Effective transport barriers in nontwist systems

In fluids and plasmas with zonal flow reversed shear, a peculiar kind of transport barrier appears in the shearless region, one that is associated with a proper route of transition to chaos. These barriers have been identified in symplectic nontwist maps that model such zonal flows. We use the so-called standard nontwist map, a paradigmatic example of nontwist systems, to analyze the parameter dependence of the transport through a broken shearless barrier. On varying a proper control parameter, we identify the onset of structures with high stickiness that give rise to an effective barrier near the broken shearless curve. Moreover, we show how these stickiness structures, and the concomitant transport reduction in the shearless region, are determined by a homoclinic tangle of the remaining dominant twin island chains. We use the finite-time rotation number, a recently proposed diagnostic, to identify transport barriers that separate different regions of stickiness. The identified barriers are comparable to those obtained by using finite-time Lyapunov exponents.

Cartographic notes on the work in the Family Health Strategy: relationships between workers and the population

The objective of this intervention study was to map instituted and instituting movements present in the work of the Family Health Strategy in the development of their care practices. The theoretical framework is based on institutional analysis, using the schizoanalytic approach. Group meetings were carried out with the staff to discuss how they provided collective care in continuing health education. The study subjects were professionals from the team and students who were engaged in academic activity in the service. The average attendance was twelve people per meeting, and there were a total of eight meetings from March to July 2010. Data were grouped into two immanent strata: the relationships of the team and the relationship with clients. The strata point to the intersection of education and legal institutions and the social and technical division of labor. Collective thinking in groups appeared to be effective in denaturalizing established processes and interrogating places, knowledge and practices.

Positive fluid balance is associated with reduced survival in critically ill patients with cancer

Background There are no studies that describe the impact of the cumulative fluid balance on the outcomes of cancer patients admitted to intensive care units ICUs. The aim of our study was to evaluate the relationship between fluid balance and clinical outcomes in these patients. Method One hundred twenty-two cancer patients were prospectively evaluated for survival during a 30-day period. Univariate (Chi-square, t-test, MannWhitney) and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to identify the admission parameters associated with mortality. Results The mean cumulative fluid balance was significantly higher in non-survivors than in survivors [1675?ml/24?h (4712921) vs. 887?ml/24?h (104557), P?=?0.017]. We used the area under the curve and the intersection of the sensibility and specificity curves to define a cumulative fluid balance value of 1100?ml/24?h. This value was used in the univariate model. In the multivariate model, the following variables were significantly associated with mortality in cancer patients: the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score at admission [Odds ratio (OR) 1.15; 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.051.26), P?=?0.003], the Lung Injury Score at admission [OR 2.23; 95% CI (1.293.87), P?=?0.004] and a positive fluid balance higher than 1100?ml/24?h at ICU [OR 5.14; 95% CI (1.4518.24), P?=?0.011]. Conclusion A cumulative positive fluid balance higher than 1100?ml/24?h was independently associated with mortality in patients with cancer. These findings highlight the importance of improving the evaluation of these patients' volemic state and indicate that defined goals should be used to guide fluid therapy.

On the Mechanisms of Triplet Excited State Population in 8-Azaadenine

The photophysics of 8-azaadenine (8-AA) has been studied with the CASPT2//CASSCF protocol and ANO-L double-zeta basis sets. Stationary equilibrium structures, surface crossings, minimum energy paths, and linear interpolations have been used to study possible mechanisms to populate the lowest triplet state, T-1 (3)(pi pi*), capable of sensitizing molecular oxygen. Our results show that two main mechanisms can occur after photoexcitation to the S-2 (1)(pi pi*) state. The first one is through the S-2/S-1 conical intersection (((1)pi pi*/(1)n pi*)(Cl)), leading to the S-1 ((1)n pi*) state minimum, (S-1 ((1)n pi*))(min), where a singlet-triplet crossing, ((1)n pi*/(3)pi pi*)(STC), is accessible. The second one starts with the ((1)pi pi*/(3)n pi*)(STC) at the (S-2((1)pi pi*))(min), from which the system can evolve to the (T-2 ((3)n pi*))(min), with subsequent population of the T-1 excited electronic state, due to the ((3)n pi*/(3)pi pi*)(Cl) conical intersection.

Bioethical Aspects Across Medicine: The Care of Cardiovascular Diseases in Brazil

Bioethics applied to medicine extrapolates the traditional medical concepts of non-maleficence (primum non nocere) and beneficence (bonum facere) and regards to justice, autonomy, equity, protection, compassion and humanization, not considering people just like patients, but understanding the complex existence of each single person. Worldwide, the morbidity and mortality indices regarding to diseases of heart and blood vessels became progressively grater. For countries in development, like Brazil, these numbers are even more expressive and this increase trend seems to be caused by wider exposition of population to some risk factors. This article broaches an intersection between bioethics and medicine, focusing the reality of cardiovascular diseases in Brazil and the necessity of doctors to base their behavior in bioethical paradigms.

The SB-index and the HSB-index: efficient indices for spatial data warehouses

Spatial data warehouses (SDWs) allow for spatial analysis together with analytical multidimensional queries over huge volumes of data. The challenge is to retrieve data related to ad hoc spatial query windows according to spatial predicates, avoiding the high cost of joining large tables. Therefore, mechanisms to provide efficient query processing over SDWs are essential. In this paper, we propose two efficient indices for SDW: the SB-index and the HSB-index. The proposed indices share the following characteristics. They enable multidimensional queries with spatial predicate for SDW and also support predefined spatial hierarchies. Furthermore, they compute the spatial predicate and transform it into a conventional one, which can be evaluated together with other conventional predicates by accessing a star-join Bitmap index. While the SB-index has a sequential data structure, the HSB-index uses a hierarchical data structure to enable spatial objects clustering and a specialized buffer-pool to decrease the number of disk accesses. The advantages of the SB-index and the HSB-index over the DBMS resources for SDW indexing (i.e. star-join computation and materialized views) were investigated through performance tests, which issued roll-up operations extended with containment and intersection range queries. The performance results showed that improvements ranged from 68% up to 99% over both the star-join computation and the materialized view. Furthermore, the proposed indices proved to be very compact, adding only less than 1% to the storage requirements. Therefore, both the SB-index and the HSB-index are excellent choices for SDW indexing. Choosing between the SB-index and the HSB-index mainly depends on the query selectivity of spatial predicates. While low query selectivity benefits the HSB-index, the SB-index provides better performance for higher query selectivity.

Counting singularities via fitting ideals

The stable singularities of differential map germs constitute the main source of studying the geometric and topological behavior of these maps. In particular, one interesting problem is to find formulae which allow us to count the isolated stable singularities which appear in the discriminant of a stable deformation of a finitely determined map germ. Mond and Pellikaan showed how the Fitting ideals are related to such singularities and obtain a formula to count the number of ordinary triple points in map germs from C-2 to C-3, in terms of the Fitting ideals associated with the discriminant. In this article we consider map germs from (Cn+m, 0) to (C-m, 0), and obtain results to count the number of isolated singularities by means of the dimension of some associated algebras to the Fitting ideals. First in Corollary 4.5 we provide a way to compute the total sum of these singularities. In Proposition 4.9, for m = 3 we show how to compute the number of ordinary triple points. In Corollary 4.10 and with f of co-rank one, we show a way to compute the number of points formed by the intersection between a germ of a cuspidal edge and a germ of a plane. Furthermore, we show in some examples how to calculate the number of isolated singularities using these results.

