Threatening levels of cumulative stress due to hydroclimatic extremes in the 21st century

Summary Wet and dry hydroclimatic extremes can pose severe stress to human societies under global warming. A new metric of cumulative stress due to hydroclimatic extremes is introduced, expressed in "equivalent reference stress years (ERSY)" i.e. the mean annual stress (e.g. potential for damage) in present climate conditions. 21st century climate projections show that, under the high-end RCP8.5 greenhouse gas scenario, by 2100, increases in wet and dry extremes add ~155 ERSY over global land areas (~125 for wet and ~30 for dry extremes), with wet hotspots over Asia, Eastern Africa and the Americas, and dry hotspots throughout Central and South America, Europe, West Africa and coastal Australia. Consideration of population exposure yields potential stress hotspots exceeding 400 added ERSY over Africa, North America, and Australia. The hydroclimatic stress is considerably reduced under the RCP2.6 scenario

Laicità in progress: conclusioni generali

Il contributo, accettato dal Direttore, riproduce l’intervento di chiusura del convegno di studio organizzato dall’ADEC sul tema “Laicità e dimensione pubblica del fattore religioso – Stato attuale e prospettive” (Bari, Aula Magna “Aldo Moro”, 17-18 settembre 2009).SOMMARIO: 1. Le diverse soglie della laicità – 2. Prevalenza della libertà sulla laicità: i presupposti sistematici – 3. I parametri della relatività – 4. Alcune prospettive per lo studio del diritto ecclesiastico:The Principle of Secularism (laicità) “in Progress”.  General ConclusionABSTRACT: Like the previous national meetings, from the sessions of this Conference one may appreciate the worthwhile link between the academic-scientific experience and the juridical-jurisprudential experience. The homogeneity of contents (as revealed by the academic doctrine) together with the relativity of substantial values (strictly related to the conceptions of liberty, secularism and equality) is not necessary due to be translated into different models of State-religions relationship. The concrete use of normative systems is a clear example of that. These are in fact results that emerge from both the public relevance of religious phenomena and the outcomes given by the overview of legislative works; as the main Italian scholars have already underlined at the national and international level, including the European area

Chiesa cattolica, libertà di religione e pace nel mondo

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa, Chiesa cattolica e libertà di religione – 2. Ruolo della suggestione di Assisi e degli altri incontri mondiali per la pace – 3. La libertà religiosa come strumento al servizio della pace ed il principio di non ingerenza. La pace nella visione dell’ONU e della Chiesa cattolica (brevi cenni) – 4. Lo status della Terra Santa e l’incerto processo di pace fra israeliani e palestinesi - 5. Bilancio dell’attività della Conférence permanente des Villes historiques de la Méditerranée nell’area israelo-palestinese con particolare riferimento alla città di Betlemme

Quattro notazioni sulla laicità

Il contributo, accettato dal Direttore, riproduce con minime variazioni di forma l’intervento conclusivo per il Colloquio internazionale “La laicità nella costruzione dell'Europa – Dualità del potere e neutralità religiosa” (Bari - Aula Magna “Aldo Moro”, 4-5 novembre 2010), organizzato dal Dipartimento Giuridico delle Istituzioni, Amministrazione e Libertà dell'Università di Bari “Aldo Moro”, dal Centre d'études internationales sur la romanité - Université de “La Rochelle” e dall'Unità di Ricerca “Giorgio La Pira”, CNR – Università di Roma “La Sapienza”. Atti in corso di pubblicazione a mezzo stampa.SOMMARIO: 1. Laicità e dualità del potere – 2. Geopolitica della laicità, suoi significati – 3. L'elemento popolare – 4. Il ruolo del civis-fidelis della tradizione classica nei regimi democratici - 5. Distinzione degli ordini e neutralità religiosa

Etica cattolica, debito e giustizia sociale in vista di un nuovo assetto internazionale

