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Purpose: This paper aim to propose a methodological mapping approach for the evaluation of dissertations and theses of graduate programs in the area of environmental sciences in Brazil in relation to the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach: The research is characterized as exploratory with qualitative/quantitative approach. The proposed model was developed as a computational algorithm with a pilot being adopted as a professional master in national network for teaching in environmental sciences (ProfCiAmb) comprising associated courses from nine Brazilian public universities. 230 dissertations completed between 2018 and 2020 were analyzed. Findings: A total of 266 correlations were identified between the texts and descriptors of each SDG. Correlation values between 0.100 (minimum value – Vmin) and 0.464 (maximum value – Vmax) were observed. SDG 4 – Quality Education (Vmax = 0.399) and SDG 6 – Drinking Water and Sanitation (Vmax = 0.464) were those with the highest correlation values, followed by SDG 3 – Health and Well-Being (Vmax = 0.299) and SDG 17 – Partnerships and Means of Implementation (Vmax = 0.249). Practical implications: The construction of the computational algorithm provided consistent quantitative analyses with potential to contribute to the improvement of the multidimensional evaluation of graduate studies, as well as to support public policies related to teaching and research and strategic planning of the programs. Originality/value: The relevance of this study lies in the creation of a model that involves the creation of metrics and tools regarding the impact of graduate studies on society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midst of changes related to Industry 4.0, the preparation of engineers is essential. Thus, this paper aims to point out the effectiveness of evaluation instruments of Brazilian universities or courses to portray the adequacy of production engineers' training to the needs of production methods for Industry 4.0. This paper analyzes two systems: the ENADE, an official evaluation of higher education, and the RUF, a university ranking applied by a large Brazilian newspaper. ENADE intends to evaluate the absorption of specific program content in accordance with national guidelines, in addition to the assessment of general knowledge related to contemporary issues of social and economic impact; it is mandatory and applied throughout the National territory. The RUF is an annual assessment of Brazilian higher education and is subdivided by institutions and courses. As a result, it was identified that the joint application of these two systems promotes a reading of the adequacy of the courses to industry 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, employing the multicriteria method of decision support MACBETH, proposes a model for the evaluation of interdisciplinary graduate programs, based on indicators already used in the current model of evaluation of Brazilian graduate studies by Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). In the present work, ten Computational Modeling Programs were considered, and six criteria were selected to verify the performance of these programs. There is presently in Brazil a steady growth of requests for accreditation of interdisciplinary programs and a quest to evaluate them differently, given their peculiarities. The main contribution of this study is to propose an alternative methodology for the evaluation of graduate programs, respecting the characteristics of the area of knowledge in which it is inserted, which is able to rank them based on qualitative judgments and to verify how much each course can progress, according to the score established for each program in a set of criteria considered. A comparison was made with the results of the evaluation methodology used by CAPES in the year 2017, being possible to verify some similarities in the evaluations of the graduate programs by the two methods. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to review the research literature on aquatic exercise for health promotion using bibliometric methods and CiteSpace software. The number of studies related to this topic are constantly expanding, with the USA, Brazil, and Australia the centers of this research. Most published papers fall within Sports Science, but the disciplines of Physiology, Psychology, and Rehabilitation were also found to be dominant domains for this literature. The seven most prolific authors were from Brazil or Spain. The most frequently cited references focused on sub-topics of physiology, biochemistry, physical fitness, psychological health, cardiovascular disease, and joint disease. New research trends have shifted to the promotion of cardiovascular health in clinical populations (stroke, overweight, hypertension, endothelium dysfunctional, obese, inflammation, antioxidant, heart failure). Overall, this review found that research hot spots and trends in this realm have focused on improving cardiovascular health with aquatic exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on recent performance measurement and impact evaluation progress made in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Moldova, Turkey and Vietnam as part of the last phase of the Global Libraries Initiative. Design/methodology/approach: The country reports are presented as a series of case studies, in some cases supplementing those reported earlier in this journal. Findings: Recent country-specific survey findings are reported and some