Periódicos de Ciência da Informação nas bases de dados internacionais

PO artigo demonstra as interações entre algumas bases de dados internacionais na disponibilização de periódicos da área de Ciência da Informação. Para isso, foram investigadas seis bases de dados com acesso a texto completo dentro da área de Ciência da Informação. Foram elas: Web of Science, Scopus, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Library Literature Information Science – full text e Library Information Science Abstract. No desenvolvimento da pesquisa foram utilizados conceitos, princípios e equações da ‘teoria ingênua dos conjuntos’, o que permitiu observar as bases de dados como conjuntos compostos por elementos, aqui considerados os títulos de periódicos, bem como conferir consistência aos resultados. A análise dos dados foi dividida em três etapas, a saber: a) a primeira priorizou o cruzamento entre as duas maiores bases de dados utilizadas para levantamento bibliográfico (Web of Science e Scopus), seguido do cruzamento com a mais utilizada na Ciência da Informação, a Library and Information Science Abstracts; b) a segunda etapa tratou somente do cruzamento das bases especialistas da área; c) a terceira e última etapa tratou da interseção de todas as bases de dados do estudo. O resultado mostra que 10 títulos de periódicos constituem a interseção dos seis conjuntos de bases de dados. Foi possível identificar, também, o número de periódicos disponibilizados exclusivamente por uma base de dados, demonstrando que as necessidades de pesquisas bibliográficas exaustivas passam, obrigatoriamente, pelo levantamento em todas as bases de dados aqui elencadas.

80 anos do Manifesto dos Pioneiros da Educação Nova: questões para debate

O artigo, produzido no âmbito das comemorações dos 80 anos de publicação do Manifesto dos Pioneiros da Educação Nova, interroga-se sobre a atualidade dessa carta. Para tanto, explora as condições históricas de emergência do documento, os significados atribuídos à Escola Nova no Brasil na década de 1930 e as contendas ocorridas na arena educacional no período. Além disso, discorre sobre as especificidades do movimento escolanovista brasileiro, procurando demonstrar que a Escola Nova constituiu-se no país como uma fórmula, com significados múltiplos e distintas apropriações produzidas no entrelaçamento de três vertentes: a pedagógica, a ideológica e a política. No que tange ao primeiro aspecto, a indefinição das fronteiras conceituais permitiu que a expressão Escola Nova aglutinasse diferentes educadores, católicos e liberais, em torno de princípios pedagógicos do ensino ativo. No segundo caso, a fórmula ofereceu-se como meio para a transformação da sociedade, servindo às finalidades divergentes dos grupos em litígio. Já na terceira acepção, tornou-se bandeira política, sendo capturada como signo de renovação do sistema educacional pelo Manifesto e por seus signatários. Assim, o documento emergiu como parte do jogo político pela disputa do controle do Estado e de suas dinâmicas, e, portanto, como elemento de coesão de uma frente de educadores que, a despeito de suas diferenças, articulava-se em torno de alguns objetivos comuns, como laicidade, gratuidade e obrigatoriedade da educação. Ademais, ele também foi representante de um grupo de intelectuais que abraçava um mesmo projeto de nação, ainda que com divergências internas.

Intersections on moduli spaces of curves

We present a new approach to perform calculations with the certain standard classes in cohomology of the moduli spaces of curves. It is based on an important lemma of Ionel relating the intersection theoriy of the moduli space of curves and that of the space of admissible coverings. As particular results, we obtain expressions of Hurwitz numbers in terms of the intersections in the tautological ring, expressions of the simplest intersection numbers in terms of Hurwitz numbers, an algorithm of calculation of certain correlators which are the subject of the Witten conjecture, an improved algorithm for intersections related to the Boussinesq hierarchy, expressions for the Hodge integrals over two-pointed ramification cycles, cut-and-join type equations for a large class of intersection numbers, etc.

