The Brazilian architecture in wood and the confrontations with the questions of the environment

Two discussions are imposed to the designers of wood constructions. The first one deals with the technical knowledge to project and execute buildings; the second one is concerned with the preservation of the environment, use of the wood in a sustainable way. The work presents the tendencies of the wood used in the Brazilian habitation architecture characterizing the used woods; how the construction technical solutions have developed and discusses about the necessity of using the wood in a conscious way, knowing its origin and control, sustainable use of the forests resources. It focalizes, mainly, the search of the designers to harmonize the use of the wood and the preservation of the forest biodiversity, when it deals with the native forest.

Recent advances in brain physiology and cognitive processing

The discovery of participation of astrocytes as active elements in glutamatergic tripartite synapses (composed by functional units of two neurons and one astrocyte) has led to the construction of models of cognitive functioning in the human brain, focusing on associative learning, sensory integration, conscious processing and memory formation/retrieval. We have modelled human cognitive functions by means of an ensemble of functional units (tripartite synapses) connected by gap junctions that link distributed astrocytes, allowing the formation of intra- and intercellular calcium waves that putatively mediate large-scale cognitive information processing. The model contains a diagram of molecular mechanisms present in tripartite synapses and contributes to explain the physiological bases of cognitive functions. It can be potentially expanded to explain emotional functions and psychiatric phenomena. © MSM 2011.

Conceptual spaces and consciousness: Integrating cognitive and affective processes

In the book Conceptual Spaces: the Geometry of Thought [2000] Peter Gärdenfors proposes a new framework for cognitive science. Complementary to symbolic and subsymbolic [connectionist] descriptions, conceptual spaces are semantic structures constructed from empirical data representing the universe of mental states. We argue that Gärdenfors' modeling can be used in consciousness research to describe the phenomenal conscious world, its elements and their intrinsic relations. The conceptual space approach affords the construction of a universal state space of human consciousness, where all possible kinds of human conscious states could be mapped. Starting from this approach, we discuss the inclusion of feelings and emotions in conceptual spaces, and their relation to perceptual and cognitive states. Current debate on integration of affect/emotion and perception/cognition allows three possible descriptive alternatives: emotion resulting from basic cognition; cognition resulting from basic emotion, and both as relatively independent functions integrated by brain mechanisms. Finding a solution for this issue is an important step in any attempt of successful modeling of natural or artificial consciousness. After making a brief review of proposals in this area, we summarize the essentials of a new model of consciousness based on neuro-astroglial interactions. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.

What affective neuroscience means for science of consciousness

The field of affective neuroscience has emerged from the efforts of Jaak Panksepp in the 1990s and reinforced by the work of, among others, Joseph LeDoux in the 2000s. It is based on the ideas that affective processes are supported by brain structures that appeared earlier in the phylogenetic scale (as the periaqueductal gray area), they run in parallel with cognitive processes, and can influence behaviour independently of cognitive judgements. This kind of approach contrasts with the hegemonic concept of conscious processing in cognitive neurosciences, which is based on the identification of brain circuits responsible for the processing of (cognitive) representations. Within cognitive neurosciences, the frontal lobes are assigned the role of coordinators in maintaining affective states and their emotional expressions under cognitive control. An intermediary view is the Damasio-Bechara Somatic Marker model, which puts cognition under partial somatic-affective control. We present here our efforts to make a synthesis of these views, by proposing the existence of two interacting brain circuits; the first one in charge of cognitive processes and the second mediating feelings about cognitive contents. The coupling of the two circuits promotes an endogenous feedback that supports conscious processes. Within this framework, we present the defence that detailed study of both affective and cognitive processes, their interactions, as well of their respective brain networks, is necessary for a science of consciousness.© MSM 2013.

The Caribbean countries and the Free Trade Area of the Americas

Includes bibliography

Intravenous Tramadol Injection has no Antinociceptive Effect in Horses Undergoing Electrical and Thermal Stimuli

Tramadol combines an μ opiate and nonopiate analgesic mechanism and might be a useful opioid in horses. This study evaluated the effect of IV tramadol on spontaneous locomotor activity (SLA), head height, and hoof withdrawal reflex (HWR) after thermal or electrical nociceptive stimuli in horses. Doses of 2 and 3 mg/kg tramadol did not affect HWR after electrical and thermal nociception, respectively. Head height and SLA were not modified by 2, 3, or 5 mg/kg tramadol. All horses treated with 5 mg/kg tramadol developed trembling in pectoral triceps, and gluteal muscles and adopted a base-wide stance. In conclusion, 2 and 3 mg/kg tramadol IV neither induced sedation nor prolonged HWR after thermal or electrical stimuli in conscious horses. The dose of 5 mg/kg tramadol IV produced excitement, and it is apparently unsuitable for clinical use. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Socio-demographic vulnerability: old and new risks for communities, households and individuals

