Micro-universes and Situated Critical Theory: Postcolonial and Feminist Dialogues in a Comparative Study of Indo-English and Lusophone Women Writers

This dissertation studies six texts written by women (three Indo-English novels, a novel and an anthology of short stories from Cape Verde and a novel from Mozambique). The three Lusophone texts (literature written in Portuguese, though it is not Portuguese literature) are compared to the Indo-English texts in order to assess different evolutions in the sense of national identity in these postcolonial contexts, concerning: . post-independence senses of history and identity, . revision of colonial mythologies, . self-assertion in relation to the colonial past and current neo-colonial threats, . social critique concerning the crisis or weaknesses of the postcolonial state, . alternative agendas to manage a functional sense of self in dialogue with situated, and complex, historical and political contexts. In the chosen texts, the represented frames of collective identity are felt as oppressive forces or problematic references, with damaging consequences in the development of individual identities. As the reader follows individual characters in their process of self-definition, a sense of post-independence crisis is exposed, and a stern social critique carried out, reflecting on past and present international relations, as well. The particular perspective offered by women writers represents "the nation" as a set of particular socio-cultural discourses, entwined with patterns of family organisation, the definition of dominant mentalities concerning gender roles and the perpetuation of normative life styles. While analysing the postcolonial condition of their societies, these writers have also created a set of women characters, situated in different postcolonial contexts, cultures and social classes, which are models of dissent, suggesting alternative feminist agendas, suitable to each of these situated societies. The study of the work of these writers proved the necessity of diverse feminist theories and agendas, sensitive to differences between women, integrated in historical geo-cultural universes. Furthermore, the developed approach demonstrated the worth of a feminist study to discuss and revise models of collective identity criss-crossing with the critical assessment of current postcolonial societies. Finally, this research tried to promote Lusophone literatures (by comparing them to such an established case as Indo-English literature) and map a small genealogy of women s writing in world literatures

Abnormal Visuo-vestibular Interactions in Vestibular Migraine: a Cross Sectional Study

Vestibular migraine is amongst the commonest causes of episodic vertigo. Chronically, patients with vestibular migraine develop abnormal responsiveness to both vestibular and visual stimuli characterised by heightened self-motion sensitivity and visually-induced dizziness. Yet, the neural mechanisms mediating such symptoms remain unknown. We postulate that such symptoms are attributable to impaired visuo-vestibular cortical interactions, which in-turn disrupts normal vestibular function. To assess this, we investigated whether prolonged, full-field visual motion exposure, which has previously been shown to modulate visual cortical excitability in both healthy individuals and avestibular patients, could disrupt vestibular ocular reflex (VOR) and vestibular-perceptual thresholds of self-motion during rotations. Our findings reveal that vestibular migraine patients exhibited abnormally elevated reflexive and perceptual vestibular thresholds at baseline. Following visual motion exposure, both reflex and perceptual thresholds were significantly further increased in vestibular migraine patients relative to healthy controls, migraineurs without vestibular symptoms and patients with episodic vertigo due to a peripheral inner-ear disorder. Our results provide support for the notion of altered visuo-vestibular cortical interactions in vestibular migraine, as evidenced by vestibular threshold elevation following visual motion exposure

A Raman Study of Morphotropic Phase Boundary in PbZr1-xTixO3 at low temperatures

Raman spectra of PbZr1-xTixO3 ceramics with titanium concentration varying between 0.40 and 0.60 were measured at 7 K. By observing the concentration-frequency dependence of vibrational modes, we identified the boundaries among rhombohedral, monoclinic, and tetragonal ferroelectric phases. The analysis of the spectra was made in the view of theory group analysis making possible the assignment of some modes for the monoclinic phase.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Anisotropy studies around the galactic centre at EeV energies with the Auger Observatory

Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory are analyzed to search for anisotropies near the direction of the Galactic Centre at EeV energies. The exposure of the surface array in this part of the sky is already significantly larger than that of the fore-runner experiments. Our results do not support previous findings of localized excesses in the AGASA and SUGAR data. We set an upper bound on a point-like flux of cosmic rays arriving from the Galactic Centre which excludes several scenarios predicting sources of EeV neutrons from Sagittarius $A$. Also the events detected simultaneously by the surface and fluorescence detectors (the `hybrid' data set), which have better pointing accuracy but are less numerous than those of the surface array alone, do not show any significant localized excess from this direction.Comment: Matches published versio