Computer Science and Metaphysics: A Cross-Fertilization

Computational philosophy is the use of mechanized computational techniques to unearth philosophical insights that are either difficult or impossible to find using traditional philosophical methods. Computational metaphysics is computational philosophy with a focus on metaphysics. In this paper, we (a) develop results in modal metaphysics whose discovery was computer assisted, and (b) conclude that these results work not only to the obvious benefit of philosophy but also, less obviously, to the benefit of computer science, since the new computational techniques that led to these results may be more broadly applicable within computer science. The paper includes a description of our background methodology and how it evolved, and a discussion of our new results.Comment: 39 pages, 3 figure

A 1500‐year record of North Atlantic storm flooding from lacustrine sediments, Shetland Islands (UK)

Severe storm flooding poses a major hazard to the coasts of north‐western Europe. However, the long‐term recurrence patterns of extreme coastal flooding and their governing factors are poorly understood. Therefore, high‐resolution sedimentary records of past North Atlantic storm flooding are required. This multi‐proxy study reconstructs storm‐induced overwash processes from coastal lake sediments on the Shetland Islands using grain‐size and geochemical data, and the re‐analysis of historical data. The chronostratigraphy is based on Bayesian age–depth modelling using accelerator mass spectrometry 14 C and 137 Cs data. A high XRF‐based Si/Ti ratio and the unimodal grain‐size distribution link the sand layers to the beach and thus storm‐induced overwash events. Periods with more frequent storm flooding occurred 980–1050, 1150–1300, 1450–1550, 1820–1900 and 1950–2000 ce, which is largely consistent with a positive North Atlantic Oscillation mode. The Little Ice Age (1400–1850 ce ) shows a gap of major sand layers suggesting a southward shift of storm tracks and a seasonal variance with more storm floods in spring and autumn. Warmer phases shifted winter storm tracks towards the north‐east Atlantic, indicating a possible trend for future storm‐track changes and increased storm flooding in the northern North Sea region

Battling Youth Unemployment in France: Can Macron Put Young People to Work?

High unemployment has been a persistent struggle for the French economy, especially over the last 30 years under presidents Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande, and now Macron. In recent years, this problem has particularly plagued young workers making them the “lost generation” of Europe. This paper studies the history of youth unemployment in France and assesses the impact of government policies and cultural norms on young workers. Additionally, it highlights the trade-off between workers’ rights and economic growth in an attempt to draw attention to the importance of culture and context in development. The factors that have driven French structural youth unemployment, such as types of employment contracts, hiring and firing legislation, and structural mismatch in the labor market are identified through an in-depth analysis of the Code du Travail (French Labor Code). This paper also examines labor market reforms proposed and implemented by President Emmanuel Macron and evaluates their effectiveness in creating employment for young workers. The last section discusses the social, cultural, and political challenges Macron has faced and will continue to face in his struggle to reduce youth unemployment, focusing on public reactions to his reforms and the importance of workers’ rights to French culture. It is concluded that his labor code reforms are not only an attempt to improve the economy, but also to change how French people think

Computability of differential equations

In this chapter, we provide a survey of results concerning the computability and computational complexity of differential equations. In particular, we study the conditions which ensure computability of the solution to an initial value problem for an ordinary differential equation (ODE) and analyze the computational complexity of a computable solution. We also present computability results concerning the asymptotic behaviors of ODEs as well as several classically important partial differential equations.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

I/O Logic in HOL

A shallow semantical embedding of Input/Output logic in classical higher-order logic is presented, and shown to be faithful (sound an complete). This embedding has been implemented in the higher-order proof assistant Isabelle/HOL. We provide an empirical regulative framework for assessing General Data Protection Regulation

Izaña Atmospheric Research Center. Activity Report 2019-2020

Editors: Emilio Cuevas, Celia Milford and Oksana Tarasova.[EN]The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), which is part of the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), is a site of excellence in atmospheric science. It manages four observatories in Tenerife including the high altitude Izaña Atmospheric Observatory. The Izaña Atmospheric Observatory was inaugurated in 1916 and since that date has carried out uninterrupted meteorological and climatological observations, contributing towards a unique 100-year record in 2016. This reports are a summary of the many activities at the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center to the broader community. The combination of operational activities, research and development in state-of-the-art measurement techniques, calibration and validation and international cooperation encompass the vision of WMO to provide world leadership in expertise and international cooperation in weather, climate, hydrology and related environmental issues.[ES]El Centro de Investigación Atmosférica de Izaña (CIAI), que forma parte de la Agencia Estatal de Meteorología de España (AEMET), representa un centro de excelencia en ciencias atmosféricas. Gestiona cuatro observatorios en Tenerife, incluido el Observatorio de Izaña de gran altitud, inaugurado en 1916 y que desde entonces ha realizado observaciones meteorológicas y climatológicas ininterrumpidas y se ha convertido en una estación centenaria de la OMM. Estos informes resumen las múltiples actividades llevadas a cabo por el Centro de Investigación Atmosférica de Izaña. El liderazgo del Centro en materia de investigación y desarrollo con respecto a las técnicas de medición, calibración y validación de última generación, así como la cooperación internacional, le han otorgado una reputación sobresaliente en lo que se refiere al tiempo, el clima, la hidrología y otros temas ambientales afines

A First Approach to the Study of Winsor & Newton’s 19th-Century Manufacture of Madder Red Lake Pigments

Funding Information: We are grateful to Winsor & Newton, ColArt Fine Art & Graphics Ltd., for allowing the creation of the archive project. The W&N 19th Century Archive Database, designed by Mark Clarke and Leslie Carlyle, was funded by the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the De Mayerne Programme and, in the UK, by a Resource Enhancement Grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). We thank Marta F. Campos for purchasing the Rose Madder 19th-century oil paint tube on eBay and dating it. We also appreciate the comments of the participants at the Dyes in History and Archaeology 41. Funding Information: This work was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) through the Research Units VICARTE (UIDB/00729/2020; UIDP/00729/2020) and LAQV-REQUIMTE (UIDB/50006/2020; UIDP/50006/2020), project MAGICA (PTDC/ART-PER/1702/2021), project REDiscover (2022.02909.PTDC), Vanessa Otero’s 2020.00647.CEECIND and Paula Nabais’s 2021.01344.CEECIND. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.This paper focuses on the first investigation of the 19th-century manufacture of red lake pigments obtained from madder by Winsor & Newton (W&N), prominent artists’ colourman at that time. The first approach to their manufacture was carried out by studying the madder entries of the company’s book P1, found in the W&N 19th Century Archive Database. Eleven production records were discovered under names such as Rose Madder, Madder Carmine, Madder Lake and Madder Rose. Three main methods of synthesis were identified and reproduced, revealing three main steps: washing of the madder roots (Rubia tinctorum L.); extraction in acid media and complexation with Al3+ using alum; and precipitation by the addition of salts such as ammonium carbonate and sodium borate. The syntheses were followed by UV-VIS spectroscopy, and the pigments were further characterised by colourimetry, Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detector (HPLC-DAD). They all exhibited a rose hue in a highly insoluble aluminate matrix. Although the dye extraction was incomplete, alizarin, purpurin and pseudopurpurin were identified. An analytical comparison with a Rose Madder 19th-century oil paint tube was also performed by micro-FTIR and microspectrofluorimetry. This work intends to be foundational to a systematic study of the W&N’s 19th-century madder colours aiming to contribute new knowledge towards their identification and preservation in heritage objects.publishersversionpublishe