The New Zealand health system is two-tiered with elective treatments are performed by both publicly funded state hospitals and by private hospitals. Publicly funded operations are rationed using a prioritisation system which was introduced in 1998 to curtail expanding waiting lists for elective surgery. One of the aims of the new booking system was to generate national tools for prioritising patients in order to improve the equality of access to public elective surgery throughout New Zealand. However, priority scoring systems were not implemented in a consistent manner and access to elective surgery remains very unequal. Despite large media attention and a high public profile, waiting times have attracted little research in medical geography or within the wider social sciences community. The subject has been partly reserved for public health commentators within the medical field, who have found that variation in waiting times has much to do with the referral practices of physicians, the management of waiting lists by District Health Board (DHB) staff and the amount of private practice that occurs within each district. Most notably several studies have identified that in areas associated with high private admissions, patients tend to suffer higher waiting times for the same procedures in the public hospital system. This study examines the performance of the New Zealand Booking System (NZBS) during the years 2004 to 2007 to assess the equitable delivery of publicly funded elective surgery procedures. Waiting times (NBRS) and admissions (NMDS) datasets were sourced from the New Zealand Health and Information Service (NZHIS) of The Ministry of Health. Mean and Median waiting times were compared spatially between each of New Zealand’s 21 DHBs, compared with Australian waiting times and then broken down into five common medical specialties. Waiting times were then analysed by ethnicity, level of material deprivation and other individual factors using data from the 2006 New Zealand Census. Finally, rates of admissions were calculated for the public and private hospital sectors during the study period. These were used to correlate waiting times results with the amount of private practice in each DHB. ACC cases were extracted from the dataset to avoid bias in waiting times as much of this work is contracted out to the private sector and not subject to lengthy waiting times for treatment. A number of medical specialists and hospital administrators were interviewed to discuss results, explain prioritisation tools and management practices. Results showed large variations in the median waiting times of New Zealand DHBs. A north south gradient is observed in which southern DHBs suffer longer waits for care. Vastly better results were observed for Australian public hospitals than those seen in New Zealand. For waiting times as determined by individual factors, Maori and Pacific Island patients and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds suffered longer waiting times nationwide although, in certain DHBs inequalities for access to elective surgery were exacerbated. However, ethnic differences were more pronounced than socio-economic variations. Admissions results showed significant positive correlations between the amount of private practice and the waiting times experienced in each DHB which are supported by previous research. Feedback from interviews confirmed inconsistency in the use of scoring tools, manipulation occurring on behalf of the DHB management to achieve performance goals set by the Ministry of Health and provided some further explanation of the other quantitative results. Access to elective surgery is determined partly by location of residence, ethnicity, deprivation and where hospital resources are located but most importantly by the willingness to pay for treatment within the private hospital sector and the ability to manipulate the public prioritisation system.

A study of packing constructs a critique of the everyday: a dialogue between chaos and order, surface and area, interior and exterior, gravity and lightness. In search of tangible expression of the spatial processes I am responsible for, I have become both master architect and expert packer. I have composed this thesis the same way I pack: I have assembled piles of fragments, regrouped them, reconsidered, edited, alloted them more or less space. Things have become more and less valuable. Quotes and images are precious, like artifacts, tucked delicately between text-filled pages. Each word I write, each line I draw, creates a boundary, a parcel, a unit of space set apart from the white of the page. This book is my suitcase.

The present thesis aimed to investigate the source of interference in recognition memory. There are two primary alternatives – the item noise approach, in which interference comes about as a consequence of the other items on the study list, and the context noise approach, wherein interference arises from the previous contexts in which an item has been encountered. Alternatively, interference may occur through a combination of both item and context noise. There are many mathematical models designed to simulate the recognition process that incorporate either item or context noise, or both. Item noise models predict a significant list length effect, that is, that memory for an item that was part of a short list at study is better than that for an item that was part of a long list. Context noise models no not predict a significant difference in memory based on the length of the study list. The presence or absence of the list length effect can therefore be used as a mechanism by which to differentiate item and context noise models. The list length effect is among the most documented and replicated findings in the recognition memory literature (Gronlund & Elam, 1994). Yet, while many experiments have been conducted which have identified a significant list length effect in recognition (e.g. Bowles & Glanzer, 1983; Cary & Reder, 2003; Murnane & Shiffrin, 1991; Ohrt & Gronlund, 1999; Strong, 1912; Underwood, 1978), a number of published studies have failed to identify the effect (e.g. Dennis & Humphreys, 2001; Dennis, Lee & Kinnell, 2008; Jang & Huber, 2008; Murnane & Shiffrin, 1991; Schulman, 1974). Dennis and Humphreys (2001) argued that studies that had identified a significant effect of list length on recognition performance had done so because of a failure to control for four potentially confounding variables; retention interval, attention, displaced rehearsal and contextual reinstatement. The possible confounding effects of retention interval and displaced rehearsal are already well established in the literature and most studies employ some controls for these. Dennis et al. (2008) also found that while the role of contextual reinstatement had a pronounced influence on the detection of the list length effect it did not appear to be the most influential of the potential confounds. Thus, a major aim of the present thesis was to investigate the role of attention in the identification of the list length effect. Experiment 1 (N=160) involved two manipulations of attention. The first was to use either a retroactive or proactive design, with differential lapses of attention likely to be more pronounced in the latter. Second, in one condition participants were asked to perform a pleasantness rating task at study, a common technique to encourage participants to attend to the stimulus, while in the other condition they were asked to simply read the words. Results indicated that attention modulates the list length effect and that it is the retroactive versus proactive distinction which is most important as a significant effect of list length was found only when the proactive design was used. The encoding task had little effect. The design of Experiment 2 (N=80) was based on Cary and Reder's (2003) Experiment 3 which itself was a partial replication of Dennis and Humphreys' (2001) experiments. Cary and Reder introduced the Remember-Know (RK) task into the test list in their experiments and identified a significant effect of list length in the presence of controls for the four confounds where Dennis and Humphreys had not. The RK task is thought to index the relative contributions of familiarity and recollection in the recognition process (Gardiner, 1988). To the extent that the RK task encourages a recall-like process (see Clark, 1999; Diana, Reder, Arndt & Park, 2006) it may influence the results regarding the list length effect, in that the effect is widely accepted to occur in recall. Experiment 2 compared recognition memory with or without RK instructions. One condition involved the standard yes/no recognition paradigm, while the other made us of the RK task following all “yes” responses. Controls for the four potential confounds of Dennis and Humphreys were implemented. No significant effect of list length was identified in the accuracy data of either condition, however there was a small but significant effect on median response latency for correct responses in the RK task condition. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that the effect of list length on recognition performance is negligible and nonsignificant when controls for the four potential confounds of list length are in place. However, both of these experiments, and almost all previous experiments investigating the list length effect, used words as the stimuli. The remaining four experiments in the present thesis (N=40 in each) sought to investigate the list length effect using stimuli other than words in an attempt to identify the boundary conditions of the effect. Each of these experiments followed the same basic method as Experiments 1 and 2. Four different kinds of stimuli were investigated, word pairs, images of novel faces, fractals and photographs. Results indicated a nonsignificant effect of list length for word pairs and photographs, however, there was a significant list length effect when faces (in the accuracy data) and fractals (in the response latency data) were used as the stimuli. However, all of the experiments in the present thesis used a within subjects manipulation of list length in order to maximise experimental power. This design may be an additional confound of the list length effect. The nature of the within subjects design means that by the end of the second study list, all participants will have studied the same number of items, thereby potentially removing any list length manipulation from the experiment. In addition, participants who studied the long list first may be more likely to be affected by lapses in attention than participants who began with the short list with this, rather than interference, the potential cause of any list length differences. In order to investigate this potential confounding, the results from all experiments of the present thesis were re-analysed using a between subjects analysis based on only the first list studied by each participant. The qualitative conclusions drawn from the majority of conditions remained unchanged. The between subjects analysis generally revealed larger effect sizes than did the within subjects analysis, although with the exception of the proactive conditions, these effects can be considered negligible to small at most. The pattern of results across the six experiments of the present thesis are problematic for existing mathematical models of recognition memory. While context noise models are able to account for negligible and nonsignificant effects of list length when words, word pairs and photographs are used as the stimuli, they are unable to predict a slightly larger and significant list length effect when the stimuli are novel faces or fractals. Conversely, while item noise models are able to account for a significant list length effect for faces and fractals, they are unable to predict a nonsignificant list length effect for words and word pairs. The results question whether either item or context noise can be taken as the sole source of interference in recognition memory. Rather, a combination of interference from different sources may be at work, with the precise nature of this combination dependent on the nature of the stimuli involved. However, it is important to note that these models must be able to all but eliminate interference from other items under certain conditions to obtain the negligible list length effect findings reported here. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1474563 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2009

Em meados de 2005 a Comissão de Meio Ambiente do SINDUSCON-RS, ciente das necessidades das empresas construtoras de buscarem uma adequação aos requisitos ambientais, criou um projeto para elaboração de uma lista de verificação nacional que pudesse ser usado como um medidor ou avaliador da sustentabilidade dos empreendimentos. Na época já se falava em Green Buildings, porém a busca era por algo semelhante, mas que, no entanto, fosse brasileiro, com itens realmente significativos do ponto de vista ambiental e aplicáveis à realidade nacional, além é claro, de ser acessível ao maior grupo de empresas possíveis. O SINDUSCON-RS buscou a parceria do Centro Nacional de Tecnologias Limpas - CNTL do SENAI-RS que tem como foco, da grande maioria dos seus trabalhos, as pequenas e médias empresas e desta forma firmou-se a parceria. Mas somente no início de 2007 é que houve liberação das verbas e o trabalho começou a ser desenvolvido, com apoio ainda da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. No primeiro momento foi feita uma revisão bibliográfica dos principais índices mundiais e dos trabalhos existentes nesta área. Foi criada uma tabela comparativa entre os índices mundiais mais reconhecidos e em seguida foram avaliados os macro-itens e a forma de pontuação de cada um. Dali iniciou-se a criação do Índice de Sustentabilidade. Os trabalhos transcorreram por aproximadamente 1,5 ano, ocasião em que o documento que deu origem ao software e o próprio software foram concluídos. Em seguida foi executado um projeto piloto com construtoras filiadas ao SINDUSCON-RS para a validação deste projeto. Foi através deste piloto que a pontuação, os pesos dados para cada item da lista de verificação, e as boas práticas colocadas na lista foram testadas e aprimoradas. Somente após este projeto piloto que a esta primeira versão do índice foi considerada concluída. Entendese que este projeto possa ser considerado como uma ferramenta para os pequenos e médios construtores, que são maioria neste país, executarem os seus serviços e empreendimentos usando a menor quantidade possível de recursos naturais e causando o menor impacto ambiental. / In 2005 The Environmental Committee of SINDUSCON-RS, knowing the construction companies needs of searching for the environmental requirements adequation, created a Project to make a national chek-list which could be used as an evaluation of the enterprises sustainability. At that time, the concept of Green Buildings was starting, but the search was for something similar, but brazilian, with practice with national significance and applicable to national reality and also accessible as many companies as possible. SINDUSCON-RS looked for a partner of the National Center of Clean Tecnologies- CNTL of SENAI-RS which focus, at the majority part of its jobs, small and medium size companies, and the partnership was created. But only at the beginning of 2007 the work started, advised by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. At the beginning a reference revision of the main worldwide index and the existing works in this area was done. It was created a comparative table of the worldwide more used index, and after that, the major items and the pontuation form of each one were evaluated. Then the creation of the sustainability index developed by this group started. This work last about a year and a half with periodical meetings, the document that gave rise to the software and the software itself was completed. Then ran a pilot project with construction companies affiliated with the SINDUSCON-RS for the validation of this project. It was through this pilot that score, the weights given to each practice on the checklist, and best practices placed on the list have been tested and improved. Only after this pilot project that the first version of this index was considered complete. It’s expected that this project will be used to help the small and medium companies to bild with the less amount of natural resources and causing the minimum environmental impact.

The birds of agricultural landspace are currently the most disappearing kind of birds. Their decline is connected with the rate and the way of farming in this landscape. Thus it is extremely important to inform the general public about this issue. The diplom thesis contains a lecture and a worksheet dealing with this issue and they are aimed at high school students.

Em meados de 2005 a Comissão de Meio Ambiente do SINDUSCON-RS, ciente das necessidades das empresas construtoras de buscarem uma adequação aos requisitos ambientais, criou um projeto para elaboração de uma lista de verificação nacional que pudesse ser usado como um medidor ou avaliador da sustentabilidade dos empreendimentos. Na época já se falava em Green Buildings, porém a busca era por algo semelhante, mas que, no entanto, fosse brasileiro, com itens realmente significativos do ponto de vista ambiental e aplicáveis à realidade nacional, além é claro, de ser acessível ao maior grupo de empresas possíveis. O SINDUSCON-RS buscou a parceria do Centro Nacional de Tecnologias Limpas - CNTL do SENAI-RS que tem como foco, da grande maioria dos seus trabalhos, as pequenas e médias empresas e desta forma firmou-se a parceria. Mas somente no início de 2007 é que houve liberação das verbas e o trabalho começou a ser desenvolvido, com apoio ainda da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. No primeiro momento foi feita uma revisão bibliográfica dos principais índices mundiais e dos trabalhos existentes nesta área. Foi criada uma tabela comparativa entre os índices mundiais mais reconhecidos e em seguida foram avaliados os macro-itens e a forma de pontuação de cada um. Dali iniciou-se a criação do Índice de Sustentabilidade. Os trabalhos transcorreram por aproximadamente 1,5 ano, ocasião em que o documento que deu origem ao software e o próprio software foram concluídos. Em seguida foi executado um projeto piloto com construtoras filiadas ao SINDUSCON-RS para a validação deste projeto. Foi através deste piloto que a pontuação, os pesos dados para cada item da lista de verificação, e as boas práticas colocadas na lista foram testadas e aprimoradas. Somente após este projeto piloto que a esta primeira versão do índice foi considerada concluída. Entendese que este projeto possa ser considerado como uma ferramenta para os pequenos e médios construtores, que são maioria neste país, executarem os seus serviços e empreendimentos usando a menor quantidade possível de recursos naturais e causando o menor impacto ambiental. / In 2005 The Environmental Committee of SINDUSCON-RS, knowing the construction companies needs of searching for the environmental requirements adequation, created a Project to make a national chek-list which could be used as an evaluation of the enterprises sustainability. At that time, the concept of Green Buildings was starting, but the search was for something similar, but brazilian, with practice with national significance and applicable to national reality and also accessible as many companies as possible. SINDUSCON-RS looked for a partner of the National Center of Clean Tecnologies- CNTL of SENAI-RS which focus, at the majority part of its jobs, small and medium size companies, and the partnership was created. But only at the beginning of 2007 the work started, advised by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. At the beginning a reference revision of the main worldwide index and the existing works in this area was done. It was created a comparative table of the worldwide more used index, and after that, the major items and the pontuation form of each one were evaluated. Then the creation of the sustainability index developed by this group started. This work last about a year and a half with periodical meetings, the document that gave rise to the software and the software itself was completed. Then ran a pilot project with construction companies affiliated with the SINDUSCON-RS for the validation of this project. It was through this pilot that score, the weights given to each practice on the checklist, and best practices placed on the list have been tested and improved. Only after this pilot project that the first version of this index was considered complete. It’s expected that this project will be used to help the small and medium companies to bild with the less amount of natural resources and causing the minimum environmental impact.

No description available.

This thesis contains practical part and accompanying theoretical part. The practical part contains ten final sketches and ten engravings, elaborated with drypoint technique, using dichroic combination. This cycle of engravings is named {\clqq}To the roots``. The names of engravings are: {\clqq}Symbiosis``, {\clqq}Departure``, {\clqq}Barriers``, {\clqq}Disaffection``, {\clqq}Devastation 1``, {\clqq}Devastation 2``, {\clqq}Devastation 3``, {\clqq}Payback``, {\clqq}Lost values``, {\clqq}Apocalypsa``. The accompanying theoretical part is composed of four chapters. The first chapter contains my reflection of relation of man to nature. In second chapter I adduce examples of graphical art trends, or authors, who are by their approach adherent to the subject of man to nature relationship. In the third chapter I try to introduce my personal approaches and ideas that led to creation of practical part of the thesis. In last chapter I am concerned with the possibility of introduction of {\clqq}man to nature relationship`` issue to the educational process on Basic art schools.

