While Western science education has always been ubiquitous in the Canadian educational system and society, many researchers have recognized the scientific and educational values of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of TEK and the integration of TEK into science curricula. The prevalence and representation of TEK in grades 7 and 8 official science curriculum documents used in Canada were examined. To describe TEK in the documents, both quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted. The results show the high variation of the prevalence and representations of TEK. Overall, Nunavut and Saskatchewan show the highest prevalence and representation of TEK in their curriculum documents, which could establish a benchmark for developing a national learning framework for integrating TEK.

Les techniques actuelles d'indexation sur le Web ne sont pas satisfaisantes pour les ressources pédagogiques. En effet, l'indexation automatique, e.g. Google, peut difficilement dépasser le niveau syntaxique des contenus tandis que l'indexation par des documentalistes est coûteuse en main d'oeuvre. Or de récentes approches telles que les techniques du Web Sémantique ou la tendance du Web Participatif (Web 2.0) offrent des solutions prometteuses. Une première partie de nos travaux porte ainsi sur l'étude du Web Sémantique appliqué aux ressources pédagogiques. Nous y explorons les possibilités de raisonnements automatisés appliqués à des ontologies pédagogiques. Une seconde partie porte sur l'étude des fonctionnalités des sites participatifs, facilitant l'ajout de contenus et de métadonnées par les visiteurs. Nous proposons alors un modèle de site participatif adapté aux communautés d'enseignants. Néanmoins, Web Sémantique et Web Participatif sont souvent opposés. Aux ontologies formelles généralement réalisées par quelques experts s'opposent les tags hétérogènes ajoutés par de nombreux utilisateurs aux profils variés. Dans une troisième partie, nous proposons donc un modèle fusionnant Sémantique et Participatif. Ce modèle vise à développer des applications de partage de ressources, principalement pour des communautés de pratique. Il se fonde sur une Indexation Progressive et Multi-points de vue (modèle IPM) consistant à : - permettre aux utilisateurs de structurer progressivement les métadonnées, pour finalement favoriser des raisonnements sémantiques par les machines ; - permettre aux utilisateurs de collaborer progressivement, pour finalement favoriser une vision partagée du domaine par les humains. Ce modèle est implémenté dans un outil de partage de signets, nommé SemanticScuttle, proposant des fonctionnalités originales comme des tags structurés par des relations d'inclusion et de synonymie, ou des espaces wiki pour décrire des tags. L'outil a été développé et expérimenté avec des documentalistes en sociologie sur plusieurs mois. Diffusé, l'outil est employé par des utilisateurs dans plusieurs pays. Finalement, nos travaux nous permettent de formuler des hypothèses sur un modèle socio-technique soutenant le partage entre enseignants. Ils sont aussi une contribution à des modèles intégrant différentes formes d'indexation : automatique et par des humains, faisant intervenir des experts et les utilisateurs, fondée sur des modèles structurés (e.g. ontologies) et sur des métadonnées flexibles (e.g. tags). Mot-clefs : Indexation (documentation), Pédagogie – Ressources internet, Web 2.0, Communautés virtuelles, Web sémantique, Ontologies (informatique). / Current ways for Web indexing are not sufficient for learning resources. Indeed, automatic indexing, e.g. Google, can hardly raise above the syntaxical level of contents while indexing by human experts implies high costs. But, recent approaches like Semantic Web and Participative Web (Web 2.0) offer promising solutions. A first part of our works concerns the study of Semantic Web applied to learning resources. We explore possibilities of reasonings applied to educational ontologies. A second part is about the study of functionalities on participative websites making easier the adding of content and metadata by visitors. Then we propose a model of participative website adapted to communities of teachers. Nevertheless, Semantic Web and Participative Web are often opposed. Formal ontologies generally produced by experts are opposed to heterogeneous tags added by numerous users with various profiles. In a third part, we propose a model melting Semantic and Participative. The goal of this model is to help developping applications for sharing resources into communities of practice. It is based on a Progressive and Multi-points of view Indexing in which: - users progressively structure metadata, to finally allow semantic reasonings by computers; - users progressively collaborate, to finally allow a shared vision of the domain by humans. This model is implemented into a social bookmarking tool, called SemanticScuttle, offering original features like tags structured by relations of inclusion and synonymy, or wiki spaces to describe tags. The tool was developped and tested with librarians in sociology during several months. Finally, our works allow us to formulate hypotheses about a social and technical model supporting sharing between teachers. They also contribute to models melting different indexing solutions: automatic or by humans, including experts or simple users, based on structured models (e.g. ontologies) or on flexible metadata (e.g. tags).

