Understanding fan culture : characteristics, terminology and limits

Fan Culture has largely been discussed when linked with Media Studies – be it regarding the effects of television and/or the Internet, or its historical evolution. This study proposes to investigate Fan Culture by exploring how it works and which are its defining characteristics, terminology and limits. Inevitably intertwined with Popular Culture, this dissertation will try to identify multiple fandoms and distinguish what unites them – as well as what separates them. Exploring topics like fan identification, as well as gender and violence (among others), will allow for a greater clarity on the impact of the phenomenon in both social and cultural life. Fan Culture can be thought of as a wide spectrum. This investigation wishes to better define and analyze the phenomenon and its dynamics. Understanding fans as both cultural objects and active agents in the production of culture, this dissertation will make use of a qualitative analysis of fundamental texts, as well as a secondary data analysis of three quantitative studies to further define the culture produced for and by the fans.A Cultura dos Fãs tem sido estudada sobretudo em associação aos Estudos dos Media - quer seja em relação aos efeitos da televisão e/ou da Internet, quer seja em relação à sua evolução histórica. Este trabalho propõe investigar a Cultura dos Fãs, explorando como funciona e quais são as suas características principais, respectiva terminologia e limites. Inevitavelmente entrelaçada com a Cultura Popular, esta dissertação procurará identificar múltiplos grupos de fãs e distinguir o que os une - assim como o que os separa. O estudo de temas como a identificação dos fãs, o género e a violência (entre outros) permitirá clarificar o impacto do fenómeno tanto na vida social como cultural. A Cultura dos Fãs pode ser pensada como um espectro amplo. Esta investigação visa definir e analisar mais a fundo o fenómeno e as suas dinâmicas. Fazendo uso dos fãs como objetos culturais e agentes ativos na produção da cultura, esta dissertação desenvolve uma análise qualitativa de textos fundamentais, bem como uma análise de dados secundários de três estudos quantitativos para definir melhor a cultura produzida para e pelos fãs

The role of Mob proteins in protozoan cell cycle regulation

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências Veterinárias. Especialidade de Ciências Biológicas e BiomédicasABSTRACT- Proper cell division and control of cell proliferation are critical aspects in cell biology, with implications during embryonic development and in the maintenance of organisms’ homeostasis. Mob1 is a core protein of the Mitotic Exit Network and of the Hippo pathway, fundamental signaling cascades for the correct metaphase to anaphase transition and for the proper balance between cell proliferation and death. In this work we took advantage of two protozoan organisms to investigate the role of Mob1, the most ancient protein of the Hippo pathway. In the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila we demonstrated that Mob1 has a polarized subcellular distribution, concentrating in the basal bodies of the cell posterior pole. During cell division, the protein also localizes in the region where the division plane is formed and its absence in this specific place leads to the mispositioning of division axis and cytokinesis impairment. These results revealed that Mob1 directly links proper cell polarity to correct cell division. Our studies of Mob1 in the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, also a permanent polarized unicellular organism, contributed to a better understanding of how parasites may regulate cell proliferation inside the host cell, a critical aspect for the course of infection. In T. gondii, Mob1 also localizes preferentially in the posterior pole of the cell, where the basal complex, which is essential for cytokinesis, is localized. Interestingly, in agreement with a role for Mob1 in proliferation control in T. gondii, we observed that mob1 mRNA levels are dramatically diminished when parasites are actively replicating inside the cell and that Mob1 overexpression leads to a delay in the parasite replication rate. Altogether, the work presented clearly positions Mob1 as an ancestral molecule playing a critical role in the cross-road of cell polarity establishment, correct cell division and proliferation control.RESUMO - O papel das proteínas Mob1 na regulação da divisão celular em protozoários - A divisão celular e o controlo da proliferação são aspectos fundamentais em biologia celular com implicações no desenvolvimento embrionário e na manutenção da homeostasia nos organismos. A proteína Mob1 é uma componente de duas vias de sinalização celular, a Mitotic Exit Network e a via de sinalização Hippo, cascatas de fosforilação essenciais para a correcta transição entre a metáfase a e a anáfase e para o balanço entre a proliferação/morte celular. Neste trabalho, utilizámos dois protozoários modelo para investigar a função da proteína Mob1, a mais ancestral das proteínas nas vias de sinalização referidas. No ciliado Tetrahymena thermophila, demonstrámos que a proteína Mob1 apresenta uma localização polarizada, estando principalmente concentrada nos corpos basais do polo posterior das células. Aquando da divisão celular, a Mob1 também é observada na região da célula onde se forma o eixo de divisão. Esta localização é essencial visto a ausência de Mob1 no local conduzir ao deslocamento do eixo e impedir a citocinese. O nosso estudo no parasita apicomplexa Toxoplasma gondii, um organismo também permanentemente polarizado, contribuiu para compreender melhor, o possível mecanismo de regulação da proliferação dos parasitas dentro da célula hospedeira, um aspecto essencial no desenvolvimento da infecção. Em T. gondii, a proteína Mob1 também se concentra no polo posterior da célula onde se localiza o complexo basal, uma estrutura envolvida na citocinese. Claramente suportando a nossa hipótese que a Mob1 desempenha um papel no controlo da proliferação, observámos que os níveis de RNA mensageiro do gene mob1 são drasticamente diminuídos quando os parasitas estão no período de replicação activa dentro das células hospedeiras. Adicionalmente, a acumulação da proteína no citoplasma dos parasitas provoca um atraso significativo na sua taxa de replicação. Em conjunto, o trabalho apresentado posiciona a proteína Mob1 como uma molécula ancestral envolvida na conexão entre o estabelecimento da polaridade, a correcta divisão e o controlo da proliferação celular.Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional - IEF

