Fuzzy modelling of acid mine drainage environments using geochemical, ecological and mineralogical indicators

Fuzzy logic was applied to model acid mine drainage (AMD) and to obtain a classification index of the environmental impact in a contaminated riverine system. The data set used to develop this fuzzy model (a fuzzy classifier) concerns an abandoned mine in Northern Portugal— Valdarcas mining site. Here, distinctive drainage environments (spatial patterns) can be observed based on the AMD formed in the sulphide-rich waste-dumps. Such environments were established, as the effluent flows through the mining area, using several kinds of indicators. These are physical–chemical, ecological and mineralogical parameters, being expressed in a quantitative or qualitative basis. The fuzzy classifier proposed in this paper is a min– max fuzzy inference system, representing the spatial behaviour of those indicators, using the AMD environments as patterns. As they represent different levels (classes) of contamination, the fuzzy classifier can be used as a tool, allowing a more reasonable approach, compared with classical models, to characterize the environmental impact caused by AMD. In a general way it can be applied to other sites where sulphide-rich waste-dumps are promoting the pollution of superficial water through the generation of AMD

The Mainstream Post-Rave Club Scene As a Secondary Institution: A British Perspective

This article focuses on the importance of analysing the mainstream post-rave dance scene in the context of studies of the religious significance of electronic dance cultures. Drawing on their own ethnographic research, as well as other recent comparable studies in Britain, the authors argue that the mainstream post-rave dance scene is a ‘secondary institution’ supporting the new social form of religion identified by Luckmann, which emphasises self-realisation and self-expression. The study serves as an invitation to re-consider the definition of ‘religion’ in relation to electronic dance cultures and points to the role of mainstream leisure industries in supporting contemporary secular worldviews

Resonance as a social phenomenon

This paper is a theoretical investigation into the question of affinity and belonging in everyday life contexts. I argue that Sociology has tended to focus attention on the conceptual binaries of ‘individual/community’ or ‘individual/social structure’ when discussing experiences of inclusion, solidarity or belonging in social life. This has meant that such experiences are generally conceived in terms of ‘a part of’ or ‘apart from’. Such a focus has meant that incidents of belonging or affinity which lie between these extremes and which may be intense, intimate and meaningful, but at the same time fluid, ephemeral or tenuous tend to escape sociological analysis. Largely inspired by sociological phenomenology, but multi-disciplinary in nature, this paper will try to address this issue by positing ‘resonance’ as a useful concept by which sociologists and social scientists more generally, can engage with the more fluid forms of belonging and affinity achieved in everyday life contexts