54 research outputs found
Differences in results yielded by different approaches adopted for the interpretation of a rapid flowslide in a pyroclastic cover
No full textThe paper interprets a case-history of rainfall-induced flow-like landslide in pyroclastic soils by adopting different approaches inmodelling the boundary value problem. In particular, two adopted approaches take into account both rainfall and evaporation effects, while the simplest one disregards the phenomenon and considers only the effects of the rainfall-history. The work shows how increasing model complexity in accounting for most of influencing meteorological factors permits predicting a more pronounced hydrological singularity at the landslide tim
The Word Made Flesh Writ Edible: Emily Dickinson’s Micro-Eucharist of Crumb and Berry
No full text Emily Dickinson, as the enigmatic anti-Madonna of American verse, presides over a Eucharistic micro-drama by suggesting that Words-as-spoken are a sacramental Food. Her repeated tokens of Crumb and Berry are the ritual components of Bread and Wine compressed into nubs, exiles from a collective Loaf and Vine. Dickinson never “took” the public rite of Communion, but performs her own private counter-version via her poems, where “famishing” is used as a progressive verb and “Starvation” is treated as an honorific state. Dickinson’s speaker nibbles at a non-communal crouton in several poems, favoring the nub of a crumb to the risen, levitated Loaf. </jats:p
'Overlap and Interlace': Thoreau’s Thawing Sandbank as Transgenic Artwork
No full textIn the “Spring” chapter of Walden, Henry David Thoreau’s portrait of a melting, thawing sandbank, as a place of “overlap and interlace”, is a bio-semiotic primal scene. For Thoreau, language itself is an agent of transgenic fusion, finding interlinked roots and common properties at every turn. Thoreau’s wordplay is a page rehearsal for later forms of laboratory-assisted, genre-hopping bio-art in which cross-bred materials form inter-species puns and organic conundrums, phrases from the Old Testament and Descartes are translated via code into DNA base pairs and inserted into plants and bacteria, and gene-splicing becomes a creative act. Using sequencing gels and calipers, autoclaves and plasmid samples, transgenic art plays in the gap between our genes’ lettristic code and manifested matter : Thoreau straddles this same divide with puns and wordplay based on some of the more occult linguistic theories of his day.Dans le chapitre « Printemps » de Walden, le portrait que brosse Henry David Thoreau d’un banc de sable, comme lieu de « chevauchement et d’enlacement », constitue une scène biosémiotique primale. Pour Thoreau, le langage lui-même est un agent de fusion transgénique qui découvre à toute occasion des racines imbriquées et des propriétés communes. Les jeux de mots de Thoreau anticipent des formes tardives et interdisciplinaires du bio-art en laboratoire; des matériaux métissés forment des calembours inter-espèces et des énigmes organiques; des phrases tirées de l’Ancien Testament et de Descartes sont traduites et encodés en paires de bases d’ADN pour être insérés dans des plantes et des bactéries; et l’épissage de gènes devient un acte créatif. Avec des gels de séquençage et des bioanalyseurs, des autoclaves et des échantillons de plasmides, l’art transgénique joue dans l’écart entre le code lettriste de nos gènes et la matière. Thoreau enjambe ce même fossé avec des calembours et des jeux de mots qui reflètent certaines des théories linguistiques les plus occultes de son époque
Two Applications of Soil Water Balance in Unsaturated Pyroclastic Soils
No full textEvaluation of the monthly soil water balance (SWB) provides a tool for understanding and predicting the effects of seasonal and long-term changes in soil water conditions within many geotechnical problems. In this paper, two applications of the SWB approach in the pyroclastic partially saturated soils are shown. Firstly, rainfall, evapotranspiration, water storage measured or estimated at the experimental site in Monteforte Irpino (in Southern Italy) are shown. Secondly, rainfall, infiltration, actual evapotranspiration and water storage measured by data provided by a physical model are shown. In the both cases, data are reported over two years (2010-2012). The physical model was constituted by a wooden tank filled with reconstituted silty pyroclastic soil taken from experimental site at Monteforte Irpino (AV) and it was exposed to the atmosphere at a site in Napoli.
