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Burkholderia pseudomallei, the etiologic agent of human melioidosis, is capable of causing severe acute infection with overwhelming septicemia leading to death. A high rate of recurrent disease occurs in adult patients, most often due to recrudescence of the initial infecting strain. Pathogen persistence and evolution during such relapsing infections are not well understood. Bacterial cells present in the primary inoculum and in late infections may differ greatly, as has been observed in chronic disease, or they may be genetically similar. To test these alternative models, we conducted whole-genome comparisons of clonal primary and relapse B. pseudomallei isolates recovered six months to six years apart from four adult Thai patients. We found differences within each of the four pairs, and some, including a 330 Kb deletion, affected substantial portions of the genome. Many of the changes were associated with increased antibiotic resistance. We also found evidence of positive selection for deleterious mutations in a TetR family transcriptional regulator from a set of 107 additional B. pseudomallei strains. As part of the study, we sequenced to base-pair accuracy the genome of B. pseudomallei strain 1026b, the model used for genetic studies of B. pseudomallei pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance. Our findings provide new insights into pathogen evolution during long-term infections and have important implications for the development of intervention strategies to combat recurrent melioidosis.

O debate sobre a diversidade cultural tem sido um dos principais temas de discussão no âmbito da educação. A Lei 11.645/2008 estabelece nas diretrizes e bases da educação nacional a inclusão, no currículo oficial da rede de ensino, da obrigatoriedade da temática “História e cultura afro-brasileira e indígena”. Isso implica a necessidade de abordar a temática em questão no ensino e no currículo da educação básica, que abrange o ensino fundamental e médio. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo busca refletir sobre a importância da educação na perspectiva intercultural diante da presença dos diferentes povos, grupos sociais e culturas no contexto escolar. Diante disso, somos desafiados a pensar o quanto é importante que os processos educativos trabalhem na perspectiva de valorizar esses grupos sociais, seus diferentes costumes e seu modo próprio de ser e estar no mundo. Partindo dessa premissa e buscando contemplar também a lei supracitada, propomos possibilidades de trabalhar conteúdos que valorizem a cultura indígena e a realidade dos educandos.

The present work addresses the quantitative structure–antioxidant activity relationship in a series of 148 sulfur-containing alkylphenols, natural phenols, chromane, betulonic and betulinic acids, and 20-hydroxyecdysone using GUSAR2019 software. Statistically significant valid models were constructed to predict the parameter logk7, where k7 is the rate constant for the oxidation chain termination by the antioxidant molecule. These results can be used to search for new potentially effective antioxidants in virtual libraries and databases and adequately predict logk7 for test samples. A combination of MNA- and QNA-descriptors with three whole molecule descriptors (topological length, topological volume, and lipophilicity) was used to develop six statistically significant valid consensus QSPR models, which have a satisfactory accuracy in predicting logk7 for training and test set structures: R2TR > 0.6; Q2TR > 0.5; R2TS > 0.5. Our theoretical prediction of logk7 for antioxidants AO1 and AO2, based on consensus models agrees well with the experimental value of the measure in this paper. Thus, the descriptor calculation algorithms implemented in the GUSAR2019 software allowed us to model the kinetic parameters of the reactions underlying the liquid-phase oxidation of organic hydrocarbons.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/198464447676 Em sua vasta vida de pesquisador e pensador, Pedro Demo concentra seus estudos nas questões mais críticas da educação, do ensino-aprendizagem principalmente nas escolas públicas e, nesta obra “O mais importante da educação importante” o ponto de partida foi um texto de comentários escrito pelo autor em 2011 a fim de analisar o último Plano Nacional de Educação – PNE (2011-2020). A obra apresenta interessantes reflexões para mudança das políticas e das práticas educativas visando à melhoria da qualidade da educação no Brasil.