O dia mais feliz da minha vida: a entrada na universidade segundo os alunos recém-ingressos no curso de Pedagogia da UFRN(2004.1)

The present work, based on the methodological principles of the Comprehensive Discourse Analysis, aimed, through the speech of twelve newly arrived students at the Pedagogy course of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, to understand the moment students start university. It also aimed to analyze the relationship between the schools they were coming from and university entrance as well as the relationship between university and their new students. In the first part of the work, which focused on school knowledge, a comprehensive listening of the speeches of the students led primarily to a distinction, established by the students, between public and private schools, a distinction especially based on the view of superiority of private schools against public ones. The abovementioned interpretation is found in the discussion of the structural duality of Brazilian education which, historically, offers different pedagogical appliances among students of more priviledged social classes and those who come from lower levels of society. The overcome of this duality, aspired by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, was stopped by the advent of a new economic model neoliberalism, which reinforced the differences between public and private when it prioritized the market on the economic, political and social relations, including educational projects. Impoverishment of public institutions and pauperization of the work of professors affected also the relationship between teachers and studens at the current institution. This is how the teacher becomes the greatest villain at the public management system. All of these references concerning differences in the quality of teaching at public and private schools, expressed by the students interviewed, however, were centered in the preparation for the entrance exam, called vestibular, thus showing a view that the relationship between the student and the school he came from is of a propedeutic kind and even so, reduced to a preparation for an entrance exam. In the second part of the work, which analyzed the relationship between newly arrived students and their university, it was noticed that the latter represents a whole new world. This world is seen as the change at the student´s social statute for now he is grown, takes more responsibilities and is socially respected. This change of attitude established by society and the discovery of a new world which requires more independence from the students, creates in them feelings of pride and fear and they feel insecure when it comes to making decision in the campus because now their decisions deliver a greater load of responsibility. This is when students understand they need to develop autonomy, which is seen, in this work, as the capacity to make conscious decisions. Nevertheless students expressed an understanding of autonomy as something that comes as a gift for those who enter university and not as a process that is constructed from social experiences. For these students, the need to be autonomous refers to the relationships with their teachers and the search for information. This search, however, is also related, according to interviews, to public school financial cuts, which penalize university, and to the lack of employers

O ensino da história e o pensamento reflexivo-crítico da professora no 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental

This collaborative research is a qualitative approach, from historical and cultural perspective, made about a teacher of third grade of basic education in the area of history, in the municipality of Caicó / RN. It has as objective to investigate, in a collaborative action, if the design process of teaching and learning the discipline of history based on the relationship before / after allows the development of critical reflective thinking of the teacher in school practices. The theoretical and methodological approaches are supported in the postulates of Vygotsky (1998), Rubinstein (1973) and Linblinskaia (1979), among others, whose understanding has led us to reflect if the teacher develops the reflective critical-thinking in history discipline classes. The complexity of the study led us to an analysis exercise, using different methodological procedures, such as: bibliographic review of the literature, considering also the literature of the history area, interviews, observation in the classroom, video recordings and reflective sessions, enabling clarify the construction and reconstruction of thought that the teacher had been developing during the process of teaching and learning. The test results point to a dichotomy between theory and practice, and also to a certain fragility in the position of professor in teaching and learning the discipline of history, at the third grade of basic education. The teacher recognizes that she requires a theoretical deepening with more intensity, as a process of continuous training to improve the practice of teaching in history school, though, stating in her speech that her teaching practice is based on critical reflection. However, she presents serious limitations in classroom practices. We conclude that, although she has shown willing to work on a critical perspective of reality, showed also poor change at school practices, starting to reflect about her own actions, pointing her limits and the changes needed that didn t become reality yet. It s necessary a formative process for her. The study therefore showed that even with the sessions and reflective of deepening theoretical studies, the teacher does not change its profile, while maintaining its traditional vision in any pedagogical action. This research recommends the formation of school groups for further studies and discussion on the practices of education in history area from a reflective-critical thought perspective as a mean of personal and professional development

