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In Between facts and norms, the legal form is a central concept that makes it possible for Habermas: to focus on the institutional dimension of the law; to elucidate the problematics of the legitimacy of the law; to carry out a functionalist approach to the law which is favourable to a rational reconstruction of the law; and to make explicit the system of basic rights. Habermas, however, does not proceed to a systematic analysis of the functional nexus between the legal form and the capitalist mode of production. Thus, he fails to provide a more comprehensive and more critical account of both the legal form and the emancipatory possibilities immanent in capitalist society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed in the field of security guarantees in labor trials, the article started from the recognition that the current regulatory framework, rigid and precarious, does not provide a balanced composition of legitimate interests of creditor and debtor. In view of this problem, was assumed as a primary objective the construction proposal of a model capable of providing effective and efficient protection to credits from employment relationships. For that, as a method, it started with the structural and functional analysis of judicial guarantee insurance from a procedural and contractual perspective (positive law system analysis); then, was examined the correlation between the times of the process and the effectiveness of the right of credit, performed in statistics and jurisprudence fields (data and cases analysis); subsequently, were formulated basis for the current model improvement. As a result, it was identified that, in the proposed model, more in tune with good insurance technique, rigidity must give way to dynamism and flexibility, to allow the good payer access to differentiated and favored conditions in the provision of insurance guarantees, without unprotecting the creditor. From a procedural perspective, this model can contribute to the balanced and efficient composition of creditor and debtor interests and in the contractual dimension serve as a stimulus for the development of the market in this insurance field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text aims to philosophically analyse some of the main problems related to the technological function. To achieve this purpose, we first try to characterize technical objects from their dual nature, that is, from their structural and functional aspects. Then, in the second moment, we reconstruct the main difficulties faced by scholars who try to understand the technological function by making a comparison with the biological function. Among the main difficulties encountered is the problem of demarcation between the technical function and the technological function, as there are arguments in favour of a rigid demarcation, but also positions that propose a thinner demarcation criterion or even postures that defend the impossibility of such separation. In addition to the problem of demarcation, there are other open questions such as the problem of intentionality, malfunction and function itself. In short, the text directs the philosophical view to the problem of the function of artefacts, devices and technical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German modal particles (henceforth MPs) have been receiving increasingly attention, particularly in the context of teaching German as a foreign language (GFL). Difficulties concerning the proper acquisition of MPs can be overcome by didactic strategies such as: contextual analysis, from which MPs are directly dependent of; the nuclear function of each MP; the distinction between them and their homonyms; the intentions and expectations of the interlocutors; and contrastive analysis of its functional equivalents in Portuguese. Therefore, MPs can only be effectively analyzed if their grammatical and pragmatic aspects are considered. In this work, strategies and didactic materials (movies and comics) that may help teachers present MPs in GFL classes for Brazilians are suggested, focusing on the acquisition of communicative skills in German language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to identify the controlling variables of obsessive-compulsive behaviors of an adult participant, based on three evaluation strategies. For the first one, Indirect Functional Assessment, the researchers recovered records of therapy sessions attended by the participant, in which conditions favorable to obsessive-compulsive behaviors were described. For the second one, Descriptive Functional Assessment, the researchers observed the participant's behavior during sessions in which they presented tasks previously mentioned as triggering of the problem behavior. For the third one, Brief Functional Analysis - Single Function Test, the researchers manipulated a demand condition and a control condition, aiming to examine the functional hypothesis that the problem behavior would be maintained by escape/avoidance of tasks. Although dissonant, the results allowed the researchers to discard the negative reinforcement hypothesis. It is discussed the pertinence of the adoption of different evaluation strategies for clinical practice and the frailties of interventions guided only by verbal reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to show the connection between tics and social skills in conducting a clinical behavioral treatment. Patricia (fictitious name), 15 years old, was brought by her mother, complaining about her daughter having tics and excessive shyness. However, tics were not observed throughout the sessions and was concluded that the excessive attention provided by the mother was the source of the patient issues. Among other interventions, assertiveness training and simulations of social situations were performed. Although the "tics" were not the focus of the interventions, after 30 sessions, it was possible to notice the progress of the client and she was discharged. This case report makes possible to understand the relevance of conducting a functional analysis of behavior, which turned the focus of the treatment to the refinement of social skills of the patient and not to what was called tic by her mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of cartoon videos with advertisements of healthy and unhealthy food versus neutral videos on food choices was assessed in 24 children from a public school. The videos were presented in 5 sessions. Each group was exposed to a specific sequence of advertisement. After the exposure of the videos, the child chose food figures for daily meals. Within and between subject analyses, performed by repeated measures ANCOVA, showed that with change of videos, the children altered by up to 13% their choices of healthy or unhealthy food. The increase of healthy food advertising and the decrease of unhealthy food advertising may contribute for healthy food and weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rules are important elements in maintaining cultural practices. Thus, failures in its formulation might interfere with its action. This study analyzed six articles and a paragraph of Resolution No. 214 of UFMS relating to standards of teaching in college and its effectiveness in controlling the behavior of the students and teachers of Psychology of the institution. The resolution was used as a basis for analyzing the behavior of following rules. For it was held: separation of excerpts from