Contributos para um Plano de Preservação no Arquivo Intermédio da Câmara Municipal de Sintra

Os aquivos municipais preservam a documentação definida legalmente como de conservação permanente, a memória e a experiência da Administração Local e, como tal, são agentes imprescindíveis à preservação dos direitos municipais. A preocupação com a preservação da documentação deve constituir um dos pilares principais do arquivo desde o início da sua criação. E não somente quando a documentação é transferida para o Arquivo Histórico, deve estar presente durante todo o ciclo de vida da documentação. Com a criação do PARAM (Programa de Apoio à Rede de Arquivos Municipais), os arquivos municipais ganham um novo incremento, não só a nível técnico como a nível financeiro, sendo-lhe reconhecido o seu devido valor e importância, na sua dupla dimensão, administrativa e cultural. Uma das funções do arquivo é disponibilizar a documentação que têm à sua guarda e que se encontra armazenada nos depósitos. Para tal é fundamental criar condições a curto, a médio e a longo prazo, implementando toda uma política integrada de preservação, envolvendo os demais serviços da instituição, fazendo-se o controlo do estado de conservação da documentação, aplicando uma metodologia da manipulação de documentos para disponibilizá-los tanto aos clientes internos como externos. O Arquivo Intermédio da Câmara Municipal de Sintra não possui plano de preservação documental, nem ações de preservação extensíveis aos objetos digitais, daí que a presente tese de mestrado pretenda ser um proposta de um contributo de um plano de preservação, que tenha em consideração os demais aspetos desde a localização e construção ou manutenção do edifício onde se encontra o arquivo, questões de segurança, de controlo ambiental, de luz/fotodegradação, o controlo integrado de pragas, danos causados por água, os desastres naturais, a poluição, a limpeza e vigilância na zona de depósitos e armazenamento e manuseamento dos documentos.

Notificação da violência como estratégia de vigilância em saúde: perfil de uma metrópole do Brasil

A violência é um problema de saúde pública e sua notificação é fundamental para a vigilância epidemiológica e para a definição de políticas públicas de prevenção e promoção de saúde. O estudo objetivou caracterizar a ocorrência de violência doméstica, sexual e de outras, a partir das informações do banco de dados do Sistema Informação de Agravos de Notificação (SINAN), das fichas de notificação de violência da cidade de Belém (PA), no período de janeiro de 2009 a dezembro de 2011. Foram sistematizadas 3.267 notificações, representando um aumento de 240% de 2009 a 2011. Em relação ao sexo das vítimas, observou-se que, em média, 83,2% dos casos atingiram as mulheres, proporção esta semelhante nos três anos analisados. A violência sexual foi a mais presente com 41,8%; seguida da violência psicológica com 26,3% e da violência física com 24,0%. Os resultados demonstram a importância do conhecimento do perfil das violências para intervenção e elaboração de políticas públicas intersetoriais que promovam a saúde e a qualidade de vida nesta região do Brasil.

Paper, prices and politics : an evaluation of the Swedish support to the Bai Bang project in Vietnam : a Sida evaluation report

Sweden’s protest against the Vietnam War was given tangible form in 1969 through the decision to give economic aid to the Government of North Vietnam. The main outcome was an integrated pulp and paper mill in the Vinh Phu Province north-west of Hanoi. Known as Bai Bang after its location, the mill became the most costly, one of the longest lasting and the most controversial project in the history of Swedish development cooperation. In 1996 Bai Bang produced at its full capacity. Today the mill is exclusively managed and staffed by the Vietnamese and there are plans for future expansion. At the same time a substantial amount of money has been spent to reach these achievements. Looking back at the cumbersome history of the project the results are against many’s expectations. To learn more about the conditions for sustainable development Sida commissioned two studies of the Bai Bang project. Together they touch upon several important issues in development cooperation over a period of almost 30 years: the change of aid paradigms over time, the role of foreign policy in development cooperation, cultural obstacles, recipient responsibility versus donor led development etc. The two studies were commissioned by Sida’s Department for Evaluation and Internal Audit which is an independent department reporting directly to Sida’s Board of Directors. One study assesses the financial and economic viability of the pulp and paper mill and the broader development impact of the project in Vietnam. It has been carried out by the Centre for International Economics, an Australian private economic research agency. The other study analyses the decision-making processes that created and shaped the project over a period of two decades, and reflects on lessons from the project for development cooperation in general. This study has been carried out by the Chr. Michelsen Institute, a Norweigan independent research institution.

