Transcending immanence : poetic reason and mysticality in twentieth century Christian and Jewish Latin American poetics

This dissertation considers the notion of “mysticality” in the works of Cubans Fina García Marruz and Cintio Vitier, Brazilian Clarice Lispector, and Argentine Jacobo Fijman, (the latter two both born Jewish in Russian-controlled territory). The present research engages with mystical, gender, and poetic studies in Latin American literature; broadly, I look at the way religion is incorporated into Latin American post-modern poetics. I analyze how Latin American writers use mystical language to address high-stakes secular issues, such as political revolution, feminism, and cultural identity. I will also discuss female writers whose poetic product is an exploration of a feminine Latin American lineage. Following the work of Spanish philosopher, María Zambrano, I develop her theory of poiesis, showing how these Latin American poets conflate the Divine and the quotidian in order to “divinize” aspects of everyday life. I contend that this poetic strategy of rhetorical divinization reveals both the profane and transcendent nature of their poetics.Spanish and Portugues

Are Short Food Supply Chains More Environmentally Sustainable than Long Chains?

Improving the eco-efficiency of food systems is one of the major global challenges faced by the modern world. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are commonly regarded to be less harmful to the environment, among various reasons, due to their organizational distribution and thus the shortened physical distance between primary producers and final consumers. In this paper, we empirically test this hypothesis, by assessing and comparing the environmental impacts of short and long food supply chains. Based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, we calculate eco-efficiency indicators for nine types of food distribution chains. The analysis is performed on a sample of 428 short and long food supply chains from six European countries. Our results indicate that, on average, long food supply chains may generate less negative environmental impacts than short chains (in terms of fossil fuel energy consumption, pollution, and GHG emissions) per kg of a given product. The values of eco-efficiency indicators display a large variability across analyzed chains, and especially across different types of SFSCs. The analysis shows that the environmental impacts of the food distribution process are not only determined by the geographical distance between producer and consumer, but depend on numerous factors, including the supply chain infrastructure

Microwave observations of spinning dust emission in NGC6946

We report new cm-wave measurements at five frequencies between 15 and 18GHz of the continuum emission from the reportedly anomalous "region 4" of the nearby galaxy NGC6946. We find that the emission in this frequency range is significantly in excess of that measured at 8.5GHz, but has a spectrum from 15-18GHz consistent with optically thin free-free emission from a compact HII region. In combination with previously published data we fit four emission models containing different continuum components using the Bayesian spectrum analysis package radiospec. These fits show that, in combination with data at other frequencies, a model with a spinning dust component is slightly preferred to those that possess better-established emission mechanisms.Comment: submitted MNRA

Integrative Sustainability Analysis of European Pig Farms: Development of a Multi-Criteria Assessment Tool

Societal interest in all aspects of sustainability has increased. Therefore, pig farmers need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses in all dimensions of sustainability: economy, environment, social wellbeing, and animal health and welfare. Our aim was to describe and critically discuss the development of a sustainability assessment tool for pig farms and to evaluate its suitability by applying it to 63 European pig farms (13 breeding, 27 breeding-to-finishing, and 23 finishing farms). The multi-criteria assessment tool was developed in several steps (the selection and scaling of indicators and their aggregation and weighting) in order to summarise the indicators into subtheme and theme scores. The indicators contributing the most to the subtheme/theme scores were identified and discussed in order to evaluate the procedure of the development. For example, some indicators, such as Ecological compensation area, Fairness of prices, and Tail docking, for which farms were scored low, were also identified as “real world problems” in other studies. For other sustainability aspects with low performance, the threshold might have been set too ambitiously, e.g., for Number of sows per annual working unit. Furthermore, to analyse the suitability of the tool, we assessed the best and worst median theme scores (good and poor performances) for each dimension, as well as the variability of the performances of the farms within the themes. Some themes were found to be moderate, such as Pig comfort, Biodiversity, or Resilience, whereas others were found to be good, e.g., Water and the Human–animal relationship, as well as several themes of the social wellbeing dimension. Overall, the sustainability tool provides a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of pig production. Furthermore, this publication contributes to both the theory (development of a robust sustainability tool) and the practice (provision of a tool to assess and benchmark the sustainability on farms). As a next step, a sensitivity analysis should be performed, and the tool should be applied for further development

Dysfunctions associated with dementia and their treatment

[u]International UnderstAID project shows[/u] the role of physiotherapist in patients with dementia as divided into two branches: helping to resolve the physical problems and solving the problems related to dementia. The role of physiotherapist in dementia treatment may be divided into two branches: helping to resolve the physical problems and solving the problems related to dementia. The physical problems consider such aspects as musculoskeletal disorders, mobility dysfunction and pain. Referring to musculoskeletal problems, the interventions of physical therapists should included whole-body progressive resistance exercise training, strengthening, “range-of-motion” and stretching exercises and transfer training. Mobility disorders are associated with physical symptoms such as: rigidity, balance problem, shuffling gait. Decreased mobility can be based on unrelieved pain. These are some crucial scales which are designed to detected the pain. For instance, The Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, massage or exercises can be provide to reduce the pain in patients with dementia. Physiotherapy in dementia treatment influences not only physical functions but also the maintenance or progression of cognitive abilities of demented elderly subject

