This article aims to interpret the phenomenon of evil in the midst of the current pandemic situation, washing away the hypothesis according to which, hegemonically, evil appears in contemporary times ...as iniquity and it presents itself through two vectors, which mark a paradox. The first one inserts evil in a systematic dynamic (becoming) of producing disposable lives. The second, on the other hand, concerns a historical structure with a certain stability, which naturalizes the subhumanizing space of certain groups that end up living true "worlds of death" (Mbembe). This is clearly seen in Brazil and, especially, in the context of the new coronavirus pandemic. The article intends to give an account of this reality, through a critical and phenomenological dialogue with Saint Augustine, Hannah Arendt and with decolonial thinking. Keywords: Iniquity. Evil. Phenomenology. Otherness. O presente artigo almeja interpretar a fenomeno do mal em meio ao atual quadro pandemico, lavando em consideracao a hipotese segundo a qual, hegemonicamente, o mal aparece na contemporaneidade como iniquidade e esta se apresente por meio de dois vetores, que assinalam um paradoxo. O primeiro deles insere o mal em uma dinamica (devir) sistematica de producao de vidas descartaveis. Ja o segundo diz respeito a uma estrutura historica possuidora de certa estabilidade, a qual naturaliza o espaco subhumanizador de certos grupos que acabam por viver verdadeiros "mundos de morte" (Mbembe). Isso se apresenta claramente no Brasil e, em especial, no contexto da pandemia do novo coronavirus. O artigo pretende dar conta dessa realidade, por meio de um dialogo critico e fenomenologico com Santo Agostinho, Hannah Arendt e com o pensamento decolonial. Palavras-chave: Iniquidade. Mal. Fenomenologia. Alteridade.
Developed democracies are settling an increased number of refugees, many of whom face challenges integrating into host societies. We developed a flexible data-driven algorithm that assigns refugees ...across resettlement locations to improve integration outcomes. The algorithm uses a combination of supervised machine learning and optimal matching to discover and leverage synergies between refugee characteristics and resettlement sites. The algorithm was tested on historical registry data from two countries with different assignment regimes and refugee populations, the United States and Switzerland. Our approach led to gains of roughly 40 to 70%, on average, in refugees' employment outcomes relative to current assignment practices. This approach can provide governments with a practical and cost-efficient policy tool that can be immediately implemented within existing institutional structures.
Abstract
Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is one of the main strategies to reach the European target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As most of the future building stock is already ...built, retrofitting existing buildings will play a significant role in reaching this goal. In Norway, buildings that undergo full retrofitting must fulfil the same energy efficiency requirements as new buildings. This is challenging, especially in the case of historic buildings. Improvements should not damage or change the existing structure. As it is often challenging to retrofit historic buildings, this paper aims to provide practical guidelines for building envelope retrofitting as well as identify key points that need to be taken into consideration in the design phase. First, retrofitting measures recommended in historic case study buildings in Norway are analyzed. Second, an overview of typical challenges for retrofitting historic buildings is given. These are identified from literature review and from experiences during the design phase. Interviews with public building owners, contractors, consultants and architects were conducted to discuss challenges from different perspectives. Finally, findings from the literature, interviews and case studies are discussed to identify similarities.
In Renaissance Rome, ancient ruins were preserved as often as they were mined for their materials. Although the question of what to preserve and how continued to be subject to debate, preservation ...acquired renewed force and urgency as the new papal capital rose upon the ruins of the ancient city. Preservation practices became more focused and effective in Renaissance Rome than ever before. This book offers a new interpretation of the ongoing life of ancient buildings within the expanding early modern city. While historians and archaeologists have long affirmed that early modern builders disregarded the protection of antiquity, this study provides the first systematic analysis of preservation problems as perceived by the Renaissance popes, the civic magistrates, and ordinary citizens. Drawing on new evidence, this compelling study explores how civic officials balanced the defense of specific sites against the pressing demands imposed by population growth, circulation, and notions of urban decorum. Above all, the preservation of antiquity remained an indispensable tool to advance competing political agendas in the papal capital. A broad range of preservation policies and practices are examined at the half-ruined Colosseum, the intact Pantheon, and the little-known but essential Renaissance bridge known as the Ponte Santa Maria. Rome has always incorporated change in light of its glorious past as well as in the more pragmatic context of contemporary development. This investigation not only reveals the complexity of preservation as a contested practice, but also challenges us to rethink the way people in the past understood history itself.
