Decentralisation of pharmaceutical assistance in Brazil: Impacts on access to medicines

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThis thesis explores how decentralisation of basic pharmaceutical assistance was introduced in Brazil. Decentralisation aimed to improve access to basic medicines. Nevertheless, the inconsistency in the availability of medicines in the Brazilian public health system (SUS - Unified Health System) justified the development of two seemingly contradictory, yet co-existing, approaches: decentralisation and recentralisation. The central question of my thesis was how the simultaneous processes of decentralisation and recentralisation, which took place between 1998 and 2011, have affected access to medicines distributed by SUS. My second aim was to explore how political and power dynamics impacted the implementation of decentralisation policies. I carried out semi-structured interviews with key actors in policy-making for pharmaceutical assistance; interviewees were selected from among the health secretaries and Ministry of Health officials that participated in interfederative boards of agreement. The Grounded Theory approach, as well as documentary analysis, informed my data collection and analysis. My findings suggest that decentralisation was important for improving the availability of medicines, although levels of improvement varied across the country. Decentralisation in itself was not sufficient to improve the availability of medicines largely due to the regional differences. Federative relationships involved in the decentralised management of pharmaceutical assistance are seen as important by health secretaries, but are considered laborious and time-consuming by Ministry of Health officials. Lack of compliance with agreements at state level was mentioned as one of the main barriers to further improving access to medicines. In this context of struggle, the Popular Pharmacy programme, controlled by the federal government, was created in 2004. The initiative, which can be regarded as a recentralisation process, rapidly improved the availability of basic medicines. There is no clear indication of which is the best approach for improving access to basic medicines in Brazil. Both decentralisation and centralisation worked well in some contexts but failed in others

Aro 17 : reinterpretando a mídia automotiva

Trabalho de conclusão de curso (graduação) – Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Artes, Departamento de Design, Habilitação em Programação Visual, 2020.Este projeto busca analisar a comunicação feita a respeito do carro no Brasil e propor uma apresentação distinta para o carro, levando em consideração todos os problemas que esse meio de transporte traz à mobilidade urbana brasileira. A grande quantidade de carros nos centros urbanos do país é um problema que foi gerado por anos de projetos de infraestrutura para a locomoção individual automotora, e atrelados ao vínculo que os brasileiros têm com o carro geram diversos problemas para a cidade e a população, criando uma mobilidade urbana ineficiente e excludente. O objetivo do projeto é propor uma reflexão a respeito da cultura carrocêntrica e evidenciar a problemática do automóvel como meio de transporte. O resultado do projeto é uma publicação editorial que, através do humor e da sátira, busca engajar o leitor e gerar a reflexão a respeito dos temas abordados.This project aims to analyze communications regarding cars in Brazil and propose a different presentation of the car, taking into consideration all the problems this mode of transport brings to Brazilian urban transport. The great number of cars in Brazilian city centers is a problem that has been generated by years of infrastructure for individual automotive transport, also linked to the affection Brazilians have for cars, leads to several problems for the city and its population, creating inefficient transport in the city that also excludes people from accessing the centers. The objective of this project is to propose reflection about this car centered culture and to put into evidence the problems brought by cars as a means of transport. The result of the project is a publication that, through humor and satire, aims to engage the reader and promote thought on the addressed topics

Striga species, obligate root parasites, are prodigious seed producers

Has s an , M. M. , Abde l gain , M . E. an d Babik e r, A. G. T. ABSTRACT Two g reen house experiments were conducted where sorghum was planted in polythene bags filled with soil infested or not infested with Strig a s eeds . In the first experiment, 36 bacterial is olates and s trains were employed. The bacterial strain P. putida and the bacterial is olates M 20, S23, S 22, GSL, D8, G11, D20, B2 and D50 reduced Striga incid en ce b y 90 to 100% at peak emerg e n c e 1 2 w e e k s a f ter s o win g (W A S) in comparison to the infested untreated control. In the second experiment, sorghum cv. Wad Ahmed was inoculated with two b acterial strains and one isolate. Superimposed on the bacterial treatments was nitrogen as urea fertilizer at 0, 47.6 and 95.2 kg N ha . Striga emergence was earlier and more intense on the -1 uninoculated unfertilized sorghum. Bacterial inoculation alone delayed and reduced Striga infestation. At peak emerg en ce (7 W A S) th e b acterial is o late D46 an d th e s train s P. putida and A. brasilense reduced Striga emergence by 15 to 30%. Nitro g en as u rea curtailed Striga emergence by 45 to 68 % at peak emergence. Bacterial inoculation followed by nitrog en was more suppressive to Striga emergence than each of the treatments alone. The co mb in ation of nitrogen with the bacteria reduced Striga emergence by 47 -70%. The res ults indicated the pos s ibility of curtailments of Striga parasitism on sorghum through the use of bacteria that p ertu rb early d ev elo p men tal s tag es o f th e p aras ite. M o reo v er, th e res u lts , b as ed o n prio r kn o wled g e th at s o me of the strains used in this study are renown as plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) an d that Striga germination and morphogenesis are modulated by phytohormone, implicate the possibility of involvements of phytohormo n e s in perturbation of Striga germination, haustorium initiation, attachment, penetration and parasitism