Committed terrestrial ecosystem changes due to climate change

Targets for stabilizing climate change are often based on considerations of the impacts of different levels of global warming, usually assessing the time of reaching a particular level of warming. However, some aspects of the Earth system, such as global mean temperatures1 and sea level rise due to thermal expansion2 or the melting of large ice sheets3, continue to respond long after the stabilization of radiative forcing. Here we use a coupled climate–vegetation model to show that in turn the terrestrial biosphere shows significant inertia in its response to climate change. We demonstrate that the global terrestrial biosphere can continue to change for decades after climate stabilization. We suggest that ecosystems can be committed to long-term change long before any response is observable: for example, we find that the risk of significant loss of forest cover in Amazonia rises rapidly for a global mean temperature rise above 2 °C. We conclude that such committed ecosystem changes must be considered in the definition of dangerous climate change, and subsequent policy development to avoid it.

Death of the high street: identification, prevention, reinvention

Location is of paramount importance within the retail sector, yet defining locational obsolescence remains overlooked, despite significant concerns over the viability of parts of the complex sector. This paper reviews the existing literature and, through this, explores retail locational obsolescence, including the multi-spatial nature of the driving forces that range from the global economy, local markets and submarkets, to individual property-specific factors; and, crucially, the need to disentangle locational obsolescence from other important concepts such as depreciation and functional obsolescence that are often mistakenly used. Through this, a conceptual model, definition and diagnostic criteria are presented to guide future studies, policy development and the allocation of resources. Importantly, three stages are presented to enable the operationalization of the model, essential to future academic and industry studies as well as the ongoing development of policy in this economically important, complex and contentious area.

Avaliação do Sistema Nacional de Desenvolvimento das Atividades Espaciais

An accident with Brazilian Satellite Launching Vehicle (SLV-1 V03) third prototype in August, 2003 at Alcântara Base, in the State of Maranhão, dramatically exposed accumulated deficiencies affecting Brazilian space sector. A report regarding this accident published by Ministry of Defense recognized the relevance of organizational dimension for the success of Brazilian space policy. In this case study, the author analyses sector organizational structure - the National Space Activities Development System (NSADS) - to evaluate its adequacy to policy development requisites. The Theory of Structural Contingency - TSC provided the analytical framework adopted in the research complemented by two organizational approaches that focuses high risk systems: Normal Accident Theory - NAT and High Reliability Theory - HRT. The last two approaches supported the analysis of NSADS's organizations which are, according to Charles Perrow definition, directly involved in developing high risk technological systems and their relationship with the System. The case study was supplemented with a brief comparison between NSADS and the organizational structures of North-American and French civilian space agencies, respectively, NASA and CNES, in order to subsidize organizational modeling of Brazilian System.

Conexões e tensões entre representação e participação social: a elaboração de políticas culturais na democracia brasileira

Esta dissertação pretende examinar a relação entre democracia representativa (eleitoral) e democracia participativa, assim como os diferentes graus de influência da participação, direta ou indireta através de representantes, de atores e grupos socioculturais, antes excluídos, em espaços deliberativos, especialmente em conferências, conselhos, seminários e fóruns abertos para a elaboração de políticas públicas. Para tanto, o trabalho baseia-se na discussão sobre a crise da representação política e a relação com a participação social desenvolvida no âmbito da teoria democrática contemporânea e são utilizados aspectos extraídos da literatura sobre a elaboração de políticas públicas, o conceito de capital social de Pierre Bourdieu e a ideia de democracia comunicativa de Iris Young. A metodologia do trabalho consiste em três estudos de caso interligados: o nacional, relativo à participação em espaços deliberativos e à representação político-eleitoral principalmente para elaboração do Plano Nacional de Cultura; o estadual, relativo à representação política e participação para elaboração de políticas de cultura em Pernambuco; e um caso municipal, a análise da participação em espaços deliberativos abertos para a elaboração do plano e de políticas de cultura no município de Recife.

Do acesso clássico à comercialização: especificidades do mercado imobiliário informal na área especial de interesse social de Mãe Luiza, Natal/ RN.

