The Family Novel in the Emerging Nation-State: A Comparative Study of Ba Jin’s Jia and Lev Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

The theme of family in literature and in popular discourse occurs at times when the family as an institution is under attack. Attacks against the family coupled with defence of the family are viewed as the barometer of people’s satisfaction with the society in which they live. This outpouring of emotion, whether it is in defence of or attacking the family, is the result of the family’s position on the bridge between nature and society – a fortunate (or a detrimental) link between an individual and the units that make up a society. Across the United States and much of the western world, the battle for gay marriage and inclusive civil unions has revealed the fissures in our collective moral view of the family. The conservative concern about the absence of ‘family values’ is magnified by our situation in a world of flux. Inflation, war, terrorist threats, and the depletion of natural resources are but a few examples. When so much is unknown, how do we position ourselves? What anchors us to the past, gives us comfort in the present, and supports us in the future if not the family? Alternatively, what coddles us more in the past, shackles us more to the present, and lulls us more into a fixed conception of the future than the family? My research is not a sociological survey into the family nor does it stake any claims to understanding the present state of the family in society. The study seeks, however, to shed light on the rhetorical uses of the family by analysing two novels that are inextricably concerned with the theory of the family in times of heightened social change. In particular, my research focuses upon the social role and political meaning of the family in Anna Karenina and Jia.

Avoiding the Fog of Crisis: A Protocol for the Proper Domestic Use of the Military

Failure to contemplate and define an appropriate role for the armed forces of the national government in domestic crises of this sort is a serious problem. It is all the more serious now as these potential crises seem to multiply in character and scope. This thesis will explore the history of this problem and its recent implications. It will argue the need for a comprehensive, operational framework, codified in law, which defines the various alternative uses of all emergency services, both civilian and military, and is applicable to “all hazards.” I will attempt to provide a blue-print for what such a framework should look like.

Hydrodynamic Simulations Of Vacuum-Driven Storage Tanks

As a result of urbanization, stormwater runoff flow rates and volumes are significantly increased due to increasing impervious land cover and the decreased availability of depression storage. Storage tanks are the basic devices to efficiently control the flow rate in drainage systems during wet weather. Presented in the paper conception of vacuum-driven detention tanks allows to increase the storage capacity by usage of space above the free surface water elevation at the inlet channel. Partial vacuum storage makes possible to gain cost savings by reduction of both the horizontal area of the detention tank and necessary depth of foundations. Simulation model of vacuum-driven storage tank has been developed to estimate potential profits of its application in urban drainage system. Although SWMM5 has no direct options for vacuum tanks an existing functions (i.e. control rules) have been used to reflect its operation phases. Rainfall data used in simulations were recorded at raingage in Czestochowa during years 2010÷2012 with time interval of 10minutes. Simulation results gives overview to practical operation and maintenance cost (energy demand) of vacuum driven storage tanks depending of the ratio: vacuum-driven volume to total storage capacity. The following conclusion can be drawn from this investigations: vacuum-driven storage tanks are characterized by uncomplicated construction and control systems, thus can be applied in newly developed as well as in the existing urban drainage systems. the application of vacuum in underground detention facilities makes possible to increase of the storage capacity of existing reservoirs by usage the space above the maximum depth. Possible increase of storage capacity can achieve even a few dozen percent at relatively low investment costs. vacuum driven storage tanks can be included in existing simulation software (i.e. SWMM) using options intended for pumping stations (including control and action rules ).

Análise não linear física e geométrica de pórticos espaciais

Apresenta-se uma formulação do tipo incrementaliterativa destinada a análise não linear de pórticos espaciais. Considera-se os efeitos não lineares introduzidos pelas mudanças de configuração geométrica da estrutura e também pela combinação destes efeitos com aqueles inerentes ao comportamento plástico exibido pelo material. As relações cinemáticas empregadas permitem a consideração de deslocamentos arbitrariamente grandes, acompanhadas de pequenas deformações . A modelagem do comportamento plástico do material é efetuada através do conceito de rótula plástica, estabelecido a partir de um critério de plastificação generalizado. Adota-se uma matriz de rigidez geométrica de barra baseada em momentos semitangenciais. Para elementos com extremos plastificados, é deduzida uma matriz de rigidez elasto-plástica. Emprega-se um método numérico do tipo incremental-iterativo, que utiliza como condição básica de controle da análise a constância do trabalho realizado pelos incrementos de cargas, em cada passo incremental (Método de Controle por Trabalho).A formulação permite uma descricão completa do desempenho mecânico da estrutura, inclusive em estágio de deformação pós-crítico em que ocorre regressão do carregamento com aumento de deslocamentos, ou vice-versa. A formulação foi implementada em um programa computacional elaborado em linguagem FORTRAN. Vários exemplos numéricos são apresentados para mostrar a eficiência das procedimentos propostos.

