Progresso científico em pequenos ruminantes na primeira década do século XXI

O interesse pelos pequenos ruminantes aumentou nos últimos anos sob os aspectos produtivo e científico. No Brasil, caprinos e ovinos são os que despertam maior interesse econômico. Assim, este trabalho foi conduzido com o objetivo de discutir o progresso científico com caprinos e ovinos nos últimos dez anos. Foram pesquisadas várias bases de dados, entre elas as do Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), da Scientific Electronic Library Online - SciELO, da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES, do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE e da Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO. Na última década, os pequenos ruminantes têm merecido especial atenção dos pesquisadores, o que pode ser comprovado pelo aumento de 41% nas publicações mundiais envolvendo estas espécies, o que foi acompanhado por aumento ainda mais expressivo, 219%, em âmbito nacional. A evolução também foi observada sob os aspectos metodológicos dos projetos, ressaltando a abordagem multidisciplinar nas pesquisas mais atuais. Nos últimos dez anos, houve crescimento do aporte de recursos para editais temáticos demandados pela sociedade e pela cadeia da carne e do leite, além da preocupação com qualidade, competitividade e sustentabilidade.

Power-law distributions for the citation index of scientific publications and scientists

The number of citations of a scientific publication or of an individual scientist has become an important factor of quality assessment in science. We report a study of the statistical distribution of the citation index of both scientific publications and scientists. We give numerical evidence that Tsallis (power law) statistics explains the entire distribution over eight orders of magnitude (10-4 to 10(4)). Also, we draw Zipf plots in order to analyze the statistical distribution of the citation index of Brazilian and international physicists and chemists. The relatively small group of Brazilian scientists seems more adequate to explain the dynamics of the citation index. In this case, we find that the distribution of the citation index can also be explained by a gradually truncated power law with similar parameters. We finally discuss possible mechanisms behind the citation index of scientists and scientific publications.

Clinical research on new drugs (Phase I). Profile of scientific publications: data from the pre-clinical phase and bioethical aspects

OBJETIVO: Traçar o perfil das publicações científicas de fase I e procurar saber se a publicação oferece dados da fase pré-clínica com ênfase nos aspectos bioéticos. MÉTODOS: Foram analisados 61 artigos científicos publicados no ano de 2007, que relatam pesquisas envolvendo seres humanos com novos fármacos, medicamentos ou vacinas em fase I. Foi elaborado um roteiro para coleta de dados, com o qual fosse possível analisar e avaliar os artigos científicos. O roteiro contempla itens referentes à fase pré-clínica (associados à fase clínica) e itens referentes às características da amostra. RESULTADOS: Nos artigos analisados, a maioria das pesquisas foi realizada nos EUA. Devido ao grande número de publicações destinadas às doenças oncológicas a maioria delas foi realizada com voluntários doentes. Quanto às informações sobre a fase pré-clínica presente nas publicações de fase I observamos que são pobres ou inexistentes. Mesmo que os autores julguem a pesquisa fase I como promissora e sugiram estudos futuros de fase II, ao leitor não é possível este mesmo julgamento pela escassez de informações da fase pré-clínica. CONCLUSÃO: O perfil das publicações levanta dados que merecem reflexão e análise para melhor avaliação do que está ocorrendo com as publicações de fase I.

An integrated database on ticks and tick-borne zoonoses in the tropics and subtropics with special reference to developing and emerging countries

Tick-borne zoonoses (TBZ) are emerging diseases worldwide. A large amount of information (e.g. case reports, results of epidemiological surveillance, etc.) is dispersed through various reference sources (ISI and non-ISI journals, conference proceedings, technical reports, etc.). An integrated database-derived from the ICTTD-3 project (http://www.icttd.nl)-was developed in order to gather TBZ records in the (sub-)tropics, collected both by the authors and collaborators worldwide. A dedicated website (http://www.tickbornezoonoses.org) was created to promote collaboration and circulate information. Data collected are made freely available to researchers for analysis by spatial methods, integrating mapped ecological factors for predicting TBZ risk. The authors present the assembly process of the TBZ database: the compilation of an updated list of TBZ relevant for (sub-)tropics, the database design and its structure, the method of bibliographic search, the assessment of spatial precision of geo-referenced records. At the time of writing, 725 records extracted from 337 publications related to 59 countries in the (sub-)tropics, have been entered in the database. TBZ distribution maps were also produced. Imported cases have been also accounted for. The most important datasets with geo-referenced records were those on Spotted Fever Group rickettsiosis in Latin-America and Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever in Africa. The authors stress the need for international collaboration in data collection to update and improve the database. Supervision of data entered remains always necessary. Means to foster collaboration are discussed. The paper is also intended to describe the challenges encountered to assemble spatial data from various sources and to help develop similar data collections.

Development of a model to measure the efficiency of outsourced companies in the process of aircraft spare parts technical publications

This paper presents a proposal of a model to measure the efficiency of outsourced companies in the aeronautical industry applying the methods DEA and AHP. It also proposes an evaluation in the relation between the variables of the process and the value obtained for the effiiency. The criteria of Quality, Time and Cost were considered the outputs of the process, and those criteria were quantified by AHP for DEA matrix.The number of technical documents received by those outsorced companies were considered the input of the process. The other purpose is to separate the companies in groups considered able to receive an investment to improve their process. Copyright © 2008 SAE International.

Produtividade Científica dos docentes da Universidade Estadual Paulista, câmpus de Assis/SP

In this work, we analyzed the scientific bibliographic productivity of the Faculdade Ciências e Letras de Assis, Universidade Estadual Paulista (FCLAs-UNESP). We evaluated the scientific productivity of Professors using data retrieved from the Lattes Plataform database (Curriculum Lattes), ISI Web of Science and SCOPUS, books published, chapter of the books published and academic advisory (Master's Thesis and Ph.D. Thesis). Bibliometric evaluations of departments showed a better performance of the total number of papers (indexed in Curriculum Lattes database) by Literature Department (P < 0.05) when compared to Modern Languages Department. The Biological Sciences Department had means higher of the papers indexed by SCOPUS (P < 0.05) and ISI (P < 0.05) when compared to others departments. We also observed that the low h-indexes (P< 0,05) in the humanities areas is result of traditional mode of communication in this area of knowledge, which makes more use of books and proceedings of meetings when compared to natural sciences. These publications are not covered by ISI and SCOPUS. The graduate programs in History and Languages presented means higher of academic advisory (Master's Thesis and Ph.D. Thesis) because are graduate programs consolidated in the 1970's.

An analysis of publications on invasive macrophytes in aquatic ecosystems

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)