Rome 1600: the city and the visual arts under Clement VIII

"Snapshot" of the city of Rome around 1600, with relation to the visual arts, especially the work of artists and architects such as Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Rubes, the Cavaliere d'Arpino, Federico Zuccaro, Giacomo della Porta and Carlo Maderno, as well as their patrons (Aldobrandini, Farnese, Giustinani, Mattei, Del Monte).

The impact of European legislative and technology measures to reduce air pollutants on air quality, human health and climate

European air quality legislation has reduced emissions of air pollutants across Europe since the 1970s, affecting air quality, human health and regional climate. We used a coupled composition-climate model to simulate the impacts of European air quality legislation and technology measures implemented between 1970 and 2010. We contrast simulations using two emission scenarios; one with actual emissions in 2010 and the other with emissions that would have occurred in 2010 in the absence of technological improvements and end-of-pipe treatment measures in the energy, industrial and road transport sectors. European emissions of sulphur dioxide, black carbon (BC) and organic carbon in 2010 are 53%, 59% and 32% lower respectively compared to emissions that would have occurred in 2010 in the absence of legislative and technology measures. These emission reductions decreased simulated European annual mean concentrations of fine particulate matter(PM2.5) by 35%, sulphate by 44%, BC by 56% and particulate organic matter by 23%. The reduction in PM2.5 concentrations is calculated to have prevented 80 000 (37 000–116 000, at 95% confidence intervals) premature deaths annually across the European Union, resulting in a perceived financial benefit to society of US$232 billion annually (1.4% of 2010 EU GDP). The reduction in aerosol concentrations due to legislative and technology measures caused a positive change in the aerosol radiative effect at the top of atmosphere, reduced atmospheric absorption and also increased the amount of solar radiation incident at the surface over Europe. We used an energy budget approximation to estimate that these changes in the radiative balance have increased European annual mean surface temperatures and precipitation by 0.45 ± 0.11 °C and by 13 ± 0.8 mm yr−1 respectively. Our results show that the implementation of European legislation and technological improvements to reduce the emission of air pollutants has improved air quality and human health over Europe, as well as having an unintended impact on the regional radiative balance and climate.

The circulation of romances from England in late-medieval Ireland

The fifteenth century saw a striking upturn in the number of texts from foreign vernaculars that were translated into Irish. Indeed, one might go so far as to speak in terms of a ‘translation trend’ in Ireland during the mid to late fifteenth century. A notable feature of this trend is that a particularly high number of these Irish translations are of romances; contextual and textual evidence suggests that the original exemplars for many of these translated texts appear to have come from England, though not all of them were necessarily in English. Irish translations of eight romances have survived to the present day: Guy of Warwick; Bevis of Hampton; La Queste de Saint Graal; Fierabras; Caxton’s Recuyell of the Histories of Troie; William of Palerne; the Seven Sages of Rome; and Octavian. This paper addresses two aspects of these texts of particular relevance to romance scholars who do not work within the sphere of Celtic studies. Firstly, it argues that certain aspects of the dissemination and reception of romance in Ireland are quite distinctive. Manuscript and textual evidence suggests that the religious orders, particularly the Franciscans, seem to have played a role in the importation and translation of these narratives. Secondly, examination of the Irish versions of romance tends to bear out an observation made by Flower many years ago, but not pursued by subsequent scholars: ‘texts of an unusual kind were current in Ireland, and it may be that interesting discoveries are to be made here’. Certain narrative features of several of these Irish translations diverge from all the surviving versions of the relevant romance in other languages and may witness to a variant exemplar that has since been lost from its own linguistic corpus.

Aerobic oxidation of monoterpenic alcohols catalyzed by ruthenium hydroxide supported on silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles

Ruthenium hydroxide supported on silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles was shown to be an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the liquid-phase oxidation of a wide range of alcohols using molecular oxygen as a sole oxidant in the absence of co-catalysts or additives. The material was prepared through the loading of the amino modified support with ruthenium(III) ions from an aqueous solution of ruthenium(III) chloride followed by treatment with sodium hydroxide to form ruthenium hydroxide species. Characterizations suggest that ruthenium hydroxide is highly dispersed on the support surface, with no ruthenium containing crystalline phases being detected. Various carbonylic monoterpenoids important for fragrance and pharmaceutical industries can be obtained in good to excellent yields starting from biomass-based monoterpenic alcohols, such as isobomeol, perillyl alcohol, carveol, and citronellol. The catalyst undergoes no metal leaching and can be easily recovered by the application of an external magnet and re-used. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Changes in test scores distribution for students of the fourth grade in Brazil: a relative distribution analysis for the years 1997 to 2005

