Should female health providers be involved in medical male circumcision? Narratives of newly circumcised men in Malawi

Background The Malawi government has endorsed voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) as a biomedical strategy for HIV prevention after a decade of debating its effectiveness in the local setting. The “policy” recommends that male circumcision (MC) should be clinically based, as opposed to the alternative of traditional male circumcision (TMC). Limited finances, acceptability concerns, and the health system’s limited capacity to meet demand are among the challenges threatening the mass rollout of VMMC. In terms of acceptability, the gender of clinicians conducting the operations may particularly influence health facility-based circumcision. This study explored the acceptability, by male clients, of female clinicians taking part in the circumcision procedure. Methods Six focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted, with a total of 47 newly circumcised men from non-circumcising ethnic groups in Malawi participating in this study. The men had been circumcised at three health facilities in Lilongwe District in 2010. Data were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using narrative analysis. Results Participants in the FGDs indicated that they were not comfortable with women clinicians being part of the circumcising team. While few mentioned that they were not entirely opposed to female health providers’ participation, arguing that their involvement was similar to male clinicians’ involvement in child delivery, most of them opposed to female involvement, arguing that MC was not an illness that necessitates the involvement of clinicians regardless of their gender. Most of the participants said that it was not negotiable for females to be involved, as they could wait until an all-male clinician team could be available. Thematically, the arguments against female clinicians’ involvement include sexual undertones and the influences of traditional male circumcision practices, among others. Conclusion Men preferred that VMMC should be conducted by male health providers only. Traditionally, male circumcision has been a male-only affair shrouded in secrecy and rituals. Although being medical, this study strongly suggested that it may be difficult for VMMC to immediately move to a public space where female health providers can participate, even for men coming from traditionally non-circumcising backgrounds.

Contested Play and Clean Water: McMillan Park, Race, and the Built Environment in Washington, D.C., 1900-1941

This study focuses on the intersection of the politics and culture of open public space with race relations in the United States from 1900 to 1941. The history of McMillan Park in Washington, D.C. serves as a lens to examine these themes. Ultimately, the park’s history, as documented in newspapers, interviews, reports, and photographs, reveals how white residents attempted to protect their dominance in a racial hierarchy through the control of both the physical and cultural elements of public recreation space. White use of discrimination through seemingly neutral desires to protect health, safety, and property values, establishes a congruence with their defense of residential property. Without similar access to legal methods, African Americans acted through direct action in gaps of governmental control. Their use of this space demonstrates how African-American residents of Washington and the United States contested their race, recreation, and spatial privileges in the pre-World War II era.

O trabalho com a oralidade em um curso de licenciatura em língua espanhola (EAD) : realidades e necessidades

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Línguas Estrangeiras e Tradução, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística Aplicada, 2016.

A forma como elemento estruturante do espaço social

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

A importância do programa revitalização e dinamização do centro cultural

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

Estética do apocalipse: (re) considerações acerca da (des) arborização urbana de Natal e seu contributo à saúde pública

This study intends to establish a relation between environmental degradation, particularly the devastation of the green canopy, and public health. Utilizing a mapping of the trees included in the researched area, each individual tree was analyzed according to its age, taxonomic listing, architecture, shape and size (determined by aesthetic/convenience reasons or deformed by pruning). Initially investigated were the covert reasons lying underneath the constant aggression against trees (which many times seem to contain elements of hatred and contempt) within the urban environment. In addition to that, the aspects concerning environmental modifications and the consequent impact on public health were also assessed. Two main problems promptly emerged as a result of the removal of trees: a) without a canopy to protect the areas, they became subject to winds directly blown from SW Africa and impregnated with aerosol partic les, which are common causes for respiratory disorders and, b) direct UV solar radiation, which causes some types of skin cancers and eye disorders. To reach such results, we studied the origins and formation of UV radiation induced cancers and searched for the UV radiation spectra of action, e.g., usual intensity and quantity reaching clear and shadowed spaces in a certain area and its consequences. In a second instance, we also searched for pertinent data resources in order to confirm the increase of skin cancer cases due to exposure to UV radiation and the relation between the destruction of the green canopy and the above mentioned problems. We believe that a few significant results have been achieved by this study, namely: the relation between a culture based on medieval beliefs and its consequences on the environment; how this culture exploits and deforms nature in pursuit of financial and psychological interests to a point of transforming the landscape into a copy of something devoid of any relation to latitude and altitude; and above all, the indifference concerning the alarming results carried by these modifications

Vitalidade no centro antigo Teresina, Piauí Praça Marechal Deodoro: uma intervenção contemporânea em área de valor patrimonial

