Founders and Re-Founders : Struggles of Self-Authorized Representation

In this article my argument is twofold. First, I maintain that it is not possible to either understand or practically initiate democratic foundlings except through self-authorized claims of representation appealing to an extra-legal source of authority, that is, a prefigured people, constructed around a particular claim to what should be common. Second, I contend that self-authorized claims to a prefigured people that are performed to and retroactively validated by the existing people can open up opportunities for the people to self-constitute democratically

Factors that Contribute to Turnover of Sales Professionals in South Hampton Roads

By completion of this study, the following goals will have been answered: 1. What are the attitudes of Human Resource Directors towards turnover in South Hampton Roads? 2. What are the costs of employee turnover to an organization? 3. What recommendations can be made to Human Resource Directors to reduce employee turnover

Traditional Portuguese Lullabies: what do they sing about?

This research project was developed at Instituto de Estudos da Crianca(1) (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal) in 2008 and 2009. It focused on promoting Portuguese traditional music as a privileged field for educational practice. Considering the scarcity of good quality published Portuguese musical repertoire for musical activities in preschool, the project started with the collection and recovery of traditional Portuguese lullabies in old song books and libraries across the country; musical activities based on the musical concepts found in the lullabies were experimented in pre-school context and organized in didactic sequence. The lullabies' lyrics were studied in order to identify recurrent themes and topics. Five main themes were found in the collection of studied lullabies. This article presents the conclusions of the project concerning the types of textual contents and themes found in the collected lullabies.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), PortugalFundos Nacionais através da FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) e cofinanciado pelo Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) através do COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) com a referência POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Blood transfusion and Jehovah’s Witnesses: Brazilian jurisprudence in the State and Federal Courts of Justice

Brazilian physicians and judges frequently have to decide whether to save the life of a Jehovah Witness patient that refuses blood transfusion or let the patient die when treatment refusal reflects their religious belief. The Penal Code condemns the physician who fails to use all the available means to save the patient. The Civil Code, contrarily, requires the professional to respect the patient’s autonomy regarding their decision over an intervention with potential risk of death. The Brazilian Constitution guarantees religious freedom and the inviolability of the right to life. This article reviews the Brazilian jurisprudence on the matter through recovery of all available decisions in the Federal and State Courts’ online database up to 2013. The results show that these superior courts consider that people are not allowed to let go of their own lives for religious reasons when in a state of “imminent death”. However, when the patient’s clinical state is qualified as “at risk of dying”, physicians are requested to respect their dissent.Médicos e magistrados brasileiros frequentemente têm que decidir se salvam a vida de um paciente Testemunha de Jeová que rejeita transfusão de sangue ou se permitem que o paciente morra quando da recusa do tratamento por sua crença religiosa. O Código Penal condena o médico que não usa de todos os meios disponíveis para salvar seu paciente, contrário ao Código Civil, que exige o respeito do profissional quanto à autonomia do paciente frente à sua decisão sobre uma intervenção com risco de morte. A Constituição Brasileira garante a liberdade religiosa e a inviolabilidade do direito à vida. Este trabalho analisa a jurisprudência brasileira sobre o assunto disponível nos bancos de dados online dos Tribunais Regionais Federais e Estaduais até o ano de 2013 e revela que esses tribunais superiores consideram que as pessoas não estão autorizadas a dispor de suas próprias vidas por motivos religiosos, quando em um estado de “morte iminente”. No entanto, quando o estado do paciente é qualificado como “em risco de morte”, os médicos devem respeitar sua discordância quanto ao tratamento

Cidadania e projeto político-pedagógico: uma relação de causa e efeito?

Esse trabalho busca investigar a relação entre a questão da cidadania e o Projeto Político-Pedagógico (PPP). A questão da cidadania é um tema amplamente debatido na atualidade em todos os campos do conhecimento e, principalmente, na Educação. Parto do pressuposto, construído ao longo da pesquisa de campo junto ao grupo de pesquisa do qual participo, “Concepções de Planejamento e Gestão Escolar: políticas públicas, projetos político-pedagógicos e democratização no cotidiano escolar”, coordenada pela Prof.a Silvina Julia Fernández, de que muitas escolas apresentam em seus PPPs um discurso explicitado de comprometimento com a formação do aluno-cidadão, como garante a Constituição Federal de 1988 e a Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional de 1996, no entanto, essa efetivação através dos projetos escolares ainda é tímida. Surgiram, então, as seguintes questões: O que a escola faz efetivamente que ajude os seus integrantes a pensar os seus próprios problemas e desenvolver um aluno, crítico e participativo? Até que ponto os PPPs das escolas analisadas, que deveriam ser um dos principais instrumentos de promoção da cidadania, têm ajudado a desenvolvê- la? Isto envolve conceitos de sujeitos e de cidadania pensados pela escola, mas quais são? O meu trabalho busca responder essas perguntas na perspectiva das ações concretas da escola e, assim, focaliza nos seguintes objetivos: Compreender quais conceitos de sujeitos e de cidadania estão na base de referência do planejamento e da ação escolar; Identificar até que ponto os PPPs das escolas visitadas têm ajudado a desenvolver a cidadania através dos seu vários projetos; Compreender a forma pela qual as escolas analisadas entendem o exercício da cidadania, ou seja, quais as ações tomadas pelas escolas que possam explicar e/ou expressar a cidadania no cotidiano escolar. Metodologicamente, na primeira etapa, foi realizada uma busca bibliográfica sobre a Cidadania e sobre PPP, seguida da análise dos PPPs das quinze escolas selecionadas para o projeto geral, com objetivo de conhecer os vários projetos nelas implementados e como realizam a construção deles. Paralelamente, consideraremos a Legislação específica do Município de Duque de Caxias, assim como as exigências dos Planos Nacional e Municipal de Educação para conferirmos o que essa legislação estipula quanto à formação cidadã nas unidades escolares