To assess the quality of school education, much of educational research is concerned with comparisons of test scores means or medians. In this paper, we shift this focus and explore test scores data by addressing some often neglected questions. In the case of Brazil, the mean of test scores in Math for students of the fourth grade has declined approximately 0,2 standard deviation in the late 1990s. But what about changes in the distribution of scores? It is unclear whether the decline was caused by deterioration in student performance in upper and/or lower tails of the distribution. To answer this question, we propose the use of the relative distribution method developed by Handcock and Morris (1999). The advantage of this methodology is that it compares two distributions of test scores data through a single distribution and synthesizes all the differences between them. Moreover, it is possible to decompose the total difference between two distributions in a level effect (changes in median) and shape effect (changes in shape of the distribution). We find that the decline of average-test scores is mainly caused by a worsening in the position of all students throughout the distribution of scores and is not only specific to any quantile of distribution.

As estruturas sociais e econômicas do Império Romano do Ocidente e o estabelecimento do reino dos visigodos nas Galliae Aquitania e Narbonensis

In the year 376 of the Common Era, a tribe of Germanic warriors known as Tervingi , of Gothic extraction, crossed the Hister (Danube) river due south, entering the Roman Empire. They fled the Huns, a nomadic group that came plundering their way from the East. It did not take long for a conflict between the Roman imperial authorities and the refugees to begin. Peace was reached in 382 and, henceforth, the Tervingi would be officially foederati (allies) of the Romans, gaining the right to remain an autonomous tribe inside the borders of the Empire. For the next thirteen years the Tervingi warriors fought beside the Roman imperial armies in every major conflict. Nevertheless, after the death of the emperor Theodosius I in 395, their relations deteriorated severely. In theory, the Tervingi remained Roman allies; in practice, they begun to extort monies and other assets from the emperors Honorius and Arcadius. The sack of Rome by the Tervingi king Alaric in 410 was both the culmination and the point of inflection of this state of affairs. During the 410s the Tervingi warriors would fought again beside the Roman Imperial armies and be rewarded with a piece of land in the southwestern portion of the Gallic diocese. Dubbed Visigoths , they would remain trusted Roman allies throughout the next decades, consolidating their own kingdom in the process. This dissertation deals not only with the institution of the Visigothic kingdom in the southwestern portion of the Galliae but also with the social and economic conditions that hindered the Roman ability to defend their territory by themselves, hence opening opportunities for foederati like the Tervingi to carve out a piece of it for themselves.

An epidemiologic study of headaches in brazilian schoolchildren with a focus on pain frequency

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a prevalência e frequência de cefaléia em escolares brasileiros. Um estudo transversal foi conduzido entre Março e Novembro de 2004 em São José do Rio Preto, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Uma amostra de 5.232 crianças das escolas foi selecionada utilizando método de amostragem estratificada proporcional. Para a coleta dos dados, um questionário foi entregue nas escolas aos estudantes para ser respondida pelos pais e/ou responsáveis. do total de respostas recebidas, 84,2% relataram cefaléia durante o último ano. Houve diferenças significativas na frequência da queixa de cefaléia entre meninos e meninas. As meninas relataram cefaléias mais frequentes do que os meninos, com prevalência de cefaléias diárias duas vezes maior em meninas. Uma maior frequência de cefaléia foi também relatada com o aumento da idade. O estudo demonstrou que a prevalência de cefaléia foi alta, com uma maior frequência (mensais, semanais e diárias) em meninas e no grupo etário mais velho.

