"Birdsong in a Time of Silence": The New Nature Writing in Britain and Ireland

openThis thesis delves into Steven Lovatt's first publication, "Birdsong in a Time of Silence", and contextualizes it within the New Nature Writing in Britain and Ireland as theorized by Jason Cowley in an issue of "Granta". A combination of ecocritical analysis, cultural studies, and affect theories are employed to provide a framework for this exploration. The study highlights pivotal nature and environmental writing tropes that have endured since its inception and demonstrates how these themes are reflected in Lovatt's book. Specifically, the research investigates the notions of place, memory, imagination, perception, and language. The analysis concludes by drawing a comparison between Lovatt's work and Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", which is widely regarded as the starting point for contemporary environmentalism. Lovatt's work offers alternative models for dystopian storytelling, emphasizing optimism and positive outlooks as key factors in developing a meaningful environmental consciousness.This thesis delves into Steven Lovatt's first publication, "Birdsong in a Time of Silence", and contextualizes it within the New Nature Writing in Britain and Ireland as theorized by Jason Cowley in an issue of "Granta". A combination of ecocritical analysis, cultural studies, and affect theories are employed to provide a framework for this exploration. The study highlights pivotal nature and environmental writing tropes that have endured since its inception and demonstrates how these themes are reflected in Lovatt's book. Specifically, the research investigates the notions of place, memory, imagination, perception, and language. The analysis concludes by drawing a comparison between Lovatt's work and Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", which is widely regarded as the starting point for contemporary environmentalism. Lovatt's work offers alternative models for dystopian storytelling, emphasizing optimism and positive outlooks as key factors in developing a meaningful environmental consciousness

As fraturas da modernização em Morte e Vida Severina

O Grupo Literatura e modernidade periférica consta do Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa no Brasil do CNPq e é coordenado pelo Prof. Dr. Hermenegildo José de Menezes Bastos, da Universidade de Brasília. Integram-no professores da UnB e alunos do programa de pós-graduação em literatura. Atuando nas áreas de crítica materialista e histórica e enfocando, primordialmente, as relações entre o sistema literário e o projeto modernizador ocidental, o grupo tem produzido dissertações de mestrado e teses de doutorado. Tem, ainda, publicado livros e artigos em periódicos especializados e participado de congressos de amplitude nacional e internacional. O presente trabalho foi escrito em conjunto pelos pesquisadores: Profa Dra. Ana Laura dos Reis Corrêa; Drnd° André Matias Nepomuceno; Prof. Drnd" Alexandre Pilati; Profa Drnd". Deane Maria Fonseca de Castro e Costa; Profa Drnda Maria Izabel Brunacci; Profa Drnda Germana Henriques Pereira de Sousa e Grnd° Thiago Chacon.Morte e vida severina é um impressionante exemplo de como a literatura pode evidenciar um significativo sentimento de dilaceramento do autor diante das contradições entre a realidade local periférica e a universalidade literária, política e econômica. Os muitos Severinos do poema expõem as tensões de uma existência cujo destino é "seguir o próprio enterro". O objetivo do trabalho é analisar tais tensões com ferramentas da crítica materialista, mostrando como o poema testemunha os efeitos predatórios de uma globalização espoliadora. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTMorte e vida severina is an impressive example of how literature can evidence a meaningful feeling of a writer tearing up in presence of the contradictions between the local peripheral reality and the literary, political and economic universality. The poor peasants, "Severinos", that emerge from the poem expose existence tensions whose fate is "to follow the own funeral". This paper intends to analyze such tensions with materialist critics tools, in order to show how the poem evidence the predatory effects of exploitative globalization

Development of a Cooperative Localization System using a UWB Network and BLE Technology

This paper presents the development of a system able to estimate the 2D relative position of nodes in a wireless network, based on distance measurements between the nodes. The system uses ultra wide band ranging technology and the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol to acquire data. Furthermore, a nonlinear least squares problem is formulated and solved numerically for estimating the relative positions of the nodes. The localization performance of the system is validated by experimental tests, demonstrating the capability of measuring the relative position of a network comprised of 4 nodes with an accuracy of the order of 3 cm and an update rate of 10 Hz. This shows the feasibility of applying the proposed system for multi-robot cooperative localization and formation control scenarios.Comment: 6 pages, 12 figures, 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Measurements & Networking (M&N

A crítica da modernidade na poética de Manoel de Barros e José Paulo Paes

A crítica da modernidade na poética de Manoel de Barros e José Paulo Pae

Technical and health governance aspects of the External Quality Assessment Scheme for the SARS-CoV-2 molecular tests: Institutional experience performed in all clinical laboratories of a Regional Health Service

Objectives: Since December 2019, the worldwide public health has been threatened by a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by Coronavirus-2. From the beginning, a turning point has been the identification of new cases of infection, in order to minimize the virus spreading among the population. For this reason, it was necessary introducing a panel of tests able to identify positive cases, which became crucial for all countries. Methods: As a Regional Reference Centre, the CRQ Laboratory (Regional Laboratory for the Quality Control) developed and conducted an External Quality Assessment (EQA) panel of assay, so as to evaluate the quality of real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which were used by 62 Sicilian laboratories, previously authorized to issue certificates for the COVID-19 diagnosis, on behalf of the Public Health Service. Results: The qualitative performance test was based on pooled samples with different viral loads of SARS-CoV-2 or human Coronavirus OC43. 75% of the participating laboratories tested all core samples correctly, while the remaining 25% interpreted incorrectly the EQA exercise samples matching negatively the standards required. Conclusions: Subsequent inspection visits confirmed the issue of incorrect positive and negative certifications for COVID-19 by private and public laboratories, despite the possession of the authorization requirements currently provided for by current regulations, with a significant impact on the SSR

