Acute auditory stimulation with different styles of music influences cardiac autonomic regulation in men

No clear evidence is available in the literature regarding the acute effect of different styles of music on cardiac autonomic control. The present study aimed to evaluate the acute effects of classical baroque and heavy metal musical auditory stimulation on Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in healthy men. In this study, HRV was analyzed regarding time (SDNN, RMSSD, NN50, and pNN50) and frequency domain (LF, HF, and LF / HF) in 12 healthy men. HRV was recorded at seated rest for 10 minutes. Subsequently, the participants were exposed to classical baroque or heavy metal music for five minutes through an earphone at seated rest. After exposure to the first song, they remained at rest for five minutes and they were again exposed to classical baroque or heavy metal music. The music sequence was random for each individual. Standard statistical methods were used for calculation of means and standard deviations. Besides, ANOVA and Friedman test were used for parametric and non-parametric distributions, respectively. While listening to heavy metal music, SDNN was reduced compared to the baseline (P = 0.023). In addition, the LF index (ms(2) and nu) was reduced during exposure to both heavy metal and classical baroque musical auditory stimulation compared to the control condition (P = 0.010 and P = 0.048, respectively). However, the HF index (ms(2)) was reduced only during auditory stimulation with music heavy metal (P = 0.01). The LF/HF ratio on the other hand decreased during auditory stimulation with classical baroque music (P = 0.019). Acute auditory stimulation with the selected heavy metal musical auditory stimulation decreased the sympathetic and parasympathetic modulation on the heart, while exposure to a selected classical baroque music reduced sympathetic regulation on the heart.

Análise independente de Gauge e redução Hamiltoniana completa da gravitação induzida em duas dimensões

Pós-graduação em Física - IFT

Iniciação ao estudo da dinâmica de rotação de um satélite em variáves de Andoyer

The dynamics of the rotation of a satellite is an old and classical problem, specially in the Euler formalism. However, with these variables, even in torque free motion problem, the integrability of the system is far from trivial, mainly when the three moments of the inertia are not equal. Another disadvantage occurs when the inclinations between some plans are null or close to zero, so the nodes become undetermined. In this work, we propose the use of modern Andoyer's variables. These are a set of canonical variables and therefore some significant advantages can be obtained when dealing with perturbation methods. On other the hand, the integrability of the torque free motion becomes very clear, as the system is reduced to a problem of one degree of freedom. The elimination of the singularities mentioned above, can be solved very easily, with Pincaré-type variables. In this work we give the background concepts of the Andoyer's variables and the disturbing potential is obtained for the rotational dynamics of a satellite perturbed by a planet. In the case when A = B (moments of inertia) and due to the current variables, the averaged system is trivially obtained through very simple integrations

Máximos e mínimos com proposta de aplicação para funções quadráticas

Pós-graduação em Matemática em Rede Nacional - IBILCE

John Joseph Guilbeau Papers - Accession 188

John Joseph Guilbeau was a Professor of French at Winthrop College (1965-1978). The John Joseph Guilbeau Papers consist of correspondence, speeches, unpublished research papers and manuscript of articles concerning Guilbeau’s interest and research in the French language and folklore, particularly in Louisiana (1956-1973): his service on the corporation visiting committee of the department of modern languages at MIT (1973-1977): his association with the South Central Modern Language Association (1958-1965); and his tenure as a professor in the Winthrop Modern and Classical languages department (1965- 1978).

Talking Points for "Wake Dance" Dedication

*When the Morrill Act was passed in 1862, creating the land-grant university system which includes our own University of Nebraska, part of the language of the bill read: " ... the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.

Progress in the mathematical theory of quantum disordered systems

We review recent progress in the mathematical theory of quantum disordered systems: the Anderson transition, including some joint work with Marchetti, the (quantum and classical) Edwards-Anderson (EA) spin-glass model and return to equilibrium for a class of spin-glass models, which includes the EA model initially in a very large transverse magnetic field. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4770066]

Existence of Solutions for Abstract Non-Autonomous Neutral Differential Equations

In this paper we discuss the existence of mild and classical solutions for a class of abstract non-autonomous neutral functional differential equations. An application to partial neutral differential equations is considered.

