Research collaboration in solar radiometry between the University of Reunion Island and the University of Kwazulu-Natal

Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.Since 2012, the Universities of KwaZulu-Natal and Reunion Island have collaborated on a joint programme of solar energy research. The initiative has two principle aims: the development of solar forecasting techniques and the expansion of solar monitoring capabilities from continental Africa into the southern Indian Ocean region. In this paper, we introduce the programme and review the progress made. A key activity is performance validation of a low-cost radiometric sensor, the Delta-T Devices SPN1, which has been operated at a UKZN ground station for comparison against reference sensors. The instrument potentially represents an opportunity to expand existing radiometric networks by reducing the cost of ground station facilities. A novel feature of the device is its use of seven thermopile sensors and a stationery shading mask which together enable the simultaneous measurement of global horizontal and diffuse horizontal irradiance. It is important that the instrument performance should first be assessed, however, so that its measurement uncertainty is known ahead of deployment. Data from the UKZN trial are included in the paper, along with a description of a meteorological classification system that may be used in solar forecasting systems. The system is based on the direct solar fraction, that is, the ratio of direct horizontal irradiance to global horizontal irradiance. A clustering methodology is described and sample data are provided to illustrate the ability of the method to segregate days into statistically significant bins.cf201

Architecture, symbolic capital and elite mobilizations: The case of the Royal Bank of Scotland corporate campus

In this article, we apply the conceptual framework of Pierre Bourdieu, in particular forms of capital, social fields, field of power and modes of domination, to demonstrate how the study of a symbolically powerful building can provide insights into what are often opaque elite interactions. In order to do this, we focus on the corporate campus headquarters of a powerful financial institution, the Royal Bank of Scotland in the context of Scotland in the period 2000–2009. We pose the following questions: What is the relationship between corporate space and the field of power? What role does a corporate building play in circuits of capital conversion? What does this case tell us about the role of architecture in elite mobilisations? In addressing these questions, we contribute to critical organisation studies by identifying and theorising the role of corporate space in inter-elite dynamics and circuits of capital conversion. This approach, we argue, provides a methodological lever which could be applied to other symbolically important buildings in order to understand the nature and role of inter-field interactions in the conception and realisation of such buildings

A entrevista, a pesquisa e o íntimo, ou por que censurar seu diário de campo?

O diário é constitutivo do ofício do etnógrafo, mas não é nada mais do que um conjunto disseminado de notas heterogêneas. Sua publicação, respeitando uma classificação cronológica, cria a ficção romanesca de um narrador-etnógrafo. Censurar a publicação permite não censurar a escrita. Os materiais censurados não são da ordem do íntimo, mas da ordem do não (ainda) inteligível.<br>The field diary is part of the ethnographer's job. It is merely a set of sparse heterogeneous notes. Its publication, respecting a chronological classification, creates the Romanesque fiction of an ethnographer-narrator. Censuring the publication of the diary implies that the original writing will not be censured. The censured materials do not relate to issues of privacy, but to the not (yet) intelligible

The MALINA oceanographic expedition : how do changes in ice cover, permafrost and UV radiation impact biodiversity and biogeochemical fluxes in the Arctic Ocean?

The MALINA oceanographic campaign was conducted during summer 2009 to investigate the carbon stocks and the processes controlling the carbon fluxes in the Mackenzie River estuary and the Beaufort Sea. During the campaign, an extensive suite of physical, chemical and biological variables were measured across seven shelf basin transects (south north) to capture the meridional gradient between the estuary and the open ocean. Key variables such as temperature, absolute salinity, radiance, irradiance, nutrient concentrations, chlorophyll a concentration, bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance and taxonomy, and carbon stocks and fluxes were routinely measured onboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen and from a barge in shallow coastal areas or for sampling within broken ice fields. Here, we present the results of a joint effort to compile and standardize the collected data sets that will facilitate their reuse in further studies of the changing Arctic Ocean.Published versionThis study was conducted as part of the Malina scientific program funded by ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche), INSU-CNRS (Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the LEFE-CYBER program, CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), the European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions), ESA (European Space Agency) and ArcticNet. US NSF grants 0713915 and 1504137 to Ronal Banner and 0229302, 0425582, 0713991 to Rainer M. W. Amon. US NASA (grant no. NNX07AR20G) awarded to Rick A. Reynolds and Dariusz Stramski. Natural Science and Engineerinng Council (Canada) Discovery and Northern supplement to Connie Lovejoy