Italian Canzone d'autore and Greek Entechno tragoudi: a comparative overview

‘Canzone d’autore’ is the name that a vast community of Italian music critics, authors, per-formers, producers agreed upon in the mid-1970s, to describe the Italian singer-songwriter genre. Singer-songwriters, who had been missing from Italian popular music – with very few exceptions – until the late 1950s, had become increasingly popular after 1958, and were dubbed ‘cantautori’ in 1960. The term, which propagated to Spain, Catalonia, and Latin Amer-ica, is still in use, but ‘canzone d’autore’ superseded it as a genre label, highlighting the con-nections between authorship and artistic value, implied in the already established notion of ‘Cinéma d’auteur’ from which it was derived.

The expression ‘entechno laiko tragoudi’ (‘art-folk song’) was coined in Greece by Mikis The-odorakis in the 1950s, to describe a new music genre combining the urban-folk musical idi-om with lyrics coming from high-art poetry. Although the origins of the genre are tied to the work of composers like Theodorakis and Hatzidakis who did not perform as singers, from the 1970s onwards entechno became the privileged field of new generations of Greek singer-songwriters. Dropping ‘laiko’ (folk) from its label, entechno expanded its musical influences outside the urban-folk repertory and transformed into the more all-encompassing contempo-rary ‘art song’.

Rapid glacial retreat on the Kamchatka Peninsula during the early 21st Century

Monitoring glacier fluctuations provides insights into changing glacial environments and recent climate change. The availability of satellite imagery offers the opportunity to view these changes for remote and inaccessible regions. Gaining an understanding of the ongoing changes in such regions is vital if a complete picture of glacial fluctuations globally is to be established. Here, satellite imagery (Landsat 7, 8 and ASTER) is used to conduct a multi-annual remote sensing survey of glacier fluctuations on the Kamchatka Peninsula (eastern Russia) over the 2000–2014 period. Glacier margins were digitised manually and reveal that, in 2000, the peninsula was occupied by 673 glaciers, with a total glacier surface area of 775.7 ± 27.9 km2 . By 2014, the number of glaciers had increased to 738 (reflecting the fragmentation of larger glaciers), but their surface area had decreased to 592.9 ± 20.4 km2 . This represents a ∼ 24 % decline in total glacier surface area between 2000 and 2014 and a notable acceleration in the rate of area loss since the late 20th century. Analysis of possible controls indicates that these glacier fluctuations were likely governed by variations in climate (particularly rising summer temperatures), though the response of individual glaciers was modulated by other (non-climatic) factors, principally glacier size, local shading and debris cover.

Study of 19th century wall tiles for technical replicas development

O principal objectivo deste trabalho foi sistematizar características físico- químicas dos azulejos para conservação e restauro de fachadas azulejares da cidade de Ovar, pertencentes à fase produtiva da semi-industrialização e industrialização dos finais do século XIX inico do século XX, de forma a produzir réplicas técnicas para recolocação nos locais de fachada com lacunas de azulejo. Além de se ter criado uma base de dados sobre estes materiais, formularam-se réplicas para os corpos cerâmicos calcários e pó de pedra, sugerindo matérias-primas e grau de moagem para a sua formulação, pressão de prensagem, ciclo e temperaturas máximas de cozedura conferindo-lhes características técnicas para que estas possam ser aplicadas lado a lado com os azulejos seculares, sem que perturbem a unicidade técnica da fachada. Investigaram-se duas das patologias mais recorrentes que afectam o vidrado: destacamento por cristalização de sais e fendilhamento. A primeira afecta a perda da parte pictórica do azulejo, atirando-o para uma remoção compulsiva da fachada aquando da sua intervenção para conservação restauro. A segunda permite-nos compreender possíveis compromissos técnicos feitos no passado.

Mid-Century Molecular: The Material Culture of X-ray Crystallographic Visualisation across Postwar British Science and Industrial Design

This thesis investigates the use and significance of X-ray crystallographic visualisations of molecular structures in postwar British material culture across scientific practice and industrial design. It is based on research into artefacts from three areas: X-ray crystallographers’ postwar practices of visualising molecular structures using models and diagrams; the Festival Pattern Group scheme for the 1951 Festival of Britain, in which crystallographic visualisations formed the aesthetic basis of patterns for domestic objects; and postwar furnishings with a ‘ball-and-rod’ form and construction reminiscent of those of molecular models. A key component of the project is methodological. The research brings together subjects, themes and questions traditionally covered separately by two disciplines, the history of design and history of science. This focus necessitated developing an interdisciplinary set of methods, which results in the reassessment of disciplinary borders and productive cross-disciplinary methodological applications. This thesis also identifies new territory for shared methods: it employs network models to examine cross-disciplinary interaction between practitioners in crystallography and design, and a biographical approach to designed objects that over time became mediators of historical narratives about science. Artefact-based, archival and oral interviewing methods illuminate the production, use and circulation of the objects examined in this research. This interdisciplinary approach underpins the generation of new historical narratives in this thesis. It revises existing histories of the cultural transmissions between X-ray crystallography and the production and reception of designed objects in postwar Britain. I argue that these transmissions were more complex than has been acknowledged by historians: they were contingent upon postwar scientific and design practices, material conditions in postwar Britain and the dynamics of historical memory, both scholarly and popular. This thesis comprises four chapters. Chapter one explores X-ray crystallographers’ visualisation practices, conceived here as a form of craft. Chapter two builds on this, demonstrating that the Festival Pattern Group witnesses the encounter between crystallographic practice, design practice and aesthetic ideologies operating within social networks associated with postwar modernisms. Chapters three and four focus on ball-and-rod furnishings in postwar and present-day Britain, respectively. I contend that strong relationships between these designed objects and crystallographic visualisations, for example the appellation ‘atomic design’, have been largely realised through historical narratives active today in the consumption of ‘retro’ and ‘mid-century modern’ artefacts. The attention to contemporary historical narratives necessitates this dual historical focus: the research is rooted in the period from the end of the Second World War until the early 1960s, but extends to the history of now. This thesis responds to the need for practical research on methods for studying cross-disciplinary interactions and their histories. It reveals the effects of submitting historical subjects that are situated on disciplinary boundaries to interdisciplinary interpretation. Old models, such as that of unidirectional ‘influence’, subside and the resulting picture is a refracted one: this study demonstrates that the material form and meaning of crystallographic visualisations, within scientific practice and across their use and echoes in designed objects, are multiple and contingent.

