Exemplo Cosmopolita: João Vário, Arménio Vieira e José Luiz Tavares

Tese de doutoramento em Letras, na área de Literatura Portuguesa, apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de CoimbraEste estudo apresenta uma reflexão sobre as obras poéticas de João Vário, Arménio Vieira e José Luiz Tavares. Caracterizadas por uma expressão complexa e por um propósito cosmopolita, elas sustentam hoje a definição de um paradigma poético que se distingue do cânone instituído pelo modernismo neorrealista e nacionalista. A primeira parte começa por analisar os princípios e os juízos da crítica da poesia cabo-verdiana que, entre as décadas de 1940 e 1980, promovem o predomínio das estéticas neorrealistas e nacionalistas. Os exercícios de periodização literária e o teor prescritivo da crítica marxista, em que pontifica o nome de Manuel Ferreira, exercem uma influência determinante no âmbito do sistema literário cabo-verdiano. Exemplos desta autoridade são, por um lado, a proscrição da poesia anterior a Claridade, e, por outro, a circunscrição das “novas gramáticas” dos anos 70 ao âmbito da representação da “saga histórica”. O ponto seguinte revisita as opiniões críticas de T. Tio Tiofe e Arménio Vieira, apresentadas, pelos anos 70, nas “Epístolas ao meu irmão António” e nas páginas culturais do jornal Voz di Povo, respetivamente. Além de testemunharem a progressiva aproximação de Vieira às convicções de Vário, estas notas e comentários preparam e acompanham a afirmação de um novo modelo crítico, mais atento ao trabalho exercido sobre a linguagem poética e aos diálogos estabelecidos com diferentes textos e autores das literaturas estrangeiras (de língua portuguesa ou não). As opções do júri dos Jogos Florais 12 de Setembro, os critérios editoriais da revista Raízes e o ideário da antologia Mirabilis – De Veias ao Sol, entre outros, sustentam entretanto o aparecimento de uma nova geração de poetas, quase todos ligados ao Movimento Pró-Cultura, e que têm em José Vicente Lopes e José Luís Hopffer C. Almada os seus principais teóricos e críticos. A segunda parte deste trabalho divide-se em três capítulos, dedicados a cada um dos poetas estudados. O texto sobre João Vário começa por reavaliar o discurso crítico em torno dos seus nomes literários, situando-os relativamente ao exemplo de Fernando Pessoa e às teorias da complexidade social dos espaços crioulos. Em seguida, revisita o ambiente cultural e literário em que se forma João Vário, em Cabo Verde e (sobretudo) em Portugal, destacando as correntes existencialistas e metafísicas dos anos 50 e 60 e relevando a influência que elas tiveram na definição da sua poesia filosófica e neobarroca (como demonstram os Exemplos Geral e Relativo). A partir de George Steiner, o mesmo capítulo procura depois identificar algumas das causas da dificuldade (ontológica e contingente) da poesia de Vário. Consciente da condição por vezes ininteligível dos Exemplos, este ensaio termina com duas aproximações de Vário às obras assinadas por G. T. Didial (a propósito do tema da verosimilhança) e por T. Tio Tiofe (a propósito da singularidade genológica e das deslocações geopolíticas dos Livros de Notcha). O capítulo dedicado a Arménio Vieira, que constitui a parte nuclear deste estudo, começa por rever os principais tópicos e postulados da crítica da sua obra poética. Traça depois o percurso intelectual e artístico que parte do teor político dos seus primeiros poemas, do tempo de Seló (1963) e de Ariópe (1974), e termina com os critérios de exclusão do inaugural Poemas, publicado em 1981. A invenção de Silvenius, instigada por um excerto do Exemplo Próprio de Vário, bem como o tríptico que encerra os Poemas de 1981, dedicado a C. Valcorba e a Manuel Ferreira, assinalam então o abandono definitivo das estéticas neorrealistas e nacionalistas cabo-verdianas (e que inclui a condenação dos desvios totalitários do PAIGC). Segue-se a análise de alguns aspetos solipsistas da herança romântica de Vieira, que o conduzem à condição apátrida e cosmopolita de um bibliotecário de Babel (segundo a narrativa de Borges). Este capítulo prossegue com a observação de alguns exercícios de imitação de estilos alheios, entre os quais se encontra uma importante homenagem a João Vário, e termina com o exame de alguns cantos em louvor de diferentes figuras maiores da literatura e da filosofia (como sejam Homero, Heraclito, Espinosa, Pessoa ou Jorge Luís Borges). À semelhança do que sucede com João Vário, o capítulo sobre José Luiz Tavares começa por situar as coordenadas da sua formação cabo-verdiana, marcada pelo ideário da geração de Mirabilis, e do seu confronto posterior com a geração portuguesa que lhe é contemporânea. A exuberância lexical e metafórica de Tavares irá então opor-se ao prosaísmo e ao niilismo que, comumente identificados com Manuel de Freitas, dominam a poesia portuguesa dos anos 90 e do início do novo século. O ponto seguinte deste capítulo é dedicado à tradução de Paraíso Apagado por Um Trovão para a língua cabo-verdiana. As opções vocabulares e as frequentes paráfrases da versão crioula testemunham a escassa relação do português literário de Tavares com a sua língua materna; e confirmam, além disso, os muito diferentes estádios de maturidade artística destes dois idiomas. O penúltimo texto deste capítulo revisita “A deserção das musas”, de Agreste Matéria Mundo, onde Tavares, a partir de Burke, Heidegger ou Adorno, e na companhia de Rilke, E. M. Cioran ou Manoel de Barros, medita “em chave lírica” sobre a condição atual do poeta e da poesia. O regresso ao Paraíso Apagado por Um trovão pretende demonstrar, por fim, como a hospitalidade cosmopolita da poesia de José Luiz Tavares permitiu e promoveu a reconfiguração artística de Cabo Verde. Palavras-chave: cânone, crítica literária, poesia, cosmopolitismo, João Vário, Arménio Vieira, José Luiz TavaresThis study presents a reflection on the poetic works