Laws and regulation affect software development, as they frequently demand changes in software’ requirements to protect individuals and businesses regarding security, privacy, governance, sustainability and more. Legal requirements can dictate new requirements or constrain existing ones. The problem of software compliance is howto ensure that the software complies with the norms that the legislation imposes. The problem is particularly challenging because it combines difficultsteps: 1)analyze legal documents, 2) extract requirements from those documents, 3) identify conflicting requirements with those already implemented in software and 4) ensure that software remains compliant even with the changes. Compliance is a continuous process: laws, software and the context within which software system operates changes continuously. The works dealing with the compliance problem focus only on one or two subjects: analyze legal documents or extract requirements or identify conflicts or changes. This thesis deals with all the problems at the same time; the idea is to extract requirements from legal text, compare them with the software requirement, resolve the possible conflicts that may arise, continuously leading with the changes on environment, laws and requirements. For this, this work proposes a framework that is composed of a compliance process and continuous monitoring of environmental changes. The framework deals with different types of laws (security, privacy, transparency, health care) that are represented in explicit norms. The compliance process supports the identification, extraction, comparison and conflict resolution to help software compliance, by producing a compliant set of requirements. The compliance process is based on the semantic annotation and goal model. The semantic annotation helps to extract requirements from thelaw, using patterns. The goal model is used to help the comparison between requirement and to represent requirements in a formal and consistent requirement specification. The process is tool supported; some tools were reused (Desiree and NomosT) to further each step. It was necessary to adapt the tools for the context of the compliance process, creating a guideline, patterns, and heuristics. The continuous monitoring is concerned about the changes that affect the software compliance and has 7 the mechanism to ensure that even with those changes the software will regain compliance. The compliance monitor is basedon agents and Non Functional Requirements. The agents are represented using in i*, the idea is to showthe collaboration between the agents to ensure the continuous compliance. The requirement specification of how each agent should behave was also generated using Business Process Modeling Notation and Desiree language. The Non Functional Requirements catalogue is used to help to define operalizations for the software awareness. The framework validation was made in two parts: first, the compliance process and after all the framework proposed. For the compliance process, the effort and correctness were measured comparing the use of the proposed process andan ad-hoc method. For the entire framework, the example of monitoring the changes in the environment when an automated car is crossing the border between Washington and Canada was used. The study shows that context has a strong influence on the software requirements, and nonconformity problems may incur penalties. The contribution of this work is the Eunomia framework that has a process and goal model perspective with emphasis on monitoring that helps to deal with the compliance challenge. The framework equips the requirements engineering team with a systematic method. Eunomia framework is a tool-supported and systematic process which can be reused to reduce the time effort and to improve the quality of the requirement specification that helps to create a compliant software requirement specification that is compliant over the time.

Crowds of people are gathering at multiple venues, such as concerts, political rallies, as well as in commercial malls, or just simply walking on the streets. More and more people are flocking to live in urban areas, thus generating a lot of scenarios of crowds. As a consequence, there is an increasing demand for automatic tools that can analyze and predict the behavior of crowds to ensure safety. Crowd motion analysis is a key feature in surveillance and monitoring applications, providing useful hints about potential threats to safety and security in urban and public spaces. It is well known that people gatherings are generally difficult to model, due to the diversity of the agents composing the crowd. Each individual is unique, being driven not only by the destination but also by personality traits and attitude. The domain of crowd analysis has been widely investigated in the literature. However, crowd gatherings have sometimes resulted in dangerous scenarios in recent years, such as stampedes or during dangerous situations. To take a step toward ensuring the safety of crowds, in this work we investigate two main research problems: we try to predict each person future position and we try to understand which are the key factors for simulating crowds. Predicting in advance how a mass of people will fare in a given space would help in ensuring the safety of public gatherings.

Syftet med denna studie är att studera vilka diskursiva innebörder som tydliggörs i förskollärarens tal om sitt arbete med kemi i förskolan. Denna studie tar sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i begreppen diskurs och diskursiva konstruktioner. Diskurs och diskursiva konstruktioner är bärande begrepp inom det postrukturalistiska perspektivet. För att kunna studera förskollärares tal kring arbete med kemi i förskolan genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer tillsammans med åtta verksamma förskollärare. Studiens resultat redogör för meningsbärande innebörder i förskollärarnas tal om ämnet kemi i förskolans verksamhet. I resultatet presenteras en okunskap och en osäkerhet hos pedagoger när det kommer till ämnet kemi. Ytterligare en meningsbärande innebörd som presenteras i resultatet är hur yttre faktorer påverkar förskollärarna i deras planering av undervisning och miljöer. Belysande exempel på de faktorer som påverkar är kommunens krav och riktlinjer samt kollegors attityder. Vidare belyser resultatet betydelsen av pedagogens förhållningssätt i relation till barns kemiska lärande. En lyhörd, nyfiken och medforskande pedagog beskrivs vara viktiga karaktärsdrag i pedagogens förhållningssätt. Det är även av vikt att pedagoger exponerar barnen för ämnet och här lyfts miljöns betydelse i barns lärande och utveckling fram. Det är viktigt att erbjuda barnen en utmanande och stimulerande miljö med tillgänglighet för olika material att utforska. Avslutningsvis ser vi betydelsen av att samtala om ämnet kemi för att synliggöra de kunskaper som finns hos arbetslaget och hitta motivation till att arbeta med kemi i förskolan. Studien lyfter även betydelsen av kontinuerlig kompetensutveckling för pedagoger i verksamheten / The purpose of this study is to study which discursive meanings is being clarrified in the preschool teacher´s speech about their work with chemistry in preschool. This study takes its theoretical starting point in the concepts of discourse and discursive constructions. Discourse and discursive constructions are key concepts within the poststructuralist perspective. In order to study preschool teacher´s speech about their work with chemistry in preschool, semistructured interviews were conducted with eight preschool teachers.The result in the study shows meaningful meanings about the preschool teacher´s work with chemistry in preschool. In the result a lack of knowledge and uncertainty is presented by preschool teacher´s when it comes to the subject of chemistry. Another meaningful meaning presented in the results is how external factors influence preschool teacher´s in their planning of teaching and environment. Illuminating examples of the factors that influence are the municipality´s requirements and guidelines, as well as colleague´s attitudes. Further the result shows the meaning of the preschool teacher´s approach in relation to children´s learning in chemistry. A responsive, curious and collaborative teacher is described as important characteristics in the teacher´s approach. It´s also important that preschool teacher´s expose children to the subject, and here the significance of the environment in children´s learning and development is highlighted. It´s important to provide children with a challenging and stimulating environment with accessibility to various materials för exploration. In conclusion, we see the importance of discussing the subject of chemistry to highlight the knowledge within the team and find motivation to work with chemistry in preschool. The study also highlights the importance of continuous competence development for preschool teacher´s in preschool

Programa de Apoio aos Planos de Reestruturação e Expansão das Universidades Federais / This study aims to analyze the performance of entrepreneurial activity in countries participating in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), by the use of multivariate quantitative methods, in order to generate new thinking about the role of entrepreneurship in the economic growth and development of countries. Therefore, the research is divided into two papers whose approaches are exploratory, due to the potential of the database for the realization of new research, and the achievement of international comparisons of economies. To achieve this goal, the techniques used were the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Cluster Analysis (CA) to study the relationship between the variables and the countries of the data set, thus obtaining an overview of the studied phenomenon. In the study of the variables, eight have been identified as the most representative of GEM s database, making the study of the entrepreneur process more effective. Among the most representative variables, the strong influence of the entrepreneurs´ attitude about the opening rates of new enterprises can be identified. To analyze the countries included in this study a classification of the economic performance of these nations was proposed, by creating a ranking of Entrepreneurial Activity Performance (EAP). The order of the countries was aligned to the methodologies used by both the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Bank, for