terça-feira, 27 de julho de 2010

Um país sem banheiro


GeoTagged, [S12.99712, E38.52523]

No Brasil, 13 milhões de pessoas não possuem banheiro em casa; país é 9° em "ranking mundial da vergonha"
Do UOL Notícias
Em São Paulo


Barco passa próximo ao lixo e esgoto nas margens da represa Billings, um dos maiores e mais importantes reservatórios de água da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo (SP)
O Brasil é o 9° colocado no “ranking mundial da vergonha” dos países cuja população não tem acesso a serviços básicos de saneamento: são 13 milhões de brasileiros sem banheiro em casa. O levantamento foi feito nas cidades brasileiras com mais de 300 mil habitantes.
Os dados fazem parte de um estudo realizado pela OMS (Organização Mundial de Saúde) e pela Unicef (Fundo das Nações Unidas para a Infância) divulgado pelo Instituto Trata Brasil.
Na frente do Brasil aparecem: Índia (1°), Indonésia (2°), China (3°), Etiópia (4°), Paquistão (5°), Nigéria (6°), Sudão (7°) e Nepal (8°).
As cidades de Manaus, Recife, Cuiabá e Natal estão entre as capitais que mais apresentam problemas de saneamento no país, de acordo com o estudo.
Na capital do Amazonas cerca de 89% das residências ainda não são atendida pela rede geral de esgoto. Nas capitais do Mato Grosso e do Rio Grande do Norte o déficit de atendimento atinge 61% e 69%, respectivamente.
As regiões metropolitanas de Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, São Paulo e Porto Alegre aparecem com índices de atendimento superiores a 80% das residências. Em Brasília, 92% da população é atendida pela rede de esgoto.
Segundo o documento, entre 2003 e 2008, houve um avanço de 11,7% no atendimento de esgoto, e de 4,6% no tratamento de esgoto nas 81 maiores cidades do país.
Apesar disso, somente 50,6% da população que vive em áreas urbanas têm acesso a redes de esgoto e apenas 34,6% do volume de esgoto coletado no Brasil recebem tratamento, segundo a pesquisa.
Menos de dois terços da população mundial utilizam instalações sanitárias, de acordo com o estudo. Na América do Sul, somente a Bolívia tem menos de 50% dos moradores com acesso a sanitários e saneamento básico.

segunda-feira, 26 de julho de 2010

Diagnostico da Tuberculose em Crianças


GeoTagged, [S13.00474, E38.49092]

Diagnosticar Tb em crianças é muito mais difícil do que em adultos as novas técnicas diagnosticas tem contribuído
Veja artigo publicado no Lancet Infectious Disease

The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Early Online Publication, 26 July 2010
Diagnostic approaches for paediatric tuberculosis by use of different specimen types, culture methods, and PCR: a prospective case-control study

Prof Richard A Oberhelman MD a , Giselle Soto-Castellares MD b, Prof Robert H Gilman MD b c f, Luz Caviedes MS c, Prof Maria E Castillo MD d e, Lenka Kolevic MD e, Trinidad Del Pino MD e, Mayuko Saito MD b c f, Prof Eduardo Salazar-Lindo MD g, Eduardo Negron MD g, Sonia Montenegro PhD h, V Alberto Laguna-Torres MD i, David AJ Moore MD b c f j, Prof Carlton A Evans MD c f j
Summary

Background
The diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis presents challenges in children because symptoms are non-specific, specimens are difficult to obtain, and cultures and smears of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are often negative. We assessed new diagnostic approaches for tuberculosis in children in a resource-poor country.
Methods
Children with symptoms suggestive of pulmonary tuberculosis (cases) were enrolled from August, 2002, to January, 2007, at two hospitals in Lima, Peru. Age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled from a low-income shanty town community in south Lima. Cases were grouped into moderate-risk and high-risk categories by Stegen-Toledo score. Two specimens of each type (gastric-aspirate, nasopharyngeal-aspirate, and stool specimens) taken from each case were examined for M tuberculosis by auramine smear microscopy, broth culture by microscopic-observation drug-susceptibility (MODS) technique, standard culture on Lowenstein-Jensen medium, and heminested IS6110 PCR. Specimens from controls consisted of one nasopharyngeal-aspirate and two stool samples, examined with the same techniques. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00054769.
Findings
218 cases and 238 controls were enrolled. 22 (10%) cases had at least one positive M tuberculosis culture (from gastric aspirate in 22 cases, nasopharyngeal aspirate in 12 cases, and stool in four cases). Laboratory confirmation of tuberculosis was more frequent in cases at high risk for tuberculosis (21 [14·1%] of 149 cases with complete specimen collection were culture positive) than in cases at moderate risk for tuberculosis (one [1·6%] of 61). MODS was more sensitive than Lowenstein-Jensen culture, diagnosing 20 (90·9%) of 22 patients compared with 13 (59·1%) of 22 patients (p=0·015), and M tuberculosis isolation by MODS was faster than by Lowenstein-Jensen culture (mean 10 days, IQR 8—11, vs 25 days, 20—30; p=0·0001). All 22 culture-confirmed cases had at least one culture-positive gastric-aspirate specimen. M tuberculosis was isolated from the first gastric-aspirate specimen obtained in 16 (72·7%) of 22 cases, whereas in six (27·3%), only the second gastric-aspirate specimen was culture positive (37% greater yield by adding a second specimen). In cases at high risk for tuberculosis, positive results from one or both gastric-aspirate PCRs identified a subgroup with a 50% chance of having a positive culture (13 of 26 cases).
Interpretation
Collection of duplicate gastric-aspirate specimens from high-risk children for MODS culture was the best available diagnostic test for pulmonary tuberculosis. PCR was insufficiently sensitive or specific for routine diagnostic use, but in high-risk children, duplicate gastric-aspirate PCR provided same-day identification of half of all culture-positive cases.
Funding
National Institutes of Health.

sábado, 24 de julho de 2010

Células Tronco da pele podem ser úteis


GeoTagged, [S13.01009, E38.50977]

Veja reportagem sobre essas células


Skin - the key to medical cures?

The potential of skin stem cells 'is enormous'
Skin is the body's largest organ.

It already can be harvested to provide extra skin for burns victims and to grow cells that form cartilage and muscle.

But as scientists delve deeper into its layers, it is becoming clear that the skin might in the future hold the key to curing a range of conditions, from cancer to spinal cord repair.

And there are great hopes for skin stem cells.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

The skin contains a number of different types of stem cells - it is a very interesting and accessible source of cells to restore tissue”

Professor Fiona Watt
This week a team at Oxford University announced that specially manipulated skin cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells, can be used to generate the brain nerve cells that die in Parkinson's.

New uses
Sheila MacNeil, professor of tissue engineering at Sheffield University, said stem cell research is advancing so rapidly that it will soon be used in more applications.

"There is the potential to take a biopsy of skin from a patient with disease, culture the cells, alter them to make them grow into tissues you are interested in and also use them to study the basis of the genetic disease and then to design therapies that you can put back into the patient.