GQ-16, a Novel Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor gamma (PPAR gamma) Ligand, Promotes Insulin Sensitization without Weight Gain

The recent discovery that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR gamma) targeted anti-diabetic drugs function by inhibiting Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of the receptor has provided a new viewpoint to evaluate and perhaps develop improved insulin-sensitizing agents. Herein we report the development of a novel thiazolidinedione that retains similar anti-diabetic efficacy as rosiglitazone in mice yet does not elicit weight gain or edema, common side effects associated with full PPAR gamma activation. Further characterization of this compound shows GQ-16 to be an effective inhibitor of Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of PPAR gamma. The structure of GQ-16 bound to PPAR gamma demonstrates that the compound utilizes a binding mode distinct from other reported PPAR gamma ligands, although it does share some structural features with other partial agonists, such as MRL-24 and PA-082, that have similarly been reported to dissociate insulin sensitization from weight gain. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange studies reveal that GQ-16 strongly stabilizes the beta-sheet region of the receptor, presumably explaining the compound's efficacy in inhibiting Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of Ser-273. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the partial agonist activity of GQ-16 results from the compound's weak ability to stabilize helix 12 in its active conformation. Our results suggest that the emerging model, whereby "ideal" PPAR gamma-based therapeutics stabilize the beta-sheet/Ser-273 region and inhibit Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation while minimally invoking adipogenesis and classical agonism, is indeed a valid framework to develop improved PPAR gamma modulators that retain antidiabetic actions while minimizing untoward effects.

Electroconvulsive therapy use in adolescents: a systematic review

Abstract Background Considered as a moment of psychological vulnerability, adolescence is remarkably a risky period for the development of psychopathologies, when the choice of the correct therapeutic approach is crucial for achieving remission. One of the researched therapies in this case is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The present study reviews the recent and classical aspects regarding ECT use in adolescents. Methods Systematic review, performed in November 2012, conformed to the PRISMA statement. Results From the 212 retrieved articles, only 39 were included in the final sample. The reviewed studies bring indications of ECT use in adolescents, evaluate the efficiency of this therapy regarding remission, and explore the potential risks and complications of the procedure. Conclusions ECT use in adolescents is considered a highly efficient option for treating several psychiatric disorders, achieving high remission rates, and presenting few and relatively benign adverse effects. Risks can be mitigated by the correct use of the technique and are considered minimal when compared to the efficiency of ECT in treating psychopathologies.

Garota de Mitilene

A proposta é uma abordagem de "Garota de Ipanema" de Jobim e Vinicius e de um poema de Safo, "Ode a Anactória" (século VII a.C.), que abriga um verso que diz, literalmente: "Esse modo de andar que desperta o desejo". E aí, aproveitando a deixa, desenvolvo um cotejo entre outros fragmentos de Safo e essa canção paradigmática da MPB, datada de 1962. Trata-se de um contraponto com 27 séculos de permeio e que - por maior que seja o cuidado em respeitar a historicidade do afeto (e não cometer anacronismos) - revela surpreendentes invariantes. Mas entre Safo e Jobim/Vinicius há Freud, ou melhor, Jensen, com a sua Gradiva - que tematiza, exatamente, o andar da mulher desejada. Por sua vez, o musicólogo Almir Chediak vê um paralelo entre o desenho melódico da partitura de "Garota de Ipanema" e as ondas do mar, no seu movimento de fluir e refluir; e no gráfico apresentado, de fato, delineia-se esse ritmo iconizado. Efetivamente, a onda, o passo ondulante, o ritmo, o tema, "o doce balanço, caminho do mar": tudo converge nessa brasileiríssima canção, que patenteia, no entanto, tão instigantes recorrências com a lírica grega arcaica.

Unidades organizativas indígenas del área indoeuropea de Hispania III: Addenda

[EN] This article analyses the new names, repeated and non-repeated names being both included in similar fashion, of indigenous units of organization (cognationes, gentes and gentilitates), discovered back in the 90’s (20th C.). These names are mentioned in the Latin and Celtiberian inscriptions from Indo-European Hispania.

