A ruína da elite de Jerusalém e Judá em Jeremias 2 - Estudo da profecia do jovem Jeremias

Esta pesquisa exegética parte do método histórico-crítico, inserido na hermenêutica latino-americana, para analisar os textos do jovem Jeremias, mais exatamente, o capítulo 2 do seu livro. Este livro, aliás, pela sua riqueza literária somada ao seu conteúdo profético, é um dos mais amados e lidos pelos cristãos e demais amantes deste tipo de literatura. E a produção de textos referentes a Jeremias na pesquisa exegética é abundante, principalmente as porções da nova aliança (Jr.30-31) e das profecias contra as nações (Jr.46-51), além do bloco 37-45. Todavia, a pesquisa a respeito dos primeiros capítulos de Jeremias, ao contrário, tem sido muito pouco valorizada. Há, ainda, muitas controvérsias sobre onde situar na história esses capítulos iniciais. Porém, alguns críticos, como, por exemplo, Bernhard Duhm, já em 1901, e Thomas Roemer, mais recentemente, consideram esses capítulos iniciais do profeta como os mais antigos de Jeremias e marcam o início da sua atuação. E já notamos que, desde este início, Jeremias tem palavras bem claras de denúncia e juízo contra Jerusalém e Judá: não há esperanças e a ruína está às portas. O profeta não deixa, pois, de nomear os responsáveis por tal situação. A nossa posição aqui nesta pesquisa é a de que Jr 2, de fato, é um texto de Jeremias e marca o início de sua atuação profética, nos anos imediatamente anteriores à reforma de Josias (622 a.C.) Seus conteúdos, apesar de suas experiências do norte e sua influência oseiânica, apontam para Jerusalém e Judá, já que o Reino do Norte desaparecera e Anatote, cidade natal de Jeremias, fora incorporada pela administração real do sul. Trabalhando com essas premissas, acreditamos que Jr 2 relê a profecia de Oséias, porém com a ênfase que é uma das características da sua própria profecia: as escolhas e as práticas das elites levarão Jerusalém e Judá às ruínas: não há saídas; certamente, castigo e destruição vêm.(AU)

Exercise agency? The role of elite actors in local democracy in English local government: the local democracy maker.

The way in which employed senior elites in English local government exercise their agency in the practice of local democracy and local governance is considered in this thesis. The research posits the notion that elite Officers act as Local Democracy Makers as they draw on their own traditions and ideologies in responding to the dilemmas of changing policy and politics in the public realm. The study is located in the latter part of New Labour?s term of office and applies an interpretive and reflexive approach to three studies of the exercise of well being powers. The approach is one of applied ethnography through the examination of literature reviews, interviews and observations of decisions taken in the exercise of the powers of economic, environmental and social well-being are used to examine how and why the Local Democracy Makers make sense of their world in the way that they do. The research suggests that, despite prevailing narratives, local governance arrangements depend on a system of hierarchy, employed elites and local politics. The challenges of re-configuring local democracy and attempts at "hollowing out" the state have secured an influential role for the non-elected official. How officials interpret, advise, mediate and manage the exercise of local governance and local democracy presents a challenge to assumptions that public services are governed beyond or without local government. New narratives and reflections on the role of the local government Officer and the marginalisation of the elected Councillor are presented in the research. In particular, how the senior elite occupy managerial, strategic and political roles as Local Democracy Makers, offers an insight into the agency of strategic actors in localities. Consequently, the success of changes in public policy is materially influenced by how the practitioner responds to such dilemmas. The thesis concludes by suggesting that integral to the design and success of public policy implementation is the role of the Officer, and especially those practitioners that advise governing arrangements and democratic practice.

The development of a short scale measuring aggressiveness and anger in competitive athletes

Objectives: The study of aggression and anger in competitive sport relies on accurate and economical measurement via observation, interview and questionnaire. Unfortunately, extant questionnaires have been criticised for having poor validity, are not sport specific, or reflect mood states rather than trait qualities. Therefore, a measure of trait anger and aggressiveness in competitive athletes was developed. Method: A list of statements representing aggressiveness and anger was generated and distributed to competitive athletes from diverse sports. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were used to verify the theoretically predicted factor structure. Correlations with an extant measure of aggression and anger were used to ascertain concurrent validity. Discriminant validity was tested by comparing males with females, and aggressive with non-aggressive footballers. Results: A 12-item scale (Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale, CAAS) consisting of two subscales was derived using principal component factor analysis with oblimin rotation. Confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling confirmed the overall structure. Test-retest correlation, construct and discriminant validities were good, supporting the utility of the scale as a measure of athlete trait aggressiveness and anger. Conclusions: The CAAS appears to be a useful measure of athletic anger and aggressiveness. Its brevity and ability to discriminate aggressive from non-aggressive athletes should prove useful for future research concerning aggressive behaviour in competitive athletes. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anger rumination and self-reported aggression amongst British and Hong Kong Chinese athletes: a cross cultural comparison

Previous work has determined relationships between provocation, anger rumination, and aggression in British athletes (Maxwell, 2004); however, the reliability of these findings and their generality across diverse cultures has not been examined. Therefore, a comparison of British and Hong Kong (HK) Chinese athletes’ propensity for rumination and aggression was undertaken. Provocation and thoughts of revenge were significantly associated with the self-reported aggression of both British and HK Chinese athletes. Frequency of aggression was similar across cultures except for a tendency for British male contact sport athletes to report greater frequency of aggressive behaviour. HK Chinese athletes tended to report higher frequencies of thoughts relating to understanding the causes of anger and higher incidence of perceived provocation. It was concluded that the pattern of aggressive behaviour was similar across the two cultures when opportunities for aggression are infrequent, but that HK Chinese athletes may inhibit aggressive responding even when opportunities are frequent.