of João Vário, Arménio Vieira and José Luiz Tavares. Their works, being characterized by a complex expression and a cosmopolitan purpose, sustain the current definition of a poetic paradigm which differs from the canon settled by the neorealist and nationalist modernism. The first part begins with an analysis of the principles and the judgments of the critic on Cape Verdean poetry, which, during the decades from 1940 to 1980, promoted the predominance of the neorealist and nationalist aesthetics. The exercises on literary periodization and the prescriptive nature of the Marxist critic, on which Manuel Ferreira pontificates, exercise a decisive influence on the Cape Verdean literary system. As an example of this authority we have, on one hand, the proscription of the poetry preceding Claridade and, on the other hand, the circumscription of the “new grammars” from the 70s to the field of the representation of the “historic saga”. The next point revisits the critical opinions of T. Tio Tiofe and Arménio Vieira, presented in the 70s in the “Epistles to my brother António” and in the cultural pages of the newspaper Voz di Povo respectively. Besides giving evidence of Vieira’s gradual approach to the convictions of Vário, these notes and comments prepare and support the establishment of a new model of critic, which pays more attention to the work done on poetical language and to the dialogues established with various foreign texts and authors (Portuguese speaking or not). The choices made by the jury of the poetic contest Jogos Florais 12 de Setembro, the editorial criteria of the magazine Raízes and the mindset presented in the anthology Mirabillis – De Veias ao Sol, among others, sustain meanwhile the appearance of a new generation of poets, who are, almost all of them, connected to the group Movimento Pró-Cultura and who recognize José Vicente Lopes and José Luis Hoppner C. Almada as their most important theorists and critics. The second part of this work is divided into three chapters, each one dedicated to one of the studied poets. The text on João Vário begins reevaluating the critical discourse around his literary names, placing them in relation with the example of Fernando Pessoa and with the social complexity of the creole spaces. Next, it revisits the cultural and literary environment in which João Vário acquired his education, in Cape Verde and (mostly) in Portugal, emphasizing the existentialist and metaphysical currents of the 50s and 60s and stressing the influence they had in the definition of his philosophical and neo-baroque poetry (as visible in Exemplo Geral and in Exemplo Relativo). Taking George Steiner as an impulse, this chapter tries to identify some of the reasons for the difilculty (ontological and contingent) in the poetry of Vário. Aware of the sometimes unintelligible condition of Exemplos, this essay ends with two approaches from Vário to the works signed by G. T. Didial (concerning verisimilitude) and by T. Tio Tiofe (concerning the singularity of the literary gender and the geopolitical replacements of Livros de Nocha). The chapter dedicated to Arménio Vieira, which constitutes the central part of this study, begins reviewing the main topics and postulates of the critic on his work. It then draws the intellectual and artistic development, which starts with the political nature of his first poems, at the time of Seló (1963) and Ariópe (1974), and ends with the criterions for exclusion of the inaugural Poemas published in 1981. The invention of Silvenius, incited by an excerpt from Vário’s Exemplo Próprio, as well as the triptych which closes the Poemas from 1981, dedicated to C. Valcorba and to Manuel Ferreira, mark the definite abandonment of the Cape Verdean neorealist and nationalist aesthetics (which includes the disapproval of the PAIGC’s totalitarian tendencies). This part then continues with an analysis on some of the solipsistic aspects of the romantic heritage of Vieira, which lead him to the stateless and cosmopolitan condition of a Babel´s librarian (according to Borges’s narrative). This chapter goes on observing some exercises on the imitation of other authors’ stiles , among which there is an important tribute to João Vário, and ends examining some paeans of praise to various significant philosophers and literates (such as Homer, Heraclitus, Espinosa, Pessoa or Jorge Luís Borges). Similar to the structure of the former chapter, the chapter about Luiz Tavares begins with the coordinates of his Cape Verdean education, influenced by the ideas exposed through the Mirabili’s generation, and of his later confrontation with his contemporary Portuguese generation. The lexical and metaphorical exuberance of Tavares will then oppose to the prosaicism and nihilism which, normally associated with Manuel de Freitas, dominate the Portuguese poetry of the 90s and of the beginning of the new century. The next point of this chapter is dedicated to the translation of Paraíso Apagado por Um Trovão into the Cape Verdean language. The vocabulary choice and the frequent paraphrases in the creole version witness the poor relation of the author’s literary Portuguese to his mother tongue; and confirm, furthermore, the very different stadiums of the artistic maturity of these two languages. The penultimate part in this chapter revisits the “desertion of the muses”, in Agreste Matéria Mundo, where Tavares, taking Burke, Heidegger or Adorno as an impulse, and in the company of Rilke, E. M. Cioran ou Manoel de Barros, meditates in “lyrical key” on the present condition of the poet and poetry. The return to Paraíso Apagado por Um Trovão tries to demonstrate, at last, how the cosmopolitan hospitality of the poetry of José Luiz Tavares enabled and promoted the artistic reconfiguration of Cape Verde. Keywords: canon, literary criticism, poetry, cosmopolitanism, João Vário, Arménio Vieira, José Luiz Tavare