Molecular systematics of Thorea (Rhodophyta, Thoreales) species in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

4 SPECIES OF BRAZILIAN POISON FROGS RELATED TO EPIPEDOBATES-PICTUS (DENDROBATIDAE) - TAXONOMY AND NATURAL-HISTORY OBSERVATIONS

We present morphological and natural history data on Epipedobates pictus and three additional taxa currently regarded as synonyms of the former: Epipedobates braccatus, E. flavopictus, and E. hahneli. Topotypes of the four species were examined. Morphological data on tadpoles and adults, in addition to distribution patterns and vocalizations, indicate that the four taxa represent distinct species. Two groups are evident within them: (1) the slender-bodied, Amazonian E. hahneli with small flash marks on the thighs and a low-finned tadpole, and (2) the robust bodied, almost extra-Amazonian E. braccatus, E. flavopictus, and E. pictus with large flash marks on the thighs and tadpoles with fins of moderate height.

Business development service centres in Italy. An empirical analysis of three regional experiences: Emilia Romagna, Lombardia y Veneto

Includes bibliography

The socioeconomic cost of illicit drug consumption in Chile

Includes bibliography

A new tropane alkaloid and other constituents of Erythroxylum rimosum (Erythroxylaceae)

A new tropane alkaloid, named the 7β-acetoxy-3β,6β- dibenzoyloxytropane (1), was isolated from a methanol extract of Erythroxylum rimosum O.E. Schulz leaves. Other known compounds were detected, including quercetin, kaempferol-3-O-α-l-arabinofuranoside, (+)-catechin, epicatechin, quercetin-3-O-α-arabinofuranoside, quercetin-3-O-α- arabinopyranoside, quercetin-3-O-β-arabinopyranoside, quercetin-3-β- glucopyranoside, kaempferol, quercetin-3-O-β-galactopyranoside, β-sitosterol, α-amyrin, β-amyrin, and the ester derivatives of these two amyrins. Compound 1 exhibited weak inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. Structural identification was performed using IR, ESIHRMS and one- and two-dimensional NMR data analyses and confirmed by comparison with literature data. © 2013 Phytochemical Society of Europe.

Susceptibility of helminth species from horses against different chemical compounds in Brazil

By means of parasitological necropsies, the present study aimed to evaluate, in six experiments, the degree of susceptibility or resistance of different helminth species which naturally infect horses to ivermectin 0.2mg/kg, abamectin 0.2mg/kg, moxidectin 0.4mg/kg, trichlorfon 35mg/kg, ivermectin 0.2mg/kg+praziquantel 2.5mg/kg, abamectin 0.2mg/kg+praziquantel 2.5mg/kg and ivermectin 0.2mg/kg+6.6 mg/kg pyrantel. At experimental day zero, the horses were allocated to treatment groups based on average counts of strongylid eggs per gram of feces (EPG) obtained on days -3, -2 and -1. Oxyuris sp. infections were confirmed as positive or negative. All the animals in the six experiments were naturally infected by this helminth species. Each group (control or treated) consisted of six animals. All the assessed Habronema muscae populations analyzed were susceptible to ivermectin, abamectin and moxidectin. Of the six Trichostrongylus axei populations, four were susceptible to ivermectin, abamectin, moxidectin, trichlorfon and ivermectin+praziquantel, and two were resistant to abamectin+praziquantel and ivermectin+pyrantel. Both Strongyloides westeri populations analyzed were susceptible to ivermectin, abamectin, moxidectin and abamectin+praziquantel. For O. equi, resistance was found in four different populations treated with ivermectin, abamectin, moxidectin, trichlorfon and ivermectin+praziquantel. Only combinations of abamectin+praziquantel and ivermectin+pyrantel were effective against this parasite species. All the large strongyles diagnosed in the present study (Strongyus edentatus, Strongyus vulgaris and Triodontophorus serratus) were susceptible to all the chemicals tested, with the exception of trichlorfon. Of the Cyathostominae populations, one was diagnosed as resistant to ivermectin and another to trichlorfon. The remaining populations from this nematode group were considered to be sensitive to ivermectin, abamectin, moxidectin, ivermectin+praziquantel, abamectin+praziquantel and ivermectin+pyrantel. New studies should be performed in different regions to evaluate the efficacy of trichlorfon in others field populations of helminthes.

Para além da heteronormatividade: uma análise dos eunucos representados por Estácio, Marcial e Suetônio (Roma, 80-121 d. C)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Para além da heteronormatividade: uma análise dos eunucos representados por Estácio, Marcial e Suetônio (Roma, 80-121 d. C)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)