Computational chemistry studies of UV induced processes in human skin

This thesis presents and uses the techniques of computational chemistry to explore two different processes induced in human skin by ultraviolet light. The first is the transformation of urocanic acid into a immunosuppressing agent, and the other is the enzymatic action of the 8-oxoguanine glycosylase enzyme. The photochemistry of urocanic acid is investigated by time-dependent density functional theory. Vertical absorption spectra of the molecule in different forms and environments is assigned and candidate states for the photochemistry at different wavelengths are identified. Molecular dynamics simulations of urocanic acid in gas phase and aqueous solution reveals considerable flexibility under experimental conditions, particularly for for the cis isomer where competition between intra- and inter-molecular interactions increases flexibility. A model to explain the observed gas phase photochemistry of urocanic acid is developed and it is shown that a reinterpretation in terms of a mixture between isomers significantly enhances the agreement between theory and experiment , and resolves several peculiarities in the spectrum. A model for the photochemistry in the aqueous phase of urocanic acid is then developed, in which two excited states governs the efficiency of photoisomerization. The point of entrance into a conical intersection seam is shown to explain the wavelength dependence of photoisomerization quantum yield. Finally some mechanistic aspects of the DNA repair enzyme 8-oxoguanine glycosylase is investigated with density functional theory. It is found that the critical amino acid of the active site can provide catalytic power in several different manners, and that a recent proposal involving a SN1 type of mechanism seems the most efficient one.

Percorsi di gender performance: fotografia tra arte e moda dagli anni Novanta ad oggi

My project explores and compares different forms of gender performance in contemporary art and visual culture according to a perspective centered on photography. Thanks to its attesting power this medium can work as a ready-made. In fact during the 20th century it played a key role in the cultural emancipation of the body which (using a Michel Foucault’s expression) has now become «the zero point of the world». Through performance the body proves to be a living material of expression and communication while photography ensures the recording of any ephemeral event that happens in time and space. My questioning approach considers the gender constructed imagery from the 1990s to the present in order to investigate how photography’s strong aura of realism promotes and allows fantasies of transformation. The contemporary fascination with gender (especially for art and fashion) represents a crucial issue in the global context of postmodernity and is manifested in a variety of visual media, from photography to video and film. Moreover the internet along with its digital transmission of images has deeply affected our world (from culture to everyday life) leading to a postmodern preference for performativity over the more traditional and linear forms of narrativity. As a consequence individual borders get redefined by the skin itself which (dissected through instant vision) turns into a ductile material of mutation and hybridation in the service of identity. My critical assumptions are taken from the most relevant changes occurred in philosophy during the last two decades as a result of the contributions by Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze who developed a cross-disciplinary and comparative approach to interpret the crisis of modernity. They have profoundly influenced feminist studies so that the category of gender has been reassessed in contrast with sex (as a biological connotation) and in relation to history, culture, society. The ideal starting point of my research is the year 1990. I chose it as the approximate historical moment when the intersection of race, class and gender were placed at the forefront of international artistic production concerned with identity, diversity and globalization. Such issues had been explored throughout the 1970s but it was only from the mid-1980s onward that they began to be articulated more consistently. Published in 1990, the book "Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity" by Judith Butler marked an important breakthrough by linking gender to performance as well as investigating the intricate connections between theory and practice, embodiment and representation. It inspired subsequent research in a variety of disciplines, art history included. In the same year Teresa de Lauretis launched the definition of queer theory to challenge the academic perspective in gay and lesbian studies. In the meantime the rise of Third Wave Feminism in the US introduced a racially and sexually inclusive vision over the global situation in order to reflect on subjectivity, new technologies and popular culture in connection with gender representation. These conceptual tools have enabled prolific readings of contemporary cultural production whether fine arts or mass media. After discussing the appropriate framework of my project and taking into account the postmodern globalization of the visual, I have turned to photography to map gender representation both in art and in fashion. Therefore I have been creating an archive of images around specific topics. I decided to include fashion photography because in the 1990s this genre moved away from the paradigm of an idealized and classical beauty toward a new vernacular allied with lifestyles, art practices, pop and youth culture; as one might expect the dominant narrative modes in fashion photography are now mainly influenced by cinema and snapshot. These strategies originate story lines and interrupted narratives using models’ performance to convey a particular imagery where identity issues emerge as an essential part of fashion spectacle. Focusing on the intersections of gender identities with socially and culturally produced identities, my approach intends to underline how the fashion world has turned to current trends in art photography and in some case turned to the artists themselves. The growing fluidity of the categories that distinguish art from fashion photography represents a particularly fruitful moment of visual exchange. Varying over time the dialogue between these two fields has always been vital; nowadays it can be studied as a result of this close relationship between contemporary art world and consumer culture. Due to the saturation of postmodern imagery the feedback between art and fashion has become much more immediate and then increasingly significant for anyone who wants to investigate the construction of gender identity through performance. In addition to that a lot of magazines founded in the 1990s bridged the worlds of art and fashion because some of their designers and even editors were art-school graduates encouraging innovation. The inclusion of art within such magazines aimed at validating them as a form of art in themselves supporting a dynamic intersection for music, fashion, design and youth culture: an intersection that also contributed to create and spread different gender stereotypes. This general interest in fashion produced many exhibitions of and about fashion itself at major international venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Since then this celebrated success of fashion has been regarded as a typical element of postmodern culture. Owing to that I have also based my analysis on some important exhibitions dealing with gender performance like "Féminin-Masculin" at the Centre Pompidou of Paris (1995), "Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose. Gender performance in photography" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York (1997), "Global Feminisms" at the Brooklyn Museum (2007), "Female Trouble" at the Pinakothek der Moderne in München together with the workshops dedicated to "Performance: gender and identity" in June 2005 at the Tate Modern of London. Since 2003 in Italy we have had Gender Bender - an international festival held annually in Bologna - to explore the gender imagery stemming from contemporary culture. In few days this festival offers a series of events ranging from visual arts, performance, cinema, literature to conferences and music. Being aware that any method of research is neither race nor gender neutral I have traced these critical paths to question gender identity in a multicultural perspective taking account of the political implications too. In fact, if visibility may be equated with exposure, we can also read these images as points of intersection of visibility with social power. Since gender assignations rely so heavily on the visual, the postmodern dismantling of gender certainty through performance has wide-ranging effects that need to be analyzed. In some sense this practice can even contest the dominance of visual within postmodernism. My visual map in contemporary art and fashion photography includes artists like Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Hellen van Meene, Rineke Dijkstra, Ed Templeton, Ryan McGinley, Anne Daems, Miwa Yanagi, Tracey Moffat, Catherine Opie, Tomoko Sawada, Vanessa Beecroft, Yasumasa Morimura, Collier Schorr among others.

