The agonistic model of democracy and the European Union

European integration benefitted for much of the post-war period from a presumed ‘permissive consensus’ (Lindberg and Scheingold, 1970). Over the past two decades this permissive consensus weakened and the opposition towards European integration in the European Parliament rose at remarkable rates (Startin and Usherwoods, 2011; Serricchio et al., 2013) indicating the increased disaffection with European institutions (Brack and Startin, 2015). The Agonistic Model of Democracy (AMD) proposes that such disaffection results from the absence of agonistic confrontation in democratic systems (Mouffe, 2000: 85; 105). Yet, AMD has not been applied to the supranational context . Against this backdrop, this thesis applies AMD to the debate on the European integration. The aim thereof being to identify hegemonic practices, i.e. the prevalence of established opinions on European integration, opportunities for antagonistic discourse or lack thereof and the consequences for the European Parliament. To this end, poststructural discourse analysis is used to analyze linguistic data on the discourse on European integration (cf. Laclau and Mouffe, 1985). The thesis thus presents a narrative showing how too much emphasis on political consensus in the process of European integration fostered disaffection and ultimately weakened the institution itself

Comparison of hydrocarbon compositions in a sequence of humic coals, cannel coals and oil shales from the Pictou Coalfield, Nova Scotia

Thirty oil shale, cannel coal and humic coal samples from die Pennsylvanian Stellarton Group, Nova Scotia, Canada have been investigated in this study by means of organic geochemical methods including gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Hydrocarbon compositions of the solvent extracts were found to vary significantly with lithology and facies. Analysis of the saturated hydrocarbon fractions revealed that the relative amounts of long-chain alkanes (>C20) compared to those of short-chain alkanes (<C20) are higher in the humic coal than in the cannel coal and oil shale samples. Moreover, the humic coal is characterized by the presence of homodrimane as the dominant bicyclic alkane. In the oil shale and cannel coal samples, on the other hand, C15-bicyclancs are present as major sesquiterpenoid hydrocarbons. Compounds such as biphenyl, dibenzofuran, fluorene and their mono-mediylated and di-metfiylated homologues were shown to occur almost exclusively in the aromatic hydrocarbon fractions of the humic coal samples. Presumably, these compounds are products of die degradation of lignin during diagenesis. The bitumen compositions of cannel coal and oil shale samples are quite similar. RÉSUMÉ Trente échantillons de schiste bitumineux, de charbon de spores et pollens, et de charbon humique provenant du Groupe de Stellarton (Pennsylvanien de la Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada) ont été analysés dans cette étude à l'aide de méthodes de géochimie organique comprenant la chromatographic en phase gazeuse (GC) et le couplage chromatographic en phase gazeuse -spectrométrie de masse (GC/MS). On constata que les compositions d'hydrocarbures des extraits en solvent varient fortement selon la lithologie et le faciès. Une analyse des fractions à hydrocarbures satures révèla que la proportion des alcanes à longue chaine (>C20) par rapport aux alcanes à chaine courte (<C20) est plus élevée dans le charbon humique que dans les échantillons de charbon de spores et pollens et de schiste bitumineux. De plus, le charbon humique est caractérisé par la présence d'homodrimane comme alcane bicyclique principal. Par centre, dans les échantillons de schiste bitumineux et de charbon de spores et pollens, on note la présence de C15j-bicyclanes comme hydrocarbures sesquiterpénoiides majeurs. Certains composes, tels le biphényle, le dibenzofurane, le fluorène el leurs homologues mono- et diméthylés, se retrouvent presqu'exclusivement dans les fractions à hydrocarbures aromatiques des échantillons de charbon humique. Ces composés serai ent leproduit de la dégradation de la lignine durant ladiagenèse. Les compositions bituminiques des échantillons de charbon de spores et pollens et des schiste bitumineux se ressemblent beaucoup. [Traduit par le journal

