Age, gender, and ethnic differences in mental health in community-dwelling older adults

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate age (60, 80, and 100 years), gender, and ethnic (Blacks and Whites) differences in mental health in community-dwelling older adults from the Georgia Centenarian Study and to assess mediating and moderating effects (i.e., social support, life events, and subjective health) on the relationship between demographic variables and mental health. Three mental health areas were assessed: life satisfaction, morale, and depression. We examined 321 participants at Time 1 (T1) and 201 participants at Time 2 (T2). The results suggest that centenarians had lower levels of life satisfaction at T1, morale (T1 and T2), and higher levels of depression (T1 and T2) compared to sexagenarians and octogenarians. Gender differences were only found for depression at T1. Women reported higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to men. There were no mean differences between men and women on the other mental health dimensions. No ethnic differences were obtained for mental health. Social support and perceived health mediated the relationship between demographic variables and mental health. Finally, when assessing moderating effects, social support moderated the relationship between age (60 & 80 years) and life satisfaction, indicating that older adults had higher life satisfaction even when receiving low social support. Health positively moderated the relationship between ethnicity and depression, suggesting that Blacks (but not Whites) reported high depressive symptoms even when reporting good health

The relationship between personality, life events and healthy longevity: A comparison of U.S. and Japanese centenarians

This dissertation comprises of three manuscripts and compares a population-based sample of 239 U.S. centenarians from the Georgia Centenarians Study to 304 Japanese centenarians from the Tokyo Centenarian Study. The first study compared the most important life events reported by U.S. and Japanese centenarians. Two open-ended life events questions were categorized and grouped into different life event domains. Several cross-tabulations were computed to investigate culture and gender differences in most important life event domains. The main results suggest that events related to marriage were the most frequent event domains mentioned by U.S. centenarians. The Japanese sample was more likely to report historical events. Men from the U.S. were more likely to report events related to work and retirement compared to U.S. women, and U.S. women reported events related to family as the most important life events when compared to U.S. men. Japanese women considered events related to marriage, death and grief as the most important life events when compared to Japanese men. In addition, Japanese men reported events related to work and retirement as the most important life events. A cross-cultural difference was found in life events. U.S. centenarians were more likely to mention positive experiences related to marriage and children, whereas Japanese centenarians reported mostly negative and traumatic experiences such as historical events, death/grief, and work/retirement events. The second study investigated demographic and cultural mean differences among five NEO personality traits. In addition, it identified and compared across culture centenarians\u27 personality trait profiles in U.S. and Japanese centenarians. Several one-way analyses of variance were performed and latent profile analyses were conducted to identify personality trait profiles in centenarians from the United States and Japan. Two personality profiles were identified in both samples: the resilient group (higher scores on Agreeableness and Extraversion, and lower mean scores on Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and Openness compared to the population means) and the non-resilient group (higher scores on Neuroticism and lower scores on Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness compared to the population means). No cultural differences in personality profiles were found. The third study investigated the effect of personality and life events on mental and cognitive health and the mediating and moderating effects of personality and life events on mental and cognitive health. Several structural equation models were computed for each culture to test the relationship of personality, life events (i.e., marriage and historical events), and mental and cognitive health. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that centenarians with a resilient personality had better mental health in both samples. No significant mediating and moderating effects of personality were found in either sample. Japanese centenarians who reported marriage as the most important event had better mental health compared to Japanese centenarians who did not report marriage as the most important event. Japanese centenarians reporting historical events had poor mental health compared to Japanese centenarians not mentioning an historical event. In conclusion, the results indicate that Japanese centenarians mentioning historical events were more at risk for mental health problems than U.S. centenarians

The Impact of Life Events on the Oldest Old

Very old adults have experienced many events in their lives, some many years ago, some more recently. This chapter highlights events perceived as the most important ones in the lives of centenarians. Domain-specific events are also considered in this chapter, including health events, family events, and work events. Finally, the impact of life events on the overall well-being of the oldest-old adults is considered. The evidence suggests that positive cumulative (“lifetime”) events reduce levels of negative affect, whereas cumulative (“lifetime”) negative events promote negative affect. When proximal events (i.e., those experienced in the past 20 years) and distal events (i.e., those experienced more than 20 years ago) are considered, proximal events are more likely to reduce levels of positive affect and enhance levels of negative affect. Distal events, on the other hand, are more likely to enhance overall feelings of positive affect

NATUREZA E METRÓPOLE: UM ESTUDO DAS PAISAGENS NAS POÉTICAS DE VICTOR HUGO E CHARLES BAUDELAIRE.

