Den litteraturvetenskapliga receptionsforskningen och internet : en metoddiskussion

Reader-Response Criticism and the Internet: A Methodological Discussion This article explores connections between Internet-based research and reader-response criticism, aiming to critically discuss the methodologies used in this particular field of research. First, the history of reader-response studies is briefly presented, with reference to theorists such as Richards, Rosenblatt, Robbe-Grillet, Iser and Jauss. It is noted that, for the past 15 years, people have utilised the Internet as a basis for the discussion of literary and reading-related topics. Researchers in this field may access reviews and commentaries on open web-based venues such as personal homepages, blogs and online forums (i.e. message boards and discussion sites). The material available on these sites is interesting because of its "spontaneous" nature; that is, such material has been formulated and uploaded without the interference of the researcher. The article presents one concrete example of an Internet-based reader-response study, discussing a number of pros and cons of the chosen methodology– including some important ethical considerations that arise when the researcher’s corpus is composed of material taken from the Internet. One of the conclusions of the paper is that many aspects of the general public’s web-based responses to literature are yet to be explored by the research community.

Hälsofrämjande arbete på SSAB i Borlänge : Hälsofrämjande processer i arbetslivet och ledarskapets betydelse för medarbetarens hälsa

Problem: Arbetsmiljön är viktig för människors välbefinnande. Hälsofrämjande faktorer antas inte bara styrka individens fysiska och psykiska hälsa, utan även företagets konkurrenskraft och lönsamhet. I uppsatsen undersöker vi hur företaget SSAB i Borlänge arbetar med hälsa genom att tillämpa ett hälsofrämjande perspektiv och utgå från teorin om Känslan av sammanhang (KASAM). Ledarskapsvärderingar har betydelse för medarbetares hälsa (Hanson, 2004) och vi undersöker vilken uppfattning ett antal chefer har om sina roller i det hälsofrämjande arbetet och deras syn på medarbetarundersökningen HälsoSAM som företagshälsovården på SSAB bedriver. Arbetsbelastningen på medarbetare och chefer ökar till följd av sparkrav, samtidigt som resurserna minskar (Gatu, 2003). Följden blir en större risk för ohälsa och ett sätt att minska sjukfrånvaron är att genomföra hälsofrämjande insatser (Prevent, 2001). Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utifrån ett hälsofrämjande perspektiv förklara vad chefer har för möjligheter att skapa förutsättningar för att främja medarbetarnas hälsa på SSAB i Borlänge. Metod: Den metod som ligger till grund för uppsatsen baseras på ett kvalitativt angreppssätt där semistrukturerade intervjuer samt litteraturstudier genomförts för att samla information. Analys: Ledarens beteende påverkar medarbetarna. Hög arbetsbelastning på SSABs chefer leder till lägre närvaro bland medarbetarna, vilket i sin tur ger sämre förutsättningar för att främja hälsan. HälsoSAM kartlägger medarbetarnas hälsoläge, både välbefinnande och arbetskapacitet. Resultaten är vägledande i det hälsofrämjande arbetet men överbelastning, tidsbrist och kunskapsbrist hos cheferna bidrar till att uppföljningen inte blir systematisk. För ett väl fungerande hälsoarbete krävs systematik. Slutsats: Hälsofrämjande processer i arbetslivet skapas genom balans mellan krav och resurser. På SSAB i Borlänge hindras hälsoarbetet av tidsbrist och kunskapsbrist hos cheferna. Kostnadsbesparingar påverkar hälsoarbetet negativt och systematiken i uppföljningsarbetet blir lidande. Ansvaret för hälsoarbetet läggs på företagshälsovården, men utan stöd från chefer blir inte hälsoarbetet en naturlig del i verksamheten. Det är viktigt att i rådande situation se vad främjande av hälsa kan ge tillbaka till företaget i både ekonomiska och kvalitativa termer. Insikt om detta ökar chefernas incitament att prioritera hälsofrämjande processer och organisera arbetet så att människor har förutsättningar att hantera, kontrollera och klara av sina uppgifter.

