O Hospital e o Adolescente Uma Visão Num Hospital Pediátrico

Com o objectivo de conhecer as opiniões e expectativas dos adolescentes acerca das condições de atendimento hospitalar, os autores aplicaram um auto-questionário, de resposta facultativa e anónima, aos utentes desse grupo etário em Março de 1995. Obtiveram-se 207 respostas no ambulatório e 33 no internamento; apenas 17% frequentavam a consulta pela primeira vez e, 26% utilizavam-na há mais de 5 anos; 64% dos inquiridos já tinham internamentos anteriores dos quais 78% neste hospital. Em caso de necessidade de internamento 59% preferia o hospital pediátrico e, 56,5% gostaria de uma consulta específica para o seu grupo etário. Quanto às condições de internamento 88,8% desejava ter apenas jovens da sua idade na enfermaria e, sublinham a importância da sua privacidade. Concluem pela necessidade de melhorar as condições de atendimento e internamento e promover a discussão sobre o funcionamento de unidades hospitalares para adolescentes

Geochemical “fingerprints” for Olduvai Gorge Bed II tuffs and implications for the Oldowan–Acheulean transition

Bed II is a critical part of early Pleistocene Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Its deposits include transitions from humid to more arid conditions (with associated faunal changes), from Homo habilis to erectus, and from Oldowan to Acheulean technology. Bed II (~ 1.8–1.2 Ma) is stratigraphically and environmentally complex, with facies changes, faulting, and unconformities, making site-to-site correlation over the ~ 20 km of exposure difficult. Bed II tuffs are thinner, less evenly preserved, and more reworked than those of Bed I. Five marker tuffs (Tuffs IIA–IID, Bird Print Tuff (BPT)), plus local tephra, were collected from multiple sites and characterized using stratigraphic position, mineral assemblage, and electron probe microanalysis of phenocryst (feldspar, hornblende, augite, titanomagnetite) and glass (where available) composition. Lowermost Bed II tuffs are dominantly nephelinitic, Middle Bed II tuffs (BPT, Tuff IIC) have basaltic components, and upper Bed II Tuff IID is trachytic. The BPT and Tuff IID are identified widely using phenocryst compositions (high-Ca plagioclase and high-Ti hornblende, respectively), though IID was originally (Hay, 1976) misidentified as Tuff IIC at Loc 91 (SHK Annexe) in the Side Gorge. This work helps establish a high-resolution basin-wide paleolandscape context for the Oldowan–Acheulean transition and helps link hominin, faunal and archaeological records

A hidden treasure of the Lower Pleistocene at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania: The Leakey HWK EE assemblage

HWK EE is a little-known archaeological site from the top of Lower Bed II and the basal part of Middle Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The site was originally excavated in the early 1970s by Mary Leakey, but the excavations and resulting lithic and fossil assemblages were never described. Here we report for the first time on the lithic and fossil assemblages that were recovered by Mary Leakey from the site. The lithic assemblage is one of the largest of any Oldowan site and is characterized by a core-and-flake technology with simple flaking techniques and minimal reduction of cores. Retouched flake frequencies and battered tools are higher than those reported for Olduvai Bed I and Lower Bed II assemblages, but flaking schemes are poorly organized. The fossil assemblage is well-preserved, taxonomically-rich, but dominated by bovids, and includes abundant feeding traces of both hominins and carnivores. Hominins are inferred to have broken the majority of limb bones at the site for access to marrow, while both carnivores and hominins likely had access to at least some flesh. HWK EE may represent one of the last Homo habilis sites at Olduvai Gorge, and is important to understanding the behavioral and cultural mechanisms that led to the emergence of the Acheulean and Homo erectus in the region

