Impactia: automating the study of the scientific production

Introduction The Andalusian Public Health System Virtual Library (Biblioteca Virtual del Sistema Sanitario Público de Andalucía, BV-SSPA) was set up in June 2006. It consists of a regional government action with the aim of democratizing the health professional access to quality scientific information, regardless of the professional workplace. Andalusia is a region with more than 8 million inhabitants, with 100,000 health professionals for 41 hospitals, 1,500 primary healthcare centres, and 28 centres for non-medical attention purposes (research, management, and educational centres). Objectives The Department of Development, Research and Investigation (R+D+i) of the Andalusian Regional Government has, among its duties, the task of evaluating the hospitals and centres of the Andalusian Public Health System (SSPA) in order to distribute its funding. Among the criteria used is the evaluation of the scientific output, which is measured using bibliometry. It is well-known that the bibliometry has a series of limitations and problems that should be taken into account, especially when it is used for non-information sciences, such us career, funding, etc. A few years ago, the bibliometric reports were done separately in each centre, but without using preset and well-defined criteria, elements which are basic when we need to compare the results of the reports. It was possible to find some hospitals which were including Meeting Abstracts in their figures, while others do not, and the same was happening with Erratum and many other differences. Therefore, the main problem that the Department of R+D+i had to deal with, when they were evaluating the health system, was that bibliometric data was not accurate and reports were not comparable. With the aim of having an unified criteria for the whole system, the Department of R+D+i ordered the BV-SSPA to do the year analysis of the scientific output of the system, using some well defined criteria and indicators, among whichstands out the Impact Factor. Materials and Methods As the Impact Factor is the bibliometric indicator that the virtual library is asked to consider, it is necessary to use the database Web of Science (WoS), since it is its owner and editor. The WoS includes the databases Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. To gather all the documents, SCI and SSCI are used; to obtain the Impact Factor and quartils, it is used the Journal Citation Reports, JCR. Unlike other bibliographic databases, such us MEDLINE, the bibliometric database WoS includes the address of all the authors. In order to retrieve all the scientific output of the SSPA, we have done general searches, which are afterwards processed by a tool developed by our library. We have done nine different searches using the field ‘address’; eight of them including ‘Spain’ and each one of the eight Andalusian Regions, and the other one combining ‘Spain’ with all those cities where there are health centres, since we have detected that there are some authors that do not use the region in their signatures. These are some of the search strategies: AD=Malaga and AD=Spain AD=Sevill* and AD=Spain AD=SPAIN AND (AD=GUADIX OR AD=BAZA OR AD=MOTRIL) Further more, the field ‘year’ is used to determine the period. To exploit the data, the BV-SSPA has developed a tool called Impactia. It is a web application which uses a database to store the information of the documents generated by the SSPA. Impactia allows the user to automatically process the retrieved documents, assigning them to their correspondent centres. In order to do the classification of documents automaticaly, it was necessary to detect the huge variability of names of the centres that the authors use in their signatures. Therefore, Impactia knows that if an author signs as “Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena”, “HVM” or “Hosp. Virgin Macarena”, he belongs to the same centre. The figure attached shows the variability found for the Empresa Publica Hospital de Poniente. Besides the documents from WoS, Impactia includes the documents indexed in Scopus and in other databases, where we do bibliographic searches using similar strategies to the later ones. Aware that in the health centres and hospitals there is a lot of grey literature that is not gathered in databases, Impactia allows the centres to feed the application with these documents, so that all the SSPA scientific output is gathered and organised in a centralized place. The ones responsible of localizing this gray literature are the librarians of each one of the centres. They can also do statements to the documents and indicators that are collected and calculated by Impactia. The bulk upload of documents from WoS and Scopus into Impactia is monthly done. One of the main issues that we found during the development of Impactia was the need of dealing with duplicated documents obtained from different sources. Taking into account that sometimes titles might be written differently, with slashes, comas, and so on, Impactia detects the duplicates using the field ‘DOI’ if it is available or comparing the fields: page start, page end and ISSN. Therefore it is possible to guarantee the absence of duplicates. Results The data gathered in Impactia becomes available to the administrative teams and hospitals managers, through an easy web page that allows them to know at any moment, and with just one click, the detailed information of the scientific output of their hospitals, including useful graphs such as percentage of document types, journals where their scientists usually publish, annual comparatives, bibliometric indicators and so on. They can also compare the different centres of the SSPA. Impactia allows the user to download the data from the application, so that he can work with this information or include them in their centres’ reports. This application saves the health system many working hours. It was previously done manually by forty one librarians, while now it is done by only one person in the BV-SSPA during two days a month. To sum up, the benefits of Impactia are: It has shown its effectiveness in the automatic classification, treatment and analysis of the data. It has become an essential tool for all managers to evaluate quickly and easily the scientific production of their centers. It optimizes the human resources of the SSPA, saving time and money. It is the reference point for the Department of R+D+i to do the scientific health staff evaluation.

