Telenovelas and politics in the 1994 Brazilian presidential election*

Brazilian telenovelas (soap operas) have been playing a growing and important role in the discussion of political and social problems in Brazil. This specific role of melodrama in Brazilian culture imposes the necessity of exploring its influence upon the political process, avoiding the prejudice and indifference of the traditional approach to this problem on the part of political scientists. The objective of this article is to stress the importance of telenovelas for the interpretation of the Brazilian political process and to show their role as a key public forum in the discussion of political and social issues. A content analysis of three telenovelas that preceded the 1994 Brazilian presidential election is developed to identify the constitutive elements of the “scenario of representation of politics” (SR‐P) within which the electoral process took place. The identification of the SR‐P's constitutive elements is made on the basis of three telenovelas produced by TV Globo: Renascer (Revival), Fera Ferida (Wounded Beast) and Pátria Minha (My Homeland). The implications of the study for the analysis of political and electoral processes are discussed.     

Perceived environmental characteristics and psychosocial factors associated with physical activity levels in adolescents from Northeast Brazil: structural equation modelling analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the direct and indirect associations between perceived environmental characteristics and psychosocial factors and physical activity levels in adolescents from Northeast Brazil. The sample was composed of 2,361 adolescents aged 14–19 years (56.6% female). Physical activity was measured using a questionnaire and environmental (perceived environmental characteristics) and psychosocial (self-efficacy, social support from parents and friends for physical activity) factors with previously validated scales. Perceived environmental characteristics were not directly associated with the levels of physical activity, but exhibited significant indirect associations, mediated by self-efficacy in males. Self-efficacy and social support were positively and directly associated with physical activity levels, and part of the associations between social support and physical activity was mediated by self-efficacy. Perception of self-efficacy and social support, important factors associated with physical activity levels in adolescents, should be the target of interventions aimed at increasing physical activity. Favorable environments for physical activity also need to be considered, since they have a positive influence on the self-efficacy of adolescents.     

A walk on the wild side: ‘Predatory’ journals and information asymmetries in scientific evaluations

In recent years the academic world has witnessed the mushrooming of journals that falsely pretend to be legitimate academic outlets. We study this phenomenon using information from 46,000 researchers seeking promotion in Italian academia. About 5% of them have published in journals included in the blacklist of ‘potential, possible, or probable predatory journals’ elaborated by the scholarly librarian Jeffrey Beall. Data from a survey that we conducted among these researchers confirms that at least one third of these journals do not provide peer review or they engage in some other type of irregular editorial practice. We identify two factors that may have spurred publications in dubious journals. First, some of these journals have managed to be included in citation indexes such as Scopus that many institutions consider as a guarantee of quality. Second, we show that authors who publish in these journals are more likely to receive positive assessments when they are evaluated by (randomly selected) committee members who lack research expertise. Overall, our analysis suggests that the proliferation of ‘predatory’ journals reflects the existence of severe information asymmetries in scientific evaluations.     

Nonorganic failure to thrive: an outpatient approach

This article reviews our experience, as well as the medical literature, regarding the treatment of failure to thrive (FTT) on an outpatient basis. Nonorganic FTT can be accidental, neglectful, or deliberate. Accidental FTT occurs with errors in formula preparation, diet selection, or feeding technique. These errors can usually be corrected by education and demonstration. Deliberate underfeeding is rare, and these children usually require placement in foster care. Neglectful FTT usually occurs because the mother is overwhelmed or psychologically disturbed. Children with neglectful FTT do not automatically require hospitalization. If the degree of FTT is mild to moderate, the mother-child interaction is positive, the mother is not severely disturbed, and the baby has no inflicted injuries or deprivational behavior, the baby can be safely and more economically managed as an outpatient. Management includes new feeding instructions, a stimulation program, social work intervention, home visits by a public health nurse, and weekly weight checks. Most infants respond to this one-month therapeutic trial with an appropriate weight gain. Even after normal weight is attained, many of these families require long-term follow-up to help them deal with multiple psychosocial issues.     

From Record Management to Data Management: RDA and New Application Models BIBFRAME,RIMMF, and OliSuite/WeCat

The reflection provoked by RDA produced the awareness that the flat format of MARC 21 records is inadequate in expressing the relationships between bibliographic entities that the FRBR model and RDA standard consider fundamental. RIMMF and BIBFRAME indicate to software developers a way to think that is consistent with RDA. In Italy, @Cult, a software house and bibliographic agency working for Casalini Libri, has taken on the charge of following and facilitating the transition: OliSuite/WeCat provides an implementation of RDA that integrates vocabularies and ontologies already present in the Web by structuring the information in linked open data.     

Morphological variation analysis of the repeatability of soccer offensive schemes

A landmark-based statistical method, morphological variation analysis, for the quantification of the repeatability in the arrangement of body segments during the execution of sport actions has recently been developed. A two-dimensional shape is produced and its morphology is studied. The method was used to measure the within-team variability of the relative positions of players during the execution of offensive schemes in soccer. Two junior soccer teams of different technical abilities (semi-professional vs. amateur), each playing two standardized offensive schemes of different difficulty (easier: throw-in; more difficult: wing attack) were filmed. Each scheme was repeated 25 (semi-professionals) or 10 (amateurs) times. For each repetition, the position of the players in a single significant frame was analysed using morphological variation analysis. The reproducibility of both schemes was higher among the semi-professionals than among the amateurs (two-way analysis of variance, P<0.005). The repeatability of the players' relative positions was related to the difficulty of the scheme and the technical level of the team. Among the amateurs, the throw-in was more reproducible than the wing attack (Student's t-test, P<0.005). The method not only allows the quantification of collective (team) coordination, but also the separation of the influence of individual players.     

Transcultural football. Trajectories of belonging among immigrant youth

Football can play different roles in the lives of immigrant youth. It can be a site for leisure, sport performance and socialization. Even more critically, it can be a place where to negotiate sense of belonging to a local community and to gain access to national sporting cultures. Football can also represent forms of exclusion and discrimination. This article aims to elucidate the meanings that participation in football hold for black immigrant males in a country of recent immigration such as the Republic of Ireland. The article discusses the findings of a long-term ethnographic study with a youth team based in a working-class area of Dublin, the Irish capital. The youth football club plays a special role as a term of identification for the local community. Teenage players of different African backgrounds are presented with the challenge of acquiring different levels of inclusion. They can attempt to appropriate cultural codes that define local working-class men on and off the pitch or they can practice forms of ‘resistance’ that emphasize their own racialized positioning in Irish society. Overall, these dynamics affirm the importance of grassroots football as a venue for young people’s transcultural encounters.     

Verbal Short‐Term Memory Underlies Typical Development of “Thought Organization” Measured as Speech Connectedness

Formal thought organization obtained from free speech, a key feature for psychiatric evaluations, has been poorly investigated during typical development. Computational tools such as speech graph connectedness (LSC) currently allow for an accurate quantification in naturalistic settings. LSC's typical development is better predicted by years of education than by age. Among beginning readers, the LSC of stories composed of short‐term memory predicted reading independently from IQ. Here we set out to test a longitudinal sample (6–8 years old, n = 45, followed for 2 years) to verify whether the LSC is predictive of various memory measures, and whether such relations can explain the correlation with reading. The LSC was specifically correlated with verbal short‐term memory performance. The results support the notion that the short‐term storage of verbal information is necessary to plan a story. Given the limited sample size, the relationship of this interaction with reading remains inconclusive.