Genetic diversity of Brucella ovis isolates from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, by MLVA16

BACKGROUND: Ovine epididymitis is predominantly associated with Brucella ovis infection. Molecular characterization of Brucella spp. achieved by multi-locus variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) analyses (MLVA) have proved to be a powerful tool for epidemiological trace-back studies. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of Brucella ovis isolates from Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, by MLVA16. FINDINGS: MLVA16 genotyping identified thirteen distinct genotypes and a Hunter-Gaston diversity index of 0.989 among the fourteen B. ovis genotyped strains. All B. ovis MLVA16 genotypes observed in the present study represented non-previously described profiles. Analyses of the eight conserved loci included in panel 1 (MLVA8) showed three different genotypes, two new and one already described for B. ovis isolates. Among ten B. ovis isolates from same herd only two strains had identical pattern, whereas the four isolates with no epidemiologic information exhibited a single MLVA16 pattern each. Analysis of minimal spanning tree, constructed using the fourteen B. ovis strains typed in this study together with all nineteen B. ovis MLVA16 genotypes available in the MLVAbank 2014, revealed the existence of two clearly distinct major clonal complexes. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the results of the present study showed a high genetic diversity among B. ovis field isolates from Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, by MLVA16

Neoliberalisation and 'lad cultures' in higher education

This paper links HE neoliberalisation and ‘lad cultures’, drawing on interviews and focus groups with women students. We argue that retro-sexist ‘laddish’ forms of masculine competitiveness and misogyny have been reshaped by neoliberal rationalities to become modes of consumerist sexualised audit. We also suggest that neoliberal frameworks scaffold an individualistic and adversarial culture among young people that interacts with perceived threats to men’s privilege and intensifies attempts to put women in their place through misogyny and sexual harassment. Furthermore, ‘lad cultures’, sexism and sexual harassment in higher education may be invisibilised by institutions to preserve marketability in a neoliberal context. In response, we ask if we might foster dialogue and partnership between feminist and anti-marketisation politics

Qualidade de alface crespa cultivada em sistema orgânico, convencional e hidropônico.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a qualidade da alface do grupo crespa, cv. Vera, em sistemas de cultivo orgânico, convencional e hidropônico em Rio Branco-AC. O experimento foi conduzido em julho de 2009. As amostras dos sistemas, convencional e hidropônico (3 marcas comerciais), foram escolhidas aleatoriamente nos supermercados do município de Rio Branco, no mesmo dia de coleta da alface produzida em sistema orgânico. A alface orgânica, produzida na área experimental do Setor de Agricultura Ecológica da Universidade Federal do Acre (UFAC), em Rio Branco, foi cultivada em estufa, sob plantio direto utilizando folhas de bambu como cobertura do solo, e adubada com composto orgânico (17 t ha-1 em base seca). O delineamento utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado, com cinco tratamentos e quatro repetições compostas por três plantas. As amostras foram lavadas, cortadas e processadas com folha e caule, para obter o suco. Logo após foram determinados os teores de sólidos solúveis e a concentração de nitrato e ácido ascórbico. As três marcas de alface hidropônica apresentaram maior teor de nitrato e menor concentração de sólidos solúveis e ácidos ascórbico, enquanto a alface orgânica apresentou qualidade superior, com baixa concentração de nitrato e maior teor de ácido ascórbico

O ETHOS DO ASSISTENTE SOCIAL NA PERSPECTIVA GRAMSCIANA DE ESTADO

O artigo discute o ethos do assistente social, como modo de serprofissional, a partir do conceito de Estado de Gramsci. Para isso, apresenta-seum paralelo entre o conceito de Estado “ampliado” em Gramsci no início doséculo XX e o conceito de Estado “restrito” de Marx e Engels em meados doséculo XIX. De ambas acepções de Estado decorrem as respectivas teoriasrevolucionárias: em Marx e Engels, no contexto do Manifesto do PartidoComunista, como insurreição armada e explosiva - tomada violenta do Estado;em Gramsci, como busca pela hegemonia – conquista processual. Tratamos porfim da diferenciação entre o ethos da perfectibilidade, que determina um fim apriori, e o ethos da mobilidade, que se constrói no cotidiano, na realidadeconcreta em que o assistente social se encontra. Desse modo, parece-noslegítimo aproximar o ethos da mobilidade com a abordagem do Estado“ampliado” em Gramsci, já que este autor compreende o movimento socialcomo um espaço aberto de luta pela conquista da hegemonia de determinadomodelo político e econômico.Palavras-chave: Gramsci. Estado. ethos. perfectibilidade. mobilidade