Gérer un semainier a plusieurs chez un patient bénéficiaire de soins a domicile [Interprofessional pill box management in an ambulatory care setting].

Complex multimorbid patients are now more common in ambulatory care and the management of their medication more frequently needs interprofessional collaboration. This qualitative study explored health professional's main challenges when introducing, preparing and sharing the use of a pill box for a patient. Another objective of this study was to explore options for improving care in these situations.

Guía de implantación del aprendizaje a través de la simulación y las TICs en los centros sanitarios

Este documento forma parte del proyecto Fomento de las TIC para mejorar el aprendizaje a través de simulación en centros de salud (SIMBASE). Implementation Handbook for Simulation and ICT-Based Learning in Training nad Healthcare Centres (Versión en inglés disponible en http://www.simbase.co/results/)

Modelo de gestión del entrenamiento basado en simulación orientado a la evaluación de impacto

Este documento forma parte del proyecto Fomento de las TIC para mejorar el aprendizaje a través de simulación en centros de salud (SIMBASE). Management model for simulation based-training oriented towards impact evaluation Versión en inglés disponible en http://www.simbase.co/results/)

How to manage a virtual library?

Introduction. The Andalusian Public Health System Virtual Library (Biblioteca Virtual del Sistema Sanitario Público de Andalucía, BV-SSPA) was created in June 2006, after being determined by the II Quality Plan in the key process Guarantee the Knowledge Exchange into the Health System which was established by the Strategy IV, Knowledge Management, 2005-2008. It is a government strategy with its own budget and management with the aim of rationalizing the subscriptions into the Andalusian Health System and democratizing the health professional access to qualify scientific information, regardless of the professional workplace. Andalusia is a wide region with more than 8 million inhabitants, more than 90,000 health professionals for 41 hospitals, 1,500 primary healthcare centres, and 12 centres for non-medical attention purposes, and the Virtual Library was created to cover all this Health Services. Before the creation of the BV-SSPA every centre had its own budget and management decisions concerning scientific resources, with the creation of the BV-SSPA both management and budget were centralized. Objectives. With this work we pretend to analyze if the results after these five years have reached the expectations from an economic point of view and determine if really we can offer a benefit to the Andalusian Professional and Society in general. We will demonstrate the following: - The BV-SSPA supposed a cost reduction. It meant cost-effectiveness. - It resulted in Economics of Scale, as we have every year more resources and services investing a minor proportional amount of money. - In terms of Efficiency it implemented more services than the System had before its creation, we a lower budget. Methods. The BV-SSPA was appointed the only intermediary for contracting electronic resources destined to the Andalusian Health System. This had some consequences which should be analyzed: - Hospitals were not allowed to subscribe any resources. - Services offered for the whole System. - A remote access system was created. - Tools to give more visibility to the Public Health System were developed. - Negotiations techniques changed as the BV-SSPA is stronger than individual hospitals. Results. - The amount of 2,431 electronic reviews, 8 data bases and other scientific information resources at the disposal of the Andalusian Health System Professionals and available worldwide requiring only an internet connection. Before the BV-SSPA, 5,267 titles were subscribed by hospital and 2,967 of them were subscribed repeatedly (by two or more hospitals), this represented more than 55%. The rationalization of the subscription investment has been reached. - The establishment of several important scientific services for the whole territory of Andalusia, not only big hospitals. - The use of appropriate tools through a Web 2.0 and Social Media to be acknowledged by most National Health Professionals. Conclusions. It has been demonstrated that the BV-SSPA has become the Central Unit for purchasing, offering librarian services and a reference for users in terms of knowledge management, but from the point of view of business it has also obtained the following results: - Cost-Effectiveness: Its budget for subscriptions is lower than the hospital former one in a 30% and now more electronic resources are available. - Economics of Scale: Near 95,000 health professionals can access this Virtual Library in 2010. Before its creation Professionals for small hospital and Primary Care centres were not able to access to scientific information subscribed by big hospitals. - Efficiency Besides the central electronic purchasing, services were created for the System, without increasing the expenses: - Remote access to all the library resources independent of the user’s location. The BV-SSPA usage increased in a 147% in 2008, when it was installed. - The Document Supply Service implemented in 2009. - The Institutional Repository which contains the whole intellectual, scientific production generated by the Andalusian Public Health Professionals as a result of their healthcare, research or managing activity. - The creation of an application developed by the BV-SSPA to study the Andalusian Health System Scientific Production. - The visibility of the Andalusian Health System reached thanks to the BV-SSPA, through the numerous events in which it participates and organizes such as the 2nd. European National Digital Libraries of Health Conferences and the National Conference of Health Science Information and Documentation held in Cadiz in 2010; and its profile in social media where it can be contacted by citizens and health professionals all over the world. - Negotiation with electronic resource suppliers is much more advantageous as the BV-SSPA is stronger to deal with them thanks to its consolidated budget, its managing independence and its visibility.

