Inequality in education in Costa Rica: The gap between students in public and private schools. An analysis of the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Includes bibliography.

A gestão premiada: a experiência de gestão do C.E.M.R.C São Francisco Xavier em Abaetetuba - Pará

O tema desta tese é a lógica da premiação escolar, compreendida como uma estratégia de regulação da gestão escolar, sustentada na lógica gerencial, que quer tornar-se hegemônica nas escolas públicas brasileiras. Visando a compreensão do objeto, foram identificadas e analisadas as referências políticas e econômicas, sociológicas, psicológicas e filosóficas que lhes são constituintes, e seus significados fundamentais, e foi investigada uma experiência específica de gestão escolar premiada. Na etapa inicial da pesquisa foram utilizadas a pesquisa bibliográfica, necessária para a compreensão das referências da lógica da premiação, e a pesquisa documental, que permitiu a análise de documentos da escola e dos organismos de premiação. Um Estudo de caso foi utilizado para a investigação da singularidade de uma escola de referência da lógica da premiação, a Escola de Ensino Fundamental e Médio em Regime de Convênio São Francisco Xavier, referência nacional em gestão escolar “democrática” em função de vários prêmios recebidos. Afirma-se que a escola efetiva uma gestão com características que a aproximam da gestão democrática, em função do uso de estratégias participativas que envolvem os diferentes sujeitos da escola e da comunidade, mas que, ao desenvolver ações consonantes com os editais de premiação a que concorrem, aproxima-se das características da gestão empresarial, valorizando a meritocracia, o individualismo, o pragmatismo e a análise sistêmica. Algumas das marcas da gestão da escola pesquisada são a ambigüidade, já que são evidentes práticas gestoras pautadas na democracia e na lógica do mercado, e o apelo participacionista. Concluiu-se que os editais de premiação ganham força para regular a vida da escola e os sentidos de público, qualidade e participação são ressignificados em função da perspectiva assumida.

Living Invisible: HTLV-1-Infected Persons and the Lack of Care in Public Health

Introduction: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection is intractable and endemic in many countries. Although a few individuals have severe symptoms, most patients remain asymptomatic throughout their lives and their infections may be unknown to many health professionals. HTLV-1 can be considered a neglected public health problem and there are not many studies specifically on patients' needs and emotional experiences. Objective: To better understand how women and men living with HTLV-1 experience the disease and what issues exist in their healthcare processes. Methods: A qualitative study using participant observation and life story interview methods was conducted with 13 symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, at the outpatient clinic of the Emilio Ribas Infectious Diseases Institute, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Results and Discussion: The interviewees stated that HTLV-1 is a largely unknown infection to society and health professionals. Counseling is rare, but when it occurs, focuses on the low probability of developing HTLV-1 related diseases without adequately addressing the risk of infection transmission or reproductive decisions. The diagnosis of HTLV-1 can remain a stigmatized secret as patients deny their situations. As a consequence, the disease remains invisible and there are potentially negative implications for patient self-care and the identification of infected relatives. This perception seems to be shared by some health professionals who do not appear to understand the importance of preventing new infections. Conclusions: Patients and medical staff referred that the main focus was the illness risk, but not the identification of infected relatives to prevent new infections. This biomedical model of care makes prevention difficult, contributes to the lack of care in public health for HTLV-1, and further perpetuates the infection among populations. Thus, HTLV-1 patients experience an "invisibility" of their complex demands and feel that their rights as citizens are ignored.

Bioremediation of PAHs - Limitations and soultions

Introduction 1.1 Occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in the environment Worldwide industrial and agricultural developments have released a large number of natural and synthetic hazardous compounds into the environment due to careless waste disposal, illegal waste dumping and accidental spills. As a result, there are numerous sites in the world that require cleanup of soils and groundwater. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the major groups of these contaminants (Da Silva et al., 2003). PAHs constitute a diverse class of organic compounds consisting of two or more aromatic rings with various structural configurations (Prabhu and Phale, 2003). Being a derivative of benzene, PAHs are thermodynamically stable. In addition, these chemicals tend to adhere to particle surfaces, such as soils, because of their low water solubility and strong hydrophobicity, and this results in greater persistence under natural conditions. This persistence coupled with their potential carcinogenicity makes PAHs problematic environmental contaminants (Cerniglia, 1992; Sutherland, 1992). PAHs are widely found in high concentrations at many industrial sites, particularly those associated with petroleum, gas production and wood preserving industries (Wilson and Jones, 1993). 1.2 Remediation technologies Conventional techniques used for the remediation of soil polluted with organic contaminants include excavation of the contaminated soil and disposal to a landfill or capping - containment - of the contaminated areas of a site. These methods have some drawbacks. The first method simply moves the contamination elsewhere and may create significant risks in the excavation, handling and transport of hazardous material. Additionally, it is very difficult and increasingly expensive to find new landfill sites for the final disposal of the material. The cap and containment method is only an interim solution since the contamination remains on site, requiring monitoring and maintenance of the isolation barriers long into the future, with all the associated costs and potential liability. A better approach than these traditional methods is to completely destroy the pollutants, if possible, or transform them into harmless substances. Some technologies that have been used are high-temperature incineration and various types of chemical decomposition (for example, base-catalyzed dechlorination, UV oxidation). However, these methods have significant disadvantages, principally their technological complexity, high cost , and the lack of public acceptance. Bioremediation, on the contrast, is a promising option for the complete removal and destruction of contaminants. 1.3 Bioremediation of PAH contaminated soil & groundwater Bioremediation is the use of living organisms, primarily microorganisms, to degrade or detoxify hazardous wastes into harmless substances such as carbon dioxide, water and cell biomass Most PAHs are biodegradable unter natural conditions (Da Silva et al., 2003; Meysami and Baheri, 2003) and bioremediation for cleanup of PAH wastes has been extensively studied at both laboratory and commercial levels- It has been implemented at a number of contaminated sites, including the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989, the Mega Borg spill off the Texas coast in 1990 and the Burgan Oil Field, Kuwait in 1994 (Purwaningsih, 2002). Different strategies for PAH bioremediation, such as in situ , ex situ or on site bioremediation were developed in recent years. In situ bioremediation is a technique that is applied to soil and groundwater at the site without removing the contaminated soil or groundwater, based on the provision of optimum conditions for microbiological contaminant breakdown.. Ex situ bioremediation of PAHs, on the other hand, is a technique applied to soil and groundwater which has been removed from the site via excavation (soil) or pumping (water). Hazardous contaminants are converted in controlled bioreactors into harmless compounds in an efficient manner. 1.4 Bioavailability of PAH in the subsurface Frequently, PAH contamination in the environment is occurs as contaminants that are sorbed onto soilparticles rather than in phase (NAPL, non aqueous phase liquids). It is known that the biodegradation rate of most PAHs sorbed onto soil is far lower than rates measured in solution cultures of microorganisms with pure solid pollutants (Alexander and Scow, 1989; Hamaker, 1972). It is generally believed that only that fraction of PAHs dissolved in the solution can be metabolized by microorganisms in soil. The amount of contaminant that can be readily taken up and degraded by microorganisms is defined as bioavailability (Bosma et al., 1997; Maier, 2000). Two phenomena have been suggested to cause the low bioavailability of PAHs in soil (Danielsson, 2000). The first one is strong adsorption of the contaminants to the soil constituents which then leads to very slow release rates of contaminants to the aqueous phase. Sorption is often well correlated with soil organic matter content (Means, 1980) and significantly reduces biodegradation (Manilal and Alexander, 1991). The second phenomenon is slow mass transfer of pollutants, such as pore diffusion in the soil aggregates or diffusion in the organic matter in the soil. The complex set of these physical, chemical and biological processes is schematically illustrated in Figure 1. As shown in Figure 1, biodegradation processes are taking place in the soil solution while diffusion processes occur in the narrow pores in and between soil aggregates (Danielsson, 2000). Seemingly contradictory studies can be found in the literature that indicate the rate and final extent of metabolism may be either lower or higher for sorbed PAHs by soil than those for pure PAHs (Van Loosdrecht et al., 1990). These contrasting results demonstrate that the bioavailability of organic contaminants sorbed onto soil is far from being well understood. Besides bioavailability, there are several other factors influencing the rate and extent of biodegradation of PAHs in soil including microbial population characteristics, physical and chemical properties of PAHs and environmental factors (temperature, moisture, pH, degree of contamination). Figure 1: Schematic diagram showing possible rate-limiting processes during bioremediation of hydrophobic organic contaminants in a contaminated soil-water system (not to scale) (Danielsson, 2000). 1.5 Increasing the bioavailability of PAH in soil Attempts to improve the biodegradation of PAHs in soil by increasing their bioavailability include the use of surfactants , solvents or solubility enhancers.. However, introduction of synthetic surfactant may result in the addition of one more pollutant. (Wang and Brusseau, 1993).A study conducted by Mulder et al. showed that the introduction of hydropropyl-ß-cyclodextrin (HPCD), a well-known PAH solubility enhancer, significantly increased the solubilization of PAHs although it did not improve the biodegradation rate of PAHs (Mulder et al., 1998), indicating that further research is required in order to develop a feasible and efficient remediation method. Enhancing the extent of PAHs mass transfer from the soil phase to the liquid might prove an efficient and environmentally low-risk alternative way of addressing the problem of slow PAH biodegradation in soil.