The research described in this report was undertaken with four teachers of English as Home Language in two different secondary schools in Johannesburg. The researcher’s purpose was twofold: (i) to uncover the attitudes of selected grade nine teachers to the English Home Language curriculum statement for grade nine; (ii) to establish how, if at all, the Revised National Curriculum Statement featured in the teachers’ construction of the subject English as home language. The data for this case study consisted of individual teacher interviews, notes from observations in the classroom of each teacher and artefacts such as teachers’ term plans and examples of learners’ texts. Findings from an analysis of this data indicate varied understandings of and attitudes towards this curriculum statement. These have translated into equally varied implementation of the curriculum. Analysis of the teachers’ interviews gave little indication of the rich and varied learning activities that they planned and implemented. In this case study, the difference between how teachers talked about the new curriculum and how they enacted it in their classroom practice was marked.

Este trabalho aborda a metodologia da classificação de documentos de arquivo nas organizações contemporâneas. Para isso, propõe-se uma discussão sobre o desenvolvimento de características organizacionais, por meio da evolução de seus diferentes modelos, estruturas e instrumentos de gestão. Analisa-se paralelamente a essas transformações, o desenvolvimento do corpo metodológico da classificação arquivística, observando-se seus principais conceitos e métodos utilizados pela disciplina. Para análise empírica, discute-se o modelo da organização universitária e a proposta de classificação desenvolvida para as Instituições Federais de Ensino Superior. / This paper discussse the methodology of classification of records in contemporary organizations. We propose a discussion on the development of organizational characteristics, through the evolution of diferente models, structures and management tools. Analyzing in parallel to these changes, the methodological development of the body of archival classification, observing its main concepts and methods used for the discipline. For empirical analysis, we discuss the model of university organizations and classification scheme developed for the Federal Institutions of Higher Education.

