Hydraulic economy and logographic writing in ancient China: factor of topography

Chinese civilisation is characterised by two distinctive features – a strong centralised administration and the system of logographic writing. This paper investigates nature’s powerful impacts on human development, in terms of organisation and communication in ancient China. It argues that ancient China’s topography played a crucial role in the formation of ancient Chinese civilisation and its hydraulic economy pushed the state stronger than society, hence a strong centralised government emerged.

Burning books and burying scholars: on the policies of the short-lived Qin Dynasty in ancient China (221-207 BC)

In 221 BC, the battle-hardened warriors of the Qin state, the western frontier state and the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states, thus establishing the Qin dynasty, with itscapital in Xianyang, near the modern Xi’an. The Qin dynasty is customarily regarded by Chinese and Western scholars as the beginning of a new age – the Chinese empire – that lasted until 1911 AD. The dynasty lasted only fifteen years. This study examines the main policies of the Qin dynasty and seeks to address the question what brought the quick downfall of the Qin rule. This paper takes the cultural and political contexts carefully into consideration, and argues that the Qin annexation of its rival states might be better understood as an end of an old era as much as a beginning of a new epoch.

Max Stirner, o único e o que lhe é próprio: uma interpretação e(m) algun(s) ensaio(s)

This work has a study object the main thinking work of Johan Kaspar Schmidt well known as Max Stirner (1806-1856) - originally titled (in German), Der Einzige und sein Eigentun, and translated into Portuguese by the Portuguese publisher Antígona in 2004, under the title The Unique and its Ownership. This book was known in 1844 although its publication dated 1845 seen that the censor of that time rejected the publication request in that year - saying that ( ) in concrete passages of that work, not only God, Christ, the church and the religion are usually object of proposal blasphemy, but also because all social order, the state and the government are defined as something that should not exist simultaneously as one justifies the lie, perjury, the murder and suicide and denies the ownership right. After this first attack and rejection by its bearing the unique come to be others target, due practically to all the philosophical political thinkers its time including thinkers like Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in spite of, on the other hand, having inspired formulations and reformulations of many of those thinkers that were against then in their times, as well as those thinkers that came after then such as Nietzsche himself. Even though this work was be victim of powerful attempts of erasing it of history, it has shown a great repercussion power and that is the main reason that led us to ask the following questions what is its big originality? , how could his author arrive at a so impactant perspective? What is its most legitimate political place? We endeavored in elaborate answers to those questions trough the exegesis of its text, taking in account both the scholarship environment where the author produced his intellectual life set - and the detailed reading of texts linked to discussion in focus, where this reading is always based upon the meaning and senses traced by the texts and its contexts as a precaution against the limits and the traps of the readings which shed light markedly on strict letter of the phrases constructs. Ours conclusions point at to the idea that a work like this , that subverts the characteristic ways of thought of the modernity, completely, continues being a utter odds, without rank in the history of thought and the moderns political practices, finding parallel possibility only, in a very special way, with a certain autharchic perspective of Ancient Greece

Heráclito na filosofia do jovem Nietzsche

In the early 1870s, the German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, professor of philology in Basel, researches the ancient Greek philosophers. These studies result in texts as The Preplatonic Philosophers, also known as Lessons on Pre-platonic Philosophers, and Philosophy in Greek tragic age. Using both texts as sources, this dissertation aims elucidating the Nietzsche's interpretation about Heraclitus, in other words, comprehend how Nietzsche recognizes in Heraclitus a philosopher with an aesthetic vision of the world, a contemplative and cheerful view of the world, the becoming, defined by the incessant change, as a child's play that builds and destroy sand castles on the shore. This spectacle, as Nietzsche believed, would be unveiled first by Heraclitus and must be contemplated eternally

O corpo no pensamento de Epicuro: limites e possibilidades

The theme that fits the perspective of this thesis comes from the interest of treating, in the Epicurean corpus, about the importance of the body and its manners of realization for understanding the thought of Epicurus of Samos. Based on the inferences contained in the texts that remained from Epicurus, we did an analysis of the aspects that characterize Epicurism as a thought that makes repeated references to the body as an instance of sensitivity. It was necessary, therefore, to discuss how the body is linked to the possibility of thought, and how the latter can be admitted as a body element. It is further understood that the atomistic physics converges to the idea that asserts natural phenomena as likely to be contained and explained by the observations that come from the senses which are manifested through the body. For this reason, it was also pertinent to reflect on the admission of the body as a key element for the interpretation of Epicurean thought, even under the constitution of language. The Epicurean construction about body image was also used for the interpretation and questioning of the dynamics that define the relationships between individuals, characterizing the koinonía of the garden through the notion of corporeal unity. It was defined, therefore, that the characterization of the action field of individuals who lived in the Epicurean garden revolves around the use of logos, with the dialogues coming from the exercise of philosophy for therapeutic purposes, which were able to introduce a specific mode of political action marked by the absence of strange interests of the notion of philía

