Duas novas espécies de Belostoma Latreille, 1807 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Belostomatidae) do grupo plebejum sensu Nieser, 1975

Representantes do grupo plebejum são encontrados de Honduras até o sul da América do Sul e compreendem sete espécies de pequeno porte. Como resultado de um estudo de revisão do grupo, são descritas duas espécies novas: Belostoma estevezae Ribeiro & Alecrim, sp. nov., do Estado do Mato Grosso, Brasil, similar a B. nicaeum Estévez & Polhemus, 2007, em termos de carena prosternal, e B. nessimiani Ribeiro & Alecrim, sp. nov., do Estado do Amazonas, Brasil, sendo bastante similar a B. parvum Estévez & Polhemus, 2007, em termos de genitália masculina. Uma chave de identificação para as espécies do grupo plebejum com as espécies novas incluídas é fornecida.

História da química e da geologia: Joseph Black e James Hutton como referências para educação em ciências

The second half of eighteenth century is marked by the advancement of chemistry and geology. The first science acquired the law of conservation of mass and this science represented a important support to geology and mineralogy. We say that both became modern science that time. Our aim is to show up some interrelations between history of chemistry and history of geology by means of the study of Joseph Black's and James Hutton's works. We defend that it is positive to science education to understand and approach the relations among different and disciplinary areas of science.

Joseph Neng Shun Kwong: a famous and obscure scientist

Many students and professionals in chemistry and chemical engineering related the name Kwong with one of the most remarkable equations of state with two parameters. In the same way, very few people know who Kowng was. This article shows some of the unknown personal and professional facts of Joseph Neng Shun Kwong, a person who devoted almost four decades of his life to the industrial research in the adhesives industry.

FILOSOFIA DA ARTE E ARTE DE FILOSOFAR. ARTE, LINGUAGEM E RELIGIÃO EM FICHTE E SCHELLING (1807-1812)

RESUMO Este trabalho desenvolve aspectos da controvérsia entre Fichte e Schelling em relação aos elementos estéticos, linguístico-filosóficos e da filosofia da religião de ambos, que é foco das "Investigações sobre a liberdade humana de Schelling", assim como das exposições da doutrina da ciência e da ética do Fichte tardio (1810-1813). As divergências entre Fichte e Schelling não envolvem apenas problemas especulativos, mas sim variadas implicações e consequências dos seus sistemas filosóficos, que podem ser destacadas por uma análise da função da analogia nos dois autores. A analogia é uma figura que agrega a estética, a filosofia da linguagem e a filosofia da religião nos dois autores; ela é um significante que põe o problema do significado, ou seja, põe o problema da relação entre finito e infinito (Schelling) e da relação entre saber absoluto e saber particular (Fichte). Essa relação vai ser investigada a partir de algumas passagens das "Investigações" de Schelling (§2); num segundo momento, será analisada a função do conceito de analogia e de símbolo nesse contexto (§3); e, no final, a diferente compreensão da Igreja como símbolo do absoluto na "Filosofia da arte" de Schelling e na "Doutrina moral" fichtiana de 1798 e 1812 (§4).

Molecular characteristics of Machado-Joseph disease mutation in 25 newly described Brazilian families

Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) is a form of autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia first described in North-American patients originating from the Portuguese islands of the Azores. Clinically this disorder is characterized by late onset progressive ataxia with associated features, such as: ophthalmoplegia, pyramidal and extrapyramidal signs and distal muscular atrophies. The causative mutation is an expansion of a CAG repeat in the coding region of the MJD1 gene. We have identified 25 unrelated families segregating the MJD mutation during a large collaborative study of spinocerebellar ataxias in Brazil. In the present study a total of 62 family members were genotyped for the CAG repeat in the MJD1 gene, as well as 63 non-MJD individuals (126 normal chromosomes), used as normal controls. We observed a wide gap between the size range of the normal and expanded CAG repeats: the normal allele had from 12 to 33 CAGs (mean = 23 CAGs), whereas the expanded alleles ranged from 66 to 78 CAGs (mean = 71.5 CAGs). There were no differences in CAG tract length according to gender of affected individuals or transmitting parent. We observed a significant negative correlation between age at onset of the disease and length of the CAG tract in the expended allele (r = -0.6, P = 0.00006); however, the size of the expanded CAG repeat could explain only about 40% of the variability in age at onset (r2 = 0.4). There was instability of the expanded CAG tract during transmission from parent to offspring, both expansions and contractions were observed; however, there was an overall tendency for expansion, with a mean increase of +2.4 CAGs. The tendency for expansion appeared to the greater in paternal (mean increase of +3.5 CAGs) than in maternal transmissions (mean increase of +1.3 CAGs). Anticipation was observed in all transmissions in which ages at onset for parent and offspring were known; however, anticipation was not always associated with an increase in the expanded CAG repeat length. Our results indicate that the molecular diagnosis of MJD can be confirmed or excluded in all suspected individuals, since alleles of intermediary size were not observed.