The synergy of renewable energy technology and services to the public

This talk explores a new opportunity renewable energy technology has for society.

Nation-state or country-state : how do we discuss belonging in an age of fluidity?

This is the opening article of a two-part exchange between Jean-Paul Gagnon and Michael Gardiner on the nation-state.

No Exit

Jean Paul Sartre’s 1944 play No Exit comes alive in this new English adaptation by academics and theatre practitioners Caroline Heim and Christian Heim. It is the most complete articulation of the ideals of Sartre’s existentialism. No Exit is an absurdist play about three people who meet in hell. This new adaptation premiered at the World Psychotherapy Congress in Darling Harbour, Sydney in August 2011. The production integrated and extended Sartre's concepts of "The Gaze", "Love and Sadism" and "Nothingness." Post-performance discussions were held after the performances to explore the discourses of the play.

Epidemiological and molecular features of dengue virus type-1 in New Caledonia, South Pacific, 2001–2013

Background The epidemiology of dengue in the South Pacific has been characterized by transmission of a single dominant serotype for 3–5 years, with subsequent replacement by another serotype. From 2001 to 2008 only DENV-1 was reported in the Pacific. In 2008, DENV-4 emerged and quickly displaced DENV-1 in the Pacific, except in New Caledonia (NC) where DENV-1 and DENV-4 co-circulated in 2008–2009. During 2012–2013, another DENV-1 outbreak occurred in NC, the third DENV-1 outbreak in a decade. Given that dengue is a serotype-specific immunizing infection, the recurrent outbreaks of a single serotype within a 10-year period was unexpected. Findings This study aimed to inform this phenomenon by examining the phylogenetic characteristics of the DENV-1 viruses in NC and other Pacific islands between 2001 and 2013. As a result, we have demonstrated that NC experienced introductions of viruses from both the Pacific (genotype IV) and South-east Asia (genotype I). Moreover, whereas genotype IV and I were co-circulating at the beginning of 2012, we observed that from the second half of 2012, i.e. during the major DENV-1 outbreak, all analyzed viruses were genotype I suggesting that a genotype switch occurred. Conclusions Repeated outbreaks of the same dengue serotype, as observed in NC, is uncommon in the Pacific islands. Why the earlier DENV-1 outbreaks did not induce sufficient herd immunity is unclear, and likely multifactorial, but the robust vector control program may have played a role by limiting transmission and thus maintaining a large susceptible pool in the population. Keywords: Dengue; Phylogeny; Genotype; Epidemics; New Caledonia

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition and breast cancer

Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in breast carcinoma encompasses the phenotypic spectrum whereby epithelial carcinoma cells within a primary tumor acquire mesenchymal features and re-epithelialize to form a cohesive secondary mass at a metastatic site. Such plasticity has implications in progression of breast carcinoma to metastasis, and will likely influence response to therapy. The transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of molecular and cellular processes that underlie breast cancer and result in characteristic changes in cell behavior can be monitored using an increasing array of marker proteins. Amongst these markers exists the potential for emergent prognostic, predictive and therapeutic targeting.

Sartrean existentialism and ethical decision-making in business

A wide range of decision-making models have been offered to assist in making ethical decisions in the workplace. Those that are based on normative moral frameworks typically include elements of traditional moral philosophy such as consequentialist and/or deontological␣ethics. This paper suggests an alternative model drawing on Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism. Accordingly, the model focuses on making decisions in full awareness of one’s freedom and responsibility. The steps of the model are intended to encourage reflection of one’s projects and one’s situation and the possibility of refusing the expectations of others. A case study involving affirmative action in South Africa is used to demonstrate the workings of the model and a number of strengths and weaknesses are identified. Despite several weaknesses that can be raised regarding existential ethics, the model’s success lies in the way that it reframes ethical dilemmas in terms of individual freedom and responsibility, and in its acceptance and analysis of subjective experiences and personal situations

No Exit from the gaze: Sartre’s theory facilitated through aspects of Meisner’s practice

This article explores the theory/practice nexus in performance and considers a method for the transfer of theory in rehearsal and performance. In a 2011 production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s "No Exit", rehearsal, performance and post-performance exercises were devised to facilitate an understanding of Sartre’s existential concepts for audiences based on Sanford Meisner’s techniques. In this production, Sartre’s theory of “the gaze” was “practiced” by actors and audience members opening up new perspectives on the conflation of theory and practice in theatre productions.

