Migration and Ethnobotanical Practices: The Case of Tifey Among Haitian Immigrants in Cuba

Ethnobotanical knowledge and practices are dynamic and they change as they are transferred and appropriated by people who are adapting to new surroundings and changing environments. Using tifey, a multispecies drink, as a case study, we discuss the changes that emigration brought about related to tifey, and the processes that determined these changes. Tifey is a Haitian drink prepared by soaking Artemisia absinthium and other plants in rum or aguardiente. It probably had its origin in the adoption of the absinthe-based liquor used by French settlers and troops during the colonial period. Haitians progressively added culturally relevant flavorings and medicinal plants to this drink, and differentiated its production and use for medicinal, medicinal food, ritual ( religious and social), and economic purposes. When Haitians migrated to Cuba, they brought tifey with them, but over the course of the twentieth century its use declined and its composition changed due to sociocultural factors such as the dissolution of Haitian settlements, and to ecological factors such as difficulty in cultivation and/or procurement of A. absinthium in the new environment

A moderate 500-m treadmill walk for estimating peak oxygen uptake in men with NYHA class I-II heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction

Background: Maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) is the gold-standard for cardiorespiratory fitness assessment in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients. However, high costs, required medical supervision, and safety concerns make maximal exercise testing impractical for evaluating mobility-impaired adults. Thus, several submaximal walking protocols have been developed and currently used to estimate peak oxygen consumption (VO(2)peak)in CHF patients. However, these tests have to be performed at close to maximum exercise intensity. The aim of this study was to examine the validity of a 500-m treadmill-walking test carried out at moderate intensity for estimating VO(2)peak in community-dwelling adult and elderly patients with CHF and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFrEF).Methods: Forty-three clinically stable men with HFrEF (age 67.7 +/- 9.2 years, and left ventricular ejection fraction, LVEF 38% +/- 6%) underwent exercise testing during an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation/secondary prevention program. Each patients completed a CPX, and a moderate and self-paced (11-13/20 on the Borg scale) 500-m treadmill-walking test. Age, weight, height, walk time, and heart rate during the 500-m test were entered into prediction equations previously validated for VO(2)peak estimation from a 1000-m walking test in patients with cardiovascular disease and preserved LVEF.Results: Directly measured and estimated VO(2)peak values were not different (21.6 +/- 4.9 vs 21.7 +/- 4.6 mL/kg/min). The comparison between measured and estimated VO(2)peak values yielded a correlation of R = 0.97 (SEE = 0.7 mL/kg/min, P < 0.0001). The slope and the intercept coincided with the line of identity (Passing and Bablock analysis, P = 0.50). Residuals were normally distributed, and the examination of the Bland-Altman analysis do not show systematic or proportional error.Conclusions: A moderate and self-regulated 500-m treadmill-walking test is a valid tool for VO(2)peak estimation in patients with HFrEF. These findings may have practical implications in the context of transitioning from clinically based programs to fitness facilities or self-guided exercise programs in adults and elderly men with HFrEF

Exile, camps, and camels: recovery and adaptation of subsistence practices and ethnobiological knowledge among Sahrawi refugees

The study of how people adapt to social and environmental change is central to current theoretical understandings of human-nature relationships. There are recurrent cases in human history in which entire populations have been uprooted from the environments in which they live, where it becomes exceedingly difficult for them to maintain their ways of life including their modes of subsistence, social and ecological relations, knowledge, and culture. The ways in which such people exercise their collective and individual agency to recover and adapt their relations with nature and with each other must be addressed as the planet rapidly changes, given current prognoses about the emergence of environmental refugee populations on a massive scale. Refugees who have been forced to live in camps for long periods present important case studies of human agency and adaptation under such conditions. Refugee camps are places where people must engage with whatever limited resources are available, and where people confront major complex problems when attempting to establish new relations with their camp environments and maintain or revive relations with their homelands. If they succeed, refugees can partly free themselves from dependence on food aid and take their lives back into their own hands. The general objective of the study was to advance the understanding of humannature relationships in contexts of forced displacement and encampment by investigating the ways people living in refugee camps struggle to recover preexile subsistence practices and associated knowledge, while in the process adapting to new environmental conditions and social relations arising from their experience as refugees. It also sought to provide a preliminary theoretical framework for studying the human ecology and ethnobiology of refugees living in camps. Fieldwork was conducted among Sahrawi refugees in western Algeria, and involved collecting data on Sahrawi refugees’ agency toward the recovery and adaptation of traditional subsistence and other related material and cultural practices, as well as to understand associated changes in their ecological and social relations, and culture. Five case studies were selected: a general study of camel husbandry, culture and livelihoods, an ethnobiological study of traditional medicinal remedies and cosmetics, an ethnomedicinal study of the conceptualization of illness and change in related health beliefs, an ethnobotanical and cultural domain study of camel forage plants, and an ethnomycological and commodity study of desert truffles

