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Groundwater overdraft may increase the depth of the potentiometric surface, or depth-to-water, over time; reducing potentiometric head available to support well operation and increasing the cost of pumping. These hydro-economic impacts create well failure thresholds. Understanding these impacts and thresholds is a critical issue for groundwater management but tools to assess them are not widely available or established. Therefore, an analytical model developed in this study quantifies changes in well performance with depth-to-water, calculates well failure thresholds, and estimates feasible storage yields for variable uses, wells, and aquifers. The model is developed and tested using both a single well and a regional analysis of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in Texas, U.S.A., where a contemporary groundwater dataset is available and management is depth-to-water-based. Results reveal how storage conditions drive well performance and suggest that performance in shallow and unconfined settings may be more limited by operational thresholds than affordability thresholds, while performance in deep and confined settings may be inversely limited. At the tested parameters for a single well, failure to account for drawdown would overestimate operationally feasible yields by 98% – 108% and economically feasible yields by 24%. The model could directly support manager, stakeholder, and policymaker consideration of desired future conditions.

Tinnitus is a common health condition, affecting approximately 15% of the UK population. The tinnitus treatment with the strongest evidence base is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), with standard tinnitus therapy typically augmented with education, relaxation and other techniques. Availability of CBT and conventional tinnitus therapy more broadly is limited for tinnitus sufferers. The DEFINE trial aims to assess whether smartphone-delivered tinnitus therapy, the Oto app, is as effective as current standard care, one-to-one therapist-delivered tinnitus treatment for the treatment of tinnitus in adults. The trial is registered in the ISRCTN Registry: ISRCTN99577932. DEFINE is an open-label, non-inferiority, prospective, parallel design, randomised-controlled trial. Recruitment, interventions and assessments will be remote, enabling UK-wide participant involvement. 198 participants aged 18 years or more will be recruited via social media advertisement or via primary care physicians. A screening process will identify those with tinnitus that impacts health-related quality of life, and following consent smartphone-based audiometry will be performed. Randomisation 1:1 to the Oto app or one-to-one therapist-led tinnitus therapy will be performed centrally by computer, matching groups for age, sex and hearing level. Following participant allocation, the Oto app will be provided for immediate use, or a one-to-one remote therapy appointment booked to occur within approximately 1 week, with up to 6 sessions delivered. Participant outcomes will be collected at 4,12, 26 and 52 weeks via questionnaire and phone call. The primary outcome is the change in Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) total score measured at 26 weeks following allocation. Adverse events will be recorded. A health economic evaluation in the form of a cost-utility analysis will be performed using data from participant submitted EuroQol 5D-5L and Health Utilities Index Mark 3 scores and resource use data. Trial results will be made publicly available, including a plain English summary.

This community-based research examines the impact of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on service provision to people experiencing homelessness and concurrent disorders (PEHCD) in British Columbia, Canada. Using mixed methods, 119 service providers from across BC participated in a survey, and of those, 25 participated in semi-structured interviews. Several gaps emerged in service delivery to PEHCD during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these challenges, service providers adapted to support their clients’ needs, which included supporting new and expanding service groups: (a) people who were experiencing homelessness for the first time due to pandemic-related job loss, (b) people who receive low incomes and are experiencing food insecurity, (c) more complex mental health needs, (d) seniors, (e) youth/students, and (f) family members fleeing violence in the home (e.g., intimate partner violence and child abuse). In the absence of Point-in-Time Counts in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic as per physical distancing protocols, this data on new and expanding service groups highlights the critical need to embed considerations for social vulnerabilities and secondary impacts into pandemic planning and response efforts.

Josef Strzygowski, inscribed in the annals of art history as a racialist and an anti-semite, had many devoted Jewish students. Strzygowski cast a long shadow over many of the earliest specimens of Jewish art history in Vienna. In an unpublished article written in English, and in the Beurteilungen of the Jewish-themed dissertations he supervised, Strzygowski stressed the importance of Jewish art historians studying Jewish art. The forgotten, mostly unpublished efforts of these Jewish art historians working on Jewish topics form a counterpart to the better-known contemporary works of Jewish art history produced in Berlin. This study examines the work of four Jewish doctorandi of Strzygowski, Max Eisler, Otto Schneid, Paul Koeser and Friedricke Nobl-Stern and considers the interplay between anti-semitism, Zionism and entrenched beliefs in the connection between ethnicity or nationality and art during a fateful period for Vienna and for the Jews of Europe.

