O plano de mobilidade urbana e o futuro das cidades / The urban mobility plan and the future of cities

O artigo traça um breve histórico sobre a evolução dos problemas da mobilidade, dos cavalos aos carros, e mostra que hoje, tal como há cem anos, a priorização do transporte individual levou a problemas sociais, ambientais e de saúde pública. Em seguida, analisa a Política Nacional de Mobilidade Urbana, ressaltando suas inovações e os pontos de atenção que podem prejudicar sua efetividade. Por fim, destaca a necessidade de se melhorar o transporte coletivo e não motorizado e, concomitantemente, desestimular o uso do automóvel, como formas de se devolver aos cidadãos o direito à cidade e aos serviços essenciais que ela guarda.

The article starts by providing a brief history of the evolution of mobility problems, from horses to cars, and shows that nowadays, as it was 100 years ago, the prioritization of individual transportation facilities leads to social, environmental and health problems. Secondly, the National Urban Mobility Policy analysis highlights some innovations as well as points of attention that may impair its effectiveness. Lastly, the article advocates the necessity of collective and non-motorized transport and, simultaneously, discourages car use as a way of returning to the citizens the right of the city's space and its services.

La salud de los trabajadores y la Tropical Oil Company: Barrancabermeja, 1916-1940 / The workers health and the Tropical Oil Company Barrancabermeja, 1916-1940

El artículo presenta un análisis sobre la salud de los trabajadores en los procesos de exploración y explotación petrolera adelantados en el país en la denominada Concesión de Mares, entre 1916 y 1940. Se construyó una periodización que busca dar cuenta del lugar de la problemática de la Fiebre Amarilla y las enfermedades tropicales en la situación sanitaria de la actividad petrolera en este periodo y región, pasando de ocupar un lugar central a ser desplazadas por la accidentalidad. El periodo inicial se caracteriza por la desprotección a que se ven sometidos los trabajadores al comienzo de las actividades productivas petroleras, entre 1916 y 1920; el segundo periodo se define por la implementación de medidas de protección, en el marco de un conflicto laboral con un gran peso de la problemática sanitaria, entre 1921 y 1928; y en el tercer periodo se consolida la iniciativa empresarial para hacer de la salud un dispositivo de control, pero que se acompaña de la persistencia de conflictos laborales importantes en que la accidentalidad tiene una presencia notoria, entre 1929 y 1940. Finalmente se identifican aspectos a profundizar para una caracterización de la configuración de la salud de los trabajadores petroleros en la Concesión de Mares.

This article analyses the health of workers engaged in oil exploration and exploitation in Colombia during the time of the so-called De Mares concession from 1916 to 1940. Periodisation was constructed which sought to account for yellow fever and tropical diseases within the sanitary situation related to oil exploration and exploitation during this period and region and how it became displaced from its central position by accidentally. The initial period was characterised by the lack of protection to which the workers were subjected at the start of oil-producing activities between 1916 and 1920. The second period was defined by implementing means of protection within the framework of a labour dispute accompanied by the sanitary problem's great burden between 1921 and 1928. The third period (1929 to 1940) dealt with entrepreneurial initiative becoming consolidated so as to make health become a control device, even though this was accompanied by the persistence of important labour disputes in which accidentality had a notable presence. Aspects are identified which should be gone into in greater depth for characterising oil-workers' health at the time of the De Mares concession.

Redes y medios de transporte en el desarrollo de expediciones científicas en Argentina (1850-1910) / Transportation networks and means in the development of scientific expeditions in Argentina (1850-1910)

Examina la relación entre el avance en las tecnologías del transporte y el desarrollo de las expediciones de carácter científico entre fines del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX en Argentina. Se muestra cómo la expansión a escala nacional de la red de ferrocarriles impactó en el desarrollo de las prácticas en el terreno, ampliando el acceso a sitios distantes de las instituciones científicas ubicadas en Córdoba, Buenos Aires y La Plata, simplificando el movimiento de equipamiento, colecciones y personal. Se toman como ejemplo las expedicións realizadas por Hermann Burmeister (1857-1860), por los científicos de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Córdoba y las exploraciones arqueológicas en las provincias del noroeste organizadas por instituciones científicas con sede en Buenos Aires y La Plata.

The article explores the relation between the advance of transportation technology and the development of scientific expeditions between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Argentina. Expansion of the railway network on a national scale impacted the development of the earth sciences by facilitating access to distant places by scientific institutions located in Córdoba, Buenos Aires, and La Plata and also by simplifying the movement of equipment, scientific collections, and personnel. Hermann Burmeister's expedition (1857-60), expeditions by scientists from the Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Córdoba, and archeological digs in the northwestern provinces, organized by scientific institutions headquartered in Buenos Aires and La Plata, serve as examples.