The Gravity Dual of the Ising Model

We evaluate the partition function of three dimensional theories of gravity in the quantum regime, where the AdS radius is Planck scale and the central charge is of order one. The contribution from the AdS vacuum sector can - with certain assumptions - be computed and equals the vacuum character of a minimal model CFT. The torus partition function is given by a sum over geometries which is finite and computable. For generic values of Newton's constant G and the AdS radius L the result has no Hilbert space interpretation, but in certain cases it agrees with the partition function of a known CFT. For example, the partition function of pure Einstein gravity with G=3L equals that of the Ising model, providing evidence that these theories are dual. We also present somewhat weaker evidence that the 3-state and tricritical Potts models are dual to pure higher spin theories of gravity based on SL(3) and E_6, respectively.Comment: 42 page

Banco de dados geográfico sobre a cafeicultura mineira: organização lógica e inserção de dados.

Os sistemas de informações geográficas (SIG) foram desenvolvidos com o objetivo de facilitar o tratamento de um volume cada vez maior e mais preciso de informações sobre a superfície terrestre e suas questões ambientais. Na utilização para a cafeicultura o SIG integra softwares para tratamento e armazenamento de dados segundo um modelo conceitual predefinido. A partir da definição deste modelo iniciou-se o armazenamento dos dados, em um Sistema de Gerenciamento de Banco de Dados (SGBD). A ferramenta escolhida para o gerenciamento dos dados foi o PostgreSQL pois este é um SGBD objeto-relacional e de código aberto, mantido em constantes atualizações gratuitas pela Comunidade Brasileira do PostgreSQL 1. Devido ao grande número de atualizações, o PostgreSQL é extensível, sendo utilizado para dar suporte à diversos tipos de aplicações desde dados simples à aplicações mais complexas, bem como seus metadados. Para a integração e o armazenamento dos dados foi utilizado o sistema de informação geográfico SPRING 2. O SPRING é um software gratuito para criação e gerenciamento de banco de dados geográficos, possuí funções para processamento de imagens, análises espaciais, modelagem numérica de terreno e consulta a banco de dados espaciais. No acesso aos dados geográficos foi utilizado um tipo de arquitetura conhecida como ?Arquitetura Dual?. A principal vantagem desta arquitetura consiste na separação das funcionalidades na qual o gerenciamento dos metadados é feita pelo SGBD, pois os mecanismos de transação, recuperação a falhas, concorrência, integridade dos dados e indexação podem ser usados para a parte não espacial dos dados, enquanto que a responsabilidade do gerenciamento dos dados geográficos é realizada pelo SPRING. Portanto, o objetivo principal deste trabalho foi inserir e organizar dados geográfico sobre pesquisas realizadas pela EPAMIG relacionadas á cafeicultura mineira

Tako-Tsubo cardiomyopathy in an older woman with hyperkinetic delirium

Tako-Tsubo syndrome is cardiological condition, mainly affecting post-menopausal women, that mimics an acute heart attack, because a similar clinical presentation, ECG changes and altered laboratory tests. There is general consensus that the common etiology is a sudden and strong emotional or physical stress. We report here the case of 80-yearold woman who developed a Tako-Tsubo syndrome during an episode of hyperkinetic delirium. Delirium is an acute, transient, usually reversible neuropsychiatric syndrome, considered a serious and stressful condition in older patients admitted to both medical and surgical setting. This clinical case expands our knowledge on the negative consequence of delirium in hospitalized patients and describes an additional risk factor for Tako-Tsubo syndrome in older people

Geotecnologias para avaliação e análise da dinâmica espaço temporal do parque cafeeiro da região de Três Pontas - MG.

A região de Três Pontas é uma das regiões cafeeiras mais importantes do Brasil e do mundo. O município é considerado o maior produtor mundial de café. Por esse motivo, conhecer a extensão e a localização desse parque cafeeiro torna-se de extrema importância. O objetivo desse trabalho foi analisar a evolução deste parque cafeeiro no tempo e no espaço, por meio de geotecnologias. No trabalho foram utilizadas imagens TM/Landsat do ano de 2000 e do ano de 2010. Foram confeccionados os mapas de uso da terra para o ano de 2000 e para o ano de 2010. Por meio de ferramentas de análise espacial do sistema de informação geográfica SPRING, conclui-se que, durante esse período, o parque cresceu 7%. As áreas de café em produção aumentaram 11%, o que provavelmente elevou a produtividade da região. Não foram encontrados padrões de mudança no crescimento do parque