Valve actuator Patent

Actuator using compressed gas as driving force to control valve handling large liquid flow

The Macroeconomics Shocks and the Brazilian Agricultural Price Evolution – A VAR Analysis Approach

The findings presented in this paper come from our study of the effects of Brazilian macroeconomic policy on the Brazilian Farm [product] Price Index using an adapted version of Frankel’s (1986 & 2006) theoretical model. The study examined the connection between Brazilian farm prices and external variables (worldwide importation of agribusiness products, international commodity prices, and foreign real interest rates) and between Brazilian farm prices and domestic variables (GDP, the real exchange rate, and local interest rates).

Modelling the statistical dependence of rainfall event variables by a trivariate copula function

In many hydrological models, such as those derived by analytical probabilistic methods, the precipitation stochastic process is represented by means of individual storm random variables which are supposed to be independent of each other. However, several proposals were advanced to develop joint probability distributions able to account for the observed statistical dependence. The traditional technique of the multivariate statistics is nevertheless affected by several drawbacks, whose most evident issue is the unavoidable subordination of the dependence structure assessment to the marginal distribution fitting. Conversely, the copula approach can overcome this limitation, by dividing the problem in two distinct parts. Furthermore, goodness-of-fit tests were recently made available and a significant improvement in the function selection reliability has been achieved. Herein the dependence structure of the rainfall event volume, the wet weather duration and the interevent time is assessed and verified by test statistics with respect to three long time series recorded in different Italian climates. Paired analyses revealed a non negligible dependence between volume and duration, while the interevent period proved to be substantially independent of the other variables. A unique copula model seems to be suitable for representing this dependence structure, despite the sensitivity demonstrated by its parameter towards the threshold utilized in the procedure for extracting the independent events. The joint probability function was finally developed by adopting a Weibull model for the marginal distributions

Inter fragmenta nare: Leon Battista Alberti and the Wreck of Memory

As it is well known, rhetoric serves as a theoretical framework for the foundation of artistic practices in the works of Leon Battista Alberti. The structural significance of rhetoric also concerns the conceptualization of the relationship between time, space, and memory. In Alberti's perspective, ruins and fragments from the past are material incarnations of rhetorical-mnemonic imagines agentes: their power to affect the mind depends on the ability of the observer to put them in the right places (loci). Against this background, Alberti partially overturns the classical model of the ars memoriae: the a priori architectural order of loci becomes the result of an activity of composition and combination, in which the imagines/ruins disrupt the flow of time and the continuum of space by displaying their specific nature as memory traces.As it is well known, rhetoric serves as a theoretical framework for the foundation of artistic practices in the works of Leon Battista Alberti. The structural significance of rhetoric also concerns the conceptualization of the relationship between time, space, and memory. In Alberti's perspective, ruins and fragments from the past are material incarnations of rhetorical-mnemonic imagines agentes: their power to affect the mind depends on the ability of the observer to put them in the right places (loci). Against this background, Alberti partially overturns the classical model of the ars memoriae: the a priori architectural order of loci becomes the result of an activity of composition and combination, in which the imagines/ruins disrupt the flow of time and the continuum of space by displaying their specific nature as memory traces

Hydrological and meteorological aspects of floods in the Alps: an overview

International audienceThis introductory paper presents and summarises recent research on meteorological and hydrological aspects of floods in the Alps. The research activities were part of the international research project RAPHAEL (Runoff and Atmospheric Processes for flood HAzard forEcasting and controL) together with experiments within the Special Observing Period-SOP conducted in autumn 1999 for the Mesoscale Alpine Programme ?MAP. The investigations were based on both field experiments and numerical simulations, using meteorological and hydrological models, of ten major floods that occurred in the past decade in the European Alps. The two basins investigated were the Ticino (6599 km2) at the Lago Maggiore outlet on the southern side of the Alps and the Ammer catchment (709 km2) in the Bavarian Alps. These catchments and their sub-catchments cover an appropriate range of spatial scales with which to investigate and test in an operational context the potential of both mesoscale meteorological and distributed hydrological models for flood forecasting. From the data analyses and model simulations described in this Special Issue, the major sources of uncertainties for flood forecasts in mid-size mountain basins are outlined and the accuracy flood forecasts is assessed

The MAGEEQ project: identifying contesting meanings of «gender equality»

In this article I engage with MAGEEQ methodology and theoretical assumptions to raise questions around the following themes: intentionality in political practice, meanings of discourse, and understandings of political subjectivity. I make the case that these topics need to be addressed in order to provide insights into the reasons social change is so difficult to achieve. Specifically, I suggest that feminists adopt a practice of «reflexive framing», examining how they represent social «problems», and broaden feminist constituencies through coalition to reduce the possibility of representing «problems» in ways that exclude or harm «others».In this article I engage with MAGEEQ methodology and theoretical assumptions to raise questions around the following themes: intentionality in political practice, meanings of discourse, and understandings of political subjectivity. I make the case that these topics need to be addressed in order to provide insights into the reasons social change is so difficult to achieve. Specifically, I suggest that feminists adopt a practice of «reflexive framing», examining how they represent social «problems», and broaden feminist constituencies through coalition to reduce the possibility of representing «problems» in ways that exclude or harm «others»