Site, artefacts and landscape: Prehistoric Borg in-Nadur, Malta

This paper presents an exhaustive catalogue of finds recovered from the site of Borġ in-Nadur and now stored in the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta. Seventeen objects are dated to the Bronze Age whereas two date to the Late Neolithic (Temple period). Artefacts which have not been traced are also considered. Part of the discussion looks for comparative material from contemporary contexts, both local and foreign. The functional aspect of the objects is dealt with briefly.peer-reviewe

Polymeric Carbon Nanocomposites - Preparation, Characterization, and Properties

Excellent thermal properties of carbon nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and newly discovered graphene make them the filler of choice for the development of thermal management materials. Graphene has been viewed as “ unrolled single-walled carbon nanotube and as a wonder material with many superlatives to its name ” thus there is an excessive interest in developing new synthetic routes towards large scale production of high quality graphene nanosheets. In this dissertation, we report different methods that could further exfoliate the commercially available expanded graphite to nanometer sized carbon structures, “carbon nanosheets ”, for their use in highly thermal conductive polymeric nanocomposites. Initially, an overview of recent advances in the development of thermal conductive polymeric/carbon nanocomposites is provided. Then, the “ carbon nanosheets ” from the specific processes will carefully be characterized by spectroscopic techniques and the effectiveness of the processing methods is demonstrated in terms of polymeric carbon nanocomposites thermal diffusivity. While the focus of this manuscript will be on the enhancement of thermal diffusivity we will also discuss the chemical modification and functionalization of these “ carbon nanosheets ” with matrix polymer. Finally, the critical research opportunities and challenges in the development of functional graphene nanocomposites for thermal management materials will be discussed

Extracting Windows event logs using memory forensics

Abstract Microsoft’s Windows Operating System provides a logging service that collects, filters and stores event messages from the kernel and applications into log files (.evt and .evtx). Volatility, the leading open source advanced memory forensic suite, currently allows users to extract these events from memory dumps of Windows XP and Windows 2003 machines. Currently there is no support for users to extract the event logs (.evtx) from Windows Vista, Win7 or Win8 memory dumps, and Volatility users have to rely on outside software in order to do this. This thesis discusses a newly developed evtxlogs.py plugin for Volatility, which allows users the same functionality with Windows Vista, Win7 and Win8 that they had with Windows XP and Win 2003’s evtlogs.py plugin. The plugin is based on existing mechanisms for parsing Windows Vista-format event logs, but adds fully integrated support for these logs to Volatility

Sul liberalismo politico e la giustizia come equità

The author focuses on the fundamental lines of his interpretation of political liberalism and its relation to the idea of justice as fairness. In Sections 1-7, the liberal theory of the just society is delineated in relation to the historical, academic and political context in which the ideas of political liberalism were formulated. In Sections 8-10, the author introduces the question of global justice, considered as the main conundrum of contemporary political philosophy.The author focuses on the fundamental lines of his interpretation of political liberalism and its relation to the idea of justice as fairness. In Sections 1-7, the liberal theory of the just society is delineated in relation to the historical, academic and political context in which the ideas of political liberalism were formulated. In Sections 8-10, the author introduces the question of global justice, considered as the main conundrum of contemporary political philosophy

Il mito di Pio IX. Realtà e rappresentazioni di un papa liberale e nazionale in Italia e in Francia (1846-1849)

This dissertation offers a study of the «liberal» and «national» nature attributed to John-Mary Mastai Ferretti, the pope Pius IX, during his first three years of pontificate. Exploiting an heterogeneous mass of sources (archival items, typing and handwritten papers, pamphlets, posters, newspapers, popular engravings and etchings, private letters, journals), this study retraces the origins of the phenomenon since the papal amnisty of 1846; its mixed transformations which come across papal policy, the status of images and devotional practices in 19th century, political as well as religious propaganda, and conspiracy theory besides; finally, its partial dissolution after the revolutions of 1848. Facing the concept of «myth» – a tool uncritically used for a long time to interpret the phenomenon –this study proceeds on questioning this category and it attains to the most operational concept of «emotional investment»: hence the figure of a «liberal» and «national» pope would be the product of a collective work – to whom Pius himself was not extraneous – which was a matter for the theologico-political worries of post-revolutional european society: namely to solve the religious and political dylemmas of modern age, in order to appeasing some ideas which are not logically (and apparently) compatible, such as freedom and order, nationalism and catholic theology. The method choised to investigate this phenomenon is the comparative one: in retracing a plural context (that is a network of sources) between the two sides of Alps, it will be possible to have a more deep knowledge of a great living utopia in the middle of 19th century.Ce travail propose une étude du caractère «libéral» et «national» accordé à Jean-Marie Mastaï Ferretti, le pape Pie IX, pendant ses trois premières années de pontificat. Par les biais d'une documentation hétérogène (sources d'archives, pamphlets, tracts, journaux, lithographies populaires, correspondances privées, mémoires et journaux intimes), l'étude fournie une reconstruction de la naissance de ce caractère avec l'amnistie pontificale de 1846; des ses métamorphoses complexes qui croisent la politique papale, le statut des images et des dévotions aux XIX siècle et la propagande politique et religieuse, aussi que l'imagerie du complot; et de sa partielle dissolution après les révolutions de 1848. L'enquête, toute en se confrontant avec le concept de «mythe» – outil avec lequel le phénomène a été souvent interprété – procède par une mise en question de cette catégorie et parvient à la remplacer par le concept plus opératoire d'«investissement émotif»: la figure d'un pape «libéral» et «national» serait alors le produit d'un travail culturel collectif – auquel Pie IX lui-même n'a pas été étranger – qui relève des préoccupations théologico-politiques de la société post-révolutionnaire européenne: résoudre les dilemmes de l'époque, en conciliant des concepts logiquement (et apparemment) incompatibles comme liberté et ordre, nationalité et théologie catholique. La méthode choisie est celle de l'histoire comparée: il s'agit en effet de reconstruire un contexte pluriel, relevant d'un entrelacement de sources, de deux côté des Alpes, afin de parvenir à une connaissance plus pointue d'une grande utopie vécue à la moitié du XIX siècle

