O presente trabalho é a uma pesquisa empírica, de caráter qualitativo que tem como objeto de estudo a formação inicial de licenciandos de Ciências e Biologia. O objetivo central da investigação foi analisar se ela tem contribuído adequadamente para a tematização e construção de valores humanos e verificar sob a ótica dos licenciandos seu papel na formação ético-moral dos futuros estudantes e seu nível de preocupação sobre a dimensão ética dos saberes científicos e tecnológicos. O percurso metodológico consistiu em duas fases. Na primeira, licenciandos de Ciências e Biologia de três Instituições de Ensino Superior distintas responderam a um questionário referente à importância da formação ético-moral do estudante de ensino fundamental e médio e, para tanto, sua qualificação como docente. A segunda fase caracterizou-se pela aplicação de outro questionário com quatro casos com conteúdos dilemáticos e conflitos éticos nos quais os licenciandos identificaram ou opinaram sobre como os tratariam em sala de aula. Com base nas referências teóricas fornecidas pelo estudo na literatura voltada especificamente à educação ético-moral na perspectiva filosófica e psicológica, como também da Bioética de proteção, constatou-se que os licenciandos admitem que o aspecto ético-moral é fundamental para a formação do estudante, crêem que a escola, bem como outros ambientes sociais são co-participantes no desenvolvimento moral. Reconhecem a contribuição da disciplina de Ciências e Biologia como espaço de promoção de valores ético-morais e identificam assuntos que suscitam discussões éticas. Alguns obstáculos foram identificados que, direta e indiretamente, contribuem para o despreparo do professor em tratar dessas questões polêmicas, entre outros: a dificuldade de estimular e conduzir uma discussão, a insegurança quanto à perda do controle da classe, a não aceitação da divergência. Essas dificuldades podem ser atribuídas à sua trajetória de formação. Os resultados indicam a necessidade de implementação de novas estruturações para os cursos de formação destas disciplinas. A educação em Bioética favorece a inclusão da educação em valores no ensino de Ciências e Biologia, desde que os professores reconheçam que não podem se eximir de auxiliar seus futuros alunos a desenvolver habilidades necessárias para a reflexão sobre um problema e suas dimensões sociais, políticas e éticas requeridas na tomada de posição de todo o cidadão. / This is a qualitative empirical research, which aims at studying the initial training period of Science and Biology apprentice teachers. The main objective of the study was to analyze if this period has actually contributed properly to fostering human values, and, from the apprentice teachers point of view confirm his role in the ethical and moral training/education of his future students and his level of preoccupation with the ethical dimension of the scientific and technological knowledge. The methodological course of action consisted of two phases. In the first one, Science and Biology apprentice teachers from three different Universities answered a questionnaire about the importance of ethical and moral education for the Junior and High School student and consequently their qualification as teachers. The second phase consisted of another questionnaire containing four dilemmatic and conflicting cases in which the apprentice teachers identified or pointed out how the cases would be dealt with in class. Based on theoretical references provided by related literature concerning specifically the ethical and moral education from the philosophical and psychological perspectives, as well as the Bioethics of protection, the apprentice teachers admit that ethical and moral aspects are essential for the students education. Also, teachers believe that the schools, as well as other social environments are co-participants in the moral development of their students. Teachers also identify issues that raise ethical discussions and recognize the contribution of Sciences and Biology as a way of promoting ethical and moral values. Some obstacles were detected, which directly or indirectly contribute to the teachers lack of preparation regarding those polemic issues, such as: the difficulty in stimulating and guiding a discussion, the lack o self-assurance in handling the group, the non-acceptance of divergencies. Such difficulties may stem from their educational background. The results show the need to implement new structures for the training course of these subjects. Bioethics education favors the inclusion of values education when teaching Science and Biology, provided that teachers acknowledge they cannot do without helping students develop the necessary skills to reflect on a problem in its social, political and ethic dimensions. These skills are essential for every citizen when taking a stand.

