Da crítica à relação sociedadenatureza no ensino de Geografia à crítica da questão ambiental na mídia

O ensino de Geografia defrontase com inúmeros desafios no que compete à formação de cidadãos com efetiva atuação social. Neste estudo, apontase, como um destes desafios, o raciocínio espacial, tendo como ponto de partida a compreensão multiescalar e multifacetada da questão ambiental por meio do reconhecimento dos diversos discursos e significados que permeiam essa questão. A mídia constituise, nos últimos tempos, em expressiva instância para a produção de sentidos e de representações acerca do que vem a constituir esse debate, tendo o docente um papel indispensável na mediação da prática educativa e na problematização dos processos que se pretendem hegemônicos. Considerando essas questões, este estudo discute o movimento a ser estabelecido da crítica à relação sociedadenatureza no ensino de Geografia à crítica da questão ambiental apresentada pela mídia. Para tal, desenvolveuse uma metodologia de pesquisa que, envolvendo professores e alunos, buscou confrontar as concepções e práticas enunciadas como as responsáveis pelo debate ambiental em sala de aula com a questão ambiental difundida pela mídia, sendo observados como principais aspectos: a persistente dicotomia sociedade versus natureza como a principal responsável pela dificuldade de professores e alunos na análise da questão ambiental; o não reconhecimento, por parte dos professores, de que essa dicotomia ainda se faz latente no pensar e no fazer geográfico na escola; a carência de uma mediação pedagógica entre o material da mídia e o conhecimento geográfico incorrendo na não problematização de importantes elementos concernentes à questão ambiental; as informações ambientais da mídia têmse sobreposto ao conhecimento geográfico do ambiente a ser pautado na relação sociedadenatureza; o reprodutivismo dos discursos e representações mediáticos sobre a natureza, o ambiente e o espaço pelos alunos. Portanto, a partir dessas constatações, concluise que as percepções da questão ambiental, deslocadas da compreensão analítica e crítica da relação sociedadenatureza na contemporaneidade, podem conduzir a interpretações fragmentárias e simplificadoras do espaço. Como contrapontos a essa perspectiva, são apresentados aspectos das teorias da complexidade (Edgar Morin) e da totalidade (na concepção geográfica de Milton Santos) como importantes alternativas analíticas para o combate da visão dicotômica homem (sociedade) versus meio (natureza) e, por conseguinte, para o fortalecimento da compreensão do espaço enquanto uma totalidade dialética.

Políticas de ação afirmativa e acesso ao ensino superior : os impactos da introdução das leis de reserva de vagas na UERJ

O objetivo desse trabalho de pesquisa foi realizar uma análise sobre o impacto institucional na política de acesso à UERJ, a partir da implementação da Lei n. 3542/2000, que destina 50% das vagas para alunos oriundos da rede pública de ensino e da Lei n. 3708/2001, que prevê 40% das vagas para pretos e pardos, com ênfase maior para afro-descendentes. Por meio dela, tive a intenção de contribuir com o debate sobre a agenda de ações afirmativas para a inclusão da população negra na universidade pública brasileira. De certa maneira, as políticas de ação afirmativa (AA) vieram problematizar o conceito de igualdade de direito, edificado a partir de experiências revolucionárias como nos EUA, França, Inglaterra, Índia, entre outros países. Essas políticas foram concebidas com a intenção de não privilegiar determinados grupos, mas assegurar para todos o mesmo tratamento perante a lei. O espaço da universidade escolhido para desenvolver a pesquisa foi o Conselho Superior de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão (Csepe) e o Conselho Universitário (Consun), duas instâncias fundamentais para a gestão da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, à medida que definem e deliberam sobre as políticas a serem implementadas pela Universidade. Nesses Conselhos, pude ler e analisar Atas das sessões do Csepe e do Consun realizadas no período de 2000 a 2003, assim como pautas das reuniões de ambos os Conselhos no período de 1990 a 2003. Por meio dessa leitura e análise, pude identificar singularidades do processo de gestão universitária, refletindo sobre o quanto os caminhos trilhados podem contribuir para a construção de alternativas de democratização do ensino superior público no país e como instrumento de combate ao racismo

