Dilemas do pós-modernismo na cultura de massa

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FFC

Uma reflexão sobre didática na Educação Básica: o apostilamento no 4.º ano

This study describes how adult and teacher-centered rationale, which has been ruling school relations for a long time, might be a threat to didactics and its methodologies, especially when it comes to teaching and learning package. The theoretical framework of this study is based on Dewey and Peirce pragmatic views, founding the languages analysis, which are interwoven in the content design. Some tasks from a 4th grade elementary school package sold nationally, related to Geography and Mathematics subjects were examined. It is possible to assert that the child real life learning experiences was poorly considered, which partly explains the lack of interest of most children in pedagogical-scientific discourses as they are presented on their books. As a possible answer regarding that issue, the encounter between teacher and learner subjectivities is proposed.

Criteria for analysis of the structure of electronic scientific journals

This paper is the result of the Masters dissertation studying the role and history of scientific communication, especially the changes that have occurred after the appearance of electronic communication and computer networks. This study showed that hypertext systems are increasingly being used in the scientific and academic world in the production of electronic journals; this makes it possible for the user to rapidly access information in their area. However, these systems need to be improved to help the user during search and access to information. Both printed journals migrating to electronic media, and the exclusively electronic journals should present the current quality indicators. The attempt was made to discover whether characteristics related to printed journals are being maintained in their electronic counterparts. For this, a prototype model was developed to analyze the structure of electronic scientific journals; it composes 14 criteria expressing aspects of quality for these journals. It includes elements of Website Information Architecture and those already in place in printed scientific journals in order to ensure that basic functions - archiving and dissemination - are maintained in electronic publishing. Each criterion consists of variables, which measure the maintenance of these functions both in the migrating printed journals and the exclusively electronic ones. This prototype model was used to analyze Ciência da Informação On-line and DataGramaZero - Revista de Ciência da Informação. Results indicate that this model is able to find out if the basic functions of archiving and dissemination are being maintained in electronic journals. Therefore, its implementation is justified in electronic journals. The model can help librarians, authors, and users of electronic journals to identify quality journals, and assist editors in developing their projects. The material from the study may be included in the preservice and inservice education of Information Science professionals and to support editors of scientific journals.

Scientific knowledge and digital democracy in Brazil: how to assess public health policy debate with applied Scientometrics

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A diversidade de interpretações como fator constituinte da formação docente: leitura e observação

Neste artigo apresentamos a análise de interpretações de estudantes em trabalhos desenvolvidos em duas disciplinas de cursos de Licenciatura em Física, nas quais realizamos atividades bastante distintas, uma envolvendo a leitura e outra a observação pelos licenciandos. Buscamos compreender falas escritas pelos estudantes como parte dessas atividades, e procuramos evidenciar a diversidade de interpretações e a relevância desse trabalho para a formação inicial. O apoio teórico em que nos sustentamos foi a análise de discurso na vertente originada na França por Michel Pêcheux. A consideração da não transparência da linguagem, e as noções de condições de produção, memória discursiva e repetição, bem como alguns aportes sobre possíveis papéis da observação na construção científica, contribuíram para a compreensão de discursos escritos pelos estudantes. Mostramos a diversidade de interpretações dos licenciados: ao opinarem sobre a possibilidade ou não de se trabalhar a física moderna e contemporânea no ensino médio, depois de lerem um texto envolvendo esse tema, e ao redigirem um texto sobre a observação na pesquisa científica.

Da onipotência ao desgaste: as perspectivas do adolescente em quimioterapia

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of reports of clinical trials published in six Brazilian dental journals indexed in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO)

