A lombalgia é conhecida como uma doença que interfere na vida de várias pessoas, causando dor, limitação funcional e custos elevados com cuidados em saúde. Embora alguns estudos abordem a clínica da lombalgia com programas educativos, não são encontradas na literatura utilizações de instrumentos que possam caracterizar, analisar e correlacionar a dor com exercício físico (flexibilidade). Este estudo de intervenção teve como objetivo principal estudar as condições de saúde e trabalho de militares do Exército Brasileiro, avaliando a eficácia de um programa educativo associado a exercícios de flexibilidade como modificadores da funcionalidade de sujeitos portadores de lombalgia crônica inespecífica, através dos instrumentos Roland-Morris, escala numérica de dor e flexímeter. Um total de 12 militares na cidade de Ponta Grossa-Paraná, participaram de um programa ao longo de três meses. Os resultados permitiram constatar a diminuição da dor e restrições do cotidiano das pessoas. Observou-se correlação positiva entre melhora dos itens pertinentes à atividade de vida diária, redução da intensidade e freqüência da dor nas costas e a flexibilidade. No estudo comparativo entre os sujeitos foi encontrada diferença significativa nos escores do Questionário de Roland-Morris e escala numérica. Com base nestes dados conclui-se que os resultados obtidos neste estudo possibilitaram maior conhecimento acerca da população avaliada, possibilitando no futuro o desenvolvimento de uma estratégia mais ampla de um programa de intervenção para sujeitos com lombalgia crônica inespecífica. / Low back–pain is known as an illness that intervenes the life of some people, causing pain, functional limitation and elevated costs with health cares. Although some studies approach the clinic of the low back-pain with educative programs, uses of instruments are not found in literature that can characterize, analyze and correlate pain with physical exercise (flexibility). This study of intervention it had as main objective to study the health conditions and work of military of the Brazilian Army, evaluating the effectiveness of an educative program associate the flexibility exercises as modifiers of the functionality of carrying citizens of chronic unspecific low back-pain, through the instrument Roland-Morris, scales numerical of pain and to flexímeter. A total of 12 military in the city of Ponta Grossa-Parana, had participated of a program throughout three months. The results had allowed to affirm the reduction of pain and restrictions of the quotidian of the people. Positive correlation was observed the pertinent improvement of items of the activity of daily life reduction of the intensity and frequency of low back-pain and flexibility. In the comparative study between the citizens was found a estatisticment significant difference in scores of the Questionnaire of Roland-Morris and scales numerical. With base in these data one concludes that the results gotten in this study make possible greater knowledge concerning the evaluated population, making possible in the future the development of a ampler strategy of a intervention program for citizens with chronic unspecific low back-pain.

abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects 5.4 million Americans. AD leads to memory loss, changes in behavior, and death. The key hallmarks of the disease are amyloid plaques and tau tangles, consisting of amyloid-β oligomers and hyperphosphorylated tau, respectively. Rho-associated, coiled-coil-containing protein kinase (ROCK) is an enzyme that plays important roles in neuronal cells including mediating actin organization and dendritic spine morphogenesis. The ROCK inhibitor Fasudil has been shown to increase learning and working memory in aged rats, but another ROCK inhibitor, Y27632, was shown to impair learning and memory. I am interested in exploring how these, and other ROCK inhibitors, may be acting mechanistically to result in very different outcomes in treated animals. Preliminary research on thirteen different ROCK inhibitors provides evidence that while Fasudil and a novel ROCK inhibitor, T343, decrease tau phosphorylation in vitro, Y27632 increases tau phosphorylation at a low dose and decreases at a high dose. Meanwhile, novel ROCK inhibitor T299 increases tau phosphorylation at a high dosage. Further, an in vivo study using triple transgenic AD mice provides evidence that Fasudil improves reference memory and fear memory in both transgenic and wild-type mice, while Y27632 impairs reference memory in transgenic mice. Fasudil also decreases tau phosphorylation and Aβ in vivo, while Y27632 significantly increases the p-tau to total tau ratio. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Neuroscience 2017

