The Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) is a short, five-item scale which provides a measure of degree of dependence upon different drugs. The present study explores the validity and reliability of a Portuguese version of the instrument with a sample of 374 Brazilian drug users. Concurrent validity of the SDS was assessed in relation to reported quantity of drugs used and to DSM-IV dependence items, and test-retest reliability was assessed with a subsample of 42 subjects. The SDS total scores for powder cocaine, crack cocaine, cannabis and alcohol were significantly and highly positively correlated with severity of dependence as measured by DSM-IV, and with the estimated quantity of drugs used in the last month. Test-retest coefficients were high for all drugs studied. Principal components analysis showed that the SDS scores lie on a single dimension with the exception of crack cocaine where scores lie on a single dimension for treatment attenders and on two dimensions for community samples. The results indicate that the Portuguese version of the SDS is a valid research tool for measuring severity of dependence upon powder cocaine (snorted), crack cocaine (smoked), cannabis and alcohol.

O artigo pretende reavaliar a importância dos Controles Internos da Administração Pública a partir de uma interpretação dada pela Teoria de Agência. O texto argumenta que os Controles Internos, definidos como os controles exercidos por uma organização sobre si própria, podem tornar-se os principais controles sobre a burocracia. O artigo conclui argumentando que os Controles Internos deveriam ser encarados como sendo parte integrante de um sistema de controles político-democráticos.

Defendemos a necessidade de que se atue com rigor ético durante a pandemia do novo coronavírus e que não se afrouxem os padrões científicos e normativos nas pesquisas sobre possíveis medicamentos, em especial a Cloroquina, para a COVID-19. Argumentamos que, excepcionalmente, seria justificado pular algumas etapas na realização de testes clínicos ou tratamentos experimentais, mas que é inadequado fazer um uso indiscriminado de medicamentos off label para tratar pacientes enquanto os resultados das pesquisas não forem publicados em veículos de comprovada reputação científica. Para sustentar essa posição, aplicamos princípios bioéticos e da ética médica. Defendemos que políticas públicas para o uso de Cloroquina durante a pandemia não devem ser implementadas até que sejam divulgados os resultados das pesquisas realizadas pela “Coalizão COVID Brasil” e pela Solidarity da OMS (Organização Mundial da Saúde).

Recent research with human embryos, in different parts of the world, has sparked a new debate on the ethics of genetic human enhancement. This debate, however, has mainly focused on gene-editing technologies, especially CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Less attention has been given to the prospect of pursuing genetic human enhancement by means of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) in conjunction with in vitro gametogenesis, genome-wide association studies, and embryo selection. This article examines the different ethical implications of the quest for cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing on the one hand, and embryo selection on the other. The article focuses on the ethics of cognitive enhancement by means of embryo selection, as this technology is more likely to become commercially available before cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing. This article argues that the philosophical debate on the ethics of enhancement should take into consideration public attitudes to research on human genomics and human enhancement technologies. The article discusses, then, some of the recent findings of the SIENNA Project, which in 2019 conducted a survey on public attitudes to human genomics and human enhancement technologies in 11 countries (France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, and United States).