An evaluation of the impact of Inner City Development's Cooperative Home School: An educational alternative program to increase the quality and level of education in San Antonio's West Side community

The research study was intended to evaluate the effectiveness of Inner City Development's (I.C.D.) Cooperative Home School, an educational alternative program to the Title I public schools of San Antonio's West Side community. The study investigated students', parents' and tutors' perception of parental involvement and educational resources. The study also investigated each student's academic achievement. ^ The study found that students progressed toward expected math proficiency at a faster rate than they did in reading proficiency. However, because the target population size was small and a comparison group was not used, the results of this study are only suggestive. This research also indicated that study subjects believed students' quality and level of education increased substantially since program exposure. Study subjects mainly attributed the students' strides in academic performance to the increased amount of individualized attention students received in the small twelve-student class size. Study subjects were more satisfied with the home school's educational resources than those of the Title I public schools. Study subjects also perceived that parental involvement both at home and at school increased since enrollment in the home school program because: (1) there were more opportunities for involvement in the home school; and (2) parents felt closer to the tutors than the teachers in public school. ^ This evaluation also suggested improvements to program operations. With the help of additional volunteers, I.C.D. program operators could improve collection and organization of academic records. Furthermore, as suggested by program participants, science could be added to the curriculum. Lastly, a formal tutor orientation could be implemented to familiarize and train tutors on classroom management procedures. ^

Por don Francisco Miralles, con doña Francisca Santisteuan

Precede al tit.: "Iesus, Maria Ioseph"

Alegacion juridica por la jurisdiccion priuativa en los lugares de la Baronia de Planes propia del ... Señor D. Francisco Ponce de Leon, Spinola de la Cerda, Duque de Arcos ... Baron de Planes ... contra el concejo, justicia y regimiento de dicha su villa de Planes ...

Precede al tít.: "J.M.J. y San Francisco de Assis"

El primogenito de los suyos i principe de sus hermanos : [Texto impreso] oracion de S. Diego de Alcala que en el Real Convento de N.P.S. Francisco de Valencia, dia 12 de noviembre 1771 dijo

Sign. : A-D4

Sn. Francisco de Sales [Material gráfico]

Inscripción enla parte inferior derecha: "115"

Misterioso anagramma, que en glorias del gran patriarca San Joachin padre de la Madre de Dios, en el... Convento del Serafin... San Franciscisco [sic] de Asis... de Xativa, dia 9... de mayo de 99... [Texto impreso]

Aprobacion fechada en Valencia, 1699

[Altar del Convento de San Sebastián] [Material gráfico]

Resumen: Descripción: en el primer cuerpo, San Sebastián. Rematando, San Francisco de Paula

[Altar del Colegio de San Pablo] [Material gráfico]

Resumen: Descripción: en la parte central, San Francisco Javier; en los laterales, San Luis Gonzaga, San Estanislao y San Ignacio de Loyola. Reamtando el altar, el apóstol San Pablo

Aspects of teacher supply and demand in public school districts and private schools, 1987-88 /

"Data series: DR-SAS-87/88.

Ruggedized minicomputer hardware and software topics, 1981 : proceedings of a conference held in San Diego, California, February 22-25, 1981.

"The Fourth ROLM MIL-SPEC Users Group Conference"--Pref.

The golden mountain : Chinese tales told in California /

Mimeographed.