A lombalgia é conhecida como uma doença que interfere na vida de várias pessoas, causando dor, limitação funcional e custos elevados com cuidados em saúde. Embora alguns estudos abordem a clínica da lombalgia com programas educativos, não são encontradas na literatura utilizações de instrumentos que possam caracterizar, analisar e correlacionar a dor com exercício físico (flexibilidade). Este estudo de intervenção teve como objetivo principal estudar as condições de saúde e trabalho de militares do Exército Brasileiro, avaliando a eficácia de um programa educativo associado a exercícios de flexibilidade como modificadores da funcionalidade de sujeitos portadores de lombalgia crônica inespecífica, através dos instrumentos Roland-Morris, escala numérica de dor e flexímeter. Um total de 12 militares na cidade de Ponta Grossa-Paraná, participaram de um programa ao longo de três meses. Os resultados permitiram constatar a diminuição da dor e restrições do cotidiano das pessoas. Observou-se correlação positiva entre melhora dos itens pertinentes à atividade de vida diária, redução da intensidade e freqüência da dor nas costas e a flexibilidade. No estudo comparativo entre os sujeitos foi encontrada diferença significativa nos escores do Questionário de Roland-Morris e escala numérica. Com base nestes dados conclui-se que os resultados obtidos neste estudo possibilitaram maior conhecimento acerca da população avaliada, possibilitando no futuro o desenvolvimento de uma estratégia mais ampla de um programa de intervenção para sujeitos com lombalgia crônica inespecífica. / Low back–pain is known as an illness that intervenes the life of some people, causing pain, functional limitation and elevated costs with health cares. Although some studies approach the clinic of the low back-pain with educative programs, uses of instruments are not found in literature that can characterize, analyze and correlate pain with physical exercise (flexibility). This study of intervention it had as main objective to study the health conditions and work of military of the Brazilian Army, evaluating the effectiveness of an educative program associate the flexibility exercises as modifiers of the functionality of carrying citizens of chronic unspecific low back-pain, through the instrument Roland-Morris, scales numerical of pain and to flexímeter. A total of 12 military in the city of Ponta Grossa-Parana, had participated of a program throughout three months. The results had allowed to affirm the reduction of pain and restrictions of the quotidian of the people. Positive correlation was observed the pertinent improvement of items of the activity of daily life reduction of the intensity and frequency of low back-pain and flexibility. In the comparative study between the citizens was found a estatisticment significant difference in scores of the Questionnaire of Roland-Morris and scales numerical. With base in these data one concludes that the results gotten in this study make possible greater knowledge concerning the evaluated population, making possible in the future the development of a ampler strategy of a intervention program for citizens with chronic unspecific low back-pain.

A lombalgia é conhecida como uma doença que interfere na vida de várias pessoas, causando dor, limitação funcional e custos elevados com cuidados em saúde. Embora alguns estudos abordem a clínica da lombalgia com programas educativos, não são encontradas na literatura utilizações de instrumentos que possam caracterizar, analisar e correlacionar a dor com exercício físico (flexibilidade). Este estudo de intervenção teve como objetivo principal estudar as condições de saúde e trabalho de militares do Exército Brasileiro, avaliando a eficácia de um programa educativo associado a exercícios de flexibilidade como modificadores da funcionalidade de sujeitos portadores de lombalgia crônica inespecífica, através dos instrumentos Roland-Morris, escala numérica de dor e flexímeter. Um total de 12 militares na cidade de Ponta Grossa-Paraná, participaram de um programa ao longo de três meses. Os resultados permitiram constatar a diminuição da dor e restrições do cotidiano das pessoas. Observou-se correlação positiva entre melhora dos itens pertinentes à atividade de vida diária, redução da intensidade e freqüência da dor nas costas e a flexibilidade. No estudo comparativo entre os sujeitos foi encontrada diferença significativa nos escores do Questionário de Roland-Morris e escala numérica. Com base nestes dados conclui-se que os resultados obtidos neste estudo possibilitaram maior conhecimento acerca da população avaliada, possibilitando no futuro o desenvolvimento de uma estratégia mais ampla de um programa de intervenção para sujeitos com lombalgia crônica inespecífica. / Low back–pain is known as an illness that intervenes the life of some people, causing pain, functional limitation and elevated costs with health cares. Although some studies approach the clinic of the low back-pain with educative programs, uses of instruments are not found in literature that can characterize, analyze and correlate pain with physical exercise (flexibility). This study of intervention it had as main objective to study the health conditions and work of military of the Brazilian Army, evaluating the effectiveness of an educative program associate the flexibility exercises as modifiers of the functionality of carrying citizens of chronic unspecific low back-pain, through the instrument Roland-Morris, scales numerical of pain and to flexímeter. A total of 12 military in the city of Ponta Grossa-Parana, had participated of a program throughout three months. The results had allowed to affirm the reduction of pain and restrictions of the quotidian of the people. Positive correlation was observed the pertinent improvement of items of the activity of daily life reduction of the intensity and frequency of low back-pain and flexibility. In the comparative study between the citizens was found a estatisticment significant difference in scores of the Questionnaire of Roland-Morris and scales numerical. With base in these data one concludes that the results gotten in this study make possible greater knowledge concerning the evaluated population, making possible in the future the development of a ampler strategy of a intervention program for citizens with chronic unspecific low back-pain.

