Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2018-04-16T19:39:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 WÉDINA SABINO RODRIGUES COELHO.pdf: 758051 bytes, checksum: f7ebd2ae357ea98dec403b1b3e437f19 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-16T19:39:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 WÉDINA SABINO RODRIGUES COELHO.pdf: 758051 bytes, checksum: f7ebd2ae357ea98dec403b1b3e437f19 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-02 / The object of this study is the literary work Manual da paixão solitária (2008), of Moacyr Scliar. The initial assumption is that the constitution of this narrative is one of the creative procedures that undertake inventive marks of transgressive transcreation, creating the tensile framework. Emphasis is placed on what Haroldo de Campos calls transcription under the justification that it is a narrative that forms a bridge that establishes a link between biblical and literary history, having in its language transgressions that are inserted in the discourse, in which the characters participate in suggestive passion for the solitary world to which they are submitted. In this way, we want to verify how the levirate fictionalization occurs by placing the narrator voices in motion; how the network of relations between the characters flows within the scope of the power of language in which micro-powers oscillate in the complex mesh of signification; and how one develops the idea that the author adopted a translatory act to transform the original biblical text into a polysemic history incorporating signs with an aesthetic message. It is concluded that the work opens up the exploration of discursive marks through which transcritical procedures maintains links with the source text. / O objeto deste estudo é a obra literária Manual da paixão solitária (2008), de Moacyr Scliar. O pressuposto inicial é o de que a constituição dessa narrativa é um dos procedimentos criativos que empreendem marcas inventivas da transcriação transgressora, criando a armação tensiva. Deposita-se ênfase sobre o que Haroldo de Campos denomina por transcriação, sob a justificativa de que se trata de uma narrativa que forma uma ponte que estabelece elo entre a história bíblica e a literária, tendo em sua linguagem transgressões que se inserem no discurso, em que os personagens participam de sugestiva paixão pelo solitário mundo a que são submetidos. Assim procedendo, quer-se verificar como se dá a ficcionalização do levirato ao se colocarem as vozes narradoras em movimento; como flui a rede de relações entre os personagens no âmbito do poder da linguagem em que oscilam micropoderes na complexa malha de significação; e como se desenvolve a ideia de que o autor adotou um ato tradutório para transformar o texto original, bíblico, em história polissêmica, incorporando-lhe signos dotados de mensagem estética. Conclui-se que a obra abre leque à exploração mais aprofundada das marcas discursivas por meio das quais os procedimentos transcriativos mantém elo com o texto fonte.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:54:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silvia Maria Carbone.pdf: 9290034 bytes, checksum: 1d06740e586db906924ebaeba33e0ed3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-04 / Conversations with René Girard proposes understanding of the work of Girard in all its complexity. The thesis focuses on analyzing the theory of mimetic desire, the relationship between violence and the sacred, and the need for a scapegoat. Three interwoven, united themes surround all the work of Girard, explained for the first time in the Violence and the Sacred essay considered as one of the pillars of Girardian thought. According to Girard, violence intrinsic to humanity, is the desire to control the violence that establishes the passage of the state of nature to the state of culture. The channeling of violence is vital to the existence of societies - archaic and modern. Girard shows us that the way to control violence is possible only by the institution of the sacred, that is through the atoning sacrifice of the victim. For the author, the desire is always mimetic desire : what is desired by the other subject, which raises the rivalry and consequently the violence that needs to be contained / Conversações com René Girard propõe o entendimento da obra de Girard em toda sua complexidade. A tese concentra a análise sobre a teoria do desejo mimético, a relação da violência com o sagrado e a necessidade do bode expiatório. Três temas entrelaçados, uníssonos que circundam toda a obra de Girard, explicitados pela primeira vez em A violência e o Sagrado, ensaio considerado como um dos pilares do pensamento girardiano. Para Girard, a violência é intrínseca à humanidade, é o controle do desejo de violência que estabelece a passagem do estado de natureza para o estado de cultura. A canalização da violência é vital para a existência das sociedades arcaicas e modernas. Girard nos mostra que a forma de controle da violência só é possível pela instituição do sagrado, que o faz por meio dos sacrifícios da vítima expiatória. Para o autor, o desejo é sempre mimético, desejamos aquilo que é desejado por outro sujeito, o que suscita a rivalidade e, consequentemente, a violência que precisa ser contida

