Faculty Instructional Quality Assessment Practices Incorporating Teaching Portfolios and Peer Review with Student Course Evaluations

Program directors and department chairs require different means of assessing faculty quality due to the unreliability of student course evaluation data. This report outlines alternative strategies for review committees to assess faculty instructional quality. This report also details incorporation of annual performance reviews for tenure-track faculty into tenure decisions.

The use of software Mapavox for teaching graphics and games to blind and low vision students: a development through practices

Current policies on education to visually impaired point for a growing trend of including students with special educational needs in regular schools. However, most often this inclusion is not accompanied by an appropriate professional trained or infrastructure, which has been presented as a big problem for regular school teachers who have students with visual impairments in their classroom. Based on this situation, the Group of Extension in Tactile Cartography from UNESP - University of the State of São Paulo - Campus de Rio Claro - SP - Brazil has been developing educational material of geography and cartography to blind students at a special school. Among the materials developed in this study highlight the development of graphics and board games provided with sound capabilities through MAPAVOX, software developed in partnership with UFRJ - Federal University from Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil. Through this software, sound capabilities can be inserted into built materials, giving them a multi-sensory character. In most cases the necessary conditions for building specific materials to students with visual impairments is expensive and beyond the reach of features from a regular school, so the survey sought to use easy access and low cost materials like Cork, leaf aluminum, material for fixing and others. The development of these materials was supported by preparation in laboratory and its subsequent test through practices involving blind students. The methodology used on the survey is based on qualitative research and non comparative analysis of the results. In other words, the material is built based on the special students perception and reality construction, not being mere adaptations of visual materials, but a construction focused on the reality of the visually impaired. The results proved were quite successful as the materials prepared were effective on mediating the learning process of students with disabilities. Geographical and cartographic concepts were seized by the students through the technology used, associated with the use of materials that took into account in its building process the perception of the students.

Formação de professores, saberes, reflexividade e apropriação da cultura digital no Projeto Um Computador por Aluno (UCA)

This study investigates teacher training and cognitive practice of teachers in a Basic Education school that adopted the Project One Computer per Student (OCS) in their school routine. Its relevance consists in provide directions for the continuation of training activities on the Project and guide the teachers with their pedagogical practices using the laptop model one to one. The thesis defended is that the educator formation for social using of digital media (specially the laptops from the Project UCA) gives space to establish new sociotechnical relationships, of new social and professionals practices, new identitary components and a process of reflexivity and knowledge reconstruction to teach. We reaffirm the importance of reflexivity and appropriation of digital culture for the better development of teaching practice using the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), giving focus to the aspects of social and professional use of the technology. The study is part of the qualitative aspect and is a procedural tracking based on principles of ethnographic research. As procedures and methodological tools, were used: intensive observation of school environments, documental analysis, focal group, semi-structured questionnaires and semi-structured individual interviews. The research was held in a public school in the city of Parnamirim - RN. The subject sample relates to 17 teachers, coming from the elementary school I and II, Youth and Adult Education and High School, who went through the process of training UCA and having entered the laptops in their teaching. The research corpus is structured based on the messages built into the process of data collection and is analyzed based on principles of Content Analysis, specified by Laurence Bardin (2011). Was taken as theoretical reference studies by Tardif (2000; 2011), Pimenta (2009), Gorz (2004, 2005), Giddens (1991), Dewey, J. (1916), Boudieu (1994; 1999), Freire (1996; 2005), among others. The analysis indicates a process of reconstruction / revision of knowledge to teach and work in digital culture, being these knowledges guided by the experience of the subjects investigated. The reconstructed knowledges will be revealed from a categorization process. The following groups of knowledges: "technical knowledges", "didactic-methodological knowledges and knowledges of professionalization" were built on the assumption of ownership of digital culture in the educational context. The analysis confirms the appearance of new ways of sociability when acquiring other forms of acting and thinking ICTs, despite the environment adverse to the reflexivity shared among the teachers. Also reveals, based on the ownership concept present on the data analysis, the construction of meanings of belonging and transformation of individuals into social routes from the interweaving of the teaching practice with the digital culture. Emphasizes, finally, the importance of a training for use of ICTs that exceeds the instrumentation, in other words, what we call "technical knowledges", but taking on its structural basis the shared reflection, the opening for the ressignificance (new meaning) and reconstruction of new knowledges and practices and that really allows, to the teacher, the living of an experience capable of providing socio-technical transformations of their relationships

Improvement of antischistosomal activity of praziquantel by incorporation into phosphatidylcholine-containing liposomes

