Field experiences with floating breakwaters in the eastern United States /

In the past 10 years, the use of floating breakwaters as temporary coastal structures has become increasingly widespread in the United States as an inexpensive means for suppressing waves. However, as with any new technology, there have been many failures and a substantial number of imaginative, successful innovations. One of the chief problems contributing to the failure rate has been a lack of awareness by designers of reliable, up-to-date technical information. As part of a large research effort to remedy this problem, a survey was conducted on field experience with floating breakwaters in the Eastern United States. Results of the survey confirmed that state-of-the-art technical literature is not being properly disseminated. Structures built according to early design manuals were shown to have failed before the completion of their design life. Conversely, floating breakwaters built to the standards set by recent research have fared well and show promise of meeting their design golas. The weakest areas of the present technology are flotation and the anchoring systems. It is recommended that a concentrated research effort be directed toward these problem areas; it is also recommended that the monitoring of state-of-the-art projects continue. (Author).

2009 awards reception : Governor's Home Town Award

Includes a directory of all winners of the Governor's Home Town Award and states in brief the improvements that each town made to win the Award. Also includes a list of judges.

Awards banquet, 2006 : Governor's Home Town Award.

Includes a directory of all past winners of the Governor's Home Town Award and states in brief the improvements that each town made to win the Award. Also includes a list of judges.

COMUNICAR PARA MUDAR: Estudo das metodologias de desenvolvimento de comunidade e da comunicação para o desenvolvimento e para a mudança social

Estudo sobre as metodologias de comunicação nas propostas de desenvolvimento comunitário. Com base em pesquisa bibliográfica o trabalho objetivou evidenciar os aspectos explícitos e implícitos da comunicação presentes nas metodologias de desenvolvimento de comunidade publicadas no Brasil. Para tal, foi realizada ampla revisão da literatura sobre os conceitos de comunidade, desenvolvimento, pobreza e participação, metodologias de desenvolvimento de comunidade, comunicação para o desenvolvimento e comunicação para a mudança social. Ao final, a pesquisa evidenciou que os conceitos de desenvolvimento e de participação invariavelmente constituem o fundamento a partir dos quais se erigem tanto projetos de desenvolvimento comunitário como de comunicação para o desenvolvimento/mudança social. Um modelo de desenvolvimento necessariamente leva a um modelo de participação, e viceversa, que, em projetos de melhoria das condições de vida comunitária se constituem como elementos catalisadores das demais instâncias do trabalho. Ambas propostas apresentam muitos pontos em comum e diversos espaços para contribuições recíprocas.(AU)

Mixed communities: a new approach to spatially-concentrated poverty in England

This article examines the adoption, by the New Labour government, of a mixed communities approach to the renewal of disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England. It argues that while there are continuities with previous policy, the new approach represents a more neoliberal policy turn in three respects: its identification of concentrated poverty as the problem; its faith in market-led regeneration; and its alignment with a new urban policy agenda in which cities are gentrified and remodelled as sites for capital accumulation through entrepreneurial local governance. The article then draws on evidence from the early phases of the evaluation of the mixed community demonstration projects to explore how the new policy approach is playing out at a local level, where it is layered upon existing policies, politics and institutional relationships. Tensions between neighbourhood and strategic interests, community and capital are evident as the local projects attempt neighbourhood transformation, while seeking to protect the rights and interests of existing residents. Extensive community consultation efforts run parallel with emergent governance structures, in which local state and capital interests combine and communities may effectively be disempowered. Policies and structures are still evolving and it is not yet entirely clear how these tensions will be resolved, especially in the light of a collapsing housing market, increased poverty and demand for affordable housing, and a shortage of private investment.

Building bridges: the third sector responding locally to diversity

This paper focuses on a hitherto unstudied segment of the broad 'third sector': organisations and groupings that aim to build bridges (that is, increase interpersonal contacts) between people of different faiths and/or ethnic groups. We draw on the findings of an empirical study, conducted in three diverse urban areas of England, of community-level projects with bridge building as an explicit aim. We describe the characteristics of bridge-building activities and the challenges they face; both the organisational challenges and those that arise from the nature of bridge building itself. We conclude by exploring the implications of our findings for an understanding of the third sector generally and for the potential role of the sector in responding to our diverse society.

Exploring Alternative Terrain in the Rehabilitation and Treatment of Offenders: Findings from a Prison-based Music Project

The arts in prison settings have provided an alternative or complimentary component to rehabilitation. Despite increased interest, studies capturing the voice of offenders participating in projects and the long-term impact are limited. Data from semistructured interviews with 18 men who had taken part in a music-based project while incarcerated, including one group of five participants who were tracked for 18 months with supplemented data from correctional staff and official documentation, is presented. Participants of the art-based projects comment on changes they believe to have derived from participating in the project, particularly relating to emotions, self-esteem, self-confidence, communication and social skills. An exoffender sample of participants reported that participation in art projects provide experiences that promote beneficial skills that have been useful for post prison life.

Mental health and suicidal behaviors in adolescents from a Portuguese island

Background: Adolescent suicidal behaviors are a public health priority. Objectives: Suicidal behavior is an understudied field in the Azores, and the few existing research studies with Portuguese adolescents only include young people from Mainland Portugal. This study aims at analyzing the adolescent student population from this island region so as to describe the current situation and plan community intervention projects in this area to meet the identified needs. Methodology: This is a non-experimental, quantitative and descriptive-correlational study with the purpose of describing phenomena and finding associations between variables. Results: The results showed that 17.9% of the 484 sampled adolescents reported self-harm behaviors, with 12.7% reporting self-cutting and 5.2% medication overdose or ingestion of toxic substances. Around 15.5% of the adolescents reported suicidal ideation. Additionally, they showed high levels of depressive symptoms (19.9%), ranging from moderate (12%) to severe (7.9%). Conclusion: Adolescents had more self-harm behaviors, more severe depressive symptoms, a lower self-concept and fewer coping strategies than similar populations in mainland Portugal.