Peptidomimetics are synthetic oligomers that resemble the activities of peptides. Their advantages over peptides include high stability towards proteolysis and enormous chemical diversity. Over the past two decades, there have been extensive efforts to develop peptide mimics, such as beta-peptides, peptoids, D-peptides, etc. The research on peptidomimetics have led to many important applications in both medicinal and material science. In order to explore new functions, the discovery of peptidomimetics with novel frameworks is essential. We reported the synthesis and evaluation of a new class of peptidomimetics, termed as gamma-AApeptides. Previous studies of gamma-AApeptides have revealed that gamma-AApeptides are highly resistant to proteolysis, and are highly amendable to chemical diversification. However, new biological activities and folding properties of gamma-AApeptides still need to be explored. In order to expand the potential of gamma-AApeptides in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, I have been focusing on the development of new methods to synthesize linear and cyclic gamma-AApeptides, development of one-bead-one-compound (OBOC) gamma-AApeptide libraries for the discovery of inhibitors against beta-amyloid aggregation, exploring new helical foldamers for the rational design of protein-protein interaction (PPI) inhibitors, and studying cyclic gamma-AApeptides for antimicrobial development.

<p>In May 2000 share repurchases were legalized in Sweden, with the purpose to provide companies with an efficient and flexible way to distribute capital. To buy back shares gives companies several benefits which are discussed in our study. The lack of academic research about this topic for Swedish companies gave us an incentive to provide knowledge specifically for this market. When companies announce a share repurchase program they are subject to uncertainty about the society’s reaction and economic consequences. Individuals within a well established organizational field deal rationally with uncertainty by adjusting to their institutional environment. The institutional environment can be defined as an abstract structure of regulations and behavioral norms that guide human’s decisions. This often leads to homogeneity in companies’ culture, structure and output. We ask the question if companies are realizing repurchase programs in a similar way over time, and if share repurchases have been developed as a more common used financial instrument since 2000. Our second question is if companies that decide to buy back shares pursue this under similar economic conditions as a result from becoming homogeneous.</p><p>The purpose of this study is to describe how institutional pressures in form of coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphism have affected companies’ decision to repurchase shares. We want to explain if there is an upward going trend of share repurchases, a standardized way to repurchase over time and if this decision can be determined by similarities in certain financial indicators of a company’s economic situation. To answer our purpose we used a quantitative research strategy with a deductive approach. The collected data was analyzed in a logistic regression analysis and by interpretations of descriptive statistics. We decided to examine for mimetic isomorphism public companies listed within the industrial sector on Stockholm Stock Exchange from the years 2000-2006. For the test of coercive and normative isomorphism with a logistic regression analysis we had to limit ourselves to investigate the years 2001-2003.</p><p>In reality the three institutional pressures are working simultaneously and should together lead to a common perception about share repurchases among companies. For our testing we separated institutional isomorphism based on our theoretical preconceptions. This allowed us to analyze each individual institutional pressure and how they interact together. We defined mimetic isomorphism as companies adjusting their repurchase behavior to other companies within the industrial sector. Our result has not shown any indications of such a behavior concerning time, amount or frequency of the buybacks. Testing if certain financial indicators such as excess cash, liquidity, solvency, dividends, volatile operative income, prior year return, growth opportunities, companies’ size, ownership concentration, institutional and individual shareholders could explain stock repurchase activity gave us the possibility to evaluate coercive and normative isomorphism. But the question how institutional isomorphism affects companies’ repurchase decisions still remains unanswered. We have not found any certain financial indicator which motivates companies’ decision to buy back their own shares. The decision might therefore be carried out under very different economic conditions and with different objectives. In the industrial sector and generally in the whole Swedish market only a relatively low proportion of companies buy back shares. The stated findings for the Swedish market imply a need for further investigations over a longer time horizon and for a larger population. Further investigations in this topic which has the potential to provide recent insight into the stock repurchase decision for Swedish companies would enhance and verify our statements.</p>

Pannexins are vertebrate proteins with limited sequence homology to the invertebrate gap junction proteins, the innexins. However, in contrast to innexins and the vertebrate connexins, pannexins do not form gap junction channels. Instead they appear to solely function as unpaired membrane channels allowing the flux of molecules, including ATP, across the plasma membrane. We provided additional evidence for their ATP release function by demonstrating that the connexin mimetic peptides, which were thought to inhibit ATP release through connexin channels, do not inhibit their host connexin channels but instead inhibit pannexin1 channels by a mechanism of steric block. Therefore, the inhibitory effects of mimetic peptides on ATP release may represent supporting evidence for a role of pannexin1 in ATP release. We also analyzed the pore structure of pannexin1 channels with the Substituted Cysteine Accessibility Method. The thiol reagents MBB and MTSET reacted with several positions in the external portion of the first transmembrane segment and the first extracellular loop. In addition, MTSET reactivity was found in the internal portion of TM3. These data suggest that portions of TM1, E1 and TM3 line the pore of pannexin1 channels. Thus, the pore structure of pannexin1 is similar to that of connexin channels.