conclusions are offered. Research limitations/implications: This paper demonstrates how the adoption of a common approach to library service evaluation across several countries can strengthen research practice at country level beyond the Global Libraries Initiative itself. Practical implications: This paper shares Global Libraries IPA learning at country level with people in other countries who may be contemplating public library evaluation at regional, national or local levels or who are interested in performance measurement and impact evaluation. Social implications: The paper shows how focusing on the impact of public library services on users can enhance the understanding of community requirements and inform the development of more effective services to library users and communities. Originality/value: These case studies reflect concentrated impact evaluation and performance measurement work at country level across a range of countries over more than 18 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2003 and 2016, the Brazilian federal government implemented the National Program for the Sustainable Development of Rural Territories (PRONAT), whose governance took place in joint participatory colleges formed by social actors, their organizations and government representatives. Social management constituted the guiding framework of the program and the social management cycle sought to organize the processes of participation, coordination, management and social control of public policies by territorial actors. The Ministry of Agrarian Development began to design its monitoring and evaluation system in 2007. For this purpose, it mobilized teams of researchers from several public universities in the country. The evaluation of social management and its concrete indicators in two cycles of monitoring and evaluation, configuring itself as a decentralized process through an index composed of the several relevant indicators theoretically and methodologically, embedded in the Social Management Index (IGS). This paper aims to: (i) discuss the theoretical references that guided the construction of the IGS, ii) present the trajectory of the evaluation methodology and the associated monitoring and evaluation systems and iii) characterize the dimensions of the index. Lessons are given about construction process that favoured tinkering, learning and hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper had the general objective of exposing and analyzing the context of the general averages of the National High School Examination (ENEM) by area of knowledge, through data collected from the website of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP), over 10 years (2009-2018). It presents a brief analysis of the trajectory of secondary education in Brazil, as well as the idealization, implementation and reformulation of ENEM and the way in which the evaluation of this exam occurs. We started from the quantitative approach using descriptive statistics as a method of analysis of the collected data and carried out an exploratory research about the survey of the following areas of knowledge, namely: Languages and Codes and their Technologies, Mathematics and their Technologies, Human Sciences and their Technologies and Natural Sciences and its Technologies. For the collection, we performed a critical analysis of the data, using the technological tool Microsoft Excel 2013, employing some descriptive measures through the arithmetic mean, variance and standard deviation. The data reveal a discreet movement in relation to the average grades in all areas of knowledge, with a noticeable gap in the four areas of knowledge between the minimum, average and maximum grades, which allows us to conclude that there is a data alignment, ie, little progress in education in quantitative terms during such period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Psychotherapeutic interventions in childhood and adolescence are recognized as a mental treatment and as a tool to reduce psychological disorders in youth and adulthood. Therefore, there is an increasing concern about evidence of effectiveness of mental disorder interventions and adequacy of measurement. The objectives of this systematic review were to investigate predominant research designs and instruments used in Brazilian studies describing psychotherapeutic interventions with children and adolescents and to examine how these instruments are described regarding evidence of validity and reliability. Method: Five databases were surveyed, and for each one two independent judges performed the selection of records and applied the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: The final database comprised 28 papers, in which 92 instruments were referred. Fifty-seven instruments cited did not have descriptions of evidence of validity for the Brazilian population; for 31 instruments, validity evidence was mentioned, but the study did not detail which validity parameter was used; three studies described content validity evidence for their instruments. Furthermore, information about reliability was described for only two instruments. Conclusion: A lack of studies in the field of child and adolescent psychotherapy was found in Brazil. There is a significant need for the field to attend both the psychometric properties and the quality of description of research instruments. The scientific production of studies focused on the evaluation of psychotherapeutic interventions may promote evidence-based psychotherapy and justify the offer of mental treatment