Questões para Concursos

Microplastics found in human heart for first time

A new study suggests invasive medical procedures may be an overlooked route of microplastics exposure, raising concerns about potential health risks. Minute particles of plastic (called microplastics) are everywhere. They’ve been found in our water, in our food, and in the air we breathe, according to a 2021 scientific review. Just a year later, another study found microplastics in the human bloodstream. Now, in what researchers are calling a first, microplastics have been detected in the heart tissues of individuals who underwent cardiac surgery.
According to the author of the research, the detection of microplastics in vivo is alarming, and more studies are necessary to investigate how the microparticles enter the cardiac tissues and the potential effects of microplastics on long-term prognosis after cardiac surgery. The author and his team used direct infrared imaging, and identified 20 to 500 micrometer-wide particles made from eight types of plastic. The scientists also found plastic particles in blood samples collected from participants. They added that “microplastics are highly likely to distribute in various organs throughout the body.”
A fraction of the plastic pieces identified had a diameter too large to likely enter the body through inhalation or ingestion, according to the analysis. This indicated that the heart operation itself may permit direct access of microplastics to the bloodstream and tissues. The researchers cited previous scientific investigation showing that microplastics have been detected in the air in operating rooms and could directly enter a patient whose organs are exposed to the air during surgery.
Such large particles may also come from equipment and materials used in a heart operation, including surgical incision protective film, intravenous therapy bags, tubing, and syringes. The types of plastics detected might also offer evidence that microplastics could be introduced during surgery, which may raise the risk of heart disease.
Internet: (adapted).

Based on the preceding text, judge the following items.

Text CB1A2-I
Although an oft-cited poll showed that 85% of Americans approve of organ donation, less than half had made a decision about donating, and fewer still (28%) had granted permission by signing a donor card, a pattern also observed in Germany, Spain, and Sweden. Given the shortage of donors, the gap between approval and action is a matter of life and death.
What drives the decision to become a potential donor? Within the European Union, donation rates vary by nearly an order of magnitude across countries and these differences are stable from year to year. Even when controlling for variables such as transplant infrastructure, economic and educational status, and religion, large differences in donation rates persist. Why?
Most public policy choices have a no-action default, that is, a condition is imposed when an individual fails to make a decision. In the case of organ donation, European countries have one of two default policies. In presumed-consent states, people are organ donors unless they register not to be, and in explicitconsent countries, nobody is an organ donor without registering to be one.
We examined the rate of agreement to become a donor across European countries with explicit and presumed consent laws. If preferences concerning organ donation are strong, we would expect defaults to have little or no effect. However, defaults appear to make a large difference: the four opt-in countries (Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany) had lower rates than the six opt-out countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Sweden). The two distributions have no overlap, and nearly 60 percentage points separate the two groups
Our data suggest changes in defaults could increase donations in the United States of additional thousands of donors a year. Because each donor can donate for about three transplants, the consequences are substantial in lives saved. Our results stand in contrast with the suggestion that defaults do not matter. Policy-makers performing analysis in this and other domains should consider that defaults make a difference.
Eric J. Johnson; Daniel Goldstein. Do Defaults Save Lives?
Internet: (adapted).

Text 2A7

Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably the most rapidly advancing technology humans have ever developed. A year ago, you wouldn’t often hear AI come up in a regular conversation, but today it seems there’s constant talk about how generative AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E will affect the future of work, the spread of information, and more. A major question that has thus far been almost entirely unexamined is how this AI-dominated future will affect people’s minds.
There’s been some research into how using AI in their jobs will affect people mentally, but there isn’t yet an understanding of how simply living amongst so much AI-generated content and systems will affect people’s sense of the world. How is AI going to change individuals and society in the not-too-distant future?
AI will obviously make it easier to produce disinformation. That will affect people’s sense of trust as they’re scrolling on social media. AI can also allow someone to imitate your loved ones, which further erodes people’s general ability to trust what was once unquestionable.

Internet: (adapted).

TEXT 2

People who read books are nicer than those who don’t, study finds.

