How stable are 20th century calibration models? A high-resolution summer temperature reconstruction for the eastern Swiss Alps back to A.D. 1580 derived from proglacial varved sediments

We found a significant positive correlation between local summer air temperature (May-September) and the annual sediment mass accumulation rate (MAR) in Lake Silvaplana (46°N, 9°E, 1800 m a.s.l.) during the twentieth century (r = 0.69, p < 0.001 for decadal smoothed series). Sediment trap data (2001-2005) confirm this relation with exceptionally high particle yields during the hottest summer of the last 140 years in 2003. On this base we developed a decadal-scale summer temperature reconstruction back to AD 1580. Surprisingly, the comparison of our reconstruction with two other independent regional summer temperature reconstructions (based on tree-rings and documentary data) revealed a significant negative correlation for the pre-1900 data (ie, late ‘Little Ice Age’). This demonstrates that the correlation between MAR and summer temperature is not stable in time and the actualistic principle does not apply in this case. We suggest that different climatic regimes (modern/‘Little Ice Age’) lead to changing state conditions in the catchment and thus to considerably different sediment transport mechanisms. Therefore, we calibrated our MAR data with gridded early instrumental temperature series from AD 1760-1880 (r = -0.48, p < 0.01 for decadal smoothed series) to properly reconstruct the late LIA climatic conditions. We found exceptionally low temperatures between AD 1580 and 1610 (0.75°C below twentieth-century mean) and during the late Maunder Minimum from AD 1680 to 1710 (0.5°C below twentieth-century mean). In general, summer temperatures did not experience major negative departures from the twentieth-century mean during the late ‘Little Ice Age’. This compares well with the two existing independent regional reconstructions suggesting that the LIA in the Alps was mainly a phenomenon of the cold season.

Libertad y democracia en el discurso de Monseñor de Andrea : (1932-1946)

Resumen: Los conceptos de “libertad” y “democracia” que se presentan en los discursos de Monseñor Miguel de Andrea durante los años 1932 y 1946 fueron fundamentales para elaborar una estrategia comunicacional orientada a combatir el comunismo y defender los valores republicanos. Se parte de la premisa de que el discurso es una herramienta primordial para difundir ideas y pensamientos, formar opinión y movilizar a la acción. El carácter excepcional de Miguel de Andrea en el mundo eclesiástico e intelectual de su tiempo lo convierten en una figura clave en la defensa de la Constitución y la democracia del período de entreguerras.

De Amadís de Gaula (1508) a Belianís de Grecia (1547) : Jerónimo Fernández y la construcción de sus personajes, tradición y originalidad

Integran este número de la revista ponencias presentadas en Studia Hispanica Medievalia VIII: Actas de las IX Jornadas Internacionales de Literatura Española Medieval, 2008, y de Homenaje al Quinto Centenario de Amadis de Gaula

A investigação do crime em O dia da coruja e A cada um o seu, de Leonardo Sciascia, e em A forma da água e O ladrão de merendas, de Andrea Camilleri

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar e discutir os romances-ensaios O Dia da Coruja e A Cada um o Seu, de Leonardo Sciascia, em perspectiva comparada com as narrativas policiais A Forma da Água e O Ladrão de Merendas, de Andrea Camilleri, no que diz respeito aos traços estilísticos, históricos e temáticos das obras em foco. Na pesquisa, refletiu-se sobre a utilização da estrutura do romance policial como estratégia de composição empregada pelos dois autores sicilianos, a fim de criticarem a realidade sociopolítica italiana dos últimos 50 anos. Ao final, apontam-se diferenças e identidades existentes entre os citados títulos e se conclui que, L.Sciascia, em tom amargo e incisivo, deu à matéria de seus romances um perfil tanto de narrativa ficcional quanto de ensaio político-filosófico, com o objetivo de denunciar, em seus pseudo-gialli, não apenas crimes, mas, principalmente, a falta de ética no seio da justiça de seu país. Já A.Camilleri eternizou seu perfil de escritor giallista, criando a figura do inspetor Salvo Montalbano e ao lançar mão do recurso do riso sério. Tal artifício não invalidou, ao contrário, sublinhou ironicamente a denúncia a toda forma de criminalidade, de corrupção e de abuso do poder, na fictícia Vigata, espaço imaginário representativo da Sicilia e da Itália

Semblanzas Ictiológicas: Andrea Cecilia Hued

A través de esta serie intentaremos conocer diferentes facetas personales de los integrantes de nuestra “comunidad”. El cuestionario, además de su principal objetivo, con sus respuestas quizás nos ayude a encontrar entre nosotros puntos en común que vayan más allá de nuestros temas de trabajo y sea un aporte a futuros estudios históricos. Esperamos que esta iniciativa pueda ser otro nexo entre los ictiólogos de la región, ya que consideramos que el resultado general trascendería nuestras fronteras.

Who was Andrea? Writing Oneself as a Feminist Icon

This article explores the construction of Andrea Dworkin as a public persona, or a ‘feminist icon’, revered by some and demonized by others. It argues that in both her fiction and non-fiction, Dworkin engaged in a process of writing herself as an exceptional woman, a ‘feminist militant’ as she describes herself in the subheading of her 2002 memoir, Heartbreak. The article illustrates Dworkin’s autobiographical logic of exceptionalism by comparing the story told in Heartbreak to the story of Dworkin’s major novel, Mercy, which features a heroine, Andrea, who shares Dworkin’s name and significant biographical details. While Dworkin has insisted that Mercy is not an autobiographical novel, the author undertakes a reading here of Mercy as the story of Dworkin if she had not become the feminist icon of her own and others’ construction. In Mercy, Andrea unsuccessfully attempts to escape the silent, victimized status that Dworkin has insistently argued is imposed upon women. In her repeated victimization, Andrea functions for Dworkin as an ‘everywoman’ who both embodies Dworkin’s world-view and highlights how Dworkin’s own biography exists in tension with some of her central assumptions about women, gender and contemporary society.