Brazilian soccer: symbolic dimensions of its practice

This essay explores the symbolic dimensions of soccer in Brazilian society from the perspective of sports anthropology. It discusses how the founding of the game was handled, in terms of stylization and standardization of rules. This, as the essay argues, would effect amplified representations in emotional regimes and adhesion to the game, thus making it a singular sports modality for understanding societies such as Brazil.     

Independent Olympic Athletes and the Legitimacy of the International Olympic Committee in Resolving International Conflicts

Abstract

Over the last three centuries (nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first) humanity has been facing huge political and ideological conflicts, especially wars. For these reasons, it was seen how necessary it was to create global institutions that aimed to promote peace and reduce or stop conflicts of this magnitude. Therefore, an international institution had already brought on its premises the principles of international peace and reconciliation through sport: the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, despite bringing together nations around peaceful ties in an international competition, the IOC and the Olympic Games event have always been affected by constant conflicts along their path in the twentieth century, emphasizing issues involving nationalities. Thereby, in a mediator posture of international conflicts and in an effort to reduce the subversions that surrounded it, the IOC, in the 1990s, created the delegation of Independent Olympic Athletes. Such a delegation consists of athletes who cannot represent their respective nationalities at the Olympics due to political factors and/or armament conflicts. This proposal of the IOC demonstrates its posture to avoid, minimize, and even cease ideological and political events that might interfere with the Olympics Games or the athletes participating in them.     

Mathematics education in the neoliberal and corporate curriculum: the case of Brazilian agricultural high schools

The pedagogical principle learning by research guides the current curriculum in agricultural high schools in Brazil. A problematization of the principle shows how (1) it feeds into current neoliberal and corporate agendas in the education sector, and (2) it associates mathematical formalism and abstraction as necessary conditions for the production and use of biotechnology. Data consists of official national and institutional policy documents, as well as interviews conducted with nine former students, along with their school notebooks and tests. The theoretical and methodological framework draws on the work of Michel Foucault. It is argued that neoliberal market values are embedded in the mathematics education, through the articulation of abstract and formal reasoning with techno-scientific knowledge, for the purpose of competitive production. The learning by research principle shapes students’ subjectivities to desire becoming techno-scientificized individuals. The ethical question of the subordination of the value of mathematics education to a neoliberal, predominantly marketized logic is raised as a challenge to the role of mathematics in contemporary cultures.     

Nonlinear Control of pressurized water reactors with uncertainties estimation via high order sliding mode

In this work, dynamic controllers are designed for reactor power, pressurizer water level, and pressure control in the primary circuit of a pressurized water reactor. These nonlinear controllers use super-twisting sliding-mode estimators to enhance their robustness versus parameter variations and external disturbances. Hence, the perturbative terms can be canceled by the control, thus improving the dynamic behavior of the controlled system. The designed controllers ensure good performances and better transient behavior, also in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances. A performance study of the proposed controllers is carried out in the presence also of unmodeled dynamics.     

A Study of the Relationship Between Child Care Providers' Use of HIV/AIDS Information Sources, Knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and Attitudes Toward Caregiving Policies

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), has been a part of American society for over two decades. Today, HIV/AIDS touches all demographic groups, including young children. It is for this reason that child care providers need to be informed about HIV/AIDS and related policies that impact their work with young children. The purpose of this study was to examine child care providers' use of different HIV/AIDS information sources in relationship to their knowledge about HIV/AIDS and their response to common childhood behaviors and classroom situations involving an HIV-infected child. Results suggest that different types of information sources are associated with different aspects of providers' knowledge about and response to pediatric HIV/AIDS. Implications for the planning and delivery of HIV/AID training involving child care providers are discussed.     

Development of an industrial engineering project

This paper presents a teaching strategy of the scheduling and developmental phase of an Industrial Engineering computer project. It is based on a real project which has been carried out by our department in collaboration with a local company. The classroom setting provides an environment where students can experience firsthand all phases of the development of an electronic product: design, development and implementation of a prototype board to the final commercial product.