Communities of the postindustrial city

The authors discern the community structure of the postindustrial city, with reference to Australia. They focus empirically on three major types of Australian urban center: urban regions. metropolitan areas that are not part of urban regions, and other major cities. These three account for almost three-quarters of the Australian population. The authors draw on a conceptualization formulated by Marcuse and van Kempen to guide the analysis, with a combination of cluster analysis and discriminant analysis being applied to aggregate (essentially census) data to identify the communities. Nine major Australian urban communities are identified-four are affluent. four are disadvantaged. and one is a working-class community. The communities found, however, differed greatly from those cited in the Marcuse and van Kempen schema.

Improved nitrogen removal by application of new nitrogen-cycle bacteria

In order to meet increasingly stringent European discharge standards, new applications and control strategies for the sustainable removal of ammonia from wastewater have to beimplemented. In this paper we discuss anitrogen removal system based on the processesof partial nitrification and anoxic ammoniaoxidation (anammox). The anammox process offers great opportunities to remove ammonia in fully autotrophic systems with biomass retention. No organic carbon is needed in such nitrogenremoval system, since ammonia is used a selectron donor for nitrite reduction. The nitrite can be produced from ammonia in oxygen-limited biofilm systems or in continuous processes without biomass retention. For successful implementation of the combined processes, accurate biosensors for measuring ammonia and nitrite concentrations, insight inthe complex microbial communities involved, and new control strategies have to be developed and evaluated.

Teachers and productive pedagogies: Contextualising, conceptualising, utilising

Improving students' outcomes from schooling requires schools to be learning organisations, where both students and teachers are engaged in learning. As such, knowledge and talk about pedagogy need to be at the core of the professional culture of schools. This article argues that this will require the valuing of teachers' work, that is, their pedagogical practices, to be a central focus of educational policy. Dangers are associated with this argument in terms of understating the impacts of poverty, lack of funding to disadvantaged schools and other social factors such as the pressures of globalisation upon students' educational opportunities. Hence, while acknowledging the importance of pedagogy to students' outcomes, the article contextualises the argument through a recognition of the policy and structural conditions that work against the valuing of teachers and their work. It then conceptualises how, within this context, a focus on pedagogies can make a difference to students' academic and social outcomes from schooling. This conceptualisation utilises the productive pedagogies model of classroom practice, developed in a large Australian study of school reform, as an example of the forms of pedagogical practices that support students' achievement of academic and social outcomes. It is argued that such pedagogical practices ought to be a concern of teachers, school administrators, education systems and local communities interested in schools as learning organisations.

Plano de implementa????o do projeto de desenvolvimento de capacidade de governan??a