De novo colorectal cancer after liver and kidney transplantation–Microenvironment disturbance

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health burden and may arise as a complication of solid organ transplantation. Our study aimed to assess the incidence of the CRC in kidney and liver transplanted patients at a tertiary and reference center and to describe their clinical and pathological features. Twelve patients, 10 men and two women, with a mean age of 60 years, composed our cohort, ten of them submitted to CRC resection. Transplanted organ was liver in five patients and kidney in seven. Regarding overall survival, patients submitted to renal transplantation were all deceased 5 years after CRC diagnosis, while those subjected to hepatic transplantation had a survival of 60% at the fifth year. Pathology examination showed seven patients with advanced disease (stage III/IV) and high amount of necrosis. Tumor microenvironment was disturbed, with low inflammatory infiltrate, absence of natural killer cells and no PD-L1 expression. CRC exhibited microsatellite instability in 40%, with expression of cancer stem cell markers (CD133, CD44 and ALDH1), as well as P53 (50%) and KRAS mutations (41.7%). CRC cancer after kidney and hepatic transplantation is a rare, but aggressive and deadly event. Regular follow-up should be instituted in these patients

Contribution for new genetic markers of rheumatoid arthritis activity and severity : sequencing of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene promoter

© 2007 Fonseca et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe objective of this study was to assess whether clinical measures of rheumatoid arthritis activity and severity were influenced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) promoter genotype/haplotype markers. Each patient's disease activity was assessed by the disease activity score using 28 joint counts (DAS28) and functional capacity by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score. Systemic manifestations, radiological damage evaluated by the Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH) score, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug use, joint surgeries, and work disability were also assessed. The promoter region of the TNF-alpha gene, between nucleotides -1,318 and +49, was sequenced using an automated platform. Five hundred fifty-four patients were evaluated and genotyped for 10 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, but 5 of these markers were excluded due to failure to fall within Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium or to monomorphism. Patients with more than 10 years of disease duration (DD) presented significant associations between the -857 SNP and systemic manifestations, as well as joint surgeries. Associations were also found between the -308 SNP and work disability in patients with more than 2 years of DD and radiological damage in patients with less than 10 years of DD. A borderline effect was found between the -238 SNP and HAQ score and radiological damage in patients with 2 to 10 years of DD. An association was also found between haplotypes and the SvdH score for those with more than 10 years of DD. An association was found between some TNF-alpha promoter SNPs and systemic manifestations, radiological progression, HAQ score, work disability, and joint surgeries, particularly in some classes of DD and between haplotypes and radiological progression for those with more than 10 years of DD.This work was supported by grant POCTI/SAU-ESP/59111/2004 from Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Portuguese guidelines for the use of biological agents in rheumatoid arthritis - March 2010 update.

