ELEMENTOS DA OBRA FREIREANA E DA TEOLOGIA DA LIBERTAÇÃO NAS DÉCADAS DE 1950 A 1970: UMA ANÁLISE COMBINADA DE SUA GÊNESE E IDENTIDADE

A presente pesquisa se propõe a analisar o contexto histórico, político, social, econômico e ideológico em que surge a pedagogia crítica de Paulo Freire e posteriormente a Teologia da Libertação, visando encontrar influências deste peculiar contexto na gênese do pensamento freireano e nas concepções dos teólogos Rubem Alves e Gustavo Gutiérrez, que foram os primeiros publicar obras sobre Teologia da Libertação, corrente teológica considerada genuinamente latino-americana. Ainda procura observar em que medida as concepções pedagógicas de Freire podem ter sido acolhidas pelos teólogos Alves e Gutiérrez em suas obras aqui analisadas. Em ambos os pensamentos encontramos a visão de valorização do ser humano e de uma práxis que busca sua libertação de sistemas opressores. Tanto em Paulo Freire como nos fundamentos desta corrente teológica se apresentam princípios humanistas e elementos da tradição cristã. A partir da ferramenta metodológica de análise do materialismo histórico dialético marxista, procura identificar temas comuns que são abordados pelos autores em suas obras surgidas entre as décadas de 1950 a 1970, detendo-se ao estudo de alguns temas subjacentes a esse contexto histórico, a saber: práxis, história, humanismo e libertação.

Molecular mechanisms of defense by rhizobacteria against root disease.

Genetic resistance in plants to root diseases is rare, and agriculture depends instead on practices such as crop rotation and soil fumigation to control these diseases. "Induced suppression" is a natural phenomenon whereby a soil due to microbiological changes converts from conducive to suppressive to a soilborne pathogen during prolonged monoculture of the susceptible host. Our studies have focused on the wheat root disease "take-all," caused by the fungus Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici, and the role of bacteria in the wheat rhizosphere (rhizobacteria) in a well-documented induced suppression (take-all decline) that occurs in response to the disease and continued monoculture of wheat. The results summarized herein show that antibiotic production plays a significant role in both plant defense by and ecological competence of rhizobacteria. Production of phenazine and phloroglucinol antibiotics, as examples, account for most of the natural defense provided by fluorescent Pseudomonas strains isolated from among the diversity of rhizobacteria associated with take-all decline. There appear to be at least three levels of regulation of genes for antibiotic biosynthesis: environmental sensing, global regulation that ties antibiotic production to cellular metabolism, and regulatory loci linked to genes for pathway enzymes. Plant defense by rhizobacteria producing antibiotics on roots and as cohabitants with pathogens in infected tissues is analogous to defense by the plant's production of phytoalexins, even to the extent that an enzyme of the same chalcone/stilbene synthase family used to produce phytoalexins is used to produce 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol. The defense strategy favored by selection pressure imposed on plants by soilborne pathogens may well be the ability of plants to support and respond to rhizosphere microorganisms antagonistic to these pathogens.

Memoir of Henry Obookiah, a native of the Sandwich Islands, who died at Cornwall, Connecticut, February 17, 1818, aged 26.

Mode of access: Internet.

ESPERANÇA NO COTIDIANO: PARA UMA ESCATOLOGIA DE LIBERTAÇÃO

A recuperação da escatologia como motor e centro da teologia cristã tem o seu ápice na obra de Jürgen Moltmann, Teologia da Esperança (1964). Em América Latina pouco se fez a respeito de uma re-elaboração da escatologia e suas implicações para a teologia sistemática dentro do método teológico latinoamericano. Entre as poucas obras contamos com o livro de João Batista Libânio e Maria Clara Bingemer, Escatologia Cristã (1985). Ambos autores abordam o tema da esperança cristã desde perspectivas diferentes. Depois de descrever sistematicamente as escatologias destes dois autores, procuramos determinar até que ponto o enfoque destes autores contribui ou não como ferramenta teórica para ler o mundo e iluminar uma práxis engajada com a mudança e a transformação das estruturas opressivas na sociedade. No final, trata-se de repensar a escatologia na sua relevância para o cotidiano da vida das pessoas.

