Imagens, sensações e afetos: as personagens gays nos curtas-metragens brasileiros exibidos no Festival Mix Brasil de Cultura da Diversidade

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Mother-Child Spiritual Discourse: A Mixed Methods Study

Parents and children, starting at very young ages, discuss religious and spiritual issues¿where we come from, what happens to us after we die, is there a God, and so on. Unfortunately, few studies have analyzed the content and structure of parent-child conversation about religion and spirituality (Boyatzis & Janicki, 2003; Dollahite & Thatcher, 2009), and most studies have relied on self-report with no direct observation. The current study examined mother-child (M-C) spiritual discourse to learn about its content, structure, and frequency through a survey inventory in combination with direct video observation using a novel structured task. We also analyzed how mothers¿ religiosity along several major dimensions related to their communication behaviors within both methods. Mothers (N = 39, M age = 40) of children aged 3-12 completed a survey packet on M-C spiritual discourse and standard measures of mothers¿ religious fundamentalism, intrinsic religiosity, sanctification of parenting (how much the mother saw herself as doing God¿s work as a parent), and a new measure of parental openness to children¿s spirituality. Then, in a structured task in our lab, mothers (N = 33) and children (M age = 7.33) watched a short film or read a short book that explored death in an age-appropriate manner and then engaged in a videotaped conversation about the movie or book and their religious or spiritual beliefs. Frequency of M-C spiritual discourse was positively related to mothers¿ religious fundamentalism (r = .71, p = .00), intrinsic religiosity (r = .77, p = .00), and sanctification of parenting (r = .79, p = .00), but, surprisingly, was inversely related to mothers¿ v openness to child¿s spirituality (r = -.52, p = .00). Survey data showed that the two most common topics discussed were God (once a week) and religion as it relates to moral issues (once a week). According to mothers their children¿s most common method of initiating spiritual discourse was to repeat what he or she has heard parents or family say about religious issues (M = 2.97; once a week); mothers¿ most common method was to describe their own religious/spiritual beliefs (M = 2.92). Spiritual discourse most commonly occurred either at bedtime or mealtime as reported by 26% of mothers, with the most common triggers reported as daily routine/random thoughts (once a week) and observations of nature (once a week). Mothers¿ most important goals for spiritual discourse were to let their children know that they love them (M = 3.72; very important) and to help them become a good and moral person (M = 3.67; very important). A regression model showed that significant variance in frequency of mother-child spiritual discourse (R2 = .84, p = .00) was predicted by the mothers¿ importance of goals during discourse (ß = 0.46, p = .00), frequency that the mother¿s spirituality was deepened through spiritual discourse (ß = 0.39, p = .00), and the mother¿s fundamentalism (ß = 0.20, p = .05). In a separate regression, the mother¿s comfort in the structured task (ß = 0.70, p = .00), and the number of open-ended questions she asked (ß = -0.26, p = .03) predicted the reciprocity between mother and child (R2 = .62, p = .00). In addition, the mother¿s age (ß = 0.22, p = .059) and comfort during the task (ß = 0.73, p = .00) predicted the child¿s engagement within the structured task. Other findings and theoretical and methodological implications will be discussed.

Cell-to-cell communication--periodontal regeneration.

BACKGROUND Although regenerative treatment options are available, periodontal regeneration is still regarded as insufficient and unpredictable. AIM This review article provides scientific background information on the animated 3D film Cell-to-Cell Communication - Periodontal Regeneration. RESULTS Periodontal regeneration is understood as a recapitulation of embryonic mechanisms. Therefore, a thorough understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating normal tooth root development is imperative to improve existing and develop new periodontal regenerative therapies. However, compared to tooth crown and earlier stages of tooth development, much less is known about the development of the tooth root. The formation of root cementum is considered the critical element in periodontal regeneration. Therefore, much research in recent years has focused on the origin and differentiation of cementoblasts. Evidence is accumulating that the Hertwig's epithelial root sheath (HERS) has a pivotal role in root formation and cementogenesis. Traditionally, ectomesenchymal cells in the dental follicle were thought to differentiate into cementoblasts. According to an alternative theory, however, cementoblasts originate from the HERS. What happens when the periodontal attachment system is traumatically compromised? Minor mechanical insults to the periodontium may spontaneously heal, and the tissues can structurally and functionally be restored. But what happens to the periodontium in case of periodontitis, an infectious disease, after periodontal treatment? A non-regenerative treatment of periodontitis normally results in periodontal repair (i.e., the formation of a long junctional epithelium) rather than regeneration. Thus, a regenerative treatment is indicated to restore the original architecture and function of the periodontium. Guided tissue regeneration or enamel matrix proteins are such regenerative therapies, but further improvement is required. As remnants of HERS persist as epithelial cell rests of Malassez in the periodontal ligament, these epithelial cells are regarded as a stem cell niche that can give rise to new cementoblasts. Enamel matrix proteins and members of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) superfamily have been implicated in cementoblast differentiation. CONCLUSION A better knowledge of cell-to-cell communication leading to cementoblast differentiation may be used to develop improved regenerative therapies to reconstitute periodontal tissues that were lost due to periodontitis.

