© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved.Cell walls of grasses, including cereal crops and biofuel grasses, comprise the majority of plant biomass and intimately influence plant growth, development and physiology. However, the functions of many cell wall synthesis genes, and the relationships among and the functions of cell wall components remain obscure. To better understand the patterns of cell wall accumulation and identify genes that act in grass (...) cell wall biosynthesis, we characterized 30 samples from aerial organs of rice at 10 developmental time points, 3-100 d post-germination. Within these samples, we measured 15 cell wall chemical components, enzymatic digestibility and 18 cell wall polysaccharide epitopes/ligands. We also used quantitative reverse transcription-PCR to measure expression of 50 glycosyltransferases, 15 acyltransferases and eight phenylpropanoid genes, many of which had previously been identified as being highly expressed in rice. Most cell wall components vary significantly during development, and correlations among them support current understanding of cell walls. We identified 92 significant correlations between cell wall components and gene expression and establish nine strong hypotheses for genes that synthesize xylans, mixed linkage glucan and pectin components. This work provides an extensive analysis of cell wall composition throughout rice development, identifies genes likely to synthesize grass cell walls, and provides a framework for development of genetically improved grasses for use in lignocellulosic biofuel production and agriculture. (shrink)

Most studies investigating the relationship between cultural constructs and ethical perception have focused on individual- and societal-level values without much attention to other type of cultural constructs such as social beliefs. In addition, we need to better understand how social beliefs are linked to ethical perception and the level of analysis at which social beliefs may best predict ethical perceptions. This research contributes to the cross-cultural ethical perception literature by examining the relationship of individual-level social cynicism belief, one of five (...) universally endorsed social beliefs, together with individual social dominance orientation and the perception of unethical behavior. By means of two studies, we examine these relationships across societies that significantly differ on societal-level social cynicism belief. Using 371 business students from Russia and the U.S. in Study 1 and 268 professionals from Portugal and the U.S. in Study 2, we found that individual-level social cynicism belief was positively associated with social dominance orientation. Social dominance orientation, in turn, mediated the relationship between individual social cynicism belief and the perception of unethical behavior. Although we found significant societal-level differences in social cynicism belief in both studies, the relationships between individual-level social cynicism belief, social dominance orientation, and the perception of unethical behavior were structurally equivalent across societies in both studies, suggesting that societal-level differences did not significantly affect these relationships. Implications for cross-cultural business ethics research and practice are discussed. (shrink)

In this paper Marx’s concept of fetishism is used in order to analyze contemporary representations of technology in the science-fiction genre (concretely Terminator, The Jetsons and Dune will be used as examples) and discuss their correspondence to two major ideological perceptions of technology (the luddite and the productivist) and to one of the best attempts to grasp technology in a non-fetishized form (Marx’s analysis in Capital).

As result of the ongoing doctoral research, this paper composes the Communication delivered at the First National Post-Graduate Meeting in Philosophy of the University of Brasilia. The thesis relates to the real political action arising from liberty and immanent power. Structured in two moments of the Gramscian thought, that is: a) the juvenile phase (1914-1919), correspondent to the initial period of political engagement towards adherence to the Turin labor movement; and b) the analysis of the 48th § of Volume 3 (...) Prison Notebooks (Q 3, 48, 197) about the real political action. The whole problematic of the research relies in the investigation about Gramscian philosophical demands of the real political action that distinguishes it from the utopian idealism. In this sense, which are Gramscian´s contributions towards the Philosophy of praxis? The research indicates that the praxis requires a critical consciousness – passed through intellectual action in the formation of the people –, since the historical conditions are already given. (shrink)

