The old and the oldest-old: Do they have different perspectives on adjustment to aging?

Background: Older adults experience varying challenges in old age. This study aims to explore the indicators of adjustment to aging (AtA) and to examine the potential explanatory mechanisms of a correlational model for AtA for the old and oldest-old adults. Methods: This qualitative study comprised demographics and semistructured interviews. Complete information on 152 older adults aged between 75 years and 102 years (mean ¼ 83.76 years; standard deviation ¼ 6.458). Data was subjected to content analysis. The correlational model of indicators of AtA was analyzed using a multiple correspondence analysis. Results: “Occupation and achievement” was the most mentioned indicator of AtA by the old participants (17.7%), whereas “existential meaning and spirituality” was the most verbalized indicator of AtA for the oldest-old participants (16.9%). AtA was explained by a three-factor model for each age group. For the old participants, the largest factor “occupational and social focus” accounted for 33.6% of total variance, whereas for the oldest-old participants, “spirituality and health focus” represented 33.5% of total variance. Conclusion: The outcomes presented in this paper stressed the varied perspectives concerning AtA, contoured in two different models, and the need of considering these when designing and implementing programs in health care for the old and the oldest-old.

The continuing evolution of official statistics: some challenges and opportunities

As economies, societies, and environments change, official statistics evolve and develop to reflect those changes. In reaction to disruptive innovations arising from globalisation, technological advances, and cultural changes, the pace of change of official statistics will accelerate in the future. The motivation for change may also be more existential than that of the past as official statisticians consider the survival of their discipline. This article examines some of the emerging developments and questions whether they present threats or offer opportunities.

Feeling existentially touched - A phenomenological notion of the well-being of elderly living in special housing accommodation from the perspective of care professionals

This article presents a phenomenological analysis of interview material, in which 12 care professionals in elderly care reflect on the elderly's well-being within the frame of special housing accommodation. The perspective of the care professionals is of special interest. The findings show that the well-being is characterized as the elderly's feelings of being existentially touched. The well-being is an existential experience of being acknowledged as a human being and is an approach that classifies the elderly's needs as those of having, loving, and being. The meaning of the phenomenon is elucidated by the constituents: (1) to feel the freedom of choice, (2) to feel pleasure, and (3) to feel closeness to someone or something. The findings contribute new understanding of well-being in the elderly care by its existential dimension of the well-being as "just being'' and of doing things in order to experience meaningfulness. Accordingly, the well-being of the elderly as it is seen from the perspective of the care professionals involves both carers' subjectivity and intersubjectivity between the care professional and the elderly. An implication for promoting elderly's well-being is to develop awareness of these existential dimensions.

A Grammar of Tajio. A Language Spoken in Central Sulawesi

This work is a description of Tajio, a Western Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. It covers the essential aspects of Tajio grammar without being exhaustive. Tajio has a medium sized phoneme inventory consisting of twenty consonants and five vowels. The language does not have lexical (word) stress; rather, it has a phrasal accent. This phrasal accent regularly occurs on the penultimate syllable of an intonational phrase, rendering this syllable auditorily prominent through a pitch rise. Possible syllable structures in Tajio are (C)V(C). CVN structures are allowed as closed syllables, but CVN syllables in word-medial position are not frequent. As in other languages in the area, the only sequence of consonants allowed in native Tajio words are sequences of nasals followed by a homorganic obstruent. The homorganic nasal-obstruent sequences found in Tajio can occur word-initially and word-medially but never in word-final position. As in many Austronesian languages, word class classification in Tajio is not straightforward. The classification of words in Tajio must be carried out on two levels: the morphosyntactic level and the lexical level. The open word classes in Tajio consist of nouns and verbs. Verbs are further divided into intransitive verbs (dynamic intransitive verbs and statives) and dynamic transitive verbs. Based on their morphological potential, lexical roots in Tajio fall into three classes: single-class roots, dual-class roots and multi-class roots. There are two basic transitive constructions in Tajio: Actor Voice and Undergoer Voice, where the actor or undergoer argument respectively serves as subjects. It shares many characteristics with symmetrical voice languages, yet it is not fully symmetric, as arguments in AV and UV are not equally marked. Neither subjects nor objects are marked in AV constructions. In UV constructions, however, subjects are unmarked while objects are marked either by prefixation or clitization. Evidence from relativization, control and raising constructions supports the analysis that AV and UV are in fact transitive, with subject arguments and object arguments behaving alike in both voices. Only the subject can be relativized, controlled, raised or function as the implicit subject of subjectless adverbial clauses. In contrast, the objects of AV and UV constructions do not exhibit these features. Tajio is a predominantly head-marking language with basic A-V-O constituent order. V and O form a constituent, and the subject can either precede or follow this complex. Thus, basic word order is S-V-O or V-O-S. Subject, as well as non-subject arguments, may be omitted when contextually specified. Verbs are marked for voice and mood, the latter of which is is obligatory. The two values distinguished are realis and non-realis. Depending on the type of predicate involved in clause formation, three clause types can be distinguished: verbal clauses, existential clauses and non-verbal clauses. Tajio has a small number of multi-verbal structures that appear to qualify as serial verb constructions. SVCs in Tajio always include a motion verb or a directional.