Creative tourism special issue: foreword

This Tourism and Management Studies Special Issue on Creative Tourism is born under the scope of a very original project: the CREATOUR - Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas. The CREATOUR project is the first action-research project in Portugal whose objectives are to study and to stimulate the creative tourism initiatives in small places and rural areas. CREATOUR is an incubator/demonstration and multidisciplinary research initiative, supporting collaborative research processes involving five Portuguese research centres working with a range of cultural/creative organisations and other stakeholders located in small cities across Portugal in the Norte, Centro, Alentejo and Algarve regions.Agência financiadora Joint Activities Programme of PORTUGAL 2020 ( Project 16437 ); COMPETE2020; Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mapping intangibilities in creative tourism territories through tangible objects: a methodological approach for developing creative tourism offers

What can people express about their places through the objects that they valorise and link to their territory? Can objects create narratives about a place's identity and collect significant cultural information that locate people in their places? Can such cultural mapping be a useful tool in the design of creative tourist offers? The Project CREATOUR held a series of Idea Laboratories with several entities that provide creative tourism experiences, approaching cultural mapping through objects as a tool for regional actors to discover what is 'so special' about their places, a way to link tourism offers with the community where they take place. These exercise lead participants to remark on the importance and idiosyncrasy of their regions and evidenced the importance of cultural mapping to a more sustainable offer and the overall marketing of destinations. Mapping intangibilities through tangible objects helped to capture what gives meaning to particular places.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia CREATOUR - 16437 COMPETE2020, POR Lisboainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

"Kinetic modeling of ammonia selective catalytic reduction for cleaning emissions from vehicles"

Trabalho de investigação desenvolvido na Chalmers University of Technology. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Division of Chemical Engineering. Competence Centre for CatalysisTese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Química. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Do governance arrangements affect the voluntary adoption of water safety plans? An empirical study of water utilities in Portugal

What factors influence the voluntary adoption of Water Safety Plans (WSPs) by water utilities? EU Directive 2015/1787, October 6th, on water quality for human consumption, mandates the implementation of a risk assessment process for all water utilities. The strategic approach present in WSPs may be decisive for this purpose, allowing utilities to pursue effective risk assessments with positive repercussions for public health and environmental protection, as well as for the governance of the water sector. This article investigates the factors influencing the voluntary adoption of WSPs by water utilities in Portugal prior to the change in the national regulatory framework. More specifically, it seeks to explore whether the governance arrangement of water utilities – in-house bureaucracies, municipal corporations, concessions to private firms or public-public partnerships – affects the likelihood of adoption of a WSP. The results indicate that governance arrangements can make a difference when it comes to the adoption of this methodology, suggesting that water utilities run by in-house bureaucracies are less likely to adopt WSPs. The dimension is also a relevant factor as utilities serving above 50,000 residents or 10,000 m3/day are more prone to adopt WSPs. Moreover, water utilities with quality management systems in place are more predisposed to adopt WSPs. Broadly, the article urges all stakeholders, mainly water utilities and national regulators, to implement measures that lead to the best possible results considering that the implementation of WSPs is a major upgrade in water quality assurance.This research received funding from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds [Grant No. UID/CPO/0758/2019]

ePortfolios in translators’ training and assessment

Translator’s training and assessment has used more and more tools and innovative strategies over the years. The goals and results to achieve haven’t changed much, however: translation quality. In order to accomplish it, the translator and all the tasks and processes he develops appear as crucial, being pre-translation and post-translation processes equally important as the translation itself, namely as far as autonomy, reflexive and critical skills are concerned. Finally, the need and relevance of collaborative tasks and networks amongst virtual translation communities, led us to the decision of implementing ePortfolios as a tool to develop the requested skills and extend the use of Internet in translation. In this paper we describe a case-study of a pilot experiment on the using of e-portfolios as a translation training tool and discuss their role in the definition of a clear set of objectives and phases for the completion of each task, by helping students in the management of the projects deadlines, improving their knowledge on the construction and management of translation resources and deepening their awareness about the concepts related to the development of eportfolios

Enhancing reflexivity and technology in translation learning: case study on the use of ePortfolio as a training environment

