Investida contra as profissões e reestruturação das identidades acadêmicas e profissionais

Este artigo baseia-se em uma série de idéias e conceitos desenvolvidos pelo sociólogo britânico Basil Bernstein para analisar os desafios e as mudanças enfrentados recentemente por indivíduos com ocupações profissionais, inclusive os das áreas de ensino e pesquisa na educação superior. O artigo discute e procura desenvolver a análise de Bernstein sobre como estruturas particulares do conhecimento podem estar relacionadas com a formação de identidades ocupacionais, centradas naquilo a que o autor se refere como "interioridade" e "dedicação interna". A seguir, examina a gama de desafios para essas identidades, em especial aqueles que surgem da "regionalização" do conhecimento e do "genericismo". Na conclusão, avalia as perspectivas de perpetuação dessas identidades em uma era de crescente mercantilização e gerencialismo.

Knowledge hierarchy and professional knowledge

The aim of this article is to substantiate, in the sociological point of view, the distinction between the social and cognitive processes that produce knowledge in knowledge abstract systems - KAS - to generate cultural inequality and the micro processes of knowledge usage, which build local and cultural knowledge from common sense. It is circumscribed to this aim a problematization of knowledge usage developed by middle class salaried professional groups, rich in cultural capital but without equivalent symbolical capital, in a capitalist society at risk. In order to achieve this goal, the classical contributions of Pierre Bourdieu, Boaventura Sousa Santos, Donald Schön and Basil Bernstein (among others) are taken as a basis regarding the limitation of critical and reflexive thinking and the virtues of professional knowledge to support an epistemology of professional practice.

An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome.

The human genome encodes the blueprint of life, but the function of the vast majority of its nearly three billion bases is unknown. The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project has systematically mapped regions of transcription, transcription factor association, chromatin structure and histone modification. These data enabled us to assign biochemical functions for 80% of the genome, in particular outside of the well-studied protein-coding regions. Many discovered candidate regulatory elements are physically associated with one another and with expressed genes, providing new insights into the mechanisms of gene regulation. The newly identified elements also show a statistical correspondence to sequence variants linked to human disease, and can thereby guide interpretation of this variation. Overall, the project provides new insights into the organization and regulation of our genes and genome, and is an expansive resource of functional annotations for biomedical research.

Hematopoietic stem cell function and survival depend on c-Myc and N-Myc activity.

Myc activity is emerging as a key element in acquisition and maintenance of stem cell properties. We have previously shown that c-Myc deficiency results in accumulation of defective hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) due to niche-dependent differentiation defects. Here we report that immature HSCs coexpress c-myc and N-myc mRNA at similar levels. Although conditional deletion of N-myc in the bone marrow does not affect hematopoiesis, combined deficiency of c-Myc and N-Myc (dKO) results in pancytopenia and rapid lethality. Interestingly, proliferation of HSCs depends on both myc genes during homeostasis, but is c-Myc/N-Myc independent during bone marrow repair after injury. Strikingly, while most dKO hematopoietic cells undergo apoptosis, only self-renewing HSCs accumulate the cytotoxic molecule Granzyme B, normally employed by the innate immune system, thereby revealing an unexpected mechanism of stem cell apoptosis. Collectively, Myc activity (c-Myc and N-Myc) controls crucial aspects of HSC function including proliferation, differentiation, and survival.

Models teòrics explicatius de l'aprenentatge motor

En este artículo se repasan los principales modelos teóricos explicativos del aprendizaje motor. En un primer apartado se comentan las aportaciones propias de la psicología cognitiva y más concretamente del corriente del procesamiento de la información: la Teoría del bucle cerrado de Jack Adams y la Teoría del esquema de Richard Schmidt. Posteriormente, se exponen las críticas que han recibido estos modelos y, para hacerlo, se introducen las principales aportaciones que el científico ruso Nikolai Bernstein hizo al estudio del aprendizaje y el control motor. A partir de estas aportaciones, se introducen las formulaciones teóricas que, surgidas desde la perspectiva dinámica-ecológica, pretenden superar las limitaciones de los modelos cognitivos. Finalmente, se comparan las dos perspectivas y se sugieren algunas posibles vías de desarrollo futuro del campo que nos ocupa.

Consommation d'aliments riches en calcium dans la population adulte de Suisse romande et du Tessin. [Consumption of calcium-rich food in the adult population of French-speaking Switzerland and of Tessin].