Contributo sottoposto a valutazione.SOMMARIO: 1. Preambolo – 2. Valore teologico e valore giuridico dei pronunciati del Magistero ecclesiastico – 3. La lectio magistralis del 12 maggio 2003 di Giovanni Paolo II – 4. La Carta di Sant’Agata de’ Goti del 29 settembre 1997 e la legge italiana 25 luglio 2000 n. 209 – 5. La sfida dei Pontificati di Benedetto XVI e di Francesco – 6. Autorità politica mondiale e giustizia sociale – 7. L’umanesimo cristiano oggi – 8. Sintesi conclusiva. Abstract  Catholic Ethics, Debt and Social Justice in the Light of a New International Order Since twenty years a group of scholars, including the Author of this essay, has been fighting for the reconstruction of the legal framework of the international debt. The Charter of Sant’Agata de’Goti (September 29, 1997), which is the result of the passionate work by a Commission on usury and international debt, has virtually been travelling around the world, including the Latin American Parliament and the Vatican City, finally landed in the Italian Parliament with the 25 July 2009 Italian Act (n. 209). Besides the legal relevance, this essay is the testimony of a significant part of the service that the Author has carried out in the interest of the Holy See and the Catholic Church; this is in fact a summary of his twenty-year commitment on the (public-private-international) debt, in view of the forthcoming visit of the Holy Father Francis in the United States (September 2015), on the eve of the 2015-2016 Extraordinary Jubilee Year (called the “Holy Year of Mercy”), which again will underline the principle of natural order for all the goods on earth.This papal journey assumes considerable importance, especially when related to the Pope’s speech, which will be held at the Congress and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. The Author of this essay hopes that, in the context of those venerable international institutions, together with the Italian government, the Holy Father – under his personal commitment which is recognized in the world – will propose to the UN Assembly the start of the procedures for requesting the opinion of the AIA Court of Justice about the consistency between the rules governing the developing Countries’ foreign debt (but today you might be referring to the international debt tout court) and the framework of human rights principles, which includes the rights of peoples.We must also keep in mind that, in order to better understand the frame of reference, a deputy of the Italian Chamber, Salvatore Cherchi, together with other proponents of the mentioned 2000 Act (n. 209) – whose Article 7 remained unfulfilled – have been directly inspired by the mentioned Charter of Sant’Agata de’Goti on usury and international debt

Santa Sede e debito illegittimo.Il cammino verso la Corte internazionale di giustizia (2015-2022)

SOMMARIO: 1. Il discorso del Santo Padre Francesco (Santa Sede in senso proprio) ai membri dell’Assemblea Generale dell’Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite - 2. La posizione della Santa Sede in senso lato e dei vertici della Chiesa italiana - 3. Odierne prospettive nella linea di lavoro politico - 4. La via africana sul debito - 5. Argentina e Fondo Monetario Internazionale (FMI). Holy See and illegitimate debt. The path to the International Court of Justice (2015-2022) ABSTRACT: This work offers a synthesis of the main steps of the process towards the International Court of Justice, accomplished over a seven-year period by the Holy See and the Cartel of jurists inspired by the Charter of Sant’Agata de’ Goti – Declaration on Usury and International Debt (1997). The starting point is Holy Father Francis’ speech at the United Nations General Assembly (New York, September 25, 2015), where the devastating deviations of speculative finance were condemned. Next, the points of convergence with the positions taken on the matter by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) are described, as well as today’s perspectives on debt and the International Court of Justice, in the line of political engagement, with regard to the Gentiloni government and the first Conte government. Completing the discussion is a report on what the author calls the African way on debt and an in-depth look at the differences from a recent wide-ranging initiative aimed at resolving the long-standing issue of the Argentine debt

The response of precipitation characteristics to global warming from climate projections

