An introduction to the ‘new’ politics of agriculture and food

The agricultural policy agenda has been broadened with farm policy issues now interlinking with other policy domains (food safety, energy supplies, environmental protection, development aid, etc.). New actors promoting values which sometimes conflict, or which are not always easily reconcilable, with those previously guiding agricultural policy have entered the broader agricultural and food policy domain. The studies of various new policy issues inter-linking with the agricultural policy domain included in this special issue show that value conflicts are addressed in different ways and thus result in inter-institutional coordination and conflict unfolding differently. Studies of inter-institutional policy making in the agricultural policy sector have the potential to contribute to theoretical developments in public policy analysis in much the same way as agricultural policy studies did in the past.

Scheduling satellite-based SAR acquisition for sequential assimilation of water level observations into flood modelling

Satellite-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has proved useful for obtaining information on flood extent, which, when intersected with a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the floodplain, provides water level observations that can be assimilated into a hydrodynamic model to decrease forecast uncertainty. With an increasing number of operational satellites with SAR capability, information on the relationship between satellite first visit and revisit times and forecast performance is required to optimise the operational scheduling of satellite imagery. By using an Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (ETKF) and a synthetic analysis with the 2D hydrodynamic model LISFLOOD-FP based on a real flooding case affecting an urban area (summer 2007,Tewkesbury, Southwest UK), we evaluate the sensitivity of the forecast performance to visit parameters. We emulate a generic hydrologic-hydrodynamic modelling cascade by imposing a bias and spatiotemporal correlations to the inflow error ensemble into the hydrodynamic domain. First, in agreement with previous research, estimation and correction for this bias leads to a clear improvement in keeping the forecast on track. Second, imagery obtained early in the flood is shown to have a large influence on forecast statistics. Revisit interval is most influential for early observations. The results are promising for the future of remote sensing-based water level observations for real-time flood forecasting in complex scenarios.

Revolutionary insurgencies, paradigmatic cases

This essay will examine and compare the production of women's writing during and after the Nicaraguan and Cuban Revolutions, a corpus that includes novels, poetry, and testimonies, but also features considerable generic hybridity. Since both revolutions are separated by some twenty years, each must be understood in the context of the specific ideological conditions that framed women’s participation in culture and revolution, and must also be considered in light of evolving gender discourses, both national and international. As such, these texts respond to both local and transnational paradigms of feminine subjectivity, and highlight the particular problems that arise from women’s insertion into the revolution and its representation in literature. These writers also have to negotiate the evolving context of revolution itself, with its moments of euphoria and disenchantment – and it is here that the greatest contrasts can be found between the two revolutionary instances and their political features: whilst Cuba’s revolutionary process has somehow survived economic crisis and created a level of political stability and continuity (not without its own problems), the Nicaraguan case is characterised by ruptures and resentments which are clearly reflected in the work of writers before, during, and after the Sandinista revolution, and which continue to the present day. This chapter will address the work of the most prominent woman writer of the Nicaraguan revolution, Gioconda Belli, whose main work reflects her involvement in the Sandinista struggle; ex-commander Mónica Baltodano has recently compiled a four volume piece with testimonials of men and women who participated in the organization and actions led by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, and Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, former president of Nicaragua, who has recently co-authored an autobiography. There are other women poets to consider, especially under the auspices of the Asociación de Mujeres Nicaraguenses Luisa Amanda Espinoza, such as Vidaluz Meneses, Michele Najlis and Daisy Zamora. The testimonios compiled by Margaret Randall are also important pieces to consider for both Nicaragua and Cuba. The most important voices of the Cuban revolution still resident on the island are poet Nancy Morejón and writers Mirta Yáñez and Aida Bahr, with younger writers such as Adelaida Fernández de Juan and Marilyn Bobes representing a more recent generation.