in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examined the scientific literature in operations management in Brazil, seeking to identify the themes of greatest interest of researchers and the most active research groups from a sample of 3,224 articles published in 13 national scientific journals the period from 2001 to 2010. In addition to the classification of articles according to their thematic categories also identified the origin of the authors, who were separated according to the area of expertise (management or production engineering) and the institution of affiliation. In general, 18.4% of all articles published in the magazines 3,224 analyzed fall as relevant to the area of operations. The results show sensitive difference between the percentages relating to magazines with origin in administration area, which ranged from 1.7% to 10.9%, and those related to magazines with origin in the field of production engineering, whose percentages ranged from 57.8% to 62.4%. The theme addressed was Logistics Operations management and supply chain, with approximately 20% of the published works. This theme has deserved more prominence in the magazines of administration, with 35% of the total number of papers published, than in production engineering magazines in which totals 14% of published works. The themes service operations and project management/ product development occupy virtually together, the same position, and secondly between the themes of greatest interest, both in magazines and on the administration of production engineering. Notice also that the issues related to the topic and work organization, Ergonomics are barely covered by the magazines, with an average of 2% of the works published. On the other hand, represents 8% of the papers published in the magazines of production engineering. It is believed that the research has been useful so that the researchers can better understand the editorial space that is available for the publication of their research findings, regardless of whether they have their origin in Administration or in production engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the introduction of irrational and real numbers in secondary textbooks, and specifically the propositions on how these should be taught, in a sample of Brazilian textbooks used in state schools and approved by the Ministry of Education. The analyses discussed in this paper follow an institutional perspective (using Chevallard's Anthropological Theory of Didactics). Our results indicate that the notion of irrational number is generally introduced on the basis of the decimal representation of numbers, and that the mathematical need for the construction of the field of real numbers remains unclear in the textbooks. It seems that textbooks used in secondary teaching institutions develop mathematical organisations which focus on the practical block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to investigate the impact of levels of selectivity on the performance of equity funds using a methodology applied for the first time ever (as far as we know) in the Brazilian market. As an indicator of the activity level of a fund, we proposed the coefficient of determination (R2) of the regression of its returns over market returns. In total, 867 funds were analyzed in the period between November 2004 and October 2014. The hypothesis tested is that more selective funds perform better to compensate for their higher operating costs. This hypothesis was confirmed in the Brazilian market. Dynamic equally-weighted portfolios of funds were simulated, according to their past R² and alphas, with monthly rebalancing and 12-month moving windows. The portfolio of the most selective funds had a Sharpe ratio of 0.0494, on a monthly basis, while the portfolio of the least selective funds had a Sharpe ratio of -0.0314. Performance was also higher in evaluations involving excess returns, Jensen's alpha, and accumulated returns, as well as when compared to randomly selected portfolios. Moreover, past performance (as measured by Jensen's alpha) was also a predictor of future performance. Particularly, the portfolio composed by funds with a higher past alpha and lower past R² presented a Sharpe ratio of 0.1483 and a Jensen's alpha of 0.87% (significant at 1%), while the one composed of funds with a lower past alpha and lower activity level presented a Sharpe ratio of -0.0673 and an alpha of -0.32% (also significant at 1%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing number of different family configurations demands for an assessment of the kind of relationships established between parents and children. Considering the difficulty of measuring these constructs, the aim of this paper is to present a systematic review about the main international and national measures that assess parent-child relations. In order to do that, searches were made in the IndexPsi and PsycInfo in the months of July and August 2007. The results of the systematic review pointed out seven international and three national measures as the most mentioned in the abstracts of the papers reviewed. A brief description of each measure is presented, with their purposes, assessed dimensions and the target population. Studies about validity and reliability of some measures are also presented. It is shown the necessity of adapting and creating national measures for this purpose, concerning the lack of available instruments in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper asks why high levels of expressed satisfaction are recorded in settings where health care provision is manifestly inadequate. Qualitative interviews with 30 women aged 25–60 years from a rural district health system of Northeast Brazil were used to explore the applicability of three explanatory models of influences on the construction and expression of satisfaction: expectations; contextual dynamics; mediating filters. The first two of these models argue that a lack of information and a reluctance to be negative respectively lead to high expressed satisfaction that is artificial. The concept of mediating filters proposes that respondents construct an evaluation that takes account of wider issues, such that high levels of expressed satisfaction are, in this sense, real. All three models contribute towards answering the paper's question. However, our data suggest that it is an informed, but low, expectation of health care provision that leads to alternative strategies, including resort to patron–client networks, and success in gaining good health care that is important. Mediating filters identified in this study were culpability and the reference time-frame. We raise questions for practice and offer a combined explanatory model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objectives: Smoking is a chronic process in which craving and negative affect are considered the main barriers to maintaining abstinence in patients who have gone through treatment. Mindfulness-based interventions have presented encouraging preliminary results in follow-up lasting up to 6 months. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic literature review on the effects of mindfulness-based interventions for the treatment of smoking. Methods: Of 198 articles on mindfulness and smoking, 13 controlled empirical studies were selected for the analysis. The search included papers published through April 14, 2014. The databases used were Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus. Results: Scientific interest on mindfulness-based interventions for the treatment of smoking has increased over the past decade. All articles reported promising results, especially for smoking cessation, relapse prevention, number of cigarettes smoked, the moderation of mindfulness on the strength of relationship between craving and smoking, and the development of coping strategies to deal with triggers to smoke. Most of the articles corresponded to pilot or feasibility randomized controlled trials with low risk of bias regarding random sequence generation, attrition, and reporting. However, few articles reported sufficient data on selection, performance, and detection bias. Conclusions: Mindfulness appears to induce positive effects on mental health, which might contribute to the maintenance of tobacco abstinence. Despite the promising results regarding the responses of tobacco smokers to mindfulness-based interventions, additional well-designed clinical studies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the institutional evaluation processes applied to Brazilian graduate programs, which processes are carried out by a federal agency, CAPES (Coordenação para o Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/Coordination for the Advancement of Graduate Education), and their impact on the development of Political Science in Brazil. To do that, the text is divided into four parts: the first section presents CAPES' characteristics and evolution in the past 60 years. The second part describes the academic evaluation procedures graduate programs are submitted to by CAPES for them to enter or remain in the system. Next, we analyze the influence of evaluation rules and criteria set by CAPES on the development of Political Science in Brazil. Finally, the last section examines the relationships between the institutional evaluation results, in the form of scores assigned to graduate institutions, and CAPES' funding patterns in order to determine to what extent a relationship between performance and grants can be isolated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper seeks to verify the association between falls and self-assessment of visual acuity in elderly people by means of a cross-sectional population-based study involving 1593 elderly people (aged 60 or over) from the urban zone of the municipality of Bagé-RS. Poisson regression was used for association analysis. Fall prevalence in the last year was 28.0% (95%CI: 25.8; 30.2), with 45.0% of these having suffered two or more falls in the same period. Elderly people self-assessing their eyesight as bad/very poor (10.0%) or regular (33.3%) showed a linear increase in fall occurrence when compared to individuals who considered their eyesight to be good/excellent. Self-assessment of eyesight showed itself to be an important factor associated with the occurrence of falls. This results entails the need to make progress with tracing elderly people with eyesight difficulties and its possible impact on actions to prevent the occurrence of falls. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The objective was to carry out a systematic review of randomized trials on the magnitude of post exercise hypotension (PEH) in adults. 1336 studies were retrieved from PubMed, Scielo and Lilacs, after searching "exercise" and "hypotension". 