A escolha profissional de licenciados em física de uma universidade pública

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

Estruturas geômetro-diferenciais na superfície da corda bosônica

Pós-graduação em Física - IFT

Guaranteeing indigenous people's rights in Latin America. Progress in the past decade and remaining challenges. Summary

As the twenty-first century advances, the countries of Latin America are building deeper democracies and looking critically at the development process, in the growing conviction that development should focus on equality and be approached on the basis of rights. This means tackling the region’s persistent inequalities, especially those affecting indigenous peoples, who have historically suffered exclusion and discrimination. It also means guaranteeing indigenous people both the enjoyment of human rights on an equal footing to the rest of society, and the right to be collectively different. This is a challenge for this century, which began with the recognition of the rights of indigenous people and the role they unquestionably play on national and international agendas.

A implantação do REUNI na Universidade Federal do Pará: um estudo de caso do Campus Universitário de Altamira

A reforma universitária em curso, iniciada na gestão do presidente Lula da Silva, inaugura uma nova etapa na (re)configuração das universidades públicas brasileiras que repercute diretamente na estrutura acadêmica, administrativa e política dessas instituições. O Programa de Apoio aos Planos de Reestruturação e Expansão das Universidades Públicas - REUNI - é exemplo do atual cenário de reformas e é apresentado como uma das principais ações do governo federal, visando à ampliação de acesso e permanência nas universidades públicas. Esta dissertação resulta da pesquisa realizada no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, da Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), tendo o processo de implantação do REUNI, no Campus Universitário de Altamira, da UFPA, como objeto de estudo e, como objetivo, investigar as repercussões do Programa nos aspectos relacionados ao acesso à educação superior, ao financiamento e a gestão universitária. As concepções teórico-metodológicas se fundamentam nas contribuições do materialismo histórico-dialético. Os resultados preliminares foram obtidos por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, análise de documentos e estudo de caso, realizado no referido Campus de Altamira, e indicam que, a despeito da adesão maciça das universidades federais ao REUNI, o conjunto de indicadores pactuados no Programa, notadamente de caráter quantitativo, não vêm sendo plenamente alcançados. Na Universidade Federal do Pará, apesar da constituição de um amplo arcabouço normativo destinado a dar materialidade às ações e metas do Programa, e efetividade aos indicadores, como diplomação e ampliação da oferta no ensino de graduação; até o momento, os resultados se apresentam abaixo das metas pactuadas junto ao MEC. Além disso, observam-se importantes alterações na dinâmica da gestão da instituição universitária, cujos processos administrativos têm sido revestidos de racionalidade, flexibilidade e eficiência, em suma, tornaram-se gestão orientada por resultados. A pesquisa evidenciou, ainda, que o marco da atual conformação atribuída às universidades públicas está na ressignificação dos conceitos de público e privado e na progressiva diminuição da autonomia universitária, apontando, também, uma forma de expansão sem os correspondentes aportes financeiros e sem a garantia dos padrões de excelência acadêmica, historicamente atribuídos às universidades públicas.

An innovative material based on natural rubber and leather tannery waste to be applied as antistatic flooring

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

Search for gravitational radiation from intermediate mass black hole binaries in data from the second LIGO-Virgo joint science run

This paper reports on an unmodeled, all-sky search for gravitational waves from merging intermediate mass black hole binaries (IMBHB). The search was performed on data from the second joint science run of the LIGO and Virgo detectors (July 2009-October 2010) and was sensitive to IMBHBs with a range up to similar to 200 Mpc, averaged over the possible sky positions and inclinations of the binaries with respect to the line of sight. No significant candidate was found. Upper limits on the coalescence-rate density of nonspinning IMBHBs with total masses between 100 and 450 M-circle dot and mass ratios between 0.25 and 1 were placed by combining this analysis with an analogous search performed on data from the first LIGO-Virgo joint science run (November 2005-October 2007). The most stringent limit was set for systems consisting of two 88 M-circle dot black holes and is equal to 0.12 Mpc(-3) Myr(-1) at the 90% confidence level. This paper also presents the first estimate, for the case of an unmodeled analysis, of the impact on the search range of IMBHB spin configurations: the visible volume for IMBHBs with nonspinning components is roughly doubled for a population of IMBHBs with spins aligned with the binary's orbital angular momentum and uniformly distributed in the dimensionless spin parameter up to 0.8, whereas an analogous population with antialigned spins decreases the visible volume by similar to 20%.