the ranking of economic performance and economic development. Therefore, the study explored the main points of the GEM database, variables and countries, making use of multivariate techniques that provided information for the analysis of global entrepreneurship from a different perspective / Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar o desempenho da atividade empreendedora dos países participantes do Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), por meio de métodos quantitativos multivariados, visando gerar novas reflexões sobre o papel do empreendedorismo no crescimento e desenvolvimento econômico dos países. Diante disso, a pesquisa é divida em dois artigos científicos, cujas abordagens são exploratórias, devido ao potencial da base de dados para a efetivação de novas pesquisas, e para a realização de comparações internacionais entre economias. Para tanto, fez-se uso das técnicas de Análise de Componentes Principais (ACP) e de Análise de Clusters (AC) para o estudo das interrelações das variáveis e dos países do conjunto de dados, obtendo assim uma visão global do fenômeno pesquisado. No estudo das variáveis, oito foram identificadas como as mais representativas da base de dados do GEM, tornando mais efetivo o estudo do processo empreendedor. Entre as variáveis mais representativas identificou-se a forte influência das atitudes dos empreendedores sobre as taxas de abertura de novos empreendimentos. Para a análise dos países que contemplam esse estudo, foi proposta uma classificação do desempenho econômico dessas nações, mediante a criação do ranking de Performance da Atividade Empreendedora (PAE). A ordenação dos países alinhou-se as metodologias utilizadas, pelo World Economic Forum (WEF) e pelo World Bank, na classificação dos países por rankings de performance econômica, e por estágios de desenvolvimento econômico. Assim, o estudo explorou os principais pontos da base de dados do GEM, variáveis e países, fazendo uso de técnicas multivariadas que forneceram subsídios para a análise do empreendedorismo global de uma perspectiva diferenciada

<p> This research examined the geographic variability as well as the individual-and neighbourhood-level determinants of overweight and obesity in Canada. Overweight and obesity represent a significant public health problem with grave implications for individuals as well as populations. Over the past two decades, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has reached epidemic proportions with the most substantial increases observed in economically developed countries. The World Health Organization indicated that globally 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) are overweight and at least 400 million adults were obese. In a Canadian context, recent data from Statistics Canada confirms that over the past twenty-five years, adult obesity rates in Canada have doubled (23% ), while childhood obesity rates have nearly tripled. </p> <p> Until recently, research has focused on biological and behavioural determinants of obesity, and currently there is a great deal of knowledge regarding the relationships between weight status and various risk factors at the individual-level (e.g. age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, diet, physical activity). However, the majority of existing research has ignored the potential role played by the environment in the development of these conditions, despite a growing consensus that environmental and/or societal constraints may be major influences on increasing prevalence rates. </p> <p> Using data from the Canadian Community Health Surveys and the Desktop Mapping Information Technologies Incorporated spatial database, this research addressed the following objectives: (I) to examine sex-specific spatial patterns of overweight/obesity in Canada as well as investigate the presence of spatial clusters (2) to investigate the prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity in Canada using spatial analysis and geographical information systems (GIS) and (3) to identify heterogeneities associated with the relationships between individual and socioenvironmental determinants and overweight and obesity at the individual-and community-levels. </p> <p> Results revealed marked geographical variation in overweight/obesity prevalence with higher values in the Northern and Atlantic health-regions and lower values in the Southern and Western health-regions of Canada. Significant positive spatial autocorrelation was found for both males and females, with significant clusters of high values or 'hot spots' of obesity in the Atlantic and Northern health-regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Results also demonstrate the important role of the built-environment after adjustment demographic, socio-economic and behavioural characteristics. With regard to the built environment measures, landuse mix and residential density were found to be significantly associated with BMI. This study also demonstrated significant differences at the area-level of analysis, supporting related research that has suggested that individual-level factors alone cannot explain variation in obesity rates across space. In particular, average dwelling value was related to BMI independently of individual-level characteristics. Ultimately, this research has demonstrated that Canadian urban environments play a small but significant role in shaping the distribution of BMI. Yet, reversing current trends will require a multifaceted public health approach where interventions are developed from the individual-to the neighbourhood-level, specifically focusing on altering obesogenic environments. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Multi-temporal image analysis has been widely used in many applications such as urban monitoring, disaster management, and agriculture. With the development of the remote sensing technology, the new generation remote sensing satellite images with High/ Very High spatial resolution (HR/VHR) are now available. Compared to the traditional low/medium spatial resolution images, the detailed information of ground objects can be clearly analyzed in the HR/VHR images. Classical methods of multi-temporal image analysis deal with the images at pixel level and have worked well on low/medium resolution images. However, they provide sub-optimal results on new generation images due to their limited capability of modeling complex spatial and spectral information in the new generation products. Although significant number of object-based methods have been proposed in the last decade, they depend on suitable segmentation scale for diverse kinds of objects present in each temporal image. Thus their capability to express contextual information is limited. Typical spatial properties of last generation images emphasize the need of having more flexible models for object representation. Another drawback of the traditional methods is the difficulty in transferring knowledge learned from one specific problem to another. In the last few years, an interesting development is observed in the machine learning/computer vision field. Deep learning, especially Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs) have shown excellent capability to capture object level information and in transfer learning. By 2015, deep learning achieved state-of-the-art performance in most computer vision tasks. Inspite of its success in computer vision fields, the application of deep learning in multi-temporal image analysis saw slow progress due to the requirement of large labeled datasets to train deep learning models. However, by the start of this PhD activity, few works in the computer vision literature showed that deep learning possesses capability of transfer learning and training without labeled data. Thus, inspired by the success of deep learning, this thesis focuses on developing deep learning based methods for unsupervised/semi-supervised multi-temporal image analysis. This thesis is aimed towards developing methods that combine the benefits of deep learning with the traditional methods of multi-temporal image analysis. Towards this direction, the thesis first explores the research challenges that incorporates deep learning into the popular unsupervised change detection (CD) method - Change Vector Analysis (CVA) and further investigates the possibility of using deep learning for multi-temporal information extraction. The thesis specifically: i) extends the paradigm of unsupervised CVA to novel Deep CVA (DCVA) by using a pre-trained network as deep feature extractor; ii) extends DCVA by exploiting Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to remove necessity of having a pre-trained deep network; iii) revisits the problem of semi-supervised CD by exploiting Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) for label propagation from the labeled pixels to the unlabeled ones; and iv) extends the problem statement of semantic segmentation to multi-temporal domain via unsupervised deep clustering. The effectiveness of the proposed novel approaches and related techniques is demonstrated on several experiments involving passive VHR (including Pleiades), passive HR (Sentinel-2), and active VHR (COSMO-SkyMed) datasets. A substantial improvement is observed over the state-of-the-art shallow methods.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T14:19:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kelly Lais.pdf: 3909972 bytes, checksum: a9e068fb926de9ca233857005e400c84 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O Sensoriamento Remoto (SR) dispõe de tecnologias em constante crescimento e com grande potencial para a agricultura, tanto no gerenciamento de culturas, manejo de solo, bem como discriminações de feições da terra. Atualmente, há muitos métodos de análise e categorização de paisagens, que com a integração de dados de SR e técnicas de Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG) apresentam alternativa promissora. Isto é, proporcionam maior facilidade na manipulação de dados geográficos, bem como otimização da validação a campo. Neste contexto, esta pesquisa foi realizada utilizando classificação digital não-supervisionada pela Rede Neural Artificial (RNA) Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) no reconhecimento de padrões de uso e cobertura da terra em um recorte de imagem orbital de alta resolução