Network for Cooperation in Integrated Water Resource Management for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean No. 39

Editorial remarks.-- Open discussion: Tariff policies for the achievement of MDGs ; Natural resources within UNASUR ; The human right to water and sanitation.-- Meetings: Tariff and Regulatory Policies ; Transboundary Water Cooperation ; Latinosan III.-- News of the Network: National Water Resources Strategy ; Hydroelectric Development in Chile.-- Internet and WWW News

Integrated analysis environment for the Movement Assessment Battery for Children

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), a chronic and usually permanent condition found in children, is characterized by motor impairment that interferes with a child's activities of daily living and with academic achievement. One of the most popular tests for the quantitative diagnosis of DCD is the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC). Based on the Battery's standardized scores, it is possible to identify children with typical development, children at risk of developing DCD, and children with DCD. This article describes a computational system we developed to assist with the analysis of results obtained in the MABC test. The tool was developed for the web environment and its database provides integration of MABC data. Thus, researchers around the world can share data and develop collaborative work in the DCD field. In order to help analysis processes, our system provides services for filtering data to show more specific sets of information and present the results in textual, table, and graphic formats, allowing easier and more comprehensive evaluation of the results.

Creative Commons: a convergence model between the ideal of commons and the possibilities of creation in contemporary times, opposed to copyright impediments

The contemporary individual finds on the Internet and especially on the Web facilitating conditions to build a basic infrastructure based on the concept of commons. He also finds favorable conditions which allow him to collaborate and share resources for the creation, use, reuse, access and dissemination of information. However, he also faces obstacles such as Copyright (Law 9610/98 in Brazil). An alternative is Creative Commons which not only allows the elaboration, use and dissemination of information under legal conditions but also function as a facilitator for the development of informational commons. This paper deals with this scenario.

Challenges and opportunities for knowledge organization at the intersection with information technologies

In this paper we study the intersection of Knowledge Organization with Information Technologies and the challenges and opportunities for Knowledge Organization experts that, in our view, are important to be studied and for them to be aware of. We start by giving some definitions necessary for providing the context for our work. Then we review the history of the Web, beginning with the Internet and continuing with the World Wide Web, the Semantic Web, problems of Artificial Intelligence, Web 2.0, and Linked Data. Finally, we conclude our paper with IT applications for Knowledge Organization in libraries, such as FRBR, BIBFRAME, and several OCLC initiatives, as well as with some of the challenges and opportunities in which Knowledge Organization experts and researchers might play a key role in relation to the Semantic Web.

Correlation between sleep and quality of life in cerebral palsy

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Análise discursiva de blogs de professores: a produção da identidade na internet

This paper proposes a discursive analysis of teachers‘s blogs , particularly those accessible from the MEC site : http://portaldoprofessor.mec.gov.br/links.html . The aim is to analyze , dialogically, based on Bakhtinian discourse studies the speech of Portuguese language teachers on the internet , and to investigate aspects of the discourse genre blog , this specialized sphere of circulation :whether it is a means of exposing themselves, whether they are professional media extent , reflect about how to produce the identity of the Portuguese language teachers in such discourse . The axes of reflection on identity , in this case , are four: the subject‘sthe discourse about themselvesand their peers , how the subject shows itself tothe analyst - researcher in dialogue with others in history ( teachers , students , interested in issues of language , official documents ), how it can be seen by the analyst - researcher considering using resources ( videos , photos , literary genres, etc. ), how it is seen by those who comment your say

Access of children to the oral health service

Dental caries still affect a considerable proportion of children, however the epidemiological profile of oral diseases is changing, social inequalities cause different disease patterns. The same problems occur for the use of services, which damage those who are more susceptible to oral diseases in numerous ways. To verify the association between the variables: socioeconomic condition, oral health and access to dental services providing oral health care for preschool children. The study population consisted of 2,759 children up to 6 years-old. The clinical exams followed the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. The data were collected using a self-applied questionnaire, answered by the carers of children, with questions about socioeconomic variables and access to dental services. In terms of social class, a majority of the subjects came from the middle socioeconomic level (babies, 84.7%; children, 82.8%). Babies who had caries, 48.4% and 67.2% of the children that had decayed teeth had access to dental service. There was a association between the variables: the reason for the last dental appointment and the parent's perception of the treatment need of their children (babies p=0.0004 and children p < 0.0001); the parent's perception of the treatment need of their children and the oral health condition (babies p=0.0008 and children p < 0.0001); access to dental services and oral health condition (babies p=0.0021 and children p < 0.0001). The majority of the population studied sought care from public dental service and was from the middle class.

