Consortium fires up information exchange between land mangers and scientists for healthier, safer ecosystems

As the ashes continue to smolder from one of the biggest and most visible fires to strike northern Arizona in the last decade, scientists, land managers and fire fighters are working to spread knowledge about fire more effectively with each other and create on-the-ground results for a healthier ecosystem..

Separation and recovery of materials from scrap printed circuit boards

Printed circuit boards from waste computers, televisions, and mobile phones were pyrolysed in a fixed bed reactor with the aim of separating and recovering the organic and metallic materials. A selection of printed circuit boards from each of the three waste classes was pyrolysed at 800°C and the pyrolysis products were analysed using GC-FID, GC-TCD, GC-MS, GC-ECD, ICP-MS, and SEM-EDX. The pyrolysis oils contained high concentrations of phenol, 4-(1-methylethyl)phenol, and p-hydroxyphenol, as well as bisphenol A, tetrabromobisphenol A, methyl phenols, and bromophenols. The pyrolysis oils also contained significant concentrations of organo – phosphate compounds and a number of tetrabromobisphenol A pyrolysis products were also identified. The pyrolysis residues were very fragile and the organic, glass fibre, and metallic fractions could easily be separated and the electrical components could easily be removed from the remains of the printed circuit boards. The ash in the residue mainly consisted of copper, calcium, iron, nickel, zinc, and aluminium, as well as lower concentrations of valuable metals such as gallium, bismuth, silver, and gold, silver was present in particularly high concentrations. Many other metals were also identified in the ash by ICP-MS and SEM EDX. The pyrolysis gases mainly consisted of CO2 and CO but all of the C1 – C4 alkanes and alkenes were present, as were some inorganic halogens

Volcanic studies by members of the Royal Society of London 1665 - 1780

Late seventeenth century ideas about volcanic activity were largely derived from classical sources. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London provided a vehicle for publication of information about volcanoes where many ancient notions were refuted and new hypotheses suggested. Volcanic studies by members included detailed field reports, eyewitness accounts of eruptions as well as expeditions to extinct or dormant volcanic peaks, experiments with volcanic rocks, and speculation on the nature of subterranean "fires" and causes of eruptions. The development of theories concerning the formation of the columnar basalts of the Giant's Causeway is also traced. By the 1770's there appeared a general acceptance among members of the Royal Society of the igneous origin of basalt, the existence of ancient extinct volcanoes and the implications of past geologic change

Arboreal Metaphors and the Divine Body Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham

The first eight chapters of the Apocalypse of Abraham, a Jewish pseudepigraphon preserved solely in its Slavonic translation, deal with the early years of the hero of the faith in the house of his father Terah. The main plot of this section of the text revolves around the family business of manufacturing idols. Terah and his sons are portrayed as craftsmen carving religious figures out of wood, stone, gold, silver, brass, and iron. The zeal with which the family pursues its idolatrous craft suggests that the text does not view the household of Terah as just another family workshop producing religious artifacts for sale. Although the sacerdotal status of Abraham\u27s family remains clouded in rather obscure imagery, the authors of the Slavonic apocalypse seem to envision the members of Terah\u27s household as cultic servants whose “house” serves as a metaphor for the sanctuary polluted by idolatrous worship. From the very first lines of the apocalypse the reader learns that Abraham and Terah are involved in sacrificial rituals in temples. The aggadic section of the text, which narrates Terah\u27s and Abraham\u27s interactions with the “statues,” culminates in the destruction of the “house” along with its idols in a fire sent by God. It is possible that the Apocalypse of Abraham, which was written in the first centuries of the Common Era, when Jewish communities were facing a wide array of challenges including the loss of the Temple, is drawing here on familiar metaphors derived from the Book of Ezekiel, which construes idolatry as the main reason for the destruction of the terrestrial sanctuary. Like Ezekiel, the hero of the Slavonic apocalypse is allowed to behold the true place of worship, the heavenly shrine associated with the divine throne. Yet despite the fact that the Book of Ezekiel plays a significant role in shaping the Abrahamic pseudepigraphon, there is a curious difference between the two visionary accounts. While in Ezekiel the false idols of the perished temple are contrasted with the true form of the deity enthroned on the divine chariot, the Apocalypse of Abraham denies its hero a vision of the anthropomorphic Glory of God. When in the second part of the apocalypse Abraham travels to the upper heaven to behold the throne of God, evoking the classic Ezekielian description, he does not see any divine form on the chariot. Scholars have noted that while they preserve some features of Ezekiel\u27s angelology, the authors of the Slavonic apocalypse appear to be carefully avoiding the anthropomorphic description of the divine Kavod, substituting references to the divine Voice. The common interpretation is that the Apocalypse of Abraham deliberately seeks “to exclude all reference to the human figure mentioned in Ezekiel 1.

Stoves

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Использование золошлаковых материалов теплоэнергетики в строительных материалах

The possible trends to improve the building-technical properties of dry ashes characteristics formed as a result of solid fuel combustion at thermal power stations are presented. The results of different fly-ash conditioning technologies application to widen the trends and to increase the volumes of their use in the construction materials and products.Представлены возможные направления улучшения строительно-технических характеристик сухих зол, образующихся при сжигании твердого топлива на тепловых электростанциях. Приведены результаты применения различных технологий кондиционирования свойств золы для расширения направлений и увеличения объемов их использования при производстве строительных материалов и изделий

Stones resting on the top soil cause heterogeneous patterns of fire-induced water repellency

Depending on soil and fire characteristics, soil water repellency (SWR) may be induced, enhanced or destroyed by burning. The spatial pattern of SWR may be extremely heterogeneous as a consequence of the temperature peaks, the variation of fire temperature, the distribution of fuel, or the amount and type of ashes. In this research, we have studied the effect of stone cover and position on the intensity and spatial distribution of fire-induced SWR after low-, moderate- and high-severity fire. Generally, SWR increased with fire severity, but stones did induce some differences and increased the heterogeneity of the spatial distribution of fire-induced SWR. In low-stone-cover areas, SWR from soil surfaces below stones increased respect to non-covered soil surfaces. In areas under high stone cover, SWR increased from non-covered soil surfaces to soil surfaces below stones after low-severity fire. In moderate- and high-severity burnt soils under high stone cover, SWR was more severe than in non-covered soil surface, but no significant differences were observed.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2010-21670-C02-0

"Kings and Poets: Self-Irony in Selected Poems by George Seferis and Derek Mahon"

The chapter compares the issue of (self-)irony in the poems of the Irish poet Derek Mahon and the Modern Greek Nobelist poet George Seferis, mainly in Mahon's "Archaeologist" and Seferis's "King of Asine"