Preliminary Evaluation of the teaching of Homeopathy in undergraduate Pharmacy Courses in Brazilian states Paraná and Santa Catarina

Introduction: Homeopathy and other integrative and complementary health practices were included in the Brazilian public health system (SUS) under a formal policy established by the Health Ministry in 2006 [1]. This led to an increase in the demand of homeopathic assistance, not accompanied by a corresponding increase in human and material resources [2,3,4]. On the other hand, an evaluation of market demands carried out by the Education Ministry (MEC) in 2000 led to a reform of the syllable of undergraduate pharmacy courses, which thus included formal teaching of homeopathy [2]. Aims: To make a preliminary quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the teaching of homeopathy in undergraduate pharmacy courses in Brazilian States Paraná and Santa Catarina as to the establishment of a formal discipline, academic credits and the qualification of professors. Methods: The MEC Internet database was surveyed looking for universities with undergraduate courses in pharmacy and their study programs were screened online as to the inclusion of formal teaching of homeopathy. Deans and professors were sent a semi-structured questionnaire adapted from the model developed by the Brazilian Association of Homeopathic Physicians (ABFH) [5]. Questions sought to assess the formal institutionalization of the teaching of homeopathy (categories, credits) and the qualification of professors. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Uniandrade (Process No. 316/2009). Results: 25 schools in Paraná (PR) and 12 in Santa Catarina (SC) have undergraduate courses of pharmacy. Four schools in PR were excluded from this study because they do not exhibit data online and no questionnaires were returned. From the remaining 21, 20 (95.2%) include homeopathy in their study program and 6 (28.6%) returned questionnaires. In SC, 1 school exhibits no data and 1 school does not include homeopathy in its study program, the remainder 10 (83.3%) do and 4 returned questionnaires. As a whole, from the initial sample, 30 schools include homeopathy and one does not; 10 questionnaires were returned. The overall credits of pharmacy courses measured in hours are 3,760-5,157 (~4,458) in PR and 3,096-4,968 (~4,217) in SC. The discipline specifically devoted to homeopathy is named in different ways, the most frequent term used is “homeopathic pharmacotechnics” (PR= 8, SC= 6). Its corresponding credits are 36-136 (~72.4) in PR and 32-72 (~57.6) in SC. In PR in 1 school (5%) and in SC in 2 schools (20%) homeopathy is optional, in all other cases is mandatory. All professors (n= 10) teaching homeopathy are pharmacists, 5 hold a MA and 3 a PhD degree, 3 are board certified; 7 have specific raining in homeopathy, whereas 3 do not. Conclusions: Homeopathy has been included in almost all pharmacy undergraduate courses in PR and SC. In most schools, credits measured as hours is adequate (minimum required= 60h). However, a wider availability of courses and teachers with better qualifications are still needed.

Concluding Reflections: Towards Alternative Peri-Urban Futures?

This final chapter summarizes the main contributions of the book and provides some ideas on carrying forward the research and action research agenda presented in this book. The peri-urban requires concerted engagement and new, transformative, policy approaches. Continued reliance on formal policy approaches is likely to have only a limited impact or even to be counterproductive. Strong partnerships across academics and civil society organizations are required in order to create a stronger scientific discourse on the peri-urban, as well as to catalyze changes within and beyond peri-urban spaces. While selective state apathy towards the peri-urban needs correction, the messy and transitory nature of peri-urban spaces will require engagements across a wide spectrum of actors beyond the state. An understanding of these approaches is necessary before prescribing “policy reforms” for the peri-urban.

Economic tradeoff between domestic well impact and reduced agricultural production with groundwater drought management: Tulare County, California (USA), case study

Formal policy analysis can aid resource management where groundwater is used intensively. Approaches for developing equitable and effective pumping allocations for drought are evaluated in the context of the 2012–2016 drought in Tulare County, California, USA. Potential economic impacts of policy alternatives on two user groups with conflicting interests are considered. Tradeoffs between losses of agricultural profit and response costs for domestic wells that run dry are estimated for various maximum groundwater depth policies. A welfare maximizing approach for identifying policies that limit depth to groundwater is evaluated and found to be ineffective because agricultural opportunity costs are much larger than domestic well costs. Adding a fee for additional drought groundwater pumping is proposed as a more impactful and balanced management policy approach. For the case study presented, a fee range of $300 to $600/acre-foot ($300–$600/1,233 m3) yielded an effective groundwater management policy for reducing domestic well impacts from drought and balancing agricultural impacts of drought with the need to replenish additional drought pumping in wetter years. Recent management policies enacted in the study area agree with this finding. These results may provide a useful perspective for analytically examining and developing groundwater management policies near the study area and elsewhere.

