Grand narratives then and now: can we still conceptualise history?

Reading the Communist Manifesto today, it is impossible not to be struck by the confidence with which it conceptualises history. The positive energy of this bold grand narrative stands in such stark contrast to the negative and jaded mentality of our times, which conceives of grand narratives only to tell us that there can be none. Such talk as there is of history today is more likely to be of "the end of history". There are three senses in which references to the end of history feature in contemporary debates: apocalyptic prediction, postmodernist pronouncement and capitalist triumphalism. This paper addresses the crisis of historicity in our time in relation to these positions and asks what is it about our age that produces them. It explores the widespread rejection of grand narratives, as well as grand narratives, which nevertheless persist, implicit and explicit, right and left. It looks at the position of marxism in the 1990s, counterposing it to postmarxism and postmodernism in particular on the question of grand narratives. It calls for resistance to the detotalising pressures of the age and revival of a totalising (as opposed to totalised) philosophy of history

Effectiveness of a home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme in pulmonary function and health related quality of life for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: a pilot study

Background: Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) often develop impairment in pulmonary function due to anatomical changes secondary to the illness. Physiotherapy in the form of pulmonary rehabilitation has been advocated.Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether adherence to a six-week home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme (PRP) improved the baseline measurements of lung function, exercise tolerance and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients receiving out-patient treatment for PTB.Method: A single blinded randomized control study design was used to assess the effects of a six-week home- based PRP in patients receiving treatment for PTB at a local clinic in Khayelitsha, Western Cape. We evaluated lung function by spirometry (MINATO AUTOSPIRO-model no. AZ-505), exercise tolerance using the 6-min-walk test (6MWT), the Borg exercise exertion scale and HRQoL using the EQ-5 D questionnaire in an intervention group (n=34) and a control group (n=33). The trend of the effects of the PRP on lung function was towards increases, but there was no statistical difference between the intervention and control groups at the end of the sixth week in the values of FVC (p=0.2; 95% CI -0.9 to 0.51) as well as FEV1 (p=0.1; 95% CI -0.07 to 0.51). Similar trend was observed for exercise tolerance, and there was no significant difference in HRQoL (p=0.789).Conclusion: The outcome of the study provides motivation for further consideration and implementation of a pulmonary rehabilitation programme for patients with PTB.Keywords: Pulmonary rehabilitation, pulmonary tuberculosi

PERSPECTIVAS TEÓRICO-METODOLÓGICAS SOBRE PARTICIPAÇÃO SOCIAL EM REDE

This article presents a set of theoretical and analytical contributions on the phenomenon of networks, focusing on social participation structured under this format. From the contributions of the sociologist like Bruno Latour, Norbert Elias and Manuel Castells methodological and theoretical nature of approaches will be presented that serve the understanding of this social dynamic. Next will be discussed social participation in the network and its match in a new perspective about the very public policies, here understood as a set of elements and actors that interact in a process set to public action.En el presente artículo se presenta un conjunto de aportaciones teóricas y analíticas sobre el fenómeno de las redes, centrándose en la participación social estructurada bajo este formato. A partir de las contribuciones de sociólogos como Bruno Latour, Norbert Elias y Manuel Castells serán presentadas contribuiciones metodológicas y teóricas que sirven a la comprensión de esta dinámica social. A continuación se discutirá la participación social en la red y su correspondencia con una nueva perspectiva acerca de las políticas públicas, entendida aquí como un conjunto de elementos y actores que interactúan en un proceso definido como acción pública.O presente artigo apresenta um conjunto de contribuições teórico-analíticas acerca do fenômeno das redes, com foco na participação social estruturada sob esse formato. A partir das contribuições dos sociólogos Bruno Latour, Nobert Elias e Manuel Castells serão apresentadas abordagens de cunho metodológico e teórico que servem à compreensão dessa dinâmica social. Em seguida será discutida a participação social em rede e sua correspondência a uma nova perspectiva acerca das próprias políticas públicas, aqui compreendidas como um conjunto de elementos e atores de que interagem em um proceso definido como ação públic

The effect of a community based pulmonary rehabilitation programme on the quality of life of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a community based rehabilitation exercise programme had an effect on pulmonary function, exercise tolerance and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in patients diagnosed with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB). The prevalence of PTB in South Africa is one of the highest in the African continent. Assessing the effectiveness of the programme could provide further methods in improving compliance to pharmaceutical medication as well as an improvement in the morbidity experienced after diagnosis of PTB

Extremal non-BPS black holes and entropy extremization

At the horizon, a static extremal black hole solution in N=2 supergravity in four dimensions is determined by a set of so-called attractor equations which, in the absence of higher-curvature interactions, can be derived as extremization conditions for the black hole potential or, equivalently, for the entropy function. We contrast both methods by explicitly solving the attractor equations for a one-modulus prepotential associated with the conifold. We find that near the conifold point, the non-supersymmetric solution has a substantially different behavior than the supersymmetric solution. We analyze the stability of the solutions and the extrema of the resulting entropy as a function of the modulus. For the non-BPS solution the region of attractivity and the maximum of the entropy do not coincide with the conifold point.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, AMS-LaTeX, reference adde

