Eucalyptus ESTs involved in mechanisms against plant pathogens and environmental stresses

Eucalypt plantation has high economical importance in Brazil; however, it has been attacked by various pathogens under different environmental stress conditions. Disease resistance and survival under unfavorable environmental conditions have revealed that the eucalypt has developed highly efficient defense systems. Here we show the results of the Eucalyptus ESTs Genome Project (FORESTs). Using the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) obtained by the Project, contigs of similar sequences from each cDNA library induced and not induced by stress agents were formed, and cDNA sequences similar to other already known molecules, such as plant-signaling molecules, phytoalexins, lignin biosynthesis pathways, PR-proteins and putative genes corresponding to enzymes involved in the detoxification of reactive oxygen species, were identified. We also present general considerations about the mechanisms of Eucalyptus defense against biotic and abiotic stresses. These data are of extreme importance for future eucalypt breeding programs aimed at developing plants with enhanced resistance against pathogens and environmental stresses.

Integrating environmental education in primary school education in Tanzania : teachers’ perceptions and teaching practices

The study focuses on primary school teachers’ perceptions of environmental education, its integration into primary school education and teachers’ teaching practices in Tanzania. The thesis is based on empirical research. The theoretical underpinnings of the study are based on Palmer’s (1998) model of environmental education. According to the model, meaningful environmental education should include education about, in or through and for the environment. The study is supported by national and international literature from research done on environmental education and education for sustainable development and policy statements. The study is qualitative in nature, adopting phenomenography and phenomenology as points of departure. The empirical data was collected from four primary schools in Morogoro region in Tanzania. The study sample consisted of 31 primary school teachers. Data was collected through interviews and lesson observations. According to the results of the study, primary school teachers expressed variations in their perceptions of environmental education and education for sustainable development. Most of the teachers focused on the aspect of knowledge acquisition. According to Tanzanian education and training policy, environmental education has to be integrated into all subjects. Although there is environmental education in the primary school curriculum, it is not integrated on an equal footing in all subjects. Some subjects like science, social studies and geography have more environmental content than other subjects. Teachers claim that the approach used to integrate environmental education into the school curriculum was not favoured because many claimed that what is to be taught as environmental education in the various subjects is not shown clearly. As a result, many teachers suggested that to ensure that it is taught properly it should be included in the curriculum as an independent subject or as specific topics. The study revealed that teachers’ teaching practices in integrating environmental education varied from one subject to another. Although most of the teachers said that they used participatory methods, lesson observations showed that they limited themselves to question and answer and group discussion. However, the teachers faced a number of barriers in the teaching of environmental education, some of which include lack of teaching and learning resources, time and large class size. The role of teachers in the implementation of environmental education in developing an environmentally literate citizenry is of great significance. The responsibility of the government in developing a curriculum with clear goals and content, developing teachers’ capacity in the teaching of environmental education and provision of teaching and learning materials needs to be taken seriously by the government in educational plans and programs.

Concepções sobre assédio moral: bullying e trote em uma escola médica

O termo bullying vem sendo utilizado para descrever um tipo de violência insidiosa e devastadora, que compromete negativamente a saúde e o ambiente. Pesquisas conduzidas sobre o tema em estudantes de Medicina revelam que ela ocorre especialmente sob a forma de abusos repetidos, mas permanece pouco explorada durante a formação médica. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o tema do trote como aparece nas falas de docentes e estudantes quando são estimulados a relatar situações de violência entre alunos durante a graduação em Medicina. Foi feita pesquisa de caráter exploratório, qualitativa, de corte transversal, sob a forma de estudo de caso. Foram entrevistados alunos em cargo de representação e professores em cargo de chefia. Os resultados evidenciaram a ocorrência de diversas situações de abuso, especificamente durante o trote universitário. É necessário um amplo debate sobre a violência na universidade. Para que se construa um ambiente de respeito e cooperação, adequado ao desenvolvimento de pessoas, a violência precisa ser banida das universidades

Assédio moral nas residências médica e não médica de um hospital de ensino

OBJETIVOS: Conhecer a prevalência e as características do assédio moral nas residências médica e não médica em um hospital de ensino em Recife (PE). MÉTODOS: Um questionário foi elaborado para investigar a prevalência do assédio moral, os perfis do assediado e do assediador, e possíveis sequelas. Uma definição para assédio moral foi apresentada aos participantes. RESULTADOS: Foram entrevistados 105 residentes. A prevalência do assédio foi de 41,9%, sendo mais frequente em menores de 28 anos (46,3%), mulheres (45,8%), residentes do segundo ano (47,7%) e na área médica (46,8%). Essas diferenças não foram estatisticamente significantes (p = 0,082; 0,118; 0,349; 0,225, respectivamente). As mulheres referiram mais sequelas (p = 0,013), sendo a maior parte destas de origem psíquica (58,5%) ou profissional (39,0%). Os profissionais responsáveis pela preceptoria são os principais assediadores (40,7%), seguidos daqueles com cargos na coordenação (29,1%; p = < 0,001). CONCLUSÕES: 41,9% dos residentes já foram vítimas de assédio moral. Não houve diferença significativa de prevalência entre os grupos estudados. Os cargos próximos das atividades clínicas se mostraram mais propícios a cometê-lo (preceptoria e coordenação). O sexo feminino se mostrou tão suscetível ao assédio quanto o masculino, mas sofreu significativamente mais sequelas (p = 0,013).

