Reminiscências da tradição em A vida inútil de José Homem, de Marlene Ferraz / Shadows of the Past in Marlene Ferraz’s A vida inútil de José Homem

Resumo: Este artigo discute alguns dos vestígios da tradição na literatura contemporânea, partindo das considerações de Giorgio Agamben (2009), bem como da influência de estilos, reminiscências de escritores do cânone e da multiplicidade de experiências que se manifestam na produção do texto literário contemporâneo (CALVINO, 2002), procurando observar as incidências de obras canônicas, referencialidades intertextuais e autores convocados em A vida inútil de José Homem (2013), de Marlene Ferraz. Pretende-se mostrar a presença e o sentido da tradição no romance, a construção de códigos renovados com uma visão pluralista e multifacetada do mundo e a harmonia textual entre a história contada e os escritores convocados que busca propor um novo referente estético para olhar a contemporaneidade.Palavras-chave: tradição; romance português contemporâneo; Marlene Ferraz.Abstract: This article discusses traces of the past in contemporary literature, considering the work of Giorgio Agamben (2009) and Ítalo Calvino (2002), to present the influence of styles, vestiges of canonical writers and the multiplicity of experiences in contemporary literature, showing the incidence of canonical works, intertextual references and authors used in Marlene Ferraz’s A vida inútil de José Homem (2013). The importance and sense of the tradition in the novel, the construction of renewed codes with a plural and multifaceted world vision, as well as a textual harmony among the story told and the writers evoked to propose new esthetic references will be discussed as a means to analyze contemporary issues. Keywords: tradition; contemporary Portuguese novel; Marlene Ferraz.

Internal Environment and Organizational Performance of World Vision in Nairobi City County, Kenya

World vision in Nairobi operates in a very dynamic environment. These changes that keep happening in the environment whether anticipated or not determine the strategic objectives that World vision in Nairobi adopts in order to remain relevant in relation to its mission and vision. The general objective of this study was to investigate the influence of internal environment on organizational performance of World Vision in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study specifically sought to examine the influence of organizational culture, employee competence, organizational structure and leadership style on the organizational performance. The study was guided by resource based view theory, Durkheim’s theory of culture, contingency theory and expectancy theory. This study used descriptive survey research design. The unit of analysis was World Vision in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The accessible population was 95 respondents comprising of 10 managers and 85 support staff. The study conducted a stratified sampling method to sample the accessible population so as to ensure that all the cases are well represented. Simple random sampling method was used to select the respondents. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. The pilot study was conducted to 10 respondents who did not participate in the actual study to assess the face and content validity of the research instruments. The pilot study will also measure the characteristic of the reliability of the research instruments over the period of the research. Content analysis technique was used to analyse information obtained from the open-ended questions and reported in narrative form. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and presented in form of tables and figures. Inferential statistics such as correlation analysis and multiple regressions were used to determine the relationship between variables. The study found that organizational culture, employee competence, organizational structure and leadership styles had a positive and significant relationship with the organizational performance. This study concludes that a work environment that possesses organizational culture is driven by purpose and clear expectations. Competence among employees ensures that organization-funded training and professional development activities are cost-effective, goal-oriented and productive. The flow of information with an organizational structure can be used to promote faster decision-making. Leadership style develops structured and organised pathway for decision making which makes target more visible and clear. The study recommends that the organization’s leaders must communicate not only the values, but also the expected behaviors associated with each value to help the employees understand what is expected, which reduces uncertainty and ensures everyone is aligned on how things should be done at the organisation. In order to improve competencies, the organization should provide enough resources and motivate its employees. The organization should look at the current organizational structure and analyze whether its employees know their exact duties, who they supervise and whether they are being used to their maximum potential. The organizational leaders should take time throughout the day to reflect to improve leadership style and skills and the managers should improve their leadership style by setting examples.

Gender differences in psychosocial status of adolescents during COVID-19: a six-country cross-sectional survey in Asia Pacific

