O comportamento suicida e a religiosidade: revisão sistemática de literatura

O papel da religiosidade na determinação do comportamento suicida é controverso, havendo estudos que a consideram um fator protetor e outros um fator de risco. Neste estudo os autores conduziram uma revisão sistemática da literatura para avaliar a relação entre a religiosidade e o comportamento suicida. Dentre os 154 artigos publicados em periódicos científicos inicialmente identificados nas bases Medline, Lilacs, Scielo e PsycInfo, foram selecionados 59 artigos que enfocavam a associação entre religiosidade e comportamento suicida. Para a avaliação dos atributos qualitativos dos artigos foi desenvolvido um Roteiro de Avaliação Qualitativa. Os resultados mostram que grande parte dos artigos encontrados apresentava falta de rigor metodológico na mensuração do conceito de religiosidade, possivelmente devido à característica subjetiva desse constructo. Contudo, verificou-se que o papel protetor contra o comportamento suicida exercido pela religiosidade, sofre variações de acordo com a cultura na qual está inserida, considerando que para algumas culturas o comportamento suicida não é visto com total desaprovação. Porém, a maioria dos estudos reforça a hipótese de que a religiosidade diminui o risco de comportamento suicida nos indivíduos que professam algum tipo de credo e, que participam de algum espaço religioso. Não foram encontrados, nesta pesquisa, estudos que medissem a associação, entre religiosidade e comportamento suicida, em religiões de matriz africana.

Coneixeu el pa??s on tot ??s verd? Migraci?? africana i imaginari col??lectiu. '??Conoc??is el pa??s donde todo es verde? Migraci??n africana e imaginario colectivo'

Resumen de la revista en catal??n

La inmigración africana en la región de Murcia : necesidades formativas y metodológicas.

Describir la situación sociolaboral de los trabajadores inmigrantes magrebíes de la Región de Murcia. Conocer cómo debe ofertarse, qué contenidos formativos debe abordar y qué orientaciones y estrategias técnicas, metodológicas y organizativas debe poseer la formación continua dirigida a la población inmigrante. Difundir los resultados entre las organizaciones sindicales y empresariales. 50 personas pertenecientes a organizaciones o instituciones relacionadas con la inmigración.600 sujetos entrevistados seleccionados a través de muestreo por cuotas extraidos de la población de inmigrantes africanos mayores de 16 años con permisos de trabajo y residentes en la Región de Murcia (unos 8.300). El inicio de la investigación se basa en el estudio documental de informes, publicaciones y otras fuentes. Se emplearon técnicas de captación directa de información a través dela realización de entrevistas en profundidad a testigos significativos o informantes clave (inmigrantes, sus representantes en asociaciones, sindicatos y empresas, investigadores universitarios, responsables de empresas y de formación) para conocer sus opiniones acerca de qué contenidos formativos debería tener y qué estrategias metodológicas deben seguirse en la formación contínua de los inmigrantes. Además se ha encuestado a una muestra de representativa de inmigrantes africanos con el objeto de conocer su situación sociolaboral así como la forma en la que debe ofertarse a este colectivo la formación contínua, qué contenidos y qué estrategias. Entrevistas en profundidad (estructuradas, con guión) a testigos o informantes clave y entrevistas estructuradas a inmigrantes africanos organizadas en bloques temáticos y con distintos tipos de items: de motivos, de intención, de acción, de hechos, de opinión-valoración, de información, de identificación. Para su elaboración se revisó la literatura científica relevante y se realizó un estudio exploratorio con las 50 entrevistas a informantes claves. La primera versión se sometió a evaluación (pretest) para examinar su validez. Los cuestionarios se tradujeron a los idiomas: árabe, francés e inglés, además del español, validándose por el procedimiento de traducción retraducción. Análisis de Homogeneidad del Sistema, de Gifi (1990), para profundizar en la comprensión de ciertas variables que justifican el comportamiento de los inmigrantes en lo relativo a la oferta formativa, realizado con el paquete estadístico SPSS ver. 9 (también conocido como escalonamiento óptimo, consistente en cuantificar las categorías de una variable nominal maximizando sus diferencias en función de una o más variables de agrupamiento . La formación demandada por los inmigrantes debería estar orientada a la impartición de cursos con contenidos que, a la vez que les entrene en las técnicas correspondientes aprendan el idioma español y ello les facilite la obtención del carnet de conducir. También demandan orientación laboral, seguridad e higiene en el trabajo e informática como contenidos formativos más solicitados y que tendrían un carácter transversal.

