La panacea áurea : alquimia y destilación en la corte de Felipe II (1527-1598)

Se analizan las relaciones entre Felipe y la Alquimia en su doble versión, la dedicada a obtener el oro alquímico o a falsificarlo, y la encaminada a la preparación de medicamentos químicos, licores y perfumes. En la primera, se demuestra cómo Felipe II tuvo contacto, a lo largo de todo su reinado, con alquimistas empeñados en obtener oro o plata, de diversas nacionalidades: flamencos, alemanes, italianos, ingleses y españoles, en los Países Bajos y en España, cuyas actividades fueron controladas por altos burócratas. Pese a los criterios contrarios de la Iglesia y la fuerte actividad represora inquisitorial, no tuvieron problemas durante su reinado, situación que cambió radicalmente tras su muerte. En el segundo aspecto, mandó instalar aparatos destilatorios allí donde tuvo jardines; al menos, en Madrid, Aranjuez y El Escorial y contrató un cuerpo de destiladores flamencos, que actuaron indistintamente en estas tres localidades, ocupados en la preparación de medicamentos químicos, de licores y perfumes para uso regio. Su actividad y los libros conservados en la Biblioteca escurialense son testimonio de cómo se abrió una nueva vía para la introducción del paracelsismo en España. Felipe II ordenó su actividad y la hizo depender de sus boticarios y protomédicos; cuando se inauguró la Real Botica (1594), a través de ella, mediante sus reglamentos

THE HEROIDES IN ALFONSO X\u27S GENERAL ESTORIA: TRANSLATION, ADAPTATION, USE, AND INTERPRETATION OF A CLASSICAL WORK IN A THIRTEENTH-CENTURY IBERIAN HISTORY OF THE WORLD

My dissertation analyzes the role of Ovid’s Heroides in Alfonso X’s General Estoria, a massive historical compilation in six volumes that the “Learned King” commissioned in 1272. The way in which eleven of these fictional epistles were incorporated by the Alfonsine translators sheds light on how ancient texts were perceived by medieval scholars. According to the study, King Alfonso relies on Ovid as an accurate historical source and uses the epistles of the heroines as historical documents while preserving their literary dimension. The thesis is divided into six sections. Chapter one introduces the topic of translation in relation to history and literature and argues for the use of a culturesemiotic perspective in the study of medieval translations. Chapter two looks into the General Estoria in order to frame the generic register/s to which the Heroides and Ovid belonged in Alfonso’s historic discourse. Some of these issues include literature and its historical value, and how the ancient past (in this case the times of characters in the Heroides) was used in order to investigate and interpret the concerns of the present, and form decisions about the future. Chapter three speculates on the bearing that the habitus or socio-cultural conditioning of a potential translator like Archbishop Jiménez de Rada could have had in the Alfonsine approach to translation. Chapter four analyzes the uses of and references to Ovid as a writer and his works throughout Europe in order to recreate the position both him and his works held in the socio-cultural milieu of thirteenth-century literature, history, epistolography, and rhetoric. Chapter five focuses on how the Latin text was initially adapted and segmented according to translation patterns and norms. This observational analysis of the Heroides in the GE approaches the text from the perspective of the discipline of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS). My research does not seek to propose or refute any theories but, rather, to make a contribution to DTS in the form of an observational analysis

Scanning electrochemical microscopy for the analysis and patterning of graphene materials: A review

[EN] Graphene and related materials have recently emerged as outstanding materials due to a range of properties such as high mechanical strength, high electron mobility, thermal conductivity, etc. Due to their high surface area and conductivity, graphene materials have also been used for electrochemical applications such as supercapacitors, batteries, sensors, etc. Therefore, the characterization of the electroactivity of graphene materials is necessary and different electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy have been widely used for this purpose. Scanning electrochemical microscopy has appeared as a unique technique that can be used to test electron transfer kinetics, electroactivity and conductivity of these materials. Even patterns can be created on graphene materials by this technique, This review aims to compile the different works performed with graphene materials and scanning electrochemical microscopy technique and provide new perspectives into the analysis of graphene materials using this technique. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Authors wish to thank to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (contract MAT2016-77742-C2-1-P) for the financial support. J. Molina is grateful to the Conselleria d'Educacio, Formacio i Ocupacio (Generalitat Valenciana) for the Programa VALi+D Postdoctoral Fellowship (APOSTD/2013/056). Tim Vickers is gratefully acknowledged for help with the English revision.Molina Puerto, J.; Fernández Sáez, J.; Cases Iborra, FJ. (2016). Scanning electrochemical microscopy for the analysis and patterning of graphene materials: A review. Synthetic Metals. 222:145-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.synthmet.2016.10.019S14516122