RÉSUMÉ: La nature et la ville sont des thèmes fondamentales dans les poétiques de Victor Hugo (1802-1885) et de Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Néanmoins, lorsqu’ils font de ces deux paysages matériel lyrique, ils leur donnent des traitements distingués d’après la manière particulière que chacun les regardaient. La recherche s’utilisera d’un approche comparatif des poétiques en question dont la méthodologie sera l’analyse de quelques poëmes où les paysages naturels ou artificiels sont présents. L’objectif principal c’est voir la façon dont les poètes apportent la modernité à la poésie

A bailarina do espelho : construções de gênero em aulas de balé infantil

A pesquisa explora as relações entre a aula de balé clássico infantil e os estudos de gênero, como este ensino atua na vida das crianças e de que maneira isto pode estar repercutindo na sociedade em que vivemos. O objetivo consiste em investigar como as questões de gênero são trabalhadas no balé infantil. Os instrumentos da produção de dados incluem observações baseadas em uma pauta semiestruturada. Essa pauta abrange tópicos que versam sobre o estereótipo da bailarina, a descrição do ambiente e das pessoas que o envolvem e da estrutura da aula, ressaltando falas e comportamentos que emergem deste espaço. O público alvo é composto de turmas de balé infantil entre 4 e 5 anos, investigando três escolas tradicionais no ensino da modalidade em Porto Alegre. A partir destas observações, analisaram-se eixos como a arquitetura e o ambiente, a técnica, a disciplina ou indisciplinas, e a relação com gênero. Intenta-se com esta pesquisa problematizar e pensar as relações existentes nos discursos do balé infantil e o mundo atual. Por fim, não se observou ensinamentos explícitos voltados à educação das apropriadas a mulher nas aulas de baby class, mas acredita que esses ceanrsaicntaemrísetnictaoss se dão de uma maneira indireta na cultura e, portanto, o balé os reforça. Numa época contemporânea, na qual a heterogeneidade impera nos gostos, nos modos de vestir e ser, isso acaba por se refletir entre os praticantes. Assim, talvez os gêneros possam ser múltiplos mesmo numa aula de um estilo dito conservador onde se representem papeis a partir de personagens.The research explores the relationship between children’s classic ballet class and gender studies as this teaching acts in children's lives, and how this may be impacting in the society in which we live. The aim is to investigate how gender issues are handled in the child ballet. The instruments of data production include observations based on a semi-structured guideline. This agenda covers topics about the ballerina stereotype, the description of the environment and the people who surround and the structure of the lesson, emphasizing speeches and behaviors that emerge from this space. The target audience consists of children’s ballet classes between 4 and 5 years, investigating three traditional schools in teaching mode in Porto Alegre. From these observations, axes were analyzed as the architecture and the environment, the technique, discipline or indisciplines, and the relationship with gender. Try with this research is to discuss and think about the existing relations in children’s ballet and the world today. Finally, explicit teachings was not observed for education of appropriate features the woman in the baby class, but believes that these teachings do in an indirect way in culture and, therefore, the ballet reinforces them. In a contemporary age, in which heterogeneity reigns in tastes, in the ways of dressing and being, it turns out to be reflected among the practitioners. So, maybe the genders can be multiple even in a class of a style where they represent conservative said papers from characters

Barriers to cardiac rehabilitation delivery in a low-resource setting from the perspective of healthcare administrators, rehabilitation providers, and cardiac patients

Background: Despite clinical practice guideline recommendations that cardiovascular disease patients participate, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs are highly unavailable and underutilized. This is particularly true in low-resource settings, where the epidemic is at its’ worst. The reasons are complex, and include health system, program and patient-level barriers. This is the first study to assess barriers at all these levels concurrently, and to do so in a lowresource setting. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data from three cohorts (healthcare administrators, CR coordinators and patients) were triangulated. Healthcare administrators from all institutions offering cardiac services, and providers from all CR programs in public and private institutions of Minas Gerais state, Brazil were invited to complete a questionnaire. Patients from a random subsample of 12 outpatient cardiac clinics and 11 CR programs in these institutions completed the CR Barriers Scale. Results: Thirty-two (35.2%) healthcare administrators, 16 (28.6%) CR providers and 805 cardiac patients (305 [37.9%] attending CR) consented to participate. Administrators recognized the importance of CR, but also the lack of resources to deliver it; CR providers noted referral is lacking. Patients who were not enrolled in CR reported significantly greater barriers related to comorbidities/functional status, perceived need, personal/family issues and access than enrollees, and enrollees reported travel/work conflicts as greater barriers than non-enrollees (all p < 0.01). Conclusions: The inter-relationship among barriers at each level is evident; without resources to offer more programs, there are no programs to which physicians can refer (and hence inform and encourage patients to attend), and patients will continue to have barriers related to distance, cost and transport. Advocacy for services is needed. Keywords: Health care services, Cardiac rehabilitation, Cardiac care facilities, Attitude of health personnelYork University Librarie

