The Sheela-na-gig: An Inspirational Figure for Contemporary Irish Art

A Sheela-na-gig is an enigmatic, medieval stone carving of a female figure with exposed genitalia. It is exceptional both as a public image of a woman with an exaggerated vulva and because it is often located on a religious building. This thesis explores the connection between the Sheela-na-gig and Irish contemporary art considering theological, feminist and historical themes. The artists Barrie Cooke, Louise Walsh and Eilis O’Connell are reviewed with a focus on their works that were inspired by the Sheela-na-gig. The Killinaboy and Ballyvourney churches are focal points in this thesis because of their connection to the artists and because they have Sheelas that became linked to saints. The theological writings on virtues and vices are present in the early Irish texts of penitentials. These penitentials evolved into devotional rituals based on the Sheela, but were also used as a warning against immoral behaviour in monastic praxis. The thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to inspiration and the forces that bring together the Sheela, the artists and certain social and theological issues in Ireland. The analysis is supported by interviews and oral histories that were collected as part of the research. In this way, the underlying themes of feminism, sexuality, form, repression, history and nature are revealed as key to understanding how the Sheela has served as an inspirational figure for selected contemporary Irish art

Duane Michals y René Magritte: relaciones entre surrealismo y fotografía

This article aims to shed light on the particularly surrealistic literary and pictorial influences that are evident in the work of American photographer Duane Michals. Thanks to an encounter with Belgian painter René Magritte, he develops his own aesthetics and language, transforms the photographer's gaze, changes his ideas about the image, and breaks with contemporary photography. The context of both artists’ life and work is presented along with some connections that made their meeting possible, personally and artistically. An analysis of some works by Michals reveals how the rendezvous with the painter was decisive for the transformation of his photographic work and the development of an extensive narrative and poetic language where photographic creation acts as a vehicle of creativity and imagination.El presente artículo pretende dilucidar las influencias literarias y pictóricas de corte particularmente surrealista que se evidencian en la obra del fotógrafo norteamericano Duane Michals, quien gracias al  encuentro con la obra del pintor belga René Magritte puede desarrollar una estética y lenguaje propios, así como transformar la mirada del fotógrafo, cambiar sus concepciones sobre la imagen y gestar una ruptura en el quehacer fotográfico de su tiempo, a partir de la importancia de la imaginación en la creación fotográfica. Se presentan un breve contexto de la vida y obra de ambos artistas, algunos puntos de correspondencia que hacen posible el encuentro entre ambos, y se evidencia mediante el análisis de algunas obras de Michals, cómo el encuentro con Magritte es decisivo para la transformación de su quehacer fotográfico en el desarrollo de un extenso lenguaje narrativo y poético, donde la creación fotográfica actúa como vehículo de la creatividad y la imaginación

Multiple dens invaginatus, mulberry molar and conical teeth : case report and genetic considerations

Dens in dente, also known as dens invaginatus and dilated compound odontoma, is a malformation that can occur on primary, permanent, or supernumerary teeth that is characterized by a deep invagination of the surface of a crown or root covered with enamel. This abnormality in tooth morphology generally affect the maxillary lateral incisors but several cases of multiple dens invaginatus have been reported in the literature. A 15 year-old female patient is reported here presenting five dens invaginatus: four in the permanent mandibular incisors and one in the permanent, maxillary left central incisor, additionally the following dental findings were observed: a permanent mandibular left mulberry molar, molarization of some premolars, several microdontic conoid teeth, retention of five primary teeth, absence of several permanent teeth germs, a macrodontic molar with abnormal roots and several periapical radiolucencies associated to the dens invaginatus. There was no family history of similar dental findings to those observed in the patient. There are several genes that participate in the development of teeth, of those, the following five genes could be implicated as responsible or co-participators for some of the dental anomalies present in this patient: MSX1 (Muscle segment homeobox 1), DLX1 and DLX2 (Distal-less homeobox 1 and 2 genes), PAX9 (Paired box gene) and PITX2 (Pituitary homeobox transciption factor 2)

Pesticide Exposure Alters Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Levels in Mexican Agricultural Workers

