Portuguese newspapers’ front-page and the coverage of European Cultural Capital: Porto 2001 and Guimarães 2012

Portugal hosted in the last thirteen years, two editions of the event European Cultural Capital; this paper intends to illustrate the coverage that Portuguese newspapers (daily newspapers Público, Diário de Notícias, Correio da Manhã and Jornal de Notícias, a weekly newsmagazine Visão and a weekly newspaper Expresso) made, through referrals in front-page and respective developments within the editions, to each of the events and that allows us to define the main moments that marked each of them, patterns of action, the major players, planning and programming types. The European Cultural Capital project elects, from year to year, cities of different EU member states with the main goal of “contributing to bring together the Europe´s people" (words of Mélina Mercouri, Greek Minister of Culture who, in 1985, proposed the launch of this initiative) and encouraging the elected urban space to present new cultural paradigms. In the genesis of this model is the cultural decentralization’s vector, a possibility to medium-sized cities of funding public works, restoring heritage and promoting themselves in touristic terms, of giving visibility to cities away from cultural and creative industries’ major distribution centers. A crucial factor to achieve this goal is media coverage. This paper outline the information that the Portuguese press ran over the two years that elapsed the latest editions of the European Cultural Capital in Portugal, namely that media coverage have deviated from the disclosure of the events’ schedule to suggest itineraries of visit and little or not even question the role that cities, promoting such initiatives, have as places of innovation in terms of cultural policies, artistic production and innovation, in urban and environmental regeneration, in economic revitalization, in training and creating new artists and new audiences and in boosting the confidence of local communities. The content analysis performed to articles shows how press is essential to the promotion of cities as cultural/touristic destinations as it stimulates consumption among residents and attracts visitors, with the possible dire consequence of turning the cultural journalist into an agent of touristic instead of cultural promotion.

Newspaper coverage impact on cultural events: Porto 2001 and Guimarães 2012: European Cultural Capitals

Artigo baseado na comunicação proferida no 1st International Symposium on Media Studies, realizado na Akdeniz Universitesi Yayınları, Antalya, Turquia, 21-23 de novembro de 2013

Fungi spores dimension matters in health effects: a methodology for more detail fungi exposure assessment

Health effects resulting from dust inhalation in occupational environments may be more strongly associated with specific microbial components, such as fungi, than to the particles. The aim of the present study is to characterize the occupational exposure to the fungal burden in four different occupational settings (two feed industries, one poultry and one waste sorting industry), presenting results from two air sampling methods – the impinger collector and the use of filters. In addition, the equipment used for the filter sampling method allowed a more accurate characterization regarding the dimension of the collected fungal particles (less than 2.5 μm size). Air samples of 300L were collected using the impinger Coriolis μ air sampler. Simultaneously, the aerosol monitor (DustTrak II model 8532, TSI®) allowed assessing viable microbiological material below the 2.5 μm size. After sampling, filters were immersed in 300 mL of sterilized distilled water and agitated for 30 min at 100 rpm. 150 μl from the sterilized distilled water were subsequently spread onto malt extract agar (2%) with chloramphenicol (0.05 g/L). All plates were incubated at 27.5 ºC during 5–7 days. With the impinger method, the fungal load ranged from 0 to 413 CFU.m-3 and with the filter method, ranged from 0 to 64 CFU.m-3. In one feed industry, Penicillium genus was the most frequently found genus (66.7%) using the impinger method and three more fungi species/genera/complex were found. The filter assay allowed the detection of only two species/genera/complex in the same industry. In the other feed industry, Cladosporium sp. was the most found (33.3%) with impinger method and three more species/genera/complex were also found. Through the filter assay four fungi species/genera/complex were found. In the assessed poultry, Rhyzopus sp. was the most frequently detected (61.2%) and more three species/genera/complex were isolated. Through the filter assay, only two fungal species/genera/complex were found. In the waste sorting industry Penicillium sp. was the most prevalent (73.6%) with the impinger method, being isolated two more different fungi species/genera/complex. Through the filter assay only Penicillium sp. was found. A more precise determination of occupational fungal exposure was ensured, since it was possible to obtain information regarding not only the characterization of fungal contamination (impinger method), but also the size of dust particles, and viable fungal particles, that can reach the worker ́s respiratory tract (filters method). Both methods should be used in parallel to enrich discussion regarding potential health effects of occupational exposure to fungi.