Geografia do poder em goffman: vigilância e resistência, dominação e produção de subjetividade no hospital psiquiátrico

Neste artigo, estamos procurando recuperar alguns estudos de Goffman, lidos a partir das discussões atuais da análise institucional, das contribuições de Michel Foucault relativas à microfísica do poder e das investigações de alguns pesquisadores quanto à produção de subjetividade nas instituições de Saúde Coletiva. Goffman, apesar de não estar munido dos recursos teóricos de tais pesquisadores, já era capaz de explicitar em suas análises muito mais do que provavelmente imaginava articular. Acreditamos que Goffman já produz acuradas cartografias do dispositivo manicomial, descrevendo toda uma geografia do poder na instituição total, atento aos detalhes da rotina cotidiana. Suas investigações da dimensão intrainstitucional desses dispositivos continuam atuais e eficazes para a compreensão da produção da subjetividade no contexto institucional. Também encontramos muitas ressonâncias notáveis entre Goffman e Foucault.

Rhamnolipid surfactants: An update on the general aspects of these remarkable biomolecules

Pseudomonas strains are able to biosynthesize rhamnose-containing surfactants also known as rhamnolipids. These surface-active compounds are reviewed with respect to chemical structure, properties, biosynthesis, and physiological role, focusing on their production and the use of low-cost substrates such as wastes from food industries as alternative carbon sources. The use of inexpensive raw materials such as agroindustrial wastes is an attractive strategy to reduce the production costs associated with biosurfactant production and, at same time, contribute to the reduction of environmental impact generated by the discard of residues, and the treatment costs. Carbohydrate-rich substrates generated low rhamnolipid levels, whereas oils and lipid-rich wastes have shown excellent potential as alternative carbon sources.

The complete genome sequence of Chromobacterium violaceum reveals remarkable and exploitable bacterial adaptability

Chromobacterium violaceum is one of millions of species of free-living microorganisms that populate the soil and water in the extant areas of tropical biodiversity around the world. Its complete genome sequence reveals (i) extensive alternative pathways for energy generation, (ii) ≈500 ORFs for transport-related proteins, (iii) complex and extensive systems for stress adaptation and motility, and (iv) wide-spread utilization of quorum sensing for control of inducible systems, all of which underpin the versatility and adaptability of the organism. The genome also contains extensive but incomplete arrays of ORFs coding for proteins associated with mammalian pathogenicity, possibly involved in the occasional but often fatal cases of human C. violaceum infection. There is, in addition, a series of previously unknown but important enzymes and secondary metabolites including paraquat-inducible proteins, drug and heavy-metal-resistance proteins, multiple chitinases, and proteins for the detoxification of xenobiotics that may have biotechnological applications.

Structural and functional studies with mytoxin II from Bothrops moojeni reveal remarkable similarities and differences compared to other catalytically inactive phospholipases A2-like

Lys49-phospholipases A2 (Lys49-PLA2s) are proteins found in bothropic snake venoms (Viperidae family) and belong to a class of proteins which presents a phospholipase A2 scaffold but are catalytically inactive. These proteins (also known as PLA2s-like toxins) exert a pronounced local myotoxic effect and are not neutralized by antivenom, being their study relevant in terms of medical and scientific interest. Despite of the several studies reported in the literature for this class of proteins only a partial consensus has been achieved concerning their functional-structural relationships. In this work, we present a comprehensive structural and functional study with the MjTX-II, a dimeric Lys49-PLA2 from Bothrops moojeni venom which includes: (i) high-resolution crystal structure; (ii) dynamic light scattering and bioinformatics studies in order to confirm its biological assembly; (iii) myographic and electrophysiological studies and, (iv) comparative studies with other Lys49-PLA2s. These comparative analyses let us to get important insights into the role of Lys122 amino acid, previously indicated as responsible for Lys49-PLA2s catalytic inactivity and added important elements to establish the correct biological assembly for this class of proteins. Furthermore, we show two unique sequential features of MjTX-II (an amino acid insertion and a mutation) in comparison to all bothropic Lys49-PLA2s that lead to a distinct way of ligand binding at the toxin's hydrophobic channel and also, allowed the presence of an additional ligand molecule in this region. These facts suggest a possible particular mode of binding for long-chain ligands that interacts with MjTX-II hydrophobic channel, a feature that may directly affect the design of structure-based ligands for Lys49-PLA2s. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Microsatellite Organization in the Grasshopper Abracris flavolineata (Orthoptera: Acrididae) Revealed by FISH Mapping: Remarkable Spreading in the A and B Chromosomes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Finitude, aging and subjectivity

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship of man with death and its deployment in subjectivity and in aging. With this intent, we first present a brief history of the vision of death over time and after an analysis of the process of aging and dying according to the logic of biopolitical management. With death and old age increasingly distant from the horizons of life, subjectivity has been weakened. Thus, incorporating these aspects as part of existence constitutes one of the challenges to the thought as well as to the building of the self.

Errâncias e itinerâncias de uma pesquisa avaliativa em saúde: a construção de uma metodologia participativa

The study presents the construction process of research methodology "Training in SUS Humanization: effects evaluation of training processes from institutional supporters on health productionin Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo territories." There was a search for developing an appropriate evaluative practice to the training processes, a methodology that instead of evaluating on something, assessed along with the supporters who attended the training-intervention, a participatory methodology.Therefore, the constitution of the Research Interest Group was an eminent tool. Trained supporters comprised the research team to expand participatory possibilities of a large and dispersed group, producing interferences in the investigative process conduction, described and analyzed in the study.At the same time, their experiences interfered in the understandings they had until then about the intervention-training experiences and effects on their daily lives, after almost four years.Thus, the methodological approach was intrinsically linked to the construction of a subjectivity differentiated plan and necessarily collective, which shifted the position of supporters involved from mere data suppliers to a lateralityposition in relation to other actors.The trial afforded by participatory strategies allowed researchers and supporters to interfere and compose the evaluation scenario with remarkable performances throughout the investigative process.The survey configuration was like a bet on a given methodological architecture that, in seeking to overcome evaluator-evaluated logic produced information for (retro) feedingthe intervention triggered by it. In the formative dimension, it also went through working processes analyzed by supporters rescuing the indissoluble characteristic that health activities mobilize among intervening, training and reviewing.