A Measure of Child Exposure to Household Material Deprivation: Empirical Evidence from the Portuguese EU-SILC

Although monitoring and evaluating child poverty has been recognized as important, there is little statistical information focused on children. Because the annual EUStatistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey does not include child-specific information on an annual basis, this study proposes a measure of child exposure to household material deprivation based on this dataset. The study considers four domains of deprivation that have a direct impact on child development: housing conditions, household financial capacity, household durable goods, and environmental living conditions. Although developing a child-centered measurement of child deprivation is important, the EU-SILC considers the household as the unit of measurement. Therefore, our proposal is household-based, allowing annual monitoring of children’s exposure to deprivation—an important insight for social policy purposes to tackle the problem of child poverty. Using the 2017 Portuguese sample, we applied graded response models to assess the psychometric properties of the EU-SILC items and fit separate indexes per domain and the composite index. Item selection was based on their characteristic curves and information functions. The results allow for the selection of more informative items for every domain to obtain the composite index. In general, the empirical analysis confirmed the theoretical approach for item selection. The methodology may be directly applied to the full EU dataset or to each country individually.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multiple imputation in big identifiable data for educational research: An example from the Brazilian education assessment system

Almost all quantitative studies in educational assessment, evaluation and educational research are based on incomplete data sets, which have been a problem for years without a single solution. The use of big identifiable data poses new challenges in dealing with missing values. In the first part of this paper, we present the state-of-art of the topic in the Brazilian education scientific literature, and how researchers have dealt with missing data since the turn of the century. Next, we use open access software to analyze real-world data, the 2017 Prova Brasil , for several federation units to document how the naïve assumption of missing completely at random may substantially affect statistical conclusions, researcher interpretations, and subsequent implications for policy and practice. We conclude with straightforward suggestions for any education researcher on applying R routines to conduct the hypotheses test of missing completely at random and, if the null hypothesis is rejected, then how to implement the multiple imputation, which appears to be one of the most appropriate methods for handling missing data.Quase todos os estudos quantitativos em aferição, avaliação e pesquisa educacional são baseados em conjuntos de dados incompletos, que têm sido um problema há anos sem solução única. O uso de grandes dados identificáveis apresenta novos desafios para lidar com valores ausentes. Na primeira parte deste artigo, apresentamos o estado-da-arte do tópico na literatura científica educacional brasileira e como os pesquisadores têm tratado os dados omissos. Em seguida, usamos o software de acesso livre para analisar dados do mundo real, a Prova Brasil 2017, para várias unidades da federação, e documentamos como pressuposto de dados omissos completamente aleatórios pode afetar os resultados estatísticos, as interpretações e implicações subsequentes para políticas e práticas. Concluímos com sugestões diretas para qualquer pesquisador de Educação sobre a aplicação de rotinas R para realizar o teste de hipóteses de dados omissos completamente aleatórios e, se a hipótese nula for rejeitada, como implementar a imputação múltipla, que parece ser um dos métodos mais apropriados para manipular dados ausentes.Casi todos los estudios cuantitativos en evaluación, evaluación e investigación educativa se basan en conjuntos de datos incompletos, que han sido un problema desde hace años sin solución única. El uso de grandes datos identificables presenta nuevos desafíos para manejar los valores ausentes. En la primera parte de este artículo, presentamos el estado del arte del tópico en la literatura científica educativa brasileña y cómo los investigadores han tratado los datos omisos. A continuación, utilizamos el software de acceso libre para analizar datos del mundo real, la Prueba Brasil 2017, para varias unidades de la federación, y documentamos cómo la asunción de datos omisos completamente aleatorios puede afectar los resultados estadísticos, las interpretaciones e implicaciones subsecuentes para políticas y prácticas. Concluimos con sugerencias directas para cualquier investigador de Educación sobre la aplicación de rutinas R para realizar la prueba de hipótesis de datos omisos completamente aleatorios y, si la hipótesis nula es rechazada, cómo implementar la imputación múltiple, que parece ser uno de los métodos más apropiados para manipular datos ausentes.Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000019-C4-Centro de Competências em Cloud Computing and by the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel Foundation, through a post-doc fellowship for a research project, which took place at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Beira Interior, Portugal (Capes-PVE88881.169888/2018-01), and partially supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq-process 440172 / 2017-9).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Uma década da Prova Brasil: evolução do desempenho e da aprovação

