Regionalization and access to healthcare in Brazilian states: historical and political-institutional conditioning factors

This article examines the healthcare regionalization process in the Brazilian states in the period from 2007 to 2010, seeking to identify the conditions that favor or impede this process. Referential analysis of public policies and especially of historical institutionalism was used. Three dimensions sum up the conditioning factors of regionalization: context (historical-structural, political-institutional and conjunctural), directionality (ideology, object, actors, strategies and instruments) and regionalization features (institutionality and governance). The empirical research relied mainly on the analysis of official documents and interviews with key actors in 24 states. Distinct patterns of influence in the states were observed, with regionalization being marked by important gains in institutionality and governance in the period. Nevertheless, inherent difficulties of the contexts prejudice greater advances. There is a pressing need to broaden the territorial focus in government planning and to integrate sectorial policies for medium and long-term regional development in order to empower regionalization and to overcome obstacles to the access to healthcare services in Brazil.

A hearing report from Brazil

The past several decades, the need for hearing health services is still great, especially in the northeast, the Amazonian, and the southern regions Brazil, officially Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest Portuguese-speaking country, and the fifth largest country in the world by population and by land. The vast land not only brings rich natural resources but also large varieties of exotic vegetation and wildlife. One hundred and ninety-three million inhabitants live in five geographical regions with diverse cultural practices influenced by immigrants from Italy, Spain, Japan, Germany, and other countries. Brazilian people generally are warm-hearted, very welcoming, and resilient. They are optimistic and creative despite having encountered many economic downturns and political challenges throughout history. A bachelor's degree is the entry level for the profession. As only 19 percent of the population aged 18–24 years have access to higher education, the competition for admissions is fierce, especially in government institutions. High school students need to pass tests of general knowledge in a national examination and a university-specific examination. Government educational institutions offer good education without charging tuition. The majority of scientific papers are also produced by scholars working in government institutions. Private institutions are generally ranked lower in academic rigor (Behlau and Gasparini, 2006), except for a few top-ranking institutions. The fields of speech-language pathology and audiology are marked by rapid changes in recent years. Currently, there are 104 undergraduate programs recognized by the Ministry of Education and distributed in all but three federal states of Brazil.

Calculation of parameter ranges for robust gain tuning of power system controllers

This work proposes a computational tool to assist power system engineers in the field tuning of power system stabilizers (PSSs) and Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVRs). The outcome of this tool is a range of gain values for theses controllers within which there is a theoretical guarantee of stability for the closed-loop system. This range is given as a set of limit values for the static gains of the controllers of interest, in such a way that the engineer responsible for the field tuning of PSSs and/or AVRs can be confident with respect to system stability when adjusting the corresponding static gains within this range. This feature of the proposed tool is highly desirable from a practical viewpoint, since the PSS and AVR commissioning stage always involve some readjustment of the controller gains to account for the differences between the nominal model and the actual behavior of the system. By capturing these differences as uncertainties in the model, this computational tool is able to guarantee stability for the whole uncertain model using an approach based on linear matrix inequalities. It is also important to remark that the tool proposed in this paper can also be applied to other types of parameters of either PSSs or Power Oscillation Dampers, as well as other types of controllers (such as speed governors, for example). To show its effectiveness, applications of the proposed tool to two benchmarks for small signal stability studies are presented at the end of this paper.

Accessibility in Digital Television: Designing Remote Controls

Free to air television is still an important tool to provide information and communication in many countries. Therefore, the universal access to the television system is very important. This paper presents a set of Digital Television accessible remote control devices designed for the Brazilian Digital Television. A research was conducted, interviewing people with disabilities in Brazil. Three remote control models were proposed, consolidating the main identified requirements, being accessible for a diverse group of impairments.