"We could be there in five years time for diseases which are well understood - like Parkinson's, and for other diseases where they are less well understood, 10 years."

She said that the 'clever thing' with the adult stem cells is that they are less likely to be rejected as they are from the donor's own body, unlike stem cells from embryos.

The skin

Continue reading the main story
Your skin is your largest organ
It covers your entire body and has a surface area of around two square metres.
Its thickness varies from 0.5mm on your eyelids to 4mm or more on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet
It accounts for around 16% of your body weight
Although they can be harvested from across the body, the skin stem cells are easily accessible.

Professor Fiona Watt, from Cambridge University, pointed out that grafts formed by stem cells are already used to treat severe burns in patients.

"Some people forget that it is a stem cell treatment that works and which has been around a long time," she said.

"We are very interested in developing regenerative medicine as a way to heal our bodies when they can't heal themselves - when the damage from an injury or disease is too severe."

She added: "The skin contains a number of different types of stem cells - it is a very interesting and accessible source of cells to restore tissue.

"People have woken up to the idea that the skin has cells that can be turned into nerve cells and this could be a way to expand nerve cells to treat spinal cord injuries."

Professor Watt's work shows how single stem cells can be encouraged to grow in the lab on finely-patterned surfaces in order to identify the biological messages that control their ability to divide and mature into any type of cell.

Using this approach, Professor Watt's team at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge, are uncovering the biology of adult skin stem cells. The methodology can also be applied to a wide range of embryonic and adult stem cells.

"I believe that the full therapeutic potential of skin stem cells is only just being appreciated," she said.

More on This Story
Related stories

sexta-feira, 23 de julho de 2010

Reforçando a credibilidade da pesquisa clinica - Lancet


GeoTagged, [S13.00137, E38.51979]


Strengthening the credibility of clinical research

Catherine D DeAngelis a, Phil B Fontanarosa a


is an important example of the continuing and increasing awareness of medical journal editors' commitments to fulfil their responsibility to physicians and patients to ensure that all articles published in their journals are accurate, valid, and honest. However, given the inappropriate conduct, selective data analysis and reporting, misrepresentation of study results, and attempts at manipulation that have occurred with some industry-sponsored studies, redoubling efforts to ensure integrity in medical research has never been more important.

We are not surprised to learn that The Lancet considers the results of its forward-thinking approach to protocol review to be “disappointing” and we share the hope that the forthcoming SPIRIT guidelines will help to improve the reporting of scientific and ethical issues involving clinical trials. However, we maintain that perhaps the most effective way to strengthen the credibility of industry-sponsored medical research is to do exactly what many for-profit research sponsors continue to resist—ie, take steps to minimise or eliminate the study sponsor's control over the collection, collation, analysis, and reporting of study data, and require that these responsibilities be conducted solely by independent academic researchers, with no sponsor involvement whatsoever.
The Lancet has already taken an important step in this direction, by requiring that “the corresponding author should confirm that he or she had full access to all of the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.”2 We encourage The Lancet editors and the editors of other medical journals to take the next logical and essential step—ie, to require, as a condition of publication, that all industry-sponsored studies have the data analysed by an independent academic biostatistician or researcher who has full access to all study data, and that the results of this analysis must be the results reported in the article.3 In the same manner as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' require that clinical trials must be registered to be considered for publication,4 if major journals would adopt the approach requiring that academic authors have full access to all study data and requiring an independent statistical analysis, the credibility of clinical research funded and conducted by industry is bound to be strengthened.
We declare that we have no conflicts of interest.
References

1 The Lancet. Strengthening the credibility of clinical research. Lancet 2010; 375: 1225. Full Text | PDF(74KB) | CrossRef | PubMed
2 The Lancet. Information for authors. http://download.thelancet.com/flatcontentassets/authors/lancet-information-for-authors.pdf. (accessed April 19, 2010).
3 DeAngelis CD, Fontanarosa PB. Ensuring integrity in industry sponsored research. Primum non nocere, revisited. JAMA 2010; 303: 1196-1198. CrossRef | PubMed
4 DeAngelis CD, Drazen JM, Frizelle FA, et al. Clinical trial registration. a statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. JAMA 2004; 292: 1363-1364. CrossRef | PubMed

Agora pode, mas com alguma restrição -Capes & CNPq


GeoTagged, [S12.98227, E38.50288]


Bolsistas de pós-graduação já podem ter renda complementada por outra fonte

Ascom MEC

Os beneficiários de bolsas de estudos matriculados em programas de pós-graduação no país já podem receber complementação financeira proveniente de outras fontes. É o que estabelece a Portaria Conjunta nº 1, do dia 15 último, da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) e do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).

A determinação vale para bolsistas da Capes e do CNPq, desde que se dediquem a atividades relacionadas à área específica de atuação e de interesse para a formação acadêmica, científica e tecnológica, especialmente quando se tratar de professor de qualquer etapa do ensino.

Para receber a complementação financeira ou atuar como professor, o bolsista deve obter autorização do orientador, devidamente informada à coordenação do curso ou do programa de pós-graduação em que estiver matriculado. Essa autorização precisa ainda ser registrada no Cadastro de Discentes da Capes.

quinta-feira, 22 de julho de 2010

HIV em 3D


Uma ilustração em 3 D da passagem de particulas do virus HIV do Linfócito CD4 (verde) para Célula dendritica (vermelha). Veja foto e o texto da revista Nature

Virology: HIV spread in 3D


Nature :466, 416 (22 July 2010)

Cited research Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA doi:10.1073/pnas.1003040107 (2010)

One route HIV takes to infecting the immune system's T cells is through dendritic cells, which present antigen on their surface. Researchers have captured three-dimensional images of single viral particles being transmitted between the two cell types (pictured, T cell in green).

Sriram Subramaniam at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and his co-workers used three-dimensional electron microscopy to show that the surface membrane of the dendritic cell first extends and, like a veil, envelops the T cell. This provides a protected area in which the membranes of the two cells form protrusions that come together like interlocking fingers. Viral particles are seen at the tips and along the T-cell protrusions. The T cells' CD4 receptors mediate HIV transmission.

This shielding of T cells at these junctions could limit the ability of HIV-neutralizing antibodies to block T-cell infection.


Um novo encontro mundial sobre HIV, agora em Viena. O tema vacina está presente.
Veja Editorial do NEJM


The Renaissance in HIV Vaccine Development — Future Directions
Wayne C. Koff, Ph.D., and Seth F. Berkley, M.D.





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From July 18 through July 23, 2010, delegates from around the globe will convene for the biennial International AIDS Conference in Vienna. They will discuss our current risk of losing the war against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Despite an unprecedented outpouring of resources and proliferation of programs, today, for every two patients who begin receiving treatment for HIV, five people are newly infected. Furthermore, new guidelines from the World Health Organization recommending that infected persons begin receiving treatment earlier will significantly increase the number of patients targeted for therapy. If we are to control this pandemic, we must recognize the urgent need to develop and deploy better prevention tools and, most important, a safe and effective HIV vaccine.

