Melatonin Makes Me Feel Awake! Seven Years of Lab Experience (2000-2007)

The research on the effect of melatonin on intraocular pressure (IOP) is reviewed from the hystorical point of view of our laboratory. The original idea of melatonin modulating intraocular pressure has been improved by using selective compounds for MT2 and specially melatonin MT3 receptors. The selective compound 5-methoxyamino N-acetyltryptamine (5-MCA-NAT) has been an attractive compound due to its ability to reduce IOP about 40%, therefore being a good candidate to the treatment of the ocular hypertension linked to glaucoma. More compounds have been developed and tested permitting us to have a more accurate panorama of those receptors controlling the relevant process of intraocular pressure.

A formação do supervisor educacional do Estado do Rio de Janeiro: perfil, competência e ação

Ao observar as instituições escolares do nosso país ao longo da história, vimos surgir um profissional chamado SUPERVISOR ESCOLAR cuja ação não tinha regulamentação e em alguns momentos era visto como autoritário e até mesmo delator dos colegas. De acordo com a teoria educacional esta função apresentou vários nomes, dentre eles, Professor Supervisor Educacional, Inspeção Escolar e Coordenação Pedagógica, fruto de uma ideologia/ação sempre presente. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa que realizamos teve como objetivo traçar o perfil da formação humana e da matriz de competências do Supervisor Educacional, no âmbito do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, identificando a representação desses profissionais em seu campo de atuação. Nesse processo alguns autores nos serviram de base teórica para o tema Supervisão Educacional: Rangel, Valle, Tardiff; para o tema Formação Humana: Gramsci, Lukács, Frigotto; e para o tema Políticas Públicas: Gentili, Sader, Arroyo. O presente trabalho pode contribuir para um melhor entendimento da relação entre poder, gestão e conhecimento nas ações da Supervisão Educacional, dentro de uma pesquisa de perspectiva sócio-histórica, com predominância qualitativa. O âmbito dessa pesquisa foi estadual e o projeto envolveu vinte e sete municípios do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, em Nível Local e Nível Central.

Projeto ético-político e assistência social: um estudo do cotidiano de trabalho dos (as) assistentes sociais do Centro Sul / Vale do Salgado-CE

O presente estudo abordou o Projeto Ético-Político do Serviço Social brasileiro, considerando o seu possível tensionamento no âmbito da política de assistência social, na região Centro Sul/Vale do Salgado no estado do Ceará. Portanto, através do nosso estudo, pretendeu-se analisar as possibilidades e os limites de materialização do Projeto Ético-Político Serviço Social brasileiro na política de assistência social, em tal região. Optamos por essa análise por considerarmos imprescindível apreender as tensões impostas a esse Projeto no cotidiano de trabalho profissional do (a) assistente social. E, para tanto, foi imprescindível analisarmos a atual configuração da assistência social, partindo das diretrizes da Política Nacional de Assistência Social e confrontando-as com o processo de municipalização desta política no campo pesquisado. Avaliamos a relevância do presente estudo em decorrência do atual processo de expansão e centralidade da política de assistência social, no cenário brasileiro, como estratégia de alívio à miséria e à pobreza. Tal movimento se realiza expressando um duplo movimento: a implementação do Sistema Único de Assistência Social e a prevalência dos Programas de Transferência de Renda. Esse contexto tem ampliado, sobremaneira, a requisição aos assistentes sociais, que vêm ocupando, majoritariamente, tais espaços sócio-ocupacionais. Entretanto, essa inserção tem se realizado sob condições e relações de trabalho precarizadas, o que pode implicar em uma possível intensificação do tensionamento do Projeto Ético-Político do Serviço Social brasileiro. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio de entrevistas com os (as) profissionais atuantes nos Centros de Referência da Assistência Social (CRASs) e Centros de Referência Especializado da Assistência Social (CREAs), em sete municípios da região selecionada como campo empírico. Os dados analisados também são resultados das visitas institucionais e observações de campo que realizamos no espaço sócio-ocupacional dos (as) profissionais entrevistados (as). A presente pesquisa está assentada no materialismo histórico e dialético, método de apreensão do real, originalmente elaborado por Marx.

O sensemaking e o Comitê Regional das Associações e Cooperativas do Artesanato Seridoense :buscando compreender um complexo de relações

The generation of direction, sensemaking, is the process where the actors start to perceive the events around them establishing and creating meanings in their actions that they play daily. At the moment where they happen the interactions in a net business-oriented between the actors are that sensemaking is generated. A business-oriented example of a relationship net is the work developed for the Committee of Associations and Regional Cooperatives of Handcraft of Seridó - CRACAS. This organization, with headquarters in the city of Caicó - Rio Grande of North exists with the objective to manage the net of craftsmen of the region of the norteriograndense Seridó. The present inquiry had as objective generality to understand the generation of sensible of the activities carried through for the organizational, inserted actors in the CRACAS in Caicó/RN, directed toward the use of the resources in its daily business-oriented. The specific objectives had been) To identify the resources used for the organizational actors of the CRACAS; b) To apprehend the way for which the craftsmen play activities directed toward the control and use of the available resources in its environment business-oriented; c) To identify the role played for the organizational actors (craftsmen) in its business-oriented daily activities; d) To understand as the organizational actors of the CRACAS they generate sensible of its business-oriented activities and finally e) To verify the principles that guide the interactions of the craftsmen. Of this process of empirical inquiry, the methodology used in the inquiry consisted of a Study of Case in the CRACAS and the seven Associations of the Embroidering it. It was concluded that sensemaking happens during the accomplishment of the activity as during the confection of the products. In accordance with craftsman the financial resources do not come from the CRACAS. One evidenced that the seven cities of the business-oriented embroidering interact as a net of the handcraft and that it exists a lack of resources and infrastructure in the associations

Pesquisa e genotipagem do vírus da hepatite C em portadores de doenças renais crônicas submetidos à hemodiálise

Pacientes com doença renal crônica tem alto risco de adquirir o vírus da hepatite C (VHC). A prevalência de hepatite C em unidades de hemodiálise é elevada. O estudo teve por objetivo avaliar a presença do VHC e seus diferentes genótipos em portadores de doença renal crônica que realizaram hemodiálise em Belém e região metropolitana, no Estado do Pará, Brasil, determinando a prevalência do vírus, genótipos e as características epidemiológicas dos portadores da doença renal crônica. Foi realizado um estudo transversal, em sete unidades de hemodiálise das cidades de Belém e região metropolitana, no período de outubro de 2011 a abril de 2012. Foi aplicado um questionário com dados sociais, epidemiológicos e sobre a presença de fatores de risco para hepatites virais. Material biológico foi coletado dos pacientes para os exames ELISA e PCR VHC. Os pacientes com presença de RNA viral foram avaliados quanto aos genótipos. A prevalência dos anticorpos para VHC entre os indivíduos estudados foi de 8,4%, enquanto 5,4% apresentaram RNA viral, com 0,1% entre os não reagentes. O genótipo 1 foi o mais prevalente, com 86,1%, seguido do tipo 2, com 11,6%. O tipo 3 teve somente 2,3%. A análise epidemiológica mostrou predomínio do sexo masculino, faixa etária de 49 anos, casados ou em união estável, com baixo nível de escolaridade e renda familiar de até 2 salários mínimos. A principal causa da doença renal crônica foi o diabetes mellitus (34,4%), seguida de glomerulonefrites (18,6%) e hipertensão arterial (17,1%). O tempo de hemodiálise foi significativamente importante fator de risco para aquisição do VHC (p=0,012), com a maioria dos portadores do VHC que adquiriram a doença durante hemodiálise estava acima de 5 anos de tratamento (p= 0,0001). Outro fator de risco associado ao VHC foi transplante de órgão prévio. Conclui-se que, em Belém e região metropolitana, a prevalência de VHC em hemodiálise foi elevada e o genótipo mais frequente é o mesmo da população geral no norte do Brasil.

Estrutura térmica de cidades de pequeno e médio porte do interior paulista (1961-2009)

The climate is one of the main elements of the natural environment that governs the life of man. Specific conditions of temperature, humidity, light, wind and precipitation have direct influence on physiological conditions that man needs to survive and more than that, besides the influence on human and animal physiology, the climatic elements are also responsible for a significant portion of economic activities such as industry, agriculture, commerce, transportation, and others. Therefore, any change in weather patterns has great impact on daily activities, and even more in urban sites, where the most of population is concentrated nowadays. Based on this discussion and concerned in understand the atmospheric structure, this monograph intends to analyze the pattern of atmospheric and temperature element in seven cities of small and medium size located in the state of São Paulo countryside... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America,

The gilded man: I. Cundinamarca. II. Meta. III. Omagua. IC. The expedition of Ursa and Aguirre.--Cibola: I. The Amazons. II. The seven cities. III. Francisco Vasquez Coronado. IV. The New Mexican pueblos. V. Quivira.---The massacre of Cholula (1519)--The age of the city of Santa Fé.--Jean L'Archévèque.

Thermal performance optimization of building aspect ratio and south window size in five cities having different climatic characteristics of Turkey

The aim of the study is to establish optimum building aspect ratios and south window sizes of residential buildings from thermal performance point of view. The effects of 6 different building aspect ratios and eight different south window sizes for each building aspect ratio are analyzed for apartments located at intermediate floors of buildings, by the aid of the computer based thermal analysis program SUNCODE-PC in five cities of Turkey: Erzurum, Ankara, Diyarbakir, Izmir, and Antalya. The results are evaluated in terms of annual energy consumption and the optimum values are driven. Comparison of optimum values and the total energy consumption rates is made among the analyzed cities.

The role of universities in building prosperous knowledge cities : the Malaysian experience

This paper explores the role and importance of universities, particularly in the Malaysian context, for building prosperous knowledge cities of the rising knowledge economy. It aims to shed light on how universities contribute to the knowledge-based development of Malaysian cities by undertaking a case study investigation. In the case of Bandar Seri Iskandar, the paper scrutinises the creation – from scratch – of a knowledge city, including the establishment of new public and private universities and hence providing a unique opportunity to understand how the idea of the knowledge economy has permeated economic development policy within a developing country context. The research findings reveal that in Malaysia, much like many of the developed countries, universities are being positioned to play a major role in supporting knowledge city (trans)formation. While there has been a tangible success on the spatial development based on a rapid land use change towards accommodating knowledge-intensive land use and activities, the research reports that a more concerted and coordinated effort from academia, public and private sectors are needed to further foster the growth and development of economical, environmental, institutional and social aspects of Bandar Seri Iskandar to become a fully functioning prosperous knowledge city.

What are the implications of peri-urban agriculture on food security in Australian cities?

Background: Periurban agriculture refers to agricultural practice occurring in areas with mixed rural and urban features. It is responsible 25% of the total gross value of economic production in Australia, despite only comprising 3% of the land used for agriculture. As populations grows and cities expand, they are constantly absorbing surrounding fringe areas, thus creating a new fringe, further from the city causing the periurban region to constantly shift outwards. Periurban regions are fundamental in the provision of fresh food to city populations and residential (and industrial) expansion taking over agricultural land has been noted as a major worldwide concern. Another major concern around the increase in urbanisation and resultant decrease in periurban agriculture is its potential effect on food security. Food security is the availability or access to nutritionally-adequate, culturally-relevant and safe foods in culturally-appropriate ways. Thus food insecurity occurs when access to or availability of these foods is compromised. There is an important level of connectedness between food security and food production and a decrease in periurban agriculture may have adverse effects on food security. A decrease in local, seasonal produce may result in a decrease in the availability of products and an increase in cost, as food must travel greater distances, incurring extra costs present at the consumer level. Currently, few Australian studies exist examining the change in periurban agriculture over time. Such information may prove useful for future health policy and interventions as well as infrastructure planning. The aim of this study is to investigate changes in periurban agriculture among capital cities of Australia. Methods: We compared data pertaining to selected commodities from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2000-01 and 2005 -2006 Agricultural Census. This survey is distributed online or via mail on a five-yearly basis to approximately 175,000 Agricultural business to ascertain information on a range of factors, such as types of crops, livestock and land preparation practices. For the purpose of this study we compared the land being used for total crops, and cereal , oil seed, legume, fruit and vegetable crops separately. Data was analysed using repeated measures anova in spss. Results: Overall, total area available for crops in urbanised areas of Australia increased slightly by 1.8%. However, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth experienced decreases in the area available for fruit crops by 11%, 5%,and 4% respectively. Furthermore, Brisbane and Perth experienced decreases in land available for vegetable crops by 28% and 14% respectively. Finally, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth experienced decreases in land available for cereal crops by 10 – 79%. Conclusions: These findings suggest that population increases and consequent urban sprawl may be resulting in a decrease in peri-urban agriculture, specifically for several core food groups including fruit, breads and grain based foods. In doing so, access to or availability of these foods may be limited, and the cost of these foods is likely to increase, which may compromise food insecurity for certain sub-groups of the population.

