The impact of structured teaching methods on the quality of education in Brazil

This paper estimates the impact of the use of structured methods on the quality of education for students in primary public school in Brazil. Structured methods encompass a range of pedagogical and managerial instruments applied in the educational system. In recent years, several municipalities in the state of Sao Paulo have contracted out private educational providers to implement these structured methods in their schooling systems. Their pedagogical proposal involves structuring of curriculum content, development of teacher and student textbooks, and the training and supervision of teachers anti instructors. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that the 4th- and 8th-grade students in the municipalities with structured methods performed better in Portuguese and mathematics than did students in municipalities not exposed to these methods. We find no differences in passing rates. A robustness test supports the assumption that there is no unobserved municipal characteristics associated with proficiency changes over time that may affect the results. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of medical education and networking on the outcome of leukemia treatment in developing countries. The experience of International Consortium on Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (IC-APL)

Objectives: Several clinical trials conducted in Europe and US reported favorable outcomes of patients with APL treated with the combination of all trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and anthracyclines. Nevertheless, the results observed in developing countries with the same regimen was poorer, mainly due to high early mortality mainly due bleeding. The International Consortium on Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (IC-APL) is an initiative of the International Members Committee of the ASH and the project aims to reduce this gap through the establishment of international network, which was launched in Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay. Methods: The IC-APL treatment protocol is similar to the PETHEMA 2005, but changing idarubicin to daunorubicin. All patients with a suspected diagnosis of APL were immediately started on ATRA, while bone marrow samples were shipped to a national central lab where genetic verification of the diagnosis was performed. The immunofluorescence using an anti-PML antibody allowed a rapid confirmation of the diagnosis and, the importance of supportive measures was reinforced. Results: The interim analysis of 97 patients enrolled in the IC-APL protocol showed that complete remission (CR) rate was 83% and the 2-year overall survival and disease-free survival were 80% and 90%, respectively. Of note, the early mortality rate was reduced to 7.5%. Discussion: The results of IC-APL demonstrate the impact of educational programs and networking on the improvement of the leukemia treatment outcome in developing countries.

Saccharification of Brazilian sisal pulp: evaluating the impact of mercerization on non-hydrolyzed pulp and hydrolysis products

Cultivation of sisal, a plant with a short growth cycle, is highly productive in Brazil. This work is part of extensive research in which sisal is valued. In these studies, sisal fibers are used in the preparation of bio-based composites and in the derivatization of the pulp, including posterior preparation of films. This study aimed to examine the use of sisal pulp in the production of bioethanol, which can potentially be a high efficiency process because of the cellulose content of this fiber. A previous paper addressed the hydrolysis of sisal pulp using sulfuric acid as a catalyst. In the present study, the influence of the mercerization process on the acid hydrolysis of sisal pulp was evaluated. Mercerization was achieved in a 20% wt NaOH solution, and the cellulosic pulp was suspended and vigorously mixed for 1, 2 and 3 h, at 50 A degrees C. The previously characterized mercerized pulps were hydrolyzed (100 A degrees C, 30% H2SO4, v/v), and the results are compared with those obtained for unmercerized pulp (described in a companion paper). The starting sample was characterized by viscometry, alpha-cellulose content, crystallinity index and scanning electron microscopy. During the reactions, aliquots were withdrawn, and the liquor was analyzed by HPLC. The residual pulps (non-hydrolyzed) were also characterized by the techniques described for the initial sample. The results revealed that pretreatment decreases the polyoses content as well as causes a decrease of up to 23% in the crystallinity and up to 21% in the average molar mass of cellulose after 3 h of mercerization. The mercerization process proved to be very important to achieve the final target. Under the same reaction conditions (30% and 100 A degrees C, 6 h), the hydrolysis of mercerized pulp generated yields of up to 50% more glucose. The results of this paper will be compared with the results of subsequent studies obtained using other acids, and enzymes, as catalysts.

The impact of the Bolsa Escola/Familia conditional cash transfer program on enrollment, dropout rates and grade promotion in Brazil

We examine the impact of Brazil's Bolsa Escola/Familia program on Brazilian children's education outcomes. Bolsa provides cash payments to poor households if their children (ages 6 to 15) are enrolled in school. Using school census data to compare changes in enrollment, dropping out and grade promotion across schools that adopted Bolsa at different times, we estimate that the program has: increased enrollment by about 5.5% (6.5%) in grades 1-4 (grades 5-8); lowered dropout rates by 0.5 (0.4) percentage points in grades 1-4 (grades 5-8); and raised grade promotion rates by 0.9 (0.3) percentage points in grades 1-4 (grades 5-8). About one third of Brazil's children participate in Bolsa, so assuming no spillover effects onto non-participants implies that Bolsa's impacts are three times higher than these estimates. However, simple calculations using enrollment impacts suggest that Bolsa's benefits in terms of increased wages may not exceed its costs. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perception of the esthetic impact of mandibular incisor extraction treatment on laypersons, dental professionals, and dental students

Objective: To evaluate the degree of perception of laypersons, dental professionals, and dental students regarding dental esthetics in cases with mandibular central incisor extraction. Materials and Methods: Using a smile photograph of a person with normal occlusion and all teeth, modifications were made to reflect the extraction of a mandibular incisor of various compositions and sizes. For this purpose a program specifically for image manipulation (Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Systems Inc) was used. After manipulation the images were printed on photographic paper, attached to a questionnaire and distributed to laypersons, dental professionals, and dental students (n = 90) to evaluate the degree of perception and esthetic using a scale of attractiveness, where 0 = hardly attractive, 5 = attractive, and 10 = very attractive. The differences between examiners were checked by the Mann-Whitney test. All the statistics were performed with a confidence level of 95%. Results: The results demonstrated the skill of the dental professionals and dental students in perceiving the difference between cases of normal occlusion and cases where an incisor was lacking (P < .05). The photograph in which the lateral incisors were shown to be larger than the central incisor was the one that obtained the highest value among the cases of extraction in all groups of evaluators. Conclusions: It can be concluded that dental professionals and dental students are more skillful at identifying deviation from normality. In addition, central incisor extraction should always be discarded when there are other treatment options available. (Angle Orthod. 2012;82:732-738.)