Tendências e conceitos da actual política de gestão do Património cultural português, com base num percurso marcado por dois momentos históricos decisivos: o 25 de abril de 1974 e a entrada de ...Portugal na CEE / UE. O autor sintetiza a evolução recente do enquadramento legislativo e institucional, e destaca o papel dos modelos de organização em redes, rotas e itinerários. Salienta a eficácia destas soluções para salvaguarda, reabilitação e valorização patrimonial, no contexto de políticas e estratégias de ordenamento e dinamização dos territórios.
Recent studies have shown that perceiving the pain of others activates brain regions in the observer associated with both somatosensory and affective-motivational aspects of pain, principally ...involving regions of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula cortex. The degree of these empathic neural responses is modulated by racial bias, such that stronger neural activation is elicited by observing pain in people of the same racial group compared with people of another racial group. The aim of the present study was to examine whether a more general social group category, other than race, could similarly modulate neural empathic responses and perhaps account for the apparent racial bias reported in previous studies. Using a minimal group paradigm, we assigned participants to one of two mixed-race teams. We use the term race to refer to the Chinese or Caucasian appearance of faces and whether the ethnic group represented was the same or different from the appearance of the participant' own face. Using fMRI, we measured neural empathic responses as participants observed members of their own group or other group, and members of their own race or other race, receiving either painful or non-painful touch. Participants showed clear group biases, with no significant effect of race, on behavioral measures of implicit (affective priming) and explicit group identification. Neural responses to observed pain in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula cortex, and somatosensory areas showed significantly greater activation when observing pain in own-race compared with other-race individuals, with no significant effect of minimal groups. These results suggest that racial bias in neural empathic responses is not influenced by minimal forms of group categorization, despite the clear association participants showed with in-group more than out-group members. We suggest that race may be an automatic and unconscious mechanism that drives the initial neural responses to observed pain in others.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We had attended a Parkinson's Disease (PD) patient for a non-healing wound who reported a marked decrease in his hand tremor and freezing of gait when his wound was exposed to a ceramic far-field ...infrared (cFIR) blanket. PD is the most frequent motor disorder and the second most frequent neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The tremor, rigidity, and slowness of movement associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) affect up to 10 million people throughout the world, and the major contributing factor to the pathogenesis of PD is the accumulation and propagation of pathological α-synuclein (α-Syn) and the death of dopaminergic cells in the Nigrostriatal system. Efforts to slow or stop its spreading have resulted in the development and use of dopaminergic drug replacement therapy. Unfortunately, there is a loss of about 70-80% of substantia nigral dopaminergic neurons in patients by the time they are diagnosed with PD, and various dopaminergic drugs provide only temporary relief of their motor symptoms. There are limitations in treating PD with many conventional medications, necessitating a combination of pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological therapy as an essential adjunct to better address the health and welfare of PD patients. We used male adult A53T alpha-synuclein transgenic mice exposed to a ceramic far-infrared blanket. Motor activity was assessed using the rotarod apparatus, and mouse brains were examined to quantify the fluorescence intensities of the immunostained samples. A53T alpha-synuclein transgenic mice had a significantly shorter time stay on the rotating bar than the wild-type mice (B6C3H). The rotarod performance was significantly improved in A53T alpha-synuclein transgenic mice exposed to cFIR as well as B6C3H healthy wild mice exposed to cFIR. There was a significant statistical and substantive increase in the cellular composition of the Striatum and substantia nigra of cFIR-treated mice. Improvement in motor performance is seen in PD mice and wild mice and is associated with increases in cell volume in the substantia nigra and striatum after treatment.
In this work, the optimal design of a hybrid electric power generation system for isolated zones, using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique, is presented. A study is carried out taking as ...case of study, the city of Cujubim, in the state of Rondônia-Brazil, consisting of photovoltaic panels, a diesel generator, batteries and an organic Rankine Cycle, which is used for the heat recovery of the exhaust gases from the diesel generator sets, what is the novelty of this study. Decision variables, involved in the optimal design problem of the hybrid system, are the number of photovoltaic panels, the number of batteries and the nominal power of the diesel generator. Directly connected to the size of the diesel generator, is the nominal power of ORC system, not being a decision variable. All components are modeled and the objective function is the cost of power generation, with system reliability, results of the simulation show that the hybrid system is profitable to supply electric power demand of a selected city.
