Art and Architecture as Opponents against the Cultural Identity Loss in the Context of a Post-Industrial Environment - The Case of the Manufacturing Villages of Cebolais de Cima and Retaxo, Portugal

Facing the dramatic desertification extent of the territory under study, this article presents the results of an experimental methodology approach on the regeneration of landscapes in the national territory, where man, communities, architecture, art and landscape combine in a visible result, image of synthesis, itself revealing the problem. The deactivation process of the local textile industry, in the territory of Cebolais de Cima and Retaxo, Castelo Branco, Portugal, was marked by a period of stagnation, abandonment and degradation of its manufacturing sites and consequently, of deep degradation of the urban and human landscape. This landscape, which was mainly characterized by an intensive work environment and industrial production, is today essentially portrayed through a legacy of abandoned buildings, materials and machinery, scattered throughout the distorted scenery. It is therefore in a physical, social and human environment with a high rate of abandonment and degradation that matrixes will be found for a process of collaboration between an active group of local forces and the critical mass offered by the University. This was intended to incite a strong awakening of the various agents involved in the alarming conformism installed in these settlements, an environment that transcends the entire frontier territory of the interior border between Portugal and Spain. The beginning of this path with several steps and still in a preliminary stage was offered to students of architecture in Lisbon. It was the opportunity to learn realities other than those of their daily lives, in a universe of excess of information, but weak reflection. It also allowed them to challenge their points of view against the ones of those few who still live in the territory and preferred to stay rather than emigrate as most already did. For this difficult rendezvous, several actions were planned during two years, in Lisbon and Cebolais de Cima and Retaxo, culminating in the so-called Creative Assault, the "occupation" of an abandoned factory intended as a wake-up call for awareness. For three days, various activities and exhibitions took place in this space, inviting the community and local authorities to participate, as well as the students involved in the various moments of work.

Healing Seismic Data with Phase Corrections for Processing of Single-Sensor Data in the Desert Environment

Acquiring data with single sensors or small arrays in a desert environment may lead to challenging data quality for subsequent processing. We present a new approach to effectively "heal" such data and allow efficient processing and imaging without requiring any additional acquisition. A novel method combines the power of seismic beamforming and time-frequency masking originating from speech processing. First, we create an enhanced version of the data with beamforming or local stacking. Beamforming effectively suppresses scattered noise and finds weak reflection signals, albeit sacrificing some higher frequencies. Next, we employ a seismic time-frequency masking procedure to fix the original data while using beamformed data as a guide. Time-frequency masking effectively fixes corrupt and broken phase of the original data. After such data-driven healing, prestack data can be effectively processed and imaged, while maintaining the higher frequencies lost during beamforming.

Trichome Biomineralization and Soil Chemistry in Brassicaceae from Mediterranean Ultramafic and Calcareous Soils

Trichome biomineralization is widespread in plants but detailed chemical patterns and a possible influence of soil chemistry are poorly known. We explored this issue by investigating trichome biomineralization in 36 species of Mediterranean Brassicaceae from ultramafic and calcareous soils. Our aims were to chemically characterize biomineralization of different taxa, including metallophytes, under natural conditions and to investigate whether divergent Ca, Mg, Si and P-levels in the soil are reflected in trichome biomineralization and whether the elevated heavy metal concentrations lead to their integration into the mineralized cell walls. Forty-two samples were collected in the wild while a total of 6 taxa were brought into cultivation and grown in ultramafic, calcareous and standard potting soils in order to investigate an effect of soil composition on biomineralization. The sampling included numerous known hyperaccumulators of Ni. EDX microanalysis showed CaCO3 to be the dominant biomineral, often associated with considerable proportions of Mg—independent of soil type and wild versus cultivated samples. Across 6 of the 9 genera studied, trichome tips were mineralized with calcium phosphate, in Bornmuellera emarginata the P to Ca-ratio was close to that of pure apatite-calcium phosphate (Ca5(PO4)3OH). A few samples also showed biomineralization with Si, either only at the trichome tips or all over the trichome. Additionally, we found traces of Mn co-localized with calcium phosphate in Bornmuellera emarginata and traces of Ni were detected in trichomes of the Ni-hyperaccumulator Odontarrhena chalcidica. Our data from wild and cultivated plants could not confirm any major effect of soil chemistry on the chemistry of trichome biominerals. Hyperaccumulation of Ni in the plants is not mirrored in high levels of Ni in the trichomes, nor do we find large amounts of Mn. A comparison based on plants from cultivation (normal, calcareous and serpentine soils, Mg:Ca-ratios ca 1:2 to 1:20) shows at best a very weak reflection of different Mg:Ca-ratios in the mineralized trichomes. The plants studied seem to be able to maintain highly conserved biomineralization patterns across a wide range of soil chemistries.