Public firm sponsorship of open source software: A knowledge-based approach to open innovation

As an emerging innovation paradigm gaining momentum in recent years, the open innovation paradigm is calling for greater theoretical depth and more empirical research. This dissertation proposes that open innovation in the context of open source software sponsorship may be viewed as knowledge strategies of the firm. Hence, this dissertation examines the performance determinants of open innovation through the lens of knowledge-based perspectives. Using event study and regression methodologies, this dissertation found that these open source software sponsorship events can indeed boost the stock market performance of US public firms. In addition, both the knowledge capabilities of the firms and the knowledge profiles of the open source projects they sponsor matter for performance. In terms of firm knowledge capabilities, internet service firms perform better than other firms owing to their advantageous complementary capabilities. Also, strong knowledge exploitation capabilities of the firm are positively associated with performance. In terms of the knowledge profile of sponsored projects, platform projects perform better than component projects. Also, community-originated projects outperform firm-originated projects. Finally, based on these findings, this dissertation discussed the important theoretical implications for the strategic tradeoff between knowledge protection and sharing.

Literacia em diabetes nos alunos do ensino superior público do concelho de Mirandela

A literacia em diabetes parece ser uma das ferramentas fundamentais para combater o aumento de prevalência desta patologia crónica que tem crescido exponencialmente ao longo dos anos quer a nível mundial, quer a nível nacional. Com este estudo pretendeu-se avaliar o nível de literacia em diabetes nos estudantes do ensino superior público do concelho de Mirandela, para, em consequência, fornecer algumas diretrizes para a proposta de um projeto de intervenção nesta comunidade. Teve como objetivos específicos: validar o questionário dos conhecimentos da Diabetes (QCD); relacionar os níveis de conhecimento sobre diabetes com as variáveis sociodemográficas e clinicas. A amostra estudada compreende 432 alunos do ensino superior público do concelho de Mirandela que reponderam ao questionário no período de 15 de fevereiro a 18 de março de 2016. Verificou-se que a aplicação do questionário dos conhecimentos da diabetes (QCD; Sousa & McIntyre, 2003) que avalia os conhecimentos das pessoas acerca da diabetes e seu tratamento, parece ser aceitável na população em geral e o modelo bidimensional obtido com a análise fatorial confirmatória revelou bons índices de ajustamento. Os resultados indicaram um reduzido nível de literacia em diabetes na amostra de participantes e o seu desconhecimento está associado a mitos e falsos conceitos mais do que a incerteza; que o conhecimento na dimensão duração da doença era maior que na dimensão conhecimento global da diabetes (causas, controlo, tratamento e complicações); os alunos mais novos possuem mais conhecimento sobre a diabetes, o género feminino parece revelar maior conhecimento do que o masculino, que os alunos que residem no concelho de Mirandela apresentam menor conhecimento do que os restantes e que os alunos que possuem e residem com familiares com diabetes possuem mais conhecimento do que os outros, embora apresentem igualmente elevado desconhecimento por mitos e falsos conceitos. Conclui-se que existe uma necessidade de aposta em projetos educacionais comunitários para aumentar a literacia em diabetes.

Criar e participar : uma análise ao envolvimento em projetos artístico-culturais no Instituto Federal de Brasília - Campus Planaltina

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do grau de mestre em Educação Social e Intervenção Comunitária

Criar e participar : uma análise ao envolvimento em projetos artístico-culturais no Instituto Federal de Brasília - Campus Planaltina

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do grau de mestre em Educação Social e Intervenção Comunitária

Big art small viewer : a collaborative community project

Campus Kindergarten is a community-based centre for early childhood education and care located on campus at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia. Being located within this diverse community has presented many opportunities for Campus Kindergarten. It is creating and embracing possibilities that has formed the basis for ongoing projects for children and teachers involving research and investigation. In 2002 Campus Kindergarten embarked on a collaborative project with the Art Museum bringing together these two departments within the university community.

Reciprocity : where art meets the community : action research in response to artistic encounters and relationships

This practice-led research project examines some of the factors and issues facing artists working in the public domain who wish to engage with the community as audience. Using the methodology of action research, the three major creative projects in this study use art as a socio-political tool with the aim of providing an effective vehicle for broadening awareness, understanding forms of social protest and increasing tolerance for diversity. The three projects: Floodline November 7, 2004, Look in, Look out, and The Urban Terrorist Project, dealt with issues of marginalisation of communities, audiences and graffiti artists respectively. The artist/researcher is outlined as both creator and collaborator in the work. Processes included ephemeral elements, such as temporary installation and performance, as well as interactive elements that encouraged direct audience involvement as part of the work. In addition to the roles of creator and collaborator, both of which included audience as well as artist, the presence of an outside entity was evident. Whether local, legal authorities or prevailing attitudes, outside entities had an unavoidable impact on the processes and outcomes of the work. Each project elicited a range of responses from their respective audiences; however, the overarching concept of reciprocity was seen to be the crucial factor in conception, artistic methods and outcomes.