An Unsettled Return: Memory and Self-Identity in Lina Meruane’s Volverse Palestina

Chile is home to one of the largest Palestinian communities outside of the Arab world. Despite its significant size of more than 400,000 people, few have undertaken comprehensive studies of the group and the literature it has produced. This thesis explores the emergence of a diasporic Palestinian consciousness among members of Chile's Palestinian community through an analysis of contemporary writer Lina Meruane's chronicle, Volverse Palestina [Becoming Palestinian] (2013). I argue that Meruane's novel approach to the diasporic Palestinian narrative of return textualizes the emergence of this consciousness in the context of Chile following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. I will begin by providing an overview of Arab migration to Latin America, with a special emphasis on Palestinian migration to Chile. Following this, I will discuss literature written prior to 1948 by Chilean immigrants of Arab descent. I will then analyze Meruane's text in relation to its treatment of collective, intergenerational, and personal memory; diaspora space and border writing; and the concept of return. Lastly, I conclude that in addition to its importance for the Palestinian community in Chile, this narrative offers a refreshingly accessible entry point into the history of a complex, ongoing conflict.Spanish and Portugues

Consumers preferences for dairy-alternative beverage using home-scan data in Catalonia

The changing lifestyles and the growing health concerns towards the negative impact of the saturated fatty acids originating from animals has increased consumers’ preferences for dairy-alternative products. These products belong to the food and beverage classification that is similar to certain types of dairy-based products in terms of texture and flavor, and has similar nutritional benefits. In this context, we seek to identify the willingness to pay (WTP) for the most important attributes that consumers take into account when purchasing the dairy-alternative drinks. A revealed preference discrete choice experiment was carried out using home-scan data belonging to ©Kantar Worldpanel (Barcelona, Spain) regarding the consumption of dairy-alternative drinks in Catalonia (Spain) in 343 households. Furthermore, factors that affect the purchasing frequency of this type of product were analyzed through the Poisson and negative binomial models. Results showed that price was the major driving factor, followed by the original non-dairy beverage flavor attribute. The original non-dairy beverage flavor compared to other added ingredients and tastes showed higher WTP when purchasing the non-dairy alternative. Marketing strategies should promote products by focusing on the “original” and “pure” version of the product without additional ingredients, or through reduction of the undesirable compounds if they exist in these kinds of beveragesPostprint (published version

N=2⋆\mathcal{N}=2^\star from Topological Amplitudes in String Theory

In this paper, we explicitly construct string theory backgrounds that realise the so-called $\mathcal N=2^\star$ gauge theory. We prove the consistency of our models by calculating their partition function and obtaining the correct gauge theory spectrum. We further provide arguments in favour of the universality of our construction which covers a wide class of models all of which engineer the same gauge theory. We reproduce the corresponding Nekrasov partition function once the $\Omega$-deformation is included and the appropriate field theory limit taken. This is achieved by calculating the topological amplitudes $F_g$ in the string models. In addition to heterotic and type II constructions, we also realise the mass deformation in type I theory, thus leading to a natural way of uplifting the result to the instanton sector.Comment: 27 page

Instanton Corrections for m and Omega

In this paper, we study instanton corrections in the N=2* gauge theory by using its description in string theory as a freely-acting orbifold. The latter is used to compute, using the worldsheet, the deformation of the Yang-Mills action. In addition, we calculate the deformed instanton partition function, thus extending the results to the non-perturbative sector of the gauge theory. As we point out, the structure of the deformation is extremely similar to the Omega-deformation, therefore confirming the universality of the construction. Finally, we comment on the realisation of the mass deformation using physical vertex operators by exploiting the equivalence between Scherk-Schwarz deformations and freely-acting orbifolds

A design oriented study for 3R Orthogonal Manipulators With Geometric Simplifications

This paper proposes a method to calculate the largest Regular Dextrous Workspace (RDW) of some types of three-revolute orthogonal manipulators that have at least one of their DH parameters equal to zero. Then a new performance index based on the RDW is introduced, the isocontours of this index are plotted in the parameter space of the interesting types of manipulators and finally an inspection of the domains of the parameter spaces is conducted in order to identify the better manipulator architectures. The RDW is a part of the workspace whose shape is regular (cube, cylinder) and the performances (conditioning index) are bounded inside. The groups of 3R orthogonal manipulators studied have interesting kinematic properties such as, a well-connected workspace that is fully reachable with four inverse kinematic solutions and that does not contain any void. This study is of high interest for the design of alternative manipulator geometries

From Sheaf Cohomology to the Algebraic de Rham Theorem

Let X be a smooth complex algebraic variety with the Zariski topology, and let Y be the underlying complex manifold with the complex topology. Grothendieck's algebraic de Rham theorem asserts that the singular cohomology of Y with complex coefficients can be computed from the complex of sheaves of algebraic differential forms on X. This article gives an elementary proof of Grothendieck's algebraic de Rham theorem, elementary in the sense that we use only tools from standard textbooks as well as Serre's FAC and GAGA papers.Comment: 53 pages; this version replaces an earlier version submitted in August 2013. Some misprints have been correcte

THE NOMINAL GROUP PROCESS IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE HEALTH INTEREST OF ETHIOPIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

ABSTRACT: The health interest of 114 Ethiopian students and 28 teachers in a secondary school in an Ethiopian town was studied by nominal group process. Accordingly, the leading topics of interest to the students were mental health, endemic infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, skin diseases and cancer. Contrary to their pupils, teachers ranked liver diseases and endemic infectious diseases as their priority of health interest, but ranked mental health lowest. Gender differences in the choice of health topics were apparent among the students. To a certain extent, the health concerns of the students reflect the health problems prevalent in their community. As a technique, the study confirms the utility of the nominal group process institutions where simple and rapid methods of identification of health interest are sought

Policy impact on technical efficiency of Spanish olive farms located in Less Favored Area

Most of Spanish olive farms are concentrated in Less-Favoured Areas (LFA) with the majority of producer areas are under Objective 1 of the EU Regional Policy. The EU has long recognized such distinctive characteristics of those holdings with a specific support measures aiming to prevent the abandonment of olive groves as well as to support sustainable development of this sector. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of LFA payment on the olive farms technical efficiency. Two sample farms located in LFA (63 farms receiving LFA payment support and 99 farms do not) have been observed from 2000 to 2004. A stochastic frontier production has been used. Results indicate that LFA payment, age of manager, tenure regimes of land, workforce composition and farm size affect efficiency levels. The LFA payment coefficient indicates a significant negative impact on the technical efficiency of Spanish olive farms. The farms that not receive the LFA payment has a technical efficiency rate 0.15 percentage units upper compared to those that receive this payment. Thus, the payment policy could decreases farms technical efficiency which could represents a handicap for farms economic survival and its persistence in the long term period.LFA payment, olive farm, technical efficiency, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Q180, D210,

An Algorithm for Computing Cusp Points in the Joint Space of 3-RPR Parallel Manipulators

This paper presents an algorithm for detecting and computing the cusp points in the joint space of 3-RPR planar parallel manipulators. In manipulator kinematics, cusp points are special points, which appear on the singular curves of the manipulators. The nonsingular change of assembly mode of 3-RPR parallel manipulators was shown to be associated with the existence of cusp points. At each of these points, three direct kinematic solutions coincide. In the literature, a condition for the existence of three coincident direct kinematic solutions was established, but has never been exploited, because the algebra involved was too complicated to be solved. The algorithm presented in this paper solves this equation and detects all the cusp points in the joint space of these manipulators