Micro-environmental change as a trigger for granite decay in offshore Irish lighthouses: implications for the long-term preservation of operational historic buildings.

Following automation of lighthouses around the coastline of Ireland, reports of accelerated deterioration of interior granite stonework have increased significantly with an associated deterioration in the historic structure and rise in related maintenance costs. Decay of granite stone- work primarily occurs through granular disintegration with the effective grusification of granite surfaces. A decay gradient exists within the towers whereby the condition of granite in the lower levels is much worse than elsewhere. The lower tower levels are also regions with highest rela- tive humidity values and greatest salt concentrations. Data indicate that post-automation decay may have been trig- gered by a change in micro-environmental conditions within the towers associated with increased episodes of condensation on stone surfaces. This in turn appears to have facilitated deposition and accumulation of hygro- scopic salts (e.g. NaCl) giving rise to widespread evidence of deliquescence in the lower tower levels. Evidence indicates that the main factors contributing to accelerated deterioration of interior granite stonework are changes in micro-environmental conditions, salt weathering, chemical weathering through the corrosive effect of strongly alkaline conditions on alumino-silicate minerals within the granite and finally, the mica-rich characteristics of the granite itself which increases its structural and chemical susceptibility to subaerial weathering processes by creating points of weakness within the granite. This case study demonstrates how seemingly minor changes in micro-environmental conditions can unintentionally trigger the rapid and extensive deterioration of a previously stable rock type and threaten the long-term future of nationally iconic opera- tional historic structures.

The Map of Watchful Architecture 2.0:Defensive forms along Ireland's border

For The Map of Watchful Architecture I only concerned myself with defensive architecture along the Border. As the map followed a border it came out as a wavy line of points. This was largely artificial, I only charted architecture within the Border corridor, but was not entirely artificial. That linear landscape has long been staked-out by the regularity of certain kinds of architecture. The 1st/2nd century Black Pig’s Dyke and Dorsey correspond with today’s Border. The concentration of souterrains in north Louth indicate that it may have been a volatile interface zone in later centuries. In 1618 Londonderry and its walls were built. Further north and two centuries later, Martello Towers were constructed to watch over Lough Foyle. During the Second World War pillboxes and observation posts were manned along the Border, close to what was now an international frontier. Then came the Operation Banner installations built during The Troubles. All this adds up to be one of the longest unbroken traditions of defensive architecture anywhere in Western Europe, a tradition some thought finally broken as the last of the Operation Banner towers were de-installed in 2007. But, take a bus south across the Border and you will often be pulled over by the Garda Síochána. They ID check the passengers in an attempt to stop illegal immigration via the UK. What about illegal immigrants who walk through the fields or along quiet lanes? They will have understood the Border is not really how it seems on most maps. It is not a solid line, it is a row of points.

Confronto tra diverse localizzazioni di un impianto eolico contemperando produttività ed impatto visivo

This paper proposes a series of variations in designing the location of a wind farm on Monti della Tolfa. These project solutions aim at mitigating the visual impact caused by the wind aerogenerators. Besides the usual location of the wind aerogenerators on the skyline, these alternatives within the project design relate to the placement of wind turbines in the middle and at the bottom of the hillside. Other possible mitigation forms relate to the dimensions and the colour of the wind towers. This study proposes both a non-monetary and monetary analysis of the visual impact related to each project proposal. The final aim of the paper is to analyze economic and financial costs-benefits for each alternative to find out the economic optimal solution.

Comparing the orthogonal and homotopy functor calculi

Goodwillie’s homotopy functor calculus constructs a Taylor tower of approximations toF , often a functor from spaces to spaces. Weiss’s orthogonal calculus provides a Taylortower for functors from vector spaces to spaces. In particular, there is a Weiss towerassociated to the functor V ÞÑ FpSVq, where SVis the one-point compactification of V .In this paper, we give a comparison of these two towers and show that when F isanalytic the towers agree up to weak equivalence. We include two main applications, oneof which gives as a corollary the convergence of the Weiss Taylor tower of BO. We alsolift the homotopy level tower comparison to a commutative diagram of Quillen functors,relating model categories for Goodwillie calculus and model categories for the orthogonal calculus.