Este estudo se fundamenta na construção de um modelo didático de formulação de perguntas que atenda às demandas educativas dos alunos nas aulas de Ciências e Biologia. Esse modelo didático tem como unidade central o discurso interativo entre professor e alunos para atribuição de significados compartilhados, que denominamos de discurso reflexivo. Consideramos que uma perspectiva de formação continuada reflexiva, investigativa e crítica possibilita que o professor implemente o modelo didático de formulação de perguntas provocando efeitos significativos nos processos cognitivos e interativos em sala de aula. Adotando o modelo didático de formulação de perguntas, os professores promovem modificações na sua postura pedagógica frente ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem das ciências, bem como re-significam as suas concepções sobre o currículo e seus elementos: conteúdos, objetivos educacionais, atividades de aprendizagem e avaliação. / This study is based upon the construction of a didactic model of questions formulation to meet the educational demands of students during the classes of Sciences and Biology. This didactic model has as its core unit the interactive discourse between the teacher and the students for the attribution of shared meanings, that we call reflexive discourse. We consider that the perspective of a reflexive, investigatory and critical continuing educational enables the teacher to implement the didactic model of questions formulation which will provoke meaningful effects in the cognitive and interactive process in the classroom. By adopting a didactic model of questions formulation, the teachers promote changes in their pedagogical attitude toward the teaching and learning sciences, and give new meaning to the their conceptions of the curriculum and its elements: contents, educational objectives, learning activities and evaluation.

Many hydrophobic environmental pollutants have been shown to bioaccumulate and biomagnify at high levels in sharks due to their high liver lipid content, high trophic level, and life history characteristics. Studies have demonstrated that the levels of pollutants present in shark tissues can not only exceed the recommended levels for human consumption, but that, in some cases, they are also greater than the threshold for physiological effect in other aquatic species. However, few studies to date have investigated the biological effect of environmental exposure to contaminants in sharks. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate, through the use of biomarkers, if sharks are experiencing physiological effects due to exposure to 1) methylmercury (MeHg) and 2) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The results of the first part of the study indicated that total mercury (THg) concentrations (μg/g w.w.) in Sphyrna tiburo muscle tissue were positively correlated with size of the animals, but that metallothionein (MT), a commonly used biomarker for toxic metal exposure, was not a valid biomarker for Hg exposure in this species, as no correlation between MT in muscle or liver and THg was found. The later portion of the study demonstrated that sharks off the coast of Alabama that were exposed to oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) in 2010 are exhibiting biochemical effects in the form of induced activity of the Phase I biotransformation enzyme, cytochrome P4501A1 (CYP1A1). Further research on the effects of both MeHg and PAH exposure in sharks should focus on the effects experienced by larger species and those at higher trophic levels, which are known to harbor higher levels of contaminants, and therefore be affected to a greater extent, than the species analyzed in this study (i.e. small species occupying lower trophic levels).

The goal of ecological restoration is to return degraded or altered ecosystems to their pre-disturbed state with respect to ecosystem structure, function, and composition. In the current study the research objective was to reestablish high levels of biodiversity on two restored pine plantations as well as restore a native pine flatwoods ecosystem. Managed, even-aged pine flatwoods are now the most extensive ecosystem in North Florida, comprising approximately 70% of the forested landscape. Slash pine trees were thinned in the experimental plots to restore the natural slash pine density of native ecosystems. In addition to the thinning treatments, experimental plots have been clear-cut and all vegetation removed from the plots. Arthropods were sampled by employing pitfall traps, sticky traps and sweep netting. This study assesseed the success of the restoration techniques employed by looking at biodiversity with a fine-resolution, taxonomically narrow approach by identifying the arthropods down to the taxonomic level of family and determining the number of morphospecies. Species were also subdivided into functional groups based upon the ecosystem services that they provide and their trophic level. Analyses revealed that arthropod species and guild diversity was not significantly affected by treatments in both 2008 and 2009. The experimental treatments were able to recover to pre-disturbance levels after two years following restoration. This indicates that these arthropod communities are fairly resilient and are able to recover fairly quickly following perturbation. Interestingly, community similarity measures revealed that although the experimental treatments were no more diverse than control plots the community species composition was fairly dissimilar between treatments, with plots becoming more dissimilar from 2008 to 2009. More long term data should reveal if these plots are proceeding along different successional trajectories in terms of community species composition and also will allow us to gain more insight into the long term effect of the treatments on biodiversity.