Chelsey L. Kivland, Street Sovereigns. Young Men and the Makeshift State in Urban Haiti

Street Sovereigns rend compte avec beaucoup de sensibilité et d’intelligence de la vie des baz, des « bases », des cliques de jeunes hommes des quartiers défavorisés de Port-au-Prince. L’ouvrage se distingue à la fois par son très fort ancrage dans l’expérience de terrain et sa profondeur historique. En effet, l’autrice, Chesley Kivland a pris racine dans le Bel-Air, un geto de la capitale haïtienne où elle a résidé avec des membres des baz, et qu’elle fréquente depuis plusieurs années. Elle ..

Birds of the Estação Ecológica de Itirapina, State of São Paulo, Brazil

O cerrado é um dos biomas mais ameaçados no mundo, apresentando algumas das maiores taxas de destruição causadas principalmente pela agropecuária. Poucos estudos têm avaliado a diversidade local de aves no cerrado, especialmente em áreas marginais desse bioma. A Estação Ecológica de Itirapina (EEI) contém um dos últimos remanescentes de campos naturais e cerrados do estado de São Paulo. Um levantamento das aves desta unidade de conservação, feito tanto por observações casuais como sistemáticas entre 1998 e 2007, e complementado por revisão de literatura, revelou que 231 espécies apresentaram ocorrência recente na área. Desse total, 38 espécies (16,4%) encontram-se na lista de espécies ameaçadas para o estado de São Paulo e/ou são endêmicas do Cerrado, um alto número quando comparado com outras áreas de cerrados paulistas ou mesmo em relação ao Brasil Central. Tal fato reforça a importância da EEI em relação à conservação da avifauna e demonstra que a mesma está mantendo sua função de conservar a biodiversidade. Adicionalmente, ao longo dos 10 anos de estudo foram detectadas várias ameaças à EEI, e neste sentido são recomendadas aqui algumas sugestões de manejo que consideramos essenciais para essa unidade de conservação manter ou mesmo aumentar sua diversidade de aves.Currently the Cerrado biome is one of the most threatened in the world because high taxes of destruction, mostly by agriculture and cattle. Few assessments of local bird diversity have been made in this biome, particularly in non core areas. The Estação Ecológica de Itirapina (EEI) maintains one of the last natural grassland savannah remnants of state of São Paulo, south-east Brazil. We conducted casual and systematic observations of birds in this reserve between 1998 and 2007, which altogether with additional literature revision yielded 231 species with recent occurrence. We report 38 species (16.4%) threatened with extinction in São Paulo and/or endemic to the Cerrado Region, an impressive result in comparison to other cerrado areas in São Paulo and even in Central Brazil. These results reinforce the importance of EEI for bird conservation and mean EEI is maintaining its function as a conservation unity. However, as a result of several menaces observed to this reserve during our ten years study, we suggest some management practices for the maintenance or even increasing of bird diversity in this reserve

Terapia de redução de comportamentos suicidas: abordagens terapêuticas que visam reduzir comportamentos suicidas e melhorar a resiliência dos pacientes - revisão sistemática

Comportamentos suicidas representam um grave problema de saúde pública, e intervenções terapêuticas eficazes têm sido evidenciadas como fundamentais para fortalecer a resiliência e reduzir tais comportamentos. Neste estudo, teve-se como objetivo compreender a influência das abordagens terapêuticas na redução de comportamentos suicidas e no fortalecimento da resiliência dos pacientes que estão em risco de comportamento suicida. Para isso, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática de literatura, com a seleção de fontes disponíveis nas bases de dados Scielo, Medline e Lilacs. A partir da análise qualitativa dos resultados, concluiu-se que a identificação precoce da ideação suicida, a aplicação de estratégias de coping adaptativas, a promoção da resiliência individual e comunitária, a redução do estigma associado ao suicídio e o envolvimento de familiares são fatores cruciais nessas abordagens terapêuticas. Além disso, a formação adequada dos profissionais da saúde e a interdisciplinaridade nas intervenções são enfatizadas como aspectos fundamentais para o sucesso dos programas de prevenção do suicídio e fortalecimento emocional dos pacientes em risc