Joint multiple dictionary learning for tensor sparse coding

Traditional dictionary learning algorithms are used for finding a sparse representation on high dimensional data by transforming samples into a one-dimensional (1D) vector. This 1D model loses the inherent spatial structure property of data. An alternative solution is to employ Tensor Decomposition for dictionary learning on their original structural form —a tensor— by learning multiple dictionaries along each mode and the corresponding sparse representation in respect to the Kronecker product of these dictionaries. To learn tensor dictionaries along each mode, all the existing methods update each dictionary iteratively in an alternating manner. Because atoms from each mode dictionary jointly make contributions to the sparsity of tensor, existing works ignore atoms correlations between different mode dictionaries by treating each mode dictionary independently. In this paper, we propose a joint multiple dictionary learning method for tensor sparse coding, which explores atom correlations for sparse representation and updates multiple atoms from each mode dictionary simultaneously. In this algorithm, the Frequent-Pattern Tree (FP-tree) mining algorithm is employed to exploit frequent atom patterns in the sparse representation. Inspired by the idea of K-SVD, we develop a new dictionary update method that jointly updates elements in each pattern. Experimental results demonstrate our method outperforms other tensor based dictionary learning algorithms.

Online orthographies

The representation in online environments of non-Roman-based script languages has proved problematic. During the initial years of Computer-mediated Communication, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange character set only supported Roman-alphabeted languages. The solution for speakers of languages written in non-Roman scripts was to employ unconventional writing systems, in an effort to represent their native language in online discourse. The first aim of this chapter is to present the different ways that internet users choose to transliterate or even transcribe their native languages online, using Roman characters. With technological development, and consequently the availability of various writing scripts online, internet users now have the option to either use Roman characters or their native script. If the latter is chosen, internet users still seem to deviate from conventional ways of writing, in this case, however, with regards to spelling. The second aim, therefore, is to bring into light recent developments, by looking at the ways that internet users manipulate orthography, to achieve their communicative purposes.

Vesicles with charged domains

This work summarizes results obtained on membranes composed of the ternary mixture dioleoylphosphatidylglycerol (DOPG), egg sphingomyelin (eSM) and cholesterol (Chol). The membrane phase state as a function of composition is characterized from data collected with fluorescence microscopy on giant unilamellar vesicles. The results suggest that the presence of the charged DOPG significantly decreases the composition region of coexistence of liquid ordered and liquid disordered phases as compared to that in the ternary mixture of dioleoylphosphatidycholine, sphingomyelin and cholesterol. The addition of calcium chloride to DOPG:eSM:Chol vesicles, and to a lesser extent the addition of sodium chloride, leads to the stabilization of the two-phase coexistence region, which is expressed in an increase in the miscibility temperature. On the other hand, addition of the chelating agent EDTA has the opposite effect, suggesting that impurities of divalent cations in preparations of giant vesicles contribute to the stabilization of charged domains. We also explore the behavior of these membranes in the presence of extruded unilamellar vesicles made of the positively charged lipid dioleoyltrimethylammoniumpropane (DOTAP). The latter can induce domain formation in DOPG:eSM:Chol vesicles with initial composition in the one-phase region. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Generation of nonground-state condensates and adiabatic paradox

The problem of resonant generation of nonground-state condensates is addressed aiming at resolving the seeming paradox that arises when one resorts to the adiabatic representation. In this picture, the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of a time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii Hamiltonian are also functions of time. Since the level energies vary in time, no definite transition frequency can be introduced. Hence no external modulation with a fixed frequency can be made resonant. Thus, the resonant generation of adiabatic coherent modes is impossible. However, this paradox occurs only in the frame of the adiabatic picture. It is shown that no paradox exists in the properly formulated diabatic representation. The resonant generation of diabatic coherent modes is a well defined phenomenon. As an example, the equations are derived, describing the generation of diabatic coherent modes by the combined resonant modulation of the trapping potential and atomic scattering length.

Identifying the borders of mathematical knowledge

Based on a divide and conquer approach, knowledge about nature has been organized into a set of interrelated facts, allowing a natural representation in terms of graphs: each `chunk` of knowledge corresponds to a node, while relationships between such chunks are expressed as edges. This organization becomes particularly clear in the case of mathematical theorems, with their intense cross-implications and relationships. We have derived a web of mathematical theorems from Wikipedia and, thanks to the powerful concept of entropy, identified its more central and frontier elements. Our results also suggest that the central nodes are the oldest theorems, while the frontier nodes are those recently added to the network. The network communities have also been identified, allowing further insights about the organization of this network, such as its highly modular structure.