Especies locales, mercado y transporte en las investigaciones embriológicas: el estudio de la poliembrionía en armadillos a principios del siglo XX / Local species, the market, and transportation in embryological research: the study of polyembryony in armadillos in the early twentieth century

Se examina en un caso concreto la afirmación general de la importancia de las redes de comunicación y la movilidad de las cosas para la ciencia. De qué forma esto jugó un papel relevante en las investigaciones sobre la embriología de ciertas especies de armadillos a principios del siglo XX? Como intentamos mostrar, el acceso a las hembras preñadas de esas especies silvestres y los tiempos en el transporte hasta el laboratorio fueron cuestiones substanciales en los inicios de esas investigaciones. Las estrategias para obtener muestras en el campo y la temporalidad de ciertos fenómenos, los circuitos comerciales en los que participan los organismos estudiados y su trasformación en el laboratorio permiten vislumbrar aspectos de cómo trabajaron y qué problemas enfrentaron esos científicos.

The article examines the general affirmation that communication networks and mobility are important to science by examining how these factors played a relevant role in one specific case, that is, research on the embryology of certain species of armadillos in the early twentieth century. As we show, access to pregnant females of the species and transport time from the wild to the laboratory were significant issues in the early days of such research. The strategies used to obtain field samples, the temporality of certain phenomena, the commercial circuits of which the organisms under study were a part, and the transformations they underwent in the laboratory all afford a glimpse at some aspects of how these scientists approached their work and what problems they faced in producing new knowledge.

Historical evidence for a pre-Columbian presence of Datura in the Old World and implications for a first millennium transfer from the New World.

Datura (Solanaceae)is a small genus of plants that,for long, was thought to occur naturally in both the New and Old Worlds. However, recent studies indicate that all species in the genus originated in the Americas. This finding has prompted the conclusion that no species of Datura could have been present in the Old World prior to its introduction there by Europeans in the early 16th century CE. Further, the textual evidence traditionally cited in support of a pre-Columbian Old World presence of Datura species is suggested to be due to the misreading of classical Greek and Arabic sources. As a result, botanists generally accept the opinion that Datura species were transferred into the Old World in the post-Columbian period. While the taxonomic and geographic evidence for a New World origin for all the Datura species appears to be well supported, the assertion that Datura species were not known in the Old World prior to the 16th century is based on a limited examination of the pre-Columbian non-Anglo sources.We draw on old Arabic and Indic texts and southern Indian iconographic representations to show that there is conclusive evidence for the pre-Columbian presence of at least one species of Datura in the Old World. Given the systematic evidence for a New World origin of the genus, the most plausible explanation for this presence is a relatively recent but pre-Columbian (probably first millennium CE) transfer of at least one Datura species, D. metel, into the Old World. Because D. metel is a domesticated species with a disjunct distribution,this might represent an instance of human-mediated transport from the New World to the Old World, as in the case of the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas).

Natureza, colonização e utopia na obra de João Daniel / Nature, colonization, and utopia in the works of João Daniel

Este artigo analisa alguns aspectos do Tesouro descoberto no rio Amazonas, obra composta pelo padre João Daniel (1722-1776), missionário jesuíta no Estado do Maranhão e Grão-Pará entre 1741 e 1757, desterrado para Lisboa dois anos antes do banimento da Companhia de Jesus da América portuguesa. A obra, registro singular da Amazônia de meados do século XVIII, oferece um compêndio das riquezas e potencialidades da região. Sobretudo, apresenta um projeto para a colonização crítico ao modelo então em vigor e que se apresenta como um conjunto integrado que considera as condições ambientais, a técnica e as relações sociais na organização da sociedade local. Ao colocar no centro de seu projeto a questão do trabalho, João Daniel recupera, como metáfora, a idéia - marcante na literatura missionária do século XVII e praticamente abandonada no século XVIII - da Amazônia como paraíso terrestre.

The article analyzes certain aspects of "Tesouro descoberto no rio Amazonas" (Treasure discovered on the Amazon River), written by João Daniel (1722-76) during his time in the State of Maranhão e Grão-Pará as a Jesuit missionary between 1741 and 1757; the priest was banished to Lisbon two years before the Company of Jesus was expelled from Portuguese America. This unique record of the mid-eighteenth-century Amazon is a compendium on the region's wealth and potential. Most importantly, it put forward a colonization project that was critical of the model then in place; the new proposal was an integrated whole which took environmental conditions, technology, and social relations into account in the organization of local society. In centering his project on the issue of labor, João Daniel revives, as a metaphor, the idea of the Amazon as an earthly paradise-a notion that had characterized seventeenth-century missionary literature but was practically abandoned in the eighteenth century.

A gestão do transporte na regiäo metropolitana de Belo Horizonte / Transport management in Greater Belo Horizonte

Analisa a trajetória recente da gestão do transporte público na Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte (RMBH), especialmente, o que leva a atual estrutura de gestão a não se mostrar mais eficaz, nem necessariamente mais democrática, do que os formatos anteriores, identificados com o período militar. Faz um breve retrospecto da trajetória do sistema de gestão do transporte coletivo por ônibus na região, quando foram erigidas as bases do atual modelo. Analisa os impactos do processo de institucionalização da RMBH pós-Constituição de 1988 no transporte público metropolitano. Analisa a lógica de atuação dos principais atores nessa nova arena institucional. Discute alguns desafios que se colocam para um melhor desempenho do sistema.