Samba e negritude: práticas discursivas identitárias negras em sambas de enredo de temática africana

The study object of this thesis is the process of affirmation, (re)construction and (re)signification of the black identities in the discourses which cross the samba-enredo of African theme of the samba schools belonging to the elite group from the carioca carnival, in the period from 1960 and 2007. The main question which guides this research is the following: How does this discursive process occur and which are the possible effects resulting from it? This research aims to understand, through interpretation gestures of such discourses and from those which undergo the interview statements and the answers given to the questionnaires applied to spectators and parade exhibiters of these samba schools, in what way the negritude conception and the citizenship practice of the black Brazilian people, especially those from Rio de Janeiro, can be affected by the meaning production circulating in the discursive practices of these sambas. The research was theoretically related to the Applied Linguistics, however it articulates theories originated from Cultural Studies and Ethnic-racial Studies as well as it presents some theoretical and methodological fundamentals from the Discourse Analysis of French line. As concerns the methodology, it is of interpretative, qualitative basis with procedures of discursive character. The interview analysis did not reveal, as consequence of the discourses circulating in the sambas, a direct involvement of the black people who were interviewed in struggle for their citizenship practice, but it pointed out sliding of meaning in regard to the negritude emergence

Do Brasil à Africa: resgatando valores através da Literatura, construindo uma sociedade multicultural e pluriétnica

This paper addresses the role of literature in the construction of the new Brazilian society. The rescue of the cultural formation of identity values of the country, highlighting the African presence in various sectors of national life. In a project dedicated exclusively to children and young Brazilian students, aiming to demonstrate the multicultural and multiethnic existing in Brazilian culture. Literatures of Portuguese aid in the understanding of this reality.

Literatura: o espaço da criação e transformação identitária na sala de aula

Este trabajo pretende señalar maneras de cambiar el concepto de que los estudiantes de una clase de noveno grado de la escuela primaria en la Escuela de Estado Dr. José Gonçalves de Medeiros, en la ciudad de Acari-RN, tienen de sí mismos, de su entorno cultural y su capacidad de producción poética. Además, las referencias a las desigualdades sociales en Brasil utilizando como eje motivador de leer la poesía de Conceição Evaristo relacionada con la memoria, la lucha y la apreciación de ascendencia africana. Las aportaciones teóricas sobre la situación socio-interaccionismo, la poesía, la poesía en la escuela y la secuencia didáctica colaboran para afirmar que el estudiante de escuela pública en su discurso revela influencia del entorno familiar, social y cultural, sino también el entorno educativo, así como los primeros signos de sentimiento nacional: una mayoría excluida. Su poesía haciendo tiene sus raíces en el entorno socio-cultural y geográfica, lo que denota un principio revuelta, sin embargo, con el reconocimiento de las contribuciones de las clases desfavorecidas para la construcción de nuestro país, el estudiante tiene otras cuestiones, como el mestizo, la identificación África y el orgullo de su origen, la memoria y la cultura. Por lo tanto, se confirmam la relación rizomáticas entre las dos realidades. La elección de la investigación de intervención, en la confluencia con la investigación-acción y la investigación participativa se debe al hecho de que el intercambio de experiencias en la investigación científica es rica y significativa. Con el uso de una secuencia didáctica, cuyo eje sentir la poesía, analizar textos y hacer poesía, el estudiante es llevado a la percepción de las ventanas del universo contenida en este género literario, que es una herramienta comunicativa que ofrece numerosas posibilidades expresión, conocimiento del otro y reconocer mutuamente.

