Relação entre situação social e crescimento físico, numa população infantil de Santo André, SP, Brasil Relationship between social situation and physical growth in children from Santo Andre, State of S. Paulo, Brazil

Baseado em dados sócio-antropológicos e em medidas antropométricas coletados no Município de Santo André, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, foi analisada a população infantil de ambos os sexos e de treze idades diferentes (0, 3, 6 e 9 meses, 1 ano, 1 ano e meio, 2 a 8 anos). Foram utilizadas 3 variáveis independentes ISSE - índice de situação sócio-econômica da família (baseado nas inter-relações da média de gasto familiar mensal "per capita" e a instrução e ocupação do chefe da casa); CATANCES - construída a partir da informação sobre a nacionalidade dos ascendentes das crianças até 3ª geração; e Tamanho do Grupo Residencial. Como variáveis dependentes, utilizou-se a estatura, o peso e o Índice de Kaup. Considerando a relação positiva entre melhores condições de vida e desenvolvimento físico, constatou-se (através do teste de ordenação de médias de Duncan) que, embora as médias das medidas diferissem segundo as variáveis independentes, isso não acontecia igualmente nas mesmas idades e nos dois sexos. Observou-se pelos resultados das análises de variância, na maioria das vezes significantes, que as variáveis selecionadas explicavam muito pouco da variação das medidas nas várias idades e sexos. Conclui-se que a amostra estudada, segundo as variáveis independentes deste estudo, difere entre idades em ambos os sexos. Isto levanta uma série de questões sobre quais as variáveis mais adequadas a estudos desse gênero. Sugere-se, consideradas as duas categorias de variável CATANCES, a utilização de duas "tabela padrão" para peso e altura, segundo regiões brasileiras. Quanto ao índice de Kaup, evidenciou-se a necessidade de ser encontrada uma função matemática específica para cada idade, uma vez que, ao menos em relação a crianças em crescimento, o índice não media aquilo a que se propunha.<br>This article was based on some of the data collected in the county of Santo André, State of Sew Paulo, Brazil. Three measurements were used as dependent variables: height, weight and Kaup index (by age and sex), related to three independent variables as follows: ISSE - Index of socio-economic conditions, built considering the joint distribution of occupation and education of the father and the amount of the family expenses per capita, per month; CATANCES - meaning categories of ancestors: ("all brazilians" and "at least one foreigner"); and G.R. - size of household. Our objectives were to analyse the relationship between the socio-anthropological variables and the measurements selected, and at the same time to have a better knowledge of the variability of the population studied. We dealt with 13 ages, from zero months to eight years. As expected, many combinations of the independent variables showed differences in the measurements. An interrelationship among the independent variables was also found. There was not sufficient information (if this is possible anyway) to state that the differences in the means of height and weight were due to environmental conditions, since they could be due, e.g., to the tendency of more endogamous marriages between the migrants. It was also observed that the Kaup Index did not measure what it was supposed to, at least in growing children because of the range of relative variation of the weight in relation to the relative variation of the height. We tried to fit a curve based on the data so that the Index could have a meaning for each age. The means were tested by Duncan multiple range tests, and least squares technique of analysis of variance

Alfred Russel Wallace: Self-educated genius and polymath

Alfred Russel Wallace was a Colossus: courageous, heroic, radical, modest, and above all, a man of insatiable curiosity. One hundred years on one can propose that his prescience anticipated many modern scientific developments and that despite relative neglect his far-ranging insight continues to inspire even now. His earliest memories take us to Usk in South Wales, where he was born in 1823, and many experiences there are fondly recounted as formative influences. Adolescent interest in natural history during apprenticeship to his elder brother, a land-surveyor at the dawn of the railway era in Mid Wales and the Neath valley, blossomed into a lifelong fascination with the living world. The depth and reach of his thinking on the diversity and distribution of species outpaced his contemporaries, and he became the undisputed father of biogeography. Interaction with the ‘poor farmers’ of South Wales and exposure to their humble conditions inculcated a concern for the deprivation of the underclasses, and were influential in the shaping of his societal concerns and later activism. After proposing the basic principles of speciation and of selection and arriving at a novel and original concept of evolutionary mechanisms, Wallace daringly pursued several non-scientific interests: phrenology, mesmerism, spiritualism, and the great question of whether we are alone in the cosmos. Honoured late in a long life, Wallace became regarded as one of the greatest scientists in the world, despite his enthusiasms for supernatural phenomena. Eclipsed after his passing in 1913, a gradual realisation of the depth of his mainstream science as well as premature dismissal of some of his more arcane insights continues beyond his centenary year