Organophosphorous pesticides (OPs) are suspected of altering reproductive function by reducing brain acetylcholinesterase activity and monoamine levels, thus impairing hypothalamic and/or pituitary endocrine functions and gonadal processes. Our objective was to evaluate in a longitudinal study the association between OP exposure and serum levels of pituitary and sex hormones. Urinary OP metabolite levels were measured by gas–liquid chromatography, and serum pituitary and sex hormone levels by enzymatic immunoassay and radioimmunoassay in 64 men. A total of 147 urine and blood samples were analyzed for each parameter. More than 80% of the participants had at least one OP metabolite in their urine samples. The most frequent metabolite found was diethylthiophosphate (DETP; 55%), followed by diethylphosphate (DEP; 46%), dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP; 32%), and dimethyldithiophosphate (DMDTP; 31%). However, the metabolites detected at higher concentrations were DMTP, DEP, DMDTP, and dimethylphosphate. There was a high proportion of individuals with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) concentrations outside the range of normality (48%). The average FSH serum levels were higher during the heavy pesticide spraying season. However, a multivariate analysis of data collected in all periods showed that serum FSH levels were negatively associated with urinary concentrations of both DMTP and DMDTP, whereas luteinizing hormone (LH) was negatively associated with DMTP. We observed no significant associations between estradiol or testosterone serum levels with OP metabolites. The hormonal disruption in agricultural workers presented here, together with results from experimental animal studies, suggests that OP exposure disrupts the hypothalamic–pituitary endocrine function and also indicates that FSH and LH are the hormones most affected

Adults with special educational needs participating in interactive learning environments in adult education: Educational, social, and personal improvements. A case study

Previous scientific contributions show that interactive learning environments have contributed to promoting learners' learning and development, as interaction and dialogue are key components of learning. When it comes to students with special needs, increasing evidence has demonstrated learning improvements through interaction and dialogue. However, most research focuses on children's education, and there is less evidence of how these learning environments can promote inclusion in adult learners with SEN. This article is addressed to analyse a case study of an interactive learning environment shared by adults with and without special needs. This case shows several improvements identified by adult learners with special needs participating in this study. Based on a documental analysis and a qualitative study, this study analyses a context of participatory and dialogic adult education. From the analysis undertaken, the main results highlight some improvements identified in the lives of these adult women and men with SEN, covering educational improvements, increased feeling of social inclusion, and enhanced well-being

A unified and automated approach to attractor reconstruction

We present a fully automated method for the optimal state space reconstruction from univariate and multivariate time series. The proposed methodology generalizes the time delay embedding procedure by unifying two promising ideas in a symbiotic fashion. Using non-uniform delays allows the successful reconstruction of systems inheriting different time scales. In contrast to the established methods, the minimization of an appropriate cost function determines the embedding dimension without using a threshold parameter. Moreover, the method is capable of detecting stochastic time series and, thus, can handle noise contaminated input without adjusting parameters. The superiority of the proposed method is shown on some paradigmatic models and experimental data from chaotic chemical oscillators

The Problem of National and Cultural Semantics of Lexical Units in Spanish (On Material of Venezuelan And Nicaraguan Words Reflecting Forms of Work)

This article is within the framework of inter-variant dialectology - a relatively young scientific branch in the domestic Spanish studies, the main purpose of which is to establish the national and cultural specifics of the use of the Spanish language. In turn, the revelation of linguocultural specifics of national variants of the Hispanic area is one of the urgent problems of modern Spanish-American studies. Since the national specificity of speech is particularly evident in comparison, the article considers the communicative behavior of the representatives of two sociocultural communities:  Venezuelan and Nicaraguan linguistic cultures.The choice of the topic is determined by the growing interest in domestic and foreign linguistics to studying the national identity of linguistic culture as a specific form of human existence and society in the world. Language thus acts as a means of constructing and interpreting social reality, including culture, ethnicity, mentality, in the expression of which an important role is played, in particular, by the culturally specific names of the phenomena of the surrounding reality.The method of continuous sampling from the dictionaries “Diccionario de venezolanismos” by M. J. Tejera, “Diccionario del Español de Nicaragua” by Arellano Oviedo F., “Diccionario de nicaraguanismos” by H.A. Castellón was used to select lexical units that make up the semantic group of “activities” which are specific to the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan variants of the Spanish language and reflect the linguistic and cultural specifics of the countries under consideration. The comparative analysis of the selected lexical units was carried out, and

Use of elicitors as an approach for sustainable agriculture

Plant pathogens are responsible for large declines in agricultural production. Their control is carried out mainly by chemical and frequently proposed biological methods to reduce their environmental impact. On the other hand, plant-pathogen or microbe interactions generate multiple signals within plants activating defense mechanism, some of which can also be induced by elicitors (protective molecules). Elicitor-induced plant signaling serves as a guide to a series of intracellular events that end in activation of transduction cascades and hormonal pathways triggering induced resistance (IR) and consequently activation of plant immunity to environmental stresses. So, it is necessary to understand where and how elicitors act in cellular defense mechanism of crops, to improve protection and management for sustainable crop. Therefore this review focused on main topics that guide induced resistance and therefore activation of plant immune response.Keywords: Elicitors, defense mechanism, Immune response, Induced resistance, MAP