Pesquisa-Ação-Formação Inter e Transdisciplinar com Pessoas Envolvidas com a Questão do Morador de Rua

Este artigo apresenta reflexões teórico-metodológicas sobre processo de investigação de pós-doutorado que objetivava basicamente construir - na ação - estratégia de "psico-sócio-formação" de pessoas envolvidas com a questão do morador de rua; criar e aplicar um recurso metodológico operacional denominado "conto de encontro transformador". Do ponto de vista teórico, sob perspectivas inter e transdisciplinares de produção do conhecimento, essa "pesquisa-ação-formação" baseou-se no encontro dialógico entre os conhecimentos sobre "encontro transformador", "resiliência" e "ágape" e construtos teóricos da área da Educação, com ênfase no processo de autoformação. O projeto contou com vinte participantes: moradores de rua; trabalhadores de instituições de apoio a moradores de rua; técnicos das Secretarias de Assistência Social da Prefeitura de São Paulo e/ou da Secretaria da Saúde; e provenientes da Universidade de São Paulo e de outras Universidades do Brasil, França e Canadá.

The Process of Simulation Authoring/Creation by Chemistry Teachers: A Service Learning Experience

Two case studies are presented to describe the process of public school teachers authoring and creating chemistry simulations. They are part of the Virtual Didactic Laboratory for Chemistry, a project developed by the School of the Future of the University of Sao Paulo. the documental analysis of the material produced by two groups of teachers reflects different selection process for both themes and problem-situations when creating simulations. The study demonstrates the potential for chemistry learning with an approach that takes students' everyday lives into account and is based on collaborative work among teachers and researches. Also, from the teachers' perspectives, the possibilities of interaction that a simulation offers for classroom activities are considered.

Students' collective knowledge construction in the virtual learning environment ""ToLigado - your school interactive newspaper""

Introduction. The ToLigado Project - Your School Interactive Newspaper is an interactive virtual learning environment conceived, developed, implemented and supported by researchers at the School of the Future Research Laboratory of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Method. This virtual learning environment aims to motivate trans-disciplinary research among public school students and teachers in 2,931 schools equipped with Internet-access computer rooms. Within this virtual community, students produce collective multimedia research documents that are immediately published in the portal. The project also aims to increase students' autonomy for research, collaborative work and Web authorship. Main sections of the portal are presented and described. Results. Partial results of the first two years' implementation are presented and indicate a strong motivation among students to produce knowledge despite the fragile hardware and software infrastructure at the time. Discussion. In this new environment, students should be seen as 'knowledge architects' and teachers as facilitators, or 'curiosity managers'. The ToLigado portal may constitute a repository for future studies regarding student attitudes in virtual learning environments, students' behaviour as 'authors', Web authorship involving collective knowledge production, teachers' behaviour as facilitators, and virtual learning environments as digital repositories of students' knowledge construction and social capital in virtual learning communities.

Collaborative e-learning and Learning Objects

The Learning Object (OA) is any digital resource that can be reused to support learning with specific functions and objectives. The OA specifications are commonly offered in SCORM model without considering activities in groups. This deficiency was overcome by the solution presented in this paper. This work specified OA for e-learning activities in groups based on SCORM model. This solution allows the creation of dynamic objects which include content and software resources for the collaborative learning processes. That results in a generalization of the OA definition, and in a contribution with e-learning specifications.

Learning about knowledge management for improving environmental impact assessment in a government agency: The Western Australian experience

How does knowledge management (KM) by a government agency responsible for environmental impact assessment (EIA) potentially contribute to better environmental assessment and management practice? Staff members at government agencies in charge of the EIA process are knowledge workers who perform judgement-oriented tasks highly reliant on individual expertise, but also grounded on the agency`s knowledge accumulated over the years. Part of an agency`s knowledge can be codified and stored in an organizational memory, but is subject to decay or loss if not properly managed. The EIA agency operating in Western Australia was used as a case study. Its KM initiatives were reviewed, knowledge repositories were identified and staff surveyed to gauge the utilisation and effectiveness of such repositories in enabling them to perform EIA tasks. Key elements of KM are the preparation of substantive guidance and spatial information management. It was found that treatment of cumulative impacts on the environment is very limited and information derived from project follow-up is not properly captured and stored, thus not used to create new knowledge and to improve practice and effectiveness. Other opportunities for improving organizational learning include the use of after-action reviews. The learning about knowledge management in EIA practice gained from Western Australian experience should be of value to agencies worldwide seeking to understand where best to direct their resources for their own knowledge repositories and environmental management practice. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influência da largura do septo inter-radicular sobre a estabilidade dos mini-implantes

OBJETIVO: este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a influência da largura do septo inter-radicular no local de inserção de mini-implantes autoperfurantes sobre o grau de estabilidade desses dispositivos de ancoragem. MÉTODOS: a amostra consistiu de 40 mini-implantes inseridos entre as raízes do primeiro molar e segundo pré-molar superiores de 21 pacientes, com o intuito de fornecer ancoragem para retração anterior. A largura do septo no local de inserção (LSI) foi mensurada nas radiografias pós-cirúrgicas e, sob esse aspecto, os mini-implantes foram divididos em dois grupos: grupo 1 (áreas críticas, LSI<3mm) e grupo 2 (áreas não críticas, LSI>3mm). A estabilidade dos mini-implantes foi avaliada mensalmente pela quantificação do grau de mobilidade e a partir dessa variável foi calculada a proporção de sucesso. Avaliou-se também: a quantidade de placa, altura de inserção, grau de sensibilidade e período de observação. RESULTADOS: os resultados obtidos demonstraram que não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa para o grau de mobilidade e proporção de sucesso entre os mini-implantes inseridos em septos de largura mesiodistal crítica e não crítica. A proporção de sucesso total encontrada foi de 90% e nenhuma variável demonstrou estar relacionada ao insucesso dos mini-implantes. No entanto, observou-se maior sensibilidade nos pacientes cujos mini-implantes apresentavam mobilidade, e que a falha desses dispositivos de ancoragem ocorria logo após sua inserção. CONCLUSÃO: a largura do septo inter-radicular no local de inserção não interferiu na estabilidade dos mini-implantes autoperfurantes avaliados neste estudo.

O desenvolvimento de competências em atenção básica à saúde: a experiência no projeto Huka-Katu

O artigo explora a possibilidade de integração no processo de aprendizagem à rede de serviços de saúde do subsistema de saúde indígena integrante do Sistema Único de Saúde e colabora com o processo de formação profissional na área da saúde. Enfatiza também que a concepção pedagógica e as metodologias de ensino-aprendizagem são temas importantes para o desenvolvimento das competências dos novos profissionais da saúde. Com isto, o objetivo deste artigo é apresentar, através da análise descritiva, o contexto em que se desenvolve o processo preparatório para o estágio optativo "Projeto Huka-Katu - a FORP-USP no Xingu", ressaltando os aspectos cognitivos presentes na proposição de ações voltadas para a atenção primária. Considera-se ainda que as competências requeridas para o trabalho do cirurgião-dentista na atenção básica à saúde se constituem em um suporte (base) para a construção do SUS, sendo que estas competências devem atender as necessidades de articulação da prática e da educação, em uma perspectiva do cuidado à saúde.

Learning processes and the neural analysis of conditioning

Classical and operant conditioning principles, such as the behavioral discrepancy-derived assumption that reinforcement always selects antecedent stimulus and response relations, have been studied at the neural level, mainly by observing the strengthening of neuronal responses or synaptic connections. A review of the literature on the neural basis of behavior provided extensive scientific data that indicate a synthesis between the two conditioning processes based mainly on stimulus control in learning tasks. The resulting analysis revealed the following aspects. Dopamine acts as a behavioral discrepancy signal in the midbrain pathway of positive reinforcement, leading toward the nucleus accumbens. Dopamine modulates both types of conditioning in the Aplysia mollusk and in mammals. In vivo and in vitro mollusk preparations show convergence of both types of conditioning in the same motor neuron. Frontal cortical neurons are involved in behavioral discrimination in reversal and extinction procedures, and these neurons preferentially deliver glutamate through conditioned stimulus or discriminative stimulus pathways. Discriminative neural responses can reliably precede operant movements and can also be common to stimuli that share complex symbolic relations. The present article discusses convergent and divergent points between conditioning paradigms at the neural level of analysis to advance our knowledge on reinforcement.

Grupo Poéticas Digitais: projetos desluz e amoreiras

O Grupo Poéticas Digitais foi criado em 2002, no Departamento de Artes Plásticas da ECA-USP, com a intenção de gerar um núcleo multidisciplinar, promovendo o desenvolvimento de projetos experimentais e a reflexão sobre o impacto das novas tecnologias no campo das artes. O Grupo é um desdobramento do projeto wAwRwT, iniciado em 1995 por Gilbertto Prado e tem como participantes professores, artistas, pesquisadores e estudantes. O objetivo deste texto é apresentar algumas experimentações recentes de projetos poéticos como Desluz, de 2009/2010, e Amoreiras, de 2010.