LITERATURA INFANTIL PARA UMA FORMAÇÃO LEITORA MULTICULTURAL

This essay aims at presenting some reflections on the compositional structure of two children literary works based on African-Brazilian theme and their implications on the elementary school reader’s background. The selected works are "The Little Kings of Congo" (2007), written by Edimilson Pereira de Almeida, and "Africa, my little Chaka" (2006) by Marie Sellier, and translated by Rose Freire D'Aguiar. Our basic principle is that, during the formative process in reading and culture, the structural organization of children's literature work comes as a factor that can trigger more or less interest from this reader under construction in the early grades. The educator who wishes to educate proficient readers should know and explore the structural, linguistic and contextual aspects from the literary text so the student can deduce their meanings. These studies are based on sociological aspects of reading, as Freire (2006) and Silva (1998), of culture in Hall (1997), of training reader through children's literature in Zilbermann (2003), Abramovich (1983), Aguiar and Bordini (1993), Cademartori (2009), Coelho (2000), among others. It is also bring into account that the school is the locus of ethno-racial diversity and the Afro-Brazilian children's literature, when present in this context and properly handled, can create opportunities to train children to be proficient readers; to give knowledge concerning the African culture and promote respect for differences, since the early school years.

Feeding sorghum ergot (Claviceps africana) to sows before farrowing inhibits milk production

Objective: To assess the impact of feeding different amounts of sorghum ergot to sows before farrowing. Design: Fifty-one pregnant sows from a continually farrowing piggery were sequentially inducted into the experiment each week in groups of four to seven, as they approached within 14 days of farrowing. Diets containing sorghum ergot sclerotia within the range of 0 (control) up to 1.5% w/w (1.5% ergot provided 7 mg alkaloids/kg, including 6 mg dihydroergosine/kg) were randomly allocated and individually fed to sows. Ergot concentrations were varied with each subsequent group until an acceptable level of tolerance was achieved. Diets with ergot were replaced with control diets after farrowing. Post-farrowing milk production was assessed by direct palpation and observation of udders, and by piglet responses and growth. Blood samples were taken from sows on three days each week, for prolactin estimation. Results: Three sows fed 1.5% ergot for 6 to 10 days preceding farrowing produced no milk, and 87% of their piglets died despite supplementary feeding of natural and artificial colostrums, milk replacer, and attempts to foster them onto normally lactating sows. Ergot inclusions of 0.6% to 1.2% caused lesser problems in milk release and neo-natal piglet mortality. Of 23 sows fed either 0.3% or 0.6% ergot, lactation of only two first-litter sows were affected. Ergot caused pronounced reductions in blood prolactin, and first-litter sows had lower plasma prolactin than multiparous sows, increasing their susceptibility to ergot. Conclusion: Sorghum ergot should not exceed 0.3% (1 mg alkaloid/kg) in diets of multiparous sows fed before farrowing, and should be limited to 0.1 % for primiparous sows, or avoided completely.

Patterns of release of the secondary conidia of Claviceps africana, the sorghum ergot pathogen in Australia

Trials were conducted in southern Queensland, Australia between March and May 2003, 2004 and 2005 to study patterns of hourly and daily release of the secondary conidia of Claviceps africana and their relationships with weather parameters. Conidia were trapped for at least one hour on most (> 90%) days in 2003 and 2004, but only on 55% of days in 2005. Both the highest daily concentration of conidia, and the highest number of hours per day when conidia were trapped, were recorded 1-3 days after rainfall events. Although the pattern of conidial release was different every day, the highest hourly conidial concentrations occurred between 10.00 hours and 17.00 hours on 73% of all days in the three trials. Hours when conidia were trapped were characterized by higher median values of temperature, windspeed and vapour pressure deficit, lower relative humidity, and leaf wetness values of 0%, than hours when no conidia were recorded. The results indicate that fungicides need to be applied to the highly ergot-susceptible male sterile (A-) lines of sorghum in hybrid seed production blocks and breeders' nurseries as soon as possible after rainfall events to minimize ergot severity.

