Alterações do ciclo sono-vigília moduladas por Dopamina e suas consequências Mnemônicas

Neuroscience is on a rise of discoveries. Its wide interdisciplinary approach facilitates a more complex understanding of the brain, covering various areas in depth. However, many phenomena that fascinate human kind are far from being fully elucidated, such as the formation of memories and sleep. In this study we investigated the role of the dopaminergic system in the process of memory consolidation and modulation of the phases of sleep-wake cycle. We used two groups of animals: wildtype mice and hiperdopaminergic mice, heterozygous for the gene encoding the dopamine transporter protein. We observed in wild-type mice that the partial blockade of the D2 dopamine receptor by the drug haloperidol caused deficits in memory consolidation for object recognition, as well as a significant reduction in the duration of rapid eye movement sleep (REM). We also found a mnemonic deficit without pharmacological intervention in hiperdopaminergic animals; this deficit was reversed with haloperidol. The results suggest that dopamine plays a key role in memory consolidation for object recognition. The data also support a functional relationship between the dopaminergic system and the modulation of REM sleep

Influência da prática de yoga sobre os sintomas da menopausa

Yoga has been studied and practiced for over three thousand years and nowadays it is widely adopted as a mean to assist the health of individuals. Additionally, numerous benefits to the health rehabilitation and quality of life of elderly individuals has been attributed to this set of techniques. In women, the aging process is characterized by the interruption on ovarian follicular activity (menopause) characterized by a number of neuroendocrine and physiologic changes. Those changes are frequently accompanied by uncomfortable and occasionally debilitating symptoms. Although there is profuse clinical information about menopause, studies on the potential therapeutic application of yoga during the climacteric period are scarce. The objective of this research was to investigate the psychophysiological effects of 12 weeks of yoga practice in 88 postmenopausal women. The volunteers were divided into a control group (no intervention), exercise group and yoga group. Instruments were applied for the evaluation of climacteric syndrome, stress, depression, quality of life, and anxiety. In addition, the determination of hormonal levels of FSH, LH, estradiol, cortisol and progesterone, and biochemical levels of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL, urea, creatinine, AST and ALT were conducted. Our results showed that the yoga group had significantly lower scores after the regular practice of yoga for menopausal symptoms. Besides, those changes were accompanied by a statistical significant improvement in the stress levels, decrease in depression scores, and higher scores in quality of life when compared with the control group and the exercise group. As well, the regular practice of yoga promoted the maintenance of cortisol levels compared to control group after 12 weeks. Regarding the biochemical parameters yoga practitioners presented lower levels of LDL in the blood. These results are supported by previous studies which found that regular practice of yoga improves quality of life of subjects, Thus, herein we propose that yoga can be a non-pharmacological alternative to management of menopausal symptoms and stress in postmenopausal women

Adaptação e validação da escala de motivação à prática de atividades físicas

The study of the motivation to practice physical activities is relevant once through this it is possible to develop intervention strategies for sedentary population. In this way, the present dissertation aimed to adapt and validate for the Brazilian context the Motives for Physical Activity Measure Revised (MPAM-R). It was investigated yet the relation of some socio-demographic variables (age, gender, Body Mass Index - BMI, types of physical activity; way to practice and time of practice) and the participants means in the motives studied. The physical activity (PA) is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles resulting in energy expenditure above the basal level. However, in the present study it was considered motivation for two types of PA: the physical exercises and sports. The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) underlay this research, once it has been used in the sportive context, beyond the facto of it was used as theoretical base to the development of MPAM-R. To attain the proposed goals, it was accomplished translations to Portuguese of the original English scale. Next, was carried out the semantic analysis and the judge analysis. For the empirical analysis of items, participated 309 practitioner of PA, classified in physical exercises practitioners and sports practitioners, with ages between 16 and 74 years, distributed equally by sex. They answered the final version in Portuguese of the MPAM-R and socio-demographic questions. The data was collected in Natal/RN, where the researcher approached people in some places where the PA is practiced, following she communicated that their involvement will be spontaneous and their responses will be confidential. The obtained results pointed the confirmation of the existence of five factors in the final version of the instrument, that was composed by 26 items that presented the following statistics indexes: x² (289) = 757.75, p < 0.000, x²/DF = 2.62, with GFI of 0.83, AGFI of 0.80 and RMSEA of 0.07. The reliability (Cronbach Alpha) of the complete instrument was 0.90, and the indexes of each factor were considered satisfactory too: Enjoyment (α = 0.88), Health (α = 0.84), Appearance (α = 0.79), Competence (α = 0.85) and Social (α = 0.75). It was observed that, in general, the main motive presented by the participants to practice PA was Health. It was verified yet, that women and aged had a higher mean in the Health factor; among the exercise practitioners was found a higher mean in the Appearance factor; and a higher mean in the Social factor was found among those that practice PA with accompaniment. It was concluded that the MPAM-R presented satisfactory psychometric parameters, became it useful in futures researches. Moreover, proposed the accomplishment of new studies that considered others variables to the intent of the better understanding of motivation to practice physical activity