Anger and perceived legitimacy of aggression in male Hong Kong Chinese athletes: Effects of type of sport and level of competition

Problem: The vast majority of research examining the interplay between aggressive emotions, beliefs, behaviors, cognitions, and situational contingencies in competitive athletes has focused on Western populations and only select sports (e.g., ice hockey). Research involving Eastern, particularly Chinese, athletes is surprisingly sparse given the sheer size of these populations. Thus, this study examines the aggressive emotions, beliefs, behaviors, and cognitions, of competitive Chinese athletes. Method: Several measures related to aggression were distributed to a large sample (N ¼ 471) of male athletes, representing four sports (basketball, rugby union, association football/soccer, and squash). Results: Higher levels of anger and aggression tended to be associated with higher levels of play for rugby and low levels of play for contact (e.g., football, basketball) and individual sports (e.g., squash). Conclusions: The results suggest that the experience of angry emotions and aggressive behaviors of Chinese athletes are similar to Western populations, but that sport psychology practitioners should be aware of some potentially important differences, such as the general tendency of Chinese athletes to disapprove of aggressive behavior.

An analysis of penalty kicks in elite football post 1997

The penalty kick in football is a seemingly simplistic play; however, it has increased in complexity since 1997 when the rules changed allowing goalkeepers to move laterally along their goal line before the ball was kicked. Prior to 1997 goalkeepers were required to remain still until the ball was struck. The objective of this study was to determine the importance of the penalty kick in the modern game of football. A retrospective study of the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cup and the 2000, 2004 and 2008 European Championship tournaments was carried out, assessing the importance of the penalty kick in match play and shootouts and the effect of the time of the game on the shooter's success rate. This study demonstrated the conversion rate of penalties was 73% in shootouts and 68% in match play. Significantly more penalties were awarded late in the game: twice as many penalties in the second half than the first and close to four times as many in the fourth quarter vs. the first. Teams awarded penalty kicks during match play won 52%, drew 30% and lost 18% of the time; chances of winning increased to 61% if the penalty was scored, but decreased to 29% if missed. Teams participating in either the World Cup or European Championship final match had roughly a 50% chance of being involved in a penalty shootout during the tournament. Penalty shots and their outcome significantly impact match results in post 1997 football.

Hyponatremia in Endurance Athletes

The purpose of this paper was to identify the relationship between hyponatremia, or water intoxication, and endurance athletes. Athletic trainers and paramedics must be educated about this potentially fatal problem and be able to determine the appropriate treatment for a hyponatremic athlete.

Stress Urinary Incontinence in Female Athletes

Objective: The purpose of this study is to educate allied health professionals and female athletes of the anatomy of the pelvic floor, and the pathology, etiology, and prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in female athletes. Background: Urinary incontinence is not a life-threatening or dangerous condition, but it is socially embarrassing, may cause the individual to remove herself from social situations, and decrease quality of life. While typically associated with parous women who had vaginal delivery, research has shown prevalence of the condition in physically active women of all ages. Stress urinary incontinence has shown to lead to withdrawal from participation in high-impact activities such as gymnastics, aerobics, and running. It may be considered a barrier for life-long athletics participation in women. Description: An in-depth introduction to the cause and origin of stress urinary incontinence including review of the female pelvic floor anatomy and prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in the female athletic population. Clinical Advantages: Athletic trainers and other allied health professionals will develop an understanding of the multiple mechanisms that cause stress urinary incontinence. Clinician competency of the dynamics and mechanism of urinary incontinence prepares the individual to learn diagnostics, prevention, pharmacological intervention, and treatment of this pathology.

Electoral rules and elite recruitment: A comparative analysis of the Bundestag and the U.S. House of Representatives

In this research, I analyze the effects of candidate nomination rules and campaign financing rules on elite recruitment into the national legislatures of Germany and the United States. This dissertation is both theory-driven and constitutes exploratory research, too. While the effects of electoral rules are frequently studied in political science, the emphasis is thereby on electoral rules that are set post-election. My focus, in contrast, is on electoral rules that have an effect prior to the election. Furthermore, my dissertation is comparative by design.^ The research question is twofold. Do electoral rules have an effect on elite recruitment, and does it matter? To answer these question, I create a large-N original data set, in which I code the behavior and recruitment paths and patterns of members of the American House of Representatives and the German Bundestag. Furthermore, I include interviews with members of the said two national legislatures. Both the statistical analyses and the interviews provide affirmative evidence for my working hypothesis that differences in electoral rules lead to a different type of elite recruitment. To that end, I use the active-politician concept, through which I dichotomously distinguish the economic behavior of politicians.^ Thanks to the exploratory nature of my research, I also discover the phenomenon of differential valence of local and state political office for entrance into national office in comparative perspective. By statistically identifying this hitherto unknown paradox, as well as evidencing the effects of electoral rules, I show that besides ideology and culture, institutional rules are key in shaping the ruling elite. The way institutional rules are set up, in particular electoral rules, does not only affect how the electorate will vote and how seats will be distributed, but it will also affect what type of people will end up in elected office.^