Hoje eu vou morrer para nascer de novo. E como escrever histórias que existem em voz alta e que nunca quiseram estar nesta dissertação? Escrevo aqui uma dramaturgia a partir da alteridade, transformo o texto de um outro pela minha autoria. Procuro, assim, problematizar os usos de um discurso alheio ao escritor, como fundamento para o teatro. Para tanto, apresento três ações artísticas que realizei, Consulta, Fim da Fila e Jogo do Gênero, que são o motor para se pensar como a apropriação do real pode culminar na construção de um texto, processo que chamo de rubricagem. A presença física do dramaturgo em diálogo com o outro possibilita a construção de uma dramaturgia situada em campos expandidos do teatro, evidencia a performatividade do gesto, tanto no processo quanto na obra, e permite pensar caminhos da dramaturgia a partir da aproximação a alguém desconhecido. / Today I will die in order to be reborn. How to write spoken-word stories that never wanted to appear in this thesis? I describe here a dramaturgy of alterity, transforming the text of another into my own words. I thus seek to problematize the uses of a discourse foreign to the author as a foundation for theater. Therefore, I present three performances I have realized-- Consulta, Fim da Fila, and Jogo do Gênero--which drive my consideration about how the appropriation of the real can culminate in the construction of a text, a process I term rubricagem-- rubrication. The physical presence of the playwright in dialogue with another enables the construction of a text set in expanded domains of theatre, demonstrating the gesture\'s performativity--both in the process and final piece--and allowing us to conceive a dramaturgy that emanates from the approximation of someone unknown.

O objeto deste trabalho será analisar criticamente a maneira como o direito conceitua a doação. Será dividido em três partes. O Capítulo I tratará dos diversos modos como a doação foi estruturada no direito romano, no direito francês, no direito italiano e no direito brasileiro, das razões para essa diversidade e possíveis críticas à estruturação atual. O Capítulo II cuidará dos critérios para delimitar a fattispecie da doação e distingui-la dos demais contratos gratuitos. Normalmente, a doutrina identifica um elemento objetivo e um elemento subjetivo como caracterizadores da doação. O Capítulo III problematizará esses elementos, a fim de indagar sobre a abrangência do conceito jurídico de doação, tendo como base dois aspectos: a possibilidade de a doação ter por objeto prestações de fazer e o papel atribuído ao chamado animus donandi. / The purpose of this thesis is to analize critically the legal concept of gift. It will be divided into three parts. Chapter I covers the different legal structuring of gifts in Roman Law, French Law, Italian Law and Brazilian Law. The chapter also covers the reasons for the existence of different concepts and possibile criticism of the actual structure of gifts. Chapter II deals with the criteria for defining a legal concept of gift and the distinction between gifts and other gratuitous contracts. Generally, legal science identifies an objective element and a subjective element as characteristic features of gifts. Chapter III discusses these elements focused on the magnitude of the legal concept of gift in accordance with two aspects: the possibility of gratuitous services to be considered gifts and the role assigned to the so-called animus donandi.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:54:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria de Fatima Patu da Silva.pdf: 2895041 bytes, checksum: a2389e9eedb7123cb1f8a76e5d10ad18 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-11-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work is a doctoral research in Social Sciences and whose object of study has been the bone marrow donor/transplantation. This can be analyzed at least by two areas of knowledge: Anthropology and Medicine. We take the notion of gift as a founding concept of our reflection. Thus, we should remember the bone marrow as an object donated for transplantation that carries beyond the genetic and physiological capacity, power and strength to revive the receiver. In recent decade, organ transplantation has attracted reviews from various sectors of the Brazilian society, the media, on the other hand, has been playing an important role in the broad disclosure information by democratizing the discussions, sometimes heated and contradictory, and clarifies or raises doubts and fear in people. It is therefore a matter of great social relevance and as such has been treated well by society; it has been receptive to the calls of solidarity in organ donation as public health, because it is a procedure of high complexity and high cost, requiring measures of public policy planning and resource allocation, democratic and ethical criteria. This study aims to describe the profile of recipients of bone marrow in Recife and Lisbon. We performed a retrospective analysis from 2002 to 2010. Over this period, 134 patients underwent transplantation with unrelated donors of these, 107 in Lisbon and 26 in Recife. Patients transplanted in Lisbon (51.4 %) are