Corpo e poesia: para uma educação dos sentidos

In this research, we reflect on Body and Poetry: for an Education of the senses. This piece of work has as its objective the comprehension of the body and poetry s interlacement, for an education of the senses, starting from the experience of the Being in the world. With this purpose, we search to understand the poetic creation as the corporal transubstantiation by means of the senses, which is realized in the creative expression and manifests itself in the body language, opening ways to an education felt in the aesthetic experience. In order to comprehend the process of poetic creation, we rely on the phenomenological method of the lived world from Merleau-Ponty, philosophy, always opening forests of questionings and sprouting new doubts in search of other comprehensions about Poetry, Body and Education. These three phenomena were investigated by means of a reflection on my own life trajectory as a poet and Physical Education professor; identification and analysis of poets/reciters; sensitive experiences experience lived in Oficinas de Poesias (Poetry Workshops), held in seven public governmental schools of the State of Rio Grande do Norte and through a permanent dialogue with the works of Merleau-Ponty, Severino Antonio, Paul Zumthor, Petrucia Nóbrega, among other authors. Phenomenology and the sources investigated have permitted us to conclude that poetic creation is not a product of a divine inspiration, of a spirit come from over yonder, nor a hereditary gift, but poetry is created from a dialogue between the poet and the organic and cultural world, revealing at each experience undergone a new world of senses and meanings. It was possible to comprehend the poetic language as a synesthetic and performable manifestation, which ontologically reveals itself and hides itself at each experience, bringing new expressive clarities of the Being in the world. This piece of research has revealed us that poetry as a sensitive experience of the poetic state makes it possible a construction of a sensitive, glad and ludic knowledge for an education of the senses

Apropriação da escrita por crianças em contextos sociais adversos

O presente trabalho tem origem em nossas vivências como professora alfabetizadora na escola pública em contextos de periferias urbanas, o que nos levou ao envolvimento com questões relativas à (não)aprendizagem das crianças em seu processo de alfabetização. Por outro lado, a inserção na vida acadêmica nos aproximou de perspectivas de compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento das crianças, bem como do papel que o meio sociocultural tem nesses processos. Dessas experiências, emergiram os questionamentos que guiaram nossa investigação: em que contextos/situações crianças que vivem em um meio socialmente adverso se apropriam de conhecimentos acerca da linguagem escrita? Onde, com quem, como e o que aprendem as crianças de tal meio sobre a escrita como prática cultural? Tendo como objeto de estudo os contextos/situações em que crianças que vivem em contextos sociais marcados por condições adversas de extrema pobreza se apropriam de conhecimentos pertinentes à linguagem escrita, definimos, como objetivo, Analisar contextos/situações (intra e extra-escolares) em que crianças que vivem em um meio social adverso interagem e se apropriam de conhecimentos pertinentes à linguagem escrita. O campo de estudo foi a comunidade Frei Damião, localizada na periferia do município de Caicó, RN, originária de um lixão e reconhecida na região por ser economicamente carente, com alto índice de analfabetismo e baixíssimo nível de qualidade de vida (escassez de condições sanitárias, serviços públicos de saúde, saneamento e segurança, dentre outros próprios de meios urbanos). Assumindo os princípios da pesquisa qualitativa e as características de um estudo de caso, tomamos como sujeitos do estudo, nove crianças, com idades entre sete e oito anos, residentes na comunidade e estudantes da escola no segundo ano do Ensino Fundamental. Além das crianças, foram também considerados como sujeitos, suas mães, a diretora e duas funcionárias da escola. Os dados foram construídos a partir de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, questionários e anotações em diário de campo. Da sistematização desenvolvida com base nos princípios da análise de conteúdo emergiram evidências de que, mesmo vivendo em um ambiente marcado pela escassez de bens materiais, como de práticas e materiais escritos, as crianças constroem conhecimentos significativos sobre a escrita, apresentando níveis avançados de conceitualizações sobre o funcionamento do sistema alfabético. Tais construções resultam de interações em que se envolvem em diversos contextos intra e extra-escolares em sua comunidade nos quais são mediados, tanto por seus pais, em suas casas, como pela professora, na escola. Mesmo analfabetos ou com pouca instrução escolar, verificou-se que os pais inserem as crianças em processos de letramento e alfabetização ao valorizarem a escrita e seu aprendizado. Enquanto contexto de interação e apropriação de conhecimentos destaca-se, na comunidade, a escola e suas práticas. Mediante parcos recursos e limites, a professora cria situações de aprendizado do funcionamento do sistema de escrita e de habilidades textuais, aproximando as crianças da escrita como linguagem. Esses resultados apontam para a necessidade de reflexões e reformulações acerca das possibilidades da escola pública na promoção de educação de qualidade para as crianças de meios populares

