How to comply with environmental regulations? The role of information

The effectiveness of environmental regulation can be viewed as conditioned by the action of at least two main agents: the regulated firms and the public agency (the regulator). The agency’s role is, on one hand, to enact environmental regulations and, on the other, to monitor firms’ environmental behavior and enforce environmental regulations. The regulated firms, on the other hand, must be informed about the legal limits imposed on them and subsequently they must be able to comply with those limits. Using a questionnaire on the pulp and paper industry in Portugal we found that firms decision to comply with environmental regulations is strongly influenced by firms’ information on its legal obligations and that this effect is stronger for smaller firms. Moreover larger and younger firms are less likely to comply with environmental regulations than smaller and older firms. With respect to the public agency’s behavior, we found that greater monitoring efforts are directed towards larger and younger firms, as well as towards those firms most likely to cause higher pollution levels.

uma outra face da lusofonia

A comunidade chinesa em Portuga

Dinâmicas e estratégias interculturais: o exemplo macaense

Embora a palavra interculturalidade seja recente, a sua prática não o é. Sabemos através da arqueologia, da história e de outras ciências, que o contacto entre povos com culturas diferentes data de há muitos milénios, pois as provas que têm sido encontradas assim o testemunham. Entre os muitos exemplos, podemos referir que foram descobertos no Egito artefactos de origem Síria datados do 5º milénio a.C.; em Israel, encontraram-se fragmentos de cerâmica com símbolos egípcios datados do 3º milénio a.C.; e existem provas de que 1600 anos a.C., estanho proveniente da atual Grã-Bretanha era comercializado em vários locais do continente Europe

An electronic edition of eighteenth-century drama manuscripts: performing for editing

This article addresses a project of electronic edition of eighteenth-century drama manuscripts, introducing performance art as an active methodology. This was meant to isolate the specific features of eighteenth-century drama manuscripts, in order to assess their improved electronic edition. So, to fully grasp the distinctive features of these historical testimonies, performance art was used as a mediation process, and different interrelated performance initiatives took place. Through performance it was possible to restitute the "take place" (Kobialka, 2002) i.e. the eventful nature contained in the manuscripts, instead of searching for metadata innovations, or an ideal critical apparatus. The focus was laid on drama as a particular type of happening and accomplishment, silenced amidst the archive. The happening quality of the manuscripts was then put to proof through different contexts and practices of performance. The resultant digital edition reflects the "remains" of taking drama manuscripts into performance practice, allowing for a new format of reading material.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The body move: revising portuguese female poetry of the first quarter of the twentieth century

The first quarter of the twentieth century in Portugal was characterised by a series of important historical and political events: the Regicide (1st February 1908), the fall of the Monarchy and establishment of the Republic (5th October 1910), and the First World War (1914-1918). By this time, women could not yet vote and they were systematically ignored in the debate of crucial social issues. Therefore, the main question here addressed is how poetry as free embodiment can take part in a gender revolution, promoting the feminist turn. The answer lies in the consequent breakout of female sentimental literature, which entitled women to reveal themselves, by enabling the poetic scrutiny of their intimacy through a particular focus on the body as prime referent. In this way, they dared to expose dreams, desires, fulfilments and despairs, firming an identity pact through poetry, and engendering a collective voice with social meaning. The published poems here analysed convey the idea that being a woman was something valuable and unique, and, at the same time, manage to inscribe female poets such as Virgínia Vitorino and Zulmira Falcarreira in the Portuguese intellectual mainstream.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fronteiras e desafios da interculturalidade

A diversidade étnica e cultural que carateriza a população dos países ocidentais, coloca questões e desafios variados, a que os diversos estados procuram responder. As soluções para os diferentes problemas devem conciliar os princípios da liberdade e da igualdade, pilares básicos da democracia e nem sempre são fáceis de alcançar. Porém, a variedade de culturas que compõe esses países constitui um património multicultural conjunto, que deve ser respeitado e preservado e é nesse pressuposto que as resoluções devem ser encontradas. Não basta que uma sociedade seja multicultural. A diversidade só representará uma riqueza se as várias comunidades estiverem interligadas entre si e as relações que mantiverem forem de parceria, flexibilidade e interdependência. É essa a ideia que deve estar por detrás de qualquer decisão, pois ela é a chave que abre fronteiras, ultrapassa desafios e consegue construir e conservar sociedades interculturais

Microbiological monitoring of influent and effluent of an wastewater treatment plant : treatment efficiency

Resumo apresentado em Environmental 2010 : Situation and Perspectives for the European Union, 6-10 May 2003, Porto, Portugal

Homeopatia em pediatria

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências FarmacêuticasNuma sociedade em constante processo de formação e de informação, não conhecer determinada terapia não pode ser a resposta de um profissional de farmácia ao seu utente. A divulgação massiva de tratamentos naturalistas, alternativos e baseados em saberes ancestrais, frequentemente entram em conflito com as prescrições médicas e aconselhamentos farmacêuticos. Com as medicinas alternativas a ganhar terreno paulatinamente, como se observa com a utilização da acupunctura e de fitoterápicos, a homeopatia volta a ganhar o terreno que perdeu no século XX. E se a controvérsia científica sistematicamente esgrime acusações de “propaganda enganosa” em relação à homeopatia, a verdade é que pela resiliência que este tipo de terapêutica não convencional tem demonstrado, através da reprodutibilidade dos efeitos terapêuticos homeopáticos, tem obtido resultados consistentes nos tratamentos efetuados. Pelo simples fato de não haver técnicas que possam medir a efetividade das diluições homeopáticas, não se pode atribuir a certeza de “falso medicamento”. O que se procurou conseguir com este trabalho foi, através de uma revisão bibliográfica, perceber até que ponto, a utilização de preparados homeopáticos são úteis no tratamento crianças, assim como, perceber que estudos dão suporte a este tipo de terapêutica, que resultados apresentam, e de que forma esta terapêutica se complementa com as terapêuticas convencionais. Podemos concluir que a homeopatia é procurada como alternativa, pelos pais das crianças, ainda que os pediatras assumam não possuir conhecimentos suficientemente sustentados, para aconselhar neste sentido terapêutico. No entanto, a reprodutibilidade dos efeitos terapêuticos encontram-se bem fundamentados por diversos estudos de investigação científica, o que leva a uma procura cada vez mais acentuada deste tipo de terapêutica não convencional. In a society in constant process of training and information, not knowing a particular therapy may not be the answer of a pharmacist to its client. The massive dissemination of naturalistic treatments, alternative treatments and treatments based on ancestral knowledge often conflict with the medical prescriptions and pharmaceutical advice. With alternative medicines gaining ground steadily, as observed with the use of acupuncture and phytotherapic medicines, homeopathy is gaining back the ground they lost in the twentieth century. And if the scientific controversy systematically wield accusations of "false advertising" related to homeopathy, the truth is that the resilience that this type of therapeutic procedure have demonstrated by the reproducibility of the homeopathic therapeutics, have obtained consistent results in the treatments applied. The simple fact that we presently don’t have any techniques that measure the effectiveness of homeopathic dilutions can’t be assumed as an affirmation of "fake medicine". What this study seeks to achieve, through a literature review, is to see the effectiveness of homeopathic preparations on pediatric treatments, as well as gather studies supporting this type of therapy, and how this therapy is complemented with conventional therapies. We can conclude that homeopathy is sought as an alternative, by parents, even when pediatricians assume that do not have enough sustained knowledge to advise this therapeutic option. However, the reproducibility of therapeutic effects is well substantiated by several scientific studies, leading to an increasingly strong demand for this type of therapeutic procedures