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)

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.

O artigo apresenta os dados e conclusões obtidos a partir da análise da cobertura do caso do assassinato da jornalista Sandra Gomide pelo também jornalista e ex-chefe, Pimenta Neves. Encarado enquanto incidente crítico, o crime envolveu jornalistas no papel de vítima e réu, problematizando não apenas a questão do distanciamento pressuposto para a prática de uma cobertura imparcial, bem como expondo hierarquias e relações de gênero presentes dentro das redações brasileiras. Para tanto foi realizada uma análise de enquadramento do conteúdo (...) dos primeiros dezesseis dias da cobertura do caso pela Folha Online, cujos corpus é composto por 229 matérias. Os enquadramentos que predominaram apontaram para a humanização do assassino, reforçando uma posição patriarcal e hierárquica superior; enquanto que se enfatizou a subordinação e culpabilização da vítima em relação ao crime que lhe tirou a vida. (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)

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)

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)

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)

The problem of joint measurement of incompatible observables is investigated. Measurements are represented by positive operator-valued measures. A quantitative notion of inaccuracy is defined. It is shown that within this framework joint inaccurate measurements are possible for arbitrary maximal projection-valued measures on finite-dimensional spaces. The accuracy of such measurements is limited, as is shown by an inaccuracy inequality we derive. This new type of uncertainty relation can be unambiguously interpreted as referring to measurement precision rather than preparative quality. Several recent (...) experiments are seen to be realizations of such joint measurements. (shrink)

Bringing together specialists in various fields, this volume shows that the transformation from the scholastic to more empirical approaches to psychology was a gradual process.

In this paper we consider an intuitionistic variant of the modal logic S4 (which we call IS4). The novelty of this paper is that we place particular importance on the natural deduction formulation of IS4— our formulation has several important metatheoretic properties. In addition, we study models of IS4— not in the framework of Kirpke semantics, but in the more general framework of category theory. This allows not only a more abstract definition of a whole class of models but also (...) a means of modelling proofs as well as provability. (shrink)

Although anomic feelings have been found to lead employees to unethical performance, little is known about why this relationship is possible. The aim of this study is to test a compassion-based explanation of why anomic employees harm co-workers by displaying interpersonal deviance. The prediction is made that once sociological anomie enters organizations in the form of employees’ private feelings of anomie—i.e., “anomia”—, this anomia will individually move staff to be uncompassionate in the workplace. Three uncompassionate feelings toward co-workers are then (...) hypothesized to mediate the relationship between anomia and interpersonal deviance: negative judgments about others, over-identification, and isolation. Data were collected from 280 employees at ten hotels in the Canary Islands. The results indicated that anomia was significantly and positively linked to uncompassionate feelings and interpersonal deviance, but only negative judgments about others mediated the anomia effects on interpersonal deviance. Findings suggest to managers that by spreading ethical standards that discourage negative judgments about others in the workplace, they can neutralize the mechanisms leading anomia to interpersonal deviance. (shrink)