Unsafe abortion: A neglected crisis in women's health

Women around the world risk their lives to end unwanted pregnancies. Created in 2003 and recently converted to a digital format, this short film highlights the toll that unsafe abortion takes on women and the comprehensive approach that Ipas takes to saving women's lives by improving access to safe abortion and contraception. Since this film was made, deaths from unsafe abortion have thankfully decreased to approximately 47,000 each year. However, the estimated number of unsafe abortions has risen to more than 21 million annually, largely due to the increase in population. We have a long way to go before the scourge of unsafe abortion is eliminated.

Text categorization methods for automatic estimation of verbal intelligence

In this paper we investigate whether conventional text categorization methods may suffice to infer different verbal intelligence levels. This research goal relies on the hypothesis that the vocabulary that speakers make use of reflects their verbal intelligence levels. Automatic verbal intelligence estimation of users in a spoken language dialog system may be useful when defining an optimal dialog strategy by improving its adaptation capabilities. The work is based on a corpus containing descriptions (i.e. monologs) of a short film by test persons yielding different educational backgrounds and the verbal intelligence scores of the speakers. First, a one-way analysis of variance was performed to compare the monologs with the film transcription and to demonstrate that there are differences in the vocabulary used by the test persons yielding different verbal intelligence levels. Then, for the classification task, the monologs were represented as feature vectors using the classical TF–IDF weighting scheme. The Naive Bayes, k-nearest neighbors and Rocchio classifiers were tested. In this paper we describe and compare these classification approaches, define the optimal classification parameters and discuss the classification results obtained.

Estimating Adaptacion of Dialogue Partners with Different Verbal Intelligence

This work investigates to what degree speakers with different verbal intelligence may adapt to each other. The work is based on a corpus consisting of 100 descriptions of a short film (monologues), 56 discussions about the same topic (dialogues), and verbal intelligence scores of the test participants. Adaptation between two dialogue partners was measured using cross-referencing, proportion of "I", "You" and "We" words, between-subject correlation and similarity of texts. It was shown that lower verbal intelligence speakers repeated more nouns and adjectives from the other and used the same linguistic categories more often than higher verbal intelligence speakers. In dialogues between strangers, participants with higher verbal intelligence showed a greater level of adaptation.

Investigating verbal intelligence using the TF-IDF approach

In this paper we investigated differences in language use of speakers yielding different verbal intelligence when they describe the same event. The work is based on a corpus containing descriptions of a short film and verbal intelligence scores of the speakers. For analyzing the monologues and the film transcript, the number of reused words, lemmas, n-grams, cosine similarity and other features were calculated and compared to each other for different verbal intelligence groups. The results showed that the similarity of monologues of higher verbal intelligence speakers was greater than of lower and average verbal intelligence participants. A possible explanation of this phenomenon is that candidates yielding higher verbal intelligence have a better short-term memory. In this paper we also checked a hypothesis that differences in vocabulary of speakers yielding different verbal intelligence are sufficient enough for good classification results. For proving this hypothesis, the Nearest Neighbor classifier was trained using TF-IDF vocabulary measures. The maximum achieved accuracy was 92.86%.