This study deals with the discussions of contemporary interventions in public spaces in areas of heritage value. The product of this dissertation is an Intervention Project to Marechal Deodoro Square located in Teresina/PI center. The starting point for understanding the theme of this study is to investigate the accessibility and vitality of a public space - through relationship between form and uses. The spatial properties of accessibility and visibility as well as the distribution of land use - factors were associated with distinct patterns of vitality - and compared to usage patterns observed in situ and statements from users obtained through the results of the questionnaires. In attention to questions about the building constructed, particularly in historical centers, considers the guidelines to define intervention strategies in the square, consisted in the development of simulations that after evaluation of results of redesign, was chosen the best option to meet the necessary requirements to the performance, considering the spatial properties of integration and visibility that meet these requirements. Therefore, the "Intervention Project" carried out for the Marechal Deodoro Square characterization proposed items are discussed: spatial structure, vegetation, road network, pavements, street furniture and lighting

Climate Adaptation Finance Mechanisms: New Frontiers For Familiar Tools

Demands for mechanisms to pay for adaptation to climate risks have multiplied rapidly as concern has shifted from greenhouse gas mitigation alone to also coping with the now-inevitable impacts. A number of viable approaches to how to pay for those adjustments to roads, drainage systems, lifeline utilities and other basic infrastructure are emerging, though untested at the scale required across the nation, which already has a trillion-dollar deferred maintenance and replacement problem. There are growing efforts to find new ways to harness private financial resources via new market arrangements to meet needs that clearly outstrip public resources alone, as well as to utilize and combine public resources more effectively. To date, mechanisms are often seen through a specific lens of scale, time, and method, for example national versus local and public versus market-based means. The purpose here is to integrate a number of those perspectives and also to highlight the following in particular. Current experience with seemingly more pedestrian needs like stormwater management funding is in fact a learning step towards new approaches for broader adaptation needs, using re-purposed but existing fiscal tools. The resources raised from new large-scale market approaches for using catastrophe- and resiliency-bond-derived funds will have their use embodied and operationalized in many separate local and state projects. The invention and packaging of innovative projects—the pre-development phase—will be pivotal to better using fiscal resources of many types. Those efforts can be greatly aided or hindered by larger national and especially state government policy, regulatory and capital market arrangements. Understanding the path to integration of effort across these scales deserves much more attention. Examples are given of how federal, state and local roles are each dimensions of that frontier, how existing tools can apply in new ways and how smart project creation plays a role.

Communication across cultures? An intercultural approach to customer service in the hotel industry: a study with globally branded hotels in the United Kingdom

In a professional and business-social context such as that of global hotel brands in the United Kingdom, intercultural communication, contacts and relationships are found at the heart of daily operations and of customer service. A large part of the clientele base of hotels in the United Kingdom is formed by individuals who belong to different cultural groups that travel in the country either for leisure or business. At the same time, the global workforce which is recruited in the hotel industry in the United Kingdom is a reality here to stay. Global travelling and labor work mobility are phenomena which have been generated by changes which occur on a socio-economic, cultural and political level due to the phenomenon of globalization. The hotel industry is therefore well acquainted with the essence of different cultures either to be accommodated within hotel premises, as in the case of external customers, or of diversity management where different cultures are recruited in the hotel industry, as in the case of internal customers. This thesis derives from research conducted on eight different global hotel brands in the United Kingdom in particular, with reference to three, four and five star categories. The research aimed to answer the question of how hotels are organized in order to address issues of intercultural communication during customer service and if intercultural barriers arise during the intercultural interaction of hotel staff and global customers. So as to understand how global hotel brands operate the research carried out focused in three main areas relating to each hotel: organizational culture, customer service–customer care and intercultural issues. The study utilized qualitative interviews with hotel management staff and non-management staff from different cultural backgrounds, public space observations between customers and staff during check-in and checkout in the reception area and during dining at the café-bar and restaurant. Thematic analysis was also applied to the official web page of each hotel and to job advertisements to enhance the findings from the interviews and the observations. For the process of analysis of the data interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenology of Martin Heidegger has been applied. Generally, it was found that hotel staff quite often feel perplexed by how to deal with and how to overcome, for instance, language barriers and religious issues and how to interpret non verbal behaviors or matters on food culture relating to the intercultural aspect of customer service. In addition, it was interesting to find that attention to excellent customer service on the part of hotel staff is a top organizational value and customer care is a priority. Despite that, the participating hotel brands appear to have not yet, realized how intercultural barriers can affect the daily operation of the hotel, the job performance and the psychology of hotel staff. Employees indicated that they were keen to receive diversity training, provided by their organizations, so as to learn about different cultural needs and expand their intercultural skills. The notion of diversity training in global hotel brands is based on the sense that one of the multiple aims of diversity management as a practice and policy in the workplace of hotels is the better understanding of intercultural differences. Therefore global hotel brands can consider diversity training as a practice which will benefit their hotel staff and clientele base at the same time. This can have a distinctive organizational advantage for organizational affairs in the hotel industry, with potential to influence the effectiveness and performance of hotels.

