Noucentisme's “arbitrary” nature in the Mont-roig landscapes of Joan Miró (1918–1922)

The purpose of this article is to discuss the development of Joan Miró's aesthetics between 1915 and the early 1920s, and to offer an interpretation of a series of landscapes that he painted between 1918 and 1922, by highlighting their similarities with some of the landscapes described by Catalan writer Josep Pla in his Obra completa. Both Miró's and Pla's landscapes are situated within the context of Noucentisme and, more particularly, of Noucentisme's classicist aesthetics as defined by Eugeni d'Ors in his Glosari.     

Residential tourism and depeasantisation in the Ecuadorian Andes

International residential tourism is a recent phenomenon in the Andean area. However, in places where it has been established, rapid changes in social and economic structures have occurred. The Municipality of Cotacachi (Northern Ecuador) is paradigmatic. Having become a destination for American retirees, residential tourism has generated a sharp increase in the price of rural land and has decelerated a land market that once allowed young farmers to continue agricultural activities. Residential tourism has promoted land exchange value while sacrificing use value, threatening peasant reproduction mechanisms.     

Random assignment without tears: how to stop worrying and love the Cambridge randomizer

Objectives  

This note describes a low-cost online portal called “the Cambridge Randomizer”, which enables treatment providers to conduct random assignment themselves, while the researcher still maintains control over the entire process and the integrity of the allocation process.     

A proposed dissection procedure for vertebral arteries in forensic pathology

Vertebral artery removing constitutes a significant forensic pathology challenge. Dissection techniques during head-neck autopsy are based on anterior approach, a difficult method, which is unable to assess the transverse part of the artery. This work presents an original and simple method for dissecting vertebral arteries by a posterior approach, opening the vertebroarterial canal through the spinal canal without any special equipment. Once the spinal cord is removed, the transversarium foramens are opened by an internal cut at the pedicle and an external cut at the transverse process. This enables us to visualize vertebral arteries in its entirety. The method improves both the examination of the upper extracranial segment of the vertebral artery and the neuropathological study when arterial injury is suspected. Applying this method routinely is both feasible and useful in suspected cases of vertebral artery trauma and could contribute to assess more precisely the actual incidence of this injury.     

Traumatic bilateral vertebral artery dissection

Traumatic vertebral artery dissection is not often seen by forensic pathologists, and cases investigated are scarce in the forensic literature. We present the case of a 40-year-old woman cyclist who was struck by a car while wearing a helmet, and was neurologically near normal immediately thereafter at Emergency. She presented 48 h later with acute right hemiparesis, decreasing level of consciousness, and unsteadiness. CT revealed massive cerebellar infarction. CT angiography was normal. The patient died in coma 7 days after injury and autopsy revealed bilateral edematous cerebellar infarction and bilateral vertebral artery dissection. Rotational neck injury and mural tear in the wall of the Atlantic parts of both vertebral arteries is suggested as the possible mechanism of the arterial injury. Head and neck injuries are reported as a precipitating cause of vertebral artery injury. The possible influence of trauma may be further underestimated if longer intervals between vessel dissection and ischemia occur. The current case illustrates that "talk-and-die" syndrome may be due to occult vertebral artery dissection, possibly bilateral. In forensic cases of delayed death after mild trauma to the head and neck, the vertebral arteries should be examined for the cause of death.     

Current strategic approaches for the detection of blood doping practices

Aerobic sport performance may be strongly influenced by the number of red blood cells available for transport and delivery of oxygen from lungs to muscles. Often, athletes search for an acute increase in red blood cells by means of blood transfusions. This paper reviews the possibilities for detecting such prohibited practice. Flow cytometry methods are able to detect a double population of red blood cell membrane surface antigens, thus revealing an allogeneic transfusion. Other ingenious approaches for total hemoglobin mass measurements or to test for the metabolites of blood bag plasticizers in urine are new trends for facing the detection of autologous transfusions. Steady increase of red blood cell number may be obtained also by erythropoietic stimulant agents such as erythropoietin, analogs and mimetics. The challenge of detecting those substances has stimulated the development of indirect markers of altered erythropoiesis, leading to the consequent development of the hematological blood passport approach, which is gaining legal acceptance.     

Mergers and difference-in-difference estimator: Why firms do not increase prices?

Difference-in-difference methods are being increasingly used to analyze the impact of mergers on pricing and other market equilibrium outcomes. Using evidence from an exogenous merger between two retail gasoline companies in a specific market in Spain, this paper shows how concentration did not lead to a price increase. In fact, the conjectural variation model concludes that the existence of a collusive agreement before and after the merger accounts for this result, rather than the existence of efficient gains. This result may explain empirical evidence reported in the literature according to which mergers between firms do not have significant effects on prices.