Stroke in ancient times - a reinterpretation of Psalms 137 : 5,6

Stroke was probably first described in Psalms 136: 5-6 of the Catholic Bible, and Psalms 137:5-6 of the Evangelical Bible. Based on the Portuguese, Spanish, English, German, Dutch, Russian, Greek, and original Hebrew Bible, the significance of this Psalm is the invocation of a punishment, of which the final result would be a stroke of the left middle cerebral artery, causing motor aphasia and right hemiparesis.

Morphological and physiological specialization for digging in amphisbaenians, an ancient lineage of fossorial vertebrates

Amphisbaenians are legless reptiles that differ significantly from other vertebrate lineages. Most species dig underground galleries of similar diameter to that of the animal. We studied the muscle physiology and morphological attributes of digging effort in the Brazilian amphisbaenid Leposternon microcephalum (Squamata; Amphisbaenia), which burrows by compressing soil against the upper wall of the tunnel by means of upward strokes of the head. The individuals tested (<72 g) exerted forces on the soil of up to 24 N. These forces were possible because the fibres of the longissimus dorsi, the main muscle associated with burrowing, are highly pennated, thus increasing effective muscle cross-sectional area. The muscle is characterized by a metabolic transition along its length: proximal, medial and distal fibres are fast contracting and moderately oxidative, but fibres closer to the head are richer in citrate synthase and more aerobic in nature. Distal fibres, then, might be active mainly at the final step of the compression stroke, which requires more power. For animals greater than a given diameter, the work required to compress soil increases exponentially with body diameter. Leposternon microcephalum, and probably some other highly specialized amphisbaenids, are most likely constrained to small diameters and can increase muscle mass and effective muscle cross-sectional area by increasing body length, not body diameter.

Cytogenetic Mapping of 5S and 18S rRNAs and H3 Histone Genes in 4 Ancient Proscopiidae Grasshopper Species: Contribution to Understanding the Evolutionary Dynamics of Multigene Families

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

Conversion of web texts into Braille characters for real time reading through arrays of electromechanical actuators

This paper describes an electronic device conceived to convert common web texts into sequences of corresponding Braille signals, which are immediately reproduced onto an array ( keyboard) of electromechanical actuators. These actuators are reconfigurable in real time, displaying the Braille characters as matrices of points composed by small stems which can be lowered or raised according to the Braille code. The device, together with its conversion software package, can provide direct access to web texts in any personal computer, thus avoiding the use of complicated Braille printers.

Leishmanial antigens in the diagnosis of active lesions and ancient scars of American tegumentary leishmaniasis patients

Cutaneous biopsies (n = 94) obtained from 88 patients with American tegumentary leishmaniasis were studied by conventional and immunohistochemical techniques. Specimens were distributed as active lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis (n = 53) (Group I), cicatricial lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis (n = 35) (Group II) and suggestive scars of healed mucosal leishmaniasis patients (n = 6) (Group III). In addition, active cutaneous lesions of other etiology (n = 24) (Group C1) and cutaneous scars not related to leishmaniasis (n = 10) (Group C2) were also included in the protocol. Amastigotes in Group I biopsies were detected by routine histopathological exam (30.2%), imprint (28.2%), culture (43.4%), immunofluorescence (41.4%) and immunoperoxidase (58.5%) techniques; and by the five methods together (79.3%). In Group II, 5.7% of cultures were positive. Leishmanial antigen was also seen in the cytoplasm of macrophages and giant cells (cellular pattern), vessel walls (vascular pattern) and dermal nerves (neural pattern). Positive reaction was detected in 49 (92.5%), 20 (57%) and 4 (67%) biopsies of Groups I, II and III, respectively. Antigen persistency in cicatricial tissue may be related to immunoprotection or, on the contrary, to the development of late lesions. We suggest that the cellular, vascular and neural patterns could be applied in the immunodiagnosis of active and cicatricial lesions in which leishmaniasis is suspected.

A relação entre o espaço e a saúde bucal coletiva: por uma epidemiologia georreferenciada

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