Gobernanza del espacio público: el comparendo ambiental en la UPZ 97 Chicó Lago 2014 - 2016.

La política del comparendo ambiental como herramienta pedagógica para el adecuado manejo de los residuos sólidos, pretende responsabilizar a la ciudadanía sobre el aseo del espacio público, en tanto la gestión por sí sola del Estado o las empresas privadas no ha logrado alcanzar este objetivo. El presente trabajo busca analizar, en el marco del servicio público domiciliario de aseo, la gestión del comparendo ambiental en el espacio público de la UPZ 97 Chicó Lago del 2014 al 2016, haciendo énfasis en las relaciones de los actores desde una perspectiva de gobernanza. De esa manera nos aproximamos a la noción de la ciudadanía frente al comparendo ambiental, para determinar cómo la política incluye su participación en la gestión del aseo en el espacio público.

LA EDUCACIÓN EN DERECHOS HUMANOS DESDE UNA APROXIMACIÓN LÚDICA: EL MODELO DE NACIONES UNIDAS

Los juegos de rol conocidos como “Modelos de Naciones Unidas” permiten construir una perspectivacognitiva y cultural innovadoras, puesto que nos obligan a posicionarnos frente a los actualesdesafíos internacionales desde un nuevo lugar: el del Otro. El mayor desafío pasa por representarfielmente la política exterior de aquel país que se representa, y así este ejercicio abre ventanas amundos desconocidos que rompen con estructuras mentales e imaginarios colectivos sobre los quese asientan el prejuicio y la discriminación negativa. Debe sumarse el enfoque interdisciplinariosobre el que se construye la práctica: las situaciones por problematizar exigen un esfuerzo conceptual ampliado y holístico para obtener una propuesta superadora.Tomando como caso testigo el 4º MONUUNQ (2009) se intentará sostener la idea de que la actuaciónlogra habilitar saberes, competencias y perspectivas cognitivas nuevas para la persona que,en su insistencia y ejercicio, progresivamente consigue ir construyendo un empoderamiento real.Tarde o temprano, el sujeto activo en dichas prácticas, trasladará el aprendizaje a su vida cotidianay potenciará una verdadera educación en derechos humanos.La “mediación normativa” sucede en el espacio público, lugar desde donde se debe luchar por serreconocido por los pares, con y desde los otros, puesto que para obtener una negociación activa y unliderazgo fructífero que se plasme en el documento escrito final, el estudiante deberá mantenerse en el margen de los códigos de la diplomacia internacional: oratoria, respeto al protocolo, conocimientode los procedimientos, y defensa irrenunciable a los valores constituyentes de la ONU.AbstractRole plays known as ‘United Nations Models’ allow us to build an innovative cognitive and cultural perspective,since they make us be positioned in front of contemporary international challenges from a new place:the other’s place. The biggest challenge is to truly represent the international policy of the country being represented, and that is how this exercise opens windows to unknown worlds which break mental structuresand collective imaginaries, above which prejudice and negative discrimination settle. The interdisciplinaryfocus upon which the practice is built has to be added: the simulated situations demand a wider and holisticconceptual effort to obtain an overcoming proposal.Taking as a model 4th MONUUNQ (2009), it is intended to sustain the idea that role playing habilitatesnew skills, competences and cognitive perspectives for the person who, with insistence and exercise, willprogressively build a real empowerment. Sooner or later, the active subject on those practices will move thelearnt contents to his everyday life and will propel an actual Human Rights Education.‘Normative mediation’ takes place in the public space, the place from which people should fight to be recognizedby equals, ‘with and from other people’, since to obtain an active negotiation and fruitful leadershipwhich will turn into a final written document, the student will have to abide by the codes of internationaldiplomacy – oratory, protocol respect, procedure acknowledge, and defense of the constitutive values of United Nations Organization.

Costituzionalismo democratico e diritto sovranazionale: la questione sociale in Europa.