Nearrings and a construction of triply factorized groups

In this thesis a connection between triply factorised groups and nearrings is investigated. A group G is called triply factorised by its subgroups A, B, and M, if G = AM = BM = AB, where M is normal in G and the intersection of A and B with M is trivial. There is a well-known connection between triply factorised groups and radical rings. If the adjoint group of a radical ring operates on its additive group, the semidirect product of those two groups is triply factorised. On the other hand, if G = AM = BM = AB is a triply factorised group with abelian subgroups A, B, and M, G can be constructed from a suitable radical ring, if the intersection of A and B is trivial. In these triply factorised groups the normal subgroup M is always abelian. In this thesis the construction of triply factorised groups is generalised using nearrings instead of radical rings. Nearrings are a generalisation of rings in the sense that their additive groups need not be abelian and only one distributive law holds. Furthermore, it is shown that every triply factorised group G = AM = BM = AB can be constructed from a nearring if A and B intersect trivially. Moreover, the structure of nearrings is investigated in detail. Especially local nearrings are investigated, since they are important for the construction of triply factorised groups. Given an arbitrary p-group N, a method to construct a local nearring is presented, such that the triply factorised group constructed from this nearring contains N as a subgroup of the normal subgroup M. Finally all local nearrings with dihedral groups of units are classified. It turns out that these nearrings are always finite and their order does not exceed 16.