Proceedings of the 6th Knowledge Cities World Summit, KCWS 2013

In recent years, with the impact of global knowledge economy, a more comprehensive development approach has gained significant popularity. This new development approach, so called ‘knowledge-based urban development’, is different from its traditional predecessor. With a much more balanced focus on all of the four key development domains – economic, spatial, institutional, and socio-cultural – this contemporary approach, aims to bring economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and local institutional competence with a just socio-spatial order to our cities and regions. The ultimate goal of knowledgebased urban development is to produce a city purposefully designed to encourage the continuous production, circulation and commercialization of social and scientific knowledge – this will in turn establish a ‘knowledge city’. A city following the ‘knowledge city’ concept embarks on a strategic mission to firmly encourage and nurture locally focused innovation, science and creativity within the context of an expanding knowledge economy and society. In this regard a ‘knowledge city’ can be seen as an integrated city, which physically and institutionally combines the functions of a science and technology park with civic and residential functions and urban amenities. It also offers one of the effective paradigms for the sustainable cities of our time. This sixth edition of KCWS – The 6th Knowledge Cities World Summit 2013 – makes an important reminder that the ‘knowledge city’ concept is a key notion in the 21st Century development. Considering this notion, the Summit sheds light on the multifaceted dimensions and various scales of building a ‘knowledge city’ via ‘knowledge-based urban development’ paradigm by particularly focusing on the overall Summit theme of ‘Establishing Bridges’. At this summit, the theoretical and practical maturing of knowledge-based development paradigms are advanced through the interplay between the world’s leading academics’ theories and the practical models and strategies of practitioners’ and policy makers’ drawn from around the world. This summit proceeding is compiled in order to disseminate the knowledge generated and shared in KCWS 2013 with the wider research, governance, and practice communities the knowledge co-created in this summit. All papers of this proceeding have gone through a double-blind peer review process and been reviewed by our summit editorial review and advisory board members. We, organizers of the summit, cordially thank the members of the Summit Proceeding Editorial Review and Advisory Board for their diligent work in the review of the papers. Also we thank Prof.Dr. Ahmet Ademoğlu, Rector of İstanbul Şehir University, for providing all the support for the Summit. We hope the papers in this proceeding will inspire and make a significant contribution to the research, governance, and practice circles.

Position paper : benchmarking the performance of global and emerging knowledge cities

Knowledge-based development has become a new urban policy approach for the competitive cities of the global knowledge economy era. For those cities seeking a knowledge-based development, benchmarking is an essential prerequisite for informed and strategic vision and policy making to achieve a prosperous development. Nevertheless, benchmarked knowledge-based development performance analysis of global and emerging knowledge cities is an understudied area. This paper aims to contribute to the field by introducing the methodology of a novel performance assessment model—that is the Knowledge-Based Urban Development Assessment Model—and providing lessons from the application of the model in an international knowledge city performance analysis study. The assessment model puts renowned global and emerging knowledge cities—that are Birmingham, Boston, Brisbane, Helsinki, Istanbul, Manchester, Melbourne, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and Vancouver—under the knowledge-based development microscope. The results of the analysis provide internationally benchmarked snapshot of the degree of achievements in various knowledge-based urban development performance areas of the investigated knowledge cities, and reveals insightful lessons on scrutinizing the global perspectives on knowledge-based development of cities.