Em meados de 2005 a Comissão de Meio Ambiente do SINDUSCON-RS, ciente das necessidades das empresas construtoras de buscarem uma adequação aos requisitos ambientais, criou um projeto para elaboração de uma lista de verificação nacional que pudesse ser usado como um medidor ou avaliador da sustentabilidade dos empreendimentos. Na época já se falava em Green Buildings, porém a busca era por algo semelhante, mas que, no entanto, fosse brasileiro, com itens realmente significativos do ponto de vista ambiental e aplicáveis à realidade nacional, além é claro, de ser acessível ao maior grupo de empresas possíveis. O SINDUSCON-RS buscou a parceria do Centro Nacional de Tecnologias Limpas - CNTL do SENAI-RS que tem como foco, da grande maioria dos seus trabalhos, as pequenas e médias empresas e desta forma firmou-se a parceria. Mas somente no início de 2007 é que houve liberação das verbas e o trabalho começou a ser desenvolvido, com apoio ainda da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. No primeiro momento foi feita uma revisão bibliográfica dos principais índices mundiais e dos trabalhos existentes nesta área. Foi criada uma tabela comparativa entre os índices mundiais mais reconhecidos e em seguida foram avaliados os macro-itens e a forma de pontuação de cada um. Dali iniciou-se a criação do Índice de Sustentabilidade. Os trabalhos transcorreram por aproximadamente 1,5 ano, ocasião em que o documento que deu origem ao software e o próprio software foram concluídos. Em seguida foi executado um projeto piloto com construtoras filiadas ao SINDUSCON-RS para a validação deste projeto. Foi através deste piloto que a pontuação, os pesos dados para cada item da lista de verificação, e as boas práticas colocadas na lista foram testadas e aprimoradas. Somente após este projeto piloto que a esta primeira versão do índice foi considerada concluída. Entendese que este projeto possa ser considerado como uma ferramenta para os pequenos e médios construtores, que são maioria neste país, executarem os seus serviços e empreendimentos usando a menor quantidade possível de recursos naturais e causando o menor impacto ambiental. / In 2005 The Environmental Committee of SINDUSCON-RS, knowing the construction companies needs of searching for the environmental requirements adequation, created a Project to make a national chek-list which could be used as an evaluation of the enterprises sustainability. At that time, the concept of Green Buildings was starting, but the search was for something similar, but brazilian, with practice with national significance and applicable to national reality and also accessible as many companies as possible. SINDUSCON-RS looked for a partner of the National Center of Clean Tecnologies- CNTL of SENAI-RS which focus, at the majority part of its jobs, small and medium size companies, and the partnership was created. But only at the beginning of 2007 the work started, advised by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. At the beginning a reference revision of the main worldwide index and the existing works in this area was done. It was created a comparative table of the worldwide more used index, and after that, the major items and the pontuation form of each one were evaluated. Then the creation of the sustainability index developed by this group started. This work last about a year and a half with periodical meetings, the document that gave rise to the software and the software itself was completed. Then ran a pilot project with construction companies affiliated with the SINDUSCON-RS for the validation of this project. It was through this pilot that score, the weights given to each practice on the checklist, and best practices placed on the list have been tested and improved. Only after this pilot project that the first version of this index was considered complete. It’s expected that this project will be used to help the small and medium companies to bild with the less amount of natural resources and causing the minimum environmental impact.

A Mata Atlântica é considerada um dos ecossistemas mais biodiversos e ao mesmo tempo mais ameaçados do planeta. As aves são apontadas como o grupo de vertebrados com a maior riqueza geral, endemismos e espécies ameaçadas desse domínio. Embora possa ser considerado o domínio natural brasileiro cuja avifauna foi mais intensamente estudada, o conhecimento ornitológico acumulado sobre a Mata Atlântica encontra-se segmentado e altamente disperso, o que acaba por torná-lo sub-utilizável. Embora existam na literatura valores de riqueza e listas de espécies de aves da Mata Atlântica, há uma grande discrepância entre os resultados apresentados e uma falta de métodos explícitos detalhados nas maior parte desses trabalhos. Essa situação, somada a um significativo crescimento do conhecimento ornitológico em anos recentes, demonstra a necessidade de uma iniciativa que busque reunir o atual estado de conhecimento sobre a avifauna desse domínio. Dentro desse contexto, os objetivos do presente estudo foram definir a riqueza e composição de espécies, subspécies e endemismos da avifauna da Mata Atlântica, compilar informações sobre o status de ocorrência e preferência de habitat das suas espécies e traçar um panorama atualizado sobre a conservação das mesmas. Para isso, foram