Scientific Technical Information Research Articles

Contribuições da Rede Brasileira de Informação em Ciências da Saúde para a construção de um repositório temático latino-americano: práticas e lições aprendidas

Os repositórios temáticos são utilizados como uma das principais ferramentas para a implementação do Acesso Livre no mundo e como mecanismo de preservação da memória e gestão da informação. Este trabalho busca sistematizar as estratégias utilizadas pela Rede Brasileira de Informação em Ciências da Saúde sobre os processos de cooperação e descentralização da informação técnico-científica, na perspectiva dos atores chaves envolvidos, buscando compreender os desafios, limites e possibilidades de prover acesso equitativo ao conhecimento e evidências científicas atualizadas. Aprender com os erros e acertos é fundamental para a vida de qualquer ser humano e nas instituições de ensino e pesquisa não é diferente uma vez que elas têm uma tendência a esquecer do passado. A metodologia deste estudo terá base na abordagem qualitativa, à luz de estudos de caso, por meio de aplicação de questionários semiestruturados, que tem como objetivo a coleta de informações acerca da percepção dos participantes pesquisados e de análise de conteúdo e documental. As implicações dessas lições são fundamentais para elaboração de estratégias de trabalho em rede para a construção de um repositório temático latino-americano, com a ideia de informação científica como conceito de cidadania e de comunicação pública da ciência como valor fundamental.

Selected aspects and conditions of the use of robots in STEM education for young learners as viewed by teachers and students

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss issues related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. It is emphasized that the need to prepare students with twenty-first-century skills through STEM-related teaching is strong, especially at the elementary level. The authors present selected previous experiences, publications, research into the study topic, and review examples of primary school robotics and programming curricula, as well as associated educational activities. The authors stress that workshops, using kits to build and programme robots, are a modern form of interdisciplinary education of children and youth.Design/methodology/approachThe rationale for conducting such activities in schools is found in the European reference framework in the context of training of key competences. Classes in robotics – if properly taught – will have an impact on the development of mathematical literacy and scientific–technical information and social competences. At the same time, competence is understood to mean a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the situation. Besides, an analysis is presented of basic legal regulations in this matter as well as results of a survey, conducted in Poland and Ukraine among in-service teachers and prospective teachers.FindingsThe study was carried out with the participation of 91 primary school teachers and future teachers in the province of Silesia and at the University of Silesia in Poland, and in Ukraine, at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University. The survey contained 15 questions about the pedagogical research “Robotics and children”. The study was carried out to determine the needs of modern education to introduce the basics of robotics in the educational process of primary school.Originality/valueIt can be expected that the findings from the prior Polish and Ukrainian surveys can be extrapolated into curricula for secondary schools and vocational education and training (VET) in the coming years.

FEATURES OF ALUMINUM POWDER PAP-2 GRANULATION IN THE TECHNOLOGY OF Al–Al2O3 POWDER COMPOSITE WITH LAYERED STRUCTURE

Modern scientific technical information implies great prospects for the use of Al–Al 2 O 3 based composite materials (CM). The papers by the Materials Science Department of Moscow Aviation University have shown the reactive air sintering of highly-dispersed PAP-2 powder blanks to be a promising way of obtaining the aluminum-base CM. However, it is necessary to solve a number of technological problems to apply the above technique such as the lack of fluidity and extremely low apparent density. The paper studies and suggests various methods of PAP-2 aluminum powder granulation with their physical and chemical aspects described. Various technological approaches to PAP-2 aluminum powder granulation have been used based on such process operations as powder heating in air followed by isothermal aging at 350 °C, adding water solution of sodium-silica glass, mechanical processing of powder in high-energy planetary mill, its heat treatment in vacuum at 650 °C initiating the stearin saponification reaction on the surface of the PAP-2 flakes followed by the formation of the organic component – plasticizer. It is found that the proposed methods of industrial PAP-2 powder granulation can modify its composition and structure as well as improve and vary technological characteristics of the original powder. The highest value of apparent density (up to 1,25 g/cm 3 ) is achieved when using mechanical treatment of the original powder in a high-energy planetary mill with the formation of rounded granules 50–150 μm in size. The most producible and cost-effective technique is based on initiating the chemical reaction of «stearin saponification» on the surface of powder particles (with apparent density of approximately 0,4 g/cm 3 ).

