Madness has long been a popular theme for literature, featuring as a trope of horror, mystery, tragedy and comedy genres in varying degrees of amplitude. The topic has provided a significant access point for analysing historical, socio-political and cultural issues as it addresses controversial themes of alienation and criminality as well as philosophical theories of perception and consciousness. As a result, studies on the representation of madness in literature have been dominated by historical approaches that focus directly on social, political, philosophical and psychoanalytical interpretive models. Comparatively little has been done to analyse madness in literature from a narratological perspective. It is for this reason that I will conduct a narratological study on the impact of madness on narrative and fictional world structures. I am specifically interested in the way in which madness can be embedded across multiple levels of the narrative and the effect that this has on readers’ imaginative and interpretive processes. Close readings of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996) Bret Easton-Ellis’ American Psycho (1991) and John Banville’s The Book of Evidence (1989) will uncover some of the techniques that are used to embed madness into the textual and imaginative structures of a narrative, and will demonstrate how this works to deceive and challenge the reader. I will demonstrate the need for an expansion of terms within the narratological model that can cope specifically with the theme of madness.

O presente trabalho procura demonstrar a evolução do conceito jurídico de cidadania, buscando compreender qual conceito melhor reflete o panorama democrático do século XXI. A democracia atual implica o envolvimento de múltiplos personagens, caminhando para a ampliação das formas de participação e do espaço de compartilhamento do poder entre a população e seus representantes. O conceito jurídico tradicional de cidadania se diferencia do conceito adotado pelas demais áreas do conhecimento, pois a limita aos direitos políticos ativos e passivos. Essa concepção clássica parece não corresponder ao atual estágio democrático, em que os governos passam a sofrer maior influência externa e interna, além da crescente possibilidade de participação dos personagens estranhos. É inegável o desconforto em conferir aos não detentores dos direitos políticos a condição de não-cidadãos, mesmo se esse conceito for considerado estritamente técnico. As ciências não-jurídicas desenvolveram o conceito de cidadania a partir do período pós-guerra, especialmente com a concepção de direito a ter direitos, introduzida por Hannah Arendt, a partir da qual os direitos políticos já não se resumem mais ao direito de votar e de ser votado. A possibilidade de participação e de compartilhamento do poder demonstra ser a cidadania um elemento democrático de significado muito mais amplo, cujo conceito deve ser construído não apenas à luz do direito positivo vigente, mas também considerando a necessária afirmação dos Direitos Humanos. Assim, pode-se dizer que o conceito jurídico de cidadania que fundamenta o Estado Democrático de Direito da República Federativa do Brasil deve ser entendido como o \"princípio da máxima inclusão possível\" dos indivíduos nas esferas política, econômica, cultural e social. / This present work aims at showing the evolution of the citizenship legal concept, seeking to comprehend which concept better reflects the democratic panorama of the 21st Century. Current democracy implicates the involvement of multiple characters walking towards the enhancement of participation forms and power sharing space between population and its representative. The traditional legal concept of citizenship differentiates from the concept adopted by other knowledge areas because it limits active and passive electoral rights. This classic conception seems not to relate to the current democracy stage, in which governments suffer greater external and internal influences, other than the possibility of foreign characters participation. It is undeniable how uneasy it is to grant non-citizen status to those not holding electoral rights, even if this concept is considered strictly technical. Non-legal sciences have developed the concept of citizenship from the post-war period, particularly with the conception of right to have rights introduced by Hannah Arendt, from which political rights are no longer narrowed to the right to vote and to be voted. The possibility of participation and sharing power evidences that citizenship is a democratic element with a much broader meaning, which concept must be built not only at the light of the positive right in force but also considering the required affirmation of Human Rights. Therefore, one can say that the legal concept of citizenship providing grounds to the Democratic State based on the rule of Law of the Federative Republic of Brazil must be understood as principle of maximum possible inclusion of individuals in the political, economical, cultural and social branches.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:26:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luisa Magoulas de Castro Duarte.pdf: 13581082 bytes, checksum: f2113f824b422c785bfcad07411f746d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-19 / The target of this dissertation is to gather a portion of visual arts production of the years 2000 and think it under the light of contemporary temporality, marked by the eclipse of utopias. After that, the work tries to emphasize its relations with the notions of the present, micro-politics and possibility, in contraposition to a modernity marked by the notions of future, impossible and macro. Analyzing the body of questions, the intention is to think how art reacts to a contemporary world situation, making us look at this same world in a different manner / O objetivo da dissertação é analisar uma parcela da produção em artes visuais dos anos 2000 e pensá-la à luz da temporalidade contemporânea, marcada pelo eclipse das utopias. A partir disso, buscou-se ressaltar as suas relações com as noções de presente, micro-política e possível, em contraposição a uma modernidade marcada pelas noções de futuro, utopia, impossível e macro. Ao analisar este corpo de questões se pretendeu pensar como a arte reage a uma situação de mundo contemporânea, nos fazendo olhar este mesmo mundo de maneira diferente

