As preocupações com a promoção do sucesso educativo e a prevenção do abandono escolar partem do princípio de que todos se encontram já dentro do sistema. Ora o que a minha comunicação pretende demonstrar é que ainda antes dessa fase se coloca a questão do acesso à educação. Numa perspectiva comparativa, e a um nível macro, ressaltaremos as contradições entre o discurso enunciado e a realidade existente, direccionando o nosso olhar para Portugal, a partir de indicadores ao nível das grandes organizações internacionais, como a ONU e a OCDE.

Esta conferência visa reflectir sobre o papel que nos é reservado, enquanto unidade de investigação em educação. Partindo da definição inicial de conhecimento e do confronto das posições racionalistas e empiristas sobre as formas de acesso a ele, pretende-se debruçar sobre o entendimento de conhecimento saído da revolução científica do século XVI, para, de seguida, mergulhar no actual contexto pós-moderno de transição paradigmática e dele extrair aquilo que se poderá esperar de nós. Qual o fim último da investigação? Serve ela para chegarmos às mesmas conclusões já anteriormente descobertas? Para a reprodução, confirmação e disseminação de um conhecimento já criado? Ou para a gestação de um conhecimento que traga algo de novo, que contribua efectivamente para a melhoria da educação?

O currículo, enquanto área de estudo e investigação, tem uma história relativamente recente, como todos sabemos. A sua afirmação identitária deveu-se ao facto de ter um objecto de estudo bem específico e delimitado, que não se confunde nem com a psicologia, nem com a sociologia, estas sim, ciências autónomas de longa data. No entanto, uma delimitação estrita das fronteiras do currículo, relativamente a outras áreas científicas que com ela interagem, pode levar a um seu esvaziamento conceptual, transformando-a, afinal, num mero enunciado de intenções e regras de bem ensinar e avaliar que, por serem normativas e prescritivas, a despojariam do seu estatuto científico. Se é certo que o currículo não se consegue dissociar do poder que o determina (seja ele do Estado, da Região, da Escola ou da Turma – estes últimos se pensarmos nos actuais Projectos Educativos e Curriculares de Escola e de Turma), ele só ganha sentido na sua relação directa com a prática, ou seja, o currículo, para ser currículo, necessita de ser desenvolvimento curricular. Primeiro, entendido ao nível da interpretação e análise crítica do professor sobre o que o poder pretende que ele ensine, e depois na relação com a sua própria operacionalização curricular, ou seja, o acto educativo. Esta reflexão visa perspectivar as diversas leituras curriculares, desde a perspectiva simplista, unidimensional, passando pela visão sequencialmente organizada, até desembocar numa abordagem necessariamente complexa do acto educativo.

Cet article vise à souligner l’importance de l’ethnographie de l’éducation comme outil pour comprendre et décrire de manière critique les pratiques pédagogiques innovatrices qui ne prennent du sens que lorsqu’elles sont envisagées à partir de l’intérieur, c’est-à-dire du point de vue de leurs praticiens. D’autre part, elle fait le compte-rendu de l’extension de cette méthode d’analyse de l’école, à travers les programmes de Master et de Doctorat de Sciences de l’Education, dans la spécialité d’Innovation Pédagogique de l’Université de Madère et son Centre de Recherche en Education (CIE-UMa), qui se déroulent à Madère, à Santarém (près de Lisbonne) et au Brésil (dans les villes de Brasília, São Luis do Maranhão, Salvador, Ibicaraí, Feira de Santana, Recife et Fortaleza) et qui intègrent une bonne partie de la pensée ethnographique de Lapassade, parmi d’ autres auteurs. Finalement, la communication témoigne de notre hommage en forme d’action à la contribution scientifique de Georges Lapassade.

Corrosion behavior of joined Ti-B4C composites was evaluated in 9 g/L NaCl solution using cyclic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Tribocorrosion behavior was investigated by sliding against an alumina ball under open-circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarization. The results showed that joining did not negatively affect the corrosion behavior of the composites. Regarding tribocorrosion, while joining did not significantly influence the coefficient of friction and total wear volume loss, it resulted in slightly increased electrochemical activity under sliding. These results showed that brazing may be considered as a simple and low-cost technique for joining Ti-B4C composites to be operated in tribocorrosive environments.

