Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comunidade de prática on-line: uma estratégia para o desenvolvimento profissional dos professores de História

This article discusses the concept of Online Communities of Practice (CoP) - and aims to demonstrate the formation and consolidation of a CoP composed of professors of History of RME/BH and its possibilities in the context of professional development of teachers. The methodology used was Netnography. We identified the structural elements, stage of development and community indicators. This has allowed tracing the diagnostic group, highlighting the aspects that make possible to characterize a group of teachers as an online community of practice and the stage of development of the management of this community. The results of this research show that the CoP may be, in fact, an appropriate pedagogical strategy for the professional development of teachers.
Inhibition of entry of some amino acids into the brain, with observations on mental retardation in the aminoacidurias

SYSNOPSIS Abnormally high levels of various amino acids were maintained in the bloodstream of rats, causing saturation of amino acid transport into the brain and partial exclusion from the brain of other amino acids which are necessary for protein synthesis. Excluded amino acids could be made to enter the brain by raising their concentration in the bloodstream. The possible relevance of these findings to improvements in the dietary treatment of some inborn errors of metabolism is discussed.
Nutritional modifications in male infertility: a systematic review covering 2 decades.

CONTEXT Studies suggest that appropriate nutritional modifications can improve the natural conception rate of infertile couples. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to review the human trials that investigated the relation between nutrition and male infertility. DATA SOURCES A comprehensive systematic review of published human studies was carried out by searching scientific databases. Article selection was carried out in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. The American Dietetic Association Research Design and Implementation Checklist was also used for quality assessment. DATA EXTRACTION A total of 502 articles were identified, of which 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. DATA SYNTHESIS Results indicated that a healthy diet improves at least one measure of semen quality, while diets high in lipophilic foods, soy isoflavones, and sweets lower semen quality. CONCLUSION The role of daily nutrient exposure and dietary quality needs to be highlighted in male infertility. Mechanistic studies addressing the responsible underlying mechanisms of action of dietary modifications are highly warranted. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION PROSPERO 2013: CRD42013005953. Available at: http://www.crd. york.ac. uk/PROSPERO/display_record. asp? ID=CRD42013005953.
Bilateral cochlear implants in adults and children.

OBJECTIVE To measure the benefit (ie, sound localization and speech intelligibility in noise) of bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) in adults and in children. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Seventeen adults and 3 children underwent testing 3 months after activation of bilateral hearing. Adults received their devices in a simultaneous procedure and children in sequential procedures (3-8 years apart). Adults underwent testing of sound localization and speech intelligibility, with a single CI and bilaterally. Children underwent testing of sound localization, right/left discrimination, and speech intelligibility, with the first CI alone and bilaterally. We used computer games to attract the children's attention and engage them in the psychophysical tasks for long periods of time. RESULTS Preliminary findings suggest that, for adults, bilateral hearing leads to better performance on the localization task, and on the speech task when the noise is near the poorer of the 2 ears. In children, localization and discrimination are slightly better under bilateral conditions, but not remarkably so. On the speech tasks, 1 child did not benefit from bilateral hearing. Two children showed consistent improvement with bilateral hearing when the noise was near the side that underwent implantation first. CONCLUSIONS Bilateral CIs may offer advantages to some listeners. The tasks described in this study might offer a powerful tool for measuring such advantages, especially in young children. The extent of the advantage, however, is difficult to ascertain after 3 months of bilateral listening experience, and might require a more prolonged period of adjustment and learning. Future work should be aimed at examining these issues.
Regional Alterations in Protein Expression in the Dyssynchronous Failing Heart

Background—Left ventricular (LV) mechanical dyssynchrony induces regional heterogeneity of mechanical load and is an independent predictor of mortality and sudden death in heart failure (HF) patients. We tested whether dyssynchrony also induces localized disparities in the expression of proteins involved with mechanical stress, function, and arrhythmia susceptibility. Methods and Results—Eleven dogs underwent tachycardia-induced HF pacing, either from the right atrium or high right ventricular free wall. Whereas global LV dysfunction was similar between groups, LV contractile coordination assessed by tagged MRI was markedly dyssynchronous with right ventricular pacing but synchronous with right atrial pacing. In dyssynchronous failing hearts, the lateral LV endocardium displayed a 2-fold increase in phosphorylated erk mitogen-activated protein kinase expression (with no change in phospho-p38 or phospho-jnk), a 30% decline in sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase, an 80% reduction in phospholamban, and a 60% reduction in the gap junction protein connexin43, relative to neighboring myocardial segments. In contrast, hearts from both right atrial–paced HF dogs and an additional 4 noninstrumented control animals showed minimal regional variability in protein expression. Conclusions—LV dyssynchrony in failing hearts generates myocardial protein dysregulation concentrated in the late-activated, high-stress lateral endocardium. Such molecular polarization within the LV creates transmural and transchamber expression gradients of calcium handling and gap junction proteins that may worsen chamber function and arrhythmia susceptibility.
The infrared environments of masers associated with star formation

