Oppositional Political Identity in the Song Culture of the Vormärz and the 1848 Revolution in Germany

Historically political song has often been perceived negatively, as a disturbance of the peace, summed up by the legendary line from Goethe’s Faust: “Politisches Lied – ein garstiges Lied”. In the period in Germany of the Vormärz (from 1815 up to the revolution of March 1848), however, we see how this perception may be changing as it increasingly becomes a means of self-expression in public life. This was the era of restauration, in which broader sections of German society are striving for political emancipation from the princes and kings. A whole host of political themes emerge in the songs (Freiheitslieder) of that period in which a new oppositional political consciousness is reflected. The themes range from freedom of speech, freedom from censorship, and the need for democratic and national self-determination to critiques of injustice and hunger, and parodies of political convention and opportunism. Sources of reception give indications about the social and political milieus in which these songs circulated. Such sources include broadsheets, handwritten manuscripts, song collections, commemoration events, advertisements in political press, memoires, police reports and general literature of the time. In many cases we see how these songs reflect the emerging social and political identities of those who sing them. One also sees the use of well known melodies in the popular dissemination of these songs. An intertextual function of music often becomes apparent in the practice of contrefacture whereby melodies with particular semantic associations are used to either underline the message or parody the subject of the song.

Identity, Unity, and the Limits of Democracy

Can the demos be uncoupled from the ethnos? Can there be a democratic politics of state‐boundaries, or are borders a condition of the possibility of democratic politics rather than a possible subject for those politics? The author argues for the decoupling strategy and affirms the possibility of a democratic politics about borders, anchoring the discussion in the politics of Northern Ireland. The argument turns on the analysis of public reasoning. It is argued first that culturalist accounts of self‐determination are misconceived and that political institutions, and not cultural identity, make collective self‐determination possible. Second, that the demos is constituted by acts of mutual recognition required by the practice of public reasoning, and that this practice cannot be confined with state‐boundaries. Taken together this allows us to conceive of the unity of a people as constituted by practices of public reason, given effect by institutions whose configuration is never finally fixed.

Oxytocin effects on neural correlates of self-referential processing

Oxytocin (OT) influences how humans process information about others. Whether OT affects the processing of information about oneself remains unknown. Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject design, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from adults during trait judgments about oneself and a celebrity and during judgments on word valence, after intranasal OT or placebo administration. We found that OT vs. placebo treatment reduced the differential amplitudes of a fronto-central positivity at 220-280 ms (P2) during self- vs. valence-judgments. OT vs. placebo treatment tended to reduce the differential amplitude of a late positive potential at 520-1000 ms (LPP) during self-judgments but to increase the differential LPP amplitude during other-judgments. OT effects on the differential P2 and LPP amplitudes to self- vs. celebrity-judgments were positively correlated with a measure of interdependence of self-construals. Thus OT modulates the neural correlates of self-referential processing and this effect varies as a function of interdependence.

The effect of choice on motivation for young children on the autism spectrum during discrete trial teaching

Self-determination and decision-making are acknowledged internationally as key rights of persons with disabilities and should play an important role in the development of educational plans and procedures. Not only is the chance for individuals with developmental disabilities to select their own tasks, leisure activities or reinforcers a valuable way of enhancing rights-based education and personal dignity, but choice-making opportunities may also function as a useful clinical or educational tool if they actually improve the efficacy of programmes aimed at the acquisition of socially relevant behaviours and life skills or the reduction of challenging behaviours.

The study reported here assessed whether or not choice affected effectiveness of an educational procedure for three children on the autism spectrum. Following a preference assessment, a number of discrete teaching trials were conducted with each child and, contingent upon targeted responses, either the child or the therapist selected one of three preferred reinforcer items. Reinforcer choice did not affect intervention effectiveness for two of the children; however, performance and motivation improved for the third child. Results re-affirmed the importance of thorough preference assessments prior to intervention and showed that additional stimulus choice contingent on the target response may improve motivation and outcomes for some children.

