Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:09:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edson Kretle dos Santos.pdf: 1122098 bytes, checksum: 2a5bb9188455f0428be49fe888dab835 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-26 / The purpose of this dissertation is to elucidate in what way the rational and the irrational elements frame the human notion of the sacred, according to the philosopher Rudolf Otto. Marked by XX Century s rule of reason, Otto reacts to the Enlightenment, which interprets the sacred solely as metaphysical, moral and evolutional formulations. After the Kantian critique, the knowledge path becomes an impossible way to the understanding of the sacred and of the religious phenomenon. Thus, the author recaptures the sentiment as the origin and the openness of the human search for the divine. Since the experience of the nouminous belongs to the sphere of the sentiment, it follows that it is understood, constituted and characterized by the irrational aspect, for the religious experience has the peculiarity of the mysterious. Given this argument, Otto responds to the Enlightenment Age stating that the mystery of the sacred shall never be encompassed by reason alone. On the other hand, a religion based exclusively on sentiment contributes to the emergence of various self-denominated miraculous, magical religious practices. The theological reflections of such religions tend to mix capitalist exchanges and divine promises of prosperity. Otto reveals himself as a supremely important philosopher in the analysis of many contemporary religious practices which emphasize the emotional aspect. In such religions the exclusion of reason is evident, which the author rejects as inconceivable, given the argument that the rational element is a fundamental component of religion. Hence, Otto s intention, as well as that of this dissertation, is to demonstrate that the religious experience is composed both by the irrational and the rational elements and that only when these two aspects are in a state of healthy balance it is possible to achieve a profound experience of the divine. / Pretende-se elucidar, a partir do pensador Rudolf Otto, de que maneira o elemento racional e irracional compõem a noção humana de sagrado. Otto, marcado pelo século XX, responde ao Iluminismo, que interpreta o sagrado apenas como formulações metafísicas, morais e evolutivas. Após a crítica kantiana, a via do conhecimento tornou-se um o caminho impossível para compreensão do sagrado e do fenômeno religioso. Por isso, o autor resgata o sentimento como origem e abertura do humano na busca pelo divino. A experiência do numinoso por está situada no âmbito do sentir passa a ser compreendida, constituída e caracterizada pelo atributo irracional uma vez que a vivência da religião possui peculiaridade do misterioso. Nesse sentido, então, Otto responde à Era do Esclarecimento afirmando que o mistério do sagrado jamais será abarcado pela razão. Em contrapartida, uma religião demasiadamente baseada apenas no sentimento fez com emergisse no contexto religioso contemporâneo muitas práticas religiosas mágicas e que se auto-intitulam milagrosas. Geralmente, as reflexões teológicas dessas religiões mesclam trocas capitalistas e prósperas bênçãos divinas. Otto torna-se um pensador de suma importância para analisar muitas práticas religiosas atuais, como dito acima, que enfatizam em excesso o aspecto emotivista na religião. Em tais posturas religiosas percebe-se a exclusão da racionalidade na religião, que para o autor em questão é algo inconcebível uma vez que ele atesta que o elemento racional é componente fundamental da religião. Portanto, o intuito de Otto e também dessa dissertação, é mostrar que a experiência religiosa é composta pelo elemento irracional e racional e somente quando ambos aspectos estão em sadio equilíbrio é que se faz uma profunda vivência do divino

