Geosciences in professional education: a comparative study between Brazil and Portugal

Brazil faces educational and environmental crisis that enhance the importance of valuing geoscientific contents in school curricula, especially in basic education. The modality of technical education integrated to high school courses (TEIHSC) open broad possibilities to build an integrated view of nature and of human interference. However, the current situation is one of great fragmentation of contents and diversification of teaching­learning approaches. As a contribution to understand better the national reality, the present project aims to carry out a survey of geoscientific themes present in the Brazilian official curricula of TEIHSC courses and in the curricula of secondary professional education of public schools in Portugal. The distribution of technical schools in TEIHSC teaching modality comprises the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo and even in the official curricula of federal technical schools situated in these states. This project should discuss curricular convergences and divergences from the background of the following courses: a) Brasil: Agriculture, Surveying, Agro livestock, Environmental control, Forestry, Environment, Mining Oil and Gas; b) Portugal: Environmental Management, Food and Beverage Outlets, Forest and Environmental Resources, Tourism, Environmental and Rural Tourism, Viti winery. The investigation will produce a comprehensive panorama of proposals for including geoscientific contents within this type of school integrative curriculum. The debate should attempt to recompose the basic needs to help citizens for taking well­founded decisions about socioeconomic, political and environmental changes

Geosciences in professional education: a comparative study between Brazil and Portugal

sem InformaçãoBrazil faces educational and environmental crisis that enhance the importance of valuing geoscientific contents in school cur-ricula, especially in basic education. The modality of technical education integrated to high school courses (TEIHSC) open broad143320325sem Informaçãosem Informaçãosem Informaçã

Design and rationale of a multi-center, pragmatic, open-label randomized trial of antimicrobial therapy - the study of clinical efficacy of antimicrobial therapy strategy using pragmatic design in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (CleanUP-IPF) clinical trial

Compelling data have linked disease progression in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) with lung dysbiosis and the resulting dysregulated local and systemic immune response. Moreover, prior therapeutic trials have suggested improved outcomes in these patients treated with either sulfamethoxazole/ trimethoprim or doxycycline. These trials have been limited by methodological concerns. This trial addresses the primary hypothesis that long-term treatment with antimicrobial therapy increases the time-to-event endpoint of respiratory hospitalization or all-cause mortality compared to usual care treatment in patients with IPF. We invoke numerous innovative features to achieve this goal, including: 1) utilizing a pragmatic randomized trial design; 2) collecting targeted biological samples to allow future exploration of 'personalized' therapy; and 3) developing a strong partnership between the NHLBI, a broad range of investigators, industry, and philanthropic organizations. The trial will randomize approximately 500 individuals in a 1:1 ratio to either antimicrobial therapy or usual care. The site principal investigator will declare their preferred initial antimicrobial treatment strategy (trimethoprim 160 mg/ sulfamethoxazole 800 mg twice a day plus folic acid 5 mg daily or doxycycline 100 mg once daily if body weight is < 50 kg or 100 mg twice daily if ≥50 kg) for the participant prior to randomization. Participants randomized to antimicrobial therapy will receive a voucher to help cover the additional prescription drug costs. Additionally, those participants will have 4-5 scheduled blood draws over the initial 24 months of therapy for safety monitoring. Blood sampling for DNA sequencing and genome wide transcriptomics will be collected before therapy. Blood sampling for transcriptomics and oral and fecal swabs for determination of the microbiome communities will be collected before and after study completion. As a pragmatic study, participants in both treatment arms will have limited in-person visits with the enrolling clinical center. Visits are limited to assessments of lung function and other clinical parameters at time points prior to randomization and at months 12, 24, and 36. All participants will be followed until the study completion for the assessment of clinical endpoints related to hospitalization and mortality events. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02759120

Managing Incidental Genomic Findings in Clinical Trials: Fulfillment of the Principle of Justice

<p>Managing Incidental Genomic Findings in Clinical Trials: Fulfillment of the Principle of Justice</p

Research misconduct in the fields of ethics and philosophy: researchers’ perceptions in Spain

This is the Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM) (also called a “preprint”) sent to review to Science and Engineering Ethics on 11/10/2020. The final version of the article was published online at SEE on 21/01/2021. The online version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-021-00278-wEmpirical studies have revealed a disturbing prevalence of research misconduct in a wide variety of disciplines, although not, to date, in the areas of ethics and philosophy. This study aims to provide empirical evidence on perceptions of how serious a problem research misconduct is in these two disciplines in Spain, particularly regarding the effects that the model used to evaluate academics’ research performance may have on their ethical behaviour. The methodological triangulation applied in the study combines a questionnaire, a debate at the annual meeting of scientific association, and in-depth interviews. Of the 541 questionnaires sent out, 201 responses were obtained (37.1% of the total sample), with a significant difference in the participation of researchers in philosophy (30.5%) and in ethics (52.8%); 26 researchers took part in the debate and 14 interviews were conducted. The questionnaire results reveal that 91.5% of the respondents considered research misconduct to be on the rise; 63.2% considered at least three of the fraudulent practices referred to in the study to be commonplace, and 84.1% identified two or more such practices. The researchers perceived a high prevalence of duplicate publication (66.5%) and self-plagiarism (59.0%), use of personal influence (57.5%) and citation manipulation (44.0%), in contrast to a low perceived incidence of data falsification or fabrication (10.0%). The debate and the interviews corroborated these data. Researchers associated the spread of these misconducts with the research evaluation model applied in Spain

Reactogenicity of DTPa-HBV/Hib vaccine administered as a single injection vs DTPa-HBV and Hib vaccines administered simultaneously at separate sites, to infants at 2, 4 and 6 months of age

An open, randomised, multicentre trial was performed to assess the reactogenicity and safety profile of the administration of a candidate Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine with a quadrivalent diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis-hepatitis B (DTPa-HBV) vaccine as a single injection (Group 1) versus the simultaneous administration of the latter vaccine (DTPa-HBV) and an available Hib conjugate vaccine (Group 2) in opposite thighs, as a primary vaccination course to healthy infants at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. Eight hundred and eighty five infants (9.3 ± 1.4 weeks old) were randomly allocated to Group 1 (n = 665) and Group 2 (n = 221). Oral polio vaccine was given concomitantly to all subjects. Blood samples (pre-vaccination and 1 month after the third dose) were obtained from a subset of infants (Group 1, 73; Group 2, 22) for serological determinations. Local and general symptoms were recorded by parents on diary cards. 2614 diary cards (Group 1, 1966; Group 2, 648) were collected. There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of local and general symptoms between groups. Pain such that the infant cried when limb was moved was reported in 0.6 and 0.2% in groups 1 and 2, respectively. Redness and swelling ( &gt; 20 mm in diameter) were recorded between 2.1 and 3% in both groups. Fussiness preventing normal activities was the most frequently reported general symptom in both groups (1.6 and 1.9% in groups 1 and 2, respectively). Fever (rectal temperature &gt; 39.5°C) was reported in 0.4% (Group 1) and 0.3% (Group 2). All subjects included in the immunogenicity analysis had seroprotective or seropositive titres to the diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B and pertussis components of the vaccines. About 99 and 100% of infants had anti-PRP titres ≥ 0.15 mcg/ml in groups 1 and 2, respectively. This study indicates that DTPa-HBV vaccine given in a single injection with a candidate Hib conjugate vaccine has a similar reactogenicity profile to that of two commercially available vaccines (DTPa-HBV, Hib) given in two simultaneous injections to infants 2, 4 and 6 months of age. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd