CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SEVERITY OF PATIENTS ADMITTED TO PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ICUS

This study aimed to compare clinical characteristics, evolution and severity of adult patients admitted to public and private Intensive Care Units. It is a retrospective, longitudinal and quantitative analysis of 600 patients admitted to four Intensive Care Units of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Differences were found between patients admitted in private and public hospitals regarding the following variables: age, origin, length of stay and mortality in the critical unit, cardiologic, hematologic, neurologic and renal failures and some comorbidities. The results reveal the importance of analyzing in detail clinical characteristics and healthcare of patients admitted in public institutions, because of the high mortality found. The Intensive Care Nurse can contribute to change this scenario, because she/he plays a leading role in planning and providing resources for intensive care.

Private and Public Dental Care in the City of Sao Paulo in the First Decade of the XXI Century

Two concomitant movements occur in the first decade of the XXI century within the private and public dental services in Brazil: the entrance of oral health on the agenda of political priorities of the federal government and the vigorous growth of additional dental care. We analyzed the occurrence of these phenomena in the city of Sao Paulo, by seeking information in official documents and electronic databases in the Municipality of Sao Paulo, the Ministry of Health and National Health Agency (ANS), and also in scientific literature. During the studied period - January 2000 to December 2009 - and with basis on indicators such as coverage of First Consultation Program and Dental coverage Population Potential, percentages were found that characterize low public assistance and a situation far short of the constitutional principle of universal access to dental care. The growing number of beneficiaries of additional services through exclusively dental coverage insurance plans and other types of private insurance plans in the same period was significant, accounting for a major expansion of population coverage in this mode of care. It was found that, compared to the overall national framework, the city of Sao Paulo offers poor access to public dental care, with reduced supply of services to adults and aged people. Furthermore, considering the limitations of market additional services to provide dental care to all Brazilians, it reinforces the need for continuity and expansion of Brasil Sorridente, which is the programmatic expression of the National Oral Health Politics.

Using complex networks to quantify consistency in the use of words

In this paper we have quantified the consistency of word usage in written texts represented by complex networks, where words were taken as nodes, by measuring the degree of preservation of the node neighborhood. Words were considered highly consistent if the authors used them with the same neighborhood. When ranked according to the consistency of use, the words obeyed a log-normal distribution, in contrast to Zipf's law that applies to the frequency of use. Consistency correlated positively with the familiarity and frequency of use, and negatively with ambiguity and age of acquisition. An inspection of some highly consistent words confirmed that they are used in very limited semantic contexts. A comparison of consistency indices for eight authors indicated that these indices may be employed for author recognition. Indeed, as expected, authors of novels could be distinguished from those who wrote scientific texts. Our analysis demonstrated the suitability of the consistency indices, which can now be applied in other tasks, such as emotion recognition.

Optical aids for low vision: use of the Internet to guide teachers of the visually impaired

PURPOSES: To describe and interpret teachers' opinions about and responsiveness to guidance on optical aids for low vision. METHODS: It was conducted a cross-sectional analytical study. The convenience, non-random sample consisted of 58 teachers from the public school network of the city of Campinas. It was constructed and applied a structured questionnaire, available online at the assessed website. For qualitative data collection it was conducted an exploratory study using the focus group technique. RESULTS: Responses expressed, for the most part, a marked interest in the website, its easiness of access, and the comprehensive nature of the information provided. Most people reported frequent use of the Internet to seek information, and found it easier to access the Internet at home. Among the qualitative aspects of the evaluation, we should mention the perceived importance of the website as a source of information, despite some criticism about the accessibility and reliability of the information found on the Internet. CONCLUSION: Teachers' need for training to deal with visually impaired students and their positive response to advice and information lead to the conclusion that web-based guidelines on the use of optical aids were considered beneficial to ease the understanding of visual impairment and the rehabilitation of the affected subjects.