Submitted by Tassia Roberta Zangiacomo null (tassia_zangiacomo@hotmail.com) on 2017-03-23T22:04:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TASSIA ROBERTA ZANGIACOMO - MESTRADO.pdf: 1004175 bytes, checksum: 12925ba240f8d9a89e295b32b2efb13e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-03-24T17:23:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 zangiacomo_tr_me_rcla.pdf: 1004175 bytes, checksum: 12925ba240f8d9a89e295b32b2efb13e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-24T17:23:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 zangiacomo_tr_me_rcla.pdf: 1004175 bytes, checksum: 12925ba240f8d9a89e295b32b2efb13e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-20 / Este trabalho tem como objetivo construir os sistemas numéricos usuais, a saber, o conjunto dos números naturais N, o conjunto dos números inteiros Z, o conjunto dos números racionais Q e o conjunto dos números reais R. Iniciamos o trabalho tratando de noções sobre conjuntos e relações binárias. Em seguida, apresentamos o conjunto dos números naturais, definido através dos axiomas de Peano; o conjunto dos números inteiros via uma relação de equivalência com o conjunto dos números naturais; o conjunto dos números racionais, que são obtidos também via relação de equivalência, mas dessa vez com o conjunto dos números inteiros; a construção do conjunto dos números reais, feita via cortes no conjunto dos números racionais; e, para todos esses casos, mostramos a imersão do conjunto anterior no conjunto que surge na sequência. Por fim, observamos alguns materiais do ensino fundamental e médio com o intuito de investigar de que forma esses temas estão sendo apresentados para os alunos. / This work aims to construct the usual numerical systems, namely the set of natural numbers N, the set of integers Z, the set of rational numbers Q and the set of real numbers R. We begin the work dealing with notions about sets and binary relations. Next, we present the set of natural numbers, defined by Peano's axioms; the set of integers via an equivalence relation with the set of natural numbers; the set of rational numbers, which are also obtained via equivalence relation, but this time with the set of integers; the construction of the set of real numbers, made through cuts in the set of rational numbers; end for all these cases we show the immersion of the previous set in the ensemble that appears in the sequence. Finally, we observed some materials in elementary school and high school in order to investigate how these themes are being presented to the students.

Orientador: Mateus José Rodrigues Paranhos da Costa / Banca: Isabella Dias Barbosa Silveira / Banca: Ricardo Andrade Reis / Resumo: Os objetivos foram estudar os efeitos de um programa de treinamento em manejo racional no bem-estar de bovinos e testar a viabilidade prática da aplicação do manejo racional em frigoríficos. Os comportamentos de humanos e bovinos foram estudados em três frigoríficos durante o desenvolvimento de dois processos: 1) condução dos bovinos dos currais de espera até o boxe de atordoamento e 2) atordoamento. Nas avaliações do processo de condução dos animais foram acompanhados 31, 22 e 18 lotes de animais antes do treinamento nos frigoríficos MT, GO e SP, respectivamente, repetindo-se o mesmo número de lotes após o treinamento. Foram registradas duas variáveis do comportamento humano durante a condução dos animais (uso do bastão elétrico e uso inadequado da bandeira) e três do comportamento bovino (escorregões, quedas e vocalizações). Durante o processo de atordoamento foram consideradas duas variáveis, a eficiência de atordoamento (sendo observados 336, 475 e 314 animais nos frigoríficos MS, GO e SP, respectivamente, em cada etapa, antes e após o treinamento) e sinais de insensibilidade (com 400, 453 e 308 animais nos frigoríficos MS, GO e SP, respectivamente, em cada etapa). Os dados sobre a condução dos bovinos foram analisados usando-se Anova com o procedimento GLM e para as variáveis de atordoamento foi utilizado o Teste de Kruskall-Wallis. Houve diferenças significativas (P<0,01) entre frigoríficos nas variáveis escorregões, quedas, uso do bastão elétrico e sinais de insensibilidade. Também houve efeito significativo do treinamento para a maioria das variáveis estudadas, sendo que o maior efeito foi no uso do bastão elétrico, que diminuiu nos três frigoríficos após o treinamento. Os resultados indicaram que os frigoríficos que realizaram investimentos em mão de obra e instalações, atingiram melhor resposta ao treinamento dos funcionários. / Abstract: The objectives of this research were to study the effects of rational handling training programs on cattle welfare and to test the practical feasibility of the rational handling in the slaughterhouse. The human and cattle behaviours were recorded in three slaughterhouses during two processes: 1) leading cattle from lairage to stunning boxes and 2) stunning cattle. In order to assess the handling procedures during the first process we studied 31, 22 and 18 groups of cattle, before and after the training activity, in three slaughterhouses (MT, GO and SP); in this process five variables were considered, two of them related to human behaviour (the frequency of electric prod and the frequency of inadequate flag use) and three related to cattle behaviour (the frequencies of slips, falls and vocalizations). For the assessment of the stunning process two variables were defined: stunning efficiency (with 336, 475 and 314 cattle observed before and after the training period) and insensitiveness (with 400, 453, and 308 animals observed before and after training). Analysis of variance was used for data related to the process of driving the animals to the stunning box and the Kruskall- Wallis test was used when for the variables related to the stunning process. Significant statistical differences were found among slaughterhouses for the frequencies of slips, falls, use of the electric prod and insensitiveness. Similar results were found when considered the effects of training, being the major effect on the frequency of electric prod use, which dropped down in three slaughterhouses. Inadequate facilities and equipments promoted depreciation on the labour, increasing the frequencies of slips, falls and in the number of sensitive animals after stunning. The results suggested that the slaughterhouses that did invest in people, training, facilities and equipments achieved a better result in the improvement of animal welfare. / Mestre

