Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article highlights links between Brazilian character Zé do Caixão and the Gothic tradition by means of cultural appropriations used by director José Mojica Marins as a method of associating the character with renowned horror icons. The use of such a set of representations which are associated with Gothic (costumes, camera angles, lighting, props, mise-en-scène) constitutes a system of symbolic meanings in which self-presentation becomes an essential ingredient to produce the effect of horror. At the same time, the presence of such elements address a political dimension in the form of an allegory of historical situations that could not be openly talked about or that could be explained more effectively if transported into a fantasy world. Mojica takes advantage of the fact that violence, torture and the representation of tyrannical forces in general are constitutive of the horror genre to give an aesthetic response to the society of his time in the form of a historical representation of the violent context of the Brazilian military dictatorship. This acclimatization of foreign elements inserted in the socio-cultural context of national productions constitutes what is called here “Brazilian Gothic”.

This paper analyzes the works of two authors of the XVII century which locate the Earthly Paradise in the American continent: El Paraíso en el Nuevo Mundo by the Spanish lawyer and bibliophile Antonio de León Pinelo and Das noticias antecedentes, curiosas e necessarias das cousas do Brasil by the Portuguese Jesuit priest Simão de Vasconcellos. The analysis is a review of the arguments which both authors develop for the purposes of locatingthe Garden of Eden in the Amazon. Based on the citation of eminent authorities and the edenization of the territory, both show an enunciation perspective positioned in America, from which they argue an identitary vision of the peripheral thought.

General studies about Latin American critical discourse of the second half of the 20th Century place the Uruguayan Ángel Rama in a central position of its construction and organization. Despite several approaches outlined about his work, his profile is recurrently conceived by closed ideas which associate him to sociology of culture, political commitment or Latin Americanist activity. The analysis of his firsts articles, published between 1948 and 1955 in journals as Clinamen, Marcha, Asir, Entregas de La Licorne, indicates how his critical praxis is initially intersected with distinctive elements of the Uruguayan intellectual field of the middle of the century and how the young Rama begins his literary exploration through orientations, theories and methodologies which are notoriously divergent from his classic essays of the followings decades.

The aim of this work is to determine the role that social support, coping, optimism, quality of life, resilience and life satisfaction have on the relationship between objective and subjective burden on family caregivers of Alzheimer patients. Method: Participants: 140 caregivers of Alzheimer patients. Instruments: Sociodemographic Data; CBI Caregiver Burden Scale; COPE Coping Styles Scale; DUKE.UNC Social Support Scale; LOT-R, Life Orientation TestRevised; QOLLTI-F, Quality of Life in Life Threatening Illness Scale–Family Carers Version; CD-RISC, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale; SWLS, Satisfaction with Life Scale. Procedure: Implementation of scales in an individual, voluntary, anonymous way, including informed consent. Results: All variables studied produced significant differences between caregivers with high and low subjective burden, except time caring measured in months/years. Relationships between the variables were significant, with the exception of months/years caring and coping styles. Social support, optimism, satisfaction and quality of life have an important mediating role between objective and subjective burden. Conclusions and discussion: Social support, optimism, satisfaction and quality of life have been decisive as mediating variables between hours a day taking care (objective burden) and subjective burden. This result represents a step forward in the analysis and subsequent creation of intervention programs in family caregivers.

At the stage of old age it is important the study of emotions and how these affect to adaptation and quality of life of older people. Some authors show up the importance of emotional intelligence and quality of life. Alexithymia refers to the difficulty to understand and identify feelings and those of others and externally oriented thinking. The aim is study the relationship between emotional intelligence, quality of life and alexithymia in a group of elderly. The participants were 25 elderly in an institutionalized center of Murcia; there were 12 men. The questionnaires were used: The brief inventory of emotional intelligence for major (EQ-I-M20), the questionnaire of qualit evaluation of life in residential context (CECAVIR) and The brief scale of alexitimia of Toronto (TAS-20). It found significant positive correlations between: the difficulty to identify feelings and the social and familiar relations; the difficulty to identify feelings and satisfaction with the life; the difficulty to describe feelings and the social and familiar relations as well as a significant negative correlation between difficulty to describe feelings and adaptability. The results will allow to advance in the implantation of activities that promote the emotional development of the elderly institutionalized persons in favor of his quality of life.

