"An Unlikely Collection of Union Militants": Portuguese Immigrant Cleaning Women Become Political Subjects in Postwar Toronto

This paper examines the ways in which Portuguese immigrant women office cleaners gained a public presence during a six-week strike in 1984, both on the picket lines and in Toronto's newspapers. Their ethnic, gender, and class identities were central in their transformation into public, political, and militant subjects.Cet article étudie les façons dont les immigrantes portugaises nettoyeuses de bureaux ont gagné une présence publique durant la grève de six semaines en 1984, à la fois sur les lignes de piquetage et dans les journaux de Toronto. Leurs identités soit ethnique, leur sexe ou leur classe étaient centrales dans leur transformation en sujets public, politique et militant

The implementation of sustainability practices in portuguese higher education institutions

The purpose of this work is to analyze the current state of implementation of sustainability development (SD) in Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs). Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was developed to measure the level of implementation of SD practices in HEIs as well as the number of rankings, certifications and declarations of these institutions. The questionnaire was sent by e-mail to all rectors, presidents, directors of faculties, departments and schools of Portuguese universities and polytechnics. A sample of 53 leaders was obtained. Findings Portuguese HEIs are mainly engaged in the social dimension of sustainability. The economic dimension emerges in second place and the institutional in third; the environmental dimension is the least developed. Except for a few specific topics (e.g. related to research on SD, and the offer of degree courses in SD), there are no significant differences between universities and polytechnics in the implementation of SD practices. Only 11 per cent of HEIs are innovators in the implementation of SD practices, and a majority of HEIs have implemented less than 34 per cent of the SD practices studied. Research limitations/implications This research has a national scope, and the results should be interpreted only in the Portuguese context. Future studies should include a larger range of institutional actors within the faculty. Practical implications This study provides valuable insights and theoretical and methodological guidance for future implementation processes supporting the transition to sustainability in HEIs. Originality/value This is the first study conducted in Portuguese HEIs with the aim of determining their efforts to implement and promote sustainability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Property Rights and Social Uses of Land in Portuguese India: The Province of the North, 1534-1739

This paper examines the regulation of land rights in Bassein and Daman (India) during the two hundred years these territories were under Portuguese rule. Based on primary and secondary sources, I argue that local elites played a significant role in reshaping the legal and institutional framework that became known as the prazos system, a topic yet insufficiently explored by the literature. The paper starts by outlining the pre-existent land tenure system, which was largely based on the iqtāʿ, a wide-spread institution in the Islamic world. It then proceeds to examine how European and Portuguese legal institutions, namely the emphyteusis and the long-established practice of granting crown’s assets, were recreated in order to retain features of the iqtā, thus leading to the emergence of a hybrid legal system. The paper then focuses on the adaptations this legal framework underwent as a result of its ‘social appropriation’ by colonial elites and the responses of the colonial authorities. I conclude that the prazos system allowed accommodating both the goals of the Portuguese monarchy and of the colonial elites. While the Crown used the prazos to reward services, ensure territorial organization, military defence, and tax mediation, the local elites (both Portuguese and Asian) reshaped its institutional regulations to guarantee their social reproduction

Modelling of the interaction between peptides and graphitic surfaces

The aim of this thesis is to understand the interactions of peptides with graphitic surfaces such as carbon nanotubes and graphite, in order to help establish guiding principles for the design of peptide sequences with controllable affinity to graphitic surfaces. Atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with our extended polarisable AMOEBAPRO force-field, which includes parameters for graphitic surfaces is used throughout. The peptide sequences studied were identified by phage-display experiments for their strong affinity to CNTs, and are rich in tryptophan and histidine residues [94]. The importance of the tryptophan residues on the binding affinity to CNTs is investigated by mutating each tryptophan by either tyrosine and phenylalanine. In addition, the effect of the surface curvature on the binding affinity is also explored. It is found that sequences containing tryptophan residues have more affinity to graphitic surfaces than those containing tyrosine or phenylalanine. Furthermore, it is suggested that these peptide sequences were selected for interfacial shape, since in the case of graphite, a compromise between having all the aromatic residues close to the surface and also allowing the non-aromatic residues to approach the surface is found. Following this study, the interaction of peptide sequences with CNTs is again studied, but this time with the aim to investigate the order of the residues, on the binding affinity to CNTs. The influence of the peptide sequence on the binding affinity to CNTs is studied by scrambling the sequence (HWKHPWGAWDTL). This study suggests that binding affinity is strongly dependent on the order of the content of the peptide sequences and gives some useful insights to the identification of principles that may help in the design of peptide sequences with controllable binding affinity to CNTs. For instance, it is found that strong binding may be due to the presence of isolated pairs of tryptophans, while weaker binding may be due to the presence of two tryptophan residues intercalated by another residue. The interactions of water with graphitic surfaces – CNTs, fullerenes and graphite – are also considered and it is found that the water structuring at the interface is weak and that there are no more than tree layers of structured water on the graphitic surfaces. Finally, the effect of the presence of OH defects on CNTs on the binding affinity to peptides is investigated. The results show that the binding affinity is not significantly affected by the presence of OH defects, but a general increase in the peptide mobility is noticed, giving insights for the applications of real CNTs with peptides. The work described in this thesis helps to understand what are the key residues involved in the interaction with CNTs, why do these key residues bind better to CNTs and provide insights on the mechanisms of peptided binding to CNTs, by demonstrating the role of peptide conformation