Avaliação do impacto da rigidez e da flexibilização normativa, no âmbito do governo federal, sobre a eficiência dos processos de aquisição e contratação

Governmental acquisitions, in Brazil, must be proceeded, as a rule, by means of licitation. Though this principle became constitutional rule only from 1988's Constitution, its existence in Brazilian legal system retraces century XV: by that time, the Filipinas Ordinations ruled it in one only law article. Since then, several rules of law had been incorporated to the Brazilian governmental acquirement system, especially during century XX, hardening the procedures and restricting public manager's discritionarity. Current governmental acquirement system was instituted by the Law nº 8,666/1993, which, however, did not disrupt previous system: with few innovations and more restrictions, it only copied the instruments in the system of the Decree nº 2,300/1986 and previous ones. In its original text, Law nº 8,666/1993 had three licitation procedures for acquisitions - concorrência, tomada de preços, convite - and the exceptional procedures - dispensa and inexigibilidade. Once revealed itself a rigid system, several measures were implemented in order to make it more flexible, having for objectives celerity and price reduction, from discrete alterations of articles of laws to the creation of pregão as a new licitation procedure - initially, there was only the pregão presencial, proceeded face to face - and no longer, the pregão eletrônico, proceeded through web. This research focuses the analysis of the impact of the rigidity / flexibility on Government acquirement system. Despite specialized literature, studies carried through for governmental agencies and state publicity praises the results reached with the use of the pregão eletrônico, the analyses that lead to such conclusion are based on questionable premises. The studies on the efficiency of the pregão eletrônico restrict this concept to its economic dimension, interpreting it as costs reduction. Beyond, the methodology of analysis of this cost reduction has for reference hypothetical values which are also defined by random standards. Here it is, therefore, the objective of this study: to analyze, from the perception of the public managers, the relation between flexibility or rigidity of a procedure and its efficiency, under a multidimensional perspective - taking into consideration, beyond the prices gotten for objects, the time of transaction, the quality of objects and the security of the procedure. From the answers to the questionnaires applied to licitation managers and to members of licitations permanent commissions it was raisen three kinds of information: descriptive data concerning to the ordinal or nominal variables, extracted from the analysis of the objective fields of the questionnaire; not-structuralized, extracted directly from the subjective fields of the questionnaire; e, finally, treated data, extracted from the hypotheses formulated in the research and statistically analyzed. The reflections on the information allowed concluding that the acquirement governmental procedures flexibility extends its efficiency. Restricted the analysis to the pregão eletrônico, it is concluded that it is more efficient under the economic and time perspectives, in relation to the classic procedures; however, under the perspective of the security it does not significantly differs from those; under the qualitative perspective, it is less efficient than the classic procedures, implying in the reduction of the quality of acquired or contracted objects.

Otimização de alavancagem e gestão de risco em estratégias long-short

Alavancagem em hedge funds tem preocupado investidores e estudiosos nos últimos anos. Exemplos recentes de estratégias desse tipo se mostraram vantajosos em períodos de pouca incerteza na economia, porém desastrosos em épocas de crise. No campo das finanças quantitativas, tem-se procurado encontrar o nível de alavancagem que otimize o retorno de um investimento dado o risco que se corre. Na literatura, os estudos têm se mostrado mais qualitativos do que quantitativos e pouco se tem usado de métodos computacionais para encontrar uma solução. Uma forma de avaliar se alguma estratégia de alavancagem aufere ganhos superiores do que outra é definir uma função objetivo que relacione risco e retorno para cada estratégia, encontrar as restrições do problema e resolvê-lo numericamente por meio de simulações de Monte Carlo. A presente dissertação adotou esta abordagem para tratar o investimento em uma estratégia long-short em um fundo de investimento de ações em diferentes cenários: diferentes formas de alavancagem, dinâmicas de preço das ações e níveis de correlação entre esses preços. Foram feitas simulações da dinâmica do capital investido em função das mudanças dos preços das ações ao longo do tempo. Considerou-se alguns critérios de garantia de crédito, assim como a possibilidade de compra e venda de ações durante o período de investimento e o perfil de risco do investidor. Finalmente, estudou-se a distribuição do retorno do investimento para diferentes níveis de alavancagem e foi possível quantificar qual desses níveis é mais vantajoso para a estratégia de investimento dadas as restrições de risco.

Estudo dos parâmetros de extração de fenol de efluentes aquosos por um tensoativo não iônico

Environmental sustainability has become one of the topics of greatest interest in industry, mainly due to effluent generation. Phenols are found in many industries effluents, these industries might be refineries, coal processing, pharmaceutical, plastics, paints and paper and pulp industries. Because phenolic compounds are toxic to humans and aquatic organisms, Federal Resolution CONAMA No. 430 of 13.05.2011 limits the maximum content of phenols, in 0.5 mg.L-1, for release in freshwater bodies. In the effluents treatment, the liquid-liquid extraction process is the most economical for the phenol recovery, because consumes little energy, but in most cases implements an organic solvent, and the use of it can cause some environmental problems due to the high toxicity of this compound. Because of this, exists a need for new methodologies, which aims to replace these solvents for biodegradable ones. Some literature studies demonstrate the feasibility of phenolic compounds removing from aqueous effluents, by biodegradable solvents. In this extraction kind called "Cloud Point Extraction" is used a nonionic surfactant as extracting agent of phenolic compounds. In order to optimize the phenol extraction process, this paper studies the mathematical modeling and optimization of extraction parameters and investigates the effect of the independent variables in the process. A 32 full factorial design has been done with operating temperature and surfactant concentration as independent variables and, parameters extraction: Volumetric fraction of coacervate phase, surfactant and residual concentration of phenol in dilute phase after separation phase and phenol extraction efficiency, as dependent variables. To achieve the objectives presented before, the work was carried out in five steps: (i) selection of some literature data, (ii) use of Box-Behnken model to find out mathematical models that describes the process of phenol extraction, (iii) Data analysis were performed using STATISTICA 7.0 and the analysis of variance was used to assess the model significance and prediction (iv) models optimization using the response surface method (v) Mathematical models validation using additional measures, from samples different from the ones used to construct the model. The results showed that the mathematical models found are able to calculate the effect of the surfactant concentration and the operating temperature in each extraction parameter studied, respecting the boundaries used. The models optimization allowed the achievement of consistent and applicable results in a simple and quick way leading to high efficiency in process operation.

Birds of Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo, Brazil: Do humans add or subtract species?

In uplands and lowlands of Santa Teresa, central Espírito Santo State, Brazil, 405 bird species were confirmed by field, museum, and literature studies. Of these, 16 seem to have disappeared, while 67 other species seem to have been lost from the lowlands (where no large biological reserves exist). Due to a suggestion that human areas add species to beta-diversity, we verified that up to 79 species now present have perhaps invaded with human activity (and 10 others are likely to invade), a total similar to that for lost species. However, lost species are often rare and invading species often widespread, resulting in exchange of Picassos for Coca-Cola bottles. Furthermore, gains exceed losses only when large biological reserves are present, as in the uplands (Nova Lombardia, Santa Lucia Reserves, each with over 250 species). Small or irregular reserves usually lose well over half their species, and these are only partly replaced by the invaders, resulting in net losses of up to half the local avifaunas. If one lists only 31 probable invaders, rather than a possible 79, things are even worse; net losses occur even in the entire township and near reserves, reaching over 200 species around lowland private reserves. Future productive development of human areas can eliminate or maltreat many invading species, too. While approving taxes on improductive use of land, as it leaves other areas free, we suggest that many current local uses, such as for coffee, are luxury production and could, be taxed.

Uma chave para A chave do Tamanho, de Monteiro Lobato

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise de propagação de ondas eletromagnéticas em ambiente indoor: modelo do caminho dominante versus traçado de raios e FDTD

Este trabalho trata de alguns modelos de propagação de ondas eletromagnéticas. Primeiramente, foram analisados modelos relacionados com a predição do sinal eletromagnético em ambientes indoor. Os modelos utilizados neste trabalho foram o Traçado de Raios, Caminho Dominante de Energia (DPM) e o FDTD. Para os dois primeiros modelos foi, utilizado um software comercial e para o método FDTD foi desenvolvido um algoritmo para o qual o sinal é analisado em um ambiente com a mesma geometria utilizada no software. Os resultados, para os pontos de recepção analisados, fornecidos pelos três modelos, são concordantes. Verifica-se a influência dos fenômenos de propagação na intensidade do sinal. A relevância deste trabalho encontra-se no fato de não haver, na literatura pesquisada, trabalhos que comparassem os três modelos de predição mencionados, além de propor temas para pesquisas futuras.

Soja e desenvolvimento: uma análise comparativa entre as regiões Norte, Nordeste e Centro-Oeste.