Summary: Microglia shift toward an inflammatory phenotype during aging that is thought to exacerbate age-related neurodegeneration. The molecular and cellular signals that resolve neuroinflammation post-injury are largely undefined. Here, we exploit systems genetics methods based on the extended BXD murine reference family and identify IGFBPL1 as an upstream cis-regulator of microglia-specific genes to switch off inflammation. IGFBPL1 is expressed by mouse and human microglia, and higher levels of its expression resolve lipopolysaccharide-induced neuroinflammation by resetting the transcriptome signature back to a homeostatic state via IGF1R signaling. Conversely, IGFBPL1 deficiency or selective deletion of IGF1R in microglia shifts these cells to an inflammatory landscape and induces early manifestation of brain tauopathy and retinal neurodegeneration. Therapeutic administration of IGFBPL1 drives pro-homeostatic microglia and prevents glaucomatous neurodegeneration and vision loss in mice. These results identify IGFBPL1 as a master driver of the counter-inflammatory microglial modulator that presents an endogenous resolution of neuroinflammation to prevent neurodegeneration in eye and brain.

Introduction: Mechanical ventilation is a life-saving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but often causes patients to be at risk of further respiratory complication. We created a statistical model utilizing electronic health record and physiologic vitals data to predict the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defined Ventilator Associated Complications (VACs). Further, we evaluated the effect of data temporal resolution and feature generation method choice on the accuracy of such a constructed model.Methods: We constructed a random forest model to predict occurrence of VACs using health records and chart events from adult patients in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) database. We trained the machine learning models on two patient populations of 1921 and 464 based on low and high frequency data availability. Model features were generated using both basic statistical summaries and tsfresh, a python library that generates a large number of derived time-series features. Classification to determine whether a patient will experience VAC one hour after 35 h of ventilation was performed using a random forest classifier. Two different sample spaces conditioned on five varying feature extraction techniques were evaluated to identify the most optimal selection of features resulting in the best VAC discrimination. Each dataset was assessed using K-folds cross-validation (k = 10), giving average area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) and accuracies.Results: After feature selection, hyperparameter tuning, and feature extraction, the best performing model used automatically generated features on high frequency data and achieved an average AUROC of 0.83 ± 0.11 and an average accuracy of 0.69 ± 0.10.Discussion: Results show the potential viability of predicting VACs using machine learning, and indicate that higher-resolution data and the larger feature set generated by tsfresh yield better AUROCs compared to lower-resolution data and manual statistical features.

Abstract Biomaterial-based cell replacement approaches to regenerative medicine are emerging as promising treatments for a wide array of profound clinical problems. Here we report an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) composed of gelatin-hydroxyphenyl propionic acid and hyaluronic acid tyramine that is able to enhance intravitreal retinal cell therapy. By tuning our bioinspired hydrogel to mimic the vitreous chemical composition and mechanical characteristics we were able to improve in vitro and in vivo viability of human retinal ganglion cells (hRGC) incorporated into the IPN. In vivo vitreal injections of cell-bearing IPN in rats showed extensive attachment to the inner limiting membrane of the retina, improving with hydrogels stiffness. Engrafted hRGC displayed signs of regenerating processes along the optic nerve. Of note was the decrease in the immune cell response to hRGC delivered in the gel. The findings compel further translation of the gelatin-hyaluronic acid IPN for intravitreal cell therapy.

Misophonia has been characterized as intense negative reactions to specific trigger sounds (often orofacial sounds like chewing, sniffling, or slurping). However, recent research suggests high-level, contextual, and multisensory factors are also involved. We recently demonstrated that neurotypicals’ negative reactions to aversive sounds (e.g., nails scratching a chalkboard) are attenuated when the sounds are synced with positive attributable video sources (PAVS; e.g., tearing a piece of paper). To assess whether this effect generalizes to misophonic triggers, we developed a Sound-Swapped Video (SSV) database for use in misophonia research. In Study 1, we created a set of 39 video clips depicting common trigger sounds (original video sources, OVS) and a corresponding set of 39 PAVS temporally synchronized with the OVS videos. In Study 2, participants (N = 34) rated the 39 PAVS videos for their audiovisual match and pleasantness. We selected the 20 PAVS videos with best match scores for use in Study 3. In Study 3, a new group of participants (n = 102) observed the 20 selected PAVS and 20 corresponding OVS and judged the pleasantness or unpleasantness of each sound in the two contexts accompanying each video. Afterward, participants completed the Misophonia Questionnaire (MQ). The results of Study 3 show a robust attenuating effect of PAVS videos on the reported unpleasantness of trigger sounds: trigger sounds were rated as significantly less unpleasant when paired with PAVS with than OVS. Moreover, this attenuating effect was present in nearly every participant (99 out of 102) regardless of their score on the MQ. In fact, we found a moderate positive correlation between the PAVS-OVS difference and misophonia severity scores. Overall our results provide validation that the SSV database is a useful stimulus database to study how misophonic responses can be modulated by visual contexts. Here, we release the SSV database with the best 18 PAVS and 18 OVS videos used in Study 3 along with aggregate ratings of audio-video match and pleasantness (https://osf.io/3ysfh/). We also provide detailed instructions on how to produce these videos, with the hope that this database grows and improves through collaborations with the community of misophonia researchers.