Abstract The near infrared (1–2μm) and the thermal infrared (3–25μm) trace many of the environments in which masers are thought to reside, including shocks, outflows, accretion disks, and the dense medium near protostars. After a number of recent surveys it has been found that there is a higher detection rate of mid-IR emission towards masers than cm radio continuum emission from UC HII regions, and that the mid-IR emission is actually more closely cospatial to the maser locations. A high percentage of water and methanol masers that are not coincident with the UC HII regions in massive star forming regions are likely to be tracing outflows and extremely young high mass stars before the onset of the UC HII region phase. After a decade of groundwork supporting the hypothesis that linearly distributed class II methanol masers may generally trace accretion disks around young massive stars, compelling evidence is mounting that these masers may generally be associated with outflows instead. Substantiation of this claim comes from recent outflow surveys and high angular resolution mid-IR imaging of the maser environments.
Learning Human Behavior for Bot Detection: A Perspective on Mouse Movement

The issue of bot detection has garnered increasing attention among researchers due to its significant impact on the daily lives of human users. Researchers have proposed various detection methods from different perspectives to identify malicious bots. In response, bot developers strive to evade existing detection mechanisms by incorporating human-like behavior into their bots. To advance research in the field of bot detection, this work introduces MouseAgent, an adversarial generative network-based approach that generates human-like mouse movements through learning from human user behaviors. MouseAgent offers two key advantages: Firstly, it demonstrates better similarity and evasion capability compared to existing function-based generative approaches in accurately mimicking the mouse movements of normal users. Secondly, once the generator model is trained, it can be readily utilized to generate a large number of unrestricted samples. Experimental results validate the efficacy of MouseAgent in generating mouse movements, showcasing its ability to easily evade existing detection models designed for the function-based generation of bot samples. The proposed mouse movement trajectory generation method using adversarial networks presents a new challenge for further research on mouse movement-based bot detection, and inspires the development of bot detection techniques.
The effect of operating height and holding mode on holding capacity for female subjects

The holding task is a very common manual human activity, but it has not been investigated previously by psychophysicists. Eight females participate in this study. A psychophysical method is used to determine how the operating height (elbow, shoulder, and overhead heights) and the holding mode (non-dominant, dominant, and two hands) affect the maximum acceptable holding weight (MAWH), heart rate (HR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE), when holding a box against a vertical surface. The operating height and the holding mode have a significant influence on the MAWH. However, the HR is not significantly influenced by the operating height and the holding mode. The overall RPE values are significantly influenced by the holding mode. The most stressed body parts are the arms, wrists, and shoulders. In general, these findings indicate that the holding task should be performed using two hands or ergonomically redesigned as much as possible.
Convergence of Y and non-Y channels onto single neurons in the superior colliculi of the cat

Receptive field properties of single neurons in the cat superior colliculus were examined following selective conduction-block of Y-type fibers in contralateral optic nerve. Although the responses evoked by photic stimuli presented via the Y-blocked eye were significantly weaker than those evoked by stimuli presented via the normal eye, > 85% of collicular cells were binocular. Furthermore, when binocular cells were stimulated via the Y-blocked eye their median upper cut-off velocity (100°/s) was significantly lower than that (400°/s) for stimuli presented via the normal eye. Thus, there is a substantial degree of excitatory convergence of Y- and non-Y- information channels on single collicular neurons and the responses to high velocity of motion appear to depend on the integrity of Y-type input.
Prevention of UV Radiation–Induced Premature Skin Aging in Hairless Mice by the Novel Compound Melanocin A

Abstract Repetitive exposure of the skin to UV radiation induces various harmful changes, such as thickening, wrinkle formation, inflammation and carcinogenesis. A variety of natural compounds and synthetic compounds have been studied to determine whether they can prevent UV-induced harmful effects. In this study, we investigated the effect of a novel compound, Melanocin A, which was isolated from Eupenicillium shearii F80695, on UV-induced premature skin aging. First, we studied the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)–9 expression in an immortalized human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT, in vitro. Acute UV irradiation induced MMP-9 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels and Melanocin A suppressed this expression in a dose-dependent manner. We then investigated the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced skin changes in hairless mice in vivo. Chronic exposure of hairless mouse dorsal skin to UV increased skin thickness and induced wrinkle formation and the gelatinase activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Moreover, Melanocin A significantly suppressed UV-induced morphologic skin changes and MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression. Taken together, these results show that Melanocin A can prevent the harmful effects of UV that lead to skin aging. Therefore, we suggest that Melanocin A should be viewed as a potential therapeutic agent for preventing and/or treating premature skin aging.
Energy-optimal relative timing of stance-leg push-off and swing-leg retraction in walking

