Human resource policies in public education: empirical evidences for Brazil

Esta tese traz três exercícios empíricos sobre questões de recursos humanos em escolas públicas brasileiras, aproveitando-se de uma ampla política implantada na rede estadual de São Paulo. Esta política aumenta os salários para os professores que trabalham em escolas urbanas pobres e sua regra de alocação, baseada em um corte arbitrário em um índice socioeconômico, permite a identificação de impactos causais. Em resumo, os três artigos apontam que políticas de subsídios são capazes de, de fato, manter professores nas escolas mais pobres e este efeito, por sua vez, melhora o desempenho acadêmico dos alunos. Além disso, concluímos também que esta política também reduz o absenteísmo dos professores. No entanto, como consequência do desenho dessa política, não há evidências de que o subsídio melhora o perfil dos professores alocados nessas escolas. O primeiro artigo avalia os impactos dessa política sobre a rotatividade dos professores. Concluímos que a compensação salarial reduziu a taxa de rotatividade em 7,2 pontos percentuais, o que significa uma queda de 15% sobre a média pré-tratamento. Em um modelo em forma reduzida, encontramos também evidências de que esta política pode impactar positivamente o desempenho dos alunos. O segundo artigo analisa os impactos sobre a aprendizagem dos alunos, com foco em três possíveis mecanismos: i) a rotatividade; ii) a qualidade dos professores; iii) o aumento do salário. As estimativas mostram que o único canal através do qual esta política compensatória afeta o desempenho dos alunos é a redução da rotatividade dos professores. Ao reduzir taxa de volume de negócios em um desvio-padrão, a política reduziu a proporção de alunos de baixo desempenho em cerca de meio desvio-padrão. O terceiro artigo avalia como a diferenciação salarial criada por esta política afeta absenteísmo dos professores. Os resultados mostram que, após controlar efeitos fixos de professores e escolas, pagar um salário mais elevado (em média 26% a mais) provoca uma queda de 8-22% nas faltas dos professores. Ausências que não levam a desconto de salário, como por licenças médicas, não respondem à diferenciação salarial e o impacto é maior para os professores que recebem maior incentivo.

Quantifying epistemic actions in human-computer interaction

As digital systems move away from traditional desktop setups, new interaction paradigms are emerging that better integrate with users’ realworld surroundings, and better support users’ individual needs. While promising, these modern interaction paradigms also present new challenges, such as a lack of paradigm-specific tools to systematically evaluate and fully understand their use. This dissertation tackles this issue by framing empirical studies of three novel digital systems in embodied cognition – an exciting new perspective in cognitive science where the body and its interactions with the physical world take a central role in human cognition. This is achieved by first, focusing the design of all these systems on a contemporary interaction paradigm that emphasizes physical interaction on tangible interaction, a contemporary interaction paradigm; and second, by comprehensively studying user performance in these systems through a set of novel performance metrics grounded on epistemic actions, a relatively well established and studied construct in the literature on embodied cognition. The first system presented in this dissertation is an augmented Four-in-a-row board game. Three different versions of the game were developed, based on three different interaction paradigms (tangible, touch and mouse), and a repeated measures study involving 36 participants measured the occurrence of three simple epistemic actions across these three interfaces. The results highlight the relevance of epistemic actions in such a task and suggest that the different interaction paradigms afford instantiation of these actions in different ways. Additionally, the tangible version of the system supports the most rapid execution of these actions, providing novel quantitative insights into the real benefits of tangible systems. The second system presented in this dissertation is a tangible tabletop scheduling application. Two studies with single and paired users provide several insights into the impact of epistemic actions on the user experience when these are performed outside of a system’s sensing boundaries. These insights are clustered by the form, size and location of ideal interface areas for such offline epistemic actions to occur, as well as how can physical tokens be designed to better support them. Finally, and based on the results obtained to this point, the last study presented in this dissertation directly addresses the lack of empirical tools to formally evaluate tangible interaction. It presents a video-coding framework grounded on a systematic literature review of 78 papers, and evaluates its value as metric through a 60 participant study performed across three different research laboratories. The results highlight the usefulness and power of epistemic actions as a performance metric for tangible systems. In sum, through the use of such novel metrics in each of the three studies presented, this dissertation provides a better understanding of the real impact and benefits of designing and developing systems that feature tangible interaction.