Abstract A 48‐year‐old man presented with headaches and confusion. Imaging demonstrated a right frontal glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), twenty years after a nail gun injury to the same region. GBM in the same location as a previous injury points toward possible causation from the trauma in the development of a high‐grade glioma.

Engineering matrices for cell therapy requires design criteria that include the ability of these materials to support, protect and enhance cellular behavior in vivo. The chemical and mechanical formulation of the biomaterials can influence not only target cell phenotype but also cellular differentiation. In this study, we have demonstrated the effect of a gelatin (Gtn)—hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel on human retinal progenitor cells (hRPCs) and show that by altering the mechanical properties of the materials, cellular behavior is altered as well. We have created an interpenetrating network polymer capable of encapsulating hRPCs. By manipulating the stiffness of the hydrogel, the differentiation potential of the hRPCs was controlled. Interpenetrating network 75 (IPN 75; 75% HA) allowed higher expression of rod photoreceptor markers, whereas cone photoreceptor marker expression was found to be higher in IPN 50. In vivo testing of these living matrices performed in Long–Evans rats showed higher levels of rod photoreceptor marker expression when IPN 75 was injected versus IPN 50. These biomaterials mimic biological cues that are required to simulate the dynamic complexity of natural retinal ECM. These hydrogels can be used as a vehicle for cell delivery in vivo as well as for expansion and differentiation in an in vitro 3D system in a highly reproducible manner.

The World Health Organization (WHO) monitors the spread of diseases globally and maintains a list of diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential. Currently listed diseases include Chikungunya, cholera, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease, Hendra virus infection, influenza, Lassa fever, Marburg virus disease, Neisseria meningitis, MERS-CoV, monkeypox, Nipah virus infection, novel coronavirus (COVID-19), plague, Rift Valley fever, SARS, smallpox, tularemia, yellow fever, and Zika virus disease. The associated pathogens are increasingly important on the global stage. The majority of these diseases have neurological manifestations. Those with less frequent neurological manifestations may also have important consequences. This is highlighted now in particular through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and reinforces that pathogens with the potential to spread rapidly and widely, in spite of concerted global efforts, may affect the nervous system. We searched the scientific literature, dating from 1934 to August 2020, to compile data on the cause, epidemiology, clinical presentation, neuroimaging features, and treatment of each of the diseases of epidemic or pandemic potential as viewed through a neurologist's lens. We included articles with an abstract or full text in English in this topical and scoping review. Diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential can be spread directly from human to human, animal to human, via mosquitoes or other insects, or via environmental contamination. Manifestations include central neurologic conditions (meningitis, encephalitis, intraparenchymal hemorrhage, seizures), peripheral and cranial nerve syndromes (sensory neuropathy, sensorineural hearing loss, ophthalmoplegia), post-infectious syndromes (acute inflammatory polyneuropathy), and congenital syndromes (fetal microcephaly), among others. Some diseases have not been well-characterized from a neurological standpoint, but all have at least scattered case reports of neurological features. Some of the diseases have curative treatments available while in other cases, supportive care remains the only management option. Regardless of the pathogen, prompt, and aggressive measures to control the spread of these agents are the most important factors in lowering the overall morbidity and mortality they can cause.

The optic pathway glioma (OPG) is a slow-growing brain tumor that arises along the optic nerve or its downstream connections and causing vision to gradually worsen with time. This tumor forms in children with a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), causing tumors to grow on nerves. In normal conditions, glial cells are there to support and protect nerve cells but, in NF1-OPG, glial cells have a genetic defect and grow out of control forming a tumor called a glioma. There are no rat models of NF1-OPG that can be used to explore various treatment options, and mouse models make interventional studies difficult due to their small eye size. We have created a model in which to study the progression of tumor growth in the optic nerve and establish the anatomical and functional consequences of the model and determine its suitability to serve as a surrogate for human disease. C6 rat glioma cells were injected into the optic nerve of Long-Evans rats and allowed to proliferate for 2 weeks. The eye clearly showed proptosis and lens opacity was observed, likely due to increased intraocular pressure caused by growing tumors. Hematoxylin–eosin staining showed marked cellularity, with hyperchromatism and pleomorphism. There was prominent area of necrosis with neoplastic cells palisading around the penumbra. Immunostaining with markers such as S100, β-tubulin III, Foxp3, CD45, Vimentin, and Ki67 confirmed low-grade tumor formation, with a mild immune response. Our results show the utility of a surgically induced rat model of OPG that may be used for exploring various treatment options for NF1 ocular tumors.

