Reinventing America on the battlefields of Spain or following the party line: conflicting perceptions of the Spanish Civil War in the present and in the past

Isolationism and neutrality are two of the recurrent themes in the study of the history of the U.S. foreign policy in the interwar years. The trauma of the Great War, which had swept away 130.000 U.S. lives and had cost $30 billion, had led public opinion to strongly oppose any involvement with European affairs. Besides, the urgent need for economic recovery during the dismal years of the Great Depression did not leave Roosevelt much room for manoeuvre to influence international events. His positions regarding the intentions of the Fascist states remained, at best, ambivalent. These facts notwithstanding, about 2800 U.S. citizens crossed the Atlantic and rushed in to help democratic Spain, which was on the verge of becoming one more hostage in the hands of the Fascism. They joined the other British, Irish and Canadian volunteers and formed the XV International Brigade. 900 Americans never returned home. This alone should challenge the commonly held assumption that the American people were indifferent to the rise of the Fascist threat in Europe. But it also begs other questions. Considering the prevailing isolationist mood, what really motivated them? With what discursive elements did these men construct their anti Fascist representations? How far did their understanding of the Spanish democracy correspond to their own American democratic ideal? In what way did their war experience across the Atlantic mould their perception of U.S. politics (both domestic and foreign)? How far did the Spanish Civil War constitute one first step towards the realization that the U.S. might actually be drawn into another international conflict of unpredictable consequences? Last but not the least, what ideological, political and cultural complicity existed between the men from the English-speaking battalions? In order to unearth some of the answers, I intend to examine their letters and see how these men recorded the historical events in which they took part. Their correspondence emerged from the desire to prove their commitment to a common cause and spoke of a common war experience, but each letter, in its uniqueness, ends up mirroring not only the social and political background of each individual fighter, but also his own particular perspective of the war, of world politics and of the Spanish people. We shall see how these letters differ and converge and how these particular accounts weave, as in an epistolary novel, a larger-than-life narrative of outrage and solidarity, despair and hope.

In vitro spore germination of Polystichum drepanum, a threatened fern from Madeira Island

Polystichum drepanum (Sw) C. Presl is a threatened fern endemic to a few forest areas in the north-west of Madeira Island. The aims of this work were to establish suitable culture conditions for in vitro germination of spores, and to evaluate short-term storage conditions for P drepanum spores. The highest frequency of germination was obtained in Murishage and Skoog (MS) liquid medium, without agitation. However, gametophytes maintained in MS liquid medium did not grow and, after 4 weeks, became anoxic and died. Thus, after germination in liquid medium, gametophytes were transferred to an MS double-phase culture system for further growth. The effects of storage period, temperature, and relative humidity during storage on in vitro spore germination were studied. Spore viability was assessed after 2, 4 and 6 months, and high viability (> 94%) was observed in all the assays. However, germination capability decreased with increased storage periods. The number of sporophytes obtained also decreased with prolonged storage periods. The results indicate that spores of R drepanum stored for 4 months at 21 degrees C maintain high viability and high germination frequency. ne sporophytes obtained were acclimatised in a mixture of peat and vermiculite [2:1 (v/v)] under high relative humidity (90-95%). Seventy-five sporophytes were successfully acclimatised to ex vitro conditions and showed active growth in the glasshouse.

Map - Plan of Attack of a Iagdkommaudo west of Cantigny, 27 May 1918

A map titled "Plan of Attack of a Iagdkommaudo west of Cantigny on 27 May 1918. There are two sketches and the legend indicates that sketch no. 1 is "Firing until 7A.M." and sketch no. 2 is "Firing after 7A.M."

Sea Level Variations during the Late Quaternary and Coastal Evolution along the Northern Kerala, South West of India

In the present investigation, an attempt is made to document various episodes of transgression and regression during the late Quaternary period from the study of coastal and shelf sequences extending from the inland across the beach to the shelf domain. Shore parallel beach ridges with alternating swales and occurrence of strand line deposits on the shelf make the northern Kerala coast an ideal natural laboratory for documenting the morpho-dynamic response of the coast to the changing sea level. The objectives of the study are lithographic reconstruction of environments of deposition from the coastal plain and shelf sequences; documentation of episodes of transgression and regression by studying different coastal plain sequences and shelf deposits and evolve a comprehensive picture of late Quaternary coastal evolution and sea level changes along the northern Kerala coast by collating morphological, lithological and geochronological evidences from the coastal plain and shelf sequences. The present study is confined to two shore-normal east-west trending transects, Viz. Punjavi and Onakkunnu, in the northern Kerala coast.

Stability of the factor structure of Barrat's Impulsivity Scales for children across cultures : A comparison of Spain and Colombia

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

The Engineering Geology of the Landslides on the North Coast of the Isle of Wight and their Stabilisation

Transfer thesis

The North face of Shakespeare : activities for teaching the plays.

Libro dirigido a profesores de literatura inglesa y arte dramático, tanto en educación secundaria como en la universidad, para la enseñanza de las obras del dramaturgo inglés William Shakespeare con métodos activos en clase y en talleres de teatro. Contiene alrededor de doscientas actividades para la enseñanza de los textos de Shakespeare, desde la formación de grupos de trabajo, juegos y ejercicios teatrales, a técnicas prácticas para la enseñanza del lenguaje, la narrativa y los personajes del autor, que ayudarán a los alumnos a leer, entender y trabajar con su obra.

Changing times, changing places: urban development and the politics of space - time

Much of the writing on urban regeneration in the UK has been focused on the types of urban spaces that have been created in city centres. Less has been written about the issue of when the benefits of regeneration could and should be delivered to a range of different interests, and the different time frames that exist in any development area. Different perceptions of time have been reflected in dominant development philosophies in the UK and elsewhere. The trickle-down agendas of the 1980s, for example, were criticised for their focus on the short-term time frames and needs of developers, often at the expense of those of local communities. The recent emergence of sustainability discourses, however, ostensibly changes the time focus of development and promotes a broader concern with new imagined futures. This paper draws on the example of development in Salford Quays, in the North West of England, to argue that more attention needs to be given to the politics of space-time in urban development processes. It begins by discussing the importance and relevance of this approach before turning to the case study and the ways in which the local politics of space-time has influenced development agendas and outcomes. The paper argues that such an approach harbours the potential for more progressive, far-reaching, and sustainable development agendas to be developed and implemented.

The relationship between the North American summer monsoon, the Rocky Mountains and the North Pacific subtropical anticyclone in HadAM3

In this study the relationship between the North American monsoon, the Californian sea surface temperature (SST) cold pool, the Rocky Mountains and the North Pacific subtropical anticyclone is investigated using the Hadley Centre's atmospheric climate model, HadAM3. In 1996 Hoskins hypothesized that heating in the North American monsoon might be important for the maintenance of the summertime North Pacific subtropical anticyclone, since the monsoon heating may induce descent to the north-west of the monsoon in the descending eastern flank of the subtropical anticyclone. This descent is further enhanced by radiative cooling and is associated with equatorward surface winds parallel to the western coast of North America. These equatorward winds induce oceanic upwelling of cold water and contribute to the formation of the Californian SST cold pool, which may feed back on the anticyclone by further suppressing convection and inducing descent. More recently, Rodwell and Hoskins also investigated the global summer monsoon–subtropical anticyclone relationship. They examined the role that mountains play in impeding the progress of the low-level mid-latitude westerlies, either deflecting the westerlies northwards where they ascend along the sloping mid-latitude isentropes or deflecting them southwards forcing them to descend along the isentropes. In particular, the introduction of the Rockies into a primitive-equation model adiabatically induces descent in the eastern descending flank of the North Pacific subtropical anticyclone. These hypothesized mechanisms have been investigated using HadAM3, focusing on the possible suppression of convection by the Californian SST cold pool, the response of the North Pacific subtropical anticyclone to the strength of the North American monsoon and the ‘blocking’ of the mid-latitude westerlies by the Rocky Mountains. The role of the Rockies is examined by integrating the model with modified orography for the Rocky Mountains. Changing the height of the Rockies alters the circulation in a way consistent with the mechanism outlined above. Higher Rocky mountains force the westerlies southwards, inducing descent in the eastern flank of the subtropical anticyclone as the air descends along the sloping isentropes. The relationship between the North American monsoon and the North Pacific subtropical anticyclone is investigated by suppressing the monsoon in HadAM3. The suppression of the monsoon is accomplished by increasing the surface albedo over Mexico, which induces anomalous ascent on the eastward flank of the subtropical anticyclone and anomalous polewards surface winds along the western coast of the North American continent, also providing support for the above hypothesis. The removal of the Californian SST cold pool, however, has a statistically insignificant effect on the model, suggesting that in this model the feedback of the SST cold pool on the eastern flank of the anticyclone is weak.

Effect of feeding intensity and milking system on nutritionally relevant milk components in dairy farming systems in the North East of England

There is increasing concern that the intensification of dairy production reduces the concentrations of nutritionally desirable compounds in milk. This study therefore compared important quality parameters (protein and fatty acid profiles; α-tocopherol and carotenoid concentrations) in milk from four dairy systems with contrasting production intensities (in terms of feeding regimens and milking systems). The concentrations of several nutritionally desirable compounds (β-lactoglobulin, omega-3 fatty acids, omega-3/omega-6 ratio, conjugated linoleic acid c9t11, and/or carotenoids) decreased with increasing feeding intensity (organic outdoor ≥ conventional outdoor ≥ conventional indoors). Milking system intensification (use of robotic milking parlors) had a more limited effect on milk composition, but increased mastitis incidence. Multivariate analyses indicated that differences in milk quality were mainly linked to contrasting feeding regimens and that milking system and breed choice also contributed to differences in milk composition between production systems.