Psychoanalytic aesthetics: the case of Miró and the 'child-like'

Miró's art is regularly characterised as 'child-like' in art historical literature. That is, his work is taken visually to resemble, or as sharing some of the characteristics (freshness of vision, spontaneity, emotional expressiveness, freedom from traditional illusionistic techniques) attributed to, the artistic productions of children. This analogy with child art (exploited by Expressionists and others in the early years of the twentieth-century) dates in Miró's case to his involvement with Surrealism in the 1920s. It was understood as a more or less conscious intention to exploit the visual characteristics of the successive stages in a child's artistic development. In other words, it was one aspect of Surrealism's engagement with 'primitivist' forms of expression, in which artists appropriated the aesthetic of children's drawings, tribal and folk artifacts, and the artistic productions of the mentally ill. My discussion of Miró is supported by comparison with the work of two other artists, Klee and Chagall, who also borrowed from child art and whose production was likewise associated with childhood by critical literature. Klee's work supports my contention that although Mirós painting bears a passing resemblance to children's drawings, a more sustained analysis demonstrates that it is unlike anything that a child would actually produce. 'Child-likeness', generally a comment on form, becomes in Miró's case question of artistic content, relating to the development and constant recycling of a vocabulary of shapes largely derived from childhood memories. Comparison with Chagall, whose oeuvre was also thematically indebted to childhood memories, allows one to put forward a psychoanalytically informed explanation of the infantile origins of the content that finds expression in art. Miró's thematic 'child-like' content, from this point onwards, is used as a case study to effect the comparison between the theories of Freud (a major influence on Surrealism), and those of the Kleinian tradition within the British Object-Relations School of psychoanalysis, insofar as these have lent themselves to the discussion of art. Both approaches are developmental (Freud and Klein theorised adult psychology as a development of the thought processes of infancy and childhood), and for this reason have been preferred to the topographical and Lacanian orientation adopted in recent applied psychoanalytic literature. \Vhereas Freud's psychoanalysis of art concentrates on the unconscious processes and mechanisms by means of which the fantasy-distorted derivatives of repressed infantile material emerge into consciousness and become the material of art, the Kleinian psychoanalytic aesthetic developed by Segal and Stokes focuses on the unconscious revelations underlying creativity and the phantasy content that finds expression at the level of the medium. Winnicott provides a (poetic) description of the experiences, rooted in childhood perceptual patterns, to which the production of art and its reception give rise. Miró's own accounts of his creative procedures confirm that the unconscious infantile-derived thought processes, motivations and contents theorised by these authors are in .... [?] operative in the production of art, whilst also making clear that creativity is determined by socio-cultural, therefore conscious (and, as such, psychoanalytically unaccounted for) factors. Both the explanatory value and the principal methodological limitation of psychoanalytic aesthetics centre on these two final considerations

Sodium intake and hypertension

The close relationship between hypertension and dietary sodium intake is widely recognized and supported by several studies. A reduction in dietary sodium not only decreases the blood pressure and the incidence of hypertension, but is also associated with a reduction in morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Prolonged modest reduction in salt intake induces a relevant fall in blood pressure in both hypertensive and normotensive individuals, irrespective of sex and ethnic group, with larger falls in systolic blood pressure for larger reductions in dietary salt. The high sodium intake and the increase in blood pressure levels are related to water retention, increase in systemic peripheral resistance, alterations in the endothelial function, changes in the structure and function of large elastic arteries, modification in sympathetic activity, and in the autonomic neuronal modulation of the cardiovascular system. In this review, we have focused on the effects of sodium intake on vascular hemodynamics and their implication in the pathogenesis of hypertensio

Left ventricular ejection time, not heart rate, is an independent correlate of aortic pulse wave velocity.

Salvi P, Palombo C, Salvi GM, Labat C, Parati G, Benetos A. Left ventricular ejection time, not heart rate, is an independent correlate of aortic pulse wave velocity. J Appl Physiol 115: 1610–1617, 2013. First published September 19, 2013; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00475.2013.— Several studies showed a positive association between heart rate and pulse wave velocity, a sensitive marker of arterial stiffness. However, no study involving a large population has specifically addressed the dependence of pulse wave velocity on different components of the cardiac cycle. The aim of this study was to explore in subjects of different age the link between pulse wave velocity with heart period (the reciprocal of heart rate) and the temporal components of the cardiac cycle such as left ventricular ejection time and diastolic time. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity was assessed in 3,020 untreated subjects (1,107 men). Heart period, left ventricular ejection time, diastolic time, and early-systolic dP/dt were determined by carotid pulse wave analysis with high-fidelity applanation tonometry. An inverse association was found between pulse wave velocity and left ventricular ejection time at all ages (25 years, r2 0.043; 25–44 years, r2 0.103; 45–64 years, r2 0.079; 65–84 years, r2 0.044; 85 years, r2 0.022; P 0.0001 for all). A significant (P 0.0001) negative but always weaker correlation between pulse wave velocity and heart period was also found, with the exception of the youngest subjects (P0.20). A significant positive correlation was also found between pulse wave velocity and dP/dt (P 0.0001). With multiple stepwise regression analysis, left ventricular ejection time and dP/dt remained the only determinant of pulse wave velocity at all ages, whereas the contribution of heart period no longer became significant. Our data demonstrate that pulse wave velocity is more closely related to left ventricular systolic function than to heart period. This may have methodological and pathophysiological implications