Наружная коррозия как основная причина повреждаемости тепловых сетей и способы защиты от нее

The article substantiates the importance of performing theoretical and methodological analysis of the statement that corrosion damage is one of the main factors causing failure of district heating system equipment of thermal power production, transportation, storage, and utilization facilities. The performed investigation has shown that the typical damage differs in its nature from that presented in the existing publications on this subject. As a result, the protection measures taken on the basis of incorrect assumptions do not allow the critical pressure values to be evaluated in a more accurate way. In order to increase the equipment service life, it is necessary to know the characteristics of pipe materials that are most widely used in trunk heat supply networks.The regulatory and scientific-technical information determining the requirements for the standard types and sizes of pipes used in heat networks was analyzed with placing focus on clarifying the causes of high damageability and the nature of revealed defects. The article presents the procedure for carrying out calculation and applying the extensively used design corrosion protection method, according to which a certain margin is added to the calculated pipe thickness value. This approach, however, removes the problem only partially. Therefore, both active and passive corrosion protection methods should be used. The use of fully prefabricated preinsulated pipes can serve as an example of a passive corrosion protection method.

An Overview of Research on Marketing Ethics Education

Purpose – Last two decades have seen a marked increase in the interest given to the field of business ethics, particularly, marketing ethics. Marketing ethics provides an innumerable amount of materials and topics for open discussion, as well as for application in practice. Our intention is to open up a space within which to promote timely debate on contemporary marketing education.Design/Methodology/Approach – Monitoring of academic journals in the area of marketing ethics tuition accessible in electronic databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, Web of Science, Google Scholar) by means of the Centre for scientific-technical information SR portal.The work is based on the analysis of thematic categories, and the number of publications and citations. Results are presented in a comprehensive and illustrative manner. Findings and implications – Discussions about marketing ethics and ethical issues are useful. Students need preparation, mentoring and counselling while solving ethical problems, which occur during marketing ethics tuition in the academic field, but also in practice. Academic and scientific sources in the area of marketing ethics education are an excellent “instruction”. Limitations – The limitation of this research can be seen in the fact that we focused especially on the marketing aspect of the ethics education. In further research, other fields of interest should be addressed, for example management or practices in commerce, etc. Originality – The aim of the article is to map current trends in research in the field of marketing ethics education, as presented in scientific journals.

Research and analysis of the commercialization process of ideas and results of the innovative activities in Ukraine: legal and economic aspects

It is investigated a legal aspect of commercialization in the light of the basic laws of Ukraine and agreements, which entered Ukraine to integrate into the global economic system: the Paris Convention, Madrid Agreement, Agreement «On Patent Cooperation» agreement «On Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights» Laws of Ukraine «On innovative activity», «On scientific and scientific-technical information», «On Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs», «On protection of inventions and industrial models» and others. The article states that the shortcomings of the Ukrainian legislation limited time duration of patent protection and features protection of intellectual property. The aim of research of the legal framework in terms of protection of intellectual property is the formation of a legal corridor for the implementation of the commercialization of ideas and technology transfer, as the author of the idea for the concept of the protection of his rights to object ownership is crucial for its implementation marketing.The economic aspect describes the contemporary realities of patent effectiveness of Ukraine, as the defining characteristics of commercialization and its primary stage. Along with the display of patent activity, the article noted the trend of innovative activity of enterprises, which states that the number of innovative active enterprises for the period from 2012 to 2014 is increased, but the implementation of innovative products and innovative costs are decreased. Analysis of the statistical data allows determining basically positive trend that character will drop down if negative changes in the national economy will continue.

Function Approximation and Quality Measures in Rough–Granular Systems

We discuss the problem of measuring the quality of decision support (classification) system that involves granularity based on rough set concepts. We put forward the proposal for such quality measure in the case when the underlying granular system is based on rough sets and makes use of approximation spaces. We introduce the notion of approximation, loss function, and quality measures that are inspired by empirical risk assessment for classifiers in the field of statistical learning. We further discuss the possibilities of improving the quality measure by extrapolating the loss function using function approximation methods originating in extensions of the concept of approximation space. (This work was supported by grants N N516 368334 and N N516 077837 from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland and by the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) under Grant No. SP/I/1/77065/10 in frame of the strategic scientific research and experimental development program: “Interdisciplinary System for Interactive Scientific and Scientific-Technical Information”.)