female; while in Recife (69.2 %) are male. Are in the age group 0-17 years in Portugal (54.2 %) and Recife (50 %) diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia prevalent. However, in Lisbon prevailed diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. The study draws attention to the fact that Lisbon performed more transplants in the age group of 30-39 years old (18.7%), different from Recife (11.5%) in the same age group. In terms of age group 18-29 years old showed a percentage of (15.9 %). Research has shown acute myeloid leukemia as the most prevalent disease in Lisbon. It is a fact that confirms the literature, to affect individuals of all ages, especially those in adulthood. This study is in the age group above 50 years old in Lisbon (6.5%) and Recife (3.8 %). We emphasize that in the period of data collection, Recife had a population of 1,537,704 and 2,821,699 people Lisbon. Although Recife has other units, only the center where the research was conducted was doing this type of transplant / Este trabalho é uma pesquisa de doutorado em Ciências Sociais e tem como objeto de estudo o doador de medula óssea/transplante. Este pode ser analisado, pelo menos, por duas áreas do conhecimento: antropologia e medicina. Tomamos a noção de dádiva como conceito fundante da nossa reflexão. Para isso, convém lembrar que a medula óssea enquanto objeto doado para o transplante carrega além da constituição genética e sua capacidade fisiológica, o poder e a força de reviver o receptor. Nas últimas décadas, o transplante de órgãos tem atraído opiniões de setores diversificados da sociedade brasileira, a mídia, por sua vez, vem cumprindo importante papel na ampla divulgação ao democratizar as informações a discussões, algumas vezes acaloradas e contraditórias, assim como esclarece ou suscita dúvidas e receio nas pessoas. É, portanto, um tema de muita relevância social e como tal, tem sido tratado tanto pela sociedade, receptiva aos apelos da solidariedade na doação de órgãos, como pela saúde pública, por se tratar de um procedimento de alta complexidade e elevado custo, exigindo medidas de planejamento de políticas públicas e alocação de recursos, critérios éticos e democráticos. Este estudo objetiva descrever o perfil dos receptores de medula óssea em Recife e Lisboa. Foi realizada uma análise retrospectiva no período de 2002 a 2010. No período analisado, 134 pacientes realizaram transplante com doadores não aparentados destes, 107 em Lisboa e 26 em Recife. Os pacientes transplantados em Lisboa (51,4%) são do sexo feminino, enquanto em Recife (69,2%) pertence ao sexo masculino. Estão na faixa etária de 0 a 17 anos em Portugal (54,2%) e Recife (50 %) com diagnóstico prevalente de Anemia Aplástica. No entanto, em Lisboa prevaleceu o diagnóstico de Leucemia Mieloide Aguda. O estudo chama a atenção para o fato de que Lisboa realizou mais transplantes na faixa etária de 30 a 39 anos (18,7%), diferente de Recife (11,5%) na mesma faixa etária. Em relação à faixa etária de 18 a 29 anos, apresentou um percentual de (15,9%). A pesquisa mostrou a leucemia mieloide aguda como a doença mais prevalente em Lisboa. É um dado que corrobora com a literatura, por afetar indivíduos de todas as idades, principalmente os que estão na fase adulta. Nesse estudo está na faixa etária acima de 50 anos em Lisboa (6,5%) e Recife (3,8%). Ressaltamos que, no período da coleta de dados, Recife tinha uma população de 1.537.704 e Lisboa 2.821.699 pessoas. Apesar de Recife possuir outras unidades, apenas o centro onde foi realizada a pTesquisa estava fazendo este tipo de transplante

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-06-14T12:26:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Marilene Liége Darós_.pdf: 5526998 bytes, checksum: 8e4ed9979782ff9a1df18a5b6c18fac7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-14T12:26:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marilene Liége Darós_.pdf: 5526998 bytes, checksum: 8e4ed9979782ff9a1df18a5b6c18fac7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-25 / FAPERGS - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul / O tema deste trabalho é a dinâmica das relações vinculantes e sua relação com a Felicidade. Desde a antiguidade, o tema é questão de discussões político-filosóficas e gerador de controvérsias. A premissa de que a felicidade individual está em sintonia com a felicidade de todos se articula com as políticas da modernidade, consolidando o sistema econômico vigente. Os estudos de sociedades anteriores à sociedade moderna e não ocidentais invertem essa maneira de conceber a relação indivíduo/sociedade. As escolhas individuais fazem parte de uma dinâmica de organização social de produção e reprodução da vida. Os vínculos sociais são o elo entre indivíduo e sociedade e a condição primordial para se ter uma boa vida. Diante dessa mudança paradigmática de conceber a natureza humana em movimento dialético com o coletivo, tomamos como referencial para a análise do fenômeno da felicidade os estudos antropológicos de Mauss sobre a dádiva e a tese de Polanyi de que a natureza do ser humano é social, e a economia, uma das dimensões da vida humana. Ao adotar como base esses autores, consideramos