The Roman fish tanks of the Western Mediterranean basin as potential scenarios for research on sea-level changes

PurposeThis paper analyses Roman fish tanks, which have functional elements that could be used to research on palaeo-sea-levels. Thus, the conditions of 37 installations in the Western Mediterranean basin are reviewed to identify those that have the best environmental and constructive conditions to be analyzed.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology was largely based on the review of existing scientific bibliography dealing with sea-level variations from studies on historical constructions, existing historical documentation on Roman fish tanks on the Mediterranean coast, as well as the fieldwork carried out in fish tanks on the Mediterranean coasts.FindingsThe Roman coastal fish tanks located in the shoreline of the Western Mediterranean Sea have turned out to be an excellent indicator of sea-level changes. Nevertheless, current coastal retreat, erosion and storm surges are posing significant threats to their preservation, and they could be considered as a heritage at risk of disappearance. Moreover, variations in the tectonic behaviour of the different coastal sectors make it challenging to select these facilities as an indicator of the sea level.Originality/valueThe analysis of Late Holocene sea-level changes and palaeoenvironments from archaeological and biological evidences, although not without difficulties, is very convenient because it provides very precise data that cannot be obtained with other absolute dating methods. This approach is increasingly gaining popularity with researchers and is very innovative in its method of combining the results of several scientific disciplines.

Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry

The laws of thermodynamics are usually formulated under the assumption of infinitely large environments. While this idealization facilitates theoretical treatments, real physical systems are always finite and their interaction range is limited. These constraints have consequences for important tasks such as cooling, not directly captured by the second law of thermodynamics. Here, we study catalytic transformations that cannot be achieved when a system exclusively interacts with a finite environment. Our core result consists of constructive conditions for these transformations, which include the corresponding global unitary operation and the explicit states of all the systems involved. From this result we present various findings regarding the use of catalysts for cooling. First, we show that catalytic cooling is always possible if the dimension of the catalyst is sufficiently large. In particular, the cooling of a qubit using a hot qubit can be maximized with a catalyst as small as a three-level system. We also identify catalytic enhancements for tasks whose implementation is possible without a catalyst. For example, we find that in a multiqubit setup catalytic cooling based on a three-body interaction outperforms standard (non-catalytic) cooling using higher order interactions. Another advantage is illustrated in a thermometry scenario, where a qubit is employed to probe the temperature of the environment. In this case, we show that a catalyst allows to surpass the optimal temperature estimation attained only with the probe.

Conditions for the solvability of nonlinear equations systems in Euclidean spaces

The solution of many applied problems is to find a solution of nonlinear equations systems in finite- dimensional Euclidean spaces. The problem of finding the solution of a nonlinear system is divided into two problems: 1. The existence of a solution of a nonlinear equations system; in the case of nonunique of the solution, it is necessary to find the number of these solutions and their surroundings. 2. Finding the solution of a system of nonlinear equations with a given accuracy. Many publications are devoted to solving problem 2, namely the construction of iterative methods, their convergence and estimates of the solution accuracy. In contrast to problem 2, for problem 1 there is no general algorithm for solving this task, there are no constructive conditions for the existence of a solution of a nonlinear equations system in Euclidean spaces. In this article, in finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces, the constructive conditions for the existence of a solution of nonlinear systems of polynomial form are found. The connection of these conditions with the linear polynomial interpolant of the minimum norm, generated by a scalar product with Gaussian measure and the conditions of its existence, is given.

Evaluation of a Prototype for Water Heating in Agroindustries Using Foucault Current

Based on the observation of the effects of energy generation on climate change, efforts have been carried out to develop technologies to reduce polluting energy sources. In this context, the rational use and improvement of the efficiency of water heating systems can play an important role, contributing to lower energy consumption. This study evaluated a prototype for water heating for use in agroindustry. The prototype was designed for a possible utilization of mechanical energy in order to change the magnetic flux produced by permanent magnets, generating thermal energy by Foucault currents. This system presented yields of 64.74%, 65.13% and 64.48% for the rotor configurations with six magnets without pole reversal (6ISI), four magnets with reversal (4ICI), and four magnets without reversal (4ISI), respectively. For comparison purposes, a resistive water heating system was also evaluated for the same study conditions, obtaining an efficiency of 89.21%. The proposed inductive system did not present satisfactory results for constructive conditions presented in the study.