Por mais de trinta anos, a República de Angola esteve envolvida em uma guerra civil que gerou um impacto negativo no desenvolvimento nacional, na saúde e nutrição da população, especialmente de crianças e mulheres. Especificamente com relação à saúde da mulher, devido à guerra civil e à agitação política nos últimos anos, a literatura dispõe de dados pouco precisos sobre a situação da saúde da mulher angolana; porém as fontes disponíveis demonstram que as taxas de mortalidade materna e de fecundidade são elevadas. Considerando o contexto sócio- político-econômico atual e a prática assistencial em saúde disponibilizada às mulheres angolanas, torna-se evidente a necessidade de se analisar historicamente as políticas públicas relacionadas a esta área de atuação, no sentido de fornecer subsídios para que profissionais de saúde compreendam a importância das diretrizes políticas que devem ser seguidas na assistência à mulher angolana. Objetivos: o objetivo geral deste estudo é descrever o panorama histórico das políticas públicas voltadas à saúde da mulher em Angola, considerando o contexto político e econômico desde 1975 até a atualidade. Os objetivos específicos são contextualizar historicamente o período de análise; identificar os documentos relacionados às políticas de saúde da mulher em Angola; analisar os documentos identificados utilizando os preceitos da análise documental. Método: Trata-se de pesquisa de perspectiva histórica, utilizando a análise documental e análise categorial de dados históricos oficiais provenientes do Ministério da Saúde (MINSA), Direção Nacional de Saúde Pública (DNSP) e de site oficial da Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) no período de 1975 a 2012. Os documentos foram identificados, selecionados e obtidos durante o período de setembro a novembro de 2012, nos sites oficiais da OMS, UNICEF, e do Ministério da Saúde de Angola (MINSA) e alguns documentos foram solicitados diretamente à DNSP e MINSA, com o apoio do Instituto Superior de Enfermagem da Universidade Agostinho Neto. O corpus documental foi constituído de manuais, relatórios, boletim, leis e planos referentes à temática do estudo. Resultados: de acordo com a contextualização do período, a guerra prolongada impediu o desenvolvimento de um sistema de saúde adequado e, após a guerra, os investimentos voltados ao setor da saúde ainda não conseguiram estruturar uma rede de assistência que possa atender a toda a população. Com relação às políticas de saúde da mulher, destaca-se que estas se misturam com as políticas de saúde para a população, com investimentos suecos e de organismos internacionais que visavam a melhoria das condições de saúde da mulher e também da população em geral. As políticas e os acordos elaborados foram fortemente influenciados pela conjuntura mundial no período, apesar do aspecto cultural de desvalorização da mulher, tão presente no país. Houve uma grande dificuldade para a completa implementação das ações previstas, por inúmeros fatores, que vão desde as dificuldades geográficas e econômicas, até a adequada gestão política e financeira dos recursos. Considerações: evidencia-se que as necessidades de saúde das mulheres em Angola ainda não são completamente atendidas. Apesar dos esforços realizados durante o período, o desafio de Angola continua sendo a melhoria da prestação de cuidados de saúde, que engloba a saúde da mulher, e o aumento do acesso a serviços de qualidade a toda a população. A articulação inter-setorial também é necessária, pois pode potencializar as ações para a melhoria das condições de vida geral da população / For over thirty years the Republic of Angola was involved in a civil war that led to a negative impact on national development, in health and nutrition of the population, especially children and women. Specifically with regard to women\'s health, due to civil war and political unrest in recent years, the literature has little accurate data on the health situation of Angolan women; however the available sources demonstrate that rates of maternal mortality and fertility are high. Considering the current socio-economic-political context and assistance practice in health care available to Angolan women, it becomes evident the need to analyze historically public policies related to this area, in order to provide subsidies for health professionals understand the importance of the political guidelines that must be followed in assistance to Angolan woman. Objectives: The essential aim of this study is to describe the historical background of public policies for women\'s health in Angola, considering the political and economic context from 1975 to the present. The specific objectives are to contextualize historically the period of analysis, to identify the documents related to women\'s health policies in Angola; review the documents identified using the precepts of documentary analysis. Method: It\'s a survey of historical perspective, using documentary analysis and categorical analysis of official historical data from the Ministry of Health (MINSA), the National Public Health (DNSP) and the official website of the World Health Organization (WHO ) in the period between 1975-2012. The documents were identified, selected and collected during the period of September to November of 2012, at the official websites of WHO, UNICEF, and the Ministry of Health of Angola (MINSA) and some documents were requested directly to the DNSP and MoH, with support from the Higher Institute of Nursing, University Agostinho Neto. The documentary corpus consisted of manuals, reports, newsletter, laws and plans relating to the theme of the study. Results: According to the contextualization of the period, the prolonged war prevented the development of a proper health system and, after it, the investments directed to the health sector have failed to structure a support network that can meet the entire population\'s needs. Regarding to women\'s health policy, it is emphasized that these are mixed with health policies for the population, with Swedish and international organizations investments which aimed the improvement of the conditions of the women\'s health and also of the general population. The policies and agreements drafted were heavily influenced by the global conditions in the period, despite the cultural aspect of depreciation of women, strongly present in the country. There was a great difficulty for the complete implementation of the actions planned, for numerous factors, ranging from geographic and economic difficulties, to proper political and financial management of resources. Considerations: it is evident that the health needs of women in Angola haven\'t been completely met. Despite the efforts made during the period, the challenge of Angola remains being the improvement of health care provision, which includes women\'s health, and the enlargement of the access of quality services for the entire population. The intersectoral coordination is also necessary because it may increase the actions to improve the general living conditions of the population

