Juan Baños de Velasco y Acevedo - Emblems in Everyday Life

A research note on a new acquisition for the Stirling Maxwell Collection of Emblem Books, held at the Special Collections department of the University of Glasgow. This was part of a round table on various other items in this recent acquisition. This research note explores different perspectives that add value to this work, namely the close association of this Spanish work with D. Juan de Austria (its dedicatee) and Portugal

Emblematic Arches – Contributions to Reading a Hapsburg Festival

In 1619 Philip III of Spain (II of Portugal) enters into Lisbon, in what was to be the culmination of a long awaited and extensively planned royal entrée into his Portuguese kingdom, in the context of the Iberian Dual Monarchy. Between the initial discussions for this journey nearly twenty years earlier and the journey itself, the political landscape of parts of remainder Hapsburg empire had changed, perchance none more so than in the religious and political schisms in the Low Countries, as evidenced in the Festival itself. The Lisbon festival featured various arches and ephemera, described and illustrated in Lavanha’s account (1622), and to which festival the ‘nação flamenga’ contributed with an arch. Lavanha’s account of this arch in particular simply provides a description of the arch and messages therein inscribed, in much the same way he does of the remainder events and ephemeral architecture. However, this particular arch sends a strong political message to Philip himself through applied devices which, when read in the context of their emblem book sources and their known readership in Portugal, Spain and, crucially, the Low Countries, reveal the full impact of the demand imposed on the king. In effect, the message conveyed by the arch goes well beyond the obvious Latin dedications translated by Lavanha. The interaction of the emblems with the Latin dedications and, crucially, with the mechanical apparatus of the arch, creates a strong and spectacular demand on the king, in which process he is, nonetheless, forced to participate. In effect, it will be the very own presence of the king that triggers the conclusion, thus publicly acquiescing to the demands of the Flemish in Lisbon. Our contribution addresses how the readership of a festival can be multisensory and multidirectional – to the public, to the addressee, to the dedicatee, and though mostly in static displays of ephemeral art, they convey political movement. However, the experience of the festival is also the stage for the redefinition of nationhood in 17th-century Habsburg Spain. Alongside trade guilds, whole nations performed in this public political arena to assert, defend and promote a unilateral concept of nationhood. Willingly or not, by reading together the various elements of the arch, crucially connected by emblems and mechanical contraptions, the king finds himself participating in a public display that commits him politically to resolve the schism of the Low Countries

Partial Classification of Lorenz Knots: Syllable Permutations of Torus Knots Words

We define families of aperiodic words associated to Lorenz knots that arise naturally as syllable permutations of symbolic words corresponding to torus knots. An algorithm to construct symbolic words of satellite Lorenz knots is defined. We prove, subject to the validity of a previous conjecture, that Lorenz knots coded by some of these families of words are hyperbolic, by showing that they are neither satellites nor torus knots and making use of Thurston's theorem. Infinite families of hyperbolic Lorenz knots are generated in this way, to our knowledge, for the first time. The techniques used can be generalized to study other families of Lorenz knots

The Excess Burden of Government Indecision

Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, they engender excess burden. This paper posits, calibrates, and simulates a life cycle model with earnings, lifespan, investment return, and future policy uncertainty. It then measures the excess burden from delayed resolution of policy uncertainty. The first uncertain policy we consider concerns the level of future Social Security benefits. Specifically, we examine how an age-25 agent would respond to learning at an early age whether she will experience a major Social Security benefit cut starting at age 65. We show that having to wait to learn materially affects consumption, saving, and portfolio decisions. It also reduces welfare. Indeed, we show that the excess burden of government indecision can, in this instance, range as large as 0.6 percent of the agent’s economic resources. This is a significant distortion in of itself. It’s also significant when compared to other distortions measured in the literature.

Fiber link design considerations for cloud-Radio Access Networks

Analog radio over fiber (RoF) links may offer advantages for cloud-Radio Access Networks in terms of component cost, but the behavior of the distortion with large numbers of subcarriers needs to be understood. In this paper, this is presented in terms of the variation between subcarriers. Memory polynomial predistortion is also shown to compensate for RoF and wireless path distortion. Whether for digitized or analog links, it is shown that appropriate framing structure parameters must be used to assure performance, especially of time-division duplex systems

The process of professional identity construction of student-teachers of english during the student teaching

