Risk Society and Science Education: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The current COVID-19 pandemic raises reflection on the new roles of science education in citizen education in a world characterized by civilization risks, derived from the current socioeconomic development. This specific type of risk is treated as a manufactured risk as proposed by the sociologist Ulrich Beck. In this paper, we report a document analysis starting from Beck's risk society theory, followed by notions of reflexive modernity, risk perception, and the Cynefin decision-making model for complex problems. COVID-19 pandemic is characterized as a manufactured risk. We state that students are unable to deal with manufactured risk because of the type of problems they are usually prepared to solve at school and the limited risk perception they have. In order to acquire better science education, we propose the integration of wicked problems in science programs alongside the use of a multidimensional schema, the so-called amplified risk perception space, a tool to locate students' risk perception. We hope to contribute to prepare citizens for a world of global and complex events, such as the current pandemic.

An affordable apparatus for fine-controlled emulation of buzzing frequencies of bees for the testing hypothesis in buzz interactions.

The buzzing foraging behavior of female bees for pollen harvesting called the attention of early pollination biologists. Flower types that demand this buzzing behavior comprise about 20,000 species of different and phylogenetically unrelated plant taxa, suggesting that it had independently evolved many times among the flowering plants. Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, theoretical papers had modeled the energetics of buzz pollination, but, up to this moment, no hypothesis was experimentally tested concerning the theoretical basis of the energetics of buzz pollination. We present a cost-effective and simple apparatus, including a digital and highly accurate frequency generator, and a device for the transference of buzz-frequency energy to the receptive floral unity. The receptive floral unities may comprise the entire or partial androecium, or the tubular corolla, or, in some cases, the whole flower. This apparatus can be easily used in both laboratory and field conditions of research, as natural air currents are avoided, and the response of pollen liberation can be quantitatively measured by pollen grain counts that can be captured by adhesion in slide poured with an isosmotic lactate-glycerol media. The maximum displacement of the hardwire beam/claw system was 0.1170 ± 0.0006 mm @ 150 Hz; 0.021 ± 0.003 mm @ 250 Hz; 0.010 ± 0.001 mm @ 350 Hz; 0.0058 ± 0.0001 mm @ 450 Hz; and 0.0082 ± 0.0005 mm @ 550 Hz. Hypothesis contrasting frequency emission and pollen liberation measured as pollen grain counts may be tested in a species flower type by simple linear regression if pollen counts are normally distributed, or ordinal logistic regression, with non-normal counts. The comparison among different flower-type requirements can be tested through appropriate statistical methods for both normally and non-normally distributed pollen grain counts.

Perfil epidemiológico de 702 pacientes submetidos à endoscopia digestiva baixa no serviço de endoscopia do Hospital Geral César Calls / Epidemiological profile of 702 patients undergoing lower gastrintestinal endoscopy in Cesar Calls General Hospital

Objetivo: descrever o perfil epidemiológico dos pacientes submetidos à endoscopia digestiva baixa em um centro terciário do Nordeste brasileiro, ressaltando a sua importância como método diagnóstico e terapêutico. Método: análise retrospectiva de 702 laudos de pacientes submetidos à colonoscopia e retossigmidoscopia em ambiente de hospital terciário no período de abril de 2002 a abril de 2009. Resultados: a idade média foi de 54,55 anos, e houve predomínio do sexo feminino (59,12%). Hemorragia Digestiva Baixa (14,39%), alteração do hábito intestinal (12,39%) e diarreia (11,82%) foram as indicações para realização de endoscopia digestiva baixa mais frequentes. As endoscopias digestivas baixas foram normais em 57,51%. Foram identificadas a doença inflamatória intestinal em 11,14% e a neoplasia maligna do trato gastrintestinal em 6,3% dos exames. Dentre os pacientes com neoplasia maligna do trato gastrintestinal, 23,07% dos pacientes realizaram o exame por apresentarem hemorragia digestiva baixa ou sangue oculto nas fezes. Utilizando-se do teste do Qui-quadrado, não houve uma relação significativa entre a idade dos pacientes e as alterações encontradas nos laudos de endoscopia digestiva baixa (P=0,2754, (x2: 1,189, DF=1). Conclusão: a colonoscopia e retossigmoidoscopia são excelentes métodos tanto diagnósticos como terapêuticos na investigação das doenças digestivas.

Purpose: to describe the epidemiological profile of patients undergoing lower gastrintestinal endoscopy in a teciary health service in Northeast Brazil, emphasizing their importance as diagnostic and therapeutic method. Materials and methods: retrospective analysis of 702 reports of patients undergoing to colonoscopy and retossigmoidoscopy in a teciary health service in the period april 2002 to april 2009. Results: the mean age was 54.55 years, and there was a predominance of females (59.12%). Lower gastrointestinal bleeding (14.39%), altered bowel habits (12.39%) and diarrhea (11.82%) were the indications for lower gastrointestinal endoscopy conducting more frequent. The lower gastrintestinal endoscopy were normal in 57.51% of the diagnoses identified in the reports and inflamatory bowel disease were identified in 11.14%.The malignancy of the gastrointestinal tract was identified in 6.3%. Among patients with malignancy of the gastrointestinal tract, 23.07% of the patients were examined because they have lower gastrointestinal bleeding, or fecal occult blood Using the chi-square, there was a significant relationship between patient age and the changes found in the reports of lower gastrintestnal endoscopy (P=0.2754, (x2: 1.189, DF=1). Conclusion: the flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy are excellent whether diagnostic or therapeutic methods in digestive disease research.

Tratamento cirúrgico da incontinência fecal idiopática (neurogênica) / Surgical treatment of idiopathic fecal incontinence (neurogenic)

Os autores apresentam os resultados obtidos no tratamento de 23 pacientes portadores de incontinência fecal idiopática (neurogênica). A técnica operatória utilizada foi o reparo pós-anal e a avaliaçäo clínica foi feita após um período de seguimento mínimo de dois anos e máximo de seis. Também säo discutidos os fatores etiológicos e as alteraçöes anátomo-funcionais inerentes à incontinência fecal idiopática (neurogênica). O índice de cura atingiu a 82% dos pacientes