Crystal structure of a novel myotoxic Arg49 phospholipase A(2) homolog (zhaoermiatoxin) from Zhaoermia mangshanensis snake venom: Insights into Arg49 coordination and the role of Lys122 in the polarization of the C-terminus

The venom of Zhaoermia mangshanensis, encountered solely in Mt Mang in China's Hunan Province, exhibits coagulant, phosphodiesterase, L-amino acid oxidase, kallikrein, phospholipase A(2) and myotoxic activities. The catalytically inactive PLA(2) homolog referred to as zhaoermiatoxin is highly myotoxic and displays high myonecrotic and edema activities. Zhaoermiatoxin possesses a molecular weight of 13,972 Da, consists of 121 amino-acid residues crosslinked by seven disulfide bridges and shares high sequence homology with Lys49-PLA(2)s from the distantly related Asian pitvipers. However, zhaoermiatoxin possesses an arginine residue at position 49 instead of a lysine, thereby suggesting a secondary Lys49 -> Arg substitution which results in a catalytically inactive protein. We have determined the first crystal structure of zhaoermiatoxin, an Arg49-PLA(2), from Zhaoermia mangshanensis venom at 2.05 A resolution, which represents a novel member of phospholipase A(2) family. In this structure, unlike the Lys49 PLA(2)s, the C-terminus is well ordered and an unexpected non-polarized state of the putative calcium-binding loop due to the flip of Lys122 towards the bulk solvent is observed. The orientation of the Arg-49 side chain results in a similar binding mode to that observed in the Lys49 PLA(2)s; however, the guadinidium group is tri-coordinated by carbonyl oxygen atoms of the putative calcium-binding loop, whereas the N zeta atom of lysine is tetra-coordinated as a result of the different conformation adopted by the putative calcium-binding loop. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ultrastructural characteristics of spermiogenesis in the domestic duck (Anas platyrhynchos)

In this present study was observed that the spermatids underwent morphological differentiation and modifications, which primarily comprised nuclear elongation, during the process of spermiogenesis in the domestic duck. The acrosome was formed and the flagellum developed concomitantly with nuclear modifications. Thus, various modifications could be observed during this process, especially changes in the distribution of cytoplasmic organelles. Long cisternae of the rough endoplasmic reticulum present in the spermatid cytoplasm dissociated into vesicles and the distal centriole initiated the development of the flagellum in the cellular portion opposite to the acrosome. The ultrastructure of the spermatids of the domestic duck did not show the characteristic development of pre-acrosomal granules, but the acrosomal granule could be directly visualized in this species. © 2005 Blackwell Verlag.

Millennium development goals: progress towards the right to health in Latin america and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Prebiotic Effect of Fructooligosaccharide in the Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME (R) Model)

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

Understanding the Other’s “Understanding” of Violence: Legitimacy, Recognition, and the Challenge of Dealing with the Past in Divided Societies

Post-conflict societies which have achieved a cessation of violence and embarked on a political conflict transformation process cannot in the long-term avoid a process of dealing with the past. Case studies of South Africa and Northern Ireland confirm this normative claim, showing that within the post-war society as a whole a social consensus on how to “understand” and “recognize” the use of violence that occurred during the conflict is necessary: understanding the other’s “understanding” of violence. A mutual understanding must be reached that both sides fought a campaign that was just and legitimate from their own perspective. The morality of the “other’s violence” has to be recognized.

Explaining variations in the knowledge economy in three small wealthy countries

At a broad level, it has been shown that different institutional contexts, policy regimes and business systems affect the kinds of activities in which a nation specialises. This paper is concerned with the way in which different national business systems affect the nature of participation of a nation in the knowledge economy. The paper seeks to explain cross-national variations in the knowledge economy in the Australia, Denmark and Sweden with reference to dominant characteristics of the business system. Although Australia, Denmark and Sweden are all small wealthy countries, they each have quite distinctive business systems. Australia has been regarded as a variant of the competitive business system and has generally been described as an entrepreneurial economy with a large small firm population. In contrast Sweden has a coordinated business system that has favoured large industrial firms. The Danish variant of the coordinated model, with its well-developed vocational training system, is distinguishable by its large population of networked small and medium size enterprises. The three countries also differ significantly on two dimensions of participation in the knowledge economy. First, there is cross-national variation in patterns of specialisation in knowledge intensive industries and services. Second, the institutional infrastructure of the knowledge economy (or the existing stock of knowledge and competence in the economy, the potential for generation and diffusion a new knowledge and the capacity for commercialisation of new ideas) differs across the three countries. This paper seeks to explain variations in these two dimensions of the knowledge economy with reference to characteristics of the business system in the three countries.