In this paper we describe a casestudy of an experiment on how reflexivity and technology can enhance learning, by using ePorfolios as a training environment to develop translation skills. Translation is today a multiskilled job and translators need to assure their clients a good performance and quality, both in language and in technology domains. In order to accomplish it, for the translator all the tasks and processes he develops appear as crucial, being pretranslation and posttranslation processes equally important as the translation itself, namely as far as autonomy, reflexive and critical skills are concerned. Finally, the need and relevance for collaborative tasks and networks amongst virtual translation communities, led us to the decision of implementing ePortfolios as a tool to develop the requested skills and extend the use of Internet in translation, namely in terminology management phases, for the completion of each task, by helping students in the management of the projects deadlines, improving their knowledge on the construction and management of translation resources and deepening their awareness about the concepts related to the development and usability of ePorfolios

Metaphase chromosome structure is dynamically maintained by condensin I-directed DNA (de)catenation

This deposit is composed by the main article and the supplementary materials are present in the publisher's page in the following link: https://elifesciences.org/articles/26120/figures.Mitotic chromosome assembly remains a big mystery in biology. Condensin complexes are pivotal for chromosome architecture yet how they shape mitotic chromatin remains unknown. Using acute inactivation approaches and live-cell imaging in Drosophila embryos, we dissect the role of condensin I in the maintenance of mitotic chromosome structure with unprecedented temporal resolution. Removal of condensin I from pre-established chromosomes results in rapid disassembly of centromeric regions while most chromatin mass undergoes hyper-compaction. This is accompanied by drastic changes in the degree of sister chromatid intertwines. While wild-type metaphase chromosomes display residual levels of catenations, upon timely removal of condensin I, chromosomes present high levels of de novo Topoisomerase II (TopoII)-dependent re-entanglements, and complete failure in chromosome segregation. TopoII is thus capable of re-intertwining previously separated DNA molecules and condensin I continuously required to counteract this erroneous activity. We propose that maintenance of chromosome resolution is a highly dynamic bidirectional process.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia grants: (SRFH/BD/52172/2013, IF/0085½012/CP0185/CT0004 WP1); European Commission grants: (MCCIG321883/CCC, ERC-2014-STG-638917-ChromoCellDev); European Molecular Biology Organization grant: (IG2778).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Teachers´ Perceptions of Using Blogs in EFL Classes in Portugal

O presente relatório faz parte dos requisitos do Mestrado em Utilização Pedagógica das TIC na ESECS-IPL. Blogging é o ato de publicar conteúdo numa plataforma online, com o qual muitos utilizadores da Internet estão já familiarizados. No entanto, tem sido subutilizado em Inglês como língua estrangeira (LE) em Portugal. Assim, este estudo explora e examina as perceções que os professores de inglês a lecionar nos 2º e 3º CEB, bem como no nível secundário, em Portugal, têm relativamente aos benefícios e constrangimentos de trabalhar com weblogs (vulgo, blogues) nas suas aulas. A inclusão de objetivos relacionados com blogging nas Metas Curriculares da disciplina de Inglês e em outros documentos oficiais emanados do Ministério da Educação, bem como a crescente importância das literacias digitais na educação em todo o mundo, subjazem ao objetivo deste estudo de fazer uma modesta contribuição - no contexto português - para as formas como os professores de Inglês LE percebem o uso de blogues, e como os alunos podem beneficiar com o seu uso. Depois de definir as minhas motivações pessoais e profissionais para este estudo e seus objetivos no Capítulo 1, o Capítulo 2 abrange uma extensa revisão da literatura onde discuto o aparecimento de blogues, seguidos dos seus benefícios e constrangimentos quando usados em contextos de sala de aula, conforme identificados na literatura. O Capítulo 3 apresenta a fundamentação e metodologia do projeto de pesquisa, antes de explicar o procedimento de recolha e análise de dados através de questionários exploratórios aplicados aos professores de Inglês LE em seminários organizados pela Associação Portuguesa de Professores de Inglês (APPI) e um questionário piloto aplicado a todos os professores de Inglês a lecionar numa escola de 2º e 3º CEB na região de Leiria. Estas foram fases que me permitiram refinar o questionário principal, o instrumento primário de recolha de dados do estudo. O Capítulo 4 é uma análise e discussão dos resultados e padrões a partir dos dados obtidos com o questionário principal, usando uma abordagem essencialmente quantitativa, embora as questões abertas sejam analisadas a partir de uma perspetiva qualitativa, com enfoque tanto nos benefícios como constrangimentos dos blogues conforme identificado pelos inquiridos no questionário acima mencionado. iv O Capítulo 5 aborda as questões de pesquisa e até que ponto elas foram respondidas. Para facilitar esta tarefa, são apresentados constrangimentos ao nível macro e micro que os professores entendem como impactantes no uso pedagógico das TIC e ferramentas da Web 2.0 - incluindo blogues. Em seguida, são analisadas as implicações decorrentes do estudo, incluindo sugestões pedagógicas para o uso de blogues. Finalmente, as limitações do estudo são abordadas antes de possíveis projetos futuros, tendo este estudo como referência