Proceedings of the 3rd International Subtropical Cities Conference 2011 Subtropical Cities: Subtropical Urbanism -Beyond Climate Change

Climate has been, throughout modern history, a primary attribute for attracting residents to the “Sunshine States” of Florida (USA) and Queensland (Australia). The first major group of settlers capitalized on the winter growing season to support a year-­‐round agricultural economy. As these economies developed, the climate attracted tourism and retirement industries. Yet as Florida and Queensland have blossomed under beneficial climates, the stresses acting on the natural environment are exacting a toll. Southeast Florida and eastern Queensland are among the most vulnerable coastal metropolitan areas in the world. In these places the certainty of sea level rise is measurable with impacts, empirically observable, that will continue to increase regardless of any climate change mitigation.1 The cities of the subtropics share a series of paradoxes relating to climate, resources, environment, and culture. As the subtropical climate entices new residents and visitors there are increasing costs associated with urban infrastructure and the ravages of violent weather. The carefree lifestyle of subtropical cities is increasingly dependent on scarce water and energy resources and the flow of tangible goods that support a trade economy. The natural environment is no longer exploitable as the survival of the human environment is contingent upon the ability of natural ecosystems to absorb the impact of human actions. The quality of subtropical living is challenged by the mounting pressures of population growth and rapid urbanization yet urban form and contemporary building design fail to take advantage of the subtropical zone’s natural attributes of abundant sunshine, cooling breezes and warm temperatures. Yet, by building a global network of local knowledge, subtropical cities like Brisbane, the City of Gold Coast and Fort Lauderdale, are confidently leading the way with innovative and inventive solutions for building resiliency and adaptation to climate change. The Centre for Subtropical Design at Queensland University of Technology organized the first international Subtropical Cities conference in Brisbane, Australia, where the “fault-­‐lines” of subtropical cities at breaking points were revealed. The second conference, held in 2008, shed a more optimistic light with the theme "From fault-­‐lines to sight-­‐lines -­‐ subtropical urbanism in 20-­‐20" highlighting the leadership exemplified in the vitality of small and large works from around the subtropical world. Yet beyond these isolated local actions the need for more cooperation and collaboration was identified as the key to moving beyond the problems of the present and foreseeable future. The spirit of leadership and collaboration has taken on new force, as two institutions from opposite sides of the globe joined together to host the 3rd international conference Subtropical Cities 2011 -­‐ Subtropical Urbanism: Beyond Climate Change. The collaboration between Florida Atlantic University and the Queensland University of Technology to host this conference, for the first time in the United States, forges a new direction in international cooperative research to address urban design solutions that support sustainable behaviours, resiliency and adaptation to sea level rise, green house gas (GHG) reduction, and climate change research in the areas of architecture and urban design, planning, and public policy. With southeast Queensland and southern Florida as contributors to this global effort among subtropical urban regions that share similar challenges, opportunities, and vulnerabilities our mutual aim is to advance the development and application of local knowledge to the global problems we share. The conference attracted over 150 participants from four continents. Presentations by authors were organized into three sub-­‐themes: Cultural/Place Identity, Environment and Ecology, and Social Economics. Each of the 22 papers presented underwent a double-­‐blind peer review by a panel of international experts among the disciplines and research areas represented. The Centre for Subtropical Design at the Queensland University of Technology is leading Australia in innovative environmental design with a multi-­‐disciplinary focus on creating places that are ‘at home’ in the warm humid subtropics. The Broward Community Design Collaborative at Florida Atlantic University's College for Design and Social Inquiry has built an interdisciplinary collaboration that is unique in the United States among the units of Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, Social Work, Public Administration, together with the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Science, and the Center for Environmental Studies, to engage in funded action research through design inquiry to solve the problems of development for urban resiliency and environmental sustainment. As we move beyond debates about climate change -­‐ now acting upon us -­‐ the subtropical urban regions of the world will continue to convene to demonstrate the power of local knowledge against global forces, thereby inspiring us as we work toward everyday engagement and action that can make our cities more livable, equitable, and green.

Impact of temperature on mortality in three major Chinese cities

To study the relation between temperature and mortality by estimating the temperature-related mortality in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. METHODS: Data of daily mortality, weather and air pollution in the three cities were collected. A distributed lag nonlinear model was established and used in analyzing the effects of temperature on mortality. Current and future net temperature-related mortality was estimated. RESULTS: The association between temperature and mortality was J-shaped, with an increased death risk of both hot and cold temperature in these cities. The effects of cold temperature on health lasted longer than those of hot temperature. The projected temperature-related mortality increased with the decreased cold-related mortality. The mortality was higher in Guangzhou than in Beijing and Shanghai. CONCLUSION: The impact of temperature on health varies in the 3 cities of China, which may have implications for climate policy making in China.