259890 research outputs found
Sort by
Assessing the impact of visitors on airborne particle deposition in the Giant Gypsum Geode of Pulpí (SE Spain)
No full textThe Giant Geode of Pulpí is a unique mineralogical phenomenon worldwide, remarkable for its large selenite gypsum crystals. Its recent development as a tourist site and inclusion on UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage List, highlight the need to assess the impact of visits on its conservation. This study investigates airborne particle dynamics inside the Geode, focusing on tourist activity and natural ventilation. We measured deposition rates and composition of airborne particles using passive traps and a continuous laser-optical particle counter. Microenvironmental variables linked to ventilation, such as temperature and radon gas concentration (²²²Rn), were simultaneously monitored. Results show a predominance of fine particles (\u3c5 \u3eμm), which remain suspended longer and penetrate deeper into the cavity. Coarse particles (\u3e5 μm) settle quickly, mainly near the Geode entrance. Chemically, most particles correspond to autochthonous mine minerals (celestine, siderite, quartz, and gypsum), though allochthonous materials such as non-mineral fibers introduced by visitors were also identified. Natural ventilation strongly influences particle behavior. Fine particle concentrations (\u3c5 \u3eμm) rise (i.e., up 30×103 particles/L) when the renewal of air with the exterior, characterized by lower suspended particle concentrations, is restricted. Under these conditions, the particle remobilization induced by visitors causes a higher accumulative effect of fine particles in the mine-Geode atmosphere. Autochthonous mining debris and dust is the main source of coarse particles, with concentrations peaking during visiting hours due to resuspension by tourist movement, up to 2,000 particles/Lfor 5-10 mm particles and up to 400 particles/L for \u3e10 mm. These findings provide a foundation for preventive conservation strategies. Adapting visitor pathways and access protocols could reduce particle resuspension and deposition, helping preserve the exceptional crystals of the Geode of Pulpí for future generations
Introduction: Affective and Emotional Encounters in/with British Women\u27s Writing, 1600–1800
No full textThis special issue explores the methodological affordances of the fields of affect theory and the history of emotions in the study of women’s writing from the early modern period, the long eighteenth century and the Romantic period. It posits that the vocabularies of affect theory and the history of emotions offer a productive critical framework to approach historical women’s writing. In reading women’s writing through this lens, this special issue aims to model a theoretically flexible and historically informed approach to affect and emotions that may be taken up across and beyond traditional literary periodizations and in different forms of writing. This introduction provides an overview of the essays in our collection, identifying shared thematic and theoretical concerns. Three intersecting avenues of inquiry structure our introductory essay: the role of affect and embodiment in producing and structuring knowledge; the generation of affect through literary and non-literary forms; and the role of affect and emotion in shaping the reception and valuation of women’s writing. By centering affect and emotion both as objects of analysis and critical methods, this special issue aims to model new ways of reading early modern, eighteenth-century and Romantic-era women’s writing that are attentive to embodiment, literary form and scholarly affect across various historical contexts
Teaching Phillis Wheatley (Peters) as a Working Artist
No full textIn recent years, the challenge of teaching the poetry of Phillis Wheatley (Peters) has been managing my students’ expectations of what constitutes “representative” African American literature and coming to a more comprehensive idea of constitutes both “political” and black art. In managing some initial confusion around Wheatley’s muted response to her enslavement I have landed on presenting Wheatley’s insistence of her work as a poet as “labour” to be the most interesting tact to take with students. For Wheatley it is the imperative of becoming a poet that allows her access to what might be seen as a more vital version of freedom, one that refuses to map onto any specific sense of identity and one that instead draws strength from both stolen moments of creativity and the belief in her work as work.
