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World in figures: Countries

Brazil

Nov 21st 2012 | from The World In 2013 print edition

GDP growth: 4.2%
GDP per head: $12,670 (PPP: $12,820)
Inflation: 5.5%
Budget balance (% GDP): -2.2
Population: 196.5m

Dilma Rousseff, the president, has taken a strong stance against corruption and cronyism, endearing her to voters. But her position is less popular with some in her unwieldy coalition, who see jobs and other favours as fair exchange for loyalty. Obstructive partners, more than an opposition rendered ineffective by a decade in the wilderness, will slow legislation to a trickle, but modest progress will be made on a packed reform agenda. Economic growth will recover from a largely self-induced slowdown in 2012.

Médicos são reprovados pelo teste do CREMESP

10/12/2012 - 03h00

Editoriais: Cuidar dos médicos

É preocupante o resultado do exame de proficiência aplicado pelo conselho paulista de médicos aos alunos que se formam neste ano nas faculdades de medicina do Estado de São Paulo.

Nada menos que 54,5% dos futuros profissionais formados no Estado mais rico do país não acertaram nem 60% das 120 questões. São alunos que não dominam o conteúdo básico necessário para cuidar da saúde da população e, por isso, foram reprovados pelo Cremesp (Conselho Regional de Medicina do Estado de São Paulo).

A constatação da inépcia de mais da metade dos formandos já seria razão suficiente para inquietação quanto à qualidade dos cursos de medicina. A situação, porém, é ainda mais perturbadora: a reprovação no teste não impede o exercício da profissão.

Longe de serem um caso à parte, os resultados deste ano apenas repetem um padrão assustador. Desde 2005, quando o exame foi aplicado pela primeira vez, o desempenho dos alunos tem sido pífio. Em 2008, por exemplo, o índice de reprovação chegou a 61%.

Apesar do histórico negativo, o médico Bráulio Luna Filho, coordenador do exame do Cremesp, contava com cerca de 70% de aprovação. Segundo ele, países como Canadá e Estados Unidos têm, em média, taxa de 95% de aprovação.

Talvez o coordenador do Cremesp imaginasse que o resultado de 2012 seria melhor porque, pela primeira vez, fazer a prova foi pré-requisito para o registro profissional. Antes, faculdades de prestígio, como USP e Unicamp, boicotavam a avaliação. Enquanto 418 alunos fizeram o teste em 2011, agora foram quase 2.500.

Ainda que sejam pertinentes algumas críticas ao exame --em vez de se restringir a questões teóricas, deveria medir também a aptidão prática--, sua aplicação a todos os formandos permite um diagnóstico mais preciso sobre os cursos de medicina no Estado.

A formação dos médicos, não há como fugir à conclusão, é precária. Permitir que tais profissionais ingressem no mercado de trabalho é uma temeridade. Na medicina, o desconhecimento técnico pode ter consequências funestas.

O que está em jogo não é o interesse de proprietários de faculdades, mas a segurança e a saúde dos pacientes. Passou da hora de o Congresso aprovar um exame de habilitação para a medicina. Não faz sentido permitir que a população fique nas mãos de médicos que não têm o conhecimento mínimo necessário

é bom aceitar a crítica, Não culpe o mundo pela incompetência local,,,, muda Dilma

Brazil’s economy

A breakdown of trust

If she wants a second term, Dilma Rousseff should get a new economic team

Dec 8th 2012 | from the print edition

JUST two years ago, when Dilma Rousseff was elected Brazil’s president, the country’s economy was booming. It then ground to a halt and is now struggling to recover. Despite increasingly frantic official efforts at stimulation, the moribund creature grew by only 0.6% inthe third quarter—half the number forecast by Guido Mantega, the finance minister. Most market analysts now expect GDP growth to be less than 1.5% this year and not much more than 3% next year. So much for the notion that the B in the BRICs is a speedy economy.

The motors of growth that powered Brazil in the past decade are sputtering. Prices of commodity exports, though still high, are no longer rising. Consumers are using more of their income to pay off the loans with which they had bought cars and televisions. Low unemployment means there are fewer idle hands to be put to work. Instead of relying on consumption, growth now has to come from higher productivity and investment. That means hacking away at the “Brazil cost”: the combination of red tape, heavy taxes, expensive credit, creaking infrastructure and an overvalued currency that makes it a punishingly expensive country to do business in.