In vitro study of color stability of polycrystalline and monocrystalline ceramic brackets

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Fragmentation of lignin from organosolv black liquor by white rot fungi

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Antimicrobial activity of plants infusions on oral fusobacteria and their adherence to human erythrocytes

Periodontal disease is the result of the interrelationship between microbiotic aggression and the host’s organic defence. Amongst the microorganisms involved in periodontopathies, Fusobacterium nucleatum is conspicuous by establishing a link between the initial and final colonizers, besides producing toxic compounds and adhering to the host’s cells. Control of bacterial biofilm can be achieved by use of chemical agents, many of which extracted from plants. Thus the object of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory activity in vitro of some teas, generally taken in a normal diet, on Fusobacterium nucleatum and your adherence to host’s cells. Minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations were established and haemagglutinative test in microplaques was effected. It was ascertained that all plant extracts have inhibitory activity and that infusions of Camellia sinensis (black tea and green tea), Mentha piperita (mint) and Pimpinella anixem (aniseed) added to the bacteria/erythrocyte compound reduced significantly the adherence of microorganisms.

Educational Investment, Family Context, and Children’s Math and Reading Growth from Kindergarten through the Third Grade

Drawing on longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999, this study used IRT modeling to operationalize a measure of parental educational investments based on Lareau’s notion of concerted cultivation. It used multilevel piecewise growth models regressing children’s math and reading achievement from entry into kindergarten through the third grade on concerted cultivation and family context variables. The results indicate that educational investments are an important mediator of socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities, completely explaining the black-white reading gap at kindergarten entry and consistently explaining 20 percent to 60 percent and 30 percent to 50 percent of the black-white and Hispanic-white disparities in the growth parameters, respectively, and approximately 20 percent of the socioeconomic gradients. Notably, concerted cultivation played a more significant role in explaining racial/ethnic gaps in achievement than expected from Lareau’s discussion, which suggests that after socioeconomic background is controlled, concerted cultivation should not be implicated in racial/ethnic disparities in learning.

HAWAIIAN SUGAR CANE RAT CONTROL METHODS AND PROBLEMS

The problem of rats in our Hawaiian sugar cane fields has been with us for a long time. Early records tell of heavy damage at various times on all the islands where sugar cane is grown. Many methods were tried to control these rats. Trapping was once used as a control measure, a bounty was used for a time, gangs of dogs were trained to catch the rats as the cane was harvested. Many kinds of baits and poisons were used. All of these methods were of some value as long as labor was cheap. Our present day problem started when the labor costs started up and the sugar industry shifted to long cropping. Until World War II cane was an annual crop. After the war it was shifted to a two year crop, three years in some places. Depending on variety, location, and soil we raise 90 to 130 tons of sugar cane per acre, which produces 7 to 15 tons of sugar per acre for a two year crop. This sugar brings about $135 dollars per ton. This tonnage of cane is a thick tangle of vegetation. The cane grows erect for almost a year, as it continues to grow it bends over at the base. This allows the stalk to rest on the ground or on other stalks of cane as it continues to grow. These stalks form a tangled mat of stalks and dead leaves that may be two feet thick at the time of harvest. At the same time the leafy growing portion of the stalk will be sticking up out of the mat of cane ten feet in the air. Some of these individual stalks may be 30 feet long and still growing at the time of harvest. All this makes it very hard to get through a cane field as it is one long, prolonged stumble over and through the cane. It is in this mat of cane that our three species of rats live. Two species are familiar to most people in the pest control field. Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus. In the latter species we include both the black rat and the alexandrine rats, their habits seem to be the same in Hawaii. Our third rat is the Polynesian rat, Rattus exlans, locally called the Hawaiian rat. This is a small rat, the average length head to tip of tail is nine inches and the average body weight is 65 grams. It has dark brownish fur like the alexandrine rats, and a grey belly. It is found in Indonesia, on most of the islands of Oceania and in New Zealand. All three rats live in our cane fields and the brushy and forested portions of our islands. The norway and alexandrine rats are found in and around the villages and farms, the Polynesian rat is only found in the fields and waste areas. The actual amount of damage done by rats is small, but destruction they cause is large. The rats gnaw through the rind of the cane stalk and eat the soft juicy and sweet tissues inside. They will hollow out one to several nodes per stalk attacked. The effect to the cane stalk is like ringing a tree. After this attack the stalk above the chewed portion usually dies, and sometimes the lower portion too. If the rat does not eat through the stalk the cane stalk could go on living and producing sugar at a reduced rate. Generally an injured stalk does not last long. Disease and souring organisms get in the injury and kill the stalk. And if this isn't enough, some insects are attracted to the injured stalk and will sometimes bore in and kill it. An injured stalk of cane doesn't have much of a chance. A rat may only gnaw out six inches of a 30 foot stalk and the whole stalk will die. If the rat only destroyed what he ate we could ignore them but they cause the death of too much cane. This dead, dying, and souring cane cause several direct and indirect tosses. First we lose the sugar that the cane would have produced. We harvest all of our cane mechanically so we haul the dead and souring cane to the mill where we have to grind it with our good cane and the bad cane reduces the purity of the sugar juices we squeeze from the cane. Rats reduce our income and run up our overhead.

United Way and University partnerships in community-wide human services planning and plan implementation: The case of Lincoln/Lancaster County, Nebraska.