Praziquantel (PZQ) is effective against all known species of Schistosomes that infect humans. The failure of mass treatment of schistosomiasis has been attributed to the fact that therapy is not sufficiently long-lasting. This effect may be due to the low bioavailability of PZQ that has a low hydrosolubility and fast metabolism. Liposomes have been used to prolong drug levels. reduce the side effects, direct drugs to specific sites and increase bioavailability after administration. The aim of this work was to study the effect of phosphatidylcholine (PC)-containing liposomes to vehiculate PZQ to improve the treatment of schistosomiasis. The in vitro Study was carried out using Schistosoma mansoni parasites recovered by perfusion from the hepatic portal system of infected mice. Suspensions of liposomes with PZQ and free PZQ were administered p.o. in mice after 14 days of infection. The effect of both preparations in vitro on S. mansoni culture was similar. In the in vivo test, PZQ-liposomes caused a decrease in amounts of eggs and parasites. Liposomes improve the antischistosomal activity of praziquantel. This can be used as a starting point to investigate alternative administration routes or dosage forms and to examine the mechanism of intestinal absorption of PRZ © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perioperative cardiac arrest and its mortality in children. A 9-year survey in a Brazilian tertiary teaching hospital

Background: the incidence of perioperative cardiac arrest and mortality in children is higher than in adults. This survey evaluated the incidence, causes, and outcome of perioperative cardiac arrests in a pediatric surgical population in a tertiary teaching hospital between 1996 and 2004.Methods: the incidence of cardiac arrest during anesthesia was identified from an anesthesia database. During the study period, 15 253 anesthetics were performed in children. Data collected included patient demographics, surgical procedures (elective, urgent, or emergency), ASA physical status classification, anesthesia provider information, type of surgery, surgical areas, and outcome. All cardiac arrests were reviewed and grouped by the cause of arrest and death into one of four groups: totally anesthesia-related, partially anesthesia-related, totally surgery-related, or totally child disease or condition-related.Results: There were 35 cardiac arrests (22.9 : 10 000) and 15 deaths (9.8 : 10 000). Major risk factors for cardiac arrest were neonates and children under 1 year of age (P < 0.05) with ASA III or poorer physical status (P < 0.05), in emergency surgery (P < 0.05), and general anesthesia (P < 0.05). Child disease/condition was the major cause of cardiac arrest or death (P < 0.05). There were seven cardiac arrests because of anesthesia (4.58 : 10 000) - four totally (2.62 : 10 000) and three partially related to anesthesia (1.96 : 10 000). There were no anesthesia attributable deaths reported. The main causes of anesthesia attributable cardiac arrest were respiratory events (71.5%) and medication-related events (28.5%).Conclusions: Perioperative cardiac arrests were relatively higher in neonates and infants than in older children with severe underlying disease and during emergency surgery. The fact that all anesthesia attributable cardiac arrests were related to airway management and medication administration is important in prevention strategies.

Perioperative cardiac arrest: a study of 53718 anaesthetics over 9 yr from a Brazilian teaching hospital

Background. Little information exists regarding factors influencing perioperative cardiac arrests and their outcome. This survey evaluated the incidence, causes and outcome of perioperative cardiac arrests in a Brazilian tertiary general teaching hospital between April 1996 and March 2005.Methods. The incidence of cardiac arrest during anaesthesia was prospectively identified from an anaesthesia database. There were 53 718 anaesthetics during the study period. Data collected included patient characteristics, surgical procedures (elective, urgent or emergency), ASA physical status classification, anaesthesia provider information, type of surgery, surgical areas and outcome. All cardiac arrests were retrospectively reviewed and grouped by cause of arrest and death into one of four groups: totally anaesthesia related, partially anaesthesia related, totally surgery related or totally patient disease or condition related.Results. One hundred and eighty-six cardiac arrests (34.6:10 000) and 118 deaths (21.97:10 000) were found. Major risk factors for cardiac arrest were neonates, children under 1 yr and the elderly (P < 0.05), male patients with ASA III or poorer physical status (P < 0.05), in emergency surgery (P < 0.05) and under general anaesthesia (P < 0.05). Patient disease/condition was the major cause of cardiac arrest or death (P < 0.05). There were 18 anaesthesia-related cardiac arrests (3.35:10 000)-10 totally attributed (1.86:10 000) and 8 partially related to anaesthesia (1.49:10 000). There were 6 anaesthesia-related deaths (1.12:10 000)-3 totally attributable and 3 partially related to anaesthesia (0.56:10 000 in both cases). The main causes of anaesthesia-related cardiac arrest were respiratory events (55.5%) and medication-related events (44.5%).Conclusions. Perioperative cardiac arrests were relatively higher in neonates, infants, the elderly and in males with severe underlying disease and under emergency surgery. All anaesthesia-related cardiac arrests were related to airway management and medication administration which is important for prevention strategies.

TEACHING OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY - COMMENTS ON BASIC VERSUS APPLIED ASPECTS RELATED TO PROFESSION

Comments about education and medicine teaching were made. The learning and the curriculum in according with the priorities of the country's health had special emphasis.Students and teachers of Botucatu considered that the improvement of the 2nd year medical microbiological course was good with predominantly basic contents. The students prefer a balanced content or predominantly applied to medicine.Three phases of the teaching of microbiological contents are proposed: 1st - in the basic cycly (2nd year); 2nd - into the course of Clinical Laboratory (3rd or 4th year); 3rd - into the clinical cycle, following a program of integration.

