Questões de Inglês

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What do police officers do?

By Emma Woolley

    The primary responsibility of police officers is to protect the public, or if commissioned, the person, group or organization to which they are assigned. Through detecting and preventing crime, police officers strive to maintain law and order in their respective jurisdictions.
    Most new police officers work in general duty in patrol divisions, which provides a broad range of experiences and assignments. General duty policing involves patrolling assigned areas to enforce laws, protect public safety, and arrest criminal suspects – either by car, foot, bicycle, or in some cases, horse.
    Police officers can also do some or all of the following: Investigate accidents and crime scenes; secure evidence and interview witnesses; testify in court; collect notes and reports; provide emergency assistance to victims of natural disasters, crime, and accidents; engage in crime prevention, safety, and public information programs; participate in media relations; and supervise and manage the work of other police officers.
    Working as a police officer can be one of the most diverse career experiences, as specializations ranging in the hundreds are available. With a few years of service (usually four or more), he or she can move into areas such as criminal identification, drug investigations, sexual assault, fraud, major case and/or crime management, surveillance, aircraft security, explosives disposal, police dog services, and many more.
    Police officers must be available for shift work at any time of day and any day of the week, including holidays. Shifts tend to be longer than the standard eight-hour office day. Even though many regular police duties are routine in nature, the job can also be dangerous, as well as physically and emotionally stressful.

(http://careerbear.com/police-officer/article/ what-do-police-officers-do. Adaptado)

Drought-Stricken São Paulo Battles Dengue Fever Outbreak Hundreds Infected With Mosquito-Borne Virus

By
ROGERIO JELMAYER and
LORETTA CHAO
Updated March 3, 2015 6:44 p.m. ET

SÃO PAULO, Brazil—Inhabitants of this megacity, suffering through the worst drought in decades, have unwittingly contributed to an outbreak of dengue fever by storing scarce water in open containers.

The tropical mosquito-borne virus, which often results in high fever, intense muscle pain and convulsions, has killed at least 17 people in São Paulo state in the first six weeks of 2015. That’s up from just three deaths through mid-February of 2014, according to national health officials. Suspected cases have surged tenfold to 51,849 over the same period.

Dengue is a persistent problem in Brazil, particularly during the peak of the rainy season, which is January and February in the nation’s populous southeast. But health officials blame human behavior for this year’s surge. While drought-ravaged São Paulo has yet to declare official water rationing, the main water utility has reduced pressure in the pipes to force conservation, a strategy that has cut off running water to millions of customers for hours, even days at a stretch. Residents have responded by hoarding water in open buckets, watering cans and other makeshift containers. Paradoxically, they’ve created a water-borne paradise for mosquitoes to breed in the midst of an epic drought.

“It’s worrying now because it’s hard to control how people store water,” said Jose Gomes Temporao, former health minister and executive director of South American Institute of Government in Health. “This creates a risk not just for dengue but for chikungunya,” another mosquito-borne virus that cause fever, rashes and joint pains that can last for months, even years.

The outbreak has sparked panic in the city of São Paulo, where 563 cases of the disease have been confirmed through midFebruary, a 163% increase from the same period a year ago. Health officials have dispatched some 2,500 agents to go door-todoor and educate residents on prevention measures, such as filling potted plants with sand, keeping containers dry and swimming pools covered.

Local media have featured photos of pro soccer players being doused with bug spray before venturing into matches. Residents are snapping up repellent, mosquito netting, insect zappers and foggers in a bid to keep the mosquitoes from biting.

At Grupo Pão de Açúcar, Brazil’s largest retailer, sales of insecticides increased 11% in January and February, versus the same period of 2014, a spokeswoman said. Small merchants, too, are reporting strong demand for drought-related wares. Sales of bottled water and repellent are up 20% over the past three months, according to Fabio Hideki,who owns a small market near São Paulo’s city center. He said particularly hot sellers are cartridges of insecticide that plug into a wall socket that can last for up to 45 days.

“People are afraid of dengue,” he said. “They are very concerned 28 out mosquitoes.”