HISTÓRIA LITERÁRIA ENTRE ACUMULAÇÃO E RESÍDUO: O EIXO GRACILIANO-RULFO

Neste trabalho, discutimos adialética local/universal a partir das obrasde Juan Rulfo e Graciliano Ramos. Re-pensamos a história da narrativa latino-americana numa perspectiva não evolu-cionista, em que o passado permaneceatual em virtude de não terem sido solu-cionados os problemas (literários e so-ciais) do seu horizonte histórico. Procu-ramos com esse trabalho desenhar umeixo em que se encontram as obras deRulfo e Graciliano. Trata-se de uma in-vestigação sobre os significados das mu-danças literárias e sobre a possível cor-respondência entre elas e a vida social

Toward Greener Matrix Operations by Lossless Compressed Formats

Sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) is a fundamental operation in machine learning, scientific computing, and graph algorithms. In this paper, we investigate the space, time, and energy efficiency of SpMV using various compressed formats for large sparse matrices, focusing specifically on Boolean matrices and real-valued vectors. Through extensive analysis and experimentation on server and edge devices, we observed that different matrix compression formats entail distinct trade-offs among space efficiency, execution time, and energy consumption. Notably, selecting the appropriate compressed format can reduce energy consumption by an order of magnitude on both servers and single-board computers. Moreover, our experiments reveal that while data parallelism can improve execution speed and energy efficiency, optimizing both simultaneously poses interesting challenges. Specifically, we demonstrate that for certain compression schemes, the optimal degree of parallelism for minimizing execution time does not coincide with that for energy efficiency. This finding aligns with recent results in the literature, thus challenging the prevailing assumption of a straightforward linear correlation between execution time and energy usage. Overall, our findings advocate for software engineers to adopt compressed data structures as important instruments in the development of more energy-efficient software components, extending beyond SpMV

Identification and characterization of a case of mild familial partial lipodystrophy in a carrier of a LMNA p.Arg582Leu variant

Laminopathies are a group of rare disorders caused by mutations in the Lamin A/C gene located on human chromosome 1q22. The LMNA gene encodes Lamin A and C that are components of the nuclear lamina in most differentiated cells. Furthermore, Lamin A/C plays a pivotal role in cell differentiation. LMNA mutations affect mainly mesenchymal tissues (muscle, bone, and adipose tissue), although they sometimes also affect the nervous system to varying degrees. There are several clinical presentations of laminopathies, as different LMNA mutations are responsible for different phenotypes, including lipodystrophy, skeletal muscle dystrophy, and cardiomyopathy [1]. LMNA lipodystrophy can be classified as partial, or generalized, based on the extent of atrophy of the subcutaneous fat. The most well-known and common form of LMNA lipodystrophy is familial partial lipodystrophy type 2 (FPLD2) that is transmitted as an autosomal dominant disorder. FPLD2 is characterized by subcutaneous adipose tissue loss from the trunk, buttocks and limbs and muscular pseudohypertrophy which is usually accompanied by accumulation in the face, neck and abdominal viscera, and is frequently associated with metabolic and cardiovascular complications. The reported prevalence is 1 case per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe, but it is likely largely underestimated. We herein report the case of a female patient who was occasionally found to harbor a mutation compatible with FPLD2

Microcirculatory and Rheological Adaptive Mechanisms at High Altitude in European Lowlander Hikers and Nepalese Highlanders

Background: Physical activity at high-altitudes is increasingly widespread, both for tourist trekking and for the growing tendency to carry out sports and training activities at high-altitudes. Acute exposure to this hypobaric-hypoxic condition induces several complex adaptive mechanisms involving the cardiovascular, respiratory and endocrine systems. A lack of these adaptive mechanisms in microcirculation may cause the onset of symptoms of acute mountain sickness, a frequent disturbance after acute exposure at high altitudes. The aim of our study was to evaluate the microcirculatory adaptive mechanisms at different altitudes, from 1350 to 5050 m a.s.l., during a scientific expedition in the Himalayas. Methods: The main haematological parameters, blood viscosity and erythrocyte deformability were assessed at different altitudes on eight European lowlanders and on a group of eleven Nepalese highlanders. The microcirculation network was evaluated in vivo by conjunctival and periungual biomicroscopy. Results: Europeans showed a progressive and significant reduction of blood filterability and an increase of whole blood viscosity which correlate with the increase of altitude (p < 0.02). In the Nepalese highlanders, haemorheological changes were already present at their residence altitude, 3400 m a.s.l. (p < 0.001 vs. Europeans). With the increase in altitude, a massive interstitial oedema appeared in all participants, associated with erythrocyte aggregation phenomena and slowing of the flow rate in the microcirculation. Conclusions: High altitude causes important and significant microcirculatory adaptations. These changes in microcirculation induced by hypobaric-hypoxic conditions should be considered when planning training and physical activity at altitude