TEXT

By the 900s, Islamic medicine was the most
sophisticated in the world. One of the most lasting
contributions of Islam was the hospital. Funded
by donations called waqf, public hospitals treated
the sick, provided a place to convalesce and
recover, housed the mentally ill, and provided
shelter to the aged and infirm. Jewish and
Christian doctors, in addition to Muslim
physicians, worked in these institutions. Hospitals

allowed the poorest to benefit from the knowledge

of outstanding doctors: beggars in Baghdad might
be operated on by Rhazes, the great surgeon of the
city hospital.
As was increasingly the case in Christian Europe,
great cities in the Muslim world competed to
house such institutions, hoping to attract the best
teachers and books. The Ahmad ibn Tulun
Hospital, one of the first of its kind, was built in
Cairo between 872 and 874. Perhaps the best
known hospital of the Islamic world, Al-Mansuri
Hospital, was also built in Cairo, by the sultan

Qalawun in1285. Four wards, each one

specializing in different pathologies, were reputed
to house thousands of patients. The buildings

surrounded a courtyard cooled by fountains.

TEXTO:

You need a healthy immune system to help fight
off infections and disease, and believe it or not, the
right kind of stress can actually help your body’s
defenses against illness. When you get sick, stress
[5] causes you to make hormones that battle threats to
your health. And this kind of stress is particularly
effective when at the early stages of an illness, when
your body needs help the most.
Now, it is true your immune system can only
[10] handle so much stress: if it lasts too long, these
hormones can overwhelm your body and actually
decrease your immunity. But that initial burst of stress
is an asset to your immune system when you’re the
most vulnerable, right when your body faces a threat.
Disponível em: <www.eatingwell.com/article/16296/the-13-biggetsnutrition-and-food-myths-busted/>. Acesso em: 2 fev. 2018. Adaptado

TEXTO:

Anna had been depressed for much of her adult
life, seeking a range of treatments that might help her
condition. She took anti-depressants, underwent
psychotherapy and even experienced electroconvulsive
[5] therapy – which involves passing electricity through the
whole brain.
Treatments like these were only effective for short
periods, and her depression would soon return. Another
issue she faced was that she was morbidly obese,
[10] weighing 183kg. This resulted in severely limited
mobility which, naturally, exacerbated her depression,
putting in place a vicious circle of poor health.
Gastric bypass surgery helped her lose some
weight but not as much as expected from such a
[15] procedure, and it had little impact on her depression.
As a last resort treatment, psychiatrists took a drastic
decision to implant an electrical device in her brain, an
invasive therapy known as deep brain stimulation. It’s
a treatment that’s already frequently used to alleviate
[20] the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
Not only did this treatment significantly help her
depression, it had another astonishing outcome – she
lost more weight than she had with any previous
treatment, losing almost 50% more weight (2.8kg or
[25] 6.1lbs) per month than she had done after the gastric
bypass surgery. Thomas Munte, the neurologist who
treated Anna, says that while the initial goal was to treat
her depression, the weight loss was the “secondary
target” of the surgery. In her case, the two were
[30] seemingly linked.
That Anna successfully lost weight following the
treatment is opening up new discussions about how to
tackle what we know is a world-wide epidemic. It is
also revealing that in some rare cases, the brain can
[35] be “de-tuned” from debilitating behaviors, like addiction.

TEXTO:

British scientists have developed a lightweight and
highly sensitive brain imaging device that can be worn
as a helmet, allowing the patient to move about naturally.
Results from tests of the scanner showed that patients
[5] were able to stretch, nod and even drink tea or play
table tennis while their brain activity was being
recorded, millisecond by millisecond, by the
magnetoencephalography (MEG) system.
Researchers who developed the device said they
[10] hoped the new scanner would improve research and
treatment for patients who can’t use traditional fixed
MEG scanners, such as children with epilepsy, babies,
or patients with disorders like Parkinson’s disease.
Current MEG scanners are cumbersome and weigh
[15] as much as half a ton, partly because the sensors they
use to measure the brain’s magnetic field need to be
kept very cold - at minus 269 degrees Celsius, Barnes’
team explained. They also run into difficulties when
patients are unable to stay very still — very young

[20] children or patients with movement disorders for
example — since even a 5-millimeter movement can
mean the images are unusable.
In the helmet scanner, the researchers overcame
these problems by using quantum sensors, which are
[25] lightweight, work at room temperature and can be
placed directly onto scalp — increasing the amount of
signal they are able to pick up. Moreover, the wearable
scanner offers new possibilities in measuring peoples’
brain function during real world tasks and social
[30] interactions. “This has significant potential for impact
on our understanding of not only healthy brain function
but also on a range of neurological, neurodegenerative
and mental health conditions.”

