Internal and external forcing of multidecadal Atlantic climate variability over the past 1,200 years

The North Atlantic experiences climate variability on multidecadal scales, which is sometimes referred to as Atlantic multidecadal variability. However, the relative contributions of external forcing such as changes in solar irradiance or volcanic activity and internal dynamics to these variations are unclear. Here we provide evidence for persistent summer Atlantic multidecadal variability from AD 800 to 2010 using a network of annually resolved terrestrial proxy records from the circum-North Atlantic region. We find that large volcanic eruptions and solar irradiance minima induce cool phases of Atlantic multidecadal variability and collectively explain about 30% of the variance in the reconstruction on timescales greater than 30 years. We are then able to isolate the internally generated component of Atlantic multidecadal variability, which we define as the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. We find that the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation is the largest contributor to Atlantic multidecadal variability over the past 1,200 years. We also identify coherence between the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation and Northern Hemisphere temperature variations, leading us to conclude that the apparent link between Atlantic multidecadal variability and regional to hemispheric climate does not arise solely from a common response to external drivers, and may instead reflect dynamic processes

A participação nos conselhos de saúde e sua interface com a cultura política The participation in health councils and its interface with politics culture

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar as práticas de participação presentes no Conselho Municipal de Saúde de uma capital do Nordeste brasileiro e sua relação com a cultura política local. Partiu-se do seguinte pressuposto teórico: as práticas de participação exercidas nos conselhos de saúde inauguram uma nova institucionalidade, que inclui novos sujeitos sociais - os usuários - na esfera pública. O processo de democratização da sociedade brasileira amplia essa esfera e dá visibilidade para o confronto entre uma cultura política tradicional e outra democrática. Tratase de uma pesquisa qualitativa com as seguintes técnicas de coleta de dados: análise documental, observação participante e entrevista semiestruturada. Nas evidências surgidas, identificou-se a predominância da cultura política tradicional como um dos condicionantes das práticas de participação no conselho, expressa no autoritarismo e cooptação nas relações entre os gestores municipais e os representantes da sociedade civil. A maioria dos conselheiros reconhece o frágil poder deliberativo e fiscalizador do conselho. Apesar de se constatar as fragilidades dos conselhos de saúde, reconhece-se sua importância na democratização da relação entre Estado e sociedade civil e na luta para efetivação do direito à saúde.<br>The objective of this paper is to analyse the participation of current health councils in a city in the north-eastern of Brazil and its relationship with local political culture. The following theoretical presumption served as starting point: The practices adopted by health councils initiate a new institution that involves new social actors - the users - in the public sphere. The process of democratisation in the Brazilian society expands this sphere and leads to a confrontation of traditional and democratic political cultures. This is a qualitative research with the following data collection methods: documentary analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Within the evidence emerged, the dominance of traditional political culture resulted as one of the conditioning elements of participation practices in the Council, expressed in the authoritarianism and cooptation involving municipal managers and representatives of civil society. The majority of counsellors recognises the fragile power of the Council in terms of deliberative and fiscal issues. Despite confirming the frailties of the health councils, it is obvious that their importance in the democratisation of the relationship between State and civil society in the fight for the implementation of the right to health care