BOLSA FAMÍLIA: IMPORTANTE DETERMINANTE PARA A EDUCAÇÃO E CRESCIMENTO SOCIOECONÔMICO DO BRASIL

Esta dissertação trata de um tema relativamente novo, com literatura escassa, praticamente sem estudos teóricos que o abordem. Referenciais são encontrados em publicações feitas em seminários e palestras bem como em artigos e notas jornalísticas. Esta dissertação se trata de trabalho exploratório, analítico descritivo com base documental. O Programa Bolsa Família, tema central deste trabalho, é uma ferramenta para distribuição de renda que funciona de forma simples e tem sido efetiva para o atendimento de famílias que vivem abaixo da linha de pobreza. Ele é resultado da fusão de vários outros programas dispersos e com efetividade questionável Bolsa Escola, Auxílio Gás e Cartão Alimentação. O Programa Bolsa Família beneficia famílias em situação de pobreza com renda mensal de R$ 70 a R$ 140 per capita e em extrema pobreza com renda mensal abaixo de R$ 70 reais per capita. Também estabelece condicionalidades de educação e saúde. Atualmente, há cerca de 13 milhões de famílias inscritas no Programa Bolsa Família que cumprem as condições do Cadastro Único esta é praticamente a totalidade das famílias pobres segundo critérios do PNAD 2006 (Pesquisa Nacional de Domicílios). Na realidade, houve substancial injeção de recursos em áreas outrora relegadas ao acaso, criando novos consumidores, bem como empreendedores, além de atrair investimentos. Quanto à educação, nota-se que há redução do analfabetismo. Há um crescimento vegetativo do Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano (IDH) no qual o Brasil situa-se em 84⁰ lugar dentre as 187 nações controladas pelo PNUD (Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento) em 2011. As variáveis que compõem o índice crescem timidamente, destaca-se queda no item expectativa de escolaridade esperada das crianças em idade de ingresso na escola (no Brasil, aos seis anos), que caiu no período 2000-2011, esse fato pode indicar falha estrutural no ensino brasileiro. Esse estudo indica que há desenvolvimento socioeconômico em áreas carentes, particularmente na Região Nordeste. Observa-se também a reversão da migração que historicamente era de norte/nordeste a sudeste. Também nota-se redução da taxa de fecundidade das brasileiras, o que é vantajoso. O Brasil também está com a vantagem do Bônus demográfico , quando a população economicamente ativa supera a população dependente, o que é um excelente fator de crescimento por atrair investimentos. Apesar de melhorias observadas na década 2000-2010, elas ainda são insuficientes. Quanto ao desenvolvimento humano , o Brasil está muito distante das nações desenvolvidas, com IDH de 0,718, que cresceu na última década à taxa de 0,769% ao ano. Nesse ritmo, até alcançarmos o IDH norueguês -- primeiro colocado, ou o australiano -- segundo colocado, que é de 0,943 serão necessários 35/36 anos. Isso nos leva a pensar que, a não ser que o acaso nos ajude, o sonho de nos juntarmos aos primeiros é questionável. Com respeito ao Programa Bolsa Família, esse prova ser uma frente social para a eliminação da desigualdade, seus beneficiários eram classificados como pobres e extremamente pobres e foram resgatados.

Attentional shifts towards an expected visual target alter the level of alpha-band oscillatory activity in the human calcarine cortex

Neuronal operations associated with the top-down control process of shifting attention from one locus to another involve a network of cortical regions, and their influence is deemed fundamental to visual perception. However, the extent and nature of these operations within primary visual areas are unknown. In this paper, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine whether, prior to the onset of a visual stimulus, neuronal activity within early visual cortex is affected by covert attentional shifts. Time/frequency analyses were used to identify the nature of this activity. Our results show that shifting attention towards an expected visual target results in a late-onset (600 ms postcue onset) depression of alpha activity which persists until the appearance of the target. Independent component analysis (ICA) and dipolar source modeling confirmed that the neuronal changes we observed originated from within the calcarine cortex. Our results further show that the amplitude changes in alpha activity were induced not evoked (i.e., not phase-locked to the cued attentional task). We argue that the decrease in alpha prior to the onset of the target may serve to prime the early visual cortex for incoming sensory information. We conclude that attentional shifts affect activity within the human calcarine cortex by altering the amplitude of spontaneous alpha rhythms and that subsequent modulation of visual input with attentional engagement follows as a consequence of these localized changes in oscillatory activity. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pupil resistance to their schooling experience

