Aplicación de indicadores de sostenibilidad a estaciones depuradoras de aguas residuales de poblaciones rurales de Portugal

El objetivo de este estudio es comparar diferentes sistemas de tratamiento de aguas residuales que sirven pequeñas poblaciones rurales de Portugal (inferiores a 2000 habitantes) aplicando indicadores de sostenibilidad. Se ha desarrollado un listado de indicadores en tres vertientes: ambiental, económico y socio-cultural. El concepto de sostenibilidad de soluciones de tratamiento de aguas residuales abarca muchos aspectos, incluyendo por ejemplo, los siguientes: uso limitado de recursos energéticos y productos químicos; uso limitado de hormigón y equipamientos electromecánicos; uso limitado de recursos humanos para la explotación y el mantenimiento; y valor añadido en los alrededores, en términos de imagen positiva o impacto visual beneficioso

“Dying is an Art”: Catharsis and the Purifying Making of the Self in Sylvia Plath’s “Fever 103º”, “Lady Lazarus”, and “Ariel”

[EN]When asked about the possible autobiographical origin of her poems during an interview a year prior to her death, Sylvia Plath answered that they emerged from a kind of non-narcissistic emotional experience purposely manipulated to come as “relevant to the larger things” (Orr 1966, 170). In the decades after Plath’s passing, her poems came to acquire several new, quite narcissistic interpretations that enhanced her status as a poet of death and suicide. As a result, the true nature of her writings was greatly misread and the emphasis on these “larger things” has been since then chiefly obliterated. This note aims at the revalorization of the intensely philosophical depth that her poetry entails, and thus focuses on Plath’s initiatory process of the making of the self in her poems “Fever 103º”, “Lady Lazarus”, and “Ariel”. Following Kroll (1976), Rosenblatt (1979) and Patea’s (1989, 2007) theorizations on Plath’s philosophy of cathartic death and rebirth, the aim of this paper is to analyze such mythic process of initiation in said three poems. Written in 1962 amid a creativity burst, these poems follow a similar structure regarding mythic rebirth, and Plath masterfully evokes in them the self’s emotional experience against a deeply oppressive background. The making of the poetic self in these texts serves Plath to explore her metaphysical concerns on the larger things of life and death. Therefore, this note concludes that, in a progression that is highly influenced by archaic rites of initiation as well as historical, literary, mythological, and biblical texts, the poetic persona faces her enemies and is made anew after purgation as she overcomes the oppressive hindrances caused by earthly life.Ministerio de Universidade

Communicative mediation and identity for the development of European democratic values in the EFL classroom

Against the backdrop of rapidly evolving globalised societies in which public attitudes are polarised, and where phenomena such as the revival of nationalism intersect with movements that seek to achieve further internationalisation, the aim of this thesis is to put forward scientifically grounded teaching methodologies that can extend the strictly linguistic nature of adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) by positively impacting on students' receptivity to the adoption of European democratic values, as well as on the functioning of the overall social dynamics of the classroom. From a conceptual perspective, this work endeavours to present the interrelationship between the socio-cultural perspective of the language teaching-learning process, the development of relational forms of social capital and the self-identification of students with European democratic principles and values. To this effect, and focusing on possible strategies for promoting active European citizenship through higher education, foreign language learning is explored as a means of developing cognitive, relational and communicative competence for individual empowerment. Building on the contributions of disciplines such as sociology and psychology, as well as the latest frameworks adopted at Community level for language and civic education, the importance of enabling learners to become participatory members of a democratic learning community, in which collaborative interaction, intersubjectivity and mutually assisted performance occur through the implementation of Mediated Language Learning Experiences (MeLLE) is equally upheld. The empirical application of mediation as a language activity (CEFR/CV, Council of Europe, 2018a) thus becomes the centrepiece of this contribution, as it underscores the collaborative nature of communication, explicitly asserting the role of the language learner as a social agent. The fundamental focus followed hence lies in the importance of establishing dialogical and reflective communities of practice in the language learning classroom setting which encompass the integration of relevant thematic content and a mediated approach as a critical variable in the development of collaborative activities. On the other hand, despite the considerable interest that European identity building has aroused and the quest undertaken by scholars to specify the predictors of its support, few studies have addressed, from a unitary theoretical framework, the joint analysis of positive identification attitudes among young people in Europe and the values they perceive as typically European. Among the shared community values considered here, the appreciation for linguistic diversity and multilingualism, the respect for otherness and the development of an intercultural mindset are fundamental premises for people to coexist in a world of increasing heterogeneity. Within this landscape, there is space for language identities and foreign language teaching to play an exciting part in education for democracy. Consequently, the other fundamental focus of this work is the process of Europeanisation, understood as the compounding effect of European integration on the of rules, values and identities on the lives of European nationals, which from the sociological angle here adopted inevitably demands attention to issues such as cross-border encounters in a European Union (EU) context, as well as inquiring how EU citizens are perceiving the politically promoted values and EU policies. To this end, we empirically address the plausability of attachment to Europe being derived from or intensified by transnational learning experiences. Finally, after examining the main interlinkages between the pedagogical paradigms of Intercultural Communicative Competence and Intercultural Mediation, their impact on the reconceptualisation of the role of educators is traced, substantiating the necessary conversion of teachers from target language and culture knowledge providers to facilitators of intercultural awareness. In a similar token, the management of pedagogical processes associated with the development of learning strategies as a by-product of a democratic classroom culture is analysed