Une collection documentaire est généralement représentée comme un ensemble de documents mais cette modélisation ne permet pas de rendre compte des relations intertextuelles et du contexte d’interprétation d’un document. Le modèle documentaire classique trouve ses limites dans les domaines spécialisés où les besoins d’accès à l’information correspondent à des usages spécifiques et où les documents sont liés par de nombreux types de relations. Ce travail de thèse propose deux modèles permettant de prendre en compte cette complexité des collections documentaire dans les outils d’accès à l’information. Le premier modèle est basée sur l’analyse formelle et relationnelle de concepts, le deuxième est basée sur les technologies du web sémantique. Appliquées sur des objets documentaires ces modèles permettent de représenter et d’interroger de manière unifiée les descripteurs de contenu des documents et les relations intertextuelles qu’ils entretiennent. / A collection of documents is generally represented as a set of documents but this simple representation does not take into account cross references between documents, which often defines their context of interpretation. This standard document model is less adapted for specific professional uses in specialized domains in which documents are related by many various references and the access tools need to consider this complexity. We propose two models based onformal and relational concept analysis and on semantic web techniques. Applied on documentary objects, these two models represent and query in a unified way documents content descriptors and documents relations.

Existe uma busca crescente por métodos de extração de texto em imagens de documentos. O uso de imagens digitais tem se tornado cada vez mais frequente em diversas áreas. O mundo moderno está cheio de texto, que os seres humanos usam para identificar objetos, navegar e tomar decisões. Embora o problema do reconhecimento de texto tenha sido amplamente estudado dentro de determinados domínios, detectar e ler texto em documentos de identificação, continua sendo um desafio aberto. Apresenta-se uma arquitetura que integra os diferentes algoritmos de localização, extração e reconhecimento aplicados à extração de texto em documentos de identificação genéricos. O método de localização proposto usa o algoritmo MSER junto com uma melhoria do contraste e a informação das bordas dos objetos da imagem, para localizar os possíveis caracteres. A etapa de seleção desenvolveu-se mediante a busca de heurísticas, capazes de classificar as regiões localizadas como textuais e não-textuais. Na etapa de reconhecimento é proposto um método iterativo para melhorar o desempenho do OCR. O processo foi avaliado usando as métricas precisão e revocação e foi realizada uma prova de conceito do sistema em um ambiente real. A abordagem proposta é robusta na detecção de textos oriundos de imagens complexas com diferentes orientações, dimensões e cores. O sistema de reconhecimento de texto proposto apresenta resultados competitivos, tanto em precisão e taxa de reconhecimento, quando comparados com outros sistemas. Mostrando excelente desempenho e viabilidade de sua implementação em sistemas reais. / The use of digital images has become more and more frequent in several areas. The modern world is full of text, which humans use to identify objects, navigate and make decisions. Although the problem of text recognition has been extensively studied within certain domains, detecting and recognizing text in identification documents remains an open challenge. We present an architecture that integrates the different localization, extraction and recognition algorithms applied to extracting text in generic identification documents. The proposed localization method uses the MSER algorithm together to contrast enhance and edge detection to find the possible characters. The selection stage was developed through the search for heuristics, capable of classifying the located regions in textual and non-textual. In the recognition step, an iterative method is proposed to improve OCR performance. The process was evaluated using the metrics precision and recall and a proof of concept of the system was performed in a real environment. The proposed approach is robust in detecting texts from complex images with different orientations, dimensions and colors. The text recognition system presents competitive results, both in accuracy and recognition rate, when compared with other systems in the current technical literature. Showing excellent performance and feasibility of its implementation in real systems.