Big U.S. tobacco companies are all developing e-cigarettes. The battery-powered gadgets feature a glowing tip and a heating element that turns liquid nicotine and flavorings into a cloud of vapor that users inhale. Some past research has suggested that using e-cigarettes may help smokers cut down on use of traditional tobacco products, or even transition entirely away from tobacco – an idea aggressively marketed by e-cigarette and tobacco companies.
But a recent European study says that smokers who also use e-cigarettes may be half as likely to give up tobacco as smokers who never vape at all.
Researchers analyzed data from a 2014 survey of more than 13,000 current or former smokers in the European Union. About 2,500 had tried vaping at least once; 46% of the participants were former smokers and 19% currently or previously used e-cigarettes. The study revealed that people smoked an average of about 14 cigarettes a day when they didn’t vape, and around 16 cigarettes a day when they did.

“This is important because e-cigarettes are widely promoted as a smoking cessation tool”, said senior author Stanton Glantz of California, San Francisco. “And, while there is no question that some smokers do successfully quit with e-cigarettes, they keep many more people smoking”, he added.
“Most adult smokers express a desire to quit, and many try and fail”, said Samir Soneji, a health policy researcher in New Hampshire. “E-cigarettes might seem like an appealing cessation tool because the devices in some ways mimic the smoking, but nicotine gum or patches may be more effective.”
RAPAPORT, Lisa. Disponível em: <www.foxnews.com>. Acesso em: abr. 2018. Adaptado.

TEXT

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

[1] Tourism is one of the world’s fastest

growing industries and is a major source of

income for many countries. Being a peo-

ple-oriented industry, tourism also provides

[5] many jobs which have helped revitalise lo-

cal economies.

However, like other forms of devel-

opment, tourism can also cause its share

of problems, such as social dislocation,

[10] loss of cultural heritage, economic depen-

dence and ecological degradation. Learn-

ing about the impacts of tourism has led

many people to seek more responsible

holidays. These include various forms of

[15] alternative or sustainable tourism such as:

‘nature-based tourism’, ‘ecotourism’ and

‘cultural tourism’. Sustainable tourism is

becoming so popular that some say that

what we presently call ‘alternative’ will be

[20] the ‘mainstream’ in a decade.

All tourism activities of whatever mo-

tivation – holidays, business travel, con-

ferences, adventure travel and ecotour-

ism – need to be sustainable. Sustainable

[25] tourism is defined as “tourism that respects

both local people and the traveller, cultural

heritage and the environment”. It seeks to

provide people with an exciting and educa-

tional holiday that is also of benefit to the

[30] people of the host country.

Text

How to Tell if Your Sunscreen Protects You From the Sun - Here’s what you need to know.

Don’t go overboard with the SPF. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends using an SPF of at least 30, but most experts agree to not go over 50. It’s not that a higher SPF doesn’t provide any more protection, but once you get above 50, that increase is negligible. Case in point: SPF 50 blocks about 97% of UVB rays, while SPF 100 blocks about 99%.

But most sunscreen users don’t think about that; rather, they see a number that’s twice as high and assume they’ll get twice as much protection or that the protection will last twice as long, which cultivates a false sense of security that could lead to a bad burn. “SPF values above 50 are really misleading,” Lunder says. “They offer a very small increase in sunburn [UVB] protection, and they don't offer better UVA protection.” She says that the FDA is considering a rule to cap SPF values at 50, but nothing has been finalized.

And then there’s the fact that, although the increase in SPF doesn’t add much protection, it could increase your chances of negative side effects from the ingredients. “We do not recommend SPF of 50 or higher, as the minimal added protection does not outweigh the exponentially more active ingredients required to do so,” Chris Birchby, the founder of the sun-care line Coola, tells Teen Vogue. “More active ingredients increase the chances of skin irritation.”

A top FBI official told a drone conference in Denver that criminals deliberately flew several small drones to block the rescue team's view of an unfolding situation.

The drones caused the FBI to lose sight of the attacker.

"We were then blind," Joseph Mazel, the FBI's operational technology law unit chief, told the AUVSI drone conference.

According to military news site Defense One, which attended the conference, the hostage situation occurred over the winter in the outskirts of a large US city.

The FBI had set up an elevated observation post to monitor the hostage situation, and suddenly drones appeared, carrying out a series of "high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them [out]," Mr Mazel said.

Criminal use of drones is rising, and the most popular use for unmanned aerial vehicles is for the smuggling of smartphones and drugs into prisons, according to the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).

However, the law enforcement body is concerned that criminals could also use drones in other ways.

"As part of any operational planning for public events, police are now considering the malicious use of drones and how they will counter that risk," an NPCC spokesman told the BBC.

"From news reports, practical experience and events within the prison service, quite clearly we're seeing an increasing risk in drone usage, and that's why as an organisation we're doing something about it. "

In 2015, it was reported that criminals were using drones to scope out potential burglary targets in Suffolk, and, in 2017, news site Vice made a video documentary about people who were using heat-seeking drones to steal marijuana from illegal farms hidden in residential properties.

And in the US, drones are increasingly being used by criminal enterprises.

"I talk to a lot of people in the drone industry, and we've heard of the Mexican drug cartels using drones for at least 10 years to smuggle drugs across the border," Jeffrey Antonelli, a lead attorney specialising in drone and BitTorrent litigation at Antonelli Law told the BBC.
(Adapted from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44003860, Accessed on May 5th, 2018).