Desde a d??cada de 1990, o Governo Federal brasileiro vem implementando uma agenda ambiciosa de reformas do Estado, centradas na redu????o da pobreza e na melhoria da efici??ncia dos servi??os p??blicos. As principais prioridades, conforme previstas no Plano Plurianual (PPA) para o per??odo 2003-2007, s??o as seguintes: inclus??o social e redu????o da desigualdade; crescimento econ??mico com gera????o de emprego; distribui????o de renda e respeito ao meio ambiente; promo????o e amplia????o dos direitos de cidadania; e fortalecimento da democracia. No in??cio de 2006, o Governo criou a Pol??tica Nacional de Desenvolvimento de Pessoal (Decreto 5.707), com o objetivo de melhorar e aumentar a efici??ncia e a efic??cia na presta????o de servi??os p??blicos. No marco dessa pol??tica recente, as escolas de administra????o p??blica desempenham um papel fundamental na identifica????o das compet??ncias que precisam ser desenvolvidas nas institui????es do governo, bem como na implementa????o de pol??ticas de capacita????o para os servidores p??blicos, diretamente e/ou em parceria com escolas de governo nos n??veis federal, estadual ou local. O Canad?? tamb??m est?? criando uma estrutura para levantar as compet??ncias necess??rias para os servidores p??blicos e desenvolv??-las como um componente da Renova????o do Servi??o P??blico em todo o governo. Como institui????es l??deres no desenvolvimento de compet??ncias de servidores p??blicos, a Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) e a Escola Nacional de Administra????o P??blica (ENAP) firmaram uma parceria para implementar o Projeto de Desenvolvimento de Capacidade de Governan??a no Brasil. A finalidade do Projeto ?? melhorar a capacidade de servidores p??blicos federais, estaduais e municipais do Brasil para desenvolver e implementar programas de capacita????o e gerenciar pol??ticas p??blicas descentralizadas. Espera-se que essa parceria e o resultante compartilhamento de experi??ncias em capacita????o para governan??a efetiva contribuam para a redu????o da pobreza e das desigualdades no Brasil, por meio do desenvolvimento de compet??ncias de servidores na presta????o de servi??os p??blicos eficazes e eficientes, voltados para o cidad??o. O Projeto re??ne, al??m das duas principais Escolas de Governo no Canad?? e no Brasil, seis Escolas Brasileiras de Administra????o P??blica regionais e duas renomadas Institui????es Acad??micas Canadenses ??? a Queen???s University e a Western Ontario University. O Minist??rio do Desenvolvimento Social e Combate ?? Fome (MDS) e tr??s Secretarias Especiais do Governo Federal ??? Ra??a (SEPPIR), Direitos Humanos (SEDH) e Pol??ticas para as Mulheres (SPM) ??? tamb??m se envolver??o nas atividades de compartilhamento de conhecimentos com o Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) e a Canada Public Service Agency (CPSA). A CIDA fornecer?? CND$1.700.000 por meio do Programa Brasil-Canad?? de Interc??mbio de Conhecimentos para a Promo????o da Equidade (PIPE). A contribui????o da ENAP ser?? de CND$1.069.707 em esp??cie. A CSPS contribuir?? com cursos, al??m de conhecimentos e suporte t??cnicos, avaliados em CND$1.000.000. Aproveitando a parceria entre a CSPS e a ENAP, que resultou na transfer??ncia e na adapta????o bem sucedidas de cursos e metodologias canadenses, o novo projeto extrapola o n??cleo do servi??o p??blico em Bras??lia, alcan??ando escolas de governo em regi??es brasileiras em situa????o de desvantagem. ?? semelhan??a do papel da CSPS no primeiro projeto, a ENAP fortalecer?? a capacidade das escolas parceiras regionais para capacitar servidores p??blicos envolvidos na presta????o de servi??os aos brasileiros. O interc??mbio estruturado entre Minist??rios dos Governos canadense e brasileiro tamb??m aplicar?? a aprendizagem mais diretamente a quest??es de pol??ticas e programas sociais do Brasil. O desafio assumido neste Projeto ?? a adapta????o de conhecimentos e aprendizagem, com vistas a melhorar a implementa????o de pol??ticas e programas sociais. Para tanto, a CSPS e a ENAP introduzir??o novos cursos nos curr??culos das escolas parceiras e incorporar??o novos m??todos e tecnologias de aprendizagem como, por exemplo, comunidades de pr??tica virtuais e um componente de tutoria (mentoring) envolvendo o Human Resources and Skills Development Canada e o Minist??rio do Desenvolvimento Social e Combate ?? Fome do Brasil. Seis institui????es da Rede Nacional de Escolas de Governo do Brasil e do Programa de Parceria da ENAP foram selecionadas e convidadas a se unir ?? CSPS e ?? ENAP nesse novo Projeto: a Universidade Federal do Par?? (UFPA), de Bel??m (estado do Par?? ??? regi??o Norte); a Funda????o Joaquim Nabuco (FUNDAJ), de Recife (Pernambuco ??? Nordeste); a Universidade Corporativa do Servi??o P??blico / Secretaria de Administra????o do Estado da Bahia (UCS/SAEB), Salvador (Bahia ??? Nordeste); a Escola de Governo do Mato Grosso do Sul (ESCOLAGOV), Campo Grande (estado do Mato Grosso do Sul ??? Centro-Oeste); a Escola Nacional de Ci??ncias Estat??sticas / Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estat??stica (ENCE/IBGE), Rio de Janeiro (estado do Rio de Janeiro ??? Sudeste); e o Instituto Municipal de Administra????o P??blica (IMAP) de Curitiba (Paran?? ??? Sul). Essas escolas de refer??ncia foram escolhidas segundo sua capacidade de trabalhar como p??los de pr??ticas inovadoras em pol??ticas p??blicas e disseminar os benef??cios do Projeto para outras escolas em suas regi??es, por meio da Rede Nacional coordenada pela ENAP. O objetivo dessa parceria ?? fortalecer as escolas de governo locais, para que estas desenvolvam, por meio de eventos de aprendizagem, compet??ncias em servidores p??blicos, a fim de aumentar a capacidade do governo na implementa????o e gest??o de pol??ticas p??blicas. O Plano de Implementa????o do Projeto (PIP) descreve o trabalho a ser realizado por essas institui????es nos pr??ximos 30 meses, ao tempo em que serve de guia para os Parceiros do Projeto no que se refere ??s a????es e aos recursos necess??rios para a obten????o dos resultados acordados. Na medida em que o Projeto estiver em andamento e os parceiros iniciarem um interc??mbio produtivo de conhecimentos, o Plano de Trabalho Anual ser?? atualizado e revisto por meio de reuni??es anuais de avalia????o e encontros do Comit?? Diretor do Projeto, com vistas a assegurar que os resultados descritos no PIP sejam alcan??ados com sucesso