People often think that, yes, books make you smarter but at the same time people who read a lot struggle when it comes to social relationships. A new study reveals that this is not true. In fact, reading could actually make you a _____, _____ person. It also makes you act in a _____ acceptable manner.
The study, conducted by Kingston University in London, involved 124 participants. Participants were quizzed on their preferences for books, TV, and plays. They were also tested on interpersonal skills including how much they considered other people’s feelings and whether they acted to help others.
The study found that those who preferred books were more likely to act in a socially acceptable manner compared to those who preferred watching TV. Those who preferred watching TV, on the other hand, came across as less friendly and less understanding of others’ views.
However, not all types of books tend to have the same effect. The study shows that the type of literature you choose also has a huge impact on your emotional intelligence. In particular, the study revealed that fiction fans showed more positive social behavior while readers of drama and romance novels were found to be the most empathic. In the same vein, fans of experimental books were most able to see things from alternative perspectives, and readers who favored comedy fans were best at relating to others.
“Exposure to fiction relates to a range of empathetic abilities […] Engaging with fictional prose and comedy in particular could be key to enhancing people’s empathetic abilities,” said the researchers during the British Psychological Society conference in Brighton.
It should be borne in mind, however, that the study did not prove cause-and-effect. It may very well be that nicer people are more drawn to reading books.

Adapted from: https://thelanguagenerds.com. Accessed on: 28 Feb. 2023.

TEXT 1

Adapted from: https://dilbert.com/. Accessed on: 28 Feb. 2023.

TEXT 1

Adapted from: https://dilbert.com/. Accessed on: 28 Feb. 2023.

Note: throughout the test, you are going to read an online article entitled Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet (written by Kyle Chayka), adapted from https://www.newyorker.com and accessed on 11 June 2023. The article is about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and it discusses ChatGPT.

All the questions of your test will refer to different parts and aspects of the article.

Note: throughout the test, you are going to read an online article entitled Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet (written by Kyle Chayka), adapted from https://www.newyorker.com and accessed on 11 June 2023. The article is about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and it discusses ChatGPT.

All the questions of your test will refer to different parts and aspects of the article.

Can alternative tailings disposal become the norm in mining?

There is no doubt that the resources extracted from mining are critical to our way of life. Likely, you’re reading this on your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Mining touches all our lives daily (in addition to metals used in electronics, think about that can of soda you are drinking, or the aggregate used to pave your driveway). The industry works hard to make sure the net impact is positive.
However, the waste associated with mining, both past and present, is an unavoidable result of conventional mineral processing. In the future it may be possible to extract metals like copper and gold without crushing and grinding the ore down to fine particle size and adding considerable quantities of liquid, resulting in conventional tailings.
What are the challenges associated with conventional tailings? Well, it is all about water. Managing seepage from the tailings themselves, monitoring pore water pressure within the tailings dams or designing facilities to safely store or pass flood events. Because such a significant quantity of water is added during mineral processing, “conventional” tailings dams store the tailings as a slurry. Water within the tailing material is either evaporated, migrates as seepage or remains entrained within the tailings impoundment. Removing water prior to disposal through various means is considered “alternative” disposal. Mining low grades of ore has resulted in increased water use per unit of production. In some cases, the availability of water is one of the greatest constraints on mine development.

Internet: (adapted).

Considering the ideas stated in the text and the vocabulary used in it, judge the following items.

“English is the global language.” — a headline of this kind must have appeared in a thousand newspapers and magazines in recent years. “English Rules” is an actual example, presenting to the world an uncomplicated scenario suggesting the universality of the language’s spread and the likelihood of its continuation. A statement prominently displayed in the body of the associated article, memorable chiefly for its alliterative ingenuity, reinforces the initial impression: “The British Empire may be in full retreat with the handover of Hong Kong. But from Bengal to Belize and Las Vegas to Lahore, the language of the sceptered isle is rapidly becoming the first global lingua franca.” Millennial retrospectives and prognostications continued in the same vein, with several major newspapers and magazines finding in the subject of the English language an apt symbol for the themes of globalization, diversification, progress and identity addressed in their special editions.
A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country. To achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world. They must decide to give it a special place within their communities, even though they may have few (or no) mother-tongue speakers.
Salman Rushdie comments that “the English language ceased to be the sole possession of the English some time ago”. Indeed, when even the largest English-speaking nation, the USA, turns out to have only about 20 percent of the world’s English speakers, it is plain that no one can now claim sole ownership. This is probably the best way of defining a genuinely global language, in fact: that its usage is not restricted by countries or by governing bodies.

David Crystal. English as a global language .
Cambridge University Press, 2003. pp. 1-2;4;140-141 (adapted).

Judge the following items according to the text above.