Defining Heresy: the Controversy between James Foster and Henry Stebbing (1735- 1737)

From 1735 to 1737 the Baptist preacher James Foster (1697-1753) faced the orthodox Anglican Henry Stebbing ([1687]-1763) in a controversy over the definition of heresy. Their dispute reveals two distinct methods of Bible interpretation and throws light on the tensions prevailing in the eighteenth century between the established Church and Dissent, which is represented as a danger to Anglican orthodoxy by Stebbing.Le prédicateur baptiste James Foster (1697-1753) et l’anglican Henry Stebbing ([1687]-1763), partisan de l’orthodoxie, s’affrontent sur la définition de l’hérésie au cours d’une controverse qui a lieu entre 1735 et 1737. Celle-ci met en évidence deux méthodes d’interprétation biblique distinctes et illustre les tensions qui règnent au XVIIIe siècle entre l’Église établie et les dissidents, que Stebbing présente comme un danger pour l’orthodoxie anglicane

Holistic correlation of physical and mechanical properties of selected natural stones for assessing durability and weathering in the natural environment.

The main purpose of this study is to understand influences of bulk structure of materials on strength behavior as well as water storage and transfer in order to assess durability and weathering. Therefore, a selection of different methods are applied and compared to optimize the understanding of material structure and physico-mechanical behavior. Optical microscopy (Digital Image Analysis) and scanning electron microscopy as well as water vapor permeability, biaxial flexural strength and ultrasonic velocity are measured on different natural materials: sandstones with clayey, silicious or calcareous binder, oolithic and micritic magnesian limestones and a thermally aged Proconnesian marble. Microstructurales and macrostructurales properties of these materials are studied before and after artificial weathering (freeze-thaw cycles). First, and in order to validate the efficiency of the digital image analysis to characterize porosity and structure, traditional porosity measurements as water ad- and absorption and mercury porosimetry are crosschecked with the result obtained from digital image analysis. Limits of each methods are also defined. Then, validations of non-destructive and semi-destructive methods are also pursued to evaluate their potential value to replace and complement standardized methods. By analysis of linear correlations, some essential mechanisms should be underlined, which may connect the macrostructure to the microstructure of the material. A systematic method of analysis should clearly appear and emphasize the role of the structure (grain size, grain contact and pore shape) on physical and mechanical behavior. The main parameters leading to weathering should then be identified and models of correlations drawn. Correlations between the various physico-mechanical properties could ameliorate the possibilities to assess durability and weathering in the natural environment

Un Nouveau Martin. Essor et renouveaux de la figure de saint Martin ive-xxie siècle

Parmi les nombreuses manifestations qui, en 2016, ont marqué le 1 700e anniversaire (supposé) de la naissance de saint Martin, figurait un colloque organisé à Tours sous le titre « La figure martinienne. Essor et renaissances de l’Antiquité tardive à nos jours ». Les actes de ce colloque ont été publiés en 2019 sous un titre légèrement modifié, tout à la fois plus explicite et plus ambigu, Un nouveau Martin. Essor et renouveaux de la figure de saint Martin (ive-xxie siècle) : introduites par ..

D’une Bretagne à l’autre

Incontestablement promis à nourrir durablement le débat sur les débuts de la Bretagne continentale, le livre de Bernard Merdrignac n’est guère facile à recenser en raison de la profusion des hypothèses et de la densité du raisonnement. Au reste, cet ouvrage n’a guère besoin d’être longuement commenté, tant sa structure aux linéaments ténus s’avère solide, à l’instar du filet arachnéen d’Héphaïstos. Riche, profond, subtil, venant à bien des égards prolonger la réflexion entamée par l’auteur da..

De l’Armorique à la Bretagne. Les Bretons et l’Armorique au haut Moyen Âge

Le livre de Mickaël Gendry est souvent défectueux du point de vue de la forme : émaillé de nombreuses coquilles et cacographies, qu’il faut en conséquence renoncer à signaler, écrit dans un style dont il aurait fallu en maintes occasions polir l’expression, souvent redondant à force de redites, – ah, les dangers du copié-collé ! –, l’ouvrage porte ainsi témoignage qu’il n’a malheureusement pas bénéficié des corrections et des critiques qu’aurait pu lui apporter un véritable comité de lecture...

Sobre la gestión del patrimonio natural y el paisaje en España en la era de los Espacios Naturales Protegidos: el caso de los invertebrados