A Travel Optimization System for Academic Environments

Carpooling initiated in America in the 1970s due to the oil crisis. However, over the past years, carpooling has increased significantly across the world. Some countries have created a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane to encourage commuters not to travel alone. In additional, carpool websites has been developed to facilitate the connection between the commuters, making it possible to create a compatible match in a faster and efficient manner. This project focuses on carpooling, especially in an academic environment since younger people are more likely to choose carpool. Initially, an intense research was made to examine carpool studies that occurred all over the world, following with a research of higher education institutes that use carpooling as a transportation mode. Most websites created carpools by targeting people from a specific country. These commuters have different origins and destinations making it more complicated to create compatible matches. The objective of this project is to develop a system helping teachers and students from an academic environment to create carpool matches. This objective makes it easier to create carpools because these students and teachers have the same destination. During the research, it was essential to explore, as many as possible, existing carpool websites that are available across the world. After this analysis, several sketches were made to develop the layout and structure of the web application that’s being implemented throughout the project. Once the layout was established, the development of the web application was initiated. This project had its ups and downs but it accomplished all the necessary requirements. This project can be accessed on the link: http://ipcacarpool.somee.com. Once the website was up and running, a web-based survey was developed to study the reasons that motivate people to consider carpooling as an alternative to driving alone. To develop this survey was used a tool called Survey Planet. This survey contained 408 respondents, which 391 are students and 17 are teachers. This study concludes that a majority of the respondents don’t carpool, however they will consider carpooling if there was a dedicated parking space. A majority of the respondents that carpool initiated less than a year ago, indicating that this mean of transportation is recent.

What factors of satisfaction and motivation are affecting the development of the academic career in Portuguese higher education institutions?

