Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

Multi-agent simulation of continental, regional, and micro electricity markets

Renewable based power generation has significantly increased over the last years. However, this process has evolved separately from electricity markets, leading to an inadequacy of the present market models to cope with huge quantities of renewable energy resources, and to take full advantage of the presently existing and the increasing envisaged renewable based and distributed energy resources. This paper proposes the modelling of electricity markets at several levels (continental, regional and micro), taking into account the specific characteristics of the players and resources involved in each level and ensuring that the proposed models accommodate adequate business models able to support the contribution of all the resources in the system, from the largest to the smaller ones. The proposed market models are integrated in MASCEM (Multi- Agent Simulator of Competitive Electricity Markets), using the multi agent approach advantages for overcoming the current inadequacy and significant limitations of the presently existing electricity market simulators to deal with the complex electricity market models that must be adopted.

Intelligent energy resources management in the context of smart grids

Smart grids are envisaged as infrastructures able to accommodate all centralized and distributed energy resources (DER), including intensive use of renewable and distributed generation (DG), storage, demand response (DR), and also electric vehicles (EV), from which plug-in vehicles, i.e. gridable vehicles, are especially relevant. Moreover, smart grids must accommodate a large number of diverse types or players in the context of a competitive business environment. Smart grids should also provide the required means to efficiently manage all these resources what is especially important in order to make the better possible use of renewable based power generation, namely to minimize wind curtailment. An integrated approach, considering all the available energy resources, including demand response and storage, is crucial to attain these goals. This paper proposes a methodology for energy resource management that considers several Virtual Power Players (VPPs) managing a network with high penetration of distributed generation, demand response, storage units and network reconfiguration. The resources are controlled through a flexible SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system that can be accessed by the evolved entities (VPPs) under contracted use conditions. A case study evidences the advantages of the proposed methodology to support a Virtual Power Player (VPP) managing the energy resources that it can access in an incident situation.

Accounting logic and new professional in healthcare: a case study

The central place hospitals occupy in health systems transforms them into prime target of healthcare reforms. This study aims to identify current trends in organizational structure change in public hospitals and explore the role of accounting in attempts to develop controls over professionals within public hospitals. The analytical framework we proposed crosses the concept of “new professionalism” (Evetts, 2010), with the concept of “accounting logic” for controlling professionals (Broadbent and Laughlin, 1995). Looking for a more holistic overview, we developed a qualitative and exploratory study. The data were collected trough semi-structured interviews with doctors of a clinical hospital unit. Content analysis suggests that, although we cannot say that there is a complete and generalized integration of accounting information in the clinical decisions, important improvement has been made in that area. Despite the extensive literature developed on this topic, there is any empirical studies of authors are aware that allow us to realize how real doctors in reals day-to-day work integrated these trends of change in theirs clinical decisions.

Heterodox economics approach to business co-operation

Purpose- Economics and business have evolved as sciences in order to accommodate more of ‘real world’ solutions for the problems approached. In many cases, both business and economics have been supported by other disciplines in order to obtain a more complete framework for the study of complex issues. The aim of this paper is to explore the contribution of three heterodox economics disciplines to the knowledge of business co-operation. Design/methodology/approach- This approach is theoretical and it shows that many relevant aspects of business co-operation have been proposed by economic geography, institutional economics, and economic sociology. Findings- This paper highlights the business mechanisms of co-operation, reflecting on the role of places, institution and the social context where businesses operate. Research Implications- It contributes with a theoretical framework for the explanation of business co-operations and networks that goes beyond the traditional economics theories. Originality/value- This paper contributes with a framework for the study of business co-operation both from an economics and management perspective. This framework embodies a number of non-quantitative issues that are critical for understanding the complex networks in which firms operate.

O Sistema custeio baseado em atividades e a melhor afetação dos recursos

Orientada pela Prof. Doutora Cláudia Lopes

Banco de ensaios para micro geração eólica

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Lingüística de corpus e estudos da tradução

O objectivo principal deste ensaio é discutir o interesse crescente que os Estudos da Tradução tem expressado acerca da Lingüística de Corpus e seu importante papel para a investigação do fenómeno tradutório. O ensaio apresenta os primeiros trabalhos na interface entre corpora e tradução e como a disciplina dos Estudos da Tradução de base em corpus evoluiu na última década. Uma atenção mais pontual é dada à noção de estudos em corpus de pequena dimensão e sua influência no campo das pesquisas em tradução no Brasil. Além disso, o ensaio explora como o conceito de representatividade tem recebido definições diferentes nos estudos dos fenómenos tradutórios de base em corpus.