The effect of work-integrated learning in highlighting the complexity of work : a pilot study of work self-efficacy

This pilot study aims to examine the effect of work-integrated learning (WIL) on work self-efficacy (WSE) for undergraduate students from the Queensland University of Technology. A WSE instrument was used to examine the seven subscales of WSE. These were; learning, problem solving, pressure, role expectations, team work, sensitivity and work politics. The results of this pilot study revealed that, overall the WSE scores were highest when the students’ did not participate in the WIL unit (comparison group) in comparison to the WIL group. The current paper suggests that WSE scores were changed as a result of WIL participation. These findings open a new path for future studies allowing them to explore the relationship between WIL and the specific subscales of WSE.

An Integrated Toolkit for the Conservation of Stone-Built Heritage

Rapid in situ diagnosis of damage is a key issue in the preservation of stone-built cultural heritage. This is evident in the increasing number of congresses, workshops and publications dealing with this issue. With this increased activity has come, however, the realisation that for many culturally significant artefacts it is not possible either to remove samples for analysis or to affix surface markers for measurement. It is for this reason that there has been a growth of interest in non-destructive and minimally invasive techniques for characterising internal and external stone condition. With this interest has come the realisation that no single technique can adequately encompass the wide variety of parameters to be assessed or provide the range of information required to identify appropriate conservation. In this paper we describe a strategy to address these problems through the development of an integrated `tool kit' of measurement and analytical techniques aimed specifically at linking object-specific research to appropriate intervention. The strategy is based initially upon the acquisition of accurate three-dimensional models of stone-built heritage at different scales using a combination of millimetre accurate LiDAR and sub-millimetre accurate Object Scanning that can be exported into a GIS or directly into CAD. These are currently used to overlay information on stone characteristics obtained through a combination of Ground Penetrating Radar, Surface Permeametry, Colorimetry and X-ray Fluorescence, but the possibility exists for adding to this array of techniques as appropriate. In addition to the integrated three-dimensional data array provided by superimposition upon Digital Terrain Models, there is the capability of accurate re-measurement to show patterns of surface loss and changes in material condition over time. Thus it is possible to both record and base-line condition and to identify areas that require either preventive maintenance or more significant pre-emptive intervention. In pursuit of these goals the authors are developing, through a UK Government supported collaboration between University Researchers and Conservation Architects, commercially viable protocols for damage diagnosis, condition monitoring and eventually mechanisms for prioritizing repairs to stone-built heritage. The understanding is, however, that such strategies are not age-constrained and can ultimately be applied to structures of any age.

New insights into boar sperm function and survival from integrated field and laboratory studies

En aquesta tesi s'han dut a terme dos tipus d'estudis diferents. L'objectiu del primer era la preservació del semen de porcí a 15ºC i el del segon eren els co-cultius homòlegs de cèl·lules epitelials de l'oviducte i espermatozoides de porcí. Pel que fa al primer estudi, s'ha observat que l'addició de la prostaglandina F2α i àcid hialurònic a les dosis seminals no malmena la qualitat espermàtica i que la tolerància dels espermatozoides als canvis d'osmolalitat del medi es pot correlacionar proves de fertilitat i prolificitat.. Respecte el segon, s'ha determinat que les cèl·lules oviductals afecten els paràmetres espermàtics i que la presència d'espermatozoides sobreexpressa els gens que codifiquen per les proteïnes de xoc tèrmic. Així, se suggereix que aquestes proteïnes tenen algun paper en els processos reproductius que tenen lloc a l'oviducte, malgrat que s'hagi observat, mitjançant la tècnica de la interferència de l'RNA, que la HSP90AA1 no està implicada en el perllongament de la viabilitat espermàtica.

The politics of coastal policy, planning and governance in Canada and Australia : business as usual, at a distance, or collaborative?