Saúde da família: uma estratégia de mudança no processo de produção dos serviços de saúde

The purpose of this study is to analyze, from the point of view of nurses, changes that took place in the process of providing health services after the introduction of the Family Health Program (FHP). It is na investigation of qualitative nature that uses semi-structured interviews as a main empirical approach tool. Six nurses from the city of Caicó, Rio Grande do Norte, who were working with basic care before the introduction of the FHP, within basic care, were: adscription and ties with the community; hospitality and the humanizacion of care-giving; decrease in cases of inpatient treatment; strengthening of the prevention of injuries and health promotion; improvemente of health indicatiors, finally, actions that point towads meeting the principles of wholeness, equity and universality as a declaration of the Brazilian National Health Care System (SUS). Nevertheless, in spite of all recognizable positive aspects, the FHP has some weaknesses, such as: the difficulty posed by colletive work; the mismatch between professional education and the demands of the current health standard; a poor physical infrastructure of the Basic Health Units; a high heath staff turnover and precarious work conditions. In addition to this, some strategies that can be used to help improve the process of providing health services have been pointed out, such as, coordination between sectors, continuous education, making work conditions less precarious and improving the means whereby heathy service management is conveyed,Tthus, finally, we understand that the FHP does bring forward meaningful changes to the process of provinding health services to strengthen the Brasilian National Health Care System (SUS), in spite of the fact that it lies within a scenario of adversities that can be overcome through the collective endeavor of the several social actors

A inserção da equipe da Estratégia Saúde da Família em um Centro Municipal de Educação Infantil na promoção da saúde da criança

The joint enters the teams of the Strategy Health of Family (ESF) and the Municipal Center of Infantile education (CMEI) blunts as a form to assure the monitoring and promotion to the health of the children of 2 the 5 years when entering the day-care center environment/daily pay-school. It was traced as objective: To analyze the actions developed for the team of the Strategy Health of the Family in the promotion the health of the child, taken care of in a CMEI. Description-exploratory is to a study, qualitative nature, the type research-action. Developed in a CMEI and the USF of the quarter of New City, Natal-RN. The population was constituted by the professionals of the team of the ESF and the CMEI and parents. During the stages of the research-action diverse techniques had been used as the individually interview and in group, focal group, comment participant, and daily of field. The analysis of the data occurred by means of the content analysis, in the thematic modality, proposal for Bardin (1977) and description of the stages of the research-action. In the stage of situational diagnosis that it investigates the reality lived deeply for the citizens of ESF and CMEI how much to the health of the child seven categories had emerged that they enclosed: the context of the attention child in the CMEI identifying the actions that already came being developed for the ESF in the CMEI; the functioning of the CMEI and its routine of activities; the paper of the CMEI in the care the child; the daily one of the ESF, how much to the care to the health of the child of 2 the 5 years involving the diverse difficulties faced for the ESF; difficulties faced in daily of the CMEI for the care the child of 2 the 5 years; paper of joint ESF and CMEI for the confrontation of the difficulties; e action of health to be developed that they had subsidized the stage of planning of the research-action. During the stages of planning and implementation of the actions the actions of education in health with professionals of the CMEI and parents had been materialize and the actions of direct attention the health of the child. In the stage of evaluation of the actions for the involved citizens one searched to ahead understand the perception of the actions developed and perspective of continuity of the actions, through 4 boarded subjects for the citizens. For all the passage of the research-action it can be inferred that joint ESF and CMEI is a necessary initiative ahead of the current situation of the services of health for the promotion of an integral attention the health of the child, but that the teams of the ESF not yet make use of material conditions and staff enough to develop actions that exceed the limits of the USF, being necessary for this the reinforcement of the joints mainly with the Federal University of the Rio Grande of the North.

