Media Education and Brazilian Educational Policies for the Enhancement of Learning

As media education concepts and practices have been disseminated and strengthened in European countries and Americas, the policies responsible for that expansion remain little known, particularly in countries where the achievements have been recently noted. That is the case for Brazil, where there have been new opportunities for media education, considered as a valuable resource to help accomplish goals of the educational system. This paper looks into the contribution of media education to the enhancement of teaching and learning in the context of innovations brought by recent policies of the Brazilian Ministry of Education. After educational reform programmes which brought the opportunity for emerging fields such as media education, we produced teaching material and conducted a series of workshops with students and teachers from state secondary schools. By reading and producing multimedia information about local public services available to young people, pupils learned about democracy, citizenship, civic engagement, media language, and identity. Lessons from our experiment are discussed against the backdrop of education policies being implemented to ameliorate harsh conditions resulting from the recent economic crisis. We suggest that media education can help by creating a learning environment in which the students become aware of the value of educational attainments.

Early and current physical activity: relationship with intima-media thickness and metabolic variables in adulthood

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

Public Speaking in Social Phobia: A Pilot Study of Self-Ratings and Observers' Ratings of Social Skills

Objectives: The aim of this pilot study was to investigate whether patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) differ from controls in the quality of skill-related behaviors displayed during a speech and in overall behavioral adequacy as perceived by observers and by the patients themselves. Design: A total of 18 SAD patients and 18 controls were screened by a diagnostic interview and took part in a 3-minute speech of their own choosing. For each videotaped speech, observers rated the adequacy of the skill-related behaviors and overall performance adequacy. After the experiment, participants were asked to rate their own overall performance adequacy. Results: The results showed that SAD patients exhibited significantly worse voice intonation and fluency of the speech, however no differences were found in global self-ratings. Moreover, the performance evaluations of the SAD group were consistent with the observers, while the controls evaluated their performance lower than the observers. Conclusions: The results are inconsistent with the cognitive model, because patients with SAD did not underestimate their performance. Compared with spontaneous interactions, the clear rules established for such social situations as speeches may result in less cognitive distortion for SAD patients. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Clin. Psychol. 68:397-402, 2012.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid Combined with Physical Activity Reduces Body Fat Accumulation But Does Not Modify Lean Body Mass in Male and Female Wistar Rats

Several biological and clinical studies have suggested that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) prevents body fat accumulation and increases lean body mass. CLA is available as a concentrated dietary supplement and is purported to provide the aforementioned benefits for people who perform physical activity. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of a CLA-supplemented diet combined with physical activity on the body composition of Wistar rats. Two groups of Wistar rats of both sexes, between 45 and 60 days old, were fed a diet containing 5.5% soybean oil (control group) or a CLA-supplemented diet (0.5% CLA and 5.0% soybean oil) (test group). Half the rats in both groups were assigned to exercise by running on a treadmill. The biochemical and anatomical body compositions were analyzed. In both groups, CLA had no effect on the dietary consumption or the weight of the liver, heart, and lungs. However, it did influence the overall weight gain of exercised male rats and the chemical and anatomical body composition in exercised and sedentary rats of both sexes. The results confirm that a CLA-supplemented diet with and without physical activity reduced body fat accumulation in rats of both sexes. However, there is no evidence of an increase in the lean body mass of the exercised rats.

Effects of excess body mass on strength and fatigability of quadriceps in postmenopausal women

Objective: Obesity is a major public health problem leading to, among other things, reduced functional capacity. Moreover, obesity-related declines in functional capacity may be compounded by the detrimental consequences of menopause. The aim of this study was to understand the potential effects of excess body mass on measures of functional capacity in postmenopausal women. Methods: Forty-five postmenopausal women aged 50 to 60 years were divided into two groups according to body mass index (BMI): obese (BMI, >= 30 kg/m(2); n = 19) and nonobese (BMI, 18.5-29.9 kg/m(2); n = 26). To determine clinical characteristics, body composition, bone mineral density, and maximal exercise testing was performed, and a 3-day dietary record was estimated. To assess quadriceps function, isokinetic exercise testing at 60 degrees per second (quadriceps strength) and at 300 degrees per second (quadriceps fatigue) was performed. Results: The absolute value of the peak torque was not significantly different between the groups; however, when the data were normalized by body mass and lean mass, significantly lower values were observed for obese women compared with those in the nonobese group (128% +/- 25% vs 155% +/- 24% and 224% +/- 38% vs 257% +/- 47%, P < 0.05). The fatigue index did not show any significant difference for either group; however, when the data were normalized by the body mass and lean mass, significantly lower values were observed for obese women (69% +/- 16% vs 93% +/- 18% and 120% +/- 25% vs. 135% +/- 23%, P < 0.01). Conclusions: Our results show that despite reduced muscle force, the combination of obesity and postmenopause may be associated with greater resistance to muscle fatigue.

