Del Fichero supremo a la Biblioteca de Babel: Salaverría, precursor de Borges

A juzgar por alguna declaración más bien negativa de Borges sobre la literatura española, se podría creer que esta no influyó demasiado en él. Sin embargo, existen indicios de que pudo haberse inspirado también en determinados escritores españoles coetáneos hoy casi olvidados. Uno de ellos pudo ser José María Salaverría, entre cuyos relatos destaca “El fichero supremo” (1926), del que se ha dicho que “anticipa algunas de las preocupaciones características de un tipo de relato que Jorge Luis Borges elevará años después a la máxima categoría estética”. De hecho, recuerda a “La biblioteca de Babel” (1941) borgiana por su planteamiento hasta el punto de que podría pensarse que el maestro argentino pudo tener presente, a la hora de escribir esa obra maestra, ese cuento de Salaverría, el cual se publicó por primera vez en Caras y Caretas, una revista porteña que Borges reconoció “devorar” en su juventud. Sin embargo, el interés mayor de la comparación entre “El fichero supremo” y “La biblioteca de Babel” no radica tanto en el carácter de posible fuente del primero como en el contraste entre sus formas de presentación narrativa: desde fuera y en tercera persona en Salaverría, en un marco realista; y desde dentro y en primera persona, prácticamente sin marco, en Borges. Este parece desarrollar, en el registro propio de la “imaginación razonada” descrito por él mismo, una virtualidad presente en el relato de Salaverría, cuya comparación con “La biblioteca de Babel” puede suscitar también alguna reflexión sobre el enigma de la identidad y el carácter de la voz enunciadora de la biblioteca universal de Babel. Al menos, esta parece haber hecho realidad en cierto modo, de forma sublime, el patético sueño divino del archivero imaginado por Salaverría.

Overcoming health inequalities: A participative evaluation framework fit for the task

Aims: Healthcare providers are confronted with the claim that the distribution of health and healthcare provision is inherently unfair. There is also a growing awareness that the tools and methodologies applied in tackling health inequalities require further development. Evaluations as well as interventions usually focus on population-based indicators, but do not always provide guidance for frontline service evaluation and delivery. That is why the evaluation framework presented here focuses on facilitating local service development, service provider and user involvement, and the adequate representation of different population groups. Methods: A participative evaluation framework was constructed by drawing on six common success characteristics extrapolated from the published literature and policies on health inequalities. This framework was then applied to an intervention addressing women’s psychosocial health needs in order to demonstrate its utility in practice. Results: The framework provides healthcare professionals with an evidence-based tool for evaluating projects or programmes targeting health inequalities in ways that are responsive to local contexts and stakeholders. Conclusion: This participative evaluation framework supports the identification of meaningful psychosocial and contextual indicators for assessing the diverse health and social needs of service users. It uses multi-dimensional indicators to assess health and social care needs, to inform local service development, and to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between researchers, service providers, and service users. The inherent responsiveness enables rigorous yet flexible action on local health inequalities.

A review of glaucoma treatment in Scotland 1994-2004

Objective: This study evaluated the changing trends in glaucoma management in Scotland between 1994 and 2004. Methods: A retrospective analysis of national health statistics in Scotland from 1994 to 2004. The Scottish morbidity record was used to collect information on all episodes of trabeculectomy. Data on number of prescriptions were gathered for individual drugs and also for groups of active ingredient. The population likely to have glaucoma (PLG) was calculated from estimates of prevalence in individuals aged 40 years and older, based on published epidemiological studies. The outcome measures were trabeculectomy rates, corrected for population likely to be at risk of glaucoma (PLG), and prescribing volume and cost for glaucoma medications. Results: Trabeculectomy rates have fallen by 67% from 46 per 1000 PLG in 1994 to 15.4 per 1000 PLG in 2004. Over the same time period, the population likely to be at risk of glaucoma (PLG) increased by 16.6%. The cost of prescribing has increased by 122% over 11 years compared with an increase in number of items per 1000 PLG by 27.5%. In 1994, ß-blockers accounted for 65.2% of prescribed drugs but by 2004 this had dropped to 33%. Since their introduction, the prescribing of prostaglandin analogues has increased rapidly and in 2004, they accounted for 39.4% of prescribed drugs. Conclusion: The increasing useof prostaglandin analogues has led to an increase in prescribing rates and a rapid increase in cost. At the same time, prescribing of ß-blockers has declined and trabeculectomy rates have fallen.