ELEMENTOS DA OBRA FREIREANA E DA TEOLOGIA DA LIBERTAÇÃO NAS DÉCADAS DE 1950 A 1970: UMA ANÁLISE COMBINADA DE SUA GÊNESE E IDENTIDADE

A presente pesquisa se propõe a analisar o contexto histórico, político, social, econômico e ideológico em que surge a pedagogia crítica de Paulo Freire e posteriormente a Teologia da Libertação, visando encontrar influências deste peculiar contexto na gênese do pensamento freireano e nas concepções dos teólogos Rubem Alves e Gustavo Gutiérrez, que foram os primeiros publicar obras sobre Teologia da Libertação, corrente teológica considerada genuinamente latino-americana. Ainda procura observar em que medida as concepções pedagógicas de Freire podem ter sido acolhidas pelos teólogos Alves e Gutiérrez em suas obras aqui analisadas. Em ambos os pensamentos encontramos a visão de valorização do ser humano e de uma práxis que busca sua libertação de sistemas opressores. Tanto em Paulo Freire como nos fundamentos desta corrente teológica se apresentam princípios humanistas e elementos da tradição cristã. A partir da ferramenta metodológica de análise do materialismo histórico dialético marxista, procura identificar temas comuns que são abordados pelos autores em suas obras surgidas entre as décadas de 1950 a 1970, detendo-se ao estudo de alguns temas subjacentes a esse contexto histórico, a saber: práxis, história, humanismo e libertação.

Designing Hydrogels that Transform their Shape in Response to Molecular Cues

There has been considerable interest in developing shape-changing soft materials for potential applications in drug delivery, microfluidics and biosensing. These shape- changing materials are inspired by the morphological changes exhibited by plants in nature, such as the Venus flytrap. One specific class of shape-change is that from a flat sheet to a folded structure (e.g., a tube). Such “self-folding” materials are usually composed of polymer hydrogels, and these typically fold in response to external stimuli such as pH and temperature. In order to develop these hydrogels for the previously described applications, it is necessary to expand the range of triggers. The focus of this dissertation is the advancement of shape-changing polymer hydrogels that are sensitive to uncommon cues such as specific biomolecules (enzymes), the substrates for such enzymes, or specific multivalent cations. First, we describe a hybrid gel that responds to the presence of low concentrations of a class of enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The hybrid gel was created by utilizing photolithographic techniques to combine two or more gels with distinct chemical composition into the same material. Certain portions of the hybrid gel are composed of a biopolymer derivative with crosslinkable groups. The hybrid gel is flat in water; however, in the presence of MMPs, the regions containing the biopolymer are degraded and the flat sheet folds to form a 3D structure. We demonstrate that hydrogels with different patterns can transform into different 3D structures such as tubes, helices and pancakes. Furthermore, this shape change can be made to occur at physiological concentrations of enzymes. Next, we report a gel with two layers that undergoes a shape change in the presence of glucose. The enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) is immobilized in one of the layers. GOx catalyzes the conversion of glucose to gluconic acid. The production of gluconic acid decreases the local pH. The decrease in local pH causes one of the layers to swell. As a result, the flat sheet folds to form a tube. The tube unfolds to form a flat sheet when it is transferred to a solution with no glucose present. Therefore, this biomolecule- triggered shape transformation is reversible, meaning the glucose sensing gel is reusable. Furthermore, this shape change only occurs in the presence of glucose and it does not occur in the presence of other small sugars such as fructose. In our final study, we report the shape change of a gel with two layers in the presence of multivalent ions such as Ca2+ and Sr2+. The gel consists of a passive layer and an active layer. The passive layer is composed of dimethylyacrylamide (DMAA), which does not interact with multivalent ions. The active layer consists of DMAA and the biopolymer alginate. In the presence of Ca2+ ions, the alginate chains crosslink and the active layer shrinks. As a result, the gel converts from a flat sheet to a folded tube. What is particularly unusual is the direction of folding. In most cases, when flat rectangular gels fold, they do so about their short-side. However, our gels typically fold about their long-side. We hypothesize that non-homogeneous swelling determines the folding axis.

Letters to a christian friend on the fundamental truths of Judaism

by Clementina de Rothschild. Transl. from the German [[Elektronische Ressource]]

Dehydration converts DsbG crystal diffraction from low to high resolution

Diffraction quality crystals are essential for crystallographic studies of protein structure, and the production of poorly diffracting crystals is often regarded as a dead end in the process. Here we show a dramatic improvement of poorly diffracting DsbG crystals allowing high-resolution diffraction data measurement. Before dehydration, the crystals are fragile and the diffraction pattern is streaky, extending to 10 Angstrom resolution. After dehydration, there is a spectacular improvement, with the diffraction pattern extending to 2 Angstrom resolution. This and other recent results show that dehydration is a simple, rapid, and inexpensive approach to convert poor quality crystals into diffraction quality crystals.

Letter from George Cran regarding a Christian mission in India, 1803.