O desafio de reconhecimento do sujeito cego em espaços públicos de representação

This work is funded based on the uneasiness with the concept of State as a public machine for development. Of State as a public machine to deliberate valid practices for valid methods and to limit valid subjects in valid spaces. In midst of this specific context, this work dedicates itself to investigate the following research problem: the mistaken recognition of the blind subject in public spaces of representation. For this reason, it was addressed the following question: how the blind subject is recognized in public spaces of representation? To answer the question, it was necessary to contextualize how the blind subject is being recognized in various public spaces of representation. In the international scope, the human rights debate held between the National States was analyzed (BRAND, 2005; KOERNER, 2002; UN, 2006). In the national arena, constitutional rights, federal laws, public policies and institutions representing the blind subject were examined (CABRAL, 2008; SARAVIA, 2006). Finally, in a local context, the fundaments of the concept of citizen for the subject recognition were investigated (AGAMBEN, 2002; RORTY, 1999, DELEUZE AND GUATTARI, 1996). The methodology included reports of national and international representatives in the Lusophone Countries Meeting for Dissemination and Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and, mainly, interviews with blind subjects. The data was processed by content analysis and was discussed based on the following categories: representation spaces; representation modes; representation amplitude; representation premises. The results show, regarding such spaces of representation, the growing importance of thinking the rights of persons with disabilities ¿ group in which belongs the blind subject ¿ as of the international and national scenario. However, the blind subjects announced alternative local spaces for representation: church, internet, radio, etc. Regarding the representation modes, the role of law and standards has been advocated specially in the human rights field. The importance of the cooperation between the States and the civil society to ensure, in practice, the rights achieved was also emphasized. But other forms of representation, directly linked to each interviewee¿ history, was important. Regarding the representation amplitude, there were arguments in defense of a conception of human dignity and freedom to all inhabitants of the globe. The lusophone event highlighted the concern of the cultural peculiarities of those involved in the meeting. The blind interviewees argued for citizenship as construction of instruments for freedom and autonomy, but recognized that this is not a clear desire between the blind people in general, and even less in society as a whole. With respect to the representation premises, the fundaments for the recognition of the blind subject were based on the primacy of reason at the expense of personal experimentation. Experimentation that serves as the foundation of a new form of recognition of the blind subject in public spaces of representation, one more interested in singularities, impenetrable by reason, unmovable to another, and which are irreducible to each subject. The final considerations suggest that if the State has a reason to be, this is not another than to offer instruments to manifest as many as the existential possibilities of the subject. This is the concept of State for development.

O conceito de poder social

A dissertação procura analisar o conceito de poder numa perspectiva de questionamento da Psicologia Social notadamente com respeito à relevância de seus achados para a sociedade e à vinculação de suas formulações com a estrutura social vigente. Verifica-se a polissemia do conceito, pertencente a diferentes níveis do conhecimento e possuindo um referencial empírico ampliado, o que por sua vez gera divergências em sua conceituação. Tendo seu lugar de demarcação nas relações interpessoais, intra e intergrupais, organizacionais e de classe, seu significado mescla-se ao de termos como influência, controle, autoridade, dominação, que são muitas vezes intercambiáveis num determinado texto. Seu exercício caracteriza a relação de dominação-subordinação e é visto como decorrente da posse de recursos, implicando em resistência por parte dos subordinados e em sua percepção como beneficiador unicamente de seu detentor. Entende-se como um esforço da Psicologia Social em prol da manutenção da ordem social seus trabalhos visando elaborar novas formas de manipulação dos conflitos consequentes ao exercício do poder. Enquanto a visão desta disciplina é eminentemente psicológica, desvinculada do contexto social, em Ciências Políticas e Sociologia o conceito insere-se numa reflexão sobre a macro-estrutura sem, contudo, dispensar a utilização de variáveis psicológicas. Motivações e habilidades do detentor do poder e valores, percepções e expectativas do elemento subordinado são fatores presentes nas diferentes reflexões analisadas, tanto nas oriundas da Psicologia quanto na integracionista, na elitista, na pluralista e na da troca, ausentando-se somente da marxista que recorta o conceito de poder no campo das lutas de classe.

