Interacción entre habilidades de dominio específico y dominio general en la competencia matemática

This article is an approach to some viewpoints about interactions between domain-specific and general cognitive tools involved in the development of mathematical competence. Many studies report positive correlations between the acuity of the numerical approximation system and formal mathematical performance, while another important group of investigations have found no evidence of a direct connection between non-symbolic and symbolic numerical representations. The challenge for future research will be to focus on correlations and possible causalities between non-symbolic and symbolic arithmetic skills and general domain cognitive skills in order to identify stable precursors of mathematical competence.  Este artículo es una aproximación a diferentes puntos de vista acerca de la interacción entre las habilidades cognitivas de dominio específico y general involucradas en el desarrollo de la competencia matemática. Muchos estudios reportan correlaciones positivas entre la agudeza del sistema de aproximación numérica y el desempeño matemático formal, mientras que otro grupo importante de investigaciones no han hallado evidencias de una conexión directa entre las representaciones numéricas no simbólicas y las simbólicas. El desafío para las futuras investigaciones será focalizar en correlaciones y posibles causalidades entre las habilidades aritméticas no simbólicas, las simbólicas y las habilidades cognitivas de dominio general con el propósito de identificar precursores estables de la competencia matemática. &nbsp

Advertising

This entry lays out a short history of translation research as applied to advertising, outlining four main ‘tiers’ or stages. In the first tier, the focus lies exclusively with the verbal elements of the text. In the second tier, the scope of research broadens so as to embrace non-verbal elements and multimodality. A third, more holistic tier further adds the marketing context of the advertising campaign to the researcher’s perspective. The fourth and final tier reflects critically on the translation of advertising in the light of critical discourse analysis, gender and cultural studies, and postcolonialism. After this analysis of existing studies, a few examples of possible future trends for interdisciplinary research will be outlined. Such trends might lead to tools and perspectives that could prove more useful when looking at the rich complexity of the translation of advertising, provided they are sustained by a systematic collaboration between translation studies and international marketing studies

Identity in a Dish of Pasta: the Role of Food in the Filmic Representation of Italian-Americanness

Food and foodways are one of the main means of ethnic self-identification in the USA, to the point that it overshadows other ethnic signifiers such as religion and sense of community in younger Italian Americans, thus enforcing the stereotypes about Italian-American identity. The word ‘macaroni’ was used to label Italian-American immigrants, reducing them to pasta-eating figurines, setting them further apart from other ethnic groups and erasing more complex aspects of their own identity. The denigration of Italian foodways was one of the first forms of xenophobia experienced by the Italian-American community, and it was one of the factors contributing to the strengthening of the ties inside the community itself. After a brief overview on the eating habits of Italian immigrants during the 20th Century, the essay provides an account of the role of food in the representation of Italian-Americans in the American cinema of the 1990s with a keener interest in the movies "Big Night", "The Godfather Part III", "Analyze This" and "Jungle Fever"