as formulações de seus seguidores para entender essa dinâmica da vida humana dentro das organizações sociais: a saber, Sabourin e seus estudos sobre a reciprocidade em Mauss e Polanyi, e a sistematização teórica de Gaiger sobre a qualidade das relações vinculantes. O conceito de felicidade que assumimos é de um sentimento que surge da articulação entre as condições objetivas e subjetivas. Sentimento, para Damásio, é a expressão que provém de uma sensação do corpo que se articula a uma percepção subjetiva dessa expressão corporal. O sentimento envolve o corpo e a alma, sendo visível na expressão de uma pessoa. Partindo desse referencial, adotamos o conceito de felicidade apresentado por Gaiger como um sentimento que surge de um estado de paz e bem-estar consistente, ancorado no que julgamos primordial à vida, à trajetória de nossas realizações e a uma avaliação global com a vida que temos e que levamos. Tomando como objeto empírico a Economia Solidária, buscamos fundamentos para a compreensão da felicidade a partir da teoria dos vínculos sociais que têm como base a concepção teórica sobre a dádiva de Mauss e a reciprocidade de Polanyi, utilizando as metodologias quantitativas e qualitativas. A partir das análises de questões das bases de informações do II Mapeamento e da pesquisa amostral dos(as) sócios(as) e sócias em Economia Solidária, demonstramos que os empreendimentos solidários são engajados e que os vínculos são motivadores para a entrada e permanência dos(as) sócios(as) nos Empreendimentos Solidários. Na pesquisa qualitativa, fizemos uma imersão no campo e entrevistamos 22 pessoas de quatro segmentos: seis agricultores familiares, sendo dois deles de comunidades quilombolas remanescentes; seis pescadores artesanais; quatro mulheres de uma cooperativa de alimentos e seis de uma cooperativa de catadores de materiais recicláveis. Concluímos que os vínculos são importantes para as pessoas estarem nas cooperativas bem como, tendo como vetor a reciprocidade, os vínculos podem transformar a autoimagem negativa em positiva, levando as pessoas a se avaliarem como felizes. / The subject of this paper is the dynamics of bonding relations and their relation with Happiness. Since ancient times, this theme is subject of political and philosophical discussions and creates much controversy. The premise that individual happiness is connected with the happiness of everyone relates to modern politics, consolidating the current economical system. The study of societies dating prior to modern societies, as well as the study of non-western societies subvert this way of seeing the individual/society relationship. The individual choices are part of a dynamic of social organization of production and reproduction of life. The social bonds are the link between individual and society, as well as the most important condition for one to live a good life. Facing this paradigmatic change of seeing human nature in dialectic movement with the collective, we use as reference the anthropological studies of Mauss about gift and Polanyi's thesis that human nature is social and economy is one of human life's dimensions. Adopting the groundwork laid by these authors, we consider the formulations of their followers to understand the dynamics of human life within social organizations – namely, Sabourin and his studies on reciprocity in Mauss and Polanyi, and Geiger's theoretical systematization about the quality of bonding relations. The concept of happiness as we assume it is a feeling that arises from the articulation of objective and subjective conditions. To Damásio, feeling is the expression of an emotion that comes from a sensation of the body related to a subjective perception of this body expression. Feeling involves body and soul, being visible in a person's expression. Building on that groundwork, we adopt the concept of happiness presented by Gaiger as a feeling that arises from a state of peace and consistent well-being, anchored to what we judge quintessential to life, to our achievements' trajectory and to a global evaluation of the life we live. Taking Solidarity Economy as empirical object, we seek foundations to the understanding of happiness through the theory of social bonds, which has as a foundation the theoretical conception about gift of Mauss and Polanyi's reciprocity, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Starting from the analysis of matters from the base of information of the Second Mapping and the sample research of the associates in Solidarity Economy, we demonstrated that the solidarity enterprises are committed and that bonds are motivating for the entry and permanence of associates in Solidarity Enterprises. For the qualitative research, we went into the field and interviewed 22 people of four different sectors: six family farmers, two of which from remaining quilombola communities; six artisan fishermen; four women from a food cooperative and six from a co-op of recyclable materials collectors. We concluded that the bonds are important for people to stay in the cooperatives and that having reciprocity as a vector, bonds can transform negative self-image into positive self-image, making people evaluate themselves as happy.

