Subjectivity in Spanish Discourse : Explicit and Implicit Causal Relations in Different Contexts

Corpus-based studies in various languages have demonstrated that some connectives are used preferentially to express subjective versus objective meanings, for example, omdat vs. want in Dutch. However, Spanish connectives have been understudied from this perspective. Moreover, most of the studies of subjectivity have focused on explicit relations and little is known about the subjectivity of implicit coherence relations. In addition, the role that context plays in the meaning and use of causal relations and their connectives is still under discussion. This study analyzes Spanish causal explicit and implicit relations in different contexts by carrying out manual text analyses, focused on subjectivity. 360 backward relations marked by three prototypical causal connectives and 120 backward implicit relations were extracted from academic and journalistic contexts. The analytical model is based on an integrative approach to subjectivity. Statistical analyses reveal no systematic profiles of Spanish connectives in terms of subjectivity. Furthermore, a significant three-way interaction between subjectivity, context, and linguistic marking is observed. Based on a solid corpus analysis, this study reveals new insights into the expression of subjectivity in Spanish discourse relations

Post-veraison trimming practices for slowing down berry sugar accumulation and tuning technological and phenolic maturity

In the last years, particularly in the viticultural areas characterized by low soil fertility and water availability, when the skin berry colour of red-varieties is considered optimal for harvest, the juice sugar concentration is often too high, giving rise to wines with high alcohol levels which are not well accepted by modern consumers. On the other hand is not possible to anticipate the time of harvest because of the risk of incomplete poliphenols synthesis which is known to start at veraison. Late trimming, enabling to decrease leaf area/yield ratio during the last phase of berry maturation, may represent a cheap and simple agronomical practice for slowing down sugar accumulation. However is not clear if late trimming may also delay anthocyanins accumulation in berry skin. With the aim of testing such hypothesis a 3-year experiment (2008-2010) was conducted in a mature Sangiovese vineyard located in a hot hilly area of Emilia-Romagna Region (Tebano, Ravenna, Italy), treated with different intensity of late (post-veraison) shoot trimming. In August, when grape soluble solids reached about 15 \ub0Brix (40-45 days before expected harvest), spur-pruned vines were submitted to trimming maintaining 14 (light trimming) or 10 (severe trimming) nodes on the main shoot and compared with control non-trimmed vines. A randomized block design was adopted. Berry weight and their soluble solids, total acidity and pH were monitored several times after treatment, while skin anthocyans, fruit yield and cluster weight were determined at harvest. Berry quality data (berry weight, soluble solids, pH, total acidity and yeast assimilable nitrogen, skin anthocyans concentrations) collected during 2008 and 2009 indicate a slowing-down of maturation in the berries collected on trimmed vines. Nevertheless skin anthocyans levels at harvest did not show statistical differences with control vines. Trimming decreased bunch weight and yield. In 2010 year, characterized by different metereological conditions (lower summer temperatures), trimming did not change sugar accumulation while inducing a small decrease of berry skin anthocyanins concentration (peonidin). These results suggest that late trimming may represent an effective tool for slowing down sugar accumulation without changing phenolic maturity. Furthermore, data indicate that late trimming practices should be performed and finely adjusted to metereological conditions and berry maturation trend

Improvement of Grapevine Iron Nutrition by a Bovine Blood-Derived Compound

Iron (Fe) is essential for chlorophyll formation and plant growth. Iron-deficiency chlorosis is a major nutritional disorder in several fruit trees cultivated in calcareous and alkaline soils, reducing fruit yield and quality and causing heavy economic losses. Since chelated Fe, the most widespread fertilizers used for preventing or curing Fe deficiency, pose risks of environmental pollution, the development of sustainable agronomic alternatives represents a priority for the fruit industry. In this work, we investigated the effectiveness of a bovine blood-derived product (BB; 0,125% Fe) for preventing Fe-deficiency in grapevine plants. During the vegetative season 2011 potted plants of five graft combinations: Sangiovese/SO4, Cabernet Sauvignon/SO4 and Cabernet Sauvignon/140 Ruggeri, 140 Ruggeri/Cabernet Sauvignon, Vitis riparia/Cabernet Sauvignon were grown on calcareous soil. Soil treatments included: 1) Control; 2) Fe-EDDHA (Fe 6%); 3) Bovine-Blood (5 g/l); 4) Bovine-Blood (20 g/l). With the exception of Cabernet Sauvignon/SO4 plants, Fe-EDDHA increased SPAD units (leaf chlorophyll content). Bovine-blood at low concentrations had similar or higher SPAD units than Fe-EDDHA. Increasing concentration resulted in further increases in SPAD units only in some graft combinations. Data highlight the efficiency of Fe blood-compound in the prevention of grapevine Fe-deficiency over one growing season

Subjectivity in Spanish Discourse: Explicit and Implicit Causal Relations in Different Contexts

Corpus-based studies in various languages have demonstrated that some connectives are used preferentially to express subjective versus objective meanings, for example, omdat vs. want in Dutch. However, Spanish connectives have been understudied from this perspective. Moreover, most of the studies of subjectivity have focused on explicit relations and little is known about the subjectivity of implicit coherence relations. In addition, the role that context plays in the meaning and use of causal relations and their connectives is still under discussion. This study analyzes Spanish causal explicit and implicit relations in different contexts by carrying out manual text analyses, focused on subjectivity. 360 backward relations marked by three prototypical causal connectives and 120 backward implicit relations were extracted from academic and journalistic contexts. The analytical model is based on an integrative approach to subjectivity. Statistical analyses reveal no systematic profiles of Spanish connectives in terms of subjectivity. Furthermore, a significant three-way interaction between subjectivity, context, and linguistic marking is observed. Based on a solid corpus analysis, this study reveals new insights into the expression of subjectivity in Spanish discourse relations

A synonymic catalogue of the Acari from Antarctica, the sub-Antarctic Islands and the Southern Ocean

The records, taxonomy and geographical distribution of 528 species of Acari collected from the Antarctic, sub-Antarctic islands and the Southern Ocean are collated. Included are free-living and phoretic mites, parasites and nidicoles associated with a variety of birds, seals and other introduced mammals, from terrestrial aquatic, seashore and benthic marine habitats. A number of these Acari have been introduced by humans, to and around research stations and disused whaling stations. A full alphabetical index to all current higher taxa, as well as current/redundant generic and specific names, is provided