Discrimination of media moments and media intervals: sticker-based watch-and-comment annotation

In this paper we discuss the problem of how to discriminate moments of interest on videos or live broadcast shows. The primary contribution is a system which allows users to personalize their programs with previously created media stickers-pieces of content that may be temporarily attached to the original video. We present the system's architecture and implementation, which offer users operators to transparently annotate videos while watching them. We offered a soccer fan the opportunity to add stickers to the video while watching a live match: the user reported both enjoying and being comfortable using the stickers during the match-relevant results even though the experience was not fully representative.

The quest for unnecessary symbolism across the media - analysis and possible solutions

Lo scopo della presente ricerca è sottolineare la tendenza alla ossessiva e spesso superflua ricerca del simbolismo nell’analisi di opere, specificatamente testi letterari e film, e proporre una possibile soluzione per porre fine o almeno diminuire gli effetti del fenomeno. A partire da una definizione esaustiva della parola simbolo, l’analisi verterà sull’evoluzione del concetto di simbolismo attraverso i media, e il cambiamento intrinseco causato da tale evoluzione. In seguito, analizzerò un semisconosciuto ma emblematico sondaggio, condotto nel 1973 da Bruce McAllister, all’epoca studente, che interrogò acutamente numerosi autori riguardo al loro rapporto con il simbolismo, ponendo l’accento su alcune delle risposte da lui ricevute, che gettano una luce rivelatrice sul symbol hunting e symbol planting. Dopodiché scenderò ancor più nel dettaglio, esemplificando con due storie brevi: Signs and Symbols (Segni e Simboli), di Vladimir Nabokov e Big Two-hearted River (Grande fiume a due cuori) di Hernest Hemingway. Dopodiché, analizzerò il falso simbolismo come luogo cinematografico, ponendo l’accento sugli aspetti di planting e hunting, e mi avvarrò dell’aiuto di due film significativi sul tema realizzati in tempi recenti, ovvero Inception (2010) e Memento (2000), di Christopher Nolan, che possono essere interpretati come una meta-critica dell’abuso di simboli, e rappresentano una pietra miliare nell’analisi di symbol planting e symbol hunting. In conclusione, proporrò la mia personale possibile soluzione, ovvero il prendere le opere d’arte in qualunque forma, specialmente di fiction, “così come sono”, separandole e scindendole dalle proprie aspettative. È necessario prendere in considerazione un ritorno alla letteralità, per poter avvicinarsi maggiormente alla vera anima di una storia, di un libro, di un film, altrimenti esiste la possibilità che tutto ciò che guardiamo o vediamo sia per sempre irrimediabilmente contaminato dalla nostra dimensione privata.

Tandem mass spectrometry identification and LC-MS quantification of intact cytokinin nucleotides in K-562 human leukemia cells

We describe here a new reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection method for quantifying intact cytokinin nucleotides in human K-562 leukemia cells. Tandem mass spectrometry was used to identify the intracellular metabolites (cytokinin monophosphorylated, diphosphorylated, and triphosphorylated nucleotides) in riboside-treated cells. For the protein precipitation and sample preparation, a trichloroacetic acid extraction method is used. Samples are then back-extracted with diethyl ether, lyophilized, reconstituted, and injected into the LC system. Analytes were quantified in negative selected ion monitoring mode using a single quadrupole mass spectrometer. The method was validated in terms of retention time stabilities, limits of detection, linearity, recovery, and analytical accuracy. The developed method was linear in the range of 1-1,000 pmol for all studied compounds. The limits of detection for the analytes vary from 0.2 to 0.6 pmol.

Carotid plaque and intima-media thickness and the incidence of ischemic events in patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease

We aimed to evaluate whether carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) or the presence of plaque can confer additional predictive value of future cardiovascular (CV) ischemic events in patients with pre-existing atherosclerotic vascular disease. We identified 2317 patients enrolled in the REduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) registry who had atherosclerotic vascular disease and baseline CIMT measurements. The entire range of CIMT was divided into quartiles and the fourth quartile (? 1.5 mm) was defined as carotid plaque. Mean ± standard deviation baseline CIMT was 1.31 ± 0.65 mm. Associated CV ischemic events and vascular-related hospitalizations were evaluated over a 2-year follow-up. There was a positive increase in adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality (p = 0.04 for trend) and the quadruple endpoint (CV death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, hospitalization for CV events) with increasing quartiles of CIMT (p = 0.0008 for trend), which was mainly driven by the fourth quartile (carotid plaque). HRs for all-cause mortality, CV death, CV death/MI/stroke and the quadruple endpoint comparing the highest (carotid plaque) with the lowest CIMT quartile were 2.09 (95% CI, 1.07-4.10; p = 0.03); 2.49 (1.10-5.67; p = 0.03); 1.71 (1.10-2.67; p = 0.02); and 1.73 (1.31-2.27; p = 0.0001). In conclusion, our analyses suggest that the presence of carotid plaque, rather than the thickness of intima-media, appears to be associated with increased risk of CV morbidity and mortality, but confirmation of these findings in other population and prospective studies is required.