1268 papers were excluded by titles, 37 by abstracts, 10 were nonrandomized, 1 by repeating data, leaving 20. These studies were evaluated according to the randomization, blinding, allocation concealment, analysis by intention to treat and quantitatively by the Jadad Scale. The average reductions in systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) of the normotensive were lower than hypertensive (−9±3 vs. −11±6 mmHg and −12±2 vs. −8±6 mmHg, respectively) in both groups, active individuals had greater PEH than sedentary individuals (normotensive SBP −10±4 vs. −8±1 mmHg, PAD −5±1 vs. −4±1; hypertensive SBP −16±4 vs −9±2 mmHg; PAD −7±4 vs. −5±3 mmHg, respectively). In randomized studies the magnitude of PEH ranged from −4 to −19 mmHg for SBP and −2 to −9 mm Hg for DBP values according to the sample characteristics (blood pressure early stages, gender and level of physical activity) and the exercise protocols selected (i.e., there is no consensus on the influence of duration and intensity). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the paper is to describe the design, development and consolidation of a measure method for the public perception of judicial performance in Brazil --the Brazilian Justice Confidence Index (JCIBRAZIL). Since April 2009, JCIBRAZIL has been published quarterly, amounting to twelve waves. The overall results point to a trend of poor assessment of the judiciary as a public service provider so that its slowness in response, its high cost and the difficult to use it. Although we have these results, the Brazilian policymakers should rely more closely on those statistics in order to align public policies to the improvement of the system. Attention must be given not only to the production of studies, research and data on the justice system, but also to the use and application of studies results and data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrations produced in oscillating/vibratory platform generate whole body vibration (WBV) exercises, which are important in sports, as well as in treating diseases, promoting rehabilitation, and improving the quality of life. WBV exercises relevantly increase the muscle strength,muscle power, and the bone mineral density, as well as improving the postural control, the balance, and the gait. An important number of publications are found in the PubMed database with the keyword "flexibility" and eight of the analyzed papers involving WBV and flexibility reached a level of evidence II. The biggest distance between the third finger of the hand to the floor (DBTFF) of a patient with metabolic syndrome (MS) was found before the first session and was considered to be 100%. The percentages to the other measurements in the different sessions were determined to be related to the 100%. It is possible to see an immediate improvement after each session with a decrease of the %DBTFF. As the presence of MS is associated with poorer physical performance, a simple and safe protocol using WBV exercises promoted an improvement of the flexibility in a patient with MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the promise of equity that underlies centralized evaluation policies and its relation to difference, or in other words to the singularity of the subject. I defend that without taking the issue of difference into consideration, there is no education, and that the unique subject is what is aspired by education. The analyses rely on recent Brazilian evaluation policy as object. Large-scale testing policies, like much of public policy, are built on the premise that equity is both possible and desirable. First, I try to demonstrate that this is a fallacious promise and then question its desirability. I consider the fact that such a promise even if not delivered does not make it harmless. It creates effects of power while making the idea that ‘no children [should be] left behind’ hegemonic. Naturalizing the existence of a ‘behind’ creates a demarcation line without which it would not be feasible to define this ‘behind’. I argue that the only way to ensure that nobody is excluded is to blur this line, deconstructing the very idea of inclusion, betting on an education committed to the uniqueness of subjects in which the idea of ‘behind’ does not make sense. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Brazil, it is estimated that 1,443,350 abortions occur annually, leading thousands of women with incomplete abortion, to seek care in public health. In 2005, the Ministry of Health published the Technical Act for Humane Abortion in response to this challenge. This paper discusses whether the Act sets an evaluable program and proposes an evaluation model. The survey, conducted in 2010, is an evaluability study using techniques of document analysis and interviews with key informants. To validate the indicators, we applied the nominal group technique. The results were elaborated and agreed upon the logical model, the matrix of indicators and evaluative questions that reflect the pillars of care: care, quality clinical care with technical, ethical and legal, reproductive planning, integration with network health and collective women. We conclude that the humanized abortion is an assessable program with development of an evaluation model in a timely manner. The preassessment was suitable and better understood by managers and professionals. There was agreement about the explicitness and relevance of goals, actions, and resource needs, ethical questions to guide changes. The study has increased the knowledge of the actors involved with decisive participation of clinical direction. For subsequent evaluations, the study recommends focusing on the structure and processes of the five components of the program with prioritization of subjective aspects of humanization, infrastructure, and the prevalence of abortion in the public health service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of the instructional material Welcome to Brazil - Level 1 (Fenton and McLarty, 2011) in a technological course in Tourism Management in the city of São Paulo. The textbook content was evaluated according to Ramos (2009) and a questionnaire was used to collect the students’ impressions. It was concluded that the textbook needs to be complemented for an effective result with the students. The theoretical foundation is based on Cunningsworth (1984), Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998), Tomlinson (1998, 2001), Ramos (2009). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Brazil has favorable edaphoclimatic conditions for the cultivation of biomass for energy. On the other hand, the country plans to expand its thermal power park using fossil fuels, including coal. This paper estimates the potential of co-firing biomass from energy forests in power plants based on Brazilian coal (low rank coal) from the main deposits in the south of Brazil. The technical limits of adding woody biomass to a boiler with a fluidized bed running on Brazilian coal is evaluated along with the availability of this biomass in the south of Brazil. Findings indicate that the main technical limit for boilers operating with different mixtures of biomass and coal is the alteration in the volume of exhaust gas, which varies depending on the percentages of biomass in the co-firing. The limits for biomass availability were based on environmental sustainability and the economic viability of transport. Results indicate that biomass should be available within a radius of around 120 km, which is equivalent to approximately 4,500,000 ha. Only 0.4% of this area would be required to feed a thermal plant of 600 MWe with 30% biomass. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper presents the partial results of research that aims to build tools to evaluate educational policy. One dimension of the assessment of educational policy refers to the material conditions of the school, taking as a source the contextual questionnaire of the National System of Basic Education (Saeb), 2003. From these conditions it creates an index to evaluate the school with respect to such resources. In analyzing the public schools of the state of Paraná, it becomes evident that they have good conditions, in general, but with a strong difference between those located in urban and rural areas. Deriving from the index combined with the results pertaining to student proficiency, a tendency has been identified that indicates that student proficiencies are greater in schools that offer favorable material and structural conditions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to present an integrative review of the scientific literature about concepts, methods and evaluating instruments regarding Positive Psychology. Six papers from LILACS and SCIELO databases (1970-2008) based on inclusion/exclusion criteria were analyzed. The studies broached tools of measurement related to subjective welfare and satisfaction. Among the major contributions of this frame of reference, we point out the construction of estimation tools and intervention models. The foremost scales are North-American, in fact, there is just one Brazilian scale. Thus, it was noticed the necessity of developing adapted and valid instruments for the Brazilian context. Besides, new studies that investigate international instruments, their prerequisites, validation and applications in different cultural contexts should be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

kwong e.w.-y., pang s.m.-c., choi p.-p. & wong t.k.-s. (2010) Influenza vaccine preference and uptake among older people in nine countries. Journal of Advanced Nursing 66(10), 2297–2308. Aim. This paper is a report of a study delineating factors that influence older people’s preferences and uptake of the influenza vaccine in nine countries. Background. Vaccination uptake for the aging population in many countries still remains below the World Health Organization recommended rate. Older people who perceive higher susceptibility to and severity of influenza, and more benefits from vaccination and action cues prompting vaccination, tend to accept the vaccine, but those with more perceived barriers to vaccination are less likely to accept it. Method. A total of 208 older people from China, Indonesia, Turkey, Korea, Greece, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Nigeria were recruited to 14 vaccinated and 12 unvaccinated focus groups. They shared their experiences of influenza, and influenza vaccination, and promotion of influenza vaccination in focus groups. The data were collected in 2007. Findings. We identified five themes and generated a hypothetical framework for in-depth understanding of vaccination behaviour among older people. Participants’ vaccine preferences were determined by their behavioural beliefs in vaccination, which were based on their probability calculation of susceptibility to and severity of influenza and vaccine effectiveness, and their utility calculation of vaccine, healthcare and social costs. Action cues prompting vaccination and vaccine access further affected the vaccine uptake of participants with vaccine preferences. Vaccination coverage was likely to be higher in the countries where normative beliefs in favour of vaccination had formed. Conclusion. The hypothetical framework can be used to guide healthcare providers in developing strategies to foster normative beliefs of older people in vaccination, provide effective action cues and promote vaccine access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major