Rapideye pertencente à Bacia do Pitangui, o qual abrange o município de Ponta Grossa, localizado a centro-leste do Estado do Paraná. Primeiramente aplicouse a técnica NDVI (Índice de Vegetação por Diferença Normalizada) para estimular a separação das classes, principalmente os diferentes tipos de cultivos agrícolas, bem como cobertura florestal. A imagem orbital e NDVI foram segmentadas por meio de Análise de Imagem Baseada em Objeto (GEOBIA), gerando descritores com propriedades espaciais, espectrais e de textura, culminando no banco de dados relacional (BDR) com tais descritores. Mediante Análise de Componentes Principais (ACP) reduziu-se a dimensionalidade dos dados do BDR, selecionando os descritores mais significativos. A dimensionalidade foi reduzida, sem perda de informação, de 42 descritores para 21, a saber 6 espaciais, 12 espectrais e 3 de textura. Após esta preparação dos dados, utilizou-se a RNA SOM para o reconhecimento dos padrões pré-determinados a campo. As classes de uso e cobertura da terra discriminadas pela RNA SOM foram cultivos (cultivo 1, 2, 3 e 4), estradas e construções, cobertura florestal e corpos d’água. A RNA SOM culminou no agrupamento das classes cultivos inclusive em relação ao seu ciclo fenológico. A associação da banda artificial NDVI, com seus descritores às bandas espectrais, incrementou a separabilidade entre classes, tais como cobertura florestal e corpos d’água. As classes de uso e cobertura da terra foram validadas a campo, a exatidão global foi de 91% de acerto, com índice kappa de 0,9, considerado resultado excelente em valores de referência. Também foi realizado o teste estatístico F, o qual satisfez as hipóteses de nulidade nas áreas analisadas.Conclui-se que os métodos utilizados apresentaram eficácia, agilidade e baixo custo no mapeamento d o uso e cobertura da terra em escala detalhada. / Remote Sensing (RS) uses steadily growing technologies and presents great potential for agriculture, e.g. in crop and land management, as well as for discrimination of land features. Currently, there are many methods of analysis and landscape categorization that when integrated with RS data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques stage as promising alternatives. That is, they provide greater ease in handling spatial data as well as optimizing validation on the field. In this context, this study was carried out using unsupervised digital classification with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Self- Organizing Maps (SOM), in order to recognize patterns of land cover and land use in part of a high-resolution Rapideye orbital image belonging to the Pitangui River Basin, which encompasses the city of Ponta Grossa, located in the Central-Eastern portion of the State of Paraná. Initially, NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) technique was applied to stimulate the separation of classes, especially to evidence different types of agricultural crops and forest cover. The orbital image and the NDVI were segmented through Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA), generating descriptors with spatial, spectral and textural properties, culminating in the relational database (RDB) with such descriptors. With Principal Component Analysis (PCA) dimensionality of the BDR data was reduced, selecting the most significant descriptors. Dimensionality was reduced without information loss, from 42 descriptors to 21, namely 6 spatial, 12 spectral and 3 textural. After this data preparation, ANN SOM was used to recognize predetermined patterns in the field. The classes of land cover and land use discriminated by ANN SOM were crops (crop 1, 2, 3 and 4), roads and buildings; forest cover and water bodies. The ANN SOM culminated in the grouping of crop classes including in relation to its phenological cycle. The association of the NDVI artificial band with descriptors to spectral bands, increased the separability between classes, such as forest cover and water bodies. Classes of land cover and land use were validated in the field, the global accuracy was 91%, with kappa index of 0.9 and considered to be excellent as reference values. F statistical test was also carried out and showed satisfiability in the analyzed areas. It is concluded that the methods used were effective, agile and low-cost in detailed scale mapping of land use and coverage.

O impacto da certificação foi o tema central desse projeto de pesquisa que consistiu em identificar o seu efeito sobre variáveis de interesse, isolado de outras fontes de variação. Para isso, uma metodologia de avaliação de impacto foi adaptada e testada para analisar a Certificação Socioambiental Rainforest Alliance da Rede de Agricultura Sustentável RAS na cafeicultura em Minas Gerais. A Certificação Socioambiental cresceu significativamente em fazendas produtoras de café no Brasil e no mundo desde sua criação em 1998 até o ano 2007. Os produtos vendidos com essa certificação carregam consigo a mensagem que vêm de sistemas de produção que promovem mais desenvolvimento humano e mais conservação da biodiversidade quando comparados aos sistemas convencionais. Contudo, o processo de Certificação Socioambiental não mede diretamente