Efetividade de programa de agentes comunitários na promoção da saúde bucal

OBJETIVO:Avaliar mudanças em conhecimentos, atitudes e acesso/utilização de serviços odontológicos decorrentes de um programa de promoção da saúde bucal com agentes comunitários de saúde. MÉTODOS:Um projeto de capacitação combinando ensino-aprendizagem, apoio e supervisão, foi desenvolvido entre os meses de julho de 2003 a agosto de 2004. As mudanças foram avaliadas por meio de entrevistas estruturadas em que participaram 36 agentes comunitários de saúde e uma amostra de 91 mulheres e mães, representativa de donas de casa com 25 a 39 anos de idade, alfabetizadas e residentes em domicílios de três a seis cômodos no município de Rio Grande da Serra (SP). Foram colhidos dados sobre conhecimentos de saúde-doença bucal, práticas e capacidades auto-referidas em relação ao auto-exame, higiene bucal, número de residentes e de escovas dentais individuais e coletivas em cada domicílio e acesso e uso de serviços odontológicos. Por meio do teste t de Student pareado, foram comparadas as médias dos valores obtidos antes e depois do programa para cada um dos grupos estudados. As respostas foram analisadas adotando-se um nível de significância de 5%. RESULTADOS: Foram observadas diferenças estatisticamente significativas para questões relativas ao conhecimento de saúde bucal entre os agentes e entre as mulheres antes e depois da capacitação (p<0,05). Desequilíbrio entre o número de escovas e de indivíduos em cada família diminuiu. A freqüência da escovação e do uso do fio dental se elevou depois da atuação dos agentes. Os valores de auto-avaliação da higiene bucal aumentaram. Modificação nas práticas e capacidades auto-referidas mostrou significativa elevação da auto-confiança. O acesso ao serviço foi mais fácil (p<0,000) e seu uso mais regular (p<0,000) entre mulheres. CONCLUSÕES: Houve mudanças positivas na percepção em relação a aspectos de saúde bucal, na auto-confiança e no acesso e uso de serviços odontológicos. Tais mudanças po

Methods and Participant Characteristics of a Randomized Intervention to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Among Brazilian High School Students: The Saude na Boa Project

Background: A cross-cultural, randomized study was proposed to observe the effects of a school-based intervention designed to promote physical activity and healthy eating among high school students in 2 cities from different regions in Brazil: Recife and Florianopolis. The objective of this article is to describe the methodology and subjects enrolled in the project. Methods: Ten schools from each region were matched and randomized into intervention and control conditions. A questionnaire and anthropometry were used to collect data in the first and last month of the 2006 school year. The sample (n = 2155 at baseline; 55.7% females; 49.1% in the experimental group) included students 15 to 24 years, attending nighttime classes. The intervention focused on simple environmental/organizational changes, diet and physical activity education, and personnel training. Results: The central aspects of the intervention have been implemented in all 10 intervention schools. Problems during the intervention included teachers' strikes in both sites and lack of involvement of the canteen owners in schools. Conclusions: The Saude no Boa study provides evidence that public high schools in Brazil represent an important environment for health promotion. Its design and simple measurements increase the chances of it being sustained and disseminated to similar schools in Brazil.

Effectiveness of a School-Based Intervention on Physical Activity for High School Students in Brazil: The Saude na Boa Project

Background: We evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based intervention on the promotion of physical activity among high school students in Brazil: the Saude no Boa project. Methods: A school-based, randomized trial was carried out in 2 Brazilian cities: Recife (northeast) and Florianopolis (south). Ten schools in each city were matched by size and location, and randomized into intervention or control groups. The intervention included environmental/organizational changes, physical activity education, and personnel training and engagement. Students age 15 to 24 years were evaluated at baseline and 9 months later (end of school year). Results: Although similar at baseline, after the intervention, the control group reported significantly fewer d/wk accumulating 60 minutes+ moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in comparison with the intervention group (2.6 versus 3.3, P < .001). The prevalence of inactivity (0 days per week) rose in the control and decreased in the intervention group. The odds ratio for engaging at least once per week in physical activity associated with the intervention was 1.83 (95% CI = 1.24-2.71) in the unadjusted analysis and 1.88 (95% CI = 1.27-2.79) after controlling for gender. Conclusion: The Saude no Boa intervention was effective at reducing the prevalence of physical inactivity. The possibility of expanding the intervention to other locations should be considered.