O Bullying sob o olhar dos educadores: um estudo em escolas da rede privada de Natal/RN

The school bullying involves all aggressive, intentional, repetitive attitudes, occurring without apparent motivation, adopted by one or more students against another (s) causing pain and anguish, and implemented within an unequal relationship of power, making possible the intimidation of the victim. Its expressions involve defamatory rumors, discrimination, theft or damage to property, harassment, threats, beatings, isolation, exclusion of a person or group, intimidation, intolerance and disrespect. In this study, we sought to identify the design educators have about the bullying, and are known by what means are aware of the problem, is involved when identifying cases of bullying and how to give this speech. This study used for data collection a questionnaire applied to 107 educators from 14 private schools in Natal / RN, who received statistical treatment in the program SPSS and the results analyzed in the light outside of a social and historical reference. Among the results, we found that 83% of the interviewed educators has at least heard about bullying, and the information about the problem are mainly the media, like television, newspapers and magazines. The educators said that the surname and physical attacks are more frequent outbreaks of violence among students and also the most common complaints when they look for help. The necessity for intervention when it identifies a case of bullying is present in 97.03% of respondents and 73.27% of educators are also called by students or school officials to remedy the situations of bullying among students. On the forms of intervention employed, the most common is the conversation and warning the students involved. It is suggested that the intensification of studies related to the subject and the development of actions and programs antibullying involving the school community (educators, parents, students, employees), in partnership with social segments like Tutelar Council and others related to the protection of children and adolescent

Os significados de ludoterapia para as protagonistas do processo: crianças em atendimento

The ludic therapy in a Phenomenological-Existential perspective is conceived as a psychotherapeutic process in which, the listening and talking, mediated by playing activities, allow the child to deal with their grief/suffering. This study is based on the need to broaden the understanding of this modality of clinical intervention by emphasizing the speech of the protagonists in the process: children in therapy. The objective was to understand the ludic therapy from the children s perspective, knowing the meanings assigned to the therapeutic process, to the psychologist and to the involvement of the children in clinical consultations. The main ideas that underlie this research are presented in three theoretical chapters covering, respectively, the suffering of children and the demand for psychotherapy, the Phenomenological-Existential clinical psychology, and the psychotherapy for children, in Brazil, under this theoretical-methodological approach. The study was qualitative, on a phenomenological basis, and included six children as participants, aged between six and ten years, undergoing ludic therapy for at least six months, and referred by their own therapists. In the research s corpus construction, individual meetings were held and mediated by tools to support expressiveness (ludic and pictures/figures boxes), added by the storytelling of an incomplete story about a child s visit to the therapy session, and the request for the elaboration of a message to be passed to a child who will go to see a psychologist. The analysis of the data was based on a variant of the phenomenological method proposed by Amedeo Giorgi. The results reveal a lack of knowledge by the children about the psychologist s activities. Thus, the children develop fantasies about this intervention modality because of lack of information. These observations are consistent with the historical meanings assigned to clinical psychology, involving ideas of normality and guilt. The meanings associated with the motives for a referral to a psychologist highlight the conflict "be a problem versus having a problem" and an elitist conception of clinical psychology. Children understand the characteristics of the therapeutic process, such as the specifics of the therapist-client relationship and the notion of freedom. They also demonstrate remarkable pleasure in the therapeutic process. Finally, it was concluded that the meanings attributed to the ludic therapy by the children are consistent with that proposed in the literature about the children s psychotherapy process in the Phenomenological-Existential perspective. Moreover, the relevance of both the children s experience in the therapeutic setting and the meanings of these proceedings understood by the children are highlighted by the listening to the protagonists in the ludic therapeutic process. The comprehension of these aspects and their transference from the clients experience to the reflective field, promote advances in the understanding of child psychotherapy and indicate the need for further studies with children using this approach.