SUMMARY Swing-leg retraction in walking is the slowing or reversal of the forward rotation of the swing leg at the end of the swing phase prior to ground contact. For retraction, a hip torque is often applied to the swing leg at about the same time as stance-leg push-off. Due to mechanical coupling, the push-off force affects leg swing, and hip torque affects the stance-leg extension. This coupling makes the energetic costs of retraction and push-off depend on their relative timing. Here, we find the energy-optimal relative timing of these actions. We first use a simplified walking model with non-regenerative actuators, a work-based energetic-cost, and impulsive actuations. Depending on whether the late-swing hip torque is retracting or extending (pushing the leg forward), we find that the optimum is obtained by applying the impulsive hip torque either following or prior to the impulsive push-off force, respectively. These trends extend to other bipedal models and to aperiodic gaits, and are independent of step lengths and walking speeds. In one simulation, the cost of a walking step is increased by 17.6% if retraction torque comes before push-off. To consider non-impulsive actuation and the cost of force production, we add a force-squared (F 2) term to the work cost. We show that this cost promotes simultaneous push-off force and retracting torque, but does not change the result that any extending torque should come prior to push-off. A high-fidelity optimization of the Cornell Ranger robot is consistent with the swing-retraction trends from the models above.
Logística hospitalar: um estudo sobre as atividades do setor de almoxarifado em hospital púbico

O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi a realizacao de um estudo sobre os principais problemas nas atividades de logistica hospitalar interna, focada no almoxarifado de um hospital publico do Nordeste brasileiro, no intuito de analisar o seu atual funcionamento, estudando meios que viabilizem as melhores propostas para propor acoes de implementacao de alternativas visando a resolucao de problemas. Para a consecucao dos objetivos propostos, optou-se por um estudo qualitativo por meio de uma abordagem descritiva. Quanto a estrategia, o estudo assumiu a forma de estudo de caso, em que os dados foram coletados por meio da realizacao de um grupo focal e de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. As respostas obtidas foram analisadas pela tecnica de analise de conteudo. Por meio da analise das respostas, percebeu-se que as assertivas do grupo focal e das entrevistas convergiram para os seguintes problemas existentes: baixa qualificacao profissional dos funcionarios, falta de organizacao das atividades no setor, problemas no gerenciamento dos materiais e nas especificacoes tecnicas para compra e falta de entendimento do processo licitacao. Todavia, esses problemas podem ser solucionados por meio de acoes integradas envolvendo nao apenas a equipe de funcionarios do setor, mas todos os que participam diretamente do processo.
Successful management of aluminium phosphide poisoning using intravenous lipid emulsion: Report of two cases

Aluminum phosphide (ALP) is a cheap, easily available agricultural pesticide which causes lethal poisoning by liberation of phosphine and inhibition of cytochrome c oxidase thereby leading to cellular hypoxia. Although there is no known specific antidote, clinical trials are still going on. We present here two cases of ALP poisoning who were successfully managed by treatment with lipid emulsion and intravenous magnesium sulfate.
Design and implementation of a soil moisture wireless sensor network

This paper presents the design of a shortest path tree based data collection wireless sensor network to sense soil moisture, soil temperature and relative humidity. Each node in the network follows a synchronized, periodic sleep - wake up schedule in order to maximize the lifetime of the network. The paper also demonstrates the implementation of a cluster based sensor network consisting of 10 nodes grouped as 3 clusters which collects and sends sensed data to a base station (here laptop) through a sink node. Data processing and presentation on the laptop is achieved using custom designed graphical user interface (GUI) in MATLAB. Nodes are kept approximately 8m apart covering an area of 400 m2. The implemented sensor network features using in house developed, low cost dual probe heat pulse (DPHP) soil moisture sensor, soil temperature sensor and energy efficient wireless transmission using clustering architecture for agricultural application. Field testing for 20% moisture level is demonstrated while feasibility of measuring the moisture levels from 0% to 40% is established from lab experiments.
On fusion of information from multiple sensors in the presence of analog erasure links

Consider multiple sensors that transmit data over analog erasure links to an estimation center. The sensors have access to distinct entries of the output vector of a linear and time-invariant plant, and the estimation center is intended to produce state estimates. If the estimation center can transmit noiseless acknowledgements back to the sensors at every time step, optimal algorithms to calculate the information to be transmitted by the sensors and to fuse the data at the estimation center have recently been identified. However, optimal algorithms are not known for the case when acknowledgements are not available. In this paper, we present an algorithm for the intermediate case when acknowledgements can be stochastically erased. Although no claims about optimality are made, the estimation error covariance achieved by the algorithm is a continuous function of the erasure probabilities at the links from the sensors to the estimation center, and at the links over which acknowledgements are transmitted. Thus, the performance improves continuously between the two extreme cases of no acknowledgements, and perfect noiseless acknowledgements being available. Moreover, with the proposed algorithm, there is no loss of stability region even if noiseless acknowledgements are no longer available.
Multilingualism in the European Union1

