República Federativa Evangélica: uma análise de gênero sobre a laicidade no Brasil a partir da atuação dos/as parlamentares evangélicos/as no Congresso Nacional no exercício da 54ª Legislatura São Bernardo do Campo

Essa pesquisa objetiva a análise da relação entre religião e política, em perspectiva de gênero considerando a atuação de parlamentares evangélicos/as na 54ª Legislatura (de 2011 a 2014) e a forma de intervenção desses atores no espaço político brasileiro quanto à promulgação de leis e ao desenvolvimento de políticas públicas que contemplem, dentre outras, a regulamentação do aborto, a criminalização da homofobia, a união estável entre pessoas do mesmo sexo e os desafios oriundos dessa posição para o Estado Brasileiro que se posiciona como laico. Ora, se laico remete à ideia de neutralidade estatal em matéria religiosa, legislar legitimado por determinados princípios fundamentados em doutrinas religiosas, pode sugerir a supressão da liberdade e da igualdade, o não reconhecimento da diversidade e da pluralidade e a ausência de limites entre os interesses públicos / coletivos e privados / particulares. Os procedimentos metodológicos para o desenvolvimento dessa pesquisa fundamentam-se na análise e interpretação bibliográfica visando estabelecer a relação entre religião e política, a conceituação, qualificação e tipificação do fenômeno da laicidade; levantamento documental; análise dos discursos de parlamentares evangélicos/as divulgados pela mídia, proferidos no plenário e adotados para embasar projetos de leis; pesquisa qualitativa com a realização de entrevistas e observações das posturas públicas adotadas pelos/as parlamentares integrantes da Frente Parlamentar Evangélica - FPE. Porquanto, os postulados das Ciências da Religião devidamente correlacionados com a interpretação do conjunto de dados obtidos no campo de pesquisa podem identificar o lugar do religioso na sociedade de forma interativa com as interfaces da laicidade visando aprofundar a compreensão sobre a democracia, sobre o lugar da religião nas sociedades contemporâneas e sobre os direitos difusos, coletivos e individuais das pessoas.

Modulation of cognition-specific cortical activity by gonadal steroids: A positron-emission tomography study in women

There is considerable evidence from animal studies that gonadal steroid hormones modulate neuronal activity and affect behavior. To study this in humans directly, we used H215O positron-emission tomography to measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in young women during three pharmacologically controlled hormonal conditions spanning 4–5 months: ovarian suppression induced by the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist leuprolide acetate (Lupron), Lupron plus estradiol replacement, and Lupron plus progesterone replacement. Estradiol and progesterone were administered in a double-blind cross-over design. On each occasion positron-emission tomography scans were performed during (i) the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a neuropsychological test that physiologically activates prefrontal cortex (PFC) and an associated cortical network including inferior parietal lobule and posterior inferolateral temporal gyrus, and (ii) a no-delay matching-to-sample sensorimotor control task. During treatment with Lupron alone (i.e., with virtual absence of gonadal steroid hormones), there was marked attenuation of the typical Wisconsin Card Sorting Test activation pattern even though task performance did not change. Most strikingly, there was no rCBF increase in PFC. When either progesterone or estrogen was added to the Lupron regimen, there was normalization of the rCBF activation pattern with augmentation of the parietal and temporal foci and return of the dorsolateral PFC activation. These data directly demonstrate that the hormonal milieu modulates cognition-related neural activity in humans.

Protein–RNA interactions: a structural analysis

A detailed computational analysis of 32 protein–RNA complexes is presented. A number of physical and chemical properties of the intermolecular interfaces are calculated and compared with those observed in protein–double-stranded DNA and protein–single-stranded DNA complexes. The interface properties of the protein–RNA complexes reveal the diverse nature of the binding sites. van der Waals contacts played a more prevalent role than hydrogen bond contacts, and preferential binding to guanine and uracil was observed. The positively charged residue, arginine, and the single aromatic residues, phenylalanine and tyrosine, all played key roles in the RNA binding sites. A comparison between protein–RNA and protein–DNA complexes showed that whilst base and backbone contacts (both hydrogen bonding and van der Waals) were observed with equal frequency in the protein–RNA complexes, backbone contacts were more dominant in the protein–DNA complexes. Although similar modes of secondary structure interactions have been observed in RNA and DNA binding proteins, the current analysis emphasises the differences that exist between the two types of nucleic acid binding protein at the atomic contact level.

The PDB data uniformity project

The Protein Data Bank (PDB; http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/) is the single worldwide archive of structural data of biological macromolecules. This paper describes the data uniformity project that is underway to address the inconsistency in PDB data.

Antillatoxin is a marine cyanobacterial toxin that potently activates voltage-gated sodium channels

Antillatoxin (ATX) is a lipopeptide derived from the pantropical marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula. ATX is neurotoxic in primary cultures of rat cerebellar granule cells, and this neuronal death is prevented by either N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists or tetrodotoxin. To further explore the potential interaction of ATX with voltage-gated sodium channels, we assessed the influence of tetrodotoxin on ATX-induced Ca2+ influx in cerebellar granule cells. The rapid increase in intracellular Ca2+ produced by ATX (100 nM) was antagonized in a concentration-dependent manner by tetrodotoxin. Additional, more direct, evidence for an interaction with voltage-gated sodium channels was derived from the ATX-induced allosteric enhancement of [3H]batrachotoxin binding to neurotoxin site 2 of the α subunit of the sodium channel. ATX, moreover, produced a strong synergistic stimulation of [3H]batrachotoxin binding in combination with brevetoxin, which is a ligand for neurotoxin site 5 on the voltage-gated sodium channel. Positive allosteric interactions were not observed between ATX and either α-scorpion toxin or the pyrethroid deltamethrin. That ATX interaction with voltage-gated sodium channels produces a gain of function was demonstrated by the concentration-dependent and tetrodotoxin-sensitive stimulation of 22Na+ influx in cerebellar granule cells exposed to ATX. Together these results demonstrate that the lipopeptide ATX is an activator of voltage-gated sodium channels. The neurotoxic actions of ATX therefore resemble those of brevetoxins that produce neural insult through depolarization-evoked Na+ load, glutamate release, relief of Mg2+ block of NMDA receptors, and Ca2 + influx.

Crystal structure of a DNA decamer showing a novel pseudo four-way helix-helix junction.

The crystal structure of the decanucleotide d(CGCAATTGCG)2 has been solved by a combination of molecular replacement and heavy-atom procedures and has been refined to an R factor of 20.2% at 2.7 A. It is not a fully base-paired duplex but has a central core of eight Watson-Crick base pairs flanked by unpaired terminal guanosines and cytosines. These participate in hydrogen-bonding arrangements with adjacent decamer duplexes in the crystal lattice. The unpaired guanosines are bound in the G+C regions of duplex minor grooves. The cytosines have relatively high mobility, even though they are constrained to be in one region where they are involved in base-paired triplets with G.C base pairs. The 5'-AATT sequence in the duplex region has a narrow minor groove, providing further confirmation of the sequence-dependent nature of groove width.