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Este relato é parte de um Projeto de Extensão, desenvolvido por um grupo de servidores e estudantes do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Paraíba (IFPB) – Campus Monteiro, cujo objetivo principal consistiu em verificar a viabilidade de elaboração do Plano de Gerenciamento de Resíduos Sólidos (PGRS) para a Escola Estadual de Ensino Médio José Leite de Souza. Iniciou-se com um planejamento das atividades a serem executadas juntamente com a gestão da escola. Posteriormente se realizou uma descrição da área de estudo, pesquisa bibliográfica e legislação referente ao tema, aplicação de questionários aos estudantes e servidores, caracterização dos resíduos gerados, além das ações de educação ambiental com a comunidade escolar através de dinâmicas e palestras. Diante dos resultados obtidos foram postas, algumas diretrizes iniciais para elaboração do PGRS na referida escola. Destaca-se que durante as etapas executadas todos os envolvidos, se dispuseram a iniciar mudanças nos hábitos do descarte de resíduos gerados, o que torna, portanto, indispensável o envolvimento de todos para o sucesso de implementação de um plano de gerenciamento.

In recent times, great emphasis is given to operate the power system networks more efficiently to reduce power price. To achieve higher line ratings, the transmission system operators resort to dynamic line ratings. In some cases, to increase the ratings further, short-time transient ratings are used. When the transmission line conductors are pushed to the limits, it is important to ensure that the real-time ratings and the conductor temperatures are estimated accurately. For this purpose, often the conductor thermal model is used to simulate the time-varying conductor temperature. It is equally important to validate the simulation model used to ensure the accuracy of temperature prediction. This paper addresses three different methods of experimentally validating the simulation model. Experimental results are compared with the simulated results along with practical limitations of the methods.

Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of foodborne bacterial gastroenteritis with contaminated poultry meat its main source. Control of C. jejuni is a priority for the poultry industry but no vaccines are available and their development hampered by poor understanding of the immunobiology of C. jejuni infection. Here we show the functional role of B lymphocytes in response to C. jejuni in the chicken through depletion of the B lymphocyte population (bursectomy) followed by challenge. B lymphocyte depletion has little effect on bacterial numbers in the ceca, the main site of colonisation, where C. jejuni persist to beyond commercial slaughter age, but reduces clearance from the small intestine. In longer-term experiments we show antibody leads to reduction in C. jeuni numbers in the ceca by nine weeks post infection. Whilst we did not examine any protective role to re-challenge, it illustrates the difficulty in producing a vaccine in a young, immunologically naïve host. We believe this is first study of functional immunity to C. jejuni in chicken and shows antibody is ineffective in clearing C. jejuni from the ceca within the production lifetime of chickens, although is involved in clearance from the small intestine and longer-term clearance from the ceca.

Objective We investigated the proportion of people with dementia who are eligible for and willing to participate in intervention studies. Methods We systematically reviewed 12 studies fitting predetermined criteria, reporting eligibility or participation rates for dementia intervention trials or intervention studies that sought to increase recruitment. We assessed the study validity using a checklist, reported trial eligibility and participation rates and meta-analysed these where appropriate. Results In higher quality studies, 26% [95% confidence interval 19–35%] of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) attending memory clinics or receiving antidementia medication were eligible for industry drug trials, and 43% of eligible people agreed to participate in one study, suggesting 11% of these populations would take part in drug trials if approached. There was replicated, higher quality evidence that younger people, men and those with more education were more likely to be eligible for AD drug trials. No randomised controlled trials have investigated how to increase recruitment to dementia intervention studies. Conclusion One in 10 people with AD or taking donepezil would, according to best available evidence, take part in industry drug trials if approached. We found no data regarding non-pharmacological intervention or pragmatic drug trial recruitment, but eligibility and participation rates for these studies are probably higher. If international studies are extrapolated to the UK, they suggest the national target of recruiting 10% of people with dementia diagnoses to research may be achieved through a nationwide policy of asking all people with dementia and their carers for consent to be approached for research participation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Air pollution is the world's largest single environmental health risk (WHO). Particulate matter such as black carbon is one of the main components of air pollution. The effects of particulate matter on human health are well established however the effects on bacteria, organisms central to ecosystems in humans and in the natural environment, are poorly understood. We report here for the first time that black carbon drastically changes the development of bacterial biofilms, key aspects of bacterial colonisation and survival. Our data show that exposure to black carbon induces structural, compositional and functional changes in the biofilms of both S. pneumoniae and S. aureus. Importantly, the tolerance of the biofilms to multiple antibiotics and proteolytic degradation is significantly affected. Additionally, our results show that black carbon impacts bacterial colonisation in vivo. In a mouse nasopharyngeal colonisation model, black carbon caused S. pneumoniae to spread from the nasopharynx to the lungs, which is essential for subsequent infection. Therefore our study highlights that air pollution has a significant effect on bacteria that has been largely overlooked. Consequently these findings have important implications concerning the impact of air pollution on human health and bacterial ecosystems worldwide.