In the contemporary times, we observe that the called post-modern culture enabled the youth culture to do the own constructions and choices, including religion. This research tried to understand how occurred the cultural and religious construction of youth urban tribes, here represented for headbangers from Caverna de Adulão Community. In this community, the rock was used as an instrument of socialization among the youth. The hypothesis of this research consists in observing that the religious practicing can be affected for cultural (...) changes. While some religious institutions resist changes, others take advantage of it. We could observe that the adaptations of some evangelical churches to the necessities of youth and their cultural practicing can be what attract them to Caverna de Adulão Community, where the rock was allied to religious practicing. At the first part of the paper we described the strategies used to promote the community of youth that are in most varied urban tribes, participants of Caverna de Adulão Community. We tried to identify the motivation of youth that seek to become part of evangelical groups. In the second part we presented how the music and the service, contextualized to youth, as the case of rock, can be attractive to the urban tribes and how this phenomenon open a dialog between religion and the youth culture. At the end we analyzed how occurs the socialization among evangelical youth from urban tribes with rock, both culturally and religiously, in order to understand how the construction of the religious phenomenon happens in Caverna de Adulão Community. The methodology used was established through the bibliographic research and field research with socio-anthropological-ethnographic studying, through participant observation and discussions in focal group. We verified, at the end of the paper, that our hypothesis was partially proved when we observe that rock exerted, in the studied community, the socializing role among the members. However, today rock has moved away from the center of sociability and other elements come into its place, which has given the community greater cultural diversity. (shrink)

La intervención de la ciudad con fines artístico-creativos en manos de colectivos o anónimos transeúntes, es una práctica cada vez más habitual en el espacio urbano. Esta pluralidad de manifestaciones, tanto icónicas como verbales, suscita ciertas controversias a la hora de nominarlas, sobre todo por tratarse de “obras” proscritas en su mayoría, por lo que su estatus artístico o literario es, a veces, discutible. A partir de la delimitación de la estructura de necesidades de algunas expresiones artísticas, en este trabajo (...) proponemos una taxonomía, basada en la lógica analógica de Jean-Marie Schaeffer, de las manifestaciones murales de tipo lúdico-textual inscritas en la ciudad. Para ello, tomamos como referentes a tres representantes vigentes de lo que llamaremos aquí, pintadas poéticas. Con este trabajo trabajo buscamos contribuir a esclarecer la ambigüedad conceptual que existe en torno a la noción de pintadas poéticas, y a revitalizar la discusión sobre el espacio urbano, el espacio virtual, la subversión y la institución artística. (shrink)

On the face of it, Phillips's claim is that we are getting better all the time, or at least that we may do so. For him, “to talk about getting better... is to talk about pursuing the life we want.” His book, always suggestive and often brilliant, entails an argument in moral philosophy, roughly in favor of Millean experiments in living. A number of difficulties, however, arise. The first and perhaps the foremost is that the moral philosophy is covered by (...) several layers of sheep's clothing. The first three chapters of the book (“Cure,” “Unsatisfying Pleasures,” “Truth”) put forth a version of psychotherapy that substitutes a cheerful William James for Freud and, ultimately, for every conceivable psychoanalyst. James is also the explicit topic of the fifth and final chapter (“Loose Change”). Phillips argues that James's description of conversion turns out to be a theory of change and that “the new way we should describe change is experimenting with beliefs.” To believe is, for Phillips's James, “to act as if something is true.” The lupine part of Phillips's argument, and the most complex and best section of the book, comes up in the fourth chapter (“On Not Having Experiences”). The picture painted is not rosy. Children, babies, and conceivably the rest of us are depicted there as Humean skeptics, for whom, since there cannot be any future experiences, there really cannot be any criteria for engaging in any particular experiment in living. Alas, our present condition does not allow for any experience of the future—which is to say that pragmatism about the future is just wishful thinking; we cannot experiment with experience. Phillips perceives the deep affinity between Humean and Freudian metaphysics but is unwilling to subscribe to either version. He somehow knows that there is no getting better there. (shrink)

Es tan sorprendente, concorde con la naturaleza humana, útil y profunda la doctrina de Vitoria sobre la organización universal de los pueblos que aparece como repentinamente en el s. XVI, sin una aparente fuente de continuidad, que cualquier persona con un poco de mentalidad científica no puede dejar de preguntarse: ¿de dónde la ha sacado? ¿De dónde ha extraído esa comprensión tan profunda del mundo, y ese pensamiento tan hermoso? Cualquiera puede pensar que, pensamiento político o jurídico semejante había de (...) derivarse de algún manuscrito empolvado y escondido en algún lugar, como un tesoro, cuya influencia hubiera ejercido, de manera latente, y a este investigador le hubiera tocado descubrir. Pero veremos que no: que el verdadero tesoro escondido es la simple idea de amistad, entendida en su sentido más pleno. (shrink)