Influence of interpersonal relationships on acquaintance with digital technologies

The article analyzes features of a modern family and shows the role of parent-child relations in the formation of the "I" image of a younger pupil; relationship between the peculiarities of parent-child relations and the degree of exposure of primary school children to the computer game reality is revealed. The thesis is substantiated that a certain type of upbringing, peculiarities of interaction with a child in a family provoke an excessive enthusiasm for computer games in children of primary school age, causing destructive changes in the construction of the "I" image of a younger pupil. The image of the "I" of active users of computer games is characterized by the indefiniteness of descriptions of the physical "I", weak reflection of their own emotional experiences and bodily sensations, unrealistic (overestimated) level claims, inadequate self-esteem. Child-parent relations in families where active and inactive users of computer games are brought up differ in the types of parental attitudes: acceptance, authoritarian hypersocialization, infantilization and symbiosis.

Detecting fracture zones in granite with seismic and audio-magnetotelluric methods

Geological disposal is a feasible and safe method for dealing with the high-level radioactive waste problem at present. The Beishan area is the key area preselected for high-level radioactive waste geological disposal in Gansu Province, China. The Jijicao rock block is currently the most extensively studied area, where there are several fracture zones in borehole BS15. In 2011, a remarkable conductive anomaly near the BS15 was detected using a 4-km-long audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) profile with 50 m station space crossing the borehole. To study the anomaly, a short seismic survey was shot along the part of the AMT profile. This paper presents an example for detection of the fracture zones in granite using AMT and seismic methods at Beishan. The AMT data inversion model agrees with the borehole well-logging data and weak reflections are related to the fractured zones. The seismic detection may help in interpreting the cause of the conductive anomaly, and the conductive anomaly could determine whether there are fracture zones within the weak reflection areas. The simultaneous surveys can complement each other for detecting fracture zones. Besides this, such joint detection may be used to estimate whether there exist aquiferous fracture zones at depth.

Constraining X-ray reflection in the low-luminosity AGN NGC 3718 using NuSTAR and XMM–Newton

ABSTRACT One distinctive feature of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) is the relatively weak reflection features they may display in the X-ray spectrum, which can result from the disappearance of the torus with decreasing accretion rates. Some material, however, must surround the active nucleus, i.e. the accretion flow itself and, possibly, a flattened-out or thinned torus. In this work, we study whether reflection is indeed absent or undetectable due to its intrinsically weak features together with the low statistics inherent to LLAGNs. Here, we focus on NGC 3718 (L/LEdd ∼ 10−5) combining observations from XMM–Newton and the deepest to date NuSTAR (0.5–79 keV) spectrum of a LLAGNs, to constrain potential reflectors, and analyse how the fitted coronal parameters depend on the reflection model. We test models representing both an accretion disc (Relxill) and a torus-like (MYTorus and Borus) neutral reflector. From a statistical point of view, reflection is not required, but its inclusion allows to place strong constraints on the geometry and physical features of the surroundings: both neutral reflectors (torus) tested should be Compton thin (NH < 1023.2cm−2) and preferentially cover a large fraction of the sky. If the reflected light instead arises from an ionized reflector, a highly ionized case is preferred. These models produce an intrinsic power-law spectral index in the range [1.81–1.87], where the torus models result in steeper slopes. The cut-off energy of the power-law emission also changes with the inclusion of reflection models, resulting in constrained values for the disc reflectors and unconstrained values for torus reflectors.