Human and animal decision-making is known to violate rational expectations in a variety of contexts. Statistical structures of real-world environments may account for such seemingly irrational behavior. In a computerized experiment, 16 capuchins, 7 rhesus monkeys, and 30 humans chose between up to three options of different value. The options disappeared and became available again with different probabilities. Subjects overwhelmingly chose transitively (A>B, B>C, and A>C) in the control condition, where doing so maximized overall gain. However, most subjects also adhered to transitivity in the test condition, where it was suboptimal but led to negligible losses compared to the optimal strategy. Only a few of the capuchins were able to maximize long-term gain by violating transitivity. Adhering to rational choice principles may facilitate the formation of near-optimal decision rules when short- and long-term goals align. Such cognitive shortcuts may have evolved to preserve mental resources.

abstract: Prior research suggests that people ignore evidence that is inconsistent with what they want to believe. However, this research on motivated reasoning has focused on how people reason about familiar topics and in situations where the evidence presented interacts with strongly-held prior beliefs (e.g., the effectiveness of the death penalty as a crime deterrent). This makes it difficult to objectively assess how biased people are in motivated-reasoning contexts. Indeed, recent work by Jern and colleagues (2014) suggests that apparent instances of motivated reasoning may actually be instances of rational belief-updating. Inspired by this new account, the current studies reexamined motivated reasoning using a controlled categorization task and tested whether people assimilate evidence differently when they are motivated to maintain a certain belief versus when they are not. Contrary to earlier research on motivated reasoning, six studies with children and adults (N = 1295) suggest that participants’ motivations did not affect their information search and their beliefs were driven primarily by the evidence, even when the evidence was incongruent with their motivations. This work provides initial evidence for the account proposed by Jern and colleagues. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2019

In this dissertation, I consider a range of topics related to the role played by information in modern asset pricing theory. The primary research focus is twofold. First, I synthesize existing research in insider trading and seek to stimulate an expansion of the literature at the intersection of work in the insider trading and financial economics areas. Second, I present the case for using Peter Bossaerts's (2004) Efficiently Learning Markets (ELM) methodology to empirically test asset pricing models. The first chapter traces the development of domestic and international insider trading regulations and explores the legal issues surrounding the proprietary nature of information in financial markets. I argue that, practically, the reinvigoration of the insider trading debate is unfortunate because, in spite of seemingly unending efforts to settle the debate, we are no closer to answering whether insider trading is even harmful, much less worthy of legal action. In doing so, I challenge the conventional wisdom of framing insider trading research as a quest for resolution to the debate. By adopting an agnostic perspective on the desirability of insider trading regulations, I am able to clearly identify nine issues in this area that are fruitful topics for future research. The second chapter studies prices and returns for movie-specific Arrow-Debreu securities traded on the Iowa Electronic Markets. The payoffs to these securities are based on the movies' initial 4-week U.S. box office receipts. We employ a unique data set for which we have traders' pre-opening forecasts to provide the first direct test of Bossaerts's (2004) ELM hypothesis. We supplement the forecasts with estimated convergence rates to examine whether the prior forecast errors affect market price convergence. Our results support the ELM hypothesis. While significant deviations between initial forecasts and actual box-office outcomes exist, prices nonetheless evolve in accordance with efficient updating. Further, convergence rates appear independent of both the average initial forecast error and the level of disagreement in forecasts. Lastly, the third chapter revisits the theoretical justifications for Bossaerts's (2004) ELM, with the goal of providing clear, intuitive proofs of the key results underlying the methodology. The seemingly biggest hurdle to garnering more widespread adoption of the ELM methodology is the confusion that surrounds the use of weighted modified returns when testing for rational asset pricing restrictions. I attack this hurdle by offering a transparent justification for this approach. I then establish how and why Bossaerts's results extend from the case of digital options to the more practically relevant class of all limited-liability securities, including equities. I conclude by showing that the ELM restrictions naturally lend themselves to estimation and testing of asset pricing models, using weighted modified returns, in a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) framework.

