Data sources for rescuing the rich heritage of Mediterranean historical surface climate data

10.1002/gdj3.4Availability of long-term and high-quality instrumental climate records is still insufficient and the rich heritage of meteorological surface observations is largely underexploited in many parts of the world. This is particularly striking over the Greater Mediterranean region (GMR), where meteorological observations have been taken since the 18th century at some locations. The lack of high quality and long series here is despite this region being regarded as a climate change hot spot. This article mainly assesses relevant sources containing Mediterranean historical climate data and metadata either from online repositories worldwide or physical archives, with the emphasis here on the rich holdings kept at French archives. A particular case study is the data rescue (DARE) program undertaken by the Algerian National Meteorological Service, as well as some of the past and ongoing projects and initiatives aimed at enhancing climate data availability and accessibility over the GMR. Our findings point to the high potential for undertaking DARE activities over the GMR and the need for bringing longer and higher quality climate time series to support a diverse number of scientific and technical assessments and policies

ENMat international projects: FP7 NMP coordination action: 2BFUNTEX

Boosting collaboration between research centres and industry to enhance rapid industrial uptake of innovative functional textile structures and textile-related materials in a mondial market 2BFUNTEX will exploit the untapped potential in functional textile structures and textile related materials. It will bring together all innovation actors in the field fostering a multidisciplinary approach between universities, research institutes, SMEs and sector associations. The 2BFUNTEX team will identify technological gaps and eliminate barriers resulting in a faster industrial uptake of added value functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance and resulting in creation of new business worldwide. Technological needs will be mapped, new joint international research disciplines will be identified and multidisciplinary lab teams will be created. International cooperation will be favoured to exploit the worldwide market expansion potential. Industry will be involved at all stages of the process. The inventory will enlarge the team of important textile universities and renowned materials research centres and will identify new collaborations. Synergy will be reinforced and created which will enable to identify and develop new functional materials. Training materials regarding functional materials for research and industrial purposes will be developed and implemented to allow a common language regarding functional textile structures and text ile related materials, and will increase the number of well-trained people in this field. Further, the 2BFUNTEX partners will organise and participate in conferences, workshops and brokerage events. Along with a website with an extensive database comprising all information gained throughout the project, collaboration will be boosted and rapid industrial uptake catalysed and enhanced. The project duration will be 4 years and the consortium includes 26 partners from 16 countries. Start date : 01/01/2012 More information: Ir. Els Van der Burght Department of Textiles/Ghent University [email protected] [email protected] URL: http://www.2bfuntex.e

The Muted Vibrancy of Roman Catholicism in Contemporary Portugal: Corporal Works of Mercy in a Time of Austerity. CES Open Forum Series #25 2018-2019

This paper concerns the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life. Taking Portugal as a case study, it asks whether the concept of muted vibrancy provides theoretical understanding to the role of Catholicism in contemporary Portuguese society. That is, how might a church in a newly consolidated democratic regime, in a time of economic crisis, with a past relationship to a fascist regime, and with declining numbers of adherents, contribute to the deepening of democracy

ENMat international projects: FP7 NMP large collaborative project: 3D-LightTrans

Large scale manufacturing technology for high-performance lightweight 3D multifunctional composites The goal of the 3D-LightTrans project is to provide groundbreaking, highly flexible, efficient and adaptable low-cost technologies for the manufacturing of integral large scale 3D textile reinforced plastic composites, including innovative approaches for the individual processes and its integration in complete manufacturing chains, which will enable to shift them from its current position in cost intensive, small series niche markets, to broadly extended mass product applications, not only in transportation, but also in other key sectors, like health and leisure. To fulfil this goal, the 3DLightTrans manufacturing chains will be based on multimaterial semifinished fabrics, processed to deep draped prefixed multilayered and multifunctional 3D -textile preforms, which will be processed into composites by a thermoforming process. By integrating these new, innovative process steps with full automation in -nowadays mostly manually performed- complex handling operations, it will be possible to obtain a fully automated and highly adaptable manufacturing chain to achieve integral large scale 3D composites. 3D-LightTrans will open the way to a totally new concept for the design, manufacturing and application of composites for low-cost mass products in a wide range of sectors. The Consortium brings together multidisciplinary research teams involving European leading companies, including industrial stakeholders from machine tools and machine automation and several OEM active in the field of processing of flexible materials and composite manufacturing, as well as from the application sector, and extensive expertise from well known research specialists in the area of materials, production research and technical textiles in particular. Start date : 01/04/2011 Project duration : 4 years More information: Dr. Erich Kny Austrian Institute of Technology, [email protected] URL: http://www.3d-lighttrans.com

On first looking into Brébeuf's Lucan

Georges de Brébeuf not only translated Lucan's Pharsalia in rhyming alexandrines but also produced a travesty of the same work. This unique situation can be understood as a complicated response to the aesthetic provocation offered by the Latin poem. Translation and travesty form a hybrid whole. It is argued that our encounter with Brébeuf’s contradictory poet can help us to better grasp what kind of writer Lucan is: one who grotesquely undercuts his own sublime aspirations

Capitalist apocalypse in the painting of John Martin and Gordon Cheung

Taking as its starting point Tate Britain’s recent John Martin retrospective, entitled John Martin: Apocalypse, this paper considers the possibility that depictions of biblical apocalyptic scenes in Martin’s paintings are actually metaphors for revolution (French and American). The frst half of the paper investigates possible links between Martin’s apocalyptic imagery, British imperial ambitions and the rise of capitalism. It also considers how Martin’s plans for urban redevelopment are linked to his preoccupation with cataclysmic doom. Through icono- graphical readings of Martin’s paintings the paper hypoth-esizes that themes such as the fall of great civilizations and the wrath of god are not coincidental but concerns contemporary to Martin caused by capitalist expansion. The second part of the paper goes on to investigate the possibility that our contemporary interest in the apocalypse is in fact, just as it was in Martin’s time, a metaphor for militant unrest, which is manifested in theory and culture because of our inability to imagine the end of capitalism in this context the paper turns to contemporary painter Gordon Cheung to reconsider the idea, attributed to Jameson and Žižek, that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism

Studying the emergence of a new social representation: Changes in thinking about nanotechnologies in early 21st-century Italy

We investigated the emergence of a new social representation (SR) of a techno\u2010scientific innovation\u2014nanotechnologies\u2014among the Italian public. We reviewed how nanotechnologies entered parliamentary debates and the media agenda in the early third millennium. We conducted cross\u2010sectional surveys in 2006 (N = 246) and 2011 (N = 486) to examine the emerging SR of nanotechnologies. We sought to observe processes of anchoring and objectification \u2018in action\u2019, by analyzing roles of (i) social groups, and (ii) neighboring SRs of science and of technology, over time. Several changes from 2006 to 2011 were identified: From a \u2018descriptive\u2019 to an \u2018evaluative\u2019 approach; from a \u2018neutral\u2019 to a \u2018controversial\u2019 issue; from a \u2018concrete\u2019 to an \u2018abstract\u2019 object; and from a \u2018technological\u2019 to a \u2018scientific\u2019 phenomenon. We conclude that nanotechnologies finally became \u2018relevant enough\u2019 by 2011 to be considered a proper object of SR, and an emerging SR can be observed

A Survey of Monte Carlo Tree Search Methods

Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a recently proposed search method that combines the precision of tree search with the generality of random sampling. It has received considerable interest due to its spectacular success in the difficult problem of computer Go, but has also proved beneficial in a range of other domains. This paper is a survey of the literature to date, intended to provide a snapshot of the state of the art after the first five years of MCTS research. We outline the core algorithm's derivation, impart some structure on the many variations and enhancements that have been proposed, and summarize the results from the key game and nongame domains to which MCTS methods have been applied. A number of open research questions indicate that the field is ripe for future work

Overcoming challenges in the classification of deep geothermal potential

The geothermal community lacks a universal definition of deep geothermal systems. A minimum depth of 400 m is often assumed, with a further sub-classification into middle-deep geothermal systems for reservoirs found between 400 and 1000 m. Yet, the simplistic use of a depth cut-off is insufficient to uniquely determine the type of resource and its associated potential. Different definitions and criteria have been proposed in the past to frame deep geothermal systems. However, although they have valid assumptions, these frameworks lack systematic integration of correlated factors. To further complicate matters, new definitions such as hot dry rock (HDR), enhanced or engineered geothermal systems (EGSs) or deep heat mining have been introduced over the years. A clear and transparent approach is needed to estimate the potential of deep geothermal systems and be capable of distinguishing between resources of a different nature. In order to overcome the ambiguity associated with some past definitions such as EGS, this paper proposes the return to a more rigorous petrothermal versus hydrothermal classification. This would be superimposed with numerical criteria for the following: depth and temperature; predominance of conduction, convection or advection; formation type; rock properties; heat source type; requirement for formation stimulation and corresponding efficiency; requirement to provide the carrier fluid; well productivity (or injectivity); production (or circulation) flow rate; and heat recharge mode. Using the results from data mining of past and present deep geothermal projects worldwide, a classification of the same, according to the aforementioned criteria is proposed