Among the most exciting developments the delegates will hear about this year are a series of recent advances that collectively represent a renaissance in HIV vaccine development. These include the first demonstration of protection — albeit modest protection — against HIV infection in humans through immunization, with a vaccine regimen consisting of a canary-pox–vector prime plus a protein-subunit boost in the RV144 trial in Thailand,1 new vaccine approaches that have significantly improved control of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection in rhesus monkeys and are now advancing to clinical trials, and the identification of novel potent and broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against HIV that have revealed vulnerable targets on the virus that are now being exploited for vaccine design2,3 (see diagram). In fact, just last week, a team of scientists from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases published new findings that identified the latest of these broadly neutralizing antibodies and the structural basis for its broad and potent neutralization of HIV.3

Figure 1
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Vulnerable Targets for Potential Vaccines on the Trimeric HIV Envelope Spike Glycoproteins (gp120 and gp41).

Broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies have been identified that target the CD4 binding site (b12, VRC01, HJ16) on glycoprotein 120 (gp120), the membrane proximal external region (MPER) (2F5, 4E10, Z13e1) of gp41, the glycan shield (2G12), and epitopes that reside in the variable loops 1, 2, and 3 on gp120 (PG9, PG16).


Building on this progress, HIV vaccine developers in the coming era will pursue three tracks. In the short term, efforts will focus on broadening the limited protection observed in the RV144 efficacy trial, including studies aimed at elucidating the immune correlates of protection. By 2013, trials should be under way to evaluate vaccine candidates related to the RV144 vaccine. Data should also be emerging from an ongoing phase 2B test-of-concept trial assessing a regimen consisting of a DNA prime plus an adenovirus serotype 5 vector boost. By then, heterologous prime–boost regimens of different adenovirus vectors containing mosaic antigens aimed at overcoming HIV's genetic diversity will also have advanced to clinical trials, and they will reach phase 2B trials if warranted by the initial data on safety and immunogenicity.

In the midterm, efforts in clinical trials will focus on prioritizing and advancing novel vaccine candidates based on replicating viral vectors and additional regimens consisting of heterologous vector primes and vector or subunit boosts. Developers of these vaccine candidates will attempt to achieve the robust efficacy demonstrated by live attenuated SIV vaccines in nonhuman primates (in which infection has been either prevented or controlled with viral loads suppressed to undetectable levels), while making their vaccines safe enough for human use.

For the long term, many researchers are focused on designing vaccine candidates that can elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV to maximize the potential for prevention of infection. Preclinical studies of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies in nonhuman primates have provided proof of the principle that such antibodies are capable of conferring protection.4 Moreover, analysis of HIV isolates susceptible to neutralization by these antibodies suggests that a combination of two of these new and more potent antibodies that target complementary sites on the HIV spike protein would be expected to neutralize more than 95% of globally diverse isolates of HIV. Large-scale efforts are now focused on dissecting these antibodies' binding sites on HIV and then reverse-engineering immunogens capable of eliciting antibodies with similar potency and breadth of neutralization. Recently, a team of researchers at Merck provided proof of the underlying principle by showing that they could identify an immunogen starting from an HIV-specific antibody.5

These recent advances indicate that the increased investments in AIDS vaccine research over the past decade are now paying off. Unfortunately, the global financial crisis has resulted in a decrease of approximately 10% in investments in HIV vaccine research and development, according to the HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group. But this is not the time to slow the effort. Creating an effective HIV vaccine will require continued scientific innovation on the part of both academia and the biotechnology industry, long-term commitments of stable and flexible funding from donors, contributions from the best and brightest young scientists, continued engagement of communities in the developing world where efficacy trials will be undertaken, and partnership with the vaccine industry for advanced development and deployment of a vaccine. Fully capitalizing on the recent developments in the HIV vaccine field will help to ensure that we have the requisite tools for prevention, making it possible for discussions at future international AIDS conferences to focus on how we are winning the war against HIV.

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org.


Source Information

From the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, New York.

This article (10.1056/NEJMp1007629) was published on July 14, 2010, and updated on July 15, 2010, at NEJM.org.

References

  1. Rerks-Ngarm S, Pitisuttithum P, Nitayaphan S, et al. Vaccination with ALVAC and AIDSVAX to prevent HIV-1 infection in Thailand. N Engl J Med 2009;361:2209-2220. [Free Full Text]
  2. Walker LM, Phogat SK, Chan-Hui PY, et al. Broad and potent neutralizing antibodies from an African donor reveal a new HIV-1 vaccine target. Science 2009;326:285-289. [Free Full Text]
  3. Zhou, T. Georgiev, I, Wu X et al. Structural basis for the broad and potent neutralization of HIV-1 by antibody VRC01. Science 2010 July 8 (Epub ahead of print).
  4. Hessell AJ, Rakasz EG, Tehrani DM, et al. Broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies 2F5 and 4E10 directed against the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gp41 membrane-proximal external region protect against mucosal challenge by simian-human immunodeficiency virus SHIVBa-L. J Virol 2010;84:1302-1313. [Free Full Text]
  5. Bianchi E, Joyce JG, Miller MD, et al. Vaccination with peptide mimetics of the gp41 prehairpin fusion intermediate yields neutralizing antisera against HIV-1 isolates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2010;107:10655-10660. [Free Full Text]


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quarta-feira, 21 de julho de 2010

Estudante do LASP defende tese


GeoTagged, [S12.99289, E38.52416]

Filpe defende sua tese hoje dia 21, Veja cartaz ao lado. Compareçam e prestigiam

Só os fortes sobrevivem



Acesse o artigo na integra

Neste artigo com título chamativo revela um pouco mais sobre mecanismos de apoptose


Whether apoptosis is relevant for interclonal competition of T cells after antigen encounter has remained uncertain. In this issue of Immunity, Wensveen et al. (2010) establish a critical role for the proapoptotic BH3-only protein Noxa in this selection

Acesse o artigo em pdf copiando o endereço abaixo e colando no seu browser

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6WSP-50CMMYF-2-4&_cdi=7052&_user=686342&_pii=S107476131000213X&_coverDate=06%2F25%2F2010&_sk=%23TOC%237052%232010%23999679993%232179734%23FLA%23display%23Volume_32,_Issue_6,_Pages_727-862_(25_June_2010)%23tagged%23Volume%23first%3D32%23Issue%23first%3D6%23date%23(25_June_2010)%23&view=c&_gw=y&wchp=dGLbVzz-zSkzk&md5=aa7acd8a19bb7d1fc2bea979522e2546&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

quinta-feira, 15 de julho de 2010

Capes divulga os países que acessam artigos brasileiros

EUA e Índia são os que mais acessam artigos brasileiros por meio de acesso livre
Publicada por Assessoria de Imprensa da Capes
Quinta, 15 de Julho de 2010 17:45

Estados Unidos e Índia são os dois países que mais acessam artigos brasileiros por meio de acesso livre. Resultado da parceria entre a Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes), no âmbito do Portal de Periódicos, e a editora holandesa Elsevier, que possibilita a consulta livre, em todo o mundo, dos artigos científicos escritos por pesquisadores brasileiros em periódicos da editora.
Em uma análise dos registros durante o mês de abril, do total de 94 downloads de artigos brasileiros, feitos por 32 países, 24% foram realizados pelos Estados Unidos (EUA) e 19% pela Índia. Em seguida, estão China (10%), Afeganistão (5%) e México (4%). As informações são da editora Elsevier. Veja mais detalhes no gráfico abaixo.

Fonte: Elsevier

Desde janeiro, quando um autor submete um manuscrito para publicação em um periódico da editora, ele tem a opção de escolher se o artigo pode ou não ter seu acesso liberado. Para isso, é necessário que ele esteja afiliado a uma instituição de ensino e pesquisa brasileira e que tenha seu trabalho financiado com verbas públicas. A Capes é a responsável por indicar quais artigos ficarão disponíveis para consulta. A liberação acontece após um período, que varia conforme a área do conhecimento da pesquisa publicada.

A parceria busca aumentar ainda mais a visibilidade da produção científica brasileira, já que os artigos ficam disponíveis inclusive para pesquisadores e instituições que não têm acesso ao Portal de Periódicos.
Elsevier
A Elsevier é uma das mais antigas editoras do mundo, líder global em publicações de saúde, ciência e tecnologia. Com sede em Amsterdam, na Holanda, a editora possui mais de sete mil funcionários em 77 escritórios de 24 países, atendendo a uma comunidade de 30 milhões de cientistas, estudantes e profissionais de informação e saúde em todo o mundo.
Ao todo, a Elsevier publica mais de dois mil periódicos e 1.900 novos livros por ano, além de oferecer produtos eletrônicos inovadores, como o ScienceDirect, o Scopus e o MD Consult, entre outros.

terça-feira, 13 de julho de 2010

Redução da pobreza diz IPEA


GeoTagged, [S13.00056, E38.52923]

No gráfico acima houve redução da pobreza

Em 13 anos, 12,8 milhões saíram da pobreza absoluta, mostra Ipea
Taxa de pobreza absoluta caiu de 43,4% em 1995 para 28,8% em 2008.
Distribuição de renda só registrou piora no Distrito Federal.

Quase 13 milhões de brasileiros saíram da pobreza absoluta entre 1995 e 2008, segundo levantamento do Instituto Brasileiro de Pesquisas Econômicas (Ipea). Com isso, essa faixa, que considera famílias com rendimento médio por pessoa de até meio salário mínimo mensal, recuou de 43,4% para 28,8% do total da população no período.
De acordo com o Ipea, a pesquisa abrange os primeiros anos da estabilidade monetária, de 1995 a 2008, período que corresponde aos governos dos presidentes Fernando Henrique Cardoso e Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A maior queda foi verificada na região Sul, onde a porcentagem da população em pobreza absoluta recuou 47,1%, de 34% para 13% do total. Com isso, a região ultrapassou o Sudeste como detentora do melhor indicador – no conjunto dos quatro estados desta região, a população em pobreza absoluta recuou de 29,9% para 19,5% do total.


Na região Nordeste, houve queda de 28,8% na taxa de pobreza absoluta. Ainda assim, 49,7% da população local vivia, em 2008, com até meio salário mínimo mensal – em 1995, essa porcentagem era de 69,8%.
Pobreza extrema
Também de 1995 a 2008, saíram da pobreza extrema – caracterizada pelo rendimento médio domiciliar per capita de até um quarto de salário mínimo por mês – 12,1 milhões de brasileiros, reduzindo quase à metade a taxa de pessoas nessas condições, de 20,9% para 10,5%.
A melhora mais significativa na taxa de pobreza extrema também foi registrada na região Sul, onde o indicador recuou 59,6%, de 13,6% para 5,5% - também a menor entre as regiões pesquisadas.

No Nordeste, a pobreza extrema recuou 40,4% em 13 anos. A queda, no entanto, não foi suficiente para tirar da região a maior taxa de pobreza extrema, de 24,5% em 2008. Em 1995, A proporção da população que vivia com até um quarto de salário mínimo era de 41,8%.
Nos estados
Quando considerados os estados, as maiores reduções nas taxas de pobreza nos anos analisados foram vistas em Santa Catarina (61,4%), Paraná (52,2%) e Goiás (47,3%). Por outro lado, os estados com menor diminuição acumulada na taxa de pobreza absoluta foram: Amapá (12,0%), Distrito Federal (18,2%) e Alagoas (18,3%).
saiba mais
Brasil poderá acabar com 'pobreza extrema' em 2016, diz Ipea
Em 2008, Alagoas foi o estado que registrou a maior taxa de pobreza absoluta (56,6%), seguido do Maranhão (55,9%) e Piauí (52,9%). Em 1995, os três estados com maior taxa de pobreza absoluta eram Maranhão (77,8%), Piauí (75,7%) e Ceará (70,3%).
Para o mesmo ano (1995), os estados com menor taxa de pobreza absoluta eram São Paulo (20,7%), Distrito Federal (23,6%) e Santa Catarina (29,8%). Treze anos depois (2008), os estados com menor taxa de pobreza absoluta foram Santa Catarina (11,5%), São Paulo (12,8%) e Rio de Janeiro (18,2%).
Em relação à taxa de pobreza extrema, Maranhão (53,1%), Piauí (46,8%) e Ceará (43,7%) eram os estados com maior proporção de miseráveis no país em 1995. Treze anos depois, Alagoas foi o estado da federação com a maior taxa de pobreza extrema (32,3%), seguido do Maranhão (27,2%) e do Piauí (26,1%).
Na outra ponta, os estados com menor taxa de pobreza extrema em 2008, de acordo com o Ipea, eram Santa Catariana (2,8%), São Paulo (4,6%) e Paraná (5,7%). Em 1995, os estados que registravam menor taxa de pobreza extrema eram São Paulo (7,1%), Distrito Federal (8,8%) e Rio de Janeiro (9,9%).

Desigualdade de renda
De 1995 a 2008, apenas o Distrito Federal registrou piora na desigualdade de renda. O índice de Gini do DF passou de 0,58 para 0,62 no período – neste indicador, quanto mais próximo de 1, maior a desigualdade registrada. Com a elevação, o Distrito Federal passou a ter a maior desigualdade de renda do país, seguida por Alagoas e Paraíba, ambos com 0,58.
No estado de São Paulo, que em 1995 apresentava a melhor distribuição de renda do país, com índice de Gini em 0,53, houve melhora em 2008, para 0,50. Houve melhoras mais acentuadas, no entanto, no Amapá, para 0,45, Santa Catarina (0,46) e Rondônia (0,48), estados que, em 2008, ultrapassaram São Paulo no ranking.
Trajetória da pobreza
O Ipea projeta que, em 2016, o país terá superado a miséria (pobreza extrema) e reduzido a 4% a taxa nacional de pobreza absoluta.
“Mas para que essa projeção se torne realidade, os estados terão de apresentar ritmos diferenciados de redução na miséria, uma vez que registram enorme assimetria nas taxas atuais de pobrezas extremas, como se pode observar entre Alagoas (32,3%) e Santa Catarina (2,8%)”, diz o instituto em nota.
Pelas projeções do Ipea, Santa Catarina e Paraná devem ser os primeiros estados da federação a superar a miséria, já em 2012, seguidos de Goiás, Espírito Santo e Minas Gerais, em 2013. Para o ano de 2014, poderá ser a vez dos estados de São Paulo e Mato Grosso superarem a pobreza extrema, assim como Tocantins, Rio Grande do Sul e Mato Grosso do Sul, em 2015.