•Optimization design of a hybrid diesel-ORC/photovoltaic system for isolated zone using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO).•Mathematical modeling of photovoltaic system, diesel generator and battery bank.•Thermodynamic analysis of the ORC for the heat recovery of the internal combustion engine.•Simulation of the optimal hybrid diesel-ORC/photovoltaic system using real load profiles and meteorological data.•Comparative analysis between only diesel system and diesel-ORC system.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is characterized by synapse and neuronal loss and the accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and Amyloid β plaques. Despite significant research efforts to understand the ...late stages of the disease, its etiology remains largely unknown. This is in part because of the imprecise AD models in current use. In addition, little attention has been paid to neural stem cells (NSC), which are the cells responsible for the development and maintenance of brain tissue during an individual's lifespan. Thus, an in vitro 3D human brain tissue model using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived neural cells in human physiological conditions may be an excellent alternative to standard models to investigate AD pathology. Following the differentiation process mimicking development, iPS cells can be turned into NSCs and, ultimately, neural cells. During differentiation, the traditionally used xenogeneic products may alter the cells' physiology and prevent accurate disease pathology modeling. Hence, establishing a xenogeneic material-free cell culture and differentiation protocol is essential. This study investigated the differentiation of iPS cells to neural cells using a novel extracellular matrix derived from human platelet lysates (PL Matrix). We compared the stemness properties and differentiation efficacies of iPS cells in a PL matrix against those in a conventional 3D scaffold made of an oncogenic murine-matrix. Using well-defined conditions without xenogeneic material, we successfully expanded and differentiated iPS cells into NSCs via dual-SMAD inhibition, which regulates the BMP and TGF signaling cascades in a manner closer to human conditions. This in vitro, 3D, xenogeneic-free scaffold will enhance the quality of disease modeling for neurodegenerative disease research, and the knowledge produced could be used in developing more effective translational medicine.
•Vicarious rewards processing is linked to prosociality and interoception.•Anterior cingulate reward representations can predict prosocial behaviour.•Anterior insula reward representations can ...predict interoceptive propensity.•More prosocial people are more propense to use interoceptive signals.
Every day we constantly observe other people receiving rewards. Theoretical accounts posit that vicarious reward processing might be linked to people's sensitivity to internal body states (interoception) and facilitates a tendency to act prosocially. However, the neural processes underlying the links between vicarious reward processing, interoception, and prosocial behaviour are poorly understood. Previous research has linked vicarious reward processing to the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg) and the anterior insula (AI). Can we predict someone's propensity to be prosocial or to be aware of interoceptive signals from variability in how the ACCg and AI process rewards? Here, participants monitored rewards being delivered to themselves or a stranger during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Later, they performed a task measuring their willingness to exert effort to obtain rewards for others, and a task measuring their propensity to be aware and use interoceptive respiratory signals. Using multivariate similarity analysis, we show that people's willingness to be prosocial is predicted by greater similarity between self and other representations in the ACCg. Moreover, greater dissimilarity in self-other representations in the AI is linked to interoceptive propensity. These findings highlight that vicarious reward is linked to bodily signals in AI, and foster prosocial tendencies through the ACCg.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This article aims to establish a line of continuity between John Dewey’s democratic and educational ideals and the practice of action research, to justify that the latter affords an adequate means to ...enact Dewey’s ideals against the destructive challenges that neoliberalism poses to democracy today. This aim involves three ideas that will be developed in three corresponding sections. After the Introduction, the first section analyzes at length the main tenets of Dewey’s thoughts about democracy by emphasizing the role of the educational dimension. The article then approaches neoliberalism by focusing on one of its variants,
New Public Management
, and explains why the latter implies a direct erasure of Dewey’s ideals concerning democracy, individual growth, education, and social advancement. Finally, the third section turns to action research and its potential to encourage our societies to move closer to Dewey’s democratic ideals, and suggests that action research can begin to fill the gap that Dewey’s work left concerning the institutional dimension of democracy.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Observing the pain of others has been shown to elicit greater activation in sensory and emotional areas of the brain suggested to represent a neural marker of empathy. This modulation of brain ...responses to others' pain is dependent on the race of the observed person, such that observing own-race people in pain is associated with greater activity in the anterior cingulate and bilateral insula cortices compared to other-race people. Importantly, it is not known how this racial bias to pain in other-race individuals might change over time in new immigrants or might depend on the level and quality of contact with people of the other-race. We investigated these issues by recruiting Chinese students who had first arrived in Australia within the past 6 months to 5 years and assessing their level of contact with other races across different social contexts using comprehensive rating scales. During fMRI, participants observed videos of own-race/other-race individuals, as well as own-group/other-group individuals, receiving painful or non-painful touch. The typical racial bias in neural responses to observed pain was evident, whereby activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was greater for pain in own-race compared to other-race people. Crucially, activation in the anterior cingulate to pain in other races increased significantly with the level of contact participants reported with people of the other race. Importantly, this correlation did not depend on the closeness of contact or personal relationships, but simply on the overall level of experience with people of the other race in their every-day environment. Racial bias in neural responses to others' pain, as a neural marker of empathy, therefore changes with experience in new immigrants at least within 5 years of arrival in the new society and, crucially, depends on the level of contact with people of the other race in every-day life contexts.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Na província de Misiones, os conflitos territoriais têm raízes históricas. Desde suas orígens, os processos de colonização do alto Paraná estiveram vinculados a empreendimentos privados que ...exploraram a floresta nativa e transformaram o regime de posse da terra a partir da incorporação de capitais transnacionais para o Desenvolvimento Florestal. Isso gerou, por um lado, o aumento da escala produtiva no ramo e uma crescente concentração da terra em mãos particulares; e, por outro, o empobrecimento de grandes camadas da população rural que, para 1980, levou a um processo conflitante de ocupações terrestres. O objetivo deste artigo é reconstruir o fenômeno da ocupação espontânea da terra privada, assumindo que os conflitos desencadeados por ela resultam da articulação dialética entre os projetos de criação de colônias, do final do século XIX, e as transformações da estrutura social agrária acontecidas ao longo do século XX.
PDF