A rejtett gazdaság és az ellene való fellépés tényezői = The hidden economy and the factors involved in combating it

A szerzők közgazdasági modellek áttekintése segítségével elemzik a rejtett gazdaságban való részvétel tényezőit. Bemutatják, hogy a haszonmaximáló cselekvők a rejtett gazdaság egyes megjelenési formáival kapcsolatos döntésük meghozatala során (például adócsalás esetében) számot vetnek a rejtett gazdaságban való részvétel, illetve az attól való tartózkodás költségeivel és hasznaival. A tanulmány az adócsalás társadalmilag optimális szintjének meghatározásával foglalkozik a rejtett gazdasággal szembeni kormányzati lépések egyes típusaival, ezek hatásaival és a rejtett gazdasággal szembeni optimális kormányzati politika lehetőségeivel. _______ The authors analyse the factors behind participation in the hidden economy, through a review of the models of economic theory. They show that those seeking to maximize profits weigh various forms of the hidden economy (tax evasion, for instance), in the search for the optimum solution, calculate the costs and benefits of participating in the hidden economy or refraining from doing so. Taking the ‘socially optimum level’ of tax evasion, the study covers the various types of government measures that can be taken against the hidden economy, the effects of them, and the scope for an optimum government policy to combat the hidden economy.

A válság mint negatív információ és bizonytalansági tényező. A válság hatása az egy részvényre jutó nyereség-előrejelzésekre (The financial crisis as negative information and a factor of uncertainty. Analysing the EPS forecasting error in Hungary and Austria)

A szerző a 2008-ban kezdődött gazdasági világválság hatását vizsgálja az egy részvényre jutó nyereség előrejelzésének hibájára. Számos publikáció bizonyította, hogy az elemzők a tényértékeknél szisztematikusan kedvezőbb tervértéket adnak meg az egy részvényre jutó előrejelzéseikben. Más vizsgálatok azt igazolták, hogy az egy részvényre jutó előrejelzési hiba bizonytalan környezetben növekszik, míg arra is számos bizonyítékot lehet találni, hogy a negatív hírek hatását az elemzők alulsúlyozzák. A gazdasági világválság miatt az elemzőknek számtalan negatív hírt kellett figyelembe venniük az előrejelzések készítésekor, továbbá a válság az egész gazdaságban jelentősen növelte a bizonytalanságot. A szerző azt vizsgálja, hogy miként hatott a gazdasági világválság az egy részvényre jutó nyereség- előrejelzés hibájára, megkülönböztetve azt az időszakot, amíg a válság negatív hír volt, attól, amikor már hatásaként jelentősen megnőtt a bizonytalanság. _____ The author investigated the impact of the financial crisis that started in 2008 on the forecasting error for earnings per share. There is plentiful evidence from the 1980s that analysts give systematically more favourable values in their earnings per share (EPS) forecasts than reality, i.e. they are generally optimistic. Other investigations have supported the idea that the EPS forecasting error is greater under uncertain environmental circumstances, while other researchers prove that the analysts under-react to the negative information in their forecasts. The financial crisis brought a myriad of negative information for analysts to consider in such forecasts, while also increasing the level of uncertainty for the entire economy. The article investigates the impact of the financial crisis on the EPS forecasting error, distinguishing the period when the crisis gave merely negative information, from the one when its effect of uncertainty was significantly increased over the entire economy.

Contradictory male/masculine/men's "I"s: the unwriting of men, and the concept of sex

May I start with two observations? First, men’s relations to feminism are problematic—there is always a gap, a gap between men and feminism; second, the gendering of men and masculinities is now recognised. There are several challenges here. The gender challenge concerns how to move from the presumed “genderlessness” of men towards the gender-consciousness of being a man/men. Another challenge concerns the “public/private,” the disruption of dominant narratives of “I” of men and the masculine “I.” There is also a temporal challenge, of moving away from simple linearity of the “I.” Together, these challenges can be seen as moving away from taken-for-granted “gender power-coherence” towards gender power-consciousness. To address these kinds of question means interrogating the uneven non-equivalences of what it means to be male, a man, masculine. This is not easily reduced to sex or gender. Rather gender/sex, or simply gex, helps to speak of such blurrings.

