Royal Death and National Rebirth: Eduardo Rosales’ \u3ci\u3eIsabel la Católica\u3c/i\u3e in the Context of Nineteenth-Century Spanish Nationalism

When wandering through the nineteenth-century galleries of Spanish museums such as El Prado in Madrid and the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi in Barcelona, the viewer might be struck by the proliferation of history paintings that feature dead, dying, or gravely injured monarchs who played major roles in shaping Spain and its regions: Eduardo Rosales’ Doña Isabel la Católica dictando su testamento (1864), the Catalan artist Claudi Lorenzale’s Origen de l’escut del comtat de Barcelona (1843-44), and Francisco Pradilla’s Doña Juana la Loca (1878) are but a few examples. Such paintings may seem puzzling when one considers that the nineteenth century, in Spain as elsewhere, was a period of intense debate that played out in literature, visual art, and political discourse on what constituted “the nation.” Such nation-building projects often involved mining the country’s history and legends to argue for a model of government that would and should shape the nation’s present and future. How, then, do images of death point towards a model of national rebirth? In the case of Rosales’ Isabel la Católica, the painter selected his theme only after deciding that a scene of the dying Catholic Queen was a more historically “transcendent” subject than the others he had considered, including the one immortalized, twelve years later, in Pradilla’s work, to which I will return at the end of this study. In the following article, I argue that Rosales’ work uses the circumstances of Isabella I’s death to meditate on her eponymous successor Isabella II’s role in contemporaneous politics. As such, Rosales’ work offers spectators a deeply ambivalent view of the monarchy in its modern form, inviting the public to participate in both political debates and artistic consumption

Policy Point - Counterpoint: Whither Capitalism: The Historical Foundations and Fallacies of an Idea, Theory, Framework, Ideology, and Worldview

In this policy point – counterpoint piece, the concept of capitalism is examined, with one side arguing that predictable policies lead to a stagnant economy and the other side encouraging a more compassionate capitalism that seeks a conscience in business and government

Retrieve-Cluster-Summarize: An Alternative to End-to-End Training for Query-specific Article Generation

Query-specific article generation is the task of, given a search query, generate a single article that gives an overview of the topic. We envision such articles as an alternative to presenting a ranking of search results. While generative Large Language Models (LLMs) like chatGPT also address this task, they are known to hallucinate new information, their models are secret, hard to analyze and control. Some generative LLMs provide supporting references, yet these are often unrelated to the generated content. As an alternative, we propose to study article generation systems that integrate document retrieval, query-specific clustering, and summarization. By design, such models can provide actual citations as provenance for their generated text. In particular, we contribute an evaluation framework that allows to separately trains and evaluate each of these three components before combining them into one system. We experimentally demonstrate that a system comprised of the best-performing individual components also obtains the best F-1 overall system quality.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

Tephra stratigraphy and eruptive volume of the May, 2008, Chaitén eruption, Chile

On May 1st 2008 Mount Chaitén (southern Chile) interrupted a long period of quiescence, generating a sequence of explosive eruptions and causing the evacuation of Chaitén town located a few kilometers south of the volcano. The activity was characterized by several explosive events each associated with plumes which reached up to about 19km above sea level. The products were dispersed across a wide area, with the finest ash reaching the Atlantic coast of Argentina. Our field observations in the proximal-medial area (3-25km from the vent) indicate that the May 2008 tephra deposit consists of numerous layers, most of which can be correlated with individual eruptive events. These layers vary from extremely fine-grained ash to layers of lapilli and blocks, composed of both juvenile and lithic material. Here we describe the stratigraphy and physical characteristics of the May 2008 deposits, and propose a reconstruction of the timing of the May 2008 events. The deposits are mainly associated with the three main explosive phases which occurred on 1st-2nd May, 3rd-5th May and 6th May, with an estimated bulk tephra volume of 0.5-1.0km3 (integration of both exponential and power-law fitting). For the 6th May event, represented by a layer composed mainly of lithic lapilli and blocks (>2mm), an isopleth map was compiled from which a 19km plume height was determined, which is in good agreement with satellite observation

Exploration of a Novel Approach to Measure Brain Smudging in Dancers

Objective Obtain baseline accuracy measurements of right/left discrimination in actively performing dancers without performance-inhibiting injuries. Purpose Gather data that can be used in future studies to expand understanding of brain smudging in dancers. Methods This study is a prognostic cohort study. This study will involve participant use of a simple iPad application to do the left and right discrimination test that is suggested to give information on brain reorganization, or brain smudging Research Problem The specific physical, mental, and emotional demands of dancers’ careers put constant strain on their bodies to perform at the level required and can lead to injury or a higher risk for reinjury. 1,2,3,4Traditional interventions often do not address central consequences of injury on the body, such as motor cortex reorganization, or brain smudging. 5,6The degree of brain smudging that occurs in injured dancers is currently unknown. Ability to discriminate between right and left sides of the body has been proposed as a means of measuring this smudging.7,8,9,1 Results Mean accuracies out of 100 were as follows: right hand was 62.73 (n=22, SD=23.53), left hand was 61.36 (n=22, SD=16.99), right foot was 94.09 (n=22,SD=11.41), and left foot was 91.82 (n=22, SD=14.02). Conclusions The heavier workload that is typically placed on the lower extremities relative to the upper extremities may explain some of the lower accuracy in the hands in this population. 1,2 Further research is needed to establish scores in those with current injuries and determine whether those scores are predictive of future injury

