TRACES OF THE TERRITORY IN SPANISH PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE THE 1990s

This paper proposes a reading of the cultural and social aspects associated with sundry notions of territory through Spanish photography at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. An analysis of a series of case studies reveals a new awareness of the common space through the concept of trace, being understood beyond the material imprint, as it falls under the influence of the cultural aspects that clarify the account of the conflict and consciousness of the suburbs and peripheries. Contemporary ruins arising from unbridled urban growth, or the invisible wounds associated with certain places, converge in a series of images that have their own tradition in the conceptual experiments of the 70s and the aesthetics of the “non-site” displayed in the 90s. As background, the economic and political avatars of recent years in Spain – also linked to a global crisis – are manifested in a series of photographic musings whose images portray the scenarios of a premature ruin linked to property speculation and the traces of a collective memory.     

What can be taught in architectural design? — <Emphasis Type="Italic">parti,poché</Emphasis>, and felt qualities

This essay begins with a reflection on what has been taught in architectural design since the turn of the twentieth century. I shall trace back to the two disciplinary foundations of the French École des Beaux-Arts — parti and poché — in the education of an architect in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I shall then attempt to superimpose parti and poché on a modern disciplinary framework, say that of mathematics, which leads to musings on a series of architectural problems that include pattern versus type, stability versus mobility, orthogonal versus oblique, confinement versus transparency, and aging versus metallic sheen. These paradoxes, I suggest, demand the education of an architect to address both the instrumental pattern of a building configuration and the ambient felt qualities of a room, rather than vision alone.     

Spatial competition and regulatory change in the grain handling and transportation system in western Canada

The grain handling and transportation system (GHTS) has been a defining component of the western Canadian economy since the early part of the last century. Only two major railways serve the grain handling industry, so the potential for the exercise of market power in transportation appears to be significant. In fact, spatially oriented regulations applicable to railways exist in Canada to mitigate this, but to date they have not often been used by shippers. While the reasons for this are not completely clear, we suggest that the regulations are now inadequate for the current state of the GHTS. Using a unique data set from the year 2000, we assess the effect on the grain handling industry of modifications to these regulations, and find that significant gains for shippers from these modifications are possible. These gains are computed to be on the order of C$10–15 million per year for grain shippers alone. We would like to thank conference and presentation participants (Transportation Research Board, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, University of British Columbia, University of Leeds and California State University, Long Beach) as well as the anonymous reviewers who commented on the earlier versions of this paper. We would also like to acknowledge support from the Saskatchewan Department of Highways.     

Decomposing regional productivity growth using an aggregate production frontier

The main contribution of this paper is the implementation of a new model which combines the two parametric approaches most commonly used in the productivity literature: fixed effects and stochastic frontiers. This allows us to discuss whether it is better to use average or frontier functions to estimate regional productivity. The empirical section uses panel data of Spanish regions over the period 1980–1995. Additionally, we calculate and decompose total factor productivity growth for the Spanish regions.     

The potential use of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fabaceae</Emphasis> lianas fibers in papermaking

The objective of this study was to anatomically characterize the fibers of nine species of Fabaceae lianas, to determine their potential in papermaking and to define which biometric parameters can be used to distinguish and identify individuals. The species presented average values of 76.81, 57.45, 42.55, and 1.81 for the felting index, wall fraction, coefficient of flexibility, and Runkel index, respectively. It is concluded that only M. ferox and M. madeirense can be recommended for papermaking.     

The impact of natural and artificial weathering on the visual,colour and structural changes of seven tropical woods

This study investigates the effects of wood weathering on changes in its macroscopic and colour characteristics in connection with changes in its molecular and anatomical structure. Seven hardwoods suitable for outdoor architecture—bangkirai, cumaru, cumaru rosa, ipé, jatobá, kusia, and massaranduba—were exposed to the exterior out of ground contact for 1–36 months according to EN 927-3, and for 1–12 weeks in Xenotest with water spraying according to partly modified EN 927-6. With prolonged weathering, the following changes occurred in the top surfaces of all tropical woods: (1) visual—creation of longitudinal macro-cracks, (2) spectrophotometry and CIE-L ^? a ^? b ^? —darkening in exterior exposure mainly due to pollutants, except for ipé, and vice versa lightening in Xenotest, as well as greening and blueing in both modes of exposure, (3) FTIR—faster decrease of guaiacyl than syringyl lignin, absolute decrease of conjugated and unconjugated carbonyl groups in the newly formed lignin-polysaccharide-extractive substrate in the photo-oxidized and washed-out cell walls, and decrease of cellulose crystallinity, (4) SEM—damaging of cell-walls by micro-cracks, and their degradation by thinning. Connections between changes of the individual characteristics of weathered woods, for example, between the colour (ΔE*, etc.) and the molecular structure (carbonyls, etc.), were also determined.     

Characteristics of cricket (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Gryllus bimaculatus</Emphasis>) chitosan and chitosan-based nanoparticles

The field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) is commonly consumed as food in different parts of the world. This study was performed to characterize the chitosan extracted from crickets and to assess its potential use to the growing functional market. The degree of deacetylation (DA), Fourier-transform infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction patterns, molecular mass, scanning electron microscopy spectra, and color were measured. Cricket chitosan nanoparticles were prepared, and the optimal conditions were identified. The molecular mass of the cricket chitosan was lower than that of commercial chitosan; however, the DA, FTIR, and XRD spectra were similar. The particle size (208.27 ± 3.47 nm), zeta potential (35.72 ± 1.29 mV), and polydispersity index (PDI: 0.27 ± 0.03) of the cricket chitosan NPs were superior to the commercial. Addition of NaCl reduced the cricket chitosan NPs size up to 15.5%. This finding is a novel trial to prove the availability of the insect chitosan with a low molecular mass as an active carrier source.     

Evaluation of solar temperature field under different wind speeds for Shanghai 65 m radio telescope

The Shanghai 65 m radio telescope is currently the largest full range rotatable radio telescope in Asia. Gravity, wind and temperature are the three main factors which may have a bad effect on the reflector’s surface precision. To study the effect of the thermal deformation caused by daily non-uniform temperature fields on the surface precision of the main reflector, both the temperature field and its effect were studied in detail for two typical days (January 15th and July 15th). The method to simulate temperature fields was studied initially, considering heat conduction, solar radiation, shadowing, air convection, sky radiation and ground radiation. Then, an integral parametric thermal finite element model (FEM) of the telescope was established using the ANSYS thermal analysis module. Finally, the effect of non-uniform temperature fields on the surface precision of the main reflector was estimated in terms of the Root Mean Square (RMS) deformation based on temperature transient analysis. The proposed methods and conclusions drawn can provide valuable information for thermal design, thermal monitoring and thermal control of the Shanghai 65 m radio telescope and other similar giant antenna structures.