Influence of different routes of flush perfusion on the distribution of lung preservation solutions in parenchyma and airways

Objective: The present study was performed to investigate the influence of different routes of perfusion on the distribution of the preservation solutions in the lung parenchyma and upper airways. Methods: Pigs were divided into four groups: control (n = 6), pulmonary artery (PA) (n = 6), simultaneous PA + bronchial artery (BA) (n = 8), and retrograde delivery (n = 6). After preparation and cannulation, cardioplegia solution and Euro- Collins solution (ECS) for lung preservation were given simultaneously. After removal of the heart, the double lung bloc was harvested. Following parameters were assessed: total and regional perfusion (dye-labeled microspheres), tissue water content, PA, aorta, left atrial and left ventricular pressures, cardiac output and lung temperature. Results: Our data show that flow of the ECS in lung parenchyma did not reach control values (9.4 ± 1.0 ml/min per g lung wet weight) regardless of the route of delivery (PA 6.3 ± 1.5, PA + BA 4.8 ± 0.9, retrograde 2.7 ± 0.9 ml/min per g lung wet weight). However, flow in the proximal and distal trachea were significantly increased by PA + BA delivery (0.970 ± 0.4, respectively, 0.380 ± 0.2 ml/min per g) in comparison with PA (0.023 ± 0.007, respectively, 0.024 ± 0.070 ml/min per g), retrograde (0.009 ± 0.003, respectively, 0.021 ± 0.006 ml/min per g) and control experiments (0.125 ± 0.0018, respectively, 0.105 ± 0.012 ml/g per min). Similarly the highest flow rates in the right main bronchus were achieved by PA + BA delivery (1.04 ± 0.4 ml/min per g) in comparison with 0.11 ± 0.03 in control, 0.033 ± 0.008 in PA, and 0.019 ± 0.005 ml/min per g in retrograde group. Flows in the left main bronchus were 0.09 ± 0.02 ml/min per g in control, 0.045 ± 0.012 ml/min per g in PA, and 0.027 ± 0.006 ml/min per g in retrograde group. The flow rates were significantly (P = 0.001) increased by PA + BA delivery of the storage solution (0.97 ± 0.3 ml/min per g). Conclusions: Our data show that the distribution of ECS for lung preservation is significantly improved in airway tissues (trachea and bronchi) if a simultaneous PA + BA delivery is used.

English collocations extracted from a corpus of university learners and its contribution to a language teaching pedagogy

Taking into consideration the relevance of foreign language teaching and the learning of collocations (ALTENBERG; EEG-OLOFSSON, 1990; FONTENELLE, 1994; MEUNIER; GRANGER, 2008), this paper aims at showing results of an investigation on whether the teaching of collocations should be implicit or explicit to the Brazilian university students. Furthermore, the research has the purpose of presenting some collocational aspects from a corpus of the written language learners made up of intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced university students' argumentative essays at a public university in Brazil. With the help of WordSmith Tools (SCOTT, 2007), it was possible to raise students' most frequent collocational choices and patterns, the most/least used type of collocations, the influence of the mother tongue on their choices, among other aspects. With the purpose of motivating and involving students in classroom research, it was also introduced The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), created by Mark Davies. By doing so, students could compare their collocational choices with the patterns found in the online corpus, extract more collocational patterns and, consequently, be aware of the potential of corpora for the foreign learning process, specifically for raising language awareness, with focus on prefabricated chunks.

Experiências educativas e aula de matemática: enquanto a aula de matemática (não) acontece o que acontece?

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Internal Combustion Engine's Throttle Control as a Motivational Theme for Teaching Microprocessors Systems Lab Classes

The increased fuel economy and driveability of modern internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) are the result of the application of advanced digital electronics to control the operation of the internal combustion engine (ICE). Microprocessors (and micro controllers) play a key role in the engine control, by precisely controlling the amount of both air and fuel admitted into the cylinders. Air intake is controlled by utilizing a throttle valve equipped with a motor and gear mechanism as actuator, and a sensor enabling the measurement of the angular position of the blades. This paperwork presents a lab setup that allows students to control the throttle position using a microcontroller that runs a program developed by them. A commercial throttle body has been employed, whereas a power amplifier and a microcontroller board have been hand assembled to complete the experimental setup. This setup, while based in a high-tech, microprocessor-based solution for a real-world, engine operation optimization problem, has the potential to engage students around a hands-on multidisciplinary lab activity and ignite their interest in learning fundamental and advanced topics of microprocessors systems.

New species of the Pseudancistrus barbatus group (Siluriformes, Loricariidae) with comments on its biogeography and dispersal routes

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

Ecological competition and the incidence of Acinetobacter baumannii bloodstream infections in a teaching hospital in Southeastern Brazil

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

A multiple intelligences theory-based 3D virtual lab environment for digital systems teaching.

This paper describes a 3D virtual lab environment that was developed using OpenSim software integrated into Moodle. Virtuald software tool was used to provide pedagogical support to the lab by enabling to create online texts and delivering them to the students. The courses taught in this virtual lab are methodologically in conformity to theory of multiple intelligences. Some results are presented.

Intraoperative and Anesthesia-Related Cardiac Arrest and Its Mortality in Older Patients: A 15-Year Survey in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)