Background School closures and family economic instability caused by the COVID-19 lockdown measures have threatened the mental health and academic progress of adolescents. Through secondary data analysis of World Vision Asia Pacific Region’s COVID-19 response-assessments in May–June 2020, this study examined whether adolescents’ study, physical, and leisure activities, psychosocial status, and sources of COVID-19 information differed by gender. Methods The assessments used cross-sectional surveys of adolescents in poor communities served by World Vision (n = 5552 males and n = 6680 females) aged 10–18 years old in six countries. The study households of adolescents were selected either by random sampling or non-probability convenience sampling and assessed using telephone or in-person interviews. Multivariate logistic regression analyses examined the relationship between gender and psychosocial status; daily activities (e.g., play, study); and sources of information about COVID-19. Results Participation in remote education was low (range: 0.5–20.7% across countries), with gender difference found only in Vietnam. Compared to males, female adolescents were less likely to play physically with a range of AOR: 0.36–0.55 (n = 5 countries) or play video games with a range of AOR: 0.55–0.72 (n = 2 countries). Female adolescents were more likely to feel isolated or stressed (India, AOR = 1.13, 95%CI:1.00, 1.26); feel unsafe (the Philippines, AOR = 2.22, 95%CI:1.14, 4.33; Vietnam, AOR = 1.31, 95%CI:1.03, 1.47); be concerned about education (India, AOR = 1.24, 95%CI:1.09, 1.41; Myanmar, AOR = 1.59, 95%CI:1.05, 2.40); or be concerned about household income (India, AOR = 1.13, 95%CI:1.00, 1.28; Vietnam, AOR = 1.31, 95%CI:1.09, 1.58). Female adolescents were also less likely to obtain COVID-19 related information through internet/social media (Bangladesh, AOR = 0.51, 95%CI:0.41, 0.64; India, AOR = 0.84, 95%CI:0.73, 0.96; and Myanmar, AOR = 0.65, 95%CI:0.43, 0.97) and mobile call or short message (India, AOR = 0.88, 95%CI:0.80, 0.98) but more likely to get the information from friends (Vietnam, AOR = 1.18, 95%CI:1.02, 1.36) and family (Bangladesh, AOR = 1.44, 95% CI:1.21, 1.70; India, AOR = 1.29, 95% CI:1.15, 1.45). Conclusions An understanding of gender differences in the impacts of COVID-19 on adolescents' schooling, physical, and mental health can inform adolescent protection interventions. Psychosocial support during response and recovery phases needs to pay special attention to gender differences, since female adolescents’ psychosocial status is at higher risk when facing the challenges of this pandemic.

Preparatory attention incorporates contextual expectations

Humans are remarkably proficient at finding objects within a complex visual world. Current theories of attentional selection propose that this ability is mediated by target-specific preparatory activity in visual cortex, biasing visual processing in favor of the target object. In real-world situations, however, the retinal image that any object will produce is unknown in advance; its size, for instance, varies dramatically with the object's distance from the observer. Using fMRI, we show that preparatory activity is systematically modulated by expectations derived from scene context. Human participants searched for objects at different distances in scenes. Activity patterns in object-selective cortex during search preparation (while no objects were presented), resembled activity patterns evoked by viewing targets object in isolation. Crucially, this preparatory activity was modulated by distance, reflecting the predicted retinal image of the object at each distance. These findings reconcile current theories of attentional selection with the challenges of real-world vision.

Forms of Metatextuality Actualized in a Literary Text and Their Role in Representation of the Author’s Worldview (Based on the Novel Word Child by Iris Murdoch).

The article presents a lingvocognitive research and deals with the study of metatext as a means of representing the author’s worldview. The author of the study describes and systematizes the ways by which metatextuality reveals itself in a literary text. The material is taken from the novel Word Child by Iris Murdoch in which meta-language reflection is expressed evidently. Cognitive approach, used in the study of metatext, brings the research to the level of metacognition and provides a wider interpretation of both the forms of metatextual commentary in the text and their function in the reconstruction of the author’s individual world vision.

How Children in Germany Experience Refugees: A Contribution From Childhood Studies

This paper deals with perceptions, encounters and experiences of children with refugees and refugee children in Germany. It is based on the Fourth World Vision Children Study, which is regularly conducted in Germany since 2007. The study is based on a representative survey among 6- to 11-year-old children, which was combined with qualitative case studies and focuses on children´s well-being, their fears, their concerns as well as their attitudes toward other societal groups and contemporary political issues. For the survey of the Fourth World Vision Children Study, in the questionnaire there were also items included which should allow collecting data on children´s encounters and experiences with refugees, and particularly refugees who are their peers. This paper presents the approach taken in the study and how it is embedded conceptually in childhood studies before reporting and discussing selected findings on the experiences of children in Germany with refugees in their neighbourhood and among their peers. The findings presented in this paper refer to contact as well as interactions and opportunities for establishing friendships between refugee and non-refugee children. This is followed by a discussion of the implications these findings have in terms of consequences for supporting refugee children when arriving at Germany. In the conclusion, we will finally point out the implications of our study for the broader field of childhood studies in social sciences.