Acima dos confrontos sobre os transgênicos: uma experiência piloto de consulta pública.

RESUMO: A tecnologia do DNA recombinante abriu, juntamente com um horizonte ilimitado de possibilidades de inovações, polêmicas que não podem ser ignoradas ou resolvidas por meio de uma difusão linear de informações. Ações multidisciplinares e multi-institucionais têm sido implementadas, com sucesso, em diversos países, para estabelecer novas formas de comunicação entre peritos e leigos. Isso permite identificar possíveis restrições e benefícios nas trajetórias tecnológicas, e assim entender e negociar eventuais conflitos. No Brasil, esse tipo de abordagem não tem recebido atenção significativa. A metodologia Problem Formulation and Options Assessment (PFOA), articulada no contexto do projeto internacional Genetically Modified Organisms - Environmental Risk Assessment (GMO-ERA), e sintonizada com as novas tendências de envolvimento dos diversos setores de interesse (stakeholders) ligados a uma tecnologia, propõe integrar na análise de risco as perspectivas ambiental, social, econômica e ética. A equipe de implementação de uma experiência piloto do PFOA foi formada pelo grupo do GMOERA - ligado ao Projeto Rede de Biossegurança (BioSeg), da Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), pelo Instituto de Pesquisa em Riscos e Sustentabilidade, da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Iris-UFSC), e pelo Centro de Gestão de Estudos Estratégicos do Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (CGEE/MCT). O caso utilizado como modelo foi o feijão geneticamente modificado resistente ao mosaico-dourado, que vem sendo desenvolvido pela Embrapa. O piloto, financiado pelo CGEE/MCT, contou com a participação de diversos stakeholders. Dentre as conclusões, recomenda-se o uso de sistemas de informação não unidirecionados, mais transparentes e abertos, baseados em uma ciência rigorosa, para subsidiar as instâncias científicas e políticas nas tomadas de decisão. abstract: Recombinant DNA technology, together with an unlimited horizon of possibilities of innovation, triggered a discussion, among stakeholders, that cannot be ignored or solved through a linear difusion of information. Multidisciplinary and multi-institutional actions are being successfully adopted in several countries to establish new communication strategies between specialists and stakeholders. These strategies allow the identification of possible constraints and benefits of a technology during its development and, consequently, understanding and negotiation of conflicts. In Brazil this approach is not being used yet. The Problem Formulation and Options Assessment (PFOA) methodology was proposed by the Genetically Modified Organisms - Environmental Risk Assessment (GMO-ERA) project, aligned with the new trend of involving stakeholders in the risk assessment of a new technology. PFOA integrates the environmental, social, economic and ethical perspectives into the risk assessment of a technology. PFOA's pilot experience was conducted by a group formed by the GMO-ERA team associated with the Biosafety Network (BioSeg) project of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), by the Institute of Research in Risk and Sustainability from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Iris-UFSC) and by the Center for Strategic Management and Studies in Science, Technology and Innovation of the Ministry of Science and Technology (CGEE/ MCT). The case study was a genetically modified bean resistant to the golden mosaic disease, which is being developed by Embrapa. This pilot was funded by CGEE/MCT and gathered representatives of several stakeholders. It could be concluded that the use of non-directed, transparent, open and science-based communication approaches is of great value for scientific and political decision making instances

Real-time approaches for characterization of fully and partially scanned canopies in groves

Efficient information management in orchard characterization leads to more efficient agricultural processes. In this brief, a set of computational geometry methods are presented and evaluated for orchard characterization; in particular, for the estimation of canopy volume and shape in groves and orchards using a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensor mounted on an agricultural service unit. The proposed approaches were evaluated and validated in the field, showing they are convergent in the estimation process and that they are able to estimate the crown volume for fully scanned canopies in real time; for partially observed tree crowns, accuracy decreases up to 30% (the worst case). The latter is the major contribution of this brief since it implies that the automated service unit does not need to cover all alley-ways for an accurate modeling of the orchard, thus saving valuable resources.The authors would like to thank to CONICYT (Chile): FONDECYT Grant 1140575 and Basal Grant FB0008. Also, this research was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and by the European Union through the FEDER funds (projects Optidosa-AGL2007-66093-C04-03 and Safespray-AGL2010-22304-C04-03)

MVCSLAM: Mono-Vision Corner SLAM for Autonomous Micro-Helicopters in GPS Denied Environments

We present a real-time vision navigation and ranging method (VINAR) for the purpose of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) using monocular vision. Our navigation strategy assumes a GPS denied unknown environment, whose indoor architecture is represented via corner based feature points obtained through a monocular camera. We experiment on a case study mission of vision based SLAM through a conventional maze of corridors in a large building with an autonomous Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV). We propose a method for gathering useful landmarks from a monocular camera for SLAM use. We make use of the corners by exploiting the architectural features of the manmade indoors

Ciências sociais e ambientais rural: principais temas e perspectivas analíticas.

Este trabalho tem por finalidade fazer um balanço dos estudos ambientais rurais sob a perspectiva das ciências sociais. Para isso, em primeiro lugar, realiza-se uma análise da trajetória dos movimentos sociais, identificando-se as principais questões ambientais emergentes na ótica dos atores do mundo rural. Num segundo momento, agrupam-se os temas privilegiados pelos pesquisadores para, em seguida, apontar as principais perspectivas analíticas em curso

Global value chains and human development: a class-relational framework

Global Value Chain proponents argue that regional and human development can be achieved through ‘strategic coupling’ with transnational corporations. This argument is misleading for two reasons. First, GVC abstracts firm-firm and firm-state relations from their class-relational basis, obscuring fundamental developmental processes. Second, much GVC analysis promotes linear conceptions of development. This article provides a class-relational framework for GVC analysis. The formation and functioning of GVCs and the developmental effects associated with them are products of histories of evolving and often conflictive, class relations. A study of export horticulture in North East Brazil provides empirical support for these arguments