Human Possibilities Research Articles

O PROFISSIONAL DO GÊNERO MASCULINO NA EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL: COM A PALAVRA PAIS E PROFESSORES

Parte-se da consideração de que a atuação com as crianças pequenas veio configurando-se como uma profissão relegada à mulher, assentando-se em argumentos que a apresentam como a pessoa mais competente para exercer tal função, estando em segundo plano o entendimento de que é a formação que capacita o profissional para atuar na Educação Infantil. Para discutir tais questões, partiu-se de um estudo teórico, sendo posteriormente aplicados questionários a pais e professores de dois Centros Municipais de Educação Infantil (CMEI). Com a análise das respostas foi possível identificar, por um lado, o reconhecimento da competência, tanto de profissionais do gênero masculino quanto feminino, no trabalho com as crianças na Educação Infantil. Contudo, por outro lado, ainda perdura um estranhamento quanto à possibilidade dos homens assumirem tal tarefa.

THE ROLE AND PLACE OF GERMAN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH ASSOCIATION IN GERMANY’S SCIENCE POLICY

The article describes the role and place of the German Science and Research Association (DFG) as one of the leading science support organizations in the science policy of Germany. It gives a thorough analysis of its inner structure that includes such bodies as General Assembly, Executive Committee, Senate, Joint Committee and expert boards as well as the way of their formation and scope of their powers. The legal nature of DFG as a science support organization reveals through its goals and functions stated in the Charter. They are as follows: financial support of scientific and research projects, training of young scientists, international scientific cooperation and transfer of theoretical knowledge into practice. The German Science and Research Association also stands for equal possibilities for men and women in the academic community and consults the state bodies on the science policy. The author pays particular attention to the cooperation of the organization with the state and subjects (lands), including financial issues and participation of DFG in the federal state program «Exzellenzinitiative». Moreover, the author touches a debating point of correspondence of the status of the organization to its public activity as DFG is a private law association that includes universities and other science and research institutions as its members. Finally, the article gives a comparison of the German Science and Research Association to the similar organizations in other European countries, particularly to the Danish agency on science, technology and innovation and the French National research agency. The author comes to a number of conclusions respectively the procedure of peer review and need for effective remedies to appeal the rejected project.

Men and talk about legal abortion in South Africa: equality, support and rights discourses undermining reproductive ‘choice’

Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.

Gender Analysis of Public Spending for Health Care in the Republic of Moldova

The gender statistics is used as a main instrument for the analysis of the current situation, in order to keep track of the gender characteristics, as specific socio-demographical groups, for the elaboration of optimal socio-demographical politics and the realization of the equality of rights and possibilities of men and women. Also we can use it for the identification of the groups that benefit the most from the current budget expenditures for healthcare and social programs implemented by government in this sector. In order to analyze the gender sensitive budgeting regarding the healthcare in the Republic of Moldova, should be identified the diseases and health risks that mostly affect one or another gender. Due to the fact that different financing is required for the prevention of those risks, and for the cure of the respective diseases the state allocates different amount of funds for one or another gender. In such a way, the main goal of the current analysis is to identify which are the health risks and diseases that affect predominantly one gender, in this way requiring more state funds for health care. Also, the identification of the main drawbacks regarding this matter can help finding out some solutions for the improvement of the current situation regarding the healthcare budgeting.

Where Are All the Ecomasculinists in Mining?

Where Are All the Ecomasculinists in Mining?

The Notion of Masculinities and the Phenomenon of Male Sexual Victimization

As with feminist theories, the analysis of masculinities does not include a unique vision on the experience of being a man. From the dynamics of fraternal relationships between men to the one among non-collegial masculinities, the study of men’s lives have a supreme importance in the understanding of social dynamics in general and gender dynamics in particular. Moreover, the study of masculinities is pivotal to the complete understanding of the dynamics of gender relationships, subordination and gender-based violence. As well as to realize that while focusing in the predator, the “bad guy” role of men, we have neglected to even consider the possibility of men being victims of sexual abuse, as well.The phenomenon of male rape is not just a matter of male-on-male rape or prison rape, but a matter of sexual violence against a person. This study is not solely a paper on rape but an assessment of rape regulation from the point of view of its adult heterosexual male victims. We start with a theoretical layout of gendered socialization and the construction of manhood to introduce the notion of masculinities. After that we examine three state rape statutes in order to asses if they are protective enough of men. Later, we analyze some of the reasons why the protection for men is not being achieved and if the law is the sole factor to blame for it.

