This book assesses the dynamics, challenges and achievements of the development processes of three Portuguese-speaking Small Island Developing States (PSSIDS) - Cabo Verde, São Tome and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste. Important lessons are drawn from those processes, which are relevant for policymakers, as well as for their bilateral and multilateral development partners, including international organizations such as United Nations or the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. To that end, the book includes contributions to the academic literature about SIDS, an area of research that has been significantly overlooked. The conclusions would be of interest to readers as a lead up to the fiftieth anniversary of their independence.
This political treatise is a passionate portrait of the nation of Sao Tome and Principe (STP) and an analysis of the specific problems of this small island cluster, a beautiful post-colonial country which is slowly but surely being sunk by a battle of politics and perks. Charting the nation's fortunes since achieving independence from Portugal in 1975, the authors describe a leadership so corrupt and inept as to appear possessed by an evil demon.
Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) was an Austrian-American mathematician, who is best known for his incompleteness theorems. He was the greatest mathematical logician of the 20th century, with his contributions extending to Einstein’s general relativity, as he proved that Einstein’s theory allows for time machines. The Gödel incompleteness theorem - the usual formal mathematical systems cannot prove nor disprove all true mathematical sentences - is frequently presented in textbooks as something that happens in the rarefied realms of mathematical logic, and that has nothing to do with the real world. Practice shows the contrary though; one can demonstrate the validity of the phenomenon in various areas, ranging from chaos theory and physics to economics and even ecology. In this lively treatise, based on Chaitin’s groundbreaking work and on the da Costa-Doria results in physics, ecology, economics and computer science, the authors show that the Gödel incompleteness phenomenon can directly bear on the practice of science and perhaps on our everyday life. This accessible book gives a new, detailed and elementary explanation of the Gödel incompleteness theorems and presents the Chaitin results and their relation to the da Costa-Doria results, which are given in full, but with no technicalities. Besides theory, the historical report and personal stories about the main character and on this book’s writing process, make it appealing leisure reading for those interested in mathematics, logic, physics, philosophy and computer sciences. See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REy9noY5Sg8
A comprehensive study of the New Christian elite of Jewish origin--prominent traders, merchants, bankers and men of letters--between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries The New Christian elite of Jewish origin were at the forefront of early modern globalisation from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Either forced to convert to Christianity or descended from those who were, these Iberian traders, merchants, and bankers with links to the academic world and liberal professions played a pivotal role in intercontinental trade for two centuries--only to decline, and virtually disappear as an ethnic elite, by the mid-1700s. In Strangers Within, Francisco Bethencourt offers a comprehensive study of the New Christian trading elite, describing their many achievements, innovations and migrations. Members of this new elite were instrumental in opening global trade, investing in plantations and industries and loaning money to kings, popes, cardinals, noblemen and religious orders. They lived under constant threat of the Inquisition for almost three hundred years, yet most of them stayed in the Iberian world. Others departed to create Sephardic communities in north Africa, the Ottoman Empire, northern Europe and the Americas. Drawing on new research in archives and research libraries in Lisbon, Madrid, Seville, Simancas, Rome, Florence, Antwerp, London and Lima, Bethencourt traces the international networks New Christian trading elite families built, the different religious allegiances they assumed and the wide range of places in which they carried on their business activities. He describes the prominent roles they played in Iberian and European culture: Saint Teresa de Avila had a New Christian background, as did the philosopher Spinoza. Despite their prominence, after three centuries, the New Christians disappeared as a recognizable ethnicity, finally bowing under the accumulated weight of racism and persecution.