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is tasked with upholding the regulations prescribed in the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. One of the ways this is accomplished is by producing regular stock assessment reports. For these reports, knowledge about a species abundance and distribution is a vital component, allowing informed management decisions to be made that may potentially reduce the natural and anthropogenic impacts on the organisms. In 2010, an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) occurred in the lower St. Johns River, resulting in an unusually large number of bottlenose dolphin strandings. As the data regarding this population was outdated, the cause of the UME could not be positively determined. Consequently, this lack of information provided the impetus to focus research on the individuals within the lower St. Johns River. Chapter one documents the abundance and emigration rates of the bottlenose dolphin population within the St. Johns River in order to provide NOAA with the necessary information to update the stock assessment report for this population. To designate individuals to various stocks, their distribution must first be known. However, many previous home range studies limited the size of the study area surveyed, which resulted in underestimates of the home range sizes. Therefore, in chapter two I investigated the effects that study area size has on the home range estimates of bottlenose dolphins while demonstrating the usefulness of collaborative science. Together these two chapters report data on the bottlenose dolphin population within the St. Johns River that has not been studied in over 16 years and this research also reveals how study design impacts various analyses and perceived outcomes.

Infectious diseases are a major public health burden causing millions of deaths every year. Government authorities need to be able to monitor disease incidence and evaluate their interventions for disease control. Monitoring the status of infectious diseases is one of the most challenging problems facing the public health sector, and epidemiological surveillance systems for infectious diseases, particularly notifiable diseases are essential. Despite initiatives to encourage reporting of infectious diseases, underreporting and poor surveillance are on-going challenges for many developing countries. Most surveillance systems in these settings use traditional paper-based methods, which are both inefficient and impractical. There is a need for alternative tools to strengthen infectious disease surveillance systems in resource-limited settings. The remarkable progress made in mobile computing technology has the potential to improve infectious disease surveillance systems. However, user experience in digital technologies and infrastructure needs to be given greater attention. My study investigated the use of mobile phone devices as surveillance tools in health information systems. A mobile phone-based surveillance system was developed and applied in Tanzania as an alternative approach to traditional paper-based systems. Using this system different factors that affect the usability of mobile phone-based systems were investigated, by examining the quality of surveillance data in the context of completeness, timeliness and costs. After two years of operation in twenty-eight districts in southern Tanzania, numerous factors were identified that affect user accuracy and speed of use of the mobile phone-based surveillance. These include user experience in digital technology, particularly mobile device ownership; digital technology literacy, such as access and use of SMS and user’s age. The mobile phone-based surveillance system was more accurate compared to the traditional paper-based system with greater data reporting, more complete data and timelier reporting. Initially the mobile phone-based surveillance system required more capital investment, although the running costs of paper-based surveillance were greater. The utility of the mobile phone-based surveillance in monitoring and evaluating large-scale rabies control interventions was examined and the data produced was used to analyse the impacts of interventions on reducing disease incidence. Significant relationships were detected between the incidence of reported bite injuries in the focal district the previous month and in neighbouring districts that month, with more injuries detected in mainland Tanzania than on the island of Pemba. The relationship between bite injuries and vaccination coverage was complicated, with some evidence that vaccination reduced bite incidence. However, more data and a better model are needed to fully understand the impact of vaccination on bite incidence. The system provided timely information on the implementation of control measures and incidence of bite injuries, vital for improving control efforts. Use of automated short text messages (SMS) as part of the mobile phone-based surveillance was assessed to determine whether they could improve patient’s adherence to treatment regimens. Patients who received SMS reminders had significantly better compliance than those who did not, with attendance improved by at least 10%. Use of SMS reminders has the potential to improve patients’ compliance in other treatment regimens that require repeat clinic visits or administration of medicines. This thesis documented how the use of mobile phone devices can be used to improve surveillance in resource-limited settings. The use of effective integrated surveillance system could empower major stakeholders concerned with public health problems by providing them with appropriate real-time information on disease incidence and control interventions. In the final chapter the challenges encountered and insights gained in the application of mobile computing in strengthening infectious diseases surveillance are discussed. Despite infrastructural challenges such as unreliable power and Internet, mobile computing technologies can improve patient care and authorities can be prompted in a timely manner about infectious disease outbreaks and of supply shortages. In conclusion, innovative tools that can strengthen and integrate human and animal surveillance can improve the control and prevention of infectious diseases. Mobile phones have great potential for this, and can be used to strengthen health information systems.

