Control programme for cystic echinococcosis in Uruguay

Cystic echinococcosis is a highly endemic parasitic zoonosis that is present in the Southern Cone countries of America. For several decades, various prevention and control programmes have been implemented in different countries and regions, with varying results. In Uruguay, a new control programme was implemented in 2006 that employed new strategies for canine diagnosis and treatment, dog population control, diagnosis in humans, epidemiological surveillance, and health education, including community participation. The control programme in Uruguay addresses the control and surveillance of the disease from a holistic perspective based on Primary Health Care, which has strengthened the community’s participation in developing and coordinating activities in an interdisciplinary manner. Similarly, the control programme that is currently implemented is based on a risk-focused approach. The surveillance and control measures were focused on small villages and extremely poor urban areas. In this study, the strategies used and the results obtained from 2008-2013 are analysed and discussed.

Casas para um planeta pequeno

Dissertação de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Arquitectura, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitectura.

Percepción de los graduados de la Carrera de Medicina de la Universidad de Cuenca 2003-2012, sobre la formación en la relación y comunicación médico-paciente.

Objetivo: Identificar la percepción de los médicos graduados en la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, respecto a su formación en el tema de Relación y Comunicación Médico Paciente Diseño: es un estudio descriptivo transversal. Metodología: A través de encuesta a los médicos graduados en la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas de la Universidad de Cuenca. Se utilizó una base de datos del programa de Monitoreo de los graduados de la carrera de Medicina de la Universidad de Cuenca, 2003- 2012. Azuay. Resultados: Se realizaron 208 encuestas, 116 varones (56%) y 92 mujeres (44%), cuyas edades oscilan entre los 23 y 42 años, todos graduados de la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Cuenca entre los años 2003 a 2012. El 98% de ellos residentes en el Ecuador. Respecto a la percepción sobre su formación en relación médico paciente y comunicación: para comunicación escrita, comunicación oral, entrega de noticias negativas, relación afectiva con los pacientes y participación comunitaria: la percepción es que su formación fue adecuada, en tanto aprecian como poco adecuado en manejo de situaciones de conflicto, al igual que en la aplicación del consentimiento informado

CmyView: Walking together apart

Networked learning practices are impacting the field of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, with implications for the way in which places of cultural significance are understood, managed, documented, engaged with and studied. Our research explores the intersection between walking, photography, technology and learning, investigating how mobile devices can be used to foster community participation and assess social value within a networked framework for digital heritage. The paper introduces CmyView, a mobile phone application and social media platform in development, with a design concept grounded on both digital heritage and networked learning perspectives. CmyView encourages people to collect and share their views by making images and audio recordings of personally meaningful sites they see, while walking outdoors. Each person’s walking trajectory (along with their associated images and audio files) then becomes a trace-able artefact, something potentially shareable with a community of fellow walkers. The aim of CmyView is to encourage networked heritage practices and community participation, as people learn to assess their own and experience others social values of the built environment. Drawing on a framework for the analysis and design of productive learning networks, we explore the educational design of CmyView arguing that the platform offers a space for democratic heritage education and interpretation, where participatory urban curatorship practices are nurtured. CmyView reframes social value as dynamic, fluid and located within communities, rather than fixed in a place. The paper presents preliminary findings of the activity of a group of four undergraduate students at an Australian university, who used CmyView to explore the immediate surroundings of their campus. Participants interacted with the platform, mapping, capturing, audio recording their impressions and sites of interest in their walks. In so doing, they created shareable trajectories, which were subsequently experienced by the same group of participants on a second walk. The paper concludes with a discussion about the impact of our research for the design of mobile technologies that embrace participation and sharing, through a networked learning perspective. The paper brings together concepts that sit at the intersection of previously separate fields, namely digital heritage and networked learning, to find their synergies.

