Des corps « ecstatiques » dans un monde séculier : Une ethnographie sensuelle du clubbing

À partir de nombreuses années d’observation participante dans les night-clubs de Londres, cet article montre en quoi l’environnement en apparence chaotique et déchaîné des clubs joue néanmoins un rôle crucial dans la formation et la subversion de la culture. L’étude de cet environnement permet plus précisément de saisir comment les pratiques socio-sensuelles alternatives qui prennent forme dans les clubs peuvent modifier la vie des participants lorsque ces derniers réintègrent la sphère du quotidien. Cet essai illustre ainsi en quoi l’expérience du clubbing crée de nouvelles coordonnées dans le paysage sensuel de la vie de ces personnes, un phénomène qui nous amène à reconsidérer le caractère « immuable » de l’habitus. En effet, le clubbing provoque un schisme socio-sensuel qui permet aux participants de soustraire leurs corps au mécanisme régulateur inconscient que constitue l’habitus et, par là même, de doter ce corps d’une autonomie viscérale. Un tel glissement se manifeste de plusieurs façons, dans la valorisation de nouvelles pratiques sociales, dans l’invention d’un langage différent ou tout simplement dans le développement d’une perspective renouvelée sur la culture en général.Based on many years of participant observation in the London UK club scene, this paper seeks to show how the seemingly chaotic and frenzied environment of the club offers important insights into the role played by the body in both underpinning and subverting cultural worlds. Studying this environment allows us to chart the effects that radically altered socio-sensual practices have on the lives of participants as they move back out into the everyday world. We can see how the experiences uncovered via clubbing creates alternative co-ordinates within the sensual landscape of participants’ lives, throwing the usually ‘taken for granted’ status of the habitus into relief. The resulting schism in the sensual fabric of culture allows people to disembody themselves from the habitus and gain a visceral autonomy from its unconscious mechanisms of control. This slippage manifests itself in various ways, ranging from the creation of alternative social practices, to the invention of new language and the development of new perspectives upon and relationships to the wider culture.A partir de varios años de observación participante en los night-clubs de Londres, este artículo muestra cómo el entorno aparentemente caótico y desenfrenado de los clubes juega sin embargo un rol crucial en la formación y la subversión de la cultura. El estudio de dicho entorno permite cernir con más precisión cómo las prácticas socio-sensuales alternativas que surgen en los clubes pueden modificar la vida de los participantes cuando estos últimos reintegran la esfera de lo cotidiano. Este ensayo ilustra asimismo cómo la experiencia del clubbing crea nuevas coordenadas en el paisaje sensual de la vida de dichas personas, un fenómeno que nos obliga a reconsiderar el carácter « inmutable » del habitus. En efecto, el clubbing provoca una ruptura socio-sensual que permite a los participantes substraer sus cuerpos del mecanismo regulador inconsciente que constituye el habitus y, en consecuencia, dotar al cuerpo de una autonomía visceral. Dicho desplazamiento se manifiesta de varias manera, en la valorización de nuevas prácticas sociales, en la invención de un lenguaje diferente o simplemente en el desarrollo de una perspectiva renovada de la cultura en general

Ultra-violet Treatment as a Strategy for Destruction of Degradation Products from Amine Based Post Combustion CO2 Capture

