A License to Exploit: The Need to Reform the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Guest Worker Program.

Abstract Forthcoming

Personality and well-being in adolescents

Different profiles of the character dimensions of self-directedness, cooperativeness and self-transcendence result in different levels of wellbeing among adults. However, the description of the multidimensional character profiles on adolescents’ composite wellbeing remains unexplored. This study builds on previous studies with adults, and examines the linear and non-linear associations between the dimensions of the psychobiological model of personality and well-being in adolescents. Participated in this study 1540 adolescents (M=15.44, SD=1.731). Personality was assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Well-being was evaluated in a composite perspective: satisfaction with social support, health-related quality of life, satisfaction with life and affect. Variable-centered and individual-centered analyses were performed.Self-directedness was strongly associated with all dimensions of affective and cognitive well-being regardless of the other two character traits. Cooperativeness was associated with non-affective well-being and with positive affect, but only when associated to elevation of Self-directedness and Self-transcendence. Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness explained 15.5% of the non-affective well-being variance. Self-Directedness and Self-Transcendence explained 10.4% of the variance in affective well-being. This study confirms the tendencies found in previous studies with adults from other societies, where each character dimension gives an independent contribution to well-being depending on the interactions with other Character dimensions. Also, this study highlights the importance of considering the non-linear influences of the character dimensions in understanding of adolescents’ wellbeing. These results have strong implications for youth positive mental health promotion, including for school-based policies and practices

Necessidades educativas do cuidador informal da pessoa idosa dependente em contexto domiciliário

Este estudo pretende identificar as necessidades educativas dos cuidadores informais de modo a promover ações concertadas que se traduzem em ganhos para quem cuida e para quem é cuidado por outros. Para a sua realização enveredamos por um Estudo de Caso, selecionando dezoito cuidadores de pessoas idosas dependentes inscritas na UCSP da zona. Realizou-se um estudo qualitativo, exploratório e descritivo. Recorreu-se a uma amostra, não probabilística por escolha racional. Foi utilizado a triangulação no sentido de aumentar a fiabilidade dos resultados. Foram utilizados como instrumentos de recolha de dados uma entrevista semiestruturada que aplicamos aos cuidadores informais principais. Conjuntamente aplicamos um questionário de administração indireta ao cuidador e três escalas para avaliar a capacidade funcional da pessoa idosa dependente (Escala de Barthel, Índice de Lawton e Escala de Pfeiffer, sendo as duas primeiras aplicadas ao cuidador e a terceira aplicada à pessoa idosa dependente). Os cuidadores referiram que desenvolveram as suas capacidades para cuidar através das necessidades advindas do cuidar no dia a dia, através de tentativas e erros com construção da aprendizagem informal de forma autónoma e formal de forma pontual através dos profissionais de saúde, aquando da visita domiciliária. Os principais resultados revelaram que os cuidadores informais revelam necessidades de formação, nomeadamente em cuidados, instrumentais e expressivos. Os resultados deste estudo mostram a necessidade de os profissionais de saúde nortearem a sua ação para os cuidadores informais promovendo a capacitação das suas capacidades e habilidades, através de intervenções que visem colmatar as necessidades percecionadas, de forma promover a continuidade de prestação de cuidados adequados em cada fase da doença

Conductive polymer gas sensor for quantitative detection of methanol in Brazilian sugar-cane spirit

A low-cost chemiresistive gas sensor is described, made by the deposition of a thin film of a conductive polymer, poly(2-dodecanoylsulfanyl-p-phenylenevinylene), doped with dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (10%, w/w), onto interdigitated electrodes. the sensor exhibits linear electrical conductance changes in function of the concentration of methanol present in sugar-cane spirit in the range between 0.05% and 4.0%. Since the sensor is cheap, easy to fabricate, durable, presents low power consumption, and is not sensitive to ethanol, acetic acid or water, it can be used in portable equipments for monitoring methanol levels in distilled alcoholic beverages such as Brazilian sugar-cane spirit (cachaca). (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Ciencias Ambientais Quim & Farmaceut, Diadema, SP, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Inst Quim, BR-05513970 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Ciencias Ambientais Quim & Farmaceut, Diadema, SP, BrazilFAPESP: 06/59464-2CNPq: 303717/2010-6CNPq: 472297/2007-4Web of Scienc