Working Together Within The University: An Interdisciplinary Project In Education

The evolution of the professional and environmental conditions is forcing the university education to a change in the teaching-learning process. This implies a new definition in the roles and functions of university teachers from whom new ways of educational training should arise. These days, university teachers are called upon to encourage and facilitate their students’ learning. This new role of the teacher should be to help put the University at the level of the requirements and possibilities of this era, and those to come as well. In order to make the innovation and the change real in higher education is essential to start from concepts like “cooperation and collaboration” within the teaching staff, between them and in their departments. According to the new use of the didactic and organizational planning in higher education, this aspect is an aim for the development of the teaching quality in universities. In higher education, there is an increasing need of a formation which not only increases the conceptual knowledge of the professionals but also provides them the instrumental and attitudinal resources required for the professional development of their tasks. The aim of this paper is to show the work which has been done by a group of teachers at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Humanities during four years in the degree of Educational Psychology. The activities carried out (information stands, sensitization workshops, leaflets with scientific-technical information, among others) facilitate our students’ apprehension of the basic elements of different subject matters and increase their skills of analyzing, contrasting, synthesizing, increasing knowledge, debating, etc. and, in addition, they can confront the need to give an answer –as a professional- to very different situations taken from the real world.

Public Reactions to Innovations in Science: Genomics, Race, and Identity

Although science and technology are touching people's lives in ways unimaginable only decades ago, political scientists and policy analysts are still exploring how the public understands and assesses new, highly technical scientific information. This study uses a new public opinion survey to examine Americans’ reactions to and understanding of one scientific innovation: the use of genomics technology to trace ancestry, typically defined as race or ethnicity. This arena has three analytic virtues. First is its importance: genetics research may soon revolutionize medical practice in the United States, and possibly decisions in the criminal justice system as well as the way Americans understand race. Second is its novelty: elite or partisan opinion on genomic science has yet to coalesce, and policies of support or regulation are just beginning to be developed. Our study can thus capture the early stages of opinion formation on a new issue. Third is its popular appeal: many Americans are being introduced to genomic science through racial ancestry tests, as seen in popular television shows or direct-to-consumer ads. Our goal is to refine existing models of public trust in science and technology by adding a new substantive focus, and placing two analytic elements at center stage: racial or ethnic identity as a lens through which other individual characteristics are channeled, and the relationships among emotional, cognitive, and salience responses to scientific innovation. More broadly, we argue that people with different immutable characteristics (such as race, gender, and age) respond to scientific innovation in intelligibly different ways, and that types of response to scientific innovation are related but vary in intelligible and important ways. We posit, although we cannot show it in this paper, that all of these reactions inform support for science funding or regulation.

REESTRUTURAÇÃO SOCIOESPACIAL DO TERRITÓRIO CEARENSE

This work aims to study the dynamics of the state of Ceará, Brazil, recently incorporated to the logic of globalized production. Thus, we discuss the restructuring process of its production, until now with many contradictions and ambiguities. This analysis seeks to understand the movement of capital (market) from of the post-Second World War period, where the third technological revolution made the world passed through an intense market expansion, causing successive and amazing metamorphosis in the geographic area. This state is studied from a new historical period perspective (market or capital monopoly) during the scientific technical information moment. We also investigated how this processes caused a territorial selectivity and competitiveness of this place in times of globalization.

O público e a compreensão da informação nos rótulos de alimentos: o caso dos transgênicos

A rotulagem constitui uma importante interface da informação técno-científica com o público em geral. Apresentam-se resultados de um estudo cujo objetivo foi o exame dos hábitos de leitura dos rótulos dos alimentos por parte dos consumidores, e a sua compreensão das informações neles contidas. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio de grupos focais e a aplicação de um questionário. A pouca leitura de rótulos constatada aponta implicações relevantes no contexto da importância atribuída à rotulagem dos alimentos transgênicos. AbstractLabelling constitutes an important scientific-technical information interface with the general public. It is presented the results of a study aimed at examine the reading habits of food labels by consumers, and their understanding of the information contained in them. The research was carried out via focus groups and with the application of a questionnaire. The identified scarcity of reading labels points to relevant implications in the context of the importance attributed to the labeling of genetically modified food.