The task of automatically and intelligently diagnosing faults in marine equipment is of great significance due to the numerous duties that shipboard professionals must handle. Incorporating automated and intelligent systems on ships allows for more efficient equipment monitoring and better decision-making. This approach has attracted considerable interest in both academia and industry because of its potential for economic savings and improved safety. Several fault diagnosis methods are documented in the literature, often involving mathematical and control theory models. However, due to the inherent complexity of some processes, not all characteristics are precisely known, making mathematical modeling highly challenging. As a result, fault diagnosis often depends on data or heuristic information. Fuzzy logic theory is particularly well suited for processing this type of information. Therefore, this paper employs fuzzy models to diagnose faults in a marine pneumatic servo-actuated valve. The fuzzy models used in fault diagnosis are obtained from the data. These fuzzy models are identified for the normal operation of the marine pneumatic servo-actuated valve, and for each fault, predicting the system’s outputs from the inputs and outputs of the process. The proposed fault diagnosis framework analyzes the discrepancy signals between the outputs of the fuzzy models and the actual process outputs. These discrepancies, known as residuals, help in detecting and isolating equipment faults. The fault isolation process uses an intelligent decision-making approach to determine the specific fault in the system. This method is applied to diagnose abrupt faults in a marine pneumatic servo-actuated valve. The approach presented was used to detect and diagnose three very important faults in the operation of a marine pneumatic servo-actuated valve. The three faults were correctly detected and isolated, and no errors were detected in this detection and isolation process.

The automatic and intelligent diagnosis of faults in marine equipment is a task that is considered to be of great importance considering the numerous tasks that are associated with professionals working on ships. The possibility of including automatic and intelligent processes on a ship makes it possible to monitor equipment more effectively and make more informed decisions. This approach has received a lot of attention in the academic and industrial fields as it can offer considerable economic and safety advantages. Some fault diagnosis approaches can be found in the literature, where mathematical and control theory models are taken into account. However, in complex processes not all their characteristics are always known exactly, so mathematical modelling of processes is an extremely difficult task. Fault diagnosis can therefore be based mainly on data or heuristic information. The inherent characteristics of fuzzy logic theory make it suitable for processing this type of information, which is why it will be used to model processes and diagnose faults in a marine equipment valve. The fault diagnosis architecture proposed in this paper is based on analysing the discrepancy signals obtained between the outputs of the fuzzy models and the process data under study. These discrepancies, the residuals, are indicative of equipment fault. The proposed fault diagnosis architecture uses an intelligent decision-making approach to indicate the occurrence of faults. In this paper, this architecture will be used to diagnose abrupt faults in a marine equipment valve.

It is our wish to describe the development of a transnational research project, aiming to enhance the feeling of belonging and inclusion, as a way of improving student and staff’s wellbeing, particularly at a university of a European outermost region, Madeira. Even though similar studies have been carried out in other four European universities, this paper is only focused on the University of Madeira. The multiple case study method was used [1-3], based on documentary analysis, surveys and focus group techniques [4] for the collected data triangulation. Inspired in “Impact Gaps Canvas” [5] and the “Six Conditions of Systems Change” [6], the paper wishes to convey a quick view about the process and the results in terms of policy recommendations to improve the feeling of belonging, at the University of Madeira, expecting it has a positive impact on student and staff experience and quality of learning and teaching, according to the literature review.

A non-dimensional functional relationship was constructed to characterize the fine particle fraction produced by dry powder inhalers. It was based on the values of steady-state pressure drop, turbulent kinetic energy produced, by the nozzle, as well the aerodynamic behavior of the powder particles as characterized by their modes of the size distributions. Dimensional analysis was used together with physical reasoning to formulate the functional and reduce the number of dimensionless parameters. Various combinations of inhaler devices, analytes and air flow rates have been evaluated with respect to basic particle characteristics, aerosol deposition behavior, viscous pressure drop and air flow turbulence. The resulting experimental data were employed to find the approximate dependence between the four non-dimensional groups retained in the functional and a very good correlation has been achieved. As a conclusion, the size of the particles has been identified as the most relevant variable, followed by the viscous pressure drop in the inhaler device and the density of the powder. The present results may be used to improve the design of powder-device combinations. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.