O artigo analisa os dados originados pela aplicação da Prova Brasil, a fim de responder duas perguntas: no período de dez anos, houve avanços na qualidade da educação em termos de aprendizado e aprovação no ensino fundamental 1 e 2? Quem são os alunos que melhoraram (ou não), segundo recortes territoriais e características sociais? São apresentadas estatísticas descritivas dos níveis de proficiência e da autodeclaração sobre a reprovação dos alunos do 5º e 9º anos de 2007 a 2017. Os resultados mostram uma melhora contínua dos dois indicadores de qualidade em todas as regiões e grupos sociais. Porém, pelos critérios adotados, as diferenças entre os grupos sociais e regiões do país são importantes para entender os entraves no avanço global do aprendizado e na redução da reprovação.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Escala do índice de exposição da criança à privação material em Portugal: validação e interpretação

Neste artigo pretende-se contribuir para a validação e interpretação da escala do índice de exposição da criança à privação material no domicílio com base na amostra portuguesa do EU- -Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-Silc) de 2017. O índice foi desenvolvido a partir de itens do questionário dos domicílios por meio da aplicação de um modelo da teoria da resposta ao item. Para a sua validação, realizou-se análise descritiva da escala segundo variáveis sociais do EU- -Silc. A interpretação se deu pela descrição das categorias dos itens segundo perfis de domicílios agrupados em clusters. Os resultados mostram que 14,3% dos agregados familiares com crianças podem ser classificados como em situação de privação extrema e 25,6% num nível intermédio de privação. Tendo em conta que o EU-Silc é aplicado em todos os países da União Europeia, a metodologia pode ser extensível a esses países, permitindo o monitoramento anual da pobreza infantil.This article aims to contribute to the validation and interpretation of scale of the child exposure to household material deprivation, developed based on the Portuguese sample of the 2017 EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-Silc). The index was developed from household questionnaire items by applying an item-response theory model. For its validation, a descriptive analysis of the scale by EU-Silc social variables was carried out. The interpretation was given by the description of the categories of items according to the profiles of households grouped into clusters. The results show that 14.3% of households with children can be classified as in a situation of extreme deprivation and 25.6% in an intermediate level of deprivation. Considering that EU-Silc is applied in all European Union, the methodology can be extended to other countries, allowing the annual monitoring of child poverty.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis and Improvement of the Packaging Sector of an Industrial Company

30th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM2021) -15-18 June 2021, Athens, GreeceManual operations in manufacturing companies are still a common practice. This often results in high costs, high cycle times and therefore in lower productivity, particularly for companies operating in western countries. This is why many manufacturing companies relocated their production facilities in low age countries. This study was developed at a leading Portuguese material construction manufacturing company. The objective was to improve the packaging and labeling processes, that were identified as main bottlenecks in the factory. Lean was used to streamline these processes before being automated. This allowed for annual savings of 12432 €, with human operators being reallocated to other departments where they are more useful. Furthermore, cycle times were reduced by 42,9%, non-value-added activities were minimized, and operations with potentially high ergonomic risks were eliminated. In addition, a reduction of 84,3% in lithographed packaging was achieved, with a cost reduction of around 36 000 €/year, which is expected to continue in the forthcoming years.Teresa Pereira acknowledges the financial support of CIDEM- Research Center of Mechanical Engineering, FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, under the Project UID/EMS/0615/2019info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Private education in Argentina and Brazil

