The Canela Diaries: Their Nature, Uses, and Future

In 1966, three Canela Indians of Brazil started writing diaries about their lives and tribal events for me. Since then, I have collected about 150,000 manuscript pages and 2,000 hours on tape. About twenty-two diarists have contributed through the years, though never more than twelve at once. The Canela diary program grew out of my predilection for a personal approach to field work as well as my preference for qualitative over quantitative research methods. Excerpts from the diaries are included, one set to provide different points of view about a murder and others to show how I have used diarists\u27 statements to supplement points made in my publications. I have requested, on occasion, that the diarists respond to specific questions in their next months\u27 diaries. One such request was that they comment on the diary program. Some of their thoughts are included. Procedures for collecting these materials are described, principles for encouraging the diarists are discussed, and ethics for managing such a program are debated. A principal purpose of the article is to inform colleagues and other interested people of the existence and nature of the collection to interest them in using it. Em 1964, três índios Canelas começaram a escrever para mim manuscritos sobre suas vidas e sobre os acontecimentos tribais. Desdc então já recebi deles umas 150.000 páginas escritas e 2.000 horas em fita. Cerca de vinte-dois Canelas tem contribuído com seus diários ao longo destes anos, porem nunca mais de doze ao mesmo tempo. O programa de diáarios Canelas cresceu além do que esperavam minha predileção por uma abordagem pessoal de pesquisa de campo e minha preferência pelos métodos de pesquisa qualitativos sobre os quantitadvos. Extratos dos diários estão incluídos. Um certo número deles oferece pontos de vista diferentes sobre um assassinate. Outros extratos mostram como usei as palavras dos autores dos diários para suplementar meus pontos de vista apresentados nas minhas publicações. Tenho-lhes pedido as informações de que preciso fazendo-lhes perguntas a serem respondidas nos seus diários dos meses seguintes. Um pedido foi para comentarem o próprio programa dos diários. Inclui alguns de seus pensamentos. Os procedimentos para coletar este material estão expostos, os princípios para encorajar os autores de diários estão discutidos, e a ética para gerenciar um programa deste tipo está debatida. O propósito principal deste artigo é informar colegas e outras pessoas interessadas da existência e da natureza desta coleção para motivá-los a usá-la. [Translation thanks to Júlio César Melatti

Canela Shamanism: Shamans’ Accounts, “Journeying,” and Delimitation of Shamanic Terms

In this article I recount the stories of various shamans I have worked with throughout many decades of fieldwork among the Ramkokamekra-Canela (Eastern Timbira) of central Maranhão state, Brazil. Along with their narratives, I provide ethnographic context in order to address the following questions: (1) Who is a shaman? (2) What is shamanism? Is shamanism better understood (3) as a process or a method that is carried out to achieve certain ends, or is it better understood (4) as a particular set of beliefs associated with particular cultures? Additionally, (5) are altered or shamanic states of consciousness found in Canela shamanism, and (6) are they brought about by certain practices? I do not attempt to answer questions regarding shamanism’s efficacy, that is, how/whether it works

Update on Risk Reduction Activities for a Liquid Advanced Booster for NASA's Space Launch System

Goals of NASA's Advanced Booster Engineering Demonstration and/or Risk Reduction (ABEDRR) are to: (1) Reduce risks leading to an affordable Advanced Booster that meets the evolved capabilities of SLS. (2) Enable competition by mitigating targeted Advanced Booster risks to enhance SLS affordability. SLS Block 1 vehicle is being designed to carry 70 mT to LEO: (1) Uses two five-segment solid rocket boosters (SRBs) similar to the boosters that helped power the space shuttle to orbit. Evolved 130 mT payload class rocket requires an advanced booster with more thrust than any existing U.S. liquid-or solid-fueled booster

Impact Evaluation of Training Natural Leaders during a Community-Led Total Sanitation Intervention: A Cluster-Randomized Field Trial in Ghana

We used a cluster-randomized field trial to evaluate training natural leaders (NLs) as an addition to a community-led total sanitation (CLTS) intervention in Ghana. NLs are motivated community members who influence their peers’ behaviors during CLTS. The outcomes were latrine use and quality, which were assessed from surveys and direct observation. From October 2012, Plan International Ghana (Plan) implemented CLTS in 60 villages in three regions in Ghana. After 5 months, Plan trained eight NLs from a randomly selected half of the villages, then continued implementing CLTS in all villages for 12 more months. The NL training led to increased time spent on CLTS by community members, increased latrine construction, and a 19.9 percentage point reduction in open defecation (p < 0.001). The training had the largest impact in small, remote villages with low exposure to prior water and sanitation projects, and may be most effective in socially cohesive villages. For both interventions, latrines built during CLTS were less likely to be constructed of durable materials than pre-existing latrines, but were equally clean, and more often had handwashing materials. CLTS with NL training contributes to three parts of Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals: eliminating open defecation, expanding capacity-building, and strengthening community participation

Self-Affirmation Improves Problem-Solving under Stress

High levels of acute and chronic stress are known to impair problem-solving and creativity on a broad range of tasks. Despite this evidence, we know little about protective factors for mitigating the deleterious effects of stress on problem-solving. Building on previous research showing that self-affirmation can buffer stress, we tested whether an experimental manipulation of self-affirmation improves problem-solving performance in chronically stressed participants. Eighty undergraduates indicated their perceived chronic stress over the previous month and were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or control condition. They then completed 30 difficult remote associate problem-solving items under time pressure in front of an evaluator. Results showed that self-affirmation improved problem-solving performance in underperforming chronically stressed individuals. This research suggests a novel means for boosting problem-solving under stress and may have important implications for understanding how self-affirmation boosts academic achievement in school settings. © 2013 Creswell et al

Accurate and sensitive quantification of protein-DNA binding affinity

Transcription factors (TFs) control gene expression by binding to genomic DNA in a sequence-specific manner. Mutations in TF binding sites are increasingly found to be associated with human disease, yet we currently lack robust methods to predict these sites. Here, we developed a versatile maximum likelihood framework named No Read Left Behind (NRLB) that infers a biophysical model of protein-DNA recognition across the full affinity range from a library of in vitro selected DNA binding sites. NRLB predicts human Max homodimer binding in near-perfect agreement with existing low-throughput measurements. It can capture the specificity of the p53 tetramer and distinguish multiple binding modes within a single sample. Additionally, we confirm that newly identified low-affinity enhancer binding sites are functional in vivo, and that their contribution to gene expression matches their predicted affinity. Our results establish a powerful paradigm for identifying protein binding sites and interpreting gene regulatory sequences in eukaryotic genomes