Performance of constructed wetland system for public water supply

The project is being conducted in the town of Analândia, São Paulo, Brazil. The constructed wetlands system for water supply consists of a channel with floating aquatic macrophytes, HDS system (Water Decontamination with Soil - Patent PI 850.3030), chlorinating system, filtering system and distribution. The project objectives include investigating the process variables to further optimize design and operation factors, evaluating the relation of nutrients and plants development, biomass production, shoot development, nutrient cycling and total and fecal coliforms removal, comparing the treatment efficiency among the seasons of the year; and moreover to compare the average values obtained between February and June 1998 (Salati et al., 1998) with the average obtained for the same parameters between March and June 2000. Studies have been developed in order to verify during one year the drinking quality of the water for the following parameters: turbidity, color, pH, dissolved oxygen, total of dissolved solids, COD, chloride, among others, according to the Ministry of Health's Regulation 36. This system of water supply projected to treat 15 L s-1 has been in continuous operation for 2 years, it was implemented with support of the National Environment Fund (FNMA), administered by the Center of Environmental Studies (CEA-UNESP), while the technical supervision and design were performed by the Institute of Applied Ecology. The actual research project is being supported by FAPESP.

Brício de Abreu e o jornal literário Dom Casmurro

This paper analyses, in a preliminary way, the literary newspaper Dom Casmurro, published between 1937 and 1946, in Rio de Janeiro. We present the writers responsible for the project, objectives, the main features of the publication and its trajectory, which experienced significant change from 1942 onwards. On the other hand, it is also possible to interrogate about the role played by Dom Casmurro regarding aspects of the culture and history of the press, during the period of circulation.

O Relações Públicas e a comunicação organizacional: um estudo exploratório nas agências de São José dos Campos

The field of social communication, especially the one of Public Relations, seems to be unknown and not so recognized and explored in Brazil, even though these professionals are trained to operate in different kinds of organizations. Because of that, it is important for the Public Relations to know the demands of the market he or she wants to work on. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted in agencies in São José dos Campos, São Paulo. The project objectives are to identify the communicational demands from the communication agencies’ point of view, get to know the work field for Public Relations, verify if the professional attends the market demands and identify market needs in communication. The methodology used was: bibliographical search of theories concerning organizational communication, communication agencies and Public Relations; and a field research in five agencies that provide services related to organizational communication, for recognizing reality. The data obtained shows that organizational communication is a growing field and in which the Public Relation has much to contribute, but unawareness of the profession results in a small number of professionals working in the area

A comunicação pública a favor da democratização da universidade pública: o caso UFABC nas escolas

The communication in public institutions has mediating character to strengthen the commitment to the citizens and creating channels aimed at high-quality information and transparency. This article deals with public communication, marked by public relations actions in the context of the federal public university through the project called “UFABC in Schools”, Federal University of ABC . The project objectives are to promote the policy of quotas established by the Federal Government and strengthen the relationship with high school students from public schools located in the ABC Paulista region.

Interdisciplinary project applied to engineering education: construction of a miniature ceramic industry

The greatest challenge of undergraduate engineering courses is to encourage creativity, cooperation with other students, teamwork, and motivation in the first years of their courses. While students have little or no contact with advanced disciplines, it is very difficult to attract their interests and encourage them to develop the skills in their undergraduate courses. This work aims to achieve these objectives through a mini-factory project involving the construction of a production line of ceramic tiles on a laboratory scale, from the ceramic processing using raw materials to the shipping of the final product. Having been given an established monthly demand for ceramic tiles, the students determined the construction requirements of the mini-factory, as they have created the layout, including the processing equipment, the dimensioning of equipment, and its operational structure. This article intends to describe the successful creation of the ceramic tile mini-factory, including the objectives, benefits, and inherent difficulties of the process and the receptivity of the exercise by the students involved.

Pedagogical practices carried out during an in-service teachers education project: approaching history and philosophy of science to physics teaching

We report here part of a research project developed by the Science Education Research Group, titled: "Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices and formative processes in Science and Mathematics Education" which main goal is the development of coordinated research that can generate a set of subsidies for a reflection on the processes of teacher training in Sciences and Mathematics Education. One of the objectives was to develop continuing education activities with Physics teachers, using the History and Philosophy of Science as conductors of the discussions and focus of teaching experiences carried out by them in the classroom. From data collected through a survey among local Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics teachers in Bauru, a São Paulo State city, we developed a continuing education proposal titled “The History and Philosophy of Science in the Physics teachers’ pedagogical practice”, lasting 40 hours of lessons. We followed the performance of five teachers who participated in activities during the 2008 first semester and were teaching Physics at High School level. They designed proposals for short courses, taking into consideration aspects of History and Philosophy of Science and students’ alternative conceptions. Short courses were applied in real classrooms situations and accompanied by reflection meetings. This is a qualitative research, and treatment of data collected was based on content analysis, according to Bardin [1].