At present, the most accurate approach to predicting protein structure, comparative modelling, builds a model of a target sequence using known protein structures as templates. Comparative modelling becomes markedly less accurate in the ‘twilight zone’, where the target protein shares little sequence identity with all known templates. There are two main causes of this inaccuracy: first, it becomes difficult to identify good structural templates; second, it becomes difficult to determine which amino acids in the template are structurally equivalent to those in the target. These are problems of fold recognition and target-template alignment respectively. In this thesis, new approaches are developed to address both these problems. The alignment problem is investigated in the special case of membrane proteins. These are key modelling targets as they resist structure determination and are pharmaceutically important. The approach taken here is to use ‘environment specific substitution tables’ (ESSTs)– that is, to alter the alignment scoring system for each local environment of the template structure. We show how ESSTs can be made for membrane proteins, tested for robustness of construction, and used to infer the most important evolutionary pressures acting on protein structure. The incorporation of ESSTs into a multiple sequence alignment method leads to more accurate alignments of membrane proteins, and so to more accurate models. Recently, algorithms have been developed that predict contacts in protein structures from a multiple sequence alignment of homologous sequences. We explore the potential of these predictions for fold recognition by developing an algorithm that makes no use of amino acid identity, and so should be agnostic to the existence of a ‘twilight zone’. We show that whilst this is not the case, our method is complementary to state-of-the-art approaches.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T11:07:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DAURA MARIA GUIMARAES AGUIAR.pdf: 1153241 bytes, checksum: d9ba967a6b63ae403a7d9451aa7aba89 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-03 / This paper conducts a study of the work Cicatrizes do Risco ou Crepúsculo das Luzes, by Cida Rodrigues , published in 2001, dealing with themes that relate to the fragmentation of human being in time and space, his reminiscences of childhood and distressing obsession with writing. The act of writing is a kind of exorcism of what will be inside this moment that speaks for itself, through the first person of the verb and, sometimes, is shown by an omniscient narrator, capable of stripping the most covert thoughts of this character not shown in full and not allowed to touch. Other times, shown by the lyrical voice of the fragments that make up the "Moments " (chapters) that make up the work, the corpus of this work. This dissertation also is an attempt to reveal the estrangement caused at the outset, the "Moments" that open each part of the work under study, as well as a typical writing postmodernity, marked by the mixture of literary genres moving freely between prose and poetry, and these are presented in many different ways, making the result of the trial set of literary writing. / O presente trabalho realiza um estudo da obra Cicatrizes do Risco ou Crepúsculo das Luzes, de Cida Rodrigues, publicada em 2001, tratando de temas que se relacionam à fragmentação do ser no tempo e no espaço, suas reminiscências da infância e a angustiante obsessão pela escrita. O ato de escrever representa uma espécie de exorcismo do que vai por dentro deste ser que ora fala por si mesma, através da primeira pessoa do verbo e, ora, é mostrada por um narrador onisciente, capaz de desnudar os mais encobertos pensamentos desta personagem que não se mostra por inteiro e não se deixa tocar. Outras vezes, revela-se pela voz do eu lírico nos fragmentos que compõem os Instantes (capítulos) que constituem a obra, corpus deste trabalho. Esta dissertação é, ainda, uma tentativa de revelar o estranhamento provocado, logo de início, pelos Instantes que abrem cada parte da obra em estudo, bem como por uma escrita típica da pós-modernidade, marcada pela mistura de gêneros literários transitando livremente entre a prosa e a poesia, sendo que estas se apresentam das mais variadas formas, fazendo configurar o resultado da experimentação da escrita literária.

The starting point of this thesis is the assertion that the interaction between individuals and public authorities sometimes produces claims which cannot easily be categorized as public or private law claims – “claims in the twilight zone”. The aims of the thesis are to examine to what extent such claims can be determined by a court of law and to establish to which kind of court such a claim is properly to be submitted. Moreover, assuming that there is a division of competence between the general courts and the administrative courts that purport to “cut through” claims in the twilight zone, the thesis examines three specific interests: 1) the interest of effective adjudication of claims in the twilight zone; 2) the interest of upholding the division of competence between the general courts and the administrative courts; and 3) the interest of avoiding parallel decisions on the same subject matter.      There is much to support the conclusion that claims in the twilight zone have hitherto, with a couple of important exceptions, been adjudicated in the general courts. However, certain ambiguities relating to the proper role of the administrative courts make it uncertain whether this can still be said to be the case. It may perhaps be that the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court have divergent conceptions of the meaning and effect of a decision made by an administrative court. The present uncertainty makes it difficult to establish to which kind of court a claim in the twilight zone is properly to be submitted, and there is a certain risk that such a claim will not be possible to pursue through a judicial process at all. There is also a certain risk that new boundary lines between public law and private law will be created as a result of procedural ambiguities and not as a result of clear standpoints in matters of substantial law. It is suggested that the situation should be remedied by clarifying the proper role of the administrative courts – or by an amalgamation of the general courts and the administrative courts to one single court system.

