Desempenho de pré-escolares com queixa de Distúrbios da Comunicação no Preschool Language Assessment Instrument (Plai-2)

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

No more than Conjectures: Popper and the Ethics of Scientific Enterprise

Karl Popper dealt with both problems Yurevich (Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 43(2), 2009, doi:10.1007/s12124-008-9082-7) deals: the crisis in Psychology and in the discourse about the nature of science. Although he failed to provide a complete response for both problems, his proposals can yet be fruitful to the reflection on these matters in the context of the present discussion. He offers some tentative answers to what could be considered a healthy epistemic activity, something Yurevich does not provide. More interestingly, some of the Popper proposals seem to fit, and in some extent correct, the quest for ""collaborative work"" proposed by Zittoun et al. (Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 43(2), 2009, doi:10.1007/s12124-008-9082-7) as a way of transforming crisis in development.

Construção e Evidências Psicométricas de uma Escala de Avaliação da Percepção Visual

Este estudo teve como objetivo construir e conhecer os parâmetros psicométricos de um instrumento para análise da percepção visual de adultos. Para a construção da escala participaram 295 adultos saudáveis, sem déficits cognitivos ou perceptivo-visuais. Nesta etapa foi formulada uma escala tetrafatorial constituída por 20 itens que avaliam quatro dimensões referentes à percepção visual: constância da forma, figurafundo, posição e relação espacial. Para obter evidências de validade foi utilizada uma amostra de 183 voluntários com boa saúde física e mental e acuidade visual normal ou corrigida. Os dados obtidos relatam a existência de concordância interjuízes, adequação semântica e significância no teste-reteste do instrumento. Os coeficientes de fidedignidade variaram de 0,84 a 0,93. Os quatro fatores esperados foram encontrados, cada um contendo 5 itens, e juntos explicaram 57,52% da variância do constructo. O instrumento apresentou parâmetros psicométricos adequados, o que pode justificar sua utilidade em pesquisas básicas e na prática clínica.

Landscape changes in Serra do Japi: legal protection or scientific expectation?

The creation of new legally protected areas brings many conflicts that distance the real landscape from the expected according to environmental law or conservation researchers. In this study, we mapped and compared the changes in Serra da Japi (Sao Paulo State, Brazil) throughout 40 years with scenarios of legal protection and scientific expectation on forest conservation, to evaluate the distance between them. This may allow us to infer the direction of historical changes and assist in the debate among decision makers. The results showed that most legal requirements on forest protection in the current landscape have been met. The 1960s was the period when the forest cover was closest to the desirable conservation stage. Although the Serra do Japi has maintained large areas of forests during the entire study period, human interference increased with the expansion of reforestation and urban areas, and access roads were identified as a primary potential driving forces of change. In addition, habitat loss was observed in the landscape, which can represent the first phase of a sequence of modifications detrimental to the environmental conservation of this protected area, including decision changes to land use. In conclusion, the changes evolved toward conservation expectations, but not toward the forest configuration of scientific expectation.

Influence of effective number of pulses on the morphological structure of teeth and bovine femur after femtosecond laser ablation

Femtosecond lasers have been widely used in laser surgery as an instrument for contact-free tissue removal of hard dental, restorative materials, and osseous tissues, complementing conventional drilling or cutting tools. In order to obtain a laser system that provides an ablation efficiency comparable to mechanical instruments, the laser pulse rate must be maximal without causing thermal damage. The aim of this study was to compare the different morphological characteristics of the hard tissue after exposure to lasers operating in the femtosecond pulse regime. Two different kinds of samples were irradiated: dentin from human extracted teeth and bovine femur samples. Different procedures were applied, while paying special care to preserving the structures. The incubation factor S was calculated to be 0.788 +/- 0.004 for the bovine femur bone. These results indicate that the incubation effect is still substantial during the femtosecond laser ablation of hard tissues. The plasma-induced ablation has reduced side effects, i.e., we observe less thermal and mechanical damage when using a superficial femtosecond laser irradiation close to the threshold conditions. In the femtosecond regime, the morphology characteristics of the cavity were strongly influenced by the change of the effective number of pulses. (C) 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.JBO.17.4.048001]

Alternatives exist: analysis of scientific literature in two Brazilian journals about the pedagogical work of Physical Education

Considering that the process of teacher training in universities takes into account the confrontation of knowledge produced by the scientific methods, the current study intended to identify what are the main contributions of the Brazilian scientific production of Physical Education teaching. Therefore, an exploratory study was done from the articles published on the subject in the two main periodicals of the area. The data analyzes allowed us to verify the relevancy of the knowledge produced and to suggest alternatives to its inclusion in the docent training programs.