Prime Minister Marcello Caetano was the successor of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Considered the second most important figure of the Portuguese dictatorship (the Estado Novo regime, 1933-1974), Caetano has generated considerable disagreement amongst scholars with regard to his persona and politics; some consider him more authoritarian than his predecessor, others more liberal. After providing background on his childhood and entry to university, the author explains his growing activism in the Integralismo Lusitano and in the Catholic Church; his monarchist and nationalist ideology. Caetano's decision to support the Salazar Regime coincided with publications in the mainstream media on corporatism, colonialism, European politics and the relationship between Brazil and Portugal. His role in the office of General Secretary of Mocidade Portuguesa (MP), an organization of Portuguese youth similar to the fascist youth organizations in Italy or Germany, was at odds with his neutrality policy in the Second World War. The leadership of Uniao Nacional (the single party of the regime) and the presidency of the Camara Corportiva (a parliament for corporative interests) led to national recognition at a time when the Portuguese regime had to reform its colonial policy. His tensions with other notables of Salazarism resulted in his political demotion and devotion toward the University in the 1960s. As Rector of Lisbon University he supported universities' autonomy, dividing public opinion. Caetano's Presidency (beginning in September 1968) reflected the tense relationship between the government and the liberal wing on the colonial crisis. Ultimately this led to the final crisis of the New State regime; the fragmentation of the armed forces; and the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974. During his exile in Brazil between 1974 and 1980 Caetano maintained correspondence with his Portuguese friends. These correspondences, introduced and explained by Francisco Martinho, are of exceptional importance in understanding Portugal's contemporary political history.
Variedades de la lengua española ofrece un panorama general de la variación dialectal y sociolingüística en el espacio hispanohablante, presentado por uno de los más prestigiosos expertos en la materia. La lectura de este manual permitirá familiarizarse con los rasgos que distinguen las diferentes variedades geográficas del español, con una comprensión adicional de las causas históricas y políticas de sus diferencias y de sus implicaciones sociales. Cada capítulo incluye sugerencias de lecturas complementarias y propone temas de debate e investigación, así como un glosario que explica la terminología algo más especializada. Complementariamente, el texto remite a materiales audiovisuales disponibles en la red que permiten una aproximación más directa a las variedades del español. Estas páginas son de interés tanto para los hispanohablantes nativos como para los no nativos interesados por la diversidad dialectal. Asimismo, esta obra puede servir como texto primario, de apoyo o complementario para los estudiantes, el profesorado y los hispanistas interesados por el conocimiento de las variedades geográficas y sociales de la lengua española.
This is the first complete modern survey of the institution of slavery in Brazil and how it affected the lives of enslaved Africans. It is based on major new research on the institution of slavery and the role of Africans and their descendants in Brazil. This book aims to introduce the reader to this latest research, both to elucidate the Brazilian experience and to provide a basis for comparisons with all other American slave systems.
Feeding the World chronicles the rise of Brazil as a world agricultural powerhouse during the second half of the twentieth century. Tracing the history of Brazilian agricultural development, Herbert S. Klein and Francisco Vidal Luna focus specifically on how Brazil came to be the largest net food exporter in the world. Brazil was always an agricultural export country, but it was traditionally an exporter of a single crop. However, the country's agriculture underwent significant changes after 1960. Since then, Brazil has become one of the top five world producers of some 36 agricultural products and is now the world's primary exporter of such agricultural goods as orange juice, sugar, meat, corn, and soybeans. Drawing heavily on historical and economic social science research, this book not only details how Brazil became an international leader in commercial agriculture, but offers careful insight into one of the most important developments in modern world history.
In the 1950s–80s, Brazil built one of the most advanced industrial networks among the "developing" countries, initially concentrated in the state of São Paulo. But from the 1980s, decentralization of industry spread to other states reducing São Paulo's relative importance in the country's industrial product. This volume draws on social, economic, and demographic data to document the accelerated industrialization of the state and its subsequent shift to a service economy amidst worsening social and economic inequality. Through its cultural institutions, universities, banking, and corporate sectors, the municipality of São Paulo would become a world metropolis. At the same time, given its rapid growth from 2 million to 12 million residents in this period, São Paulo dealt with problems of distribution, housing, and governance. This significant volume elucidates these and other trends during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and will be an invaluable reference for scholars of history, policy, and the economy in Latin America.