Dados extraidos do G1.com.br originais publicados pelo IPEA

segunda-feira, 12 de julho de 2010

Sessão Cientifica nesta quinta



Nesta quinta feira 15 de Julho as 8.30 h no auditório Lasp as estudantes da Univ Berkeley Tianyi e Lisa (foto) apresentarão resultados de seus projetos de colaboração - Detecção de anticorpos ant lipídeos no diagnostico da tuberculose

domingo, 11 de julho de 2010

Espanhã campeã



España es el campeón del mundo del fútbol en 2010.

¡Felicidades

merecido

Imapcto Científico e Artimanhas

Por várias razões a valorização somente do impacto de uma revista ou artigo vem sendo questionada. Comparação de áreas diferentes do conhecimento etc, mas que o impacto de uma revista pode ser aumentado por estratégias que previamente combinadas por cientistas e editores causam mais preocupa¸ão e necessidade de discussão pelos órgãos avaliadores.
Vejam artigo da Folha de São Paulo de hoje (11.7.2010)

Artimanhas inflam produção científica


Pesquisadores e revistas científicas criam estratégias para elevar artificialmente o impacto de seus trabalhos

Criticado por cientistas, fator de impacto é o principal critério do governo para avaliar produção científica


SABINE RIGHETTI
COLABORAÇÃO PARA A FOLHA

Quando o professor de ciências farmacêuticas da Universidade Federal da Paraíba, José Maria Barbosa Filho, assumiu a editoria da Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia, em 2005, começou uma espécie de revolução. Até então desconhecida, a revista foi inserida em bases científicas nacionais e internacionais e ganhou posições de causar inveja em rankings de publicações.
O segredo está no que ele chamou de "trabalho de garimpagem": o próprio editor convidou pesquisadores para publicarem seus trabalhos e recomendou que eles citassem artigos da própria revista em seus trabalhos. A história é um exemplo do que os editores de publicações científicas fazem para aumentar o fator de impacto (FI) de suas publicações.
O FI é o principal critério utilizado pela Capes (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) para avaliar a produção científica. O sistema criado em 1998 para fazer essa avaliação, o Qualis, tem sofrido críticas da academia. Segundo os cientistas, o Qualis prejudica as publicações nacionais, já que essas revistas não têm como concorrer com o FI (índice baseado no número vezes que um artigo é citado por outros) de publicações internacionais. Como estas têm mais citações e, em muitos casos, mais prestígio no meio acadêmico, os pesquisadores brasileiros preferem publicar seus trabalhos fora do país.
"Os brasileiros citam pouco os trabalhos daqui e publicam os melhores artigos fora do país. A autocitação deve ser estimulada e isso não é ilegal", afirmou Barbosa Filho à Folha.

MAQUIAGEM
A criatividade de Barbosa Filho para inflar a posição de sua revista no ranking do Qualis não é única (veja quadro abaixo). Segundo o professor da UnB Marcelo Hermes-Lima, elas derivam da política da Capes que avalia qualidade de produção científica por meio de números.
"Ficam de fora do Qualis critérios como análise de citações por região (que consideram as citações por Estado ou país)", diz Bruno Caramelli, professor da USP e editor da Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira. Caramelli integra um grupo de editores científicos que recentemente enviou um e-mail à Capes solicitando revisão dos critérios do Qualis.
"Não acredito na extinção das revistas científicas nacionais. Mas se os cientistas continuarem preferindo as internacionais, ficaremos numa situação complicada", analisa o médico.

BRASILEIRAS
A Capes diz que não há problemas em avaliar a produção científica pelas citações. "O fator de impacto é uma metodologia consolidada nas últimas quatro décadas", afirma Lívio Amaral, diretor da Avaliação Científica da instituição. Segundo ele, a política da Capes é manter o apoio às revistas brasileiras."Todos os países com desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico têm as suas revistas. Na Europa há revistas com 200 anos." Juntos, Capes e CNPq distribuem cerca de R$ 5 milhões por ano para 188 revistas científicas nacionais. Quanto melhor classificada no ranking Qualis, maior é o montante de dinheiro que a revista científica recebe das instituições de apoio.

sábado, 10 de julho de 2010

Vacina para HIV

A revista publicou sobre vacina contra HIV
AIDS Vaccine: What Promise Do HIV Antibodies Hold?


In the continuing search for the Achilles heel of HIV, researchers may finally be enjoying some success.

This week, government researchers at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) reported the discovery of two naturally occurring antibodies that may block HIV. Describing their work in two separate papers in the journal Science, AIDS experts said that in lab experiments, the antibodies had successfully prevented more than 90% of circulating HIV strains from infecting human cells.

This is not the first discovery of so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies. Last September, scientists at Scripps Research Institute and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) identified two other antibodies that prevent against infection from 80% of existing HIV strains — the most potent known antibodies at the time. The findings were also published in Science.
(See pictures from an X-ray studio.)
The two sets of antibodies target different regions of the virus-cell interface — together they could help scientists develop a formidable vaccine against AIDS, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID. "The strategy is going to be to put the best antibodies together, and you are going to have a whopper against HIV," he says.

Antibodies are the first-line soldiers of the immune system. Produced by specialized cells in the body that recognize incoming viruses and bacteria, antibodies act as molecular barricades, latching onto and blocking pathogens from infecting healthy cells. This antibody response is the core of all vaccine-based disease prevention.

But HIV is notoriously changeable. The virus continuously alters the makeup of the proteins on its surface, eluding attack from antibodies created by the immune system and from the relatively weak vaccines that have been developed against the virus so far.

The two new antibodies described in the current Science paper work by blocking a protein on the surface of HIV that the virus normally uses like a key to access healthy cells. This key, which tends to remain constant across most strains of the virus, binds to an entry point on a healthy cell surface, called the CD4 receptor site. When antibodies attach to this region of HIV, it cannot interact with CD4 or get inside a host cell.