Evaluation of medicines advertising in medical journals

This work intended to analyze the advertising of medicines requiring medical prescription, divulged into three journals of the neurology and cardiology areas addressed to healthcare professionals. The analysis was based on current legislation, among other criteria, as well as specific literature. The presence of the following items was investigated: registration number, drug name, specific indications, contraindications; cautions and warnings; adverse reactions; possible side effects; posology; legibility of technical-scientific information and bibliographic references, phrases and/or expressions about the medication benefits, as compared to other drugs; safety warnings, healing promises and pictures of people smiling, and the quotations confirmation based on bibliographic references. Among the evaluated legal criteria, it was observed the absence of legibility in technical-scientific information in 85% of advertisements; absence of side effects in 23%; absence of cautions and warnings in 15%; of contraindications in 12.8%; of posology in 6.4%; of registration numbers in 2.7% and of the Common Brazilian Denomination/Common International Denomination (Denominação Comum Brasileira/Denominação Comum Internacional - DCB/DCI) in 0.6%. Out of 130 statements respecting advantages face to others drugs, 23.8% were not confirmed and out of 48 divulged safety messages, 41.7% could not be found in quoted references. The pictures of people smiling was a resource used in 42.2% of advertisements. Out of 1362 references analyzed, 19.7% were not found and 37.1% of quoted affirmations weren't confirmed.

Public understanding of science and technology embedded in complex institutional settings

We use a constructivist analysis to describe how citizens learn and integrate highly technical scientific information about a new technology (bioremediation) within the context of a risk-based relationship with a federal agency in their own backyards. We engaged members of the general public in a workshop process where they produced a consensus report that describes how bioremediation works, characterizes the scientific issues not yet addressed, and sets the problem within the context of institutional arrangements for the production of knowledge. On the basis of their social roles in their communities, they applied new knowledge to their own experiences and worked at ways to translate their understanding of the technology into information that could be used in their multiple roles as learners in the workshop, as well as citizens and family members outside the workshop.

Níveis econômicos de prejuízos de plantas infestantes nas culturas agrícolas: conceitos, definições e formas de cálculo

Uma das áreas da matologia (herbologia em Portugal) que tem avançado nas pesquisas científicas em Portugal e no Brasil nas últimas três décadas é a de nível de prejuízo das infestantes às culturas agrícolas. Contudo, durante esse período ocorreu uma multiplicidade de traduções de termos técnicos para a língua portuguesa, que atualmente dificultam o intercâmbio de informações técnico-científicas. Os objetivos desta revisão de literatura foram: definir os cinco diferentes termos referentes aos níveis de prejuízos das infestantes utilizados em herbologia; consolidar no idioma português os acrônimos utilizados para esses termos; apresentar as designações que têm correspondência nas línguas francesa e inglesa; indicar as perguntas científicas a que o termo responde; e apresentar as formas de cálculo que podem ser utilizadas para cada nível de prejuízo definido. Os termos estudados nesta revisão foram: densidade crítica, nível prejudicial de ataque (NPA ou nível de dano econômico = NDE), nível econômico de ataque, nível de tolerância e nível de segurança de ataque. Os modelos de cálculo do NPA = NDE no caso de infestações contendo uma única espécie vegetal são deduzidos a partir dos modelos linear, hiperbólico, múltiplo linear e múltiplo não linear; e para as situações de infestações com mais de uma espécie vegetal, a partir da equação linear múltipla entre a densidade de plantas e o rendimento da cultura.

The prospects of the SSILP system under new conditions

The problems of the system of standards for scientific-technical information, librarianship and publishing are considered and developments that have permitted the challenging directions of the SSILP system to be determined are described.