effort has been necessary to achieve decentralization of the health programs in Brazil, therefore essentially implying the creation of innovative practices. A number of researchers have been facing the challenge to carry on studies evaluating the implementation of health programs. Some ongoing research has been indicating interpersonal relations as an important factor, which explains the different consequences. This paper intends to discuss the importance of interpersonal relations in the implementation of health programs starting from the contribution of social network's analyses. Investigations towards the comprehension of performance variations in health programs which incorporate such outlook will be proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is on advanced degrees in International Relations in Brazil, which have grown four-fold from two in the 1980s to eight in 2008. The first part of the paper discusses this increase in the total of degrees and public policy incentives for the creation and consolidation of such programs. The second part discusses the evaluation of these programs by Capes and maps out the state of International Relations in Brazil given research incentives from Capes and CNPq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Few studies of comorbidity among cocaine users have been undertaken in Brazil, despite the fact that cocaine is one of the most commonly used illegal drugs in the country. The aim of this paper is to review existing data on psychiatric evaluations of cocaine users, and present data from two studies that have addressed this issue as it pertains to the Brazilian public health system. Study design: Review and results from two studies (cross-sectional and matched control). Methods: The Brazilian literature on PubMed, Lilacs, Psychinfo and DATASUS was searched using the key words: 'psychiatric symptoms', 'diagnosis', 'evaluation', 'assessment', 'cocaine disorders' and others related to this issue. Intake data from two studies of mate and female cocaine users were also analysed with regard to psychiatric symptoms as measured by the Symptom Check List - 90 Revised (SCL-90). Results: The literature review found no specific studies regarding psychiatric evaluation of cocaine users in Brazil. Analyses from the two studies presented showed high levels of psychiatric symptoms in this population. In the first study, psychiatric symptoms were measured at treatment entry and their prevalence was high, ranging from 27.4% to 53.4%. In the second study, SCL-90R scores at programme admission were higher in cocaine users than normal controls, with effect sizes ranging from moderate to high. Conclusions: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first article to discuss psychiatric evaluations of comorbidity among cocaine users in Brazil. The results indicate a need to: pay more attention to the evaluation of psychiatric symptoms in cocaine users; emphasize the importance of standardized data collection in this area; and evaluate the course of these symptoms, their impact on outcome, and how they are best addressed in treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article looks into the newly created Universal Periodic Review, a mechanism for evaluation of the human rights situation in all United Nations member states, briefly explaining its origin as well as the objectives it pursues, the principles that guide the process, and the different stages of carrying out the review itself. The article also refers to the experiences of three countries that were reviewed, namely Brazil, South Africa, and Poland, in order to illustrate how the Universal Periodic Review operates in practice, thereby attempting to give the reader a basic understanding of why this new mechanism was created, how it is structured, its innovations and intention to correct both problems and flaws of the past, and the transition of the review from paper to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, marketisation-focused public policies have significantly transformed higher education systems worldwide. In developing countries that do not have public universities, there has been a reduction of public financing and the expansion of private institutions. In Brazil, one of the main developing countries in the world context, such changes caused a rapid quantitative expansion in the number of students registered. However, the impact of such policies on the quality of the higher education system in the country is still unknown. There are questions about the real quality of higher education and about the effects of the markets in the improvement of the system quality. This paper describes a study of the development of the quality in the Brazilian higher education system, from 1994 to 2003, which was elaborated from a conceptual model of quality and from an international performance-indicator system. The results of this study indicate that marketisation policies in developing countries did not promote an improvement of the quality or the maximisation of the social benefits of higher education. In the period studied, no clear evidence of improvement in relevance, diversity, equity and effectiveness were found in the Brazilian higher education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent years have seen a burgeoning of intergenerational programmes aiming to improve the well being of participants. However, very few programmes have been formally evaluated. In this paper we report results from a randomised controlled trial of a school-based