Some advances in open problems of isogeometric analysis

[EN]Isogeometric analysis (IGA) has arisen as an attempt to unify the fields of CAD and classical finite element methods. The main idea of IGA consists in using for analysis the same functions (splines) that are used in CAD representation of the geometry. The main advantage with respect to the traditional finite element method is a higher smoothness of the numerical solution and more accurate representation of the geometry. IGA seems to be a promising tool with wide range of applications in engineering. However, this relatively new technique have some open problems that require a solution. In this work we present our results and contributions to this issue…

Genitalrekonstruktion bei Patienten mit Zustand nach Rhabdomyosarkom des Urogenitaltraktes und Strahlentherapie des kleinen Beckens

Zusammenfassung Humane Mundschleimhaut wurde mit Hilfe eines speziellen dreidimensionalen Zellkultivierungssystems in vitro in großen, zusammenhängenden Arealen gezüchtet. Hierbei handelte es sich um eine methodische Eigenentwicklung, welche die gewebespezifische Mikroumgebung der humanen Mundhöhle optimal nachbildet. Die Beurteilung der physiologischen Integrität des gezüchteten Humangewebes erfolgte durch eine Vielzahl von Kenngrößen. Zu diesen Beurteilungskriterien zählten unter anderem die Expression von Cytokeratinen, die Ausprägung von Komponenten des Cytoskeletts und der extrazellulären Matrix sowie die Detektion von genetischen Mutationen. Mit zunehmender Kultivierungsdauer konnten in den organotypischen Co-Kulturen, neben der Synthese der mesenchymalen Marker Fibronectin und Tenascin, eine gesteigerte Expression des Universalmarkers Cytokeratin 14 sowie der differenzierungsspezifischen Cytokeratine 4 und 13 beobachtet werden. Die Cytokeratinproduktion war ebenfalls, wie das vermehrte Auftreten der interzellulären Bindungselemente Desmoglein 2 und Desmoplakine 1 bzw. 2, ausschließlich auf die epithelialen Zellschichten beschränkt. Nach 14tägiger Kultivierung zeigte sich in der PAS-Färbung die Ausbildung der Basalmembran, die immuncytochemisch mit einer gesteigerten Expression der Hauptkomponenten Collagen Typ IV und Laminin korrelierte. Die Beurteilung des morphologischen Gesamtbilds in der H/E-Darstellung zeigte große strukturelle Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen dem in vitro gezüchteten und dem physiologischen Nativgewebe. Wie die abschließenden Mutationsuntersuchungen bezüglich des Tumorsuppressorgens p53 ergaben, konnten bei den isolierten Epithel- und Bindegewebszellen keine genetischen Alterationen im Sinne einer neoplastischen Entartung gefunden werden.

Percorsi di gender performance: fotografia tra arte e moda dagli anni Novanta ad oggi