Estudos de validade da escala de dependência alcoólica do millon clinical multiaxial inventory iii para o Brasil

This study has as main objectives to translate and to adapt the MCMI-III to brazilian Portuguese, as well as investigate and analyze the involved modifications in the Alcohol Dependence Scale concerning to the results obtained on the validity and on the process of adaptation to Brazil. The inventory was translated and, posteriorly, applied on people with different reading levels to certify that the items are understandable to public in general, from diverse places of the country, divided into clinical and non-clinical groups. Were evaluated 2855 subjects between the ages of 18 and 85 years old, male and female, resident and dwellers of Brazilian cities. The application methods were face-to-face and computerized. Results showed that the clinical group presented significant differences between the means in comparison to the non-clinical group. Through the application of the General Health Questionnaire were developed studies related to the achievement of convergent validity and its results pointed to the relation between the instrument scores and the MCMI-III. The Alcohol Dependence Scale analysis indicated that people who reported abusive use of alcohol had highest scores, indicating adequacy of the instrument on identifying manifestation of disorders and syndromes. Nevertheless, further studies are necessary to the establishment of normative patterns to the Brazilian sample

Psicologia e pobreza no Brasil: limites e perspectivas da produção de conhecimento e atuação do psicólogo

Poverty is a main theme in Brazil: according to official data, poverty reachs 70 million Brazilian people, and, between them, 20 million are unable to provide their basic needs. Psychology, as a welfare profession, and given its historical concerns with social actions, could not be away from this theme. Based on this, we ask: Which answers Psychology can provide, toward both the production of knowledge and the practice about social reality? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological scientific production on poverty and the propositions, limits and impacts of psychological actions. We carried out a three stages documental based study analyzing Brazilian psychological literature: (1) online databases survey (312 papers identified); (2) 109 scientific abstracts accessed and coded; (3) selected 47 scientific papers read and analyzed. Results are presented in three sections: general description of the selected scientific production; characterization of the role of poverty in psychological literature; and themes presented at the papers. The academic production about the main theme (poverty) is dispersed, heterogeneous, and related to other fields of knowledge. Poverty is presented at these studies in many ways, such as: a criterium for sample design and the assessment of its psychological impacts; reports on professional experience with poor population; descriptions of this population group; relationship between poverty and others social themes; developmental and learning problems of poor children. In general, it appears that Psychology has improved the scientific production and experiences with poor population. However, it is necessary to build up theories and technical innovations and also to understand structural boundaries for professional practice with this population group

Práticas institucionais/discursivas acerca dos cuidados com os bebês prematuros e/ou de baixo peso: o programa canguru

The Kangaroo Program was implemented in Brazil in 2000 through the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde SUS) sustained with a humanized rethoric of health care assistance. This program adopts the skin-to-skin contact contributing to the mother-infant bond, breastfeeding and promoting security in mother s care. The users of SUS are encouraged to live in the maternity ward to follow the baby health improvement. However, it was verified in previous observations that mothers participation in the Kangaroo Program has been done through an imposed practice. Therefore, this study intended to understand the texts that permeate the kangaroo practice. This research was developed through two studies: 1) an historic exploration of motherhood concept and an analysis of how the motherhood is presented in the official document that orients the program; 2) an analysis of institutional dynamic of Kangaroo Program, emphasizing the study about the health workers everyday practice, the mothers view about their life in the maternity wards, and the attendance practice. It is highlighted that the relation between this two studies allowed the comprehension abouthow the official discourses can influence the health workers behaviors and how their viewpoint and position can shape the everyday work in a public health program. This research, supported by Institutional Ethnography, considers that people s practices and experiences are socially organized and shaped by broad social forces. The discourse method was used in the documental analysis and in the analysis of qualitative data from empiric research. The research showed that the kangaroo program has been an excellent way to save resources and to improve some baby s biologic and psychological aspects. However, this program has failed to consider the social, economic and cultural complexity of mothers and the structural limitation of the health care system. The official document uses the economic and medical approach, following the hegemonic biomedical model and the life style of the people that don t use the public health system. Consequently, the program has not been successful because it is planned without people participation. On the other hand, it was verified that although some professionals are committed with their work, the mainly does not consider mothers participation as an active process, using the institutional power as a social control to keep mothers uninformed about the possibility to leave the maternity wards. As a result, the research also showed that mothers perceive the program as mandatory and not as option that can improve pleasure moments. It is, therefore, necessary to consider the complex social determinants of health that can increase mothers participation in the Kangaroo Program. Bringing these issues into debate can be a reflective exercise on citizenship and governance, allowing spaces for the improvement of public health programs

Membranas de quitosana micro e macroporosas : preparo, caracterização e estudos de permeabilidade

