Currently there are persistent doubts about the meaning and contributions of the gene concept, mostly related to its interpretation as a stretch of DNA encoding a single functional product, i.e., the classical molecular gene concept. There is, however, much conceptual variation around genes, leading to important difficulties in genetics teaching. We investigated whether and how conceptual variation related to the gene concept and gene function models is present in school science and what potential problems it may bring to genetics teaching (...) and learning. Here, we report results on how ideas about genes and gene function are treated in textbooks and appear in students’ views and, also, about a teaching strategy for improving higher education students’ understanding of scientific models and conceptual variation around genes and their functions. (shrink)

Book review: FERRAZ, Salma; MAGALHÃES, Antônio C. M.; BRANDÃO, Eli et alii.. Teologia do Riso: humor e mau humor na Bíblia e no cristianismo. Campina Grande: EDUEPB, 2017. 574p. il. ISBN: 978-85-7879-409-5 ISBN E-BOOK: 978-85-7879-410-1.

Child poly-victimization is a risk factor for psychopathology in adulthood, such as anxiety and depression. Despite that, there is minus investment regarding psychotic symptoms and the mechanisms explaining the relationship between poly-victimization and psychoticism. The purpose of this study is to investigate these variables and explain how they might be associated. A sample of 246 adults participated in this study, aged between 18 and 68 years (M = 37.5, SD = 12.5) and mostly females (76.8%). The results revealed a significant (...) mediating effect of anxiety and depression in the relationship between childhood victimization and psychoticism (b =.12, p =.011), but not a significant moderating effect of gender, Δχ2(5) = 3.87, p =.568. The affective pathway was supported by our findings. These results suggest the need of additional efforts on prevention of child victimization, as well as of intervention programs aiming to prevent its cumulative effect. (shrink)

The evolution and biodiversity of ageing have long fascinated scientists and the public alike. While mammals, including long‐lived species such as humans, show a marked ageing process, some species of reptiles and amphibians exhibit very slow and even the absence of ageing phenotypes. How can reptiles and other vertebrates age slower than mammals? Herein, I propose that evolving during the rule of the dinosaurs left a lasting legacy in mammals. For over 100 million years when dinosaurs were the dominant predators, (...) mammals were generally small, nocturnal, and short‐lived. My hypothesis is that such a long evolutionary pressure on early mammals for rapid reproduction led to the loss or inactivation of genes and pathways associated with long life. I call this the ‘longevity bottleneck hypothesis’, which is further supported by the absence in mammals of regenerative traits. Although mammals, such as humans, can evolve long lifespans, they do so under constraints dating to the dinosaur era. (shrink)

Despite recent progress in the identification of genes that regulate longevity, aging remains a mysterious process. One influential hypothesis is the idea that the potential for cell division and replacement are important factors in aging. In this work, we review and discuss this perspective in the context of interventions in mammals that appear to accelerate or retard aging. Rather than focus on molecular mechanisms, we interpret results from an integrative biology perspective of how gene products affect cellular functions, which in (...) turn impact on tissues and organisms. We review evidence suggesting that mutations that give rise to features resembling premature aging tend to be associated with cellular phenotypes such as increased apoptosis or premature replicative senescence. In contrast, many interventions in mice that extend lifespan and might delay aging, including caloric restriction, tend to either hinder apoptosis or result in smaller animals and thus may be the product of fewer cell divisions. Therefore, it appears plausible that changes in the number of times that cells, and particularly stem cells, divide during an organism's lifespan influence longevity and aging. We discuss possible mechanisms related to this hypothesis and propose experimental paradigms. BioEssays 30:567–578, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Envelhecer traz em si significações negativas que se agravam em situação de reclusão. Os procedimentos metodológicos pautaram-se em estudo bibliográfico e pesquisa em banco de dados. Os artigos encontrados foram organizados, analisados, chegando à conclusões como a falta de pesquisas sobre a mulher idosa encarcerada. Por isso, foi realizada a entrevista semi-estruturada com uma senhora sentenciada à privação de liberdade em São Paulo, Brasil. Os dados da pesquisa revelaram que a vida em regime fechado é precária para a mulher idosa (...) e, que se faz necessário repensar as políticas públicas priorizando medidas educativas e artísticas no ambiente prisional. (shrink)

