O universo rural nas representações sociais de estudantes de ciências agrárias em duas diferentes regiões geográficas / The rural universe in the social representations of students from agricultural sciences in two different geographical regions

Há um debate no âmbito da questão rural sobre como se estruturam as identidades de atores sociais envolvidos com a atividade agrícola. Este estudo teve como objetivo identificar e comparar as representações sociais que 400 alunos de cursos da área de ciências agrárias de duas Universidades Federais possuem sobre as identidades de camponeses e agricultores. Foiutilizada uma tarefa de evocação livre com os termos indutores “agricultor” e “camponês” para obtenção dos dados. Os resultados apontaram que os camponeses são representados pelosestudantes como atores arcaicos, deslocados historicamente e excluídos das formas de produção econômica vigentes no campo, enquanto que os agricultores são representados como modernos produtores de riquezas e de desenvolvimento do campo.

There is a debate on rural issues about how to structure the identities of social actors involved with farming. This study aimed to identify and compare social representations of 400 students attending courses in the area of agricultural sciences in two Brazilian Federal Universities. The study explored the social representations on the identities of peasants and farmers. The data was obtained through the task of free evocation of words technique and the inducing terms were “agriculturist” and “peasant”. The results point to the fact that peasants are represented by students as archaic actors, historically displaced and excluded from existingeconomic forms of production, while agriculturists are portrayed as modern producers of wealth and rural development.

A rare case of community acquired Burkholderia cepacia infection presenting as pyopneumothorax in an immunocompetent individual

Burkholderia cepacia (B. cepacia) infection is rarely reported in an immunocompetent host. It is a well known occurence in patients with cystic fibrosis and chronic granulomatous disease where it increases both morbidity and mortality. It has also been included in the list of organisms causing nosocomial infections in an immunocompetent host, most of them transmitted from the immunocompromised patient in which this organism harbors. We report a rare case of isolation of B. cepacia from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of an immunocompetent agriculturist who presented with productive cough and fever associated with a pyopneumothorax. This is the first case of community acquired infection reported in an immunocompetent person in India.

Victimologic study of snakebite envenomation.

Snakebite is of grave concern in most parts of India. Being a tropical country with an extensive coastline, India is home to a variety of snakes both poisonous and non-poisonous. This is a retrospective research study conducted at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, which is a tertiary care teaching hospital situated in Coastal Karnataka, South India. During a three-year period starting from 1st January 2001 to 31st December 2003, one hundred and twenty six cases of snakebites that were admitted at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal were studied. The commonest age group affected was 21-30 years with a male preponderance (66.7%). The victims were agriculturists in 54 cases. Most of the bites occurred during summer. Bites occurred when the victim was outdoors in 72.2% of the cases. Lower limb was commonly involved. Double fang mark was seen in 47.6% of the cases. Non-poisonous snakebite was seen in 38.1% of the cases. One hundred and twenty patients survived, and 6 persons died, representing a mortality of 4.8%.