Individualistic culture increases economic mobility in the United States

Where an individual grows up has large implications for their long-term economic outcomes, including earnings and intergenerational mobility. Even within the United States, the “causal effect of place” varies greatly and cannot be fully explained by socioeconomic conditions. Across different nations, variation in growth and mobility have been linked to more individualistic cultures. We assess how variation of historically driven individualism within the United States affects mobility. Areas in the United States that were isolated on the frontier for longer periods of time during the 19th century have a stronger culture of “rugged individualism” [S. Bazzi, M. Fiszbein, M. Gebresilasse, Econometrica 88, 2329–2368 (2020)]. We combine county-level measures of frontier experience with modern measures of the causal effect of place on mobility—the predicted percentage change in an individual’s earnings at age 26 y associated with “growing up” in a particular county [R. Chetty, N. Hendren, Q. J. Econ. 133, 1163–1228 (2018)]. Using commuting zone fixed effects and a suite of county-level controls to absorb regional variation in frontier experience and modern economic conditions, we find an additional decade of frontier experience results in 25% greater modern-day income mobility for children of parents in the 25th percentile of income and 14% for those born to parents in the 75th percentile. We use mediation analysis to present suggestive evidence that informal manifestations of “rugged individualism”—those embodied by the individuals themselves—are more strongly associated with upward mobility than formal policy or selective migration.

Policy Forum: Future Workforce Models—Enabling the Shift

Embracing remote work, either fully or partially, allows employers to offer the flexibility that many employees are seeking and also to benefit from various cost savings. As organizations embark on this journey, there are many tax and payroll considerations that should be reviewed up front so that risks relating to non-compliance can be mitigated. What are these corporate tax and payroll considerations? Can a formal policy help to mitigate compliance risks? What are other considerations besides tax and payroll? Should government policy support this workforce shift? This article summarizes the various considerations in developing an organizational remote work policy and concludes that, as is the case for any other business strategy, remote work arrangements have their benefits provided that the associated complexity and costs can be effectively managed.

The process of buyer-supplier collaboration to innovation: a study of Brazil-China electronics industry

Purpose: This study aimed to study the process of collaboration for innovation in a Brazilian electronics company with its Chinese suppliers, specifically in the bonds generated for the development of new products.Methodology: Firstly, it brings the theoretical ground about this field of study, related to the collaborative ties for the development of new products with international suppliers, focusing on the learning processes and innovation capacity. For the data collection, twelve interviews were made with internal actors and Chinese suppliers, as well as documental research. The data analysis was descriptive and interpretative through categorical content analysis.Findings: This study results show that the company does not have a solid supplier database nor stimulate internal collaborative practices of portfolio definition, which makes products sourcing slow and inefficient. In regards to the collaboration with suppliers, the interactions are reactive and focused on problem-solving. Besides, regarding the new product developments with suppliers, there is no formal policy that values learning processes and knowledge sharing practices internally.Originality/Value: These glimpses the possibility of improving the collaboration processes with suppliers regarding new products’ development impacting on the time-to-market and innovation capacity.

Stakeholder Expectations of Future Policy Implementation Compared to Formal Policy Trajectories: Scenarios for Agricultural Food Systems in the Mekong Delta

The development of a coherent and coordinated policy for the management of large socio-agricultural systems, such as the Mekong delta in southern Vietnam, is reliant on aligning the development, delivery, and implementation of policy on national to local scales. Effective decision making is linked to a coherent, broadly-shared vision of the strategic management of socio-agricultural systems. However, when policies are ambiguous, and at worst contradictory, long-term management and planning can consequently suffer. These potential adverse impacts may be compounded if stakeholders have divergent visions of the current and future states of socio-agricultural systems. Herein we used a transferable, scenario-based methodology which uses a standard quadrant matrix in order to explore both anticipated and idealized future states. Our case study was the Mekong delta. The scenario matrix was based upon two key strategic choices (axis) for the delta, derived from analysis of policy documents, literature, stakeholder engagement, and land use models. These are: (i) who will run agriculture in the future, agri-business or the established commune system; and (ii) to what degree sustainability will be incorporated into production. During a workshop meeting, stakeholders identified that agri-business will dominate future agricultural production in the delta but showed a clear concern that sustainability might consequently be undermined despite policy claims of the contrary. As such, our study highlights an important gap between national expectations and regional perspectives. Our results suggest that the new development plans for the Mekong delta (which comprise a new Master Plan and a new 5-year socio-economic development plan), which emphasize agro-business development, should adopt approaches that address concerns of sustainability as well as a more streamlined policy formulation and implementation that accounts for stakeholder concerns at both provincial and national levels.