Let 𝑋 be a compact subset of the complex plane and denote by 𝑅𝑝(𝑋) the closure of rational functions with poles off 𝑋 in the 𝐿𝑝(𝑋) norm. We show that if a point 𝑥0 admits a bounded point derivation on 𝑅𝑝(𝑋) for 𝑝 > 2, then there is an approximate derivative at 𝑥0. We also prove a similar result for higher order bounded point derivations. This extends a result of Wang, which was proven for 𝑅(𝑋), the uniform closure of rational functions with poles off 𝑋. In addition, we show that if a point 𝑥0 admits a bounded point derivation on 𝑅(𝑋) and if 𝑋 contains an interior cone, then the bounded point derivation can be represented by the difference quotient if the limit is taken over a non-tangential ray to 𝑥0. We also extend this result to the case of higher order bounded point derivations. These results were first shown by O'Farrell; however, we prove them constructively by explicitly using the Cauchy integral formula.

Ineffective environmental policies pose a problem for municipalities as they strive to create sustainable communities. Improving these policies may establish standard practices that assist municipalities in meeting related environmental goals. Statistics show the municipalities within this study operate at different levels of goal achievement. Little is known, however, about the influences that directly affect the development of environmental policies. The purpose of this study was to determine the ways in which public officials address environmental issues and the factors considered in policy discussions that lead to their decisions. The theoretical framework comprised Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith's advocacy coalition and Arrow's rational choice theory. This phenomenological study explored the experiences of city council members within a region of 10 cities in southern California. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 5 city council members from 4 adjoining cities, 1 city staff member, and 1 agency representative with knowledge of all 10 cities. Data were analyzed with 3 cycles of coding to identify themes and patterns. Emergent themes included meeting community needs, educating the public, being fiscally responsible, and "doing the right thing." Participants recognized the effect of their personal influences and biases, particularly religious beliefs, on environmental policy decisions, although political affiliation appeared to be unrelated to these biases. The implications for positive social change include informing and educating both public officials and community members about regional environmental issues and their related community needs and goals.

Controversy continues over the use of polygraph testing to deter and detect potential leakers as critics argue that the technique is based on faulty assumptions. The purpose of this descriptive and exploratory research study was to determine whether there was a perceived deterrence effect related to the use of polygraphs between a group of participants who were subjected to a polygraph examination within the past year compared to those who have not experienced a polygraph examination within the same time period. Paternoster and Simpson's, as well as Vance and Siponen's, rational choice models and Bandura's social learning theory served as the theoretical foundation for this study. Specifically, this study assessed groups' perceptions about adhering to security regulations if a polygraph is required, changes in their behavior and attitude, and beliefs about polygraph deterrent effect. Data were obtained through a 15-minute researcher- created survey with a cluster sample of 326 participants. Data were analyzed with a t test to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the groups. A factor analysis was also conducted. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference (p < .001) between the groups, suggesting that participants perceive a deterrent effect associated with the use of polygraphs as well as a change of behavior and attitude if a polygraph can be randomly administered at work. The implications for positive social change stemming from this study include recommendations to the nation's national security agencies to continue enforcing the polygraph examinations required of certain security personnel and exploring the possibility of expanding the use of such strategies in order to fortify the national intelligence infrastructure.

The creation of new materials is absolutely essential for developing new technologies. However, experimental efforts toward the material discovery are usually based on trial-and-error approach and thus require a huge amount of time and money. Alternatively, computational predictions can now provide a more systematic, rapid, inexpensive, and reliable method for the design of novel materials with properties suitable for new technologies. This dissertation describes the technique of theoretical predictions and presents the results on the successfully predicted and already produced (in some cases) unusual molecules, clusters, nanoparticles, and solids. The major part of scientific efforts in this dissertation was devoted to rationalizing of size- and composition-dependent properties of the materials based on understanding of their electronic structure and chemical bonding. It was shown that understanding relations between bonding and geometric structure, bonding and stability, and bonding and reactivity is an important step toward rational design of new, yet unknown materials with unusual properties. Our findings led to the discovery of the first simplest inorganic double helix structures, which can be used in the design of novel molecular devices. A significant part of this work also deals with the pseudo John-Teller effect, which potentially can be a powerful tool for rationalizing and predicting molecular and solid state structures, their deformations, transformations, and properties. Therefore, the works on the pseudo Jahn-Teller effect presented in this dissertation can be considered the steps toward further generalization and elevation of the pseudo Jahn-Teller effect to a higher level of understanding of the origin of molecular and solid state properties.