Layout, conforto e satisfação dos usuários em escritórios: uma avaliação pós-ocupação no edifício da sede administrativa do INPE-CRN

This research aimed to identify the link between the layout of workspaces in offices and the design strategies for environmental comfort. Strategies surveyed were focused on the thermal, visual and luminic comfort. In this research, visual comfort is related to issues of visual integration within and between the interior and exterior of the building. This is a case study conducted at the administrative headquarters of Centro Regional Nordeste do Instituto de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE-CRN), located in Natal/RN. The methodological strategy used was the Post-Occupancy Evaluation, which combined the survey data on the building (layout of workspaces, bioclimatic strategies adopted in the design, use of these strategies) with some techniques aimed at acquiring qualitative information related to users. The workspace layout is primordial to satisfaction and productivity of workers. Issues such as concentration, communication, privacy, personal identity, density and space efficiency, barriers (access, visual and even ventilation and lighting), among others, are associated with the layout. The environmental comfort is one of the essential elements to maintaining life quality in workplace. Moreover, it is an important factor in user`s perception of the space in which he or she are inserted. Both layout and environmental comfort issues should be collected and analyzed in the establishment phase of the programming step. That way, it is possible to get adequate answers to these questions in subsequent project phases. It was found that changes in the program that occurred over time, especially concerning persons (number and characteristics), resulted in changes in layout, generating high density and inflexible environments. It turns difficult to adjust the furniture to the occupants` requirement, including comfort needs. However, the presence of strategies for environmental quality provides comfort to spaces, ensuring that, even in situations not considered optimal, users perceive the environment in a positive way. It was found that the relationship between environmental comfort and layout takes the following forms: in changing the perception of comfort, depending on the layout of the arrangements; adjustments in layout, due to needs for comfort; and the elevation of user satisfaction and environmental quality due to the presence of strategies comfort even in situations of inadequate layout

Depois das fronteiras: a formação dos espaços de pobreza na periferia norte de Natal-RN

The periphery of the city of Natal was built during the last 20 years, trough informal land developments. This dissertation analyses the urbanization of Natal`s North Zone, the largest residential area in the city where 40% of the population lives. This urban space is characterized as a space of poverty because of its majority of low income dwellers as well as lack of infrastructure. The main objective here is to identify and characterize this space as well as resulting segregation. Variables as income, space morphology, residential typology and the history of real estate development as well as dweller`s history of life are analysed

O Plano Diretor como instrumento de gestão da cidade: o caso da cidade de Fortaleza/CE

According to article 182 of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, cities should perform social function, what brings the concept that the city should be a place for one to live well. For that to happen, it should be well administered by its public managers. However, so that there is a sound administration, one that really performs that social function, there must be, first, an efficient planning. We understand that such a thing occurs when the master plan is the main planning instrument of a city and serves as basis for its administration. We notice, however, that in most of the cities the master plan is formulated as a law that regulates urban planning but that both the population and the government most of the times are not aware of its importance concerning the relevant issues related to municipal administration, such as its relationship with the economy, taxation, the social issue, land use regulation, and, in summary, with all the aspects that constitute and that a municipal government should manage in the best possible way. One also knows that, in general, the attempt of city planning has always been connected to the duration of a mandate and that way public managers many times implement restricted measures aiming to just attain a political-electoral objective and publicizing their administration. That implies actions and works that in some cases have negative impacts or ones that cannot be removed from the cities. This study intends to show that the master plan should be the planning instrument guiding the municipal administration but that, however, what we note is a lack of connection between that instrument and the government guidelines of the municipal managers. In order to study what happens to the cities that have a planning which is not taken into account in its administration, we will use the city of Fortaleza, capital of the State of Ceará as a case study. Historically, in Fortaleza the public managers have seldom decided to administer the city in according to the master plans developed for it. We should emphasize that planning begins in the city quite late and until the current days it is being substituted by temporary measures. Through the analysis of the planning process and of the urban management of the city of Fortaleza, especially the master plans predicted since 1933, we explain that if such plans had been implemented, they could have been important tools for its administration to attain a social function, becoming therefore a place for one to live well

Atividade antimalárica de plantas medicinais da biorregião do Araripe-CE em modelo murino - Plasmodium berghei

Malaria, also popularly known as maleita , intermittent fever, paludism, impaludism, third fever or fourth fever, is an acute infectious febrile disease, which, in human beings, is caused by four species: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae and P. ovale. Malaria, one of the main infectious diseases in the world, is the most important parasitoses, with 250 million annual cases and more than 1 million deaths per year, mainly in children younger than live years of age. The prophylactic and therapeutic arsenal against malaria is quite restricted, since all the antimalarials currently in use have some limitation. Many plant species belonging to several families have been tested in vivo, using the murine experimental model Plasmodium berghei or in vitro against P. falciparum, and this search has been directed toward plants with antithermal, antimalarial or antiinflammatory properties used in popular Brazilian bolk medicine. Studies assessing the biological activity of medicinal plant essential oils have revealed activities of interest, such as insecticidal, spasmolytic and antiplasmodic action. It has also been scientifically established that around 60% of essential oils have antifungal properties and that 35% exhibit antibacterial properties. In our investigation, essential oils were obtained from the species Vanillosmopsis arborea, Lippia sidoides and Croton zethneri which are found in the bioregion of Araripe-Ceará. The chemical composition of these essential oils was partially characterized and the presence of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. The acute toxicity of these oils was assessed in healthy mice at different doses applied on a single day and on four consecutive days, and in vitro cytotoxicity in HeLa and Raw cell lines was determined at different concentrations. The in vivo tests obtained lethal dose values of 7,1 mg/Kg (doses administered on a single day) and 1,8 mg/Kg (doses administered over four days) for 50% of the animals. In the in vitro tests, the inhibitory concentration for 50% of cell growth in Hela cell lines was 588 μg/mL (essential oil from C. zethneri after 48 h), from 340-555 μg/mL (essential oil from L. sidoides, after 24 and 48 h). The essential oil from V. arborea showed no cytotoxicity and none of the essential oils were cytotoxic in Raw cell lines. These data suggest a moderate toxicity in the essential XVIII oils under study, a finding that does not impede their testing in in vivo antimalarial assays. Was shown the antimalarial activity of the essential oils in mice infected with P. berghei was assessed. The three species showed antimalarial activity from 36%-57% for the essential oil from the stem of V. arborea; from 32%-82% for the essential oil from the leaves of L. sidoides and from 40%-70% of reduction for the essential oil from the leaves of C. zethneri. This is the first study showing evidence of antimalarial activity with these species from northeast Brazil. Further studies to isolate the active ingredients of these oils are needed to determine if a single active ingredient accounts for the antimalarial activity or if a complex integration of all the compounds present occurs, a situation reflected in their biological activity