The present study aimed to socialize the experience of a group of academics and nursing professors about the transition from face-to-face study to distance learning in times of COVID-19 pandemic. This is an account of the experience of academics and professors from different periods of undergraduate nursing, in a private higher education institution, located in the West of the State of Rio de Janeiro, from March to April 2020. The experience lived in these pandemic times corroborates that, no matter how much information and communication technologies we have, none of them has the power to replace the teacher's presence in the classroom. In addition, teaching-learning in the areas of health sciences involves and requires a diversity of complex factors inherent to the teaching process. In the area of nursing, this is proven mainly by the dichotomy between face-to-face and distance learning, which highlights the central pillar for our propositions. Thus, when understanding that this complexity is composed of innumerable factors, we must direct our efforts towards academic, personal and institutional particularities, in order to detect critical nodes that prevent the advance or integration of contents, and the development of teaching skills undergraduate nursing courses.

Cardiac sympathetic overdrive provides inotropic support to the failing heart. However, as myocardial insult evolves, this compensatory response impairs contractile function and constitutes an independent mortality predictor and a primary target in the treatment of heart failure (HF). In this prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled crossover trial, we proposed cervicothoracic transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (CTENS) as a nonpharmacological therapy on cardiac sympathetic activity in patients with HF. Seventeen patients with HF were randomly assigned to an in-home CTENS (30 min twice daily, 80-Hz frequency, and 150-μs pulse duration) or a control intervention (Sham) for 14 consecutive days. Following a 60-day washout phase, patients were crossed over to the opposite intervention. The heart-to-mediastinum ratio (HMR) and washout rate (WR) (indexes of sympathetic innervation density and activity from planar 123iodo-metaiodobenzylguanidine myocardial scintigraphy images, respectively), as well as blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), were quantified before and after each intervention. HMR, BP, and HR did not change throughout the study. Nonetheless, CTENS reduced WR (CTENS −4 ± 10 vs. Sham +5 ± 15%, P = 0.03) when compared with Sham. When allocated in two independent groups, preserved (PCSI, HMR > 1.6, n = 10) and impaired cardiac sympathetic innervation (ICSI, HRM ≤1.6, n = 7), PCSI patients showed an important attenuation of WR (−11 ± 9 vs. Sham +8 ± 19%, P = 0.007) after CTENS. Nonetheless, neither Sham nor CTENS evoked changes in WR of the ICSI patients ( P > 0.05). These findings indicate that CTENS attenuates the cardiac sympathetic overdrive in patients with HF and a preserved innervation constitutes an essential factor for this beneficial neuromodulatory impact. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Identifier: NCT03354689. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We found that short-term cervicothoracic transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (CTENS) attenuates cardiac sympathetic overdrive in patients with heart failure and a preserved autonomic innervation may constitute an essential factor to maximize this beneficial neuromodulatory effect. CTENS then emerges as an alternative noninvasive and nonpharmacological strategy to attenuate exaggerated cardiac sympathetic drive in patients with heart failure.

Objectives: To evaluate the influence of flaxseed for a long period of time and its hormonal effects of weight loss in castrated rats. Methods: We used 21 Wistar rats that underwent bilateral oophorectomy for induction of menopause, randomly divided into three groups: control group (CG) (n = 7), which received a diet based on casein 10 percent; flaxseed group, that received a diet based on casein plus 25 percent of flaxseed (FG) (n = 7); and modified control group, that received a diet based on modified casein 10 percent and with addition of lipid and fibers (CGM) (n = 7). All diets were prepared according to the recommendations of the AIN 93, the animals were kept under controlled temperature (22ºC ± 2ºC) and adequate lighting (light/dark cycle of 12 to 12 hours). The animals received food and water (ad libitum). The rats were anesthetized with Thiopentax® for blood collection by cardiac puncture for the determination of 17β-estradiol and collection of tissues (liver, bladder and uterus). Data was applied to statistical analysis using the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test and applied post hoc Mann-Whitney U for two by two comparison through Software S-Plus version 8.0, with the level of 0.05 for the significant differences. Results: The results show that the concentration of 17β-estradiol of FG was 40.2 percent higher than the CG and 25.77 percent higher than CGM, suggesting the estrogenic action of the flaxseed. In the body weight of the animals there were significant differences, suggesting a greater weight of the GC. There were no significant differences in the relative liver (p=0.2405) and bladder (p=0.7734) weight between the groups, andt there was no significant difference in the relative weight of the uterus (p=0.7922) between the casein and flaxseed groups. Conclusion: The consumption of 25 percent of flaxseed during menopause influenced on body weight, suggesting a phytoestrogen action in the consumption of seeds during the physiological stage.

Introdução: A linhaça é um fitoestrógeno com ômega 3, lignanas e fibras que atuam de forma benéfica, promovendo ação hipolipidêmica. No período da menopausa, as mulheres estão mais susceptíveis a alterações no metabolismo lipídico, devido à privação estrogênica, e desenvolvem perfil lipídico altamente favorável à aterogênese. Na prática clínica, o óleo de linhaça e a linhaça in natura vêm sendo amplamente consumidos. Objetivo: Revisar as evidências na literatura sobre a influência do fitoestrógeno linhaça nas suas diferentes formas de ingestão in natura e óleo sobre o perfil lipídico, com ênfase em mulheres na menopausa e pós-menopausa. Métodos: Foram analisados 11 estudos que utilizaram como critérios: ensaios clínicos controlados, randomizados, crossover, internacionais e publicados entre 1997 e 2015. Esta revisão utilizou dados de 360 mulheres na menopausa e pós-menopausa, com idade entre 41 e 73 anos que consumiram esse fitoestrógeno. Conclusão: Os estudos apresentam curto período de consumo desse fitoestrógeno e a quantidade varia entre 20 a 40 mg/dia, as evidências sugerem que o consumo de linhaça in natura influencia positivamente na redução dos níveis plasmáticos de colesterol total e LDL quando comparado ao consumo de óleo de linhaça.