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários, Florianópolis, 2017

Health systems thinking : the need for a more critical approach

The present study intends to bring more insights and added value to health systems thinking using systems ideas. It inquires about the current state of health systems thinking, analyses different strengths of alternative systems approaches, and suggests what systems thinking can offer in order to improve the current understanding and the technical performance of health systems. It does not intend to develop a blue print model but rather a more critical approach to deal with some of the intractable problems encountered in current health sector reforms. The thesis is not expected to serve public health practitioners only but also systems thinking theorists, particularly those interested in social systems and pluralism in management sciences. Specifically, this thesis aims at analysing the current state of Health systems thinking; explores what other systems approaches can offer to enlighten health systems; and yields knowledge on critical health systems thinking. To achieve these aims the researcher articulated the study on the basis of the definition of health by the World Health Organisation, the interconnectedness among key health determinants and the global health challenges with particular emphasis in Sub-Saharan Africa. Critical systems thinking is the theoretical framework in which knowledge about systems is expressed and the current state of Health systems thinking is the area of concern in relation to which the researcher has aspirations. The methodology consists in two major steps conducting thought experiments in the context of three scenarios from the researcher's own experience. The first step uses Jackson's four major systems approaches and associated methodologies and yields learning about the current state of health systems thinking; and the second step, using critical systems practice in mode 2, generates a more critical approach to health systems thinking

English undergraduate students' representations about culture in foreign language classrooms

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura CorrespondenteMany scholars in different areas (Byram, 1989; Hall, 1997; Kramsch, 1998) have already emphasized how language and culture are intimately related. The main issue in Applied Linguistics seems to be the understanding of how these concepts - language and culture - should be connected in the language classroom (Kramsch, 1998; Risager, 2006). Therefore, this study tries to understand the role of culture inside foreign language classrooms through English undergraduate students' representations about culture and culture learning in their English classes at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). The data collection consisted of an open-ended questionnaire, private semi-structured interviews and email correspondences. A thematic analysis of the data showed that students represented culture in mainly two ways - as formal and valued knowledge or as sociocultural practices. Similarly, they regarded culture learning as learning about contents from English-speaking countries or as learning how to perform pragmatic functions of language in appropriate ways, depending on the context of situation. The role of culture in EFL classrooms was perceived by students either as the topic of the lesson, at times dissociated from language or as the pragmatics of learning a language that reflects specific world views, in which language and culture were intrinsically connected. Thus, two main pedagogical implications seem to arise from these findings. The first one regards the construction, in the language classroom, of meanings of culture that allow students to see the fluid and changeable nature of culture. The second one regards the importance of making our students aware of the social construction of meanings so they can perceive the intrinsic relationship between language and culture.Diversos pesquisadores em diferentes áreas (Byram, 1989; Hall, 1997; Kramsch, 1998) já enfatizaram a relação intrínseca existente entre língua e cultura. Neste aspecto, a principal discussão no campo da linguística aplicada parece ser a identificação de como esses conceitos - língua e cultura - deveriam estar conectados na sala de aula de língua (Kramsch, 1998; Risager, 2006). Dessa forma, este estudo tenta entender o papel da cultura na sala de aula de língua estrangeira (LE) através das representações sobre cultura e aprendizado de cultura na sala de aula de LE de estudantes da graduação em língua inglesa da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). A coleta de dados consistiu-se de um questionário aberto, entrevistas semi-estruturadas e troca de emails entre os participantes e a pesquisadora. Uma análise temática dos dados demonstrou que os participantes representavam cultura principalmente de duas formas - como conhecimento formal valorizado ou como práticas socioculturais. Da mesma forma, eles consideravam aprendizado de cultura como aprendizado sobre conteúdos dos países falantes de inglês ou como aprendizado em relação à como usar funções pragmáticas da língua de forma apropriada, dependendo do contexto. O papel da cultura da sala de aula de LE foi percebido pelos alunos tanto como conteúdo da aula, por vezes dissociado da língua ou como pragmática de se aprender uma língua que reflete visões de mundo específicas, onde língua e cultura foram conectadas intrinsicamente. Sendo assim, duas principais implicações pedagógicas parecem surgir desses resultados. A primeira diz respeito à construção, na sala de aula de língua, de sentidos de cultura que permitam aos alunos perceberem a natureza fluída e mutável da mesma. A segunda se refere à importância de conscientizar nossos alunos sobre a construção social dos sentidos para que eles possam perceber, dessa forma, a relação intrínsica entre língua e cultura

The Excess Burden of Government Indecision

Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, it engenders excess burden. This paper posits, calibrates, and simulates a life cycle model with earnings, lifespan, investment return, and future policy uncertainty. It then measures the excess burden from delayed resolution of policy uncertainty. The first uncertain policy we consider concerns the level of future Social Security benefits. Specifically, we examine how an agent would respond to learning in advance whether she will experience a major Social Security benefit cut starting at age 65. We show that having to wait to learn materially affects consumption, saving, and portfolio decisions. It also reduces welfare. Indeed, we show that the excess burden of government indecision can, in this instance, range as high as 0.6 percent of the agent's economic resources. This is a significant distortion in of itself. It's also significant when compared to other distortions measured in the literature. The second uncertain policy we consider concerns marginal tax rates. We obtain similar results once we adjust for the impact of tax rates on income.