The value of local partners in Brazil: the effects of ownership clusters and business group membership on firm value in emerging markets

Este estudo analisa como a classe de acionistas afeta o valor das empresas brasileiras listadas na bolsa de valores no ponto de vista da governança corporativa. O trabalho examina a interação entre o valor das empresas e cinco tipos de concentrações acionárias comumente presente em mercados emergentes: famílias, agentes públicos, investidores estrangeiros, executivos e investidores financeiros nacionais. A análise empírica demonstra que o mix e a concentração de participação acionária afeta significativamente o valor das empresas. Utilizando uma compilação única de dados em painel de 2004 a 2008, a presente pesquisa também desenvolve hipóteses sobre o efeito da participação em grupos econômicos para o valor das empresas. A investigação encontra evidências de que, apesar de sua importância para o desenvolvimento de empresas brasileiras, o capital familiar, instituições públicas, e investidores estrangeiros estão cedendo lugar a monitores mais especializados e menos concentrados, como executivos e instituições financeiras nacionais. Estes resultados indicam que a governança corporativa no Brasil pode estar alcançando níveis de maturidade mais elevados. Adicionalmente, apesar de não haver indicação da existência de correlação entre a participação em grupos econômicos e o valor das empresas, os resultados indicam que a presença de um tipo específico de acionista em uma empresa do grupo facilita investimentos futuros desta classe de acionista em outras empresas do mesmo grupo, sinalizando que os interesses acionários são provavelmente perpetuados dentro de uma mesma rede de empresas. Finalmente, a pesquisa demonstra que enquanto o capital familiar prefere investir em empresas com ativa mobilidade do capital, investidores internacionais e instituições públicas procuram investimentos em equity com menor mobilidade de capital, o que lhes garante mais transparência com relação ao uso dos recursos e fundos das empresas.

Interests prices and the Barosky - Summers resolution of the Gibson paradox under the gold standard

This paper presents a structural monetary úamework featunng a demand function for non-monetary uses of gold, such as the one drawn by Barsky and Summers in their 1988 analy8ÚI of the Gibson Paradox as a natural concomitant of the gold standard period. That structural model predicts that the laws of behavior of nominal prices and interest rates are functions of the rules set by the government to command the money supply. !ta fiduciary vemon obtaina Fisherian relationships &8 particular cases. !ta gold atandard 801ution yields a modelsimilar to the Barsky and Summers model, in which interest rates are exogeneous and subject to shocb. This paper integrates governnment bonds into the analysis, treats interest rates endogenously, and ahifts the responsibility for the shocb to the government budgetary financing policies. The Gibson paradox appears as "practically" the only cl&18 of behavioral pattern open for interest rates and price movements under apure gold standard economy. Fisherian-like relationshipe are utterly ruled out.

Os usos sociais do corpo na "praia carioca do Pepê"

Quando o campo é a “Praia Carioca do Pepê” e os “Usos Sociais do Corpo”, a forma de “distinção” em relação às classes sociais na construção da disposição estética, no gosto, consumo, estilo de vida e nos hábitos de classe. Através deste “estudo de campo”, procurei captar as representações que os indivíduos fazem de seus corpos na “Praia Carioca do Pepê” ao confrontar com a realidade apresentada a mim nesse espaço da praia investigado. Com isso busquei averiguar se existe um imaginário social do “corpo” e como esse imaginário aparece nesse espaço da praia.

De repente, tudo mudou de lugar: refletindo sobre metamorfose urbana e gentrificação em Mossoró-RN