A recente expansão da soja nas regiões brasileiras, principalmente na Amazônia, tem sido alvo de debates nacionais e internacionais. A problemática principal desse debate está nos impactos econômicos, sociais e ambientais, que a atividade exerce. Ao mesmo tempo, constata-se que as desigualdades entre as regiões brasileiras é um entrave para a melhoria dos índices de desenvolvimento no país. A partir dessa dualidade, esse trabalho se propôs a verificar o comportamento dos municípios com e sem soja nas regiões recentes da ocupação da soja no Brasil, com a finalidade de hierarquizar os municípios de acordo com a criação de índices de desenvolvimento, baseados no conceito amplo de desenvolvimento econômico. Esse conceito esteve alicerçado nas dimensões econômicas e sociais, de forma a realizar uma análise comparativa entre as regiões da recente ocupação da soja. Esse trabalho mostra diferenças regionais, principalmente quando se compara a região Centro-Oeste com as demais regiões Norte e Nordeste. Apesar da complexidade e amplitude do objeto de análise, a maioria dos municípios com soja nas áreas recentes da ocupação da soja apresentaram melhores resultados de desenvolvimento, quando comparados aos municípios sem soja. Não obstante, essa comprovação não é linear e homogênea. Indica-se políticas públicas que mitiguem essas desigualdades e que melhorem como um todo os níveis de desenvolvimento regional e que apesar dos municípios com soja se mostrarem melhor do que os municípios sem soja, ainda assim, se apresentarem muito abaixo dos índices de desenvolvimento dos países desenvolvidos. Dessa forma, esse estudo também é um primeiro passo para outros estudos e projetos, onde deverão ser considerados fatores de ordem ambiental, e da exclusão de trabalhadores em áreas com soja.

Shrek: do conto aos filmes, em uma sucessão de paródias

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

Imunologia das interações materno-fetais no diabete e na hiperglicemia gestacional leve

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

Cardiac autonomic responses induced by a single bout of exercise with flexible pole

Background: Flexible poles are tools used to provide rapid eccentric and concentric muscle contractions. It lacks in the literature studies that analyze acute cardiovascular responses in different exercises performed with this instrument. It was investigated the acute effects of exercise with flexible poles on heart period in healthy women. Methods: The study was performed on 32 women between 18 and 25 years old. It was evaluated the heart rate variability (HRV) in the time (SDNN, RMSSD and pNN50) and frequency domain (HF, LF and LF/HF ratio). The subjects remained at rest for 10 minutes. After the rest period, the volunteers performed the exercises with the flexible poles. Immediately after the exercise protocol, the volunteers remained seated at rest for 60 minutes and HRV were analyzed. Results: It was observed no significance changes in the time domain (SDNN: p = 0.14; RMSSD: p = 0.8 and pNN50: p = 0.86) and frequency domain indices (LF (nu): 0.4; LF (ms2): p = 0.34; HF (nu): p = 0.4; HF (ms2): p = 0.8 and LF/HF ratio: p = 0.3) between before and after single bout of exercise with flexible pole. Conclusion: A single bout of exercise with flexible pole did not significantly change cardiac autonomic regulation in healthy women.

A single bout of exercise with a flexible pole induces significant cardiac autonomic responses in healthy men

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

Construções gramaticais e questões estilísticas no livro Piccoli equivoci senza importanza, de Antonio Tabucchi

The translation project of some short stories of the book Piccoli equivoci senza importanza, written by the Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi, was performed during the academic years. This thesis target is to analyze grammatical and stylistic issues of the short stories; to achieve this goal, parts of the original texts and their respective translations were used. The grammar section approaches important aspects as idioms, false cognates and different verb regencies between Portuguese and Italian. The stylistic part focuses on Tabucchi´s choices regarding the narrator, focalization, types of speech and interior monologues in his texts; these options characterize the Italian writer´s style and make his stories plots intense. As a conclusion it can be noticed that this work is relevant to give a forward step in the Italian literature studies field, because it contributes to an important author style study and provides the analysis of which choices compound the text and the effects they cause

