Nurses’ perceptions of climate and environmental issues : a qualitative study

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore nurses' perceptions of climate and environmental issues and examine how nurses perceive their role in contributing to the process of sustainable development.  Background: Climate change and its implications for human health represent an increasingly important issue for the healthcare sector. According to the International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics, nurses have a responsibility to be involved and support climate change mitigation and adaptation to protect human health.  Design: This is a descriptive, explorative qualitative study.  Methods: Nurses (n=18) were recruited from hospitals, primary care and emergency medical services; eight participated in semi-structured, in-depth individual interviews and 10 participated in two focus groups. Data were collected from April-October 2013 in Sweden; interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis.  Results: Two main themes were identified from the interviews: (i) an incongruence between climate and environmental issues and nurses' daily work; and (ii) public health work is regarded as a health co-benefit of climate change mitigation. While being green is not the primary task in a lifesaving, hectic and economically challenging context, nurses' perceived their profession as entailing responsibility, opportunities and a sense of individual commitment to influence the environment in a positive direction.  Conclusions: This study argues there is a need for increased awareness of issues and methods that are crucial for the healthcare sector to respond to climate change. Efforts to develop interventions should explore how nurses should be able to contribute to the healthcare sector's preparedness for and contributions to sustainable development.

The causal effect of family size on child labor and education

This paper investigates the causal relationship between family size and child labor and education among brazilian children. More especifically, it analyzes the impact of family size on child labor, school attendance, literacy and school progression. It explores the exogenous variation in family size driven by the presence of twins in the family. The results are consistent under the reasonable assumption that the instrument is a random event. Using the nationally representative brazilian household survey (Pnad), detrimental effects are found on child labor for boys. Moreover, significant effects are obtained for school progression for girls caused by the exogenous presence of the young siblings in the household.

Child labor and learning

This paper investigates the impact of working while in school on learning outcomes through the use of a unique micro panel dataset of Brazilian students. The potential endogeneity is addressed through the use of di erence-in-di erence and instrumental variable estimators. A negative e ect of working on learning outcomes in both math and Portuguese is found. The e ects of child work range from 3% to 8% of a standard deviation decline in test score which represents a loss of about a quarter to a half of a year of learning on average. We also explore the minimum legal age to entry in the labor market to induce an exogenous variation in child labor status. The results reinforce the detrimental e ects of child labor on learning. Additionally, it is found that this e ect is likely due to the interference of work with the time kids can devote to school and school work.

Skilled labor, unskilled labor, and economic growth

We assess the effects of the imperfect substitution between skilled and unskilled labor on economic growth in a model in which physical capital and skilled labor can be accumulated. It is shown that economies with higher substitutability between skilled and unskilled labor have higher levels of income per capita in the transition and in the long-run equilibrium. Furthermore, these economies have a higher level of skilled labor and a higher level of capital intensity in the long-run equilibrium. For certain parameters values, the speed of convergence depends positively on the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labor.

The long-term effects of conditional cash transfers on child labor and school enrollment

This paper investigates the long-term e ects of conditional cash transfers on school attainment and child labor. To this end, we construct a dynamic heterogeneous agent model, calibrate it with Brazilian data, and introduce a policy similar to the Brazilian Bolsa Fam lia. Our results suggest that this type of policy has a very strong impact on educational outcomes, sharply increasing primary school completion. The conditional transfer is also able to reduce the share of working children from 22% to 17%. We then compute the transition to the new steady state and show that the program actually increases child labor over the short run, because the transfer is not enough to completely cover the schooling costs, so children have to work to be able to comply with the program's schooling eligibility requirement. We also evaluate the impacts on poverty, inequality, and welfare.

Natural fibers based composites - Technical and social issues

Brazil is the only country in South America to have an automotive supplier sector based on natural fibers. New opportunities are arising due to an increase demand by the car makers in applying natural fibers in their parts. Several crop fibers have been developed in Brazil. Among them can be listed caroa, piacava, pupunha, mutum and others of regional application. For the automotive industry, which requires large quantities with uniform quality, the alternatives are sisal (170,000 ton/yr), curaua (150 ton/yr in 2003), malva, 200 ton/yr; Brazil is the single largest producer country of sisal, and commercially, the only one in curaua. For South America, the alternatives are fique in Colombia, abaca in equator, flax in Argentina and curaua in Venezuela. It must be understood by the target countries of drugs, is that crop fiber can be an economic alternative to coca in the Andes region, therefore an instrument of land reform and drug reduction plantations. Several companies have a strong program of apply natural fibers based components in their products: Volkswagen do Brazil, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors do Brazil. Among their suppliers can be listed companies such Pematec (curaua), Toro (sisal, coir and jute), Incomer (sisal and jute), Ober (jute, curaua), Indaru (jute and sisal), Antolin (imported kenaf,) Tapetes Sao Carlos (sisal), Poematec (coir) and Art-Gore, with Woodstock'' wood and natural fibers). Figures about production and demand are discussed in the paper.

Guiana dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) displaying beach hunting behavior in the Cananéia Estuary, Brazil: social context and conservation issues

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

Prevention and insurance of conflict and terrorism: issues and evidence for Latin America

Includes bibliography

Savings, investment and growth in the global age: analytical and policy issues

Includes bibliography

Evaluating interaction with websites: Case study of a government website of the Brazilian Ministry of labor and employment

This paper presents a usability evaluation of the MTE (Ministry of Labor e Employment) website in order to measure the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction regarding the website. The participants were 12 users (07 users were female and 05 male). The results indicate that although the education level of all participants and computing experience, many of them have had difficulty in finding information and do not recommend the site. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Cuestiones de comercio internacional y finanzas internacionales = International trade and financial issues = Questions de commerce international et de finances internationales

Nota sobre actividades realizadas y actividades propuestas para el proximo periodo en materia de comercio internacional y finanzas internacionales.