24 research outputs found
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Moments of Contemplation: Art, Science and Architecture
No full textThis book is one of a series of books under the title "Moments of Contemplation".
This particular book is a travel memoir of the author, focusing on art, science, and architecture and their interrelationships with placeness.
In a nostalgic, artistic and atmospheric book featuring images next to each text page, the author documents her experiences of lifelong travels, while reflecting on those experiences as a resident, artist, and scholar with a broad architectural background
Banking regulation and supervision: can it enhance stability in Europe?
No full textABS 1International audiencePurpose – This paper aims to find the effects of regulatory and supervisory policies on bank risk-taking. The same regulation and supervision have different effects on bank risk-taking depending on influence factors. These factors were considered and a sample of the largest European banks from France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain and Greece was used over the period 2005-2011. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the author analyses the effects of regulation and supervision on risk-taking. The author uses a sample of the biggest banks from six European countries (France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece) over the period 2005-2011. Because the applicable entry of IFRS was in 2005, thus data of European banks are not available before this date. For each country in the sample, the 10 largest banks (defined by total assets) that lend money to firms were identified. The author does not include central banks or postal banks, which generally do not lend money to firms and are described as non-banking institutions (La Porta et al. , 2002). Findings – It was found that restrictions on bank activities, supervisors’ power and capital adequacy decrease risk-taking. Thus, regulation and supervision enhance bank’s stability. While, deposit insurance increases the risk due to its association to moral hazard. Finally, it was found that strengthening regulatory and supervisory framework raises the risk-taking and weakens the stability of European banks. Originality/value – The author contributes to existing empirical analyses in three ways. First, the existing literature has drawn a lot of attention on US banks. However, the purpose of this paper is to examine the biggest banks of three European leaders (France, Germany and UK) and three more European countries influenced by the recent crisis (Spain, Italy and Greece) over the period 2005-2011. Second, most studies focus mainly on the relationship between regulation and profitability, yet seldom on the relationship between regulation, supervision and risk-taking. The author focuses on this relationship. Third, this study applies the two-step dynamic panel data approach suggested by Blundell and Bond (1998) and also uses dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) method to address potential problems. The two-step GMM estimator that the author uses is generally the most efficient
Disclaiming authorial intent
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 63-67).This study focuses mainly on the significance of free readership as juxtaposed against authorial intent through examining the linguistic elements of the narrative discourse shaping the fictional worlds of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Ghassan Kanafani’s ma Tabaqqa la-Kum (1966) (All That’s Left to You). To this effect, the study ventures on the methodology of deconstruction, precisely utilizing Michel Foucault’s notion of the author and Mikhail Bakhtin’s emphasis on heteroglossia, in order to delve into the dramatic and psychological dimensions of the characters inhabiting the two fictional worlds in question. This approach entitles the reader as critic to scrutinize the primacy of language, and at the same time it dethrones and brings the Author back to the parade of readers. Eventually, several inter-textual links are drawn between the two apparently strictly “regional” works, which will stratify the concept that literary art transcends the locale and summarily all authorial idiosyncratic restrictions.1 bound copy: 67 leaves; 30 cm. available at RNL
Knowledge Management and the Competitiveness of Learning Organizations
