Operationalising Agency: A Personalized Approach to Public Health

Our work brings together theories and methodologies from public health and the learning sciences to develop a culturally relevant community-based intervention aimed at promoting healthy childhood development. We present our approach to personalising a community-based family intervention to prevent childhood obesity that aims to enhance participants’ agency. We argue that situating obesity within the individual’s multi-layered context not only provides a more robust understanding of the causes, but also generates sustainable options for promoting healthy lifestyles. Our findings emphasise the importance of a situated approach to learning that leverages social systems as a key resource for better navigating the environmental, material and ideational infrastructures that support healthy lifestyles

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Aviation aspects of the U.S. Federal Tort Claims Act : time for a change?

Note:This thesis examines the application of the U.S. Federal Tort Claims Act to aviation litigation worldwide.The first part of the thesis traces the development of the common law action of torts as an important branch of private air law. Next, the thesis concentrates on the FTCA which, inter alia, provides non-U.S. citizens with the opportunity to recover realistic financial damages, provided there are sufficient grounds to sue the U.S. In addition, the FTCA can free litigants---in certain cases---from the restraints of the Warsaw Convention with its limitation on the amount of compensation. […]Cette thèse examine l'application du "U.S. Federal Tort Caims Act" au litige aviation mondiale.La première partie trace le développement de l'action de loi commune en acte dommageable comme branche de la loi sur l'aviation privée. Ensuite la thèse se concentre sur le FTCA qui, inter alia, donne aux citroyens des pays autres que les E.U.A. la chance de récupérer des dommages-intérèt, réalistes, pourvu qu'il y ait des causes suffisantes pour intenter un procès contre les E.U.A. Aussi le FTCA peu il libérer des plaideurs-dans de certains cas-des contraintes de la convention de Varsovie avec sa limitation sur les dommages. […

Adaptive PCR Based on Hybridization Sensing of Mirror-Image l‑DNA

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is dependent on two key hybridization events during each cycle of amplification, primer annealing and product melting. To ensure that these hybridization events occur, current PCR approaches rely on temperature set points and reaction contents that are optimized and maintained using rigid thermal cycling programs and stringent sample preparation procedures. This report describes a fundamentally simpler and more robust PCR design that dynamically controls thermal cycling by more directly monitoring the two key hybridization events during the reaction. This is achieved by optically sensing the annealing and melting of mirror-image l-DNA analogs of the reaction’s primers and targets. Because the properties of l-DNA enantiomers parallel those of natural d-DNAs, the l-DNA reagents indicate the cycling conditions required for effective primer annealing and product melting during each cycle without interfering with the reaction. This hybridization-sensing approach adapts in real time to variations in reaction contents and conditions that impact primer annealing and product melting and eliminates the requirement for thermal calibrations and cycling programs. Adaptive PCR is demonstrated to amplify DNA targets with high efficiency and specificity under both controlled conditions and conditions that are known to cause traditional PCR to fail. The advantages of this approach promise to make PCR-based nucleic acid analysis simpler, more robust, and more accessible outside of well-controlled laboratory settings