The Order of Performance; Constructive Conditions

Chapter 47 concerns the order in which each party to a contract must render or tender his or her performance. The significance of this issue is that if party A must render or tender performance before or simultaneously with party B, then unless A has performed or tendered B, is not obliged to perform and will not be in breach for not performing.. Where neither the contract nor the circumstances provide an answer to the order-of-performance issue the answer is supplied by implication of law. Generally speaking the law favors the implication of simultaneous performance, if that can be achieved. If it cannot reasonably be implied that the parties’ performances are to be simultaneous, the usual implication is that if one party’s performance takes time and the other party’s performance does not, the performance that takes time must be rendered first.

On the Usefulness of Cooperation in N Person Games

The N person games in which each player maximizes his payoff function are considered. We have studied an interesting question for the cooperative game theory about the usefulness of uniting the N players in a union. The aim of such cooperation is for each player to get a positive increase to his guaranteed payoff. We have obtained some effective sufficient conditions under which the joining of the players in union is useful for each player. The linear case, specially, is being considered. In the second part of the paper, we have studied the question about the usefulness of cooperation of the N players in the presence of the (N+1)th player, an ill-intentioned destructive player, whose whole aim is not to win but to harm each player individually, and also the union of these players, for example, global terrorism. It should be noted that the considered situation in the second part is related to A. V. Kryazhimskiy’s talk delivered in the summer of 2014. We obtain constructive conditions under which the union of the players is beneficial in this situation as well.

Research on the Axial Load Transmission Function of Cast-in-Place Pile in Xigeda Rock Stratum

Load transmission characteristics and rules of pile foundation’s soil-pile system have become one of the basic research contents for pile foundation researchers. Given the different geological and constructive conditions, the load-bearing features of pile foundations in different places have their own rules. Hence, research on the features of load transmission in different places has turned out to be an important project facing all the pile foundation researchers. The Xigeda-rock group is widely spread in Xichang-Panzhihua area in Sichuan Province. This rock stratum is a kind of extremely soft rock, with the nature of argillization, softening, hydrating and cracking with water. According to the static load test data from the pile test in Xinjiu of Panzhihua, this thesis obtained the load-settlement curve with displacement coordinate transformation method. And it is then compared with the actually measured load-settlement curve. Ultimately, the model and value range for parameters of axial load transmission function for cast-in-place pile in Xigeda-rock stratum is proposed.

Critical Race Realism: Re-Claiming the Antidiscrimination Principle through the Doctrine of Good Faith in Contract Law

This Article comprises the last leg of a larger project I have undertaken on the implied obligation of good faith in contract law. I have argued elsewhere that, as a descriptive matter, the doctrine of good faith and fair dealing in contract law, despite some theoretical controversy in the established scholarship on the doctrine, functions in contemporary contract law not as an implied contract term—as it was originally conceived—but as a rhetorical proxy for judicial analyses of material breach and constructive conditions relating to underlying breach of contract claims. While such applications of good faith have been of great functional value to courts, lawyers, and students of contract law, I have argued that these developments have caused good faith jurisprudence to languish in an impoverished state and to further detach from the doctrine’s equitable roots in implicit contractual obligation. As such, I also have argued from a critical race perspective that, as a normative matter and due to the inadequacies of civil rights remedies, good faith should be used to prohibit discriminatory conduct based on race, gender, sexual identity, age, and/or other categories of identity in the contractual context.

NOISE-INDUCED UNIDIRECTIONAL TRANSPORT

Constructive conditions for existence of unidirectional transport are given for systems with state-dependent noise and for forced thermal ratchets. Using them, domains of parameters corresponding to unidirectional transport are identified. Some results of numerical experiments are presented.

Hierarchy of Periodic Solutions for Hamiltonian Systems and their Applications to Celestial Mechanics

A systematic investigation has been carried out for periodic solutions for standard-form Hamiltonian systems containing a small parameter/the principal problem of dynamics/. An efficient method of investigation of conditions for periodicity of solutions has been developed. Besides fitting the initial conditions of the action-angle variables, the idea of fitting the values of the parameters of the problem is used. Constructive conditions are obtained for the existence of periodic solutions in both principal and degenerate cases, as well as necessary conditions for their stability; algorithms have been developed for constructing these solutions as series in integer powers of the small parameter. To study particular periodic solutions /by high order resonances/, canonical transformations of the initial equations to a special form are used.