Christmas is generally described as cultural, ritual and sociological phenomena of devotion, community and consumption. The topic of this dissertation concerns a specific stream of research within the general domain of consumer behaviour. The focal objective of this study is to develop a model and generate theory about parental gift giving behaviour at Christmas. My study is unique because it attempts to model parental gift giving at Christmas in a consumer behaviour context. Consumer behaviour theory suggests that parents seek information about possible gifts, set selection criteria for gift purchase, evaluate alternatives and buy the gifts for their children. Following this broad view of theory, parents respond to children's request behaviour, evaluate the suitability of any requests and purchase the approved or appropriate items as Christmas gifts. Children are encouraged to request any gifts that they desire, and these gift requests are often for specific brands. In general Christmas gifts are selected from children's products and brands and there is extensive debate and research relating to television advertising and children's request behaviour at Christmas. However, parents are not exposed to the same sources of advertising as their children and there is little evidence of research into the very important topics concerning motives, strategies, evaluations and the giving of brands that characterize parents' Christmas gift giving to their children. The significance of this dissertation resides in the development and presentation of a comprehensive model for the conceptualisation of parental gift giving at Christmas, based on antecedents to parents' social roles of gift giving and direct and indirect behavioural outcomes of those gift giving roles. Measures for each of these outcomes are developed and gender effects are also explored. The sample frame was described as a parent with at least one child between the ages of 3-8 years and a survey package was delivered to parents of children from participating schools and kindergartens. There were 2560 surveys distributed, with 450 individual responses representing a return rate of 17.6%. The 450 cases available for analysis were factor analysed and formed into composite and latent variables to facilitate statistical analysis via Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression, which is an appropriate procedure when the relationships are unknown or theoretical. The results of the research have two distinct streams. The first stream relates to the creation and validation of measurement constructs for the concept of Christmas spirit, parental gift giving, request communication, brand benefits and use of information sources, as well as involvement in giving gifts and involvement in giving brands as gifts. The second stream relates to the relationships between variables; the results support the relationships antecedent to the parents' social roles of gift giving. There is a significant relationship of Christmas spirit with involvement in giving gifts and with parental gift giving roles. A significant relationship also exists between involvement in giving gifts and parental gift giving roles. However, there is limited support for propositions related to outcomes of parental gift giving roles where there are significant relations between these roles and Christmas request communication, brand benefits and information sources. There is also a significant, indirect relationship between brand benefits and involvement in giving brands as gifts. As part of the second stream, gender differences were examined; the results show that mothers' Christmas spirit has no effect on their gift giving roles and gift giving roles have no significant effect on request communication and information source usage. On the other hand, the results show that the fathers' gift giving activities reflect the relationships outlined in the parental model. The study has academic implications for sociology and consumer behaviour disciplines and commercial implications for manufacturers, advertisers, brand owners and retailers. Further investigations will be necessary to incorporate other elements into the parental gift-giving model and to extend the theory toward a fuller understanding of the parental Christmas gift giving phenomena.