This paper does not go into detail concerning the current debate around the idea of “powerful knowledge”, however, a brief account of the history and context of the sub-discipline as it has developed in England, is presented. For that purpose, some references to the important works of Basil Bernstein are explicated. It was he after all, following the critical reception of his early work on linguistic codes, who first argued that knowledge, or as it is sometimes expressed “the stuff” and not just “the who” of education, was crucial to any serious debate. Some hot points in the debate between Bernstein and Michael Young are presented. The suggestion is given that differently from Bernstein ideas to take into account „pedagogical code“ in the knowledge reproduction we have to begin with the distinction between memorisation of knowledge which is close to the idea of consumption, and developing a relationship to knowledge which has more affinity with becoming a member of a community.

Oskar Pollak (1883-1915), remains a ghostly figure of the Vienna School, partly because of his early death, partly because a considerable portion of his unpublished work was cannibalized and used without attribution by colleagues who survived him. Under the influence and mentorship of Wilhelm Klein in Prague, Max Dvořák in Vienna and Ludwig von Pastor in Rome, he gradually abandoned his earlier German cultural chauvinism for a supranational cosmopolitanism strongly coloured by Austrian patriotism. His emphasis in his scholarship on documentary research and written sources positioned him in the anti-Strzygowski faction of Viennese art historians, and he vastly extended the positive re-valuation of Baroque art begun in the late nineteenth century (which paralleled Riegl's and Wickhoff's rehabilitation of Late Roman art). His scholarly affinities were rooted in his experiences and sympathies as an assimilated German-speaking Jew in Prague during the period of the fiercest conflicts between Czechs and Germans.

Abstract The spinal dorsal horn (SDH) is comprised of distinct neuronal populations that process different somatosensory modalities. Somatostatin (SST)-expressing interneurons in the SDH have been implicated specifically in mediating mechanical pain. Identifying the transcriptomic profile of SST neurons could elucidate the unique genetic features of this population and enable selective analgesic targeting. To that end, we combined the Isolation of Nuclei Tagged in Specific Cell Types (INTACT) method and Fluorescence Activated Nuclei Sorting (FANS) to capture tagged SST nuclei in the SDH of adult male mice. Using RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), we uncovered more than 13,000 genes. Differential gene expression analysis revealed more than 900 genes with at least 2-fold enrichment. In addition to many known dorsal horn genes, we identified and validated several novel transcripts from pharmacologically tractable functional classes: Carbonic Anhydrase 12 (Car12), Phosphodiesterase 11 A (Pde11a), and Protease-Activated Receptor 3 (F2rl2). In situ hybridization of these novel genes showed differential expression patterns in the SDH, demonstrating the presence of transcriptionally distinct subpopulations within the SST population. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the gene repertoire of SST dorsal horn neurons and reveal several novel targets for pharmacological modulation of this pain-mediating population and treatment of pathological pain.

A 74-year-old male developed cervical carotid artery psuedoaneurysm 8 months after carotid endarterectomy. The patient was successfully managed with dual implantation of flow-diverter and conventional carotid stent. Flow-diverter was placed across the neck of pseudoaneurysm to provide flow diversion while carotid stent was implanted within the lumen of the expanded flow-diverter to approximate and hold the flow diverter proximal and distal to the pseudoaneurysm. Follow-up ultrasonography revealed complete resolution of the pseudoaneurysm.

Piezo proteins form mechanically activated ion channels that are responsible for our sense of light touch, proprioception, and vascular blood flow. Upon activation by mechanical stimuli, Piezo channels rapidly inactivate in a voltage-dependent manner through an unknown mechanism. Inactivation of Piezo channels is physiologically important, as it modulates overall mechanical sensitivity, gives rise to frequency filtering of repetitive mechanical stimuli, and is itself the target of numerous human disease-related channelopathies that are not well understood mechanistically. Here, we identify the globular C-terminal extracellular domain as a structure that is sufficient to confer the time course of inactivation and a single positively charged lysine residue at the adjacent inner pore helix as being required for its voltage dependence. Our results are consistent with a mechanism for inactivation that is mediated through voltage-dependent conformations of the inner pore helix and allosteric coupling with the C-terminal extracellular domain.