Because this particular site on HIV is so crucial and rarely mutates, the virus keeps it jealously hidden under convoluted folds of its protein coat, which makes most antibodies designed to latch onto it ineffective. Certain individuals, however, generate antibodies that recognize and bind to the site more easily, so when they are infected with HIV, they are able to fight off infection.
(See TIME's special report "How to Live 100 Years.")
NIAID scientists identified the new antibodies by screening the blood of one HIV-infected African American patient who produced them naturally. By lifting the obstructive protein covering that HIV uses to guard its CD4-binding site, and isolating only those antibodies that were tailor-made to attach to this gate, scientists zeroed in on just two antibodies that were able to neutralize an unprecedented 90% of circulating HIV strains.

Previous experiments on CD4 have identified other naturally occurring antibodies. But these were effective against only 40% to 50% of HIV strains in tests in the lab because they were less precisely targeted, acting on a combination of the actual binding site and the virus's surrounding protein coat.

In the 2009 study led by Dennis Burton of Scripps Research Institute, scientists focused on a different type of antibody involved in the actual process of viral entry. In order to infect a cell once HIV finds an entry point, the virus changes shape, folding itself into a form that allows it to slip inside the healthy cell. Burton's antibodies interrupt that action, blocking about 80% of circulating HIV strains from taking the shape necessary for infection. However, Burton says he and his team are still figuring out exactly how the process works.

Taken together, the recent discoveries boost the prospect of using broadly neutralizing antibodies as the backbone of an HIV vaccine, experts say. In Burton's study, the antibodies were isolated from a blood sample from Africa; in the current study, the antibodies cam from an African American man. In each case, the patients were infected with a different strain of HIV. That's important, Burton says, because it confirms that effective antibodies can be produced by people on different continents carrying different strains of the virus. "The more you see different people making antibodies, the more relaxed you become that different people can do it, and therefore given the right vaccine, that more people can make antibodies against HIV," he says.

So far, the newly discovered antibodies have been tested only in a lab dish. But Burton says he is a few months from beginning animal studies to determine whether his antibodies can prevent HIV infection in a living system as well they do in the lab.

Experts remain hopeful that this line of work will someday lead to the development of an AIDS vaccine than can be tested in humans. "I can guarantee that you're not going to get a vaccine unless you get good antibodies," says Fauci.

Innovation and education improve health in Rio's favelas

Tanto em educação como em saúde alguns programas localizados no Brasil tem dado bons resultados. Veja esse artigo publicado no Lancet





Access to health care in Brazil's favelas is poor, but several innovative projects in Rio de Janeiro are starting to improve the situation. Sharmila Devi reports.
Nanko van Buuren rushed back to the head office of the Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Social Healthcare, the non-profit group he started in 1989 that is best known by its Portuguese acronym of Ibiss. But his waiting colleagues are long-used to the erratic time-keeping of this tall Dutchman, whom the street children of Rio de Janeiro's favelas or slums call Paitrao, which combines the Portuguese words for father and boss. On this warm afternoon in mid-April, he was delayed because he had been touring some Ibiss projects with a delegation from Success for Kids, an educational charity backed by Madonna, the latest high-profile celebrity who wanted to tackle the entrenched poverty in the favelas. “Madonna called me personally last week to talk about how they can adapt Success for Kids to our own situation”, said van Burren. “They will have to adapt it because a lot of kids here are running around with guns because of organised crime and the drugs trade.”
Ibiss has grown into one of Rio de Janeiro's best-known non-governmental organisations through its many projects aimed at helping the city's most economically and socially excluded people. Since the beginning, its model has been to go into the favelas and ask the residents themselves not just what they need, but how they would organise it. If the programme is successful, Ibiss then lobbies the government to adopt it on a wider scale. Successful initiatives include leprosy-awareness programmes, helping children to leave or to avoid the drug gangs using football and music, and training favela residents to become community health-care workers. Ibiss has grown from just van Buuren and a handful of Brazilian staff to some 600 employees, mostly locally trained Brazilians, who work on about 62 projects.
Brazil will host the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 and the government has promised to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure and security to ensure safety and enjoyment for the influx of international visitors. In Rio de Janeiro, a city of about 6 million people, the 1 million residents of some 1000 favelas hope they will benefit from the largesse too. Long neglected by government agencies, they have relied on their own efforts and the help of groups such as Ibiss to ensure access to basic health care and other services, such as electricity or waste collection.
The death toll from gun battles in the favelas between drug gangs, security forces and unofficial police militias is huge considering there is no actual insurgency or civil war. The UN has estimated the police murder three people a day on average in Rio de Janeiro, making them responsible for one in five killings in the city. Populated mostly by economic migrants from the north-east of Brazil, and caught between the drug gangs and the police, the favelas lack systematic access to the health-care system. There are high rates of tuberculosis and maternal and child mortality. Children are particularly vulnerable to diseases that spread in unsanitary conditions. Meanwhile, many Brazilian doctors and nurses are lured by higher salaries to the private sector.
Brazil accounts for about 17% of worldwide cases of leprosy, second only to India, which has about 54% of cases. The spread of leprosy is for the most part a consequence of migration to the favelas, since patients from rural areas often interrupt their 12—18 month course of treatment when they move to Rio's favelas, said Nancy Torres, an Ibiss health worker who helps to organise self-treatment groups. Ibiss also worked with the producers of a popular telenovela, or TV soap opera, to introduce a character with leprosy to help erode its social stigma.