Falling back into Gender? Men’s Narratives and Practices around First-time Fatherhood

This article explores men’s articulations and practices of gender through transition to first-time fatherhood. Using qualitative longitudinal data, men’s antenatal intentions and postnatal practices are explored in this study which replicates earlier research on motherhood. The contemporary context in the UK is one where paternity leave, discourses of caring masculinities and more public displays of fathering involvement appear to offer new possibilities for men. But data analysis shows that whilst opportunities to disrupt gender norms are initially imagined, longer term practices can confirm ‘patriarchal habits’. The findings illuminate gender being done and undone, at times simultaneously, as the exhaustion and hard work of new parenting is encountered. A retreat into normative behaviours can be a path of least resistance as experiences unfold in an arena where men are found to have available to them a wider repertoire of discursive storylines. Optimistically, some changes in fathering involvement are discernible.

Natureza desumana: desmesuras do mundo ao homem

O presente artigo propõe-se a erigir um conceito de natureza imanente e paradoxal que dê sustento às práticas da psicologia social de desnaturalização das configurações sociais. A partir da problematização da natureza em autores fundamentais da filosofia, Aristóteles e Rousseau, elabora-se uma nova concepção de natureza desnaturada e livre das amarras das representações essencialistas e totalizantes do humanismo clássico e iluminista. Afirmando outra possibilidade de homem e humanidade para além da clausura de sua própria representação ideal e analítica, o conceito de natureza aqui erigido impede o esvaziamento das práticas de desnaturalização em slogan, ao fornecer para essa prática um substrato ontoepistêmico adequado às suas desmesuras ao humano. Abre-se então a possibilidade de operar conceitos fluidos como o de subjetivação e devir ao invés do de identidade e estado.

Cushing's Syndrome Secondary to a Thymic Carcinoid Tumor Due to Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1

Objective To present an Iranian patient with a nonclassic form of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN 1) who presented with ectopic Cushing syndrome (CS) secondary to a corticotropin (ACTH)-producing thymic neuroendocrine tumor (NET), recurrent renal stones, and a giant cell granuloma of the jaw due to primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) without involvement of the pituitary or pancreas. Methods Relevant imaging and hormonal evaluations were performed. The patient was operated on 2 occasions for a thymic NET and on 3 occasions for PHPT. DNA from a peripheral blood sample was extracted for sequencing of the MEN1 gene. Result Histopathologic evaluation of the thymic tumor removed during the first surgery showed an atypical carcinoid tumor with a Ki-67 labeling index of 5%. Evaluation after the second surgery revealed an invasive carcinoid tumor with a Ki-67 labeling index of 30%. Parathyroid pathology was suggestive of glandular hyperplasia. Menin gene sequencing revealed a novel frameshift mutation c.1642_1648dup in exon 10. Conclusion This case of MEN 1 is unusual because most thymic NETs in MEN 1 are nonfunctional, and secretion of ACTH or other ectopic hormones rarely occurs. In patients presenting with thymic NETs, the possibility of MEN 1 should be considered, especially in the presence of hyperparathyroidism. This case also demonstrates that the behavior of thymic NETs can change over time from slow-growing tumors to highly invasive neoplasia, and that ectopic ACTH can be produced by these tumors in the context of MEN 1. (Endocr Pract. 2011;17:e92-e96)

TEORI PENGETAHUAN IMMANUEL KANT DAN IMPLIKASINYA TERHADAP BATAS ILMU

In modern philosophy, the discourse on the border of knowledge has devel-oped, especially when positivism has become a dominant paradigm. Infact the roots of its epistemological problems can be found in ImmanuelKant’s theory of knowledge. Kant’s view of the conditions of possibility ofhuman mind eventually leads to a dogma that what can be investigated isonly the phenomena. This dogma has become the basis for positivism toestablish the knowledge border.

