Eulogizing Realism : Documentary Chronotopes in Nineteenth-Century Prose Fiction

In this contribution we try to probe the generic chronotope of realism, which, judging from its astonishing productivity in the nineteenth century and the profound impact it has had on literary evolution and theory ever since, can be designated nothing less than a hallmark in the general history of narrative. Although we are primarily concerned with the description of the principles of construction underlying the realistic, “documentary”, chronotope, we would also like to touch upon some of its rather evident, but still somewhat under-discussed similarities with the genre of historiography. For, despite an abundance of what could be called “touches of realism” in a plethora of literary texts and genres (both narrative and poetic) since the very beginnings of literary history itself, the direct germs of realism as it developed into a particular narrative genre or generic chronotope during the nineteenth century may well be situated in “prescientific” historiographical works such as those of Gibbon or Michelet

Empowering urban governance through urban science: Multi-scale dynamics of urban systems worldwide

Cities are facing many sustainability issues in the context of the current global interdependency characterized by an economic uncertainty coupled to climate changes, which challenge their local policies aiming to better conciliate reasonable growth with livable urban environment. The urban dynamic models developed by the so-called “urban science” can provide a useful foundation for more sustainable urban policies. It implies that their proposals have been validated by correct observations of the diversity of situations in the world. However, international comparisons of the evolution of cities often produce unclear results because national territorial frameworks are not always in strict correspondence with the dynamics of urban systems. We propose to provide various compositions of systems of cities in order to better take into account the dynamic networking of cities that go beyond regional and national territorial boundaries. Different models conceived for explaining city size and urban growth distributions enable the establishing of a correspondence between urban trajectories when observed at the level of cities and systems of cities. We test the validity and representativeness of several dynamic models of complex urban systems and their variations across regions of the world, at the macroscopic scale of systems of cities. The originality of the approach resides in the way it considers spatial interaction and evolutionary path dependence as major features in the general behavior of urban entities. The models studied include diverse and complementary processes, such as economic exchanges, diffusion of innovations, and physical network flows. Complex systems dynamics is in principle unpredictable, but contextualizing it regarding demographic, income, and resource components may help in minimizing the forecasting errors. We use, among others, a new unique source correlating population and built-up footprint at world scale: the Global Human Settlement built-up areas (GHS-BU). Following the methodology and results already obtained in the European GeoDiverCity project, including USA, Europe, and BRICS countries, we complete them with this new dataset at world scale and different models. This research helps in further empirical testing of the hypotheses of the evolutionary theory of urban systems and partially revising them. We also suggest research directions towards the coupling of these models into a multi-scale model of urban growth

Seismic detection of fault zone hydrocarbon conduit-seal potential using velocity, frequency, and Q analysis: La Concepcion Field, Lake Maracaibo Venezuela example.

The 3-D Post-Stack Time Migrated Seismic Data of La Concepcion Field, Maracaibo Basin, Venezuela cover an existing field with known oil and gas pay zones. The thesis problem is how to use this seismic data in an interpretation of leaky faults that occur in the exploration area of interest. A solution to the problem was obtained using an integrated geophysical approach that included published seismic attribute methods (Variance Cube, Geoframe IESX). Specific developments in this thesis to solve the interpretation problem of leaky faults in the region include (1) an image ray perturbation approach for updating the interval velocity in a faulted domain (2) a peak frequency approach to attenuation estimation within intervals and (3) a scaled interpretation of the velocity measurements at sonic, checkshot and surface seismic reflection data. The first development refines the interval velocities within fracture zones. The second development identifies anomalous attenuation most likely due to the presence of gas. The combined effects of low interval velocity and high attenuation are interpreted to be signs of leaking faults

Writing a Bill of Exchange: The Perils of Pearl Street, The Adventures of Harry Franco, and the Antebellum Credit System

This article examines representations of credit instruments in two popular antebellum fictions: Asa Greene’s The Perils of Pearl Street and Charles Frederick Briggs’s The Adventures of Harry Franco. Drawing on a range of business histories it describes the operation of promissory notes and bills of exchange in the cotton-for-credit system, focusing on the “principle of deferral” and the ways in which these instruments attempted to solve the problem of time in long-distance exchange. By establishing concrete connections between characters, times, and places these fictions demystify the antebellum financial system, revealing an economy based on new forms of social interdependence

Bakhtin’s theory of the literary chronotope: reflections, applications, perspectives

This edited volume is the first scholarly tome exclusively dedicated to Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the literary chronotope. This concept, initially developed in the 1930s and used as a frame of reference throughout Bakhtin’s own writings, has been highly influential in literary studies. After an extensive introduction that serves as a ‘state of the art’, the volume is divided into four main parts: Philosophical Reflections, Relevance of the Chronotope for Literary History, Chronotopical Readings and Some Perspectives for Literary Theory. These thematic categories contain contributions by well-established Bakhtin specialists such as Gary Saul Morson and Michael Holquist, as well as a number of essays by scholars who have published on this subject before. Together the papers in this volume explore the implications of Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope for a variety of theoretical topics such as literary imagination, polysystem theory and literary adaptation; for modern views on literary history ranging from the hellenistic romance to nineteenth-century realism; and for analyses of well-known novelists and poets as diverse as Milton, Fielding, Dickinson, Dostoevsky, Papadiamandis and DeLill

