Sustainability Agenda for the Pantanal Wetland: Perspectives on a Collaborative Interface for Science, Policy, and Decision-Making.

Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the increasing human pressure on natural environments, including wetlands. Wetlands provide critical ecosystem services for humanity and can generate a considerable direct or indirect income to the local communities. To meet many of the sustainable development goals, we need to move our trajectory from the current environmental destructive development to a wiser wetland use. The current article contain a proposed agenda for the Pantanal aiming the improvement of public policy for conservation in the Pantanal, one of the largest, most diverse, and continuous inland wetland in the world. We suggest and discuss a list of 11 essential interfaces between science, policy, and development in region linked to the proposed agenda. We believe that a functional science network can booster the collaborative capability to generate creative ideas and solutions to address the big challenges faced by the Pantanal wetland

Scaling percolation in thin porous layers

Percolation in porous media is a complex process that depends on the flow rate, material, and fluids properties as well as the boundary conditions. Traditional methods of characterizing percolation rely upon visual observation of a flow pattern or a pressure-saturation relation valid only in the limit of no flow. In this paper, the dynamics of fluid percolation in thin porous media is approached through a new scaling. This new scaling in conjunction with the capillary number and the viscosity ratio has resulted in a linear non-dimensional correlation of the percolation pressure and wetted area in time unique to each porous media. The effect of different percolation flow patterns on the dynamic pressure-saturation relation can be condensed into a linear correlation using this scaling. The general trend and implications of the scaling have been analyzed using an analytical model of a fluid percolating between two parallel plates and by experimental testing on thin porous media. Cathode porous transport layers (PTLs), also known as gas diffusion layers, of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell having different morphological and wetting properties were tested under drainage conditions. Images of the fluid percolation evolution and the percolation pressure in the PTLs were simultaneously recorded. A unique linear correlation is obtained for each type of PTL samples using the new scaling. The correlation derived from this new scaling can be used to quantitatively characterize porous media with respect to percolation. While the characterization method discussed herein was developed for the study of porous materials used in PEM fuel cells, the method and scaling are applicable to any porous media. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

Modeling and diagnostics of fuel cell porous media for improving water transport

When a fuel cell is operating at high current density, water accumulation is a significant cause of performance and component degradation. Investigating the water transport inside the fuel cell is a challenging task due to opacity of the components, the randomness of the porous materials, and the difficulty in gain access to the interior for measurement due to the small dimensions of components. Numerical simulation can provide a good insight of the evolution of the water transport under different working condition. However, the validation of those simulations is remains an issue due the same experimental obstacles associated with in-situ measurements. The discussion herein will focus on pore-network modeling of the water transport on the PTL and the insights gained from simulations as well as in the validation technique. The implications of a recently published criterion to characterize PTL, based on percolation theory, and validate numerical simulation are discussed. © 2011 ECS-The Electrochemical Society

Perspectiva relacional no estudo do processo de trabalho em saúde: contribuição para uma nova abordagem a partir do estudo da prática do nutricionista no campo da alimentação institucional A relational perspective in the study of the work process in health: a contribution to a new approach starting from the study of the practice of the nutritionist in the area of institutional nutrition

Como parte da revisão teórico-conceitual para o estudo da prática do nutricionista em um Complexo Industrial, desenvolve-se uma discussão sobre o modo como vem sendo abordada a noção de processo de trabalho e os limites de tais abordagens. O estudo parte da crítica ao enfoque marxista clássico, passa por Braverman e chega a autores que vêm se destacando por recentes contribuições à teoria do processo de trabalho, a exemplo de Littler, Thompson, Knights, Edwards e Burawoy. A partir das referidas contribuições, a prática do nutricionista coloca-se sob o prisma das Políticas de Produção e das Relações de Gênero, numa abordagem "casada", as quais, do ponto de vista analítico, buscam complementar-se. Conclui-se com um quadro de referências, que busca, através da finalidade da prática do nutricionista nestas indústrias, relativizar tanto a independência do sujeito profissional, quanto o determinismo estrutural presente na literatura sobre o tema em nosso meio.<br>As part of the theoretical-conceptual review for a study of the practice of the nutritionist in an Industrial Complex, a discussion on the ways in which the notion of the work process has been dealt with and limits of such approaches were carried out. The study goes from a criticism of the classical marxist line, through Braverman and ends up with those authors who have stood out recently for their contributions to the theory of the work process, for example, Littler, Thompson, Knights, Edwards and Burawoy. Using these contributions as starting point, the nutritionist's practice is examined from both the standpoints of the Production and the Gender Relatioships in a combined approach which, from the analytic point of view, try to complement each other. The study is concluded with a frame of reference the searchs through the nutritionist's practice meaning at industries to relativized both the independence of the professional subject and the structural determinism as it is portrayed in the literature produced here