Killing Bill –– men as rebellious feminists in the politics of passing

This thesis explores constructions of gendered and gender political positions and practices of men identifying as ‘feminist’. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 28 men aged 20-34. At issue is how seemingly contradictory positions for men as feminists are made comprehensible in theory and practice. An introduction showcase theoretical discussions on gendered experiences and the possibilities of men being feminist, mainly from standpoint, radical feminist and poststructuralist radical constructionist perspectives. Men doing feminism emerge as an unresolved complex matter. This is followed by a critical discussion of state feminism, double emancipation and research on men and masculinities in the welfare state. The support for men’s participation, predominantly as white heterosexual fathers, in the Swedish gender equality project has consequences for the construction of men as potentially ‘new’, ‘good’ gender equal feminist subjects. In the construction of profeminist positions in interview performances, interviewees are located in-between the radical feminist, poststructuralist and gender equality perspectives on men, masculinity and feminism. Two themes involve an implementation of the concept of passing and introduce the analytical concept of co-fielding. Passing consists of the microsociological process of making radical and deconstructive profeminist positions authentic and yet being able to manage masculinity in homosocial contexts. Co-fielding refers to the conjoint interlacing of experiences, knowledge and meaning-making in interview interaction where relations of researcher-researched are characterized by discursive closeness and overlapping positions. Co-fielding practices affect the outcomes of co-construction of interview performances, the negotiation of gender and power relations and the reflexive use of (in this case feminist) knowledge in qualitative interviews. In analyzing the presentations of self, ambiguous meanings of profeminist positions emerge and the doing, undoing and redoing of feminism and masculinity appear multi-faceted. Radical feminism and radical constructionism seem intersected in making men’s feminist positions comprehensible. Such rebellious positions emerge as oxymoronic and, when critically brought into the gender equality context, located in a no man’s land out of place. In all, the thesis seeks to bring together theoretical, national and empirical locations of profeminist men, and in a concluding chapter also explore issues of ethics in feminist research and cross-gender interviewing.

Perspectives of Power-Oriented Economic Growth Conversion (with Special Reference to Russia)

The slogan of economic growth acceleration and GDP doubling in Russia is very popular and appears almost in every public speech and economic program of political parties. However. few Russian (and not only Russian) economists, sociologists and philosophers reveal the reasons for a fast or slow economic growth, its structure, sources, factors and the algorithm of conversion from the energyoriented to innovation-oriented type. Economic and political discussions take into account neither the volatility, craftiness and even pseudo-evidence of statistics, nor the illusion of sustainable development. the impossibility of the economic and ecological industrial systems’ harmony based on the exaggerated ideas about the unlimited intellectual and power possibilities of man. There exists a non-equivalent power exchange between the socio-economic system and Nature, and hence the evolutionary (ecological and economic) crisis is inevitable. The ways of overcoming this misbalance point out either to reduction of nature exploitation or non-traditional sources of power use. But the implementation of these methods is impossible for the most part of the world, particularly for those countries which possess large amounts of natural and power resources. The latter could lead to the so-called “economic diseases” (Holland, Venezuela, etc.).Keeping in mind these considerations, the purpose of the present paper is to analyze modern economic growth indicators connected with the energy factor. to introduce new types of economic growth - innovation-oriented and energyoriented - and to propose the possible convergence of these types in different scenarios of Russian industrial development.