Cooperation, interaction and learning in local production systems: Evidence in Brazilian firms

In a local production system (LPS), besides external economies, the interaction, cooperation, and learning are indicated by the literature as complementary ways of enhancing the LPS's competitiveness and gains. In Brazil, the greater part of LPSs, mostly composed by small enterprises, displays incipient relationships and low levels of interaction and cooperation among their actors. The size of the participating enterprises itself for specificities that engender organizational constraints, which, in turn, can have a considerable impact on their relationships and learning dynamics. For that reason, it is the purpose of this article to present an analysis of interaction, cooperation, and learning relationships among several types of actors pertaining to an LPS in the farming equipment and machinery sector, bearing in mind the specificities of small enterprises. To this end, the fieldwork carried out in this study aimed at: (i) investigating external and internal knowledge sources conducive to learning and (ii) identifying and analyzing motivating and inhibiting factors related to specificities of small enterprises in order to bring the LPS members closer together and increase their cooperation and interaction. Empirical evidence shows that internal aspects of the enterprises, related to management and infrastructure, can have a strong bearing on their joint actions, interaction and learning processes.

Spatial patterns of malaria in a land reform colonization project, Juruena municipality, Mato Grosso, Brazil

Background: In Brazil, 99% of malaria cases are concentrated in the Amazon, and malaria's spatial distribution is commonly associated with socio-environmental conditions on a fine landscape scale. In this study, the spatial patterns of malaria and its determinants in a rural settlement of the Brazilian agricultural reform programme called ""Vale do Amanhecer"" in the northern Mato Grosso state were analysed. Methods: In a fine-scaled, exploratory ecological study, geocoded notification forms corresponding to malaria cases from 2005 were compared with spectral indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the third component of the Tasseled Cap Transformation (TC_3) and thematic layers, derived from the visual interpretation of multispectral TM-Landsat 5 imagery and the application of GIS distance operators. Results: Of a total of 336 malaria cases, 102 (30.36%) were caused by Plasmodium falciparum and 174 (51.79%) by Plasmodium vivax. Of all the cases, 37.6% (133 cases) were from residents of a unique road. In total, 276 cases were reported for the southern part of the settlement, where the population density is higher, with notification rates higher than 10 cases per household. The local landscape mostly consists of open areas (38.79 km(2)). Training forest occupied 27.34 km(2) and midsize vegetation 7.01 km(2). Most domiciles with more than five notified malaria cases were located near areas with high NDVI values. Most domiciles (41.78%) and malaria cases (44.94%) were concentrated in areas with intermediate values of the TC_3, a spectral index representing surface and vegetation humidity. Conclusions: Environmental factors and their alteration are associated with the occurrence and spatial distribution of malaria cases in rural settlements.

Evaluation of gastrointestinal motility in awake rats: a learning exercise for undergraduate biomedical students

Souza MA, Souza MH, Palheta RC Jr, Cruz PR, Medeiros BA, Rola FH, Magalhaes PJ, Troncon LE, Santos AA. Evaluation of gastrointestinal motility in awake rats: a learning exercise for undergraduate biomedical students. Adv Physiol Educ 33: 343-348, 2009; doi: 10.1152/advan.90176.2008.-Current medical curricula devote scarce time for practical activities on digestive physiology, despite frequent misconceptions about dyspepsia and dysmotility phenomena. Thus, we designed a hands-on activity followed by a small-group discussion on gut motility. Male awake rats were randomly submitted to insulin, control, or hypertonic protocols. Insulin and control rats were gavage fed with 5% glucose solution, whereas hypertonic-fed rats were gavage fed with 50% glucose solution. Insulin treatment was performed 30 min before a meal. All meals (1.5 ml) contained an equal mass of phenol red dye. After 10, 15, or 20 min of meal gavage, rats were euthanized. Each subset consisted of six to eight rats. Dye recovery in the stomach and proximal, middle, and distal small intestine was measured by spectrophotometry, a safe and reliable method that can be performed by minimally trained students. In a separate group of rats, we used the same protocols except that the test meal contained (99m)Tc as a marker. Compared with control, the hypertonic meal delayed gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit, whereas insulinic hypoglycemia accelerated them. The session helped engage our undergraduate students in observing and analyzing gut motor behavior. In conclusion, the fractional dye retention test can be used as a teaching tool to strengthen the understanding of basic physiopathological features of gastrointestinal motility.