Three Decades of Social Work in France: from Security within the Welfare State to a State of «Disembedded Modernity»

This article gives an overview of trends in policy on the functions and role of social work in French society over the past twenty years. The author suggests several reasons for the current feeling of crisis of professional identity among professionals and the complexities of the political demands made on social work. These are analysed as a consequence of the specific French context of decentralisation of the State and of the multitude of approaches to organisation and to professional training programs. On a broader level, it seems that French social work reflects many characteristics of “modernity” being concerned with difficulties in defining a clear identity, lack of a clear territorial and institutional base (or “disembeddedness” to borrow Giddens term) and difficulties in finding a clear voice to make its values heard in an increasingly politicised arena of public debate.

The Implementation of Full-time Schools: The Situation in the Federal State of Sao Paulo (Brazil)

During the past years, Brazil has been mentioned internationally as a one of the so-called BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China). These countries have been taking increasing space in the economical and political global scenarios in the XXI century. The facts that they possess a vast territory and stand among the highest populated countries increase their relevance within the United Nations. Besides, three of them constitute nuclear powers and two of them belong to the United Nations Security Council. Brazil has significantly participated in forums such as WTO and UNO, representing central political articulation and stability to Latin America and in the structuring and growth of MERCOSUL (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela). Once again among the ten greatest economies of the world, the country has launched ambitious poverty-fighting programs helping more than 20 million people in the last years, such as the “Bolsa Família” (Familienstipendium) Program or and its complements). Nevertheless, Latin American countries are far from generating structural funds as the “European Social Fund” to assist specific demands of big cities as Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. The commitments are restricted to commercial areas and bring nothing but slow and scarce advances to education or infra-structure and to the integration of systems related to these areas.

The state of in vitro science for use in bioaccumulation assessments for fish

Through the concerted evaluations of thousands of commercial substances for the qualities of persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity as a result of the United Nations Environment Program's Stockholm Convention, it has become apparent that fewer empirical data are available on bioaccumulation than other endpoints and that bioaccumulation models were not designed to accommodate all chemical classes. Due to the number of chemicals that may require further assessment, in vivo testing is cost prohibitive and discouraged due to the large number of animals needed. Although in vitro systems are less developed and characterized for fish, multiple high-throughput in vitro assays have been used to explore the dietary uptake and elimination of pharmaceuticals and other xenobiotics by mammals. While similar processes determine bioaccumulation in mammalian species, a review of methods to measure chemical bioavailability in fish screening systems, such as chemical biotransformation or metabolism in tissue slices, perfused tissues, fish embryos, primary and immortalized cell lines, and subcellular fractions, suggest quantitative and qualitative differences between fish and mammals exist. Using in vitro data in assessments for whole organisms or populations requires certain considerations and assumptions to scale data from a test tube to a fish, and across fish species. Also, different models may incorporate the predominant site of metabolism, such as the liver, and significant presystemic metabolism by the gill or gastrointestinal system to help accurately convert in vitro data into representative whole-animal metabolism and subsequent bioaccumulation potential. The development of animal alternative tests for fish bioaccumulation assessment is framed in the context of in vitro data requirements for regulatory assessments in Europe and Canada.

Generalizability and Applicability of Model-Based Business Process Compliance-Checking Approaches – A State-of-the-Art Analysis and Research Roadmap

With a steady increase of regulatory requirements for business processes, automation support of compliance management is a field garnering increasing attention in Information Systems research. Several approaches have been developed to support compliance checking of process models. One major challenge for such approaches is their ability to handle different modeling techniques and compliance rules in order to enable widespread adoption and application. Applying a structured literature search strategy, we reflect and discuss compliance-checking approaches in order to provide an insight into their generalizability and evaluation. The results imply that current approaches mainly focus on special modeling techniques and/or a restricted set of types of compliance rules. Most approaches abstain from real-world evaluation which raises the question of their practical applicability. Referring to the search results, we propose a roadmap for further research in model-based business process compliance checking.

State of the science on controversial topics: missing maxillary lateral incisors - a report of the Angle Society of Europe 2012 meeting

BACKGROUND The optimal long-term management of the congenitally missing maxillary lateral incisor continues to cause controversy within the specialty. The Angle Society of Europe meeting 2012 dedicated a day to address some of the current controversies relating to the management of these missing lateral incisors. FINDINGS The format of the day consisted of morning presentations and afternoon breakout sessions to discuss a variety of questions related to the management of missing lateral incisors. CONCLUSIONS The consensus viewpoint from this day was that the care of patients with congenitally missing lateral incisors is best achieved through a multi-disciplinary approach. The current evidence base is weak, and further well-designed, prospective trials are needed.

State of the science on controversial topics: orthodontic therapy and gingival recession (a report of the Angle Society of Europe 2013 meeting)

BACKGROUND Controversy exists in the literature between the role of orthodontic treatment and gingival recession. Whilst movement of teeth outside the alveolar bone has been reported as a risk factor for gingival recession, others have found no such association. FINDINGS The Angle Society of Europe devoted a study day to explore the evidence surrounding these controversies. The aim of the day was for a panel of experts to evaluate the current evidence base in relation to either the beneficial or detrimental effects of orthodontic treatment on the gingival tissue. CONCLUSIONS There remains a relatively weak evidence base for the role of orthodontic treatment and gingival recession and thus a need to undertake a risk assessment and appropriate consent prior to the commencement of treatment. In further prospective, well designed trials are needed.