South american rattlesnake venom: its hemolytic power

The hemolytic power of rattlesnake venom (Crotalus durissus terrificus) was Studied. A high percentage of sample with negative hemolytic power was detected when sheep red blood cells were used. A large number of venoms with hemolytic power, though with a low hemolysis percentage, were detected when liquid, recently extracted venom was used. When crystallized venom was used under the same experimental conditions, a higher percentage ofpositivityfor hemolysis was obtained. When the results obtained on agar plates were compared to those obtained in test tubes, a large number of animals with a higher percentage of hemolysis were detected, though this value was not proportional to the number of animals showing positive plate hemolysis. When the hemolytic power of these venoms was tested on human red blood cells, a large percentage of animals with venoms having a low hemolytic power was also detected. Hemolytic power was much greater when human red blood cells were tested with crystallized venom. The preparation of red blood cells also had an important effect and the use of red blood cells from defibrinated blood is recommended. We conclude that rattlesnake venom has hemolytic power that increases when the venom is crystallized. Red blood cells should be properly preparedfor the lysis reactions. We suggest that the lytic power of the venom is related to venom concentration and to the purity of its fractions.

A melancolia na arte - da literatura para o cinema. Análise da transposição de Mrs. Dalloway, de V. Woolf, para o filme As Horas

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências da Comunicação – Comunicação e Arte

Filosofia do Cinema: Processos de Criação de uma Nova Imagem do Pensamento

A presente dissertação analisa a relação entre filosofia e cinema segundo o ponto de vista deleuziano da criação de uma nova imagem do pensamento, crítica à imagem dogmática clássica. Com o objectivo de analisar as considerações filosóficas de Gilles Deleuze sobre o cinema de A Imagem-movimento (1983) e A Imagem-tempo (1985), tendo como ponto de partida o movimento reversível entre cinema e filosofia, defendemos a hipótese de o cinema ter uma função filosófica definida no seu pensamento quando relacionado com um sistema filosófico já fundamentado, circunscrito a Diferença e Repetição (1968). Baseando-se na semiótica de Charles S. Peirce e na ontologia materialista de Henri Bergson, Deleuze cria os conceitos filosóficos de imagem-movimento e de imagem-tempo a partir da materialidade das imagens cinematográficas e segundo uma crítica da tradição filosófica relativamente aos estudos sobre o movimento. Deleuze defende a primazia da dimensão temporal; uma concepção de Tempo não decalcado da dimensão espacial; e uma ideia de consciência como algo que está no tempo. Esta reavaliação culmina no conceito de imagem-cristal, o elemento noo-onto-cinematográfico da sua filosofia-cinema. Assim, a questão sobre o que é o cinema leva-nos a uma outra sobre o que é a filosofia. Que tipos de interferências ocorrem entre cinema e filosofia? A filosofia definida como criação conceptual é o fio condutor para a análise de duas ligações que julgamos essenciais e objecto de alguns equívocos: por um lado, a relação entre cinema e filosofia e, por outro, entre filosofar e pensar. Prosseguindo a questão heideggeriana sobre o que nos faz pensar, localizamos no não-filosófico a “origem” não essencialista da própria filosofia: a partir de um encontro paradoxalmente acidental e necessário, que tem no cinema a correspondência imagem-pensamento e imagem-movimento. Este movimento reversível entre imagens cinematográficas e conceitos filosóficos exige uma revisão do platonismo e da concepção da relação entre imagem e pensamento, bem como uma refutação da analogia entre mente e cinema. Segundo esta analogia, o cinema é compreendido como uma cópia dos processos mentais na sua função de passividade, inércia e manipulação. A reacção a este automatismo espiritual corresponderá, paralelamente, a uma luta contra o cliché da imagem e o fascismo da imagem dogmática. Deste modo, a noologia deleuziana estabelece uma nova imagem do pensamento enquanto nova teoria da imagem, da qual sobressaem dois elementos distintos: a intervenção do não-filosófico como impoder e o domínio de uma lógica paradoxal da síntese disjuntiva. Deste modo, a presente dissertação esclarece alguns dos equívocos estabelecidos relativamente à identidade entre o cinema e a filosofia, nomeadamente a ideia que predomina numa certa tendência da filosofia do cinema hoje, de que o cinema filosofa. Isto é, defendo que o cinema tem a capacidade de nos dar os imprescindíveis elementos não-filosóficos que nos fazem pensar e que o cinema tem um papel prático na criação conceptual, sugerindo assim uma afinidade entre imagem cinematográfica e conceito filosófico que se traduz na expressão filosófica de pensar o cinema pelo cinema.

The control of Latin American trypanosomiasis

The author presents his personal point of view on the present situation of Chagas' disease control in Latin America countries. He compares the situation with African trypanosomiasis. He comments on the existence of cases in other Continents. He emphazises the success of the fighting against domiciliated triatomine bugs by using residual inseticides. He discusses other forms of Trypanosoma cruzi transmission.