La presente tesi affronta l’evoluzione dei rapporti tra costituzionalismo democratico e diritto sovranazionale in Europa. L’ipotesi della ricerca si basa sull’idea che l’aumentare sempre più incessante negli ultimi decenni di conflitti costituzionali tra i due ordinamenti sia dovuto ad una loro differenza di fondo, di cui una parte importante è rappresentata dall’assenza della questione sociale nel diritto sovranazionale. Il primo capitolo si occupa di analizzare le principali teorie giuridiche che hanno fornito l’habitus teorico per leggere il processo di integrazione, giustificando l’adozione di una lettura delle dinamiche ordinamentali attraverso il prisma dei conflitti e della costituzione materiale. Nel secondo capitolo si volge lo sguardo all’analisi del diritto giurisprudenziale, suddiviso in due blocchi: un primo in cui – dopo aver approfondito alcuni capisaldi del diritto sovranazionale – si confrontano i due sistemi, in maniera statica, su alcuni temi (principio di non discriminazione, libertà di impresa e il bilanciamento con interessi collettivi, i diritti di pressione democratica, ecc.) per mettere in luce i diversi approcci; un secondo blocco in cui, invece, si studiano, in maniera più dinamica, le diverse perturbazioni che hanno interessato i rapporti tra ordinamenti, di cui una prima si è sviluppata sul rispetto dei diritti fondamentali da parte del diritto sovranazionale, mentre una seconda, ancora in corso, si concentra sul discorso sull’identità costituzionale. Nel terzo capitolo, in chiusura, si prova a sviluppare – sulla base delle risultanze del dibattito teorico e dell’analisi giurisprudenziale – una proposta finale che cerchi di unire la questione sociale e il discorso sull’identità costituzionale nel diritto pubblico europeo, che abbia alla sua base un nuovo e più centrale ruolo che dovranno svolgere le Corti costituzionali nello sviluppo delle dinamiche ordinamentali, al fine di far emergere alcuni conflitti di valore assenti nello spazio pubblico europeo.

The role of heritage in revalorization politicos of urban space

Certain areas of the city of Sao Paulo, as many others around the world, including in Lisbon, Barcelona and Buenos Aires, have been going through a process of requalification, in special the ones commonly known as old and/or traditional city. Regarding Sao Paulo, some exceptional actions have been taken downtown with investments in rehabilitation/requalification of areas that concentrated the historical, urbanistic and cultural heritages, such as Praca da S and its cathedral, as well as the revaluation/rehabilitation projects of other squares like Praca da Republica, other areas as the previously called Cracolandia (due to high consumption/deal of crack), known today as Nova Luz, besides propositions to reevaluate areas already modified, such as Vale do Anhangabau. In all propositions to modify sites, it is firstly underlined its deterioration, litter and the presence of low-income populations (passer-bys, street vendors or residents), generally stigmatized as ""potential suspects"", emphasizing danger and lack of security in those places. This belief, which has become consensual, results in that: public as well as private companies promote the rehabilitation of the areas basing their reasoning in the necessity of adding value to the existing urban heritage, although, as it will be discussed in this paper, part of this heritage might be destroyed in this very process, under the allegation that upon completion, the action would allow the social, cultural and economical revaluation/requalification of the area. This paper is intended to provide a contribution to this discussion.

Espacios olvidados, lugares diferenciados: transformación social del espacio urbano en Bogotá (1850- 1880) = Forgotten Spaces, distinct places: Social transformation of urban space in Bogotá (1850-1880)

The purpose of this article is linked to some forms of recovery of social and urban spaces fallen into oblivion that are evident in the social transformation of urban space in Bogotá between 1850 and 1880.The following paper presents the preliminary results of the research entitled practices and social uses of water in Bogotá (1850-1888). The text links in first discussions about the understanding of the city as a drawing in space, moving to describe, the growth of the city, integrating its historical, social and cultural structuring

Local space for local people? Trends in the provision and management of urban outdoor recreation in the UK

This paper examines the growing trend in the UK towards the effective privatisation of formerly public open space and the relationship of this trend to the recent shifts in public sector management. A case study of Reading, England, illustrates the growing cultural and spatial dysfunction, particularly in terms of the declining knowledge and use of the town's urban gardens by the local population. Where once the gardens were a focus of social activity, therefore, they are now a largely irrelevant site of urban decline. In contrast to central urban space, it is clear that other types of open space in other areas can still assume a significance in peoples' lives. In many cases the use of these areas illustrates a counter cultural position in which the consumerism of the city management is actively being resisted. The paper concludes that while there appear to be ways in which local space could be reclaimed for local people, the power to achieve this lies predominantly in the same hands as those responsible for appropriating central space to the imperative of the market in the first instance