Questões de Inglês

    New research has identified a potential way to reverse graying hair and treat skin pigment disorders. By studying stem cells in mice, scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City have found the molecular pathways responsible for creating the color of skin and hair. Their findings could one day lead to cosmetic treatments that restore graying locks to more youthful colors such as brown, blond and red. The research may also be useful for developing drug candidates for people with vitiligo, a disease that causes skin to lose its color and leads to blotchy white patches.

    The researchers conducted a series of experiments on stem cells to investigate the biological process at work in pigmentation. They found that a certain signaling pathway – known as EdnrB – interacts with other pathways, in particular the Wnt signaling pathways, which in turn causes the proliferation of melanocyte, stem cells involved in the earliest stage of skin and hair pigmentation.

    When the researchers bred mice to have EdnrB pathway deficiencies, the rodents experienced premature graying of their fur. “The mice that normally had black hair turned into grayish mice. They looked like old people, with gray hair”, they said. Conversely, when they stimulated the mice’s EdnrB pathways, it produced a 15-fold increase in melanocyte stem cell pigment production, which caused hyperpigmentation in the mice. The researchers made small wounds on the animals and noticed that the skin was much darker when it began to heal. Finally, when researchers blocked the mice’s Wnt signaling, it slowed melanocyte growth and resulted in unpigmented gray hair. Mice with black fur became more gray.

    This finding suggests that targeting the Wnt pathway may be one way to reverse gray hair. Moreover, “if scientists can eventually find ways to activate those signaling pathways in humans with vitiligo, the melanocyte stem cells could migrate to the surface of their skin and re-pigment it”, they explained.

FIRGER, Jessica. Disponível em: http://www.newsweek.com. Acesso em: set. 2019. Adptado.

According to the text, fill in the parentheses with T (True) or F (False). About the molecular pathways mentioned in the text, it’s correct to say:

 

( ) The EdnrB pathway seems to be unaffected by other pathways.
( ) The Wnt pathway stimulates melanocyte growth.
( ) Melanocytes are well known for their role in pigmentation.
( ) The EdnrB pathway has a minor role in skin pigmentation.

 

The correct sequence, from top to bottom, is:

    [Dr. Farhana] Mann hopes that in the coming months and years, we’ll see more social prescribing, where isolated people are referred to a local organisation with expertise in what is going on in the area, so patients can nurture their social relationships. Alongside this, she wants to see more community development where local residentes decide what activities they want to engage in, using the skills that members of the communities already have.

    “There’s no point rushing in to set up groups without talking to the people who make up that community,” says Mann. For example, you could end up bringing Beethoven concerts to an area where everybody wants a gardening and a cooking group. And groups that already exist for other purposes – such as diabetes management groups, for example – can be better used to combat social isolation. “Although they are not for loneliness on the label, they may work just as well, because the effect of being in a group of people with a shared experience could have a positive impact,” she adds.

(Fonte: https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/you-arenot-alone-2/)

 

Conetivos são palavras e expressões que relacionam informações entre orações e parágrafos.

 

A partir dessa afirmação, o sentido expresso pelas palavras em negrito no texto é, respectivamente,

You are not alone: dealing with the epidemic of chronic loneliness

 

    Loneliness is worse for you than smoking, and more harmful than obesity. As the number of lonely people in the UK swells, we investigate why feeling alone literally hurts, and how we can stop it from making us ill. By Moya Sarner 19th June, 2019 Today, society is becoming ever more divided. But if there is one thing that’s bringing everyone together, it’s loneliness. Scientists, doctors, charity workers and politicians from across the political spectrum all agree that the loneliness epidemic is a big problem.

By Moya Sarner
19th June, 2019

 

    Today, society is becoming ever more divided. But if there is one thing that’s bringing everyone together, it’s loneliness. Scientists, doctors, charity workers and politicians from across the political spectrum all agree that the loneliness epidemic is a big problem.

    A report published in December 2017 by the Jo Cox Commission revealed the staggering extent of loneliness in the UK. Almost one-quarter of parents surveyed by the charity Action for Children said they were “always or often lonely”, more than one-third of people aged 75 and over told Independent Age that their “feelings of loneliness are out of their control”, and over the course of a year more than 4,000 children called Childline because they felt unbearably lonely – some as young as six years old. One recent study found that nine million adults in the UK suffer from chronic loneliness: if all the lonely people moved to one city, it would be bigger than London.