Comparison between soil hydraulic behaviours observed is discussed and the scale effects on the estimation of the SWB are
analysed, treating with practical implications. From the results, it is clear that similar trends in SWB and the same value of
suction over wet season (10 kPa) can be observed at both the scales in spite of differences in meteorological conditions and hydraulic properties of soils exposed to atmosphere
Assessing the potential effects of Climate Changes on landslide phenomena affecting pyroclastic covers in Nocera area (Southern Italy)
No full textThe effects of Climate Changes (CC) on natural hazardsinduced byweather forcing representan issue which has beenwidely debated inthe last years. Climate projections allowed to detect clear indications about the future trend of the main atmospheric forcing although affected by significant uncertainties concerning the magnitude. However, the crucial role played by the specific geomorphological contexts makes much more challenging understanding how such variations could affect occurrence and magnitude of landslide hazards. These factors help understanding because it is often unreliable carrying out assessments on large areas but is often necessary trying to evaluate the potential effects of CC on geo-hydrological hazards at slope scale. The main aim of this paper is the definition of a framework for the evaluation of potential variations of occurrences of landslide events affecting slopes of NoceraInferiore (Southern Italy) under the effect of CC. Such slopeshave been affected in recent years, inseveral occasions, by flowslide phenomena inducing large economic lossesand fatalities. The framework, consisting of two macro components, is tested to check its predictive capability of landslide behavior. It is then applied to provide a prediction of "potential" events for near and long time horizon scenarios. The study highlightspotential variations (increases) in triggering frequency under the effect of different concentration scenarios and time horizons
Inventing Paradigms, Monopoly, Methodology, and Mythology at 'Chicago': Nutter and Stigler
No full textThis paper focuses on Warren Nutter’s The Extent of Enterprise Monopoly in the United States, 1899-1939. This started out as a (1949) doctoral dissertation at The University of Chicago, part of Aaron Director’s Free Market Study. Besides Director, O.H. Brownlee and Milton Friedman were closely involved with supervising it. It was published by The University of Chicago Press in 1951. In the 1950s the book was explicitly understood as belonging to the “Chicago School” (Dow and Abernathy 1963). By articulating the content, context, and reception of Nutter’s monograph, this paper discusses four larger themes. First, I introduce the importance of Kuhnian conceptions of science to the methodological and institutional understanding of economics in the development of a ‘Chicago’ school of economics. I do this in context of previously unpublished Stigler-Kuhn exchange. While Thomas Kuhn was widely read and adopted in the social sciences and humanities in the 1960s and 70s (and thereafter), I argue that at ‘Chicago,’ proto-Kuhnian language can be found going back to the 1940s; in those early days it is partly used to disparage the achievements of economic theorizing as promoted by others. A more self-congratulatory Kuhnian self-understanding of economics as a mature paradigm starts to get adopted around 1955 by George Stigler. One important new claim is that the later Kuhnian language gets adopted in part to divest ‘Chicago’ from its shared roots with Institutionalist economics. So, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the formation of a shared narrative at ‘Chicago.’ Second, I introduce contextual themes from Milton Friedman’s writings in the late 40s and 50s to help us understand the nature of realism at Chicago. Nutter’s dissertation helps in reading and illuminating Milton Friedman’s famous 1953 methodology paper in historical and intellectual context. Third, while this chapter notes some of the political ramifications of Chicago economics, my main aim is to help explain the manner in which Chicago attempted to chart a distinctive methodological course. This methodology has often been described as Marshallian with debts to the large-scale NBER studies. Rather than going over familiar territory, I call attention to the importance of proxies in Nutter’s empirical methodology. It is an unappreciated feature of the inductive, quantitative method that focused on the component structures of the economy that characterizes Chicago’s methodological outlook in this period. I show this by comparing Nutter’s dissertation to work done by Stigler, then at Columbia. We know from Stigler’s correspondence with Friedman that in this period they discussed methodological matters. What is less well known is that Friedman is explicitly credited for Stigler’s methodological insights in Stigler's Five Lectures at LSE. The fifth lecture, “Competition in the United States,” covers similar territory as Nutter’s project. Comparing the work by Stigler and Nutter sheds light on the nature of Chicago methodology as it was being developed away from foundations laid by Frank Knight and Henry Simons in the late 1940s and 1950s and opening up the door to (right wing) social engineering as exemplified by Harberger. I present my analysis through the published critical reception of both works among economists. A fourth reason to focus on Nutter’s dissertation is that it was featured in a Fortune magazine article in January 1952. So, it provides a useful entry into how politically important ‘Chicago’ research was marketed to a wider audience. This connects to issues explored by Phil Mirowski and his students, Rob van Horn and Eddie Nik-kah. So, Nutter’s dissertation can help us see how ‘sponsored’ research looks at ‘Chicago at the time. This is especially important because it has been claimed that Director’s Free Market Study group promoted a change from classically liberal views on monopoly, which condemned labor and employer monopolies, to a more pro-business stance
Framing Preglimony: Exploring the Implications of Pregnancy Support Models through Family Law Values
No full textThe author discusses preglimony and the rights and responsibilities of expecting parents
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