Avaliação de modelos preditivos de sorção em membranas de pervaporação para a remoção de sulfurados da nafta

A remoção de compostos sulfurados da gasolina é um assunto de grande interesse na indústria de refino de petróleo em função das restrições ambientais cada vez mais rígidas em relação ao teor máximo de enxofre de produtos acabados. A solução mais comum para remoção de contaminantes são as unidades de hidrotratamento que operam a alta pressão e possuem alto custo de instalação e de operação além de levarem à perda de octanagem do produto acabado. O uso de membranas é uma alternativa promissora para a redução do teor de enxofre de correntes de gasolina e possui diversas vantagens em relação ao hidrotratamento convencional. O conhecimento aprofundado dos parâmetros que influenciam as etapas de sorção e difusão é crítico para o desenvolvimento da aplicação. Este trabalho avalioua seletividade e sorção do sistema formado por n-heptano e tiofeno em polímeros através de modelos termodinâmicos rigorosos, baseados em contribuição de grupos. O modelo UNIFAC-FV, variante do tradicional modelo UNIFAC para sistemas poliméricos, foi o modelo escolhido para cálculo de atividade dos sistemas estudados. Avaliou-se ainda a disponibilidade de parâmetros para desenvolvimento da modelagem e desenvolveu-se uma abordagem com alternativas para casos de indisponibilidade de parâmetros UNIFAC. Nos casos com ausência de parâmetros, o cálculo do termo residual da atividade das espécies é feito na forma proposta por Flory-Hugginsutilizando-se parâmetros de solubilidade obtidos também por contribuição de grupos. Entre os métodos de contribuição de grupos existentes para cálculo de parâmetros de solubilidade, o método de Hoy mostrou menores desvios para os sistemas estudados. A abordagem utilizada neste trabalho permite, ao final, uma análise de alterações da configuração da cadeia principal de polímeros de forma a influenciar sua seletividade e sorção para dessulfurização de naftas

Homens idosos em programas de esporte e lazer

O cotidiano dos projetos sociais sobre esporte e lazer revela grupos de participantes que se identificam com as atividades lá desenvolvidas. Por outro lado, há pessoas avessas às atividades dos projetos, porque normalmente alguma característica as deixa desconfortáveis. Considerando essa realidade, o estudo procurou identificar os fatores que interferem na participação de homens idosos em programas de esporte e lazer. O estudo foi aplicado no bairro de Piedade, zona norte da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, onde foram entrevistados 10 idosos que residem próximo do projeto SUDERJ em FORMA. Para a coleta, processamento e apresentação dos dados utilizamos a abordagem radical das representações sociais proposta por Votre (2009), a partir do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC) de Lefebvre et al (2007). O modelo de análise delineado valoriza tanto as pessoas individuais, em suas falas singulares, quanto a reunião dessas pessoas, que falam como grupo sobre tópicos que lhes são relevantes. Os resultados obtidos apontam que os fatores que contribuem para a ausência dos homens idosos nas atividades desenvolvidas pelo projeto são: a figura do professor e o método por ele aplicado; receio, vergonha e discriminação, em participar com mulheres e jovens; gosto por outras práticas não oferecidas pelo projeto. Embora toda a boa premissa relacionada aos benefícios da participação dos idosos em programas de esporte e lazer e perante a garantia de acesso a estes programas, no estudo ficou constatado que tais condições não são suficientes para atingir o público masculino de idosos. Consideramos que no processo de criação de novas estratégias e propostas de intervenção, é de extrema importância que ocorra um planejamento cuidadoso que identifique as dificuldades sociais e individuais que reduzam ou impeçam a participação do sujeito idoso nas atividades propostas. Concluímos, também, que reforçar os benefícios da prática da atividade física, oferecer atividades de lazer não ligadas à prática esportiva, oferecer atividades adaptadas e atividades exclusivas para os homens, são alternativas viáveis para atrair o homem idoso para o projeto.

Single crystal diamond schottky diodes - Practical design considerations for enhanced device performance

Novel alternatives to the conventional single crystal diamond Schottky metal-intrinsic-p+ (m-i-p+) diode is presented in this work. The conduction mechanism of the device is analysed and structural modifications to enhance its performance are proposed. The periodic inclusion of highly p+ doped thin δ-layers and p+ spots in the intrinsic voltage blocking layer of the diode drastically improves the forward performance of these devices enhancing the forward current of the device by a factor of 10 - 17 with a maximum forward current density of ̃ 40 A/cm 2 for a 2 kV device.

Applications in adaptive cluster sampling of Gulf of Alaska rockfish

Adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) has been the subject of many publications about sampling aggregated populations. Choosing the criterion value that invokes ACS remains problematic. We address this problem using data from a June 1999 ACS survey for rockfish, specifically for Pacific ocean perch (Sebastes alutus), and for shortraker (S. borealis) and rougheye (S. aleutianus) rockfish combined. Our hypotheses were that ACS would outperform simple random sampling (SRS) for S. alutus and would be more applicable for S. alutus than for S. borealis and S. aleutianus combined because populations of S. alutus are thought to be more aggregated. Three alternatives for choosing a criterion value were investigated. We chose the strategy that yielded the lowest criterion value and simulated the higher criterion values with the data after the survey. Systematic random sampling was conducted across the whole area to determine the lowest criterion value, and then a new systematic random sample was taken with adaptive sampling around each tow that exceeded the fixed criterion value. ACS yielded gains in precision (SE) over SRS. Bootstrapping showed that the distribution of an ACS estimator is approximately normal, whereas the SRS sampling distribution is skewed and bimodal. Simulation showed that a higher criterion value results in substantially less adaptive sampling with little tradeoff in precision. When time-efficiency was examined, ACS quickly added more samples, but sampling edge units caused this efficiency to be lessened, and the gain in efficiency did not measurably affect our conclusions. ACS for S. alutus should be incorporated with a fixed criterion value equal to the top quartile of previously collected survey data. The second hypothesis was confirmed because ACS did not prove to be more effective for S. borealis-S. aleutianus. Overall, our ACS results were not as optimistic as those previously published in the literature, and indicate the need for further study of this sampling method.

Avaliaçāo económica das medidas de gestāo da pescaria de camarāo do Banco de Sofala

The objective of this study is to recommend management measures for the industrial shallow-water shrimp fishery in Sofala Bank after estimating the economic affects considering different alternatives and assessing the level of exploitation of this fishery. The short-term economic analysis was based on the results of the total catch and average weight of the shrimp caught obtained by a simulation model in which different combinations of exploitation patterns and levels of fishing intensity were tasted. The variable parameters used were the mash size and the duration and period of the closed season, and all the remaining parameters were fixed. Economic and production data of the main industrial shrimp fishing companies for the period 1987-90 were also used.

An integrated approach to national marine resources development

A review is presented of the various marine resources and their potential, concerning fishing, aquaculture, transportation, pollution, hydrocarbons and solid minerals, renewable energy and ocean thermal energy conversion. Administrative problems confronting their rational management in Sri Lanka are examined, considering coastal area management and development, management issues, and alternatives.

The prediction of hot streak migration in a high-pressure turbine

Accurate predictions of combustor hot streak migration enable the turbine designer to identify high-temperature regions that can limit component life. It is therefore important that these predictions are achieved within the short time scales of a design process. This article compares temperature measurements of a circular hot streak through a turning duct and a research turbine with predictions using a three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver. It was found that the mixing length turbulence model did not predict the hot streak dissipation accurately. However, implementation of a very simple model of the free stream turbulence (FST) significantly improved the exit temperature predictions on both the duct and research turbine. One advantage of the simple FST model described over more complex alternatives is that no additional equations are solved. This makes the method attractive for design purposes, as it is not associated with any increase in computational time.

