Sub-Versions: Investigating Videogame Hacking Practices and Subcultures

“Hacking” is an evocative term — one that is mired in tropes that reduce a diverse range of practices into a few stereotypically malicious activities. This thesis aims to explore one hacking practice, videogame hacking, whose practitioners make unauthorized alterations to videogames after their release. Through interviews, game analysis, and reflective writing, this thesis investigates videogame hacking subcultures of production — communities of creative labour that exist in the margins of mediamaking and the fringes of the law. This thesis begins by reviewing popular media and existing accounts of computer hacker culture, primarily Steven Levy’s Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution and Gabriella Coleman’s Coding Freedom, in order to contextualize videogame hacking in broader histories of computer culture. Using this analysis as a starting point, the author then proposes a reflexive methodological framework for studying videogame hacking subcultures, designed to accommodate the ephemerality of virtual communities and the apprehensions of participants. The following two chapters refer to participant interviews to pursue two avenues of research. First, drawing upon Michel de Certeau’s writing on strategies versus tactics and Henry Jenkins chronicling of prohibitionist and collaborationist models, this study explores how intellectual property law serves as a site of tension between media companies and videogame fans. Second, the author explores the diverse motivations of videogame hackers who create works that are undistributable through commercial markets and may face the risk of legal action

Review: Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons

Review: Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons, by Jon Peterson. 2021. The MIT Press. xii + 386 pp

Sergio Atzeni alla luce di Gabriel García Márquez. Indagine comparata su Passavamo sulla terra leggeri e Cien años de soledad

El trabajo de investigación aquí desarrollado parte de la comparación de dos autores aparentemente distantes: Gabriel García Márquez, colombiano, de fama mundial, premio Nobel de literatura e 1982 y Sergio Atzeni, un escritor de culto que ha suscitado un interesante debate cultural a escala nacional italiana. En el presente estudio se han comparado dos obras, una de cada uno de ellos, respectivamente: Cien años de soledad y Passavamo sulla terra leggeri Dicha comparación se efectúa porque se cree que existe una evidente influencia del primero sobre el segundo y se quiere resaltar las implicaciones de esta ascendencia sobre la obra del sardo.La metodología utilizada aquí es la propia de la investigación en literatura comparada. La Tesis consta de cuatro capítulos realizados con dicha orientación contrastiva. En el primero se analiza el contexto histórico, político, geográfico, social y cultural en el que vivieron los dos autores. En el segundo y tercer capítulo se han analizado estructuralmente las dos obras. El cuarto capítulo es un análisis comparativo entre las dos obras

Estudio comparativo de las certificaciones Green Building en edificios para la validación óptima del sistema de certificación AQUA de Brasil

Dada la alta tasa de impactos ambientales causados por el sector de la construcción, hay una demanda creciente para la práctica de la adopción de la certificación ambiental en los edificios con el fin de obtener una dirección en el proceso de producción de la construcción sostenible. Las diferentes herramientas de evaluación medioambiental empezaran a aparecer en el mundo en la década de 1990 desarrolladas por organizaciones sin fines de lucro y evaluadas por terceras partes los edificios; el incremento y crecimiento de estas organizaciones en varios países lograron promover dichas edificaciones ambientales. Sin embargo, Brasil al aumentar considerablemente la densidad demográfica en las zonas urbanas demandó la construcción de nuevos edificios y preocupados con la problemática ambiental del sector, se creó en 2008 el sistema de certificación AQUA por la Fundación Vanzolini, con la finalidad de evaluar la sostenibilidad de los edificios en Brasil. Para el logro del objetivo de validar ese sistema brasileño reciente y novedoso es necesario en un primer momento, entender desde el punto de vista organizativo, funcional y técnico como se estructuran las herramientas de certificación de edificios más empleadas a nivel mundial: BREEAM, LEED, CASBEE y el sistema objeto de estudio, AQUA. El trabajo continuó con la comparación de las herramientas mencionadas por medio de un método analítico jerárquico en base a los puntos de vista ya indicados (organizativo, funcional y técnico), encontrando que los diferentes sistemas presentan similitudes en las categorías y elementos evaluados, sin embargo se encuentran diferencias de sus porcentajes comprobando que cada uno fue creado para un determinado contexto. Mediante análisis de sensibilidad realizados en base a las prioridades detectadas para la región de Brasil se corroboró que AQUA es consistente en las relaciones entre sus categorías y consecuente con la situación actual de Brasil

A ética burguesa de D. N. McCloskey : uma discussão sobre o seu método

Orientador : Jose Guilherme Silva VieiraMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Curso de Ciências EconômicasInclui referênciasResumo : D. N. McCloskey é uma economista plural. A norte americana tem um amplo universo de pesquisa na Ciência Econômica, incluindo o da história, metodologia, política, estatística, linguagem, ética, entre outros temas. Seu mais recente esforço de trabalho, a Trilogia Burguesa - ou Era Burguesa - (2006, 2010 e 2016a) é uma forma de demonstrar tais disciplinas em uma releitura sobre as origens do mundo moderno. As teorias convencionais determinam que a ascensão da Era Moderna se deu através de postulados como acúmulo de capital, as Instituições ou até mesmo o Imperialismo dos países europeus centrais. A Trilogia Burguesa de McCloskey contra argumenta que o principal instrumento que garantiu, entre os séculos XVIII e XIX, o aumento de produtividade, o enriquecimento e a melhora dos povos europeus foram as ideias de inovação e descoberta, através de um discurso liberal liderado pela classe burguesa. Os burgueses têm sido marcados de maneira pejorativa, sendo elencados como trapaceiros e gananciosos. A Era Burguesa de McCloskey sugere, entretanto, uma visão ética do comércio em que a busca pelo lucro através da liberdade de ideias e virtudes balanceadas formam o verdadeiro burguês, substituindo a violência dos cleros conservador e socialista/progressista pelo poder da persuasão da burguesia. Como reflexo do seu trabalho pioneiro de 1983, posteriormente publicado como livro, "The Rhetoric of Economics" (1985), McCloskey garante uma retórica liberal do movimento burguês. Portanto, o trabalho tem o objetivo de compreender como McCloskey garantiu uma nova leitura da origem do mundo moderno. Argumentamos como a Retórica é o princípio chave da Trilogia Burguesa de McCloskey e de seu método. Para tal tarefa, iremos investigar das principais influências liberais, alinhadas com a retórica da Era Burguesa que contribuem na construção do nosso argumento. Em seguida, averiguamos a discussão da "Retórica da Economia" (1985) e dos trabalhos vinculados a esta, além do debate de McCloskey com o economista francês Thomas Piketty (2014). Por consequência, a união entre o método e a ética de McCloskey nos torna capazes de compreender a sua reavaliação dos séculos XVIII e XIX assim como sua proposta liberal de enriquecimento dos povos no momento atual

Whole genome sequencing of experimental hybrids supports meiosis-like sexual recombination in Leishmania

Hybrid genotypes have been repeatedly described among natural isolates of Leishmania, and the recovery of experimental hybrids from sand flies co-infected with different strains or species of Leishmania has formally demonstrated that members of the genus possess the machinery for genetic exchange. As neither gamete stages nor cell fusion events have been directly observed during parasite development in the vector, we have relied on a classical genetic analysis to determine if Leishmania has a true sexual cycle. Here, we used whole genome sequencing to follow the chromosomal inheritance patterns of experimental hybrids generated within and between different strains of L. major and L. infantum. We also generated and sequenced the first experimental hybrids in L. tropica. We found that in each case the parental somy and allele contributions matched the inheritance patterns expected under meiosis 97–99% of the time. The hybrids were equivalent to F1 progeny, heterozygous throughout most of the genome for the markers that were homozygous and different between the parents. Rare, non-Mendelian patterns of chromosomal inheritance were observed, including a gain or loss of somy, and loss of heterozygosity, that likely arose during meiosis or during mitotic divisions of the progeny clones in the fly or culture. While the interspecies hybrids appeared to be sterile, the intraspecies hybrids were able to produce backcross and outcross progeny. Analysis of 5 backcross and outcross progeny clones generated from an L. major F1 hybrid, as well as 17 progeny clones generated from backcrosses involving a natural hybrid of L. tropica, revealed genome wide patterns of recombination, demonstrating that classical crossing over occurs at meiosis, and allowed us to construct the first physical and genetic maps in Leishmania. Altogether, the findings provide strong evidence for meiosis-like sexual recombination in Leishmania, presenting clear opportunities for forward genetic analysis and positional cloning of important genes.</div