This study aims at solidifying the theoretical bases to provide, above all, an explanation for this phenomenon which currently happens, with a scenario of social, political, economic and cultural transformations worldwide in medium cities. Nevertheless, because it has different dimensions from its transformation axes, gentrification comes with change, but also with the introduction of a new purpose in the space using and occupation, outlining in this context the identity of places from the formation of centralities with the presence of flows with social and economic dynamicsThe current forms of geographic space appropriation show the directions of the senses and ideological profile which recreates the meanings and uses of content and materials from descriptions of a historical past. However, today there is an economic context in the urban space which refers to a search of strategies for change, i.e., the acquisition of parameter aimed at meeting the demands of the relationship between capital and labor, which ends up overriding some actions for the specification of the transformation methods within the urban space to be explained by new needs and also by the agents from the value adding to their interests and investments. Thus, we assume that the appreciation/gentrification of urban spaces may or may not result from the building of a public space, since the dialogic structure as a place of political interaction externalize conflicts and disagreements in general; it keeps segregating spaces. As new spaces are transformed, the access to them tends to happen with particular restriction, whereas some places like parks, shopping malls, high-rise and horizontal condos are the scene for major professional and family events. In this context, the gentrification process is used to designate interventions in the urban environment, in certain city spaces which are considered central to public and private investments. A historical place is permitted to be presented as a scenario, a stage full of attractions, through the transformation process. Studying gentrification consists of an analysis of the underlying interests in the transformation of these areas, and especially of the assessment of the interest level in the private sector to partner in order to modify the landscape. Gentrification results from the transformation processes of capital, which influences the efforts and investments application in order to establish and achieve optimal economic growth, focusing on a location socio-culturally centered in the urban space. Thus, the urban social structure develops in the light of some questions that relate not only the cities growth but also environmental conditions it provides in cities like Mossoro, State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil 2005 a 2011.

Barracas de Praia, praia de barracas: configuração, tipo e usos na praia do futuro, Fortaleza CE

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the importance of the huts of Praia do Futuro to their users and to the city of Fortaleza in Ceará through the comprehension of relations between morphological categories - in urban and edified contexts - of the establishments and their use patterns. This place is one of the main recreation and leisure areas of the city, formed by six kilometres of waterfront, corresponding to a differentiated area through the coast. This space has beach huts with varied profiles: while some more simple huts persist, great complexes are being developed, building even water parks on the beach area. This study analyses relations between:i) spatial configuration (in geometric and mainly topological terms) based on the Social Logic of Space; ii) edified typology (analysing capacity, landscap treatment and program of the huts); and iii) use and environmental perception of the beach by its frequenters. There are consistent relations between the type of hut and their localization in the urban grid, of which were identified groups with different patterns: segregated (north, central and south) and integrated (north: more integrated. and south: less integrated). Such relations also reflect, in varied patterns of use and environmental perception. In spite of their strong economy, the beach huts find themselves in a fragile legal situation because they occupy the beach area, so that this study may come to assist the decision-making for the future of the region. For a sustainable development of the area by those responsible and managers it is necessary to evaluate the cultural importance of the huts at Praia do Futuro, understanding their occupation and uses.

A magia do cinema na praça:apropriação do espaço e sociabilidade em Salvador-BA

It s in the city spaces, molded from the uses and daily appropriations, that life is woven, as a product of the social relationships from the accumulation of history along with the present day fabric. Within this relationship, the old and the new are elements which make up this tapestry, as a result of the contribution of successive generations. The public square is seen as an example of this relationship, since it consists of a fertile space for opportunities of urban life coexistence. It is within the trace of these considerations that the present study emerges regarding the appropriation and sociability of the Tomé de Sousa Square, located in the city of Salvador, BA, having as its main focus the special relation between the cinema and the public square, as it relates to the space of the exhibition of cinematographic art. The showing of films in public squares makes possible a distinctive means of appropriation which has occurred ever since the beginning of the cinema. Today in Brazil, projects of this nature abound, which aim at presenting the seventh art to a great portion of the population which doesn t have access to conventional movie theater projection rooms. This particular Projeto Cinema na Praça Cinema in the Square Project carried out in Salvador, has become the empirical reference point for such work. This journey reveals the fascination that this great art has woven through time, attracting and charming multitudes. The cinema touches people in a special way, stirring up affectionate feelings, which are reflected in multiple social practices. Regarding this work, what stands out above all are the projections in the squares, initiatives which make it possible for the films to be watched collectively. What was taken into account in order to carry out this work were the reports of those who came regularly to watch the cinema in the Square sessions, those involved with the cinema projects team, and the film makers. To do the work, besides a bibliographical revision, observations were made of participants in the Tomé de Sousa Square, taken from semi-structured interviews with people involved with the film projection projects and those who came regularly to the cinema in the Square sessions. Also investigations were made in newspapers, printed magazines and the internet, from document and iconographic sources. The photographic documentation proved to be an important contribution to the field work. The research therefore develops from the understanding that the social practices are what make possible the uses of and the appropriation of the spaces. Within this perspective the public square emerges as a privileged locus where possibilities flourish for multiple manifestations that social practices can generate

Disponibilidade hídrica potencial em face da distribuição espaço-temporal das precipitações no Estado do Rio Grande do Norte

