Sustainable Solutions with Geosynthetics and Alternative Construction Materials—A Review

Geosynthetics have proven to provide sustainable solutions for geotechnical and geoenvironmental problems when used with natural materials. Therefore, the expected benefits to the environment when geosynthetics are associated with unconventional or alternative construction materials will be even greater. This paper addresses the use of geosynthetics with wasted materials in different applications. The potential uses of alternative materials such as wasted tires, construction and demolition wastes, and plastic bottles are presented and discussed considering results from laboratory and field tests. Combinations of geosynthetics and alternative construction materials applied to reinforced soil structures, drainage systems for landfills, barriers, and stabilisation of embankments on soft grounds are discussed. The results show the feasibility of such combinations, and that they are beneficial to the environment and in line with the increasing trend towards a circular economy and sustainable development.

A note on a family of surfaces with $$p_g=q=2$$ and $$K^2=7$$

We study a family of surfaces of general type with $$p_g=q=2$$ p g = q = 2 and $$K^2=7$$ K 2 = 7 , originally constructed by C. Rito in [35]. We provide an alternative construction of these surfaces, that allows us to describe their Albanese map and the corresponding locus $$\mathcal {M}$$ M in the moduli space of surfaces of general type. In particular we prove that $$\mathcal {M}$$ M is an open subset, and it has three connected components, all of which are 2-dimensional, irreducible and generically smooth

In Things we Trust: Hybridity and the Borders of Categorization in Archaeology

The aim of the article is to question essentialist con- structions of archaeological cultures with the help of Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of hybridity. Using house urns found in central and northern Europe as a case study, Bhabha’s hybridity concept is presented and discussed as an alternative to traditional archaeolog- ical concepts of cultural interpretation. Hybridity, which is also a key concept in postcolonial theory, offers an alternative key to the interpretation of cul- ture and suggests that no culture should be seen as static and homogeneous. The common understanding of house urns is therefore informed and challenged by the concept of hybridity, its alternative construction of culture and alternative ways to understand arte- facts. Inspired by the concept of hybridity, I argue that house urns deserve much broader interpretations than as mere manifestations of cultural difference or cultural belonging.

Multilevel polarization for quantum Channels

Recently, a purely quantum version of polar codes has been proposed in~\cite{DGMS19} based on a quantum channel combining and splitting procedure, where a randomly chosen two-qubit Clifford unitary acts as a channel combining operation. Here, we consider the quantum polar code construction using the same channel combining and splitting procedure as in~\cite{DGMS19}, but with a fixed two-qubit Clifford unitary. For the family of Pauli channels, we show that polarization happens in multi-levels, where synthesized quantum virtual channels tend to become completely noisy, half-noisy, or noiseless. Further, we present a quantum polar code exploiting the multilevel nature of polarization, and provide an efficient decoding for this code. We show that half-noisy channels can be frozen by fixing their inputs in either the amplitude or the phase basis, which allows reducing the number of preshared EPR pairs compared to the construction in~\cite{DGMS19}. We provide an upper bound on the number of preshared EPR pairs, which is an equality in the case of the quantum erasure channel. To improve the speed of polarization, we propose an alternative construction, which again polarizes in multi-levels, and the previous upper bound on the number of preshared EPR pairs also holds. For a quantum erasure channel, we confirm by numerical analysis that the multilevel polarization happens relatively faster for the alternative construction.

Comments on chiral algebras and Ω-deformations

Every six-dimensional $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (2, 0) SCFT on R6 contains a set of protected operators whose correlation functions are controlled by a two-dimensional chiral algebra. We provide an alternative construction of this chiral algebra by performing an Ω-deformation of a topological-holomorphic twist of the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (2, 0) theory on R6 and restricting to the cohomology of a specific supercharge. In addition, we show that the central charge of the chiral algebra can be obtained by performing equivariant integration of the anomaly polynomial of the six-dimensional theory. Furthermore, we generalize this construction to include orbifolds of the R4 transverse to the chiral algebra plane.

“Famous, Beloved, Reviled, Respected, Feared, Celebrated:” Media Construction of Greta Thunberg

In the 16 months before TIME magazine naming Greta Thunberg its Person of the Year, as her influence grew, so too did the news media’s attempts to make sense of her. This project analyzes profiles of Greta Thunberg to understand how journalists constructed the persona that has become “Greta.” We argue the paradoxical framing of Thunberg as exceptional and fierce and childlike contributes to an alternative construction of girlhood grounded in the positive portrayal of her Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. While featuring ASD as her “superpower” is potentially progressive, we argue foregrounding Thunberg’s whiteness and age cements her construction as the iconic voice of the climate crisis movement, potentially downplaying the need for collective action to end climate change.

Bridging the gap between rectifying developables and tangent developables: a family of developable surfaces associated with a space curve

There are two familiar constructions of a developable surface from a space curve. The tangent developable is a ruled surface for which the rulings are tangent to the curve at each point and relative to this surface the absolute value of the geodesic curvature κ g of the curve equals the curvature κ . The alternative construction is the rectifying developable. The geodesic curvature of the curve relative to any such surface vanishes. We show that there is a family of developable surfaces that can be generated from a curve, one surface for each function k that is defined on the curve and satisfies | k | ≤ κ , and that the geodesic curvature of the curve relative to each such constructed surface satisfies κ g = k .