This study describes the sanitary intervention provided by the four professional health parties of the “Fundacion SAMU and SEMECA” sent to Bantayan Island (Philippines) after the Haiyan typhoon in 2013. This is an observational, descriptive, transversal and retrospective study to describe the profile of the 4546 attended cases performed from the 18 th of November of 2013 to the 15 th of February of 2014. The data analysis from medical records was done using SPSS 22.0. The results indicated that females were the most attended section of population (58%), and children under the age of five were the 25% of the cases. The breathing conditions were the vast majority (33%) by poor salubrity and overcrowding, followed by a wide range of pathologies (22.2%), traumatic pathologies (13%) due to cleaning and rebuilding, non- traumatic pain (10.6%) and gastrointestinal diseases (6.1%) due to poor water quality and poor hand hygiene. The most used treatment was pharmacological (55%) followed by cures (20%) and vitamins (11%). After these types of treatments, people were discharged in the 90.7% of the cases and followed-up in the 8.4% of the cases. This study can help to improve logistics planning for future health interventions in similar disasters.

The social psychology has provided multiple evidences of how certain forms of comparison with other people can improve the welfare and increases the successful coping with different problems and life changes. However, most of these studies have focused on young people and in middle age. The objective of present work is to analyze the social comparison strategies used by aged people living in retirement homes and the related welfare. To do this we have worked with a sample of 30 elderly adults living in retirement homes. The strategies of social comparison and the subjective well-being were measured.  Results. The residents used fewer social comparison strategies than non-residents. In addition, residents used less the downward comparisons. On the other hand, our results confirm that the use of adaptive social comparisons relates to high levels of well-being.  Conclusions. The social comparisons can improve the welfare during elderly. On the other hand, the downward comparisons acquire a special significance in the residential environments. Discussion. We interpret the positive relations between the use social comparisons and health during elderly from the model of Contrast-Identification.  Additionally, we discuss the adaptive value of the under-use of the downward comparisons and its implications in the aging process.

The aim of this work is to know the mediating role of such variables as social support and cope as other associated with Positive Psychology in family caregivers of Alzheimer patients. Method: Participants: 140 caregivers of Alzheimer patients. Instruments: Sociodemographic data; CBI Caregiver Burden Scale; COPE Coping Styles Scale; DUKE.UNC Social Support Scale; QOLLTI-F, Quality of Life in Life Threatening Illness Scale–Family Carers Version; SHS, Subjective Happiness Scale; SWLS, Satisfaction with Life Scale. Results: The most relevant results refer to the partial mediating role of happiness, quality of life and life satisfaction variables between subjective burden and perceived physical health. Conclusions and discussion: Positive Psychology variables such as happiness, quality of life and life satisfaction have shown a mediating role between the perception that Alzheimer's caregivers have of care burden and physical health. We believe that this finding is an important step in the future development and implementation of intervention programs for caregivers that promote variables with positive connotation, because they would change the perception of their own burden and physical health, making them happier and with greater satisfaction and quality of life.

The concept of successful aging has led to a wide literature aimed at defining the term, its associated characteristics and predictors, and the programs that promote or maintain this type of aging. The objective of the present study has been to undertake a comparative analysis between two groups of elderly people classified as successful versus unsuccessful aging according to their score in a cognitive screening test. A total of 324 elderly people with a mean age of 78.22 years assessed with a large battery of psychological evaluation and a semi-structured interview on socio-economic variables participated in the study. The results show significant differences in variables related to socioeconomic aspects, cognitive functioning and level of independence and quality of life among groups in favor of people with successful aging. The data show that aging is not synonymous with deterioration and decline and that even in the elderly population we can find high levels of cognitive and physical functioning.

There are many risk factors for the development of candidemia common to the majority of patients in intensive care units. Candida is currently considered to be the fourth most common source of nosocomial blood stream infections (BSI) in these units, causing significant morbidity and mortality in critical patients. This prospective work presents the results of a study on the epidemiology of Candida infection, as well as contributing risk factors. A simple random sample of 75 patients in the ICU of a general hospital in the Andalusian region were monitored from January to July 2015. Exclusion criteria were: short-term hospitalisation and minimally invasive procedures. Data was collected during direct patient care, monitoring patient evolution and blood culture collection every 2-3 days, or on signs of possible colonisation. The results showed a 21.3% prevalence of candidemia, with 66,7% due to C. albicans pathogen. Among risk factors for development were 96% nosocomial BSI and 88% antibiotic use. Epidemiological information and knowledge of risk factors can reduce the incidence, along with hygiene measures, optimisation of care, early diagnosis and specific antifungal treatment.