Competência de juízo moral dos estudantes de medicina: um estudo piloto

Os autores realizaram estudo de corte transversal para avaliar a competência de juízo moral, com a aplicação do Moral Judgment Test (MJT) proposto por Lind, entre estudantes do primeiro e do oitavo semestre de uma escola médica na Região Nordeste do Brasil. Compararam-se as turmas do primeiro e do oitavo semestre com relação ao escore C e avaliou-se a influência de fatores como idade e sexo sobre a competência moral. Uma diferença igual ou superior a 5,0 pontos (absolute effect-size) entre os valores do escore C foi considerada significante. Observou-se regressão da competência de juízo moral entre os alunos do oitavo semestre com relação aos do primeiro semestre (escore C 20,5 x 26,2 pontos, respectivamente). Na análise do desempenho dos alunos por dilemas do MJT, observou-se o fenômeno da "segmentação moral" em ambas as turmas, com melhor desempenho dos alunos no dilema do operário com relação ao dilema do médico. Entre alunos do mesmo semestre, aqueles com idade mais avançada apresentaram níveis mais baixos de escore C quando comparados aos alunos mais jovens. Não houve diferença significante entre homens e mulheres com relação à competência de juízo moral. A constatação de que ocorre estagnação ou regressão da competência de juízo moral no transcurso da graduação médica deve ser motivo de preocupação para os professores e para os responsáveis pelo planejamento curricular, no sentido de buscar estratégias para reverter o quadro.

Competência de Juízo Moral entre Estudantes de Odontologia

Esta pesquisa objetivou avaliar a competência moral de estudantes de Odontologia no Estado do Ceará. O estudo foi do tipo observacional transversal descritivo. Aplicou-se o Moral Judgement Test (MJT) com os alunos regularmente matriculados no primeiro e último semestres dos cursos de Odontologia do Estado. Para a análise do ambiente de aprendizagem, realizou-se a coleta dos conteúdos das disciplinas e estágios de todas as IES envolvidas para consolidação das cargas horárias. Avaliou-se como variável dependente o aspecto cognitivo – competência de juízo moral calculada a partir do MJT e expressa pelo escore C. As variáveis independentes foram: (a) tipo de instituição; (b) tempo de aprendizagem; (c) gênero; (d) idade. Para análise da diferença estatística significante entre gênero, semestre e tipo de instituição, calculou-se a diferença de médias através do teste t.O teste de Anova foi utilizado para análise das diferenças entre grupos etários por semestre.Os resultados apontam que a média de competência de juízo moral (escore C)dos entrevistados foi de 18,3, não havendo diferença significativa entre os sexos. Analisando-se a média de escore C dos estudantes do primeiro e último semestre, observou-se uma tendência de perda de competência do primeiro (19,0) para o último semestre (17,6) e uma diferença significativa entre alunos de instituições públicas (21,0) e privadas (16,5). Observou-se também que as disciplinas com conteúdo de Ciências Humanas não ultrapassaram20% dos projetos pedagógicos dos cursos, condicionando os futuros cirurgiões-dentistas a desenvolver uma competência moral limitada.

O Cuidado Empático: Contribuições para a Ética e Sua Interface com a Educação Moral na Formação em Saúde

RESUMO O presente artigo apresenta alguns pontos essenciais do pensamento do filósofo Michael Slote em sua obra “The ethics of care and empathy”. Situamos a sua produção no contexto em que a ética do cuidado foi desenvolvida e problematizada, evidenciando, sobretudo, a questão de gênero que atravessa essa perspectiva ética. Assim, convocamos autores e autoras que dialogam estreitamente com as questões levantadas por Slote como interlocutores fundamentais para se pensar a empatia como componente fundamental da ética do cuidado. Em sequência, resgatamos o sentido ontológico do cuidado e da responsabilidade, correlacionando-os com a prática do cuidado em saúde. Ao final, apresentamos um caso paradigmático para um debate concreto da ética do cuidado e empatia no âmbito da educação moral, destacando sua importância no processo de formação dos profissionais de saúde no Brasil.

Competência Moral e Espiritualidade na Educação Médica: Realidade ou Desafio?