Conditions are even worse in some parts of São Paulo state. More than 1,600 cases have been reported in recent days in Soracaba, a city of about 600,000 residents located 60 miles west of São Paulo, leading officials there to declare it an “epidemic.”

Soracaba resident Tania Pascole said she and her 19-year-old son are slathering on bug spray to ward off dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

“Everyone has a friend or a family member who’s gotten the disease,” the 44-year-old secretary said. “We’ve always been careful, but this year we’re taking extra precautions. We apply repellent basically all day. Thank God, my son and I haven’t been infected.”

Other families haven’t been so fortunate. Renata Ferreira Correa Fabri lost her 45-year-old sister to the disease on Saturday.

A resident of Limeira, about 90 miles northwest of São Paulo, Ms. Fabri said her sister,Paula Ferreira Correa Ponte, went to the hospital last week complaining of body aches. Doctors suspected Ms. Ponte had dengue and sent her home under orders to hydrate and rest. But her condition worsened, Ms. Fabri said, and her sister was readmitted to the hospital, where she died of cardiac arrest.

The grief-stricken family is now scrambling to figure out how to care for Paula’s 5-year-old son, who is now an orphan.

( sourcehttp://www.wsj.com/articles/drought-stricken-sao-paulobattles-dengue-fever-outbreak-1425420508 )

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MERS may be airborne, scientists say

By Felix Gussone
July 22, 2014

    The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, better known as MERS, may be an airborne virus, according to an observation paper published Tuesday in the journal mBio.

    There have been 836 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection since its first appearance in 2012, according to the latest numbers provided by the World Health Organization. At least 288 related deaths have officially been reported to the WHO.

    Scientists are still trying to figure out how the deadly virus is transmitted. Researchers from King Fahd Medical Research Center in Saudi Arabia collected three air samples from a camel barn. Previously, they had found MERS in a camel from that barn and in its infected owner, who later died from the condition. After analyzing the air sample, the scientists found one strain of MERS RNA, the viral genome. Interestingly, the barn air tested positive for MERS on the exact same day that one of the nine camels in the barn tested positive for MERS. Also, the virus from the air sample was identical to the virus found in nasal samples from the infected camel and its owner. “These data show evidence for the presence of the airborne MERS in the same barn that was owned by the patient and sheltered the infected camel,” the study authors write.

    But does that mean MERS is easily transmitted through the air? “What they say is that virus particles can be airborne, but it’s premature to conclude that MERS is transmitted through aerosols,” said Dr. Mark Denison, a professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. The key point is the difference between dead virus particles and a viable virus. “I could take billions of particles of dead viruses and could still find the RNA. That doesn’t mean that there are infectious aerosols,” Denison said.

    Kevin Olival, a senior research scientist at EcoHealth Alliance, agrees on that distinction. “We know that MERS is found in nasal secretion of camels, so virus particles being spread out in a barn is not a surprise,” he said. “Whether or not you can get infected, and if it’s a cause for concern, is still an open question.”

    However, previous studies have suggested that there must be a way MERS is shed into the environment. Several reports in the past have shown MERS infection of those in close contact with infected patients. The exact pathways of infections are unclear.

    “Do we still need to consider the possibility of airborne transmission? Yes, of course,” Denison said. But in order to fully understand whether airborne transmission plays a role in MERS, further research is needed, Denison and Olival conclude.

(www.cnn.com. Adapted.)

Read the following text to answer question.

MERS may be airborne, scientists say

By Felix Gussone
July 22, 2014

    The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, better known as MERS, may be an airborne virus, according to an observation paper published Tuesday in the journal mBio.

    There have been 836 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection since its first appearance in 2012, according to the latest numbers provided by the World Health Organization. At least 288 related deaths have officially been reported to the WHO.

    Scientists are still trying to figure out how the deadly virus is transmitted. Researchers from King Fahd Medical Research Center in Saudi Arabia collected three air samples from a camel barn. Previously, they had found MERS in a camel from that barn and in its infected owner, who later died from the condition. After analyzing the air sample, the scientists found one strain of MERS RNA, the viral genome. Interestingly, the barn air tested positive for MERS on the exact same day that one of the nine camels in the barn tested positive for MERS. Also, the virus from the air sample was identical to the virus found in nasal samples from the infected camel and its owner. “These data show evidence for the presence of the airborne MERS in the same barn that was owned by the patient and sheltered the infected camel,” the study authors write.