La contextualisation du discours radiophonique par des moyens prosodiques. L’exemple de cinq grands philosophes français du XXe siècle

"Radiodiskurssin kontekstualisointi prosodisin keinoin. Esimerkkinä viisi suurta ranskalaista 1900-luvun filosofia" Väitöskirja käsittelee puheen kontekstualisointia prosodisin keinoin. Toisin sanottuna työssä käsitellään sitä, miten puheen prosodiset piirteet (kuten sävelkulku, intensiteetti, tauot, kesto ja rytmi) ohjaavat puheen tulkintaa vanhastaan enemmän tutkittujen sana- ja lausemerkitysten ohella. Työssä keskitytään seitsemään prosodisesti merkittyyn kuvioon, jotka koostuvat yhden tai usean parametrin silmiinpistävistä muutoksista. Ilmiöitä käsitellään sekä niiden akustisten muotojen että tyypillisten esiintymisyhteyksien ja diskursiivisten tehtävien näkökulmasta. Aineisto koostuu radio-ohjelmista, joissa puhuu viisi suurta ranskalaista 1900-luvun filosofia: Gaston Bachelard, Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Maurice Merleau-Ponty ja Jean-Paul Sartre. Ohjelmat on lähetetty eri radiokanavilla Ranskassa vuosina 1948–1973. Väitöskirjan tulokset osoittavat, että prosodisesti merkityt kuviot ovat moniulotteisia puheen ilmiöitä, joilla on keskeinen rooli sanotun kontekstualisoinnissa: ne voivat esimerkiksi nostaa tai laskea sanotun informaatioarvoa, ilmaista puhujan voimakasta tai heikkoa sitoutumista sanomaansa, ilmaista rakenteellisen kokonaisuuden jatkumista tai päättymistä, jne. Väitöskirja sisältää myös kontrastiivisia osia, joissa ilmiöitä verrataan erääseen klassisessa pianomusiikissa esiintyvään melodiseen kuvioon sekä erääseen suomen kielen prosodiseen ilmiöön. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että tietynlaista melodista kuviota käytetään samankaltaisena jäsentämiskeinona sekä puheessa että klassisessa musiikissa. Lisäksi tulokset antavat viitteitä siitä, että tiettyjä melodisia muotoja käytetään samankaltaisten implikaatioiden luomiseen kahdessa niinkin erilaisessa kielessä kuin suomessa ja ranskassa. Yksi väitöskirjan osa käsittelee pisteen ja pilkun prosodista merkitsemistä puheessa. Tulosten mukaan pisteellä ja pilkulla on kummallakin oma suullinen prototyyppinsä: piste merkitään tyypillisesti sävelkulun laskulla ja tauolla, ja pilkku puolestaan sävelkulun nousulla ja tauolla. Merkittävimmät tulokset koskevat kuitenkin tapauksia, joissa välimerkki tulkitaan prosodisesti epätyypillisellä tavalla: sekä pisteellä että pilkulla vaikuttaisi olevan useita eri suullisia vastaavuuksia, ja välimerkkien tehtävät voivat muotoutua hyvin erilaisiksi niiden prosodisesta tulkinnasta riippuen.

Poetics of Subjectivity : Existence and Expressivity in Simone de Beauvoir's Philosophy

In the last thirty years, primarily feminist scholars have drawn attention to and re-evaluated the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir (1908 1986). Her philosophical practice has been described as non-systematic, and her literary writing has been viewed as part of her non-systematic mode of philosophising. This dissertation radically deepens the question concerning Beauvoir s philosophical motivations for turning to literature as a mode to express subjectivity. It explicates the central concepts of Beauvoir s philosophy of existence, which are subjectivity, ambiguity, paradox and temporality, and their background in the modern traditions of existential philosophy and phenomenology. It also clarifies Beauvoir s main reason to turn to literature in order to express subjectivity as both singular and universal: as a specific mode of communication, literature is able to make the universality of existence manifest in the concrete, singular and temporal texture of life. In addition, the thesis gives examples of how Beauvoir s literary works contribute to an understanding of the complexity of subjectivity. I use the expression poetics of subjectivity to refer to the systematic relation between Beauvoir s existential and phenomenological notion of subjectivity and her literary works, and to her articulations of a creative mode of using language, especially in the novel. The thesis is divided into five chapters, of which the first three investigate Beauvoir s philosophy of existence at the intersection of the modern traditions of thought that began with René Descartes and Søren Kierkegaard s intuitions about subjectivity. Chapter 1 interprets Beauvoir s notion of ambiguity, as compared to paradox, and argues that both determine her notion of existence. Chapters 2 and 3 investigate the phenomenological side of Beauvoir s philosophy through a study of her response to early French interpretations of transcendental subjectivity, especially in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. My analysis shows that Edmund Husserl s distinction between different levels of subjective experience is central to Beauvoir s understanding of subjectivity and to the different ego concepts she uses. Chapter 4 is a study of Beauvoir s reflections on the expression of subjective thought, and, more specifically, her philosophical conceptions of the metaphysical novel and the autobiography as two modes of indirect communication. Chapter 5, finally, compares two modes of investigating concrete subjectivity; Beauvoir s conceptual study of femininity in Le deuxième sexe and her literary expression of subjectivity in the novel L Invitée. My analysis reveals and explicates Beauvoir s original contribution to a comprehensive understanding of the becoming and paradox of human existence: the fundamental insight that these phenomena are sexed, historically as well as imaginatively.

