The Devil and Views on the “Other” in Part One of Pedro Cieza de León’s "Crónica del Perú" (1553)

Many 16th century Spanish chroniclers and missionaries, arriving at what they interpreted as a New World, saw the Devil as a “hermeneutic wildcard” that allowed them to comprehend indigenous religions. Pedro Cieza de León, a soldier in the conquest of Peru, is a case in point. Cieza considers the Devil responsible for the most aberrant religious practices and customs of the Indians, although he views the natives in a positive light, as men susceptible to divine salvation. From a providentialist perspective of the history of the conquest, Cieza interprets that the evangelization and conversion of the Indians and the implantation of Christian civilization by the Spanish Crown, were able to defeat the Devil.

Tianjin sales of land by auctions:Italian Colonialism in the early twentieth century China

s a signatory to the Boxer Protocol in 1901, Italy came into possession of the Tianjin concession, its only colonial possession in China. The Italian settlement was situated on the Hai River, and most of the land consisted of cemeteries and salt deposits. Italian administration of the settlement encountered many difficulties. Expropriation of land from the Chinese occupants was not easy, and it proved equally difficult to attract Italian investors. However despite the fact that Italian public opinion supported the abandonment of the concession, the Italian government was ultimately obliged to undertake a project for its urban development. Success in Tianjin became a national challenge for Italy, with the National Trust providing the necessary economic support. The history of the Italian settlement in Tianjin therefore sheds light on the politics of colonialism and on Italy's economic and political agendas at the turn of the twentieth century.

Un-Editing Alfred: Rethinking Modern Editions of Pre-modern Texts from a Post-modern Sensibility

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Modern Horn Playing in Beethoven: An Exploration of Period Appropriate Techniques for the Orchestral Music of Beethoven for the Modern Horn Player

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Social policy in the Caribbean, its history and development: the evolution of social policy and its modern influences in the Caribbean

"A lecture delivered to the ECLAC/CDCC Training Workshop in Evidence-based Social Policy Formulation for the Caribbean, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago 28-31 October 2002 and Kingston, Jamaica, 26-28 November 2002"

Proces prekaryzacji pracy - nowe kierunki zmian społeczno-gospodarczych w świecie

Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa

Tectonics of Central and Eastern California, Late Cretaceous to Modern

The Late Cretaceous to Modern tectonic evolution of central and eastern California has been studied for many decades, with published work generally focusing on specific geographic areas and time periods. The resulting literature leaves the reader, whether graduate student, faculty member, or layperson, wondering what a coherently integrated tectonic evolution might look like, or if it would be at all possible to undertake such a task. This question is the common thread weaving together the four studies presented in this work. Each of the individual chapters is targeted at a specific location and time period which I have identified as a critical yet missing link in piecing together a coherent regional tectonic story. In the first chapter, we re-discover a set of major west down normal faults running along the western slope of the southern Sierra, the western Sierra fault system (WSFS). We show that one of these faults was offset by roughly a kilometer in Eocene time, and that this activity directly resulted in the incision of much of the relief present in modern Kings Canyon. The second chapter is a basement landscape and thermochronometric study of the hanging wall of the WSFS. New data from this study area provide a significant westward expansion of basement thermochronometric data from the southern Sierra Nevada batholith. Thermal modeling results of these data provide critical new constraints on the early exhumation of the Sierra Nevada batholith, and in the context of the results from Chapter I, allow us to piece together a coherent chronology of tectonic forcings and landscape evolution for the southern Sierra Nevada. In the third chapter, I present a study of the surface rupture of the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake, a dextral strike slip event on a fault in the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ). New constraints on the active tectonics in ECSZ will help future studies better resolve the enigmatic mismatch between geologic slip rates and geodetically determined regional rates. Chapter IV is a magnetostratigraphic pilot study of the Paleocene Goler Formation. This study provides strong evidence that continued investigation will yield new constraints on the depositional age of the only fossil-bearing Paleocene terrestrial deposit on the west coast of North America. Each of these studies aims to provide important new data at critical missing links in the tectonic evolution of central and eastern California.

Paleoenvironments and Geochemical Signals from the Late Barremian to the Middle Aptian in a Tethyan Marginal Basin, Northeast Spain: Implications for Carbon Sequestration in Restricted Basins