The study begins by examining economic, political, and social conditions in Tsarist Russia that prompted the Zale family to immigrate to the United States. They eventually settled in Texas where, as a boy, Morris Zale was introduced to the jewelry business. In his first store in Wichita Falls Zale developed the idea of mass marketing his merchandise, and in order to do so he offered credit to his customers. He also made extensive use of advertising. Both of those approaches were revolutionary in the retail jewelry industry. This study examines various methods used by Zale's to expand its holdings. In addition, attention is given to Zale's diversification in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Emphasis is given in the study to Zale's development of a vertically integrated structure. By purchasing diamonds directly from the Diamond Trading Company, Zale's has been able to process the stones at each stage—cutting, polishing, mounting, and marketing. Such an arrangement eliminated middlemen at each step, permitting Zale's to reduce markups and margins and still maintain necessary profit levels. This study examines several serious adversities that have confronted the company—racial and religious prejudice, the Depression, shortages brought on by World War II, potential competition from a synthetic diamond, and an internal scandal involving Zale's chief financial officer. In each case Zale's managed to emerge from the adversity stronger than it had been previously. From the outset Zale's objective has been to sell the greatest amount of jewelry to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price, and this study indicates how successful the company has been in reaching that goal.

This study explores how Anglophone fiction from the mid-Victorian period to the outbreak of the First World War acted as an imaginative testing-ground for theories of the evolution of language. Debates about the past development and the future of language ranged beyond the scope of empirical data and into speculative narrative. Fiction offered to realize such narratives in detail, building imaginative worlds out of different theories of language evolution. In the process, it also often tested these theories, exposing their contradictions. The lack of clear boundaries between nature and culture in language studies of the period enabled fictions of language evolution to explore questions to which contemporary researchers have returned. To what extent is communication instinctive or conventional? How do social and biological factors interact in the production of meaning? The study traces two opposing tendencies of thought on language evolution, naming them language ‘progressivism’ and ‘vitalism’. Progressivism imagined speakers evolving away from involuntary, instinctive vocalizations to extert rational control over their discourse with mechanical precision. By contrast, language vitalism posited a mysterious, natural power in words which had weakened and fragmented with the rise of writing and industrial society. Certain genres of fiction lent themselves to exploration of these ideas, with utopian tales seeking to envision the end-goals of progressive theory. Representations of primitive language in imperial and prehistoric romances also promoted progressivism by depicting the instinctive, irrational speech from which ‘civilization’ was imagined as advancing away. Conversely, much historical and invasion fiction idealized a linguistic past when speech had expressed natural truth, and the authentic folk origins of its speakers. Both progressivism and vitalism were undermined through the late nineteenth century by developments in biology, which challenged claims of underlying stability in nature or purpose in change. Simultaneously, philologists increasingly argued that meaning was conventional, attacking models of semantic progress and degradation. In this context, a number of authors reconceptualized language in their fiction as a mixture of instinct and convention. These imaginative explorations of the borderlands between the social and biological in communication prefigured many of the concerns of twenty-first-century biosemiotics.