The thesis explores the nature of pupil resistance; it investigates what constitutes it and how it can be explained. Various ethnic and national group, male and female working-class resistance if analysed in two secondary schools in Birmingham (England) and one school in Sydney (Australia). It focuses on the pupils’ experience of school. ‘Compressed ethnographies’ (Walford and Miller, 1991) were conducted in each school to examine pupil resistance. The research found that structural societal state factors, regional, community and formal, informal and physical characteristics of each school, together with the teachers and pupils characteristics and background all influence resistance. The class, gender, ethnic and national identity of each pupil shapes resistance. In all three schools that were involved with the research, girls were more likely to exhibit overt, collective forms of resistance, whereas lads were more likely to operate alone. Islander pupils in Sydney and African-Caribbean kids in Birmingham were more likely to display engaged forms of resistance. Girls tended to show more engaged forms compared to their male counterparts across all ethnic and national cultures. Resistance is complex and dynamic, the definition alters depending upon context. Dimensions of resistance are developed; including overt, covert; individual, collective; intentional, unintentional; engaged and detached forms. Resistance operates within a structure and agency framework, the pupils can shape their own schooling experience mediated within the structures of their school, community and society. Some pupils manage their resources and the structures better than others; how the pupil manages and operates within the structures influences their resistance response. Resistance is contradictory and can reinforce the status quo. To fully understand resistance, it must be contextualised.

Education and racism:a study of the teachers' and the pupils' relations in the schooling of black boys

This thesis examines the teachers' and the pupils' relations in the schooling of black boys. The study using the methodology of participant observation focusses on one school (Kilby) in an area of black population in an English city. The thesis’s intentions are two fold: firstly, in order to examine these relations, two major aspects of their interaction are addressed, that of the absence of teachers from conventional 'race-relations' research, and, the identification and examination of the anti-school pupils' sub-cultures. Two substantive questions are asked: what is the response of the teachers to the schooling of black pupils? and, what is the meaning of the pupils' resistance to schooling? Secondly, in attempting to answer these questions and offer a critique of the dominant 'race-relations' culturalist explanation of black youth's response to schooling, a theoretical framework has been developed which takes account of both the 'economic' and the 'sociological' perspectives. Methodology allowed and pointed to the importance of examining the teachers' ideologies and practices as well as those of the black boys. It is argued that a class analysis of the racially structured British society is more adequate than the conventional ethnic approach in explaining the black boys' location within Kilby School. Hence, it is posited that the major problem in the schooling of black youth is not that of their culture but of racism, which pervasively structures the social reality at Kilby school. Racism is mediated both through the existing institutional framework that discriminates against working-class youth and through the operation of race specific mechanisms, such as the process of racist stereotyping. It is thus further argued that the Kilby school teachers are of central causal significance to the - problems that the boys encounter. Furthermore, it is in response to these racist ideologies and practices that both West Indian and Asian pupils develop specific forms of collective resistance, which are seen to be linked to the wider black community, as legitimate strategies of survival.

A fuzzy expected value approach under generalized data envelopment analysis

Fuzzy data envelopment analysis (DEA) models emerge as another class of DEA models to account for imprecise inputs and outputs for decision making units (DMUs). Although several approaches for solving fuzzy DEA models have been developed, there are some drawbacks, ranging from the inability to provide satisfactory discrimination power to simplistic numerical examples that handles only triangular fuzzy numbers or symmetrical fuzzy numbers. To address these drawbacks, this paper proposes using the concept of expected value in generalized DEA (GDEA) model. This allows the unification of three models - fuzzy expected CCR, fuzzy expected BCC, and fuzzy expected FDH models - and the ability of these models to handle both symmetrical and asymmetrical fuzzy numbers. We also explored the role of fuzzy GDEA model as a ranking method and compared it to existing super-efficiency evaluation models. Our proposed model is always feasible, while infeasibility problems remain in certain cases under existing super-efficiency models. In order to illustrate the performance of the proposed method, it is first tested using two established numerical examples and compared with the results obtained from alternative methods. A third example on energy dependency among 23 European Union (EU) member countries is further used to validate and describe the efficacy of our approach under asymmetric fuzzy numbers.