The hallmark of oceanic anoxic event 1a (OAE1a) (early Aptian ~125 Ma) corresponds to worldwide deposition of black shales with total organic carbon (TOC) content > 2% and a d13C positive excursion up to ~5‰. OAE1a has been related to large igneous province volcanism and dissociation of methane hydrates during the Lower Cretaceous. However, the occurrence of atypical, coeval and diachronous organic-rich deposits associated with OAE1a, which are also characterized by positive spikes of the d13C in epicontinental to restricted marine environments of the Tethys Ocean, indicates localized responses decoupled from complex global forcing factors. The present research is a high-resolution, multiproxy approach to assess the paleoenvironmental conditions that led to enhanced carbon sequestration from the late Barremian to the middle Aptian in a restricted, Tethyan marginal basin prior to and during OAE1a. I studied the lower 240 m of the El Pui section, Organyà Basin, Spanish Pyrenees. The basin developed as the result of extensional tectonism linked to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. At the field scale the section consists of a sequence of alternating beds of cm – m-scale, medium-gray to grayish-black limestones and marlstones with TOC up to ~4%. The results indicate that the lowest 85 m of the section, from latest Barremian –earliest Aptian, characterize a deepening phase of the basin concomitant with sustained riverine flux and intensified primary productivity. These changes induced a shift in the sedimentation pattern and decreased the oxygen levels in the water column through organic matter respiration and limited ventilation of the basin. The upper 155 m comprising the earliest – late-early Aptian document the occurrence of OAE1a and its associated geochemical signatures (TOC up to 3% and a positive shift in d13C of ~5‰). However, a low enrichment of redox-sensitive trace elements indicates that the basin did not achieve anoxic conditions. The results also suggest that a shallower-phase of the basin, coeval with platform progradation, may have increased ventilation of the basin at the same time that heightened sedimentation rates and additional input of organic matter from terrestrial sources increased the burial and preservation rate of TOC in the sediment.

Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus by free-living wild animals in Spain

The presence of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) was analyzed in different free-living wild animals to assess the genetic diversity and predominant genotypes on each animal species. Samples were taken from the skin and/or nares, and isolates were characterized by spa typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The proportion of MSSA carriers were 5.00, 22.93, 19.78, and 17.67% in Eurasian griffon vulture, Iberian ibex, red deer, and wild boar, respectively (P = 0.057). A higher proportion of isolates (P = 0.000) were recovered from nasal samples (78.51%) than skin samples (21.49%), but the 9.26% of red deer and 18.25% of wild boar would have been undetected if only nasal samples had been tested. Sixty-three different spa types were identified, including 25 new spa types. The most common were t528 (43.59%) in Iberian ibex, t548 and t11212 (15.79% and 14.04%) in red deer, and t3750 (36.11%) in wild boar. By MLST, 27 STs were detected, of which 12 had not been described previously. The most frequent were ST581 for Iberian ibex (48.72%), ST425 for red deer (29.82%), and ST2328 for wild boar (42.36%). Isolates from Eurasian griffon vulture belong to ST133. Host specificity has been observed for the most frequent spa types and STs (P = 0.000). The highest resistance percentage was found against benzylpenicillin (average, 22.2%), although most of the S. aureus isolates were susceptible to all antimicrobial tested. Basically, MSSA isolates were different from those MRSA isolates previously detected in the same animal species.

Enea Silvio Piccolomini en España. Con la edición del "Tratado de la miseria de los cortesanos", (Sevilla, Cromberger, 1520)

As it is well known, the Renaissance in Spain cannot be understood without a deep knowledge of the Italian quattrocento: art and thinking have an important debt with a culture that shaped a new society that can be named Modern Era. So, there are many intellectuals that are the main reference to our writers: Leonardo Bruni, Giannozzo Manetti, Bartolomeo Facio, Antonio Beccadelli, Poggio Bracciolini, Francesco Filelfo, Flavio Biondo, Lorenzo Valla, Vespasiano da Bisticci, Pier Candido Decembrio, Guarino da Verona, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, and a big number that includes necessarily the name of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464). In effect, the creator that became Pope as Pío II is one outstanding figure of that Humanism that early putted down roots in Spain, a country in construction that produced very important fruits in those years. Under these circumstances, this study has as main objective to analyse the large work of the humanist Pope par excellence, and to establish the relationship between his writings and genres, works and authors in the Iberian peninsula that wrote under his influence. Furthermore, in the following pages can be found a edition of the translation, by Diego López de Cortegana, of one of Picolomini’s works, the Tratado de la miseria de los cortesanos, a work that can be taken as an example of the attention payed to his works by authors like Juan de Lucena, Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo, Cristóbal de Castillejo or fray Antonio de Guevara. After a brief introduction that points that the attention to Enea Silvio Piccolomini is not diminishing, that, on the contrary, is clearly alive if we consider modern editions and translations to different languages, I concentrate on the biography of Pío II. With this purpose I take as base the text that this humanist wrote with the aim of building an adequate imago vitae that related the achievements in the religious sphere (with a failed promotion of a last crusade against the Turk) and also his creative labour. I refer to the Commentarii rerum memorabilium quae temporibus suis contingerunt, an extensive autobiography that did not spare the self-praise and conceals some controversial author’s facts, such as the “reconciling” thesis that undermined the Popes authority and power. In addition, in that chapter can be found a study of the writing process of the titles that includes Piccolomini’s bibliography, since we can think that the author’s commentary is extremely relevant to inform about the moment of writing and its purpose...

