scholarly journals 25. Stellar Photometry and Polarimetry

1982 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-256
Author(s):  
J.A. Graham

Most astronomical observers at some time become involved in photometric techniques even if the participation may be limited to a rough check of the brightness of an object for measurement at the telescope. The field is in fact so broad that much of the current work is more appropriate to the reviews of other IAU Commissions and it has become accepted that Commission 25 deals mainly with those subjects which are of common practical interest to photometrists and polarimetrists around the world. We are now at the beginning of a new stage, that of observation with space telescopes and it will be important to ensure that the transition to the new techniques of measurement is a smooth one. In our review, we restrict our discussion to stellar work, leaving to other Commissions the consideration of photometry and polarimetry of stellar systems, solar system objects and gaseous nebulae. We consider recent work concerning detectors, photometric and polarimetric systems, standard stars and sequences, catalogues of new material and related items of interest to observers. The reference numbering system of Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts is used where possible. We shall draw attention to some important conference volumes and to some major observing projects completed during the last 3 years and finally shall look briefly towards probable developments and future prospects for the times ahead.

Author(s):  
Lars Larsson

For the individuals participating in the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, one question must have recurrently emerged as a prime concern: ‘Should I mistrust traditions and consider innovations’? This concern encompassed the introduction of new material culture and new techniques of obtaining food. It also involved new ways of conceiving the world and people's place in it. And it was affected by important – sometimes catastrophic – changes in the physical environment. It must be emphasized that the question of whether to mistrust traditions and consider innovations is not only a matter of concern for prehistoric actors. It is also important for those who are making prehistory today. As is presented in this chapter, the facts presented for south Scandinavia have been variously interpreted as indicating the rapid introduction of a ‘Neolithic’ package with new ways of thinking and acting, as well as reflecting a mixture of traditions and gradually incorporated innovations. Future research into the transition should focus on combining new problem-oriented excavation with fresh ideas about how the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic occurred.


2007 ◽  
Vol 555 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Umezawa ◽  
Kohmei Halada ◽  
Yoshikazu Shinohara

The concept of environmental conscious materials, ecomaterials, is reviewed. It has dispersed and recognized in the world as contributing to a sustainable society. Advanced models for secondary materials utilization, environmental benign processes and new material recycling systems are introduced.


Author(s):  
Vasyl Karpo ◽  
Nataliia Nechaieva-Yuriichuk

From ancient times till nowadays information plays a key role in the political processes. The beginning of XXI century demonstrated the transformation of global security from military to information, social etc. aspects. The widening of pandemic demonstrated the weaknesses of contemporary authoritarian states and the power of human-oriented states. During the World War I the theoretical and practical interest toward political manipulation and political propaganda grew definitely. After 1918 the situation developed very fast and political propaganda became the part of political influence. XX century entered into the political history as the millennium of propaganda. The collapse of the USSR and socialist system brought power to new political actors. The global architecture of the world has changed. Former Soviet republic got independence and tried to separate from Russia. And Ukraine was between them. The Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine was the start point for a number of processes in world politics. But the most important was the fact that the role and the place of information as the challenge to world security was reevaluated. The further annexation of Crimea, the attempt to legitimize it by the comparing with the referendums in Scotland and Catalonia demonstrated the willingness of Russian Federation to keep its domination in the world. The main difference between the referendums in Scotland and in Catalonia was the way of Russian interference. In 2014 (Scotland) tried to delegitimised the results of Scottish referendum because they were unacceptable for it. But in 2017 we witness the huge interference of Russian powers in Spain internal affairs, first of all in spreading the independence moods in Catalonia. The main conclusion is that the world has to learn some lessons from Scottish and Catalonia cases and to be ready to new challenges in world politics in a format of information threats.


Horizons ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-305
Author(s):  
Lieven Boeve

ABSTRACTThe Church has the duty in every age of examining the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the gospel, so that it can offer in a manner appropriate to each generation replies to the continual human questionings on the meaning of this life and the life to come and on how they are related. There is a need, then, to be aware of, and to understand, the world in which we live, together with its expectations, its desires and its frequently dramatic character (Gaudium et spes 4).


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Svetlana Neretina

The article rejects the reading of Thomas More's Utopia as, first, a statement of More's own views on the ideal state and, accordingly, his definition not only as a humanist, but as a communist, and, secondly, an attempt is made to present the humanistic foundations of his ideas and ways of expressing them. These ways of expression are connected with the tropological way of his thinking, expressed through satire and irony, with an eye to ancient examples, which was characteristic of the philosophy, poetics and politics of humanism, one of the tasks of which was to try to build a new society (especially relevant in the period of geographical discoveries), architecture, an unprecedented ratio of natural objects (archimboldeski). The models for "Utopia" were the works of Plato, Lucian, and Cicero. It is written in the spirit of the times, with criticism of state structures, private property, the distinction between the private and the public, and openness to all ideas. Intellectual disorientation of readers is a specific creative task of More writer, his test of their ability to quickly change the optics, to consider history as an alternative world, radically different from our own, but connected with it. Thanks to an extremely pronounced intellectual tension, it goes beyond the limits of time, like the works of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Marx... Utopia can be represented as a dystopia, if we take into account the performative nature of the latter, which contributes to the instantaneous translation of words into action, realizing the world of utopia. Dystopia is the answer to utopia with a change of sign: about the same thing, changing the optics, you can say "yes" and "no". This means that in the modern world, indeed, and for a long time, virtual consciousness becomes little different from the real one, and imagination replaces the theoretical position, acquiring its form, turning theory into fiction. A hypothesis is put forward about the presence of many utopian countries in" Utopia": Achorians, Polylerites, Macarians, Anemolians.