Integrative Sustainability Analysis of European Pig Farms: Development of a Multi-Criteria Assessment Tool

Societal interest in all aspects of sustainability has increased. Therefore, pig farmers need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses in all dimensions of sustainability: economy, environment, social wellbeing, and animal health and welfare. Our aim was to describe and critically discuss the development of a sustainability assessment tool for pig farms and to evaluate its suitability by applying it to 63 European pig farms (13 breeding, 27 breeding-to-finishing, and 23 finishing farms). The multi-criteria assessment tool was developed in several steps (the selection and scaling of indicators and their aggregation and weighting) in order to summarise the indicators into subtheme and theme scores. The indicators contributing the most to the subtheme/theme scores were identified and discussed in order to evaluate the procedure of the development. For example, some indicators, such as Ecological compensation area, Fairness of prices, and Tail docking, for which farms were scored low, were also identified as “real world problems” in other studies. For other sustainability aspects with low performance, the threshold might have been set too ambitiously, e.g., for Number of sows per annual working unit. Furthermore, to analyse the suitability of the tool, we assessed the best and worst median theme scores (good and poor performances) for each dimension, as well as the variability of the performances of the farms within the themes. Some themes were found to be moderate, such as Pig comfort, Biodiversity, or Resilience, whereas others were found to be good, e.g., Water and the Human–animal relationship, as well as several themes of the social wellbeing dimension. Overall, the sustainability tool provides a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of pig production. Furthermore, this publication contributes to both the theory (development of a robust sustainability tool) and the practice (provision of a tool to assess and benchmark the sustainability on farms). As a next step, a sensitivity analysis should be performed, and the tool should be applied for further development

Further Sunyaev-Zel'dovich observations of two Planck ERCSC clusters with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager

We present follow-up observations of two galaxy clusters detected blindly via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect and released in the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue. We use the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager, a dual-array 14-18 GHz radio interferometer. After radio source subtraction, we find a SZ decrement of integrated flux density -1.08+/-0.10 mJy toward PLCKESZ G121.11+57.01, and improve the position measurement of the cluster, finding the centre to be RA 12 59 36.4, Dec +60 04 46.8, to an accuracy of 20 arcseconds. The region of PLCKESZ G115.71+17.52 contains strong extended emission, so we are unable to confirm the presence of this cluster via the SZ effect.Comment: 4 tables, 3 figures, revised after referee's comments and resubmitted to MNRA

High resolution AMI Large Array imaging of spinning dust sources: spatially correlated 8 micron emission and evidence of a stellar wind in L675

We present 25 arcsecond resolution radio images of five Lynds Dark Nebulae (L675, L944, L1103, L1111 & L1246) at 16 GHz made with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) Large Array. These objects were previously observed with the AMI Small Array to have an excess of emission at microwave frequencies relative to lower frequency radio data. In L675 we find a flat spectrum compact radio counterpart to the 850 micron emission seen with SCUBA and suggest that it is cm-wave emission from a previously unknown deeply embedded young protostar. In the case of L1246 the cm-wave emission is spatially correlated with 8 micron emission seen with Spitzer. Since the MIR emission is present only in Spitzer band 4 we suggest that it arises from a population of PAH molecules, which also give rise to the cm-wave emission through spinning dust emission.Comment: accepted MNRA

Mapping forest condition in Europe: Methodological developments in support to forest biodiversity assessments

Forest condition, biodiversity, and ecosystem services are strongly interlinked. The biodiversity levels depend to a large extent on the integrity, health, and vitality of forests at the same time as losses of forest biodiversity lead to decreased forest productivity and sustainability. Under this conceptual framework, this study presents a methodology for mapping forest condition at European scale supporting the attainment of the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Target 5 “the rate of loss of all natural habitats, including forests, is at least halved and where feasible brought close to zero, and degradation and fragmentation is significantly reduced” and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), as well as the EU forest strategy since the sustainable forest management is oriented to support the provision of forest services and to enhance the condition of biodiversity forests’ host. The work presents the developments of an operational indicator at European scale. This spatially explicit information on forest condition can be the baseline map with a 1 km resolution to monitor the state and changes of condition by exposition to pressures and threats. This condition indicator considers structural, functional, and compositional aspects of forest with relevance for health and vitality of species and habitats hosted by forest ecosystems. The methodology implemented used harmonized, published and open datasets. It provided confident results for the assessment of the condition within hemiboreal, temperate and alpine forests, showing the Carpathian, Dinaric Alps and Alps, among others, as hotspots with pre-dominantly good condition. The results were validated with data derived from the reporting for the EU Habitat Directive and explicit dataset on known primary forests in Europe. However, this method underestimated the forest condition in the Mediterranean and Boreal forest types due to data gaps, regional specific characteristics, and design limitations. (...)This work is part of the support provided by the European Topic Centre on Urban Land and Soil Systems (ETC/ULS) to European Environment Agency. The authors thank JI Barredo and M Erhard for the discussions and FM Sabatini and the Forest and CO project that facilitated the access to the datasets and provide support during the methodology development. Finally, we want to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which contributed to improving the manuscript. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA