A voz das mulheres nas peças de Synge : ponto e contraponto na realidade irlandesa

Dissertação de mestrado em Língua, Literatura e Cultura Inglesas.Muitas foram as críticas ao trabalho de Synge. No entanto, veio a ter um papel preponderante no teatro irlandês. Synge interessa-se pela vida difícil mas simples dos camponeses, pelas suas tradições, religião, mitos e também pela importância que o irlandês assume na sociedade que retrata, coisas que até então nunca tinham sidorepresentadas nem objecto de crítica no teatro. Neste trabalho proponho-me estudar o desempenho feminino em três das suas peças, Riders to the Sea, The Shadow of the Glen e The Tinker’s Wedding, partindo de uma base histórico-cultural explanada na sua prosa The Aran Islands. As imagens da mulher irlandesa presentes na literatura da época, identificavamna com os valores elementares da casa e família, não transgredindo, portanto, os parâmetros socialmente aceites. Porém, vamos encontrar na obra de Synge mulheres que no seu íntimo, no “seu silêncio”, travavam uma luta com os seus sonhos e ideais contrapondo-os às suas reais oportunidades. Synge transmite-nos uma visão satírica e ao mesmo tempo trágica da sociedade que escolheu representar nas suas peças – os camponeses e a gente humilde do campo. O seu prolongado contacto com os camponeses fê-lo nutrir uma grande afeição e um grande respeito pelas pessoas do campo, que tão bem conhecia, mas não deixou de satirizar, a sua credulidade, violência e espírito provinciano. Encontramos nestas peças uma personagem que se destaca de todas as outras pelo seu modo diferente de viver o mundo. Nora Burke abdica da sua vida de camponesa, estável mas monótona, escolhendo viver uma vida de pedinte em contacto com a natureza, pois acredita ser este o caminho para alcançar a felicidade tão desejada. Sarah Casey desiste do casamento que afinal de contas não passa de um mero procedimento legal, para continuar a sua vida de “tinker”. Maurya tem uma vida de sofrimento e um destino trágico, igual ao de tantas outras mulheres de Aran. Synge retrata nesta peça – Riders to the Sea – uma comunidade que sobrevive à custa do trabalho árduo e perigoso. O Tramp em The Shadow of the Glen e Mary Byrne em The Tinker’s Wedding, são a voz de uma outra razão, a voz de uma individualidade independente, cuja visão do mundo não depende do que é socialmente aceite ou não. Nestas duas peças, Synge contrapõe os valores não convencionais aos convencionais. Encontramos aqui o medo da vida não ser vivida na sua plenitude, da beleza se desvanecer com o passar do tempo, identificando-se o leitor ou o espectador com as personagens em questão. Em Riders to the Sea, algo de diferente se passa. Gera-se uma empatia com Maurya e o seu sofrimento. Parece ser o destino, a sua alma que ali estão. Nesta peça a oposição faz-se entre a vida dos ilhéus (difícil, violenta e em constante luta pela sobrevivência) e a vida na ilha grande (onde o modo de vida não era tão arriscado e perigoso). As peças de Synge mostram por um lado, o conflito entre o indivíduo e a sociedade e por outro, o conflito entre o heroísmo e a vida da comunidade. São o reflexo do quotidiano das pessoas e do mundo em que vivem, mas ao mesmo tempo transcendem essa realidade, dando lugar à imaginação, ao sonho, à criatividade. Estas peças são para Synge a realização de uma ideia de teatro irlandês, baseado na observação da natureza humana e do espírito local irlandês, quer isso fosse popular ou não.Synge has a very important place in Irish drama. His work was criticised many times by influential people because he deals with issues that had never been object of criticism in Irish drama nor dealt with previously, on stage. The simple but hard life of the Irish peasants was his major source, with all its traditions, myths and religion. The Gaelic language was also very important, both for the society he wanted to represent on stage and for himself. I propose to study the role of women in three of Synge’s plays – Riders to the Sea, The Shadow of the Glen and The Tinker’s Wedding, bearing in mind the historical and cultural context presented in his prose The Aran Islands. The images of the Irish women, present in the literature of that time, identified the women with the elementary values of home and family. They did not violate or transgress the values that were socially acceptable. Nevertheless, we are going to find in Synge’s plays, women that struggled, intimately, with their own “silence”, with their own dreams and ideals, confronting those dreams with their real opportunities. Synge gives us a satirical vision of the society he chose to represent but at the same time a tragic vision too – the peasants and their unsophisticated, simple-hearted frank and open way of living. Synge spent long periods in the Aran Islands and this permanent contact with the peasants enriched his knowledge about the way they lived. He acquired a great respect and esteem for these people due to this experience but it did not prevent him from satirizing the peasants’ credulousness, violence and parochial spirit. In each of these three plays we find a character that distinguishes himself/herself from all the others due to his/her different way of living or of seeing the world. Nora Burke decides to give up her stable but monotonous peasant life, stable but monotonous and chooses to live a tramp’s life, in permanent contact with nature, because she believes that true happiness can only be found that way. Sarah Casey gives up the marriage that she once believed would bring her social respect and acceptance. She becomes aware of the fact that this type of marriage is merely a legal procedure and it will not bring her what she really wants – a free and happy life, and decides to continue living the tinker’s way. Maurya suffers a different kind of hardship. Her tragic fate is similar to the fate of many women who live in the Aran Islands. In Riders to the Sea, Synge wants to show a community that survives in spite of their hard and dangerous way of living. The tramp in The Shadow of the Glen and Mary Byrne in The Tinker’s Wedding are the voice of reason, the voice of the independent individual whose vision of the world does not depend on what is socially acceptable or not. In these two plays, Synge confronts the conventional and the unconventional values. The reader/audience identifies himself/herself with these characters because we find in these plays the fear of not living life to the full; the fear of losing one’s beauty with time without being able to offer a remedy for this fact. In Riders to the Sea something different happens. The reader/public develops an empathy with Maurya and her suffering. In this play the confrontation is between the life of the small islands (difficult, hard and dangerous) and the life of the main island (easier and not so dangerous). In Synge’s plays there is one conflict between the individual and the society and another one between heroism and life in the community, reflecting not only the daily life of these people but also nourishing imagination, dreams and creativity. These plays reflect Synge’s idea of what an Irish Drama should be, based on human nature and Irish spirit