“Não sou apenas funaná e cachupa” – um estudo sobre integração e sentimento de comunidade dos jovens cabo-verdianos na sociedade de acolhimento

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao ISPA - Instituto Universitário

Desafíos de la movilización social para generar transformaciones en las instituciones: la movilización fallida en Egipto periodo 2010-2013

Este estudio de caso busca evaluar los alcances y limitaciones que tiene la movilización social para lograr transformaciones en las instituciones a partir del estudio de la movilización social en Egipto durante el período 2010-2013. Se analiza y se explica en qué sentido las instituciones de movimiento lento, como las estructuras de poder y estructuras mentales, han frustrado lo acontecido en Egipto conocido como la primavera árabe. Siguiendo la perspectiva de las instituciones de Gérard Roland y Alejandro Portes, se avanza hacia el resultado de la investigación de que las instituciones de movimiento lento tienen en cuenta aspectos estructurales de una sociedad tales como el poder y la cultura. Por ello, no pueden ser cambiadas con facilidad ya que cuentan con bases sólidas que han sido construidas mediante procesos históricos fundamentados en ideologías y valores.

O crescimento urbano e a problemática da conservação das características do acervo arquitectonico: O caso das alçadas da Rua Grande, São Luís-Maranhão-Brasil

Esta dissertação estuda a problemática da conservação dos alçados da Rua Grande, localizada no Centro antigo da cidade de São Luís, capital do Estado do Maranhão, Brasil, a partir do crescimento urbano ocorrido principalmente a partir do século XIX à atualidade, com interferências devido às alterações do uso do solo. Iniciado com pesquisa in loco e nos departamentos de preservação do património arquitetónico do Município, Estado e Governo Federal, este estudo busca elaborar estratégias de intervenção adaptadas às necessidades locais, visando a participação da população, com cursos de educação patrimonial e consultas públicas. Esta proposta foi possível a partir da realização de diversas etapas de trabalho, partindo do enquadramento geral e histórico de São Luís, com foco específico na Rua Grande, discorrendo sobre a importância desta via ao desenvolvimento urbano da cidade. Desta forma, com vistas a possibilitar um melhor entendimento da morfologia urbana do Centro da cidade, analisou-se a malha delimitada pelo Anel Viário, importante via perimetral à zona central. Posteriormente, seguiu-se com a caracterização do acervo arquitetónico, com pesquisa acerca dos materiais e sistemas construtivos, permitindo o entendimento das diversas anomalias observadas a partir de análise laboratorial das amostras coletadas em algumas edificações. A elaboração de Cartas Temáticas permitiu um melhor entendimento de situações como uso do solo, gabarito, estilos arquitetónicos e dos estados de conservação e preservação, contando com o estudo da legislação local, o que permitiu, posteriormente, delinear-se as estratégias de intervenção. /SUMMARY: This dissertation examines the problems related to the conservation of the facades of the Grande street, located in the old city center of São Luis, capital of the northeastern state of Maranhão, Brazil, caused by the extensive urban growth that occurred from the XIX century to the current days, with numerous interferences due to changes in the building codes. The study began with a research in the federal, state and municipal departments of architectural heritage. The main objective was to suggest strategies of intervention adapted to the local needs, with community participation such as educational courses and public consultations. This proposal was made possible after completing several phases of work, starting with the general framing and historical background of São Luis, focusing on the Grande street, portraying the important role played by this street in the urban development of the city. Thus, with the intention of allowing a better understanding of the urban morphology in the city center, an analysis was made within the area limited by the road ring that surrounds the center. The study continued with the characterization of the architectural estate, with a research about the materials and construction systems, allowing the understanding of the several anomalies observed in the laboratorial analysis on the samples gathered from some buildings. The elaboration of the Thematic Charts allowed for a better understanding of the situation, such as land use, building codes, architectural styles and level of conservation and preservation, taking into account the local regulations, which made possible to set out some strategies of intervention.

Participación comunitaria y legislación en El Salvador. Análisis de la legislación identificada

Community participation has been considered strategic in order to achieve effectiveness in political, economical, social, educational and cultural change processes as a mean of guarantying effectiveness, quality and sustainability in social policy. Accordingly, this participation must be stimulated and promoted through national legislation since it has traditionally and historically been imposed and undemocratic. Education, as an essentially human act, is a first order instrument that societies must take advantage of in order to develop and stimulate democratic participation. Therefore, education may represent a new culture: one of democratic participation as a fundamental way to empower and develop a Peace culture.

La participación y su viabilidad en Costa Rica

This article is intended to discuss about existent national legislation concerning community and student participation. It is focused on rural communities because of their serious limitations as well as their great potential for development. An education for effective participation of the rural citizens is necessary since their first learning processes, in order to achieve their full and effective insertion inside the national and global market.