Full-size image (75K) Getty ImagesDownload to PowerPoint
Incursions by heavily armed police are a regular feature of life in the favelas
Brazil does have one of the developing world's best programmes to combat HIV/AIDS, thanks in part to legislation guaranteeing universal access to antiretroviral treatments and the government's authorisation to local companies to produce the drugs without the consent of the patent-holder. But Joseph Amon, director of health and human rights at Human Rights Watch, said issues such as the treatment of drug dependency and the deinstitutionalisation of psychiatric care are still in need of urgent reform. Brazil is one of at least 115 countries that recognises a constitutional right to health. “We're just starting to see the start of advocacy efforts by the government, which needs to give meaning to the constitutional right to healthcare”, he said.
Some favelas have achieved progress in basic sanitation, education and roads. But many others are no-go areas for outsiders, including health workers and local journalists. Heavily armed police making a raid on drug gangs are often the only visitors. Even the more developed favelas provide a stark contrast to rich areas of Rio de Janeiro, such as Ipanema and Copacabana. The wealthiest 10% in Brazil are thought to control about 50% of the country's wealth.
van Buuren, a former WHO psychiatrist, first ventured into the favelas more than 20 years ago, building up trust with the heavily armed drug lords who rule by fear. “It's now very easy for us to do our work because we are very well-known in the slums, especially by the bosses of organised crime,” he said. “It took years of building up confidence. One of the main reasons is that I can't look at people as just criminals or murderers. I ask how are the kids and the man thinks not as a drugs boss but as the father of his children and he's proud to explain. If you are afraid when you talk to the boss, he smells that you're afraid and you're treated in that way.”
van Buuren now speaks better Portuguese than English, having fallen in love with Brazil and its people. Before moving to Brazil, he developed programmes to deliver psychiatric care to the homeless, immigrants, and other hard-to-reach populations in his native Netherlands. For WHO, he helped to train health professionals to cope with disaster and conflict situations. He said Brazilians thought he was crazy when he started Ibiss, with its ethos of enlisting people in the favelas to help to formulate solutions to their problems. “What is funny about Brazil is that people are very open. They looked at us and said you're crazy but go ahead if you want to do it”, he said. “In Holland, they've already created so many obstacles that you can't even start to experiment.”
Ibiss ran into strong opposition when it began distributing condoms, including among street children, but condom distribution is now routine in Brazil. “The church and other groups wanted to think that children had no sexuality and I don't know how they combined that thinking with young girls getting pregnant”, he said. One of Ibiss's biggest successes is its community health-care training programme, which has since been adopted by the Brazilian Government following strong advocacy by Ibiss. There are now more than 3000 health posts all over Brazil.
“In the early 1990s, we saw how the public health system didn't enter the slums”, he said. “So we took people, mostly women, from the slums and gave them training, one-and-a-half days a week for nine months, in the early detection of diseases, how to seek treatment and how to get a prescription.” He said the women felt greatly empowered. “Many would ask after they had referred someone to a medical post about the final diagnosis and they would feel incredibly proud when they found out they were right in their initial diagnosis.”
Brazil is also a source country for the international trafficking of people. The government is being urged, like that of South Africa before it hosted this summer's soccer World Cup, to adopt stricter measures so that offenders are brought to justice. According to the UN, over 75 000 Brazilian women are being sexually exploited in Europe. Rio de Janeiro is seen as one of the principal points of departure for these women to leave the country. Ibiss works on the streets with male and female prostitutes and transvestites and tries to map where and how people are gathered in the better-known areas of prostitution in Rio de Janeiro.
Security remains of paramount concern. The Brazilian Government has now embarked on a pacification programme in which police enter and stay in a favela to enforce law and order. Seven favelas have been occupied so far and dozens more occupations are planned in the run-up to the World Cup and Olympics.
Van Buuren fears the programme could become a victim of its own success, with favela residents selling their homes for a quick profit but unable to survive for long in new shantytowns further out of town. “Pacification has to include incentives for companies to settle in these areas and create jobs or else poor people will lose out.”

Site sobre Tb


Recomendo o site

http://www.tbevidence.org/

quarta-feira, 7 de julho de 2010

Células B e aterosclerose

B cell depletion reduces the development of atherosclerosis in mice

Hafid Ait-Oufella1,2, Olivier Herbin1, Jean-David Bouaziz3,4, Christoph J. Binder5,6, Catherine Uyttenhove7,8, Ludivine Laurans1, Soraya Taleb1, Emily Van Vré1, Bruno Esposito1, José Vilar1, Jérôme Sirvent1, Jacques Van Snick7,8, Alain Tedgui1, Thomas F. Tedder3, and Ziad Mallat1,9
+ Author Affiliations
1Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Unit 970, Paris Cardiovascular Research Center, 75015 Paris, France
2Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Saint-Antoine Hospital, 75012 Paris, France
3Department of Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710
4INSERM, Unit 976, Skin Research Center, Saint Louis Hospital, 75475 Paris, France
5Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and 6Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
7Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and 8Cellular Genetics Unit, Université de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
9Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, England, UK
CORRESPONDENCE Ziad Mallat: ziad.mallat@inserm.fr OR zm255@medschl.cam.ac.uk
H. Ait-Oufella and O. Herbin contributed equally to this paper.
ABSTRACT

B cell depletion significantly reduces the burden of several immune-mediated diseases. However, B cell activation has been until now associated with a protection against atherosclerosis, suggesting that B cell–depleting therapies would enhance cardiovascular risk. We unexpectedly show that mature B cell depletion using a CD20-specific monoclonal antibody induces a significant reduction of atherosclerosis in various mouse models of the disease. This treatment preserves the production of natural and potentially protective anti–oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) IgM autoantibodies over IgG type anti-oxLDL antibodies, and markedly reduces pathogenic T cell activation. B cell depletion diminished T cell–derived IFN-γ secretion and enhanced production of IL-17; neutralization of the latter abrogated CD20 antibody–mediated atheroprotection. These results challenge the current paradigm that B cell activation plays an overall protective role in atherogenesis and identify new antiatherogenic strategies based on B cell modulation.

Acesse o artigo em pdf
http://jem.rupress.org/content/early/2010/06/30/jem.20100155.full.pdf

Blogs científicos tem algum papel


GeoTagged, [S13.00857, E38.50906]

No caso dos blogs locais de divulgação de atividades são interessantes, mas as informações vinculadas e comentadas são levadas a sério pelos cientistas?

Veja reportagem da Nature
NATURE | EDITORIAL

When blogs make sense

Nature 466, 8 (01 July 2010) doi:10.1038/466008a
Published online 30 June 2010
Biologists and astronomers approach data sharing differently, but both need better public outreach.


Astronomers are busier than ever: “I look at our students and ... there's less understanding and more rushing ... we're caught up in this rat race and I don't know what we're chasing.” Biologists too: “Technology has made me one of the most highly paid, under-talented secretaries on campus. I have to do a lot more than I've ever had to do before, badly.”

These quotes come from Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication (http://go.nature.com/6Y4b1g), a survey of 160 academics published earlier this year by Diane Harley and her colleagues in the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California, Berkeley. The quotes are representative of academic scientists these days, thanks not least to the unrelenting pressure to publish.

In the two major scientific disciplines covered by the study — biology and astronomy — peer-reviewed publications continue to be the primary markers of academic achievement. But the survey also found regrettable disparities between the two disciplines in less-formal peer-to-peer communication. The astronomy community effectively publishes by preprint. The process of formal publication is seen as a necessary step for the record, and formal peer review adds some value. But the preprint server http://arXiv.org is a highly trusted forum by which one can deposit the original version of a paper, thereby logging one's priority in a competitive area, and also receive private comments by e-mail that can complement the formal peer-review process. Respondents judge the level of error in astronomy preprints to be low.

Biologists tend to avoid such open sharing of first drafts. They acknowledge that the vastness of their community and its acute competitiveness make them reluctant to act in such a trusting fashion. That's regrettable, because it seems from astronomers' accounts that open sharing on preprint servers improves the standards of the literature.

But deposition in arXiv is about as far as the scientific openness of even astronomers goes. The discussion that ensues is private. As Nature's experiment in open peer review showed (http://go.nature.com/N67mFk), and as can be seen from the lack of commenting on papers in Nature and other journals that encourage it, researchers see little to be gained from open discourse before or after publication. Not only are they busy, as the above quotes attest, but there's no credit to be gained, and some risk if one makes an erroneous or critical statement in public. What is more, astronomers and biologists register active discouragement of blogging — a form of communication that in their eyes carries no stamp of reliability or prestige. That picture of resistance to interactive discussion of science on the Internet is further amplified in a new survey, If You Build It, Will They Come? How Researchers Perceive and Use Web 2.0, to be published later this month by the UK Research Information Network.