Explorando o conceito de segmentação, este artigo procura demonstrar como a expansão dos sistemas de ensino argentino e brasileiro se articula a processos de diferenciação da oferta escolar que contribuem para a produção e a reprodução das desigualdades educacionais. Partindo da análise de estatísticas históricas sobre a variação da alfabetização e das matrículas desde o final do século XIX e de documentos que registram as transformações na organização dos sistemas de ensino, o artigo mostra, em primeiro lugar, que, em ambos os sistemas, processos de segmentação se apoiaram e ainda se apoiam mais amplamente na clivagem entre educação pública e privada do que na diferenciação do currículo da escola pública. Além disso, mostra que essa clivagem é bastante recente na Argentina e muito antiga no Brasil, onde antecedeu a própria constituição do sistema nacional de ensino. Finalmente, em terceiro lugar, o artigo registra uma tendência de convergência entre os dois sistemas, já que a educação privada continua a garantir um espaço reservado para a escolarização dos grupos mais privilegiados no Brasil e desempenha com cada vez maior força esse papel na Argentina.Exploring the concept of segmentation, this article demonstrates how the expansion of the Argentinian and Brazilian school systems has been associated to processes of school differentiation that have contributed to the production and reproduction of educational inequalities. Based on the analysis of historical statistics on literacy and school enrollment as well as of documents that register the school transformations since the end of the 1800s, the article shows, first, that in both school systems, segmentation processes were and are based on the separation between public and private education rather than on differentiation of public schools curriculum. It shows also that while this type of segmentation is quite recent in Argentina, it is an old feature of the Brazilian school system. Finally, the article documents a progressive convergence between the two systems, as the private schools still offer a reserved space for the schooling of the Brazilian privileged groups and has increasingly played this role in Argentina in the last decades

Private education in Argentina and Brazil

Explorando o conceito de segmentação, este artigo procura demonstrar como a expansão dos sistemas de ensino argentino e brasileiro se articula a processos de diferenciação da oferta escolar que contribuem para a produção e a reprodução das desigualdades educacionais. Partindo da análise de estatísticas históricas sobre a variação da alfabetização e das matrículas desde o final do século XIX e de documentos que registram as transformações na organização dos sistemas de ensino, o artigo mostra, em primeiro lugar, que, em ambos os sistemas, processos de segmentação se apoiaram e ainda se apoiam mais amplamente na clivagem entre educação pública e privada do que na diferenciação do currículo da escola pública. Além disso, mostra que essa clivagem é bastante recente na Argentina e muito antiga no Brasil, onde antecedeu a própria constituição do sistema nacional de ensino. Finalmente, em terceiro lugar, o artigo registra uma tendência de convergência entre os dois sistemas, já que a educação privada continua a garantir um espaço reservado para a escolarização dos grupos mais privilegiados no Brasil e desempenha com cada vez maior força esse papel na Argentina.Exploring the concept of segmentation, this article demonstrates how the expansion of the Argentinian and Brazilian school systems has been associated to processes of school differentiation that have contributed to the production and reproduction of educational inequalities. Based on the analysis of historical statistics on literacy and school enrollment as well as of documents that register the school transformations since the end of the 1800s, the article shows, first, that in both school systems, segmentation processes were and are based on the separation between public and private education rather than on differentiation of public schools curriculum. It shows also that while this type of segmentation is quite recent in Argentina, it is an old feature of the Brazilian school system. Finally, the article documents a progressive convergence between the two systems, as the private schools still offer a reserved space for the schooling of the Brazilian privileged groups and has increasingly played this role in Argentina in the last decades

Occurrence, nanofiltration treatment and toxicity screening

Funding Information: This work was also funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior ( FCT / MCTES , Portugal) through national funds to iNOVA4Health (UIDB/04462/2020 and UIDP/04462/2020) and the Associate Laboratory LS4FUTURE (LA/P/0087/2020). Teresa I.A. Gouveia and Vanessa Jorge Pereira would like to thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology ( FCT ) for Ph.D. ( SFRH / BD /147301/2019) and CEECIND/02919/2018 grants, respectively. Funding Information: This research was financially supported by: (i) Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031297 (CytoStraTech)—funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and by national funds (PIDDAC) through FCT /MCTES; (ii) NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000069 (Healthy Waters) co-funded by European Regional Development Fund ( ERDF ), through North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement; (iii) UIDB/04750/2020 (EPIUnit) and LA/P/0064/2020 (ITR), funded by national funds through the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P.; (iv) LA/P/0045/2020 (ALiCE), Base Fundings UIDB/00511/2020 and UIDP/00511/2020 (LEPABE) and UIDB/50020/2020 and UIDP/50020/2020 (LSRE- LCM ), funded by national funds through FCT / MCTES (PIDDAC). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsAntineoplastic drugs are pharmaceuticals that have been raising concerns among the scientific community due to: (i) their increasing prescription in the fight against the disease of the twentieth century (cancer); (ii) their recalcitrance to conventional wastewater treatments; (iii) their poor environmental biodegradability; and (iv) their potential risk to any eukaryotic organism. This emerges the urgency in finding solutions to mitigate the entrance and accumulation of these hazardous chemicals in the environment. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been taken into consideration to improve the degradation of antineoplastic drugs in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), but the formation of by-products that are more toxic or exhibit a different toxicity profile than the parent drug is frequently reported. This work evaluates the performance of a nanofiltration pilot unit, equipped with a Desal 5DK membrane, in the treatment of real WWTP effluents contaminated (without spiking) with eleven pharmaceuticals, five of which were never studied before. Average removals of 68 ± 23% were achieved for the eleven compounds, with decreasing risks from feed to permeate for aquatic organisms from receiving waterbodies (with the exception of cyclophosphamide, for which a high risk was estimated in the permeate). Aditionally, no significative impact on the growth and germination of three different seeds (Lepidium sativum, Sinapis alba, and Sorghum saccharatum) were determined for permeate matrix in comparison to the control.publishersversionpublishe