Abordagens pedagógicas na formação de enfermeiros : compreensão de docentes de enfermagem

In the new world order is notorious changes in social, ethical, economical and political aspects in the society, which reach incisively higher education, requiring a number of modifications and a new vision in nursing education, in order to meet the demands of the Unique Health System. Thus, the Higher Education Institutes (HEI) and teachers are invited to face new challenges and reflect on their practices, using pedagogical approaches and innovative methodologies to meet the requirements of a globalized society. This study has as an objective to analyze the perspective of teachers in what concern the pedagogical approaches used in nursing education and to identify pedagogical approaches utilized by teachers in nursing education. This is a field research of exploratory kind, descriptive, of quantitative approach. The search was conducted at the Department of Nursing of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte UFRN, based in the city of Natal. The population consisted of forty-six teachers. From this population was selected a sample of twenty teachers. Data collection occurred from August to September 2011, through the utilization of the technique of interview and questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed in two moments. In the first moment, was carried out the quantitative analysis that refers to the obtained data through the interview technique, methodological procedures were submitted to the content analysis proposed by Bardin. On the second moment, concerning the quantitative analysis of the questionnaires applied to the teachers and of the identification data, which were digitized and transferred to a spreadsheet electronic of Microsoft Excel XP, tabulated and organized into tables, containing their relative and absolute frequencies. It is worth mentioning that were respected the aspects of the CNS Resolution 196/96. With regard to the characteristics of research participants, 20% were male; with a degree of titration of 55% doctorates; regarding time of service there was a greater representation from 15 to 45 years, with 45%. The results showed that 90% of teachers who participated in the research have an appropriate understanding of non-critical pedagogical approaches, only 10% had an inadequate understanding. However, 70% of teachers, despite having an adequate understanding, reported difficulties when attempting to implement these pedagogies. Most teachers, with representability of 80% consider the non-critical pedagogies relevant in nursing education, as well as critical pedagogies, being represented by 95% of teachers. It was concluded that both critical and non-critical pedagogies are in teachers practice of undergraduate nursing education. It feels like a moment of transition, since the presence of new ways of teaching as a part of this educational context, with educational models that give value to scientific, ethical and personal aspects in the educational process. The research contains limitations, however highlights the contribution of new possibilities for action, reflection on the context of performance, maximizing the pedagogical skills necessary to conduct teaching process, in line with the new educational paradigm of higher education

O desejo, o relato e a prática da cidade: de como são produzidos territórios marginais na cidade do príncipe (1880 - 1900)

The theme of this work is the study of marginal territories of the Cidade do Príncipe, sketch in time than today is constituted as the city of Caicó/RN, with the time frame the years 1880 to 1900. Our goal is to investigate the construction of these territories from multiple speech subjects practitioners of the city. Thus, we propose to discover the mapping of the deviation in the city in question, as they were drawn, those who experienced and through which practices. Investigate the construction of these spaces from the speeches, and fill a historiographical gap, allows to find stories sharp, silenced or ignored, abortions and madness in prison, repressed passions and avenged. To meet these spaces the sources are diverse, such as the newspaper O Povo, the Codes of posture, the Reports of Presidents and Heads of Provincial Police and process-crime. Regarding the methodological aspects of research, we decided by discourse analysis, discourse here conceived not only as what is said about someone or something, but as a set of statements circulating at any given time in society, articulating speech, intentions, actions and thought. The city is then considered from their territories, imagined as a space configured in/by the relations power that the dispute, but also as a space for experiences multiple, different feelings, place and non-place, the discipline and mockery, of power and resistance.