RESUMO Estudantes de Medicina iniciam a faculdade idealistas, mas muitos consideram sair indiferentes: este é o maior desafio da educação médica. Estudos ratificam uma involução da competência moral durante o curso. Outro interesse crescente no meio acadêmico é a espiritualidade. Objetivo Avaliar a relação entre competência moral e espiritualidade dos estudantes de Medicina. Métodos Estudo descritivo transversal, com 121 estudantes. A coleta foi realizada por meio do software limesurvey, contendo o TCLE e três questionários: sociodemográfico, teste de competência moral de George Lind, calculado em planilha do Excel, e escala de espiritualidade de Pinto e Pais-Ribeiro. Utilizou-se o software Stata 12.0 na análise. Resultados Ter religião está associado a maior espiritualidade. Em relação ao gênero feminino e a ter pais médicos, houve tendência de associação com espiritualidade elevada. O escore C manteve-se crescente durante o curso. Na relação entre espiritualidade e competência moral, estudantes com baixa espiritualidade apresentaram tendência a escore C maior. Conclusão Estudantes mais espiritualizados apresentam tendência a ter competência moral menor. O questionário de espiritualidade, contudo, está intrincado com dimensões religiosas, que tendem a limitar o desenvolvimento da competência moral na população estudada.

DISAGREEING OVER EVALUATIVES: PREFERENCE, NORMATIVE AND MORAL DISCOURSE

Abstract Why would we argue about taste, norms or morality when we know that these topics are relative to taste preferences, systems of norms or values to which we are committed? Yet, disagreements over these topics are common in our evaluative discourses. I will claim that the motives to discuss rely on our attitudes towards the standard held by the speakers in each domain of discourse, relating different attitudes to different motives -mainly, conviction and correction. These notions of attitudes and motives will allow me to claim that different domains of evaluative discourse have a different distribution of disagreements driven by them.

How to (dis)solve Nagel's paradox about moral luck and responsibility

Abstract In this paper I defend a solution to the moral luck problem based on what I call "a fair opportunity account of control." I focus on Thomas Nagel's claim that moral luck reveals a paradox, and argue that the apparent paradox emerges only because he assumes that attributions of responsibility require agents to have total control over their actions. I argue that a more modest understanding of what it takes for someone to be a responsible agent-i.e., being capable of doing the right thing for the right reasons-dissolves the paradox and shows that responsibility and luck aren't at odds.

The Process of Greening Cycle as Method of Operative Environmental

The structural change of society from product-based business to service- and further to need-based business has caused the fact that work for environmental issues has spread from conventional factories and environmentally harmful production to concern services and offices as well. Almost every company has an office, so a relatively small environmental burden caused by an individual office grows remarkable already at the state level and globally even more. Motivation to work for environmental issues in an individual office could be challenging even without the fact that wasted environmental impacts bound also wasted costs. Besides cost savings, a concretely greener image of a company has its value in the B2Cas well as in the B2B-field. Consumers and clients are more and more conscious of environmental issues and demand concrete actions instead of speeches, good thoughts and meaningless certifications. Internal work for environmental issues at a strategy level is not sufficient, so operational environmental management is needed for changing old practices. This research is about the effects of operative environmental management on the greening process of an office-based business. The research is outlined to concern the operative work in the office including field sales. Target was to concretely lower the environmental impacts of Lyreco Finland and to find cost savings directly by changing the operative practices in the office and also indirectly by affecting the level of environmental knowledge of the personnel. During the greening process, the aim was also to create concrete arguments for marketing as well. The circle of greening process, which was especially created for this diploma work, was used as a method. The circle divides a year to themes and sections separated by factors of environmental impacts. Separation is based on Brett Wills’ thoughts of seven green wastes (Wills, Brett. The Green Intensions. 2009) and follows it uneasily. The circle aimed at ensuring evolutionary growth of knowledge instead of being revolutionary in the changing process. Committing personnel to the process from its start by asking ideas from them and giving them clear directions was an important part of the research of operative management. Because of working from distance, communication with personnel was operated by frequent training days and weekly greening notes via emails and intranet. Also availability for communication was an important task because of the telecommuting. Research results of this work show that operative environmental management in an officebased business today is mostly management of change. When the strategic environmental friendliness is taken into a concrete level, the most important individual factor is motivating the operating personnel. Research shows that evolutionary change is found being an efficient way to make a change. Also understanding one´s own impact on the environmental burden and on the whole greening process clearly motivates the personnel. Results show that in the operative realization of the greening process, clear directions of new working practices, being as concrete as possible, and committing personnel to follow them make the process more effective. The operative environmental management and the cycle of the greening process decrease the environmental burden and save costs. The concrete results could be used as believable arguments in marketing and therefore exploited in communication with interest groups. Commitment of the management is also one of the key factors of success in the greening process. In this research, changes in the business field by a company trade took the focus of the management away from the greening process and made the process more inefficient by decreasing the amount of training days. The circle of greening process will be used as a tool in the future, as well, and therefore it will help observe environmental impacts of a company and increase sustainable development. Commitment of management to the evolutionary environmental work helps the operating personnel lower environmental impacts, decrease costs and build a concretely greener image.