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This study examines the progress of young adult (YA) literature in the twenty-first century, as influenced by Web 2.0 social networking technology and sliding structural temporalities of age and maturity in these digital times. The context is Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight saga, a pioneering example of an author purposefully engaging with online social networking communities and there encouraging derivative creativity, including Twilight fan fiction. This successful integration of YA literature with Web 2.0 is considered by first appraising tensions between traditional theoretical notions of the genre (and its readers) and contemporary manifestations of the same. Second is an investigation of the genre’s evolving readership and textual practices using the Twilight series, focusing on literary activities of Digital Natives (young adults) in online social arenas. A concentration on the integration of national identity into Canadian Twilight fan fiction examines such evolving practices in reference to an American product (a threat of Americanization) being re-coded in a Canadian reader’s personal, public and online spaces.

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Die ‚’Twilight’‘-Saga der Autorin Stephenie Meyer, welche die Geschichte von dem Vampir Edward und seiner menschlichen Geliebten erzählt, hat eine neue Phase des Vampir-Genres eingeläutet. Fernab von gesellschaftlich verankerten Mythen um die geheimnisvollen und gefährlichen Blutsauger, kreiert die Autorin ein neues Vampirbild. Das einst rücksichtslose, egoistische Monstrum ist gezähmt und tritt in Form eines aufopferungsvollen Liebhabers in Erscheinung. Für die Zielgruppe, weibliche Teenager und junge Erwachsene, ist Edward, der Prototyp des neuen Vampirs, schnell zum Idol avanciert. Rund um die ‚’Twilight’‘-Saga hat sich somit eine riesige, internationale Fangemeinschaft gebildet, die vorwiegend über das Internet den Vampirismus-Diskurs zum populärkulturellen Gegenstand werden ließ. Die neue Vampir-Begeisterung stellt jedoch nur den vorläufigen Höhepunkt einer langen Genre-Geschichte dar. Bereits seit der Entstehung des Vampir-Glaubens übt der Mythos vom blutsaugenden Wesen eine enorme Faszination auf die Menschen aus. Grund dafür ist seine Anlehnung an menschliche, meist tabuisierte Bedürfnisse und Wünsche, die mit Hilfe der Vampir-Metapher zum Ausdruck gebracht werden können. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit soll es sein, die Entwicklung des Vampir-Genres und seine Funktionen im Rahmen gesellschaftlicher Kontexte nachzuzeichnen. Zu diesem Zweck erfolgt zunächst ein kurzer Überblick über die Entstehung des Vampir-Mythos und eine Charakterisierung des ‚klassischen‘ Vampirs, wie er im Volksglauben verankert ist. Im Anschluss soll das Vampir-Genre als multidimensionales und historisch variables Genre analysiert werden. Der Schwerpunkt der Betrachtung liegt hierbei auf dem Vampirfilm, welcher sich im Laufe seiner Entwicklung vom Sub-Genre des Horrorfilms zum zielgruppenspezifischen Unterhaltungsmittel ausdifferenziert hat. Abschließend erfolgt eine Skizzierung der aktuellen Vampir-Begeisterung, welche durch die Verfilmung der ’Twilight’-Romane von Stephenie Meyer ausgelöst wurde.:1 Einleitung...1 2 Vampir-Mythos…2 2.1 Der abendländische Vampir...2 2.2 Herkunft und Entwicklung des Vampir-Begriffs...3 2.3 Der Vampir im Menschen…3 3 Das Vampir-Genre…4 3.1 Einflüsse…4 3.1.1 Fantasy…5 3.1.2 Horror…8 3.1.3 Mystery…11 3.2 Charakterisierung…14 3.3 Der Vampirfilm…15 3.3.1 Versuch einer formalen Einordnung…15 3.3.2 Funktionen…17 3.3.2.1 Der Vampirfilm als Spiegel der Gesellschaft…18 3.3.2.2 Die Vampir-Metapher und Sexualität…19 3.3.3 Zielgruppe…20 4 Der gesellschaftsfähige Vampir als popkulturelles Phänomen...21 4.1 Die ‚Twilight‘-Saga: Ursprung eines Vampir-Hypes…21 4.2 Das neue Vampirbild…21 4.3 Der Fan als ‚Opfer‘…23 4.4 Vampirismus und Populärkultur…24 5 Fazit und Ausblick...26 6 Literaturverzeichnis…27 7 Eidesstattliche Erklärung...30

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This thesis argues that Edith Wharton’s assessment of American ways and their meaning in her post-war fiction has been widely misread. Its title derives from French Ways and Their Meaning (1919), which she wrote to educate her countrymen about French culture and society. Making sense of America was as great a challenge to Wharton. Much of her later fiction was for a long time dismissed by critics on the grounds that she had failed to ‘make sense’ of America. Wharton was troubled by American materialism and optimism, yet she believed in a culturally significant future for her nation. She advocated – and wrote – an American fiction that looked critically at society and acknowledged the nation’s ties to Europe. Sometimes her assessment of American ways is reductive, and presented in a tone that her critics, then and since, found off- putting and snobbish. But her skepticism about American modernity was penetrating and prophetic, and has not been given its due. In criticism over the last two decades, a case for the place of Wharton’s post-war fiction in canons of feminism and modernism has been persuasively made. The thesis responds to these positions, but makes its own argument that the post-war writing reflects broader shift in American identity and ideology. The thesis is broadly historicist in its strategy, opening with a discussionofthereputationofthesetextsandthatoftheauthormoregenerally. Afterthat entry-point, it is organized thematically, with four chapters covering topics that are seen as key components of American ideology in Wharton’s post-war writing. These include modernity, gender equality, the American Dream of social mobility, and American exceptionalism. The thesis concludes with an assessment of Wharton’s prognostications in the context of twenty-first century America.