Teolog fundamentalny wobec ataku Przypadku, Nieokreśloności, Prawdopodobieństwa, Dwuznaczności, Wieloznaczności?

Postmodernizm prezentuje postawę akceptacji Nieładu, Chaosu i Przypadku. Czy istnieje moż- liwość dialogu z taką postawą? Postmodernizm powstaje jako bunt na pograniczu filozofii i estetyki. Kontestuje zastany Ład. Sprzeciwia się kartezjańskiemu Cogito ergo sum oraz podziałowi na res cogitans i res extensa. Jest to ruch kulturowy, który nie ma jeszcze swojego ostatecznego wyrazu. Jest on ciągle postrzegany jako proces przechodzenia od starego do nowego Ładu. Taki brak dookreślenia budzi niepokój i sprzeciw. Teologia fundamentalna jest badaniem granic i dialogu. Stoi na progu, więc ma obowiązek rozeznać ludzki niepokój w akceptacji otaczającego świata. Musimy zapytać, dlaczego człowiek akceptuje ten Nieład?

Maintenance or loss of dialect Andalusian features: Internal and external factors

In the last sixty years a steadily maintained process of convergence towards the Castilian national standard has been occurring in Southern Spain affecting urban middle-class speakers’ varieties, particularly phonology and lexis. As a consequence, unmarked features characterising innovative southern pronunciation have become less frequent and, at the same time, certain standard marked features have been adapted to the southern phonemic inventory. Then, urban middle-class varieties have progressively been stretching out the distance separating them from working-class and rural varieties, and bringing them closer to central Castilian varieties. Intermediate, yet incipient koineised varieties have been described including also transitional Murcia and Extremadura dialects (Hernández & Villena 2009, Villena, Vida & von Essen 2015). (1) Some of the standard phonologically marked features have spread out among southern speakers exclusively based on their mainstream social prestige and producing not only changes in obstruent phoneme inventory –i.e. acquisition of /s/ vs. /θ/ contrast, but also standstill and even reversion of old consonant push- or pull-chain shifts –e.g. /h/ or /d/ fortition, affricate /ʧ/, etc. as well as traditional lexis shift (Villena et al. 2016). Internal (grammar and word frequency) and external (stratification, network and style) factors constraining those features follow similar patterns in the Andalusian speech communities analysed so far (Granada, Malaga) but when we zoom in on central varieties, which are closer to the national standard and then more conservative, differences in frequency increase and conflict sites emerge. (2) Unmarked ‘natural’ phonological features characterising southern dialects, particularly deletion of syllable-final consonant, do not keep pace with this trend of convergence towards the standard. Thus a combination of southern innovative syllable-final and standard conservative onset-consonant features coexist. (3). The main idea is that this intermediate variety is formed through changes suggesting that Andalusian speakers look for the best way of accepting marked prestige features without altering coherence within their inventory. Either reorganisation of the innovative phonemic system in such a way that it may include Castilian and standard /s/ vs. /θ/ contrast or re-syllabification of aspirated /s/ before dental stop are excellent examples of how and why linguistic features are able to integrate intermediate varieties between the dialect-standard continuum.

Curriculum innovation in teacher education : exploring conceptions among Tanzanian teacher educators

The focus of the study is to understand curriculum innovation from the perspective of Tanzanian teacher educators. It is argued that the deterioration of quality of education in schools is partly to be attributed to the way in which teachers are educated. Curriculum innovation is considered as an essential strategy for bringing about improvement in teacher education. Therefore, in 2000 a new curriculum was introduced; however, right from the inception the curriculum was criticised by teacher educators. The overall aim of the study is to investigate teacher educators’ conceptions of curriculum innovation. In the theoretical framework the main focus is on discussion about different curriculum approaches for teacher education and innovation. In order to achieve the aim of the study, a phenomenographic approach is employed. This approach is used in order to identify similarities and variation in educators’ conceptions of curriculum innovation. The empirical basis of the study consists of interviews with thirty teacher educators working in eight teachers’ colleges situated in various parts of Tanzania. The findings, in brief, reveal variation in teacher educators’ conceptions of the dominant domains of innovation. Two broad conceptions of teaching with six aspects are identified. Conceptions of educational studies are presented in four broad categories of description with four aspects. Similarly, in methodology subjects two conceptions are described with four aspects. On the integration of subject matter studies and subject methods, two broad conceptions are presented with six aspects. Conceptions of textbook prescription policy are characterised in two broad categories of description with four aspects. With the use of modules two broad conceptions are identified with six aspects. In addition, the study identifies four broad conceptions of future curriculum approaches with eight aspects. Looking across the categories of description, the results indicate that educators cope with innovation individually. Three character types of teacher educators are presented: loyal, creative and critical. Furthermore, four types of phenomena suggesting critical areas about teacher educators’ conceptions of innovation are described: educators’ prior educational background, technical factors, student teachers’ factors and shifting from teaching to learning. On the whole, educators express a number of frame factors in the process of change towards the aim of curriculum innovation. This indicates that the new curriculum (2000) is not implemented as intended by curriculum developers. Constraints to the implementation are presented and discussed in detail. From these findings, two models of educators’ stance towards curriculum innovation are presented and can be used as a framework for planning successful curriculum innovations and analysing practice in teachers’ colleges.