No full textKnowledge management is becoming a source of discriminative value in the competitive positioning of companies and is becoming a lever for the development and emergence of new forms of organization. In fact, knowledge is the result of a cooperative process in collective action. The next step is to promote the creation of this knowledge and its sharing by managing the cooperative work of a community of people: we no longer manage the knowledge itself, but the collective that creates it, where the notion of “cooperative management of knowledge” applies. The author reflects on the organizational factor: Can it influence the practice of knowledge management within the companies willing to improve their innovation processes in order to achieve competitiveness? This reflection falls within the field of management sciences through studying the organizational solutions to ensure a better capitalization, sharing and new knowledge creation, and a better comprehension of the success conditions of the knowledge management approach, which consists of adaptation to the environment. </jats:p
324: Women in the intensive unit care of cardiology: morbidity and mortality study
No full textThe aim of this observational study that includes 800 consecutive patients admitted in our unit intensive care of cardiology (UIC) is the evaluation of the cardiac pathology in women, and the morbidity and mortality of them compared to men.ResultsThe women represent 25% of patients, they were older (mean age 66 ±5 years versus 56±7 years in men, p=0.05), and we observed more diabetes 48.6% vs 38%, p=0.003. The diagnostic of acute coronary syndrome without ST elevation were relieved in 43% of women vs 24% in men, p=0.03. STEMI were more frequent in men (24% vs 32%), the auriculo ventricular block were more frequent in women 16.8% vs 5%, p=0.002. We observed in women patient a higher incidence of cardiac arrest resuscitated (2.5% vs 1.7% p=0.05) and cardiac shock 3.2% vs 0.7%, p=0.004. Insides a better left ventricular ejection fraction (47±15% vs 40±14%, p=0.03), they presented more hemodynamic complication (6% versus 2.8% in men, p<0.01) and more rhythmic complication (8% versus 4.5% in men, p<0.01) Angiographic Coronarography were performed in 61% of women compared to 77% in men. A coronary revascularization by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty were performed in 9% of women vs 11.5% in men, and only 9.6% of women beneficed of chirurgical revascularization versus 14.3% of men, p=0.004 Finaly, we observed more mortality in our study in women patients (3.2% vs 1.8%, p=0.002). The predictive factors of mortality were the level of the CRP (odds ratios and 95 percent confidence intervals =7.6, 1.1–14.3, p=0.013) and the female gender (OR at 3.8, CI at 95% a =1.2–5.4, p=0.0013) and the LVEF (OR at 1.4, CI aT 95% =1.1–7.8, p=0.012), but only the female gender was in independent predictive factor of mortality in IUC of cardiology using multiple logistic regression to estimate the adjusted odds raio (OR adjusted a 1.7, CI at 95% =1.11–5.4, P= 0.002).ConclusionThe women presented only the quart of the patients admitted in the intensive unit care of cardiology, but this population have a higher level of morbidity, hospital complication. More, the female gender in an independent predictive factor of mortality
Avenue de France de Colette Fellous : histoire des lieux et lieu des histoires
No full textRésumé
Colette Fellous est l’auteure de plusieurs récits qui convergent vers un même point d’ancrage, la Tunisie. Cet attachement à son pays d’origine a suscité en elle le besoin de revoir la petite et la grande histoire. Son éveil intellectuel à une telle entreprise s’est effectué avec Avenue de France, produit en 2001. La réécriture de sa vie quotidienne a pour assise la ville de Tunis. Afin de mieux communiquer avec son lecteur potentiel, l’auteure a préconisé deux éléments distincts : texte et image permettant de mieux saisir le passé.
Mots-clés : Lieu, réel, représentation artistique, histoire, mémoire
Abstract
Colette Fellous is the author of several narratives converging towards a common anchor, Tunisia. Her attachment to her country of origin has sparked the need to revisit both small and grand history. Her intellectual awakening to such an endeavor took place with Avenue de France, created in 2001. The rewriting of her daily life is anchored in the city of Tunis. In order to better communicate with her potential reader, the author advocated for two distinct elements: text and image, allowing for a better grasp of the past.