Imaginarios sociales de adolescentes y docentes en torno al cuerpo, la corporalidad y la actividad física. Estudio cualitativo en un colegio de Bogotá, 2014-2015.

Problema. Esta investigación se aproxima al entorno escolar con el propósito de avanzar en la comprensión de los imaginarios de los adolescentes y docentes en torno al cuerpo, la corporalidad y la AF, como un elemento relevante en el diseño de programas y planes efectivos para fomento de la práctica de AF. Objetivo. Analizar los imaginarios sociales de docentes y adolescentes en torno a los conceptos de cuerpo, corporalidad y AF. Métodos. Investigación de corte cualitativo, descriptivo e interpretativo. Se realizaron entrevistas semi-estructuradas a docentes y a estudiantes entre los 12 y 18 años de un colegio público de Bogotá. Se realizó análisis de contenido. Se compararon los resultados de estudiantes por grupos de edades y género. Resultados. Docentes y estudiantes definen el cuerpo a partir de las características biológicas, las diferencias sexuales y las funciones vitales. La definición de corporalidad en los estudiantes se encuentra ligada con la imagen y la apariencia física; los docentes la entienden como la posibilidad de interactuar con el entorno y como la materialización de la existencia. La AF en los estudiantes se asocia con la práctica de ejercicio y deporte, en los docentes se comprende como una práctica de autocuidado que permite el mantenimiento de la salud. Conclusiones. Para promover la AF tempranamente como una experiencia vital es necesario intervenir los espacios escolares. Hay que vincular al cuerpo a los procesos formativos con el propósito de desarrollar la autonomía corporal, este aspecto implica cambios en los currículos.

La seguridad energética de Estados Unidos a inicios del siglo XXI: ¿securitización o politización del acceso a recursos energéticos?

Tradicionalmente, la consolidación de la seguridad energética en Estados Unidos se ha mostrado como un asunto de seguridad nacional. En especial, la escasez de recursos energéticos ha sido vista como un problema existencial que requiere de medidas de emergencia en el marco de un proceso de securitización. Sin embargo, esta investigación surgiere que el tema ha sido mayoritariamente politizado a inicios del siglo XXI. Quizá este proceso de securitización tan solo fue implícitamente planteado con ocasión de la invasión a Irak en 2003, en la medida en que dicha intervención pudo haberse inspirado por la necesidad de derrocar a un régimen que había impedido el acceso estadounidense a recursos petroleros iraquíes. En este orden de ideas, la investigación analiza las políticas de seguridad energética de los gobiernos de George W. Bush y Barack H. Obama con el propósito de entender el grado en el que estas estuvieron vinculadas a sus respectivas agendas de seguridad nacional.

Noções fundamentais sobre o dano existencial

ResumenEste artículo examina el concepto de daño existencial y sus especies. Además, describe los acontecimientos que pueden resultar en daño existencial. Por último, examinamos los precedentes judiciales en los que hemos identificado la presencia de daño existencial.ResumoEste artigo traz a lume o conceito e as espécies de dano existencial. Além disso, examina acontecimentos que podem redundar em dano existencial. E, por último, versa acerca de casos concretos judiciais nos quais se identificou a presença do dano existencial.Palavras-chaves: dano existencial, dano ao projeto de vida, dano à vida de relações, noções basilares, precedentes judiciais.AbstractThis article brings to light the concept and modalities of existential damage. It also examines events that can result in existential damage. And, finally, analyzes judicial cases in which it was identified the presence of existential damage.Keywords: existential damage; damage to the project of life; damage to the relationship life; basic notions; judicial precedents.