Development and validation of an instrument to assess movement quality of the basketball free throw shooting

When a physical activity professional is teaching a motor skill, he evaluates the movement's learner and considers which interventions could be done at the moment. However, many times the instructor does not have such resources which could help him/her to evaluate the learner movement. The skill acquisition process could be facilitated if instructors could have an instrument that identifies errors, prioritizing information to be given to the learner. Considering that the specialized literature presents a lack of information about such tool, the purpose of this study was to develop, and to determine the objectivity and reliability of an instrument to assess the movement quality of the basketball free throw shooting. The checklist was developed and evaluated by basketball experts. Additionally, the checklist was used to assess 10 trials (edited video) from four individuals in different learning stages. Data were organized by the critical error and the error sum appointed by the experts in two different occasions (one week interval). Contrasting both evaluations, and also, contrasting different experts assessments, in sum and critical error, it was observed an average error of 16.9%. It was concluded that the checklist to assess the basketball free throw is reliable, and could help instructors to make a qualitative analysis. Moreover, the checklist may allow instructors to make assumptions on the motor learning process.

Scientific metaphors in the journalistic discourse

Scientific education and divulgation not only amplify people's vocabulary and repertory of scientific concepts but, at the same time, promote the diffusion of certain conceptual and cognitive metaphors. Here we describe this process and propose a classification in terms of visible, invisible, basic and derived metaphors. We focus our attention on physical metaphors applied to psychological and socio-economical phenomena, by studying two exemplar cases through an exhaustive exam of the online content of large Brazilian journalistic portals. Finally, we present implications and suggestions from Lakiff and Johnson's cognitive metaphor theory for the scientific education and divulgation process.

Scientific research output evaluation of professors of Sao Paulo State University, Marilia/SP

In this work, an analysis of scientific bibliographic productivity was made using the Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciencias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (FFC-UNESP) as example. It is composed by nine departments which offer altogether nine undergraduate courses: 1) Archival, 2) Library, 3) Speech Therapy, 4) Pedagogy, 5) International Relations, 6) Physiotherapy, 7) Occupational Therapy, 8) Philosophy, 9) Social Sciences and six graduate programs leading to M. S. and Ph.D. degrees. Moreover, when analyzing the different courses of FFC-UNESP, they represent typical academic organization in Brazil and Latin America and could be taken as a model for analyzing other Brazilian research institutions. Using data retrieved from the Lattes Plataform database (Curriculum Lattes) we have quantitatively the scientific productivity percentage of professors at UNESP. We observed that bibliometric evaluations using the Curriculum Lattes (CL) showed that the professors published papers in journal are not indexed by ISI and SCOPUS. This analysis was made using: 1) the total number of papers (indexed in Curriculum Lattes database), 2) the number of papers indexed by Thomson ISI Web of Science database and SCOPUS database, and 3) the Hirsch (h-index) by ISI and SCOPUS. Bibliometric evaluations of departments showed a better performance of Political Science and Economics Department when compared to others departments, in relation total number of papers (indexed in Curriculum Lattes database). We also analyzed the academic advisory (Master's Thesis and Ph. D. Thesis) by nine departments of FFC/UNESP. The Administration and School Supervision Department presented a higher academic advisory (concluded and current) when compared to the others departments.

THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION OF PSYCHOSOCIAL CARE CENTERS

The objective of this study was to present a panoramic view of the scientific production regarding Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS). This literature review was performed using the LILACS, MEDLINE, and SciELO databases. Sixty-eight references were selected, most of which were journal articles (88.24%) and studies related to final graduate study essays (10.29%); 75% of the references found dating from 2003 were included. The following are highlighted among the most frequent objectives: the analysis and evaluation of the new proposal for mental health care, represented by Psychiatric Reform and by CAPS, and the analysis of mental health professionals and their expectations towards the services. The authors hope the present review will help find pathways and implications that lead to new studies and practices in the everyday work of health care services.

SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE RHETORIC: FROM THE THEORETICAL BASIS TO THE PRODUCTION OF DIDACTIC MATERIAL FOR UNDERGRADUATE CHEMISTRY TEACHING

This work is part of a study that focused on analyzing the contributions of didactic activities related to scientific language rhetoric characteristics aimed at developing students' abilities to identify such characteristics in chemistry scientific texts and critical reading of those texts. In this study, we present the theoretical basis adopted to determine the scientific discourse characteristics and for the production of the didactic material used in those activities. Latour, Coracini and Campanario studies on persuasive rhetorical strategies present in scientific articles aided the production of such material.