Two methodologies were proposed to obtain micro and macroporous chitosan membranes, using two different porogenic agents. The methodologies proved to be effective in control the porosity as well as the pore size. Thus, microporous membranes were obtained through the physical blend of chitosan and polyethylene oxide (PEO) on an 80:20 (m/m) ratio, respectively, followed by the partial PEO solubilization in water at 80 ◦C. Macroporous chitosan membranes with asymmetric morphology were obtained using SiO2 as the porogenic agent. In this case, chiotsan-silica ratios used were 1:1, 1:3 and 1:5 (m/m). Membranes characterization were carried out by SEM (scanning electronic microscopy), X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermal analysis (TG, DTG , DSC and DMTA). Permeability studies were performed using two model drugs: sodium sulfamerazine and sulfametoxipyridazine. By transmission FTIR it was possible to confirm the complete removal of SiO2. The SEM images confirmed the porous formation for both micro and macroporous membranes and also determined their respective sizes. By thermal analysis it was possible to show differences related with water sorption capacity as well as thermal stability for both membranes. DTG and DSC allowed evidencing the PEO presence on microporous membranes. The absorbance x time curves obtained on permeability tests for micro and macroporous membranes showed a linear behavior for both drugs in all range of concentration used. It was also observed, through P versus C curves, an increase in permeability of macroporous membranes according to the increase in porosity and also a decrease on P with increase in drug concentration. The influences of the drug molecular structure, as well as test temperatures were also evaluated

Estudos de adsorção de tetraciclina e cromoglicato em partículas de quitosana

Among the polymers that stand out most in recent decades, chitosan, a biopolymer with physico-chemical and biological promising properties has been the subject of a broad field of research. Chitosan comes as a great choice in the field of adsorption, due to their adsorbents properties, low cost and abundance. The presence of amino groups in its chain govern the majority of their properties and define which application a sample of chitosan may be used, so it is essential to determine their average degree of deacetylation. In this work we developed kinetic and equilibrium studies to monitor and characterize the adsorption process of two drugs, tetracycline hydrochloride and sodium cromoglycate, in chitosan particles. Kinetic models and the adsorption isotherms were applied to the experimental data. For both studies, the zeta potential analyzes were also performed. The adsorption of each drug showed distinct aspects. Through the studies developed in this work was possible to describe a kinetic model for the adsorption of tetracycline on chitosan particles, thus demonstrating that it can be described by two kinetics of adsorption, one for protonated tetracycline and another one for unprotonated tetracycline. In the adsorption of sodium cromoglycate on chitosan particles, equilibrium studies were developed at different temperatures, allowing the determination of thermodynamic parameters

Estudos de adsorção de tetraciclina em partículas de quitosana

Due to its physico-chemical and biological properties, related to the abundance and low cost of raw material, chitosan has been recognized as a material of wide application in various fields, such as in drug delivery systems. Many of these properties are associated with the presence of amino groups in its polymer chain. A proper determination of these amino groups is very important, in order to properly specify if a given chitosan sample can be used in a particular application. Thus, in this work, initially, a comparison between the determination of the deacetylation degree by conductometry and elemental analysis was carried out using a detailed analysis of error propagation. It was shown that the conductometric analysis resulted in a simple and safe method for the determining the degree of deacetylation of chitosan. Subsequently, experiments were performed to monitor and characterize the adsorption of tetracycline on chitosan particles through kinetic and equilibrium studies. The main models of kinetics and adsorption isotherms, widely used to describe the adsorption on wastewater treatment systems and the drug loading, were used to treat the experimental data. Firstly, it was shown that an apparent linear t/q(t) × t relationship did not imply in a pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics, differently of what has been repeatedly reported in the literature. It was found that this misinterpretation can be avoided by using non-linear regression. Finally, the adsorption of tetracycline on chitosan particles was analyzed using insights obtained from theoretical analysis, and the parameters generated were used to analyze the kinetics of adsorption, the isotherm of adsorption and to ropose a mechanism of adsorption

Estudos de sorção de um corante aniônico modelo em partículas de quitosana reticulada

Textile activity results in effluents with a variety of dyes. Among the several processes for dye-uptaking from these wastewaters, sorption is one of the most effective methods, chitosan being a very promising alternative for this end. The sorption of Methyl Orange by chitosan crosslinked particles was approached using equilibrium and kinetic analyses at different pH s. Besides the standard pseudo-order analysis normally effectuated (i.e. pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order), a novel approach involving a pseudo-nth-order kinetics was used, nbeing determined via non-linear regression, using the Levenberg-Marquardt method. Zeta potential measurements indicated that electrostatic interactions were important for the sorption process. Regarding equilibrium experiments, data were well fitted to a hybrid Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm, and estimated Gibbs free energy of adsorption as a function of mass of dye per area of chitosan showed that the process of adsorption becomes more homogeneous as the pH of the continuous phase decreased. Considering the kinetics of sorption, although a pseudo-nth-order description yielded good fits, a kinetic equation involving diffusion adsorption phenomena was found to be more consistent in terms of a physicochemical description of the sorption process