Of Elephants and Toothaches : Ethics, Politics, and Religion in Krzysztof Kieslowski's 'Decalogue' /

This collection is the first to offer a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to Krzysztof Kie?lowski’s Decalogue, a ten-film cycle of modern tales that touch on the ethical dilemmas of the Ten Commandments. The cycle’s deft handling of moral ambiguity and inventive technique established Kie?lowski as a major international director. Kie?lowski once said, “Both the deep believer and the habitual skeptic experience toothaches in exactly the same way.” Of Elephants and Toothaches takes seriously the range of thought, from theological to skeptical, condensed in the cycle’s quite human tales. Bringing together scholars of film, philosophy, literature, and several religions, the volume ranges from individual responsibility, to religion in modernity, to familial bonds, to human desire and material greed. It explores Kie?lowski’s cycle as it relentlessly solicits an ethical response that stimulates both inner disquiet and interpersonal dialogue.

Effectiveness of the cognitive interview in a multiple-testing situation

The present study assessed the effectiveness of the Cognitive Interview (CI) in a multiple-testing situation. One-hundred and eighty-two undergraduate psychology students viewed a short film clip depicting an automobile accident. Subsequently, the subjects were interviewed twice using either the CI or standard interviewing technique. In both instances, subjects who received the CI recalled more accurate information (m=32.30 at Time 1 and m=30.51 at Time 2) than subjects who received the standard interview (m=18.14 at Time 1 and m=18.38 at Time 2). There was no effect of type of interview at Time 1 on amount recalled at Time 2. This research has implications not only for judicial fact-finders, but also for further researchers interested in the CI procedure.

El lobo civilizado de Boris Vian y su adaptación cinematográfica moralizante

In the dialogue cinema-literature the issue of cinematographic adaptations has been abundantly discussed. This controversy has attended specially to the recoding of the text into cinematographic language, neglecting, nevertheless, the own imprint that the intervention can impose to the work. Therefore, the case of the short film À feu by Mavounia-Kouka based on «Le loup-garou», story by Vian, becomes significant. This one works, in order to question them, with commonplaces also present in the cinematographic work, although re-signified here with the introduction of a Virgin that represents morality. Thus, the subversion of commonplaces becomes in the film a moral questioning.

El conflicto interior en la construcción de personajes de comedia. Tratamiento en la obra audiovisual titulada Medicina

La comedia nació como forma de expresión dramática donde lo innombrable o prohibido, podía ser expuesto de manera más agradable para el público. Moliere, uno de los grandes comediantes de la historia, criticaba a las monarquías del pueblo francés de manera directa y controversial. Su obra, patrimonio histórico de Francia, fue apreciada entre los altos estratos sociales. En la actualidad, la comedia en el cine trabaja mayormente con mofas y usa temáticas estereotípicas para facilitar la identificación del público con los personajes, sin ser necesariamente adecuado. La comedia es utilizada como principal género cinematográfico comercial, siguiendo la fórmula de Hollywood para el entretenimiento masivo. También existen comediantes, como Woody Allen, que hacen uso del género a manera de terapia para el autodescubrimiento y catarsis de conflictos que los agobian como personas y artistas. El interés por desarrollar esta tesis nace cuando su autor termina la filmación del cortometraje promocional para su proyecto de serie de televisión: Medicina. En tono de comedia. En este proyecto, los personajes protagonista y coprotagonista funcionan como una misma fuerza en función de alcanzar un objetivo; sin embargo, sucede que el segundo existe en función del conflicto del primero, lo que abre las puertas para desarrollar un trabajo dramatúrgico complejo que exige un análisis teórico amplio. Esta tesis tiene como fin aportar al entendimiento de los códigos que hacen de la comedia un género complejo y expresivo. Estos conocimientos serán aplicados en el guión del episodio piloto de Medicina.

