Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

This paper relates and analyses the experience of various Brazilian institutions organized in a consortium with the aim of providing integration and unified access, via a web gateway, to full-text electronic theses already available at different Brazilian universities. The rise and impact of free electronic academic publishing on scientific communication and the development of science is analyzed. The results of a pilot programme, developed under the coordination of IBICT, as well as technical and technological aspects of information system models adopted, are presented. Aspects such as metadata sets and formats, protocols for automatic gathering of metadata, union catalogue databases, user interfaces and integration with other Brazilian STI systems, are analyzed. Finally, future developments and the enlargement of the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations are discussed.     

El currículum invisible: Los medios de comunicación y la prensa en la escuela

¿Cuál es la alternativa cuando uno se plantea el problema de que el niño aprende cosas triviales que le interesan y no aprende cosas importantes que no le interesan? ¿Son tan triviales las triviales? ¿Son tan importantes las que no le interesan?

Parece que la incorporación de los medios a la escuela está ayudando a establecer ese necesario puente entre el curriculum formal y el informal, entre la escuela y el mundo real. El caso de la prensa, alentado por su obvia relación con el proceso de lectoescritura, ha llevado también a extender el experimento al impulso que el uso de los medios en clase puede dar al aprendizaje de los diversos códigos y lenguajes.

Este artículo revisa en la primera parte algunos conceptos básicos para entender el papel de los medios en la educación, sobre todo en relación con el sentido de ésta para el alumno y ofrece en la segunda parte una serie de propuestas concretas para su integración en el curriculum de la reforma y para la aplicación práctica.     

Grammar and text: an experiment in teacher training / Gramática y texto: un experimento en la formación de profesores

Abstract

The article describes an experiment in teaching training undertaken in the context of the Masters programme in Teacher Training (for primary school teachers) at the Lisbon College of Education. The training experiment was able to: (1) incorporate mother tongue teaching into the broader curriculum; (2) relate the teaching of texts and the teaching of grammar; and (3) integrate the theoretical and practical dimensions of teacher training. The didactic scheme adopted relies on theoretical assumptions such as the concept of the integrated curriculum, the model of didactic sequence and the principles of socio-discursive interactionism. This training experiment has proved to be particularly useful for all the participants in the process (teachers of the course; trainee teachers; children in the schools; and the form teachers of the classes where the trainees do their practice). As a result of it, there has been a clear improvement in the quality of the teaching provided by our trainees in the domains of writing and grammar. The main advantages of this approach are that: (1) it structures the teaching of writing and grammar; (2) it uses projects to socially contextualize writing tasks; (3) it develops various language skills in an integrated fashion, while at the same time working on different areas of knowledge; and (4) it defines forms of spiral progression.     

«¡Pásame la brújula!» Un ejemplo de metodología histórico-cultural en la enseñanza de las matemáticas

La enseñanza de las matemáticas ha estado tradicionalmente condicionada por una visión universalista de las capacidades mentales, que ha tenido poco en cuenta que el lenguaje matemático no es una abstracción aprioristica y acontextual, sino que pasa por la utilización de «metáforas» instrumentales utilizadas por los propios matemáticos a lo largo de la historia y escamoteada al niño en la escuela. En este artículo se expone un diseño didáctico en que se hace una apuesta fuerte por una enseñanza de la geometría que recoja los instrumentos culturales (las «metáforas» materiales) presentes en nuestro entorno y los utilice en sus diseños como mediadores entre la realidad y los conceptos.     

Words for Artworks: The Aesthetics of Meaning Making

In this article we introduce a research strategy that involves the making of visual maps by individuals in response to their interactions with artworks. The maps record the meaning‐making processes involved in the encounters and provide us with permanent records of otherwise ephemeral experiences. The case study presented here provides data for comparisons between three visits each to two artworks exhibited at the Calouste Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre in Lisbon. We conclude that our meaning‐making strategy is important for its own heuristic research value in both formal and non‐formal educational contexts, as well as providing an instrument for the training of teachers and museum educators.     