Study of effect Rosmarinus officinalis oil and nisin on the growth of Streptococcus iniae in lab conditions and fillets of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Fish are an important part of a healthy diet since they contain high quality protein, but typically present a low fat percent when compared to other meats. Fish is an extremely perishable food commodity. On the other hand, food borne diseases are still a major problem in the world, even in well-developed countries. The increasing incidence of food borne diseases coupled with the resultant social and economic implications means there is a constant striving to produce safer food and to develop new antimicrobial agents concerns over the safety of some chemical preservatives and negative consumer reactions to preservatives they perceive as chemical and artificial, have prompted on increased interest in more ‘‘naturalgreen’’ alternatives for the maintenance or extension of product shelf-life. Particular interest has focused on the potential applications of plant essential oils. However, to establish the usefulness of natural antimicrobial preservatives, they must be evaluated alone and in combination with other preservation factors to determine whether there are synergistic effects and multiple hurdles can be devised. In this study, were evaluated the effects of different concentrations of Rosmarinus officinalis and nisin and storage time (15 days) on growth of Streptococcus iniae GQ850377 in a lab conditions and a food model system (fillets of rainbow trout) in 4 and 8 °C. In addition, we also studied multi factorial effects of four different concentration of rosemary, three different concentrations of nisin, two different levels of pH in 3 temperature 4,15 and 37 °C on log% of S.iniae during 43 days in BHI broth. The results on growth of S. iniae were evaluated using SPSS 20.0 statistical software and analyzed the logarithm of total count of the bacterial by Tukey Test. Results were considered statistically significant when P<0.05. MIC and MBC values of rosemary and nisin were 0.03, 0.075 % and 5, 40 μg/mL, respectively. The growth of S. iniae was effected significantly (P<0.05) by rosemary and nisin and also combination of rosemary and nisin in 4 and 8 °C. Samples treated with 0.135 and 0.405 % of rosemary showed a significant decrease on the growth of the bacteria compared with control sample(P<0.05). The most ١٤٦ inhibitory effects were seen in samples treated with 0.135 and 0.405% of rosemary until 9 days after storage. Also, the synergism effects of rosemary and nisin on the growth rate of bacteria was significant (P<0.05) compared with untreated samples and samples treated with the rosemary or nisin, only. Synergistic effects was observed at concentration of 0.405% rosemary and 0.75 μg/mL nisin in both temprature. Results of this study showed that different concentration of rosemary a significant inhibitory effect (P<0.05) on log% of S. iniae, in BHI broth in pH 5.5 and 7 in 4,15 and 37 °C during 43 days. In concentration of 0% rosemary (control) in pH 5.5 and 7 and 37°C, log% were 1.099 and 3.15, whereas in concentration of 0.015% rosemary were -4/241 and 1.454, respectively. The use of essential oils may improve food safety and overall microbial quality. If essential oils were to be more widely applied as antibacterials in foods, the organoleptic impact would be important. In addition, it is recommended to apply essential oils or their compounds as part of a hurdle system and to use it as an antimicrobial component along with other preservation techniques. Thus essential of R. officinalis with high antibacterial activity selected in this study could be a potential source for inhibitory substances against some food-borne pathogens and they may be candidates for using in foods or food-processing systems.

Embodied Energy and Gas Emissions of Retaining Wall Structures

The embodied energy (EE) and gas emissions of four design alternatives for an embankment retaining wall system are analyzed for a hypothetical highway construction project. The airborne emissions considered are carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4), nitrous oxide (N 2O), sulphur oxides (SO X), and nitrogen oxides (NO X). The process stages considered in this study are the initial materials production, transportation of construction machineries and materials, machinery operation during installation, and machinery depreciations. The objectives are (1) to determine whether there are statistically significant differences among the structural alternatives; (2) to understand the relative proportions of impacts for the process stages within each design; (3) to contextualize the impacts to other aspects in life by comparing the computed EE values to household energy consumption and car emission values; and (4) to examine the validity of the adopted EE as an environmental impact indicator through comparison with the amount of gas emissions. For the project considered in this study, the calculated results indicate that propped steel sheet pile wall and minipile wall systems have less embodied energy and gas emissions than cantilever steel tubular wall and secant concrete pile wall systems. The difference in CO 2 emission for the retaining wall of 100 m length between the most and least environmentally preferable wall design is equivalent to an average 2.0 L family car being driven for 6.2 million miles (or 62 cars with a mileage of 10,000 miles/year for 10 years). The impacts in construction are generally notable and careful consideration and optimization of designs will reduce such impacts. The use of recycled steel or steel pile as reinforcement bar is effective in reducing the environmental impact. The embodied energy value of a given design is correlated to the amount of gas emissions. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Advanced applications of a computational design synthesis method