the resolution in groups, according to the subject to which they referred; analysis of each section using the three-term contingency; description of the possible objectives of each section; and report on what was observed in the behavior of students and teachers of Psychology of the institution. The investigation of this resolution served as a case study to exemplify an analysis of institutional use of social rules. All sections analyzed were considered incomplete descriptions of contingencies, since, in general, did not indicate consequences to follow the rule, and the fact not being widely disseminated among students and professors. It is assumed that this can be one of the factors for noncompliance resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verbal actions of twelve volunteer storytellers at a children's hospital were observed during 72 episodes of interaction and shared reading with patients. Functional analyses yielded 30 behavioral categories. Inter-rater agreement for three raters was 84.2%. Categories which describe specific verbal behavior in situations of shared reading were grouped into four areas: (a) Tact, textual and intraverbal behavior related to the storybook and/or illustrations; (b) Prompts for verbal behavior; (c) Presentation of consequences for the child's behavior; and (d) Prompts for nonverbal behavior. Results were discussed in light of contingencies related to the storyteller's actions in the hospital environment and the potential effects of their interventions on the listener's verbal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atopic dermatitis is a chronic skin disease which manifests in childhood. Noncompliance is a common parent's complaint of atopic children. Studies have shown that several antecedent variables can influence noncompliance. The present study aimed to examine the effects of parental attention and task difficult, on noncompliance behavior of five preschoolers' children with atopic dermatitis. The experimental design was the multielement. The results showed that the manipulation of these variables changed noncompliance responses in three of the five children. It suggests the need of including these variables to assess, to prevent and to intervene in children with atopic dermatitis described as noncompliance by their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers in women. Mammography is an excellent method with proven impact on breast cancer mortality reduction. Nevertheless, mammography is not a perfect method, with some weaknesses, especially in screening women with dense breasts, preoperative staging and treatment evaluation. Breast magnetic resonance imaging has shown the necessity and relevance of functional evaluation of breast lesions. The authors describe two methods of functional evaluation of breasts and describe their own experience with contrast-enhanced digital mammography and with breast-specific gamma imaging. Both methods are already available in our country and have shown promising results in the detection of mammographically occult lesions, confirmation of suspicious lesions and in the reduction of unnecessary biopsies and may supplement the weaknesses of mammography, particularly in the investigation of dense breasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-monitoring (SM) is used for observation, assessment and intervention in behavioral and health problems. In this study SM was used in the behavior assessment of a 44 year old female with an irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). During a period of 19 weeks this patient filled in daily SM forms related to general activities, bowel functioning and food intake, A not foreseen improvement of the symptoms was observed, which can be explained as a reactivity effect to SM. Initially, the activities of the participant occurred in a uninterruptedly manner and were associated with bowel constipation; with the SM recording the participant learned to interrupt her activities as response to signals of bowel movements, increasing, therefore, the frequency of defecation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the adequacy of the functional theory of human values in the Brazilian state of Paraiba, focusing on the content and structure hypotheses derived from the theory. The first predicts the saturation of three value-items in each of the six theorized value subfunctions. The second predicts a duplex structure for the spatial representation of values based on two specific dimensions, type of orientation (personal, central and social) and type of motivator (materialist and idealist). Participants were 12,706 individuals from the general population with a mean age of 20 years, and in their majority female (58.5%), single (38.3%) and with a high school qualification (41.8%). Confirmatory factor analysis tested the content hypothesis, assuming that six value subfunctions would account for the variance among the 18 value-items (predicted model), compared to alternative factor structures with one, two, three or five factors. As expected, the proposed model had good fit to the data (AGFI = 0.94, CFI = 0.88, and RMSEA = 0.05) and was better fitting than alternative models. The structure hypothesis was tested by means of confirmatory multidimensional scaling (Proxscal), using the Tucker Phi (φ) as an indicator of model fit. This fit indicator was above the recommended cut-off (φ = 0.94), indicating that values can be represented in a 3 (type of orientation: personal, central, or social) x 2 (type of motivator: materialist or idealist) bi-dimensional space. Even with limitations, such as the use of a convenience sample instead of a probability sample, it can be concluded that the results support the adequacy of this theory in the studied Brazilian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the behavior of a chronic schizophrenic using the principles of behavior analysis. The participant was female, age 57, single and has had multiple hospitalizations since the age of 18. The types of problematic behavior that received intervention were: eye contact, self isolation in the yard, participation in the events of the institution, and others. To control the effect of the intervention procedures the ABAB reversal design followed by a follow-up was used. The experiment started with the baseline of phase I. In intervention phases I and II positive reinforcement, modeling and extinction procedures were used. The results indicated that the procedures of behavior analysis were effective to control the problematic-behavior displayed by the participant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article, based on Clinical Behavior Analysis, reflects on how the establishment of a non-punitive audience by the therapist can promote the occurrence of intimate episodes in the therapeutic relationship. Intimate episodes involve interpersonal vulnerability, which means that a person opens her or himself up to possible criticism or rejection. We argue that the therapeutic environment facilitates intimate episodes that can culminate in a curative relation that can promote important transformations in the clients' repertoires. With the help of examples from vignettes, the article proposes an understanding of intimacy as a process of dynamic interaction, the study of which, from a radical behaviorist point of view, contributes to the comprehension of therapeutic changes that can occur through psychological talk-therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]