Outdoor/indoor air quality in primary schools in Lisbon: a preliminary study

Simultaneous measurements of outdoor and indoor pollution were performed at three schools in Lisbon. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde and NO2 were passively monitored over a two-week period. Bacterial and fungal colony-forming units and comfort parameters were also monitored at classrooms and playgrounds. The highest indoor levels of CO2 (2666 µg/m3), NO2 (40.3 µg/m3), VOCs (10.3 µg/m3), formaldehyde (1.03 µg/m3) and bioaerosols (1634 CFU/m3), and some indoor/outdoor ratios greater than unity, suggest that indoor sources and building conditions might have negative effects on air indoors. Increasing ventilation rates and use of low-emission materials would contribute towards improving indoor air quality.publishe

Macrocalcitonin Is a Novel Pitfall in the Routine of Serum Calcitonin Immunoassay

Context: Calcitonin (CT) is a sensitive marker of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) and is used for primary diagnosis and follow-up after thyroidectomy. However, persistently elevated CT is observed even after complete surgical removal without evidence of a recurrent or persistent tumor. Objective: To investigate the presence of assay interference in the serum CT of MTC patients who are apparently without a structural disease. Patients and Methods: We studied three index MTC cases for CT assay interference and 14 patients with metastatic MTC. The CT level was measured using an immunofluorometric assay. Screening for assay interference was performed by determination of CT levels before and after serum treatment with polyethylene glycol. Additionally, samples were analyzed by chromatography on ultra-performance liquid chromatography and protein A-Sepharose. Results: Patients with biochemical and structural disease showed CT mean recovery of 84.1% after polyethylene glycol treatment, whereas patients suspected of interference showed recovery from 2-7%. The elution profile on UPLC showed that the immunometric CT from these three patients behaved like a high molecular mass aggregate (>300 kDa). Additionally, when these samples were applied to the protein A-Sepharose, CT immunoreactivity was retained on the column and was only released after lowering the pH. Conclusions: For the first time, our results show the presence of a novel pitfall in the CT immunoassay: "macrocalcitonin." Its etiology, frequency, and meaning remain to be defined, but its recognition is of interest and can help clinicians avoid unnecessary diagnostic investigations and treatment during the follow-up of MTC.Sao Paulo State Research Foundation-FAPESPFAPESPFederal Agency of Support and Evaluation of Postgraduate Education (Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior)National Council for Scientific and Technological DevelopmentUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Div Endocrinol, Dept Med,Thyroid Dis Ctr, BR-04039032 Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Div Endocrinol, Dept Med,Lab Mol & Translat Endocrinol, BR-04039032 Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Biochem, Div Mol Biol, BR-04044020 Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Div Endocrinol, Dept Med,Thyroid Dis Ctr, BR-04039032 Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Div Endocrinol, Dept Med,Lab Mol & Translat Endocrinol, BR-04039032 Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Biochem, Div Mol Biol, BR-04044020 Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilFAPESP: 2006/60402-1FAPESP: 2010/51547-1FAPESP: 2010/19478Web of Scienc