Michael Young, é professor emérito do Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Londres (IOE UCL), intelectual reconhecido mundialmente pela produção e discussão no campo da sociologia do currículo desde os anos 1970. Nesse trabalho, expõe a sua compreensão atual sobre questões referentes ao currículo, conhecimento e disciplinas escolares. Young afirma que falta uma sólida teoria do conhecimento que oriente as discussões acerca das escolhas curriculares e que observa uma negação dos teóricos do currículo em responder o que é realmente função essencial da educação: a promoção do desenvolvimento intelectual dos estudantes. Para Young isto se define como “conhecimento poderoso”, intimamente ligado às áreas do conhecimento, nas universidades, e às disciplinas escolares. A preocupação principal com o currículo para Young, deveria se centrar na pergunta: Qual conhecimento deve ser ensinado na escola? Vale destacar que sua posição atual é oposta a perspectiva relativista que marcou o movimento da Nova Sociologia da Educação (NSE), na Inglaterra, no início da década de 1970, e que foi apresentada no livro Knowledge and Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education, editado por ele e considerado um marco do referido movimento no campo da sociologia do currículo. Nos últimos anos em seus diversos artigos, Young, aponta para a mudança que ocorreu em sua forma de pensar o conhecimento e o currículo, que ele deixa claro em seu artigo publicado no ano 2000 Bringing knowledge back in: a curriculum for lifelong learning, o qual, faz parte do livro que foi lançado em 2008 Bringing knowledge back in from social constructivism to social realism in the sociology of education. Esse debate e a reflexão sobre o lugar do conhecimento no currículo, assim como a importância das disciplinas escolares são objetos do texto a seguir. Apresentação do autor e do texto por Julia Malanchen.

Teaching online can be particularly challenging when there is a need to immerse students located anywhere in the world in specific environmental contexts. We used the Ecological Psychology Approach to Instructional Design (EPAID) to design four courses in two concentration areas (Border Health, and Workforce and Healthcare Delivery Environments). In each case, we sought to provide students with a virtual first-hand understanding of contexts that they would not experience themselves. In this paper, we describe the major tenets of EPAID, the strategies we used to apply EPAID in the courses, and the results of our initial, formative evaluation.

Virtual reality headsets, such as the HTC Vive, can be used to model objects, forces, and interactions between objects with high perceived realism and accuracy. Moreover, they can accurately track movements of the head and the hands. This combination makes it possible to provide subjects with precise quantitative feedback on their performance while they are learning a motor task. Juggling is a challenging motor task that requires precise coordination of both hands. Professional jugglers throw objects so that the arc peaks just above head height, and they time their throws so that the second ball is thrown when the first ball reaches its peak. Here, we examined whether it is possible to learn to juggle in virtual reality and whether the height and the timing of the throws can be improved by providing immediate feedback derived from the motion sensors. Almost all participants became better at juggling in the ~30 min session: the height and timing of their throws improved and they dropped fewer balls. Feedback on height, but not timing, improved performance, albeit only temporarily.

Este artigo discute a importância da teoria do currículo e de seus especialistas no debate contemporâneo sobre currículo escolar. Após um breve relato sobre a evolução no campo dos estudos curriculares, o autor discorre sobre os papéis crítico e normativo da teoria do currículo, sugerindo que esses dois objetivos têm sido separados, em detrimento de ambos. Em seguida, ao defender que a educação é uma atividade prática e especializada, o autor sugere que a teoria do currículo una esses dois papéis e enxergue o currículo como forma de conhecimento especializado. Finalmente, postula que os teóricos do currículo se debrucem sobre como desenvolver currículos que ampliem - e não somente reproduzam - as oportunidades de aprendizagem.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Nunavut has the highest hospitalization rates for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) worldwide, with rates of 166 per 1000 live births per year