Muchos futuros. Diseño de experiencias y tecnología digital en prospectiva

En nuestro proyecto de investigación, nos interesa analizar las relaciones futuras entre tecnologías digitales y diseño de experiencias. En este texto, expondremos los resultados de un primer ejercicio exploratorio. En él, se recopila la visión de instituciones científicas, de comunicación y empresariales en torno al cruce entre diseño futuro, experiencias, avances tecnológicos digitales y sociedad. Como resultado, se expone un mapa de relaciones y se determina un área de trabajo, para futuros estudios de prospectiva.Our research project focuses on the relationship between future digital technologies and experience design. In this paper we share an exploratory exercise. It gathers data from scientific institutions, media and firms to understand their views around the future of design, experiences, technology development and society. As a result, we build a relationship map and we select an area to further analysis with prospective methods.Em nosso projeto de pesquisa, estamos interessados em analisar as relações futuras entre as tecnologias digitais e o design de experiências. Neste texto apresentamos os resultados de um primeiro exercício exploratório. Coleta a visão das instituições científicas, de comunicação e de negócios em torno da interseção entre design, experiências, tecnologia digital e sociedade. Como resultado, expomos um mapa de relacionamentos e determinamos uma área de trabalho para futuros estudos prospectivos

The paleoecology of Pleistocene birds from Middle Bed II, at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and the environmental context of the Oldowan-Acheulean transition

Fossil bird data (community composition and taphonomic profiles) are used here to infer the environmental context of the Oldowan-Acheulean transitional period at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. This is the first comprehensive report on the Middle Bed II avifauna and includes fossils excavated by the Olduvai Geochronology and Archaeology Project (OGAP) and recently rediscovered fossils collected by Mary Leakey. Crane, ibis, darter, owl, raptor, crow, and vulture are reported from Bed II for the first time. The presence of these taxa, absent earlier in this Bed, point to a general opening and drying of the landscape with grassland and open woodland expansion. Taxa associated with dense, emergent wetland vegetation, such as dabbling ducks and rails, are uncommon and less diverse than earlier in Bed II. This suggests more mature wetlands with clearer waters. Cormorants continue to be common, but are less diverse. Cormorants and other roosting taxa provide evidence of trees in the area. Compared to lowermost Bed II, the Middle to Upper Bed II landscape is interpreted here as more open and drier (but not necessarily more arid), with matured wetlands, scattered trees, and a greater expansion of grasslands

Dietary traits of the ungulates from the HWK EE site at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania): Diachronic changes and seasonality

The Oldowan site HWK EE (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) has yielded a large fossil and stone tool assemblage at the transition from Lower to Middle Bed II, ∼1.7 Ma. Integrated tooth wear and stable isotope analyses were performed on the three most abundant ungulate taxa from HWK EE, namely Alcelaphini, cf. Antidorcas recki (Antilopini) and Equus oldowayensis (Equini), to infer dietary traits in each taxon. Some paleodietary changes were observed for cf. A. recki and E. oldowayensis based on tooth wear at the transition from the Lemuta to the Lower Augitic Sandstone (LAS) interval within the HWK EE sequence. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope data show no significant changes in bulk diet or hydroclimate between the Lemuta and LAS intervals. The combined tooth wear and stable isotope data suggest similar paleoecological conditions across the two HWK EE intervals, but that differences in vegetation consumed among ungulates may have resulted in changes in dietary niches. Integrating tooth wear and stable isotope analyses permits the characterization of ungulate diets and habitats at HWK EE where C4 dominated and minor mixed C3 and C4 habitats were present. Our results provide a better understanding of the paleoenvironmental conditions of the Lemuta and LAS intervals. The LAS assemblage was mostly accumulated during relatively dry periods at Olduvai Gorge when grasses were not as readily available and grazing animals may have been more nutritionally-stressed than during the formation of the Lemuta assemblage. This helps to contextualize variations in hominin and carnivore feeding behavior observed from the faunal assemblages produced during the two main occupations of the site

The carnivorous feeding behavior of early Homo at HWK EE, Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

