Estudo da utilização de medidas não-oficiais em uma comunidade de vocação rural

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Estudo sobre as unidades de medidas das grandezas físicas básicas: comprimento, massa e tempo

Measurement units are used almost automatically nowadays, but few people know the origin of the units of length (meter), mass (kilogram) and time (second). And do not care to know what were anciently units of which our ancestors used, the difficulties that existed to make a set of measures. The aim of this work is to make a historical approach, through various units of measure. They are old, unusual to others that have been forgotten since the standardization of meters, and is also discussed about the metric system Englih (Once and foot), AV system (eg pound grain) that are still used in some countries like United States and England, the Troy system consisting of units of measure for precious stones and metals (eg gold and diamond) are also cited some physical concepts as reference: inertial, non-inertial; mass: gravity, relativistic, inertial

The effects of environmental enrichment on biochemical and metric parameters of aged rats

The enriched environment (EE) is a promoter of physical activity, by its characteristics such as ample room for movement and exploration, presence of wheels, tunnels and toys. The maintenance of animals in enriched environment can bring a range of benefits, but the majority of the researches investigate cognitive parameters and changes related to the nervous system. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of the maintenance of aged rats in enriched cages on biochemical and metric parameters. Wistar rats were randomly distributed (n=6) into two groups during 6 weeks: control (C) in a conventional cage and enriched environment (EE). The body mass were recorded weekly and the body length at the end of the study. After euthanasia, blood was collected for analysis of glucose, triglycerides and the brain was collected for analysis of mass. The EE group had higher brain mass and lower gain of body weight compared to control group. The control group animals had normal values of blood glucose and triglyceride levels, and the maintenance in an EE did not promote changes in these parameters. Therefore, it can be concluded that the EE group increases brain mass and reduces the gain of body weight without changing the blood glucose and triglycerides in aged animals.