Triple-aspect monism: Physiological, mental unconscious and conscious aspects of brain activity

Brain activity contains three fundamental aspects: (a) The physiological aspect, covering all kinds of processes that involve matter and/or energy; (b) the mental unconscious aspect, consisting of dynamical patterns (i.e., frequency, amplitude and phase-modulated waves) embodied in neural activity. These patterns are variously operated (transmitted, stored, combined, matched, amplified, erased, etc), forming cognitive and emotional unconscious processes and (c) the mental conscious aspect, consisting of feelings experienced in the first-person perspective and cognitive functions grounded in feelings, as memory formation, selection of the focus of attention, voluntary behavior, aesthetical appraisal and ethical judgment. Triple-aspect monism (TAM) is a philosophical theory that provides a model of the relation of the three aspects. Spatially distributed neuronal dendritic potentials generate amplitude-modulated waveforms transmitted to the extracellular medium and adjacent astrocytes, prompting the formation of large waves in the astrocyte network, which are claimed to both integrate distributed information and instantiate feelings. According to the valence of the feeling, the large wave feeds back on neuronal synapses, modulating (reinforcing or depressing) cognitive and behavioral functions.

Inflammatory bowel disease: an overview of immune mechanisms and biological treatments

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

The shadows of a ghost: a survey of canine leishmaniasis in Presidente Prudente and its spatial dispersion in the western region of São Paulo state, an emerging focus of visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil

Visceral leishmaniasis is an emerging zoonosis and its geographic distribution is restricted to tropical and temperate regions. Most of the individuals infected in Latin America are in Brazil. Despite the control measures that have been adopted, the disease is spreading throughout new regions of the country. Domestic dogs are involved in the transmission cycle and are considered to be the main epidemiologic reservoir of Leishmania infantum (syn. L. chagasi). Our aim was to determine the prevalence of canine leishmaniasis (CL) and Ehrlichiosis infection in Presidente Prudente as well as the spatial dispersion of the disease in the western region of São Paulo state. Dogs underwent clinical examination and symptoms related to CL were recorded. Anti- Leishmania antibodies were detected using ELISA, rK39-immunocromatographic tests (DPP), and an indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT). Anti-E. canis antibodies were detected by IFAT. A follow-up was conducted in dogs that were positive in the ELISA at the baseline study. Data on the spatial distribution of L. longipalpis and CL in São Paulo state were obtained from Brazilian public health agencies. Serum samples from 4547 dogs were analyzed. The seroprevalence of CL was 11.2 % by ELISA and 4.5 % by IFAT. In the follow-up, seroprevalence was 32.9 % by ELISA, 15.3 % by IFAT, 11.8 % by DPP test, and 66.5 % for E. canis. There was a significant positive association between Leishmania and E. canis infection (P < 0.0001). In the follow-up, clinical examinations revealed symptoms compatible with CL in 33.5 % of the dogs. L. longipalpis was found in 24 and CL in 15 counties of the Presidente Prudente mesoregion. The dispersion route followed the west frontier of São Paulo state toward Paraná state. Low CL and high ehrlichiosis prevalence rates were found in Presidente Prudente city. This emerging focus of CL is moving through the western region of São Paulo state toward the border of Paraná state. Integrated actions to fight the vector, parasites, infected dogs, and humans are needed to monitor the disease and implement strategies for epidemiologic control.

Considerações sobre analgesia controlada pelo paciente (PCA) em hospital universitário

Pós-graduação em Anestesiologia - FMB

O corpo e a escola: um estudo sobre políticas de subjetivação na sociedade contemporânea

Pós-graduação em Educação - IBRC

A excursão artística Villa-Lobos pelo interior do Estado de São Paulo em 1931

Pós-graduação em Música - IA

A Intervenção reflexiva como instrumento de formação continuada do educador: um estudo em classe especial

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

Impacto social do transplante cardíaco

Pós-graduação em Serviço Social - FCHS

Controle motor em pacientes com doença de Parkinson: terapia do espelho, foco de atenção e tarefa dupla

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Transtorno do desenvolvimento da coordenação: efeito do foco de atenção em tarefa bimanual

Pós-graduação em Desenvolvimento Humano e Tecnologias - IBRC

Inner satellites of Neptune: I the disturbing function

In this work, we focus our attention to the expansion of the disturbing function (R) which governs the dynamics of a satellite (natural or artificial) in the Neptune-Triton system. What makes this problem quite unusual, is the fact that a small inner satellite can be strongly disturbed by Triton which is moving in a highly inclined and retrograde orbit. These features are unique in our solar system. Although a lot of retrograde satellites are currently known, all of them have negligible mass and the), do not offer almost any perturbation on the others satellites. However, in the case of the inner satellites of Neptune, Triton is an interesting exception. In a highly inclined orbit, the perturbation it exerts on the neighbouring satellites of Neptune cannot be ignored even for the present scenario. However, in the future, this perturbation will be much more important because due to the tides, the orbit of Triton is contracting, whereas the semi major axes of the remaining inner satellites of Neptune will remain almost unaffected by the tides. In this work we first obtain the disturbing function in the retrograde case. After that, we generalize R for arbitrary inclination. Several numerical tests are presented and a possible future case of resonant configuration is briefly discussed as well. (c) 2005 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Single production of leptoquarks at the Fermilab Tevatron

We study single production of first generation leptoquarks in association with e± at the Fermilab Tevatron. We focus our attention on final states exhibiting an e+e- pair and jets, and perform a detailed analysis of the signal and background. The single leptoquark production cross section depends on the leptoquark Yukawa coupling to lepton-quark pairs and we show that the study of this mode can extend considerably the leptoquark search for a large range of these couplings. In fact, for Yukawa couplings of electromagnetic strength, the combined results of the Tevatron experiments can exclude the existence of leptoquarks with masses up to 260-285 (370-425) GeV at the run I (run II), depending on their type. ©2000 The American Physical Society.

Monotonicity and asymptotics of zeros of Laguerre-Sobolev-type orthogonal polynomials of higher order derivatives

In this paper we analyze the location of the zeros of polynomials orthogonal with respect to the inner product where α >-1, N ≥ 0, and j ∈ N. In particular, we focus our attention on their interlacing properties with respect to the zeros of Laguerre polynomials as well as on the monotonicity of each individual zero in terms of the mass N. Finally, we give necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of N in order for the least zero of any Laguerre-Sobolev-type orthogonal polynomial to be negative. © 2011 American Mathematical Society.

Nonmesonic weak decay dynamics from proton spectra of Lambda-hypernuclei

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