A influência do feedback verbal na cooperação em crianças

Human cooperation is a hallmark of this species due to its wide extension to genetically unrelated individuals and complex division of labor. It is considered an evolutionary puzzle, because the theory of evolution by natural selection predicts that self-interested individuals tend to be selected. Different theories have been proposed to explain the evolution of cooperation, which the most important are kin selection and reciprocal altruism. Considering the evolutionary continuity between species, humans and other primates have several common traits that help to promote cooperation between individuals of these species. Two features, however, seem to be particularly humans: inequality aversion and preferences in relation to others. Although human cooperation is not necessarily related to morality, cooperative traits are the basis for moral tendencies. The development of human morality is a combination of early prosocial tendencies, cooperative skills displayed at different ages, social learning and cultural transmission of norms. The social stimulus seems to be particularly important in promoting cooperative behavior in children and adults. In order to study the influence of social stimuli, as verbal feedback, on children cooperation, a study was conducted with children in a public goods game. 407 children from public schools in Natal / RN, divided into 21 groups, between six and nine years, participated in eight rounds of this game. After each round, seven groups received praise for larger donations, seven groups have been criticized by smaller donations, and the other seven received no comment. Children cooperated more when criticized, without significant differences between sexes, although young children have cooperated more negative than older children. The results are likely related to the anticipation and avoidance of punishment associated with the feedback (although this did not occur), and greater sensitivity to the authority in younger children. Nevertheless, the cooperation decreased in all groups until the last day of play. The results suggest an early sensitivity to moral punishment, whose role in the maintenance of social relations must have been important in the evolution of cooperation in humans

A percepção das características da face infantil por adultos e crianças sob uma perspectiva evolucionista

Child facial cues evoke attention, parental care behaviors and modulate for infant- caretaker interactions. Lorenz described the baby schema ( Kindchenschema ) as a set of infantile physical features such as the large head, round face, high and protruding forehead, big eyes, chubby cheeks, small nose and mouth. Previous work on this fundamental concept was restricted to positive perception to infant face, and did not show consistent results about the development individuals perceptions, regarding the physical attributes that worked as markers of cuteness. Here, we experimentally tested the effects of baby schema on the perception of cuteness of infant faces by children and adults. We used 60 none graphically manipulated photos of different stimulus children faces from 4 to 9 years old. In the first task for the adults experimental subjects, ten stimulus photos were shown, whereas for children experimental subjects, four stimulus photos were shown at a time, with a total of six rounds. The second task involved only adults, who indicated the motivation of affective behaviors and care directed to children through a Likert scale. Our results suggest that both participants judged similarly the cuteness of children's faces, and the physical features markers of this perception were observed only for younger stimulus children. Adults have attributed more motivations of positive behaviors to cuter stimulus children. The recognition of the baby schema by individuals of different ages and genders confers the universality and power of children's physical attributes. From the evolutionary perspective the responsiveness to baby schema is significant to ensure aloparental and parental investment, and the consequent children survival

Aplicação da espectroscopia de absorção de raios X no estudo do comportamento do íon Cu2+ em micelas inversas

This work deals with the application of X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy on the study of the behavior of Cu2+ ions in inverse micelles. The formation of copper nanoparticles in water-in-oil microemulsions in pseudo-ternary systems of cetyl trimethylammonium Bromide (CTAB) surfactant, butanol co-surfactant, heptane as oil phase and aqueous solutions of CuSO4.5H2O, and NaBH4. The microemulsions were prepared with a fixed percentage (60 %) of oil phase and a variable water to tensoative proportion. It was observed an increase on Cu2+ reduction by the sodium borohydride in microemulsions with 13 % of aqueous phase, independent of the reaction time. For the microemulsions in which the aqueous phase is composed only by the CuSO4 solution, it was observed that the color of the solution depends on the water to surfactant ratio. These changes in color were attributed to a competition for the hidratation water between the polar head of the tensoative and Cu2+ ions with the eventual substitution of oxygen by bromine atoms in the first coordination shell of Cu2+ ions

Estudo da potencialidade da espectroscopia de infravermelho próximo na análise de cabelo utilizando ferramentas quimiométricas para diferenciar fumantes de não fumantes

This paper investigates the potential of near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) for forensic analysis of human hair samples in order to differentiate smokers from nonsmokers, using chemometric modeling as an analytical tool. We obtained a total of 19 hair samples, 9 smokers and 10 nonsmokers varying gender, hair color, age and duration of smoking, all collected directly from the head of the same great Natal-RN. From the NIR spectra obtained without any pretreatment of the samples was performed an exploratory multivariate chemical data by applying spectral pretreatments followed by principal component analysis (PCA). After chemometric modeling of the data was achieved without any experimental data beyond the NIR spectra, differentiate smokers from nonsmokers, by demonstrating the significant influence of tabacco on the chemical composition of hair as well as the potential of the methodology in forensic identification

Perfil de mortalidade de idosos no Rio Grande do Norte: estudo comparativo entre duas faixas etárias e fatores relacionados

Measures of mortality represent one of the most important indicators of health conditions. For comprising the larger rate of deaths, the study of mortality in the elderly population is regarded as essential to understand the health situation. In this sense, the present study aims to analyze the mortality profile of the population from 60 to 69 (young elders) and older than 80 years old (oldest old) in the Rio Grande do Norte state (Brazil) in the period 2001 to 2011, and to identify the association with contextual factors and variables about the quality of the Mortality Information System (SIM). For this purpose, Mortality Proportional (MP) was calculated for the state and Specific Mortality Rate by Age (CMId) , according to chapters of ICD- 10, to the municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte , through data from the Mortality Information System (SIM) and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IGBE). In order to identify groups of municipalities with similar mortality profiles, Nonhierarchical Clustering K-means method was applied and the Factor Analysis by the Principal Components Analysis was resort to reduce contextual variables. The spatial distribution of these groups and the factors were visualized using the Spatial Analysis Areas technique. During the period investigated, 21,813 younger elders deaths were recorded , with a predominance of deaths from circulatory diseases (32.75%) and neoplasms (22.9 %) . Among the oldest old, 50,637 deaths were observed, which 35.26% occurred because of cardiovascular diseases and 17.27% of ill-defined causes. Clustering Analysis produced three clusters to the two age groups and Factor Analysis reduced the contextual variables into three factors, also the sum of the factor scores was considered. Among the younger elders, the groups are called misinformation profile, development profile and development paradox, which showed a statistically significant association with education and poverty and extreme poverty factors, factorial sum and the variable related to underreporting of deaths. Misinformation profile remained in the oldest old group, accompanied by the epidemiological transition profile and the epidemiological paradox, that were statistically associated with the development and health factor, as well as with the variables that indicate the SIM quality: proportion of blank fields about the schooling and underreporting. It proposed that the mortality profiles of the younger elders and oldest old differ on the importance of the basic causes and that are influenced by different contextual aspects , observing that 60 to 69 years group is more affected by such aspects. Health inequalities can be reduced by measures aimed to improve levels of education and poverty, especially in younger elders, and by optimizing the use of health services, which is more associated to the oldest old health situation. Furthermore, it is important to improve the quality of information for the two age groups

Conhecimento sobre ergonomia no âmbito acadêmico: um estudo com alunos e professores de odontologia

OBJETIVO: As doenças osteomusculares são as afecções ocupacionais mais prevalentes em cirurgiões-dentistas. Nosso propósito: 1) investigar os conhecimentos, aplicabilidades clínicas dos princípios ergonômicos em discentes e docentes em atividades clínicas de uma universidade pública 2) pesquisar a incidência de sintomatologias dolorosas no pescoço, ombros, parte superior e inferior das costas, cotovelos, quadris, coxas, joelhos, tornozelos e pés no universo de alunos em estágios clínicos. 3) incitar discussões de normas e diretrizes ergonômicas na universidade. MÉTODOS: Esse estudo investigou o universo de alunos matriculados em disciplinas clínicas (148) e respectivos professores (30) do curso de odontologia da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal-RN a respeito dos princípios ergonômicos utilizados na rotina clínica. Paralelamente foi pesquisada a incidência de sintomatologia dolorosa nos alunos por intermédio do questionário nórdico e a partir dos resultados foi mensurado o índice de severidade dos sintomas em alunos. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) é um instrumento de diagnóstico, proposto para padronizar a mensuração de relatos de sintomas osteomusculares. A análise dos dados foi através do programa SPSS-Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, versão 17.0 realizada analítica e descritivamente, com determinação das médias (x), desvio-padrão para variáveis quantitativas, freqüências simples e relativas para as variáveis categóricas, além da estatística de associação entre grupos (teste t) e a análise de associação do quiquadrado com nível de significância 5% entre as variáveis (Person). As respostas das questões abertas foram codificadas e transformadas em freqüências, descritas posteriormente. RESULTADOS: A aplicabilidade de medidas ergonômicas nas clínicas universitárias não foi evidenciada pelo universo de discentes e docentes. Quanto ao relato de sintomas osteomusculares o sexo feminino foi o mais acometido qualquer que seja o nível acadêmico cursado. As regiões anatômicas de maior grau de severidade de relatos dos sintomas foram: pescoço, parte inferior das costas, punhos, mãos e ombros, com significância etatística p<0,001. CONCLUSÃO: Em função dos achados os autores apresentam um protocolo de intervenção clínica baseado nos determinantes ergonômicos da Associação internacional de ergonomia (EAI) como medida de prevenção da saúde ocupacional dos futuros cirurgiões-dentistas ainda em processo de formação nas clínicas odontológicas das universidades.