The authors present the revised version of the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology (SPR) guidelines for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with biological therapies. In these guidelines the criteria for introduction and maintenance of biological agents are discussed as well as the contraindications and procedures in the case of non-responders. Biological treatment should be considered in RA patients with a disease activity score 28 (DAS 28) superior to 3.2 despite treatment with 20mg/week of methotrexate (MTX) for at least 3 months or, if such treatment is not possible, after 6 months of other conventional disease modifying drug or combination therapy. A DAS 28 score between 2.6 and 3.2 with a significant functional or radiological deterioration under treatment with conventional regimens could also constitute an indication for biological treatment. The treatment goal should be remission or, if that is not achievable, at least a low disease activity, characterized by a DAS28 lower than 3.2, without significative functional or radiological worsening. The response criteria, at the end of the first 3 months of treatment, are a decrease of 0.6 in the DAS28 score. After 6 months of treatment response criteria is defined as a decrease of more than 1.2 in the DAS28 score. Non-responders, in accordance to the Rheumatologist's clinical opinion, should try a switch to another biological agent (tumour necrosis factor antagonist, abatacept, rituximab or tocilizumab).publishersversionpublishe

Portuguese guide lines for the use of biological agents in rheumatoid arthritis - october 2011 update

The authors present the revised version of the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology (SPR) guidelines for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) with biological therapies. In these guidelines the criteria for introduction and maintenance of biological agents are discussed as well as the contraindications and procedures in the case of non-responders. Biological treatment (with a tumour necrosis factor antagonist, abatacept or tocilizumab) should be considered in RA patients with a disease activity score 28 (DAS 28) equal to or greater than 3.2 des pite treatment with at least 20mg-weekly-dose of methotrexate (MTX) for at least 3 months or, if such treatment is not possible, after 3 months of other conventional disease modifying drug or combination therapy. A DAS 28 score between 2.6 and 3.2 with a significant functional or radiological deterioration under treatment with conventional regi -mens could also constitute an indication for biological treatment. The treatment goal should be remission or, if that is not achievable, at least a low disease activity, defined by a DAS28 lower than 3.2,without significative functional or radiological worsening. The response criteria, at the end of the first 3 months of treatment, are a decrease of at least 0.6 in the DAS28 score. After 6 months of treatment res ponse criteria is defined as a decrease greater than 1.2 in the DAS28 score. Non-responders, in accordance to the Rheumatologist's clinical opi -nion, should try a switch to another biological agent (tumour necrosis factor antagonist, abatacept, rituxi mab or tocilizumab).publishersversionpublishe

Estimated distribution of the Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH) score according to the duration of the disease (DD)

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Contribution for new genetic markers of rheumatoid arthritis activity and severity: sequencing of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene promoter"</p><p>http://arthritis-research.com/content/9/2/R37</p><p>Arthritis Research & Therapy 2007;9(2):R37-R37.</p><p>Published online 4 Apr 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1906815.</p><p></p

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Health-status outcomes with invasive or conservative care in coronary disease

BACKGROUND In the ISCHEMIA trial, an invasive strategy with angiographic assessment and revascularization did not reduce clinical events among patients with stable ischemic heart disease and moderate or severe ischemia. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess angina-related health status among these patients. METHODS We assessed angina-related symptoms, function, and quality of life with the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) at randomization, at months 1.5, 3, and 6, and every 6 months thereafter in participants who had been randomly assigned to an invasive treatment strategy (2295 participants) or a conservative strategy (2322). Mixed-effects cumulative probability models within a Bayesian framework were used to estimate differences between the treatment groups. The primary outcome of this health-status analysis was the SAQ summary score (scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health status). All analyses were performed in the overall population and according to baseline angina frequency. RESULTS At baseline, 35% of patients reported having no angina in the previous month. SAQ summary scores increased in both treatment groups, with increases at 3, 12, and 36 months that were 4.1 points (95% credible interval, 3.2 to 5.0), 4.2 points (95% credible interval, 3.3 to 5.1), and 2.9 points (95% credible interval, 2.2 to 3.7) higher with the invasive strategy than with the conservative strategy. Differences were larger among participants who had more frequent angina at baseline (8.5 vs. 0.1 points at 3 months and 5.3 vs. 1.2 points at 36 months among participants with daily or weekly angina as compared with no angina). CONCLUSIONS In the overall trial population with moderate or severe ischemia, which included 35% of participants without angina at baseline, patients randomly assigned to the invasive strategy had greater improvement in angina-related health status than those assigned to the conservative strategy. The modest mean differences favoring the invasive strategy in the overall group reflected minimal differences among asymptomatic patients and larger differences among patients who had had angina at baseline