Violet City: Fantasizing Liverpool in Song, Story and Film

Violet City exists as a sequence of songs, a fantasy novel and a micro-budget feature film. The film was shot entirely on green screen and is due for digital release in 2016. It uses hundreds of composited images and mattes, merging locations as disparate as the warehouses and streets of Liverpool with the canals of Venice, the Himalayas, the Liver Buildings and the Giant’s Causeway to create a dark fairy tale ambience. Airships and hot air balloons soar above paddle steamers and luxury barges in the shadow of Cathedral Mountain. I adapted the screenplay from my novel, written as part of my doctorate by practice, investigating the personal and cultural mythologies that informed my imagination, growing up in Liverpool, and filtered through the work of various pre-1980s fantasy writers. Mediadrome, an independent US publisher will be publishing the book to coincide with the film release, and I have provided much of the soundtrack, using recordings by my various Liverpool-based bands from the 1980s to the present. This article discusses ways in which these symbiotic creative works reimagine my home city through the lenses of fantasy fiction and how memories of Liverpool’s past landscapes have affected my creative processes over the years

Associação entre os níveis séricos de pentraxina 3 e a mortalidade de pacientes vítimas de traumatismo crânio-encefálico grave

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Médicas, Florianópolis, 2010Introdução: O trauma cranioencefálico (TCE), é a umas das maiores causas de morbidade e mortalidade no mundo. Pentraxina 3 (PTX3) é um componente do sistema humoral de resposta imune inata que tem sido estudada como marcador para inflamação, infecções ou patologias cardiovasculares. Objetivos: Investigar a associação entre os níveis séricos de PTX3 e a mortalidade de pacientes com TCE grave. Métodos: A associação independente entre os níveis séricos de PTX3 após o TCE grave (Escala de Coma de Glasgow, ECG ? 8) e a mortalidade no momento da alta foi analisada em um estudo prospectivo de 83 pacientes consecutivos, por uma análise de regressão logística múltipla. Resultados: A média de idade dos pacientes foi de 35 anos e 85 porcento são homens. Os níveis séricos de PTX3 são determinados em 18.0 (DP ± 17.0) horas após o trauma. Pacientes que morreram apresentaram uma média no nível sérico de PTX3 de 9,95 ?gm / ml (DP ± 6,42) em comparação com 5,46 ?gm / ml (DP ± 4,87) no Grupo de sobreviventes (p = 0,007). Após a análise por regressão logística múltipla, níveis séricos de PTX3 maior que 10 ?gm/ml foi 3 vezes mais associado com à morte do que os níveis mais baixos (OR ajustado 3.38, IC 95% 1.10 - 10.45, p = 0.03). A idade avançada, anormalidades pupilares e menor pontuação na ECG também foram associadas independentemente à mortalidade. Conclusão: Níveis séricos de PTX3 após o TCE grave estão associados à maior mortalidade no momento da alta. Nossa descoberta sugere que PTX3 pode ser um marcador útil de TCE grave e seu prognóstico

A contribuição de Wittgenstein na educação em ciências

A Filosofia é muito importante para todos os campos de conhecimento. No caso da Educação em Ciências, suas ferramentas de pensamento são importantes porque nos possibilitam descrever os fundamentos das teorias de aprendizagem, já que todas trazem consigo pressupostos filosóficos sobre o conhecimento e sua aprendizagem. O pensamento de Wittgenstein é considerado de crucial importância para a Filosofia do século XX,e sua filosofia tem ganhado importância crescente no cenário da Educação em Ciências, em especial nos aspectos relacionados à compreensão do papel da linguagem na aprendizagem e na elaboração de significados. Nesse trabalho trazemos uma revisão bibliográfica sobre a contribuição desse filósofo nas linhas de pesquisa da Educação em Ciências, e também propomos novas aplicações de sua filosofia

Does expanding primary healthcare improve hospital efficiency? Evidence from a panel analysis of avoidable hospitalisations in 5506 municipalities in Brazil, 2000-2014.

BACKGROUND: Hospitals account for the major share of health expenditure. Primary healthcare may improve efficiency at the hospital level by reducing avoidable admissions. We examined whether rapid expansion of primary healthcare in the context of Brazil's Family Health Strategy (FHS) was associated with a reduction in avoidable hospitalisations. METHODS: We constructed panel data for 5506 municipalities over 2000-2014. Our primary outcome was the rate of avoidable hospitalisations, defined with reference to the official list of ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC). The exposure variable was FHS coverage. We used first-difference models at the municipality level, controlling for municipality characteristics and confounding trends. We ran similar models for each of the 19 diseases in the list of ACSCs. FINDINGS: FHS coverage expanded from 14% to 64% of the population between 2000 and 2014. Over the same period, the rate of avoidable hospitalisations fell from 17 to 10 per 1000 population. Results from the econometric analysis show that the FHS at full coverage was associated with an increase of 0.6 (95% CI 0.3 to 0.9; p<0.001) in the rate of avoidable hospital admissions. Expansion of the FHS was associated with an increase of 866 (95% CI 762 to 970; p<0.001) in the rate of primary care consultations. The FHS was not significantly associated with a reduction in hospitalisations for any of the 19 conditions. CONCLUSIONS: While high-quality primary healthcare can deliver considerable health benefits to the population, it may not always be effective in addressing inefficiencies at the hospital level due to avoidable admissions