This study presents research regarding affordable housing and their effects on the spatial reconfiguration of Natal/ RN, aiming to identify the specificities of the informality of urban land. This study aims to understand how informal housing market operates housing provision for the population located in popular informal settlements, through buying and selling market and rental market of residential properties irregular / illegal. This understanding will be through the neighborhood of Mãe Luisa, Special Area of Social Interest (SASI), located between neighborhoods with a population of high purchasing power and inserted into the tourist shaft of seaside of town. The characterization of informal housing market in Mãe Luiza, from buyers, sellers and renters, will help to understand how these informal transactions operate on SASI and housing provision for public policy development and implementation of housing programs and land regularization for low-income population, adequate to dynamic and reality of housing of informal areas

Desenvolvimento e políticas públicas: uma avaliação do PRONAF nos assentamentos de reforma agrária do Rio Grande do Norte

The research DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY: AN EVALUATION OF PRONAF IN THE SETTLEMENTS AGRARIAN REFORM OF RIO GRANDE DO NORTE aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the National Program for Strengthening Family enhancerelement od development in rural settlements od Rio Grande do Norte. The methodological approach consisted of the completion of desk research and literature on development issues, policies, and rural credit and field research through semi- structured interviews with managers and technicians who work with the program and conducting focus with farmers settles who accessed the PRONAF the period from 2000 to 2006. The survey results confirm the central hypothesis of this work, that acces to PRONAF A is not causing efetivations relevant in the lives of farm workers settlers in Rio Grande do Norte. In the setllements where efetivations these occur, they are short of what the program intends to carry out and rely on a set of conditionalities that are beyond the operational frameworks of the same. Such questions point to the need to revise the program in order to estabilish adjustments that in practice the approach of the proposed objectives. For this purpose it is necessary to invest in factor that contribute to the program has a positive effect not only to increase income, but to contribute to the autonomy of the resettled farmers, expanding its capabilities and increased the power of choise with respect to life who wish to take

Nestor lima e a modernização conservadora da gestão educacional no Rio Grande do Norte entre 1924-1928

This study attempts to investigate the school administration in the Department of Education of Rio Grande de Norte, in the period 1924 to 1928, in the context of conservative modernization in its management, implemented by Nestor Lima dos Santos. Addresses the trends of administrative Nestor Santos Lima and sequence of these variables so that we can correlate and monitor the development of various economic, social, cultural and political, to show how influenced and even determined the direction of education, not only the state of RN, but throughout the country. For this purpose, it is the recapitulation of the history of life, experiences of work and travel reports of this important figure, including administrative concepts, aiming to identify the school administration, introduced by him in the 1920s, as those who received influence of characters that included the social and historical context of the time, reconstituting the ways following the education. It was developed by Nestor shares in Lima on the administration of public schools, their way of management, and can see how was the process of modernization of education in Rio Grande do Norte state and how it followed the rapid changes, experienced by Brazil, during this period. Show up on the design aspects of modernizing Nestor Lima in the Department of Education, the Director General of Administrative Acts, the internal record of school groups, Isolated Schools, Schools rudimentary and the newly created Board of Education, highlighting the Internal Rules of Council but the General Regulations of the Department of Education. This work also highlights the proposed administrative Nestor of Lima, while educational model of an operating system of the organization, training and education, which is present in the area of production of discourse, through body practice, characteristic of the record established levels of policy development and implementation of educational instruction in all state. Key-words: school administration. Conservative modernization. Public Education

Análise do balanço energético e da matriz de emissões de poluentes no Estado do Rio Grande do Norte

This thesis intends to show the level of pollutant emissions in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, generated by the final consumption of energy in the many different sectors of the economy. This information was obtained from the energetic matrix and from the pollutant emissions of the State and the data was taken from the Balanço Energético Estadual and from the Sistema de Informações Energéticas da Olade. The result will permit to identify the energy and most polluting economic sectors in Rio Grande do Norte, contributing to energy planning, giving direction to the public policy development that aim at the change of the energy matrix of the State. Also with the objective of reducing pollutant emissions through rationalization, efficiency and energy substitution, which the main objective is to promote the economic development based on energy consumption of less harmful impact on the environment, contributing to establishment of sustainable development

Avaliação da eficiência de lagoas de estabilização no tratamento de resíduos esgotados de fossas sépticas