Histopathology of human American cutaneous leishmaniasis before and after treatment

Chemical therapy for the treatment of leishmaniasis is still inadequate, and a number of drugs and therapeutic programs are being tested. Besides treatment, the ultimate goal is an effective cure, and histopathological analyses of the lesion cicatrices constitute an important measure of treatment success, or otherwise, in this respect. In this paper, we describe histopathological patterns in cases of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in 32 patients from the municipality of Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil, before and after treatment with the following therapeutic methodos: l) leishvacin + glucantime; 2) leishvacin + BCG associated with glucantime; 3) glucantime; 4) leishvacin + BCG. Lesion fragments were collected from all patients by biopsy prior to, and approximately 30 days after, each treatment which resulted in a clinical diagnosis of cure. Following the analysis of slides, the preparations were described from a histopathological point of view and grouped taking into account the prevalence or significance of the characteristic elements. This process resulted in the following classification: 1. exsudative reaction (ER); 2. exsudative giant cell reaction (EGCR); 3. exsudative productive reaction (EPR); 4. exsudative productive giant cell reaction (EPGCR); 5. exsudative productive necrotic reaction (EPNR); 6. necrotic exsudative reaction (NER); 7. productive exsudative reaction (PER), 8. productive giant cell reaction (PGCR); 9. productive exsudative giant cell reaction (PEGCR); 10. productive exsudative giant cell granulomatous reaction (PEGCGR); 11. productive reaction (PR) and 12. productive cicatricial (cure) reaction (PCR). After this analysis, it was noted that clinical cure did not always coincide with histopathological cure.

História do cinema para crianças do século XXI

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para o cumprimentos dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Ciências da Comunicação

Jacques Rancière e Agnes Varda no intervalo entre cinema e política

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Filosofia, Área de Especialização em Estética

South American rattlesnake bite and soft-tissue infection: report of a case

The case of a man bitten by a South American rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) and who developed an abscess at the site of the bite is reported. Abcesses are a rare complication of this type of envenoming, possibly due to the lack of a strong cytotoxic action of Crotalus durissus venom.

Native american women in sherman Alexie's short stories: stereotypical representations

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas

QBC® for the diagnosis of human and canine american visceral leishmaniasis: preliminary data

"Quantitative Buffy Coat" (QBC®) is a direct and fast fluorescent method used for the identification of blood parasites. Since Leishmania chagasi circulates in blood, we decided to test it in American visceral leishmaniasis (AVL). Bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) of 49 persons and PB of 31 dogs were analyzed. QBC® was positive in BM of 11/11 patients with AVL and in 1/6 patients with other diseases. Amastigotes were identified in PB of 18/22 patients with AVL and in none without AVL. The test was positive in 30 out of the 31 seropositive dogs and in 28/28 dogs with Leishmania identified in other tissues. QBC® is a promising method for diagnosis of human AVL, and possibly for the exam of PB of patients with AVL/AIDS, for the control of the cure and for the identification of asymptomatic carriers. Because it is fast and easy to collect and execute, QBC® should be evaluated for programs of reservoir control.

Predictors of an unsatisfactory response to pentavalent antimony in the treatment of American visceral leishmaniasis

Although treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with pentavalent antimony is usually successful, some patients require second-line drug therapy, most commonly with amphotericin B. To identify the clinical characteristics that predict an inadequate response to pentavalent antimony, a case-control study was undertaken in Teresina, Piaui, Brazil. Over a two-year period, there were 19 cases of VL in which the staff physicians of a hospital prescribed second-line therapy with amphotericin B after determining that treatment with pentavalent antimony had failed. The control group consisted of 97 patients that were successfully treated with pentavalent antimony. A chart review using univariate and multivariate analysis was performed. The cure rate was 90% with amphotericin B. The odds ratio for the prescription of amphotericin B was 10.2 for children less than one year old, compared with individuals aged over 10 years. Patients who presented coinfection had an OR of 7.1 while those on antibiotics had an OR of 2.8. These data support either undertaking a longer course of therapy with pentavalent antimony for children or using amphotericin B as a first-line agent for children and individuals with coinfections. It also suggests that chemoprophylaxis directed toward bacterial coinfection in small children with VL may be indicated.

A câmara na escola – o cinema/documentário como ferramenta didáctica

Relatório de Estágio apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Mestrado em Ensino da História e da Geografia no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário

O cinema como ferramenta pedagógica. Estratégias para motivar os alunos para a aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira

Relatório de Estágio de Mestrado para a obtenção do grau de Mestre no Ensino do Português e Língua Estrangeira (Espanhol) no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e Secundário

The presence of Lutzomyia longipalpis in a focus of American visceral leishmaniasis where the only proven vector is Lutzomyia cruzi. Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul State

The present communication reports the presence of Lutzomyia longipalpis in Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, where the principal vector is Lutzomyia cruzi.

Immunotherapy, immunochemotherapy and chemotherapy for American cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment

The first choice of treatment for American cutaneous leishmaniasis is the pentavalent antimonial drug. Although it has been shown that this treatment is mostly effective and indicated, some disadvantages should be taken into account such as side effects, long term treatment inconveniences and counter-indication for patients suffering from cardiopathy, nephropathy; yet, aging, pregnancy and other conditions. With the advent of the vaccine anti-American cutaneous leishmaniasis as a prophylactic measure, studies on therapy using the vaccine associated or not with other drugs have been performed by many investigators and it is currently among the alternative treatments and prevention measures for American cutaneous leishmaniasis. In conclusion, the association between antimony and vaccine (immunochemotherapy) showed the same cure rate when compared with the standard treatment (100%) and it was also able to reduce the salt volume in 17.9% and treatment length from 87 to 62 days, decreasing side effects.