Viscoelasticity of blood and viscoelastic blood analogues for use in polydymethylsiloxane in vitro models of the circulatory system

The non-Newtonian properties of blood are of great importance since they are closely related with incident cardiovascular diseases. A good understanding of the hemodynamics through the main vessels of the human circulatory system is thus fundamental in the detection and especially in the treatment of these diseases. Very often such studies take place in vitro for convenience and better flow control and these generally require blood analogue solutions that not only adequately mimic the viscoelastic properties of blood but also minimize undesirable optical distortions arising from vessel curvature that could interfere in flow visualizations or particle image velocimetry measurements. In this work, we present the viscoelastic moduli of whole human blood obtained by means of passive microrheology experiments. These results and existing shear and extensional rheological data for whole human blood in the literature enabled us to develop solutions with rheological behavior analogous to real whole blood and with a refractive index suited for PDMS (polydymethylsiloxane) micro- and milli-channels. In addition, these blood analogues can be modified in order to obtain a larger range of refractive indices from 1.38 to 1.43 to match the refractive index of several materials other than PDMS.     

Reliability of NIRS portable device for measuring intercostal muscles oxygenation during exercise

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the intra-individual reliability of oxygen saturation in intercostal muscles (SmO₂-m.intercostales) during an incremental maximal treadmill exercise by using portable NIRS devices in a test-retest study. Fifteen marathon runners (age, 24.9 ± 2.0 years; body mass index, 21.6 ± 2.3 kg·m^?2; V?O₂-peak, 63.7 ± 5.9 mL·kg^?1·min^?1) were tested on two separate days, with a 7-day interval between the two measurements. Oxygen consumption (V?O₂) was assessed using the breath-by-breath method during the V?O₂-test, while SmO₂ was determined using a portable commercial device, based in the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) principle. The minute ventilation (VE), respiratory rate (RR), and tidal volume (Vt) were also monitored during the cardiopulmonary exercise test. For the SmO₂-m.intercostales, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) at rest, first (VT1) and second ventilatory (VT2) thresholds, and maximal stages were 0.90, 0.84, 0.92, and 0.93, respectively; the confidence intervals ranged from ?10.8% – +9.5% to ?15.3% – +12.5%. The reliability was good at low intensity (rest and VT1) and excellent at high intensity (VT2 and max). The Spearman correlation test revealed (p ≤ 0.001) an inverse association of SmO₂-m.intercostales with V?O₂ (ρ = ?0.64), VE (ρ = ?0.73), RR (ρ = ?0.70), and Vt (ρ = ?0.63). The relationship with the ventilatory variables showed that increased breathing effort during exercise could be registered adequately using a NIRS portable device.     

Promoting Science Outdoor Activities for Elementary School Children: Contributions from a research laboratory

The purposes of the study were to analyse the promotion of scientific literacy through practical research activities and to identify children's conceptions about scientists and how they do science. Elementary school children were engaged in two scientific experiments in a marine biology research laboratory. A total of 136 students answered a questionnaire about their previous habits towards science and carried out the following actions: (1) a guided visit to the laboratory, (2) a brief presentation of the research theme, (3) the development of two experiments, and (4) a questionnaire about the experiments and science conceptions. The research methods included observation, document analysis, and content analysis of the answers to the questionnaires. Additionally, each visit was video recorded in order to design learning materials. The results revealed that most of the pupils were able to follow every stage of experimentation. However, some of them misinterpreted results and conclusions. One implication of the study is that this type of outdoor activity is extremely important to promote meaningful science learning in children, but more care should be taken in practical science activities so that children can overcome some common difficulties when performing scientific inquiry.     

Religious Beliefs: Their dynamics in two groups of life scientists

The assumption that scientific knowledge would bring an end to religious belief has challenged many scholars, particularly since such a belief persists even among those devoted to scientific activities. In this paper the occurrence and nature of religious belief in groups of life scientists working in the UK and Brazil is discussed in the context of their degree of training. Data obtained through one‐to‐one interviews went beyond mere yes/no answers to questions on belonging to a religion or believing in God. Categories were created to assess how open these scientists were with regard to the possibility of the supernatural. The results suggest that scientific training affected their religious belief and reduced the number of believers. Nevertheless there were scientists in both groups whose beliefs persisted.