Brazil has risen to extraordinary prominence as an arbitration seat, and Brazilian law in matters of domestic and international arbitration has been watched all over the world due to its arbitration-friendly legislation and cutting-edge case law. This is the first book to fully recognize and elucidate this phenomenon with a detailed article-by-article examination, in English, of decisions of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) and the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (STJ) on each of the Brazilian Arbitration Act’s (BAA) provisions. More than two hundred judicial decisions are directly quoted. In-depth annotation of the text of each article includes the following: a short descriptive summary of how the article is interpreted by case law and doctrine; a thorough report of decisions of the Brazilian superior courts since the 1996 enactment of the BAA referring to that article, presenting not only the majority view but also dissenting opinions; and a list of authorities interpreting each article and its relevant case law. All decisions that could represent current case law on arbitration are considered. Nearly half of the quoted decisions have direct impact on international arbitration, and many deal with enforcement of arbitral awards. Therefore, the book will attract not only Brazilian practitioners but will be particularly useful to international counsel and arbitrators dealing with Brazilian parties or cases with a Brazilian element. The only book of its kind, it will prove indispensable for arbitration scholars and law libraries. “By providing a careful and comprehensive compilation of Brazilian case law on arbitration, with a particular focus on the Superior Court of Justice’s leading precedents, this volume makes a valuable contribution to the continued development of arbitration in Brazil and elsewhere. While it will no doubt be of great use to the Brazilian bar, it is a particularly useful reference for the non-Brazilian practitioner and scholar, who do not have ready access to Brazilian court decisions or, in many cases, even knowledge of the Portuguese language”. From the foreword by Donald Francis Donovan
Endothelium and Cardiovascular Diseases: Vascular Biology and Clinical Syndromes provides an in-depth examination of the role of endothelium and endothelial dysfunction in normal vascular function, and in a broad spectrum of clinical syndromes, from atherosclerosis, to cognitive disturbances and eclampsia. The endothelium is a major participant in the pathophysiology of diseases, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes and hypertension, and these entities are responsible for the largest part of cardiovascular mortality and morbidly. Over the last decade major new discoveries and concepts involving the endothelium have come to light. This important reference collects this data in an easy to reference resource. Written by known experts, and covering all aspects of endothelial function in health and disease, this reference represents an assembly of recent knowledge that is essential to both basic investigators and clinicians. Provides a complete overview of endothelial function in health and diseases, along with an assessment of new information Includes coverage of groundbreaking areas, including the artificial LDL particle, the development of a new anti-erectile dysfunction agent, a vaccine for atherosclerosis, coronary calcification associated with red wine, and the interplay of endoplasmic reticulum/oxidative stress Explores the genetic features of endothelium and the interaction between basic knowledge and clinical syndromes
This book is the first modern survey of the economic and social history of Brazil from early man to today. A fantastic overview for students and scholars interested in the economic and social landscape of Brazil.
In Wonder as a New Starting Point for Theological Anthropology: Opened by the World, José Francisco Morales Torres constructs a new theological anthropology that begins with wonder. He contends that the visceral experience of wonder is an opening up of the human by an excess that saturates the world. This opened-by-ness points to a transforming receptivity as the basis of the person and to an extravagant Generosity that grounds all creation. Thus, wonder, which is grounded in generous Excess, is not only a gift but a demand: it calls for a liberative praxis that resist the forces that flatten the fullness of life into what is ‘useful’ and profitable and that reduce the limitless worth of fellow humans to mere commodities to be exploited and exchanged at the altar of the idolatrous ‘Market’. Wonder reveals a primordial receptivity in the human person, which demands of us an ethic of sustainability that does not reduce the other to commodity, a vulnerability that risks being opened by the other, a commitment to solidarity and liberation that resist the forces of an insatiable, idolatrous Market that seeks “only to steal and kill and destroy.”