L'interpretazione autentica nei suoi profili teorici ed applicativi

La trattazione cerca di delineare i confini teorici ed applicativi dell’istituto dell’interpretazione autentica, nella chiara consapevolezza che dietro tale tematica si celi il più complesso problema di una corretta delimitazione tra attività di legis-latio e attività di legis-executio. Il fenomeno delle leggi interpretative costituisce infatti nodo nevralgico e punto di intersezione di tre ambiti materiali distinti, ossia la teoria dell’interpretazione, la teoria delle fonti del diritto e la dottrina di matrice liberale della separazione dei poteri. All’interno del nostro ordinamento, nell’epoca più recente, si è assistito ad un aumento esponenziale di interventi legislativi interpretativi che, allo stato attuale, sono utilizzati per lo più come strumenti di legislazione ordinaria. Sotto questo profilo, il sempre più frequente ricorso alla fonte interpretativa può essere inquadrato nel più complesso fenomeno della “crisi della legge” i cui tradizionali requisiti di generalità, astrattezza ed irretroattività sono stati progressivamente abbandonati dal legislatore parallelamente con l’affermarsi dello Stato costituzionale. L’abuso dello strumento interpretativo da parte del legislatore, gravemente lesivo delle posizioni giuridiche soggettive, non è stato finora efficacemente contrastato all’interno dell’ordinamento nonostante l’elaborazione da parte della Corte costituzionale di una serie di limiti e requisiti di legittimità dell’esegesi legislativa. In tale prospettiva, diventano quindi di rilevanza fondamentale la ricerca e l’esame di strategie e rimedi, giurisdizionali ed istituzionali, tali da arginare l’“onnipotenza” del legislatore interprete. A seguito dell’analisi svolta, è maturata la consapevolezza delle potenzialità insite nella valorizzazione della giurisprudenza della Corte Edu, maggiormente incline a sanzionare l’abuso delle leggi interpretative.

Infanzie migranti. La narrativa per ragazzi nelle opere di scrittrici indiane residenti nel Regno Unito e in Canada

L’oggetto dell’analisi si situa all’intersezione di diversi ambiti disciplinari: letteratura, scienze dell’educazione, sociologia, psicologia. Nel presente lavoro, viene privilegiata un’analisi tematica della narrativa e la definizione identitaria delle “infanzie migranti” viene declinata seguendo percorsi di lettura che mettano in risalto alcune prospettive ricorrenti nei romanzi. Il corpus letterario selezionato include alcuni romanzi scritti in lingua inglese da sei scrittrici di origine indiana, in particolare Jamila Gavin, Rachna Gilmore, Anjali Banerjee, Rukhsana Khan, Ravinder Randhawa e Meera Syal. Nel primo capitolo si tracciano le premesse teoriche e metodologiche del lavoro, definendo il genere della letteratura per l’infanzia e interrogandoci sulle sue specificità in un contesto postcoloniale qual è quello indiano. Il secondo capitolo è dedicato alla definizione identitaria delle seconde generazioni, in particolar modo di quelle indo-britanniche e indo-canadesi, cui appartengono i protagonisti dei romanzi presi in esame. Nel terzo capitolo viene posta attenzione agli elementi che concorrono alla definizione identitaria dei giovani protagonisti dei romanzi, i quali si interrogano sul loro essere e sull’appartenenza interculturale. I dialoghi intergenerazionali tra i protagonisti e i nonni - o altre figure di guida - permettono alle scrittrici di raccontare la storia dell’India coloniale e della lotta per l’indipendenza dal punto di vista degli esclusi dalla storiografia ufficiale. Nel capitolo conclusivo si argomenta invece come la definizione identitaria si attui per mezzo dello spazio, tramite l’appartenenza ai luoghi, spazi caricati di significato, e per mezzo del viaggio, che può essere reale, immaginario o iniziatico. In tutti i casi, il viaggio porta alla scoperta del Sé, di un’identità ibrida e molteplice da parte dei personaggi.