However, the astronomers and biologists interviewed in the CSHE survey expressed strong support for outreach and engagement, stating that they enjoyed giving public talks and contributing opinions to mass media. Here, surely, is an opportunity for blogging — or at least, for consistently displaying one's research in a comprehensible fashion on a lab website — to acquire value and peer recognition.

Institutions need to recognize and to encourage such outreach explicitly — not just as a matter of routine, but specifically highlighting and promoting it at times of relevant public debate or when the interests and voices of scientists need to be promoted. Web 2.0 doesn't yet have what it takes to add significant value to open academic discourse, but it can surely make a difference to the public accessibility of science.

terça-feira, 6 de julho de 2010

Avaliação Educação Básica

Embora tenhamos muito para melhorar, mas já é bom sinal os resultados apontados pelo IDEB

A qualidade da educação no Brasil avançou mais. O índice de desenvolvimento da educação básica (Ideb) do país cresceu em todas as etapas de ensino entre 2007 e 2009. No ensino fundamental, o indicador superou as metas propostas para o período e alcançou as de 2011. “O fantasma da queda de qualidade está ficando para trás”, disse o ministro da Educação, Fernando Haddad, durante a divulgação dos dados, nesta quinta-feira, 1º.

Nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental, o Ideb subiu para 4,6 em 2009. A nota proposta para o período era 4,2 – índice já registrado na aferição de 2007. Nos anos finais, o indicador foi para 4,0 pontos, superando a meta de 3,7 para o ano. O mesmo ocorreu no ensino médio, que obteve índice de 3,6. O objetivo era registrar pelo menos 3,5 nessa etapa de ensino no período.

Haddad considera normal que a melhora no índice seja proporcionalmente maior nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental. “Vínhamos de um período de recessão educacional, de queda de proficiência. Quando a educação começa a melhorar, é como uma onda; a arrancada mais forte se dá nos anos iniciais e se propaga, ao longo do tempo, nos finais e no ensino médio.”

O Ideb foi criado em 2005, como parte do Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação (PDE), para medir a qualidade de cada escola e de cada rede de ensino. O índice utiliza escala de zero a dez pontos e é medido a cada dois anos. O objetivo é que o país, a partir do alcance das metas municipais e estaduais, chegue à nota seis em 2021 – correspondente à qualidade do ensino em países desenvolvidos.

“O Brasil está numa trajetória ascendente e consistente pelo quarto ano consecutivo. Ainda estamos distantes da meta de 2021, mas com a esperança renovada de que será alcançada”, afirmou Haddad. Entre os fatores que influenciam na melhoria da qualidade da educação, segundo o ministro, estão as ações que compõem o PDE – da creche à pós-graduação – e a mobilização natural das redes e escolas a favor do cumprimento das metas do Ideb estabelecidas para cada uma.

No indicador estão reunidos dois conceitos fundamentais para a qualidade da educação: o fluxo escolar (taxas de aprovação, reprovação e evasão obtidas no censo da educação básica) e as médias de desempenho nas avaliações Prova Brasil e Sistema Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Básica (Saeb).

A Prova Brasil é um teste de leitura e matemática para turmas de quarta e oitava séries (ou quinto e nono anos) do ensino fundamental. Os alunos do ensino médio fazem o Saeb, avaliação por amostra, que também avalia habilidades em língua portuguesa e matemática. No ano passado, as avaliações foram aplicadas a 2,5 milhões de alunos da quarta série (quinto ano), 2 milhões da oitava série (nono ano) e 56 mil do ensino médio.

Os dados divulgados nesta quarta-feira mostram que o desempenho dos estudantes nas avaliações foi o que mais pesou na composição do Ideb de 2009. Nos anos iniciais, por exemplo, foi responsável por 71% da composição da nota. Já no ensino médio, embora o desempenho tenha sido responsável pela maior parte da nota, a taxa de rendimento subiu em relação a 2007; teve 42% de importância no índice, comparado aos 29% da medição anterior.

quinta-feira, 1 de julho de 2010

Médicos pedem para parar financiamentos para Homeopatia


GeoTagged, [S23.62628, E46.68759]

Sempre houve controvérsia sobre a eficiência da terapia homeopática, mas mesmo assim havia ainda financiamentos para pesquisas nessa área. Agora médicos sua interrupção
Veja reportagem

Doctors call for NHS to stop funding homeopathy

Homeopathic remedies often contain few or no active ingredients. The NHS should stop funding homeopathy and it should no longer be marketed as a medicine in pharmacies, doctors say.
Medics voted on the issue at the British Medical Association's annual conference in Brighton.
They dismissed the highly-diluted remedies as "nonsense" and potentially harmful to patients as it can lead them to shunning conventional medicines.
The Department of Health homeopathy said treatment was under review.
Homeopathy is a 200-year-old system of treatment that uses highly diluted substances.
In some cases none of the original product is left. It is given orally in the belief that it will stimulate the body's self-healing mechanism.
The NHS is thought to spend about £4m a year on the treatment, helping to fund four dedicated homeopathic hospitals and numerous prescriptions.
Dr Mary McCarthy, a GP from Shropshire, said there was no evidence from hundreds of trials that homeopathy worked beyond the placebo effect - in which a patient gets better but only because they believe the treatment will work and their symptoms clear up because of the psychological boost.
She added: "It can do harm by diverting patients from conventional medical treatments."
Watery science
She was supported in the debate by a number of other doctors, despite dozens of supporters of the treatment gathering outside the conference centre urging them not to.
Dr Tom Dolphin, a member of the BMA's junior doctors committee, dismissed it as "nonsense on stilts".

WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY?

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Involves giving people very dilute amounts of a substance that in larger amounts might produce symptoms similar to the condition being treated
For example, one remedy which might be used in a person suffering from insomnia would be made from coffee
Supporters believe homeopathy helps relieve a range of minor ailments from bruising to insomnia
But critics say it is no better than sugar pills and people only get better because they believe the treatment will work - the so-called placebo effect
"We risk as a society slipping back into a state of magical thinking when made-up science passes for rational discourse."
Peter Bamber, from the BMA's consultants committee, added: "If you want to buy a bottle of water go to the supermarket."
However, other doctors spoke in favour of homeopathy.
Dr John Garner, a GP from Edinburgh, said: "This [a ban] would deprive patients who have had a benefit."
And Dr David Shipstone, a urologist from the East Midlands, said it would be unfair to pick on homeopathy as there were plenty of other treatments which were used by doctors despite a lack of categorical evidence they worked.
"What is valid scientific evidence? Academics can argue about it all day."
The call by doctors comes after the House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee in February called for a similar ban on NHS funding, saying it could not be justified.
The Society of Homeopaths said there was evidence the remedies worked.
And a spokeswoman also pointed out that the amount of public money spent on it was very low.
She said: "The cost of homeopathy on the NHS is low - just 0.001% of the £11 billion drugs budget."
But the Department of Health said it was looking into the issue.
"The department is considering issues to do with homeopathic remedies and hospitals as part of the government's response to the Science and Technology Committee's report on homeopathy. The response will be issued soon."