The Bronco Chase and arrest of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, and his subsequent criminal trial became one of the most captivating, mass-mediated events of the last decade of the twentieth century. Simpson's iconic celebrity status and his race as an African-American inflamed the notoriety of the crime. An insatiable spectatorial desire for Simpson and narratives concerning his alleged involvement in the Brentwood murders engulfed the American public and American culture for thirty-two months. An excessive scrutiny of his identity by the media, law and order professionals and the populace generated a racially charged discursive cacophony. The memoir Simpson published during his remand to raise funds for his defense expenses, I Want to Tell You: My Response to Your Letters, Your Messages, Your Questions, allows for a productive critical study of everyday rhetoric and the commodity fetishism of celebrity. Released in late January 1995, during the first week of the prosecution�s opening statements in the criminal trial, I Want to Tell You was Simpson's first public comment following the nationally televised reading of his suicide note and his spectacular arrest on June 17, 1994. The intercalation of Simpson�s narrative utterance with 108 of the more than three hundred thousand letters he received from June to December 1994 as Los Angeles County Jail inmate 4013970 is a practical manifestation of the use value and exchange value of fame. The reciprocity of the epistolic, the phatic demands of address, the etiquette of fan mail and hate mail, the gift of the written text, vulnerable and resonant, reveal an adherence to the symbiotic dynamic of the celebrity-fan, writer-reader, dyadic relation and its currency. Plying his trade as idol of consumption, as spectacle, as genre, Simpson capitalised on the cultural condition of his name and his face as objects of desire. The racialised flesh of Simpson's African-American male body became a site and a sight for narrative and inscription within a pay-per-view marketplace of reification, prosopopoeia, gazeability and criminality.

<p>This thesis contributes to the knowledge of how computer-mediated communication and information sharing works in large groups and networks. In more detail, the research question put forward is: in large sharing networks, what concerns do end-users have regarding to whom to provide material? A theoretical framework of gift-giving was applied to identify, label and classify qualitative end-user concerns with provision. The data collection was performed through online ethnographical research methods in two large sharing networks, one music-oriented and one photo-oriented. The methods included forum message elicitation, online interviews, application use and observation. The result of the data collection was a total of 1360 relevant forum messages. A part from this there are also 27 informal interview logs, field notes and samples of user profiles and sharing policies. The qualitative analysis led up to a model of relationships based on the observation that many users experienced conflicts of interest between various groups of receivers and that these conflicts, or social dilemmas, evoked concerns regarding public and non-public provision of material. The groups of potential recipients were often at different relationship levels. The levels ranged from the individual (ego), to the small group of close peers (micro), to a larger network of acquaintances (meso) to the anonymous larger network (macro). It is argued that an important focal point for analysis of cooperation and conflict is situated in the relations between these levels. Deepened studies and analysis also revealed needs to address dynamic recipient groupings, the need to control the level of publicness of both digital material and its metadata (tags, contacts, comments and links to other networks) and that users often refrained from providing material unless they felt able to control its direction. A central conclusion is that public and non-public gifting need to co-emerge in large sharing networks and that non-public gifting might be an important factor for the support of continued provision of goods in sustainable networks and communities.</p>

Research on in vitro embryo production (IVP) in the equine is impeded by the limited availability of mature oocytes as the mare is mono ovulating and superovulation is still difficult (Dippert and Squires, 1994; Bezard et al., 1995; Alvarenga et al., 2001b). Despite recent improvement in IVM of equine oocytes, success rates of IVM in that species remain low in all culture media tested compared to other species (Goudet et al., 2000b). However, most studies have focused on the percentage of oocytes reaching the metaphase II stage (nuclear maturation) but few concentrated on the final oocyte competence as measured by its ability to develop into a blastocyst and further establish a pregnancy. Blastocyst production rate is influenced not only by culture environment but also by oocyte maturation conditions. Under in vitro culture conditions, oxidative modifications of cell components via increased ROS represent a major culture induced stress (Johnson and Nasr-Esfahani, 1994). Anti-oxidant systems can attenuate the deleterious effects of oxidative stress by scavenging ROS (Del Corso et al., 1994). Glutathione, a tripeptide thiol, is the major non-protein sulfydryl compound in mammalian cells that plays an important role in protecting the cell from oxidative damage (Meister and Tate, 1976; Meister and