Food Sovereignty and Popular Feminism in Brazil

The Marcha das Margaridas is a coalition of women and feminism movements, agrarian movements, trade unions, and international organizations that emerged in 2000. Women’s organizations that are part of a rural trade federation lead the process. While its initial agenda included gendered class-based demands for the recognition of women’s work in food production, access to land titles and labour rights, the Marcha das Margaridas progressively incorporated other topics, such as agroecology and food sovereignty. The article addresses three questions: How did food sovereignty enter their agenda? What is the meaning of food sovereignty for them? How can food sovereignty be understood from a (popular) feminist perspective? Based on an analysis of the political documents, we identified five main themes in the discourse of the Marcha das Margaridas on food sovereignty: 1) food as a right and a common; 2) state support for women’s food production; 3) the value of uncommodified food work; 4) environmental recovery through agroecology; 5) violence-free food, produced through respectful social relations.La Marcha das Margaridas es una coalición de movimientos feministas y de mujeres, movimientos agrarios, sindicatos y organizaciones internacionales, que surgió en el año 2000. El proceso es liderado por organizaciones de mujeres que forman parte de una confederación de trabajadores y trabajadoras rurales. Aunque su programa inicial incluía reivindicaciones de clase enfocadas en el género para el reconocimiento del trabajo de las mujeres en la producción de alimentos, el acceso a títulos de tierras y derechos laborales, la Marcha das Margaridas incorporó progresivamente otros temas, como la agroecología y la soberanía alimentaria. Este artículo aborda tres preguntas: ¿Cómo entró la soberanía alimentaria en su agenda? ¿Cómo interpretan el concepto de soberanía alimentaria? ¿Cómo puede entenderse la soberanía alimentaria desde una perspectiva feminista (popular)? A partir de un análisis de los documentos políticos, identificamos cinco temas principales en el discurso de la Marcha das Margaridas sobre soberanía alimentaria: 1) la alimentación como derecho y bien común; 2) el apoyo estatal a la producción alimentaria de las mujeres; 3) el valor del trabajo alimentario no mercantilizado; 4) la recuperación medioambiental a través de la agroecología; 5) los alimentos libres de violencia, producidos en el marco de relaciones sociales respetuosas

Ordering of Ge quantum dots on silicon surfaces via bottom-up and top-down approaches

The nanoscale ordering of inorganic semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) is crucial to obtain reliable structures for novel nanotechnological applications such as nanomemories, nanolasers and nanoelectronic devices. We have directly grown Ge QDs by physical vapour deposition (PVD) on Si(111), Si(100) and some of its vicinal surfaces and studied innovative bottom up techniques to order such nanostructures. Specifically, we harnessed naturally occurring instabilities due to reconstruction and intrinsic anisotropic diffusion in Si bare surfaces, such as step bunching and natural steps occurring in silicon vicinal surfaces, to order the QDs both in one dimension and in the plane. We have also shown the use of controlled quantities of surfactants, like Sb, dramatically improves the desired ordering. Moreover, we have assisted these self-assembling processes using top-down approaches like Focused Ion Beam (FIB) milling and STM nanoindentation to control the nucleation sites and the density of the Ge QDs. Real-time study of growth and self-assembly has been accomplished using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy imaging in UHV. An explanation of the occurring processes is given, and a software routine is used to quantify the ordering of the QDs both in pre-patterned and bare surfaces. Applications, mainly in the field of Nanocrystal Nonvolatile Memories, are discussed

TRACKING OF THE HAND “PRESSURE POINT” ON THE GRIP OF A RECURVE BOW: A WEARABLE SOLUTION

The purpose of this study was to design and prototype a non-invasive wearable solution suitable for measuring speeds, accelerations and orientation of the hand-grip as well as the pressures between the hand and the grip of a recurve bow. Therefore, a device has been created that properly blends two technologies: an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and a Force-Sensitive-Resistor (FSR) membrane. A preliminary evaluation of the device performance was conducted in collaboration with the Olympic athlete Mauro Nespoli. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of the proposed system, as well as highlight a number of interesting information from a biomechanical point of view, closely related to the shooting technique

Evaluation of neurocognitive abilities in children affected by obstructive sleep apnea syndrome before and after adenotonsillectomy

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is the most severe form of sleep-related disordered breathing (SRDB) and is characterised by snoring, apnoeas, and/or hypopnoeas associated to hypoxia, hypercarbia, or repeated arousals from sleep. OSAS has three major categories of morbidities: neurobehavioural, cardiovascular and somatic growth failure. The gold standard for objective diagnosis of obstructive-SRDB severity is polysomnography (PSG). The indication for surgical treatment in children is moderate-severe OSAS (AHI, apnoea hypopnoea index > 5/h) and in mild OSAS (AHI 2-5/h) with complications or morbidity. The entire spectrum of PSG-defined SRDB (ranging from Primary Snoring to severe OSAS) may correlate with behavioural, attentional and executive function deficits relating to hypoxia and sleep disruption: in some cases, these alterations may mimic attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The aim of this research was to evaluate visuoperceptual and constructional abilities, paediatric sleep questionnaire and polysomnographic scores before and 6 months after adenotonsillectomy with objective and subjective information. We included 59 children who underwent neuropsychiatric and otolaryngologist clinical evaluation and the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI); children parents were asked to fill in the Paediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ); each child underwent PSG. At 6 months after adenotonsillectomy, all patients were evaluated again. There is a significant difference in PSQ parameters, VMI standard, visual tests scores and PSG parameters before and after adenotonsillectomy in children affected by OSAS. These results showed the achievement of therapeutic benefits with improvement of the quality of life for both children and their parents