Chasing Cardiac Physiology And Pathology Down The Camkii Cascade.

Calcium dynamics is central in cardiac physiology, as the key event leading to the excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) and relaxation processes. The primary function of Ca(2+) in the heart is the control of mechanical activity developed by the myofibril contractile apparatus. This key role of Ca(2+) signaling explains the subtle and critical control of important events of ECC and relaxation, such Ca(2+) influx and SR Ca(2+) release and uptake. The multifunctional Ca(2+)-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is a signaling molecule that regulates a diverse array of proteins involved not only in ECC and relaxation, but also in cell death, transcriptional activation of hypertrophy, inflammation and arrhythmias. CaMKII activity is triggered by an increase in intracellular Ca(2+) levels. This activity can be sustained, creating molecular memory after the decline in Ca(2+) concentration, by autophosphorylation of the enzyme, as well as by oxidation, glycosylation and nitrosylation at different sites of the regulatory domain of the kinase. CaMKII activity is enhanced in several cardiac diseases, altering the signaling pathways by which CaMKII regulates the different fundamental proteins involved in functional and transcriptional cardiac processes. Dysregulation of these pathways constitutes a central mechanism of various cardiac disease phenomena, like apoptosis and necrosis during ischemia/reperfusion injury, digitalis exposure, post-acidosis and heart failure arrhythmias, or cardiac hypertrophy. Here we summarize significant aspects of the molecular physiology of CaMKII and provide a conceptual framework for understanding the role of the CaMKII cascade on Ca(2+) regulation and dysregulation in cardiac health and disease.

Influence Of Successive Light-activation On Degree Of Conversion And Knoop Hardness Of The First Layered Composite Increment.

To evaluate the influence of light-activation of second, third and fourth increments on degree of conversion (DC) and microhardness (KHN) of the top (T) and bottom (B) surface of the first increment. Forty samples (n = 5) were prepared. In groups 1-4, after each increment light-activation (multiple irradiation), T and B of the first increment were measured in DC and KHN. In groups 5-8, only the first increment was made (single irradiation) and measurements of DC and KHN were taken at 15 min intervals. The light-activation modes were (XL) 500 mW/cm(2) × 38 s (G1/G5); (S) 1000 mW/cm(2) × 19 s (G2/G6), (HP) 1400 mW/cm(2) × 14 s (G3/G7); (PE) 3200 mW/cm(2) × 6 s (G4/G8). Data for DC and KHN were analyzed separately by using PROC MIXED for repeated measures and Tukey-Kramer test (α = 0.05). For KHN, B showed lower values than T. PE resulted in lower values of KHN in B surface. For single and multiple irradiations, T and B of first measurement showed the lowest KHN and the fourth measurement showed the highest, with significant difference between them. For single irradiation, first and second increments presented similar KHN, different from the third and fourth increment, which did not differ between them. For multiple irradiations, the second light-activation resulted in KHN similar to first, third and fourth increments. For DC, except QTH, T presented higher DC than B. The light-activation of successive increments was not able to influence the KHN and DC of the first increment.

Factors Controlling The Deposition Of Silk Fibroin Nanofibrils During Layer-by-layer Assembly.

The layer-by-layer technique has been used as a powerful method to produce multilayer thin films with tunable properties. When natural polymers are employed, complicated phenomena such as self-aggregation and fibrilogenesis can occur, making it more difficult to obtain and characterize high-quality films. The weak acid and base character of such materials provides multilayer systems that may differ from those found with synthetic polymers due to strong self-organization effects. Specifically, LbL films prepared with chitosan and silk fibroin (SF) often involve the deposition of fibroin fibrils, which can influence the assembly process, surface properties, and overall film functionality. In this case, one has the intriguing possibility of realizing multilayer thin films with aligned nanofibers. In this article, we propose a strategy to control fibroin fibril formation by adjusting the assembly partner. Aligned fibroin fibrils were formed when chitosan was used as the counterpart, whereas no fibrils were observed when poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) was used. Charge density, which is higher in PAH, apparently stabilizes SF aggregates on the nanometer scale, thereby preventing their organization into fibrils. The drying step between the deposition of each layer was also crucial for film formation, as it stabilizes the SF molecules. Preliminary cell studies with optimized multilayers indicated that cell viability of NIH-3T3 fibroblasts remained between 90 and 100% after surface seeding, showing the potential application of the films in the biomedical field, as coatings and functional surfaces.