Despite all this, investment has fallen in each of the past five quarters. It now amounts to just 18.7% of GDP, against 30% in Peru in 2011 and 27% in Chile and Colombia—Latin America’s new high-growth economies.Ms Rousseff has recognised the need to improve competitiveness. Her economic team says its aim is to prompt a supply-side, investment-led recovery. In the past 15 months theCentral Bank has slashed interest rates by 5.25 percentage points, to 7.25% (only two points above inflation). That has helped to weaken the currency and help manufacturers. Thegovernment has cut payroll taxes for industry (but not most services). It is also slashing electricity tariffs and inviting private operators to upgrade airports, roads and railways.

Business is cautious because the government meddles too much. A prime example is its apparent desire to drive down thereturn on investment by diktat, not just for banks but also for electricity companies and other infrastructure-providers. Even more than her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Ms Rousseff seems to believe that the state should direct private investment decisions. Such micro-meddling undermines trust in macroeconomic policy as well.

Stop meddling and let animal spirits roar

The Central Bank may be tempted to react to the latest figures with another interest-rate cut. That would be a mistake. Instead the government should redouble efforts to cut the Brazil cost—by, for instance, tackling labour laws—and thus letting the private sector’s animal spirits roar. The worry is that the president herself is meddler-in-chief. But she insists she is pragmatic. If so, she should fire Mr Mantega, whose over-optimistic forecasts have lost investors’ confidence, and appoint a new team capable of regaining the trust of business.

Ms Rousseff’s hope seems to be that full employment and rising real wages will be enough to secure her a second term in 2014. But these depend on renewed growth. Lula won a second term because his policies lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty. The electorate similarly rewarded Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula’s predecessor, because he slew inflation. And Ms Rousseff? Voters may judge that in trying to juggle so many economic balls, she dropped most of them.

Brazil's economy: A shocking figure | The Economist

Brazil's economy: A shocking figure | :

'via Blog this'

Dois tipos de células de Largehans da pele, sem e com inflamação

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1074761312004669/1-s2.0-S1074761312004669-main.pdf?_tid=cd4dc22a-3cb9-11e2-b6df-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1354478128_df0d8a58eb1a5342d8e2e6bef24a5d09r

Summar

Langerhans cells (LCs), the dendritic cells (DCs) in skin epidermis, possess an exceptional life cycle and developmental origin. Here we identified two types of LCs, short-term and long-term LCs, which transiently or stably reconstitute the LC compartment, respectively. Short-term LCs developed from Gr-1^hi monocytes under inflammatory conditions and occurred independently of the transcription factor Id2. Long-term LCs arose from bone marrow in steady state and were critically dependent on Id2. Surface marker and gene expression analysis positioned short-term LCs close to Gr-1^hi monocytes, which is indicative of their monocytic origin. We also show that LC reconstitution after UV light exposure occurs in two waves: an initial fast and transient wave of Gr-1^hi monocyte-derived short-term LCs is followed by a second wave of steady-state precursor-derived long-term LCs. Our data demonstrate the presence of two types of LCs that develop through different pathways in inflammation and steady state.

Resumo Células de Langerhans (CL), as células dendríticas (DC) na epiderme da pele, possuem um ciclo de vida de desenvolvimento excepcional e origem. Aqui foram identificados dois tipos de LCS, de curto prazo e de longo prazo, que CLs reconstituir transitoriamente ou de forma estável o compartimento LC, respectivamente. Curto prazo LCs desenvolvidos a partir de Gr-1hi monócitos em condições inflamatórias e ocorreu independentemente de o factor de transcrição Id2. Longo prazo LCs surgiu a partir de medula óssea em estado estacionário e foram criticamente dependente Id2. Marcador de superfície e a análise da expressão do gene posicionado de curto prazo LCs fechar a Gr-1hi monócitos, o que é indicativo da sua origem monocítica. Além disso, mostramos que a reconstituição LC após a exposição à luz UV ocorre em duas ondas: uma onda inicial rápida e transiente de Gr-1hi derivados de monócitos de curto prazo LCs é seguida por uma segunda onda de estado estável precursor derivadas de longo prazo LCs. Os nossos dados demonstram a presença de dois tipos de LCs que se desenvolvem através de vias diferentes de inflamação e de estado estacionário.