Advertising: A Case for Intersemiotic Translation

In the world of the printed page, pictures and graphic layout are generally taken to be mere complements or exemplifications of the verbal part of the text. This is not only against the principles of semiotics, it is against the very rules of communication, as the text is not perceived by the reader as a sum of different dimensions (i.e., verbal, visual, tactile, etc.) but as a whole where all components are connected and interdependent. Thus, splitting a text into its several dimensions is a completely artificial procedure that should be carried out for analytical purposes only, since all components of a text, as well as their interplay and the interplay of the text with its context and co-text, contribute to the construction of meaning. This cannot be ignored by translators and should be made clear to any client who may think that the act of translation is by definition limited to the verbal dimension, and may go as far as submitting texts for translation without providing briefs about the visual elements they will be “complemented” with, or the graphic conventions that will be adopted in the final version. The translation – or localization – of advertisements is a case in point. The visual component plays a prominent role in most forms of advertising, particularly so in magazine ads; developing the pictorial and graphic aspects of a campaign, however these might appear “casual,” is a time-consuming and expensive process. If the translator (or localizer) is responsible for the text resulting from his/her work, then, he/she cannot ignore its visual dimension, and should be prepared to suggest modifications not only to the verbal part of the text, but also to its many other dimensions, in a holistic, intersemiotic perspective. Real-life examples, not only from advertising but also from editorial translation, will be provided to support this argument.Dans le monde de la page imprimée, les images et les éléments graphiques sont généralement considérés comme de simples compléments ou des exemplifications de la partie verbale du texte, ce qui va à l’encontre non seulement des principes fondamentaux de la sémiotique, mais aussi des règles de la communication, puisque le lecteur ne perçoit pas le texte comme une somme d’éléments indépendants (par ex. verbale, visuelle, tactile) mais comme un tout dont les composantes sont intimement liées et interdépendantes. Or, considérer les différentes dimensions du texte isolément relève d’un processus entièrement artificiel qu’il ne convient de mettre en oeuvre qu’aux seules fins d’analyse : les composantes d’un texte ainsi que leurs interactions contribuent toutes, au même titre que les interactions du texte avec le contexte et le cotexte, à la construction du sens de celui-ci. Il s’agit là d’un fait que les traducteurs ne peuvent ignorer et qu’ils se doivent de bien faire comprendre aux clients pour qui, souvent, l’acte traductif se réduit au texte proprement dit (sa dimension verbale) et qui, par conséquent, se bornent à fournir le texte écrit, sans instructions quant à sa dimension visuelle ou aux conventions graphiques à adopter dans la version finale du produit. À cet égard, la traduction publicitaire, ou localisation, constitue un cas intéressant. La composante visuelle joue un rôle de premier plan dans la plupart des publicités, et notamment dans les publicités pour revues. Bien qu’elle puisse paraître « fortuite », la mise au point des éléments graphiques et visuels d’une campagne publicitaire est le fruit d’une recherche à la fois longue et coûteuse. S’il est vrai que le traducteur (le localisateur) est responsable du résultat final de son travail, il doit tenir compte de la dimension visuelle et devrait, dans une perspective intersémiotique, voire holistique, être en mesure de suggérer des modifications relatives non seulement au texte mais à l’ensemble du contexte graphique de celui-ci. Des exemples, puisés dans la vie de tous les jours et empruntés au monde tant de la publicité que de la traduction éditoriale, viseront à soutenir notre thèse

Jets and outflows in Radio Galaxies: implications for AGN feedback

One of the main debated astrophysical problems is the role of the AGN feedback in galaxy formation. It is known that massive black holes have a profound effect on the formation and evolution of galaxies, but how black holes and galaxies communicate is still an unsolved problem. For Radio Galaxies, feedback studies have mainly focused on jet/cavity systems in the most massive and X-ray luminous galaxy clusters. The recent high-resolution detection of warm absorbers in some Broad Line Radio Galaxies allow us to investigate the interplay between the nuclear engine and the surrounding medium from a different perspective. We report on the detection of warm absorbers in two Broad Line Radio Galaxies, 3C 382 and 3C 390.3, and discuss the physical and energetic properties of the absorbing gas. Finally, we attempt a comparison between radio-loud and radio-quiet outflows.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of High Energy Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows III (HEPRO III, IJMPCS). 4 pages, 2 figure

X-ray study of a sample of FR0 radio galaxies: unveiling the nature of the central engine

FR0s are compact radio sources that represent the bulk of the Radio-Loud (RL) AGN population, but they are still poorly understood. Pilot studies on these sources have been already performed at radio and optical wavelengths: here we present the first X-ray study of a sample of 19 FR0 radio galaxies selected from the SDSS/NVSS/FIRST sample of Best & Heckman (2012), with redshift $\leq$ 0.15, radio size $\leq$ 10 kpc and optically classified as low-excitation galaxies (LEG). The X-ray spectra are modeled with a power-law component absorbed by Galactic column density with, in some cases, a contribution from thermal extended gas. The X-ray photons are likely produced by the jet as attested by the observed correlation between X-ray (2-10 keV) and radio (5 GHz) luminosities, similar to FRIs. The estimated Eddington-scaled luminosities indicate a low accretion rate. Overall, we find that the X-ray properties of FR0s are indistinguishable from those of FRIs, thus adding another similarity between AGN associated with compact and extended radio sources. A comparison between FR0s and low luminosity BL Lacs, rules out important beaming effects in the X-ray emission of the compact radio galaxies. FR0s have different X-ray properties with respect to young radio sources (e.g. GPS/CSS sources), generally characterized by higher X-ray luminosities and more complex spectra. In conclusion, the paucity of extended radio emission in FR0s is probably related to the intrinsic properties of their jets that prevent the formation of extended structures, and/or to intermittent activity of their engines.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (18 pages, 4 figures