Contrary to stereotypes, research has found that loneliness is not restricted to old age. Research published in Developmental Psychology surveyed 16,132 people and found that while the causes of loneliness in the elderly is well understood, less is known about what causes it in youngsters.

 

    This isn’t just sad – it’s dangerous. Research shows that experiencing chronic loneliness is as bad for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and worse than obesity. It is associated with an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke, and increases your likelihood of early mortality by 26 per cent.

    But how does this happen? How can an emotional experience be so bad for our physical health? Prof Steve Cole, a medicine and genomics researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, says part of the answer may lie in the impact loneliness has on our immune system. His research shows that people experiencing chronic loneliness undergo a shift in the molecular programming of their immune cells: instead of being primed to fight viruses, their bodies prepare to fight bacterial infection – the kind that follows a wound or injury. This is the temporary state the body switches into with the fight-or-flight response; the crucial difference is that lonely people get stuck there.

    Long term, this leads to higher levels of inflammation, which in turn contributes to cancer, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s and depression. “Loneliness, oddly enough, is one of the most threatening states we confront,” Cole explains.

(Fonte: http://www.sciencefocus.com/thehuman-body/you-arenot-alone-2/)

Analise as afirmações sobre o texto You are not alone: dealing with the epidemic of chronic loneliness.

 

I. Segundo Moya Sarner, a solidão só não é pior do que o tabagismo e a obesidade.

II. Não somente adultos e idosos sofrem de solidão crônica, como também crianças de até 6 anos de idade. Sarner reporta que mais de 4 mil crianças ligaram, no período de um ano, para o Childline por se sentirem muito sozinhas.

III. De acordo com o gráfico e sua legenda, a solidão não é restrita à idade. Muito se sabe sobre a solidão crônica tanto em idosos quanto em crianças.

IV. O professor Steve Cole explica que a solidão crônica pode afetar nosso sistema imunológico e, a longo prazo, pode contribuir para o surgimento de câncer, ataque cardíaco, mal de Alzheimer e depressão.

 

Estão corretas apenas

Leia a tirinha para responder à questão.

(https://garfield.com)

No trecho do segundo quadrinho “And it’s not exercise…”, o termo sublinhado refere-se

Leia a tirinha para responder à questão.

(https://garfield.com)

According to the comic strip, Garfield’s idea to lose weight is by

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

 

    What is the point of the UN General Assembly?

 

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly is the world’s parliament, where all the UN’s 193 member states are represented. Each sovereign state gets one vote so it is not exactly representative of the world’s population. The General Assembly is not nearly as powerful as the Security Council, which can pass binding resolutions, and is dominated by the five permanent members: the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France and Russia, who each have a veto. But the General Assembly can express world opinion, make recommendations to the Security Council and elect the Council’s non-permanent members. The 74th session takes place this year, in September, in New York.

    The General Assembly and the Security Council are two of six main organs of the UN. They sit alongside the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, the Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council. The world’s leaders converge on New York, where each is given a time limit of 15 minutes to speak in front of the green marble podium and orate in front of the world. Leaders occupy positions in the hall in alphabetical order by country name, usually with a different nation occupying the first seat each year.

    In truth, the General Assembly week usually makes news in the first day or two, when the United States president and other powerful heads of state tend to have their moment, and then attention tends to tail off. For that reason, there is always some horse trading before the General Assembly week, with prime ministers from big countries trying to swap speaking slots with presidents of small countries. This year, there is a climate action summit on the eve of the general debate, attended by the teen activist, Greta Thunberg. Putting the climate emergency centre stage and forcing states to do something are two very distinct things, however.

    Although it is the UN Secretary General who gets the limelight for most of the year, the event gives the president of the General Assembly, elected each year by the member states ahead of general debate, a chance to shine. This year it is Nigeria’s Tijjani Muhammad-Bande. After the initial excitement of greeting the world leaders, however, it is rather a thankless task, introducing each leader to the assembly and then sitting through one speech after another, most of them turgid and self-congratulatory.

    The UN General Assembly is the world’s biggest summit and it attracts a lot of side events because of the proximity and potential participation of world leaders. The most glittering of these events is the Goalkeepers conference run by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where celebrities, activists and politicians will talk about global inequality

(Julian Borger. www.theguardian.com, 23.09.2019. Adaptado.)

No trecho do quarto parágrafo “most of them turgid and selfcongratulatory”, a expressão sublinhada equivale, em português, a