Keywords : Place, Real, Artistic representation, History, Memor
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Winning Lebanon: Popular Organizations, Street Politics and the Emergence of Sectarian Violence in the Mid-Twentieth Century
No full textThis project takes popular organizations in mid-twentieth century Lebanon as its focus. These socio-political groupings were organized at the grassroots, made up of young men, and included scout organizations, social justice movements, student clubs and workers' associations. Employing a cultural history approach, the dissertation examines the cultural productions of these types of groups, ranging from group anthems to uniforms, letters of the rank and file to speeches of leaders. With these primary sources, it captures the cultures that took shape around five main actors in the field of street politics: the Lebanese Communist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the Kata'ib Party, the Najjadeh Party and the Progressive Socialist Party. And as these groups condoned and committed acts of sectarian violence in the 1958 War and the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990, this dissertation also investigates the distinct cultures that formed around these groups during wartime. In the end, I argue that both inside and outside of moments of conflict, popular organizations cultivate and mobilize multiple, interactive identities to make sense of their actions, sectarian or otherwise. Moreover, I find that a critical site to explore these complex processes is their routine practices grounded in duty, strength and honor. Part I of the dissertation examines identity formation within these five groups, and the physical and symbolic spaces they produced in Beirut during the 1920s-1950s. Informed by Pierre Bourdieu's theories on social life, this historical background shows how organizational attempts to project uniqueness, win over recruits, and make partisan, often sectarian, claims over the whole Lebanese nation created boundaries between these groups. Also, the lives of individuals within these groups, regardless of the group's distinct vision for Lebanon, were colored by cultures of discipline and defense, working to normalize practices linked to violence. In Part II the dissertation takes up the two historical events of social mobilization and conflict in which these groups participated: the 1958 War (where the Kata'ib, once a nationalist scout group, serves as the focus for the investment in sectarianism) and the Two-Year War of 1975-1976 (where the Lebanese National Movement - specifically the Lebanese Communist Party, once a workers' association, and the Progressive Socialist Party, once a social justice movement - serve as the focus for the investment in anti-sectarian frames). First, through investigating the changing positions of these popular organizations throughout these two wars, the dissertation argues that these groups are active agents in producing sectarian violence, adding nuance to past characterizations of conflict in Lebanon. Second, by capturing the quite seamless shift towards practices of violence, it finds that the quotidian and routine also lay at the center of violence. Finally, by analyzing the textual and visual productions of these groups leading up to and during war, the dissertation finds that multiple and interacting identities, such as national, populist (i.e., fulfilling the needs of people and winning their support in a particular locality) and sect are mobilized to perform violence. Accordingly, sectarian violence, as it emerged in the mid-twentieth century, is sectarian because these groups defined it in sectarian (and antisectarian) terms, not because the violence was rooted in immutable sectarian differences. Collectively, “Winning Lebanon: Popular Organizations, Street Politics and the Emergence of Sectarian Violence in the Mid-Twentieth Century” seeks to bring the local level and the cultural into the study of conflict, and add nuance to the understanding of sectarianism and sectarian violence in Lebanon and the broader Middle East.Originally set to release after 3-May-2019; contacted by author for permanent restriction 22-May-2018, Kimberly; contacted by author with permission to release 16-Nov-2020, Kimberly
Compositional profile of food supplements for honeybees
No full textMestrado de dupla diplomação com a Université Libre de TunisHoneybees (Apis mellifera L.) are the main pollinating agents for numerous
plants and fruit trees and, hence, play a key role in agriculture and more generally in
the maintenance of ecological biodiversity.
Like the most of organisms, honeybees need a diverse diet consisting of
minerals, carbohydrates (sugars), fats, and amino acids (proteins) to survive and
reproduce. An adult honey bees carbohydrate requirement is satisfied by the nectar
produced in flowers and also occasionally from extra floral nectarines or honeydew
secreted by plant-feeding insects, while, flower pollen is the main source of amino
acids, protein building blocks, largely used to feed developing larvae and young
bees to provide structural elements of muscles, glands and other tissues.
Bee-population declines are linked to nutritional shortages caused by land-use
intensification, which reduces diversity and abundance of plant species. Together
with the deficiency caused by adverse climatic changes and with the need to reduce
colony mortality and particularly to ensure good nutritional/health status of bees in
specific production moments, artificial supplementation of honeybee colonies
became a major issue in beekeeping, and now is a common and growing practice
within Portuguese beekeepers. This practice, in association with the reduced
regulation in this area is leading to the proliferation of commercial products based
on carbohydrates, protein and other substances of diverse origins and compositions.