O mundo criado pelas imagens: paisagens e espaços coloniais na obra do holandês Frans Post

The aims of this dissertation is to study formation of the Dutch view seeing the colonial scenery in screens by Frans Post, as well as, to perceive a colonial world constitution through landscape paintings by him with his natural and human representation. The artist was the first to portray South American views, after he landed in Pernambuco with retinue of Dutch governor of colony, John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen. Post, by his 24 years old, was designated to represent for Dutch people their colony. The text reflects on visual construction of natural and human aspects in landscapes by Dutchman and how that aspects were included in colonizer imaginary about the strange world of America. European (Dutch) look about their conquered possessions in the New World was charged with exoticism and imagination. In order to understand that view, it`s paramount to study imaginary pictures reared by Frans Post, on his return to the Netherlands, and notions of landscape and exotic, wild and unspoiled nature which the Dutch people had when they thought about the Dutch colony in America. Our principal (visual) sources of research are six paintings: Vista da Sé de Olinda (1662), Vista das ruínas de Olinda (undated), Engenho (undated), Engenho (1660), Vista da cidade Maurícia e do Recife (1653), e Paisagem com rio e tamanduá (1649), all these canvases were painted when Frans Post returned to Europe. We seek to work through a methodology that focuses on investigation of primary visual and textual material, because these textual and pictorial representations reflect the 17th-century colonial view of colonial history themes of the - here called - Dutch America

Ocidentalização, territórios e populações indígenas no sertão da Capitania do Rio Grande

The objective of this work is to understand some of the modifications caused for the phenomenon of the westernization in the hinterland of the Capitania do Rio Grande e in the life of the indians populations that inhabited there during the Colonial Period. We break of the quarrel of Serge Gruzinski concerning the westernization, understood while immersed phenomenon in the context of the expansion of the commercial capitalism and that, for the imposition of the culture occidental person to the alteridades of the New World, emprende the conquest of its territories, bodies and souls. The space clipping has covered the hinterland of the Capitania do Rio Grande, specifically the colonial territory of the Freguesia da Gloriosa Senhora Santa Ana do Seridó. The chosen chronological limit for the research corresponds to the Colonial Period and part of the Imperial one. However, the emphasis falls again on the period that it initiates in 1670, year of the oldest concession of would sesmaria known until the moment in the hinterland of the Rio Grande, extending itself until the decade of 1840. Sources of written by hand nature, cartographic printed and compose the used document roll: official correspondence and legislation, petitions of would sesmaria, inventories post-mortem, justifications of debt, registers of parish, maps, action civil court jurisdiction, notes of notary's office, land landmarks. We take the method, analyzed for Carlo Ginzburg, to cross these sources between itself and to detect its implied particularitities and ideas in the space between lineses, but, attributing it status to they of a colonial speech, fruit of the bureaucracy of where it was originated and of the social place of who produced it. We look for to demonstrate, throughout the work, that the phenomenon of the westernization desestruturou the aboriginal societies and its habitat, constructing, over its rubbles, a colonial territory that found in the cartography of the Freguesia de Santa Ana an efficient instrument of control of the space and the population. On the other hand, if the imposition of the culture occidental person exterminou great part of the native population that inhabited the hinterland of the Rio Grande, the remainders of these indians and the mestizos of descending them had survived in diverse ways in the freguesia: in the condition of captives of war or in regimen of servile work, as living or assistants in the farms, populations and village; rambling without route in the fields and the population spots; as mediating agents between the world occidental person and the native, exerting military or civil positions and still appealing to Justice in search of its rights of inheritance. Experiences of slavery, servitude, errância and mediation, but, also of resistance, adaptation, mestization in the Freguesia de Santa Ana