Canada and Australia are countries with substantial coastal zones which provide significant economic, social and environmental benefits and opportunities. The coastal zones of Canada and Australia also share significant threats such as, pollution, loss of biodiversity, and climate change, while also facing different challenges that are unique to their particular contexts. Effective management of such zones therefore represents a considerable challenge because of the: complexity of biophysical processes; multiple threats faced; uncertainties associated with understandings of such processes and threats, and the multiple jurisdictions and stakeholder viewpoints as to how such environments should be managed. Further, coasts and the sustainability of coastal resources and ecosystems have been argued to represent ‘wicked problems’ such that their governability is called into question. Therefore drawing on recent experiences in coastal policy, planning and governance in Newfoundland, Canada, and Victoria, Australia, this paper assesses the adequacy of current approaches to coastal governance in the two jurisdictions. In doing so we draw on recent policy and governance literature to consider whether coastal policy, planning and governance in Newfoundland and Victoria, reflect a collaborative, neoliberal, or business as usual (ad hoc, top down) approach. Based on such an assessment we consider the prospects for more integrated coastal zone management in each jurisdiction, as well as broader implications for governance and the resilience of coastal systems. It is argued that while both jurisdictions would benefit from a more collaborative approach, the mechanisms for bringing about such an approach would vary and will not come easily in light of institutional and historic barriers.

Educação ambiental: mediações sociais e políticas e a indolência do Poder Público à sua inclusão no ensino formal

As a result of the prediction of irreversible changes on necessary conditions to maintain life, including human, on the planet, environmental education got the spotlight in the political scenario, due to social pressure for the development of individual and collective values, knowledge, skills, attitudes and competences towards environmental preservation. In Brazil, only in 1999 the right for environmental education was officially granted to people, having the status of essential and permanent component in the country s education. Since then, it has been Government s duty, in each federal branch, to plan actions to make it happen, in an articulate way in all levels and modalities of the education process, both formally and informally. This work of research has environmental education in the school as subject matter, and aims on analyzing social and political mediations established between this National Environmental Education policy and the contexts associated to the legislative production process, the political nature of the conceptions about environmental education that underlie Law 9.795/99 (Brazil, 2009c) and also Rio Grande do Norte Government s actions and omissions related to the imperative nature of the insertion of environmental education in the schools ran by the state, during the ten years this law has been in force. The investigation of the subject matter was led by a social and historical understanding of the social and environmental phenomena, as well as of the education system as a whole, considering that only through a dialectical view we can see the real world, by destroying the pseudo-concreteness that surrounds the topic. While analyzing, we assumed that in face of the dominance of a social organization in which market regulations rule on environmental ones, by developing individual and collective critical conscience, environmental education can become a threat to dominant economical interests in exploiting natural resources. The results of this research suggest that as an educational practice to be developed in an integrated, continuous and permanent fashion in all levels and modalities of formal education, environmental education has not yet come to pass in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, due to the neglect and disrespect of the government when facing the need of promoting the necessary and legally appointed measures to make it present in the basic education provided by the state. The legislators silence when it comes to approving a regulation on environmental education essential to define policies, rules and criteria to teaching the subject in the state and the omission from the public administration regarding critical actions in order to integrate in public schools the activities related to the National Environmental Education Policy, represent a political decision for not doing anything, despite the legal demand for an active position. This neglecting attitude for the actualizing of strategically concrete actions, urgent and properly planned for the implementation of environmental education in schools in a multidisciplinary way, exposes the lack of interest the predominant classes have in such kind of education being made available, as it could be developed based on a critic political view, becoming a political and educational action against dominance. When analyzing the basic principles and fundamental goals in Law 9.795/99 (Brazil, 2009c) the development of a critic environmental education is really possible and concurs with the National Environmental Education Policy, reflecting the social and political mediations established between this public policy and the contexts associated to its legislative production process, which are responsible for approving a regulation which also represents the mind of the people about environmental protection above anything else

An integrated approach to identification and conservation of medicinal plants in the tropical forest - A Brazilian experience

An integrated and interdisciplinary research programme with native medicinal plants from tropical forests has been performed in order to obtain new forest products for sustainable use in regional markets vis-à-vis ecosystem conservation. For the success of this programme ethnopharmacological studies are very important with respect to (i) identification of useful plants including medicinal and aromatic species; (ii) recuperation and preservation of traditional knowledge about native plants; and (iii) identification of potential plants with economic value. The plants are selected with a view to evaluate efficacy and safety (pharmacological and toxicological studies), and phytochemical profile and quality control (phytochemical and chromatographic characterization). These studies are very important to add value to plant products and also to mitigate unscrupulous exploitation of medicinal plants by local communities, since multiple use of plants represents an excellent strategy for sustaining the tropical ecosystem through ex situ and in situ conservation. Thus, conservation of tropical resources is possible in conjunction with improvements in the quality of life of the traditional communities and production of new products with therapeutic, cosmetic and 'cosmeceutic' value. © NIAB 2005.

Structural change for equality: an integrated approach to development. Thirty-four session of ECLAC

Spanish version available