On Holographic p-wave Superfluids with Back-reaction

We numerically construct asymptotically Anti-de Sitter charged black hole solutions of (4+1)-dimensional SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory that, for sufficiently low temperature, develop vector hair. Via gauge-gravity duality, these solutions describe a strongly-coupled conformal field theory at finite temperature and density that undergoes a phase transition to a superfluid state with spontaneously broken rotational symmetry (a p-wave superfluid state). The bulk theory has a single free parameter, the ratio of the five-dimensional gravitational constant to the Yang-Mills coupling, which we denote as alpha. Previous analyses have shown that in the so-called probe limit, where alpha goes to zero and hence the gauge fields are ignored in Einstein's equation, the transition to the superfluid state is second order. We construct fully back-reacted solutions, where alpha is finite and the gauge fields are included in Einstein's equation, and find that for values of alpha above a critical value alpha_c = 0.365 +- 0.001, the transition becomes first order.Comment: 15 pages, 7 pdf files in 4 figure

Direct Military Intervention and Stability in the United States' Backyard, 1965-1995

The United States foreign policy of stabilization through direct military intervention has stirred considerable controversy with regards to both its ethics and effectiveness, not least following the recent failures to stabilize the political systems of Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of intervention. Putting normative questions aside, the focus of this work is to analyze the effectiveness of modern United States stabilization operations from a historical perspective by examining Central America and the Caribbean, the geopolitical region in which the United States has maintained its longest and most direct sphere of influence.La política exterior d'estabilització dels Estats Units mitjançant intervencions militars directes ha provocat una important controvèrsia en relació tant a la seva ètica com a la seva efectivitat, i més després dels recents fracassos, conseqüència de la intervenció, per estabilitzar els sistemes polítics d'Afganistan i Iraq. Deixant de banda qüestions normatives, el focus d'aquest treball és analitzar l'efectivitat de les operacions modernes d'estabilització dels Estats Units des d'una perspectiva històrica a través de l'estudi d'Amèrica Central i el Carib, regió geopolítica on els Estats Units ha mantingut la més llarga i més directa esfera d'influència

Que no nos quiten lo bailado : una investigación colaborativa con danza movimiento terapia

El presente artículo ofrece aspectos generales de la literatura pertinente al tema de la investigación colaborativa, de la danza movimiento terapia así como, narraciones de las reflexiones, las huellas en movimiento, las vivencias, las motivaciones y fragmentos de los diarios de campo tanto del paciente como de la terapeuta. Es la narrativa de una reflexión sobre el proceso terapéutico elaborado a dos voces, a dos cuerpos, con la atención puesta en crear un vinculo seguro y respetuoso. Se pretende destacar que, sin la implicación total, consciente del paciente y sin la presencia observadora, abierta de la terapeuta, esta investigación a dos no habría sido posible

Ventajas de la implementación de una técnica alternativa al polígrafo como evaluación de la confiabilidad en procesos de selección.

Formular las ventajas de un protocolo alternativo al polígrafo en la selección de candidatos.Las medidas fiscales tomadas por el estado, por medio de la reforma tributaria, en combinación con las exigencias de la reincorporación a la vida civil de excombatientes, derivado del proceso de desarme, además de las obligaciones a las que el país se adhiere voluntariamente con su intención de ser parte de la OCDE, han impuesto nuevas obligaciones para las organizaciones que centran sus actividades en la contratación y suministro de personal, pues se enfrentan a un mercado laboral de creciente tercerización y de exigencia en la calidad de la contratación a bajo costo. El proyecto es un aporte a las empresas de offshoring y de vigilancia y seguridad privada, que tienen la necesidad de evaluar la confiabilidad en las personas a ser contratadas. Lo anterior se relaciona directamente con el objetivo de mantener costos bajos o controlados asociados a los procesos de selección y garantizar la confiabilidad de los candidatos evaluados, en un tiempo de respuesta corto

Sequential Turning Acquisition and Reconstruction (STAR) method for four-dimensional imaging of cyclically moving structures

Optical coherence tomography allows for dynamic, three-dimensional (3D+T) imaging of the heart within animal embryos. However, direct 3D+T imaging frame rates remain insufficient for cardiodynamic analysis. Previously, this limitation has been addressed by reconstructing 3D+T representations of the beating heart based on sets of two-dimensional image sequences (2D+T) acquired sequentially at high frame rate and in fixed (and parallel) planes throughout the heart. These methods either require additional hardware to trigger the acquisition of each 2D+T series to the same phase of the cardiac cycle or accumulate registration errors as the slices are synchronized retrospectively by pairs, without a gating signal. Here, we present a sequential turning acquisition and reconstruction (STAR) method for 3D+T imaging of periodically moving structures, which does not require any additional gating signal and is not prone to registration error accumulation. Similarly to other sequential cardiac imaging methods, multiple fast image series are consecutively acquired for different sections but in between acquisitions, the imaging plane is rotated around the center line instead of shifted along the direction perpendicular to the slices. As the central lines of all image-sequences coincide and represent measurements of the same spatial position, they can be used to accurately synchronize all the slices to a single inherent reference signal. We characterized the accuracy of our method on a simulated dynamic phantom and successfully imaged a beating embryonic rat heart. Potentially, this method can be applied for structural or Doppler imaging approaches with any direct space imaging modality such as computed tomography, ultrasound, or light microscopy