Evaluating the use of testate amoebae for palaeohydrological reconstruction in permafrost peatlands

The melting of high-latitude permafrost peatlands is a major concern due to a potential positive feedback on global climate change. We examine the ecology of testate amoebae in permafrost peatlands, based on sites in Sweden (~ 200 km north of the Arctic Circle). Multivariate statistical analysis confirms that water-table depth and moisture content are the dominant controls on the distribution of testate amoebae, corroborating the results from studies in mid-latitude peatlands. We present a new testate amoeba-based water table transfer function and thoroughly test it for the effects of spatial autocorrelation, clustered sampling design and uneven sampling gradients. We find that the transfer function has good predictive power; the best-performing model is based on tolerance-downweighted weighted averaging with inverse deshrinking (performance statistics with leave-one-out cross validation: R2 = 0.87, RMSEP = 5.25 cm). The new transfer function was applied to a short core from Stordalen mire, and reveals a major shift in peatland ecohydrology coincident with the onset of the Little Ice Age (c. AD 1400). We also applied the model to an independent contemporary dataset from Stordalen and find that it outperforms predictions based on other published transfer functions. The new transfer function will enable palaeohydrological reconstruction from permafrost peatlands in Northern Europe, thereby permitting greatly improved understanding of the long-term ecohydrological dynamics of these important carbon stores as well as their responses to recent climate change.

Think, code, succeed: The Programming Studio as a games-based collaboration:Paper published in the Proceedings of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe conference: Teacher Education through Partnerships and Collaborative Learning Communities, Glasgow, UK. ATEE, 2015

This paper investigates the profile of teachers in the island of Ireland who declared themselves willing to undertake professional development activities in programming, in particular to master programming by taking on-line courses involving the design of computer games. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), it compares scores for teachers “willing” to undertake the courses with scores for those who declined, and examines other differences between the groups of respondents. Findings reflect the perceived difficulties of programming and the current low status accorded to the subject in Ireland. The paper also reviews the use of games-based learning as a “hook” to engage learners in programming and discusses the role of gamification as a tool for motivating learners in an on-line course. The on-line course focusing on games design was met with enthusiasm, and there was general consensus that gamification was appropriate for motivating learners in structured courses such as those provided.

Examining the Nature of Published Research About Mentoring in Higher Education

The various forms of mentoring relationships in higher education have all proven to be valuable, offering numerous benefits to mentors and protégés. Research into mentoring provides critical insight into aspects of these relationships, which can be used to advance theoretical and practical understandings of the topic. However, little is known about the methodological characteristics of the mentoring research itself. Using descriptive quantitative content analysis, I examined five years of articles published in five scholarly journals to determine the prevalence of research about mentoring in higher education. Not surprisingly, the prevalence of these articles differed significantly among journals in higher education (1.07% to 3.13%) compared to the considerably higher prevalence rate of 53.15% for the mentoring journal, Mentoring & Tutoring [χ2 (4, N = 82) = 143.98, p < .01]. I also report findings related to the prevalence of different empirical research traditions, research designs, and data sources, as well as various populations, such as faculty members or graduate students who serve as mentors or protégés. Given the limited number of mentoring articles published in higher education journals, I was unable to compare methodological characteristics across journals. Implications for theory, research, and practice in the area of mentoring in higher education are also suggested. Understanding the methodological characteristics of the current literature allows researchers to tailor their current studies by either continuing with existing trends in methodological approaches or seeking opportunities to incorporate under-utilized research traditions, designs, or data sources, with the aim of continuing to improve mentoring knowledge and outcomes.