analisados os padrões de distribuição dos táxons com ocorrência conhecida dentro dos limites geográficos da Mata Atlântica e, para as espécies aceitas como pertencentes à sua avifauna, informações sobre sua ecologia e sazonalidade. Como fontes de informação foram consultados a literatura científica, mapas de distribuição, espécimes ornitógicos e informações primárias colhidas durante trabalhos de campo. Os resultados apontam que a avifauna da Mata Atlântica possui elevada riqueza de táxons, sendo composta por 891 espécies, das quais 464 são políticas e representadas no domínio por 608 subespécies, totalizando 1035 táxons específicos e subespecíficos, distribuidos em 26 ordens e 80 famílias. Apesar da maioria das espécies de aves da Mata Atlântica ser residente, deve ser ressaltada a presença de um número expressivo de espécies que realizam deslocamentos sazonais, cerca de 16%. Mais da metade das espécies de aves da Mata Atlântica ocorrem em ambientes florestais, mas uma parte significativa está associada a outros habitats, incluindo ambientes abertos naturais e antrópicos, áreas úmidas e ambientes marinhos costeiros. A avifauna da Mata Atlântica é caracterizada por uma alta taxa de endemismos, incluindo 27 gêneros, 213 espécies e 162 subespécies. O panorama atualizado sobre o estado de conservação das aves da Mata Atlântica reitera sua situação crítica e revela que um número de espécies muito maior do que se supunha pelas listas nacionais e internacional de espécies ameaçadas corre sério risco de se extinguir ou já se extinguiu dentro do domínio. Com base nas informações compiladas durante esse estudo são apontados como os principais desafios e oportunidades de pesquisa para a ornitologia da Mata Atlântica: a necessidade de revisão taxonômica de um grande número de subespécies, sobretudo de diversos táxons endêmicos e ameaçados; necessidade de revisão das áreas de endemismos de aves no domínio; utilização dos padrões de distribuição das aves da Mata Atlântica para analisar afinidades biogeográficas entre suas diferentes regiões; necessidade de levantar informações sobre padrões de ocorrência e sazonalidade de suas espécies migratórias e uma reavaliação da atual estratégica de conservação baseada em listas nacionais de espécies ameaçadas / The Atlantic Forest is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots, yet it is one of the most threatened domains in the planet. Birds are among the vertebrates with the greatest species richness, endemism and number of threatened species of this domain. The Atlantic Forest may be considered the domain in which the avifauna has been studied the most, but this ornithological knowledge is fragmented and highly dispersed, which makes it underused. Some reviews of the bird species occurring in the Atlantic Forest are available in the literature, but a comparative analysis of their results reveals many discrepancies and a lack of systematic methodology among most of them. In addition, in recent years there has been a significant increase in the ornithological knowledge of the Atlantic Forest, demonstrating the need for a new review that gathers the current knowledge about the avifauna of the Atlantic Forest. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to define which are the species, sub-species and endemisms of the Atlantic Forest avifauna, to gather information about species occurrence and habitat preference and to give an updated overview of their conservation status. I analyzed the distribution patterns of each species and/or subspecies within the Atlantic Forest and described their habitat and seasonality. Data was gathered from the scientific literature, distribution maps, museum specimens and field work. The Atlantic Forest avifauna is composed of 861 species, with 464 of them being polytypic and accounting for, 608 subspecies, thus amounting 1035 specific and subspecific taxons grouped into 26 orders and 80 families. The majority of the species were found to be resident whereas a noteworthy 16% of them perform seasonal movements. More than half of species occur in forest habitats, while a significant portion is associated with other habitats including natural open habitats and anthropic environments, humid areas and costal marine environments. The Atlantic Forest avifauna is characterized by a high level of endemism, including 27 genera, 213 species and 162 sub-species. The updated overview about the conservation status of the Atlantic Forest birds reiterates their critical situation and reveals that the number of threatened or extinct species in this domain is much greater than previously reported in national and international lists of threatened species. The main challenges and opportunities to future research efforts on the Atlantic Forest avifauna are the need for a taxonomic review of the large number of sub-species, especially the many endemic and threatened taxons; a review of the endemic areas within the domain; the use of distribution patterns of the Atlantic Forest birds to analyze the biogeographic affinities among the different regions of the domain; to gather information about the occurrence of migratory species and their seasonal patterns; and re-evaluation of the a current conservation policies based on the national red list of threatened species