essas diferenças. Na rotina da certificação, o auditor avalia a conformidade dos sistemas de produção a padrões pré-estabelecidos. A ausência de avaliações de impactos pode acarretar questionamentos referentes às reais transformações decorrentes da certificação. Outro questionamento refere-se à elaboração das normas, as quais foram formuladas em processos de consulta pública com as partes interessadas, as quais estabelecem uma referência do que é desejável segundo a percepção de cada participante. Esses atores, num determinado momento ou contexto, podem ter dado maior ênfase a alguns aspectos que outros e não explicitam quais os problemas dos sistemas de produção conve ncional que pretendiam superar. Além disso, podem ocorrer mudanças de conduta e paradigmas nos sistemas convencionais que podem afetar no tempo as decisões das consultas públicas. Como parte do objetivo desse projeto pretendeu-se obter uma referência de sistemas de produção com e sem certificação como subsídio para elaboração das normas de certificação e para orientação dos trabalhos dos auditores. O método de avaliação de impacto utilizado foi comparar os empreendimentos agrícolas certificadas com os nãocertificados de forma a obter o cenário contrafactual, isto é, qual seria a situação dos empreendimentos certificados se, hipoteticamente, não tivessem passado pelo processo de certificação. A amostra foi de seis empreendimentos agrícolas do Sul de Minas e dez do Cerrado Mineiro, um total de 444 trabalhadores entrevistados. Os resultados foram gerados por meio da análise quantitativa dos dados primários obtidos por meio de entrevistas com os trabalhadores e com a administração da fazenda, análise de imagens de satélite e observações de campo. Os três temas selecionados para testar a metodologia foram bem estar dos trabalhadores, preservação da biodiversidade e conservação dos recursos hídricos e redução da poluição. Os resultados afirmaram a importância da Certificação Socioambiental para promoção da conservação da biodiversidade e do desenvolvimento humano no curto e longo prazo. Porém, não foram identificados impactos em alguns aspectos analisados, bem como uma manifestação distinta dos impactos nas regiões. A metodologia mostrou-se apropriada para identificar os impactos da certificação e para definir uma referência que contribua substancialmente para construção das normas e para orientar o trabalho de auditoria de forma a acentuar a contribuição da Certificação Socioambiental para promover a conservação da biodiversidade e o desenvolvimento humano. / The impact of certification was this research project´s major focus, which consisted of the identification of the effect of certification over interest variables, isolated from other sources of variation. Specifically in this dissertation, an impact assessment methodology was adapted and tested to analyze the impact of Rainforest Alliance socioenvironmental certification scheme, utilized by the Sustainable Agriculture Network - SAN (in Portuguese, RAS), in coffee plantations located in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Socio-environmental certification has increased significantly in coffee-producing farms in Brazil, as well as worldwide, since its creation in 1998 up to 2007. Commercialized products with this type of certification carry a message that they are rooted in production systems which promote greater human development and biodiversity conservation values when compared to conventional systems. However, the socio-environmental certification process does not currently measure these differences in a direct way. During certification procedures, an auditor assesses whether production systems are accomplishing pre-established standards. The absence of impact assessments might raise doubts regarding real transformations provoked by certification. Another doubt relates to the establishment of such standards, which were elaborated in public meetings among interested parties that established a reference about what is desirable according to each participants perception. These stakeholders, in a given moment or context, may have emphasized some particular aspects without clarifying which of the problems of the conventional systems they intended to solve. Moreover, changes might occur in the conduct or paradigms of conventional systems which can affect decisions made in public meetings. As part of this projects objective, it was intended to obtain a reference for production systems with and without certification, to subsidize the establishment of standards and to guide auditing procedures. The impact assessment method utilized was based on comparing certified and non-certified agricultural enterprises in such a way as to obtain a non-factual scenario, in other words, what would occur in the certified enterprises if, hypothetically, they had not been targeted by certification. The sample consisted of sixteen agricultural enterprises in Brazil. Results were generated through quantitative analyses of primary data gathered through interviews with farm workers and managers, satellite image analyses, and field observations. There technical issues selected to test the methodology were worker welfare, biodiversity preservation and water resource conservation, and pollution impact. Results indicate an important role of Socio-environmental Certification in promoting conservation of biodiversity and human development in the short and long run. Some analyzed aspects did not present impacts, however, and some impacts presented a differentiated response in different regions. The methodology used was concluded to be suitable for identifying certification impacts and for defining a reference to substantially contribute to building standards, as well as guide auditors´ work in such a way as to increase the contribution of socio-environmental certification to biodiversity conservation and human development.