FORMAÇÕES DISCURSIVAS E PROCESSOS IDENTIFICATÓRIOS NA AQUISIÇÃO DE LÍNGUAS

This paper discusses theoretical results of the research project Linguistic Identity and Identification: A Study of Functions of Second Language in Enunciating Subject Constitution. Non-cognitive factors that have a crucial incidence in the degree of success and ways of accomplishment of second language acquisition process are focused. A transdisciplinary perspective is adopted, mobilising categories from Discourse Analysis and Psychoanalysis. The most relevant ones are: discursive formation, intradiscourse, interdiscourse, forgetting n° 1, forgetting n° 2 (Pêcheux, 1982), identity, identification (Freud, 1966; Lacan, 1977; Nasio, 1995). Revuz s views (1991) are discussed. Her main claim is that during the process of learning a foreign language, the foundations of psychical structure, and consequently first language, are required. After examining how nomination and predication processes work in first and second languages, components of identity and identification processes are focused on, in an attempt to show how second language acquisition strategies depend on them. It is stated that methodological affairs of language teaching, learner s explicit motivation and the like are subordinated to the comprehension of deeper non-cognitive factors that determine the accomplishment of the second language acquisition process. It is also pointed out that those factors are to be approached, questioning the bipolar biological-social conception of subjectivity in the study of language acquisition and use and including in the analysis symbolic and significant dimensions of the discourse constitution process.

TEORIA SINTÁTICA: DE UMA PERSPECTIVA DE -ISMOS PARA UMAPERSPECTIVA DE PROGRAMAS

This paper tries to show that the developments in linguistic sciences are better viewed as stages in a single research program, rather than different ideological -isms. The first part contains an overview of the structuralistas' beliefs about the universality and equivalence of human languages, and their search for syntactic universals. In the second part, we will see that the generative program, in its turn, tries to answer why language is a universal faculty in the human species and addresses questions about its form, its development and its use. In the second part, we will see that the paper gives a brief glimpse of the tentative answers the program has been giving to each of these issues.

As diferenças rítmicas entre o português europeu e o português brasileiro: uma abordagem otimalista e minimalista

The aim of this paper is to discuss some rhythmic differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese and their relationship to pretonic vowel reduction phenomena. After the basic facts of PE and PB are presented, we show that the issue cannot be discussed without taking into account secondary stress placement, and we proceed to present the algorithm-based approach to secondary stress in Portuguese, representative of Metrical Phonology analyses. After showing that this deterministic approach cannot adequately explain the variable position of secondary stress in both languages regarding words with an even number of pretonic syllables, we argue for the interpretation of secondary stress and therefore for the construction of rhythmic units at the PF interface, as suggested in Chomsky s Minimalist Program. We also propose, inspired by the constrain hierarchies as proposed in Optimality Theory, that such interpretation must take into account two different constraint rankings, in EP and BP. These different rankings would ultimately explain the rhythmic differences between both languages, as well as the different behavior of pretonic vowels with respect to reduction processes.

Formas de Funcionalismo na Sintaxe

This article shows that the term functionalism, very often understood as a single or uniform approach in linguistics, has to be understood in its different perspectives. I start by presenting an opposing conception similar to the I-language vs E-language in Chomsky (1986). As in the latter conception , language can be understood as an abstract model of a mind internal mechanism responsible for language production and perception or, as in the former one, it can be the description of the external use of language. Also like with formalists , there are functionalists who look for cross-linguistic variation (and universals of language use) and functionalists who look for language internal variation. It is also shown that functionalists can differ in the extent to which social variables are considered in the explanation of linguistic form.

Lingüística e arqueologia

This retrospective paper will shed light on the relations between Linguistics and Archaeology by drawing special attention to the history of Archaeology and the influence of Linguistic models for the development of archaeological interpretive frameworks. Reference will be made to culture history theoreticians, like Gordon Childe, to processual archaeologists influenced by Structuralism and to post-processual discourse analysis. The paper will conclude stressing the importance of Linguistics to archaeological thought.

Os caminhos da pragmática no Brasil

This paper traces the history of the study of pragmatics in Brazil. It is shown that Brazilian researches have, by and large, remained attentive to major developments in the field taking place elsewhere in the world. Of particular importance is the burgeoning tendency to focus attention on social issues affecting the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. More and more researchers are realizing the need to assume a critical role in relation to the theories they encounter in the literature.