Anderson, 1983). It has been suggested that GSH content in oocytes may serve as a reservoir protecting the zygote and the early embryos from oxidative damage before genomic activation and de novo GSH synthesis occur (Furnus et al., 1998; de Matos and Furnus, 2000). The addition of GSH synthesis precursors, such as cysteamine, a thiol compound, to IVM media has been shown to improve IVP in various species (Takahashi et al., 1993; de Matos et al., 1995; Grupen et al., 1995; de Matos et al., 2002a; de Matos et al., 2002b; de Matos et al., 2003; Gasparrini et al., 2003; Oyamada and Fukui, 2004; Balasubramanian and Rho, 2007; Anand et al., 2008; Singhal et al., 2008; Zhou et al., 2008). Very little information on the use of thiol compounds in the equine is available. Conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) has not been successful in the mare, and a repeatable IVF technique has not yet been developed (Alm et al., 2001). To overcome the limitation of conventional IVF procedures, other methods to produce embryos from oocytes, either in vivo or in vitro, have been investigated. Among these, intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has permitted efficient equine in vitro blastocyst production (Galli et al., 2002; Lazzari et al., 2002; Choi et al., 2006a; Choi et al., 2006c). However, ICSI requires specific equipment and skills. Transfer of an immature oocyte into the preovulatory follicle of an inseminated recipient mare (Intra-Follicular Oocyte Transfer, IFOT) has produced embryos but the success rate was low (Hinrichs and Digiorgio, 1991). Similarly, oocyte transfer (OT) into the oviduct of an inseminated recipient mare was investigated (McKinnon et al., 1988; Carnevale, 1996; Hinrichs et al., 1997; Carnevale et al., 2001; Carnevale et al., 2003; Carnevale, 2004), and commercial programs using OT for mares with reproductive abnormalities are now available (Carnevale et al., 2001). Unfortunately, IFOT is poorly documented in the literature and reports of OT have been published by various laboratories and under various conditions, making comparisons between results and choosing among these as substitutive techniques to ICSI or embryo transfer difficult. The first aim of the present work was to investigate if there is an influence of supplementation with 100 µM of cysteamine on conventional IVF success rate. Cumulus oocytes complexes (COCs) retrieved by transvaginal ultrasound guided aspiration were matured in vitro with or without cysteamine supplementation and were then submitted to conventional IVF using either calcium ionophore or heparin as capacitation treatment for spermatozoa. A total of 131 oocytes were evaluated for evidence of sperm penetration. Both techniques (ionophore or heparin) yielded 6% of IVF and results were similar both for the cysteamine and the control group. This success rate of IVF is low compared to some published data (Palmer et al., 1991; Dell'Aquila et al., 1996; McPartlin et al., 2009) but similar to what others reported in the literature (Choi et al., 1994; Dell'Aquila et al., 1997a). Although, it seems likely that cysteamine did not significantly improve IVF rates under our conditions, our general success rates for IVF procedures may be too low for us to conclude definitely about the effect of cysteamine. As ICSI was not available to us, the second aim of this work was to determine what in vivo technique could best bypass the lack of an efficient conventional IVF procedure. We compared embryo production following transfer of in vivo recovered oocytes (1) into a recipients oviduct or (2) into her preovulatory follicle either immediately after ovum pick up or (3) after in vitro maturation. Recipients were inseminated with fresh semen of a stallion with a known normal fertility. Ten days after transfer, rates of embryos collected in excess to the number of ovulations were calculated and compared for each group. Embryo collection rates were 32.5% (13/40), 5.5% (3/55) and 12.8% (6/47) for OT, post-IVM and immediate IFOT respectively. OT significantly yielded more embryos than immediate and post-IVM IFOT did. These results show that, when ICSI is not an option, intra-oviductal oocyte transfer is to be preferred to IFOT, as an in vivo alternative, to bypass the inadequacy of conventional in vitro fertilization and to assess oocyte developmental competence. After it was established that in comparison to IFOT, OT is the most reliable in vivo alternative to in vitro fertilization where ICSI technology is not available, this technique was used to assess the effect of cysteamine supplementation on nuclear maturation and oocyte competence. The third aim of this work was to investigate the influence of supplementation with 100 µM of cysteamine on in vitro nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation by specific DNA staining and the ability of oocytes to undergo in vivo fertilization after OT. Oocytes were collected by transvaginal ultrasound guided aspiration and matured in vitro with (cysteamine group) or without (control group) cysteamine. The nuclear stage after DNA Hoechst staining and the embryo yield following OT were used as a criterion for assessing nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation, respectively. Overall maturation rate was 52%, which is rates reported in the literature ranging from 40 to 70% in the equine (Goudet et al., 1997a; Bogh et al., 2002; Hinrichs et al., 2005; Galli et al., 2007). Nuclear maturation was not statistically different (p>0.05) between oocytes cultured with or without cysteamine (55% and 47% respectively). From 57 oocytes transferred to the oviduct in each group, the number of embryos collected was 10 (17%) in the control group and 5 in the cysteamine group (9%). Those two percentages were not statistically different (p>0.05). Contrary to the data described in other domestic species, there was no effect of cysteamine on in vitro nuclear maturation, or in vivo embryonic development under our conditions. Under our conditions, the addition of 100 µM of cysteamine to a classic culture medium does not improve equine oocyte maturation or embryonic development after OT. The same dose failed to increase GSH content in the equine (Luciano et al., 2006). However, the effect of cysteamine supplementation is highly species and concentration dependant. The inadequacy of the chosen concentration may explain that equine embryo production has not been increased by the cysteamine under our conditions as opposed to what has been observed in many other species. Alternatively, we can hypothesize that some substances present in the IVM medium can interfere with GSH synthesis. This has been suggested for FSH and estradiol (Bing et al., 2001) and, although our maturation medium is not supplemented with gonadotropins or estradiol, factors contained in fetal calf serum or EGF might also have an effect on GSH synthesis. Considering its beneficial effects in many other species, supplementation with cysteamine to different IVM media should be further investigated in the equine. Ideally combining different concentrations and ICSI or OT in order to determine an optimal concentration and its effects on oocyte developmental competence.

Since 1992, the number of short-term mission (STM) travelers has exponentially increased for more than a decade. The purpose of STMs is to spread religious messages to local residents. In order to spread the word of God, STM travelers attempt to interact with local residents. They want to communicate with local residents in the host community and build a relationship with them. Therefore, for STM travelers their relationship with local residnets really matters. Many tourism scholars have argued that hosts-tourists interaction heavily influences both tourists and hosts. In spite of the increased popularity and the importance of host-tourist interaction in the context of STMs, STMs have received relatively little attention from the tourism research field. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to understand short-term mission travelers' interaction with local residents within four existing theories: the theory of leisure and tourist motivation, the theory of cultural hegemony, the gift-exchange theory, and the integrative theory of cross-cultural adaptation. To reach this research aim, this study used a qualitative research design rooted in the constructivist paradigm. A total of 43 STM travelers participated in the interview of this study. Considering the concept of the cultural distance between the participant's home culture and the host culture, American and Korean STM travelers who visited Cambodia or Thailand were recruited. Also, to understand the process of participant's relationship-building and cross-cultural adaptation, both pre- and post-interviews with 26 participants were conducted. The results showed that STM travelers sought personal and interpersonal rewards from the trip, which supports the theory of leisure motivation. Also, this type of travel had similarities with alternative, mass, and volunteer tourism in terms of tourist motivation. Regarding the theory of cultural hegemony, hegemonic power was exercised through STM travelers' work. STM travelers took advantage of an opportunity to provide what locals wanted as an opportunity to spread their religious message. Furthermore, identified conflicts between Christianity and the local culture support the existence of cultural hegemony. Concerning the relationship-building process of STM travelers, the results suggested that STM travelers built their relationship with local people and God by providing a gift to them and positively evaluating receivers' responses. In terms of the theory of cross-cultural adaptation, this study found support for this theory as successful intercultural adaptation led to a personal transformation in travelers. Finally, cultural distance was considered as a dimension of the intercultural adaptation theory. Regarding the perceived cultural distance, American mission travelers reported cultural distance with the host culture whereas Korean mission travelers expressed a cultural similarity to the host cultures rather than cultural difference.

The website, Plastic Jungle, is taking advantage of the rapidly growing gift card phenomena by creating a secondary market that enables consumers to buy, sell, and exchange gift cards online at a discount. This paper examines the relationship between this secondary gift card market and the corporate bankruptcy risk of companies with gift cards listed on the market. When a company issues a gift card, the card is unsecured debt and the cardholder becomes an unsecured creditor to the company. This paper investigates whether the cardholder acts similarly to other unsecured creditors or as someone who is merely holding another form of cash. As was expected, this paper finds evidence indicating the spot price on the gift card is correlated to some forms of bankruptcy risk. Specifically, the gift cardholders act like unsecured creditors in terms of excess stock returns, CDS price, and the idiosyncratic risk of companies.