Background . Inuit infants who reside in the Nunavut (NU) regions of Arctic Canada have extremely high rates of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) associated with significant health expenditures, but the costs in other regions of Arctic Canada have not been documented. Objective . This prospective surveillance compares, across most of Arctic Canada, the rates and costs associated with LRTI admissions in infants less than 1 year of age, and the days of hospitalization and costs adjusted per live birth. Design . This was a hospital-based surveillance of LRTI admissions of infants less than 1 year of age, residing in Northwest Territories (NT), the 3 regions of Nunavut (NU); [Kitikmeot (KT), Kivalliq (KQ) and Qikiqtani (QI)] and Nunavik (NK) from 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2010. Costs were obtained from the territorial or regional governments and hospitals, and included transportation, hospital stay, physician fees and accommodation costs. The rates of LRTI hospitalizations, days of hospitalization and associated costs were calculated per live birth in each of the 5 regions. Results . There were 513 LRTI admissions during the study period. For NT, KT, KQ, QI and NK, the rates of LRTI hospitalization per 100 live births were 38, 389, 230, 202 and 445, respectively. The total days of LRTI admission per live birth were 0.25, 3.3, 2.6, 1.7 and 3 for the above regions. The average cost per live birth for LRTI admission for these regions was $1,412, $22,375, $14,608, $8,254 and $10,333. The total cost for LRTI was $1,498,232 in NT, $15,662,968 in NU and $3,874,881 in NK. Medical transportation contributed to a significant proportion of the costs. Conclusion . LRTI admission rates in NU and Nunavik are much higher than that in NT and remain among the highest rates globally. The costs of these admissions are exceptionally high due to the combination of very high rates of admission, very expensive medical evacuations and prolonged hospitalizations. Decreasing the rates of LRTI in this population could result in substantial health savings.

Mucho se escribe en las políticas educativas actuales sobre la preparación de los estudiantes para una sociedad del conocimiento y el importante rol desempeñado por la educación. Esas políticas, sin embargo, dicen muy poco sobre el papel mismo del conocimiento en esta (Young, 2009a). En otras palabras, ¿qué es lo que importa que nuestros jóvenes sepan? Aún más preocupante que eso, muchas políticas actuales casi que de manera sistemática ignoran o marginalizan la cuestión del conocimiento.

O presente texto se baseia em enfoques oriundos da sociologia do conhecimento e, em vista deles, constrói três cenários para o futuro da educação nas próximas décadas. O principal foco recai sobre uma das mais cruciais questões enfrentadas pelos formuladores de políticas educacionais – a relação entre a escola e o conhecimento da vida cotidiana ou do senso comum. As diferentes possibilidades sobre como as fronteiras entre conhecimento escolar e não escolar devem ser abordadas são expressas em três cenários – “fronteiras dadas”, “um mundo sem fronteiras” e a ideia da “manutenção das fronteiras como condição para seu cruzamento”. As implicações educacionais de cada cenário são exploradas e argumenta-se em favor do terceiro deles. Consideram-se também os fatores que podem fazer com que um ou outro desses cenários domine nas políticas educacionais.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

A questão "para que servem as escolas?" expressa tensões e conflitos de interesses na sociedade mais ampla. O autor ressalta que existe uma ligação entre desejos emancipatórios associados com a expansão da escolarização e a oportunidade das escolas em oferecer aos alunos a aquisição do "conhecimento poderoso". Discute a "diferenciação do conhecimento" como um modo de distinção entre conhecimento escolar e não-escolar. As formas contemporâneas de avaliação tendem a diluir as fronteiras entre conhecimento escolar e não-escolar, uma vez que inibem um currículo mais acessível e mais relevante economicamente. O autor baseia-se na análise de Bernstein para sugerir que seguir esse caminho pode equivaler a negar as condições para adquirir "conhecimento poderoso" para os alunos que já são desfavorecidos pelas suas condições sociais. Resolver essa tensão entre demandas políticas e realidades educacionais é uma das maiores questões educacionais do nosso tempo.The question "What are schools for?" expresses tensions and conflicts of interests within the wider society. The author points out that there is a link between the emancipatory hopes associated with the expansion of schooling and the opportunity that schools provide for learners to acquire "powerful knowledge". He argues that "knowledge differentiation" is a form of distinction between school knowledge and non-school knowledge. The contemporary assessment forms tend to blur the boundaries between school knowledge and non-school knowledge, since they inhibit a more accessible and economically relevant curriculum. The author draws on Bernstein's analysis to suggest that to follow this path may be to deny the conditions for acquiring powerful knowledge to the pupils who are already disadvantaged by their social circumstances. Resolving this tension between political demands and educational realities is one of the major educational questions of our time.

