PEASANT AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE ON PLANOSOLS AS A SOURCE OF MATERIALS IN THE MAKING OF NON-INDUSTRIAL POTTERY

Ethnopedological studies have mainly focused on agricultural land uses and associated practices. Nevertheless, peasant and indigenous populations use soil and land resources for a number of additional purposes, including pottery. In the present study, we describe and analyze folk knowledge related to the use of soils in non-industrial pottery making by peasant potters, in the municipality of Altinho, Pernambuco State, semiarid region at Brazil. Ethnoscientific techniques were used to record local knowledge, with an emphasis on describing the soil materials recognized by the potters, the properties they used to identify those soil materials, and the criteria employed by them to differentiate and relate such materials. The potters recognized three categories of soil materials: “terra” (earth), “barro” (clay) and, “piçarro” (soft rock). The multi-layered arrangement of these materials within the soil profiles was similar to the arrangement of the soil horizon described by formal pedologists. “Barro vermelho” (red clay) was considered by potters as the principal ceramic resource. The potters followed morphological and utilitarian criteria in distinguishing the different soil materials. Soils from all of these sites were sodium-affected Alfisols and correspond to Typic Albaqualf and Typic Natraqualf in the Soil Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 2010).

Understanding Political Knowledge and Its Influence on Voting Preferences in the 2007 Federal Election

In this article we propose a model to explain how voters' perceptions of their ideological proximity to a party affect their propensity to vote for that party. We argue that political knowledge plays a crucial moderating role in the relationship between party proximity and voting propensity. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between institutional knowledge (information about the political system) and party knowledge (information about the parties' left-right positions). An analysis of survey data from the 2007 Swiss federal elections supports our main hypothesis that party knowledge enhances the link between party proximity and voting propensity. Institutional knowledge may have additional influence, but clear evidence for this effect was obtained only for propensities to vote for the Swiss People's Party (SVP). Overall, the impact of political knowledge was found to be substantial, even after controlling for the outstanding influence of party identification and other predictors of voting propensities

Riesenzellarteriitis : Ätiologische Erkenntnisse und diagnostische Herausforderung für den Pathologen [Giant cell arteritis : Etiological knowledge and diagnostic challenge for pathologists].

Giant cell arteritis is a potentially systemic disease of medium-sized and large caliber arteries, showing a preferential manifestation in the extracranial branches of the carotid artery. The diagnosis is oriented to clinical and histomorphological criteria which will be critically reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the differentiation from normal aging processes and from healing stages under steroid therapy. In addition, the advances in our understanding of the disease pathomechanism during the last 10 years will be briefly presented as the basis for the hitherto empiric steroid treatment.

En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.

Current state of knowledge on neuroendocrine small bowel tumours: non-systematic review of the literature based on one case.

More than 60% of neuroendocrine tumours, also called carcinoids, are localised within the gastrointestinal tract. Small bowel neuroendocrine tumours have been diagnosed with increasing frequency over the past 35 years, being the second most frequent tumours of the small intestine. Ileal neuroendocrine tumours diagnosis is late because patients have non-specific symptoms. We have proposed to illustrate as an example the case of a patient, and on its basis, to make a brief review of the literature on small bowel neuroendocrine tumours, resuming several recent changes in the field, concerning classification criteria of these tumours and new recommendations and current advances in diagnosis and treatment. This patient came to our emergency department with a complete bowel obstruction, along with a 2-year history of peristaltic abdominal pain, vomits and diarrhoea episodes. During emergency laparotomy, an ileal stricture was observed, that showed to be a neuroendocrine tumour of the small bowel.

Inter-firm labor mobility and knowledge diffusion: a theoretical approach

[cat] Analitzem una economia amb dues característiques principals: la mobilitat dels treballadors implica transferència de coneixement i la productivitat de l’empresa augmenta amb l’intercanvi de coneixement. Cada empresa desenvolupa un tipus de coneixement que serà trasmès a la resta de la indústria mitjançant la mobilitat de treballadors. Estudiem dues estructures de mercat laboral i utilitzant un anàlisi comparatiu derivem les implicacions del model. Els resultats revelen com la mobilitat de treballadors depèn en la varietat i nivell del coneixement, la presència de costos de mobilitat, les institucions, la capacitat d’absorvir coneixement per part de les empreses i la mida de la indústria. Els resultats no depenen de l’estructura del mercat laboral.

Knowledge hierarchy and professional knowledge

The aim of this article is to substantiate, in the sociological point of view, the distinction between the social and cognitive processes that produce knowledge in knowledge abstract systems - KAS - to generate cultural inequality and the micro processes of knowledge usage, which build local and cultural knowledge from common sense. It is circumscribed to this aim a problematization of knowledge usage developed by middle class salaried professional groups, rich in cultural capital but without equivalent symbolical capital, in a capitalist society at risk. In order to achieve this goal, the classical contributions of Pierre Bourdieu, Boaventura Sousa Santos, Donald Schön and Basil Bernstein (among others) are taken as a basis regarding the limitation of critical and reflexive thinking and the virtues of professional knowledge to support an epistemology of professional practice.

A process for mining science & technology documents databases, illustrated for the case of "knowledge discovery and data mining"

This paper presents a process of mining research & development abstract databases to profile current status and to project potential developments for target technologies, The process is called "technology opportunities analysis." This article steps through the process using a sample data set of abstracts from the INSPEC database on the topic o "knowledge discovery and data mining." The paper offers a set of specific indicators suitable for mining such databases to understand innovation prospects. In illustrating the uses of such indicators, it offers some insights into the status of knowledge discovery research*.

The construction process of pedagogical knowledge among nursing professors

Didactic knowledge about contents is constructed through an idiosyncratic synthesis between knowledge about the subject area, students' general pedagogical knowledge and the teacher's biography. This study aimed to understand the construction process and the sources of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, as well as to analyze its manifestations and variations in interactive teaching by teachers whom the students considered competent. Data collection involved teachers from an undergraduate nursing program in the South of Brazil, through non-participant observation and semistructured interviews. Data analysis was submitted to the constant comparison method. The results disclose the need for initial education to cover pedagogical aspects for nurses; to assume permanent education as fundamental in view of the complexity of contents and teaching; to use mentoring/monitoring and the value learning with experienced teachers with a view to the development of quality teaching.