Skeletal muscle wasting occurs as a corollary of numerous physiological conditions, including denervation, immobilization, and aging. The E3 ubiquitin ligases MuRF1 and MAFbx are induced under nearly all atrophy conditions and are believed to play a key role in protein degradation. Data in this thesis provides interesting new evidence that MuRF1 may also act as a transcriptional modulator of atrophy-induced genes or atrogenes. The transcriptional regulation of MuRF1 and MAFbx were characterized using a reporter gene system and exhibited repressed activity in C2C12 cells overexpressing MuRF1. Furthermore, ectopic expression of the myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs), MyoD and myogenin, caused significant activation of the MuRF1 and MAFbx reporter gene constructs, while co-overexpression of MuRF1 with MRFs resulted in reversal of MRF induction of reporter gene activity. Interestingly, ectopic expression of a catalytically dead MuRF1 RING mutant failed to reverse MRF activation of the reporters, suggesting that ubiquitin ligase activity may be necessary for MuRF1 transcriptional regulation. To further investigate a potential mechanism of MuRF1 regulation of MRF activity, Western blot analysis was performed to analyze MRF protein levels in C2C12 cells overexpressing MuRF1 and MuRF1 RING mutant. Cells with ectopic MuRF1 or MuRF1 RING mutant showed repressed levels of myogenin. Additionally, cells overexpressing MuRF1 and MuRF1 RING mutant treated with MG132 showed only a partial rescue of myogenin protein levels. Finally, chromatin immunoprecipitation was performed to analyze occupancy of MRFs at the MuRF1 promoter. Overexpression of MRFs resulted in increased MuRF1 promoter immunoprecipitation (IP) and amplification, while co-overexpression of MuRF1 with MRFs resulted in a reversal of promoter IP and amplification. These findings suggest that MuRF1 may regulate MRF transcriptional activity in a non-canonical fashion giving insight into a potentially new mechanism by which MuRF1 may act to transcriptionally regulate atrophy-induced gene expression.

Orientador: Renato Eugênio da Silva Diniz / Resumo: Os cursos de licenciaturas vêm passando por várias mudanças em sua estruturação curricular para se adequarem às novas diretrizes sobre formação de professores criadas nas últimas décadas. Dentre essas mudanças podemos destacar o aumento da carga horária das disciplinas relacionadas aos conhecimentos pedagógicos, com destaque para o Estágio Supervisionado. Entendemos esse componente curricular como um espaço/tempo propício para que o aluno de licenciatura possa analisar e agir de forma crítica na prática social, ou seja, que ele compreenda a importância da práxis para o trabalho docente. Com isso, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo compreender e analisar como e a partir de que princípios os professores de Estágio Curricular Supervisionado de Licenciatura em Ciências Biológicas entendem e desenvolvem este componente curricular com seus alunos. Para isso, os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas com professores de Instituições Públicas de Ensino Superior no estado de São Paulo. Para este trabalho foram analisadas as entrevistas realizadas com seis professores de diferentes instituições. Os dados foram analisados a partir dos pressupostos da Análise de Conteúdo e discutidos com base nos pressupostos da Pedagogia Histórico-Crítica. A partir das análises apresentadas pudemos evidenciar que ainda existem alguns entraves que limitam a realização do estágio. No entanto, pontuamos algumas potencialidades teóricas e metodológicas nas práticas de alguns professores que, ao ut... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The undergraduate courses have undergone several changes in their curricular structuring to conform to the new guidelines on teacher training created in the last decades. Among these changes we can highlight the increase in the workload of the disciplines related to pedagogical knowledge, among them the Supervised Internship. We understand this curricular component as a space / time conducive for the undergraduate student to analyze and act critically in social practice, ie, he understands the importance of praxis for the teaching work. Thus, the present work aimed to understand and analyze how and from what principles teachers of Supervised Curricular Internship in Biological Sciences understand and develop this curriculum component with their students. For this, the data were collected through interviews with teachers of public institutions of higher education in the state of São Paulo. For this work, interviews with six teachers from different institutions were analyzed. Data were analyzed based on the assumptions of Content Analysis and discussed based on the assumptions of Historical-Critical Pedagogy. From the analysis presented we could show that there are still some obstacles that limit the completion of the internship. However, we point out some theoretical and methodological potentialities in the practices of some teachers who, when using the research internship, contribute in some way to the partial unveiling of reality. Internship subjects, in many cases, are isol... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