The regular consumption of large mammal carcasses, as evidenced by butchery marks on fossils recovered from Early Stone Age archaeological sites, roughly coincides with the appearance of Homo habilis. However, the significance of this niche expansion cannot be appreciated without an understanding of hominin feeding behavior and their ecological interactions with mammalian carnivores. The Olduvai Geochronology and Archaeology Project (OGAP) has recovered a large and well-preserved fossil assemblage from the HWK EE site, which was deposited just prior to the first appearance of Acheulean technology at Olduvai Gorge and likely represents one of the last H. habilis sites at Olduvai. This taphonomic analysis of the larger mammal fossil assemblage excavated from HWK EE shows evidence of multiple occupations over a long period of time, suggesting the site offered resources that were attractive to hominins. There was a water source indicated by the presence of fish, crocodiles, and hippos, and there was possible tree cover in an otherwise open habitat. The site preserves several stratigraphic intervals with large fossil and artifact assemblages within two of these intervals. Feeding traces on bone surfaces suggest hominins at the site obtained substantial amounts of flesh and marrow, particularly from smaller size group 1-2 carcasses, and exploited a wide range of taxa, including megafauna. A strong carnivore signal suggests hominins scavenged much of their animal foods during the two main stratigraphic intervals. In the later interval, lower carnivore tooth mark and hammerstone percussion mark frequencies, in addition to high epiphyseal to shaft fragment ratios, suggest hominins and carnivores did not fully exploit bone marrow and grease, which may have been acquired from nutritionally-stressed animals that died during a dry period at Olduvai. The diversity of fauna that preserve evidence of butchery suggests that the HWK EE hominins were opportunistic in their acquisition of carcass foods

Plasma antioxidant status, immunoglobulin G oxidation and lipid peroxidation in demented patients:Relevance to Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia

A large body of evidence supports a role of oxidative stress in Alzheimer disease (AD) and in cerebrovascular disease. A vascular component might be critical in the pathophysiology of AD, but there is a substantial lack of data regarding the simultaneous behavior of peripheral antioxidants and biomarkers of oxidative stress in AD and vascular dementia (VaD). Sixty-three AD patients, 23 VaD patients and 55 controls were included in the study. We measured plasma levels of water-soluble (vitamin C and uric acid) and lipophilic (vitamin E, vitamin A, carotenoids including lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, α- and β-carotene) antioxidant micronutrients as well as levels of biomarkers of lipid peroxidation [malondialdehyde (MDA)] and of protein oxidation [immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels of protein carbonyls and dityrosine] in patients and controls. With the exception of β-carotene, all antioxidants were lower in demented patients as compared to controls. Furthermore, AD patients showed a significantly higher IgG dityrosine content as compared to controls. AD and VaD patients showed similar plasma levels of plasma antioxidants and MDA as well as a similar IgG content of protein carbonyls and dityrosine. We conclude that, independent of its nature - vascular or degenerative - dementia is associated with the depletion of a large spectrum of antioxidant micronutrients and with increased protein oxidative modification. This might be relevant to the pathophysiology of dementing disorders, particularly in light of the recently suggested importance of the vascular component in AD development. Copyright © 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

The contexts and early Acheulean archaeology of the EF-HR paleo-landscape (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)

Renewed fieldwork at the early Acheulean site of EF-HR (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) has included detailed stratigraphic studies of the sequence, extended excavations in the main site, and has placed eleven additional trenches within an area of nearly 1 km(2), to sample the same stratigraphic interval as in the main trench across the broader paleo-landscape. Our new stratigraphic work suggests that EF-HR is positioned higher in the Bed II sequence than previously proposed, which has implications for the age of the site and its stratigraphic correlation to other Olduvai Middle Bed II sites. Geological research shows that the main EF-HR site was situated at the deepest part of an incised valley formed through river erosion. Archaeological excavations at the main site and nearby trenches have unearthed a large new assemblage, with more than 3000 fossils and artefacts, including a hundred handaxes in stratigraphic position. In addition, our test-trenching approach has detected conspicuous differences in the density of artefacts across the landscape, with a large cluster of archaeological material in and around the main trench, and less intense human activity at the same level in the more distant satellite trenches. All of these aspects are discussed in this paper in the light of site formation processes, behavioral contexts, and their implications for our understanding of the early Acheulean at Olduvai Gorge