Reflete-se, neste artigo, sobre questões de verdade e objetividade na sociologia do conhecimento educacional, explorando-as. Inicia-se revendo os problemas levantados pelos enfoques socioconstrucionistas do conhecimento, associados com a Nova Sociologia da Educação da década de 1970. Sugere-se que tais problemas apresentam paralelos significativos com as idéias pragmatistas de James e Dewey, analisadas por Durkheim, de modo tão acurado, em suas palestras sobre o pragmatismo. Enfoca-se, então, o desenvolvimento das idéias de Durkheim, formulado por Basil Bernstein. Argumenta-se que, a despeito de seus avanços conceituais originais, Bernstein permanece preso à crença de que as ciências naturais constituem o único modelo para o conhecimento objetivo. Discute-se, então, a idéia de formas simbólicas, de Ernst Cassirer, como uma base mais adequada para a sociologia do conhecimento. Concluindo, argumenta-se que um enfoque do conhecimento, nos estudos educacionais, que se fundamenta na idéia de objetividade simbólica, de Cassirer, pode enfrentar a tensão entre o conceito de verdade e o compromisso com "ser verdadeiro", que não foi resolvido, talvez mesmo nem enfrentado, pela Nova Sociologia da Educação da década de 1970.The aim of this paper is to reflect on and explore questions of truth and objectivity in the sociology of educational knowledge. It begins by reviewing the problems raised by the social constructivist approaches to knowledge associated with the "new sociology of education" of the 1970s. It suggests that they have significant parallels with the pragmatist ideas of James and Dewey that Durkheim analysed so perceptively in his lectures on pragmatism. The paper then considers Basil Bernstein's development of Durkheim's ideas. The paper argues that despite his highly original conceptual advances Bernstein remains trapped in the belief that the natural sciences remain the only model for objective knowledge. This leads us to a discussion of Ernest Cassirer's idea of symbolic forms as a more adequate basis for the sociology of knowledge. In conclusion, the paper suggests how an approach to knowledge in educational studies that draws on Cassirer's idea of "symbolic objectivity" can come to terms with the tension between the concept of truth and a commitment to "being truthful" that was left unresolved, even unaddressed, by the "new" sociology of education of the 1970s.

Many advances in synthetic biology require the removal of a large number of genomic elements from a genome. Most existing deletion methods leave behind markers, and as there are a limited number of markers, such methods can only be applied a fixed number of times. Deletion methods that recycle markers generally are either imprecise (remove untargeted sequences), or leave scar sequences which can cause genome instability and rearrangements. No existing marker recycling method is automation-friendly. We have developed a novel openly available deletion tool that consists of: 1) a method for deleting genomic elements that can be repeatedly used without limit, is precise, scar-free, and suitable for automation; and 2) software to design the method's primers. Our tool is sequence agnostic and could be used to delete large numbers of coding sequences, promoter regions, transcription factor binding sites, terminators, etc in a single genome. We have validated our tool on the deletion of non-essential open reading frames (ORFs) from S. cerevisiae. The tool is applicable to arbitrary genomes, and we provide primer sequences for the deletion of: 90% of the ORFs from the S. cerevisiae genome, 88% of the ORFs from S. pombe genome, and 85% of the ORFs from the L. lactis genome.

Tissue engineering has been widely applied in different areas of regenerative medicine, including retinal regeneration. Typically, artificial biopolymers require additional surface modification (e.g. with arginine–glycine–aspartate-containing peptides or adsorption of protein, such as fibronectin), before cell seeding. Here, we describe an alternative approach for scaffold design: the manufacture of hybrid interphotoreceptor matrix-poly (ϵ-caprolactone) scaffolds, in which the insoluble extracellular matrix of the retina is incorporated into a biodegradable polymer well suited for transplantation. The incorporation of interphotoreceptor matrix did not change the topography of polycaprolactone film, although it led to a slight increase in hydrophilic properties (water contact angle measurements). This hybrid scaffold provided sufficient stimuli for human retinal progenitor cell adhesion and inhibited proliferation, leading to differentiation toward photoreceptor cells (expression of Crx, Nrl, rhodopsin, ROM1). This scaffold may be used for transplantation of retinal progenitor cells and their progeny to treat retinal degenerative disorders.

This paper is concerned with the role of standards and standard setting in shaping the expansion of post school education in highly unequal society. It draws on an account of the debates and policies on standards in the UK from the 1980’s to today and the wider lessons that can be learned from them. It argues that relying on any type of standards on their own, independently of any consideration of curriculum, pedagogy and the distribtution of educational resources is doomed to failure. It concludes by linking the idea of higher stadards for all to Morrow’s concept of ‘epistemic access’.