Bubble Cloud Characteristics and Ablation Efficiency in Dual-Frequency Intrinsic Threshold Histotripsy

Histotripsy is a non-thermal focused ultrasound ablation method that destroys tissue through the generation and activity of acoustic cavitation. Intrinsic threshold histotripsy generates bubble clouds when the dominant negative pressure phase of a single-cycle pulse exceeds an intrinsic threshold of ~25-30 MPa. The ablation efficiency is dependent upon the size and density of bubbles within the bubble cloud. This work investigates the effects of dual-frequency pulsing schemes on the bubble cloud behavior and ablation efficiency in intrinsic threshold histotripsy. A modular histotripsy transducer applied dual-frequency histotripsy pulses to tissue phantoms with a 1:1 pressure ratio from 500 kHz and 3 MHz frequency elements and varying the 3 MHz pulse arrival relative to the arrival of the 500 kHz pulse (-100 ns, 0 ns, and +100 ns). High-speed optical imaging captured cavitation effects to characterize bubble cloud and individual bubble dynamics. Lesion formation and ablation efficiency were also investigated in red blood cell (RBC) phantoms. Results showed that the single bubble and bubble cloud size for dual-frequency cases were intermediate to published results for the component single frequencies of 500 kHz and 3 MHz. Bubble cloud size and dynamics were also shown to be altered by the arrival time of the 3 MHz pulse relative to the 500 kHz pulse, with more uniform cloud expansion and collapse observed for early (-100 ns) arrival. Finally, RBC phantom experiments showed that dual-frequency exposures were capable of generating precise lesions with smaller areas and higher ablation efficiencies than previously published results for 500 kHz or 3 MHz. Overall, results demonstrate dual-frequency histotripsy's ability to modulate bubble cloud size and dynamics can be leveraged to produce precise lesions at higher ablation efficiencies than previously observed for single-frequency pulsing.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

Game-Based Online Antenatal Breastfeeding Education: A Pilot

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Healthy Moms intervention on antenatal breastfeeding self-efficacy and intention and to determine the feasibility of using an online game-based learning platform to deliver antenatal breastfeeding education. Background: The Internet has potential for improving breastfeeding rates through improving women\u27s access to antenatal breastfeeding education. Methods: Twelve computer-based breastfeeding education modules were developed using an online learning platform. Changes in participants\u27 breastfeeding self-efficacy and intention pre- and post-intervention were measured using descriptive statistics and a one-way ANOVA. Results: Of the 25 women submitting the pretest, four completed zero quests; seven, orientation only; eight, one to six breastfeeding quests; and six, 10 to 12 breastfeeding quests. No significant differences in breastfeeding selfefficacy and intention were found among the groups. Conclusions: Online antenatal breastfeeding education is feasible; however, further research is warranted to determine if it can affect breastfeeding outcomes

The HSV-1 Latency-Associated Transcript Functions to Repress Latent Phase Lytic Gene Expression and Suppress Virus Reactivation from Latently Infected Neurons

open access articleHerpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) establishes life-long latent infection within sensory neurons, during which viral lytic gene expression is silenced. The only highly expressed viral gene product during latent infection is the latency-associated transcript (LAT), a non-protein coding RNA that has been strongly implicated in the epigenetic regulation of HSV-1 gene expression. We have investigated LAT-mediated control of latent gene expression using chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses and LAT-negative viruses engineered to express firefly luciferase or β-galactosidase from a heterologous lytic promoter. Whilst we were unable to determine a significant effect of LAT expression upon heterochromatin enrichment on latent HSV-1 genomes, we show that reporter gene expression from latent HSV-1 genomes occurs at a greater frequency in the absence of LAT. Furthermore, using luciferase reporter viruses we have observed that HSV-1 gene expression decreases during long-term latent infection, with a most marked effect during LAT-negative virus infection. Finally, using a fluorescent mouse model of infection to isolate and culture single latently infected neurons, we also show that reactivation occurs at a greater frequency from cultures harbouring LAT-negative HSV-1. Together, our data suggest that the HSV-1 LAT RNA represses HSV-1 gene expression in small populations of neurons within the mouse TG, a phenomenon that directly impacts upon the frequency of reactivation and the maintenance of the transcriptionally active latent reservoir

Innovative network pricing to support the transition to a smart grid in a low-carbon economy

This paper outlines how current distribution network pricing can be revised to enable transition to a smart grid in a low-carbon economy. Using insights from expert interviews, it highlights multiple trade-offs between innovative pricing approaches and regulatory principles which might be resolved by a political decision on how the costs should be recovered or socialised. It then identifies four essentials for a successful implementation of a new mechanism: (i) Closer collaboration between TSO and DNO/DSO concerning local dispatch to improve system efficiency. (ii) Installation of smart meters to collect data providing information about the actual contribution to the grid utilisation of each customer. (iii) Intensified cooperation between supplier and DNO/DSO to pass-through the price signal on the electricity bill. (iv) A legislative framework to facilitate data sharing and data management and communication among network stakeholders – essentially a relaxation of current privacy legislation as an enabler for new approaches to network management, and potentially to reduce costs to the consumer. This suggests the focus for future network pricing should be on services and functions provided by the grid rather than on the commodity power itself

Covid and care: how a ‘stacked’ care system could help places like Hackney

The weakness of local support networks, already cut to the bone, has been cruelly exposed by the pandemic. The LSE’s COVID and Care Research Group looks at the situation in Hackney and explains how an alternative ‘stacked’ care system could help