Introduction: Open access publishing is becoming increasingly popular within the biomedical sciences. SciELO, the Scientific Electronic Library Online, is a digital library covering a selected collection of Brazilian scientific journals many of which provide open access to full-text articles. This library includes a number of dental journals some of which may include reports of clinical trials in English, Portuguese and/or Spanish. Thus, SciELO could play an important role as a source of evidence for dental healthcare interventions especially if it yields a sizeable number of high quality reports. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify reports of clinical trials by handsearching of dental journals that are accessible through SciELO, and to assess the overall quality of these reports. Material and methods: Electronic versions of six Brazilian dental Journals indexed in SciELO were handsearched at www.scielo.br in September 2008. Reports of clinical trials were identified and classified as controlled clinical trials (CCTs - prospective, experimental studies comparing 2 or more healthcare interventions in human beings) or randomized controlled trials (RCTs - a random allocation method is clearly reported), according to Cochrane eligibility criteria. Criteria to assess methodological quality included: method of randomization, concealment of treatment allocation, blinded outcome assessment, handling of withdrawals and losses and whether an intention-to-treat analysis had been carried out. Results: The search retrieved 33 CCTs and 43 RCTs. A majority of the reports provided no description of either the method of randomization (75.3%) or concealment of the allocation sequence (84.2%). Participants and outcome assessors were reported as blinded in only 31.2% of the reports. Withdrawals and losses were only clearly described in 6.5% of the reports and none mentioned an intention-to-treat analysis or any similar procedure. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that a substantial number of reports of trials and systematic reviews are available in the dental journals listed in SciELO, and that these could provide valuable evidence for clinical decision making. However, it is clear that the quality of a number of these reports is of some concern and that improvement in the conduct and reporting of these trials could be achieved if authors adhered to internationally accepted guidelines, e. g. the CONSORT statement.

Should Anacardium humile St. Hil be used as an antiulcer agent? A scientific approach to the traditional knowledge

The crude methanolic extract (ME) obtained from the leaves of Anacardium humile was evaluated orally at doses of 250-500-1000 mg/kg on gastric lesion on ethanol and piroxicam induced gastric lesions in rodents. All the tested doses significantly inhibited gastric lesions by 56 to 100%. These results seems to support the traditional use of this species in the treatment of gastric diseases. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

What are Scientific Leaders? The Introduction of a Normalized Impact Factor

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

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.

Três versões do pragmatismo deweyano no Brasil dos anos cinqüenta

O presente texto parte de uma caracterização em que o movimento escolanovista brasileiro é considerado como difusor da introdução de procedimentos científicos no campo pedagógico, como se a educação devesse subordinar-se às regras do pensamento e às descobertas obtidas pela ciência. em seguida, mostra que essa caracterização descreve apenas uma das tendências do ideário educacional renovador, sendo que outra, desenvolvida marcadamente sob a influência de John Dewey, filósofo e educador norte-americano, apresenta norteamentos bastante diversos. Assim, analisa alguns artigos publicados na Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos, órgão do Instituto Nacional de Estudos Pedagógicos, INEP, nos anos de 1950. Tais artigos, de autoria de Anísio Teixeira, João Roberto Moreira e Luiz Alves de Mattos, entre outros, traduzem o ideário educacional renovador daquele período e expressam concepções fundamentadas nas idéias de John Dewey. Os temas debatidos por esses educadores brasileiros são agrupados, de maneira geral, em torno das seguintes categorias: democracia, liberdade, pesquisa sócio-educacional e planejamento educacional. Na análise desenvolvida, percebe-se que os autores expressam diferentes visões do mesmo pensador - John Dewey -, fato que é compreensível mediante o conceito de recontextualização, originário das teses de Basil Bernstein, segundo o qual as teorias ou concepções filosóficas sofrem alterações, muitas vezes fundamentais, quando são convertidas em discurso pedagógico. Ao mesmo tempo que espera contribuir para melhor compreensão da presença do pensamento deweyano no Brasil, o presente trabalho também sugere a necessidade de maior aprofundamento quanto ao estudo dos processos recontextualizadores no campo educacional.

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.

Scientific pedagogy at the end of the 19th century: Some readings and writings in the Portuguese debate

Through the text presented we intend to outline the debate that occurred in Portugal in the transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries. At the time, the imperatives of scientific development had reached education as a basis for the national prosperity. It was believed that Portugal had fallen behind in comparison to the other European countries because it was not capable of constructing a civilization directed by scientific criteria, through the expansion and spreading of culture. The debate over the extension of schools to increasingly broader segments of the population acquires a different meaning when the theorist of Education make use of language from several other areas of knowledge in order to create a mosaic of what has become known, since that time, as the Science of Education.