El informe sanitario como instrumento para la protección de la salud ambiental

The difficult mission of monitoring environmental health requires that public authorities react by making decisions that safeguard public health. A health report is a tool developed by professionals who give technical advice and provide specialized knowledge to decision-making power bodies to support the management of environmental health risks. This article pays special attention to the main features that characterize the work of this type of administrative document and its functional value and describes some of the problems related to the use of the health report in public management in order to improve the effects of the administrative action. We provide an overview of the fields of intervention requiring the issuance of health reports in the environmental health sphere within the Andalusian public administration in order to present the most recent advances in environmental health protection.

Portraying innovation in the public service of Brazil: Frameworks, systematization and characterization

ABSTRACT Innovation is essential for improving organizational performance in both the private and public sectors. This article describes and analyzes the 323 innovation experiences of the Brazilian federal public service that received prizes during the 16 annual competitions (from 1995 to 2012) of the Award for Innovation in Federal Public Management held by the Brazilian National School of Public Administration (ENAP). It is a qualitative and quantitative study in which were employed as categories for analysis the four types of innovation defined in the Copenhagen Manual: product, process, organizational and communication. The survey results allow us to affirm that there is innovation in the public sector, in spite of the skepticism of some researchers and the incipient state of theoretical research on the subject. It was possible to observe that organizational innovation was the one with the highest number of award- -winning experience, followed respectively by process, communication and product innovation, with citizen services and improvement of work processes being the main highlights. The results showed that, although the high incidence of innovation occurs at the national level, a significant number of innovations also occur at the local level, probably because many organizations of the federal government have their actions spread only at this level of government. Concerning the innovative area, health and education predominate, with almost 33% of initiatives, which can be explained by capillarity of these areas and the fact that both maintain a strong interaction with the user. The contributions of this work include the use of theoretical model of innovation analysis in the public sector in Brazil still upcoming, and the systematization of knowledge in empirical basis for this innovation. In this sense, it also contributes to the development of the theory with the presentation of evidence that the characteristics, determinants and consequences of innovation in the public sector differ not only from innovation in the industry, but also from innovation in services in the private sector.