While a number of the consequences of mast cell degranulation within tissues have been documented including tissue-specific changes such as bronchospasm and the subsequent cellular infiltrate, there is little known about the immediate effects of mast cell degranulation on the associated vasculature, critical to understanding the evolution of mast cell dependent inflammation.To characterize the microcirculatory events that follow mast cell degranulation.Perturbations in dermal blood flow, temperature and skin color were analyzed using laser-speckle contrast imaging, infrared and polarized-light colorimetry following cold-hand immersion (CHI) challenge in patients with cold-induced urticaria compared to the response in healthy controls. Evidence for mast cell degranulation was established by documentation of serum histamine levels and the localized release of tryptase in post-challenge urticarial biopsies. Laser-speckle contrast imaging quantified the attenuated response to cold challenge in patients on cetirizine. We found that the histamine-associated vascular response accompanying mast cell degranulation is rapid and extensive. At the tissue level, it is characterized by a uniform pattern of increased blood flow, thermal warming, vasodilation, and recruitment of collateral circulation. These vascular responses are modified by the administration of an antihistamine.Monitoring the hemodynamic responses within tissues that are associated with mast cell degranulation provides additional insight into the evolution of the acute inflammatory response and offers a unique approach to assess the effectiveness of treatment intervention.

One third of the world population carries a latent tuberculosis (TB) infection, which may reactivate leading to active disease. Although TB latency has been known for many years it remains poorly understood. In particular, substances of host origin, which may induce the resuscitation of dormant mycobacteria, have not yet been described. In vitro models of dormant ("non-culturable") cells of Mycobacterium smegmatis (mc(2)155) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv were used. We found that the resuscitation of dormant M. smegmatis and M. tuberculosis cells in liquid medium was stimulated by adding free unsaturated fatty acids (FA), including arachidonic acid, at concentrations of 1.6-10 µM. FA addition enhanced cAMP levels in reactivating M. smegmatis cells and exogenously added cAMP (3-10 mM) or dibutyryl-cAMP (0.5-1 mM) substituted for FA, causing resuscitation of M. smegmatis and M. tuberculosis dormant cells. A M. smegmatis null-mutant lacking MSMEG_4279, which encodes a FA-activated adenylyl cyclase (AC), could not be resuscitated by FA but it was resuscitated by cAMP. M. smegmatis and M. tuberculosis cells hyper-expressing AC were unable to form non-culturable cells and a specific inhibitor of AC (8-bromo-cAMP) prevented FA-dependent resuscitation. RT-PCR analysis revealed that rpfA (coding for resuscitation promoting factor A) is up-regulated in M. smegmatis in the beginning of exponential growth following the cAMP increase in lag phase caused by FA-induced cell activation. A specific Rpf inhibitor (4-benzoyl-2-nitrophenylthiocyanate) suppressed FA-induced resuscitation. We propose a novel pathway for the resuscitation of dormant mycobacteria involving the activation of adenylyl cyclase MSMEG_4279 by FAs resulted in activation of cellular metabolism followed later by increase of RpfA activity which stimulates cell multiplication in exponential phase. The study reveals a probable role for lipids of host origin in the resuscitation of dormant mycobacteria, which may function during the reactivation of latent TB.

Complex PCR applications for large genome-scale projects require fast, reliable and often highly sophisticated primer design software applications. Presently, such applications use pipelining methods to utilise many third party applications and this involves file parsing, interfacing and data conversion, which is slow and prone to error. A fully integrated suite of software tools for primer design would considerably improve the development time, the processing speed, and the reliability of bespoke primer design software applications.The PD5 software library is an open-source collection of classes and utilities, providing a complete collection of software building blocks for primer design and analysis. It is written in object-oriented C(++) with an emphasis on classes suitable for efficient and rapid development of bespoke primer design programs. The modular design of the software library simplifies the development of specific applications and also integration with existing third party software where necessary. We demonstrate several applications created using this software library that have already proved to be effective, but we view the project as a dynamic environment for building primer design software and it is open for future development by the bioinformatics community. Therefore, the PD5 software library is published under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which guarantee access to source-code and allow redistribution and modification.The PD5 software library is downloadable from Google Code and the accompanying Wiki includes instructions and examples: http://code.google.com/p/primer-design.

DOI: 10.12957/periferia.2009.3431O objetivo deste Documento de Discussão é contribuir para o desenvolvimento de um quadro conceitual para a análise da reforma da qualificação em nível internacional. Este artigo tenta dar um passo atrás nas discussões e debates sobre os quadros de competências per se e pensar mais amplamente sobre o papel das competências na reforma educacional. Isto é importante porque o Projeto de Pesquisa dos Quadros de Competências da OIT busca ir muito além do que aquilo que já foi escrito sobre quadros de competências até agora, que consiste, principalmente, em descrições e reivindicações retóricas sobre o que os quadros de competências podem realizar.