Marionetas de Lisboa: um contributo para a renovação do teatro de marionetas e acção na comunidade

A constituição da Associação Cultural Marionetas de Lisboa em 1985 tornou-se um momento marcante na história do Teatro de Marionetas em Portugal. É feita uma resenha histórica breve introduzindo alguns dados recentemente vindos a público sobre a presença das marionetas em Portugal desde tempos remotos, nomeadamente a chamada de atenção para um documento do primeiro quartel do século XVI que sugere a possibilidade de ter existido nessa época uma espécie de Teatro de Sombras. Dedica-se algum espaço ao panorama do teatro de marionetas em Portugal no século XX, que teve ilustres representantes entre algumas elites como exemplo da marioneta urbana renascida no século XX depois do longo interregno e perseguições que se seguiram á morte do Judeu. Contudo, foi na sua matriz rural - como o exemplificam os Bonecos de Santo Aleixo e de Orada, o Pavilhão Mexicano do Manuel Rosado e o Teatro D. Roberto do António Dias entre outros, que o teatro de fantoches, como então se designava, ficou gravado no imaginário colectivo. As bruscas alterações sociais, demográficas e económicas na 2ª metade do século provocaram inexoravelmente a decadência do teatro de bonecos nas comunidades rurais desertificadas, reduzindo-o à condição de curiosidade etnográfica embora, num ou noutro caso, reconstituído mais tarde em meio urbano. É neste contexto que o aparecimento das Marionetas de Lisboa acontece. A repercussão do aparecimento desta estrutura constituiu um estímulo para florescimento de outras estruturas, por vezes seguindo o mesmo modelo organizativo, que enriqueceram o panorama nacional da Arte da Marioneta. Em conclusão, far-se-á um balanço da acção das Marionetas de Lisboa, nomeadamente no plano da divulgação e formação de públicos, não esquecendo a vertente da formação tecnológica e artística, com reflexos directos e indirectos na comunidade contribuindo para um novo olhar e novas atitudes.

Consumidores, pacientes, activistas, cidadãos: representação e participação do público na gestão do risco

Os riscos alimentares, ambientais e de saúde pública têm dado origem a polémicas públicas acesas que têm alimentado receios e movimentações sociais e levado mesmo à obstrução de decisões políticas e à paralisação de investimentos.

Expert opinion on best practice guidelines and competency framework for visual screening in children

PURPOSE: Screening programs to detect visual abnormalities in children vary among countries. The aim of this study is to describe experts' perception of best practice guidelines and competency framework for visual screening in children. METHODS: A qualitative focus group technique was applied during the Portuguese national orthoptic congress to obtain the perception of an expert panel of 5 orthoptists and 2 ophthalmologists with experience in visual screening for children (mean age 53.43 years, SD ± 9.40). The panel received in advance a script with the description of three tuning competencies dimensions (instrumental, systemic, and interpersonal) for visual screening. The session was recorded in video and audio. Qualitative data were analyzed using a categorical technique. RESULTS: According to experts' views, six tests (35.29%) have to be included in a visual screening: distance visual acuity test, cover test, bi-prism or 4/6(Δ) prism, fusion, ocular movements, and refraction. Screening should be performed according to the child age before and after 3 years of age (17.65%). The expert panel highlighted the influence of the professional experience in the application of a screening protocol (23.53%). They also showed concern about the false negatives control (23.53%). Instrumental competencies were the most cited (54.09%), followed by interpersonal (29.51%) and systemic (16.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Orthoptists should have professional experience before starting to apply a screening protocol. False negative results are a concern that has to be more thoroughly investigated. The proposed framework focuses on core competencies highlighted by the expert panel. Competencies programs could be important do develop better screening programs.

Large-area homogeneous periodic surface structures generated on the surface sputtered boron carbide thin films by femtosecond laser processing

Amorphous and crystalline sputtered boron carbide thin films have a very high hardness even surpassing that of bulk crystalline boron carbide (≈41 GPa). However, magnetron sputtered B-C films have high friction coefficients (C.o.F) which limit their industrial application. Nanopatterning of materials surfaces has been proposed as a solution to decrease the C.o.F. The contact area of the nanopatterned surfaces is decreased due to the nanometre size of the asperities which results in a significant reduction of adhesion and friction. In the present work, the surface of amorphous and polycrystalline B-C thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering was nanopatterned using infrared femtosecond laser radiation. Successive parallel laser tracks 10 μm apart were overlapped in order to obtain a processed area of about 3 mm2. Sinusoidal-like undulations with the same spatial period as the laser tracks were formed on the surface of the amorphous boron carbide films after laser processing. The undulations amplitude increases with increasing laser fluence. The formation of undulations with a 10 μm period was also observed on the surface of the crystalline boron carbide film processed with a pulse energy of 72 μJ. The amplitude of the undulations is about 10 times higher than in the amorphous films processed at the same pulse energy due to the higher roughness of the films and consequent increase in laser radiation absorption. LIPSS formation on the surface of the films was achieved for the three B-C films under study. However, LIPSS are formed under different circumstances. Processing of the amorphous films at low fluence (72 μJ) results in LIPSS formation only on localized spots on the film surface. LIPSS formation was also observed on the top of the undulations formed after laser processing with 78 μJ of the amorphous film deposited at 800 °C. Finally, large-area homogeneous LIPSS coverage of the boron carbide crystalline films surface was achieved within a large range of laser fluences although holes are also formed at higher laser fluences.