The Archaeology and Petrology of Coal Artifacts from a Thule Settlement on Axel Heiberg Island, Arctic Canada

Coal artifacts are occasionally excavated by archaeologists from Thule culture settlements (c. A.D. 1100-1700) in the Canadian Arctic and Alaska. This study examines two such artifacts from a Thule settlement located on the east coast of Axel Heiberg Island, Canada. One specimen has a petrographic composition typical of a cannel shale, in which sporinite is the most abundant organic constituent; the other is characterized by Botryococcus-alginite bodies typical of a boghead coal. Nearby exposures of Tertiary coal are generally woody and are not known to contain boghead layers or cannel shales. It is suggested that these artifacts may have their origin in Alaska, where boghead coal and cannel shales show strikingly similar petrographic features.Il arrive que des artefacts de charbon soient mis à jour lors de fouilles archéologiques dans les sites de peuplement de la culture Thulé (v. 1100-1700 apr. J.-C.) dans l'Arctique canadien et en Alaska. La présente étude se penche sur deux de ces artefacts provenant d'un site de peuplement Thulé qui se trouve sur la côte est de l'île Axel Heiberg, au Canada. Un des objets a une composition pétrographique typique d'un schiste sapropélique, dans lequel la sporinite est le constituant organique dominant; l'autre artefact se caractérise par la présence d'organismes d'alginite-Botryococcus typique d'un boghead. Des affleurements voisins de charbon datant du tertiaire sont généralement ligneux et ne contiennent pas, à ce que l'on sache, de couches de boghead ou de schistes sapropéliques. On suggère que ces artefacts pourraient venir de l'Alaska, où le boghead et les schistes sapropéliques offrent une similarité frappante des caractéristiques pétrographiques

O carvão da Jazida de Morungava (RS, Brasil): Caracterização petrográfica, química e tecnológica das camadas de carvão do poço de exploração CBM 001-MO-RS

Considering the need to expand the national energy matrix, it is imperative to develop studies on unexplored coal deposits (eg Morungava Reservoir), where further research dates back to the 1980s. The mineral source is located in the northeast of Rio Grande do Sul South, occupying an area of 250 km2. In order to evaluate the potential of the coal deposit (CBM-001-MO-RS) and its economicity, the petrographic, chemical and technological characterization of the layers obtained (a total of six), with a depth of 387.70 m, Coal of 9.22 m. A total of 27 samples were used to determine the following parameters: charcoal lithotypes, vitrinite reflectance, maceral counts, immediate analyzes higher calorific value, total sulfur, X-ray diffraction and processing test. The lithotype of frosted coal predominates in the samples, with a rank ranging from high bituminous coal volatile A to anthracite. The distinct layers present progressive underwater volcanic intrusion. The vitrinite maceral group predominates in the coals in the lower portion, while the intinite predominates in the upper one. Mineral matter tends to present increases from the base to the top. The coals presented high levels of ash (> 50% mbs), volatile matter (6.04-30.69% mbs), sulfur (0.20-2.88% mbs) and higher calorific value (777-4,732 Kcal / Kg). There is mineralogical predominance of quartz, kaolinite, and illite. Many of the layers are classified as carbonaceous rock (> 50% gray / b.s.). The beneficiation tests indicated low yield (50% m.b.s.), matéria volátil (6,04-30,69% m.b.s), enxofre (0,20-2,88% m.b.s.) e poder calorífico superior (777-4.732 Kcal/Kg). Há predomínio mineralógico de quartzo, caulinita, e illita. Muitas das camadas são classificadas como rocha carbonosa (>50% cinza/b.s.). Os ensaios de beneficiamento indicaram baixo rendimento  (<7% vol.) na obtenção de produtos nobres

Accelerated carbonation of hardened cement paste: Quantification of calcium carbonate via ATR infrared spectroscopy

