ABSTRACT
El objetivo central de este estudio fue determinar experimentalmente las diferencias en los patrones de respuesta hormonal e inmunológica, como también en los estados emocionales de los participantes, al ser confrontados con situaciones de exigencia en condiciones de evidente control y de no-control. Uno de los grupos recibió feedback positivo durante la realización de la tarea (control) y el segundo grupo recibió feedback negativo en iguales condiciones (no control). Al confrontar las condiciones experimentales control y sin control, únicamente los datos en las variables psicológicas mostraron diferencias significativas. Sin embargo, la experiencia de control correlacionó negativamente con varios de los parámetros inmunológicos con tendencia a aumentar bajo condiciones de exigencia y positivamente con aquellos que mostraron disminución bajo las mismas condiciones. Estos datos nos indican que en la medida en que disminuyó la percepción de control en la tarea, hubo incrementos y decrementos de mayor magnitud en algunas de las variables inmunológicas
Subject(s)
Stress, PhysiologicalABSTRACT
PIP: Villagers have operated a primary health care program in western Mexico called Project Piaxtla for almost 30 years. The project often selects disabled persons to be village health workers, sine they are not in involved in hard physical farm work and thus are most available. They have excelled as village health workers and eventually started the Programme of Rehabilitation Organized by Disabled Youth of Western Mexico (PROJIMO) to address the needs of disabled children. The disables workers are more sensitive to the needs of disabled children than others are. They involve the children in meeting their own needs. The disabled adult leaders and artisans in a community program provide role models for the disabled children and their families. In fact, the program lets parents see that they do not need to overprotect their disables children or to do everything for them. PROJIMO has built a rehabilitation playground where disabled and nondisabled youth play together. All the equipment is made from local materials. Disabled and nondisabled children make toys and sometimes rehabilitation aids (e.g., a walker) in a small workshop. PROJIMO uses various child-to-child activities to promote understanding between disabled and nondisabled children. For example, the fastest runner in the class ties a pole around his/her leg. All the children run the race or play a tag. Later, all the children talk to the pseudo-disabled child to learn what she/he experienced. Disabled technicians at PROJIMO fabricate modem resin-and-fiberglass prosthetics for amputees. They also make orthopedic braces (modem thermoplastics). PROJIMO works not just with children with congenital disabilities but also those who suffer from accident- and violence-related disabilities.^ieng
Subject(s)
Community Health Services , Disabled Persons , Rehabilitation , Rural Health , Social Support , Accidents , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Infant , Interpersonal Relations , Mexico , Orthotic Devices , Prostheses and Implants , ViolenceABSTRACT
PIP: Few children now frequent the facilities of PROJIMO, initiated as a rehabilitation program for disabled rural children in Mexico, ever since the organization begun accepting physically disabled and socially troubled young adults. PROJIMO (the Program of Rehabilitation Organized by Disabled Youth of Western Mexico) began in 1981 as a community-based rehabilitation program run by disabled villagers. In its first years of operation, the program served primarily children suffering from disabilities caused by polio or cerebral palsy. PROJIMO quickly gained international recognition and became an inspirational model for similar programs throughout the Third World. But in 1983, PROJIMO took a decision that would transform the character of the organization. That year, after much debate, members agreed to take in Julio, a 15-year-old quadriplegic whose spinal cord injury was the result of an accidental shooting. In taking care of Julio, the team of disabled villagers had to learn an entirely new set of skills: treatment and prevention of pressure sores, the use of catheters, bowel programs, exercise activities, etc. They also had to develop ways of treating Julio's depression, giving him a sense of self-worth. Julio was followed by an influx of other young adults with spinal cord injuries. Many of these young adults came from troubled and violent backgrounds, such as Juan, an orphan who had made his way out of poverty by trafficking drugs. Juan was left paralyzed in a shootout with enemies. The new patrons have scared away PROJIMO's original audience. Parents fear bringing their disabled children to a center frequented by people raised in a culture of violence. The solution appears to be splitting PROJIMO into 2 organizations: one for disabled children and one for socially troubled adults.^ieng
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Child , Community Health Services , Crime , Disabled Persons , Health Services Needs and Demand , Rural Population , Age Factors , Americas , Delivery of Health Care , Demography , Developing Countries , Health , Health Planning , Health Services , Latin America , Mexico , North America , Organization and Administration , Population , Population Characteristics , Primary Health Care , Social ProblemsABSTRACT