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:35:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4301.pdf: 755432 bytes, checksum: f6aa281f816e6ac134d38dd929db07c3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-12 / This doctoral thesis has been developed in order to identify the ethical aspects of research in education, considering the 196/96 National Health referred to the guidelines and standards regulated research involving humans. To make it possible to perform this task and establish the theoretical research we used the reflection on the concept of ethics and ethics in life science research. The methodological approach was based on bibliometrics that were used to analyze the scientific production of 73 theses and dissertations in the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE) of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), between January 2009 and December 2010. This historical period was chosen because of the concern in describe and discuss the ethical aspects of research produced in the first decade of this century, and questionnaires, with a former student and three teachers linked to the Program. The results of bibliometric analysis allowed to verify that participants were 2606 of these dissertations and theses and that 74% of the studies analyzed (21 theses and dissertations 33) were not submitted to the Ethics Committee. Analysis of the questionnaires revealed that participants are aware of the demands of ethical commitment in conducting research, but in different degrees of depth, particularly with respect to the contents of Resolution CNS 196/96. Participants also agreed on the need for further clarification on the ethics of research to graduate students, and emphasized that the bureaucratic aspects surrounding the submission of research to the Research Ethics Committees, often away from the researchers. Finally, it was observed that the participants consider that studies performed in this field of knowledge does not pose risks to the participants surveyed, which points to the importance of building a culture of bioethics needed for academic and professional researchers in education, because all intervention research entails risk to the participant, and for small or rare they are, must be provided. / Esta tese de doutoramento foi desenvolvida com o objetivo de identificar os aspectos éticos das pesquisas em Educação, considerando a Resolução 196/96 do Conselho Nacional de Saúde que se refere às diretrizes e normas regulamentadas de pesquisas que envolvam seres humanos. Para tornar possível a realização desta tarefa e estabelecer o referencial teórico da pesquisa recorreu-se à reflexão sobre o conceito de ética e de ética em pesquisas de ciências humanas. A abordagem metodológica baseou-se na bibliometria que foram utilizadas para analisar a produção científica de 73 teses e dissertações defendidas no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação (PPGE) da Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), no período entre janeiro de 2009 e dezembro de 2010. Este recorte histórico foi escolhido dada a preocupação existente em descrever e problematizar os aspectos éticos de pesquisas produzidas na primeira década do século XXI, e na aplicação de questionários, com uma ex-aluna e três docentes vinculados ao Programa. Os resultados da análise bibliométrica permitiram verificar que foram 2606 os participantes dessas dissertações e teses e que 74% dos trabalhos analisados (21 teses e 33 dissertações) não foram submetidos ao Comitê de Ética. A análise dos questionários revelou que os participantes têm noção das exigências de comprometimento ético na realização de pesquisas, mas em diferentes graus de profundidade, em especial, com relação ao conteúdo da Resolução CNS 196/96. Os participantes também concordaram sobre a necessidade de maiores esclarecimentos sobre a ética na pesquisa aos pós-graduandos, e ressaltaram que os aspectos burocráticos que cercam a submissão das pesquisas aos Comitês de Ética em Pesquisa, muitas vezes, afastam os pesquisadores. Por último, observou-se, que os participantes consideram que as pesquisas realizadas nesse campo de conhecimento não oferecem riscos aos participantes pesquisados, o que remete à relevância da construção de uma cultura bioética necessária para a formação acadêmica e profissional dos pesquisadores em Educação, pois toda intervenção de pesquisa acarreta risco ao participante, e por menores ou mais raros que sejam, devem ser previstos.

