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Purpose -This article reports the results of an empirical research that sought to understand the many meanings referring to Christmas that appear in letters written by children and sent to Santa Claus. It is based on the idea that, by means of a playful activity such as writing Christmas letters, children would be able to bring up a variety of issues referring to their daily lives.Design/methodology/approach -This research, which is of interpretative nature, made use of elements belonging to discourse analysis. Discourse analysis is a theoretical and methodological field linked to Linguistics, which studies language in movement, producing meaning since it is a social practice.Findings -The results point to discursive marks that suggest traces of materialism and secularism in the narratives and stories created by children concerning Christmas. Moreover, Santa Claus is directly associated with the date and stands out as an emblematic figure in children's imagination.Originality/value -Reporting Christmas imagery and the creation of its meanings by children can help unveil essential issues, or at least point out "clues" referring to the degree of symbolism that is present in the various social and cultural manifestations of contemporary society.

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É notório o aumento do interesse dos pesquisadores de marketing sobre questões envolvendo a Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) no Brasil. Assim, este artigo, de cunho ensaístico, tem por objetivo oferecer à comunidade de marketing um compêndio demonstrando como esta abordagem teorética e metodológica estruturou-se epistemologicamente, como foi historicamente construída, consolidou-se como uma marca e, também, como aqueles que ajudaram em sua construção pensam que esta poderia contribuir para que compreendamos os fenômenos do consumo por meio dos seus aspectos culturais e simbólicos. Para isso, estruturou-se em tópicos em que se apresenta a relação entre consumo e a perspectiva interpretativista, discutidos os antecedentes do lançamento da marca CCT e expostas as questões que permearam o lançamento e as contribuições teóricas e empíricas da CCT. Os comentários conclusivos sobre a temática, ao final, motivam os pesquisadores interessados a investir esforços para ampliar esse promissor campo de estudos no Brasil.

Biomonitoring of chemical contamination requires the use of well-established and validated tools, including biochemical markers that can be potentially affected by exposure to important environmental toxicants. Cholinesterases (ChEs) are present in a large number of species and have been successfully used for decades to discriminate the environmental presence of specific groups of pollutants. The success of cholinesterase inhibition has been due to their usefulness as a biomarker to address the presence of organophosphate (OP) and carbamate (CB) pesticides. However, its use in ecotoxicology has not been limited to such chemicals, and several other putative classes of contaminants have been implicated in cholinesterasic impairment. Nevertheless, the use of cholinesterases as a monitoring tool requires its full characterization in species to be used as test organisms. This study analyzed and differentiated the various cholinesterase forms present in two autochthonous organisms from the Ria de Aveiro (Portugal) area, namely the polychaete Diopatra neapolitana and the bivalve Solen marginatus, to be used in subsequent monitoring studies. In addition, this study also validated the putative use of the now characterized cholinesterasic forms by analyzing the in vitro effects of common anthropogenic contaminants, such as detergents, pesticides, and metals. The predominant cholinesterasic form found in tissues of D. neapolitana was acetylcholinesterase, while homogenates of S. marginatus were shown to possess an atypical cholinesterasic form, with a marked preference for propionylthiocholine. Cholinesterases from D. neapolitana were generally non-responsive towards the majority of the selected chemicals. On the contrary, strong inhibitory effects were reported for ChEs of S. marginatus following exposure to the selected pesticides.

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Objective: This paper reports the results of a research that aimed to understand the articulation between sociocultural practices and symbolic processes in the construction of a cool identity by young people inserted in the funk environment. Method: Fieldwork focused on participant observation at funk events and dances and in-depth interviews with 3 MCs and 26 young people. To analyze the data, the content analysis methodology proposed by Bardin (1995) was used. Results: Among the results, it is noteworthy that, because funk is part of the daily lives of young people, their diverse experiences with funk enhance the creation of a cool identity that makes these individuals find a place in this universe of signs and meanings. Originality: The article discusses the concept of cool identity in order to understand the (re)construction of the identity of a group of urban young people supported by and in consumption.