Corpos diferenciados e o processo de criação da performance Kahlo em Mim Eu E(m) Kahlo

The dissertation intends to develop an investigation on the artistic existence in human beings with different bodies in society at different historical moments. In this regard and based on this scenario, the study develops a description of the stigmas production and how they are established, spread and interfere with the sociability among human beings regarded as normal and those with different bodies. Regarding the scenic arts, the text describes about the participation of artists with different bodies in the scene, specifically the freak show and postdramatic theater. The text also investigates aspects of the biography and the work of mexican artist Frida Kahlo, which underpin methodological proceedings and produce contribution to the creative process of performance Kahlo em mim Eu e(m) Kahlo , which is to investigate the practice of the scene in this dissertation

Stereoselective analysis of carvedilol in human plasma and urine using HPLC after chiral derivatization

An enantioselective high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the analysis of carvedilol in plasma and urine was developed and validated using (-)-menthyl chloroformate (MCF) as a derivatizing reagent. Chloroform was used for extraction, and analysis was performed by HPLC on a C18 column with a fluorescence detector. The quantitation limit was 0.25 ng/ml for S(-)-carvedilol in plasma and 0.5 ng/ml for R(+)-carvedilol in plasma and for both enantiomers in urine. The method was applied to the study of enantioselectivity in the pharmacokinetics of carvedilol administered in a multiple dose regimen (25mg/12h) to a hypertensive elderly female patient. The data obtained demonstrated highest plasma levels for the R(+)-carvedilol(AUCSS 75.64 vs 37.29ng/ml). The enantiomeric ratio R(+)/S(-) was 2.03 for plasma and 1.49 0 - 12 for urine (Aeo-12 17.4 vs 11.7 pg). Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Off line extraction of phenol from human urine sample with isoamyl alcohol and determination by HPLC

This method has been developed for extraction and determination of phenol in a urine sample by high performance liquid chromatography.After acid hydrolysis, the free phenol was extracted with isoamyl alcohol solvent, followed by back extraction with 0.5 mol.L-1 sodium hydroxide solution and analyzed by an isocratic HPLC Varian System, equipped with reverse-phase column (MicroPak-C-18). The mobile phase was acetonitrile in 0.01 mol.L-1 hydrochloric acid solution, (20:80 v/v), and at a now-rate of 1.0 mL.min-1. The chromatogram was monitored at 220 nm in room temperature. The identification was based on retention time and the quantification was performed by automatic peak-area determination, corrected for the external standards method.The recovery was higher than 99.5 % for phenol and reproducibility of method was shown to be 2.3% standard deviation and 5.6% coefficient of variance (n=20). The limit detection was 0.05 mgL(-1) and a range of 0.05 to 20.0 mgL(-1) of phenol for linearity.

Environmental management system and human resource practices: is there a link between them in four Brazilian companies?

The aim of this article is to analyze the theoretical model proposed by [Jabbour CJC, Santos FCA. Relationships between human resource dimensions and environmental management in companies: proposal of a model. Journal of Cleaner Production 2008;16(1):5 1-8.] based on the data collected in four Brazilian companies. This model investigates how the phases of the environmental management system can be linked to human resource practices in order to attain continuous improvement of a company's environmental performance. Our aim is to contribute to a field, which has little empirical evidence. Although the interaction between the phases of the environmental management system and human resource practices is recommended by the specialized literature [Daily BE Huang S. Achieving sustainability through attention to human resource factors in environmental management. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 2001:21(12):1539-52.], the results indicate that most of the theoretical assumptions could not be confirmed in these Brazilian companies. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experimental performance of a direct evaporative cooler operating during summer in a Brazilian city

This paper presents the basic principles of the evaporative cooling process for human thermal comfort, the principles of operation for the direct evaporative cooling system and the mathematical development of the equations of thermal exchanges, allowing the determination of the effectiveness of saturation. It also presents the results of experimental tests in a direct evaporative cooler that take place in the Air Conditioning Laboratory at the University of Taubate Mechanical Engineering Department, and the experimental results are used to determinate the convective heat transfer co-efficient and to compare with the mathematical model. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Magnetic images of the disintegration process of tablets in the human stomach by ac biosusceptometry

Oral administration of solid dosage forms is usually preferred in drug therapy. Conventional imaging methods are essential tools to investigate the in vivo performance of these formulations. The non-invasive technique of ac biosusceptometry has been introduced as an alternative in studies focusing on gastrointestinal motility and, more recently, to evaluate the behaviour of magnetic tablets in vivo. The aim of this work was to employ a multisensor ac biosusceptometer system to obtain magnetic images of disintegration of tablets in vitro and in the human stomach. The results showed that the transition between the magnetic marker and the magnetic tracer characterized the onset of disintegration (t(50)) and occurred in a short time interval (1.1 +/- 0.4 min). The multisensor ac biosusceptometer was reliable to monitor and analyse the in vivo performance of magnetic tablets showing accuracy to quantify disintegration through the magnetic images and to characterize the profile of this process.