Sorghum ergot can develop without local Claviceps africana inoculum from nearby infected plants

Batches of glasshouse-grown flowering sorghum plants were placed in circular plots for 24 h at two field sites in southeast Queensland, Australia on 38 occasions in 2003 and 2004, to trap aerial inoculum of Claviceps africana. Plants were located 20-200 m from the centre of the plots. Batches of sorghum plants with secondary conidia of C. africana on inoculated spikelets were placed at the centre of each plot on some dates as a local point source of inoculum. Plants exposed to field inoculum were returned to a glasshouse, incubated at near-100% relative humidity for 48 h and then at ambient relative humidity for another week before counting infected spikelets to estimate pathogen dispersal. Three times as many spikelets became infected when inoculum was present within 200 m of trap plants, but infected spikelets did not decline with increasing distance from local source within the 200 m. Spikelets also became infected on all 10 dates when plants were exposed without a local source of infected plants, indicating that infection can occur from conidia surviving in the atmosphere. In 2005, when trap plants were placed at 14 locations along a 280 km route, infected spikelets diminished with increasing distance from sorghum paddocks and infection was sporadic for distances over 1 km. Multiple regression analysis showed significant influence of moisture related weather variables on inoculum dispersal. Results suggest that sanitation measures can help reduce ergot severity at the local level, but sustainable management will require better understanding of long-distance dispersal of C. africana inoculum.

Alkaloid production by isolates of the sorghum ergot pathogen (Claviceps africana) from Australia and other countries

Isolates of Claviceps africana from Australia, Africa, Asia, and America were tested for the production of dihydroergosine (DHES), and its biogenic precursors dihydroelymoclavine (DHEL) and festuclavine (FEST), in culture. Several growth media were evaluated to optimise alkaloid production with little success. The best of these involved 2-stage culturing on high-sucrose substrate. Australian C. africana isolates varied widely and inconsistently in alkaloid production, with DHES concentrations in mycelium ranging from: <0.1 to 9 mg DHES/kg; <0.1 to 1.6 mg DHEL/kg; and <0.1 to 0.4 mg FEST/kg. In a separate experiment using similar culturing techniques, DHES was produced by 2 of 3 Australian isolates, 1 of 3 USA isolates, 1 of 4 Indian isolates, the sole Puerto Rican isolate, the sole Japanese isolate, but not the sole South African isolate. In this experiment, DHES concentrations detected in mycelium of Australian isolates (0.1-1.0 mg DHES/kg) were of similar magnitude to isolates from other countries (0.2-1.8 mg DHES/kg). Three C. africana isolates, including one that produced only traces of alkaloid in culture after 8 weeks, were inoculated onto panicles of sterile male sorghum plants. After 8 weeks, all 3 isolates produced 10-19 mg DHES/kg in the panicles, demonstrating that the growing plant favoured more consistent alkaloid production than culture medium.

Effect of feeding sorghum ergot (Claviceps africana) to sows during mid-lactation on plasma prolactin and litter performance

Diets containing 3% sorghum ergot (16 mg alkaloids/kg, including 14 mg dihydroergosine/kg) were fed to 12 sows from 14 days post-farrowing until weaning 14 days later, and their performance was compared with that of 10 control sows. Ergot-fed sows displayed a smaller weight loss during lactation of 24 kg/head vs. 29 kg/head in control sows (p > 0.05) despite feed consumption being less (61 kg/head total feed intake vs. 73 kg/head by control sows; p < 0.05). Ergot-fed sows had poorer weight gain of litters over the 14-day period (16.6 kg/litter vs. 28.3 kg/litter for controls; p < 0.05) despite an increase in consumption of creep feed by the piglets from the ergot-fed sows (1.9 kg/litter compared with 1.1 kg/litter by the control; p > 0.05). Sow plasma prolactin was reduced with ergot feeding after 7 days to 4.8 μg/l compared with 15.1 μg/l in the control sows (p < 0.01) and then at weaning was 4.9 μg/l compared with 8.0 μg/l (p < 0.01) in the control sows. Two sows fed ergot ceased lactation early, and the above sow feed intakes, body weight losses with litter weight gains and creep consumption indirectly indicate an ergot effect on milk production.

Use of optical density as a measure of Claviceps africana conidial suspension concentration

Sorghum ergot, caused by Claviceps africana, has remained a major disease problem in Australia since it was first recorded in 1996, and is the focus of a range of biological and integrated management research. Artificial inoculation using conidial suspensions is an important tool in this research. Ergot infection is greatly influenced by environmental factors, so it is important to reduce controllable sources of variation such as inoculum concentration. The use of optical density was tested as a method of quantifying conidial suspensions of C. africana, as an alternative to haemocytometer counts. This method was found to be accurate and time efficient, with possible applications in other disease systems.

Early harvest and ensilage of forage sorghum infected with ergot (Claviceps africana) reduces the risk of livestock poisoning.

Sorghum ergot produces dihydroergosine (DHES) and related alkaloids, which cause hyperthermia in cattle. Proportions of infected panicles (grain heads), leaves and stems were determined in two forage sorghum crops extensively infected 2 to 4 weeks prior to sampling and the panicles were assayed for DHES. Composite samples from each crop, plus a third grain variety crop, were coarsely chopped and half of each sealed in plastic buckets for 6 weeks to simulate ensilation. The worst-infected panicles contained up to 55 mg DHES/kg, but dilution reduced average concentrations of DHES in crops to approximately 1 mg/kg, a relatively safe level for cattle. Ensilation significantly (P = 0.043) reduced mean DHES concentrations from 0.85 to 0.46 mg/kg.

Effect of sorghum ergot (Claviceps africana) on the performance of steers (Bos taurus) in a feedlot.

The effect of ergot (Claviceps africana) in naturally infected sorghum was assessed in feedlot rations. Thirty-two Hereford steers (Bos taurus) in individual pens with access to shade were adapted to feedlot conditions and then offered one of four rations containing 0, 4.4, 8.8 or 17.6 mg/kg of ergot alkaloids (84% dihydroergosine, 10% dihydroelymoclavine and 6% festuclavine), equivalent to ~0, 10, 20 or 40 g/kg ergot (sclerotia/sphacelia) in the rations. These rations were withdrawn at noon on the second day because of severe hyperthermia and almost complete feed refusal in ergot-fed steers. After recovery on ergot-free rations for 5 days, treatment groups were incrementally introduced, over a further 3–12 days, to rations containing 0, 1.1, 2.2 or 4.4 mg/kg of alkaloids (~0, 2.5, 5 or 10 g/kg ergot, respectively). Relative exposure to ergot was maintained, so that the zero- (control), low-, medium- and high-ergot groups remained so. Steers were individually fed ad libitum, and water was freely available. Steers in all ergot-fed groups had significantly elevated rectal temperatures at 0800–1000 hours, even when the temperature–humidity index was only moderate (~70), and displayed other signs of hyperthermia (increased respiration rate, mouth breathing, excessive salivation and urination), as the temperature–humidity index increased to 73–79 during the day. Plasma prolactin was significantly reduced in ergot-fed groups. Voluntary feed intakes (liveweight basis) of the ergot-fed groups were significantly reduced, averaging 94, 86 and 86%, respectively, of the feed intakes of the control group. Hair coats were rough. While the control steers grew from a mean initial liveweight of 275 kg to a suitable slaughter weight of 455 kg in 17 weeks (growth rate 1.45 kg/day), ergot-fed groups gained only 0.77–1.10 kg/day and took at least 5 weeks longer to reach the slaughter weight, despite removal of ergot at the same time as control steers were sent to slaughter. Sorghum ergot, even at low concentrations (1.1 mg alkaloids/kg feed) is severely detrimental to the performance of steers in the feedlot.