Mimetic Appetite for Marriage in Nineteenth-Century Flanders: Gender Disadvantage As an Incentive for Social Change

The development of age at first marriage in three regions of Flanders (roughly the northern part of Belgium) during 1800 to 1913 is examined by gender and social status. The study areas are Leuven, Aalst, and Bierbeek—three municipalities with different socioeconomic structures and cultural climates. All the data from these municipalities were coded and taken from almost 17,000 marriage certificates. The demographic marriage parameters point to the same thing: from the midnineteenth century, a passionate zest for marriage became obvious in Flanders. The proportion of those remaining unmarried fell sharply, and age at first marriage declined rapidly. This process occurred among all social groups. It is hypothesized that this process can be explained by the changed social position and gender identity of women, together with the new economic possibilities for men.

Architecture and Ergonomics

As the subject of modern ergonomics is the adaptation of the entirety of the material surroundings to the needs and possibilities of man, who is himself recognized as an element of the ecosystem of nature, it modern ergonomics should envelope in practice, into its area of interest all spheres of man's life. The main features of ergonomics, i.e. its humanocentricity and interdisciplinary nature are also main features of the broad understanding of architecture. The history of civilization shows that for centuries before ergonomics appeared there had existed an architecture which was engaged in the problems of “hydraulics, the construction of clocks and of different machines” (Vitruvius, 1st century BC.). In the past, architecture was treated, because of its creative and aesthetic aspects, as the “mother of all arts” a feature which in consequence influenced its separation from reality and caused the phenomenon of the dehumanization of architecture observed since the 18th century. Our present needs and circumstance has lead to the creation within architecture of, amongst other things, an orientation towards a greater adaptability, both to the needs of all categories of mankind's efficiency and to the possibilities engendered by a more widely understood ecosystem of nature. Contemporary architecture has been becoming more of an “interdisciplinary engineering art” than a “fine art” and it is a form of the humanization of the technique and urbanized living environment. The similarity of the main fearures and aims of those activities which characterize both ergonomics and architecture justifies the need to include into the multidisciplinary circle of ergonomists also those architects who whilst creating the “material frameworks of man's life” still very often try “to create pure art” and forget about the “statistic man“. The results of architects' errors are felt for decades both by society and nature.

The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics. Vol. VI: Theology: The Old Covenant by Hans Urs Von Balthasar

BOOK REVIEWS The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics. Vol. VI: Theology: The Old Covenant. By HANS Uns VoN BALTHASAR. Trans. Brian McNeil, C.R.V. and Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis. Ed. John Riches. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991. Pp. 443. In this penultimate-volume of The Glory of the Lord, von Balthasar sets forth a " biblical aesthetics " in which the manner of the emergence of the Glory of God in the world of man is spelled out. He proceeds by examining the bewildering variety of the manifestations of God's Glory in the Old Testament, but always as unified in their historical convergence upon Jesus, the Christ, the final and definitive presence in history of the divine Glory in whom Word and Image, Messiah and Servant, Son of Man and Son of God, are at one. This manner of proceeding is little consonant with contemporary Catholic exegesis, which prefers to regard the Old Testament as a free-standing hook, and is rather fastidious about reading it as " literally " the prologue and the Sitz im Leben of the New. For such exegetes, the literal and the historical senses are entirely distinct, because of their methodological enlistment in the historical pessimism of the Enlightenment. Balthasar, of course, is not of their camp. Balthasar's mastery of Old Testament exegesis is on a par with the effortless command of the Western philosophical, theological, and literary tradition which he has displayed in the earlier volumes of this work. While he relies heavily upon von Rad, a glance at the index shows that his knowledge of Old Testament scholarship is based upon a wide reading, upon which he levies throughout the book with practiced ease. The exegetical method implicit in his analysis is the one employed by scholars such as de Lubac, Guillet, and Ligier; its classic Augustinian understanding of the free unity of history, and of the consequently free meaning of Old Testament and the New as fulfilled in the Kingdom of God, needs no apology. The currently common supposition that the " literal " sense of Scripture is that which an Enlightened positivism will permit needs only to be recognized to be rejected. In the opening pages of the Introduction Balthasar sets the theme which will dominate the book: the rationally irresolvable dialectical 139 140 BOOK REVIEWS tension between God and all that is not God, a tension inherent in the revelation of the Glory of God. In keeping with the emphasis of his earlier volumes, Balthasar is insistent upon the radical gratuity of the revelation of the Glory of God. The revelatory manifestation of God as God, who is beyond all perception, all knowing, all communication , and yet is communicated, perceived the more surely where the more veiled, and definitively revealed on the Cross. The revelation of God's Glory is of God as the Absolutely Other, as formless, and so as in tension with all form which would mediate the revelation. This communication, this mediation, is utterly ex nihilo; it relies upon no capacity in man, upon no natural process of spiritual development, and is unrelated to, because absolutely transcendent to, all human projects. Impossible to prepare for, the manifestation is constantly new, arising out of no prior possibility in man or his world, and responding to nothing in him which might make the revelation capable of anticipation. The paradox of God's self communication of his formless Glory is then beyond all utterance, and yet is uttered, given form: the final Form is, of course, the Christ. This is the basic datum, the ground upon which all theology rests, and is pure grace, a gift beyond all expectation, incapable of being imagined. All the preparatory Old Testament images finally fail. The paradox, the self communication of God who is beyond all utterance, yet is uttered, has its resolution only in the Form, the personal unity, of Christ. The revelation always at once transcends and assimilates the concrete historical forms by which it is mediated. The pagan materials are transformed by their historical deployment in the revelatione .g., the pagan myths of creation, of divine wars and marriages, the pagan wisdom-and in their deployment, they converge, hut not within the Old...