Guiado pelas teorias da decolonialidade e da performatividade, este artigo pretende discutir as possibilidades de uma teoria do humano no Direito que seja expansiva, rompendo com as leituras cis-heteronormativas e brancas das teorias dominantes sobre Direito e Justiça. Para isso, realiza duas tarefas: primeiro, toma as teorias sobre sexo, gênero e raça como linguagens atribuídas a corpos para usar o corpo como categoria jurídica de análise e, com esse corpo, aprendendo com as travestilidades, compreender o humano como sempre sendo “em (...) processo de”, exigindo-nos compromisso com “dignidades” produzidas a partir da multiplicidade da “pessoa”. Depois, usa duas categorias jurídico-constitucionais para rediscutir a entrada do “humano” no Direito nos marcos do gênero e da raça – e das múltiplas corporalidades: dignidade da pessoa humana e povo. Sem pretender resolver a oposição universalismo/individualismo contida nessas categorias, o trabalho sustenta a fronteira como lugar de expansão: um povo que performa pluriversalidades e a pessoa humana em suas multiplicidades. Essa teoria expansiva exige reconhecer que o humano é humano “em processo de” e coloca o limite dos sentidos produzidos pela tensão entre as duas categorias jurídicas no corpo, lido sob as linguagens de sexo, gênero e raça. Isso exigirá o compromisso e a responsabilização pela diminuição da distribuição diferencial de humanidade produzida na matriz branca e cis-heterconforme e o reconhecimento de que o sujeito que dá a si mesmo a “lei” deve poder se fazer mutuamente povo e pessoa humana. (shrink)

A comprehensive edition of the surviving correspondence of the London-based scientific enthusiast J. H. de Magellan (1722-1790), who devoted himself to promoting the interchange of scientific and technical news and information between England and the rest of Europe at a time when more formal means of doing so were lacking.

This article intends to unpack how art education motivates students for a creative educational practice in immersive learning, following the author’s research using books to explore The Book Experience as a Place of Epistemological Reflection in Art Education. Questions as to how book making can be understood as a tool for teaching and learning, as a mediator and as a collaborative piece of producing knowledge, were raised during the process of making collective books, along with reflection on author’s articles. Feedbacks (...) reveal a firm evidence of learning through studio practice based pedagogies as spaces of learning. (shrink)

Objective: To explore the strategies that can help individuals mourning a family member’s death from Covid-19 to cope with the loss. Method: We carried out a narrative review on the PubCovid-19 platform using the descriptors “death,” “mourning,” “Covid-19,” and “coping strategies.” Ten articles were included. Results: The strategies found are phone calls, audio recording, letters, and photos, classified as immediate and long-term. These strategies are focused on mental health, which can be adversely affected by depression and psychological disorders. Conclusions: Creating (...) counseling programs for the relatives of those who died from Covid-19 is urgent. They must offer comprehensive, humanized, and continuous mental health care. (shrink)

In recent years, functional connectivity in the developmental science received increasing attention. Although it has been reported that the anatomical connectivity in the preterm brain develops dramatically during the last months of pregnancy, little is known about how functional and effective connectivity change with maturation. The present study investigated how effective connectivity in premature infants evolves. To assess it, we use EEG measurements and graph-theory methodologies. We recorded data from 25 preterm babies, who underwent long-EEG monitoring at least twice during (...) their stay in the NICU. The recordings took place from 27 weeks postmenstrual age until 42 weeks PMA. Results showed that the EEG-connectivity, assessed using graph-theory indices, moved from a small-world network to a random one, since the clustering coefficient increases and the path length decreases. This shift can be due to the development of the thalamocortical connections and long-range cortical connections. Based on the network indices, we developed different age-prediction models. The best result showed that it is possible to predict the age of the infant with a root mean-squared error equal to 2.11 weeks. These results are similar to the ones reported in the literature for age prediction in preterm babies. (shrink)

Davidson's anomalous monism, his argument for the identity between mental and physical event tokens, has been frequently attacked, usually demanding a higher degree of physicalist commitment. My objection runs in the opposite direction: the identities inferred by Davidson from mental causation, the nomological character of causality and the anomaly of the mental are philosophically problematic and, more dramatically, incompatible with his famous argument against the third dogma of empiricism, the separation of content from conceptual scheme. Given the anomaly of the (...) mental and the absence of psychophysical laws, there are no conceptual resources to relate mental and physical predicates. We fall in the third dogma if we claim that the very same token event is mental and physical. One of the premises must be rejected: I will claim that we do not need a law to subsume cause and effect to be entitled to speak of causation. Davidson has never offered an argument to back this premise. Against such a dogma I will sketch some ideas pointing towards a different conception of causality, singularist and undetachable from explanatory practices. (shrink)