Prevalência de excesso de peso em pré-escolares na cidade do Natal

Obesity is currently considered a public health problem and there has been growing interest in the study of various aspects related to this infirmity such as: epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and others. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of weight excess and overweight in preschoolers in Natal, Brazil and relate them to variables such as gender, age, type of school (public or private) and zones of the city (east/south and north/west). This is a transversal study, carried out in Natal, Brazil between August and September 2004, in 20 public and 20 private schools/day care centers selected by the systematic sampling method. We measured the weight and height of 3721 students between the ages of 2 and 6 years. The children were stratified, according to age, into age group 1 (2 to 4 years) and age group 2 (5 and 6 years) and according to the region of the school, into north/west and east/south zones, the regions with the smallest and highest quality of life indices in the city, respectively. Children were considered to have weight excess when BMI ≥ 85th percentile, including those with BMI ≥ 95th percentile and overweight when BMI ≥ 95th percentile. The prevalence of weight excess was 26.5%, and of overweight 12.4%. There was greater prevalence of weight excess in the private schools and in the east/south zones. Overweight displayed the same epidemiologic profile, with a greater prevalence in private schools and in the east/south zones. The prevalence of weight excess in preschoolers in Natal, Brazil is high and is related, above all, to private schools and to those located in the highest quality of life areas. Therefore, prevention programs should be implanted in elementary schools in order to decrease weight excess and possible associated co-morbidities. This research project met the norms established by PPGCSa/UFRN and aimed at promoting the interrelation between different researchers and between different fields of knowledge, using multi and interdisciplinary concepts. This study was enriched by the interaction between the following professionals: pediatrician, pediatric gastroenterologist and physician nutrition specialist, pediatric endocrinologist, epidemiologist and biostatistician

Reflexões e contribuições para o ensino de gravitação clássica no nível médio

The subject of Classic Gravitation is part of the actual curriculum for High School in Brazil, and it is taught in the first year of that education level. This master thesis presents a research regarding the subject Classic Gravitation in High School. This research was based in two complementary guidelines of research and action. The first guideline was the analysis of 21 didactic books of physics which are the more frequently used in High School, in the city of Natal/RN. The second guideline, worked after being verified the most common deficiencies presents in the didactic books, was the elaboration, followed by a practical application, of a course suggesting how to approach that subject in the classroom. The Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais para o Ensino Médio (National Curricular Parameters for High School PCNEM) defend that Classic Gravitation is very important in the student s formation and that its study helps the comprehension of many nature s phenomena. Because of this vision of that subject by the PCNEM, the 21 analyzed books were separated in two groups: the first one, containing 10 books, was edited before the spreading of PCNEM, and the second, with 11 books, after that spreading. Whatever the group to which the didactic books belonged, the great majority of them let that subject in a second plan; two of them even suggesting, in the teacher s orientations, that the subject Gravitation can be suppressed in case of insufficient time . These analyses points that the PCNEM had produced no changes in the conception of the authors that wrote books regarding that subject. To analyze the didactic books, we elaborated a script which was used as an analysis tool, in which we put in evidence the relative importance of the historic and philosophic contextualization of the subject, the quotidian experience of the students and the interdisciplinary approach, among other aspects. It became evident that the didactic books give very little emphasis to historic aspects of the knowledge construction, to the relations with the day-by-day questions and to the interdisciplinary character of the subject Gravitation. It calls attention the non concordance among the authors opinions regarding the necessary previous knowledge or prerequisites the students should fulfill in order to begin to study Gravitation. The course we elaborated was given to a group of teachers as well as to students. In those courses we treated theoretical and practical aspects and emphasized historical questions and the ones which are related to people s daily life. The course for teachers was realized as an extra-mural activity of the UFRN and was given by the author of this thesis at the Escola Estadual Francisco Ivo Cavalcanti (a state public school in Natal/RN). There were 23 teachers present, from several public schools and several fields of knowledge. The thesis supervisor and the master degree s colleagues of the author acted as collaborators , reporting the participants opinions and speeches. The course to the students, on the other hand, had the participation of 300 regular students who belonged to 6 different 1st year classes of the High School Escola Marista de Natal (RN), in which the author acts as a physics teacher. The student s course was realized as part of the regular curriculum activities, in which three classes stood under the responsibility of the author and other three classes in charge of another Marista s teacher, who participated as a collaborator . The teacher s course as well as the students one were given in two stages, with five hours each. The first stage was divided in two moments, the first one focused on the survey of the spontaneous conceptions about gravitation, in which we worked basically with experiments of free throwing and pendulum, and the second one focused in theoretical presentations and quarrels about universe s models. In the second stage of the course we improved the study of Kepler s laws and the Newton s Universal Gravitation law, and we used as motivating tools some practices involving the construction of the solar system in scale. As instruments for evaluating both courses we used questionnaires and reported the speeches with participants opinions, beyond usual written evaluations in the course for the students. The teachers who participated in the course showed very good wills in realizing interdisciplinary practices; nevertheless, according their own speeches, they frequently came across the difficulty of how to do . From the experience we had in both courses, we conclude that the approach we propose hear to the teaching of the subject Classic Gravitation , supported on the tripod theory, practice and historical and philosophical aspects, is viable and effective. One hopes that this research may contribute in the formation of a opinion, among the teachers, concerning how to approach the subject of Classic Gravitation, and may offer suggestions in order those who want to apply that approach may develop classroom practices aiming to improve the teaching of that subject, which has a singular importance in the formation of High School students