Visualização e manipulação de informação em ambientes 3D imersivos

Ainda antes da invenção da escrita, o desenho foi utilizado para descrever a realidade, tendo evoluído ao longo dos tempos, ganhando mais qualidade e pormenor e recorrendo a suportes cada vez mais evoluídos que permitissem a perpetuação dessa imagem: dessa informação. Desde as pinturas rupestres, nas paredes de grutas paleolíticas, passando pelos hieróglifos, nos templos egípcios, nas gravuras das escrituras antigas e nos quadros sobre tela, a intenção sempre foi a de transmitir a informação da forma mais directa e perceptível por qualquer indivíduo. Nos dias de hoje as novas tecnologias permitem aceder à informação com uma facilidade nunca antes vista ou imaginada, estando certamente ainda por descobrir outras formas de registar e perpetuar a informação para as gerações vindouras. A fotografia está na origem das grandes evoluções da imagem, permitindo capturar o momento, tornando-o “eterno”. Hoje em dia, na era da imagem digital, além de se mostrar a realidade, é possível incorporar na imagem informação adicional, de modo a enriquecer a experiência de visualização e a maximizar a aquisição do conhecimento. As possibilidades da visualização em três dimensões (3D) vieram dar o realismo que faltava ao formato de fotografia original. O 3D permite a imersão do espectador no ambiente que, a própria imagem retrata, à qual se pode ainda adicionar informação escrita ou até sensorial como, por exemplo, o som. Esta imersão num ambiente tridimensional permite ao utilizador interagir com a própria imagem através da navegação e exploração de detalhes, usando ferramentas como o zoom ou ligações incorporados na imagem. A internet é o local onde, hoje em dia, já se disponibilizam estes ambientes imersivos, tornando esta experiência muita mais acessível a qualquer pessoa. Há poucos anos ainda, esta prática só era possível mediante o recurso a dispositivos especificamente construídos para o efeito e que, por isso, apenas estavam disponíveis a grupos restritos de utilizadores. Esta dissertação visa identificar as características de um ambiente 3D imersivo e as técnicas existentes e possíveis de serem usadas para maximizar a experiência de visualização. Apresentar-se-ão algumas aplicações destes ambientes e sua utilidade no nosso dia-a-dia, antevendo as tendências futuras de evolução nesta área. Serão apresentados exemplos de ferramentas para a composição e produção destes ambientes e serão construídos alguns modelos ilustrativos destas técnicas, como forma de avaliar o esforço de desenvolvimento e o resultado obtido, comparativamente com formas mais convencionais de transmitir e armazenar a informação. Para uma avaliação mais objectiva, submeteram-se os modelos produzidos à apreciação de diversos utilizadores, a partir da qual foram elaboradas as conclusões finais deste trabalho relativamente às potencialidades de utilização de ambientes 3D imersivos e suas mais diversas aplicações.

Tradução e poesia: actividades irreconciliáveis?

Associar tradução e poesia será, muitas vezes, sinónimo de enfrentar preconceitos académicos e científicos muito enraizados na cultura ocidental. Se, por um lado, a tradução é vista como indispensável à troca de informações entre códigos linguísticos diferentes e até mesmo como a possibilitadora de avanços científicos e tecnológicos decorrentes do contacto com outras realidades economicamente mais evoluídas, a verdade é que o seu papel enquanto “ponte” cultural está longe de ser aceite universalmente quando em causa passam a estar os “tesouros literários” de uma cultura nacional. Este carácter polémico levou-me a ponderar a hipótese de analisar, de um ponto de vista eminentemente prático, quatro traduções dissemelhantes, de épocas também distintas, do poema The Tyger, de William Blake. Ter ao dispor quatro traduções de quatro tradutores diferentes tornou possível a compilação de um corpus mais alargado e diversificado onde basear conclusões reais para os problemas de tradução de poesia, devidamente contextualizados.

Modelo de competências dos enfermeiros com funções de gestão em Portugal: estudo exploratório

Nas últimas décadas assistimos a transformações económicas, tecnológicas, políticas e sociais, que influenciaram diretamente o modo de pensar e agir nas organizações. O conceito de competências, com uma valorização crescente, surge como uma alternativa à abordagem da gestão de recursos humanos por funções, respondendo aos desafios atuais do mercado: necessidade de flexibilidade, de adaptação a mudanças contínuas, exigências crescentes do mercado e competitividade das organizações nesse mercado. A área da saúde, e concretamente a profissão de Enfermagem também tem evoluído, surgindo em 2009, uma nova forma de operacionalizar a carreira destes profissionais. No que diz respeito aos enfermeiros com funções de gestão, o conteúdo funcional está descrito, contudo, não existe uma definição clara das competências requeridas para estes profissionais. Este trabalho de investigação, de cariz exploratório, utilizando uma metodologia qualitativa, pretendeu propor uma estratégia de definição de um modelo de competências para os enfermeiros com funções de gestão em Portugal. Para isso, definimos categorias de competências, através da análise da literatura e da legislação. Seguiu-se a realização de entrevistas a um painel de doze peritos, e uma análise de conteúdo dos dados (categorização do tipo misto). Procedemos a uma comparação da recolha empírica de competências com as da recolha teórica, e definimos uma lista de 10 competências para as funções de gestão dos enfermeiros: Competências Técnicas de Gestão; Competências Interpessoais; Comunicação; Gestão de Recursos Humanos; Pensamento Crítico; Conhecimento de Políticas de Saúde; Competências Técnicas de Enfermagem; Organização e Planeamento; Trabalho de Equipa; Preocupação pela Qualidade. De forma a complementar o estudo, pretendemos identificar a perceção das lacunas de competências nos enfermeiros com funções de gestão, e identificar os processos de desenvolvimento de competências considerados mais relevantes para estes profissionais. As lacunas identificadas nas competências dos atuais enfermeiros com funções de gestão, face às mais valorizadas, são reduzidas e dispersas, pelo que consideramos pouco significativas. A forma de desenvolvimento de competências mais valorizado pelo painel de peritos foi a formação (académica e em contexto profissional). Foi também realçada a importância do empenho individual neste processo, assim como a avaliação de competências antes dos enfermeiros assumirem funções de gestão.Consideramos que esta investigação traz contributos quer para a literatura da Gestão por Competências, quer para a literatura da definição de competências das funções dos enfermeiros com funções de gestão, quer para a profissão de enfermagem, (nomeadamente, para as funções de gestão dos enfermeiros), quer para o próprio SNS, já que faz algumas propostas e sugestões para a evolução das práticas de gestão de pessoas.