Wind farm power optimization through wake steering Howland, Michael F.; Lele, Sanjiva K.; Dabiri, John O.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
07/2019, Letnik:
116, Številka:
29
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Global power production increasingly relies on wind farms to supply low-carbon energy. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report predicted that renewable energy ...production must leap from 20% of the global energy mix in 2018 to 67% by 2050 to keep global temperatures from rising 1:5 °C above preindustrial levels. This increase requires reliable, low-cost energy production. However, wind turbines are often placed in close proximity within wind farms due to land and transmission line constraints, which results in wind farm efficiency degradation of up to 40% for wind directions aligned with columns of turbines. To increase wind farm power production, we developed a wake steering control scheme. This approach maximizes the power of a wind farm through yaw misalignment that deflects wakes away from downstream turbines. Optimization was performed with site-specific analytic gradient ascent relying on historical operational data. The protocol was tested in an operational wind farm in Alberta, Canada, resulting in statistically significant (P <0:05) power increases of 7–13% for wind speeds near the site average and wind directions which occur during less than 10% of nocturnal operation and 28–47% for low wind speeds in the same wind directions. Wake steering also decreased the variability in the power production of the wind farm by up to 72%. Although the resulting gains in annual energy production were insignificant at this farm, these statistically significant wake steering results demonstrate the potential to increase the efficiency and predictability of power production through the reduction of wake losses.
Abstract
Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage and protection of abandoned buildings is possible using new technologies in order to create a knowledge base to maintain the original ...condition of buildings as long as possible. This paper presents the digital geometric survey, combining photogrammetry and photogrammetry with drone for the documentation of a building located in the
Riviera Romagnola
. The fundamental task to survey historic buildings, in order to document their geometric and morphological features with very high accuracy, becomes an important incentive for the use of innovative hybrid approach. The building case study is the
Woodpecker
nightclub built in 1966 and abandoned in 1970 due to a fire that devastated the structure.
Prediction of solar irradiance is essential for minimizing energy costs and providing high power quality in electrical power grids with distributed solar photovoltaic generations. However, for ...residential and small commercial users deploying on-site photovoltaic generations, the historical irradiance data can not be obtained directly because of expensive solar irradiance meters. Thanks to increasingly improved weather forecasting service provided by local meteorological organizations, weather forecasting data such as temperature, dew point, humidity, visibility, wind speed and descriptive weather summary, are becoming readily available through the Internet, while the irradiance forecasting data are often unavailable. This paper proposes a novel solar prediction scheme for hourly day-ahead solar irradiance prediction by using the weather forecasting data. This study formulates the prediction problem as a structured output prediction problem jointly predicting multiple outputs simultaneously. The proposed prediction model is trained by using long short-term memory (LSTM) networks taking into account the dependence between consecutive hours of the same day. We compare persistence algorithm, linear least square regression and multilayered feedforward neural networks using backpropagation algorithm (BPNN) for solar irradiance prediction. The experimental results on a dataset collected in island of Santiago, Cape Verde, demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms these competitive algorithms for single output prediction. The proposed algorithm is %18.34 more accurate than BPNN in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) by using about 2 years training data to predict half-year testing data. Moreover, compared with BPNN, the proposed algorithm also shows less overfitting and better generalization capability. For a case using 10 years of historical data to predict 1 year of irradiance data, the prediction RMSE using the proposed LSTM algorithm decreases by 42.9% against BPNN.
•Weather forecasting data are used as input variables for irradiance prediction.•The prediction problem is formulated as a structured output prediction problem.•LSTM is applied to prediction of solar irradiance.
In recognition of this event, for each of the past three years, the Manitoba Historical Society has released a top-ten list of endangered historic structures around our province. Valleyview ...Building-Built between 1920 and 1924, this three-storey brick building on Brandon's North Hill enabled a new approach to the treatment of mental illness that embraced the goal of eventually discharging patients back into the community. MS River Rouge-Built in 1967 at Selkirk by the Purvis Boat Company, at a cost of $500,000, this 400-passenger ship provided three-hour cruises along the Red River.
Heritage under Pressure examines the relationship between the political perspective of the UK government on 'soft power' and the globalising effect of projects carried out by archaeologists and ...heritage professionals working in the historic environment. It exemplifies the nature of professional engagement and the role of the profession in working towards a theory of practice based on the integrity of data, the recovery and communication of information, and the application of data in real world situations. Individual papers raise complex and challenging issues, such as commemoration, identity, and political intervention. A further aim of the volume is to illustrate the role of professionals adhering to standards forged in the UK, in the context of world heritage under pressure. Papers also contribute to the emerging agenda developing as a result of the re-orientation of the UK following the Brexit vote, at once emphasising the global aspiration of the Uk's professional archaeological body - the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists - in relation to the global reach of UK academic practice. By implication the volume also addresses the relationship between professional practice and academic endeavour. The volume as a whole contributes to the emerging debate on the authorised heritage discourse and provides an agenda for the future of the profession.
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