Building Community: Making Space for Art

Examines the role of the arts in communities; artists working in community development, education, health, or environmental fields; and contemporary art spaces in community planning and revitalization strategies

Measuring cultural vitality in communities

Until recently, arts and culture data collected as part of urban revitalization planning focused on large institutions. The Urban Institute’s Arts and Culture Indicators Project provides a richer understanding of communities’ cultural strength and how it can boost economic development.Community arts projects

Commitment in University Students: Generator of Successful Professionals

The University has historically been regarded as the harbinger of values, human rights, and other noble pursuits. It is within this atmosphere that personal development, mutual respect, and collaboration are expected to flourish through commitment to work and study. Yet in order for meaningful and sustainable social, economic, and political changes to take root, the author opines that certain adjustments to the overall social fabric are occasionally required and can only be achieved through unyielding commitment — an essential value transmitted from person to person through both individual and collective reflection

Artist Space Development: Making the Case

Based on case studies, discusses the challenges advocates of artist space development face, the arguments they make to garner support, the strategic approaches they take, and what they achieve in making artist space a priority in community development

Physical Treatments and Propolis Extract to Enhance Quality Attributes of Fresh-Cut Mixed Vegetables

The impact of individual and combined application of propolis extract (PE) plus ultrasound (ULT) or thermal treatment (TT) on the microbiological, nutritional, physicochemical and sensory quality of fresh-cut mixed vegetables for soup (celery, leek and butternut squash) stored at 5C was studied. The use of PE slightly reduced microbial growth, inhibited the activity of browning related enzymes and improved quality attributes during refrigerated storage. Moreover, PE was effective to reduce ascorbic acid losses in the product maintaining its nutritional quality. TT greatly lowered the initial microbial load (1.7–2.2 log units) and also reduced microbial growth on mixed vegetables extending its microbiological shelf-life to 5 days. Furthermore, TT inactivated browning enzymes improving visual quality; however, ascorbic acid degradation adversely affected nutritional quality. Meanwhile, ULT caused a significant microbial inactivation, reduced browning enzyme activity and also the inhibitory effect on polyphenoloxidase enzyme was enhanced by combining ULT with PE. Practical Applications: The use of natural agents, as propolis extract, along with physical treatments to preserve the quality of fresh-cut mixed vegetables for soup might be an interesting option to address the concerns of the consumer about the use of synthetic chemical antimicrobials potentially harmful for health.Fil: Alvarez, María Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ingeniería Química. Grupo de Investigación en Ingeniería en Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Ponce, Alejandra Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ingeniería Química. Grupo de Investigación en Ingeniería en Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Goyeneche, Rosario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ingeniería Química. Grupo de Investigación en Ingeniería en Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Moreira, Maria del Rosario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ingeniería Química. Grupo de Investigación en Ingeniería en Alimentos; Argentin

Comparison of non-Markovianity criteria in a qubit system under random external fields

We give the map representing the evolution of a qubit under the action of non-dissipative random external fields. From this map we construct the corresponding master equation that in turn allows us to phenomenologically introduce population damping of the qubit system. We then compare, in this system, the time-regions when non-Markovianity is present on the basis of different criteria both for the non-dissipative and dissipative case. We show that the adopted criteria agree both in the non-dissipative case and in the presence of population damping.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Some changes made. In press on Physica Scripta T (special issue

An educational proposal to face the challenges of the european higher education area: international service learning experience in medicine and education of the University of Malaga, Spain