O impacto da certificação foi o tema central desse projeto de pesquisa que consistiu em identificar o seu efeito sobre variáveis de interesse, isolado de outras fontes de variação. Para isso, uma metodologia de avaliação de impacto foi adaptada e testada para analisar a Certificação Socioambiental Rainforest Alliance da Rede de Agricultura Sustentável RAS na cafeicultura em Minas Gerais. A Certificação Socioambiental cresceu significativamente em fazendas produtoras de café no Brasil e no mundo desde sua criação em 1998 até o ano 2007. Os produtos vendidos com essa certificação carregam consigo a mensagem que vêm de sistemas de produção que promovem mais desenvolvimento humano e mais conservação da biodiversidade quando comparados aos sistemas convencionais. Contudo, o processo de Certificação Socioambiental não mede diretamente essas diferenças. Na rotina da certificação, o auditor avalia a conformidade dos sistemas de produção a padrões pré-estabelecidos. A ausência de avaliações de impactos pode acarretar questionamentos referentes às reais transformações decorrentes da certificação. Outro questionamento refere-se à elaboração das normas, as quais foram formuladas em processos de consulta pública com as partes interessadas, as quais estabelecem uma referência do que é desejável segundo a percepção de cada participante. Esses atores, num determinado momento ou contexto, podem ter dado maior ênfase a alguns aspectos que outros e não explicitam quais os problemas dos sistemas de produção conve ncional que pretendiam superar. Além disso, podem ocorrer mudanças de conduta e paradigmas nos sistemas convencionais que podem afetar no tempo as decisões das consultas públicas. Como parte do objetivo desse projeto pretendeu-se obter uma referência de sistemas de produção com e sem certificação como subsídio para elaboração das normas de certificação e para orientação dos trabalhos dos auditores. O método de avaliação de impacto utilizado foi comparar os empreendimentos agrícolas certificadas com os nãocertificados de forma a obter o cenário contrafactual, isto é, qual seria a situação dos empreendimentos certificados se, hipoteticamente, não tivessem passado pelo processo de certificação. A amostra foi de seis empreendimentos agrícolas do Sul de Minas e dez do Cerrado Mineiro, um total de 444 trabalhadores entrevistados. Os resultados foram gerados por meio da análise quantitativa dos dados primários obtidos por meio de entrevistas com os trabalhadores e com a administração da fazenda, análise de imagens de satélite e observações de campo. Os três temas selecionados para testar a metodologia foram bem estar dos trabalhadores, preservação da biodiversidade e conservação dos recursos hídricos e redução da poluição. Os resultados afirmaram a importância da Certificação Socioambiental para promoção da conservação da biodiversidade e do desenvolvimento humano no curto e longo prazo. Porém, não foram identificados impactos em alguns aspectos analisados, bem como uma manifestação distinta dos impactos nas regiões. A metodologia mostrou-se apropriada para identificar os impactos da certificação e para definir uma referência que contribua substancialmente para construção das normas e para orientar o trabalho de auditoria de forma a acentuar a contribuição da Certificação Socioambiental para promover a conservação da biodiversidade e o desenvolvimento humano. / The impact of certification was this research project´s major focus, which consisted of the identification of the effect of certification over interest variables, isolated from other sources of variation. Specifically in this dissertation, an impact assessment methodology was adapted and tested to analyze the impact of Rainforest Alliance socioenvironmental certification scheme, utilized by the Sustainable Agriculture Network - SAN (in Portuguese, RAS), in coffee plantations located in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Socio-environmental certification has increased significantly in coffee-producing farms in Brazil, as well as worldwide, since its creation in 1998 up to 2007. Commercialized products with this type of certification carry a message that they are rooted in production systems which promote greater human development and biodiversity conservation values when compared to conventional systems. However, the socio-environmental certification process does not currently measure these differences in a direct way. During certification procedures, an auditor assesses whether production systems are accomplishing pre-established standards. The absence of impact assessments might raise doubts regarding real transformations provoked by certification. Another doubt relates to the establishment of such standards, which were elaborated in public meetings among interested parties that established a reference about what is desirable according to each participants perception. These stakeholders, in a given moment or context, may have emphasized some particular aspects without clarifying which of the problems of the conventional systems they intended to solve. Moreover, changes might occur in the conduct or paradigms of conventional systems which can affect decisions made in public meetings. As part of this projects objective, it was intended to obtain a reference for production systems with and without certification, to subsidize the establishment of standards and to guide auditing procedures. The impact assessment method utilized was based on comparing certified and non-certified agricultural enterprises in such a way as to obtain a non-factual scenario, in other words, what would occur in the certified enterprises if, hypothetically, they had not been targeted by certification. The sample consisted of sixteen agricultural enterprises in Brazil. Results were generated through quantitative analyses of primary data gathered through interviews with farm workers and managers, satellite image analyses, and field observations. There technical issues selected to test the methodology were worker welfare, biodiversity preservation and water resource conservation, and pollution impact. Results indicate an important role of Socio-environmental Certification in promoting conservation of biodiversity and human development in the short and long run. Some analyzed aspects did not present impacts, however, and some impacts presented a differentiated response in different regions. The methodology used was concluded to be suitable for identifying certification impacts and for defining a reference to substantially contribute to building standards, as well as guide auditors´ work in such a way as to increase the contribution of socio-environmental certification to biodiversity conservation and human development.