Cries and whispers: exhuming and narrating defeat in Spain today

In this paper, I will reflect on the impact in contemporary Spain of the production, circulation and consumption of narratives and images of Civil War terror and suffering, specifically those resulting from the opening of mass graves from the Francoist repression. This sharing of narratives has to be seen in the context of a broader and highly controversial process of reconsideration of the Civil War as a traumatic past. At a time when Spanish society is engaged in important debates regarding the singularity or plurality of our identity and the structure of our territorial organization, these exhumations are bringing to light rather disturbing information regarding our past, our present, and probably our future as well. The excavation of these “crime scenes” in various parts of the country is provoking heated discussions and performances in family contexts, politics, historiography, the media, the arts, and the public sphere in general. For example, the public display of skeletons, skulls and bone fragments bearing the marks of violence – from “perimortem” tortures to bullet wounds and coups de grâce – is bringing back tragic stories that, for many relatives but also for civil society at large, were for decades mostly silenced, told in whispers, imperfectly transmitted in limited family circles, or simply ignored. The screen of silence, fear and self-censorship has been particularly strong in local, rural contexts. Exhumation and narration are inextricably entwined. Exhumations elicit storytelling; conversely, their meaning and social impact depend on the available repertoire of competing “memory plots".Peer reviewe

Diversidad patogénica dentro de poblaciones de jopo de girasol (O. cumana)

Resúmes del XII Congreso Nacional de la Sociedad Española de FitopatologíaPeer reviewe

An agent model for business relationships

Relationships are fundamental to all but the most impersonal forms of interaction in business. An agent aims to secure projected needs by attempting to build a set of (business) relationships with other agents. A relationship is built by exchanging private information, and is characterised by its intimacy — degree of closeness — and balance — degree of fairness. Each argumentative interaction between two agents then has two goals: to satisfy some immediate need, and to do so in a way that develops the relationship in a desired direction. An agent’s desire to develop each relationship in a particular way then places constraints on the argumentative utterances. This paper describes argumentative interaction constrained by a desire to develop such relationships.Peer Reviewe

Проблема разлива масла на масляных выключателях

В данной статье рассмотрены нарушение норм экологии на подстанциях и распределительных станциях. Выявлена проблема разлива масла на рельеф местности при обслуживании масляных выключателей. Приведен принцип действия многобакового масляного выключателя ВМ-35. Проанализированы минусы использования данного выключателя. На основе проведенного исследования автором предлагается замена масляных выключателей на элегазовые, что позволит повысить экологическую безопасность объектов.This article describes the violation of environmental standards at substations and distribution stations. The problem of oil spill on the terrain during maintenance of oil switches is revealed. The principle of operation of a lot of tank oil switch VM-35. The disadvantages of using this switch are analyzed. On the basis of the study, the author proposes to replace oil switches with gas-insulated ones, which will improve the environmental safety of objects

The NORMAN Association and the European Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC): let’s cooperate! [Commentary]

The Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) is currently under development as a joint research and innovation programme to strengthen the scientific basis for chemical risk assessment in the EU. The plan is to bring chemical risk assessors and managers together with scientists to accelerate method development and the production of necessary data and knowledge, and to facilitate the transition to next-generation evidence-based risk assessment, a non-toxic environment and the European Green Deal. The NORMAN Network is an independent, well-established and competent network of more than 80 organisations in the field of emerging substances and has enormous potential to contribute to the implementation of the PARC partnership. NORMAN stands ready to provide expert advice to PARC, drawing on its long experience in the development, harmonisation and testing of advanced tools in relation to chemicals of emerging concern and in support of a European Early Warning System to unravel the risks of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and close the gap between research and innovation and regulatory processes. In this commentary we highlight the tools developed by NORMAN that we consider most relevant to supporting the PARC initiative: (i) joint data space and cutting-edge research tools for risk assessment of contaminants of emerging concern; (ii) collaborative European framework to improve data quality and comparability; (iii) advanced data analysis tools for a European early warning system and (iv) support to national and European chemical risk assessment thanks to harnessing, combining and sharing evidence and expertise on CECs. By combining the extensive knowledge and experience of the NORMAN network with the financial and policy-related strengths of the PARC initiative, a large step towards the goal of a non-toxic environment can be taken

Lost in translation? : Ways for environmental sciences to communicate about risk and research

This editorial is an introduction to a paper series on the communication of environmental sciences and risk,developed as an idea from a session at the 6th SETAC World Congress 2012.Environmental sciences are at the heart of what people affect in their daily lives: environmental quality, safe food,clean air, fresh water - and hence crucial for sound public health. Why aren't we in their daily minds? How shouldwe communicate to get there? Communication means to convey meaningful information to create sharedunderstanding. But only a minority of scientists have knowledge about the principles of science communicationand even less than these are certainly up-to-date with modern communication concepts. The paper series “Lost intranslation? Ways for environmental sciences to communicate about risk and research” collates views andperspectives on science and risk communication from different angles to initiate a broader discussion on thecommunication about research findings in environmental sciences