The complexity of multi cellular organisms demands systems that facilitate communicationbetween cells. The neurons in our brains for instance are specialized in this cell-cellcommunication. The flow of ions, through their different ion channels, across the membrane, isresponsible for almost all of the communication between neurons in the brain by changing theneurons membrane potentials. Voltage-gated ion channels open when a certain thresholdpotential is reached. This change in membrane potential is detected by voltage-sensors in the ionchannels. In this licentiate thesis the Homo sapiens voltage- and calcium-gated BK potassiumchannel (HsapBK) has been studied. The NMR solution structure of the voltage-sensor ofHsapBK was solved to shed light upon the voltage-gating in these channels. Structures of othervoltage-gated potassium channels (Kv) have been determined by other groups, enablingcomparison among different types of Kv channels. Interestingly, the peptide-lipid interactions ofthe voltage-sensor in HsapBK are crucial for its mechanism of action.Uni cellular organisms need to sense their environment too, to be able to move towardsmore favorable areas and from less favorable ones, and to adapt their gene profiles to currentcircumstances. This is accomplished by the two-component system, comprising a sensor proteinand a response regulator. The sensor protein transfers signals across the membrane to thecytoplasm. Many sensor proteins contain a HAMP domain close to the membrane that isinvolved in transmitting the signal. The mechanism of this transfer is not yet revealed. Ourstudies show that HAMP domains can be divided into two groups based on the membraneinteraction of their AS1 segments. Further, these two groups are suggested to work by differentmechanisms; one membrane-dependent and one membrane-independent mechanism.Both the voltage-gating mechanism and the signal transduction carried out by HAMPdomains in the membrane-dependent group, demand peptide-lipid interactions that can be readilymodulated. This modulation enables movement of peptides within membranes or within thelipid-water interface. These conditions make these peptides especially suitable for NMR studies.

In May 2000 share repurchases were legalized in Sweden, with the purpose to provide companies with an efficient and flexible way to distribute capital. To buy back shares gives companies several benefits which are discussed in our study. The lack of academic research about this topic for Swedish companies gave us an incentive to provide knowledge specifically for this market. When companies announce a share repurchase program they are subject to uncertainty about the society’s reaction and economic consequences. Individuals within a well established organizational field deal rationally with uncertainty by adjusting to their institutional environment. The institutional environment can be defined as an abstract structure of regulations and behavioral norms that guide human’s decisions. This often leads to homogeneity in companies’ culture, structure and output. We ask the question if companies are realizing repurchase programs in a similar way over time, and if share repurchases have been developed as a more common used financial instrument since 2000. Our second question is if companies that decide to buy back shares pursue this under similar economic conditions as a result from becoming homogeneous. The purpose of this study is to describe how institutional pressures in form of coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphism have affected companies’ decision to repurchase shares. We want to explain if there is an upward going trend of share repurchases, a standardized way to repurchase over time and if this decision can be determined by similarities in certain financial indicators of a company’s economic situation. To answer our purpose we used a quantitative research strategy with a deductive approach. The collected data was analyzed in a logistic regression analysis and by interpretations of descriptive statistics. We decided to examine for mimetic isomorphism public companies listed within the industrial sector on Stockholm Stock Exchange from the years 2000-2006. For the test of coercive and normative isomorphism with a logistic regression analysis we had to limit ourselves to investigate the years 2001-2003. In reality the three institutional pressures are working simultaneously and should together lead to a common perception about share repurchases among companies. For our testing we separated institutional isomorphism based on our theoretical preconceptions. This allowed us to analyze each individual institutional pressure and how they interact together. We defined mimetic isomorphism as companies adjusting their repurchase behavior to other companies within the industrial sector. Our result has not shown any indications of such a behavior concerning time, amount or frequency of the buybacks. Testing if certain financial indicators such as excess cash, liquidity, solvency, dividends, volatile operative income, prior year return, growth opportunities, companies’ size, ownership concentration, institutional and individual shareholders could explain stock repurchase activity gave us the possibility to evaluate coercive and normative isomorphism. But the question how institutional isomorphism affects companies’ repurchase decisions still remains unanswered. We have not found any certain financial indicator which motivates companies’ decision to buy back their own shares. The decision might therefore be carried out under very different economic conditions and with different objectives. In the industrial sector and generally in the whole Swedish market only a relatively low proportion of companies buy back shares. The stated findings for the Swedish market imply a need for further investigations over a longer time horizon and for a larger population. Further investigations in this topic which has the potential to provide recent insight into the stock repurchase decision for Swedish companies would enhance and verify our statements.