It is a well-known fact that international trade contracts bear inherently more risk than the trade contracts entered by the parties from the same country. This is due to the differences in business methods and practices used, trade cultures of the parties involved, laws and regulations in the respective jurisdictions. Under these circumstances, it is very important for the seller to have the assurance of that he receives the payment for the goods dispatched and for the buyer to receive the goods what has been ordered. One effective way of having such an assurance is to rely on a letter of credit as an international payment method. But for exporters in particular, this payment method has presented difficulties in meeting the compliance requirements necessary for the payment to be triggered. The UCP 600 published by the International Chamber of Commerce provide the rules that govern letters of credit transactions. At the introduction of the UCP 600, it was aimed to remove wording that could lead to inconsistent application and interpretation, as against the language and style used in the previous version, namely the UCP 500. Highlighting the experiences under UCP 500, the ultimate focus of the revision of the UCP was to minimise the level of litigations that had arisen under the rules provided in the UCP. In several surveys, it has been reported that, nearly 50% of the first presentation for payment under letters of credit are rejected by the banks. This situation implies the fact that the provisions which cover letters of credit transactions are not either clear enough or well understood by the parties involved. Similarly, the decisions made by Courts around the world on issues related to letters of credit have taken different approaches when applying and interpreting the rules. This can clearly be seen by a myriad of controversial judicial standards which have been applied to similar mistakes in documents presented to the bank for payment. This thesis is an investigation into those issues to find out the optimal standards that could be applied to solve the said problems. In doing so, this thesis will strive to ascertain what remedial measures could be taken to address the issues related to examination of documents, the rejection of payment and fraud exception. Key words: International Trade, International Trade Law, Law of Letters of Credit, Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credit 600, Examination of Documents and communicating the decision.

Existe uma busca crescente por métodos de extração de texto em imagens de documentos. O uso de imagens digitais tem se tornado cada vez mais frequente em diversas áreas. O mundo moderno está cheio de texto, que os seres humanos usam para identificar objetos, navegar e tomar decisões. Embora o problema do reconhecimento de texto tenha sido amplamente estudado dentro de determinados domínios, detectar e ler texto em documentos de identificação, continua sendo um desafio aberto. Apresenta-se uma arquitetura que integra os diferentes algoritmos de localização, extração e reconhecimento aplicados à extração de texto em documentos de identificação genéricos. O método de localização proposto usa o algoritmo MSER junto com uma melhoria do contraste e a informação das bordas dos objetos da imagem, para localizar os possíveis caracteres. A etapa de seleção desenvolveu-se mediante a busca de heurísticas, capazes de classificar as regiões localizadas como textuais e não-textuais. Na etapa de reconhecimento é proposto um método iterativo para melhorar o desempenho do OCR. O processo foi avaliado usando as métricas precisão e revocação e foi realizada uma prova de conceito do sistema em um ambiente real. A abordagem proposta é robusta na detecção de textos oriundos de imagens complexas com diferentes orientações, dimensões e cores. O sistema de reconhecimento de texto proposto apresenta resultados competitivos, tanto em precisão e taxa de reconhecimento, quando comparados com outros sistemas. Mostrando excelente desempenho e viabilidade de sua implementação em sistemas reais. / The use of digital images has become more and more frequent in several areas. The modern world is full of text, which humans use to identify objects, navigate and make decisions. Although the problem of text recognition has been extensively studied within certain domains, detecting and recognizing text in identification documents remains an open challenge. We present an architecture that integrates the different localization, extraction and recognition algorithms applied to extracting text in generic identification documents. The proposed localization method uses the MSER algorithm together to contrast enhance and edge detection to find the possible characters. The selection stage was developed through the search for heuristics, capable of classifying the located regions in textual and non-textual. In the recognition step, an iterative method is proposed to improve OCR performance. The process was evaluated using the metrics precision and recall and a proof of concept of the system was performed in a real environment. The proposed approach is robust in detecting texts from complex images with different orientations, dimensions and colors. The text recognition system presents competitive results, both in accuracy and recognition rate, when compared with other systems in the current technical literature. Showing excellent performance and feasibility of its implementation in real systems.

While Western science education has always been ubiquitous in the Canadian educational system and society, many researchers have recognized the scientific and educational values of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of TEK and the integration of TEK into science curricula. The prevalence and representation of TEK in grades 7 and 8 official science curriculum documents used in Canada were examined. To describe TEK in the documents, both quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted. The results show the high variation of the prevalence and representations of TEK. Overall, Nunavut and Saskatchewan show the highest prevalence and representation of TEK in their curriculum documents, which could establish a benchmark for developing a national learning framework for integrating TEK.