seven are typical of forest areas, three are endemic Atlantic Forest, these two northern and one are new record for the Rio Grande do Norte. The use of resources, the results showed that phylogenetically related species do not always use a similar way the resources available; the feeding niche was the segregated component of the species that overlapped extensively in the use of space and vice versa. To examine the thermal ecology and thermoregulatory behavior of Kentropyx calcarata and Coleodactylus natalensis, we recorded the clocal temperature (Tc), oh the substrate (Ts) and of the air (Ta) to investigate what of these are the source of heat more important to the temperature s body of these lizards. Behavioral observations were conducted to analyze strategies to optimize the acquisition of heat. The air temperature explained most strongly to variation in body temperature of K. calcarata, while the temperature of the substrate to C. natalensis. As for the behavioral observations, they confirmed that K. calcarata is an active thermoregulatory; C. natalensis is a passive thermoregulatory.

Efeitos do tratamento com lítio na memória aversiva, comportamentos relacionados à ansiedade e depressão e na expressão de BDNF em ratos

Lithium (Li) is the first choice to treat bipolar disorder, a psychiatric illness characterized by mood oscillations between mania and depression. However, studies have demonstrated that this drug might influence mnemonic process due to its neuroprotector, antiapoptotic and neurogenic effects. The use of Li in the treatment of cognitive deficits caused by brain injury or neurodegenerative disorders have been widely studied, and this drug shows to be effective in preventing or even alleviating the memory impairment. The effects of Li on anxiety and depression are controversial and the relationship of the effects of lithium on memory, anxiety and depression remain unknown. In this context, this study aims to: evaluate the effects of acute and chronic administration of lithium carbonate in aversive memory and anxiety, simultaneously, using the plus maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT); test the antidepressant effect of the drug through the forced swimming test (FS) and analyze brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in structures related to memory and emotion. To evaluation of the acute effects, male Wistar rats were submitted to i.p. administration of lithium carbonate (50, 100 or 200 mg/kg) one hour before the training session (PMDAT) or lithium carbonate (50 or 100 mg/kg) one hour before the test session (FS). To evaluation of the chronic effects, the doses administered were 50 or 100 mg/kg or vehicle once a day for 21 days before the beginning of behavioral tasks (PMDAT and FS). Afterwards, the animals were euthanized and their brains removed and submitted to immunohistochemistry procedure to quantify BDNF. The animals that received acute treatment with 100 and 200 mg/kg of Li did not discriminated between the enclosed arms (aversive and non-aversive) in the training session of PMDAT, showing that these animal did not learned the task. This lack of discrimination was also observed in the test session, showing that the animals did not recall the aversive task. We also observed an increased exploration of the open arms of these same groups, indicating an anxiolytic effect. The same groups showed a reduction of locomotor activity, however, this effect does not seem to be related with the anxiolytic effect of the drug. Chronic treatment with Li did not promote alterations on learning or memory processes. Nevertheless, we observed a reduction of open arms exploration by animals treated with 50 mg/kg when compared to the other groups, showing an anxiogenic effect caused by this dose. This effect it is not related to locomotor alterations since there were no alterations in these parameters. Both acute and chronic treatment were ineffective in the FS. Chronic treatment with lithium was not able to modify BDNF expression in hippocampus, amygdala and pre-frontal cortex. These results suggest that acute administration of lithium promote impairments on learning in an aversive task, blocking the occurrence of memory consolidation and retrieval. The reduction of anxiety following acute treatment may have prevented the learning of the aversive task, as it has been found that optimum levels of anxiety are necessary for the occurrence of learning with emotional context. With continued, treatment the animals recover the ability to learn and recall the task. Indeed, they do not show differences in relation to control group, and the lack of alterations on BDNF expression corroborates this result. Possibly, the regimen of treatment used was not able to promote cognitive improvement. Li showed acute anxiolytic effect, however chronic administration 4 promoted the opposite effect. More studies are necessary to clarify the potential beneficial effect of Li on aversive memory

Comportamento de mergulho do boto-cinza, Sotalia guianensis, na enseada do Curral, Praia de Pipa-RN, Brasil :possíveis adaptações cardíacas ao mergulho

The marine tucuxi, Sotalia guianensis, is one of the smallest known cetaceans, has coastal habits, and occurs from Hondures to Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. The objective of this dissertation was to describe diving behavior of the marine tucuxi in three age classes and to analyze the cardiac capacity to dive through the examination of hearts of stranded specimens. Observations were made from October 2004 to November 2005 from a vantage point, in Curral Bay at Pipa beach-RN. We used Ad Libitum sampling and All occurrences to record the behaviors. The diving was characterized by the total exposition of the tail fluke for a few seconds, in 90° or 45° angles. Were recorded 131 dives in three behavioral contexts: foraging, traveling and socialization. The difference between juveniles and adults in dive time and fluke out at 45° or 90° to search and/or capture prey is probably influenced by the strategy used and ability to capture the prey. The frequency of fluke out at 90° for foraging in adults may be related to increased physiological efficiency of adults in comparison to juveniles. However, in the context of travel and socialization the dive time and fluke out were independent between the age classes. Dive in calves were frequent during socialization (play behavior) and traveling. This, associated with synchronic calve-adult diving suggests that a relationship of these behaviors and the acquisition of experience and foraging skills. As observed in other cetaceans, the heart (n=12) of the estuarine dolphin is broad and presents long ventricles which form a round apex. The right ventricle is long and narrow. The degree of dilatation of the aortic bulb may support the heart during diastole. The characteristic morphology of the heart and short dive duration < 2 min and depth ranged from 10m in the estuarine dolphin, can be likely at physiological adaptation for diving, typical de dolphins with coastal habits. The limitation of diving time in this specie may be influenced by anatomical and physiological restrictions