The relationship between foreign languages and the process of internationalization: evidence from the international literacy coordination of a federal university

The paper discusses the role of and relationship between globalization and foreign languages in the process of internationalization of higher education. To this end, the article reviews studies on the role of foreign languages in general and of English in particular, in the internationalization of higher education. In order to support the discussion proposed in the article, a case study was conducted and describes the creation of a language coordination within the framework of the office of international relations of the Federal University of Espírito Santo. The coordination described aims to support the internationalization of the institution through the support for actions that permeate the use, teaching and learning of languages in that institution. The results of the case study suggest that the creation of a language coordination within the framework of the office of international relations of the institution investigated was positive for the development of foreign languages and the internationalization process in that institution

Associação entre concentração de partículas finas na atmosfera e doenças respiratórias agudas em crianças

OBJECTIVE To analyze the association between fine particulate matter concentration in the atmosphere and hospital care by acute respiratory diseases in children. METHODS Ecological study, carried out in the region of Grande Vitória, Espírito Santo, in the winter (June 21 to September 21, 2013) and summer (December 21, 2013 to March 19, 2014). We assessed data of daily count for outpatient care and hospitalization by respiratory diseases (ICD-10) in children from zero to 12 years in three hospitals in the Region of Grande Vitória. For collecting fine particulate matter, we used portable samplers of particles installed in six locations in the studied region. The Generalized Additive Model with Poisson distribution, fitted for the effects of predictor covariates, was used to evaluate the relationship between respiratory outcomes and concentration of fine particulate matter. RESULTS The increase of 4.2 µg/m3 (interquartile range) in the concentration of fine particulate matter increased in 3.8% and 5.6% the risk of medical care or hospitalization, respectively, on the same day and with six-day lag from the exposure. CONCLUSIONS We identified positive association between outpatient care and hospitalizations of children under 12 years due to acute respiratory diseases and the concentration of fine particulate matter in the atmosphere.OBJETIVO Analisar a associação entre a concentração de material particulado fino na atmosfera e atendimento hospitalar por doenças respiratórias agudas em crianças. MÉTODOS Estudo ecológico, realizado na Região da Grande Vitória, ES, no inverno (21 de junho a 21 de setembro de 2013) e no verão (21 de dezembro de 2013 a 19 de março de 2014). Foram avaliados dados de contagem diária de atendimentos ambulatoriais e hospitalizações por doenças respiratórias (CID-10) em crianças de zero a 12 anos em três hospitais da Região da Grande Vitoria. Para a coleta de material particulado fino foram utilizados amostradores portáteis de partículas instalados em seis locais na região estudada. O Modelo Aditivo Generalizado com distribuição de Poisson, ajustado para efeitos das covariáveis preditoras, foi utilizado para avaliar a relação entre os desfechos respiratórios e a concentração de material particulado fino. RESULTADOS O incremento de 4,2 µg/m3 (intervalo interquartílico) na concentração de material particulado fino aumentou em 3,8% e 5,6% o risco de atendimento ou internação, respectivamente, no mesmo dia e com seis dias de defasagem da exposição. CONCLUSÕES Foi identificada associação positiva entre atendimentos ambulatoriais e hospitalizações de crianças com até 12 anos devido a doenças respiratórias agudas e a concentração de material particulado fino na atmosfera

Exposure and dose assessment of school children to air pollutants in a tropical coastal-urban area

This study estimates exposure and inhaled dose to air pollutants of children residing in a tropical coastal-urban area in Southeast Brazil. For that, twenty-one children filled their time-activities diaries and wore the passive samplers to monitor NO2. The personal exposure was also estimated using data provided by the combination of WRF-Urban/GEOS-Chem/CMAQ models, and the nearby monitoring station. Indoor/outdoor ratios were used to consider the amount of time spent indoors by children in homes and schools. The model's performance was assessed by comparing the modelled data with concentrations measured by urban monitoring stations. A sensitivity analyses was also performed to evaluate the impact of the model's height on the air pollutant concentrations. The results showed that the mean children's personal exposure to NO2 predicted by the model (22.3 μg/m3) was nearly twice to those measured by the passive samplers (12.3 μg/m3). In contrast, the nearest urban monitoring station did not represent the personal exposure to NO2 (9.3 μg/m3), suggesting a bias in the quantification of previous epidemiological studies. The building effect parameterisation (BEP) together with the lowering of the model height enhanced the air pollutant concentrations and the exposure of children to air pollutants. With the use of the CMAQ model, exposure to O3, PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 was also estimated and revealed that the daily children's personal exposure was 13.4, 38.9, 32.9, and 9.6 μg/m3, respectively. Meanwhile, the potential inhalation daily dose was 570-667 μg for PM2.5, 684-789 μg for PM10, and 163-194 μg for PM1, showing to be favourable to cause adverse health effects. The exposure of children to air pollutants estimated by the numerical model in this work was comparable to other studies found in the literature, showing one of the advantages of using the modelling approach since some air pollutants are poorly spatially represented and/or are not routinely monitored by environmental agencies in many regions

Foliar analyses of biochemical parameters of Licania tomentosa (Benth.) and Bauhinia forficata (Link.) species for air quality assessment

Foliar analysis of biochemical parameters were carried out in order to investigate the influence of air pollutants on two tropical tree species (Licania tomentosa (Benth.) and Bauhinia forfícata (Link.)). Special attention was given to tropospheric ozone due to the fact that concentration levels in the region were found to be up to 140 µg m-3 for a 4 h average time, which is well above the value that can cause injuries to orchides and tobacco (59 µg m-3). Other pollutants such as nitrogen and sulphur oxides were measured and their ambient concentrations were also associated to biochemical alterations in the investigated species