Risk factors of obesity and their determinants in preschool children (the Swiss Ballabeina study)

This thesis has been conducted in the context of a lifestyle intervention in 40 Swiss kindergarten classes in the cantons St. Gallen and Vaud, in areas with a high migrant prevalence (Ballabeina study). The main objective of this work was to fill certain gaps of the literature and to bring a better understanding of the risk factors of overweight and obesity and their determinants in preschool children. Our data show that parental migrant status and educational level influence independently of each other adiposity and/or eating habits in these children. In addition, sports club participation at this young age seems to be a better indicator of healthy lifestyle characteristics in terms of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and eating habits than weight status. Finally, we found that in this population higher scores of hyperactivity/inattention are associated with lower adiposity and with both healthy (more physical activity and less sedentary activity) and unhealthy (more television viewing and more unhealthy eating habits) lifestyle characteristics. Thus, our findings can be used by different actors of health and education system to better target their preventive actions and can serve as a basis for future complementary researches. - Cette thèse a été réalisée dans le cadre d'un projet de promotion de la santé mené dans 40 classes enfantines suisses issues de régions à forte prévalence migrante des cantons de St. Gall et de Vaud (étude Ballabeina). L'objectif principal de ce travail était de combler certaines lacunes de la littérature et d'approfondir nos connaissances sur les facteurs de risque du surpoids et de l'obésité et de leurs déterminants chez les enfants d'âge préscolaire. Nos analyses montrent que le statut de migrant des parents et leur niveau d'éducation influencent indépendamment l'un de l'autres l'adiposité et les habitudes alimentaires chez ces enfants. De plus, à ce jeune âge la participation dans un club de sport semble être un meilleur indicateur de style de vie sain en termes d'activité physique, de comportements sédentaires et d'habitudes alimentaires que le statut pondéral. Nous avons également trouvé que dans cette population, un score plus élevé d'hyperactivité/inattention est associé aussi bien à des caractéristiques de style de vie saines (plus d'activité physique, moins d'activité sédentaire) que malsaines (plus de consommation de télévision et moins bonnes habitudes alimentaire. Ainsi, nos résultats peuvent aider les différents acteurs de la santé et de l'éducation à mieux cibler leurs actions de prévention et servir de base à de futures recherches complémentaires.

Participation in a population-based physical activity programme as an aid for smoking cessation: a randomised trial.

OBJECTIVES: Exercise combined with nicotine therapy may help smoking cessation and minimise weight gain after quitting. Low participation in vigorous-intensity physical activity programmes precludes their population-wide applicability. In a randomised controlled trial, we tested whether a population-based moderate-intensity physical activity programme increases quit rates among sedentary smokers receiving nicotine therapy. METHODS: Participants (n=481; 57% male; mean age, 42.2 years (SD 10.1); mean cigarette consumption, 27 (SD 10.2) per day) were offered a nine-week smoking cessation programme consisting of a weekly 15-minute counselling session and the prescription of nicotine replacement therapy. In addition, participants in the physical activity group (n=229) also took part in a programme of moderate-intensity physical activity implemented at the national level, and offering nine weekly 60-minute sessions of physical activity. To ensure equal contact conditions, participants in the control group (n=252) attended weekly 60-minute health behaviour education sessions unrelated to physical activity. The primary outcome was continuous CO-verified smoking abstinence rates at 1-year follow-up. RESULTS: Continuous smoking abstinence rates were high and similar in the physical activity group and the control group at the end of the intervention (47% versus 46%, p=0.81) and at 1-year follow-up (27% versus 29%, p=0.71). The mean weight gain after one year was 4.4 kg and 6.2 kg among sustained quitters of the physical activity and control groups, respectively (p=0.06). CONCLUSION: Participation in a population-based moderate-intensity physical activity programme for 9 weeks in addition to a comprehensive smoking cessation programme did not significantly increase smoking cessation rates. A non-significant reduction in weight gain was observed among participants who quit smoking in the physical activity group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov; US National Institutes for Health (available online at http://clinicaltrials.gov/; CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT00521391).