In context of carbon capture and storage in cement and concrete industry, there is a strong demand for fast, reliable, and low-cost CO2 quantification methods. Attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) in conjunction with multivariate calibration via partial-least-squares regression was applied to quantify CaCO3 in carbonated hardened Portland cement pastes, as this method shows great potential in the field of process control. Thermogravimetric analysis coupled with infrared spectrometry for the detection of the evolving gases was used as a reference for quantification. Three methods for the quantitative analysis with different partial-least-squares parameters were developed on a series of ground physicalmixtures of slightly carbonated and highly carbonated hydrated cement pastes that had absorbed up to 77% of the theoretical capacity for CO2. Additional samples for optimization and validation of the method were prepared by accelerated carbonation of cylindrical slices of hardened cement paste as a function of exposure time. In these experiments, the major CO2 uptake occurs in the first 60 min until the formation of CaCO3 layers limits the diffusion of CO2 and Ca2+ ions. The developed partial-least-squares models provided low estimation errors of max. 1.5 wt% and high correlation coefficients above 99.5%. The validation covers a concentration range of 20–48 wt% of CaCO3. Limitations of the method are discussed

looking back and looking forward

Mcdermott, J., Kronberger, G., Orzechowski, P., Vanneschi, L., Manzoni, L., Kalkreuth, R., & Castelli, M. (2022). Genetic programming benchmarks: looking back and looking forward. ACM SIGEVOlution, 15(3), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3578482.3578483The top image shows a set of scales, which are intended to bring to mind the ideas of balance and fair experimentation which are the focus of our article on genetic programming benchmarks in this issue. Image by Elena Mozhvilo and made available under the Unsplash license on https://unsplash.com/photos/j06gLuKK0GM.authorsversionpublishe

Challenges of ELA-guided Function Evolution using Genetic Programming

Within the optimization community, the question of how to generate new optimization problems has been gaining traction in recent years. Within topics such as instance space analysis (ISA), the generation of new problems can provide new benchmarks which are not yet explored in existing research. Beyond that, this function generation can also be exploited for solving complex real-world optimization problems. By generating functions with similar properties to the target problem, we can create a robust test set for algorithm selection and configuration. However, the generation of functions with specific target properties remains challenging. While features exist to capture low-level landscape properties, they might not always capture the intended high-level features. We show that a genetic programming (GP) approach guided by these exploratory landscape analysis (ELA) properties is not always able to find satisfying functions. Our results suggest that careful considerations of the weighting of landscape properties, as well as the distance measure used, might be required to evolve functions that are sufficiently representative to the target landscape

Application of reflectance parameters in the estimation of the structural order of coals and carbonaceous materials. Precision and bias of measurements derived from the ICCP structural working group

Optical reflectance of vitrinite is one of the fundamental physical properties that have been used for the study of coal and carbonaceous materials. Organic matter in coals and carbonaceous matter consists mainly of aromatic lamellae, whose dimensions and spatial orientation define its internal structure. Various reflectance parameters describe well the average degree of order of the molecular structure of organic matter. Moreover, reflectance parameters are numerical values which characterize the samples unambiguously, facilitating the comparison of the optical properties of different carbonaceous materials as well as comparison between optical parameters and other physical or chemical factors. The focus of this study is the evaluation of the precision and bias of reflectance measurements (R and R) performed by various analysts in different laboratories in order to check the applicability of reflectance parameters to the estimation of the structural order of coals and carbonaceous materials. Additionally, it was desirable to compare reflectance parameters with other parameters obtained by different analytical methods able to provide structural information. The consistency and repeatability of the reflectance measurements obtained by different participants turned out to enable the drawing of similar conclusions regarding the structural transformation of anthracite during heating. Good correlations were found between the reflectance parameters studied and structural factors obtained by comparative methods. The reflectance parameters examined proved to be very sensitive to any changes of the structural order of coals and carbonaceous materials and seem to be a perfect complement to structural studies made by X-ray diffraction or Raman spectroscopy