A formação graduada em psicologia no Brasil: reflexão sobre os principais dilemas em um contexto pos-DCN

Criticism done to the undergraduate training process of the psychologist in Brazil raised debates known as "dilemmas of training". In recent years the classic training model, based on the Minimum Curriculum has undergone a series of changes after the National Curriculum Guidelines (DCN), modifying the context of courses. Thus, this paper aimed to investigate, in a post- DCN context how undergraduate courses in Psychology in Brazil have been dealing with the dilemmas of training. So, we decided to analyze the Course Pedagogical Projects (CPPs) of Psychology in the country. Forty CPPs, selected by region, academic organization and legal status were collected. The data was grouped into three blocks of discussions: theoretical, philosophical and pedagogical foundations; curriculum emphases and disciplines; and professional practices. The results were grouped into four sets of dilemmas: a) ethical and political; b) theoreticalepistemological; c) professional practice of the psychologist and d) academic-scientific. Courses claim a socially committed, generalist, pluralistic training, focusing on research, non-dissociation of teaching-research-extension, interdisciplinary training and defending a vision of man and of critical and reflective and non-individualistic psychology. The curriculum keeps the almost exclusive teaching of the classical areas of traditional fields of applied Psychology. Training is content based. The clinic is hegemonic, both in theory and in application fields. The historical debate is scarce and themes linked to the Brazilian reality are missing, despite having social policies present in the curricula. Currently, DCNs have a much greater impact on courses due to the influence of the control agencies, fruit of current educational policy, and the result is felt in the homogenization of curriculum discourses

Aspectos Morfo-Dinâmicos daComplexo Lagunar Nísia Floresta-Papeba-Guaraíras, Região Costeira Sul Oriental Do RN

This dissertation presents the results of research developed in the Nísia Floresta-Papeba-Guaraíras Lagoon Complex, located on the south coast of the Rio Grande do Norte State. The main objectives of this dissertation were the stratrigraphic characterization, in detail scale, of the and the coastal dynamics study of the lagoonal deposits sedimentation, as well as the morpho-dynamic analysis of the area. Therefore, an interdisciplinary methodology was adopted, in which all sedimentological, morpho-tectonic and geomorphological data were integrated. Vibracore up to 4m in length were carried out in the lagoons. The referred lagoon complex made of a system of three lagoons that interact through two artificial channels, named Boqueirão and Surubajá. The Guaraíras lagoon, the largest one in the system, corresponds to the estuary zone of the Trairi and Jacu rivers. The sedimentary load brought by these rivers is strongly reworked by tide currents, forming an important net-work of channels and sandy bars inside this lagoon and close to its channel connection with the sea. The stratigraphic units of the area are Cenozoic in age, and are represented by sedimentary rocks of the Barreiras Formation (sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates) and by rocks beach, as well as by siliciclastics sediments related with the fluvial dynamics of tide plain (clay and sandy bars), and coast (sand dunes and beaches). Among the recognized geomorphologic aspects, there are the elements associated with continental enviroments (drainage basins of the Trairi, Baldum and Jacu rivers, coastal tableland supported by the Barreiras Formation), and transitional environments (lagoon complex, dune fields, cliffs, tidal channels and beach rocks lines). The morphotectonic analysis indicates that fauts affect Barreiras Formation sedimentary rocks, with two sets of main lineaments: SW-NE and SE-NW. The anomalies in the drainage net are directly associated with these fault/fracture system, which control and subdivede the low courses of the Trairi and Jacu rivers, at least a tail of their flowing principal courses. The Nísia Floresta, Papeba and Guaraíras lagoons present strong morphological control according to the lineament directions. Taking into account the lagoonal deposits, the sedimentological analyses reflect a sediment distribution related to the interaction of the fluvial and sea processes that act in the study area. The correlated deposits show textural mainly microclastic characteristics of shallow waters, and of currents of low to moderate energy.In general, the Nísia Floresta-Papeba-Guaraíras lagoon Complex, constitutes a very intrinsec group, that undewent important changes in historical times that are reflected in the currents clays. Inaddition to the natural processes that act in this system, we should take into account the antrohopic intervention, which have increased in the past years