AbstractThe amine-based post-combustion capture (PCC) of CO2 is an option being considered for the reduction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. PCC plants will be attached or retro-fitted to fossil-fuel fired power generating infrastructure (i.e. large stationary point sources) during the transition to renewable energy, which is expected to take place over several decades. Despite being an established technology widely used to remove CO2 from small scale-commercial process such as natural gas sweetening, there are many challenges that must be overcome before large scale implementation of the process can be realised. Some of these challenges include:•Reducing plant capital costs•Reducing the energy required for solvent regeneration/release of captured CO•Reducing solvent degradation in the presence of O2 and other flue gas contaminants, such as NOx and SOx,and•Reducing and understanding the environmental impact i.e. the potential of solvents and solvent degradation products to be released into the environment through off-gases, leaks or spills, and any associated impact this might have.Several recent research articles1-3 have highlighted the propensity of amine-based solvents to undergo certain chemical transformations, both in the condensed and aqueous phases, which produce harmful materials such as nitrosamines and nitramines. The formation and emission of nitrosated amines from the PCC process has not been fully investigated, although it is now the focus of some research agencies in Europe and Australasia. Nitrosamine formation mechanisms are presented in relation to the post- combustion capture of CO2 with aqueous amine solvents. The relative merits of nitrosamine mitigation strategies are also discussed. In particular the susceptibility of several nitrosamines to UV destruction is explored; the results are compared with TD-DFT results which predict excitation energies with good accuracy. The rate of destruction versus UV wavelength is also discussed, with a view to understanding which electronic transition facilitates decompositio

Tidal Decay and Stable Roche-Lobe Overflow of Short-Period Gaseous Exoplanets

Many gaseous exoplanets in short-period orbits are on the verge or are in the process of Roche-lobe overflow (RLO). Moreover, orbital stability analysis shows tides can drive many hot Jupiters to spiral inevitably toward their host stars. Thus, the coupled processes of orbital evolution and RLO likely shape the observed distribution of close-in exoplanets and may even be responsible for producing some of the short-period rocky planets. However, the exact outcome for an overflowing planet depends on its internal response to mass loss, and the accompanying orbital evolution can act to enhance or inhibit RLO. In this study, we apply the fully-featured and robust Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) suite to model RLO of short-period gaseous planets. We show that, although the detailed evolution may depend on several properties of the planetary system, it is largely determined by the core mass of the overflowing gas giant. In particular, we find that the orbital expansion that accompanies RLO often stops and reverses at a specific maximum period that depends on the core mass. We suggest that RLO may often strand the remnant of a gas giant near this orbital period, which provides an observational prediction that can corroborate the hypothesis that short-period gas giants undergo RLO. We conduct a preliminary comparison of this prediction to the observed population of small, short-period planets and find some planets in orbits that may be consistent with this picture. To the extent that we can establish some short-period planets are indeed the remnants of gas giants, that population can elucidate the properties of gas giant cores, the properties of which remain largely unconstrained.Comment: Accepted to "Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy" special issue on tides. Several changes based on referee comments, including to the title of the paper. Some new analysis of non-conservative (but still stable) mass transfer as well. Article repository and data files linked to here -- http://www.astrojack.com/research

Active vibration control and real-time cutter path modification in rotary wood planing

Forced structural vibration and cutting tool inaccuracy have been identified to be the primary causes of surface defects in rotary wood planing. This paper presents the development of a control strategy used to compensate for the effects of both vibration and cutting tool inaccuracy on planed wood surface finish. The solution is based on active vibration control and real-time modification of the cutting tool trajectory using an optimal Linear Quadratic Gaussian tracking controller. A small-scale mechatronic wood planing machine, which has an actively controlled spindle unit, has been designed for practical investigation of the proposed technique. Experimental results show that the applied compensation increased the dynamic performance of the machine and the quality of the surface finish produced

Evacuation Data from a Hospital Outpatient Drill The Case Study of North Shore Hospital

Assessing the fire safety of buildings is fundamental to reduce the impact of this threat on their occupants. Such an assessment can be done by combining existing models and existing knowledge on how occupants behave during fires. Although many studies have been carried out for several types of built environment, only few of those investigate healthcare facilities and hospitals. In this study, we present a new behavioural data-set for hospital evacuations. The data was collected from the North Shore Hospital in Auckland (NZ) during an unannounced drill carried out in May 2017. This drill was recorded using CCTV and those videos are analysed to generate new evacuation model inputs for hospital scenarios. We collected pre-movement times, exit choices and total evacuation times for each evacuee. Moreover, we estimated pre-movement time distributions for both staff members and patients. Finally, we qualitatively investigated the evacuee actions of patients and staff members to study their interaction during the drill. The results show that participants were often independent from staff actions with a majority able to make their own decision