A Digital Repository and Execution Platform for Interactive Scholarly Publications in Neuroscience

The CARMEN Virtual Laboratory (VL) is a cloud-based platform which allows neuroscientists to store, share, develop, execute, reproduce and publicise their work. This paper describes new functionality in the CARMEN VL: an interactive publications repository. This new facility allows users to link data and software to publications. This enables other users to examine data and software associated with the publication and execute the associated software within the VL using the same data as the authors used in the publication. The cloud-based architecture and SaaS (Software as a Service) framework allows vast data sets to be uploaded and analysed using software services. Thus, this new interactive publications facility allows others to build on research results through reuse. This aligns with recent developments by funding agencies, institutions, and publishers with a move to open access research. Open access provides reproducibility and verification of research resources and results. Publications and their associated data and software will be assured of long-term preservation and curation in the repository. Further, analysing research data and the evaluations described in publications frequently requires a number of execution stages many of which are iterative. The VL provides a scientific workflow environment to combine software services into a processing tree. These workflows can also be associated with publications and executed by users. The VL also provides a secure environment where users can decide the access rights for each resource to ensure copyright and privacy restrictions are met

A Philosophically Plausible Formal Interpretation of Intuitionistic Logic

This study addresses the mediating role of settlement patterns in the relationship between urbanization and start-up activity. Places do not operate in a vacuum and to understand the effect of 'own' density on start-up patterns, we need to account for the urban spillovers or borrowed size that they may experience from other places nearby. The results can explain the empirical ambiguity in the relationship between urbanization and start-up patterns: the relationship between urbanization and start-up rates becomes more similar between countries when controlling for country-specific settlement patterns by including a spatially lagged urbanization variable and variables measuring the distance to urban centers. Accounting for the relative location of places and relevant sorting effects, we find that 'own' density has a consistently negative effect on start-up activity. Yet, access to other places has a generally positive effect. This implies that nearby regions profit from the advantages offered by urban environments without having to deal with the costs involved

A transcriptomic analysis of Echinococcus granulosus larval stages:implications for parasite biology and host adaptation

The cestode Echinococcus granulosus--the agent of cystic echinococcosis, a zoonosis affecting humans and domestic animals worldwide--is an excellent model for the study of host-parasite cross-talk that interfaces with two mammalian hosts. To develop the molecular analysis of these interactions, we carried out an EST survey of E. granulosus larval stages. We report the salient features of this study with a focus on genes reflecting physiological adaptations of different parasite stages.We generated ~10,000 ESTs from two sets of full-length enriched libraries (derived from oligo-capped and trans-spliced cDNAs) prepared with three parasite materials: hydatid cyst wall, larval worms (protoscoleces), and pepsin/H(+)-activated protoscoleces. The ESTs were clustered into 2700 distinct gene products. In the context of the biology of E. granulosus, our analyses reveal: (i) a diverse group of abundant long non-protein coding transcripts showing homology to a middle repetitive element (EgBRep) that could either be active molecular species or represent precursors of small RNAs (like piRNAs); (ii) an up-regulation of fermentative pathways in the tissue of the cyst wall; (iii) highly expressed thiol- and selenol-dependent antioxidant enzyme targets of thioredoxin glutathione reductase, the functional hub of redox metabolism in parasitic flatworms; (iv) candidate apomucins for the external layer of the tissue-dwelling hydatid cyst, a mucin-rich structure that is critical for survival in the intermediate host; (v) a set of tetraspanins, a protein family that appears to have expanded in the cestode lineage; and (vi) a set of platyhelminth-specific gene products that may offer targets for novel pan-platyhelminth drug development.This survey has greatly increased the quality and the quantity of the molecular information on E. granulosus and constitutes a valuable resource for gene prediction on the parasite genome and for further genomic and proteomic analyses focused on cestodes and platyhelminths

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Reframing professional development through understanding authentic professional learning

Continuing to learn is universally accepted and expected by professionals and other stakeholders across all professions. However, despite changes in response to research findings about how professionals learn, many professional development practices still focus on delivering content rather than enhancing learning. In exploring reasons for the continuation of didactic practices in professional development, this article critiques the usual conceptualization of professional development through a review of recent literature across professions. An alternative conceptualization is proposed, based on philosophical assumptions congruent with evidence about professional learning from seminal educational research of the past two decades. An argument is presented for a shift in discourse and focus from delivering and evaluating professional development programs to understanding and supporting authentic professional learning