Teaching ethnic diversity in journalism school

It has been found that the symbolic elites have a prominent role in the discursive reproduction of racism in society, because they control the public discourse through which many ethnic prejudices are spread and shared. This special position of the mass media requires that the professional education of journalists, also featuring such topics as ethnic studies, diversity and racism, is optimally adapted to the multicultural societies in Europe, North America and Australia. This paper reports about an extensive research project examining ethnic education of journalists in these white-dominated countries, by examining the websites of many journalism and communication departments. Consistent with the general finding that white symbolic elites primarily deny or ignore (their) racism in society, none of the academic programs, anywhere in the world, mentions special classes on racism in the mass media. Finally, a practical proposal is made for a course on ethnic reporting in multicultural societies.

The impact of information on decision-making in palliative care

Résumé Ce travail vise à clarifier les résultats contradictoires de la littérature concernant les besoins des patients d'être informés et de participer à la prise de décision. La littérature insiste sur le contenu de l'information comme base de la prise de décision, bien qu'il existe des preuves que d'autres contenus sont importants pour les patients. La thèse essaie en outre d'identifier des possibilités de mieux répondre aux préférences d'information et de participation des patients. Les travaux ont porté en particulier sur les soins palliatifs. Une analyse de la littérature donne un aperçu sur les soins palliatifs, sur l'information des patients et sur leur participation à la prise de décisions thérapeutiques. Cette analyse résume les résultats d'études précédentes et propose un: modèle théorique d'information, de prise de décision et de relation entre ces deux domaines. Dans le cadre de ce travail, deux études empiriques ont utilisé des questionnaires écrits adressés à des personnes privées et à des professionnels de la santé, couvrant la Suisse et le Royaume Uni, pour identifier d'éventuelles différences entre ces deux pays. Les enquêtes ont été focalisées sur des patients souffrant de cancer du poumon. Les instruments utilisés pour ces études proviennent de la littérature afin de les rendre comparables. Le taux de réponse aux questionnaires était de 30-40%. La majorité des participants aux enquêtes estime que les patients devraient: - collaborer à la prise de décision quant à leur traitement - recevoir autant d'information que possible, positive aussi bien que négative - recevoir toutes les informations mentionnées dans le questionnaire (concernant la maladie, le diagnostic et les traitements), tenant compte de la diversité des priorités des patients - être soutenus par des professionnels de la santé, leur famille, leurs amis et/ou les personnes souffrant de la même maladie En plus, les participants aux enquêtes ont identifié divers contenus de l'information aux patients souffrant d'une maladie grave. Ces contenus comprennent entre autres: - L'aide à la prise de décision concernant le traitement - la possibilité de maintenir le contrôle de la situation - la construction d'une relation entre le patient et le soignant - l'encouragement à faire des projets d'avenir - l'influence de l'état émotionnel - l'aide à la compréhension de la maladie et de son impact - les sources potentielles d'états confusionnels et d'états anxieux La plupart des contenus proposés sont positifs. Les résultats suggèrent la coexistence possible de différents contenus à un moment donné ainsi que leur changement au cours du temps. Un modèle est ensuite développé et commenté pour présenter le diagnostic d'une maladie grave. Ce modèle est basé sur la littérature et intègre les résultats des études empiriques réalisées dans le cadre de ce travail. Ce travail analyse également les sources préférées d'information et de soutien, facteurs qui peuvent influencer ou faire obstacle aux préférences d'information et de participation. Les deux groupes de participants considèrent les médecins spécialistes comme la meilleure source d'information. En ce qui concerne le soutien, les points de vue divergent entre les personnes privées et les professionnels de la santé: généralement, les rôles de soutien semblent peu définis parmi les professionnels. Les barrières à l'information adéquate du patient apparaissent fréquemment liées aux caractéristiques des professionnels et aux problèmes d'organisation. Des progrès dans ce domaine contribueraient à améliorer les soins fournis aux patients. Finalement, les limites des études empiriques sont discutées. Celles-ci comprennent, entre autres, la représentativité restreinte des participants et les objections de certains groupes de participants à quelques détails des questionnaires. Summary The present thesis follows a call from the current body of literature to better understand patient needs for information and for participation in decision-making, as previous research findings had been contradictory. Information so far seems to have been considered essentially as a means to making treatment decisions, despite certain evidence that it may have a number of other values to patients. Furthermore, the thesis aims to identify ways to optimise meeting patient preferences for information and participation in treatment decisions. The current field of interest is palliative care. An extensive literature review depicts the background of current concepts of palliative care, patient information and patient involvement into treatment decisions. It also draws together results from previous studies and develops a theoretical model of information, decision-making, and the relationship between them. This is followed by two empirical studies collecting data from members of the general public and health care professionals by means of postal questionnaires. The professional study covers both Switzerland and the United Kingdom in order to identify possible differences between countries. Both studies focus on newly diagnosed lung cancer patients. The instruments used were taken from the literature to make them comparable. The response rate in both surveys was 30-40%, as expected -sufficient to allow stastical tests to be performed. A third study, addressed to lung cancer patients themselves, turned out to require too much time within the frame available. A majority of both study populations thought that patients should: - have a collaborative role in treatment-related decision-making -receive as much information as possible, good or bad - receive all types of information mentioned in the questionnaire (about illness, tests, and treatment), although priorities varied across the study populations - be supported by health professionals, family members, friends and/or others with the same illness Furthermore they identified various 'meanings' information may have to patients with a serious illness. These included: - being an aid in treatment-related decision-making - allowing control to be maintained over the situation - helping the patient-professional relationship to be constructed - allowing plans to be made - being positive for the patient's emotional state - helping the illness and its impact to be understood - being a source of anxiety - being a potential source of confusion to the patient Meanings were mostly positive. It was suggested that different meanings could co-exist at a given time and that they might change over time. A model of coping with the disclosure of a serious diagnosis is then developped. This model is based on existing models of coping with threatening events, as takeñ from the literature [ref. 77, 78], and integrates findings from the empirical studies. The thesis then analyses the remaining aspects apparent from the two surveys. These range from the identification of preferred information and support providers to factors influencing or impeding information and participation preferences. Specialist doctors were identified by both study populations as the best information providers whilst with regard to support provision views differed between the general public and health professionals. A need for better definition of supportive roles among health care workers seemed apparent. Barriers to information provision often seem related to health professional characteristics or organisational difficulties, and improvements in the latter field could well help optimising patient care. Finally, limitations of the studies are discussed, including questions of representativness of certain results and difficulties with or objections against questionnaire details by some groups of respondents.