Characterisation of pavement profile heights using accelerometer readings and a combinatorial optimisation technique

Pavement surface profiles induce dynamic ride responses in vehicles which can potentially be used to classify road surface roughness. A novel method is proposed for the characterisation of pavement roughness through an analysis of vehicle accelerations. A combinatorial optimisation technique is applied to the determination of pavement profile heights based on measured accelerations at and above the vehicle axle. Such an approach, using low-cost inertial sensors, would provide an inexpensive alternative to the costly laser-based profile measurement vehicles. The concept is numerically validated using a half-car roll dynamic model to infer measurements of road profiles in both the left and right wheel paths.

Beyond the National Resource Privilege: towards an International Court of the Environment

The national resource privilege, which holds that states are allowed to control all the natural resources found in their territory, is a cornerstone of international politics. Supporters of the national resource privilege claim that without the privilege states would fail to be sovereign and self-determining entities which provide for the needs of their citizens. However, as this paper shows the case is not as simple as that. In fact, control over resources must be carefully unpacked. Doing so shows that states do not require full control over all resources found in their territory in order to be sovereign. Moreover, sovereignty and self-determination come with a set of responsibilities and duties attached. Based on these observations the paper will sketch the contours of an alternative resource governance scheme built around the idea of an International Court of the Environment.

Private rule-making and European governance - issues of legitimacy

Private rule-making is widely discussed as supporting institutional policy making and legislation at EU level. The following argues for a different perspective on private actor rule-making, focusing on the autonomy of social realms within which self-governance may be possible. From this perspective, private actor rule-making is considered as a potential gain in self-determination. Substantive autonomy and enhanced self-determination of all those affected are considered as prerequisites for accepting rules made by private actors. Opening the field for discussion, some manifestations of (envisaged) private rule-making at EU level are explored and discussed as to whether they should be accepted as legitimate forms of self-governance.

Freedom, republicanism, and workplace democracy

This article explores the republican case for worker voice in economic enterprises based on the ideal of freedom as non-domination, and assesses its merits relative to two influential arguments for workplace democratization grounded on freedom understood as autonomy and self-determination. Two claims are advanced. The first is that the republican case for worker voice avoids difficulties associated with these two arguments. The second, however, is that the ideal of non-domination is insufficient, that an adequate understanding and defence of workplace democracy will also have to make significant reference to freedom understood as autonomy.

Convex Quadratic Programming Approach to the Maximum Matching Problem

The problem of determining a maximum matching or whether there exists a perfect matching, is very common in a large variety of applications and as been extensively studied in graph theory. In this paper we start to introduce a characterisation of a family of graphs for which its stability number is determined by convex quadratic programming. The main results connected with the recognition of this family of graphs are also introduced. It follows a necessary and sufficient condition which characterise a graph with a perfect matching and an algorithmic strategy, based on the determination of the stability number of line graphs, by convex quadratic programming, applied to the determination of a perfect matching. A numerical example for the recognition of graphs with a perfect matching is described. Finally, the above algorithmic strategy is extended to the determination of a maximum matching of an arbitrary graph and some related results are presented.

Factores de vulnerabilidade para a agressão sexual

A violência sexual contra mulheres e crianças é um fenómeno social e de saúde pública, transversal a diferentes culturas e épocas históricas. A consciencialização deste fenómeno ocorre porém num milénio em que a auto-determinação das mulheres e os direitos fundamentais das crianças passaram a ser considerados pelas principais estâncias políticas. Paralelamente, também a ciência tem dado o seu contributo para a compreensão e resolução destes crimes. Os estudos acerca dos mecanismos de predisposição para a agressão sexual visam a reabilitação dos indivíduos que cometeram ofensas sexuais, prevenindo a reincidência destes comportamentos. O objectivo é diminuir o número de vítimas, intervindo no agressor. O trabalho que apresentamos teve por finalidade investigar potenciais factores de predisposição para a agressão sexual em sujeitos do sexo masculino condenados por crime de violação e abuso sexual de menores, mas também em estudantes universitários com história de violência sexual. Pretendeu-se avaliar de que forma os esquemas precoces mal adaptativos, os mecanismos de inibição/excitação sexual e a personalidade intervêm nestas diferentes formas de violência sexual. Os resultados deste trabalho indicaram que as dimensões avaliadas poderão contribuir para a predisposição e/ou manutenção dos comportamentos de agressão sexual. Adicionalmente, verificou-se que as diferentes formas de violência sexual (violação, abuso sexual de menores e violência sexual em estudantes universitários) são caracterizadas por perfis distintos, e que esta especificidade poderá ser determinante na elaboração de modelos de conceptualização da agressão sexual.