NEW PARASITE RECORDS FROM Kerodon rupestris (RODENTIA, CAVIIDAE) AN ENDEMIC SPECIES TO NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL

The present study aimed to identify endoparasites from faecal samples of Kerodon rupestris, an endemic rodent of the Brazilian semiarid region. Samples collected from 10 locations at the Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara, Piauí State, Brazil were analyzed. Each faecal samples was processed, rehydrated, homogenized, and processed by spontaneous sedimentation. Morphological and morphometric characteristics of gastrointestinal parasites were observed using light microscopy. A total of three taxa from helminth and protozoan parasites were found. The results demonstrated parasite remains in 6/10 localities, and a high occurrence of Trichuris cf. gracilis, in 5/10 localities. Egg morphometric data was compared with Thichuris spp. egg Brazilian rodents. Two new parasite records were identified in K. rupestris, a nematode, Helminthoxys sp. (Oxyuridae) and a possible coccidian. The findings are discussed with taxonomic and ecological literature of intestinal parasites from rodents. The role of K. rupestris as source of ecological information in the region is suggested

Development and evaluation of a two-step multiplex TaqMan real-time PCR assay for detection/quantification of different genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato

Nowadays, at least four clinically important B. burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) genospecies (B. afzelii, B. garinii, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.) and B. lusitaniae) circulate in Portugal. Each genospecies has a different tropism that resuls in a diverse array of clinical manifestations. The standard diagnostic procedure used is normally simple, nevertheless, during the “window-period” phase, in which specific antibodies cannot yet be detected, diagnosis becomes difficult, and calls for reliable, sensitive and specific laboratory methods, such as molecular tests. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a multiplex TaqMan real-time PCR assay to infer the presence of B. burgdorferi s.l. genospecies in clinical and vector-derived samples. The assay consists of two steps: (i) a first duplex real-time PCR targeting both flaB of B. burgdorferi s.l., and an internal control (18S rDNA for tick samples or the mammal β-actin gene for clinical samples); and (ii) a second tetraplex real-time PCR targeting the flaB gene of B. afzelii, B. garinii, B. burgdorferi s.s. and B. lusitaniae. The first step revealed a high specificity and sensitivity, allowing the detection of as low as 20 genome equivalents (GE) of B. burgdorferi s.l. from isolated cultures, clinical samples and ticks. The second step revealed high specificity, but a slightly lower sensitivity (2×102 GE) for detection of B. afzelii, B. garinii, B. burgdorferi s.s. and B. lusitaniae in purified DNA extracts, and particularly when testing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. Nonetheless, both real-time PCR protocols were developed to be applied at the beginning of the infection, to improve early diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis (LB), where detection of Borrelia should not rely on the use of CSF samples. The assay here described is of special interest for the analysis of both environmental and clinical samples, being advantageous in the former phase screening of Lyme borreliosis, when the efficiency of serologically based diagnoses may be seriously compromised

Spatiotemporal transcription of the P element and the 412 retrotransposon during embryogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster and D. willistoni

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile nucleotide sequences which, through changing position in host genomes, partake in important evolutionary processes. The expression patterns of two TEs, P element transposon and 412 retrotransposon, were investigated during Drosophila melanogaster and D. willistoni embryogenesis, by means of embryo hybridization using riboprobes. Spatiotemporal transcription patterns for both TEs were similar to those of developmental genes. Although the two species shared the same P element transcription pattern, this was not so with 412 retrotransposon. These findings suggest that the regulatory sequences involved in the initial development of Drosophila spp are located in the transposable element sequences, and differences, such as in this case of the 412 retrotransposon, lead to losses or changes in their transcription patterns