The view of teachers on bullying and implications for nursing

Objective: To understand school bullying from the perspective of teachers and reflect about the possible actions of the health area when coping with it. The guidelines of the School Health Program of the Ministries of Health and Education were used to reach that purpose. Method: A qualitative study carried out with teachers of a public school in Minas Gerais. Focus groups were used to collect data and the empirical material was decoded from thematic analysis of content, resulting in an analytical category: conceptions and experiences of teachers on bullying. Results: Specific perceptions about the phenomenon and the use of ineffective intervention resources were identified. In the interpretive plan were problematized the health and nursing contributions with resizing the interventions and the continuing training process of teachers. Conclusion: The results point to the construction of intersectoral practices for coping with bullying.


Analysis of the process of translation of knowledge regarding early childhood at the undergraduate level

Objective To analyze innovative contents on Early Child Development Promotion. Method This action-research involves nine faculties from four Higher Education Institutions at inner-state of São Paulo, Brazil.Data were collected by syllabi analyses (2009-2011), interviews and focus group. We have adopted an ECDP underpinning from international consensus, thus evaluating KT Results We have found relevant incorporation between teaching and extension in Nursing (87,5%) and Psychology (75%) undergraduate courses, while Pedagogy was restricted to teaching. Conclusion This KT evaluation has evinced innovative potential of extension, regardless teaching and research, for a better Early Childhood.


