O homem público em julgamento: avaliação da aplicação da técnica "tribunal do júri" para dirigentes municipais em Santa Catarina Public figures on trial: an assessment of the use of the "Law Court" technique for city officials in Santa Catarina, Brazil

O presente trabalho descreve a aplicação da técnica "tribunal do júri" ao conjunto de secretários municipais de saúde do Estado de Santa Catarina, para fins de sensibilização à questão dos deveres do administrador público, realizado como parte introdutória de um ciclo de formação para dirigentes municipais em 1997. As diferentes etapas que compõem a técnica são descritas apresentando-se a avaliação dos resultados obtidos. Dos 156 participantes, 98% foram favoráveis à inovação por considerá-la dinâmica/participativa (31%); educativa/reflexiva (27%) e por traduzir a realidade (24%). A técnica permitiu a discussão das principais temáticas de interesse para o SUS. Embora os cinco tribunais tenham absolvido o réu, a dimensão ética foi referida por 58% como principal atributo necessário ao homem público.<br>This study describes the "Law Court" technique as applied to City Health Departments in the State of Santa Catarina, in dealing with the issue of obligations on the part of public officials. The project was the first part of a training course for public administrators held in 1997. The article presents the technique's components and results. Some 98% of the 156 participants had a positive opinion of the training course, considering it dynamic/participatory (31%), educational/stimulating reflection (27%), and realistic (24%). The technique fostered the discussion of the main subjects pertaining to the country's Unified Health System (SUS). Although all five juries acquitted the defendants, the issue of ethics was reported by 58% of the participants as the main prerequisite for a public administrator

“Feature Detection” vs. “Predictive Coding” Models of Plant Behavior

In this article we consider the possibility that plants exhibit anticipatory behavior, a mark of intelligence. If plants are able to anticipate and respond accordingly to varying states of their surroundings, as opposed to merely responding online to environmental contingencies, then such capacity may be in principle testable, and subject to empirical scrutiny. Our main thesis is that adaptive behavior can only take place by way of a mechanism that predicts the environmental sources of sensory stimulation. We propose to test for anticipation in plants experimentally by contrasting two empirical hypotheses: ‘feature detection’ and ‘predictive coding’. We spell out what these contrasting hypotheses consist of by way of illustration from the animal literature, and consider how to transfer the rationale involved to the plant literature