Narradores ecuatorianos de la década de 1950: poéticas para la lectura de modernidades periféricas (Dossier: Narradores ecuatorianos de la década de 1950)

Estos escritores publicaron entre 1945-1962, y avanzaron mucho más en algunos planteamientos de los narradores del 30. Habiendo asumido su extracción de clase, se preguntaron respecto de su propia identidad, de la problemática del mestizo, de su rol como escritores, del impacto de la incipiente modernidad que desestructuraba la vida cotidiana en sus pueblos y ciudades. Coinciden pues, en lo temático, con los narradores latinoamericanos del período, quienes en lo estético mantuvieron la tensión entre regionalismo y vanguardias, los ecuatorianos se reafirmaron en un realismo que dio espacio al lirismo, aunque también mirando hacia las vanguardias latinoamericanas desde diferentes ángulos. César Dávila Andrade planteó una estética del horror «suprarreal», Ángel F. Rojas manejó modernamente temas emparentados con el regionalismo, Walter Bellolio sintetizó lo mejor de la vanguardia narrativa y la tradición relatística ecuatorianas, Alfonso Cuesta y Cuesta configuró una estética de las metáforas iluminadoras, y Arturo Montesinos trabajó con la metáfora de la ruptura que trae toda modernidad, por más periférica e incipiente que pueda parecer.

José Donoso: el escritor chileno en el laberinto de sus papeles íntimos (Crítica)

En este artículo se pasa revista a cierto desarrollo de la vida interna que tuvo José Donoso, gracias a manuscritos íntimos publicados y estudiados por su hija Pilar en el libro titulado Correr el tupido velo. Se ofrecen a las consideraciones de la crítica literaria perspectivas originales para entender el proceso creativo del autor de El obsceno pájaro de la noche, así como las tomas de posturas sentimentales de Donoso en relación con su esposa, sus opiniones en secreto respecto a la adopción de su hija Pilar, y sus diversas ideas en relación a su vida antes y después del golpe de Estado del general Augusto Pinochet en 1973. Se ponen de relieve también los criterios de la propia hija ante la lectura de estos interesantes materiales autobiográficos, con el fin de entender paranoias, neurosis y homosexualidad del propio José Donoso.

Structure of turbulent flow over arrays of cubical roughness

The structure of turbulent flow over large roughness consisting of regular arrays of cubical obstacles is investigated numerically under constant pressure gradient conditions. Results are analysed in terms of first- and second-order statistics, by visualization of instantaneous flow fields and by conditional averaging. The accuracy of the simulations is established by detailed comparisons of first- and second-order statistics with wind-tunnel measurements. Coherent structures in the log region are investigated. Structure angles are computed from two-point correlations, and quadrant analysis is performed to determine the relative importance of Q2 and Q4 events (ejections and sweeps) as a function of height above the roughness. Flow visualization shows the existence of low-momentum regions (LMRs) as well as vortical structures throughout the log layer. Filtering techniques are used to reveal instantaneous examples of the association of the vortices with the LMRs, and linear stochastic estimation and conditional averaging are employed to deduce their statistical properties. The conditional averaging results reveal the presence of LMRs and regions of Q2 and Q4 events that appear to be associated with hairpin-like vortices, but a quantitative correspondence between the sizes of the vortices and those of the LMRs is difficult to establish; a simple estimate of the ratio of the vortex width to the LMR width gives a value that is several times larger than the corresponding ratio over smooth walls. The shape and inclination of the vortices and their spatial organization are compared to recent findings over smooth walls. Characteristic length scales are shown to scale linearly with height in the log region. Whilst there are striking qualitative similarities with smooth walls, there are also important differences in detail regarding: (i) structure angles and sizes and their dependence on distance from the rough surface; (ii) the flow structure close to the roughness; (iii) the roles of inflows into and outflows from cavities within the roughness; (iv) larger vortices on the rough wall compared to the smooth wall; (v) the effect of the different generation mechanism at the wall in setting the scales of structures.

Measuring root traits in barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp vulgare and ssp spontaneum) seedlings using gel chambers, soil sacs and X-ray microtomography

Root characteristics of seedlings of five different barley genotypes were analysed in 2D using gel chambers, and in 3D using soil sacs that were destructively harvested and pots of soil that were assessed non-invasively using X-ray microtomography. After 5 days, Chime produced the greatest number of root axes (similar to 6) and Mehola significantly less (similar to 4) in all growing methods. Total root length was longest in GSH01915 and shortest in Mehola for all methods, but both total length and average root diameter were significantly larger for plants grown in gel chambers than those grown in soil. The ranking of particular growth traits (root number, root angular spread) of plants grown in gel plates, soil sacs and X-ray pots was similar, but plants grown in the gel chambers had a different order of ranking for root length to the soil-grown plants. Analysis of angles in soil-grown plants showed that Tadmore had the most even spread of individual roots and Chime had a propensity for non-uniform distribution and root clumping. The roots of Mehola were less well spread than the barley cultivars supporting the suggestion that wild and landrace barleys tend to have a narrower angular spread than modern cultivars. The three dimensional analysis of root systems carried out in this study provides insights into the limitations of screening methods for root traits and useful data for modelling root architecture.