Given the similar interests of United Way organizations and universities in planning, implementation, and evaluation of human services, the two social institutions could be extensively and effectively partnering with one another. However, there is little documentation that such cooperative efforts are taking place. This article describes one such collaboration in Lincoln, Nebraska. The purpose of the article is to show the potential of such collaboration to improve community-wide coordination and outcomes by following the principles of a community-engagement model, to generate more effective use of evaluative tools that can assist in developing evidence-based practices in community planning, and to connect areas of study within the university to United Way efforts.

Lipidic and proteic absorption in digestive tract of tropical fat snook (Centropomus parallelus, POEY 1860)

The tropical fat snook Centropomus parallelus is a species of recognized ecological importance and with a high economical potential for fisheries and aquaculture. The investigations of digestive tube morphology in association with their feeding abilities are fundamental to improve techniques for aquaculture feeding procedures. Sudan black staining and Perl`s method were used to evaluate their absorption capacity of fat and protein respectively. The Sudan black stain was performed 12 h after the ingestion of lipids. The lipids are intensely absorbed in the ceca epithelium and less intensely in the intestine and rectum. The Perl`s method was performed 12 h after the ingestion of ferritin. The proteins are absorbed only in the rectum. This is the first description of fat and protein absorption ability by the digestive tube of fat snook. These data enhance the possibility of the addition of macromolecules in rations that can show a diversity of physiological effects. The histological implications of each segment of the digestive tube in association with fish biology are further discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In vitro evaluation, in vivo quantification, and microbial diversity studies of nutritional strategies for reducing enteric methane production

The main objective of the present work was to study nutritive strategies for lessening the CH4 formation associated to ruminant tropical diets. In vitro gas production technique was used for evaluating the effect of tannin-rich plants, essential oils, and biodiesel co-products on CH4 formation in three individual studies and a small chamber system to measure CH4 released by sheep for in vivo studies was developed. Microbial rumen population diversity from in vitro assays was studied using qPCR. In vitro studies with tanniniferous plants, herbal plant essential oils derived from thyme, fennel, ginger, black seed, and Eucalyptus oil (EuO) added to the basal diet and cakes of oleaginous plants (cotton, palm, castor plant, turnip, and lupine), which were included in the basal diet to replace soybean meal, presented significant differences regarding fermentation gas production and CH4 formation. In vivo assays were performed according to the results of the in vitro assays. , when supplemented to a basal diet (Tifton-85 hay sp, corn grain, soybean meal, cotton seed meal, and mineral mixture) fed to adult Santa Ines sheep reduced enteric CH4 emission but the supplementation of the basal diet with EuO did not affect ( > 0.05) methane released. Regarding the microbial studies of rumen population diversity using qPCR with DNA samples collected from the in vitro trials, the results showed shifts in microbial communities of the tannin-rich plants in relation to control plant. This research demonstrated that tannin-rich , essential oil from eucalyptus, and biodiesel co-products either in vitro or in vivo assays showed potential to mitigate CH4 emission in ruminants. The microbial community study suggested that the reduction in CH4 production may be attributed to a decrease in fermentable substrate rather than to a direct effect on methanogenesis.

Genetic Variants in Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Gene Modify Metalloproteinase-9 Levels in Black Subjects

Altered matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) levels are involved in cardiovascular diseases and increased MMP-9 levels enhance the cardiovascular risk in apparently healthy subjects. We investigated the effects of MMP-9 gene polymorphisms and haplotypes on the circulating MMP-9 levels in healthy black subjects and the effects of an MMP-2 polymorphism on the plasma MMP-2 concentrations. We studied 190 healthy subjects, nonsmokers, self-reported as blacks (18-63 years). Genotypes for the MMP-2 C-1306T polymorphism and the MMP-9 C-1562T, 90(CA)(14-24) and Q279R polymorphisms (rs243865, rs3918242, rs2234681, and rs17576, respectively) were determined by TaqMan (R) Allele Discrimination assay and real-time polymerase chain reaction or restriction fragment length polymorphism. Alleles for the 90(CA)(14-24) polymorphism were grouped as low (L) when there were < 21 and high (H) when there were >= 21 CA repeats. The plasma levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were determined by gelatin zymography. The software PHASE 2.1 was used to estimate the haplotypes frequencies. Although we found no effects of the MMP-9 C-1562T or the Q279R polymorphisms on MMP-9 levels, higher MMP-9 levels were associated with the HH genotype for the -90(CA)(14-24) polymorphism compared with the HL or LL genotypes. Lower MMP-9 levels were found in carriers of the CRL haplotype (combining the C, R, and L alleles for the MMP-9 polymorphisms) compared with the CRH haplotype. Consistent with this finding, the CRL haplotype was more commonly found in subjects with low MMP-9 levels. The MMP-2 C-1306T polymorphism had no effects on the plasma MMP-2 levels. Our results show that MMP-9 genetic variations modify MMP-9 levels in black subjects and may offer biochemical evidence implicating MMP-9 in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases in blacks.