Animal Models of Central Diabetes Insipidus: Oxytocin and Low-Sodium Diets as Complementary Treatments

Human central diabetes insipidus (CDI) is a neurobiological syndrome characterized by the presence of hypotonic polyuria, hypernatremia, and polydipsia. CDI can be acquired (aCDI) as the result of brain damage to magnocellular neurosecretory cells or fibers that constitute the hypothalamic-neurohypophyseal system or can be caused by genetic disorders (hereditary CDI). aCDI can be experimentally induced by various surgical interventions, including neurohypophysectomy, pituitary stalk compression (PSC), hypophysectomy, and hypothalamic mediobasal lesions. CDI has been associated with a deficient production of arginine vasopressin (AVP) (the antidiuretic hormone secreted by magnocellular system), while more recently, aCDI animal studies also suggest the possible involvement of oxytocin (OT) (a natriuretic-promoting hormone secreted by neurosecretory systems) and other factors related to serum fluid concentration. Both humans and animals with aCDI may benefit from the combined administration of AVP and OT and, importantly, from a low-sodium diet. Moreover, increased OT levels are observed in Brattleboro rats (with mutated AVP gene), which may explain the regulatory hydromineral capacity shown by these animals after hydromineral challenges. In short, the symptoms shown by the different CDI animal models suggest the involvement of additional factors besides the absence of AVP, which appear to depend on the particular neurobiological systems affected in each case

Dynamics of phase transformations in Si and Ge upon strong excitation with UV femtosecond laser pulses

Femtosecond laser processing of semiconductors has evolved into a mature, high-precision fabrication technique, enabling a wide range of applications. While initially most studies have employed pulses at near infrared wavelengths, the interest in using UV laser pulses is constantly increasing due to the different excitation conditions as a consequence of the much shorter optical penetration depth, leading to an improved resolution. In this context, fundamental studies on the temporal dynamics of phase transformations triggered by such pulses are necessary in order to comprehend and eventually control the complex phase transformation pathways. Here, we report a detailed time-resolved study on the phase transformation dynamics of crystalline silicon and germanium upon irradiation with single 400 nm, 100 fs laser pulses in the moderate and high excitation regime. To this end, we have employed fs-resolved optical microscopy with a probe wavelength of 800 nm to study the reflectivity evolution of the irradiated surface over a temporal window ranging from 100 fs up to 20 ns. At moderate excitation fluence, the data reveals the entire sequence of laser-induced processes, starting from the generation of a free-electron plasma, non-thermal melting, ablation onset and expansion of a semi-transparent ablation layer with sharp interfaces. At excitation with peak fluences more than 30 times the ablation threshold, an anomalous transient high-reflectivity state is observed, which might be indicative of a recoil pressure-induced liquid–liquid phase transition. Moreover, 70 nm-thick amorphous surface layers are formed in both materials after irradiation at moderate fluences. Overall, our results provide relevant information on both, transformation dynamics and final state of both materials for fs-pulse excitation in the near-UV wavelength range.This work is part of the projects TEC2008-001183, PID2020-112770RB-C21 and TED2021-130894B-C22 and has been financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Ministry of Science and Innovation/State Agency of Investigation) and European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR, as well as by the “Generalitat Valenciana” (project PROMETEO/2021/006)

A risk-aversion approach for the Multiobjective Stochastic Programming problem

Multiobjective stochastic programming is a field well located to tackle problems arising in emergencies, given that uncertainty and multiple objectives are usually present in such problems. A new concept of solution is proposed in this work, especially designed for risk-aversion solutions. A linear programming model is presented to obtain such solution.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures, 17 table

El Laboratorio Municipal de Madrid en el último tercio del siglo XIX

La institución cuyo estudio abordamos, se creó durante el último tercio del siglo XIX con la finalidad de contribuir a la mejora de la higiene pública madrileña