Food intake high in calcium content is important in the development of skeleton and the prevention of osteoporosis. From a public health perspective, it is therefore important to know the dietary calcium intake of a population. Two population surveys in the French and Italian parts of Switzerland (MONICA, 1988-1989, and Geneva, 1991), were combined to study nutritional habits related to calcium intake. A random population sample, aged 35 et 65 years, answered to a 24 hour recall questionnaire, either self-administered (MONICA, cantons of Vaud, Fribourg and Tessin, N = 2734) or by phone (canton of Geneva, N = 475). In the 4 cantons, for the previous day, 60% of participants ate dairy products, particularly whole milk and cheese. They drunk 3-4 dl/day of milk. A significant proportion (10%) of french and italian speaking Swiss did not consume any food high in calcium content. In Geneva, the mean daily calcium intake was 656 mg in men and 489 mg in women. In conclusion 1) eating habits related to calcium intake are similar across cantons; 2) women consume dairy products more frequently than men, but in smaller quantities; 3) about 60% of men and 80% of women do not get the daily amount of calcium recommended for the prevention of osteoporosis.

Automatic quality assessment in structural brain magnetic resonance imaging

MRI has evolved into an important diagnostic technique in medical imaging. However, reliability of the derived diagnosis can be degraded by artifacts, which challenge both radiologists and automatic computer-aided diagnosis. This work proposes a fully-automatic method for measuring image quality of three-dimensional (3D) structural MRI. Quality measures are derived by analyzing the air background of magnitude images and are capable of detecting image degradation from several sources, including bulk motion, residual magnetization from incomplete spoiling, blurring, and ghosting. The method has been validated on 749 3D T(1)-weighted 1.5T and 3T head scans acquired at 36 Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) study sites operating with various software and hardware combinations. Results are compared against qualitative grades assigned by the ADNI quality control center (taken as the reference standard). The derived quality indices are independent of the MRI system used and agree with the reference standard quality ratings with high sensitivity and specificity (>85%). The proposed procedures for quality assessment could be of great value for both research and routine clinical imaging. It could greatly improve workflow through its ability to rule out the need for a repeat scan while the patient is still in the magnet bore.

La teoría de los códigos. Desigualdades lingüísticas en educación

Las desigualdades lingüísticas en educación constituyen un problema que puede acentuarse con el cambio de sociedad. Este artículo recupera la teoría de los códigos de Basil Bernstein desde una perspectiva culturalista para aclarar sus aspectos más polémicos y, al mismo tiempo, introducir un nuevo modelo de análisis que pone en relación el capital cultural de las familias con el nivel de desarrollo lingüístico de los adolescentes. Se observa que el nivel de estudios alcanzado por los padres adquiere una notable importancia en el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa, especialmente en el desarrollo de las habilidades correspondientes al lenguaje escrito en los adolescentes de primer curso de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria.

La teoria del codis. Una entrevista a Basil Berstein

En el context d'aquesta monografia dedicada a l'obra del professor Bernstein ens va semblar oportú de comptar amb alguna aportació original de l'autor. Estant a punt de publicar-se la seva obra clàssica principal (ja apareguda quan s'editi aquest número de Temps d'educació ), va sorgir la idea d'una entrevista- una entrevista, en aquest cas, 'epistolar'.

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The contribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services to our health care needs is significant, both for the development of modern pharmaceuticals (Chivian and Bernstein 2008; Newmann and Cragg 2007; see also chapter on contribution of biodiversity to pharmaceuticals in this volume) and for their uses in traditional medicine (WHO 2013). Long before the rise of pharmaceutical development, societies have been drawing on their traditional knowledge, skills and customary practices, using various resources provided to them by nature to prevent, diagnose and treat health problems. Today, these practices continue to inform health-care delivery at the level of local communities in many places around the world (WHO 2013). In socioecological contexts such as these, several resources used for food, cultural and spiritual purposes are also used as medicines (Unnikrishnan and Suneetha 2012). Traditional medicine practices provide more than health care to these communities; they are considered a way of life and are founded on endogenous strengths, including knowledge, skills and capabilities.

Comparison of accelerated T1-weighted whole-brain structural-imaging protocols.

