Impact of wine vessels on the properties of rose wine made from Saperavi

Viticulture - winemaking is one of the oldest activities of mankind, which dates back centuries. In Georgia there are such grape varieties and such traditional methods of winemaking that are not found in other countries. For example, Saperavi grape and production of Qvevri (pitcher) wine. Saperavi is an ancient Georgian grape variety on which Georgian winemaking is based today.We have established experimentally the possibility of making high quality rose wine with various characteristics from Saperavi grown in Kakheti region using different wine vessels, such as stainless steel reservoir, oak barrel, traditional Georgian Qvevri (pitcher), under production conditions. The physical, chemical and organoleptic properties of various wines that provide the individuality of the wine have been determined.The main quantities characteristic to rose wine differ from one another, which is obviously due to the vessel in which the wine was made. For example, the wine, fermented and aged in the barrel has the most density because the tannins from the oak barrel increase it; the rose wine, made in the reservoir, has the lowest extract; in the case of Qvevri (pitcher) wine, the mass of dry matter is increased at the expense of the constituent substances of the clay of the pitcher; the wine made in the pitcher has the lowest titratable acidity because the wine acids go into the reaction with the mineral substances of the pitcher clay and the overall acidity decreases; the barrel and Qvevri rose wine has slightly higher volatile acidity. Here the reason for that should also be found in the porosity of the barrel and the pitcher.The various wines produced differ from one another organoleptically as well, which shows the role of the vessel in forming the taste properties of the wine. The different vessels used change all the components of the sensorics.All three wines are interesting in their own way, but the rose Qvevri wine is special for the taste of the traditional Georgian pitcher is best combined with the rose wine made with European technology and gentle processing.

Integrated foreign languages teaching: a concept of the English language textbook for engineering majors

Since 2017 new state educational standards for higher education have been introduced and contain the fourth universal competence (UC-4) which refers to the notion “business communication”. In this relation, the paper considers the issue of creating an up-to-date English language textbook for engineering majors in compliance with the requirements of the new state educational standards according to the methodology of the integrated teaching of foreign languages. The author presents such concept emphasizing the fact that engineering majors – and automobile engineering majors in particular – lack modern professionally oriented textbooks of English. Research methods include: analysis of the requirements of the state educational standards, scientific sources on integrated foreign languages and professional disciplines teaching; modelling a concept of the English language textbook. The purpose of the present paper is to introduce a concept of the textbook according to the model of integrated foreign languages teaching as part of the methodology of integrated foreign languages and professional disciplines teaching. In this relation, the author clarifies the difference between the Russian methodology of integrated foreign languages and professional disciplines teaching and the European technology of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The author describes features of three models of integrated teaching in Russia and gives grounds for choosing the “golden mean” – integrated foreign language teaching as the basis for creating professionally oriented textbooks of English. The research results include also the author’s introducing the notion of zones of near and further integration which are characterized by a different degree of content and competence integration into students’ learning professional disciplines and acquiring professional competences. The zones of integration help to differentiate the textbook for teaching professionally oriented General English and the textbook for teaching courses of professional English. The concept contributes to disclosing the previously proposed idea of the developing of the integrated foreign language professional communicative competence because it introduces principles for creating English language textbooks and their key components. Although the concept is worked out for creating textbooks of English for students of automobile engineering, but it may as well be applied for all engineering majors. The concept will be detailed as the textbooks are being created and piloted at the same time.

Hydrogen–The Bridge Between Africa and Europe

This chapter describes a European energy system based on 50% renewable electricity and 50% green hydrogen, which can be achieved by 2050. The green hydrogen shall consist of hydrogen produced in Europe, complemented by hydrogen imports, especially from North Africa. Hydrogen import from North Africa will be beneficial for both Europe and North Africa. A bold energy sector strategy with an important infrastructure component is suggested, which differs from more traditional bottom-up sectoral strategies. This approach guarantees optimized use of (existing) infrastructure, has low risk and cost, improves Europe’s energy security and supports European technology leadership. In North Africa it would foster economic development, boost export, create future-oriented jobs in a high-tech sector and support social stability.

The transformative power of European technology in resource exploitation: reflections on the oil presses and railways of colonial Nigeria

Technological innovations, which in the nineteenth century were principally developed by European nations, were a crucial factor in transforming economies – not only those of the countries in which they originated, but also those of their colonies. This case study of Nigeria explores the way the British controlled the colony and subjugated the local people as a result of their superior technology. Upon taking over the territory, to aid the country's economic development, they began to construct railway lines to link major resource zones of the north and south. This facilitated the more efficient shipment of natural resources from these zones to the coastal ports for onward shipment to Britain. Indigenous production and the rendering of palm oil were transformed by the introduction of oil presses. The article examines the transformative impact of technology in resource exploitation, focusing specifically on railways and oil presses and their impact on Nigerian society.

Science, to Understand the Abundance of Plants and Trees

In the 1830s, a natural history museum and herbarium was founded in Istanbul, within the Ottoman Imperial Medical College complex in Galata Sarayı. The few accounts (mostly by botanists) written on the history of the establishment and management of the herbarium and museum consider its history in the context of the colonial ambitions of European actors and employ the concept of “westernization,” implying the asymmetrical influence of European technology, values and knowledge over the Ottoman realm, leading to the imitation and copying of European ways of imperial administration. This chapter, by contrast, argues that the first herbarium and natural history museum within Ottoman territories functioned as a hub where doctors, scientists, plant collectors and bureaucrats from the Ottoman Empire and from different parts of Europe (including Russia) formed an inter-imperial network to pursue scientific, but also political and economic interests. It emphasizes that relations in the network were characterized by conflict, cooperation and negotiation between different human and non-human actors. Relationships were dialectic rather than shaped by the asymmetries of westernization.