Order Out of Chaos: The Growth of Botanical Science in Nineteenth Century St. Louis

This thesis places the botanical community in nineteenth century St. Louis back in the centre of the development of botanical science in the United States. Historical models have been focused on east-coast centers, favoring the research of closet botanists in Philadelphia and Harvard University. By reevaluating the scientific research of collectors and residents in St. Louis it reveals the crucial role the community played in the emergence of a particularly American form of botany. In its early development, visiting naturalists explored and sent their collections to Philadelphia to be classified. By mid-century, resident botanists, such as Dr. George Engelmann, collaborated closely with the cities in the east. He exchanged plant material, books and botanical knowledge with Asa Gray in Harvard and John Torrey in New York. The desire of the community to raise the intellectual and cultural status of the city culminated in the founding of the Academy of Science in St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. By the turn of the twentieth century, the Garden, under the directorship of Dr. William Trelease, transformed into a world renowned botanical institution. Trelease lead the way for subsequent directors to create an institution for the discovery and education of plants and their environment in order to preserve biodiversity and understand nature. This thesis is an attempt to place this unique botanical community onto the historical stage in the development of science in the United States

Genetic structure of the long-snouted seahorse, Hippocampus guttulatus, in the Central-Western Mediterranean Sea

The seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus reaches its highest abundance in confined environments, where it has unique biological and ecological traits that suggest significant genetic differentiation among populations. In the present study, we aimed to reveal the genetic structure of this species by analysing eight microsatellite loci and a mitochondrial DNA region (cytochrome b) of eight populations from the Central-Western Mediterranean Sea, including lagoon sites. Levels of genetic diversity, as measured by the total number of alleles, number of private alleles, allelic richness and heterozygosity, ranged from low to moderate. The overall value of inbreeding was high, indicating a deficiency in heterozygotes. The haplotype network had a star-like construction, with the most common haplotype present in all populations. Data from the two molecular markers congruently displayed a similar pattern and revealed low genetic differentiation, notwithstanding predictions based on species traits. The observed genetic structure is probably the result of both historical population demographic events and current gene flow. The investigated lagoons, however, revealed a unique genetic profile, which is especially highlighted by the Taranto population. At this site, the results also showed altered values of observed/expected heterozygosity and allelic richness, a characteristic of marginal populations. Our study suggests that lagoon populations should be managed as distinct genetic units

Biogeomorphology of Bedrock Fluvial Systems: Example from Shawnee Run, Kentucky, USA

The dynamic interactions between fluvial processes and vegetation vary in different environments and are uncertain in bedrock settings. Bedrock streams are much less studied than alluvial in all aspects, and in many respects act in qualitatively different ways. This research seeks to fill this lacuna by studying bedrock streams from a biogeomorphic perspective. The first part of this research aims to identify the impacts of woody vegetation that may be common to fluvial systems and rocky hillslopes in general, or that may be unique to bedrock channels. A review of the existing literature on biogeomorphology — mostly fluvial and rocky hillslope environments — was carried out, and field examples of biogeomorphic impacts (BGIs) associated with fluvial systems of six various bedrock environments were then examined to complement the review. This research shows that bedrock streams exhibit both shared and highly concentrated BGIs in relation to alluvial streams and bedrock hillslope environments. It shows that while no BGIs associated with bedrock streams are unique to the environment, the bioprotective function related to root-banks (when the root itself creates the stream bank) and the processes related to bioweathering and erosion are rarely addressed in alluvial fluvial literature, despite their importance in bedrock fluvial environments. The second part of the dissertation is largely grounded upon the important BGIs associated with bedrock fluvial environments identified in the first part. Drawing from ecological lexicon, this part introduces some biogeomorphic concepts, most importantly biogeomorphic keystone species and equivalents, with respect to different biotic impacts on surface processes and forms. Later, it explores these concepts by examining the general vs. species-specific BGIs of trees on a limestone bedrock-controlled stream, Shawnee Run, in central Kentucky. Results suggest that Platanus occidentalis plays a keystone role by promoting development of biogeomorphic pools in the study area. Further, some species play equivalent roles with respect to surface processes and landforms by promoting development of avulsion-associated islands and can be recognized as biogeomorphic equivalents. Finally, this dissertation also examines the relative importance of systematic up-to downstream vs. local scale variation explaining channel morphology and biogeomorphological phenomena in Shawnee Run. Results show that local scale variation − primarily attributable to the local scale structural controls, incision status and edaphic variation − largely explains channel morphology and vegetation patterns. These patterns may therefore be common in bedrock rivers strongly influenced by geological controls