Novela de la Violencia: Una herramienta para la construcción de memoria histórica en Colombia. 1946-1959

La Época de la Violencia es el nombre que recibe el conflicto bipartidista colombiano de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Este conflicto, es reconocido como la génesis de la violencia actual del país; al mismo tiempo, La Violencia trajo consigo numerosos cambios que han impactado, hasta el día de hoy, buena parte de la estructura social colombiana generando así un masivo interés desde la academia y las artes. En este último caso, la literatura se ha convertido en uno de los principales catalizadores del conflicto, al punto que, en la actualidad, es posible hablar de un género literario conocido como Novela de la Violencia. La presente monografía, pretende analizar cómo la Novela de la Violencia, especialmente la escrita y publicada en el periodo de 1946 a 1959, se ha convertido en una herramienta para la construcción de memoria histórica del conflicto.

Erratum: "The aromatic fluctuation index (FLU): a new aromaticity index based on electron delocalization" [J. Chem Phys. 122, 014109 (2005)]

An erratum to the article "The aromatic fluctuation index (FLU): a new aromaticity index based on electron delocalization", published in The Journal Chemistry of Physics, 2005, v.122, art. no.014109. Values FLU have been corrected in the last column of Table I because they were not correct

MOOCs: a systematic study of the published literature 2008-2012

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a recent addition to the range of online learning options. Since 2008, MOOCs have been run by a variety of public and elite universities, especially in North America. Many academics have taken interest in MOOCs recognising the potential to deliver education around the globe on an unprecedented scale; some of these academics are taking a research-oriented perspective and academic papers describing their research are starting to appear in the traditional media of peer reviewed publications. This paper presents a systematic review of the published MOOC literature (2008-2012): Forty-five peer reviewed papers are identified through journals, database searches, searching the Web, and chaining from known sources to form the base for this review. We believe this is the first effort to systematically review literature relating to MOOCs, a fairly recent but massively popular phenomenon with a global reach. The review categorises the literature into eight different areas of interest, introductory, concept, case studies, educational theory, technology, participant focussed, provider focussed, and other, while also providing quantitative analysis of publications according to publication type, year of publication, and contributors. Future research directions guided by gaps in the literature are explored.

Higher PUFA and omega-3 PUFA, CLA, α-tocopherol and iron, but lower iodine and selenium concentrations in organic milk: a systematic literature review and meta- and redundancy analyses

Demand for organic milk is partially driven by consumer perceptions that it is more nutritious. However, there is still considerable uncertainty over whether the use of organic production standards affects milk quality. Here we report results of meta-analyses based on 170 published studies comparing the nutrient content of organic and conventional bovine milk. There were no significant differences in total SFA and MUFA concentrations between organic and conventional milk. However, concentrations of total PUFA and n-3 PUFA were significantly higher in organic milk, by an estimated 7 (95 % CI −1, 15) % and 56 (95 % CI 38, 74) %, respectively. Concentrations of α-linolenic acid (ALA), very long-chain n-3 fatty acids (EPA+DPA+DHA) and conjugated linoleic acid were also significantly higher in organic milk, by an 69 (95 % CI 53, 84) %, 57 (95 % CI 27, 87) % and 41 (95 % CI 14, 68) %, respectively. As there were no significant differences in total n-6 PUFA and linoleic acid (LA) concentrations, the n-6:n-3 and LA:ALA ratios were lower in organic milk, by an estimated 71 (95 % CI −122, −20) % and 93 (95 % CI −116, −70) %. It is concluded that organic bovine milk has a more desirable fatty acid composition than conventional milk. Meta-analyses also showed that organic milk has significantly higher α-tocopherol and Fe, but lower I and Se concentrations. Redundancy analysis of data from a large cross-European milk quality survey indicates that the higher grazing/conserved forage intakes in organic systems were the main reason for milk composition differences.

Superconducting state in a mesoscopic segment ring

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

FIR laser lines from CH3OD: A review

The methanol isotopic species CH3OD has also proved to be an efficient and powerful medium to generate radiation in the far infrared (FIR) region. After the critical review of 1994, six papers have been published dealing with new FIR laser lines from this molecule. As a consequence of the use of wide tunability waveguide CO2 lasers as well as a new pulsed CO2 laser operating at hot and sequential bands, as of optical pumping sources, the total number of the FIR laser lines increased from 122 in 1994 to 227 today. In this communication we present an updated and complete catalogue of FIR laser lines generated from CH3OD. Information on wavelength, offset, relative polarization, intensity, and optimum operation pressure is generally available.

Gender and Health Status Response to Long-Term Oxygen Therapy in COPD Patients

Introduction: The association of gender with health status (HS) response to long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) in very severe COPD is unclear. The aims of this study were: (1) to compare dyspnea perception and HS between male and female with very severe COPD at baseline and (2) to provide a prospective assessment of HS response to LTOT, according to gender.Patients and methods: Hypoxemic COPD (n =97, age: 65.5 +/- 9.6 years, 53% males) were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study over 12 months or until death. St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and baseline dyspnea index (BDI) were assessed.Results: At baseline, HS impairment and dyspnea sensation were similar between genders. After 12 months of LTOT, women presented improvement in symptom (64.1 +/- 120.6 versus 40.6 +/- 122.9; P < 0.0001) and total SGRQ scores. Men also showed improvement in symptoms after 12 months (62.7 +/- 23.3 versus 49.6 +/- 22.8; P < 0.0005); however, they presented deterioration of activity, impact and total scores during the study period, with markedly decline of activity domain (68.5 +/- 20.0 versus 75.9 +/- 16.9; P = 0.008). BDI did not show significant difference by gender over the study period.Conclusions: Our results show that the HS course in very severe COPD patients differs according to gender, as females show greater response longitudinally to LTOT. (C) 2010 SEPAR. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.

Antiulcerogenic action of ethanolic extract of the resin from Virola surinamensis Warb. (Myristicaceae)

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Virola surinamensis (Myristicaceae), popularly known as mucuiba, ucuuba or ucuuba do igapo is a large tree that grows abundantly in Varzea forest and on river banks in the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Tocantins. The resin obtained by cuts on the stem bark is a reputed folk remedy in its natural form for the treatment of ulcer, gastritis inflammation and cancer.Aim of the study: The present work evaluated the pharmacological activity of the resin obtained from bark of V surinamensis as antiulcerogenic in experimental in vivo model in order to observe whether its traditional use is justified.Materials and methods: The preventive action of ethanolic extract of V surinamensis was evaluated in experimental in vivo models in rodents that simulated this disease in human gastric mucosa.Results: Oral administration of acidified ethanol solution produced severe hemorrhagic lesions in glandular mucosa with ulcerative lesion of 50 +/- 11.5 mm. In animals pretreated with V surinamensis (500 mg/kg, p.o.) a significant inhibition of mucosal injury of 2.40 +/- 0.56 mm (95% inhibition) was detected. The V. surinamensis, at the same dose, also reduced significantly (p < 0.05) the formation of gastric lesions induced by indomethacin (39%), stress (45%) and by pylorus ligature in mice (31%) when compared to animals treated with vehicle. The extract from V surinamensis exerts gastroprotective action only when this extract contacts gastric mucosa (oral route) with. increased pH values and reduced H(+) concentration of gastric contents. The ethanolic extract of V surinamensis resin was analyzed by TLC and spectrometric methods (NMR and ES-MS) and the main constituent of this extract was epicatechin.Conclusions: We suggest that the epicatechin present in V surinamensis resin may be among active principles responsible for the antiulcer activity shown by the tested resin but their used suggest carefulness because toxicological symptoms mentioned by population. (C) Published by Elsevier B.V.

A recepção dos pragmáticos nos periódicos educacionais brasileiros (1944-1964)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)