Television and narratives: cultural identities in globalization age

This paper describes a current research integrated in an international and interdisciplinary project and developed in a global environment between two different tendencies: integration and desintegration. In this scenary, television narrative arises as an essential tool to create and consolidate new cultural identities in order to get a popular narrative on the concept of nation.

Transforming Youth Identities: Interactions Across ""Races/Colors/Ethnicities,"" Gender, Class, and Sexualities in Johannesburg, South Africa

In South Africa, and especially in Johannesburg, apartheid's ""racial"" paradigms are being transformed. Fifteen years after the end of apartheid and the elimination of all forms of inequity based on notion of ""race,"" including the abolition of the Immorality Act of 1949 that prohibited mixed marriages, the discourses of youth challenge preestablished boundaries. Today, the South African Constitution gives people the right to proclaim their sexual orientation and to shape their own identities. Through ethnographic observations carried out in Johannesburg and in-depth interviews with young people, this paper explores transforming notions of identity based on ""race/color/ethnicity,"" gender, class, and sexuality. The dynamics and challenges faced by young people with regards to mixed interactions in post-apartheid Johannesburg are analyzed and the paper looks at how "" race,"" gender, and sexuality interact in the various spaces in Johannesburg and how they affect young people's lives, particularly their perceptions of risk, violence, and HIV/AIDS vulnerability.

Slavnov-Taylor identities for the 2+1 dimensional noncommutative CPN-1 model

In the context of the 1/N expansion, the validity of the Slavnov-Taylor identity relating three- and two-point functions for the 2 + 1-dimensional noncommutative CP(N-1) model is investigated, up to subleading 1/N order, in the Landau gauge.

Slavnov-Taylor identities for noncommutative QED(4)

In this work we present an analysis of the one-loop Slavnov-Taylor identities in noncommutative QED(4). The vectorial fermion-photon and the triple photon vertex functions were studied, with the conclusion that no anomalies arise.

Higher charges and regularized quantum trace identities in su(1,1) Landau-Lifshitz model

We solve the operator ordering problem for the quantum continuous integrable su(1,1) Landau-Lifshitz model, and give a prescription to obtain the quantum trace identities, and the spectrum for the higher-order local charges. We also show that this method, based on operator regularization and renormalization, which guarantees quantum integrability, as well as the construction of self-adjoint extensions, can be used as an alternative to the discretization procedure, and unlike the latter, is based only on integrable representations. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3509374]

Skew-symmetric identities of octonions

Quadratic alternative superalgebras are introduced and their super-identities and central functions on one odd generator are described. As a corollary, all multilinear skew-symmetric identities and central polynomials of octonions are classified. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An application of lattice basis reduction to polynomial identities for algebraic structures

The authors` recent classification of trilinear operations includes, among other cases, a fourth family of operations with parameter q epsilon Q boolean OR {infinity}, and weakly commutative and weakly anticommutative operations. These operations satisfy polynomial identities in degree 3 and further identities in degree 5. For each operation, using the row canonical form of the expansion matrix E to find the identities in degree 5 gives extremely complicated results. We use lattice basis reduction to simplify these identities: we compute the Hermite normal form H of E(t), obtain a basis of the nullspace lattice from the last rows of a matrix U for which UE(t) = H, and then use the LLL algorithm to reduce the basis. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Polynomial identities for the ternary cyclic sum

We simplify the results of Bremner and Hentzel [J. Algebra 231 (2000) 387-405] on polynomial identities of degree 9 in two variables satisfied by the ternary cyclic sum [a, b, c] abc + bca + cab in every totally associative ternary algebra. We also obtain new identities of degree 9 in three variables which do not follow from the identities in two variables. Our results depend on (i) the LLL algorithm for lattice basis reduction, and (ii) linearization operators in the group algebra of the symmetric group which permit efficient computation of the representation matrices for a non-linear identity. Our computational methods can be applied to polynomial identities for other algebraic structures.

POLYNOMIAL AND GROUP IDENTITIES IN ALTERNATIVE LOOP ALGEBRAS

We investigate polynomial identities on an alternative loop algebra and group identities on its (Moufang) unit loop. An alternative loop ring always satisfies a polynomial identity, whereas whether or not a unit loop satisfies a group identity depends on factors such as characteristic and centrality of certain kinds of idempotents.

POLYNOMIAL IDENTITIES OF FINITE DIMENSIONAL SIMPLE ALGEBRAS

Let F be an algebraically closed field and let A and B be arbitrary finite dimensional simple algebras over F. We prove that A and B are isomorphic if and only if they satisfy the same identities.

ASSOCIATIVE IDENTITIES OF OCTONIONS

We work to find a basis of identities for an octonion algebra modulo an associator ideal of a free alternative algebra, or, in other words, a basis for an associative replica of an ideal of identities of an octonion algebra.

Star-group identities and groups of units

Analogous to *-identities in rings with involution we define *-identities in groups. Suppose that G is a torsion group with involution * and that F is an infinite field with char F not equal 2. Extend * linearly to FG. We prove that the unit group U of FG satisfies a *-identity if and only if the symmetric elements U(+) satisfy a group identity.

Group identities on symmetric units

Let F be an infinite field of characteristic different from 2, G a group and * an involution of G extended by linearity to an involution of the group algebra FG. Here we completely characterize the torsion groups G for which the *-symmetric units of FG satisfy a group identity. When * is the classical involution induced from g -> g(-1), g is an element of G, this result was obtained in [ A. Giambruno, S. K. Sehgal, A. Valenti, Symmetric units and group identities, Manuscripta Math. 96 (1998) 443-461]. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Infectious endocarditis caused by Nocardia sp.: histological morphology as a guide for the specific diagnosis

Nocardia is a rare opportunistic agent, which may affect immunocompromised individuals causing lung infections and exceptionally infective endocarditis (IE). There are few reports of IE caused by Nocardia sp., usually involving biological prostheses but rarely in natural valves. Its accurate microbiological identification may be hampered by the similarity with Rhodococcus equi and Corynebacterium spp. Here we report a case of native mitral valve IE caused by this agent in which the clinical absence of response to vancomycin and the suggestion of Nocardia sp. by histology pointed to the misdiagnosis of Corynebacterium spp. in blood cultures. The histological morphology can advise on the need for expansion of cultivation time and use of extra microbiological procedures that lead to the differential diagnosis with Corynebacterium spp. and other agents, which is essential to establish timely specific treatment, especially in immunocompromised patients.

Fatal adenoviral necrotizing bronchiolitis case in a post-cardiac surgery intensive care unit

We report a case of a 67 year-old-male patient admitted to the intensive care unit in the post-coronary bypass surgery period who presented cardiogenic shock, acute renal failure and three episodes of sepsis, the latter with pulmonary distress at the 30th post-operative day. The patient expired within five days in spite of treatment with vancomycin, imipenem, colistimethate and amphotericin B. At autopsy severe adenovirus pneumonia was found. Viral pulmonary infections following cardiovascular surgery are uncommon. We highlight the importance of etiological diagnosis to a correct treatment approach.