The European Union (EU) has recently undergone a substantial expansion of the number of its member states to 25. The various institutions of the EU are faced with serious language problems, with 20 languages acknowledged by the EU as “official and working languages”, in principle all having equal rights. To overcome these problems, restricting the number of languages seems to be the solution, but an effective and acceptable restrictive policy is hard to devise. How far can the number of working languages be reduced? Is such a reduction to be applied indiscriminately to all the institutions? Which language(s) should be selected as working language(s)? What is the future of German in this, German having the greatest number of native speakers within the EU but lacking the standing of English or French? The perspective from which these questions are approached is primarily that of the (applied) linguist. Die Europaische Union (EU) wurde unlangst in der Anzahl ihrer Mitgliedstaaten erheblich erweitert. Die verschiedenen Institutionen der EU sehen sich mit einem ernsten Sprachproblem konfrontiert, 20 Sprachen sind von der EU als ‘Amts- und Arbeitssprachen’ in den Institutionen anerkannt. Im Prinzip haben alle 20 Sprachen dieselben Rechte. Um diesen Problemen entgegenzuwirken, wird u.a. in Erwagung gezogen, die Anzahl der Sprachen zu reduzieren. Aber eine effiziente und akzeptable einschrankende Sprachenpolitik ist nicht leicht zu finden. Wie weit kann die Anzahl der Arbeitssprachen reduziert werden? Soll eine solche Beschrankung in gleicher Weise auf alle Institutionen angewandt werden? Welche Sprache(n) soll(en) als Arbeitssprache(n) ausgewahlt werden? Und wie steht es um die Zukunft des Deutschen, der Sprache, die zwar die meisten Muttersprachler in der EU hat, der aber das Prestige von Englisch oder Franzosisch fehlt? Dieser Artikel nahert sich all diesen Fragen vor allem aus der Perspektive des (angewandten) Linguisten.
An Information-Theoretic Measure for the Selection of Effective Memory Order in Flat-Fading Channels

In this paper, we consider an information-theoretic measure for the selection of effective memory order in time-varying flat-fading (FF) channels in the Jakes-Clarke’s model. The measure is based on how many past realisations of the fading channel actively contribute to an achievable information rate lower bound through the channel. The lower bound signifies the achievable information rate when the receiver is equipped with a sup-optimal mismatched decoding rule, which would have only been optimal for a finite-state Markov channel (FSMC) with a finite memory order. The sensitivity of the mismatched decoding rule to memory order is used to find the optimum channel memory order for decoding at the receiver side, with a negligible information rate loss. Our case study shows that the FF channel has an effective information-theoretic memory order of M = 1 for the normalised fading rates fDT . 0.01, where fD is the Doppler spread and T is symbol period. For faster fading rates, the use of first-order models at the receiver incurs a non-negligible information rate loss. The results are, generally, in accordance with our previous findings.
An Example of Lambl's Excrescences by Transesophageal Echocardiogram: A Commonly Misinterpreted Lesion

Lambl's excrescences are thin, mobile, filiform structures, often referred to as valvular strands in the echocardiography literature. These valvular strands may occur as a single strand, in rows, or clusters. The differential diagnosis for these excrescences includes fibroelastoma, myxoma, thrombi, vegetations, and cardiac neoplasms and metastases. Most difficult is the distinction between Lambl's excrescences and fibroelastomas. Studies regarding the clinical importance of these valvular strands are contradictory. Surgical intervention versus conservative observation should be determined on a case‐by‐case basis. The transesophageal views of Lambl's excrescences in this case report are meant to serve as a classic example of this commonly misinterpreted lesion.
Behavioral effects of somatostatin microinjected into caudate putamen

The present study examined the behavioral responses to bilateral microinjections of somatostatin (SRIF) into caudate putamen of male Wistar rats. SRIF locally administered at doses of 10, 50 and 100 ng/side dose-dependently affected locomotor activity, as reflected in both horizontal and vertical movements. SRIF modulated locomotor activity in a biphasic manner, exerting an inhibitory and a facilitatory effect. In the elevated plus-maze experiments, SRIF at doses of 50 and 100 ng/side microinjected bilaterally into caudate putamen decreased only the total number of entries in the open and closed maze arms, confirming the suppressing effect of SRIF on locomotion at the first 5 min.