Who is more fragile? A study of heroes and heroines in the twentieth century romantic fiction of Mills and Boon

Resumen: Desde los comienzos del siglo veinte la internacionalmente conocida editorial Mills and Boon ha publicado historias de amor entre hombres y mujeres. Aunque basando sus héroes y heroínas en arquetipos literarios, los argumentos de sus novelas se han transformado a lo largo del siglo. La finalidad de este artículo es probar que las novelas de Mills and Boon son serios documentos históricos que reflejan cambios de valores sociales y denuncian las dificultades que afrontan las mujeres en un mundo dominado por los hombres. Analizando lugares, sus protagonistas, el matrimonio o las relaciones sexuales, intentaremos demostrar cómo estas narraciones han influido en mujeres de todas las edades y clases sociales sumergiendo a sus lectores en una especial atmósfera femenina. Palabras clave: Amor, héroe, heroína, cambios sociales, Gran Bretaña. Abstract: From the beginning of the twentieth century the internationally known publishing house Harlequin Mills and Boon has dealt with a large variety of love stories between men and women. Although based on archetypical literary characters, the plots of its novels have changed throughout the century. It is my purpose in this article to prove that Mills and Boon are serious historical documents which reflect shifting social values and denounce the difficulties women face in a mens world. By analysing locations, heroes and heroines, marriage or sexual relationships, Ill try to demonstrate how these narratives have influenced on women of all ages and social classes engulfing readers in a unique female atmosphere. Key words: Love, hero, heroine, social changes, Britai

Exchange-Rate Pass-Through to Import Prices in the Euro Area

This paper presents an empirical analysis of transmission rates from exchange rate movements to import prices, across countries and product categories, in the euro area over the last fifteen years. Our results show that the transmission of exchange rate changes to import prices in the short run is high, although incomplete, and that it differs across industries and countries; in the long run, exchange rate pass-through is higher and close to one. We find no strong statistical evidence that the introduction of the euro caused a structural change in this transmission. Although estimated point elasticities seem to have declined since the introduction of the euro, we find little evidence of a structural break in the transmission of exchange rate movements except in the case of some manufacturing industries. And since the euro was introduced, industries producing differentiated goods have been more likely to experience reduced rates of exchange rate pass-through to import prices. Exchange rate changes continue to lead to large changes in import prices across euro-area countries.

Femtosecond-laser-irradiation-induced structural organization and crystallinity of Bi2WO6

Controlling the structural organization and crystallinity of functional oxides is key to enhancing their performance in technological applications. In this work, we report a strong enhancement of the structural organization and crystallinity of Bi2WO6 samples synthetized by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method after exposing them to femtosecond laser irradiation. X-ray difraction, UVvis and Raman spectroscopies, photoluminescence emissions, energy dispersive spectroscopy, feld emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were employed to characterize the as-synthetized samples. To complement and rationalize the experimental results, frstprinciples calculations were employed to study the efects of femtosecond laser irradiation. Structural and electronic efects induced by femtosecond laser irradiation enhance the long-range crystallinity while decreasing the free carrier density, as it takes place in the amorphous and liquid states. These efects can be considered a clear cut case of surface-enhanced Raman scattering