My project explores and compares different forms of gender performance in contemporary art and visual culture according to a perspective centered on photography. Thanks to its attesting power this medium can work as a ready-made. In fact during the 20th century it played a key role in the cultural emancipation of the body which (using a Michel Foucault’s expression) has now become «the zero point of the world». Through performance the body proves to be a living material of expression and communication while photography ensures the recording of any ephemeral event that happens in time and space. My questioning approach considers the gender constructed imagery from the 1990s to the present in order to investigate how photography’s strong aura of realism promotes and allows fantasies of transformation. The contemporary fascination with gender (especially for art and fashion) represents a crucial issue in the global context of postmodernity and is manifested in a variety of visual media, from photography to video and film. Moreover the internet along with its digital transmission of images has deeply affected our world (from culture to everyday life) leading to a postmodern preference for performativity over the more traditional and linear forms of narrativity. As a consequence individual borders get redefined by the skin itself which (dissected through instant vision) turns into a ductile material of mutation and hybridation in the service of identity. My critical assumptions are taken from the most relevant changes occurred in philosophy during the last two decades as a result of the contributions by Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze who developed a cross-disciplinary and comparative approach to interpret the crisis of modernity. They have profoundly influenced feminist studies so that the category of gender has been reassessed in contrast with sex (as a biological connotation) and in relation to history, culture, society. The ideal starting point of my research is the year 1990. I chose it as the approximate historical moment when the intersection of race, class and gender were placed at the forefront of international artistic production concerned with identity, diversity and globalization. Such issues had been explored throughout the 1970s but it was only from the mid-1980s onward that they began to be articulated more consistently. Published in 1990, the book "Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity" by Judith Butler marked an important breakthrough by linking gender to performance as well as investigating the intricate connections between theory and practice, embodiment and representation. It inspired subsequent research in a variety of disciplines, art history included. In the same year Teresa de Lauretis launched the definition of queer theory to challenge the academic perspective in gay and lesbian studies. In the meantime the rise of Third Wave Feminism in the US introduced a racially and sexually inclusive vision over the global situation in order to reflect on subjectivity, new technologies and popular culture in connection with gender representation. These conceptual tools have enabled prolific readings of contemporary cultural production whether fine arts or mass media. After discussing the appropriate framework of my project and taking into account the postmodern globalization of the visual, I have turned to photography to map gender representation both in art and in fashion. Therefore I have been creating an archive of images around specific topics. I decided to include fashion photography because in the 1990s this genre moved away from the paradigm of an idealized and classical beauty toward a new vernacular allied with lifestyles, art practices, pop and youth culture; as one might expect the dominant narrative modes in fashion photography are now mainly influenced by cinema and snapshot. These strategies originate story lines and interrupted narratives using models’ performance to convey a particular imagery where identity issues emerge as an essential part of fashion spectacle. Focusing on the intersections of gender identities with socially and culturally produced identities, my approach intends to underline how the fashion world has turned to current trends in art photography and in some case turned to the artists themselves. The growing fluidity of the categories that distinguish art from fashion photography represents a particularly fruitful moment of visual exchange. Varying over time the dialogue between these two fields has always been vital; nowadays it can be studied as a result of this close relationship between contemporary art world and consumer culture. Due to the saturation of postmodern imagery the feedback between art and fashion has become much more immediate and then increasingly significant for anyone who wants to investigate the construction of gender identity through performance. In addition to that a lot of magazines founded in the 1990s bridged the worlds of art and fashion because some of their designers and even editors were art-school graduates encouraging innovation. The inclusion of art within such magazines aimed at validating them as a form of art in themselves supporting a dynamic intersection for music, fashion, design and youth culture: an intersection that also contributed to create and spread different gender stereotypes. This general interest in fashion produced many exhibitions of and about fashion itself at major international venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Since then this celebrated success of fashion has been regarded as a typical element of postmodern culture. Owing to that I have also based my analysis on some important exhibitions dealing with gender performance like "Féminin-Masculin" at the Centre Pompidou of Paris (1995), "Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose. Gender performance in photography" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York (1997), "Global Feminisms" at the Brooklyn Museum (2007), "Female Trouble" at the Pinakothek der Moderne in München together with the workshops dedicated to "Performance: gender and identity" in June 2005 at the Tate Modern of London. Since 2003 in Italy we have had Gender Bender - an international festival held annually in Bologna - to explore the gender imagery stemming from contemporary culture. In few days this festival offers a series of events ranging from visual arts, performance, cinema, literature to conferences and music. Being aware that any method of research is neither race nor gender neutral I have traced these critical paths to question gender identity in a multicultural perspective taking account of the political implications too. In fact, if visibility may be equated with exposure, we can also read these images as points of intersection of visibility with social power. Since gender assignations rely so heavily on the visual, the postmodern dismantling of gender certainty through performance has wide-ranging effects that need to be analyzed. In some sense this practice can even contest the dominance of visual within postmodernism. My visual map in contemporary art and fashion photography includes artists like Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Hellen van Meene, Rineke Dijkstra, Ed Templeton, Ryan McGinley, Anne Daems, Miwa Yanagi, Tracey Moffat, Catherine Opie, Tomoko Sawada, Vanessa Beecroft, Yasumasa Morimura, Collier Schorr among others.