From the Cover: Assignment of an Essential Role for the Neurospora Frequency Gene in Circadian Entrainment to Temperature Cycles

Circadian systems include slave oscillators and central pacemakers, and the cores of eukaryotic circadian clocks described to date are composed of transcription and translation feedback loops (TTFLs). In the model system Neurospora, normal circadian rhythmicity requires a TTFL in which a White Collar complex (WCC) activates expression of the frequency (frq) gene, and the FRQ protein feeds back to attenuate that activation. To further test the centrality of this TTFL to the circadian mechanism in Neurospora, we used low-amplitude temperature cycles to compare WT and frq-null strains under conditions in which a banding rhythm was elicited. WT cultures were entrained to these temperature cycles. Unlike those normal strains, however, frq-null mutants did not truly entrain to the same cycles. Their peaks and troughs always occurred in the cold and warm periods, respectively, strongly suggesting that the rhythm in Neurospora lacking frq function simply is driven by the temperature cycles. Previous reports suggested that a FRQ-less oscillator (FLO) could be entrained to temperature cycles, rather than being driven, and speculated that the FLO was the underlying circadian-rhythm generator. These inferences appear to derive from the use of a phase reference point affected by both the changing waveform and the phase of the oscillation. Examination of several other phase markers as well as results of additional experimental tests indicate that the FLO is, at best, a slave oscillator to the TTFL, which underlies circadian rhythm generation in Neurospora

Tecer a prevenção em Vila Verde

O relatório corresponde ao trabalho de diagnóstico do funcionamento da Comissão de proteção de crianças e jovens de Vila Verde, na sua Modalidade alargada, ao relatório social sobre as crianças e jovens do concelho e ao plano estratégico para a proteção e promoção dos direitos da criança. Este relatório corresponde à realização do Projeto Tecer a Prevenção em Vila Verde, o qual corresponde à ação específica realizada no concelho da iniciativa “Tecer a Prevenção” promovida pela Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Crianças e Jovens em Risco (CNPCJR).Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Crianças em Risc

Stable Isotope Ratios in Hair and Teeth Reflect Biologic Rhythms

Biologic rhythms give insight into normal physiology and disease. They can be used as biomarkers for neuronal degenerations. We present a diverse data set to show that hair and teeth contain an extended record of biologic rhythms, and that analysis of these tissues could yield signals of neurodegenerations. We examined hair from mummified humans from South America, extinct mammals and modern animals and people, both healthy and diseased, and teeth of hominins. We also monitored heart-rate variability, a measure of a biologic rhythm, in some living subjects and analyzed it using power spectra. The samples were examined to determine variations in stable isotope ratios along the length of the hair and across growth-lines of the enamel in teeth. We found recurring circa-annual periods of slow and fast rhythms in hydrogen isotope ratios in hair and carbon and oxygen isotope ratios in teeth. The power spectra contained slow and fast frequency power, matching, in terms of normalized frequency, the spectra of heart rate variability found in our living subjects. Analysis of the power spectra of hydrogen isotope ratios in hair from a patient with neurodegeneration revealed the same spectral features seen in the patient's heart-rate variability. Our study shows that spectral analysis of stable isotope ratios in readily available tissues such as hair could become a powerful diagnostic tool when effective treatments and neuroprotective drugs for neurodegenerative diseases become available. It also suggests that similar analyses of archaeological specimens could give insight into the physiology of ancient people and animals

The Implications of Multiple Circadian Clock Origins

Michael Rosbash considers whether the mechanisms that govern circadian rhythms in different organisms have arisen multiple times in evolution, and discusses the implications for our understanding of circadian clocks

Minimum Criteria for DNA Damage-Induced Phase Advances in Circadian Rhythms

Robust oscillatory behaviors are common features of circadian and cell cycle rhythms. These cyclic processes, however, behave distinctively in terms of their periods and phases in response to external influences such as light, temperature, nutrients, etc. Nevertheless, several links have been found between these two oscillators. Cell division cycles gated by the circadian clock have been observed since the late 1950s. On the other hand, ionizing radiation (IR) treatments cause cells to undergo a DNA damage response, which leads to phase shifts (mostly advances) in circadian rhythms. Circadian gating of the cell cycle can be attributed to the cell cycle inhibitor kinase Wee1 (which is regulated by the heterodimeric circadian clock transcription factor, BMAL1/CLK), and possibly in conjunction with other cell cycle components that are known to be regulated by the circadian clock (i.e., c-Myc and cyclin D1). It has also been shown that DNA damage-induced activation of the cell cycle regulator, Chk2, leads to phosphorylation and destruction of a circadian clock component (i.e., PER1 in Mus or FRQ in Neurospora crassa). However, the molecular mechanism underlying how DNA damage causes predominantly phase advances in the circadian clock remains unknown. In order to address this question, we employ mathematical modeling to simulate different phase response curves (PRCs) from either dexamethasone (Dex) or IR treatment experiments. Dex is known to synchronize circadian rhythms in cell culture and may generate both phase advances and delays. We observe unique phase responses with minimum delays of the circadian clock upon DNA damage when two criteria are met: (1) existence of an autocatalytic positive feedback mechanism in addition to the time-delayed negative feedback loop in the clock system and (2) Chk2-dependent phosphorylation and degradation of PERs that are not bound to BMAL1/CLK

Synchronization of cytoplasmic and transferred mitochondrial ribosomal protein gene expression in land plants is linked to Telo-box motif enrichment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chloroplasts and mitochondria evolved from the endosymbionts of once free-living eubacteria, and they transferred most of their genes to the host nuclear genome during evolution. The mechanisms used by plants to coordinate the expression of such transferred genes, as well as other genes in the host nuclear genome, are still poorly understood.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we use nuclear-encoded chloroplast (cpRPGs), as well as mitochondrial (mtRPGs) and cytoplasmic (euRPGs) ribosomal protein genes to study the coordination of gene expression between organelles and the host. Results show that the mtRPGs, but not the cpRPGs, exhibit strongly synchronized expression with euRPGs in all investigated land plants and that this phenomenon is linked to the presence of a <it>telo</it>-box DNA motif in the promoter regions of mtRPGs and euRPGs. This motif is also enriched in the promoter regions of genes involved in DNA replication. Sequence analysis further indicates that mtRPGs, in contrast to cpRPGs, acquired <it>telo</it>-box from the host nuclear genome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Based on our results, we propose a model of plant nuclear genome evolution where coordination of activities in mitochondria and chloroplast and other cellular functions, including cell cycle, might have served as a strong selection pressure for the differential acquisition of <it>telo</it>-box between mtRPGs and cpRPGs. This research also highlights the significance of physiological needs in shaping transcriptional regulatory evolution.</p

