63 research outputs found

    Pandemocracy in Europe

    Get PDF
    This open access book explains why a democratic reckoning will start when European societies win the fight against COVID-19. Have democracies successfully mastered the challenges of the pandemic? How has the coronavirus impacted democratic principles, processes and values? At the heels of the worst public health crisis in living memory, this book shines an unforgiving light on the side-lining of parliaments, the ruling by governmental decrees and the disenfranchisement of the people in the name of fighting COVID-19. Pandemocracy in Europe situates the dramatic impact of COVID-19, and the fight against the virus, on Europe's democracies. Throughout its 17 contributions the book sets the theoretical stage and answers the democratic questions engaged by health emergencies. Seven national case studies – UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Switzerland, and France – show, each time with a pronounced focus on a particular element of democracy, how different states reacted to the pandemic. The book also shifts the analytical gaze beyond the nation state towards international settings, looking at the effects on the European Union and considering the impact on populist movements. Bridging disciplines and uniting a stellar cast of scholars on democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism, the book provides contours and nuances to a year of debates in political science, international relations and law on the impact of the virus on democracies. In times of uncertainty, Pandemocracy in Europe provides analysis and answers to the democratic challenges of the coronavirus. The open access edition of this book is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on www.bloomsburycollections.com

    Developments and applications of quantum chemistry : from novel electronic structure methods to conjugated optoelectronic materials

    Get PDF
    The work contained within this thesis encompasses a variety of different techniques to describe chemical systems of varying complexity, ranging from geometrically simple systems with an inherently correlated, and thus complex, electronic structure and vice versa. The stochastic technique of Monte-Carlo configuration interaction, which can generate properties of full configuration interaction (FCI) quality despite vast reduction in wavefunction size, was locally modified to involve a more systematic configuration selection regime, termed systematic-MCCI. A comparison of both approaches was undertaken on Ne, H2O, CO and Cr2 due to varying electronic structure in these systems; for comparison FCI and a novel pruned-FCI alternative was also included. It shall be demonstrated that the stochastic MCCI approach produced near optimal wavefunctions when compared to these systematically generated wavefunctions, with a far reduced computational cost. We then switch our attention to the modelling of chemical reaction pathways, specifically those undergoing an intramolecular Diels-Alder (IMD-A) cycloaddition process, using the high-accuracy thermochemistry method, CBS-QB3. It was observed that incorporation of a nitro group into the IMD-A substrate resulted in more exergonic reactions and lower activation barriers, when compared to non-substituted substrates, attributed to the enhanced positive charge stabilisation in the cycloadduct. The nature of the important frontier molecular orbital (FMO) interaction was also found to completely reverse upon nitration. The substitution of the dieneophile was tolerated to a much better degree in nitro bearing systems due to the increased distances between the bond forming carbons in the transition state. However, this nitration effect was not observed in highly polarity mismatched substrates. We also investigate if structureenergy correlations are present in a set of hetero IMD-A substrates, between the bond length contraction upon going from the transition state to the cycloadduct and the overall reaction free energy change and the retro IMD-A barrier. However, as will be discussed for the substrates of interest herein we observe very little correlation. In addition we explored the structure-energy correlation for the aforementioned nitro and non-nitrated IMD-A reactions but similar findings were observed. A density functional theory (DFT) study is then undertaken for a range of organic π-conjugated materials. We explore the ionisation potential of these materials with a comparison to recent experimental findings. As shall be discussed we observe good agreement with experiment, within 100 meV of the uncertainty range, for the computationally cheap approach of a single oligomer contained within an implicit solvent model when there is no known stacking within the polymer environment. However, if the thin film environment exhibits a degree of ordering this simple approach breaks down and more sophisticated models must be implemented. The thesis concludes with a molecular dynamics (MD) study of two simple π-organic conjugated materials using a recently parameterised force-field. The configurational landscape attained from the MD simulations are then explored with electronic structure methods and a brief statistical analysis undertaken

    LA CITTÀ PALINSESTO/I. Tracce, sguardi e narrazioni sulla complessità dei contesti urbani storici: Memorie, storie, immagini

    Get PDF
    [Italiano]: Oggetto di questo volume è l’articolato patrimonio di tracce, di immagini, di narrazioni che costruiscono lacittà contemporanea. Parliamo di realtà urbane che vanno rilette e raccontate per parti, per strati, a ritroso, in maniera tale da poter sbrogliare quell’intricata matassa di sovrapposizioni che si sono succedute nel corso del tempo. Sono tracce molto spesso ancora in situ, talvolta nascoste, qualche volta modificate, ma anche distratte, frammentate, malcelate e nascoste ./[English]:The subject of this bookis the complex heritage of traces, images and narratives that build the contemporary city. We are talking about urban realities that must be reread and recounted in parts, by layers, backwards, in such a way asto be able to unravel that intricate skein of overlaps that have occurred over time. They are traces very often still in situ, sometimes hidden, sometimes modified, but also distracted, fragmented, poorly concealed and hidden

    Introductory Computer Forensics

    Get PDF
    INTERPOL (International Police) built cybercrime programs to keep up with emerging cyber threats, and aims to coordinate and assist international operations for ?ghting crimes involving computers. Although signi?cant international efforts are being made in dealing with cybercrime and cyber-terrorism, ?nding effective, cooperative, and collaborative ways to deal with complicated cases that span multiple jurisdictions has proven dif?cult in practic

    Il verde urbano: un’inattesa presenza nella Matera del secondo Novecento

    Get PDF
    Il verde urbano è sempre stato parte integrante del dialogo tra spazi aperti e costruito e l’arte dei giardini la disciplina che offriva soluzioni ambientali per la valutazione degli esiti futuri. Il contributo intende raccontare la storia di questa esperienza nell’articolazione dei progetti insediativi che, negli anni cinquanta del Novecento, hanno visto la luce a Matera, per risanare quella che rappresentava la più impellente “vergogna nazionale”: dai laboratori professionali, animatisi per rispondere alle istanze di progetto, alle risposte, variamente disattese, della città contemporanea.Urban greenery has always been an integral part of the dialogue between open spaces and buildings, and landscaping was the discipline that offered environmental solutions for the evaluation of future outcomes. This contribution aims to tell the story of this experience in the articulation of the settlement designs that, during the 1950s, were made in Matera, to heal what represented the most urgent national shame: by professional laboratories, then animated for responding to project requests, to the responses, variously disregarded, of the contemporary city

    Interazioni tra città, spazi monumentali e creatività: un imprevisto reportage su Napoli

    Get PDF
    In Italia il paesaggio e il patrimonio artistico diventano il palcoscenico ideale della narrazione visiva quando, a metà Novecento, la fotografia di moda li include negli scatti per enfatizzare i valori dell’ancora timida creatività manifatturiera nazionale. Anche Napoli entra nel caleidoscopio delle visioni nate da quest’approccio narrativo coi lavori curati dall’editoria di settore e con gli sguardi dei fotoreporter locali, nei cui reportage si rintraccia un’interazione tra spazi urbani e modelle senz’altro imprevista, che documenta una ricercata, e forse riuscita, tensione verso la modernità.In Italy the landscape and the artistic heritage become the ideal setting of the visual narration in the mid-1900s, when the fashion photography includes them in its shots to emphasize the values of the still shy sartorial creativity. Even Naples enters the kaleidoscope of visions born from this narrative approach with works curated by fashion publishing and with the looks of local photojournalists; in their reports there is an interaction between urban spaces and models that is certainly unexpected, documenting a successful tension towards modernity
    corecore