Resonancias discursivas y cortesía en prácticas de lecto-escritura

In this paper we present a study of reading comprehension based on a contrastive argumentative-discursive approach. We examine the relationship between linguistic materiality and discursive processes, observing the connection between reading in a foreign language, writing production and textual memories in the mother tongue. In addition to an interest in practical language teaching and learning processes (in this case of Spanish and Portuguese), we investigate the question of politeness and the theoretical relationship between subjectivity, language, and textuality. The latter, being understood as the result of discourse regularities, is unique for each and every production, yet is also conditioned by plural discursive memories resulting from contradictory social relationships in a specific historical context (Foucault, 1986; Pêcheux, 1990). In the experiment presented here, we follow some of the procedures of the methodology applied in the European Galatea Project developed for the study of reading strategies in the inter-comprehension between Romance languages (Dabène, 1996). We use the procedure of simulation and the subjective projection of participants as well as the notion of discursive resonance in the analysis. The results, having to do with directness and indirectness in speech and the question of politeness in two typologically close languages, lead to the conclusion that the concept of politeness goes beyond a pragmatic strategy used to avoid conflicts to be approached as a marker of cultural identity constitution. The relevance of discursive awareness and its theoretical and practical consequences are then emphasized.

Sistema Fonológico do Português: Rediscutindo o Consenso

Problems identified in the study and analysis of the phonology of Brazilian Indian languages belonging to the Macro-Jê branch such as Kaingang, Maxakali, and Mebengokre led the author to confirm the accuracy of some intuitions on the part of Piggott (1992) and Rice (1993) on dealing with relations between nasality and sonorancy (D'Angelis 1998). The applicability of the approach to the distinct processes of nasality and nasalization in Portuguese was verified with surprising results that recover some intuitions of Trubetzkoy (1939) and contribute to reconfirm the Mattoso Câmara's (1953; 1970) considerations, but at the same time go beyond them. This article presents the result of this investigation and its conclusions that suggest the validity and the necessity of reexamining even the phonemic inventory of the Portuguese language, an issue not at all questioned in the teaching of phonology, to take into account the linguistic changes in the phonological system of that language in the last fifty years.

Encore quelques délocutifs

In this article, I review the concept of delocutive derivation, conceived for the first time by Benveniste, who exemplified it prototypically through the Latin verb salutare (to greet) as a derivation from the noun salus (health). I advocate that it might be interesting not to limit this concept to verb derivation and that an enlarged concept of the delocutive process may be useful to explain many derivations in ancient and modern Portuguese. In addition I present some of the problems that the understanding of the delocutive process may bring to a semantics that wishes to consider only the meaning and the reference of linguistic expressions.

A responsabilidade de traduzir o in-traduzível: Jacques Derrida e o desejo de [la] tradução

How should one consider the responsibility of the translator, who is located between the differences of two linguistic systems and in the middle of the various idioms constitute each of the languages involved in the translation? (P. Ottoni). What is the role of the translator in inter-acting with both his/her mother tongue and the idiom of the other? These two questions will be discussed in order to reflect on the responsibility of translating the un-translatable. Two hypotheses orient the paper: 1 - an idiom spoken idiomatically is known as the mother tongue and is not appropriated, so that accommodating the other in one's own language automatically considers his/her idiom (J. Derrida) and 2 - face-to-face with language and its idioms, the translator is trapped in a double (responsibility) bind; faced with something which cannot be translated, he/she is forced to perceive it in another way. In conclusion, how should one consider the responsibility of translating the un-translatable Jacques Derrida?

Machado de assis's epilepsy

Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is considered the most important Brazilian writer and a great universal literary figure. Little is know about his medical, personal and family history. He hid his «disease» as much as possible. Machado referred to «strange things» having happened to him in his childhood. He described seizures as «nervous phenomena», «absenses», «my illness». Laet observed a seizure and described it as: «... when Machado approached us and spoke to me in disconnected words. I looked at him in surprise and found his features altered. Knowing that from time to time he had nervous problems,... and only permitted Machado take the Laranjeiras Street car, when I saw that he was completely well». A photographically documented seizure is shown. Alencar wrote, «The preoccupation with health was frequent: either he was having the consequences of a fit or was foreboding one». It is clear that Machado presented localized symptomatic epilepsy with complex partial seizures secondarily generalized of unknown etiology. The seizures which began in infancy or childhood had remission in adolescence and then recurred in his thirties and became more frequent in his later years. His depression got markedly worse with age. In our opinion, the greatest consequence of Machado's epilepsy, was his psychological suffering due to the prejudice of the times. Despite this Machado showed all his genius, which is still actual and universal.

Identidade social e auto conceito do dançarino em cadeira de rodas

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física