When the virtual influences reality. The conservation project of the toledo gate in ciudad real (Spain)

The Toledo Gate of Ciudad Real, Spain, constructed between the late 13th and early 14th centuries, is the last remaining portion of a once complete medieval city wall. It represents the long history of the city and constitutes its main heritage symbol, dividing the historic city centre from the later 19th and 20th century expansions. In October 2012, the Town Hall and the Montemadrid Foundation started the conservation works to preserve this important monument. The preliminary phase of this project included an in-depth series of scientific studies which were carried out by a multidisciplinary team focusing on archival research, historic investigations, archaeological excavations as well as material composition analysis and main treatment application tests. As a result of these studies a series of virtual 3D models were created to inform, discuss and study the monument. A first digital model permitted visualization of the gate in the 19th century and how the main entrance to the city was integrated as a fundamental part of the city walls. This virtual reconstruction also became an important part of the campaign to raise awareness among the citizens towards a monument that had remained in the shadows for the last century, isolated in a roundabout after the systematic demolition of the city walls in the late 19th century. Over the last three years and as a result of these archaeological and historic investigations and subsequent virtual models, surprisingly new and interesting data were brought to light thus permitting the establishment and corroboration of a new and updated hypothesis of the Toledo Gate that goes beyond the previous ideas. As a result of these studies a new architectural typology with construction techniques of has been suggested. This paper describes how the results of this continuous and interdisciplinary documentation process have benefitted from a computer graphic reconstruction of the gate. It highlights how virtual reconstruction can be a powerful tool for conservation decision making and awareness raising. Furthermore, the interesting results of the final reconstruction hypothesis convinced the technical team responsible for the conservation to alter some aspects of the final project physical interventions in order to focus on some of the features and conclusions discovered through the virtual model study.

Women's writing networks in Spanish magazines around 1900

As an output of the HERA Travelling Texts project, created with the aim of uncovering the realities of women’s literary culture on the fringes of Europe during the long nineteenth century, this study was conceptualised to find out more about the networks of women writers in Spain around 1900, using the digitised corpuses of contemporaneous periodicals as the primary source material. Each chapter of the study centres on a particular periodical, which is used as the starting point for the community of writers and readers, both real and imagined. This thesis looks at the realities of the literary culture for creative women in the late nineteenth century-early twentieth century, exploring the strategies used by women (and men) to support each other in their literary endeavours, how they took inspiration and courage from each other, how they promoted their own names, and how they were received by wider society. The study will also focus on the transnational nature of this literary culture, looking at how women of different nations influenced each other’s work, with a view to understanding more about how cultural change takes place. Finally, this thesis hopes to persuade the reader that the periodical is a rich and under-utilised resource for discovering more about the lives of women writers and their network of relationships.

Modern viticulture in southern Europe: Vulnerabilities and strategies for adaptation to water scarcity

Water is now considered the most important but vulnerable resource in the Mediterranean region. Nev ertheless, irrigation expanded fast in the region (e.g. South Portugal and Spain) to mitigate environmental stress and to guarantee stable grape yield and quality. Sustainable wine production depends on sustain able water use in the wine’s supply chain, from the vine to the bottle. Better understanding of grapevine stress physiology (e.g. water relations, temperature regulation, water use efficiency), more robust crop monitoring/phenotyping and implementation of best water management practices will help to mitigate climate effects and will enable significant water savings in the vineyard and winery. In this paper, we focused on the major vulnerabilities and opportunities of South European Mediterranean viticulture (e.g. in Portugal and Spain) and present a multi-level strategy (from plant to the consumer) to overcome region’s weaknesses and support strategies for adaptation to water scarcity, promote sustainable water use and minimize the environmental impact of the sector.

Modern viticulture in southern Europe: vulnerabilities and strategies for adaptation to water scarcity

Water is now considered the most important but vulnerable resource in the Mediterranean region. Nevertheless, irrigation expanded fast in the region (e.g. South Portugal and Spain) to mitigate environmental stress and to guarantee stable grape yield and quality. Sustainable wine production depends on sustainable water use in the wine’s supply chain, from the vine to the bottle. Better understanding of grapevine stress physiology (e.g. water relations, temperature regulation, water use efficiency), more robust crop monitoring/phenotyping and implementation of best water management practices will help to mitigate climate effects and will enable significant water savings in the vineyard and winery. In this paper, we focused on the major vulnerabilities and opportunities of South European Mediterranean viticulture (e.g. in Portugal and Spain) and present a multi-level strategy (from plant to the consumer) to overcome region’s weaknesses and support strategies for adaptation to water scarcity, promote sustainable water use and minimize the environmental impact of the sector.