Systems Biology of the Clock in Neurospora crassa

A model-driven discovery process, Computing Life, is used to identify an ensemble of genetic networks that describe the biological clock. A clock mechanism involving the genes white-collar-1 and white-collar-2 (wc-1 and wc-2) that encode a transcriptional activator (as well as a blue-light receptor) and an oscillator frequency (frq) that encodes a cyclin that deactivates the activator is used to guide this discovery process through three cycles of microarray experiments. Central to this discovery process is a new methodology for the rational design of a Maximally Informative Next Experiment (MINE), based on the genetic network ensemble. In each experimentation cycle, the MINE approach is used to select the most informative new experiment in order to mine for clock-controlled genes, the outputs of the clock. As much as 25% of the N. crassa transcriptome appears to be under clock-control. Clock outputs include genes with products in DNA metabolism, ribosome biogenesis in RNA metabolism, cell cycle, protein metabolism, transport, carbon metabolism, isoprenoid (including carotenoid) biosynthesis, development, and varied signaling processes. Genes under the transcription factor complex WCC ( = WC-1/WC-2) control were resolved into four classes, circadian only (612 genes), light-responsive only (396), both circadian and light-responsive (328), and neither circadian nor light-responsive (987). In each of three cycles of microarray experiments data support that wc-1 and wc-2 are auto-regulated by WCC. Among 11,000 N. crassa genes a total of 295 genes, including a large fraction of phosphatases/kinases, appear to be under the immediate control of the FRQ oscillator as validated by 4 independent microarray experiments. Ribosomal RNA processing and assembly rather than its transcription appears to be under clock control, suggesting a new mechanism for the post-transcriptional control of clock-controlled genes

The small G protein RAS2 is involved in the metabolic compensation of the circadian clock in the circadian model Neurospora crassa.

Accumulating evidence from both experimental and clinical investigations indicate a tight interaction between metabolism and circadian timekeeping; however, knowledge of the underlying mechanism is still incomplete. Metabolic compensation allows circadian oscillators to run with a constant speed at different substrate levels and therefore is a substantial criterion of a robust rhythm in a changing environment. Because previous data have suggested a central role of RAS2-mediated signaling in the adaptation of yeast to different nutritional environments, we examined the involvement of RAS2 in the metabolic regulation of the clock in the circadian model organism Neurospora crassa. We show that in a ras2-deficient strain, the period is longer than in the control. Moreover, unlike in wild type (wt), in Deltaras2 operation of the circadian clock was affected by glucose: compared with starvation conditions, the period was longer and the oscillation of expression of the frequency (frq) gene was dampened. In constant darkness the delayed phosphorylation of the FRQ protein and the long-lasting accumulation of FRQ in the nucleus were in accordance with the longer period and the less robust rhythm in the mutant. Whereas glucose did not affect the subcellular distribution of FRQ in wt, highly elevated FRQ levels were detected in the nucleus in Deltaras2. RAS2 interacted with the RAS-binding domain of the adenylate cyclase in vitro, and the cAMP analogue 8-Br-cAMP partially rescued the circadian phenotype in vivo. We propose therefore that RAS2 acts via a cAMP-dependent pathway and exerts significant metabolic control on the Neurospora circadian clock

HCLK2 is essential for the mammalian S-phase checkpoint and impacts on Chk1 stability

Here, we show that the human homologue of the Caenorhabditis elegans biological clock protein CLK-2 (HCLK2) associates with the S-phase checkpoint components ATR, ATRIP, claspin and Chk1. Consistent with a critical role in the S-phase checkpoint, HCLK2-depleted cells accumulate spontaneous DNA damage in S-phase, exhibit radio-resistant DNA synthesis, are impaired for damage-induced monoubiquitination of FANCD2 and fail to recruit FANCD2 and Rad51 (critical components of the Fanconi anaemia and homologous recombination pathways, respectively) to sites of replication stress. Although Thr 68 phosphorylation of the checkpoint effector kinase Chk2 remains intact in the absence of HCLK2, claspin phosphorylation and degradation of the checkpoint phosphatase Cdc25A are compromised following replication stress as a result of accelerated Chk1 degradation. ATR phosphorylation is known to both activate Chk1 and target it for proteolytic degradation, and depleting ATR or mutation of Chk1 at Ser 345 restored Chk1 protein levels in HCLK2-depleted cells. We conclude that HCLK2 promotes activation of the S-phase checkpoint and downstream repair responses by preventing unscheduled Chk1 degradation by the proteasome. The DNA damage response (DDR) is a complex process involving the orchestration of highly specialized cell-cycle checkpoints that need to be rapidly activated following the detection of damaged DNA. Each of these signalling cascades involves several unique and overlapping factors — classified as sensors, mediators, transducers and effector