The Ye'kwana Cosmosonics: a Musical Ethnography of a North-Amazon People

The Ye’kwana are a Carib people of indigenous speech whose current population is estimated to be around 7,000 people distributed in villages that are located in Venezuela and Brazil. In Brazil, they are a total of around 520 people distributed in three communities located at the Yanomami Indigenous Territory (TIY, in Portuguese), in the state of Roraima. In 1912, the researcher Theodor Koch-Grünberg visited several Ye’kwana villages, when he made ethnographic and phonographic records of inaugural importance to ethnology and comparative musicology. Precisely one hundred years later, I began my field research on the reception of recordings of chants and musical instruments from Koch-Grünberg’s collection stored at the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv and Museum, as well as on the Ye’kwana sonorities produced nowadays. Understanding hearing as a privileged sense regarding the access to knowledge and using different acoustic codes, the Ye’kwana build their lived world on a relationship with nature that is different from what has been conventionally called “music” in the west. To reflect on the relationships between sounds, cosmology, and society, I use in this dissertation the concept of cosmosonics, that seeks to point to the main elements of the Ye’kwana vocal-sound arts, understood in this work as a “reverse ethnomusicology” of this Carib people

The Sovereignty of the World: Towards a Political Theology of Modernity (After Blumenberg)

Reading with and against Blumenberg’s The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, and following his own account of the epochal shift from the Middle Ages to modernity, this chapter takes up the genealogy and the political theology of Blumenbergian modernity so as to reanimate its relevance for contemporary theory. Beginning with the shared opposition to Gnosticism found in both Christianity and modernity, we trace the emergence of modernity as creating a “counterworld” of possibility in the face of the alienation engendered by medieval nominalist ideas of God’s absolute transcendence and hiddenness. In modernity, the world becomes sovereign: the modern world positions—and reproduces—itself as a sovereign and transcendent totality of possibility that its subjects must endlessly work to actualize, thus creating new operations and legitimations of domination. We conclude by outlining a programme of thinking what is constitutively foreclosed by Blumenberg’s modernity: an immanence alien to this Christian-modern apparatus of transcendence and possibility, a life for disorder and against the world

The Use of Real Options to Evaluate Business-To-Business Companies

The purpose of this work is to show that the use of real options can contribute to a better evaluation of companies devoted to Electronic Commerce – Business-to-Business. For such, usual company-evaluation techniques are presented and the advantages and disadvantages of each one are discussed, with emphasis to the real-option technique. Additionally, the similarity between asset investment and call options is shown, and internal and external real options existing in a Business-to-Business company are identified. Finally, this work describes how to evaluate a company acting in Business-to-Business by employing the concepts of real-option theory

Optimization in the design of a 12 gigahertz low cost ground receiving system for broadcast satellites. Volume 2: Antenna system and interference

The antenna characteristics are analyzed of a low cost mass-producible ground station to be used in broadcast satellite systems. It is found that a prime focus antenna is sufficient for a low-cost but not a low noise system. For the antenna feed waveguide systems are the best choice for the 12 GHz band, while printed-element systems are recommended for the 2.6 GHz band. Zoned reflectors are analyzed and appear to be attractive from the standpoint of cost. However, these reflectors suffer a gain reduction of about one db and a possible increase in sidelobe levels. The off-axis gain of a non-auto-tracking station can be optimized by establishing a special illumination function at the reflector aperture. A step-feed tracking system is proposed to provide automatic procedures for searching for peak signal from a geostationary satellite. This system uses integrated circuitry and therefore results in cost saving under mass production. It is estimated that a complete step-track system would cost only $512 for a production quantity of 1000 units per year

Optimization in the design of a 12 gigahertz low cost ground receiving system for broadcast satellites. Volume 1: System design, performance, and cost analysis