intergenerational intervention undertaken in Brazil. Randomly selected samples of 253 adolescents and 266 elders aged 60 and over resident in the school''s catchment area were administered a questionnaire including questions on cognitive components of social capital, family relationships, and self-rated health. Participants were then randomly allocated to control and intervention groups. The intervention comprised participation in a 4 month programme of intergenerational activities in which the elders shared their memories with the students. At the end of the intervention the questionnaire was re-administered to the samples. High proportions (85–95%) of both samples completed the questionnaires but compliance with the intervention was low in the elderly group. In the analysis of results from the elderly sample, we therefore compared the control group with the group assigned to the intervention (intention to treat analysis). Results showed that adolescents in the intervention group were nearly three times more likely to rate their health as good than those in the control group, but also more likely to judge that most people were selfish. In the elderly sample, those from the intervention group were over twice as likely as those from the control group to report positively on the helpfulness of neighbours; judge most people to be honest or consider their family relationships as good. There were no significant differences between groups on other outcome measures. These results suggest that structured intergenerational activities may have positive effects on some aspects of social capital for both adolescents and elderly people, although further research is needed to elucidate the processes involved and the extent to which the findings are context specific. This study is the first to use a controlled trial design to evaluate this type of intervention and is valuable in showing that this design can be used in interventions of this kind, and also the difficulties involved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper analyses the evolution of reforestation in Brazil and evaluates the federal government's previous programmes to stimulate that activity, focusing on the discontinued Programme of Fiscal Incentives for Afforestation and Reforestation (PIFFR). Despite the great increase in reforested area in Brazil since the 1970s, the country will suffer a scarcity of roundwood from reforested areas over the first decade of the 21st Century. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the Brazilian federal government supported programmes to foster reforestation; however, no stimulus programmes were implemented in the 1990s when roundwood demand increased and production stagnated. Today, the government recognizes the need to stimulate reforestation. The PIFFR, the most important of those earlier programmes, is evaluated using a traditional cost–benefit approach. The evaluation shows that a reinstatement of this programme would now be inappropriate. The conclusion suggests a direction for new federal policies that seek to foster the enlargement of reforestation in segments where the price mechanism has not worked well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To guarantee the right to health, the health system must also ensure access to medicines. Several financial arrangements to provide these technologies are implemented and range from the direct (either total or partial) to indirect payment by the patient, being necessary to evaluate its effect on access to medicines. However, to ensure access to medicines is not just about ensuring its availability, as this only materializes in its use. Thus, evaluation studies of interventions in access to medicines have been using indicators related to the health results and use of health services as its outcomes. Furthermore, as this relationship is not direct, it is important to critically assess the adequacy of these tools to measure this phenomenon and, additionally, the ability to use it in the Brazilian scenario. Therefore, this study sought to identify, describe, and analyze the use of these indicators as medicine access outcomes, through a review of the scientific literature. Methods: An extensive literature review was done using a bibliographic database for a systematic review. The references were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the indicators from the papers retained were analyzed using the parameters of validity, measurability, reliability, and relevance. Results: We have analyzed over 12,000 references of which 30 references were included, describing the use of 49 health outcomes and health service use indicators. The majority reported the use of health service utilization measures. In our evaluation, the best indicators for assessing the effects of co-payment intervention on access are the ones aimed at specific populations or symptomatic health conditions in which the response to the therapeutic treatment is known and occurs in a short period of time. It was evident the lack of information on the indicators analyzed as well as the limitation of the Brazilian secondary databases for its calculation. Conclusions: This research showed the variety and heterogeneity of the indicators used in scientific studies. The best indicators for access to medicines are sought to measure the use of health services for symptomatic health conditions that are quickly responsive to pharmacological treatment, while the indicators related to worker productivity loss was the most suitable for health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]