State reform, emergence of decentralization and environmental policies

No contexto da reforma do Estado brasileiro, a descentralização das competências políticas e administrativas na arena ambiental tem se mostrado um processo dinâmico. Muitas instâncias locais já respondem pela questão ambiental. No entanto, isso não significa mais competência administrativa, sustentabilidade institucional, tampouco participação democrática. Dois casos de política ambiental são retratados no texto: o licenciamento industrial pelos municípios brasileiros e o a gestão florestal pelo Estado do Mato Grosso. A descentralização do licenciamento ambiental para o âmbito municipal ainda parece frágil em municípios menores, em um processo que parece ser induzido pelo Estado e não pelo controle social local. Em relação à política florestal, o caso do Mato Grosso é emblemático. Ele mostra que a cooperação com o poder público federal e, em determinados momentos, sua coordenação são de suma importância para que as políticas públicas ambientais não fiquem à mercê de governos estaduais, que podem enviesá-las em favor do “desenvolvimentismo”, nem percam a legitimidade adiante da fragilidade financeira e institucional dos órgãos ambientais locais. _______________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMENAnte la reforma del Estado brasileño, la decentralización de las competencias políticas y administrativas en el ámbito ambiental se han mostrado un proceso dinámico. Muchas de las instancias locales ya responden por la cuestión ambiental. Sin embargo, eso no significa competencia administrativa, sustentabilidad institucional, tampoco participación democratica. En este estudio se presentan dos casos de política ambiental: el licenciamiento industrial por parte de los municipios brasileños y la gestión forestal por parte del Estado de Mato Grosso. La descentralización del licenciamiento ambiental para el nivel municipal todavia se muestra frágil en los municipios más pequeños, debido a que el proceso aun está controlado por el estado por encuanto que la sociedades locales tienen menos participación. En relación a la política forestal, el caso del Estado de Mato Grosso demuestra que la cooperación y, en ciertos momentos, la coordinación del poder público federal determinan la vulnerabilidad de las políticas ambientales. Esto es debido a que los intereses “desarrollistas” de gobiernos estaduales pueden influenciar dichas políticas. Por otra parte, la fragilidad financiera y institucional de los órganos ambientales locales pueden también influenciarlas. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTMirroring the reform of the Brazilian State, the decentralization of administrative and political competences in the environmental arena has been a dynamic process. Many local governments and agencies already hold responsibility for environmental issues. However, it does not mean stronger administrative competency, institutional sustainability or wider democratic participation. Two cases of environmental policy are described here: the industrial licensing carried out by Brazilian municipalities and the State of Mato Grosso´s forest management. The decentralization of environmental licensing to the municipal level still seems to be fragile process in small municipalities, since it is likely to be induced by the State rather than by the local community. Regarding the forest policy, the case of Mato Grosso is emblematic: it shows that cooperation and, at times, coordination of the federal government is of great importance in order to assure the independence of environmental public policies from state governments that are biased in favor of agro-industries, as well to guarantee their legitimacy, weakened by the institutional and financial fragility of the local environmental institution

Data-Texts in the Sciences:The Evidence-Explanation Continuum

Grounded within current reform recommendations and built upon Giere’s views (1986, 1999) on model-based science, we propose an alternative approach to science education which we refer to as the Evidence-Explanation (EE) Continuum. The approach addresses conceptual, epistemological, and social domains of knowledge, and places emphasis on the epistemological conversations about data acquisitions and transformations in the sciences. The steps of data transformation, which we refer to as data-texts, we argue, unfold the processes of using evidence during knowledge building and reveal the dynamics of scientific practices. Data-texts involve (a) obtaining observations/measurements to become data; (b) selecting and interpreting data to become evidence; (c) using evidence to ascertain patterns and develop models; and (d) utilizing the patterns and models to propose and refine explanations. Throughout the transformations of the EE continuum, there are stages of transition that foster the engagement of learners in negotiations of meaning and collective construction of knowledge. A focus on the EE continuum facilitates the emergence of further insights, both by questioning the nature of the data and its multiple possibilities for change and representations and by reflecting on the nature of the explanations. The shift of emphasis to the epistemics of science holds implications for the design of learning environments that support learners in developing contemporary understandings of the nature and processes of scientific practices

In silico identification of essential proteins in Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis based on protein-protein interaction networks

Background Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (Cp) is a gram-positive bacterium that is classified into equi and ovis serovars. The serovar ovis is the etiological agent of caseous lymphadenitis, a chronic infection affecting sheep and goats, causing economic losses due to carcass condemnation and decreased production of meat, wool, and milk. Current diagnosis or treatment protocols are not fully effective and, thus, require further research of Cp pathogenesis. Results Here, we mapped known protein-protein interactions (PPI) from various species to nine Cp strains to reconstruct parts of the potential Cp interactome and to identify potentially essential proteins serving as putative drug targets. On average, we predict 16,669 interactions for each of the nine strains (with 15,495 interactions shared among all strains). An in silico sanity check suggests that the potential networks were not formed by spurious interactions but have a strong biological bias. With the inferred Cp networks we identify 181 essential proteins, among which 41 are non-host homologous. Conclusions The list of candidate interactions of the Cp strains lay the basis for developing novel hypotheses and designing according wet-lab studies. The non-host homologous essential proteins are attractive targets for therapeutic and diagnostic proposes. They allow for searching of small molecule inhibitors of binding interactions enabling modern drug discovery. Overall, the predicted Cp PPI networks form a valuable and versatile tool for researchers interested in Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis

Limites e perspectivas dos estágios de docência do curso de formação de professor(a) de educação física da ESEFID/UFRGS : o olhar do estudante estagiário

Os estágios curriculares sintetizam diferentes etapas da formação inicial e se configuram como um marco para a elaboração intersubjetiva do que é ser professor pelo acadêmico. Neste contexto que se concretizou a necessidade de investigar quais os resultados atingidos pelas propostas implementadas pelos os estágios de docência do curso de licenciatura em Educação Física da ESEFID/UFRGS. No entanto, aqui o foco foi à percepção do acadêmico, isto é identificar como o protagonista deste processo percebeu o momento do estágio curricular para a sua formação como professor de Educação Física. Assim, o problema do estudo permeou a seguinte questão: Na percepção do estudante estagiário, quais são os limites e perspectivas da proposta de estágio curricular do curso de Educação Física – licenciatura da ESEFID? A pesquisa de caráter qualitativo se pautou em um desenho descritivo e teve como objetivo analisar a percepção do estudante estágio sobre as propostas de estágios de docência. Participarão do estudo todos os acadêmicos matriculados nas disciplinas de estágio, onde estes responderão a um questionário com questões abertas e fechadas sobre os limites e perspectivas dos estágios do seu curso. Os resultados nos mostram que os estágios apresentam alguns limites que estão ligados à escola em que é realizado a pratica, tais como material didático, espaço físico e uma não participação efetiva do professor supervisor na pratica de estagio. Porém foi constatado como algo positivo nos estágios a descoberta pela vocação, experimentar a docência e ter contato com o aluno. A possibilidade dos estagiários vivenciarem uma experiência real do que é ser professor é importante no processo de formação desse acadêmico, porém devemos dar ouvidos aqueles que estão nesse processo para que essa experiência seja entendida no ponto de vista dos estagiários.The curricular stages synthesize different stages of the initial formation and are configured as a milestone for the intersubjective elaboration of what it is to be a teacher by the academic. In this context, the need to investigate the results achieved by the proposals implemented by the teaching interns of the undergraduate degree in Physical Education at ESEFID / UFRGS has materialized. However, here the focus was on the perception of the academic that is to identify how the protagonist of this process perceived the moment of the curricular internship for his formation as professor of Physical Education. Thus, the problem of the study permeated the following question: In the student trainee's perception, what are the limits and perspectives of the curricular internship proposal of the Physical Education course - undergraduate degree from ESEFID? The qualitative research was based on a descriptive design and had as objective to analyze the perception of the student stage on the proposals of stages of teaching. Participation of the study will be all the students enrolled in the internship subjects, where they will respond to a questionnaire with open questions and closed on the limits and perspectives of the stages of its course. The results show that the stages present some limits that are related to the school in which the practice is practiced, such as didactic material, physical space and an effective participation of the supervising teacher in the practice of internship. However, the discovery of vocation, experience of teaching and contact with the student was positive. The possibility of the trainees experiencing a real experience of what it is to be a teacher is important in the process of formation of this academic, but we must listen to those who are in this process so that this experience is understood in the point of view of the trainees

A Specification for Dependent Types in Haskell

We propose a core semantics for Dependent Haskell, an extension of Haskell with full-spectrum dependent types. Our semantics consists of two related languages. The first is a Curry-style dependently-typed language with nontermination, irrelevant arguments, and equality abstraction. The second, inspired by the Glasgow Haskell Compiler’s core language FC, is its explicitly-typed analogue, suitable for implementation in GHC. All of our results -- chiefly, type safety, along with theorems that relate these two languages -- have been formalized using the Coq proof assistant. Because our work is backwards compatible with Haskell, our type safety proof holds in the presence of nonterminating computation. However, unlike other full-spectrum dependently-typed languages, such as Coq, Agda or Idris, because of this nontermination, Haskell’s term language does not correspond to a consistent logic

Genetic analysis of members of the species Oropouche virus and identification of a novel M segment sequence

Oropouche virus (OROV) is a public health threat in South America, and in particular Northern Brazil, causing frequent outbreaks of febrile illness. Using a combination of deep sequencing and Sanger sequencing approaches we have determined complete genome sequences of eight clinical isolates that were obtained from patient sera during an Oropouche fever outbreak in Amapa state, northern Brazil in 2009. We also report complete genome sequences of two OROV reassortants isolated from two marmosets in Minas Gerais state, southeast Brazil in 2012 that contain a novel M genome segment. Interestingly, all ten isolates posses a 947 nucleotide long S segment that lacks 11 residues in the S segment 3' UTR compared to the recently redetermined Brazilian prototype OROV strain BeAn19991. OROV maybe circulating more widely in Brazil and in the non-human primate population than previously appreciated and the identification of yet another reassortant highlights the importance of bunyavirus surveillance in South America

A Series of 3 Cases

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An Unexpected Diagnosis

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A Specification for Dependent Types in Haskell

We propose a core semantics for Dependent Haskell, an extension of Haskell with full-spectrum dependent types. Our semantics consists of two related languages. The first is a Curry-style dependently-typed language with nontermination, irrelevant arguments, and equality abstraction. The second, inspired by the Glasgow Haskell Compiler’s core language FC, is its explicitly-typed analogue, suitable for implementation in GHC. All of our results -- chiefly, type safety, along with theorems that relate these two languages -- have been formalized using the Coq proof assistant. Because our work is backwards compatible with Haskell, our type safety proof holds in the presence of nonterminating computation. However, unlike other full-spectrum dependently-typed languages, such as Coq, Agda or Idris, because of this nontermination, Haskell’s term language does not correspond to a consistent logic