An important constituent group and a key resource of higher education institutions (HEIs) is the faculty or academic staff. The centrality of the faculty role makes it a primary sculptor of institutional culture and has implications for the quality of the institution and therefore has a major role in achieving the objectives of the institution. Demand for academic staff in higher education has been increasing and may be expected to continue to increase. Moreover the performance of academic staff as teachers and researchers determines much of the student satisfaction and has an impact on student learning. There are many factors that serve to undermine the commitment of academics to their institutions and careers. Job satisfaction is important in revitalizing staff motivation and in keeping their enthusiasm alive. Well motivated academic staff can, with appropriate support, build a national and international reputation for themselves and the institution in the professional areas, in research and in publishing. This paper aims to identify the issues and their impacts on academic staff job satisfaction and motivation within Portuguese higher education institutions reporting an ongoing study financed by the European Union through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

Nutritional status of children of urban low-income communities, Brazil (1986)

During the second half of 1986 the health and nutritional status of 254 children aged up to six years was studied, as well as the socio-economic situation of their parents in two favelas (shantytowns) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The nutritional status of the children was characterized by stunting (Z-score: 20.1% < -2) but not by wasting (Z-score: 3.7% < -2). Consideration was also given to how far stunting was caused by high morbidity such as acute respiratory infections (point prevalence: 38.5%), diarrheal diseases (point prevalence: 11.5%) and parasitosis (point prevalence: 70.3%). Furthermore, anemia (point prevalence: 29.7%) appeared as another health problem. The most important determinant of anthropometric indices turned out to be the mother's schooling. From the present data it can be hypothesized that the nutritional status of the children was limited less by the lack of food than by their poor health status.

The impact of improvement of water supply and sanitation facilities on diarrhea and intestinal parasites: a Brazilian experience with children in two low-income urban communities

During the second half of 1986 the impact of the improvement of water supply and excreta disposal facilities on diarrheal diseases and intestinal parasitosis was studied in 254 children up to six years of age from two favelas (shanty towns) of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The estimated incidence of diarrhea was 6.2 episodes/child year and the estimated period prevalence reached 31.0 episode days/ child/ year. The point prevalence of parasitosis was 70.7% (Ascaris lumbricoides: 55.4%, Trichuris trichiura: 19.6%, Giardia lamblia: 17.9%). The estimated prevalence of diarrhea decreased with improvement of water supply and sanitation facilities to 45% and 44% respectively, but no statistically significant impact was observed in the case of parasitosis. School education and weaning practice were found to be other important determinants of diarrhea.

Academic dishonesty: understanding how undergraduate students think and act

The purpose of this investigation is to explore and understand the justifications given by students to the existence of dishonest behavior and understanding the extent to which the justifications given might influence denouncing and cheating behavior. 1277 undergraduate students of two Portuguese Public Universities were surveyed about their own cheating behavior, their propensity to denounce and the ―neutralizing attitudes‖. As predicted, ―neutralizing attitudes‖ was negatively correlated with self cheating behavior and positively correlated with reporting. The likelihood of copying is greater when the purpose is ―helping a friend‖, ―when the courses are more difficult‖, ―to get higher marks/grades‖, and because ―peers accept and tend to see copying practices as normal‖. Results support the notion that context emerges as a very important influence in the decision to cheating. The environment-peer pressure and the normalized attitudes towards academic dishonesty are the main influences on the propensity to cheating.

Innovation through virtual communities of Practice: motivation and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

Communities of Practice are places which provide a sound basis for organizational learning, enabling knowledge creation and acquisition thus improving organizational performance, leveraging innovation and consequently increasing competitively. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP‟s) can perform a central role in promoting communication and collaboration between members who are dispersed in both time and space. The ongoing case study, described here, aims to identify both the motivations and the constraints that members of an organization experience when taking part in the knowledge creating processes of the VCoP‟s to which they belong. Based on a literature review, we have identified several factors that influence such processes; they will be used to analyse the results of interviews carried out with the leaders of VCoP‟s in four multinationals. As future work, a questionnaire will be developed and administered to the other members of these VCoP‟s

Virtual communities of practice: examining the motivations and constraints in their knowledge creation and knowledge transfer preocesses

Paper accepted for the OKLC 2009 - International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities (26-28th, April 2009, Amsterdam, the Netherlands).