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Z. Woinarski ◽  
Greg Connors ◽  
Don C. Franklin

We create monthly maps of nectar availability for the 1.4 x 106 km2 jurisdiction of the Northern Territory, Australia. These are based on a combination of vegetation mapping and a series of indices of plant species specific nectar scoring. The maps reveal complex spatial and temporal variation in nectar availability, but most notably a greater nectar resource in the monsoon-influenced north than in the arid south, and a peak in nectar availability in the dry season. The latter is associated with the extensive tropical eucalypt forests (especially those co-dominated by Eucalyptus miniata and E. tetrodonta). In contrast, wet season nectar availability in these forests is limited, but riparian and swampland forests, typically dominated by Melaleuca species, provide rich but spatially restricted nectar resources. The extensive and rich nectar resources available in eucalypt forests in the dry season supplement the diets of many species which are not primarily nectarivorous. This resource helps shape the singularity of northern Australian eucalypt forests relative to other extensive forests elsewhere in the world. Nectarivores remain in the system through a combination of movements across a number of scales, habitat shifting, and diet shifting. The latter is aided by the peaking of invertebrate and fruit resources at the times of minimum nectar production; a shuffling in resource availability brought about by the extreme climatic seasonality.


PMLA ◽  
1920 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Beatty

A writer in The Annual Register, soon after the death of Charles Churchill, gave to the world the first account of his life; this was followed by The Genuine Memoirs of Mr. Charles Churchill. To Bell's edition of the poet's works is prefixed a life of the author by Doctor Johnson; this does not add anything new. Kippis, in his Biographia Britannica, followed most of the inaccuracies of the first biographer, but added some new material from his personal information. Anderson used these sources in the British Poets (1795). Robert Southey in his Life of Cowper, and William Tooke in an edition of Churchill's Works (1804) made more elaborate studies of the poet's life, but, unfortunately, were satisfied with earlier biographies or neglected to give careful references to original material. John Forster, in The Edinburgh Review (1845) pointed out many of Tooke's inaccuracies. Every biographer of Churchill from Chalmers in his English Poets to Leslie Stephen in The Dictionary of National Biography, followed Tooke, or Tooke modified by Forster. In 1903, R. F. Scott in his Admissions to the College of St. John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, made several valuable contributions to our knowledge about the early career of the satirist. Ferdinand Putschi, in Charles Churchill, sein Leben und seine Werke (1909), had not seen Mr. Scott's book, and followed the earlier biographers.


2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick O’Brien

This essay has been written to serve as a prolegomenon for a new journal in Global History. It opens with a brief depiction of the two major approaches to the field (through connexions and comparisons) and moves on to survey first European and then other historiographical traditions in writing ‘centric’ histories up to the times of the Imperial Meridian 1783–1825, when Europe’s geopolitical power over all other parts of the world became hegemonic. Thereafter, and for the past two centuries, all historiographical traditions converged either to celebrate or react to the rise of the ‘West’. The case for the restoration of Global History rests upon its potential to construct negotiable meta-narratives, based upon serious scholarship that will become cosmopolitan in outlook and meet the needs of our globalizing world.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-224
Author(s):  
Zoran Kindjic

After having pointed to the different religious concepts of the origin of evil, the author focuses on the discussion of Hinduism as a typical paradigm of monism. Since the Indian deities are actually manifestations of the eternal arch principle, they contain within themselves the unity of opposites, i.e. they have both light and dark side. Evil which affects an individual is interpreted as sinning against the universal cosmic and moral order. The doctrine that man's destiny is determined by one's deeds in the previous incarnations is almost widely accepted in India. The idea of karma at the same time provides the cosmic justice and releases God from the responsibility for evil in the world. The impersonal law of karma also has the educational purpose. The whole world derived from the brahman and under the process of evolution. Through the numerous lives and the different experiences, suffering from the consequences of one's own behavior, an individual learn from the spiritual lessons. In the times of the cosmic crises, when evil prevails in the world, Vishnu incarnates in the figure of avatar to win over evil and to restore the blocked evolution. Although evil is defeated, it still cannot be entirely uprooted from the physical world. The salvation for man is possible only after dissolving personal ego and having enlightened oneself, transcends to the sphere of dualism.


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