Recently maternal intake of multivitamins has been associated with a reduced risk of orofacial clefts (OFC)in human epidemiologic studies. In the Philippines, vitamin B-6 deficiency was found to be associated with increased risk of OFCs. The birth prevalence of OFCs in the Philippines is among the highest known, but Filipino emigrants in the United States have lower rates, indicating that environmental factors may play an important role in causing OFCs in the Philippines. The prevalence and possible causes of vitamin B-6 deficiency were investigated through dietary and biochemical assessments in case-control study in Negros Occidental, Philippines. Mothers with OFC offspring (cases) were ascertained during a 2-week OFC surgical mission of Operation Smile in 1997, and mothers without OFC offspring (controls) were recruited at randomly selected neighborhood health centers. Sixty-three percent case-mothers and 41 percent control-mothers were vitamin B-6-deficient. Dietary vitamin B-6 intake was low in both cases and controls but lower in cases. Case-mothers consumed 9.4 percent fewer calories than the control-mothers. Rice was the major contribution of total energy, carbohydrate, and protein for both cases and controls. Both cases and controls consumed fruits, seafood, dairy, fats, and oils with similar frequency, but cases consumed grains and grain products, vegetables, meats, beans and bean products, and roots less frequently. The vitamin B-6 activity coefficient, an indicator of vitamin B-6 deficiency, was correlated positively with plasma homocystine and negatively with plasma and red cell folate in cases only. No significant correlations were found between vitamin B-6 status and maternal age, smoking, or drinking, in either cases or controls. Vitamin B-6 deficiency appears to be an important yet complex problem in Negros Occidental because it is widespread and strongly associated with the risk of OFC birth defects. This condition may be a consequence of 1) high polished rice consumption, 2) low vitamin B-6 intake from other food sources, 3) presence of glycosylated vitamin B-6 in plant foods, 4) high vitamin C-induced vitamin B-6 hydroxylation, or 5) a potential zinc deficiency.

Vanadium compounds have been reported to cause numerous toxicological effects including NAD(P)H oxidation and lipid peroxidation. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the active form of vanadium in causing these effects, and to determine any possible free radical involvement in these processes. Vanadium-stimulated oxidation of NADH was studied spectrophotometrically and by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. In 25 mM sodium phosphate buffer at pH 7. 4, vanadyl , (V(IV)), is slightly more effective in stimulating NADH oxidation than was vanadate (V(V)). Addition of a superoxide generating system, xanthine/xanthine oxidase, results in a marked increase in NADH oxidation by vanadyl, and to a lesser extent, by vanadate. In contrast, addition of hydrogen peroxide did not change the NADH oxidation by vanadate, but greatly enhanced NADH oxidation by vanadyl. Use of the spin trap DMPO in reaction mixtures containing vanadyl and hydrogen peroxide or a superoxide generating system resulted in the detection by ESR of hydroxyl radical. Hydroxyl radical was also detected in the system containing vanadate plus superoxide. It was found that superoxide is capable of reducing vanadate to vanadyl, and that vanadyl is capable of reaction with hydrogen peroxide in a Fenton-like mechanism to produce hydroxyl radical. Hydroxyl radical is suggested to be the active species involved in NADH oxidation. Other reductants, such as thiols, are also capable of supporting vanadate-stimulated NADH oxidation . The above results indicat that ability of vanadium to act in a Fenton-like mechanism is an important process in the vanadium-stimulated oxidation of NADH. Vanadyl was found to be the active form of vanadium involved in initiating and stimulating lipid peroxidation in purified and partially purified fatty acid micelle preparations. Hydroxyl radicals were shown to be involved in initiating diene conjugation when vanadyl and hydrogen peroxide were added together in the reaction mixture. Furthermore, hydroxyl radicals were shown to be generated in the vanadyl-catalyzed decomposition of fatty acid lipoperoxides. The results of this study indicat that the ability of vanadium compounds to oxidize NADH and to stimulate lipid peroxidation are related by the common mechanism of hydroxyl radical production from the reaction of vanadyl with hydrogen peroxide.