Gene expression in Leishmania is regulated predominantly by gene dosage

ABSTRACT Leishmania tropica, a unicellular eukaryotic parasite present in North and East Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, has been linked to large outbreaks of cutaneous leishmaniasis in displaced populations in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. Here, we report the genome sequence of this pathogen and 7,863 identified protein-coding genes, and we show that the majority of clinical isolates possess high levels of allelic diversity, genetic admixture, heterozygosity, and extensive aneuploidy. By utilizing paired genome-wide high-throughput DNA sequencing (DNA-seq) with RNA-seq, we found that gene dosage, at the level of individual genes or chromosomal “somy” (a general term covering disomy, trisomy, tetrasomy, etc.), accounted for greater than 85% of total gene expression variation in genes with a 2-fold or greater change in expression. High gene copy number variation (CNV) among membrane-bound transporters, a class of proteins previously implicated in drug resistance, was found for the most highly differentially expressed genes. Our results suggest that gene dosage is an adaptive trait that confers phenotypic plasticity among natural Leishmania populations by rapid down- or upregulation of transporter proteins to limit the effects of environmental stresses, such as drug selection. IMPORTANCE Leishmania is a genus of unicellular eukaryotic parasites that is responsible for a spectrum of human diseases that range from cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) to life-threatening visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Developmental and strain-specific gene expression is largely thought to be due to mRNA message stability or posttranscriptional regulatory networks for this species, whose genome is organized into polycistronic gene clusters in the absence of promoter-mediated regulation of transcription initiation of nuclear genes. Genetic hybridization has been demonstrated to yield dramatic structural genomic variation, but whether such changes in gene dosage impact gene expression has not been formally investigated. Here we show that the predominant mechanism determining transcript abundance differences (>85%) in Leishmania tropica is that of gene dosage at the level of individual genes or chromosomal somy

En la búsqueda de un modelo adaptado de competencia para la corté suprema de justicia de la nacion

Gli autori si pongono il problema dell’ampia competenza della Corte Suprema argentina illustrando, con rigorosa precisione, gli elementi normativi costituzionali e non costituzionali. Questi ultimi, progressivamente adattati alle esigenze del contesto giuridico nazionale e interazionale, avrebbero inciso sulla suddetta competenza ampliandola. Così la Corte Suprema argentina, agli occhi degli autori, avrebbe perso gradualmente il carattere di eccezionalità proprio di tale organo dello Stato, diventando una terza istanza federale nella quale si vedrebbe oggi un rischio pressochè latente di collasso, o almeno di eccessivo sovraccarico di lavoro. Per questo il saggio propone l’analisi di possibili modelli alternativi, ricorrendo allo studio non solo del modello nordamericano, il quale va studiato anche nei suoi profili storici, ma anche dei diversi sistemi latinoamericani ed europei, sempre nel tentativo, di trovare un modello adatto di competenza per la Corte Suprema argentina e la particolare situazione giuridica del Paese australe, rilevata con acuta e aggiornatissima visione realistica

Heart rate variability analysis during head-up tilt test predicts nitroglycerine-induced syncope

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether or not heart rate variability (HRV) analysis during the first 20\u2005min of head-up tilt testing could predict whether patients will develop syncope after nitroglycerine administration. DESIGN: 64 patients with previous loss of consciousness underwent head-up tilt testing with the Italian protocol, which involves the administration of nitroglycerine after 20\u2005min of tilt. HRV parameters were analysed from 5\u2005min intervals selected during pretest supine rest (phase 1), the first 5\u2005min (phase 2) and the last 5\u2005min (phase 3) of passive 20\u2005min of tilting, prior to the administration of nitroglycerine. Differences in power (ms(2)) of the spectral components between the various phases of tilting were calculated for each patient and expressed as \u394. RESULTS: 20 patients (group 1, 9 women, mean age 43.2\ub124.5\u2005years) had a syncope during tilt testing after nitroglycerine, while the other 44 (group 2, 24 women, mean age 41\ub120.5\u2005years) did not. In group 1, the HRV spectral parameters high frequency (HF) and total power (TP) had a significant decrement from phases 2 to 3 (p=0.012 and 0.027, respectively), while in group 2 the average HF and TP values did not change. The \u394 of spectral parameters between phases 2 and 3 were able to differentiate between the two groups and to predict syncope after nitroglycerine administration (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HRV analysis within the first 20\u2005min of passive tilting demonstrated that patients with nitroglycerine-induced syncope are characterised by a progressive decrement of parasympathetic activity, which does not occur in patients with a negative response to nitroglycerine. If confirmed on a wider population, HRV analysis could replace nitroglycerine administration and shorten the duration of the tilt test