Adopting virtual production for animated filmaking

Virtual Production is a rapidly growing approach to filmmaking that utilises 3D software, virtual camera systems and motion capture technology to visually interact with a real-time virtual environment. The use of these technologies has continued to increase, however, little has been done to document the various approaches for incorporating this new film making technique into a production. This practice-led research project outlines the development of virtual production in the entertainment industry and explores possible strategies for adopting aspects of this new film making technique into the production of short animated films. The outcome is an improved understanding of possible strategies that could be utilised to assist producers and directors with the transition into this new film making technique. - See more at: http://dl4.globalstf.org/?wpsc-product=adopting-virtual-production-for-animated-filmaking#sthash.DLzRph4Z.dpuf

Short films about flying

Online artwork which streams web-cam images live from the Internet and re-mixes them into disjointed narrative sequences, thereby producing cinema as a 'found object' made entirely of live material streamed from the internet. ‘Short Films about Flying’ is an online film which explores how a cinematic work can be generated using live material from the internet. The work is driven by software that takes surveillance video from a live camera feed at Logan Airport, Boston, and combines this with randomly grabbed audio from the web and texts taken from websites, chat rooms, message boards etc. This results in an endless open edition of unique cinematic works in real-time. By combining the language of cinema with global real-time data technologies, this work is one of the first new media artworks to re-imagine the internet in a different sensory form as a cinematic space. ‘Short Films about Flying’ was developed over the course of a year in collaboration with Jon Thomson (Slade) to explore how the concept of the found object can be re-conceptualised as the found data stream. It has informed other research by Craighead and Thomson, such as the web project http://www.templatecinema.com, and began an examination into relationships between montage and live virtual data –an early example of which would be ‘Flat Earth’, an animated work developed for Channel 4 in 2007, with the production company Animate. This piece has been cited in discussions on new media art, as a significant example of artworks using a database as their determining structure. It was acquired for the Arts Council Collection and has continuously toured significant international venues over the last 4 years. Citations include:’ Time and Technology’ by Charlie Gere (2006); 'The Wrong Categories' by Kris Cohen (2006); 'Networked Art - Practices and Positions' edited by Tom Corby (Routledge 2005) and Grayson Perry in The Times (9.8.06).

Infrared spectroscopic investigation of the effects of titania photocatalyst on the degradation of linear low density polyethylene film for commercial applications

There is a need in industry for a commodity polyethylene film with controllable degradation properties that will degrade in an environmentally neutral way, for applications such as shopping bags and packaging film. Additives such as starch have been shown to accelerate the degradation of plastic films, however control of degradation is required so that the film will retain its mechanical properties during storage and use, and then degrade when no longer required. By the addition of a photocatalyst it is hoped that polymer film will breakdown with exposure to sunlight. Furthermore, it is desired that the polymer film will degrade in the dark, after a short initial exposure to sunlight. Research has been undertaken into the photo- and thermo-oxidative degradation processes of 25 ìm thick LLDPE (linear low density polyethylene) film containing titania from different manufacturers. Films were aged in a suntest or in an oven at 50 °C, and the oxidation product formation was followed using IR spectroscopy. Degussa P25, Kronos 1002, and various organic-modified and doped titanias of the types Satchleben Hombitan and Hunstsman Tioxide incorporated into LLDPE films were assessed for photoactivity. Degussa P25 was found to be the most photoactive with UVA and UVC exposure. Surface modification of titania was found to reduce photoactivity. Crystal phase is thought to be among the most important factors when assessing the photoactivity of titania as a photocatalyst for degradation. Pre-irradiation with UVA or UVC for 24 hours of the film containing 3% Degussa P25 titania prior to aging in an oven resulted in embrittlement in ca. 200 days. The multivariate data analysis technique PCA (principal component analysis) was used as an exploratory tool to investigate the IR spectral data. Oxidation products formed in similar relative concentrations across all samples, confirming that titania was catalysing the oxidation of the LLDPE film without changing the oxidation pathway. PCA was also employed to compare rates of degradation in different films. PCA enabled the discovery of water vapour trapped inside cavities formed by oxidation by titania particles. Imaging ATR/FTIR spectroscopy with high lateral resolution was used in a novel experiment to examine the heterogeneous nature of oxidation of a model polymer compound caused by the presence of titania particles. A model polymer containing Degussa P25 titania was solvent cast onto the internal reflection element of the imaging ATR/FTIR and the oxidation under UVC was examined over time. Sensitisation of 5 ìm domains by titania resulted in areas of relatively high oxidation product concentration. The suitability of transmission IR with a synchrotron light source to the study of polymer film oxidation was assessed as the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne, Australia. Challenges such as interference fringes and poor signal-to-noise ratio need to be addressed before this can become a routine technique.