This paper refers to a less explored aspect in science, technology and society relationships: the means of diffusion and use of scientific and technological knowledge in social policies. In order to detect types of interaction with the scientific and technological sector and stimulating or obstructing factors, a study of national social programmes was done. Those programmes become the field where available, ad hoc produced and adapted knowledge applications are exchanged and used.

Niklas Luhmann's work invites us to think over society in a new way, leaving behind old habits and traditional thoughts built by the Western intellectual heritage since the Illustration. Lukhmann's reluctance to sustain the basic postulates of the ancient European thought and his concern about proposing an illustration of the Illustration are no more that forewords to approaching the requirements of a new theory more suitable to modern times. Thus, it could be said that he requires to go beyond Modernity tempting to create new intellectual categories. As an example, his work implies a constant concern to conceive a new concept of subject independent from his/her context meant in terms of social systems, and while the analysis of social communication traditionally implies subjects, for the studied author that represents a chimera. Even when communication assumes the participation of either several or many people, that is the very reason why it cannot be attributed to any particular one.

In this paper a survey is made through the work of Paulo Freire, whose thought was a rich contribution to the field of Education during the Twentieth Century. Our effort to historicize it took us to go along the intellectual course of that Brazilian pedagogue from his first working experiences in Brazil, through the ones he held in Chile and some African countries undergoing decolonization processes, and back to his home country when the political conditions allowed it, where he was engaged with the proposals of the Party of the Workers (Partido de los Trabajadores -PT-). The research aimed to recover some of the richer aspects of Freire's contributions in order to connect them to specific educational problems of youngsters and adults and to theoretical developments related to communication and culture.

In this paper we compare three different methods used to estimate Hurst exponent and we analyze their efficiency while they are applied in data series of different lengths. We analyze synthesized fBm time series, pure and with superimposed sinusoidal trends. We show that the three methods here discussed, DFA, wavelets based and discrete variations, no only are highly dependent on the signal length, but also on the order or number of moments (polynomic, wavelet regularity or discrete variations). For large enough data length (higher than 212), the methods based on wavelets and discrete variations have shown to be the less biased and the more stable ones for simulated fBm signals. We show that DFA method, the most widely used among the biomedical community, is the one that provides worst estimators, displaying ambiguous results while applied to real biological signals of different lengths and for different parameters in the estimator. More over, nor DFA neither the other two methods provide reliable estimators if physical or physiological conclusions are wanted. The obtained results indicate that more caution should have to be taken while trying to derive physiological conclusions from the Hurst exponent estimations obtained from real data.

Tomato colour and texture attributes, concentration of colour responsible-carotenoids and colour indexes as indicators of maturity were studied. The a*/b*ratio (CIEL*a*b system) showed statistically significant differences among the different stages. As a result, this relation could be taken as a colour index reference in tomatoes. With regard to texture parameters, the puncture force decreased along the stages studied and this fact could be due to changes in the chemical composition. Since the a*/b* ratio showed a high correlation with concentrations of lycopene and b-carotene and with texture parameters, the proposed mathematical models could be valid for analyzing and predicting changes in the fruit carotenoids concentration and texture. This can determine the consumer´s acceptability from the organoleptical and nutritional point of view.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of local microorganisms on suppressing rots caused by Penicillium digitatum in Valencia Late oranges. Oranges at commercial maturity were inoculated with 40 ml of microbial suspension (107-108 ufc/ml) to each wound. After two hours, 20 ml of a suspension (3,8 x 106 con/ml) of fungicide sensitive or resistant Penicillium were applied. The oranges were incubated for eight days under laboratory conditions, using CAD of five treatments with 25 fruits and four repetitions. The accumulated incidence of rotten fruits was registered; the infection rates, adjusting the disease progress curves to mathematical models, and the efficacy rates for each treatment were obtained. The bioactive capacity of evaluated microorganisms was higher in the sensitive to fungicide Penicillium strain. Within native micoorganisms, CNOV1 a bacterium isolated from orange phyllosphere was the most effective showing the lowest incidence of symptomatic fruits as well as the lowest infection rates in Valencia Late oranges.