The impact of these products on hives may enable the beekeeper to remedy colony
imbalances resulting from adverse or beekeeping conditions, but also may pose
risks to the bee’s health and the bee products quality, depending on the used raw
materials and the presence of harmful substances.
The present work, inserted within the project ApisCibus - Artificial food for
honeybees: quality survey, digestibility and performance on the bee hive, will have as
main objective to evaluate the quality of commercial honeybee artificial
supplementation through composition analysis of commercial supplements. The quality parameters evaluated are: minerals quantified through atomic absorption
spectroscopy, fatty acids analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass
spectrometry (GC-MS) and amino acids which are analyzed by ultra-performance
liquid chromatography coupled with electro spray ionization mass spectrometry
(UPLC-ESI-MS). Food supplements that are analyzed are largely used by
beekeepers without knowing if they are benefic or not, toxic or not on the health of
bees.
Furthermore the results of the analysis shows that what is represented on the
labels of products could be not exactly the same amounts of the real product inside
the package. It shows also that some products may be considered as benefic or as
toxic depending on the amount of these micronutrients.
To continue this work in order to confirm these hypothesis, in vitro tests could
be done on honeybees using these products analyzed in this thesis.
Through the obtained results we could observe that the high amount of free
amino acids presented in the studied supplements does not necessarily reflect a
good source of nutrients, considering that for the bee it is important to have access
to a diverse set of amino acids. Bee's nutritional requirements require 10 essential
amino acids (Arg, Phe, His, Ile, Leu, Lys, Met, Thr, Trp and Val). The supplement
P12 appears as the richest and most balanced, followed by P05. The C08
supplement, although containing an adequate proportion in most amino acids, has
an excessive amount of Arg, which may cause adverse effects.
Regarding fatty acids, the samples presented several compounds, among
which the most abundant were hexanoic acids, 9-octadecenoic acid (oleic acid) and
9,12-octadecadenoic acid (linoleic acid).
Although the role of fatty acids in bee nutrition is not yet fully understood,
compounds such as linoleic acid, linolenic acid, myristic acid and dodecanoic acid
appear to play an important role in inhibiting some microorganisms that affect bees,
as Paenibacillus larvae larvae (American foulbrood). For this reason the sample P05 appears as the one with the highest nutritional quality, since it presented a higher
number of fatty acids. In the analysis of minerals, it was observed that protein foods
are significantly richer in micronutrients. In this work, the most common elements
were potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium, while copper and manganese
appeared in some foods in small quantities. Cadmium, often an associated element
with heavy metal contamination appeared in only one of the products, P05, but in
very small quantities, lead was not detected in any of the supplements.
In general, there were discrepancies between the results obtained and the
description available on product labels, making clear the need for further quality
control of these commercial products.As abelhas melíferas (Apis mellifera L.) são os principais agentes
polinizadores de inúmeras plantas e árvores frutíferas e, portanto, desempenham um
papel fundamental na agricultura e, de maneira mais geral, na manutenção da
biodiversidade ecológica. Como a maioria dos organismos, as abelhas precisam de
uma dieta diversificada, composta de minerais, hidratos de carbono, lípidos e
aminoácidos (proteínas) para sobreviver e se reproduzir. A necessidade de hidratos
de carbono de uma abelha adulta é satisfeita pelo néctar produzido pelas flores e
também, ocasionalmente, por meladas segregadas por insetos, enquanto o pólen de
flores é a principal fonte de aminoácidos, principais constituintes das proteínas,
tendo um papel preponderante no desenvolvimento de larvas e abelhas jovens,
fornecendo elementos estruturais de músculos, glândulas e outros tecidos.