Environmental inFluences on the Adoption of Open Innovation: Analysis of Structural, Institutional and Cultural Impacts

The concept of open innovation has recently gained widespread attention, and is particularly relevant now as many firms endeavouring to implement open innovation, face different sets of challenges associated with managing it. Prior research on open innovation has focused on the internal processes dealing with open innovation implementation and the organizational changes, already taking place or yet required in companies order to succeed in the global open innovation market. Despite the intensive research on open innovation, the question of what influences its adoption by companies in different contexts has not received much attention in studies. To fill this gap, this thesis contribute to the discussion on open innovation influencing factors by bringing in the perspective of environmental impacts, i.e. gathering data on possible sources of external influences, classifying them and testing their systemic impact through conceptual system dynamics simulation model. The insights from data collection and conceptualization in modelling are used to answer the question of how the external environment affects the adoption of open innovation. The thesis research is presented through five research papers reflecting the method triangulation based study (conducted at initial stage as case study, later as quantitative analysis and finally as system dynamics simulation). This multitude of methods was used to collect the possible external influence factors and to assess their impact (on positive/negative scale rather than numerical). The results obtained throughout the thesis research bring valuable insights into understanding of open innovation influencing factors inside a firm’s operating environment, point out the balance required in the system for successful open innovation performance and discover the existence of tipping point of open innovation success when driven by market dynamics and structures. The practical implications on how firms and policy-makers can leverage environment for their potential benefits are offered in the conclusions.

Integrating environmental aspects into product development process

Various regulations and customer requirements have made it necessary for Vacon Oyj to pay more attention to the environmental aspects in its processes. The main purpose of this master’s thesis project is to define how environmental aspects could be integrated into Vacon’s product development process. The aim is to find out the most important environmental aspects for the company to address, to examine how these could be taken into account during the development process and to map the critical factors that need consideration in order to ensure the successful integration of environmental aspects into the design process. Based on the customer requirements and evolving regulations the most important aspects for Vacon include minimizing the amount of harmful substances, improving the recyclability and energy efficiency of the product and moreover providing meaningful information related to these aspects. To tackle these issues, a new DfE process was developed, tasks in each phase were described and responsibilities were indicated. To ensure the success of the DfE process, management commitment, support of other processes and significant improvements in ways the information is managed are required. The developers should be provided with training and support. Environmental expertise and knowledge in-house should be developed and establishing meaningful environmental indicators is suggested.

Environmental behavior of soils and mixtures of soil-whitewash mud

The present study sought to observe the behavior of soils in natural state and in mixtures, in different ratios, with the industrial solid residue called whitewash mud. The work was conducted with samples of typical soils from the region of Alagoinhas, Bahia-Brazil. Wet chemical analysis and atomic absorption spectrophotometry were used in order to obtain the classification of the industrial solid residue. Solubilization and leaching tests were performed and X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy techniques were carried out. The results showed that the whitewash mud was classified as non-inert, but with great capacity of heavy metal retention largely owed to the kaolinite and goethite presence in the clay fraction of the soils, making it difficult to have heavy metals readily available for exchange.

Conservative nutrient use by big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla king) planted under contrasting environmental conditions

We analyzed the nutritional composition and isotope ratios (C and N) of big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) leaves in plantations established on contrasting soils and climates in Central America (State of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, México) and South America (State of Pará, Brazil). The objective was to determine the adaptability of this species to large differences in nutrient availability and rainfall regimes. Nutrient concentrations of leaves and soils were determined spectrophotometrically, and isotope ratios were measured using mass spectrometric techniques.In Pará soils were sandier, and acidic, receiving above 2000 mm of rain, whereas in Quintana Roo soils were predominantly clayey, with neutral to alkaline pH due to the underlying calcareous substrate, with about 1300 mm of rain. Leaf area/weight ratio was similar for both sites, but leaves from Quintana Roo were significantly smaller. Average N and K concentrations of adult leaves were similar, whereas Ca concentration was only slightly lower in Pará in spite of large differences in Ca availability. Leaves from this site had slightly higher P and lower Al concentrations. Differences in water use efficiency as measured by the natural abundance of 13C were negligible, the main effect of lower rainfall in Quintana Roo seemed to be a reduction in leaf area. The N isotope signature (δ15N) was more positive in Pará than in Quintana Roo, suggesting higher denitrification rates in the former. Results reveal a calciotrophic behavior and a remarkable capacity of mahogany to compensate for large differences in soil texture and nutrient availability.