The state of Rio Grande do Norte, possessor of an extremely irregular regime of rains, has the necessity of enlarge and specify the researches about its own hydro-climatic conditions, to achieve trustworthy results that are able to minimize the adversities imposed by these conditions and make possible the implementation of a better planning in the economic activities and of subsistence that somehow utilize of the multiple uses of hydro resources of the State. This way, the daily values observed from the pluviometric series of 166 posts, with 45 years uninterrupted of historic data, were adjusted to the incomplete gamma function to the determination of the probability of rain in the 36 period of ten days in which the year was divided. To the attainment of the α and β parameters of this function it was applied the method of the maximum verisimilitude allowing, in the end, to analyze the temporal and spatial distribution of the rain in the level of 75% of probability. The values of potential evapo-transpiration were calculated by the Linacre method that, through the SURFER software, were confronted with the dependant rain, obtaining, in this way, the spatialization of the potential hydro availability, which the values can be known to any period of ten days of the year, city and/or region of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. With the identification of the main meteorological systems that act in the State, we sought to better comprehend how this systems interfere, in the irregular regime of rain, in the situations of several clime in the major part of Rio Grande do Norte and in the hydro regional balance. And, finally, with these data in hand and with the generated maps, we verified that space-temporal distribution of the rain and of the potential hydro availability were heterogeneous in the whole State, mainly in the West and Central regions, inserted in potiguar s semi-arid, which, after the period of the rains station, suffers with dry season and length drought during the rest of the year

Bairro Planalto, Natal-RN: agentes, usos e conflitos

This research has the goal to analyze the urban setting of the Planalto neighborhood, in Natal /RN, seeking to unravel the processes, agents and contradictions associated with the production of the space. The choice of neighborhood is justified by the observation that changes in its urban setting have been growing in speedy way. We highlight the performance of the housing market, in partnership with the state, and the construction of condominiums and buildings closed by the housing program Minha Casa, Minha Vida. This has favored the reproduction of a new " urban reality in the neighborhood, setting an urban standard that differs from the original morphology, seen as peripheral within the urban dynamics of the city. The research is a qualitative study, through documents, interviews with stakeholders, and photographic documentation. In this perspective , we seek to understand the current phase (2000s) the production of space in the neighborhood process through the development of the housing market , as an extension of the urban development in central zone of Natal/RN, analyzing the performance of agents and their producers the "new " uses redefining the "old ". Thus, it can be seen that there is in the neighborhood, urban reality in a pluralistic constitution, from the existence of different social classes inhabiting the same space. On this way, the city is produced from the appropriation of space by different social classes, although due to the economic condition of each of them

Relativistic confinement of neutral fermions with a trigonometric tangent potential

The problem of neutral fermions subject to a pseudoscalar potential is investigated. Apart from the solutions for E = +/- mc(2), the problem is mapped into the Sturm-Liouville equation. The case of a singular trigonometric tangent potential (similar to tan gamma x) is exactly solved and the complete set of solutions is discussed in some detail. It is revealed that this intrinsically relativistic and true confining potential is able to localize fermions into a region of space arbitrarily small without the menace of particle-antiparticle production.

The benefits of ethanol use for hydrogen production in urban transportation

The purpose of this paper is to describe the benefits of sugar cane ethanol in Brazil, appointing the productivity of this type of fuel based on hectares of plantation, its carbon dioxide cycle and the contribution to reduce the greenhouse effect. In the following step the uses of ethanol for hydrogen production by steam reforming is analyzed and some comparison with natural gas steam reforming is performed. The sugar cane industry in Brazil, in a near future, in the hydrogen era, could be modified according to our purpose, since besides the production of sugar, and ethylic and anhydric alcohol, Brazilian sugar cane industry will also be able to produce biohydrogen.Fuel cells appear like a promising technology for energy generation. Among several technologies in the present, the PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell) is the most appropriate for vehicles application, because it combines durability, high power density, high efficiency, good response and it works at relatively low temperatures. Besides that it is easy to turn it on and off and it is able to support present vibration in vehicles. A PEMFC's problem is the need of noble catalysts like platinum. Another problem is that CO needs to be in low concentration, requiring a more clean hydrogen to avoid fuel cell deterioration.One part of this paper was developed in Stockholm, where there are some buses within the CUTE (clean urban transport for Europe) project that has been in operation with FC since January 2004. Another part was developed in Guaratingueta, Brazil. Brazil intends to start up a program of FC buses. As conclusion, this paper shows the economical analysis comparing buses moved by fuel cells using hydrogen by different kinds of production. Electrolyze with wind turbine, natural gas steam reforming and ethanol steam reforming. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Arithmetic fuchsian groups and space time block codes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)