Aprender: uma necessidade, um direito e uma possibilidade ao alcance de todos

A transição do 1º para o 2º ciclo implica, em muitos casos, para além de uma mudança nos modelos de organização (espaços, tempos e pessoas…), uma mudança da própria escola. E se uma preparação atempada pode ser facilitadora nesse processo de transição (inter-escolas; escola/família e família/aluno), a verdade é que o novo ciclo implica novos problemas e novos desafios que testam e mobilizam, diariamente, nos alunos em trânsito, a sua capacidade de adaptação a novas situações. Aceitando-se que para um elevado número de crianças, esse período é curto e facilmente ultrapassável, reconhece-se que para outras, a inclusão no novo ciclo exige mais tempo e adaptações específicas, em função das necessidades educativas especiais que manifestam. O trabalho que se apresenta orientado numa perspectiva ecológica e desenvolvido com base numa metodologia de investigação-acção, permitiu-nos um melhor conhecimento do "Pedro" (nome fictício), enquanto pessoa (jovem, aluno, colega, filho, neto, vizinho e amigo), e dos contextos nos quais se movimenta; a identificação das suas potencialidades e necessidades educativas e a definição, implementação e avaliação das respostas educativas que viabilizaram e optimizaram a sua inclusão na escola do 2º ciclo. A intervenção realizada implicou um trabalho de equipa caracterizado pela colaboração e articulação regular, entre os diferentes intervenientes e pela persistência e coerência na acção desenvolvida. Permitiu ainda uma maior consciencialização de que quaisquer que sejam as características que nos tornam singulares, é possível evoluir em relação ao ponto de partida, se nos diferentes contextos de vida de cada pessoa se criarem as condições que viabilizem e estimulem percursos evolutivos. Com o trabalho desenvolvido reforçaram-se relações interpessoais, aprofundou-se a colaboração entre pares; entre a Escola e a Família, entre os Pais e o "Pedro" e desenvolveram-se as aprendizagens dos diferentes intervenientes, conforme testemunha a avaliação realizada.

A proposta do estado empregador de ultima instância e o experimentalismo democrático: uma reflexão teórica sobre a compatibilidade desses dois programas

This paper aims to make a theoretical reflection on the theoretical compatibility between the program State Employer of Last Resort (ELR) and the Democratic experimentalism (ED). The ED arises in political thought as an alternative to neo-liberal and social democratic programs in order to rescue the discussion about the institutional organization of society and the market economy. About the involuntary unemployment, it proposes tax changes incidents on payroll and proposes work fronts to the most vulnerable or poorly trained. The hypothesis of this paper is that this approach is compatible with the ELR program, the post- Keynesian line. The ELR is presented as transgression of the mainstream of economic thought by proposing that the State acts as guarantor of employment, working as a stabilizing anchor for the economy. On the edge, the ELR proposes eliminate completely involuntary unemployment. The implementation of the ELR, however, requires the construction of institutions that aim to remake the market economy, as well as deepen and energize politics and democracy, goals that are part of the ED program. Thus, the ED would, in theory, an environment conducive to innovative policies guarantors of training and occupation of the individual, essential for their emancipation institutional environment. In Brazil, which has serious infrastructure problems and qualification of manpower, such a program has enormous potential benefit. However when transposed to the Northeast of Brazil through the Plan for the region based on the principles of the ED and the hypothetical coupling to the ELR could not confirm or reject the hypothesis sub-compatibility of these two theoretical frameworks. The findings point to a partial convergence between these two programs

As Virgens Marias da Nova Espanha e do Arcebispado de Lima durante os séculos XVI e XVII: entre a idolatria e a santidade

Pós-graduação em História - FCHS