UFRN E GESPÚBLICA: UMA EXPERIÊNCIA DA DIRETORIA DE ADMINISTRAÇÃO DE PESSOAL (DAP)

O presente estudo tem por finalidade apresentar a experiência da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN com sua adesão ao Programa Gespública. O tipo da pesquisa é exploratório, o subtipo é estudo de caso. Nesse sentido, foram realizadas entrevista e pesquisa documental, cujos dados foram tratados por meio da análise qualitativa. Identificou-se que a UFRN representada por sua Diretoria de Administração de Pessoal (DAP) assinou o termo de adesão ao Programa Gespública e realizou a autoavaliação utilizando o Instrumento para Avaliação da Gestão Pública de 250 pontos e elaborou a Carta de Serviços do DAP. Conclui-se que a experiência da UFRN foi bem sucedida, uma vez que o DAP, a partir dessas práticas, começou a dedicar-se ao pensamento sistêmico como também aos processos de gestão, atitudes essas que, com o contínuo aprendizado, irão permitir à instituição atingir outros níveis em excelência em gestão pública

Aplicação das ferramentas da qualidade na produção do açúcar.

Facing the globalization, the majority of the industrial sectors has been seeking for the newest technologies in order to improve their processes and consequently, improving the quality of the final product. To ensure its survival on the market, or to achieve a better participation in the World market competition, companies use consecrated quality programs, which are already employed in other companies, that have been presenting success, such as the Six Sigma program. Six Sigma is an improvement program aimed at the reduction of non-quality waste, in order to minimize, favoring the customers’ requirements, both in the final product quality and delivery reliability. The present work presents a summary of the main quality management tools, within the context of sustainability and presents an initiative of the implementation of the Six Sigma program to the sugar manufacturing process in a plant, located in Santa Rita-PB. It was verified, through the analyses of all the existing materials at every stage of the sugar manufacturing process, and on a 30 days period, an improvement in production, with the identification of the points that necessarily needed to upgrade and control the results. The improvements were evident, translated not only in the performance of the tasks, but in the performance of the mill operators. The obtained results were then analyzed, thus confirming that the application of Six Sigma in the productive and organizational process leads to an improvement in manufacturing, generating at the end a product with better quality and consequently generating profits for the company and leading to the employee satisfaction, as these can see the performance of their activities in the final product.Face à globalização, os diversos setores industriais vêm buscando a implementação de novas tecnologias, melhoria nos seus processos e consequentemente, melhoria na qualidade. Para garantir a sua sobrevivência no mercado, ou atingir uma maior participação, vencendo a concorrência, as empresas utilizam programas de qualidade consagrados, que já são empregados e que apresentam sucesso em outras empresas, como é o caso do programa Six Sigma, ou Seis Sigma. O Six Sigma, ou Seis Sigmas é um programa de melhoria que tem por objetivo a redução de desperdícios da não qualidade e consequentemente, a redução de custos e o favorecimento no atendimento aos requisitos de clientes, tanto na qualidade de produto, como confiabilidade da entrega. O presente trabalho, apresenta um resumo das principais ferramentas de gestão de qualidade, dentro do contexto da sustentabilidade e apresenta uma iniciativa da aplicação do programa Six Sigma ao processo fabricação de açúcar em uma usina, localizada em Santa Rita-PB. Verificou-se através das análises dos materiais existentes em toda etapa do processo de fabricação do açúcar, e durante um período de aproximadamente 30 dias, uma melhora na produção, com a identificação do pontos que necessariamente precisavam de upgrade e controle dos resultados. Foram evidentes as melhoras tanto na forma do desempenho das tarefas, no desempenho dos operadores e nos resultados das análises obtidas, confirmando-se assim, que a aplicação do Six Sigma no processo produtivo e organizacional, conduz a uma melhora na fabricação, gerando ao final do processo um produto com qualidade melhor e consequentemente gerando lucros para a empresa e melhorando a satisfação dos funcionários, pois esses conseguem ver o desempenho das suas atividades no produto final