The Cold War, extended from the popularization of its name in 1947 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, functioned a bipolar order in which the White House and the Kremlin set the pace of events. In accordance with the decentralization of the axis of the shock [1], both superpowers chose to avoid direct confrontation and based their strategy on a kind of tactical movements carried out by third parties. The direct consequence was the creation of a breeding (...) ground in developing countries, victims of the competitiveness of both executives and in the specific case of Latin America, in a succession of political disorders that alternated the birth of revolutionary movements and the imposition of military dictatorships. (shrink)

A fenomenologia heideggeriana é marcada pela busca de uma experiência que precede a oposição de sujeito e objeto. Esse processo teve início na juventude desse filósofo em seus cursos e que culminou na elaboração de seu procedimento fenomenológico conhecido como os indícios formais. A intenção desse artigo é encontrar elementos que elucidem a gênese desse processo que se encontra, em especial, no curso proferido em 1919, entre outros. Além disso, intenta-se perceber o inevitável desembocar dessa abordagem para uma das questões (...) centrais do pensamento do jovem filósofo, que é a questão do tempo. (shrink)

Résumé À partir de l’opposition marxiste entre action et interprétation, ce texte analyse le refus artistique de l’interprétation : chez les peintres de la Nouvelle Figuration créateurs de « Vie et mort de Marcel Duchamp » ; dans le mouvement surréaliste prônant l’action politique après la tentation herméneutique et opérant une synthèse dans l’activisme artistique ; dans l’esthétique relationnelle de Nicolas Bourriaud qui déplace la question en évoquant l’interprétation au sens scénographique du terme.

En las circunstancias políticas de la actualidad. el concepto de "tolerancia" ha recuperado una importante dignidad académica y ha sido materia de numerosas investigaciones. Pese a ello, la "tolerancia" sigue siendo considerada como una virtud "borrosa" o "elusiva". En el artículo se propone una interpretación sistemática de dicha noción, con el propósito de establecer un conjunto de matrices hermenéuticas que puedan darnos luces sobre su alcance y sus limitaciones. En dicho análisis, la tolerancia resulta ser una noción "parasitaria". cuya validez (...) depende siempre de una concepción moral previa, de carácter afirmativo y propositivo. Se sugiere, en tal sentido, que el nuevo paradigma del "reconocimiento" puede hacer las veces de marco normativo último y teleológico de la noción de tolerancia. (shrink)

Almost 25 years after Dees’ article on the meaning of social entrepreneurship, conceptual controversy persists. Based on a qualitative analysis of 209 definitions of social entrepreneurship and respective academic articles, we argue that the concept follows a family resemblance structure and identify the 12 distinct attributes that comprehensively define it. Membership in social entrepreneurship is not defined by a case possessing a universally accepted set of criterial features but by carrying shared attributes with other cases. The family resemblance structure points (...) to the persistent fallacy of using the same term to label different phenomena and cautions researchers against causal homogeneity assumptions among different conceptual subtypes. Assuming a descriptive stance, we shed light on how distinct ethical positions relate to different definitions of social entrepreneurship. Among the existing conceptual variety, we identify four prominent subtypes and find that ‘market-based’ conceptualizations relate to _economism_, the ‘social business’ subtype relates to _rule utilitarian_ positions, ‘efficiency-driven’ definitions are associated with _hedonistic act utilitarian_ views, and the ‘transformational impact’ subtype is akin to a _eudemonic act utilitarian_ stance. (shrink)

We introduce a distinct type of choice that has yet to be addressed by self-control research: Choosing between activities that offer both delayed and immediate rewards. We describe when and why such mixed-reward choices pose challenges to self-control, and suggest that self-control in mixed-reward choices may be supported by delay discounting.

The nature of architecture Building Architecture and Religion The sense of the past Following the example of antiquity.