Peptidomimetics derived from the bioactive hexapeptide angiotensin IV (Ang IV, Val1-Tyr2-Ile3-His4-Pro5-Phe6) have been designed and synthesized. These peptidomimetics are aimed at inhibiting the insulin-regulated amino peptidase (IRAP), also known as the AT4 receptor. This membrane-bound zinc-metallopeptidase is currently under investigation regarding its potential as a target for cognitive enhancers. The work presented herein was based on stepwise replacement of the amino acid residues in Ang IV by natural and unnatural amino acids, non-peptidic building blocks, and also on the introduction of conformational constraints. Initially, we focused on the introduction of secondary structure mimetics and backbone mimetics. The C-terminal tripeptide His-Pro-Phe was successfully replaced by a γ-turn mimetic scaffold, 2-(aminomethyl)phenylacetic acid (AMPA), which was coupled via an amide bond to the carboxyl terminus of Val-Tyr-Ile. Substitution of Val-Tyr-Ile, Val-Tyr, Tyr-Ile and Tyr, respectively, by 4-hydroxydiphenylmethane scaffolds comprising a 1,3,5-substituted benzene ring as a central moiety unfortunately rendered peptidomimetics that were less potent than Ang IV. The subsequent approach involved the introduction of conformational constraints into Val-Tyr-Ile-AMPA by replacing Val and Ile by amino acid residues appropriate for disulfide cyclization or ring-closing metathesis. Chemically diverse structures encompassing an N-terminal 13- or 14-membered macrocyclic tripeptide and a C-terminal non-peptidic moiety were developed. Tyr2 and AMPA were modified to acquire further knowledge about the structure-activity relationships and, in addition, to improve the metabolic stability and reduce the polarity. Several of the compounds displayed a high capacity to inhibit IRAP and exhibited Ki values in the low nanomolar range. Hence, the new compounds were more than ten times more potent than the parent peptide Ang IV. Enhanced selectivity over the closely related aminopeptidase N (AP-N) was achieved, as well as improved stability against proteolysis by metallopeptidases present in the assays. However, additional investigations are required to elucidate the bioactive conformation(s) of the relatively flexible N-terminal macrocycles. The compounds presented in this thesis have provided important information on structure-activity relationships regarding the interaction of Ang IV-related pseudopeptides and peptidomimetics with IRAP. The best compounds in the series constitute important starting points for further discovery of Ang IV peptidomimetics suitable as tools in the investigation of IRAP and other potential targets for Ang IV. The literature presents strong support for the hypothesis that drug-like IRAP inhibitors would serve as a new type of future cognitive enhancers with potential use in the treatment of cognitive disorders, e.g. Alzheimer’s disease.

During Nov.2008 to Apr. 2009, firms in Taiwan encountered dramatic financial crisis, and this impact made unemployment rate still climbing and economic depression. In order to reduce the impact from financial tsunami, every firm takes some strategies to resist it. The objective of our study is to find out the influence from financial tsunami on the listed companies. More importantly, we base on the three mechanisms (mimetic force, normative force and coercive force) of institutional theory and the perspectives of population theory to analyze why firms choose those strategies. We collect and analyze 201 returned questionnaires. We find when firms face both high market force, mimetic force and coercive, they tend to choose manipulation strategies. When firms face both low market force, mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to choose compromise strategies. When firms face high market force and low mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to use defiance strategies. When firms face low market force and high mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to use acquiescence strategies.

In 2008-2009, firms in Taiwan encountered dramatic financial tsunami, and this crisis made unemployment rate still climbing and economic depression. In order to reduce the impact from financial tsunami, every firm chooses some strategies to resist it. The purpose of our study is to find out the influence from financial tsunami on the listed companies. More importantly, we base on the three mechanisms (mimetic force, normative force and coercive force) of institutional theory to analyze the real reason for choosing strategies. We collect and analyze 201 returned questionnaires. The finding of this study is that the main factor of choosing strategies is from the mimetic force and normative force. In fact, the enterprise is affected by mimetic pressure deeply, and then it would tend to use the passive strategies. The enterprise is affected by normative pressure deeply, and then it would tend to use the active strategy. Interestingly, whether the enterprise is affected by coercive pressure or not, it doesn¡¦t affect the strategies choosing.