Imaging in neuroscience, clinical research and pharmaceutical trials often employs the 3D magnetisation-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MPRAGE) sequence to obtain structural T1-weighted images with high spatial resolution of the human brain. Typical research and clinical routine MPRAGE protocols with ~1mm isotropic resolution require data acquisition time in the range of 5-10min and often use only moderate two-fold acceleration factor for parallel imaging. Recent advances in MRI hardware and acquisition methodology promise improved leverage of the MR signal and more benign artefact properties in particular when employing increased acceleration factors in clinical routine and research. In this study, we examined four variants of a four-fold-accelerated MPRAGE protocol (2D-GRAPPA, CAIPIRINHA, CAIPIRINHA elliptical, and segmented MPRAGE) and compared clinical readings, basic image quality metrics (SNR, CNR), and automated brain tissue segmentation for morphological assessments of brain structures. The results were benchmarked against a widely-used two-fold-accelerated 3T ADNI MPRAGE protocol that served as reference in this study. 22 healthy subjects (age=20-44yrs.) were imaged with all MPRAGE variants in a single session. An experienced reader rated all images of clinically useful image quality. CAIPIRINHA MPRAGE scans were perceived on average to be of identical value for reading as the reference ADNI-2 protocol. SNR and CNR measurements exhibited the theoretically expected performance at the four-fold acceleration. The results of this study demonstrate that the four-fold accelerated protocols introduce systematic biases in the segmentation results of some brain structures compared to the reference ADNI-2 protocol. Furthermore, results suggest that the increased noise levels in the accelerated protocols play an important role in introducing these biases, at least under the present study conditions.

Single amino acid charge switch defines clinically distinct proline-serine-threonine phosphatase-interacting protein 1 (PSTPIP1)-associated inflammatory diseases.

BACKGROUND: Hyperzincemia and hypercalprotectinemia (Hz/Hc) is a distinct autoinflammatory entity involving extremely high serum concentrations of the proinflammatory alarmin myeloid-related protein (MRP) 8/14 (S100A8/S100A9 and calprotectin). OBJECTIVE: We sought to characterize the genetic cause and clinical spectrum of Hz/Hc. METHODS: Proline-serine-threonine phosphatase-interacting protein 1 (PSTPIP1) gene sequencing was performed in 14 patients with Hz/Hc, and their clinical phenotype was compared with that of 11 patients with pyogenic arthritis, pyoderma gangrenosum, and acne (PAPA) syndrome. PSTPIP1-pyrin interactions were analyzed by means of immunoprecipitation and Western blotting. A structural model of the PSTPIP1 dimer was generated. Cytokine profiles were analyzed by using the multiplex immunoassay, and MRP8/14 serum concentrations were analyzed by using an ELISA. RESULTS: Thirteen patients were heterozygous for a missense mutation in the PSTPIP1 gene, resulting in a p.E250K mutation, and 1 carried a mutation resulting in p.E257K. Both mutations substantially alter the electrostatic potential of the PSTPIP1 dimer model in a region critical for protein-protein interaction. Patients with Hz/Hc have extremely high MRP8/14 concentrations (2045 ± 1300 μg/mL) compared with those with PAPA syndrome (116 ± 74 μg/mL) and have a distinct clinical phenotype. A specific cytokine profile is associated with Hz/Hc. Hz/Hc mutations altered protein binding of PSTPIP1, increasing interaction with pyrin through phosphorylation of PSTPIP1. CONCLUSION: Mutations resulting in charge reversal in the y-domain of PSTPIP1 (E→K) and increased interaction with pyrin cause a distinct autoinflammatory disorder defined by clinical and biochemical features not found in patients with PAPA syndrome, indicating a unique genotype-phenotype correlation for mutations in the PSTPIP1 gene. This is the first inborn autoinflammatory syndrome in which inflammation is driven by uncontrolled release of members of the alarmin family.

Large-scale genomic analyses link reproductive aging to hypothalamic signaling, breast cancer susceptibility and BRCA1-mediated DNA repair.

Menopause timing has a substantial impact on infertility and risk of disease, including breast cancer, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We report a dual strategy in ∼70,000 women to identify common and low-frequency protein-coding variation associated with age at natural menopause (ANM). We identified 44 regions with common variants, including two regions harboring additional rare missense alleles of large effect. We found enrichment of signals in or near genes involved in delayed puberty, highlighting the first molecular links between the onset and end of reproductive lifespan. Pathway analyses identified major association with DNA damage response (DDR) genes, including the first common coding variant in BRCA1 associated with any complex trait. Mendelian randomization analyses supported a causal effect of later ANM on breast cancer risk (∼6% increase in risk per year; P = 3 × 10(-14)), likely mediated by prolonged sex hormone exposure rather than DDR mechanisms.