Test-day milk yield as a selection criterion for dairy buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis Artiodactyla, Bovidae)

Due to the great demand for buffalo milk by-products the interest in technical-scientific information about this species is increasing. Our objective was to propose selection criteria for milk yield in buffaloes based on total milk yield, 305-day milk yield (M305), and test-day milk yield. A total of 3,888 lactations from 1,630 Murrah (Bubalus bubalis) cows recorded between 1987 and 2001, from 10 herds in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, were analyzed. Covariance components were obtained using the restricted maximum likelihood method applied to a bivariate animal model. Additive genetic and permanent environmental effects were considered as random, and contemporary group and lactation order as fixed effects. The heritability estimates were 0.22 for total milk yield and 0.19 for M305. For test-day yields, the heritability estimates ranged from 0.12 to 0.30, with the highest values being observed up to the third test month, followed by a decline until the end of lactation. The present results show that test-day milk yield, mainly during the first six months of lactation, could be adopted as a selection criterion to increase total milk yield.

Investigation of the flow of scientific-technical information on the basis of the Russian technical literature on nanostructures and nanotechnologies

The objective of this investigation of the Russian technical literature on nanostructures and nanotechnologies is a study of the dynamics and the cumulative number of publications (CPN) concerning nanostructures and nanotechnologies, the dynamics an2 CPN for different types of publications, the publication productivity of Russian scientists and Russian cities concerning nanostructures and nanotechnologies, the scientific activity of Russian scientific-research and educational institutions concerning nanostructures and nanotechnologies, the investigation of Russian periodicals and continuing publications concerning nanostructures and nanotechnologies, and the simulation of the CPN and prediction of the CPN for nanostructures and nanotechnologies.

Influence of external factors on the longevity of information recorded on DVD±R discs

In this work, experimental results on the influence of high temperature and relative air humidity on the aging dynamics of recordable DVDs of the R+ and R− formats of the most well-known trademarks (Sony, TDK, Imation, Digitex, Mirex, Verbatim, Philips, Fujifilm) are presented. The state of disks and recorded information is estimated qualitatively and quantitatively by computer testing using special software. Relative longevity is calculated using results on the artificial aging of compact disc specimens in harsh conditions (a temperature of + 80°C, a relative air humidity of 85%), the “stability series” of DVD±R discs of different trademarks is established. Recommendations on the practical application of DVD discs of R+ and R− formats of particular trademarks for durable storage of scientific-technical information are given on the basis of the obtained data.

La iniciativa Open Access, una visión de conjunto

From ancient times to the Millenium Development Goals Declaration, the issue of Access to Information has been essential to the world economic and social development and should be tackled as a right inherent to human beings. The Open Access movement contributes to giving the scientific community the hegemony they deserve by facilitating the use of relevant scientific literature and giving the authors and their work a new measurable visibility, eliminating barriers and reducing inequities in the access to technical-scientific information via the Internet.

Qualidade de produtos a base de plantas medicinais comercializados no Brasil: castanha-da-índia (Aesculus hippocastanum L.), capim-limão (Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf ) e centela (Centella asiatica (L.) Urban)

Com o objetivo de avaliar a qualidade de produtos a base de plantas medicinais, analisou-se dez amostras de castanha-da-índia, onze de capim-limão e seis de centela, comercializadas em farmácias da cidade do Recife, provenientes de indústrias de várias partes do país. Analisamos as informações técnico-científicas nos rótulos e/ou bulas de acordo com as exigências e obrigatoriedades da legislação brasileira (RDC n. 140 de 29/05/2003 e na RDC n. 102 de 30/11/2000), e embasamento da literatura científica. Também avaliou-se as características organolépticas, a autenticidade e a pureza dos produtos. Constatou-se ausência das informações obrigatórias em 92,59% das amostras. Dentre os termos vedados, foi comum a sugestão da inexistência de efeitos colaterais ou adversos. Quanto as indicações terapêuticas não se observou padronização técnica dos termos nem comprovação científica para algumas das atividades atribuídas pelos fabricantes. Todas as amostras foram consideradas autênticas com base nos testes fitoquímicos e farmacobotânicos. Na análise da pureza 59,26% das amostras foram reprovadas, devido principalmente ao elevado teor de umidade e cinzas totais. Constata-se que além dos produtos comercializados carecerem de informações e qualidade adequadas, há necessidade urgente de uma fiscalização efetiva por parte dos órgãos competentes.