ÁGUA VIVA: UM ROMANCE LÍRICO DE CLARICE LISPECTOR

In Água viva, text of Clarice Lispector, published in 1973, stays evident the encounter of the poetry with the fiction prose, forming a unity. This article aims to investigate how this encounter occurs and to demonstrate the ways by which the poetry interlaces with the fiction narrative, in other words, how the process of fusion of the categories of the narrative with the lyric modes occurs, resulting in the hybridism of the narrative genre, in the lyric novel. In fact, the narrative categories, in the end, surrender to the appeals of the lyric poetry, making the work hybrid. Inspired in the existentialist´s theories of Martin Heidegger and of Jean-Paul-Sartre, the Lispector´s text undertakes a questioning concerning the existence, trying to understand the human condition. Themost intimate questionings and the deepest emotions, belonging to the abysmal part of the ‘dasein’, can not be expressed by the common speech. The characters, in the impossibility of express, by the use of common words, their existential anguish, utilizes a language permeated by the own resources of the poetry, trying to embrace all the aspects of their subjectivity. The characters assume, then, a poetic-lyric discourse, highly suggestive. It is there that the prose allows to be invaded by the poetry and it is how occurs the establishment, in the text, of the union between prose and poetry. The literary overtakes thereby the common discourse and configures itself in an artistic speech. To make possible the work of analysis, some theorists of the matter are convoked such as Ralph Freedman and Rosa Maria Goulart, as other studious of Lispector´s work.

THE BORDER CHARACTER OF URBANITE SUBJECT IN PABLO NERUDA

ABSTRACT: The imagetic process in Pablo Neruda's work is built through the creation of images resulting from life experiences kept in memories. It is also an existential questioning of the poet based upon the critical look on the historical and personal moment. In this creative process, Neruda's imagetic world strongly references Temuco's natural aspects, the everyday setting of his childhood and adolescence, part of the scenery that remained in his memory and crystalized in his works. The ascertainment that Neruda, in the transition from province to metropolis, does not reach his emotional final destination, remaining in a long transitory state (threshold), allowing us to highlight the emergence of a "border subject", situated between the provincial universe and the urban universe. In Neruda, the concept of border does not only references a territorial boundary between two regions that are politically and culturally different, but also temporal boundaries, since in his stay in the city the poet turns into a body that experiences the location and establishes a critical relationship towards it: he describes it poetically and develops a temporal mobility from the city to the province. This border state shows an intermediary position in individuals that by moving within his/her own country feel in the margins of his/her own culture. In neruda, the notion of border is a recurring issue in the subject of cities, in which the border is related to the geographical space (country, city and harbor) with the time space (present and past), and with cultural space in which concerns the regional identity differences of a certain country. Thus, it is important to approach the analysis of border overcoming regarding the geographical and cultural issues, but above all to the subjective formulations as a result of interpersonal processes. KEYWORDS: Border; Identity; Pablo Neruda.

TEMPO E CONFLITO EM VIAGEM AOS SEIOS DE DUÍLIA, DE ANÍBAL MACHADO

This work aims to analyze how the formal elements of the tale Viagem aos seios de Duília, by Aníbal Machado, converges to the disclosure of conflict introduced inside the protagonist, that is because of his awareness of misfit between he and the present time. The degradation of spatial elements does be revealed in narrative the consciousness about the irreversibility of time – fact that is experienced by the protagonist as a conflict of existential order, insofar it shows him what he refuses to see: the huge misfit between their beliefs and expectations and the external reality. The inexorability of time progression toward the total destruction of everything that is alive becomes for the character the tyranny of time; in continuous and constant war with this, trying to deny their relentless effects, the character find, however, only suffering, anguish and defeat this illusory endeavor. Nothing can endure: neither the man nor his dreams, nor their hopes, not even their illusions.