O declínio das populações de abelhas está ligado à escassez nutricional
causada pela agricultura intensiva, que reduz a diversidade e a abundância de
espécies de plantas.Juntamente com a deficiência causada por alterações climáticas
adversas e com a necessidade de reduzir a mortalidade de colónias, particularmente
para garantir um bom estado nutricional/saúde das abelhas, a suplementação
artificial de colónias de abelhas tornou-se uma questão importante na apicultura,
sendo uma prática comum e crescente entre os apicultores portugueses. Esta prática,
associada à escassa regulamentação existente para este tipo de produtos, está a
aumentar a oferta comercial destes produtos.O impacto destes produtos nas
colmeias pode permitir ao apicultor remediar desequilíbrios existentes nas colónias,
resultantes de condições adversas ou de apicultura, mas também pode representar
riscos à saúde da abelha e à qualidade dos produtos apícolas, dependendo das
matérias-primas usadas e da presença de substâncias nocivas.
O presente trabalho, inserido no projeto ApisCibus - Alimentos artificiais para
abelhas: levantamento de qualidade, digestibilidade e desempenho sobre a colmeia,
teve como objetivo principal avaliar a qualidade de suplementos artificiais de abelhas comerciais através da análise da sua composição química. Os parâmetros de
qualidade avaliados foram: minerais, quantificados por espectroscopia de absorção
atómica, ácidos gordos,
Analisados por cromatografia gasosa acoplada a espectrometria de massas
(GC-MS) e aminoácidos analisados por cromatografia líquida de ultra-pressão
acoplada à espectrometria de massas por ionização por eletrospray (UPLC- ESIMS).
Através dos resultados obtidos pudemos observar que a elevada quantidade de
aminoácidos livres apresentada nos suplementos estudados, não reflete
necessariamente uma boa fonte de nutrientes, considerando que para a abelha é
importante ter acesso a um conjunto de aminoácidos diversificados. As exigências
nutricionais da abelha requerem 10 aminoácidos essenciais (Arg, Phe, His, Ile, Leu,
Lys, Met, Thr, Trp e Val).O suplemento P12 surge como o mais rico e equilibrado,
seguindo-se o P05. O suplemento C08, apesar de conter uma proporção adequada
na maioria dos aminoácidos, apresenta uma quantidade excessiva de Arg, o que
poderá provocar efeitos adversos. Relativamente aos ácidos gordos, as amostras
apresentaram diversos compostos, entre os mais abundantes os ácidos hexanóico,
ácido 9-octadecenóico (ácido oleico) e ácido 9,12-octadecadienóico (ácido
linoleico). Embora o papel dos ácidos gordos na nutrição das abelhas ainda não seja
totalmente compreendido, compostos
como o ácido linoleico, ácido linolénico, ácido mirístico e ácido dodecanóico
parecem ter um papel importante na inibição de alguns microorganismos que
afectam as abelhas, como Paenibacillus larvae larvae (Loque Americana). Por esta
razão a amostra P05 surge como a de maior qualidade nutricional, já que apresentou
um maior número de ácidos gordos. Na análise dos minerais, observou-se que os
alimentos proteicos são significativamente mais ricos em micronutrientes. Neste
trabalho, os elementos mais comuns foram o potássio, sódio, cálcio e magnésio,
enquanto cobre e o manganês surgiram em alguns alimentos em pequenas
quantidades. O cádmio, um elemento associado frequentemente com a
contaminação por metais pesados surgiu apenas num dos alimentos, P05, mas em quantidades muito reduzidas, já o chumbo não foi
detetado em nenhuma dos suplementos.
No geral, verificaram-se discrepâncias entre os resultados obtidos e a
descrição disponível nos rótulos dos produtos, tornando-se evidente a necessidade
de um maior controlo de qualidade destes produtos comerciais.The author thanks to Programa Apícola Nacional (2017-2019) for the funding to the
Apiscibus and to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and FEDER inside the
Program PT2020 for the finantial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2019)
Assessing storage of stability and mercury reduction of freeze-dried Pseudomonas putida within different types of lyoprotectant
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