The mere record of a humane experience in the politics, economics and social mores of colonial life was entrenched in the heritage of a people living detached from the motherland to a frenzied Diaspora Encounter in China. One discussed relativity and the atom bomb; analyzed Marxism and Communism comparing both to Christianity and Democracy. The ships of Columbus pierced that veil and brought the vast continent into view. Today, it is the destiny of America to pierce another veil, the veil of the Middle Eastern peoples of the world. Our performance is to uplift these people to some decency of living. Ultimately, our ending of all wars whether for religious or other reasons is our task and our mission. As a historian in his own right, who is emerging as an author of alternative history, he has captured all his personal history in this memoir incorporating his life experiences throughout his many travels.
This book explores the premise that a physical theory is an interpretation of the analytico–canonical formalism. Throughout the text, the investigation stresses that classical mechanics in its Lagrangian formulation is the formal backbone of theoretical physics. The authors start from a presentation of the analytico–canonical formalism for classical mechanics, and its applications in electromagnetism, Schrödinger's quantum mechanics, and field theories such as general relativity and gauge field theories, up to the Higgs mechanism. The analysis uses the main criterion used by physicists for a theory: to formulate a physical theory we write down a Lagrangian for it. A physical theory is a particular instance of the Lagrangian functional. So, there is already an unified physical theory. One only has to specify the corresponding Lagrangian (or Lagrangian density); the dynamical equations are the associated Euler–Lagrange equations. The theory of Suppes predicates as the main tool in the axiomatization and examples from the usual theories in physics. For applications, a whole plethora of results from logic that lead to interesting, and sometimes unexpected, consequences. This volume looks at where our physics happen and which mathematical universe we require for the description of our concrete physical events. It also explores if we use the constructive universe or if we need set–theoretically generic spacetimes.
This book discusses evolution of the human brain, the origin of speech and language. It covers past and present perspectives on the contentious issue of the acquisition of the language capacity. Divided into two parts, this insightful work covers several characteristics of the human brain including the language-specific network, the size of the human brain, its lateralization of functions and interhemispheric integration, in particular the phonological loop. Aboitiz argues that it is the phonological loop that allowed us to increase our vocal memory capacity and to generate a shared semantic space that gave rise to modern language. The second part examines the neuroanatomy of the monkey brain, vocal learning birds like parrots, emergent evidence of vocal learning capacities in mammals, mirror neurons, and the ecological and social context in which speech evolved in our early ancestors. This book's interdisciplinary topic will appeal to scholars of psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, biology and history.
Examining Latin American security in the post-Cold War era, policymakers and analysts from across the Americas assess the security threats and agendas of different sub-regions—such as the Caribbean Basin, the Andean nations, and the Southern Cone—and evaluate the potential for wider hemispheric cooperation.
Examines new research on the role of cholesterol in regulating ion channels and receptors and its effect on health Drawing together and analyzing all the latest research findings, this book explores the role of cholesterol in the regulation of ion channels and receptors, including its pathological effects. It is the first book to comprehensively describe the complex mechanisms by which cholesterol regulates two major classes of membrane proteins. Moreover, it sheds new light on how cholesterol affects essential cellular functions such as the contraction of the heart, propagation of nerve impulses, and regulation of blood pressure and kidney function. Written and edited by leading pioneers in the field, Cholesterol Regulation of Ion Channels and Receptors is divided into three parts: Part I, Cholesterol Regulation of Membrane Properties, introduces the heterogeneity of cholesterol distribution in biological membranes and the physical and biological implications of the formation of cholesterol-rich membrane domains. Part II, Cholesterol Regulation of Ion Channels, examines the mechanisms underlying cholesterol sensitivities of ion channels, including the regulation of ion channels by cholesterol as a boundary lipid. Part III, Cholesterol Regulation of Receptors, explores the latest discoveries concerning how cholesterol regulates distinct types of receptors, including G-protein coupled receptors, LDL and scavenger receptors, and innate immune system receptors. Increased levels of cholesterol represent a major health risk. Understanding cholesterol regulation of ion channels and receptors is essential for facilitating the development of new therapeutic strategies to alleviate the impact of pathological cholesterol conditions. With this book as their guide, readers have access to the most current knowledge in the field.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.