Estudo experimental de transferência de massa por volatilização no interior de um túnel de vento portátil utilizado para estimativa das taxas de emissão para compostos odorantes

Estações de tratamento de esgoto são fontes de sulfeto de hidrogênio em ambientes urbanos. Este composto, em determinadas concentrações, pode estar associado ao comprometimento da saúde e bem-estar das populações que residem próximas a tais fontes, caracterizadas por sua emissão difusa, o que dificulta sua quantificação. O túnel de vento portátil é um dos dispositivos aplicados na mensuração deste tipo de emissão, porém, este equipamento não é capaz de simular todos os fenômenos significativos para o transporte de massa. Desta forma, este estudo investigou a transferência de massa na interface líquido-gás do sulfeto de hidrogênio, estimando o coeficiente global de transferência de massa no interior do túnel de vento portátil. A vazão de entrada no sistema variou entre 600 e 1,800 L min-1 e a análise do decaimento da concentração na fase líquida foi realizada por espectrofotometria. O decaimento exponencial observado é condizente com as hipóteses adotadas, entretanto, nenhuma variação significativa no coeficiente de transferência de massa foi observada para diferentes vazões de operação do sistema. O valor médio encontrado foi de 2,70×10-5±2,99×10-6 m s-1. Em resumo, o presente estudo contribuiu para a compreensão da transferência de massa do sulfeto de hidrogênio em ambientes de tratamento de efluentes, utilizando um túnel de vento portátil como ferramenta experimental

Chapitre 6 – La perception des nuisances liées à la pollution de l’air : une étude comparative entre Vitória (Brésil) et Dunkerque (France)

Les résultats des recherches menées par le groupe Irénée Zwarterook sur la pollution atmosphérique et les risques industriels, qui nourrissent cet ouvrage, portent tous sur le territoire dunkerquois. Néanmoins, s’agissant notamment des représentations de la qualité de l’air et des risques, il parait intéressant de pouvoir compléter l’interprétation des données recueillies sur cet espace en les mettant en perspective avec des travaux portant sur d’autres villes industrielles. En effet, comme n..

Multivariate analysis on perceived annoyance caused by air pollution and their determinants

International audienc

Generalized additive model with principal component analysis: An application to time series of respiratory disease and air pollution data

International audienceEnvironmental epidemiological studies of the health effects of air pollution frequently utilize the generalized additive model (GAM) as the standard statistical methodology, considering the ambient air pollutants as explanatory covariates. Although exposure to air pollutants is multi‐dimensional, the majority of these studies consider only a single pollutant as a covariate in the GAM model. This model restriction may be because the pollutant variables do not only have serial dependence but also interdependence between themselves. In an attempt to convey a more realistic model, we propose here the hybrid generalized additive model–principal component analysis–vector auto‐regressive (GAM–PCA–VAR) model, which is a combination of PCA and GAMs along with a VAR process. The PCA is used to eliminate the multicollinearity between the pollutants whereas the VAR model is used to handle the serial correlation of the data to produce white noise processes as covariates in the GAM. Some theoretical and simulation results of the methodology proposed are discussed, with special attention to the effect of time correlation of the covariates on the PCA and, consequently, on the estimates of the parameters in the GAM and on the relative risk, which is a commonly used statistical quantity to measure the effect of the covariates, especially the pollutants, on population health. As a main motivation to the methodology, a real data set is analysed with the aim of quantifying the association between respiratory disease and air pollution concentrations, especially particulate matter PM10, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone. The empirical results show that the GAM–PCA–VAR model can remove the auto‐correlations from the principal components. In addition, this method produces estimates of the relative risk, for each pollutant, which are not affected by the serial correlation in the data. This, in general, leads to more pronounced values of the estimated risk compared with the standard GAM model, indicating, for this study, an increase of almost 5.4% in the risk of PM10, which is one of the most important pollutants which is usually associated with adverse effects on human health

Using LES and wind tunnel data to investigate peak-to-mean concentration in an urban environment

The impact assessment of odorant sources, flammable gases and accidental or intentional release of toxic gases requires the estimation of short term averaged maximum concentration. The well-known power law function is frequently used to calculate the peak-to-mean concentration ratio. However, the use of this function for urban environments is still a challenge. The aim of this work is therefore, first, to examine the maximum mean (peak) concentration value considering different averaging times within a larger sampling time interval using wind tunnel (WT) data obtained in a model urban environment. The second aim is to investigate the potential of numerical modelling of atmospheric dispersion using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to assess the influence of turbulent eddies on averaged concentration over short time intervals on dispersion influenced by a building array. Although the LES technique predicted smaller relative maximum instantaneous concentrations than those measured in the WT, relative concentration fluctuation (concentration variance divided by its mean) agreed quite well with wind tunnel data, especially for the sensors behind the buildings. LES and WT spectra essentially collapsed over a non-dimensional frequency range of two to three decades. For higher frequencies, however, the LES data fell due to the coarser resolution, etc. This indicates that the inevitable spatial averaging imposed by the mesh means that LES is not capable of directly predicting the larger, very short time scale concentration peaks observed in the wind tunnel data. The exponent p in the power law function is smaller for the sensors in the central position of the building array (behind the buildings) than for those located in short streets or at intersections and they also decreased more slowly with distance from the source. WT data were used to investigate the influence of sensor height on the peak-to-mean ratio as a function of the averaging time and p-values were found much higher for sensors located above the building height