Struggling for Brazil: Dutch, Portuguese and Spaniards in the 1640 Naval Battle of Paraíba

Over the years the 1640 naval battle of Paraíba (Brazil) has attracted the attention of several historians, including F.A. Varnhagen, H. Wätjen and J.C. Warnsinck, who made extensive use of Dutch sources. By combining the Dutch and Portuguese accounts, C.R. Boxer and, more recently, M.J. Guedes shed new light on the episode. The Portuguese material comprises the original papers of Fernando Mascarenhas, the commander in-chief of the armada. These papers are gathered in four voluminous codices and record events concerning the armada between April 1638 and October 1640. Written in Portuguese and Spanish, they comprise various documents, including correspondence, as well as instructions, reports, and minutes of meetings of the Council of Captains. The documents in these codices constitute the bedrock of this article which focuses on the armada leaders’ perceptions of their opponent during their sojourn in Brazil, a topic still insufficiently explored in the literature. Given the goal of the expedition, gathering information on the Dutch military and naval power was crucial for defining a strategy to oust them from Pernambuco. How did the armada leaders acquire intelligence? How reliable was it when cross-checked against other sources and to what extent did the outcome of the battle depend on it

Identidad epistemológica del conocimiento tecnológico para su proyección en la actuación docente

La manera en la que se desarrollan la Técnica, la Ciencia y la Tecnología de una Civilización está en dependencia directa a los recursos propios del espacio natural del que se dispone, las formas en las que se ejerce la autoridad y se estructura la sociedad, así como de las convicciones religiosas. Para ese desarrollo, es determinante el hecho de cómo llega a percibir la Sociedad los efectos que pueden llegar a producir las ideas o invenciones. Por otra parte, puesto que cualquier actividad implica un impacto sobre la naturaleza, la actitud que muestra la Sociedad hacia ésta es importante también a la hora saber si la materialización de las ideas o invenciones va a llevarse a cabo. Un requisito para el progreso de la técnica es que las creencias y psicología de la sociedad sean receptivas a nuevas ideas e invenciones. Lo anterior supone que la filosofía o religión predominante sea permisiva en este aspecto

Effect of β-PVDF Piezoelectric Transducers’ positioning on the acoustic streaming flows

This paper reports the numerical and experimental analysis of the acoustic streaming effect in a fluidic domain. The actuation of a piezoelectric transducer generates acoustic waves that propagate to the fluids, generating pressure gradients that induce the flow. The number and positioning of the transducers affect the pressure gradients and, consequently, the resultant flow profile. Two actuation conditions were considered: (1) acoustic streaming generated by a 28 μm thick β-poly(vinylidene fluoride) (β-PVDF) piezoelectric transducer placed asymmetrically relative to the fluidic domain and (2) acoustic streaming generated by two 28 μm thick β-PVDF piezoelectric transducers placed perpendicularly to each other. The transducers were fixed to the lower left corner of a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)cuvette and were actuated with a 24 Vpp and 34.2 MHz sinusoidal voltage. The results show that the number of transducers and their positioning affects the shape and number of recirculation areas in the acoustic streaming flows. The obtained global flows show great potential for mixing and pumping, being an alternative to the previous geometries studied by the authors, namely, a single transducer placed symmetrically under a fluidic domain.Work funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE, ON.2—O Novo Norte—North Portugal Regional Operational Programme and National Funds through FCT— Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under the projects: PEst-OE/EME/UI0532 and NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000025-RL2_Environment & Health, by the Eixo I do Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade (POFC) QREN, project reference COMPETE: FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-020241, and by FCT, project reference PTDC/EBB-EBI/120334/2010

An Economic History of Portugal, 1143-2010

This book is about the evolution of the Portuguese economy during the course of eight centuries, from the foundation of the kingdom, in 1143, when political boundaries began to take shape in the midst of the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, to the integration of the nation in the European Communities and the Economic and Monetary Union. While the economy we are interested in responded to external influences across the land and sea borders, its activity also exerted influence on events occurring elsewhere