The Health of Ethnic Media: Needs and Opportunities

The ethnic news media (ranging the gamut from newspapers to broadcast programs to online ventures) have experienced rapid growth in tandem with the changing nature of the nation's demographics, yet considerable anecdotal evidence shows that many of these outlets struggle with a variety of serious problems, ranging from poor journalistic standards to sheer survivability as businesses. The study was designed to provide an assessment of the sector's health and resiliency and to identify threats to success, primarilyfrom the perspective of its staff and leaders

Interlanguage pragmatics and instructional pragmatics: two vibrant and illuminating research fields

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Plant microbiome - The physiology of symbiotic plant nutrition

Plants used to be regarded as individuals, but we know now that their phenotypes result from a complex multitude of genomes, known as the plant microbiome. Intriguingly, the same types of microbes keep showing up across the same plant varieties, species or even families. This is the core microbiome that is winnowed from what is a highly complex and diverse soil microbial community. In a healthy soil, plants create a gradient of microbial diversity with a steep decline closer to the roots, then on the roots and finally inside the plant, where perhaps only 200 species gain a pass. Plants actively recruit microbes that can provide them with services, from nutrient sequestration to suppressing pathogen growth. A number of ‘good’ bacteria have now been linked to heightened resilience and yield in the face of drought, heat stress, salinity and plant disease. Inoculating crops with these could not only improve yields but also fight off disease without the need for chemicals or genetic modification. In this work we review and integrate the mechanisms allowing the symbiotic functionality between plants and microbes and give hypothesis on how to boost yields by managing microorganisms.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Concepciones de algunos profesores de matemáticas de básica secundaria sobre los decimales y su relación, como representación, con los números racionales

Esta investigación enmarcada en el paradigma interpretativo y con una metodología interpretativa, tiene como propósito identificar y caracterizar las concepciones de algunos profesores de matemáticas de básica secundaria, sobre los decimales como representación de los números racionales

Restos : o exercício crítico e poético de Joaquim Manuel Magalhães

Dissertação de Mestrado em Teoria da Literatura e Literatura PortuguesaMagalhães, não é um crítico que é poeta, nem tão pouco um poeta que é crítico. Crítico e poeta são formas complementares de pensar o fenómeno literário. E poucos, na segunda metade do século XX, se dedicaram de forma tão atenta à análise da poesia portuguesa contemporânea. Muitas vezes polémico, seguramente controverso, avesso a consensos, fez luz sobre muitos nomes do panorama poético actual e recuperou alguns nomes –justa ou injustamente - ignorados pelo tempo Na primeira parte do nosso trabalho, abordamos a obra ensaística de Magalhães - Os Dois Crepúsculos; Um Pouco De Morte e Rima Pobre. Neste sentido, procuramos mostrar a influência do pensamento de F.R. Leavis e de T.S. Eliot no seu exercício crítico e analisamos as relações, nem sempre pacíficas, de Magalhães com uma esfera pública fragmentária e pouco participativa. Achamos profícuo distinguir a noção de modernismo da noção de vanguarda, pois estes conceitos são usados de forma pouco precisa por Magalhães. Este tende a confundir a ideia de vanguarda com a urgência do novo, com uma lógica de superação, quando de facto o projecto vanguardista é uma tentativa de reconduzir a arte à praxis vital. A arte deve desautonomizar-se. No centro das preocupações de Magalhães está também o público, ou melhor os públicos. A massificação da res literária trouxe públicos que não procuram o caminho da facilidade. Até a poesia, conotada com a high culture e com uma sensibilidade maior e minoritária, foi afectada por um público pouco esclarecido, consumidor de emoções alheias e facilmente iludido pelo aparato retórico-discursivo de certa poesia. Num segundo momentodo nosso trabalho, centramo-nos na obra poética de Magalhães, distinguindo três momentos capitais, a saber, a reescrita de toda a obra publicada até 1985 em Alguns Livros Reunidos (mantendo autónomas apenas duas obras); as obras onde o vincar do negrume é por demais evidente (especial relevo para Uma Luz com toldo vermelho e a Poeira levada pelo vento) e, finalmente, os poemas publicados em O Independente e coligidos em Alta Noite em Alta Fraga. Na última parte, tomamos de empréstimo um conceito do âmbito da geologia – recristalização - para melhor entendermos a revisitação temática feita nos poemas publicados em O Independente, e posteriormente coligidos em Alta noite Alta Fraga. A esfera pública, a ausência de uma moral, a pequenez, a degradação física, a velhice, o destruir da paisagem (a última das utopias), a falta de um espaço habitável, a morte, a devastação invadem este textos elegíacos. O desencanto, o negrume é tanto que nem a própria morte é uma certeza de paz. – «Só nos resta esperar então morrer?» (Magalhães, 2001f:80). A poesia de Magalhães é cada vez mais uma ética do fim

