Implementation of clinical guidelines in Brazil : should academic detailing be used?

Objective: The Brazilian National Health System provides high cost medicines through the Specialized Component of Pharmaceutical Assistance in accordance with adherence to agreed Clinical Guidelines. However, physician compliance to these Guidelines, as well as the barriers and facilitators related to them and the influence on the subsequent quality of care provided is unknown. Consequently, the objectives of this paper are to undertake a review of international experiences and scientific publications of a strategy to disseminate and communicate guidelines to physicians through Academic Detailing. Subsequently use the findings to develop and conduct a pilot Academic Detailing Program in Brazil targeting specialists who prescribe medicines for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, which are part of the Specialized Component of Pharmaceutical Assistance. Methods: Review international experiences and scientific publications relating to academic detailing based on a thorough review of available literature including publications known to the co-authors. Develop and monitor physician acceptance of academic detailing for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and the impact on future prescribing. Key findings: Based on the lessons learnt from the international experience and review, coupled with the initial experiences in Brazil, we conclude that conducting academic detailing to enhance the implementation and dissemination of clinical protocols and therapeutic guidelines in Brazil is worthwhile. We will be closely monitoring the outcome of the pilot academic detailing programme as a basis for developing future programmes to further improve the quality of prescribing in Brazil. Conclusion: Findings from the experiences are encouraging. This will be further explored to provide a basis for this approach in the future

Ionization of the Venusian atmosphere from solar and galactic cosmic rays

The atmospheres of the terrestrial planets are exposed to solar and galactic cosmic rays, the most energetic of which are capable of affecting deep atmospheric layers through extensive nuclear and electromagnetic particle cascades. In the Venusian atmosphere, cosmic rays are expected to be the dominant ionization source below ∼100 km altitude. While previous studies have considered the effect of cosmic ray ionization using approximate transport methods, we have for the first time performed full 3D Monte Carlo modelling of cosmic ray interaction with the Venusian atmosphere, including the contribution of high-Z cosmic ray ions (Z=1-28). Our predictions are similar to those of previous studies at the ionization peak near 63 km altitude, but are significantly different to these both above and below this altitude. The rate of atmospheric ionization is a fundamental atmospheric property and the results of this study have wide-reaching applications in topics including atmospheric electrical processes, cloud microphysics and atmospheric chemistry

Developing technological synergies between deep-sea and space research

Recent advances in robotic design, autonomy and sensor integration create solutions for the exploration of deep-sea environments, transferable to the oceans of icy moons. Marine platforms do not yet have the mission autonomy capacity of their space counterparts (e.g., the state of the art Mars Perseverance rover mission), although different levels of autonomous navigation and mapping, as well as sampling, are an extant capability. In this setting their increasingly biomimicked designs may allow access to complex environmental scenarios, with novel, highly-integrated life-detecting, oceanographic and geochemical sensor packages. Here, we lay an outlook for the upcoming advances in deep-sea robotics through synergies with space technologies within three major research areas: biomimetic structure and propulsion (including power storage and generation), artificial intelligence and cooperative networks, and life-detecting instrument design. New morphological and material designs, with miniaturized and more diffuse sensor packages, will advance robotic sensing systems. Artificial intelligence algorithms controlling navigation and communications will allow the further development of the behavioral biomimicking by cooperating networks. Solutions will have to be tested within infrastructural networks of cabled observatories, neutrino telescopes, and off-shore industry sites with agendas and modalities that are beyond the scope of our work, but could draw inspiration on the proposed examples for the operational combination of fixed and mobile platforms

Communicative practice and transgressive global politics: The D’ua of Sheikh Muhammed Al Mohaisany (originally published in July 2005)

Walter Benjamin noted the transformative impact of information technology when he said that "photography greatly extends the sphere of commodity exchange... by flooding the market with countless images of figures, landscapes, and events which had previously been available either not at all or only as pictures for individual customers." Echoing his assessment, multimedia activism has emerged as a practice through which multiple–user communication by non–state actors highlights transgressive values and issues. This paper focuses on Islamic extremist Web activism by discussing a multimedia file, the "d’ua of Sheikh Muhammed Al–Mohaisany." The file is examined to illustrate how the Web and other IT provide once inaccessible information and potentially alter communication by directly addressing targeted publics. Multimedia activism introduces issues of identity, boundaries, and perceptions into global politics and culture through telecommunication practices that were formerly state regulated

Communicative practice and transgressive global politics: The D’ua of Sheikh Muhammed Al Mohaisany

Walter Benjamin noted the transformative impact of information technology when he said that "photography greatly extends the sphere of commodity exchange... by flooding the market with countless images of figures, landscapes, and events which had previously been available either not at all or only as pictures for individual customers." Echoing his assessment, multimedia activism has emerged as a practice through which multiple–user communication by non–state actors highlights transgressive values and issues. This paper focuses on Islamic extremist Web activism by discussing a multimedia file, the "d’ua of Sheikh Muhammed Al–Mohaisany." The file is examined to illustrate how the Web and other IT provide once inaccessible information and potentially alter communication by directly addressing targeted publics. Multimedia activism introduces issues of identity, boundaries, and perceptions into global politics and culture through telecommunication practices that were formerly state regulated

The electronic Starry Plough: The Enationalism of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (IRSM)

This paper takes the case of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (IRSM) as the point of departure to discuss how insurgent political movement use Web communications. From mirror sites in Ireland and North America, IRSM supporters regularly use Web technology to relay the group message to a global audience at http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html. The resulting direct media contact gives the IRSM unprecedented access to global civil society. By referring to the IRSM Web site, the types of messages transmitted, the forms of transmission (text, video, audio, e-mail or other), and target audiences (national, global, political elites, media), this paper outlines some of the issues and challenges posed by Web-based anti-government media. The Internet and the Web do not constitute a threat to state power as some analysts suggest but at the same time they significantly alter political communication. The IRSM is a case of "enationalism", that is, the representation of a place as home to a specific group of people. Unlike traditional nationalism, enationalism is not tied to physical space or territory, but to representation of a network of relations based on a common language, historical experience, religion and/or culture. It is about both memory and future projection of a place as the home for a given group. In this light, new media will likely co-exist with other forms of political communication for some time

c ○ 2012 The Meteoritical Society

and other research outputs Experimental determination of photostability and fluorescen based detection of PAHs on the Martian surfac