O ensino de ciências e as tecnologias digitais: competências para a mediação pedagógica

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Redes sociais na Internet: uma investigação sobre práticas de compartilhamento de arquivos no Facebook

The social networking sites have experienced a large and rapid growth in recent years and bring together millions of users in Brazil and worldwide. Such networks allow adding groups of people with common interests or relationships, enabling members of this group to communicate and exchange information. Some social networks have specific goals, for example, aggregate individuals with common interests and professional relationships. However, they all share information in some way, whether in the form of short texts, photos, videos, among others. Sharing information in files is also a growing activity on the Internet and can be done in various ways, from sending files via email to multiple contacts to make available areas shared by the same contacts. However, applications are not yet available to enable file sharing on Facebook, considered the premier social network today. Given the growing demand for sharing files over the Internet, and a large number of users familiar with the use of these integrated applications for Facebook there is a demand for applications that allow users to share files with their contacts in this social network. This study aims to investigate how users use Facebook, and their practices for file sharing. It is believed that the results will substantiate future projects to develop software for file sharing on Facebook. Due to the exploratory nature of this research, the choice was made for a survey to collect data, applied through the web. From the results obtained, was possible to observe a frequent use of file sharing, but no interest in paid services. Regarding Facebook, was possible to observe their extensive use in both the frequency of access as the hours spent, as well as an increased use of applications (games, quiz, etc.). The full set of results shows a favorable environment for developing applications for sharing files on Facebook.

Social networks on the Internet: a practical investigation about file sharing on Facebook

The social networks on the internet have experienced rapid growth and joined millions of users in Brazil and throughout the world. Such networks allow groups of people to communicate and exchange information. Sharing information in files is also a growing activity on the internet and is done in various ways. However, applications are not yet available to enable file sharing on Facebook, the premier social network today. This study aims to investigate how users use Facebook, and their practices for file sharing. Due to the experimental nature of this research, we opted for a data collection survey, applied over the web. From the data analysis, we have found a frequent use of file sharing, but no interest in paid services. As for Facebook, there was an extensive use of applications. The set of results shows a favourable scenario for applications that allow file sharing on Facebook.

A internet como instrumento da democracia: um estudo comparativo entre as memórias virtuais dos parlamentos do Reino Unido e do Brasil

Preserving the organizational memory of public institutions means keeping the history of a society alive, managing communication, strengthening institutional image and thus build a good reputation. Therefore, institutions such as the Brazilian Senate and the United Kingdom Parliament are investing in virtual spaces to preserve the memory. A comparative study between those tools and the ways adopted for the memory preservation by both institutions is the main objective of the present work. The methodology consisted in the elaboration of categories that concern three priorities: democracy, internet and memory.

Repositórios de objetos de aprendizagem de língua portuguesa no ensino fundamental: alternativas para professores

Pós-graduação em Letras - FCLAR

Parental Ethnotheories of Child Development: Looking Beyond Independence and Individualism in American Belief Systems

Over the past several decades, the topic of child development in a cultural context has received a great deal of theoretical and empirical investigation. Investigators from the fields of indigenous and cultural psychology have argued that childhood is socially and historically constructed, rather than a universal process with a standard sequence of developmental stages or descriptions. As a result, many psychologists have become doubtful that any stage theory of cognitive or socialemotional development can be found to be valid for all times and places. In placing more theoretical emphasis on contextual processes, they define culture as a complex system of common symbolic action patterns (or scripts) built up through everyday human social interaction by means of which individuals create common meanings and in terms of which they organize experience. Researchers understand culture to be organized and coherent, but not homogenous or static, and realize that the complex dynamic system of culture constantly undergoes transformation as participants (adults and children) negotiate and re-negotiate meanings through social interaction. These negotiations and transactions give rise to unceasing heterogeneity and variability in how different individuals and groups of individuals interpret values and meanings. However, while many psychologists—both inside and outside the fields of indigenous and cultural psychology–are now willing to give up the idea of a universal path of child development and a universal story of parenting, they have not necessarily foreclosed on the possibility of discovering and describing some universal processes that underlie socialization and development-in-context. The roots of such universalities would lie in the biological aspects of child development, in the evolutionary processes of adaptation, and in the unique symbolic and problem-solving capacities of the human organism as a culture-bearing species. For instance, according to functionalist psychological anthropologists, shared (cultural) processes surround the developing child and promote in the long view the survival of families and groups if they are to demonstrate continuity in the face of ecological change and resource competition, (e.g. Edwards & Whiting, 2004; Gallimore, Goldenberg, & Weisner, 1993; LeVine, Dixon, LeVine, Richman, Leiderman, Keefer, & Brazelton, 1994; LeVine, Miller, & West, 1988; Weisner, 1996, 2002; Whiting & Edwards, 1988; Whiting & Whiting, 1980). As LeVine and colleagues (1994) state: A population tends to share an environment, symbol systems for encoding it, and organizations and codes of conduct for adapting to it (emphasis added). It is through the enactment of these population-specific codes of conduct in locally organized practices that human adaptation occurs. Human adaptation, in other words, is largely attributable to the operation of specific social organizations (e.g. families, communities, empires) following culturally prescribed scripts (normative models) in subsistence, reproduction, and other domains [communication and social regulation]. (p. 12) It follows, then, that in seeking to understand child development in a cultural context, psychologists need to support collaborative and interdisciplinary developmental science that crosses international borders. Such research can advance cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, and indigenous psychology, understood as three sub-disciplines composed of scientists who frequently communicate and debate with one another and mutually inform one another’s research programs. For example, to turn to parental belief systems, the particular topic of this chapter, it is clear that collaborative international studies are needed to support the goal of crosscultural psychologists for findings that go beyond simply describing cultural differences in parental beliefs. Comparative researchers need to shed light on whether parental beliefs are (or are not) systematically related to differences in child outcomes; and they need meta-analyses and reviews to explore between- and within-culture variations in parental beliefs, with a focus on issues of social change (Saraswathi, 2000). Likewise, collaborative research programs can foster the goals of indigenous psychology and cultural psychology and lay out valid descriptions of individual development in their particular cultural contexts and the processes, principles, and critical concepts needed for defining, analyzing, and predicting outcomes of child development-in-context. The project described in this chapter is based on an approach that integrates elements of comparative methodology to serve the aim of describing particular scenarios of child development in unique contexts. The research team of cultural insiders and outsiders allows for a look at American belief systems based on a dialogue of multiple perspectives.

Unifying Representations and Responses: Perseverative Biases Arise From a Single Behavioral System

A dominant account of perseverative errors in early development contends that such errors reflect a failure to inhibit a prepotent response. This study investigated whether perseveration might also arise from a failure to inhibit a prepotent representation. Children watched as a toy was hidden at an A location, waited during a delay, and then watched the experimenter find the toy. After six observation-only A trials, the toy was hidden at a B location, and children were allowed to search for the toy. Two- and 4-year-olds’ responses on the B trials were significantly biased toward A even though they had never overtly responded to this location. Thus, perseverative biases in early development can arise as a result of prepotent representations, demonstrating that the prepotent-response account is incomplete. We discuss three alternative interpretations of these results, including the possibility that representational and response-based biases reflect the operation of a single, integrated behavioral system.

Determinants of linear growth from infancy to school-aged years: a population-based follow-up study in urban Amazonian children

Background: Although linear growth during childhood may be affected by early-life exposures, few studies have examined whether the effects of these exposures linger on during school age, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. Methods: We conducted a population-based longitudinal study of 256 children living in the Brazilian Amazon, aged 0.1 y to 5.5 y in 2003. Data regarding socioeconomic and maternal characteristics, infant feeding practices, morbidities, and birth weight and length were collected at baseline of the study (2003). Child body length/height was measured at baseline and at follow-up visits (in 2007 and 2009). Restricted cubic splines were used to construct average height-for-age Z score (HAZ) growth curves, yielding estimated HAZ differences among exposure categories at ages 0.5 y, 1 y, 2 y, 5 y, 7 y, and 10 y. Results: At baseline, median age was 2.6 y (interquartile range, 1.4 y-3.8 y), and mean HAZ was -0.53 (standard deviation, 1.15); 10.2% of children were stunted. In multivariable analysis, children in households above the household wealth index median were 0.30 Z taller at age 5 y (P = 0.017), and children whose families owned land were 0.34 Z taller by age 10 y (P = 0.023), when compared with poorer children. Mothers in the highest tertile for height had children whose HAZ were significantly higher compared with those of children from mothers in the lowest height tertile at all ages. Birth weight and length were positively related to linear growth throughout childhood; by age 10 y, children weighing >3500 g at birth were 0.31 Z taller than those weighing 2501 g to 3500 g (P = 0.022) at birth, and children measuring >= 51 cm at birth were 0.51 Z taller than those measuring <= 48 cm (P = 0.005). Conclusions: Results suggest socioeconomic background is a potentially modifiable predictor of linear growth during the school-aged years. Maternal height and child's anthropometric characteristics at birth are positively associated with HAZ up until child age 10 y.