Media reform and development in Bosnia: An interorganizational account of the Media Issues Group

This manuscript focuses on development assistance players’ efforts to cooperate, coordinate and collaborate on projects of mutual interest. I target the case of the cross-sectoral and international Media Issues Group designed to reform and develop the media sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I identify and categorize variables that influenced interorganizational relationships to summarize lessons learned and potentially inform similar interventions. This work suggests that cooperation, coordination and collaboration are constrained by contextual, strategic and procedural variables. Through participant narrative based on observation and interviews, this work clarifies the nuances within these three sets of variables for potential extrapolation to other settings. Perhaps more importantly, it provides lessons learned that can inform future international community interventions in market development activities.

Impact of optic media opacities and image compression on quantitative analysis of optical coherence tomography

To analyze the impact of opacities in the optical pathway and image compression of 32-bit raw data to 8-bit jpg images on quantified optical coherence tomography (OCT) image analysis.

Video Composer and Live Video Conductor: Future Professions for the Interactive Digital Broadcasting Industry

Innovations in hardware and network technologies lead to an exploding number of non-interrelated parallel media streams. Per se this does not mean any additional value for consumers. Broadcasting and advertisement industries have not yet found new formats to reach the individual user with their content. In this work we propose and describe a novel digital broadcasting framework, which allows for the live staging of (mass) media events and improved consumer personalisation. In addition new professions for future TV production workflows which will emerge are described, namely the 'video composer' and the 'live video conductor'.

Effects of deflazacort versus prednisone on bone mass, body composition, and lipid profile: a randomized, double blind study in kidney transplant patients

To compare the effects of deflazacort (DEFLA) vs. prednisone (PRED) on bone mineral density (BMD), body composition, and lipids, 24 patients with end-stage renal disease were randomized in a double blind design and followed 78 weeks after kidney transplantation. BMD and body composition were assessed using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Seventeen patients completed the study. Glucocorticosteroid doses, cyclosporine levels, rejection episodes, and drop-out rates were similar in both groups. Lumbar BMD decreased more in PRED than in DEFLA (P < 0.05), the difference being particularly marked after 24 weeks (9.1 +/- 1.8% vs. 3.0 +/- 2.4%, respectively). Hip BMD decreased from baseline in both groups (P < 0.01), without intergroup differences. Whole body BMD decreased from baseline in PRED (P < 0.001), but not in DEFLA. Lean body mass decreased by approximately 2.5 kg in both groups after 6-12 weeks (P < 0.001), then remained stable. Fat mass increased more (P < 0.01) in PRED than in DEFLA (7.1 +/- 1.8 vs. 3.5 +/- 1.4 kg). Larger increases in total cholesterol (P < 0.03), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.01), lipoprotein B2 (P < 0.03), and triglycerides (P = 0.054) were observed in PRED than in DEFLA. In conclusion, using DEFLA instead of PRED in kidney transplant patients is associated with decreased loss of total skeleton and lumbar spine BMD, but does not alter bone loss at the upper femur. DEFLA also helps to prevent fat accumulation and worsening of the lipid profile.

Business as Usual? : An Appraisal of the Implementation of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity into EU’s Media Law and Policies

Irrespective of the diverse stances taken on the effect of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity in the external relations context, since its wording is fairly open-ended, it is clear to all observers that the Convention’s impact will largely depend on how it is implemented domestically. The discussion on the national implementation of the Convention, both in the policy and in the academic discourses, is only just emerging. The implementation model of the EU could set an important example for the international community and for the other State Parties that have ratified the UNESCO Convention, as both the EU and its Member States acting individually, have played a critical role in the adoption of the Convention, as well as in the longer process of promoting cultural concerns on the international scene. Against this backdrop, this article analyses the extent to which the EU internal law and policies, in particular in the key area of media, take into account the spirit and the letter of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity. The article seeks to critically evaluate the present state of affairs and make some recommendations for calibration of future policies.