Desenvolvimento do sistema de controlo de um braço robotizado e respetiva interface com o utilizador

A robótica tem evoluído de forma significativa nos últimos anos e passa a ser indispensável em várias aplicações nas áreas da engenharia, aeronáutica, medicina, entre outras. O estado da arte do presente trabalho está dividido em duas partes, uma que aborda vários aspetos relacionados com a robótica e outra com os aspetos da fundamentação matemática por de trás da robótica, porque para controlar o robô é necessário implementar expressões matemáticas para o poder controlar. Neste trabalho é apresentado um sistema de controlo do braço robótico MENTOR e o desenvolvimento de uma interface para o utilizador. Para o controlo do braço robótico foi necessário calcular a cinemática direta e inversa, para que se possa obter os ângulos das juntas para uma dada posição ou qual é a posição final do braço robótico para um valor das juntas. O sistema é bastante flexível e foi desenvolvido para ser utilizado essencialmente para aprendizagem de robótica, podendo no entanto ser utilizado em outras aplicações.

Makespan computation for GPU threads running on a single streaming multiprocessor

Graphics processors were originally developed for rendering graphics but have recently evolved towards being an architecture for general-purpose computations. They are also expected to become important parts of embedded systems hardware -- not just for graphics. However, this necessitates the development of appropriate timing analysis techniques which would be required because techniques developed for CPU scheduling are not applicable. The reason is that we are not interested in how long it takes for any given GPU thread to complete, but rather how long it takes for all of them to complete. We therefore develop a simple method for finding an upper bound on the makespan of a group of GPU threads executing the same program and competing for the resources of a single streaming multiprocessor (whose architecture is based on NVIDIA Fermi, with some simplifying assunptions). We then build upon this method to formulate the derivation of the exact worst-case makespan (and corresponding schedule) as an optimization problem. Addressing the issue of tractability, we also present a technique for efficiently computing a safe estimate of the worstcase makespan with minimal pessimism, which may be used when finding an exact value would take too long.

Dynamical analysis of the global warming

Global warming is a major concern nowadays. Weather conditions are changing, and it seems that human activity is one of the main causes. In fact, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has increased the nonnatural emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that absorbs the infrared radiation produced by the reflection of the sunlight on the Earth’s surface, trapping the heat in the atmosphere. Global warming and the associated climate changes are being the subject of intensive research due to their major impact on social, economic, and health aspects of human life. This paper studies the global warming trend in the perspective of dynamical systems and fractional calculus, which is a new standpoint in this context. Worldwide distributed meteorological stations and temperature records for the last 100 years are analysed. It is shown that the application of Fourier transforms and power law trend lines leads to an assertive representation of the global warming dynamics and a simpler analysis of its characteristics.

Complex-order forced van der Pol oscillator

In this paper we consider a complex-order forced van der Pol oscillator. The complex derivative Dα1jβ, with α, β ∈ ℝ+, is a generalization of the concept of an integer derivative, where α = 1, β = 0. The Fourier transforms of the periodic solutions of the complex-order forced van der Pol oscillator are computed for various values of parameters such as frequency ω and amplitude b of the external forcing, the damping μ, and parameters α and β. Moreover, we consider two cases: (i) b = 1, μ = {1.0, 5.0, 10.0}, and ω = {0.5, 2.46, 5.0, 20.0}; (ii) ω = 20.0, μ = {1.0, 5.0, 10.0}, and b = {1.0, 5.0, 10.0}. We verified that most of the signal energy is concentrated in the fundamental harmonic ω0. We also observed that the fundamental frequency of the oscillations ω0 varies with α and μ. For the range of tested values, the numerical fitting led to logarithmic approximations for system (7) in the two cases (i) and (ii). In conclusion, we verify that by varying the parameter values α and β of the complex-order derivative in expression (7), we accomplished a very effective way of perturbing the dynamical behavior of the forced van der Pol oscillator, which is no longer limited to parameters b and ω.