As our students, specifically those pursuing English and other Humanities degrees, face a job market that increasingly devalues creative work, in this essay I will argue that for an enslaved poet such as Wheatley to pursue the work of poetry provides not just a useful teaching moment about the value of artistic labor, but an opportunity to have our students consider how the term labor itself categorically shifts our sense of what does and does not count as “real work.” Drawing on the experiences of teaching both recent work of on Wheatley by Tara Bynum, David Waldstreicher, and Wendy Raphael Roberts, and scholarship of Nicholas Brown, I will discuss the ways in which Wheatley’s position as both an enslaved woman and a working artist raises vital questions on their own future positions in the labor market
A Review of \u3ci\u3eWilliam Hayley: A Biographer’s Influence on Life Writing and Romantic Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century\u3c/i\u3e, edited by Lisa Gee and Mark Crosby
No full textA review of William Hayley: A Biographer’s Influence on Life Writing and Romantic Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century, edited by Lisa Gee and Mark Crosby by Risako Nomur
The Roles of Mathematics in Teaching for Social Justice: A Framework for the College Classroom
No full textIn this paper, we present a framework for understanding the multiple roles that mathematics can serve in the classroom towards social justice goals, developed through an analysis of 36 social justice mathematics curricular modules in college settings. The framework is grounded in Patricia Hill Collins\u27s matrix of domination and consists of seven themes that represent the different roles mathematics can play: measuring inequality, illuminating conditions resulting in inequality, understanding the mechanisms of phenomena, challenging stereotypes and misconceptions, generating and evaluating solutions, communication and action, and criticizing quantification. Our framework supports the perspective that mathematics can serve important and distinct roles and purposes that contribute to addressing the multiple domains of power in Hill Collins’s matrix of domination. In addition, we argue that by explicitly naming these roles and purposes, this framework serves as a valuable resource for educators seeking to integrate social justice with mathematics curricula
Managerial Forms: Narrative, Information, and Household Government in the Diaries of Sarah Cowper
No full textThe diary of Sarah Cowper (written 1700-16) is characterized by elaborate techniques of information management and a sustained attention to the fractious emotional dynamics of her household. Bringing together historical scholarship on domestic service and literary analyses of organizing practices in print and manuscript, the article argues that the finding devices in Cowper’s seven-volume diary disclose a practical knowledge both textual and social—one which took the affective dynamics of the household as its object, but which was also shaped by and afloat in those dynamics. The article is in two parts. The first explores how Cowper’s information management practices were shaped and motivated by the social relations and affective dynamics of her household. The second examines how Cowper’s thinking about management and about servants as a group was shaped by the forms of her books and the uses those forms enabled. Examined in this way, Cowper’s idiosyncratic diary discloses what the common sense of early eighteenth-century masters and mistresses looked like as was being assembled and put to work. Focusing on form and affect, and attending to material and conceptual dimensions of textual ordering, the article establishes connections between the social relations of domestic service and the material practices of early modern life writing, illuminating both
Antimicrobial resistance of cultivable bacteria isolated from Sorcerer’s Cave in Texas
No full textStudying caves with minimal human contact offers insights into antimicrobial resistance before human influence. In this study, we isolated 315 bacterial strains from Sorcerer’s Cave in Texas and evaluated their resistance to seven common antimicrobials. Under half (41.4%) of the Gram-positive isolates and 68.4% of the Gram-negative isolates were resistant to three or more antimicrobials. The two most common genera identified were Pseudomonas and Bacillus. Compared to bacteria isolated in previous cave studies, Sorcerer’s Cave bacteria exhibited more extensive antimicrobial resistance. This study underscores the importance of minimally disturbed cave environments in advancing our knowledge of antimicrobial resistance present in these settings
Considering What Counts: Are Urban Homicide Rates Rising or Falling?
No full textRecent commentary has featured a debate over whether urban homicide rates are rising or falling. This debate illustrates the complexities of trying to convey the significance of statistical data
Learning from the Legacies of Phillis Wheatley Peters: A Collaborative Pedagogical Public Humanities Project
No full text“’Learning from the Legacies of Phillis Wheatley Peters’: A Collaborative Pedagogical Public Humanities Project” is an account of a Spring, 2024 Zoom and web-based public humanities project for primary, secondary and post-secondary teachers interested in learning more about African-born American poet Phillis Wheatley Peters (c.1746-1784) and developing writing-based curricular materials about her. Foregrounding the levels of pedagogy the project involved, the essay describes leaders’ planning processes and our sessions with teacher-participants and provides links to the materials the teachers prepared. The instructional approaches the essay details can be adapted by educators working in a wide variety of classroom settings
Review of \u3ci\u3eFemale Printmakers, Printsellers, and Print Publishers in the Eighteenth Century: The Imprint of Women, c. 1700-1830\u3c/i\u3e, edited by Cristina S. Martinez and Cynthia E. Roman
No full textFemale Printmakers, Printsellers, and Print Publishers in the Eighteenth Century is a far-reaching collection of fifteen essays that addresses three main topics: women artists who made prints, women who were engaged in making prints, and the business of printmaking and printselling as engaged in by women. The collection addresses both known artists (like Angelika Kauffman) and printmakers (like Mary Darly), but also relatively obscure women, like Laura Piranesi, daughter of Giovanni, and Jane Hogarth, William Hogarth’s wido