Language ideologies and Schooled Education in Rural Tanzania : The Case of Karagwe

In this article I argue that language policies for education have effects on pupils’ educational possibilities. With the case of Karagwe district in Tanzania I have found that the case of “Swahili only” in primary school education favours the small minority of the children that live in a context where Swahili is used. This leads to inequality in pupils’ chances in education and to a low level of achievement of academic content in schools. This also promote the developing and use of safety strategies among teachers and pupils that hide failure and prevent pupils’ learning.

Combining collaborative and content-based filtering to recommend research papers

The number of research papers available today is growing at a staggering rate, generating a huge amount of information that people cannot keep up with. According to a tendency indicated by the United States’ National Science Foundation, more than 10 million new papers will be published in the next 20 years. Because most of these papers will be available on the Web, this research focus on exploring issues on recommending research papers to users, in order to directly lead users to papers of their interest. Recommender systems are used to recommend items to users among a huge stream of available items, according to users’ interests. This research focuses on the two most prevalent techniques to date, namely Content-Based Filtering and Collaborative Filtering. The first explores the text of the paper itself, recommending items similar in content to the ones the user has rated in the past. The second explores the citation web existing among papers. As these two techniques have complementary advantages, we explored hybrid approaches to recommending research papers. We created standalone and hybrid versions of algorithms and evaluated them through both offline experiments on a database of 102,295 papers, and an online experiment with 110 users. Our results show that the two techniques can be successfully combined to recommend papers. The coverage is also increased at the level of 100% in the hybrid algorithms. In addition, we found that different algorithms are more suitable for recommending different kinds of papers. Finally, we verified that users’ research experience influences the way users perceive recommendations. In parallel, we found that there are no significant differences in recommending papers for users from different countries. However, our results showed that users’ interacting with a research paper Recommender Systems are much happier when the interface is presented in the user’s native language, regardless the language that the papers are written. Therefore, an interface should be tailored to the user’s mother language.

A note on financial regulation and the brazilian response to the 2008‐09 financial crisis

Brazil was frequently criticized for its interventionist and heavy financial regulation up until the 2008‐09 world financial crisis.  According to the neo‐liberal or pro‐market view that predominated in academic and financial circles during the early 2000s, economic development came together with financial deepening, which in its turn could only be achieved through financial liberalization and deregulation. The currency crises of the 1990s notwithstanding, by the mid‐2000s Brazil’s segmented financial market and its restrictive reserve and capital requirements were seen as a symbol of inefficiency and backwardness by most financial specialists.  To the luck of the Brazilian population, most of the advices of such specialists were ignored by the Brazilian authorities, so that, when the 2008 financial crisis hit the world economy, Brazil still had powerful and efficient instruments to deal with the problem.  The objective of this note is to present the mains aspects of the Brazilian financial regulation and how they helped the economy to deal with the consequences of 2008‐09 financial meltdown.

Water deprivation-induced sodium appetite: humoral and cardiovascular mediators and immediate early genes

Adult rats deprived of water for 24-30 h were allowed to rehydrate by ingesting only water for 1-2 h. Rats were then given access to both water and 1.8% NaCl. This procedure induced a sodium appetite defined by the operational criteria of a significant increase in 1.8% NaCl intake (3.8 +/- 0.8 ml/2 h; n = 6). Expression of Fos (as assessed by immunohistochemistry) was increased in the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), median preoptic nucleus (MnPO), subfornical organ (SFO), and supraoptic nucleus (SON) after water deprivation. After rehydration with water but before consumption of 1.8% NaCl, Fos expression in the SON disappeared and was partially reduced in the OVLT and MnPO. However, Fos expression did not change in the SFO. Water deprivation also 1) increased plasma renin activity (PRA), osmolality, and plasma Na+; 2) decreased blood volume; and 3) reduced total body Na+; but 4) did not alter arterial blood pressure. Rehydration with water alone caused only plasma osmolality and plasma Na+ concentration to revert to euhydrated levels. The changes in Fos expression and PRA are consistent with a proposed role for ANG II in the control of the sodium appetite produced by water deprivation followed by rehydration with only water.