As realidades sócio-educativas enfrentadas pelos professores

Anais do II Seminário Seminário Estadual PIBID do Paraná: tecendo saberes / organizado por Dulcyene Maria Ribeiro e Catarina Costa Fernandes — Foz do Iguaçu: Unioeste; Unila, 2014O presente artigo traz uma reflexão sobre as dificuldades e as diferentes realidades no qual os professores são submetidos no seu dia-a-dia. Dentre eles, os desafios que encontram no âmbito escolar para conseguir desenvolver seu trabalho educativo e, em específico, como enfrentam as adversidades que seus alunos vivem na realidade social em que estão inseridos. Destacam-se como norteadores pedagógicos os seguintes autores: Jaime Pinsky (1999); Pimenta (2010); Almeida e Antonio (2013). Objetiva-se neste trabalho, analisar os problemas enfrentados no cotidiano escolar pelos professores e como as instâncias educacionais procuram resolver esses problemas. Traremos, ainda, em pauta um breve relato sobre as condições sócio- educativas do CMEI em que realizamos as atividades práticas do PIBID, promovido pelo curso de Pedagogi

How many independent bets are there?

The benefits of portfolio diversification is a central tenet implicit to modern financial theory and practice. Linked to diversification is the notion of breadth. Breadth is correctly thought of as the number of in- dependent bets available to an investor. Conventionally applications us- ing breadth frequently assume only the number of separate bets. There may be a large discrepancy between these two interpretations. We uti- lize a simple singular-value decomposition (SVD) and the Keiser-Gutman stopping criterion to select the integer-valued effective dimensionality of the correlation matrix of returns. In an emerging market such as South African we document an estimated breadth that is considerably lower than anticipated. This lack of diversification may be because of market concentration, exposure to the global commodity cycle and local currency volatility. We discuss some practical extensions to a more statistically correct interpretation of market breadth, and its theoretical implications for both global and domestic investors.Comment: Less technical rewrite. 12 Pages, 6 Figures (.eps

Indigenous demosponge spicules in a Late Devonian stromatoporoid basal skeleton from the Frasnian of Belgium

This paper records the first example of a demosponge spicule framework in a single specimen of a Devonian stromatoporoid from the Frasnian of southern Belgium. The small sample (2.5 × 2 cm) is a component in a brecciated carbonate from a carbonate mound in La Boverie Quarry 30 km east of Dinant. Because of the small size of the sample, generic identification is not confirmed, but the stromatoporoid basal skeleton is similar to the genus Stromatopora. The spicules are arranged in the calcified skeleton, but not in the gallery space, and are recrystallized as multi-crystalline calcite. The spicules fall into two size ranges: 10-20 μm diameter and 500-2000 μm long for the large ones and between 5-15 μm diameter and 50-100 μm length for the small ones. In tangential section, the spicules are circular, they have a simple structure, and no axial canal has been preserved. The large spicules are always monaxons, straight or slightly curved styles or strongyles. The spicules most closely resemble halichondrid/axinellid demosponge spicules and are important rare evidence of the existence of spicules in Palaeozoic stromatoporoids, reinforcing the interpretation that stromatoporoids were sponges. The basal skeleton may have had an aragonitic spherulitic mineralogy. Furthermore, the spicules indicate that this stromatoporoid sample is a demosponge. © 2014 Lethaia Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Moisturizing emulsion with Attalea speciosa (babassu) oil as an alternative treatment for cutaneous xerosis in leprosy

This study investigated the moisturizing action of a topical emulsion containing babassu coconut almond oil in xerotic skin volunteers treated or undergoing leprosy treatment. A total of 20 volunteers (16 men and 4 women, with a mean age of 52.2 ± 15.3) with cutaneous xerosis performed the tests after signing the informed consent form. The research subjects were instructed to use the product under investigation (Attalea speciosa almond oil gel-cream formulation) 1 (one) once a day, in two 15-day cycles: first with the gel-cream formulation with babassu oil (treatment A) and the second with the gel-cream formulation without babassu oil (treatment B). The moisturizing emulsion did not significantly alter (p&gt; 0.05) the xerotic skin pH of the volunteers, treatment A (11.6 ± 0.1), treatment B (8.8 ± 0.2) and control (11.4 ± 0.2) at week W7, when compared to week W15, treatment A (11.0 ± 0.4), treatment B (11.6 ± 0.1) and control (11.4 ± 0.2). Clinical evaluations showed the efficacy and good tolerability of topical emulsion in the hydration of xerotic skin. The biophysical evaluation of the moisturizing emulsion proved the significant improvement of skin moisture