Symposium on participatory approaches to reservoir fisheries management: issues, challenges and policies. Dambulla, Sri Lanka, 04-06 Oct. 2004 Session I. Community-based fisheries management; experience in other countries: presentation on STREAM Vietnam’s experience

Established in early 2002, STREAM Vietnam has so far attained a number of good experiences and lessons in using participatory approaches for its work. The Country Office has been able to link to a wide range of stakeholders, and is working hard to build close relationships amongst them, so that institutional entities can better support the livelihoods of poor aquatic resources users, and support disadvantaged groups of people to improve their living standards by themselves. Reservoir fisheries and co-management are at early stage in Vietnam, but in certain places and industries co-management has brought about successful results by involving proactive participation of communities. Situated on the same continent and having many similarities, the interaction in agriculture and fisheries sector between Vietnam and Sri Lanka has brought the two countries closer. Being members of the STREAM family, there are great opportunities for exchange of experiences and lessons towards sustainable management of reservoir resources. (PDF has 11 pages.)

Community Arts and Appropriate Internet Technology: Participation, Materiality, and the Ethics of Sustainability in the Digitally Networked Era

This thesis establishes appropriate internet technology as a matter of sustainability for the community arts field. It begins with a contextual review that historicises community art in relation to technological, cultural, and political change. It goes on to identify key challenges for the field resulting from the emerging socio-cultural significance of the internet and digital media technologies. A conceptual review of the literature positions these issues in relation to Internet Studies, integrating key concepts from Software Studies and the computational turn with approaches from the fields of ICT for Development (ICT4D), Critical Design, and Critical Making. Grounded in these intersecting literatures the thesis offers a new pragmatic ethics of appropriate internet technology: one involving an alternative philosophical platform from which suitable internet-based technologies can be designed and assembled by practitioners. I interrogate these ideas through an in-depth investigation of CuriousWorks, an Australian community arts organisation, focusing on their current internet practices. The thesis then reflects on some experimental interventions I designed as part of the study for the purpose of provoking shifts in the field of community arts. The research findings form the foundation of a series of recommendations offered to practitioners and policy makers that may guide their critical and creative uses of internet technologies in the future.

Expanding a successful community-based obesity prevention approach into new communities : challenges and achievements

OBJECTIVE: A previously successful community-based obesity prevention intervention with a focus on school settings was expanded into new communities with varying contexts. In order to understand the complexities involved in implementing health promotion activities in schools, this study examined experiences of school staff and project officers including barriers, contextual factors and achievements. METHODS: School environment assessments were conducted in schools across four Victorian communities with school staff (n=1-5 staff plus a trained researcher per group in 9 primary and 8 secondary schools) 12-18 months post-intervention. Process reports from project officers were also reviewed and analysed (n=4). RESULTS: School staff commonly reported time pressures as a barrier to implementation and project officers working within schools reported competing priorities and limited health promotion experience of staff; lack of stakeholder engagement; low participation in some activities and insufficient implementation time. Contextual factors included community socioeconomic status, student ethnicity and living rurally. Achievements included student and staff enjoyment from programme activities, staff capacity building, partnerships, embedding activities into existing infrastructure and programmes, and having consistent health-related messages repeated through a variety of strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Community-based interventions with a focus on school settings need to consider system level, organisational and contextual (i.e. socioeconomic, ethnicity, family and town characteristics) factors when expanding previously effective strategies into new communities. Implementation benefits may have added whole of school benefits in addition to child health. Focussing on overcoming the challenges experienced in this complex initiative is required for future interventions.

Empowerment games : empathic design probes for user participation in community housing

This paper documents the empowering process of a group of public housing residents through different design probing exercises. These exercises worked along with existing social processes without any involvement of designers. This paper shows how a design researcher devised a series of probing tools called "empowerment games" with a group of active users. These games are self-learning tools for making the abstract language of design legible to users. The main purpose of this intitiative was to change the preconception of govenmental bodies and professional designers of the passivity of the users with regard to their designed environment. This was the first case of the application of a participatory design process in Hong Kong subsidized housing. Design empathy is a central skill when working with users throughout the whole design research project.