The evaluation of an instrument for pediatric oncology patient classification

The objectives of this study were to assess the interrater reproducibility of the instrument to classify pediatric patients with cancer; verify the adequacy of the patient classification instrument for pediatric patients with cancer; and make a proposal for changing the instrument, thus allowing for the necessary adjustments for pediatric oncology patients. A total of 34 pediatric inpatients of a Cancer Hospital were evaluated by the teams of physicians, nurses and nursing technicians. The Kappa coefficient was used to rate the agreement between the scores, which revealed a moderate to high value in the objective classifications, and a low value in the subjective. In conclusion, the instrument is reliable and reproducible, however, it is suggested that to classify pediatric oncology patients, some items should be complemented in order to reach an outcome that is more compatible with the reality of this specific population.

Qualifying instrument for evaluation of food and nutritional care in hospital

Establishing criteria for hospital nutrition care ensures that quality care is delivered to patients. The responsibility of the Hospital Food and Nutrition Service (HFNS) is not always well defined, despite efforts to establish guidelines for patient clinical nutrition practice. This study describes the elaboration of an Instrument for Evaluation of Food and Nutritional Care (IEFNC) aimed at directing the actions of the Hospital Food and Nutrition Service. This instrument was qualified by means of a comparative analysis of the categories related to hospital food and nutritional care, published in the literature. Elaboration of the IEFNC comprised the following stages: (a) a survey of databases and documents for selection of the categories to be used in nutrition care evaluation, (b) a study of the institutional procedures for nutrition practice at two Brazilian hospitals, in order to provide a description of the sequence of actions that should be taken by the HFNS as well as other services participating in nutrition care, (c) design of the IEFNC based on the categories published in the literature, adapted to the sequence of actions observed in the routines of the hospitals under study, (d) application of the questionnaire at two different hospitals that was mentioned in the item (b), in order to assess the time spent on its application, the difficulties in phrasing the questions, and the coverage of the instrument, and (e) finalization of the instrument. The IEFNC consists of 50 open and closed questions on two areas of food and nutritional care in hospital: inpatient nutritional care and food service quality. It deals with the characterization and structure of hospitals and their HFNS, the actions concerning the patients' nutritional evaluation and monitoring, the meal production system, and the hospital diets. "This questionnaire is a tool that can be seen as a portrait of the structure and characteristics of the HFNS and its performance in clinical and meal management dietitian activities." (Nutr Hosp. 2012;27:1170-1177) DOI:10.3305/nh.2012.27.4.5868

Using complex networks concepts to assess approaches for citations in scientific papers

The number of citations received by authors in scientific journals has become a major parameter to assess individual researchers and the journals themselves through the impact factor. A fair assessment therefore requires that the criteria for selecting references in a given manuscript should be unbiased with regard to the authors or journals cited. In this paper, we assess approaches for citations considering two recommendations for authors to follow while preparing a manuscript: (i) consider similarity of contents with the topics investigated, lest related work should be reproduced or ignored; (ii) perform a systematic search over the network of citations including seminal or very related papers. We use formalisms of complex networks for two datasets of papers from the arXiv and the Web of Science repositories to show that neither of these two criteria is fulfilled in practice. By representing the texts as complex networks we estimated a similarity index between pieces of texts and found that the list of references did not contain the most similar papers in the dataset. This was quantified by calculating a consistency index, whose maximum value is one if the references in a given paper are the most similar in the dataset. For the areas of "complex networks" and "graphenes", the consistency index was only 0.11-0.23 and 0.10-0.25, respectively. To simulate a systematic search in the citation network, we employed a traditional random walk search (i.e. diffusion) and a random walk whose probabilities of transition are proportional to the number of the ingoing edges of the neighbours. The frequency of visits to the nodes (papers) in the network had a very small correlation with either the actual list of references in the papers or with the number of downloads from the arXiv repository. Therefore, apparently the authors and users of the repository did not follow the criterion related to a systematic search over the network of citations. Based on these results, we propose an approach that we believe is fairer for evaluating and complementing citations of a given author, effectively leading to a virtual scientometry.

Scientific concepts and public policies: Semiotic-cultural obstacles concerning intergroup and intercultural relationships

I attempt to articulate Jahoda's (2012) critical reflections regarding definitions of culture in recent cross-cultural studies and Moghaddam's (2012) claims of an omnicultural imperative to guide the elaboration of public policies for managing relationships among human groups from different cultural origins. For this, I will approach some aspects of the socio-historical and ontogenetic roots of the notion of culture. The notion of culture and the consequent public policies involving intercultural managing are being transformed as our global society develops. It has been proposed that some ways of dealing with the culture of the other are crucial to achieve awareness in respect of one's own cultural positioning when making science and attempting social interventions. Finally, the experience of Brazilian psychologists working on challenges faced by Amerindians dealing with the national society they live in will be presented as a pioneering work aiming to interfere in the development of public policies ethically concerned with the assurance of cultural integrity of currently marginalized social groups.