From Bildungsroman to Bildungsromance: Physical and Affective War in Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees

The bildungsroman has dominated the Nigerian literary landscape since the 1990s with novels such as Chimamanda N. Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2004), Unoma Azuah’s Sky-High Flames (2005), Chika Unigwe’s Night Dancer (2012), and Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees (2015). These coming-of-age stories place a special emphasis on the national evolution of Nigeria. Thus, by delving into such interrelation of the national and personal domains, I propose to theorize Under the Udala Trees as a “bildungsromance,” or novel of affective and romantic development. I use the term “bildungsromance” to describe the growth of Okparanta’s protagonist, Ijeoma, as intrinsically associated with the experiences gathered from her affective attachments both in the public and the private spheres. I will analyze Ijeoma’s sentimental relationships as she discovers and naturalizes her queer identity. For this, I will delve into the negative affects − in the form of fear, shame and guilt (Braidotti 2009, 50) − that influence Ijeoma’s experience as a result of her non-conforming to the dictums of Nigerian customary laws. Ironically, such negative affects will be introduced as tightly associated with “the promise of happiness” (Ahmed 2010, 14). In turn, I shall underline the role of Ijeoma’s intimate and romantic relationships in prompting positive forms of affect such as self-love and pride. These affective experiences allow Ijeoma to acquire a critical perspective towards Nigerian customary laws and their impact on identity formation and on what has been referred to as the “democratisation of the private sphere” (Giddens 1992, 184). Ultimately, I will hinge upon Ijeoma’s awareness of her own affective advancements as a key element in her bildungsromance.This article was completed under the grant PID2021-122249NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe”, whose support the autor gratefully acknowledges

Habitat Variation in Vernal Pool Ecosystems on Both Sides of the Strait of Gibraltar

We studied vernal pool (VP) ecosystems along a latitudinal gradient crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in order to determine its role in the distribution of VP plant communities. We analyzed flora, vegetation, physical–chemical water parameters, and climatic data from two vernal pool areas on both the European (Iberian) and African (Moroccan) sides of the Strait. Despite the minor distance between both territories, the pools clearly differed in species composition and ecology. However, they showed a similar vegetation zonation in growth forms, including isoetid, batrachiid, and helophytic vegetation. The distribution of the plant communities was related to nutrient load, temperature, and precipitation. Water nitrate concentration was higher in Morocco, where VPs are characterized by Isoetes velata subsp. adspersa and Ranunculus saniculifolius communities. Iberian VPs had lower water nitrate content, and were characterized by Isoetes velata subsp. velata and Ranunculus peltatus communities. We think this nutrient difference is likely to be caused by the different land management regime on each side of the Strait, with more intensive agriculture in Morocco. Long-term (historical) and present-day (ecological) processes have been proposed to account for the habitat variation in vernal pool ecosystems on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar

Issues’21 - Issues in Education

In the scope of the INW21, an international scientific joint event organized by Politécnico do Porto – Escola Superior de Educação (International Relations Office) and inED – Centre for Research and Innovation in Education, teachers, researchers and staff working in the field of Education joined together to share, discuss, reflect on and develop their ideas on topics related to Networking in Education. This meeting offered good opportunities for intercultural exchange and both personal and academic development. Therefore, professionals who attended the INW21 Conference / International Week had the chance to get in touch with high quality presentations which portray the rich research projects that we, educational practitioners, have been undertaking. Therefore, in order to make record of these presentations, a call for chapters has been promoted. In this way, issuEs 21 – Issues in Education, an e-Book, has been born.This publication is funded by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the scope of the project UIDB/ 05198/2020 (Centre for Research and Innovation in Education, inED).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Contextual factors and contingent reward leadership: employer adoption of telecommuting

Using a contingency perspective, this paper examines the conditions under which telecommuting is most likely to be adopted with data obtained from a sample of 122 CEOs. We hypothesized that telecommuting fits better in younger organizations, firms with a higher proportion of women and international employees in workforce, and companies that offer variable pay. We found evidence that confirm the prediction that telecommuting, a high proportion of international employees, and the use of variable compensation as an internal control mechanism tend to go hand in hand.