Estudos das interações de quitosana/CTAB/C12E8

Surfactant-polymer interactions are widely used when required rheological properties for specific applications, such as the production of fluids for oil exploration. Studies of the interactions of chitosan with cationic surfactants has attracted attention by being able to cause changes in rheological parameters of the systems making room for new applications. The commercial chitosan represents an interesting alternative to these systems, since it is obtained from partial deacetylation of chitin: the residues sites acetylated can then be used for the polymer-surfactant interactions. Alkyl ethoxylated surfactants can be used in this system, since these non-ionic surfactants can interact with hydrophobic sites of chitosan, modifying the rheology of solutions or emulsions resultants, which depends on the relaxation phenomenon occurring in these systems. In this work, first, inverse emulsions were prepared from chitosan solution as the dispersed phase and cyclohexane as the continuous phase were, using CTAB as a surfactant. The rheological analysis of these emulsions showed pronounced pseudoplastic behavior. This behavior was attributed to interaction of "loops" of chitosan chains. Creep tests were also performed and gave further support to these discussions. Subsequently, in order to obtain more information about the interaction of chitosan with non-ionic surfactants, solutions of chitosan were mixed with C12E8 and and carried out rheological analysis and dynamic light scattering. The systems showed marked pseudoplastic behavior, which became less evident when the concentration of surfactant was increased. Arrhenius and KWW equations were used to obtain parameters of the apparent activation energy and relaxation rate distribution, respectively, to which were connected to the content of surfactant and temperature used in this work

Entendendo as propriedades do arenito Botucatu e sua utilização como meio poroso para estudos envolvendo o deslocamento de fluidos poliméricos

The development of products whose purpose is to promote blockages in high permeability zones as well as to control the hydrate or scale formation also needs some tests in porous media before using the product in the field, where attempts and unavoidable operational errors costs would able to derail any projects. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the Botucatu and Berea sandstones properties, involving problems related to loss permeability. It was observed that even cores of Berea, without expansible clays in their composition had their permeability reduced, as soon as the salinity of brine reached a lower limit. As expected, the same happened with the Botucatu sandstone samples, however, in this case, the sensitivity to low salinity was more pronounced. In a second phase, the research was focused on the Botucatu Sandstone behavior front of dilute polymer solutions injection, checking the main relationships between the Rock / Fluid interactions, considering the Mobility Reduction, Resistance and Residual Resistance Factors, as well as adsorption/desorption processes of these polymers, and the polymer molecules average size and porous sandstone average size ratio. The results for both phases showed a real feasibility of using the Botucatu sandstone in laboratory tests whose objective is the displacement of fluids through porous media

Cartografia de uma intervenção comunitária para prevenção de DST/HIV/AIDS

Community-based interventions have been presented as a proposal of operationalization of the concept of vulnerability to STD/Aids prevention. This study aimed to analyze the Community intervention developed through the project Strengthening of Community action networks for STD/Aids prevention: know and intervenein, at Mãe Luiza neighborhood, in the city of Natal, State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The study was conducted in the same location where intervention occurs and took as time reference the first 30 months of construction and deployment process, from April 2010 until December 2012. This is research with qualitative approach, participatory character, developed from the immersion of the researcher in the field, being this community intervention itself. In this perspective, the study approximates to the Cartographic method in which the researcher-researched is engendered in the acts and effects research. The data-generating sources were the memories of the researcher from the field notes, written narratives of subjects involved in the intervention and documents pertaining to the project. In the methodological path of cartography, the image of the rhizome by Deleuze and Guattari (1995) has accompanied the immersion in the field given the nature of research-intervention which approach to the concept of object-Rhizome. The presentation of results was composed for the attempted rhizomatic and a hypertext representation, based on the descriptive narrative taken from the documentary analysis and the multi-faceted narratives with the voices, the looks and the affections narrated by the subject involved, respectively. On the path taken, three lanes were drawn as synthesis of learning produced by experience-that can contribute to understanding the process under study, in his singular character, and reflections on other experiences of community intervention: track 1- Community intervention as active-reflective space and a cause; track 2 Inclusion as power and challenge of community involvement; track 3 Sustainability as A challenge of Community intervention. The study indicates that community intervention is presented as a potential producer of health as also produces practical and creative skills, subjects and inventive in the daily life of the community with a view to reinventing knowledge and practices for the prevention of STD/HIV/Aids