Age-related thickness of the penile tunica albuginea

The thickness of the fibrous connective tissue sheath around the corpus cavernosum was measured in a population of 41 men aged 30–90 years. Specimens were obtained from embalmed cadavers and compared with tissue from fresh cadavers. Sections of tissue were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome, or VerHoeff-Van Gieson's to show the connective tissue in the best manner. The thickness was correlated with the presence of inflammation and/ or fibrosis and showed an age-dependent thinning after the sixth decade of life. The results are related to the age occurrence of Peyronie's disease and the possibility of men with chronic thickening of the tunica albuginea having a predisposition toward developing the disease.

Something Different. "The House of Shadows"

Barrie Stavis is not an innovator. All his published plays are examples of the traditional dramaturgy prior to the 20th century theatrical revolution. The main characteristic of his oeuvre -beyond the structural, formal, and technical aspects is his old-fashioned humanism: he believes in the traditional human values, in the possibility of man's moral choice; therefore, he portrays his characters with compassion and a certain pathos, although sometimes with irony as well.

Something Different—The House of Shadows

Barrie Stavis is not an innovator. All his published plays are examples of the traditional dramaturgy prior to the 20th century theatrical revolution. The main characteristic of his oeuvre -beyond the structural, formal, and technical aspects is his "old-fashioned" humanism: he believes in the traditional human values, in the possibility of man's moral choice; therefore, he portrays his characters with compassion and a certain pathos, although sometimes with irony as well.

Man in space.

The Challenger disaster focused attention on the hazards as well as the possibilities of man in space. The physiological effects of prolonged weightlessness include important changes in vestibular, bone, muscle, cardiovascular, blood, renal, and pulmonary function. Much has been learned from US and Soviet experiments, but large areas of ignorance remain. Exceptional opportunities for physiological research are provided by Spacelab, a pressurized laboratory planned as a payload of the Space Shuttle.

Experiments in long‐range climate control

AbstractExtrapolation of the palaeoclimate chronology of the past million years or so seems to leave little doubt that another glacial stage can be expected in the near geologic future. On a shorter time scale it appears that the increasing greenhouse effect from the use of fossil fuel will raise atmospheric temperature by 2 to 3 °K within a hundred years. The possibility of man's reversing or at least weakening these portentous climate changes is investigated here with the use of a thermodynamic climate model. Preliminary results indicate that the climate effects referred to may be reversible if caught early and certainly suggest that further and more sophisticated attention be given the subject.