From modelling to manufacturing, computers have increasingly become partners in the design process, helping automate many phases once carried out by hand. In the creative phase, computational synthesis methods aim at facilitating designers' task through the automated generation of optimally directed design alternatives. Nevertheless, applications of these techniques are mainly academic and industrial design practice is still far from applying them routinely. This is due to the complex nature of many design tasks and to the difficulty of developing synthesis methods that can be easily adapted to multiple case studies and automated simulation. This work stems from the analysis of implementation issues and obstacles to the widespread use of these tools. The research investigates the possibility to remove these obstacles through the application of a novel technique to complex design tasks. The ability of this technique to scale-up without sacrificing accuracy is demonstrated. The successful results confirm the possibility to use synthesis methods in complex design tasks and spread their commercial and industrial application.

The development of a hot rolling process for variable cross-section I-beams

To meet targeted reductions in CO 2 emissions by 2050, demand for metal must be cut, for example through the use of lightweight technologies. However, the efficient production of weight optimized components often requires new, more flexible forming processes. In this paper, a novel hot rolling process is presented for forming I-beams with variable cross-section, which are lighter than prismatic alternatives. First, the new process concept is presented and described. A detailed computational and experimental analysis is then conducted into the capabilities of the process. Results show that the process is capable of producing defect free I-beams with variations in web depth of 30-50%. A full analysis of the process then indicates the likely failure modes, and identifies a safe operating window. Finally, the implications of these results for producing lightweight beams are discussed. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimal inference of sameness.

Deciding whether a set of objects are the same or different is a cornerstone of perception and cognition. Surprisingly, no principled quantitative model of sameness judgment exists. We tested whether human sameness judgment under sensory noise can be modeled as a form of probabilistically optimal inference. An optimal observer would compare the reliability-weighted variance of the sensory measurements with a set size-dependent criterion. We conducted two experiments, in which we varied set size and individual stimulus reliabilities. We found that the optimal-observer model accurately describes human behavior, outperforms plausible alternatives in a rigorous model comparison, and accounts for three key findings in the animal cognition literature. Our results provide a normative footing for the study of sameness judgment and indicate that the notion of perception as near-optimal inference extends to abstract relations.

Composite electrospun gelatin fiber-alginate gel scaffolds for mechanically robust tissue engineered cornea.

A severe shortage of good quality donor cornea is now an international crisis in public health. Alternatives for donor tissue need to be urgently developed to meet the increasing demand for corneal transplantation. Hydrogels have been widely used as scaffolds for corneal tissue regeneration due to their large water content, similar to that of native tissue. However, these hydrogel scaffolds lack the fibrous structure that functions as a load-bearing component in the native tissue, resulting in poor mechanical performance. This work shows that mechanical properties of compliant hydrogels can be substantially enhanced with electrospun nanofiber reinforcement. Electrospun gelatin nanofibers were infiltrated with alginate hydrogels, yielding transparent fiber-reinforced hydrogels. Without prior crosslinking, electrospun gelatin nanofibers improved the tensile elastic modulus of the hydrogels from 78±19 kPa to 450±100 kPa. Stiffer hydrogels, with elastic modulus of 820±210 kPa, were obtained by crosslinking the gelatin fibers with carbodiimide hydrochloride in ethanol before the infiltration process, but at the expense of transparency. The developed fiber-reinforced hydrogels show great promise as mechanically robust scaffolds for corneal tissue engineering applications.