Conselheiros municipais e vereadores : luta por reconhecimento na esfera pública

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar como conselheiros municipais e vereadores do Recife reconhecem o direito à participação na gestão pública e o direito à representação eleitoral e às funções daí decorrentes. Deste modo, podem-se observar os impactos ocasionados pela instância de participação em uma instituição tradicional de representação política, de modo a aperfeiçoar o modelo de Gestão Social. A análise foi realizada à luz da teoria do reconhecimento, especificamente as ideias de Axel Honneth. Para tanto, foram aplicados questionários e realizadas entrevistas com conselheiros e vereadores do Município, assim como foram analisados documentos da Câmara. Observou-se que ambos os grupos mostram-se favoráveis ao diálogo entre as instâncias, apesar dos conflitos que ainda precisam ser vencidos. Vereadores têm assento nos conselhos, apesar de que a participação não acontece na prática. Concluiu-se que o reconhecimento não ocorre em sua integralidade, sendo uma luta em construção.

Gestão de marketing na prática de organizações no Brasil

Este trabalho busca compreender a prática da gestão de marketing em organizações de grande porte que atuam no Brasil e, em termos mais específicos, entender as diferenças de tais práticas com relação à representação teórica dominante na literatura especializada. Reconhecendo o predomínio de uma perspectiva reducionista de gestão na literatura e a virtual ausência de pesquisas focadas na prática de gestão de marketing, a abordagem escolhida seguiu as seguintes etapas: a) consolidação e compreensão das descobertas de pesquisadores no Brasil sobre a prática de gestão de marketing em diferentes tipos de organizações de grande porte, tendo como base um conjunto de dissertações de mestrado de instituição acadêmica; b) análise adicional com base em reflexões de um praticante com vinte anos de experiência em gestão de marketing em organizações de grande porte no Brasil; e c) contraposição com o que é prescrito pela literatura dominante nessa área de estudo. Os resultados indicam a necessidade de pesquisas focadas na prática da gestão de marketing, sob uma perspectiva de pluralidade epistêmica, que reconheçam características culturais, organizacionais e políticas. Mais especificamente, é necessária a revisão crítica das teorias de mercado e de organização que formam a literatura dominante.

A representação social do conceito de governança de TI segundo os profissionais de TI de uma empresa de petróleo brasileira

O presente trabalho visou identificar as percepções dos profissionais de TI, em uma empresa de petróleo brasileira, sobre o tema Governança de TI. Para isso, foi utilizada a Teoria da Representação Social (TRS), mais especificamente a Teoria do Núcleo Central inaugurada por Jean-Claude Abric. Para proceder às investigações foi utilizado um questionário online, que incluiu um teste de evocação de palavras, visando à interpretação do núcleo central da representação social. Ao todo, foram consideradas as respostas de 140 profissionais da área de TI da empresa pesquisada que responderam ao questionário. A partir do teste de evocação de palavras, foi identificada a representação social de Governança de TI, por meio da construção do quadrante de Vergés, sendo os cálculos realizados em planilhas eletrônicas com posterior confirmação pelo software EVOC. Os elementos identificados no núcleo central, responsáveis por consolidar a visão consensual do grupo, foram Controle, Estratégia, Alinhamento, Gestão, e Planejamento. Os três primeiros elementos encontram sólido respaldo na literatura sobre Governança de TI, já que os profissionais de TI tem a visão de que a Governança de TI é responsável pelo controle da área de TI, garantindo seu contínuo alinhamento à estratégia da organização. Já os elementos Gestão e Planejamento parecem estar ligados às especificidades e características mais operacionais do modelo de Governança de TI implantado na empresa pesquisada, sugerindo uma falta de clareza na distinção entre os conceitos Gestão e Governança de TI. Em relação aos elementos periféricos, foram encontradas as expressões Decisão, Diretrizes e Padronização. Alguns elementos como Decisão, Direção e Responsabilidades, de acordo com a literatura, apresentam relevância para o conceito de Governança de TI, mas não foram identificados no núcleo central. Adicionalmente, não foi indicada qualquer expressão relacionada a mecanismos de relacionamento, os quais, de acordo com a Academia, são elementos fundamentais e necessários a uma efetiva Governança de TI. Também não foram identificados outros elementos destacados pela literatura, como a noção de que a Governança de TI é responsável por garantir que os investimento em TI gerem valor, gerenciar o desempenho da TI e gerir os riscos existentes pelo uso de TI na organização. Compreender a representação social de Governança de TI pode ajudar a explicar o comportamento da organização analisada em relação a diversos aspectos da Governança de TI, permitindo a identificação de oportunidades de melhoria do modelo atualmente adotado.