High levels of catalytic antibodies correlate with favorable outcome in sepsis

Sepsis is the leading cause of death in intensive care units and results from a deleterious systemic host response to infection. Although initially perceived as potentially deleterious, catalytic antibodies have been proposed to participate in removal of metabolic wastes and protection against infection. Here we show that the presence in plasma of IgG endowed with serine protease-like hydrolytic activity strongly correlates with survival from sepsis. Variances of catalytic rates of IgG were greater in the case of patients with severe sepsis than healthy donors (P < 0.001), indicating that sepsis is associated with alterations in plasma levels of hydrolytic IgG. The catalytic rates of IgG from patients who survived were significantly greater than those of IgG from deceased patients (P < 0.05). The cumulative rate of survival was higher among patients exhibiting high rates of IgG-mediated hydrolysis as compared with patients with low hydrolytic rates (P < 0.05). An inverse correlation was also observed between the markers of severity of disseminated intravascular coagulation and rates of hydrolysis of patients' IgG. Furthermore, IgG from three surviving patients hydrolyzed factor VIII, one of which also hydrolyzed factor IX, suggesting that, in some patients, catalytic IgG may participate in the control of disseminated microvascular thrombosis. Our observations provide the first evidence that hydrolytic antibodies might play a role in recovery from a disease.

An estimate of the number of tropical tree species

The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher's alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between similar to 40,000 and similar to 53,000, i.e., at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of similar to 19,000-25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of similar to 4,500-6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa.

Sapientia, 1967, Vol. XXII, nº 83 (número completo)

Contenido: Lo permanente y lo cambiante del conocimiento intelectivo / Octavio N. Derisi – Significado y alcance de lo naturalmente conocido frente a la gnoseología contemporánea (fin) / Osvaldo Francella – Instantaneidad del cambio substancial / J. E. Bolzán – Etapas en la evolución del pensamiento de Jean-Paul Sartre desde el punto de vista ético / Judith B. de González – Notas y comentarios – Bibliografía

ATP Antagonizes Thrombin-Induced Signal Transduction through 12(S)-HETE and cAMP

15 p.

Antologias brasileiras da Literatura Fantástica: perspectivas teórico-metodológicas e leituras crítico-interpretativas: apresentações, prefácios e textos brasileiros selecionados

Embora a quantidade de publicações que trazem à capa a denominação contos fantásticos ou, ainda, que tratem do insólito como temática tenha crescido nos últimos anos na literatura brasileira, nota-se que há muito que se definir para que se chegue a uma classificação que evite generalizações simplificadoras. Portanto, esta dissertação pretende discutir e apontar alguns elementos que, de acordo com o arcabouço teórico-metodológico de Tzvetan Todorov e de Filipe Furtado, se configuram como estratégias de construção do discurso literário de narrativas do gênero Fantástico. Para isso, foram trazidos os estudos de Sigmund Freud e de Jean Paul Sartre para problematizar os conceitos e visões que se têm do gênero e, em seguida, selecionaram-se cinco antologias que discorrem sobre a temática do insólito e, após minuciosa e atenta leitura crítico-interpretativa de cada prefácio e/ou introdução, foram confrontadas as ideias, ali expostas, com a que se adotou nesta pesquisa como norte. Em seguida, fez-se a apreciação dos contos de literatura brasileira e ficou constatado que o conteúdo das antologias selecionadas não condiz com a nomenclatura sustentada na capa dos volumes

O Fantástico na Prosa Contemporânea o duplo como jogo ficcional em Rubens Figueiredo

Observamos a questão do duplo na ficção de Rubens Figueiredo e como ele contribui a produção do fantástico na contemporaneidade. Para isso, primeiro, apresentamos a análise de Tzevan Todorov sobre o gênero fantástico, no qual destacamos a multiplicação da personalidade e a ambiguidade na narrativa; e segundo, tratamos, de forma breve, as concepções do duplo na história da literatura, no ensaio filosófico de Clément Rosset e a partir do unheimlich de Freud. Adicionalmente utilizamos teóricos como Filipe Furtado, Jean-Paul Sarte, Otto Rank, Remo Ceserani, entre outros. Por fim, analisamos como o duplo aparece no fantástico atual, a partir das narrativas curtas Nos olhos do intruso, Um certo tom de preto, Sem os outros, A ele chamarei Morzek e do romance Barco a seco, de Rubens Figueiredo. O autor em sua construção ficcional parece mesclar elementos do fantástico clássico com o fantástico moderno e, em suas narrativas é possível notar a presença obsessiva do tema do duplo, o insólito, a ambiguidade, e questões da atualidade que dizem respeito à condição humana