Description of hospital pharmacy management practice

Health institutions, particularly hospitals, are characterized as complex structures that need managers with a global view of the institution and its relations with the external environment. The hospital pharmacy is a strategic unit, which cooperates with the institutional management and integrates the multiprofessional team in the process related to the acquisition, provision and control of essential inputs for the inpatient care process. The objective in this study is to demonstrate the applicability, in the context of hospital-based health, of a performance measuring system at the pharmacy. Method: A descriptive and longitudinal study was undertaken on the evolution of the key indicator Absence Rate of Standardized Drugs in inpatient care between March 2004 and December 2013. This indicator was employed to monitor the impact of changes the Pharmacy Division has been implementing, as the first step of the pharmaceutical care cycle in the model of the process-based managed approach at a public university hospital. Qualitative data collection methods were used, including observation and documentary analysis, as well as quantitative data collection. Results: After the application of the model, one point of change in the key performance indicator was detected in the tenth month, when the process-based management model was implemented at the pharmacy. Conclusions: The process-based management approach was effective for the hospital pharmacy. The premise adopted is that the administrative changes (interferences), focused on the improvement of the processes and the selection and monitoring of indicators, influence the processes, reducing the variability and improving the qualityAs instituições de saúde, especialmente hospitais, são caracterizadas como estruturas complexas que precisam de administradores com uma visão global da instituição e de suas relações com o ambiente externo. A farmácia hospitalar é uma unidade estratégica, que colabora com a administração institucional e integra a equipe multiprofissional no processo que tange a aquisição, provisão e controle de insumos essenciais para o processo do atendimento do paciente internado. Este estudo tem como objetivo demonstrar a aplicabilidade, no contexto da saúde hospitalar, de um sistema de medição de desempenho da farmácia. Método: Trata-se de um estudo descritivo, longitudinal, sobre a evolução do indicador chave Taxa de Falta de Medicamentos Padronizados na assistência do paciente internado, no período de março de 2004 a dezembro de 2013. Esse indicador foi empregado para monitoramento do impacto de mudanças que a Divisão de Farmácia vem implementando, como primeira etapa do ciclo de assistência farmacêutica dentro do modelo da abordagem de gestão por processos, em um hospital público universitário. Foram usados métodos de coleta de dados qualitativos, incluindo a observação e análise documental, bem como coleta de dados quantitativos. Resultados: Após a aplicação do modelo, um ponto de mudança no indicador chave de desempenho, foi detectado no 10º mês, quando o modelo de gestão baseado em processo foi implementado na farmácia. Conclusões: A abordagem de gestão baseada em processos foi eficaz para a farmácia hospitalar. A premissa adotada é que as mudanças administrativas (interferências), com foco na melhoria dos processos e seleção e acompanhamento de indicadores, têm influencia sobre os processos, reduzindo a variabilidade e melhoria da qualidad

Migration and tuberculosis transmission in a middle-income country: a cross-sectional study in a central area of São Paulo, Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the impact of growing migration on the pattern of tuberculosis (TB) transmission in middle-income countries. We estimated TB recent transmission and its associated factors and investigated the presence of cross-transmission between South American migrants and Brazilians. METHODS: We studied a convenient sample of cases of people with pulmonary TB in a central area of São Paulo, Brazil, diagnosed between 2013 and 2014. Cases with similar restriction fragment length polymorphism (IS6110-RFLP) patterns of their Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates were grouped in clusters (recent transmission). Clusters with both Brazilian and South American migrants were considered mixed (cross-transmission). Risk factors for recent transmission were studied using logistic regression. RESULTS: Isolates from 347 cases were included, 76.7% from Brazilians and 23.3% from South American migrants. Fifty clusters were identified, which included 43% South American migrants and 60.2% Brazilians (odds ratio = 0.50, 95% confidence interval = 0.30-0.83). Twelve cross-transmission clusters were identified, involving 24.6% of all clustered cases and 13.8% of all genotyped cases, with migrants accounting for either an equal part or fewer cases in 11/12 mixed clusters. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that TB disease following recent transmission is more common among Brazilians, especially among those belonging to high-risk groups, such as drug users. Cross-transmission between migrants and Brazilians was present, but we found limited contributions from migrants to Brazilians in central areas of São Paulo and vice versa

Species-Specific Codon Context Rules Unveil Non-Neutrality Effects of Synonymous Mutations

Codon pair usage (codon context) is a species specific gene primary structure feature whose evolutionary and functional roles are poorly understood. The data available show that codon-context has direct impact on both translation accuracy and efficiency, but one does not yet understand how it affects these two translation variables or whether context biases shape gene evolution.Here we study codon-context biases using a set of 72 orthologous highly conserved genes from bacteria, archaea, fungi and high eukaryotes to identify 7 distinct groups of codon context rules. We show that synonymous mutations, i.e., neutral mutations that occur in synonymous codons of codon-pairs, are selected to maintain context biases and that non-synonymous mutations, i.e., non-neutral mutations that alter protein amino acid sequences, are also under selective pressure to preserve codon-context biases.Since in vivo studies provide evidence for a role of codon context on decoding fidelity in E. coli and for decoding efficiency in mammalian cells, our data support the hypothesis that, like codon usage, codon context modulates the evolution of gene primary structure and fine tunes the structure of open reading frames for high genome translational fidelity and efficiency in the 3 domains of life