‘Double activation’: Workfare meets marketisation

Since the financial crisis, Ireland’s welfare state has been reorientated around a regulatory, ‘work-first’ activation model. Claimants now face penalty rates for non-compliance with activation requirements that have been significantly extended since 2009. Alongside these formal policy reforms, the organisations delivering Public Employment Services, and the modes by which they are commissioned, have also been reconfigured through a series of New Public Management style governance reforms, including, most notably, the creation of a quasi-market for employment services (JobPath) in 2015. This article addresses the intersection between activation and quasi-marketisation, positioning the latter as a form of ‘double activation’ that reshapes not only how but also what policies are enacted at the street level. It unpacks their shared logics and mutual commitment to governing agents at a distance through a behavioural public policy orientation, and reflects on the extent to which marketisation is capable of producing lower-cost but more responsive employment services.

Artisanal and Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Eastern Caribbean): History, Catch Characteristics, and Needs for Research and Management

Whaling has been a contentious international environmental issue for decades and carries complex ecological and socioeconomic implications. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), a small archipelagic nation located in the Eastern Caribbean, present-day whaling traces its origin to local interaction with American-based whalers during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When American whaling in the region ceased, local shore-based whaling arose to fill the niche and to exploit the remaining, though diminished, stocks of large whales, as well as stocks of small cetaceans that the American whalers had not targeted as heavily. After a period of expansion throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which saw shore-whaling operations established on at least 11 islands in the region, Eastern Caribbean whaling experienced a period of attrition, during which most local whaling operations ceased. Two operations, both based in SVG, continue regularly today. This paper reviews the past and present status of whaling activities in SVG from the literature and using recent data collected from 2007 to 2017 through logbook data, interview surveys, and ethnographic observations. Small cetacean captures have been documented since 1949, and at least 15 species of odontocetes have been captured (primarily delphinids). From 1949 to 2017, a total of 13,856 small cetacean captures has been recorded, including 5,896 short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), 109 killer whales (Orcinus orca), and 7,851 other small cetaceans. Small cetacean catch records are largely incomplete and total catch estimates could not be attempted. Reliable abundance estimates do not exist. Consistent records for the take of large whales are only available for the period 1986–2020, during which 45 humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and 2 Bryde’s whales (Balaenoptera edeni) were taken. Additionally, 8 sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) captures were reported from 1967 and 1974. We also review whaling practices, existing national policy on whaling, management techniques outside of formal policy regimes, research needs, and future management perspectives. Future monitoring and management of whaling activities in SVG are strongly needed to assess the sustainability of small cetacean exploitation.

Comparing the Evidential Strength for Psychotropic Drugs: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis

ObjectiveApproval and prescription of drugs should be informed by the strength of evidence for efficacy. While there is no formal policy towards different standards for drug approval, the typical strength of evidence might differ for different psychotropic drug groups. Using a Bayesian framework, we examine (1) whether psychotropic drugs are supported by substantial evidence (at the time of Food and Drug Administration [FDA] approval), and (2) whether there are systematic differences across drug groups.MethodsData from short-term, placebo-controlled phase II/III clinical trials for 15 antipsychotics, 16 antidepressants for depression, nine antidepressants for anxiety, and 20 drugs for ADHD were extracted from FDA reviews evaluating efficacy prior to marketing approval. Bayesian model-averaged meta-analysis was performed and strength of evidence was quantified with the Bayes factor (BFBMA).ResultsWe observed substantial variation in strength of evidence and trialling between approved psychotropic drugs: Median evidential strength was extremely strong for ADHD medication (BFBMA = 1820.4), but considerably lower and more frequently classified as weak or moderate for antidepressants for both depression (BFBMA = 94.2) and anxiety (BFBMA = 49.8). Differences might be accounted for by varying median effect sizes (schizophrenia: ESBMA = 0.45, depression: ESBMA = 0.30, anxiety: ESBMA = 0.37, ADHD: ESBMA = 0.72), sample sizes (schizophrenia: N = 324, depression: N = 218, anxiety: N = 254, ADHD: N = 189.5), and numbers of trials (schizophrenia: Nr = 3, depression: Nr = 5.5, anxiety: Nr = 3, ADHD: Nr = 2).LimitationsThe analysis only included pre-marketing studies.ConclusionEvidential strength varied across drug groups: Although most psychotropic drugs were supported by strong evidence at the time of approval, some drugs only had moderate or even ambiguous evidence. These results show the need for more systematic quantification and classification of statistical evidence for psychotropic drugs, and for transparent and clear communication of evidential strength toward clinical decision makers.Registrationhttps://osf.io/5jn2d