Background and Aims: In December 2009 the COnsortium to Perform Human Biomonitoring on a European Scale (COPHES) financed by FP7 EU, began work towards an EU HBM framework. This will be accompanied...

Many authors have argued that we should make a clear conceptual distinction between mononational and multinational states. Yet the number of empirical examples they refer to is rather limited. France or Germany are usually seen as mononational, whereas Belgium, Canada, Spain and the UK are considered multinational. How should we classify other cases? Here we can distinguish between (at least) two approaches in the literature: statistical (i.e., whether significant national minorities live within a larger state and, especially, whether they claim self-government) and subjective (i.e., when citizens feel allegiance to sub-state national identities). Neither of them, however, helps us to resolve the problem. Is Italy multinational (because it contains a German-speaking minority)? Is Germany really mononational (in spite of the official recognition of the Danes and the Sorbs in some Lander)? On the other hand, is Switzerland the “most multinational country” (Kymlicka)? Let us assume that there is no definite answer to this dilemma and that it is all a matter of degree. There are probably few (if any) clearly mononational states and few (if any) clearly multinational states. Should we abandon this distinction in favour of other concepts like “plurinationalism” (Keating), “nations-within-nations” (Miller), “postnational state” (Abizadeh, Habermas), or “post-sovereign state” (MacCormick)? The article discusses these issues and, in conclusion, addresses the problem of stability and shared identity “plural” societies.

Genome-wide association studies have linked lung cancer risk with a region of chromosome 15q25.1 containing CHRNA3, CHRNA5 and CHRNB4 encoding α3, α5 and β4 subunits of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR), respectively. One of the strongest associations was observed for a non-silent single-nucleotide polymorphism at codon 398 in CHRNA5. Here, we have used pharmacological (antagonists) or genetic (RNA interference) interventions to modulate the activity of CHRNA5 in non-transformed bronchial cells and in lung cancer cell lines. In both cell types, silencing CHRNA5 or inhibiting receptors containing nAChR α5 with α-conotoxin MII exerted a nicotine-like effect, with increased motility and invasiveness in vitro and increasing calcium influx. The effects on motility were enhanced by addition of nicotine but blocked by inhibiting CHRNA7, which encodes the homopentameric receptor α7 subunit. Silencing CHRNA5 also decreased the expression of cell adhesion molecules P120 and ZO-1 in lung cancer cells as well as the expression of DeltaNp63α in squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. These results demonstrate a role for CHRNA5 in modulating adhesion and motility in bronchial cells, as well as in regulating p63, a potential oncogene in squamous cell carcinoma.

Neste trabalho abordamos o processo educati­ o do adolescente, evcomo o lazer podera fazer parte neste processo sob varias formas emque e apresentado. Apontamos as varias formas de entendimento dolazer, seus conceitos sob a visao dos estu­ iosos do assunto, e tambemdas possibilidades de ser um agente auxiliar na educacao do adolescente.Abordamos os valores dos adolescentes, seu comportamento dianteda sua personalidade em formacao, seu posicionamento diante da fa-milia e da sociedade. Por ultimo enfatizamos a contribuicao da disci-plina “Educacao Fisica” nas escolas, e suas possibilidades de ofere­ ercsubsidios para que sua pratica integre cada vez mais o jovem na so-ciedade. Atraves de uma pesquisa-acao, com o metodo quantitativo/estatistico, adolescentes com idade entre 12 e 15 anos, pertencentes atres esco­as do Ensino Fundamental I de Campinas, foram inquiridoslatraves de questionarios. As respectivas escolas sao: “Escola MunicipalProfessor Raul Pilla” situada no bairro Flamboyant; Colegio Particular“Salesiano Sao Jose” situado no Bairro Vila Nova e a Escola Estadu-al Monsenhor Luis Gonzaga de Moura, situado no bairro Taquaral.Apos analisarmos os questionarios, verificamos que uma grande parte dos alunos das tres escolas mencionadas, independentemente do nivelsocioeconomico familiar, exercem uma atividade paralela aos estudose entre suas preferencias por lazer esta a pratica de esportes dentro e/ou fora da escola. Averiguamos tambem que grande parte dos aluno sejulgam bem informados sobre os problemas sociais sendo a televisaoapontada como sua principal fonte de informacao, ficando a leiturarelegada a um segundo plano; e a grande maioria mantem um bomrelacionamento familiar. Concluimos, entao, que a utilizacao do lazercomo elemento auxiliar da educacao e uma ferramenta muito eficiente.

s: In this paper the influence of carbon dioxide pressure on supercritical extraction of Salvia officinalis L. was investigated. Supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide was done for pressures of 80, 100, 150, 200 and 300 bar. It was concluded that with increasing pressure from 80 to 300 the bar extraction yield enhanced. GC/MS and GC/FID methods were used for qualitative and quantitative analyses of obtained extracts and essential oils from extracts.

Background Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), together with histology, is widely used to diagnose and to monitor treatment in oncology. Spatial correspondence between these modalities provides information about the ability of MRI to characterize cancerous tissue. However, registration is complicated by deformations during pathological processing, and differences in scale and information content. Methodology/Principal Findings This study proposes a methodology for establishing an accurate 3D relation between histological sections and high resolution in vivo MRI tumor data. The key features of the methodology are: 1) standardized acquisition and processing, 2) use of an intermediate ex vivo MRI, 3) use of a reference cutting plane, 4) dense histological sampling, 5) elastic registration, and 6) use of complete 3D data sets. Five rat pancreatic tumors imaged by T2*-w MRI were used to evaluate the proposed methodology. The registration accuracy was assessed by root mean squared (RMS) distances between manually annotated landmark points in both modalities. After elastic registration the average RMS distance decreased from 1.4 to 0.7 mm. The intermediate ex vivo MRI and the reference cutting plane shared by all three 3D images (in vivo MRI, ex vivo MRI, and 3D histology data) were found to be crucial for the accurate co-registration between the 3D histological data set and in vivo MRI. The MR intensity in necrotic regions, as manually annotated in 3D histology, was significantly different from other histologically confirmed regions (i.e., viable and hemorrhagic). However, the viable and the hemorrhagic regions showed a large overlap in T2*-w MRI signal intensity. Conclusions The established 3D correspondence between tumor histology and in vivo MRI enables extraction of MRI characteristics for histologically confirmed regions. The proposed methodology allows the creation of a tumor database of spatially registered multi-spectral MR images and multi-stained 3D histology.