George Cran was the son of a farmer in the parish of Forgue in Aberdeen Shire, Scotland. He became a member of the church at Huntley, Scotland where his devotion to God inspired him to become a Sunday school teacher. He subsequently became a member of the London Missionary Society. In 1801 he was sent to study at the seminary in Gosport, England where he spent two to three years. His desire was to preach Christ to the “heathens”. Messrs. Ringeltaube, Des Granges and Cran were designated to work in India. No ships for the East India Company would grant passage to missionaries due to the open hostility of the government therefore they set sail from Copenhagen on April 20, 1804 and reached Tranquebar on December 5th, 1805. Cran and Des Granges were designated to supervise the churches in Tinnevelly and they were to begin a mission among the northern Circars. This would have meant that they would have to work in two different places which would have separated them by over 500 miles. The society didn’t seem to be aware of the vast hindrances that the missionaries had to face. Cran and Des Granges decided instead to work in Vizagapatam where they were welcomed by many of the European residents. They conducted English services for which they were paid a monthly salary by the governor. They also conducted services for the natives and opened a school for native children. By November of 1806 a mission house had been built and a “charity” school for Eurasian children was opened. Cran and Des Granges were also diligently studying the native language and they began to translate the Bible into Telugu (spoken by the Hindus who live along the lower basins of the Kistna and Godaveri Rivers). In November of 1808 Cran was almost killed by a fever which left him severely weakened. He was only partially recovered, but accepted an invitation by the general who commanded the local district to accompany him on a journey around the province. The journey proved to be too much for Cran and he died on January 6th, 1809. He is buried at Chicacole, India. He is remembered for his successful work at Vizagapatam and his translation of the Bible. The fact that it was 27 years after the arrival of Cran before a single native was converted attests to the fact that this was a very difficult undertaking. The London Missionary Society was formed in 1795 in England by evangelical Anglicans and nonconformists. It is a non-denominational society and now forms part of the Council for World Mission. with information from The Voice of God to the Churches a Sermon on the Death of George Cran, Augustus Des Granges and Jonathan Brain by David Bogue and The History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895 by Richard Lovett

Judaism in the first centuries of the Christian era : the age of the Tannaim

by George Foot Moore

A Lexicon, Hebrew, Chaldae, and English, compiled from the most approved sources, Oriental and European, Jewish and Christian ... cont. all the words with their usual inflexions ... as found in the Hebrew and Chaldee texts of the Old Testament ... to which are added an English index, alphabetically arranged ...

by Samuel Lee

LatLong Converter - converts positions from geodetic system to Gauss-Krüger or UTM coordinates

LatLongConverter converts positions from geodetic system to Gauss-Krüger or UTM coordinates. This program is distributed as freeware for the operating systems Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X and Linux.

Threonine-for-leucine mutation within domain M2 of the neuronal alpha(7) nicotinic receptor converts 5-hydroxytryptamine from antagonist to agonist.

A study was made of the effects of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT) on homomeric neuronal nicotinic receptors (nAcChoR) expressed in Xenopus oocytes after injection of cDNA encoding the wild-type chicken alpha(7) subunit. Acetylcholine (AcCho) elicited large currents (IAcCho) that were reduced by 5HT in a reversible and dose-dependent manner, with a half-inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 56 microM and a Hill coefficient (nH) of 1.2. The inhibition of IAcCho by 5HT was noncompetitive and voltage independent, a behavior incompatible with a channel blockade mechanism. 5HT alone did not elicit membrane currents in oocytes injected with the wild-type alpha(7) subunit cDNA. In contrast, 5HT elicited membrane currents (I5HT) in oocytes injected with cDNA encoding an alpha(7) mutant subunit with a threonine-for-leucine-247 substitution (L247T alpha(7)). I5HT was inhibited by the potent nicotinic receptor blockers alpha-bungarotoxin (100 nM) and methyllycaconitine (1 microM). Furthermore, the characteristics of I5HT, including its voltage dependence, were similar to those of IAcCho. The 5HT dose-I5HT response gave an apparent dissociation constant EC50 of 23.5 microM and a Hill coefficient nH of 1.7, which were not modified by the presence of AcCho. Similarly, the apparent affinity of L247T alpha(7) for AcCho as well as its cooperativity were not influenced by 5HT, indicating a lack of mutual interactions between 5HT and AcCho. These results show that 5HT is a potent noncompetitive antagonist of neuronal alpha(7) nAcChoR, but it becomes a noncompetitive agonist following mutation of the highly conserved leucine residue 247 located in the channel domain M2.