Os ambientes artísticos interativos na inclusão de alunos com necessidades educativas especiais

Com o objetivo de sublinhar a habilidade e o direito à criação do indivíduo com necessidades especiais este projeto deriva da beleza do território da arte e dos paradigmas de interação e imersão, hoje potencializados pelo feedback multimodal e multissensorial dos ambientes multimédia responsivos. Enfatizando o atual contexto da escola inclusiva, este estudo teve lugar num estabelecimento de ensino, em Portugal, envolvendo um grupo de alunos com Necessidades Educativas Especiais — NEE — de Currículo Específico Individual — CEI. Num contexto real, intentámos avaliar que tipo de impacto poderão ter os ambientes artísticos interativos nestes alunos, enquanto meio de autoexpressão e de inclusão. O estudo realizado assumiu um carácter exploratório. Special INPUT foi o conceito proposto por diferentes ambientes e abordagens de interação, implementados em sessões individuais com os participantes, que permitiu observar e promover, sob um contexto artístico, as habilidades intelectual, emocional, de personalidade, interpessoal, intrapessoal, psicomotora e, artística. Conceptualizámos, prototipámos e implementámos oito ambientes interativos, artísticos e lúdicos, que enfatizaram de formas diversas a experiência imersiva mediada pela técnica. Daí emergiram três grupos de ambientes – Special SOUND, Special MOVEMENT e Special ME – que intentaram promover nestes alunos a descoberta de si mesmos através do input de som, movimento e/ou vídeo processados em tempo real. O feedback visual e/ou sonoro visou o “engajamento lúdico” e a “ressonância estética” enquanto meios de descoberta e desenvolvimento da habilidade e valor pessoais. Numa perspetiva de diferenciação e individualização curricular, reconhecemos as vantagens dos ambientes artísticos interativos na inclusão de alunos com NEE, tendo-se observado um impacto positivo derivado da autoria e do controlo propiciados aos participantes nestes contextos. Hoje, a possibilidade de recorrer ao multimédia e a toda uma panóplia de interfaces não invasivas, explorando a poética de som e imagem interativos, em contexto artístico, inspira abordagens originais, centradas na pessoa, atentando às potencialidades e plasticidades das vigentes ferramentas de autor para a programação de interação, promovendo a dignificação da diferença, a autoexpressão e sensibilidade individuais, e os processos de autoobservação, autodescoberta e autoconsciência da capacidade expressiva que promovem a ideia positiva do “self” e o desenvolvimento de diferentes aptidões pessoais.

Determination of (0,2)-regular sets in graphs and applications

In this paper, relevant results about the determination of (k,t)-regular sets, using the main eigenvalues of a graph, are reviewed and some results about the determination of (0,2)-regular sets are introduced. An algorithm for that purpose is also described. As an illustration, this algorithm is applied to the determination of maximum matchings in arbitrary graphs.

Imagens interditas? : limites e rupturas em representações explícitas do sexo no pós-25 de Abril

Tese de doutoramento, Belas-Artes (Pintura), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas-Artes, 2014

Chicanas em busca de território : a herança de Glória Anzaldúa

Tese de doutoramento, Estudos de Literatura e de Cultura (Estudos Americanos), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2015

Perspetivas dos profissinais e dos pais de crianças com incapacidades sobre autodeterminação

Mestrado em Educação Especial: Multideficiência e Problemas de Cognição