Writing westwards: medieval English literature and its early modern Irish audiences

Quite a few texts from England were translated into Irish in the fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. The number of these texts was significant enough to suggest that foreign material of this sort enjoyed something of a vogue in late-medieval Ireland. Translated texts include Mandeville’s Travels, Guy of Warwick, Bevis of Hampton, Fierabras and a selection of saints’ lives. Scholars have paid little attention to the origins and initial readerships of these texts, but still less research has been conducted into their afterlife in early modern Ireland. However, a strikingly high number of these works continued to be read and copied well into the seventeenth century and some, such as the Irish translations of Octavian and William of Palerne, only survive in manuscripts from this later period. This paper takes these translations as a test case to explore the ways in which a cross-period approach to such writing is applicable in Ireland, a country where the renaissance is generally considered to have taken little hold. It considers the extent to which Irish reception of this translated material shifts and evolves in the course of this turbulent period and whether the same factors that contributed to the continued demand for a range of similar texts in England into the seventeenth century are also discernible in the Irish context.

Language networks, literary translation and the friars in late medieval ireland

Dublin, Trinity College MS 667 (olim F 5 3) is something of a meeting point of languages and traditions, representing one of the most significant witnesses to Latin exemplars for vernacular translations to survive from medieval Ireland. What is more, the translated texts appear to travel in groups, with several Irish-language manuscripts bearing close comparison to Trinity 667 in the texts and versions of texts they contain. Examining these texts and the contexts in which they circulated in Irish can give us a sense of the sorts of historical and cultural currents to which such translation work appears to have been responding.

Common Features in Vector Nonlinear Time Series Models

This thesis consists of four manuscripts in the area of nonlinear time series econometrics on topics of testing, modeling and forecasting nonlinear common features. The aim of this thesis is to develop new econometric contributions for hypothesis testing and forecasting in these area. Both stationary and nonstationary time series are concerned. A definition of common features is proposed in an appropriate way to each class. Based on the definition, a vector nonlinear time series model with common features is set up for testing for common features. The proposed models are available for forecasting as well after being well specified. The first paper addresses a testing procedure on nonstationary time series. A class of nonlinear cointegration, smooth-transition (ST) cointegration, is examined. The ST cointegration nests the previously developed linear and threshold cointegration. An Ftypetest for examining the ST cointegration is derived when stationary transition variables are imposed rather than nonstationary variables. Later ones drive the test standard, while the former ones make the test nonstandard. This has important implications for empirical work. It is crucial to distinguish between the cases with stationary and nonstationary transition variables so that the correct test can be used. The second and the fourth papers develop testing approaches for stationary time series. In particular, the vector ST autoregressive (VSTAR) model is extended to allow for common nonlinear features (CNFs). These two papers propose a modeling procedure and derive tests for the presence of CNFs. Including model specification using the testing contributions above, the third paper considers forecasting with vector nonlinear time series models and extends the procedures available for univariate nonlinear models. The VSTAR model with CNFs and the ST cointegration model in the previous papers are exemplified in detail,and thereafter illustrated within two corresponding macroeconomic data sets.

October 2012: Volume 2 Issue 1

In this Issue: Friends of Dacus Endowment Nears GoalDacus Library of Winthrop UniversityMedieval Manuscripts Acquired; Carlisle Recognized by Friends

Catálogo dos livros de Horas da Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil

O presente trabalho objetivou identificar a coleção dos livros de horas da Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil, com vistas a produzir um catálogo. A coleção abrange nove livros manuscritos iluminados; neste trabalho, porém, foram identificados apenas os oito livros produzidos na segunda metade do século XV. Quatro desses livros são provenientes da Real Biblioteca – Casa do Infantado, que veio para o Brasil em 1808 com a família real portuguesa, tornando-se o núcleo inicial da Biblioteca Nacional brasileira. Na primeira parte apresentamos as considerações teóricas situando o período no qual o livro de horas se inscreve, destacando a sua importância, tanto na sociedade quanto no desenvolvimento da piedade do homem na cristandade medieval. Apresentamos também um breve histórico da Biblioteca Nacional, depositária da coleção dos livros de horas e, concluindo a primeira parte, os dados referentes à construção do catálogo. A segunda parte é o catálogo propriamente dito, onde os livros estão descritos obedecendo às normas internacionais vigentes, viabilizando o acesso, a divulgação e o intercâmbio de informações, promovendo assim a valorização e a preservação desses bens culturais e patrimoniais.

Sexual blinging of women : Alice Walker's african character tashi and issue of female genital cutting

This thesis provides a reading of the different forms of representation that can be attributed to the character Tashi, the protagonist of the novel Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), written by the African American writer Alice Walker. Before this work Tashi had already appeared in two previous novels by Walker, first, in The Color Purple (1982) and then, as a mention, in The Temple of My Familiar (1989). With Tashi, the author introduces the issue of female circumcision, a ritual Tashi submits herself to at the beginning of her adult life. The focus of observation lies in the ways in which the author’s anger is transformed into a means of creative representation. Walker uses her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy openly as a political instrument so that the expression “female mutilation” (term used by the author) receives ample attention from the media and critics in general. The aim of this investigation is to evaluate to what extent Walker’s social engagement contributes to the development of her work and to what extent it undermines it. For the analysis of the different issues related to “female genital cutting”, the term I use in this thesis, the works of feminist critics and writers such as Ellen Gruenbaum, Lightfoot-Klein, Nancy Hartsock, Linda Nicholson, Efrat Tseëlon and the Egyptian writer and doctor Nawal El Saadawi will be consulted. I hope that this thesis can contribute as an observation about Alice Walker’s use of her social engagement in the creation of her fictional world.

Alienação e transcendência: a realidade e o devir humano: um estudo da práxis educativa à luz da teoria da alienação de Marx

Trata-se aqui de um estudo da teoria da alienação em Marx, e de uma reflexão sobre a prática educativa à luz dessa teoria. A investigação da teoria da alienação em Marx inclue um estudo dos interlocutores que o precedem na construção desse conceito. Na sistematização desta teoria em Marx, três obras são privilegiadas: Manuscritos econômicos e filosóficos de 1844, A ideologia alemã, Elementos fundamentais para a critica da economia politica (Grundrisse). Rompendo com a visão metafísica que pretende dar à alienação um significado ontológico e mistificador, Marx toma-a como uma forma histórica de relação humana e a analisa em suas múltiplas dimensões. A luz da teoria da alienação, empreende-se, na 2ª parte deste trabalho uma crítica à visão metafísica da educação, que reduz a alienação a uma questão cognitiva que se resolve no campo da consciência, sendo superável, portanto, no âmbito educativo. Opõe-se a essa perspectiva a noção de que a consciência não alienada só pode ser pensada como consciência de uma sociedade plenamente humana. Situada no contexto da sociedade alienada a educação tem como possibilidade contribuir como uma mediação prático-teórica para superação da alienação, desde que se articule com o conjunto das práticas sociais e políticas transformadoras.

Avaliação do desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor em crianças na rede básica de saúde utilizando o teste de Denver II: identificação de fatores de risco materno

Alterations in the neuropsychomotor development of children are not rare and can manifest themselves with varying intensity at different stages of their development. In this context, maternal risk factors may contribute to the appearance of these alterations. A number of studies have reported that neuropsychomotor development diagnosis is not an easy task, especially in the basic public health network. Diagnosis requires effective, low-cost, and easy - to-apply procedures. The Denver Developmental Screening Test, first published in 1967, is currently used in several countries. It has been revised and renamed as the Denver II Test and meets the aforementioned criteria. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to apply the Denver II Test in order to verify the prevalence of suspected neuropsychomotor development delay in children between the ages of 0 and 12 months and correlate it with the following maternal risk factors: family income, schooling, age at pregnancy, drug use during pregnancy, gestational age, gestational problems, type of delivery and the desire to have children. For data collection, performed during the first 6 months of 2004, a clinical assessment was made of 398 children selected by pediatricians and the nursing team of each public health unit. Later, the parents or guardians were asked to complete a structured questionnaire to determine possible risk indicators of neuropsychomotor development delay. Finally the Denver II Developmental Screening Test (DDST) was applied. The data were analyzed together, using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 6.1. The confidence interval was set at 95%. The Denver II Test yielded normal and questionable results. This suggests compromised neuropsychomotor development in the children examined and deserves further investigation. The correlation of the results with preestablished maternal risk variables (family income, mother s schooling, age at pregnancy, drug use during the pregnancy and gestational age) was strongly significant. The other maternal risk variables (gestational problems, type of delivery and desire to have children) were not significant. Using an adjusted logistic regression model, we obtained the estimate of the greater likelihood of a child having suspected neuropsychomotor development delay: a mother with _75 4 years of schooling, chronological age less than 20 years and a drug user during pregnancy. This study produced two manuscripts, one published in Acta Cirúrgica Brasileira , in which an analysis was performed of children with suspected neuropsychomotor development delay in the city of Natal, Brazil. The other paper (to be published) analyzed the magnitude of the independent variable maternal schooling associated to neuropsychomotor development delay, every 3 months during the first twelve months of life of the children selected.. The results of the present study reinforce the multifactorial characteristic of development and the cumulative effect of maternal risk factors, and show the need for a regional policy that promotes low-cost programs for the community, involving children at risk of neuropsychomotor development delay. Moreover, they suggest the need for better qualified health professionals in terms of monitoring child development. This was an inter- and multidisciplinary study with the integrated participation of doctors, nurses, nursing assistants and professionals from other areas, such as statisticians and information technology professionals, who met all the requirements of the Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte

A prática de atividade física de crianças e adolescentes com e sem epilepsia

The epilepsy is one of the neurological disorders more common in the pediatric period, and which interferes significantly in the psycho and social life of children and teenagers. The objective of this study was analyzing the practice of sedentary practices, physicals, traditional infant fun and games of children and teenagers with and without epilepsy. The study was prospective, transversal descriptive, done with 60 children and teenagers with epilepsy (Epileptic Group - EG) patients from Pediatric Neurology Clinic of the Centre Integrated Health Lineu Araújo and 60 children and teenagers without epilepsy (Control Group - CG) students from municipal public school, both of the two groups paired with the same age (age group 7 to 14 years) of both the genders (female = 25/41,6% and male = 35/58,3%) of the Teresina city Piauí. It was done two pattern questionnaires, one applied to children and teenagers of the EG and CG to identify the sedentary activities, physical and traditional infant games and other to the parents/responsible of the EG about the clinical and demographic information. The results permitted the elaboration of two manuscripts: a) the first one titled The Practice of Sedentary and Physical Activities of Children and Teenagers with Epilepsy which showed significant difference in the sedentary activities of playing with car toy (p=0,021) to the EG and reading to the CG (p=0,001); in the physical activities the school physical education (p=0,001) and riding a bike (p=0,014) to the CG; b) the second one The Practice of Infant Games and Fun the children and teenagers with and without Epilepsy in this one the playing with marble presented significant difference (p=0,016) to the CG, despite the girls of the two groups don t do this activity. Observing the distribution of frequencies, it was verified that in the play catch-up and hide-and-seek and burn the EG plays more than the CG both in female and male gender. The girls of the EG play less skip, 60 while the boys of the two groups don t play. Elastic jump the girls of the two groups play in a same frequency and the boys don t participate of this fun. The seizures were found to occur during: soccer (23,3%); hide-and-seek (6,6%) and running (3,3%). In the sedentary activities, seizures were reported to occur: resting and watching TV (18,3%), sleeping (36,0%); sitting (13,3%) and lying down (11,7%). Our results showed that the epileptic group and the controls group engage in the same activities, although the epileptic group participates less than the controls. Although the EG had presented a bigger percentage of generalized attacks, they don t occur during the practice of formal physical activities. The research was developed by a multidisciplinary team, and this contributed a lot to the realization of this study

Propriedades dos sistemas de numeração: uma sequência didática em uma abordagem histórica

This paper aims to describe the construction and validation of a notebook of activities whose content is a didactic sequence that makes use of the study of ancient numbering systems as compared to the object of our decimal positional numbering system Arabic. This is on the assumption that the comparison with a system different from our own might provide a better understanding of our own numbering system, but also help in the process of arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction and multiplication, since it will force us to think in ways that are not routinely object of our attention. The systems covered in the study were the Egyptian hieroglyphic system of numbering, the numbering system Greek alphabet and Roman numbering system, always compared to our numbering system. The following teachung is presented structured in the form of our activities, so-called exercise set and common tasks around a former same numbering system. In its final stage of preparation, the sequence with the participation of 26 primary school teachers of basic education

O espelho dos hieróglifos: da ruína das letras egípcias à sua reinvenção quimérica entre os séc. XV e XVII

This master thesis is an overview of how the Egyptian writing became a ruin, and then was mythunderstood by the Western culture through speculations based on its figurative appeal or by its magical nature this invention results not only in new idea of writing, but also in many graphical experiments which take part in the creation of the Renaissance and Baroque visual identity

O ritual simbólico do Ctrl+C (copiar ) e Ctrl+V (colar) no ensino médio

Nowadays, technology has a direct influence on the relationship student and teacher have with language. The internet is a powerful tool in helping work with the language and, through it, the knowledge comes to the student easily and intensely. Furthermore, this facility has enhanced and made visible what has been called, within the University community, "plagiarism generation." This work assumes that this generation has, in their written texts, symbolic movements similar to those of "copy and paste" applied to research work carried out by high school students. Taking this as starting point, this dissertation aims to analyze how high school students of the 1st year from a school in Natal (RN) construct texts, under the movements known as "Ctrl + c" and "Ctrl + v", with reference to the text of the "other". More specific issues are behind the general objective, namely: 1. how the student appropriates the source-text when he copies and pastes? 2. What are the categories of analysis that allow us to look analytically and theoretically for the "ctrl + c / ctrl + v" practice made by the student? 2. how the studies developed in the fields of "Genetic Criticism" (Grésillon, 1987), the "school manuscripts" (Calil, 2004) and "paraphrase" (Fuchs, 1982) may help in working with writing in the classroom standing as a possible way to minimize the copy and paste effects in the students texts? Thus, we observe the categories of analysis that allow us to look, theoretically and analytically, for the symbolic ritual of the "ctrl + c" (copy) and "ctrl + v" (paste) in high school. Our study shows that the student text is a "hybrid body" whose writing is a drawing entanglement because of the presence of the foreign text, verbatim, and the presence of linguistic elements to paraphrase the original text.This textual embodiment has, behind it, certain operations, namely: replacing, moving, adding and deleting statements. Given the specificity of the data and the research objectives, this study aligns with qualitative research methods (SILVERMAN, 2009) and falls within the knowledge field of Applied Linguistics, which is characterized especially by investigating problems, phenomena in which language in a real situation is taken as central (BRUMFIT, 1995).Theoretically, our work follows the approach of studies on the paraphrase (Fuchs, 1982, 1994a, 1994b; DAUNAY, 1997, 1999, 2002a, 2002b), the studies developed in the field of Genetic Criticism (Grésillon, 1987, 1994, 1992, 2008 ) and those developed by Eduardo Calil (2004) on "school manuscripts"

Vaga-lume na treva: a poesia de João Lins Caldas

This thesis analyses the poetry of João Lins Caldas (1888-1967), in Brazilian literature context, aiming at describing and understanding the main features of his poetry. Thus, this research presents a corpus to be worked on: the poems in Poeira do céu e outros poemas (2009). Our study is characterized by a biographical, historiographical and critical tendency, by trying to organize the manuscripts of the author and biographical aspects while analyzing his poems. It is showed the relation between Brazilian poetry written by some authors, since the parnasianism and symbolism period until the twentieth century. On the one hand, our analysis is based on the ideas and criticism by Antonio Candido (2006; 2002; 1985), discussing the process of formation of Brazilian literature and the procedure to analyse poetry. It is also based on the concept of poetry and resistance, developed by Alfredo Bosi (2000; 2002), and the notion of Brazilian matter, identified by Roberto Schwarz (1987, 1997, 1999). On the other hand, this work focuses on melancholy under the theoretical ideas of authors such as Aristotle (1998), Walter Benjamin (1984), Jaime Ginzburg (1997) and Moacyr Scliar (2003). This focus on melancholy contributes to a better understanding of one of the main themes found in the poems analysed. By studying the poetry of João Lins Caldas, it was perceived the relevance of melancholy and resistance in his verses. This can be seen in his dissonant language, characterized by the broken syntax in his verses, as well as contradictory images and complex meanings in his poetry. This causes the effect of unfamiliarity on the reader. His poetry is the result of a style that finds its place in the best moment of modern Brazilian poetry and reveals its singularity through the inverted syntax with powerful themes such as love, death, pain, delusion, loss, memory, nature and God. All of them are aspects of Brazilian historicity. Finally, the work of João Lins Caldas is part of a multifaceted poetry

O sertão vai para o Além-Mar : a relação centro e periferia e as fábricas de couro em Pernambuco nos setecentos

This thesis focuses on the economic relations in the interior of the Portuguese America, more specifically in Pernambuco Captancy in the 17th Century, concerning the discussion about center-periphery relationship and also the context of Brazilian colonial history. In addition, it portrays the exportations of leather to Portugal, their consequences in the Captaincy of Pernambuco and the businessmen involved in the trade and manufacturing of that product. In order to accomplish this work, manuscripts of Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Ultramarine Historical Archives), colonial narratives and maps of the mercantile loads have been used so that one can visualize that the manufacturing of leather and other products have provided a social and economical connection among Pernambuco, Recife as trade center, Olinda as administrative municipality and Portugal