Chromosome evaluations were made on leukocyte blood samples from 169 phenotypically normal nulliparous Holstein heifers. These were from three different reproduction groups collected in sets of threes from 10 different herds in the western United States. Group 1, the control group, consisted of heifers diagnosed pregnant after one or two breedings; Group 2 consisted of heifers diagnosed pregnant after three or four breedings; and Group 3 consisted of heifers diagnosed open after four or more breedings. Metaphase chromosome spreads used in these analyses were obtained through 72-hour leukocyte cultures from heparinized whole blood. Processed cells were dropped onto a slide, air-dried, and stained with Giemsa. Chromosomes were then counted and X chromosomes were identified. A total of 1, 597 cells was evaluated, with 1,439 cells having counts of 60 chromosomes each. Thirty cells had less than 58 chromosomes, 31 cells had 58 chromosomes, 75 cells had 59 chromosomes, 14 cells had 61 chromosomes, and 8 cells had more than 61 chromosomes (9 .98% were different than 60). All counts of other than 60 chromosomes were isolated cases and were not identified as abnormalities. Only two cells from two separate heifers contained what may have been sex chromosome abnormalities. No persistent chromosomal defects were observed among the 169 heifers.

<p>Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka om möjliga själv är relaterade till personlighet och känsla av sammanhang samt huruvida kön och ålder påverkar dessa relationer. Studien genomfördes på kadetter genom en enkätundersökning. Enkäten bestod av bakgrunds frågor, yrkesrelaterade möjliga själv (The Possible Selves Statements Test), personlighet (The Five Factor Personality Inventory) och känsla av sammanhang (KASAM). Resultatet visar att kluster (K-means) av personlighetsprofiler inte skiljer sig signifikant åt vad gäller möjliga själv, däremot uppvisades skillnader mellan personlighetsprofilerna vad gäller känslor och förväntningar kring möjliga själv. Liknande resultat erhölls avseende relationen mellan KASAM och möjliga själv. Kön och ålder påverkar inte dessa relationer.</p> / <p>The aim of this thesis is to study if possible self is related to personality and sense of coherence, and if gender and age has any influence on those relationships. A questionnaire was distributed to cadets. It contained background, work related possible selves (The Possible Selves Statements Test), personality (The Five Factor Personality Inventory) and sense of coherence (KASAM). The results showed that different clusters (K-means) of personality profiles do not differ significantly in possible selves. Differences were found between the personality profiles considering feelings and expectations around possible selves. Similar results were found considering the relationship between sense of coherence and possible selves. Gender and age didn’t influence those relationships.</p>

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka om möjliga själv är relaterade till personlighet och känsla av sammanhang samt huruvida kön och ålder påverkar dessa relationer. Studien genomfördes på kadetter genom en enkätundersökning. Enkäten bestod av bakgrunds frågor, yrkesrelaterade möjliga själv (The Possible Selves Statements Test), personlighet (The Five Factor Personality Inventory) och känsla av sammanhang (KASAM). Resultatet visar att kluster (K-means) av personlighetsprofiler inte skiljer sig signifikant åt vad gäller möjliga själv, däremot uppvisades skillnader mellan personlighetsprofilerna vad gäller känslor och förväntningar kring möjliga själv. Liknande resultat erhölls avseende relationen mellan KASAM och möjliga själv. Kön och ålder påverkar inte dessa relationer. / The aim of this thesis is to study if possible self is related to personality and sense of coherence, and if gender and age has any influence on those relationships. A questionnaire was distributed to cadets. It contained background, work related possible selves (The Possible Selves Statements Test), personality (The Five Factor Personality Inventory) and sense of coherence (KASAM). The results showed that different clusters (K-means) of personality profiles do not differ significantly in possible selves. Differences were found between the personality profiles considering feelings and expectations around possible selves. Similar results were found considering the relationship between sense of coherence and possible selves. Gender and age didn’t influence those relationships.

Today’s computing vision makes users to access services, applications via lightweight portable devices instead of powerful personal computers (PC). Since today’s applications and services need strong computing power and data storage, raising question will be “Who will provide these 2 attributes if users do not?” Cloud computing trend moves computing power and data storage from users’ side to application infrastructure side. The services that traditionally stored in users’ own computers will move into cloud computing platform and delivered by the Internet to its users. This new platform comes with its own benefits and design characteristics. Since all information data will move into another platform than individual computers, information visualization will be an opportunity field to analyze and maintain the cloud system structure as well as delivering abstract data into meaningful way to end users.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In order to analyze the People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the author will take advantage of the constructivist approach and from that view the author will give the three specific issue areas to look at the People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the nuclear weapon program, the possible reunification of two Koreas, the changed leadership in North Korea, respectively. Through these three specific issue areas, we can go tohave a general understanding about what is the People’s Republic of China’s governments’foreign policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  The conclusion will be made on the basis of the three specific events and through that we can realize and conclude the standpoints of the People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.