Thomas Hardy is the only major English novelist to have been a professional architect. In his essay, “Memories of Church Restoration,” written for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (1906), it was clear that, for Hardy, architectural structures preserved the spirit of all those who had created and originally worked and lived within them. By their very presence, then, ancient and medieval buildings were historical artifacts housing the memories of past lives. This intertwining of humans and the built environment became the stuff of Hardy’s novels, short stories, poetry, and essays. Drawing on autobiographical material, including correspondence and notebooks, as well as novels and poetry, this thesis examines the various ways in which Hardy engages with ideas and debates about architecture taking place in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While previous studies have examined the treatment of architecture in Hardy’s fiction, this thesis focuses on key figures in the architectural world and the complex role their ideas play in his work. Hardy explores a combination of ideas from leading architectural thinkers, at times offering an important synthesis to coexisting architectural ideas. I argue that Hardy saw architecture as recording centuries of memory, rooted in an instinctual life that connects humans with the natural world in an intimate way, evoking evolutionary time. In so doing he expanded the meaning of the “architectural” well beyond the confines of medievalist or classical ideas, or debates sparked by architects and critics such as A.W.N. Pugin and John Ruskin and architecture, in its broadest definition, acts as a metaphor for the way the past lives on in the present, undergoing continual processes of change; for destruction and decay; and for the way buildings undergo natural processes. The nexus of architectural ideas also allows Hardy to respond to questions of the role of art in relation to society and social communities.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder, involving metabolic dysfunction, pathogenic aggregation of amyloid beta, and deteriorating cognitive function. Patients exhibit deficiency in omega-3,-6,-9 unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) in plasma and brain membrane phospholipids, suggesting aberrant fatty acid metabolism influences pathology. Cognitive benefits of omega UFAs in AD remain unknown. Here, I examined effects of a four-month dietary supplementation with UFAs for capacity to alter learning and memory behaviour in an AD mouse model. Cognitive impairment in a fifth generation backcross (N5) C57BL/6Crl X C3H/HeJ TgCRND8 (Tg) mice was compared to control (NonTg) littermates, with respect to both males and females, at six months of age using the Morris Water Maze (MWM). Impairment differed between sexes; female Tg mice were severely impaired, whereas male Tg mice displayed delayed learning. A reduced visual acuity in Tg and NonTg mice, shown by adapted SLAG reflex test, did not impair spatial navigation in cued MWM. A four-month omega-6/-9 UFA oral treatment (75 mg/kg/day) improved learning and memory of Tg mice as compared to vehicle and untreated controls. Omega-3 UFAs, or vehicle alone, did not alter learning and memory of Tg and NonTg mice. Thus, dietary supplementation, particularly when enriched in omega-6/9 UFAs, can affect neural function, and delay conversion from a presymptomatic to symptomatic state in the TgCRND8 mouse model.

Pat M. Neff served as governor of Texas from 1921 to 1925, a period marked by political conflict between rural conservatives and urban progressives. Neff, a progressive, found himself in the middle of this conflict. Neff supported prohibition, declared martial law in the oil boomtown of Mexia, and faced the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a political force in Texas. Though often associated with the Klan, Neff did not approve of the organization and worked against it whenever possible. During the Railroad Shopmen's Strike of 1922, Neff stalled the federal government in its demand he send troops to Denison just long enough to win re-nomination. William Jennings Bryan mentioned Neff as a possible candidate for the presidency in 1924, but he pursued a back-door strategy that alienated his political base among Texas Democrats.

The goal of this model is to create and to implement qualitative model of the signal track of olfactory sensory neuron, including the feedback with a focus on diffusion of substances that allows to conduct more simulations for the better understanding of dynamics of the signal track. This model is expected to be used for the simulation of influencing during the activation of two receptors in firstly defined distance. Model was created and therefore implemented in a programming language Python with the use of library STEPS. Then I have conducted sensitivity analysis by a method Morris OAT on the model, together with an optimization with the usage of change of individual parameters with a great importance on the output of the model. Model is conducting good and biologically comparable results when there are from 10 to 100 active receptors at the beginning of the track. Unfortunately with a lower numbers, the results are not valid and therefore not to be used for the simulation of influencing of two activated receptors. Despite this is a main benefit of the work the model of signal transduction for the whole signal track with an included feedback and emphasis on diffusion. Another benefit is a set of scripts for the sensitivity analysis by a method Morris OAT and optimization.