Includes bibliography

Qualidade do leite: Utopia sem um programa sério de monitoramento da ocorrência de mastite bovina

Bovine mastitis is still a costly issue in dairy farms, besides public health aspects considering the pathogen transmission to humans. Its multiple etiology with a high number of pathogens involved, demands a rigorous control program for monitoring and milk quality control, based on diagnostic actions and epidemiological vigilance regarding parameters which indirectly are associated with the occurrence of mastitis in dairy herds, as the California Mastitis Test (CMT) and Somatic Cell Count (SCC/mL of milk), of individual milk samples obtained from each cow, and from bulk tank which also allows the Total Bacteria Count (TBC), usually related to the incidence of mastitis, especially in subclinical cases. It is important to reinforce the microbiological milk exam, also to stress the importance of the milking process as a critical point, and to determine risk factors for mastitis. Based on these aspects, this review is presented with the aim to obtain high quality milk products, compromising the personal enrolled in milk production to be conscious that milk quality depends on all, inclusive the consumers which are the final element in the milk production chain.

Serotonergic neurons in the nucleus raphé obscurus are not involved in the ventilatory and thermoregulatory responses to hypoxia in adult rats

The medullary raphé is an important component of the central respiratory network, playing a key role in CO2 central chemoreception. However, its participation in hypoxic ventilatory responses is less understood. In the present study, we assessed the role of nucleus raphé obscurus (ROb), and specifically 5-HT neurons confined in the ROb, on ventilatory and thermoregulatory responses to hypoxia. Chemical lesions of the ROb were performed using either ibotenic acid (non-specific lesion; control animals received PBS) or anti-SERT-SAP (5-HT specific lesion; control animals received IgG-SAP). Ventilation (VE; whole body plethysmograph) and body temperature (Tb; data loggers) were measured during normoxia (21% O2, N2 balance) and hypoxia exposure (7% O2, N2 balance, 1h) in conscious adult rats. Ibotenic acid or anti-SERT-SAP-induced lesions did not affect baseline values of VE and Tb. Similarly, both lesion procedures did not alter the ventilatory or thermoregulatory responses to hypoxia. Although evidence in the literature suggests a role of the rostral medullary raphé in hypoxic ventilatory responses, under the present experimental conditions our data indicate that caudal medullary raphé (ROb) and its 5-HT neurons neither participate in the tonic maintenance of breathing nor in the ventilatory and thermal responses to hypoxia. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Commissural nucleus of the solitary tract regulates the antihypertensive effects elicited by moxonidine

The rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) contains the presympathetic neurons involved in cardiovascular regulation that has been implicated as one of the most important central sites for the antihypertensive action of moxonidine (an α2-adrenergic and imidazoline agonist). Here, we sought to evaluate the cardiovascular effects produced by moxonidine injected into another important brainstem site, the commissural nucleus of the solitary tract (commNTS). Mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), splanchnic sympathetic nerve activity (sSNA) and activity of putative sympathoexcitatory vasomotor neurons of the RVLM were recorded in conscious or urethane-anesthetized, and artificial ventilated male Wistar rats. In conscious or anesthetized rats, moxonidine (2.5 and 5. nmol/50. nl) injected into the commNTS reduced MAP, HR and sSNA. The injection of moxonidine into the commNTS also elicited a reduction of 28% in the activity of sympathoexcitatory vasomotor neurons of the RVLM. To further assess the notion that moxonidine could act in another brainstem area to elicit the antihypertensive effects, a group with electrolytic lesions of the commNTS or sham and with stainless steel guide-cannulas implanted into the 4th V were used. In the sham group, moxonidine (20. nmol/1. μl) injected into 4th V decreased MAP and HR. The hypotension but not the bradycardia produced by moxonidine into the 4th V was reduced in acute (1. day) commNTS-lesioned rats. These data suggest that moxonidine can certainly act in other brainstem regions, such as commNTS to produce its beneficial therapeutic effects, such as hypotension and reduction in sympathetic nerve activity. © 2013 IBRO.

Avaliação da força muscular do assoalho pélvico em mulheres nulíparas continentes: influência das diferentes posições corporais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Marcadores discursivos no processo de retextualizaçao de entrevistas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Vibrações: a arte/educação nas práticas e no discurso em saúde mental

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Autocrítica de arte ou a última camada de verniz

Pós-graduação em Artes - IA

Atitudes de condutores de atividades de aventura e a perspectiva de disseminação da sensibilização ambiental

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)