Cooperação em sagüis comuns callithrix jacchus: condições e restrições

The cooperative behavior is no longer a dilemma for the theory of evolution, since there are models that explain the evolution of this behavior by means of natural selection at the individual level. However, there have been few studies on the proximal factors that interfere with cooperative behavior. In the study of the influence of cognition on cooperation, many authors have been interested in situations in which individuals decide whether to act cooperatively and select partners with different qualities to cooperate. Of the factors studied, we highlight the need for understanding the apparatus and communication between partners to the occurrence of cooperation. Recently, highlight is the proposal that the ability to cooperate would be greater in species with cooperative breeding system. Thus, the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a New World monkey which stands as a valuable species for this type of study because it presents cooperative actions in nature, such as sharing food and protection of the community territory. Our experiment investigated whether common marmosets unrelated females (n = 6) were able to cooperate using an electrical and a mechanical apparatus, if this cooperation is a byproduct of individual actions or involve social attention, if it occurs inter-individual variation in the use of devices and formation of roles (producer / scrounger) in dyads. We use the number of rewards obtained by animals (Ratio of Correct Pulls) as indicators of cooperation and glances for partners (Ratio of Correct Glances) as indicators of social attention and communication. The results indicate that the type of apparatus was not a constraint for the occurrence of cooperation between the marmosets, but still has not been verified formation of roles in the dyads. The performance of animals in the two devices showed a large variation in the learning time, not having relationship with the performance in the tests phase. In both devices the level of social glances at control phases were casually correlated with any other phase, but the data showed that there was not social attention, that is, the monkeys realized that they gave food to the partners, but the partners did

Caracaterização do núcleo pré-geniculado do sagüi (Callithrix jacchus) :projeção retiniana, neuroquímica e atividade celular (expressão de FOS)

In rodents, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) are the main components of the circadian system. The SCN is considerate the site of an endogenous biological clock because can to generate rhythm and to synchronize to the environmental cues (zeitgebers) and IGL has been related as one of the main areas that modulate the action of SCN. Both receive projections of ganglion cells of retina and this projection to SCN is called retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). Moreover, the IGL is connected with SCN through of geniculohypothalamic tract (GHT). In primates (include humans) was not still demonstrated the presence of a homologous structure to the IGL. It is believed that the pregeniculate nucleus (PGN) can be the answer, but nothing it was still proven. Trying to answer that question, the objective of our study is to do a comparative analysis among PGN and IGL through of techniques immunohystochemicals, neural tracers and FOS expression after dark pulses. For this, we used as experimental model a primate of the new world, the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). Ours results may contribute to the elucidation of this lacuna in the circadian system once that the IGL is responsible for the transmission of nonphotic information to SCN and participate in the integration between photic and nonphotic stimulus to adjust the function of the SCN. In this way to find a same structure in primates represent an important achieve in the understanding of the biological rhythms in those animals

A Zona Incerta no sagüi (Callithrix jacchus): Análise Citoarquitetônica, Neuroquímica e Projeção Retiniana

The retinal projections in mammals usually reach, classically, three major functional systems: the primary visual system, the accessory optic system, and the circadian timing system. But the retinal projections also reach areas classically considered non-visual, one of which groups the neurons of the zona incerta (ZI), target this study. The primary visual system includes thalamic lateral geniculate complex is formed by the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, intergeniculate leaflet and the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus and other Components. The accessory optic system is composed of the small nuclei: nuclei terminal dorsal, lateral, medial and the interstitial nucleus of the superior posterior fasciculus. These nuclei are involved in visuo-motor activities. The circadian timing system is comprised of the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, that act as master circadian pacemaker, entraining pathways and efferents pathways to the efectors, and the intergeniculate leaflet, that seems to act as a modulator of the pacemaker. The retinal projections too reach classically considered non-visual areas, including the zona incerta. This region is localized in the ventral thalamus and has been implicated in various functional properties including nociceptive and somatosensory processing, motor response, sociosexual behaviour, feeding and drinking, in symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, arousal and attention. It also displays connection with several areas of central nervous system. The aim of this study was characterize the retinal projection in the zona incerta of Callithrix jacchus (sagüi), a primate of the New World through the anterograde axonal transport of the cholera toxin subunit b and analyze the citoarchicteture using Nissl and NeuN, and neurochemical substances such as serotonin, GABA, VIP, VP, GFAP and binding-calcium proteins. The zona incerta showed a different division of the literature in citoarquitetura, both by means of Nissl as neurochemical by NeuN, with a subdivision ventrolateral and dorsomedial. The neurochemical to the other substances corroborate with this subdivision. The GFAP was almost completely negative for the zona incerta, result non evidenced in previous studies yet. The 16 retinal projection in sagüi, unlike other primates and rodents, reached the caudal portion only. This work helps to make further studies are conducted based on this subdivision and the localization of the neurochemical substances associated with possible behaviors that the zona incerta is involved