A representação social do cuidado no Programa Saúde da Família na cidade do Natal

The aim of this study was to learn about the social representations of the care provided by the Family Health Program (FHP) in the city of Natal, Brazil and determine how these representations guide the daily actions of doctors, dentists, nurses, nurse s assistants and oral health assistants during the work process. In this sense, we used the theoreticalmethodological approach to the Theory of Social Representations. For data collection, we used the following instruments: a two-part questionnaire, where the first part recorded sociodemographic data and the second part was adapted to the free word association technique (FWAT), which was applied to 90 professionals belonging to 18 FHP units. Interviews were also used as collection instruments. These were based on inductive stimuli and on direct observations of 30 of these professionals. After a superficial reading of the material, we constructed a corpus from which ten categories emerged. To analyze FWAT we used lexicographic analysis, combining frequency and the mean order of responses. The interviews and sociodemographic variables were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistical analysis, respectively. The study showed that the central nucleus of the social representation in question is composed of the elements attention, receptivity and love, revealing that the subjects have different understandings of the FHP care process and that the knowledge accumulated in this respect is supported by an approximate vision of the meaning of care. However, traditional elements with trivializing connotations about care predominate, which compromises the development of strategies to overcome traditional practices. In the set of analyses, we were able to capture the invariance of a contradiction: on one hand, professionals know and affirm the importance of providing care for FHP patients; on the other, the experience of daily practice translates into the negation of this concept. In this contradictory context, professionals build gradual and successive syntheses that allow them to act and affirm themselves by associating information from their academic formation, structured knowledge acquired in other experiences, values and symbols of their daily routine. Thus, they shape and reshape themselves, according to what is concretely and specifically required, at the same time both plural and multiple. The composition of the central nucleus indicates that any measure that intends to modify attitudes that is, the daily actions of FHP professionals with respect to care must take into account and give priority to the debate about the redefining of the semantic fields of the central nucleus (love/attention/receptivity and humanization), especially those of love and attention

Instâncias da representação imagética hiper-real

The approach that undertakes this work revolves around the emergence of iconic structures on reflecting about the meaning of different methods of image representation through which the contemporaneity reveals itself. At baseline, three aspects are considered looking for an analytical ontology of the act of representation and imagery: the transition of representation in the oral culture of societies for writing, from these to typography, and finally the creation of a representation device. Resorted to, therefore, the argument by some genealogy reference points that technological instances such as writing, printing and photography, the evolution of this process, correspond, in itself, a consequent shift technique, for each representation precedent. In the area of the image, the most salient aspect of this change in foward process is the emergence of hyper-reality: the instances of hyper-realistic representation. In the Western context, the 'simulation of the world' - essential idea of mimesis is the work of an autonomous an conventional system. It should be noted, then the fact that under unreflective of the post-industrial societies, the mass-media image is coating with natural or fake code including - according to Baudrillard - tends to replace the real world in the "perpetuation of a large chain of simulacra." Hence in modern times, in the postindustrial society, during the crisis of the representation regimen and perception, centered in the referent. In this limit, new settings are established by aesthetic representations of imagery in contemporary culture: establishing spaces of simulation [Jean Baudrillard] the spectacle [Guy Debord] and hypermodernity [Gilles Lipovetsky] in which they operate. In these assemblages, saps the emergence of Hyper-reality Representation Instances - as seen in this study aesthetic events to configure itineraries of a new sensibility. It is the nature of this practice sign-iconic, ingrained in the creation of current artistic expression, which this research engaged in peering: the hyper-realistic setting, taking empirical support central to contemporary imagery production, diverse formats of analog representation.