    But does that mean MERS is easily transmitted through the air? “What they say is that virus particles can be airborne, but it’s premature to conclude that MERS is transmitted through aerosols,” said Dr. Mark Denison, a professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. The key point is the difference between dead virus particles and a viable virus. “I could take billions of particles of dead viruses and could still find the RNA. That doesn’t mean that there are infectious aerosols,” Denison said.

    Kevin Olival, a senior research scientist at EcoHealth Alliance, agrees on that distinction. “We know that MERS is found in nasal secretion of camels, so virus particles being spread out in a barn is not a surprise,” he said. “Whether or not you can get infected, and if it’s a cause for concern, is still an open question.”

    However, previous studies have suggested that there must be a way MERS is shed into the environment. Several reports in the past have shown MERS infection of those in close contact with infected patients. The exact pathways of infections are unclear.

    “Do we still need to consider the possibility of airborne transmission? Yes, of course,” Denison said. But in order to fully understand whether airborne transmission plays a role in MERS, further research is needed, Denison and Olival conclude.

(www.cnn.com. Adapted.)

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The Biological Basis of Learning and Individuality

    Elementary aspects of the neuronal mechanisms important for several different types of learning can now be studied on the cellular and even on the molecular level. Researchers agree that [some] forms of learning and memory require a conscious record. These types of learning are commonly called declarative or explicit. Those forms of learning that do not utilize conscious participation are referred to as non-declarative or implicit.

    Explicit learning is fast and may take place after only one training trial. It often involves association of simultaneous stimuli and permits storage of information about a single event that happens in a particular time and place; it therefore affords a sense of familiarity about previous events. In contrast, implicit learning is slow and accumulates through repetition over many trials. It often involves association of sequential stimuli and permits storage of information about predictive relations between events. Implicit learning is expressed primarily by improved performance on certain tasks without the subject being able to describe just what has been learned, and it involves memory systems that do not draw on the contents of the general knowledge of the individual.

    The existence of two distinct forms of learning has caused the reductionists among neurobiologists to ask whether there is a representation on the cellular level for each of these two types of learning process. Canadian psychologist Donald O. Hebb boldly suggested that associative learning could be produced by a simple cellular mechanism. He proposed that associations could be formed by coincident neural activity: “When an axon of cell A ... excite[s] cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficacy, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.” According to Hebb’s learning rule, coincident activity in the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons, is critical for strengthening the connection between them (a so-called pre-post associative mechanism).

(Scientific American, julho de 2014.)

Leia o texto abaixo para responder à questão.

The Biological Basis of Learning and Individuality

    Elementary aspects of the neuronal mechanisms important for several different types of learning can now be studied on the cellular and even on the molecular level. Researchers agree that [some] forms of learning and memory require a conscious record. These types of learning are commonly called declarative or explicit. Those forms of learning that do not utilize conscious participation are referred to as non-declarative or implicit.

    Explicit learning is fast and may take place after only one training trial. It often involves association of simultaneous stimuli and permits storage of information about a single event that happens in a particular time and place; it therefore affords a sense of familiarity about previous events. In contrast, implicit learning is slow and accumulates through repetition over many trials. It often involves association of sequential stimuli and permits storage of information about predictive relations between events. Implicit learning is expressed primarily by improved performance on certain tasks without the subject being able to describe just what has been learned, and it involves memory systems that do not draw on the contents of the general knowledge of the individual.

    The existence of two distinct forms of learning has caused the reductionists among neurobiologists to ask whether there is a representation on the cellular level for each of these two types of learning process. Canadian psychologist Donald O. Hebb boldly suggested that associative learning could be produced by a simple cellular mechanism. He proposed that associations could be formed by coincident neural activity: “When an axon of cell A ... excite[s] cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficacy, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.” According to Hebb’s learning rule, coincident activity in the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons, is critical for strengthening the connection between them (a so-called pre-post associative mechanism).

(Scientific American, julho de 2014.)