Ovary peltate trichomes of Zeyheria montana (Bignoniaceae): Developmental ultrastructure and secretion in relation to function

center dot Background and Aims Nectar production in the Bignoniaceae species lacking a nectariferous functional disc is ascribed to trichomatic glands around the ovary base and/or on the inner corolla wall. Nevertheless, knowledge about the secretion and function of these glands is very incomplete. The purpose of this paper is to study, from a developmental viewpoint, the ultrastructure, histochemistry and secretory process of the peltate trichomes on the ovary of Zeyheria montana, a species in the Bignoniaceae which has a rudimentary disc.center dot Methods Samples of the gynoecium at various developmental stages were fixed and processed for light and electron microscopy. Histochemistry and cytochemistry tests were performed to examine the chemical composition of exudates. Thin layer chromatography was used to determine the presence of alkaloids and terpenes in gynoecium and fruit extracts, and in fresh nectar stored in the nectar chamber.center dot Key Results Peltate trichomes at different developmental stages appear side by side from floral budding up to pre-dispersal fruit. Large plastids with an extensive internal membrane system consisting of tubules filled with lipophilic material, abundant smooth endoplasmic reticulum, few Golgi bodies, lipophilic deposits in the smooth endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, and scattered cytoplasmic oil droplets are the main characteristics of mature head cells. The secretion which accumulates in the subcuticular space stains positively for hydrophilic and lipophilic substances, with lipids prevailing for fully peltate trichomes. Histochemistry and thin layer chromatography detected terpenes and alkaloids. Fehling's test to detect of sugars in the secretion was negative.center dot Conclusions the continuous presence and activity of peltate trichomes on the ovary of Z. montana from early budding through to flowering and fruiting set, and its main chemical components, alkaloids and terpenes, suggest that they serve a protective function and are not related to the floral nectar source or to improving nectar quality.

Serpentine leafminer (Liriomyza trifolii) on potato (Solanum tuberosum): field observations and plant photosynthetic responses to injury

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Influence of sire breed (Bos indicus versus Bos taurus) and interval from slaughter to oocyte aspiration on heat stress tolerance of in vitro-produced bovine embryos

Based on in vitro experiments, Bos indicus embryos were more resistant to heat stress (HS) than Bos taurus embryos. To increase knowledge regarding differences between Bos indicus and Bos taurus in resistance to HS, the primary objective of this study was to determine if tolerance to HS is due to the breed, origin of the oocyte, sperm, or both. Additionally, the influence of the interval between ovary acquisition (in the abattoir) and oocyte aspiration in the laboratory, on early embryo development was ascertained. Oocytes were collected from Nelore and Holstein cows in an abattoir; 4.0 or 6.5 h later, oocytes were aspired in the laboratory, and then matured and fertilized using semen from Nelore (N), Gir (GIR), or Holstein (H) bulls. Ninety-six h post insemination (hpi), embryos with >= 16 cells were divided in two groups: control and HS. In the control group, embryos were cultured at 39 degrees C, whereas in the HS group, embryos were subjected to 41 degrees C for 12 h, and then returned to 39 degrees C. Rates of cleavage, and formation of morula and blastocysts were higher (P < 0.05) for oocytes aspirated at 4.0 versus 6.5 h after ovaries were acquired. Heat stress decreased rates of blastocyst formation for all breeds (N X N; H x H; and H X GIR) and in both time intervals (4.0 and 6.5 h). However, N X N had higher cleavage rate (P < 0.05) in both time intervals when compared with H X H and H X GIR. In addition, Nelore oocytes fertilized with Nelore semen (N X N) had higher blastocyst yields (P < 0.05) in the control and HS group, when compared with the other two breeds (H X H and H X GIR). We concluded that the breed of origin of the oocyte was more important than that of the sperm for development of thermotolerance, because bull breed did not influence embryo development after HS, and in vitro early embryonic development was impaired by increasing (from 4 to 6.5 h) the interval between ovary acquisition and oocyte aspiration. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Protein deficiency and nutritional recovery modulate insulin secretion and the early steps of insulin action in rats

Maternal malnutrition was shown to affect early growth and leads to permanent alterations in insulin secretion and sensitivity of offspring. In addition, epidemiological studies showed an association between low birth weight and glucose intolerance in adult life. To understand these interactions better, we investigated the insulin secretion by isolated islets and the early events related to insulin action in the hind-limb muscle of adult rats fed a diet of 17% protein (control) or 6% protein [low (LP) protein] during fetal life, suckling and after weaning, and in rats receiving 6% protein during fetal life and suckling followed by a 17% protein diet after weaning (recovered). The basal and maximal insulin secretion by islets from rats fed LP diet and the basal release by islets from recovered rats were significantly lower than that of control rats. The dose-response curves to glucose of islets from LP and recovered groups were shifted to the right compared to control islets, with the half-maximal response (EC 50) occurring at 16.9 ± 1.3, 12.4 ± 0.5 and 8.4 ± 0.1 mmol/L, respectively. The levels of insulin receptor, as well as insulin receptor substrate-1 and phosphorylation and the association between insulin receptor substrate-1 and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase were greater in rats fed a LP diet than in control rats. In recovered rats, these variables were not significantly different from those of the other two groups. These results suggest that glucose homeostasis is maintained in LP and recovered rats by an increased sensitivity to insulin as a result of alterations in the early steps of the insulin signal transduction pathway.