Higher Education need to be paced to world and society evolution and to technology and scientific advances. Specifically in Europe, in the last years, we had to adapt the curricula to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). We have reached a high level of scientific and technycal competences but we detect, some lacks of time and tools to developed all the transversal competences and skills of the professionals profile that are demand by the present society in which exists glaring gaps and inequities, in particular in health, that need a responsable answer/action. Actually a “redesign of professional health education is necessary and timely, in view of the opportunities for mutual learning and joint solutions offered by global interdependence due to acceleration of flows of knowledge, techologies, and financing across borders and the migration of both professionals and patients” (Frenk et al 2010, Lancet). In the educational panorama, it has been possible to expand the training of future teachers in one year, the reduction of the number of students for groups to provide a more individualized teaching and the slight increase of the time of practicum. It is required to implemented an sostainable innovation in medical education to evolve a high quality medicine in all the areas and competences needed. Likewise, it seems necessary that student-teachers known spaces that are not properly school-based and have experiences in contexts of either informal education or with marginal groups outside of the standardized schooling. International Service Learning (ISL) has provided health professional students and tearches-students the opportunity to provide healthcare and education under the direction of trained faculty, to underserved populations in developing countries (Seifer SD et al1998. Acad Med). Objective: To verify the usefulness of SL experience as an educational methodology in higher education in order to support or not the modification of the current contents of the medical and education curricula and design new subjects based on SL in Malaga University. Methods We designed a cooperation project with The NGO’s ACOES-Honduras and Fe y Alegría-Perú to develop a training experience for students of Medicine and Education. This study is based on the qualitative analysis of the final reports of 16 participants, in which they described their personal and professional experiences. To verify the academic results, the competences of the curriculum have been checked in the sections of the practicum in Education, or the specific ones for Pharmacology in Medicine. In this summary appeared some of them as an example. There are no specifications of names or places of any of the countries or names or references of adults or children. Results In Education six competences (between sixteen) have been pointed out that are enhanced by the context variables in both the organizational and the cultural aspects. In one hand, school functioning may be very similar throughout the world, but the connections between family and the education centre, relationships with students, the influence of the family and the family home, etc., are very different between the experience of the Students with an European lifestyle linked to the "welfare state", consumption, street safety, etc., and rural life and the economic and cultural situation of destinations. Related to the analysis of the medical curricula, it was focused on 27 transversal and 19 specific competences that covered areas of practice and others related to Pharmacology. In the case of transversal competences, around 70% were covered in the activities carried out. Specific competences were covered up to 75%. Volunteer narratives provided an image of the experience that shows the effectiveness of this type of program, both in increasing sensitivity and attention to diversity and in the implementation of "theoretical" training, and the original response to unforeseen situations. Conclusions SL was found to be an effective method to acquire personal and professional competences and skills in the area of pharmacology demand by our present society. Hence we will suggest this methodology in the design of a new subject: “Pharmacotherapeutics in disadvantaged environments”. Most, if not all, of the general views on experience valued those working months with people and marginal contexts very positively. Personal and professional learning is valued as meaningful and profound, affecting the way of understanding the world and its profession: As I tell all my relatives, friends and colleagues "This experience can not be tell you can only live it." (Student)Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Cultural Vitality in Communities: Interpretation and Indicators

This report introduces a definition of cultural vitality that includes the range of cultural activity people around the country find significant. We use this definition as a lens to clarify our understanding of data necessary, as well as the more limited data currently available, to document arts and culture in communities in a consistent, recurrent and reliable manner. Specifically, we define cultural vitality as evidence of creating, disseminating, validating, and supporting arts and culture as a dimension of everyday life in communities. We develop and recommend an initial set of arts and culture indicators derived from nationally available data, and compare selected metropolitan areas based on these measures. Policy and planning implications for use of the cultural vitality definition and related measures are discussed

Culture and Commerce

Illustrates the possibilities and challenges of making partnerships between economic development agencies and traditional arts organizations work. Examines the outcome of eight collaborations that were formed as part of a partnership funding initiative

Analytical and numerical results for American style of perpetual put options through transformation into nonlinear stationary Black-Scholes equations

We analyze and calculate the early exercise boundary for a class of stationary generalized Black-Scholes equations in which the volatility function depends on the second derivative of the option price itself. A motivation for studying the nonlinear Black Scholes equation with a nonlinear volatility arises from option pricing models including, e.g., non-zero transaction costs, investors preferences, feedback and illiquid markets effects and risk from unprotected portfolio. We present a method how to transform the problem of American style of perpetual put options into a solution of an ordinary differential equation and implicit equation for the free boundary position. We finally present results of numerical approximation of the early exercise boundary, option price and their dependence on model parameters