The Burden of Risk: Early Modern Maritime Enterprise and Varieties of Capitalism

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record.This essay will discuss the complex issues behind the relation between national and global economic histories, and the challenges of a comparative approach. Discussing different national approaches – Italian and English – to the management of the early modern maritime sector, it will argue that this comparison allows a privileged window into different varieties of capitalism, highlighting fundamental differences in the attitudes towards wage labour and risk management, which still today influence different approaches to economic activities.European Research Council (ERC

Broadband potential optimisation of a full scale acoustic metawindow performance

Noise control and airflow in duct-like systems are among some of the most interesting applications to conjugate AMMs innovation and sustainability. Specifically applied to the built environment, they opened up a new field of research supporting indoor wellbeing, sanitised environments, and public activities. Previous research conducted by the authors has proved AMM based window to be a resourceful way to address both natural ventilation and reduce the incoming noise propagation; however, the effective spectral range did not cover lower frequencies (50-350 Hz). For this reason, in the presented paper, implementation in the AMM unit geometry was performed over a full-scale acoustic metawindow (AMW). The resonating volume has been enhanced (by 200% of the original one) and coupled with a set of lateral flanks. Numerical analysis through FEM proved that on a range of opening ratio from 3 to 33%, the TL related to the window is improved overall of the 70% on the frequency range from 50 to 350 Hz. Such results encourage the use of new AMMs ergonomic windows in place of standard ones to achieve both natural ventilation and noise attenuation from 50 to 5k Hz, being resourceful for domestic, sanitary, and public applications

Numerical comparison of the yearly performance of an indirect vapour compression heat pump working with R290 with R410A systems

In the last years, the environmental awareness is pushing the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry towards a massive use of low GWP refrigerants. Generally, despite being environmentally friendly, these new working fluids are mildly flammable, or even flammable, and therefore safety concerns arise. One possible way to cope with the flammability hazard is the reduction of the charge of the refrigerant inside the system. In this scenario, indirect systems, i.e. brine-to-water system with a remote air-to-brine heat exchanger, seem to be a viable solution since they may be built with low internal volume which, in turn, leads to a low refrigerant charge. However, the use of heat transfer fluid between the air and the refrigerant results in an increase in the energy consumption of the system, making this solution less attractive. In the present paper, a numerical assessment of the use of R290 in an indirect expansion vapour compression system is presented. The analysed system consists of a reversible brine-to-water heat pump able to supply space heating or space cooling depending on the season. The results are compared with those of a baseline R410A system, both in direct and indirect configurations. Although the refrigerant charge is well below the maximum value currently allowed, the indirect systems show a reduction in the energy performance by around 20% with respect to the direct one

Sebaceous Skin Lesions as Clues to Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer

Cutaneous lesions consonant with Muir–Torre syndrome strongly suggest hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). Ponti et al. discuss the importance of combining molecular genetic features of the sebaceous neoplasms, including microsatellite instability and immunohistochemistry, with family history, to determine the likelihood of HNPCC. Proof of diagnosis is identification of one of the mismatch repair germline mutations

‘Migrating Seamen, Migrating Laws’? An Historiographical Genealogy of Seamen’s Employment and States’ Jurisdiction in the Early Modern Mediterranean

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Brill via the DOI in this recordFrom the last quarter of the sixteenth century English and ‘Netherlandish’ shipping entered into the Mediterranean, and quickly established itself as an important economic player in the maritime trade between the North and South of Europe and, rather crucially, also within intra-Mediterranean trade. This phenomenon, famously named by Fernard Braudel the ‘Northern Invasion’, was for a long time understood in simple ‘national’ terms, assuming that Northern ships were the just expression of the expansion of national economies. However, the documentation emerging from Mediterranean courts of law tells a rather more complex story, characterized by a considerable mix of capital investment and multi-national crews. This situation fostered an important knowledge exchange between crewmen of different nationalities, and its consequence was a considerable increase in wage-related litigation as Northern seamen contested their original agreements. Tracing this type of litigation across various archives highlights important differences about the conditions of employment, and brings to the fore early modern states’ attempts to extend their jurisdictions well beyond their boundaries, especially in controlling the actions of their subjects. This is particularly evident in the Mediterranean, a small and crowded space with an abundance of active and competing jurisdictions, frequently contested, sometimes shared, and in actual practice overlapping and jostling for primacy. The study of the strategies employed by seafarers in choosing between the multiple fora available to them is opening a most privileged window onto the interaction between economic activities and legal developments, and helps to highlight how different legal systems interacted with each other and evolved.European Commissio