Usage of enterprise modeling processes and information systems design to forecast demand

Managing the great complexity of enterprise system, due to entities numbers, decision and process varieties involved to be controlled results in a very hard task because deals with the integration of its operations and its information systems. Moreover, the enterprises find themselves in a constant changing process, reacting in a dynamic and competitive environment where their business processes are constantly altered. The transformation of business processes into models allows to analyze and redefine them. Through computing tools usage it is possible to minimize the cost and risks of an enterprise integration design. This article claims for the necessity of modeling the processes in order to define more precisely the enterprise business requirements and the adequate usage of the modeling methodologies. Following these patterns, the paper concerns the process modeling relative to the domain of demand forecasting as a practical example. The domain of demand forecasting was built based on a theoretical review. The resulting models considered as reference model are transformed into information systems and have the aim to introduce a generic solution and be start point of better practical forecasting. The proposal is to promote the adequacy of the information system to the real needs of an enterprise in order to enable it to obtain and accompany better results, minimizing design errors, time, money and effort. The enterprise processes modeling are obtained with the usage of CIMOSA language and to the support information system it was used the UML language.

Effect of bleaching on sound enamel and with early artificial caries lesions using confocal laser microscopy

The aim of this study was to evaluate effect of bleaching agents on sound enamel (SE) and enamel with early artificial caries lesions (CL) using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Eighty blocks (4 × 5 × 5 mm) of bovine enamel were used and half of them were submitted to a pH cycling model to induce CL. Eight experimental groups were obtained from the treatments and mineralization level of the enamel (SE or CL) (n=10). SE groups: G1 - unbleached (control); G2 - 4% hydrogen peroxide (4 HP); G3 - 4 HP containing 0.05% Ca (Ca); G4 - 7.5% hydrogen peroxide (7.5 HP) containing amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP). CL groups: G5 - unbleached; G6 - 4 HP; G7 - 4 HP containing Ca; G8 - 7.5 HP ACP. G2, G3, G6, G7 were treated with the bleaching agents for 8 h/day during 14 days, while G4 and G8 were exposed to the bleaching agents for 30 min twice a day during 14 days. The enamel blocks were stained with 0.1 mM rhodamine B solution and the demineralization was quantified using fluorescence intensity detected by CLSM. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and Fisher's tests (α=0.05). For the SE groups, the bleaching treatments increased significantly the demineralization area when compared with the unbleached group. In the CL groups, no statistically significant difference was observed (p>0.05). The addition of ACP or Ca in the composition of the whitening products did not overcome the effects caused by bleaching treatments on SE and neither was able to promote remineralization of CL.

Physiology and endocrinology symposium: Influence of cattle genotype (Bos indicus vs. Bos taurus) on oocyte and preimplantation embryo resistance to increased temperature

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

Cardiac hypertrophy and structural and metabolic remodeling related to seasonal dormancy in the first annual cycle in tegu lizards

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Chronic nicotine activates stress/reward-related brain regions and facilitates the transition to compulsive alcohol drinking

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Artificial immune networks Copt-aiNet and Opt-aiNet applied to the reconfiguration problem of radial electrical distribution systems

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Leukocytes from wheezing infants release lower amounts of IL-12 and IFN-gamma compared to non-wheezing infants

Objective This study investigated environmental endotoxin exposure during early life, sensitization to aeroallergens, the production of cytokines by LPS-stimulated leukocytes, and the development of a wheezing phenotype in a prospective cohort of infants with high risk of developing allergic diseases. Materials and Methods Eighty-four infants were followed from birth until 30 months of age. We assessed endotoxin concentration in house dust of their homes during the first 6 months of life. At age 30 months they were clinically evaluated to determine the development of wheezing and other clinical events, were skin prick tested, and had blood samples collected for the evaluation of cytokine release by LPS-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Results The level of endotoxin exposure during early life was not associated with development of a wheezing phenotype. On the other hand a higher incidence of respiratory infections occurred among recurrent wheezing (RW) infants. PBMC from RW children exposed to higher levels of environmental endotoxin (above 50?EU/mg) released less Interleukin (IL)-12p70 and IFN-? compared to the non-RW group. TNF-a, IL-10, IL-4, IL-5, and IL17 production by LPS-stimulated PBMC from RW and non-RW children was equivalent in both groups of environmental endotoxin exposure. Conclusion In this prospective cohort of infants with high risk of developing allergic diseases we observed that RW and non-RW children were exposed to similar levels of endotoxin early in life. LPS-stimulated PBMC from RW infants exposed to higher levels of endotoxin released significantly less IL-12 and IFN-? compared to non-RW infants. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2012. 47:10541060. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.