VOMÁČKOVÁ V. 2016: Inquiry based education in Human Physiology lessons with using school experimental systems. MSc. Thesis. Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice. 47 pp. Inquiry-based education represents a modern approach to science education. This approach aims to enhance students' interest in these subjects. Nowadays, the laboratory experimental systems are available for use in the inquiry-based tasks so students have possibilities to try in practice what a scientist's work involves. The aim of this thesis was to design inquiry based tasks related to human physiology. In these tasks various kinds of laboratory experimental systems were applied. These tasks have been verified in classes at selected primary schools and at one grammar school. A partial goal of this thesis was to investigate whether inquiry based classes using laboratory systems result in acquiring better knowledge and research skills development compared with the usual laboratory work classes, where students work according to their teacher's instructions. For these purposes a pre-test and a post-test had been created and the students were divided into two groups the experimental group was applying the inquiry based work procedures and the control group was working using the teacher's instructions. The individual tasks have been verified in practice and their impact on the students' knowledge and skills level was monitored. The results have shown that inquiry based education does not lead to worse results compared with the usual conventional teaching methods. The level of students' knowledge and skills has risen after completing the experimental classes. However, the difference between the control and experimental groups was not statistically significant.

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented public concern about the effects of high noise levels. The concern has mostly resulted from the increased noise levels of aircraft and the annoyance which that noise can cause to an individual exposed to it regularly. An effect of high level noise which has also resulted in enormous concern, but mostly out of the public-eye, has been that of noise induced hearing loss. Throughout industry in the U.K. alone there is an estimated 2 million people subjected to noise levels sufficiently high to endanger their hearing if regular exposure continues over a period of years. In order that these people may be protected from eventual partial or complete deafness their hearing acuity must be measured at regular intervals. The general title of the techniques used for making this measurement is audiometry. In industry there is a growing requirement for accurate and reliable but fast and simple-to-use audiometric equipment to cope with the large numbers of workers requiring regular examination. As a result of recent advances in the design and performance of digital computers intended for control applications the decision was made to investigate their possible use in routine audiometry and in particular in an industrial audiometric unit. Initially in this thesis, an extensive review of the existing audiometric techniques as used in hearing conservation programmes is given. In addition, deficiencies in the methods presently used are highlighted and discussed to reveal possible suitable areas for the application of computer techniques. As a result of this work a new concept of a screening audiometer is evolved in the form of an adaptive screening instrument capable of adjusting its measuring technique to produce optimum results from each subject and of performing much of the record keeping and result-scanning presently done by hand. To substantiate this theoretical work the proposed audiometer system was built on a computer situated in the University. A series of examinations were performed using the system and the results compared with others obtained from the same people by a conventional method. The two sets of results agreed to within acceptable limits and the degree of personal attention required to administer the test was greatly reduced.