Mitochondrial dysfunction in a cell model of thyroid oncocytoma

The role of mitochondrial dysfunction in cancer has long been a subject of great interest. In this study, such dysfunction has been examined with regards to thyroid oncocytoma, a rare form of cancer, accounting for less than 5% of all thyroid cancers. A peculiar characteristic of thyroid oncocytic cells is the presence of an abnormally large number of mitochondria in the cytoplasm. Such mitochondrial hyperplasia has also been observed in cells derived from patients suffering from mitochondrial encephalomyopathies, where mutations in the mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) encoding the respiratory complexes result in oxidative phosphorylation dysfunction. An increase in the number of mitochondria occurs in the latter in order to compensate for the respiratory deficiency. This fact spurred the investigation into the presence of analogous mutations in thyroid oncocytic cells. In this study, the only available cell model of thyroid oncocytoma was utilised, the XTC-1 cell line, established from an oncocytic thyroid metastasis to the breast. In order to assess the energetic efficiency of these cells, they were incubated in a medium lacking glucose and supplemented instead with galactose. When subjected to such conditions, glycolysis is effectively inhibited and the cells are forced to use the mitochondria for energy production. Cell viability experiments revealed that XTC-1 cells were unable to survive in galactose medium. This was in marked contrast to the TPC-1 control cell line, a thyroid tumour cell line which does not display the oncocytic phenotype. In agreement with these findings, subsequent experiments assessing the levels of cellular ATP over incubation time in galactose medium, showed a drastic and continual decrease in ATP levels only in the XTC-1 cell line. Furthermore, experiments on digitonin-permeabilised cells revealed that the respiratory dysfunction in the latter was due to a defect in complex I of the respiratory chain. Subsequent experiments using cybrids demonstrated that this defect could be attributed to the mitochondrially-encoded subunits of complex I as opposed to the nuclearencoded subunits. Confirmation came with mtDNA sequencing, which detected the presence of a novel mutation in the ND1 subunit of complex I. In addition, a mutation in the cytochrome b subunit of complex III of the respiratory chain was detected. The fact that XTC-1 cells are unable to survive when incubated in galactose medium is consistent with the fact that many cancers are largely dependent on glycolysis for energy production. Indeed, numerous studies have shown that glycolytic inhibitors are able to induce apoptosis in various cancer cell lines. Subsequent experiments were therefore performed in order to identify the mode of XTC-1 cell death when subjected to the metabolic stress imposed by the forced use of the mitochondria for energy production. Cell shrinkage and mitochondrial fragmentation were observed in the dying cells, which would indicate an apoptotic type of cell death. Analysis of additional parameters however revealed a lack of both DNA fragmentation and caspase activation, thus excluding a classical apoptotic type of cell death. Interestingly, cleavage of the actin component of the cytoskeleton was observed, implicating the action of proteases in this mode of cell demise. However, experiments employing protease inhibitors failed to identify the specific protease involved. It has been reported in the literature that overexpression of Bcl-2 is able to rescue cells presenting a respiratory deficiency. As the XTC-1 cell line is not only respiration-deficient but also exhibits a marked decrease in Bcl-2 expression, it is a perfect model with which to study the relationship between Bcl-2 and oxidative phosphorylation in respiratory-deficient cells. Contrary to the reported literature studies on various cell lines harbouring defects in the respiratory chain, Bcl-2 overexpression was not shown to increase cell survival or rescue the energetic dysfunction in XTC-1 cells. Interestingly however, it had a noticeable impact on cell adhesion and morphology. Whereas XTC-1 cells shrank and detached from the growth surface under conditions of metabolic stress, Bcl-2-overexpressing XTC-1 cells appeared much healthier and were up to 45% more adherent. The target of Bcl-2 in this setting appeared to be the actin cytoskeleton, as the cleavage observed in XTC-1 cells expressing only endogenous levels of Bcl-2, was inhibited in Bcl-2-overexpressing cells. Thus, although unable to rescue XTC-1 cells in terms of cell viability, Bcl-2 is somehow able to stabilise the cytoskeleton, resulting in modifications in cell morphology and adhesion. The mitochondrial respiratory deficiency observed in cancer cells is thought not only to cause an increased dependency on glycolysis but it is also thought to blunt cellular responses to anticancer agents. The effects of several therapeutic agents were thus assessed for their death-inducing ability in XTC-1 cells. Cell viability experiments clearly showed that the cells were more resistant to stimuli which generate reactive oxygen species (tert-butylhydroperoxide) and to mitochondrial calcium-mediated apoptotic stimuli (C6-ceramide), as opposed to stimuli inflicting DNA damage (cisplatin) and damage to protein kinases(staurosporine). Various studies in the literature have reported that the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-coactivator 1(PGC-1α), which plays a fundamental role in mitochondrial biogenesis, is also involved in protecting cells against apoptosis caused by the former two types of stimuli. In accordance with these observations, real-time PCR experiments showed that XTC-1 cells express higher mRNA levels of this coactivator than do the control cells, implicating its importance in drug resistance. In conclusion, this study has revealed that XTC-1 cells, like many cancer cell lines, are characterised by a reduced energetic efficiency due to mitochondrial dysfunction. Said dysfunction has been attributed to mutations in respiratory genes encoded by the mitochondrial genome. Although the mechanism of cell demise in conditions of metabolic stress is unclear, the potential of targeting thyroid oncocytic cancers using glycolytic inhibitors has been illustrated. In addition, the discovery of mtDNA mutations in XTC-1 cells has enabled the use of this cell line as a model with which to study the relationship between Bcl-2 overexpression and oxidative phosphorylation in cells harbouring mtDNA mutations and also to investigate the significance of such mutations in establishing resistance to apoptotic stimuli.