PIP: Demographic data from 3 different historical periods of the Mekranoti-Kayapo Indians of Central Brazil were used to examine various explanations for historical changes in fertility among this group. The possible effects of warfare on Mekranoti fertility were also examined since warfare has had an important role in many preindustrial societies. The Mekranoti are a group of 285 relatively unacculturated Indians living in a single village in southern Para, Brazil. As in precontact days, their economy is based on slash and burn agriculture, hunting, and fishing. To assess Mekranoti fertility, pregnancy histories collected from all women 15 years or older as of December 1976 were used. In precontact years a woman who survived to age 50 could expect to give birth 6.5 times. During the contact years this average dropped to 5.6 and in the postcontact period it soared to almost 8.5. The drop in Mekranoti fertility from precontact to contact years corresponds with an increase in mortality. The direction of these changes would support a "health" argument about fertility, but the degrees of change do not. Whereas mortality increased markedly after 1955, fertility fell only slightly. The data are not consistent with the view that changes in lactation periods are responsible for fertility changes. The number of uses of contraceptives per reproductive woman year did not not vary much in the different historical periods and certainly could not account for differences in Mekranoti fertility. The data suggest that fertility changes over Mekranoti history may be due in part to sexual abstinence resulting either from postpartum sexual taboos or, more importantly, from a lack of husbands. Sex imbalances resulting from high male mortality in warfare and subsequent disruption of marriages by disease and death left many women without spouses for long periods of time. The findings are consistent with other studies that found lower fertility associated with male absence. The Mekranoti are unusual in having monogamy together with high male mortality from warfare.^ieng
Subject(s)
Contraception , Demography , Ethnicity , Family Characteristics , Family Planning Services , Fertility , Health , Indians, South American , Lactation , Nutritional Physiological Phenomena , Politics , Population Characteristics , Rural Population , Sexual Abstinence , Warfare , Abortion, Induced , Americas , Biology , Brazil , Breast Feeding , Contraception Behavior , Culture , Developing Countries , Infant Mortality , Infanticide , Latin America , Maternal Welfare , Mortality , Physiology , Population , Population Control , Population Dynamics , Pregnancy , Reproductive History , Research , Social Sciences , South AmericaSubject(s)
Child Health Services/organization & administration , Child , Humans , Mexico , Social WorkABSTRACT
Specific nitrogenase activity in Azospirillum brasilense ATCC 29145 in surface cultures under air is enhanced from about 50 nmol C2H4 X mg protein -1 X h-1 to 400 nmol C2H4 by the addition of 1 mM phenol. 0.5 and 2 mM phenol added increase the rate 5-fold and 4-fold. This enhancement effect is observed only between 2 and 3 days after inoculation, with only a small reduction of the growth of the cells by the phenol added. In surface cultures under 1% O2, nitrogenase activity is slightly reduced by the addition of 1-0.01 mM phenol. Utilization of succinate is enhanced during the period of maximum enhancement of nitrogenase activity by 60% by addition of 1 mM phenol. The cells did not produce 14CO2 from [U-14C] phenol, neither in surface cultures nor in liquid cultures and less than 0.1% of the phenol was incorporated into the cells. A smaller but significant enhancement of nitrogenase activity by about 100% in surface cultures under air was found with Klebsiella pneumoniae K 11 after addition of 1 mM phenol. However, in Rhizobium japonicum 61-A-101 all phenol concentrations above 0.01 mM reduced nitrogenase activity. With 1 mM phenol added activity was reduced to less than 10% with no effect on the growth in the same cultivation system. With this Rhizobium japonicum strain significant quantities of phenol (25 mumol in 24 h by 2 X 10(12) cells) were metabolized to 14CO2, with phenol as sole carbon source. With Azospirillum brasilense in liquid culture under 1% and 2% O2 in the gas phase, no enhancement of nitrogenase activity by phenol was noticed.
Subject(s)
Bacteria/enzymology , Klebsiella pneumoniae/enzymology , Nitrogenase/analysis , Phenols/pharmacology , Rhizobium/enzymology , Bacteria/drug effects , Klebsiella pneumoniae/drug effects , Phenol , Phenols/metabolism , Rhizobium/drug effectsABSTRACT
Simple exposure to Western goods may not be a sufficient explanation of why isolated village communities increase their participation in external market economies. The degree of market participation by four native villages in central Brazil is related to the difficulty of making a living from slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture as measured by the ratio of labor input to food output.