Congenital heart defects (CHDs) have a neonatal incidence of 0.8–1% (refs. 1,2). Despite abundant examples of monogenic CHD in humans and mice, CHD has a low absolute sibling recurrence risk (~2.7%)3, suggesting a considerable role for de novo mutations (DNMs) and/or incomplete penetrance4, 5. De novo protein-truncating variants (PTVs) have been shown to be enriched among the 10% of 'syndromic' patients with extra-cardiac manifestations6, 7. We exome sequenced 1,891 probands, including both syndromic CHD (S-CHD, n = 610) and nonsyndromic CHD (NS-CHD, n = 1,281). In S-CHD, we confirmed a significant enrichment of de novo PTVs but not inherited PTVs in known CHD-associated genes, consistent with recent findings8. Conversely, in NS-CHD we observed significant enrichment of PTVs inherited from unaffected parents in CHD-associated genes. We identified three genome-wide significant S-CHD disorders caused by DNMs in CHD4, CDK13 and PRKD1. Our study finds evidence for distinct genetic architectures underlying the low sibling recurrence risk in S-CHD and NS-CHD.

The rates of collisional removal of a 1A1 CH2 radicals were directly measured. IR multiple photon dissociation was used to produce the species and laser-induced fluorescence was used to monitor their decay. The rate constants for 1A1 CH2 removal by helium, argon, xenon, N2 and O2 were measured to be 2.8 × 10−12, 5.6 × 10−12, 16 × 10−12, 7.9 × 10−12 and 27 × 10−12 cm3 molecule−1 s−1 respectively. Possible processes contributing to these decay rates are discussed.

Infection related to indwelling central venous catheters is associated with considerable morbidity and inconvenience to patients, and has traditionally required admission for intravenous antibiotics in an attempt to salvage the line. We report the successful usage of an outpatient regimen consisting of alternate day teicoplanin with oral ciprofloxacin, which resulted in line salvage in 74% of cases, achieved satisfactory serum levels of teicoplanin and avoided the need for admission to hospital, with concomitant cost savings.

Phase variation of surface structures occurs in diverse bacterial species due to stochastic, high frequency, reversible mutations. Multiple genes of Campylobacter jejuni are subject to phase variable gene expression due to mutations in polyC/G tracts. A modal length of nine repeats was detected for polyC/G tracts within C. jejuni genomes. Switching rates for these tracts were measured using chromosomally-located reporter constructs and high rates were observed for cj1139 (G8) and cj0031 (G9). Alteration of the cj1139 tract from G8 to G11 increased mutability 10-fold and changed the mutational pattern from predominantly insertions to mainly deletions. Using a multiplex PCR, major changes were detected in 'on/off' status for some phase variable genes during passage of C. jejuni in chickens. Utilization of observed switching rates in a stochastic, theoretical model of phase variation demonstrated links between mutability and genetic diversity but could not replicate observed population diversity. We propose that modal repeat numbers have evolved in C. jejuni genomes due to molecular drivers associated with the mutational patterns of these polyC/G repeats, rather than by selection for particular switching rates, and that factors other than mutational drift are responsible for generating genetic diversity during host colonization by this bacterial pathogen.

Background: Variants of several genes encoding transcription modulators, signal transduction, and structural proteins are known to cause Mendelian congenital heart disease (CHD). NKX2-5 and GATA4 were the first CHD-causing genes identified by linkage analysis in large affected families. Mutations of TBX5 cause Holt–Oram syndrome, which includes CHD as a clinical feature. All three genes have a well-established role in cardiac development. Design: In order to investigate the possible role of multiple mutations in CHD, a combined mutation screening was performed in NKX2-5, GATA4, and TBX5 in the same patient cohort. Samples from a cohort of 331 CHD patients were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction, double high-performance liquid chromatography and sequencing in order to identify changes in the NKX2-5, GATA4, and TBX5 genes. Results: Two cases of multiple heterozygosity of putative disease-causing mutations were identified. One patient was found with a novel L122P NKX2-5 mutation in combination with the private A1443D mutation of MYH6. A patient heterozygote for a D425N GATA4 mutation carries also a private mutation of the MYH6 gene (V700M). Conclusions: In addition to reporting two novel mutations of NKX2-5 in CHD, we describe families where multiple individual mutations seem to have an additive effect over the pathogenesis of CHD. Our findings highlight the usefulness of multiple gene mutational analysis of large CHD cohorts.