Abstract. We revisit the issue of the response of precipitation characteristics to global warming based on analyses of global and regional climate model projections for the 21st century. The prevailing response we identify can be summarized as follows: increase in the intensity of precipitation events and extremes, with the occurrence of events of "unprecedented" magnitude, i.e., a magnitude not found in the present-day climate; decrease in the number of light precipitation events and in wet spell lengths; and increase in the number of dry days and dry spell lengths. This response, which is mostly consistent across the models we analyzed, is tied to the difference between precipitation intensity responding to increases in local humidity conditions and circulations, especially for heavy and extreme events, and mean precipitation responding to slower increases in global evaporation. These changes in hydroclimatic characteristics have multiple and important impacts on the Earth's hydrologic cycle and on a variety of sectors. As examples we investigate effects on potential stress due to increases in dry and wet extremes, changes in precipitation interannual variability, and changes in the potential predictability of precipitation events. We also stress how the understanding of the hydroclimatic response to global warming can provide important insights into the fundamental behavior of precipitation processes, most noticeably tropical convection

Failure Propagation Controlling for Frangible Composite Canister Design

The complexity in predicting the damage initiation and failure propagation controlling in composite structures is challenging. The focus of this paper is to design a potential component for new ship gunnels to make the composite canister affordable in structural applications by using a damage tolerant design approach. The design of a new tailgate configuration was investigated, taking into account the correct fragmentation of the structure to ensure a clear ejection while reducing the weight of the panels by exploiting the properties of the composite material. The complex geometry of the tailgate, the high impulse load, the energy transferred to the tailgate during missile impact, and how to safely break large panel flaps are elements that characterize the sizing of the composite component to meet the stringent ejection requirements in the life cycle of a missile during takeoff. The numerical simulations were performed using the LS/Dyna code and its explicit formulation was contemplated to take into account the geometrical, contact, and material non linearities

Potential for lager beer production from saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from the vineyard environment

Saccharomyces pastorianus, genetic hybrids of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the Saccharomyces eubayanus, is one of the most widely used lager yeasts in the brewing industry. In recent years, new strategies have been adopted and new lines of research have been outlined to create and expand the pool of lager brewing starters. The vineyard microbiome has received significant attention in the past few years due to many opportunities in terms of biotechnological applications in the winemaking processes. However, the characterization of S. cerevisiae strains isolated from winery environments as an approach to selecting starters for beer production has not been fully investigated, and little is currently available. Four wild cryotolerant S. cerevisiae strains isolated from vineyard environments were evaluated as potential starters for lager beer production at laboratory scale using a model beer wort (MBW). In all tests, the industrial lager brewing S. pastorianus Weihenstephan 34/70 was used as a reference strain. The results obtained, although preliminary, showed some good properties of these strains, such as antioxidant activity, flocculation capacity, efficient fermentation at 15◦C and low diacetyl production. Further studies will be carried out using these S. cerevisiae strains as starters for lager beer production on a pilot scale in order to verify the chemical and sensory characteristics of the beers produced

Effects of fermentation and rye flour on microstructure and volatile compounds of chestnut flour based sourdoughs

The study is aimed at developing a new cereal-based product, with increased nutritional quality, by using natural fermentation of blends of chestnut and rye flour. In spite of the remarkable similarity, the technological potential of combinations of both flours has never been explored before. Three spontaneous chestnut/rye sourdough fermentations were performed over a period of twelve days with daily back-slopping. Samples taken at all refreshment steps were used for culture-dependent and culture-independent evaluation of the microbiota present. Dominant species basically overlapped to those associated to sourdoughs strengthened with chestnut flour, such as Pediococcus pentosaceus or Weissella paramesenteroides. Microstructures, evaluated by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy, revealed the presence in chestnut sourdoughs of a distinguishable network surrounding starch granules, while rye flour-added sourdoughs showed a less structured matrix. By gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, 51 volatile organic compounds were identified at 24 h and after prolonged fermentation. Within volatile organic compounds, alcohols, esters, acids, aldehydes and ketones, all well-known flavour compounds in sourdough fermentation, appeared as dominant. The PCA discriminated the sourdoughs into three distinct clusters and highlighted a clear influence of fermentation time on the volatile composition of sourdoughs. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved