The religious cults of thaumaturgical powers and the devotion towards St Nicholas of Bari in Malta

This paper explores the development of religious cult statues in Malta with particular reference to the use of the imagen a vestir statues. At first, the statues were of two types. The first were the small wooden statues about one metre in height. The second type was slightly bigger. The heads, and often the hands and lower part, were sculptured in wood whilst the rest of the body was dressed up. The use of the processional statues owes its origins to Birgu towards the end of the sixteenth century. Slowly the custom spread throughout the island. After Birgu, one of the first Maltese parishes to acquire a statue was Siggiewi. This paper will explain the diffusion of this cult and answer why such a rural parish, was one of the first parishes in Malta to have a processional cult statue.peer-reviewe

Anatomies of Spanish settlers in Malta between 1580 and 1648 : their family stories

This paper will attempt to reconstruct the different identity kits of Spanish settlers in Malta between 1580 and 1648. The analysis shall use the Status Liberi documentation which is a series of Ecclesiastical Acts recording the assessment of foreigners by an ecclesiastical judge of those outsiders who wished to get married in Malta. This procedure was undertaken to verify whether the candidate was single or not, the former being and remains a sine qua non for marriage. The surviving documents recount the lives of these settlers before taking up permanent residence in Malta and highlight the reason behind their decision to settle down in Malta. The most fascinating aspect of these documents is that these stories are recounted by the protagonists themselves. They give insight to issues of identity and shared memory among the Spanish settlers. In the majority, they were simple folk without any pretensions or extraordinary expectations. Were it not for such a prerequisite their life histories would have been lost forever.peer-reviewe

Outbreak of Cerebrospinal Meningitis in Gozo in 1887 : manuscript report dated 31st May 1887

Sir, In obedience to the verbal instructions of His Honor the Lieut: Governor to give a report on the disease which made its appearance in February last, amongst a family, in the Village " ta Sannat" in Gozo, I have the honor to submit what follows.peer-reviewe

Space exploration and world peace

The possibility of using space exploration as an instrument in procuring world peace is studied. Suggestions for obtaining such a peace, utilizing space programs, include removal of worldwide educational and communication barriers, building of an emotionally and socially stable society, creation of a unit or whole world rather than the mine and yours concept, and reevaluation and reorientation of human relations and values

Windmills and the production of gunpowder in Malta

Each and every discussion revolving around the history of windmills in Malta has always and, wrongly so, focused on their exclusive use for grinding wheat and barley, without taking into consideration that some of these windmills, in particular those situated behind the fortified walls (but not only), could have had a dual function; that of being powder mills and machines for the grinding of corn. Old maps of the Grand Harbour have clearly documented the use of windmills in Malta forthe exclusive production of gunpowder at the turn of the seventeenth century. For security reasons, gunpowder mills were mostly situated within the city walls. However, in the absence of historical records, the major difficulties are: which of these windmills were used for milling grain? Which had a dual function? Which were used exclusively for producing gun powder? This paper seeks to answer these questions.peer-reviewe

Plasma Spectroscopy in Pinch Plasmas

Magnetic fields play a very important role in the dynamics of plasmas. Through interactions with the ions and electrons within plasmas, their behaviour and evolution can be drastically influenced. It is the Zeeman effect that is responsible for the splitting of radiative lines observed. Zeeman spectroscopy is a tool used for the diagnosis of these magnetic fields within plasmas when the extent of this line splitting is observable. Aluminium is chosen as an element to model as it is easy to place within a pinch plasma. It is also relatively easy to ionise Aluminium into being Hydrogen-like within the conditions of pinch plasmas. The calculation of Lyman Alpha and Lyman Beta spectral lineshapes for a Hydrogen-like Aluminium plasma is presented from a fundamental standpoint. The Stark and Zeeman effects are explored and modelled. Modelling of the former is aided by an adapted version of the APEX code by R. Lee in order to calculate the probability distribution of electric fields around a radiator ion in the plasma. Both effects are calculated together as a quantum perturbation to the π = 1, 2, 3 atomic energy levels including fine structure. The lineshapes resulting from this calculation are compared with H-Line’s models (a code also by R. Lee) and shown to be significantly more detailed, including visible Zeeman splitting for test external magnetic fields of B = 100 T and B = 1000 T. Natural and Doppler broadening are also modelled. These extra broadening effects (in particular Doppler) are shown to be destructive to discernable lineshape detail, largely preventing magnetic field diagnosis through Zeeman spectroscopy. Lastly, Lyman Alpha and Lyman Beta are modelled for plasmas with Z-pinch and X-pinch conditions in order to determine the viability of visible Zeeman line splitting