Starless Cores

Dense low mass cores in nearby clouds like Taurus and Auriga are some of the simplest sites currently forming stars like our Sun. Because of their simplicity and proximity, dense cores offer the clearest view of the different phases of star formation, in particular the conditions prior to the onset of gravitational collapse. Thanks to the combined analysis of the emission from molecular lines and the emission/absorption from dust grains, the last several years have seen a very rapid progress in our understanding of the structure and chemical composition of starless cores. Previous contradictions between molecular tracers are now understood to arise from core chemical inhomogeneities, which are caused by the selective freeze out of molecules onto cold dust grains. The analysis of the dust emission and absorption, in addition, has allowed us to derive accurate density profiles, and has made finally possible to carry out self consistent modeling of the internal structure of starless cores. In this paper I briefly review the evolution of core studies previous to the current golden age, and show how multi-tracer emission can now be modeled in a systematic manner. Finally I show how we can start to reconstruct the early history of core formation taking advantage of the chemical changes in the gas.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Review article to appear in the proceedings of the "Cores to Clusters" meeting held in Porto, Portugal, October 200

Sexual Violence in Native American Communities: Louise Erdrich’s The Round House

Trabajo de fin de Grado. Grado en Estudios Ingleses. Curso académico 2020-2021Partiendo de los datos proporcionados por el informe de Amnistía Internacional EEUU Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women From Sexual Violence in the USA, este Trabajo se centra en las mujeres nativo-americanas como víctimas de un tipo de violencia sexual profundamente arraigada en las secuelas del colonialismo y en las prácticas discriminatorias aún presentes en el sistema legal de los Estados Unidos. A través del análisis de Geraldine Coutts, madre Ojibwe, víctima de violación y protagonista de la novela de Louise Erdrich The Round House, el presente proyecto explora la impunidad de los violadores derivada de la falta de soberanía y jurisdicción tribales sobre los casos de agresión sexual, y revela cómo tales agresiones a menudo conducen a la traumática transformación del individuo, la familia y la comunidad indígenas.By means of the data provided by the Amnesty International USA’s report Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women From Sexual Violence in the USA, this essay focuses on Native American women as victims of a kind of sexual violence deeply rooted not only in the aftermath of colonialism, but also in the discriminatory practices still present in the legal system of the United States of America. Through an analysis of the character of Ojibwe mother and rape survivor Geraldine Coutts in Louise Erdrich’s novel The Round House, I will explore the impunity of the perpetrators of the crime, the result of a lack of tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction over cases of sexual assault. I will also explore how such aggression often leads to the traumatic disruption of the indigenous individual, family, and community

Ligandos multidiana relacionados con productos naturales para el tratamiento potencial de enfermedades neurodegenerativas

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the loss of neurons in the brain and/or spinal cord and constitute one of the most important health problems worldwide. Although these diseases have different etiologies and clinical manifestations, they share many mechanistic pathways, including: protein misfolding, neuroinflammation, impaired mitochondrial function, increase in oxidative stress, mitochondrial disfunction, alterations in calcium homeostasis, etc...Las enfermedades neurodegenerativas se caracterizan por la pérdida de neuronas en el cerebro y/o en la medula espinal y constituyen uno de los más importantes problemas de salud a nivel mundial. A pesar de que estas enfermedades tienen diferentes etiologías y manifestaciones clínicas, comparten diversos mecanismos, incluyendo: incorrecto plegamiento de proteínas, neuroinflamación, función mitocondrial dañada, aumento en el estrés oxidativo, disfunción mitocondrial, alteraciones en la homeostasis del calcio, etc...Depto. de Química en Ciencias FarmacéuticasFac. de FarmaciaTRUEunpu