Formação profissional e empregabilidade: O caso dos diplomados da escola de formação profissional da Cabnave em São Vicente – Cabo Verde

Se houve um tempo em que eram as empresas as mais preocupadas em dotar os seus empregados com um determinado leque de competências técnicas, pela via da Formação Profissional, para se tornarem cada vez mais competitivas, hoje torna-se crucial para qualquer país poder determinar o grau de empregabilidade dos diversos cursos de formação profissional realizados pela sua população activa, de modo a optimizar a inserção dos seus cidadãos no mercado de trabalho. A presente investigação visa analisar a empregabilidade a partir de um caso nacional, em que uma escola de formação profissional, inserida numa empresa – a Cabnave – vem desenvolvendo um modelo de formação, que para além de estar directamente relacionado com a sua própria actividade, encontra-se ligado a vários sectores da actividade económica de Cabo Verde, particularmente ao da indústria Mecânica e Metalomecânica. O estudo contém dois principais momentos. Um primeiro, no qual se procedeu à contextualização e fundamentação do tema, com base em bibliografia nacional e internacional, e enfoque nos seguintes assuntos: o sistema de ensino em Cabo Verde, mais concretamente a via do ensino secundário técnico; a formação profissional; e o mercado de trabalho em Cabo Verde. Num segundo momento desenvolveu-se um Caso de Estudo, para se determinar o grau de empregabilidade dos diplomados da Escola de Formação Profissional da Cabnave, que seguiram uma carreira em áreas profissionais diferentes do curso realizado, recorrendo-se à aplicação de um questionário a uma amostra final de 80 inquiridos, e à interpretação dos resultados, através dos métodos de análise estatística Descritiva e Correlacional. Das conclusões resultantes da análise das respostas obtidas, chama-se a atenção para o facto de a maioria dos diplomados partilharem de uma opinião positiva relativamente à empregabilidade dos cursos que frequentaram, independentemente de os mesmos terem ou não conduzido a uma profissão directamente ligada ao sector da Mecânica e MetalomecânicaIf at one point companies used to be the ones that were the most concerned with providing specific technical skills to their employees, through professional education, as to become more competitive, it is today highly important for every country to determine the level of employability of the numerous professional education programs pursued by its active population, so as to increase citizens’ chances to enter the labor market. The present research aims to study the concept of employability, with focus on a national case, a school of professional education which integrates the company Cabnave, and has been developing an educational model that, in addition to responding to the company’s own needs, is also connected to Cape Verde’s various economic sectors, notably the Mechanics and Metalworking industry. The study consists of two main parts. A first one where, based on national and international bibliography, the theme is contextualized, with closest attention to the following subjects: the Cape Verdean education system, especially vocational education in secondary schools; professional education; and the labor market in Cape Verde. In the second part, a Case Study is conducted, in order to determine the level of employability of those who were trained by Cabnave’s School of Professional Education, but have pursued a career in a different professional field. Therefore, a questionnaire was submitted to a sample of 80 respondents, and the correspondent data was analyzed and interpreted, with the use of Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Analysis. One of the conclusions deriving from the survey results is that most of the School’s trained graduates have a positive view of the employability of the programs they have pursued, independently of whether they continued to work in the Mechanics and Metalworking industry

The aftermath of Civil War

Using an event-study methodology, this paper analyzes the aftermath of civil war in a cross-section of countries. It focuses on those experiences where the end of conflict marks the beginning of a relatively lasting peace. The paper considers 41 countries involved in internal wars in the period 1960-2003. In order to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the aftermath of war, the paper considers a host of social areas represented by basic indicators of economic performance, health and education, political development, demographic trends, and conflict and security issues. For each of these indicators, the paper first compares the post- and pre-war situations and then examines their dynamic trends during the post-conflict period. It conducts this analysis both in absolute and relative terms, the latter in relation to control groups of otherwise similar countries. The paper concludes that, even though war has devastating effects and its aftermath can be immensely difficult, when the end of war marks the beginning of lasting peace, recovery and improvement are indeed achieved.