Experimental Analysis of Heat Transfer in Passive Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Systems for CSP Plants

Abstract Thermal energy storage is a key factor for efficiency, dispatchability and economic sustainability of concentrated solar plants. The latent heat storage systems could ensure a significant reduction in construction costs and environmental impact, because of its high storage energy density. In LHTES, the heat transfer between the heat transfer fluid and the storage system is strongly limited by the reduced thermal conductivity of the storage media. For operating temperatures between 200 and 600 °C, the most used storage media are salts. In order to evaluate solutions which promote the thermal conductivity, by increasing the exchange surface and/or the addition of nanoparticles to the storage media, Enea set up a small facility to test some storage concepts. In this facility, a diathermic oil flows through three elementary "shell-and-tube" storage systems, connected in series, reaching a maximum temperature of about 280 °C. The elementary storage systems are filled with a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrates salts, which melt at about 225 °C. Moreover a small percentage of alumina and silica nanoparticles were added to this mixture. The results of the experiments show an increase of the thermal diffusivity of the medium not only for the presence of fins on the heat transfer tubes but also because of convective flows within the melted fraction were established. These phenomena strongly reduce the charging times of the system (by about 30%). Instead, the presence of nanoparticles increases the thermal capacity and the thermal conductivity of the storage system but seems not to have a relevant effect on the thermal diffusivity of the mixture. This behavior depends on the type of used nanoparticles, which can significantly change over time some characteristics of the storage medium, in which they are dispersed, leaving other characteristics unchanged, according to mechanisms which are still to be well understood

From noise on the sites to noise on the links: discretizing the conserved Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation in real space

Numerical analysis of conserved field dynamics has been generally performed with pseudo spectral methods. Finite differences integration, the common procedure for non-conserved field dynamics, indeed struggles to implement a conservative noise in the discrete spatial domain. In this work, we present a novel method to generate a conservative noise in the finite differences framework, which works for any discrete topology and boundary conditions. We apply it to numerically solve the conserved Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (cKPZ) equation, widely used to describe surface roughening when the number of particles is conserved. Our numerical simulations recover the correct scaling exponents $\alpha$, $\beta$, and $z$ in $d=1$ and in $d=2$. To illustrate the potentiality of the method, we further consider the cKPZ equation on different kinds of non-standard lattices and on the random Euclidean graph. This is the first numerical study of conserved field dynamics on an irregular topology, paving the way to a broad spectrum of possible applications.Comment: Multiplicative noise case added, 6 figure

O Dammuso de Pantelleria : um exemplo de arquitetura mediterrânica sustentável

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Arquitectura, Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, 2014Exame público realizado em 7 de Maio de 2014O tema deste trabalho tem como objeto de estudo o dammuso da ilha de Pantelleria (Itália), enquanto exemplo de arquitetura espontânea mediterrânica. Partindo de uma análise histórica e ambiental de caráter geográfico, geomorfológico e climático sobre a ilha, tenta-se fazer uma leitura completa destas construções tradicionais, pondo em evidência as principais características arquitetónicas, os materiais locais e as principais técnicas construtivas utilizadas. Devido a um processo evolutivo empírico, passa-se pelas diferentes fases e transformações morfológicas e tipológicas, das origens até aos nossos dias. Ainda o presente estudo quer mostrar como, só através de soluções arquitetónicas e construtivas tradicionais muito simples, pode-se alcançar o conforto e o bem-estar do homem, tanto no inverno como no verão, sem utilizar qualquer tecnologia ou equipamento de climatização. O objectivo deste estudo pretende que seja possível entender o dammuso como um sistema edificado eficiente, perfeitamente integrado no meio ambiente, numa relação de equilíbrio entre forma geométrica, materialidade e função. Trata-se, portanto, de enquadrar o dammuso como um modelo bioclimático de referência que contribui para a poupança energética, a preservação do ambiente e para o desenvolvimento durável

Highly Thermal Conductive Nanocomposites

Disclosed are methods for forming carbon-based fillers as may be utilized in forming highly thermal conductive nanocomposite materials. Formation methods include treatment of an expanded graphite with an alcohol/water mixture followed by further exfoliation of the graphite to form extremely thin carbon nanosheets that are on the order of between about 2 and about 10 nanometers in thickness. Disclosed carbon nanosheets can be functionalized and/or can be incorporated in nanocomposites with extremely high thermal conductivities. Disclosed methods and materials can prove highly valuable in many technological applications including, for instance, in formation of heat management materials for protective clothing and as may be useful in space exploration or in others that require efficient yet light-weight and flexible thermal management solutions

Highly Thermal Conductive Nanocomposites

Disclosed are methods for forming carbon-based fillers as may be utilized in forming highly thermal conductive nanocomposite materials. Formation methods include treatment of an expanded graphite with an alcohol/water mixture followed by further exfoliation of the graphite to form extremely thin carbon nanosheets that are on the order of between about 2 and about 10 nanometers in thickness. Disclosed carbon nanosheets can be functionalized and/or can be incorporated in nanocomposites with extremely high thermal conductivities. Disclosed methods and materials can prove highly valuable in many technological applications including, for instance, in formation of heat management materials for protective clothing and as may be useful in space exploration or in others that require efficient yet light-weight and flexible thermal management solutions