The technical and economical feasibility of using the 12 GHz band for broadcasting from satellites were examined. Among the assigned frequency bands for broadcast satellites, the 12 GHz band system offers the most channels. It also has the least interference on and from the terrestrial communication links. The system design and analysis are carried out on the basis of a decision analysis model. Technical difficulties in achieving low-cost 12 GHz ground receivers are solved by making use of a die cast aluminum packaging, a hybrid integrated circuit mixer, a cavity stabilized Gunn oscillator and other state-of-the-art microwave technologies for the receiver front-end. A working model was designed and tested, which used frequency modulation. A final design for the 2.6 GHz system ground receiver is also presented. The cost of the ground-terminal was analyzed and minimized for a given figure-of-merit (a ratio of receiving antenna gain to receiver system noise temperature). The results were used to analyze the performance and cost of the whole satellite system

Business-to-Business Solutions for a Changing Scenario in Brazilian Economy

This paper has the purpose of describing the development of Business-to-Business in Brazil and its adoption by companies and the government to reduce costs and reach new markets. It also shows the support provided by the Brazilian Government to this development, by means of the creation of the Electronic Commerce Executive Committee, in a joint effort with the private sector, and the implantation of a financing instrument for small and medium companies destined to electronic commerce, among other measures. Examples of creative solutions adapted to the conditions of the Brazilian economy, such as the Energy Marketplaces, established during the electric-energy rationing in Brazil, between May 2001 and February 2002, where thousands of companies were able to commercialize their energy quotas by means of electronic auctions, as well as tools directed to the governmental acquisition of goods and services, show the great potential of Business-toBusines

Exploring Farmers’ Reasons for Antibiotic Use and Misuse in Pig Farms in Brazil

Stressful management that makes farmed pigs susceptible to infections is associated with high antibiotic use (AMU) and resistance (AMR). Pig farmers are key stakeholders to support the international agenda pushing AMU restrictions. We interviewed 58 pig farmers on AMU/AMR, biosecurity, veterinary assistance, disease prevention and treatment, aiming to understand practices and attitudes towards the AMU/AMR problem. Farmers described a reliance on antibiotics to prevent and treat disease while neglecting biosecurity measures. We identified inappropriate AMU practices (high use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, incorrect dosage or treatment length) and unrestricted access to antibiotics, which encouraged imprudent AMU. Nevertheless, most farmers considered this AMU legitimate to guarantee herd productivity and showed unpreparedness and resistance to changing AMU practices, perceiving limitations (economic, sanitary and inspection) more easily than alternatives to reduce AMU. Agro-industries and foreign markets were mentioned, and internal consumers dismissed as potential motivators for behavioral changes. Importantly, farmers’ economic, technical and social factors may limit their autonomy to change practices. We conclude that the observed distancing of pig farmers from the AMU/AMR problem limits the efficiency of policies aiming for a prudent AMU. Our study indicates a need for education, training and behavior change nudging that should include other stakeholders beyond farmers

Olimpíadas Rio 2016: uma análise de discurso e conteúdo das postagens do ministério do esporte no Facebook

As Redes Sociais virtuais desenvolvem um papel importante na sociedade atual. A cada dia, um número maior de pessoas se utiliza desses espaços discursivos para agir e interagir socialmente. Este trabalho se propõe a analisar as postagens feitas pelo Ministério do Esporte no Facebook, durante as Olímpias do Rio de Janeiro. O objetivo é avaliar o papel do governo nas mídias sociais, a interação com o público e se a meta traçada pela equipe de redes do órgão para a cobertura do evento foi alcançada. Para tanto, realizou-se extensa fundamentação teórica acerca dos principais elementos do tema voltados para a análise crítica do discurso e marketing digital. Com o intuito de auxiliar na compreensão dos resultados do caso foram feitas também uma entrevista com o coordenador da equipe de mídias do ministério e coleta de dados da página. A análise nos permitiu concluir que o governo federal não conseguiu cumprir com a principal meta que era priorizar no facebook do ministério o conteúdo voltado para serviço e informações sobre investimentos. Os posts em sua maioria foram compartilhados do perfil Megaeventos (criado pelo governo para a divulgação das Olimpíadas), e traziam informações gerais sobre os Jogos; resultados e homenagens aos atletas. Pouco se falou a respeito dos programas, dos investimentos feitos para a realização dos Jogos e legado, que eram os grandes norteadores das pautas da rede. Uma pesquisa feita logo após as Olimpíadas pela Isobar, agência especializada em comunicação pública, apontou que o governo federal apresenta dificuldades para se comunicar nas redes sociais