Evolution of Koch's postulates: towards a twenty-first century understanding of microbial infection

This editorial discusses strengths and limitations of Koch's postulates reviews modifications that have been used over time, and provides a brief introductory comment to the four papers that comprise the themed section herein.

Anthropology of Violence. The case of the Algarve, Portugal, 19th century

This is the text of the lecture given in the University of Vienna, 29th October 2009

Communicating culture: strategic communication management of the contemporary art museums in the XXIth century, in Portugal: case studies: Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea: Lisboa; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, no Porto; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas

Throughout the year and half of research developed during the times of crisis or economic crisis in Portugal due to the austerity measures, this thesis focuses on the cultural communication and museology in the area of cultural management in Portugal. With an ever growing number of research being developed over the world, this study is unique as it studies managerial diversity and organisational structures of Contemporary Art Museums that exist in Portugal but more importantly how they communicate their organizations within and beyond the Museum walls such as online or other technological media. As the communication management of the museums is one of aspects of culture in which cultural management intends to intervene. The research study that I proposed to analyse has at the forefront the intention to understand how the Contemporary Art Museums in Portugal manage their communication and respective organizations, whether they be a Public-Private/Foundation, State or Council run organizations but also understand if a strategic plan is designed and implemented in times of crisis, to withstand disruptive economic scenarios projected on a daily basis. The following Museums were selected due to the fact of being Contemporary Art Museums but also their respective diverse territorial distribution, one in the city capital of Portugal, Lisbon: MNAC – Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, a stately run organisation; the second, in the north of Portugal: MACS – Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, a public/private organisation under the Foundation organics and the third Museum in interior central region of Portugal, Alentejo: MACE – Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas, managed by the Elvas City Council.

MEMOIR OF THE LIFE, CHARACTER, AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF THE LATE HON. HENRY WM. DE SAUSSURE, PREPARED AND READ ON THE 15th FEBRUARY, 1841, AT THE CIRCULAR CHURCH, CHARLESTON, BY APPOINTMENT OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA BAR ASSOCIATION.

A special meeting of the Association was held as it was resolved that Chancellor Harper was requested to prepare a memoir of the late Chancellor De Saussure.

Speech delivered by Hon. Hermann Ridder at the one hundred and forty-second anniversary dinner, German Friendly Society, Charleston, S. C., January 15th, 1908

The speech was delivered to the German Friendly Society by the Hon. Hermann Ridder and opens with a brief history of the society and its importance. He then goes on to acknowledge notable German settlers and their importance. He calls for history to be rewritten and textbooks to be revised to give credit to the Germans who contributed to America’s foundation and history.

O tempo das reformas : o papel da companhia de Jesus no enfrentamento com ideais protestantes na Europa do Sul : uma proposta pedagógica

Relatório da prática de ensino supervisionada, Mestrado em Ensino da História e da Geografia no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário, Universidade de Lisboa, 2014

Late twentieth century congressional leaders as shapers of and hostages to political context: Gingrich, Hastert, and Lott

Most contemporary explanations of congressional leadership postulate a version of contextual theory that typically places greatest emphasis on the strength of party and downplays the personal skills of individual leaders. By analyzing the leadership of just three recent individuals—Gingrich, Hastert, and Lott—this essay demonstrates the extent to which these leaders' different styles, skills, and characteristics interacted with changing political contexts and strategic environments to impact political and policy outcomes. Context matters, but so does leadership skill. Most graphically, Gingrich—a rare transforming leader in Burns' typology—demonstrates the importance of the right person and the right conditions being in place at the same time and the ability of an individual imaginative leader to intervene exogenously to have a significant effect on policy outcomes. Yet the essay also demonstrates that even where leaders adopt more conventional transactional styles, as Hastert and Lott did, the skill and success with which they juggle political pressures emanating from different, often conflicting, contexts—skills in context—also matters.

An Ever-Shadowed Past? Citizens’ Attitudes towards the Dictatorship in Twenty-First Century Portugal

Several years after the transition to democracy, positive attitudes towards the authoritarian past are still observable in Portugal: the belief that the previous regime had more good things than bad things is expressed by about one-fifth  of the Portuguese. What explains this nostalgic sentiment? Are factors such as socialisation under the regime, party identification or religiosity more important than satisfaction with democracy and the state of the economy? The empirical analysis suggests that the relevance of these factors varies considerably, but socialisation phases lead to different stances on the past both in routine times and in times of economic crisis.