Because of disability in public policy development in mind to attend issues of sanitation in the municipalities, companies known as "clean-blue" appeared proposing to solve a simple collection and management of wastewater produced in single or multifamily residences, commercial, hospitals, etc. In the case of an activity in which there are no worries about the fate of sewage, emerged some doubts about the degree of health and environmental safety in these companies. Traditionally, most of them makes the provision of waste depleted soil or wetland, open, usually located on the outskirts of cities (MENESES, 2001). In turn, the sludge from septic tanks exhausted, provided no technical criteria - in the soil, rivers and as an agricultural fertilizer put in risk the health of the population and environmental quality. This work was entered in the search network 5 of the Notice of the Research Program in Sanitation - PROSAB-5, aimed to study the theme 'Characterization and study of alternative ways of treating sludge from septic tanks in the city of Natal, RN', proposing to evaluate the performance of the use of stabilization ponds as a system to handle waste from septic tanks exhausted. A series of lakes studied belong to one of the largest clean-pit of Natal, consisting of two anaerobic ponds, one facultative and maturation, and a tank disinfection, the wastewater being released in the Potengi River. Samples were collected between the months of October 2007 to October 2008, at six points previously defined and judged as more appropriate to what is proposed study. The analysis results in field and laboratory showed the most significant removal of COD (88.93%), total suspended solids (94.87%), organic nitrogen (66.87%) and thermotolerant coliforms (99.88%). Some results have not reached the expected because the system under study had operating problems that have undermined the efficiency of the reactors

Saúde pública e as empresas químico-farmacêuticas

O artigo trata da formação da indústria farmacêutica brasileira. Aborda algumas questões de história econômica e social, tais como o surgimento do sistema de saúde pública, as práticas de combate às doenças infecciosas, desde as desinfecções e produção de substâncias químicas pela indústria, à soroterapia e produção de soros e vacinas nas instituições de pesquisa científica públicas e nas empresas farmacêuticas privadas. Toma para análise da indústria farmacêutica privada nacional, a empresa Instituto Pinheiros - Produtos Terapêuticos S.A., enfatizando as relações entre seus cientistas, no desenvolvimento de produtos, de tecnologia e da própria discussão científica com as instituições públicas de pesquisa criadas no âmbito da política de saúde pública pelo estado de São Paulo.

Globalización y desarrollo: desafíos de Puerto Rico frente al siglo XXI

Incluye bibliografía.

Governança e financiamento do Projeto Calha Norte

Este artigo expõe os resultados da pesquisa de doutoramento no âmbito do PDTU/NAEA/UFPA. Examina, sob a ótica da governança, o Programa Calha Norte (PCN), destinado a proteger e desenvolver a fronteira (Arco Norte) da Amazônia. A análise permite verificar que, a despeito das constantes crises de financiamento do Estado brasileiro ao longo da evolução do Projeto, isto é, de 1986 a 2002, as autoridades governamentais buscaram nutri-lo de condições mínimas de funcionamento, o que reflete o impacto das conjunturas críticas no desenvolvimento de políticas governamentais na Amazônia. Constata-se ainda que, a partir do final do segundo mandato do governo de Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), em conseqüência da aplicação da Nova Política de Defesa Nacional (PDN), houve um aumento gradativo dos recursos públicos para financiar as ações na fronteira Norte, onde se instala o PCN, com aportes maiores de recursos na administração do presidente Luís Inácio Lula da Silva.

Cleaner Production initiatives and challenges for a sustainable world: an introduction to this special volume

This special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production is comprised of articles presented at the 3rd International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2011. The content underscores the recognition of the pressing and inescapable need for making changes from unsustainable to sustainable production and consumption patterns. The 48 articles from 15 countries provide different, but complimentary approaches to help industrial and societal sectors in advancing on their paths towards sustainability. Initiatives and challenges are included, which systematically address problems affecting raw material changes, technological modifications, product and policy changes. The findings range from proposals for alternative uses of wastes, substitution of raw materials for environmentally friendlier substances, optimization of industrial processes by source reductions of wastes and emissions and documented economic and environmental advantages of a wide array of initiatives. The roles of operational and managerial practices are also stressed, highlighting the role of diverse stakeholders as promoters of implementation and internalization of innovative cleaner technologies within companies. Systemic assessment tools are employed and experimented with in order to more effectively evaluate the environmental performance of systems on the biosphere scale. The methodological procedures and proposals presented can help in the design and management of production systems, for governmental and corporate policy development, for implementing and monitoring CP Programs, prevention and mitigation strategies, and evaluation of the outcomes of CP initiatives in the production and service sectors. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.