Tidningar utgifne af et sällskap i Åbo År 1771, Första årgången

Åbo 1771, Joh.C. Frenckell

'Making Science Understandable'. Divulgació científica i mediació editorial: el cas de The Wisdom of the Body de Walter B. Cannon (1871-1945)

The present paper aims at an historical reconstruction, in the framework of the publishing industry in the years between the two World Wars, of the role played by the publisher William W. Norton in the genesis, published in 1932, and new edition in 1938, of Walter B. Cannon"s book The Wisdom of the Body. With the analysis of this case study, we aimed at contributing to the current criticism of the «dominant view», which tries, in an uncritical manner, that scientific popularization follows an ineluctable, continuous and linear evolution.

Poliembrionia e atributos morfológicos de sementes de porta-enxertos de citros

A poliembrionia é um caráter fundamental no melhoramento genético e na multiplicação comercial de porta-enxertos de citros. Este trabalho avaliou as relações entre poliembrionia e diferentes atributos morfológicos de sementes de 12 genótipos de citros selecionados como porta-enxertos. Foram analisadas 50 sementes por genótipo, quanto a massa, altura, largura, número de embriões, taxa de poliembrionia, grau de dificuldade de extração da testa, coloração da semente, estimada por um matiz das duas notas de cores predominantes, e razão de cor, calculada pela divisão entre a menor e a maior nota do matiz. Os resultados foram submetidos à análise de variância, comparando-se as médias pelo teste de Scott-Knott e determinando-se os coeficientes de correlação de Pearson entre as variáveis (P < 0,05). Os porta-enxertos apresentaram atributos de sementes distintos, podendo ser agrupados em três classes de poliembrionia, destacando-se três seleções de limoeiro 'Cravo' com poliembrionia inferior a 50%, citrandarins como totalmente poliembriônicos e outros híbridos de Poncirus trifoliata com taxas baixas a intermediárias. O grau de dificuldade de extração da testa foi maior nas sementes menores. Na maioria dos genótipos avaliados, o número de embriões por semente correlacionou- se positivamente à massa, altura e largura de sementes e negativamente à razão de cor, sugerindo que a análise de coloração de sementes inteiras pode ser ferramenta alternativa para uma avaliação visual rápida da ocorrência de poliembrionia.

Clinical determinants of early parasitological response to ACTs in African patients with uncomplicated falciparum malaria: a literature review and meta-analysis of individual patient data.

BACKGROUND: Artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum has emerged in the Greater Mekong sub-region and poses a major global public health threat. Slow parasite clearance is a key clinical manifestation of reduced susceptibility to artemisinin. This study was designed to establish the baseline values for clearance in patients from Sub-Saharan African countries with uncomplicated malaria treated with artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). METHODS: A literature review in PubMed was conducted in March 2013 to identify all prospective clinical trials (uncontrolled trials, controlled trials and randomized controlled trials), including ACTs conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa, between 1960 and 2012. Individual patient data from these studies were shared with the WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN) and pooled using an a priori statistical analytical plan. Factors affecting early parasitological response were investigated using logistic regression with study sites fitted as a random effect. The risk of bias in included studies was evaluated based on study design, methodology and missing data. RESULTS: In total, 29,493 patients from 84 clinical trials were included in the analysis, treated with artemether-lumefantrine (n = 13,664), artesunate-amodiaquine (n = 11,337) and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (n = 4,492). The overall parasite clearance rate was rapid. The parasite positivity rate (PPR) decreased from 59.7 % (95 % CI: 54.5-64.9) on day 1 to 6.7 % (95 % CI: 4.8-8.7) on day 2 and 0.9 % (95 % CI: 0.5-1.2) on day 3. The 95th percentile of observed day 3 PPR was 5.3 %. Independent risk factors predictive of day 3 positivity were: high baseline parasitaemia (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.16 (95 % CI: 1.08-1.25); per 2-fold increase in parasite density, P <0.001); fever (>37.5 °C) (AOR = 1.50 (95 % CI: 1.06-2.13), P = 0.022); severe anaemia (AOR = 2.04 (95 % CI: 1.21-3.44), P = 0.008); areas of low/moderate transmission setting (AOR = 2.71 (95 % CI: 1.38-5.36), P = 0.004); and treatment with the loose formulation of artesunate-amodiaquine (AOR = 2.27 (95 % CI: 1.14-4.51), P = 0.020, compared to dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine). CONCLUSIONS: The three ACTs assessed in this analysis continue to achieve rapid early parasitological clearance across the sites assessed in Sub-Saharan Africa. A threshold of 5 % day 3 parasite positivity from a minimum sample size of 50 patients provides a more sensitive benchmark in Sub-Saharan Africa compared to the current recommended threshold of 10 % to trigger further investigation of artemisinin susceptibility.

Walter Charleton (1620 - 1707) e sua Teoria Atômica

Several authors in the 17th century used the atomic hypothesis to explain observable phenomena. This paper analyzes some ideas about chemical transformation proposed by the English physician Walter Charleton. In Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana (London, 1654), Charleton examined philosophical aspects of the atomic theory, and suggested that the best explanation for all natural phenomena would be only in terms of atoms and their motions. Sometimes, however, he had to attribute to the atoms some kind of "internal virtue", to explain more complex properties of the matter. His idea of "element", and the little use of experimentation and quantification, also limited the range of Charleton's theory.

Prêmio Nobel de Química em 1998: Walter Kohn e John A. Pople

A résumé of the evolution of quantum chemistry methodologies is presented. The pioneering contributions of John A. Pople and Water Kohn, the 1998 Nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry, to the development of quantum chemistry computational methods for studying the properties of molecules and their interaction is discussed.