Enteric coated magnetic HPMC capsules evaluated in human gastrointestinal tract by AC biosusceptometry

Purpose. To employ the AC Biosusceptometry (ACB) technique to evaluate in vitro and in vivo characteristics of enteric coated magnetic hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) capsules and to image the disintegration process.Materials and Methods. HPMC capsules filled with ferrite (MnFe2O4) and coated with Eudragit (R) were evaluated using USP XXII method and administered to fasted volunteers. Single and multisensor ACB systems were used to characterize the gastrointestinal (GI) motility and to determine gastric residence time (GRT), small intestinal transit time (SITT) and orocaecal transit time (OCTT). Mean disintegration time (t (50)) was quantified from 50% increase of pixels in the imaging area.Results. In vitro and in vivo performance of the magnetic HPMC capsules as well as the disintegration process were monitored using ACB systems. The mean disintegration time (t (50)) calculated for in vitro was 25 +/- 5 min and for in vivo was 13 +/- 5 min. In vivo also were determined mean values for GRT (55 +/- 19 min), SITT (185 +/- 82 min) and OCTT (240 +/- 88 min).Conclusions. AC Biosusceptometry is a non-invasive technique originally proposed to monitoring pharmaceutical dosage forms orally administered and to image the disintegration process.

Performance of fluorescence methods, radiographic examination and ICDAS II on occlusal surfaces in vitro

This study compared the performance of fluorescence-based methods, radiographic examination, and International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) II on occlusal surfaces. One hundred and nineteen permanent human molars were assessed twice by 2 experienced dentists using the laser fluorescence (LF and LFpen) and fluorescence camera (FC) devices, ICDAS II and bitewing radiographs (BW). After measuring, the teeth were histologically prepared and assessed for caries extension. The sensitivities for dentine caries detection were 0.86 (FC), 0.78 (LFpen), 0.73 (ICDAS II), 0.51 (LF) and 0.34 (BW). The specificities were 0.97 (BW), 0.89 (LF), 0.65 (ICDAS II), 0.63 (FC) and 0.56 (LFpen). BW presented the highest values of likelihood ratio (LR)+ (12.47) and LR- (0.68). Rank correlations with histology were 0.53 (LF), 0.52 (LFpen), 0.41 (FC), 0.59 (ICDAS II) and 0.57 (BW). The area under the ROC curve varied from 0.72 to 0.83. Inter- and intraexaminer intraclass correlation values were respectively 0.90 and 0.85 (LF), 0.93 and 0.87 (LFpen) and 0.85 and 0.76 (FC). The ICDAS II kappa values were 0.51 (interexaminer) and 0.61 (intraexaminer). The BW kappa values were 0.50 (interexaminer) and 0.62 (intraexaminer). The Bland and Altman limits of agreement were 46.0 and 38.2 (LF), 55.6 and 40.0 (LFpen) and 1.12 and 0.80 (FC), for intra- and interexaminer reproducibilities. The posttest probability for dentine caries detection was high for BW and LF. In conclusion, LFpen, FC and ICDAS II presented better sensitivity and LF and BW better specificity. ICDAS II combined with BW showed the best performance and is the best combination for detecting caries on occlusal surfaces. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.

In vitro comparison of laser fluorescence performance with visual examination for detection of occlusal caries in permanent and primary molars

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Aggressive Behavior and Performance in the Tegu Lizard Tupinambis merianae

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Characterization and oxygen binding properties of des-Arg human hemoglobin

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

INFLUENCE OF DIETARY-PROTEIN INTAKE AND RECOMBINANT HUMAN SOMATOTROPIN ADMINISTRATION ON GROWTH AND BODY-COMPOSITION OF JUVENILE TAMBACU (A PIARACTUS-MESOPOTAMICUS X COLOSSOMA-MACROPOMUM CROSS)

This experiment was undertaken to study the interaction between level of dietary protein and recombinant human somatotropin (rhGH) administration on performance and body composition of juvenile tambacu (a crossbred Brazilian fish). A total of 72 juvenile tambacu, initially weighing and measuring (mean +/- s.e.m.) 23 +/- 2 g and 9 +/- 0.5 cm, respectively, were randomly divided into 18 groups of 4 fish each. Water temperature was 28 degrees C. Triplicate groups received one of two levels of dietary protein (15 and 30% as fed basis) and one of 3 doses of rhGH (0, 2 and 4 mu g/g) via intraperitoneal injection twice a week for 6 weeks, using a randomized complete block design. Somatotropin was noted to stimulate linear and body weight gain. The higher protein level supported increased growth in weight and length, but there was no interaction between protein level and rhGH dose for either parameter. Protein efficiency ratio and percentage protein deposited showed higher values on diets containing 15% protein. Somatotropin treatment did not significantly affect body composition, but there was a trend towards improved protein retention and reduced carcass lipid. In conclusion, the results of this experiment suggest that rhGH is able to stimulate linear gain in tambacu.

Determination of herbicides and a metabolite in human urine by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A method was developed to determine simazine, atrazine and their metabolite, 2-chloro-4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazine, in urine. The presence of these herbicides in urine may reflect possible exposure to pesticides. Sample preparation involved protein precipitation and solid-phase extraction. The samples were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The detection limits were 0.4 mug/l and the analytes have a linear response in the interval 6-800 mug/l. The precision of the method was reflected in the RSD of <2.4% for the herbicides studied. Based on the detectable herbicide levels from spiked urine samples collected from unexposed volunteers, this method can be used to determine the low levels necessary for establishing reference values of the selected herbicides and the metabolite. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.