Estudo da preferência manual durante o desenvolvimento ontogenético em sagüi comum ( Callithix jacchus)

The study of manual preference is a widely used approach to investigate cerebral laterality in nonhuman primates. However, in New World primates, little is known about the ontogenesis of hand use asymmetry, in both forced and spontaneous activities, as well as how they correlate with sexual hormones. Accordingly, a longitudinal study was conducted on the manual preference of 6 female and 4 male common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). The study included the record of forced tests to reach for the food using only one hand (forced activity) and activities such as grooming (auto and social), scratching, grasping the food and hanging, in weekly sessions from the infantile (4 months) to the early adult phase (15 months). Feces samples were also collected, at least once a week, to evaluate the level of gonadal steroids and their influence on these behaviors. In the forced activity, the results confirm the influence of the development period on manual preference during feeding, shown by the increase in lateral stability when grasping the food between the juvenile and adult phases. During this period, a sexual hormone effect on development was also observed, mainly of progesterone in females and androgen in males, but no difference between sexes was found. In the females, progesterone also influenced the manual preference index, with a proportional increase in the degree of manual asymmetry during puberty. With respect to spontaneous activities, the animals showed proportional use of both hands when scratching, hanging, holding the food and grooming. A positive correlation was also found between the preference for holding the food in forced activities and in spontaneous activities

Papel de sinais cromáticos na identificação de parceiros sexuais em sagüi comum (callithrix jacchus)

The literature concerning color vision shows a trichromatic advantage in detecting ripe fruits and young leaves, but there are contradictory results. There is also the suggestion of this type of vision being adapted to perceive socio-sexual signals. Indeed, Old World primates utilize the skin color of conspecifics as a factor of attraction. But in New World primates there is no record of a coloration signal in the body that can be utilized by other group members. The present study aims to: 1- test whether there is a relation between coloration of body regions and ovulatory cycle in female Callithrix jacchus; 2- Determine if this species uses visual signals to choose mates that are sexually receptive. We collected feces from six females during one month to quantify progesterone concentration by EIA. Body region coloration was measured using a portable spectrometer and modeled to obtain the quantum catch of each photoreceptor, the opponency channels and chromatic distance between the points in units of JND. We recorded the behavior of six males exposed to three pairs of females with a cycling and a non-cycling female in each pair using a transparent plexiglass apparatus. The color of different body regions presented a correlation between progesterone concentration and the yellow-blue and red-green visual axes, with the genitalia as the region showing the highest correlation. The visual axis more apt to see the color variations was the yellow-blue in dichromats, and in trichromats were the red-green to face, yellow-blue to abdomen and both chromatic axes to genitalia. There was no difference in the signal detectability between trichromats and dichromats, but the perception pattern differed between the phenotypes, with a better signal detection by the dichromat phenotype 562 and the trichromat phenotype 543/562. During the behavioral experiments males presented longer gaze duration in periods of experimental manipulation and gaze duration was always longer towards cycling females compared to non-cycling females. Male locomotion during experimental manipulation was greater than in the control only during the periovulatory period of the female, indicating greater excitement. The behavior of cycling females was more active than the behavior of the non-cycling ones regarding locomotion and touching of the plexiglass division of the apparatus. Male gaze duration to cycling females increased with decreasing progesterone concentration, but none of the coloration parameters was correlated to the mate preference exhibited. This coloration signal can transmit information to animals of the group about fertility of female. Different from the intense red of the genitalia swellings of Old World primates, marmoset female genitalia became more bluish-green in the fertile period. Males chose fertile females and were able to visually identify the periovulatory period of females. Choice is related to progesterone concentration, but our results do not show relation between coloration and mate preference. Maybe some behavioral measure is associated with the choice