In the last decades, as far as management of the natural heritage is concerned, Protected Natural Areas have gained great importance in conservation biology as they have been established as valuable conservation management areas for fauna and flora species. These spaces are often surrounded by farming and stockbreeding areas, with which they form landscape units of high relevance for biodiversity conservation. To analyze the role of these landscape units as mosaics of interconnected areas of interest to wildlife species and communities of high ecological value constitutes a necessary and general interest aim concerning the sustainable management of the landscape and natural heritage. These circumstances apply to many populations of invertebrates and insects within such landscape units, previously in the background with respect to other elements that have generated more social or scientific interest, owing to their crucial role in the maintenance of ecosystem diversity and population flow inside and outside the Protected Natural Areas, and also because they sometimes constitute biodiversity units upon which the management of these spaces has been based. In this paper, we try to show, through the case of Lepidoptera (Hexapoda), the importance of an integrated management of natural heritage and landscape in Spain for the conservation of invertebrates and insects, all within the context of conservation biology.En las últimas décadas, en lo que a gestión del patrimonio natural se refiere, el papel de los Espacios Naturales Protegidos ha cobrado una gran relevancia en el campo de la biología de la conservación al constituirse como áreas gestionadas para la conservación de especies de flora y fauna. Estos espacios se encuentran en muchos casos rodeados de zonas de aprovechamiento de recursos agroganaderos, con las cuales forman unidades de paisaje de gran importancia para el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad. Analizar el papel de estas unidades de paisaje como áreas interconectadas en mosaico y de interés para especies y comunidades de fauna de alto valor ecológico representa un objetivo necesario y de interés general para la gestión sostenible del paisaje y el patrimonio natural. Sobre muchas poblaciones de invertebrados e insectos dentro de estas unidades de paisaje, aun estando en un segundo plano respecto a otros elementos que han despertado mayor interés social o científico, confluyen tales circunstancias, por su papel determinante en el mantenimiento de la diversidad de ecosistemas y flujo de sus poblaciones dentro y fuera de los Espacios Naturales Protegidos, y el hecho de que a veces constituyen unidades de biodiversidad sobre las que se ha basado la gestión de estos espacios. En el presente texto, a través del caso de los Lepidoptera (Hexapoda) se pretende poner de manifiesto la importancia que tiene para la conservación de los invertebrados e insectos una gestión integral del patrimonio natural y el paisaje de nuestro país, todo ello dentro del contexto de la biología de la conservación

High thermoelectric performance in metallic NiAu alloys

Thermoelectric (TE) materials seamlessly convert thermal into electrical energy and vice versa, making them promising for applications such as power generation or cooling. Although historically the TE effect was first discovered in metals, state-of-the-art research mainly focuses on doped semiconductors with large figure of merit, $zT$, that determines the conversion efficiency of TE devices. While metallic alloys have superior functional properties, such as high ductility and mechanical strength, they have mostly been discarded from investigation in the past due to their small Seebeck effect. Here, we realize unprecedented TE performance in metals by tuning the energy-dependent electronic scattering. Based on our theoretical predictions, we identify binary NiAu alloys as promising candidate materials and experimentally discover colossal power factors up to 34 mWm$^{-1}$K$^{-2}$ (on average 30 mWm$^{-1}$K$^{-2}$ from 300 to 1100 K), which is more than twice larger than in any known bulk material above room temperature. This system reaches a $zT$ up to 0.5, setting a new world record value for metals. NiAu alloys are not only orders of magnitude more conductive than heavily doped semiconductors, but also have large Seebeck coefficients originating from an inherently different physical mechanism: within the Au s band conduction electrons are highly mobile while holes are scattered into more localized Ni d states, yielding a strongly energy-dependent carrier mobility. Our work challenges the common belief that good metals are bad thermoelectrics and presents an auspicious paradigm for achieving high TE performance in metallic alloys through engineering electron-hole selective s-d scattering

Why Chromatic Imaging Matters

During the last two decades, the first generation of beam combiners at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer has proved the importance of optical interferometry for high-angular resolution astrophysical studies in the near- and mid-infrared. With the advent of 4-beam combiners at the VLTI, the u-v coverage per pointing increases significantly, providing an opportunity to use reconstructed images as powerful scientific tools. Therefore, interferometric imaging is already a key feature of the new generation of VLTI instruments, as well as for other interferometric facilities like CHARA and JWST. It is thus imperative to account for the current image reconstruction capabilities and their expected evolutions in the coming years. Here, we present a general overview of the current situation of optical interferometric image reconstruction with a focus on new wavelength-dependent information, highlighting its main advantages and limitations. As an Appendix we include several cookbooks describing the usage and installation of several state-of-the art image reconstruction packages. To illustrate the current capabilities of the software available to the community, we recovered chromatic images, from simulated MATISSE data, using the MCMC software SQUEEZE. With these images, we aim at showing the importance of selecting good regularization functions and their impact on the reconstruction.Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy as part of the topical collection: Future of Optical-infrared Interferometry in Europ

Breed-Specific Hematological Phenotypes in the Dog: A Natural Resource for the Genetic Dissection of Hematological Parameters in a Mammalian Species

Remarkably little has been published on hematological phenotypes of the domestic dog, the most polymorphic species on the planet. Information on the signalment and complete blood cell count of all dogs with normal red and white blood cell parameters judged by existing reference intervals was extracted from a veterinary database. Normal hematological profiles were available for 6046 dogs, 5447 of which also had machine platelet concentrations within the reference interval. Seventy-five pure breeds plus a mixed breed control group were represented by 10 or more dogs. All measured parameters except mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) varied with age. Concentrations of white blood cells (WBCs), neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, eosinophils and platelets, but not red blood cell parameters, all varied with sex. Neutering status had an impact on hemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), MCHC, and concentrations of WBCs, neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes and platelets. Principal component analysis of hematological data revealed 37 pure breeds with distinctive phenotypes. Furthermore, all hematological parameters except MCHC showed significant differences between specific individual breeds and the mixed breed group. Twenty-nine breeds had distinctive phenotypes when assessed in this way, of which 19 had already been identified by principal component analysis. Tentative breed-specific reference intervals were generated for breeds with a distinctive phenotype identified by comparative analysis. This study represents the first large-scale analysis of hematological phenotypes in the dog and underlines the important potential of this species in the elucidation of genetic determinants of hematological traits, triangulating phenotype, breed and genetic predisposition