Molecular detection of parasites (Trematoda, Digenea: Bucephalidae and Monorchiidae) in the European flat oyster Ostrea edulis (Mollusca: Bivalvia)

Members of the globally distributed bivalve family Ostreidae (oysters) have a significant role in marine ecosystems and include species of high economic importance. In this work, we report the occurrence of digenean parasites of the families Bucephalidae (Prosorhynchoides sp.) and Monorchiidae (Postmonorchis sp.) in Mediterranean native populations of Ostrea edulis (but not in the introduced Magallana gigas). Molecular detection was based on DNA sequencing of the ribosomal intergenic spacer 2 (ITS2) marker. The importance of detecting the presence of overlooked digenean parasites in Mediterranean oysters is discussed. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Energy flexible CHP-DHN systems: Unlocking the flexibility in a real plant

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the impact of flexibility enablers in cogeneration and district heating network (CHP-DHN) plants by means of a real case study located in central Italy. A wider definition of energy flexibility applicable to the entire energy supply chain (i.e. production, transport and usage) is used in this analysis. In particular the flexibility is intended as the capability of each part of the system to produce a variation in its load curve, while ensuring the required performance. In this sense energy efficiency technologies, the use of energy storage and advanced control techniques can be seen as flexibility enablers potentially available in each section of the energy system. The innovative contribution of this work is to propose flexibility strategies in compliance with the constraints imposed by both the managers and users. The study aims to show possible ways to activate flexibility services to be used with known instruments and to quantify their impact with a simulation-based approach. In particular, three different flexibility instruments are identified in different sections of the plant: (i) the use of a thermal energy storage (TES) in the generation side, (ii) the optimal management of the DHN supply temperature (energy distribution side) and (iii) the management of the thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) of the final users (demand side) connected to the network. Through the implementation of simulation models calibrated with available measurements, the influence of these flexibility instruments on the energy/environmental performance is evaluated in comparison to the current configuration of the plant. Results confirm the great impact of the TES to increase the CHP working hours and, as a consequence, a primary energy saving increase is obtained in mid-season and in summer season. Whereas the optimal management of the water supply temperature in the DHN allows to obtain 1% fuel reduction in a typical winter week and 2% in a typical summer week. As far as the activation of the demand side flexibility is concerned, the effect of the management of TCLs on energy conservation is demonstrated: 1 °C reduction of the setpoint of all the residential users during a typical winter day produces a 7.3% reduction of the DHN thermal demand. However, its impact on the generation side (i.e. to reduce the electricity/thermal production of the CHP at specific times) is limited due to the characteristics of the considered CHP plant (the CHP engine is sized to cover only the thermal baseload and it scarcely affected by thermal demand variations). The analysis proposed helps to obtain valuable hints on unlocking the energy flexibility in CHP-DHN plants useful for a better management of such systems

Occupational noise: auditory and non-auditory consequences

Occupational noise exposure accounts for approximately 16% of all disabling hearing losses, but the true value and societal costs may be grossly underestimated because current regulations only identify hearing impairments in the workplace if exposures result in audiometric threshold shifts within a limited frequency region. Research over the past several decades indicates that occupational noise exposures can cause other serious auditory deficits such as tinnitus, hyperacusis, extended high-frequency hearing loss, and poor speech perception in noise. Beyond the audiogram, there is growing awareness that hearing loss is a significant risk factor for other debilitating and potentially life-threatening disorders such as cardiovascular disease and dementia. This review discusses some of the shortcomings and limitations of current noise regulations in the United States and Europe

Aortic dilatation in Marfan syndrome: Role of arterial stiffness and fibrillin-1 variants

Objective: Marfan syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder characterized by aortic root dilation and dissection and an abnormal fibrillin-1 synthesis. In this observational study, we evaluated aortic stiffness in MFS and its association with ascending aorta diameters and fibrillin-1 genotype. Methods: A total of 116 Marfan adult patients without history of cardiovascular surgery, and 144 age, sex, blood pressure and heart rate matched controls were enrolled. All patients underwent arterial stiffness evaluation through carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and central blood pressure waveform analysis (PulsePen tonometer). Fibrillin-1 mutations were classified based on the effect on the protein, into 'dominant negative' and 'haploinsufficient' mutations. Results: PWV and central pulse pressure were significantly higher in MFS patients than in controls [respectively 7.31 (6.81-7.44) vs. 6.69 (6.52-6.86)m/s, P=0.0008; 41.3 (39.1-43.5) vs. 34.0 (32.7-35.3)mmHg, P<0.0001], with a higher age-related increase of PWV in MFS (β 0.062 vs. 0.036). Pressure amplification was significantly reduced in MFS [18.2 (15.9-20.5) vs. 33.4 (31.6-35.2)%, P<0.0001]. Central pressure profile was altered even in MFS patients without aortic dilatation. Multiple linear regression models showed that PWV independently predicted aortic diameters at the sinuses of Valsalva (ß=0.243, P=0.002) and at the sinotubular junction (ß=0.186, P=0.048). PWV was higher in 'dominant negative' than 'haploinsufficient' fibrillin-1 mutations [7.37 (7.04-7.70) vs. 6.60 (5.97-7.23)m/s, P=0.035], although this difference was not significant after adjustment. Conclusion: Aortic stiffness is increased in MFS, independently from fibrillin-1 genotype and is associated with diameters of ascending aorta. Alterations in central hemodynamics are present even when aortic diameter is within normal limits. Our findings suggest an accelerated arterial aging in MFS