Special Volume Research Articles

Editorial

Dear AG Readers, It is with great pleasure and pride that I introduce to you this special volume of Annals of Geophysics titled “Embracing the past, empowering the present, and envisioning the future”. As Editor-in-Chief, I am thrilled to present a collection of articles that celebrates 25 years of INGV excellence, within the realm of geophysical disciplines. This volume showcases the outstanding contributions of our esteemed colleagues who have made themselves available to participate as authors in the compilation of this volume. Their participation is rooted in the numerous projects, collaborations, and cultural exchanges they have had over time with all the personnel of our Institute, which have allowed the advancement of knowledge in the various scientific disciplines covered. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all authors, reviewers, and editorial board members whose dedication has made this milestone possible. Over the past 6 months we have worked hard to curate this special issue of Annals of Geophysics. I would like to acknowledge the generous help of A. Grazia Chiodetti, who has been consistently present in every stage of editing the papers, and not least Emanuela Bagnato, Felicia Corsale and M. Chiara Piazza in following up with the authors and compiling the papers into the special issue. Without their assistance, the production of this volume would have been significantly more difficult, if not impossible. I'd like to finally thank Enrico Rocchetti, Simone Vecchi and Barbara Angioni for helping us have a well-made and always up-to-date website. I would like to thank all the referees for their excellent work in reviewing the scientific papers in such a short time. I invite you to explore these pages and delve into the diverse insights and discoveries that define our field. May this volume inspire further exploration and collaboration in the years to come. Warm regards, Editor-in-Chief

High precision in a Fourier-transform spectrum of protactinium: extensive weighted least-squares fits of peak wavenumbers for analysis of fine and hyperfine structure

A Fourier-transform recording of protactinium in the infrared range is reanalysed with high precision in order to determine the hyperfine interaction constants A and B. Starting with a selection of best lines and least-squares fits of hyperfine structure intervals, large systems of linear equations compare experimental hyperfine peak wavenumbers with a theoretical representation. The theoretical representation is based on Ritz’s combination principle and Casimir’s formula according to the existing classification. Weighted least-squares fits allow a discrimination between unperturbed and perturbed data such as blended hyperfine structure components. For the first time, the wavenumbers of the hyperfine components of more than 600 lines are fitted using the characteristics of about 250 levels as parameters. When adding adjustable wavenumber-scale correction parameters, global consistency for the whole IR spectrum is obtained with local limits of about 0.3×10-3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$0.3\\,\ imes 10^{-3}$$\\end{document} cm-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{-1}$$\\end{document}. This demonstrates the high precision in both recording and analysis. The values of the fine structure energies are revised. Standard errors around 0.1 ×10-3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ imes 10^{-3}$$\\end{document} cm-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{-1}$$\\end{document} for the A constants and 10-3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{-3}$$\\end{document} cm-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{-1}$$\\end{document} for the B constants and the fine structure energies are achieved. Representative examples illustrate extensive results obtained for atomic protactinium. This high precision facilitates further search for new energy levels, and 20 new levels were presented. Foreword The data presented here are the results of a study carried out at the Laboratoire Aimé Cotton (LAC) at Paris-Orsay in the years 2003 and 2004, when I was there for a research stay. At this time, I worked together with Jean-François Wyart and Annie Ginibre on the re-examination of protactinium spectra that have been measured about 30 years earlier and that were available in the form of a printed list of peak wavenumbers and a printed paper chart of the intensity profile. The spectra had already been analysed, but there was still a lot of additional information that could be extracted from the spectra with time and effort. The review of the data, the selection of the data and the step-by-step optimization of the data set took a lot of time. When I returned to Berlin in 2004, we had made good progress, but in principle, it is like a bottomless pit. We continued together to optimize the data and tried to the finishing touches to it. At some point, we decided that we had reached a ‘level of maturity’ where the data could be published. We have discussed a lot about how detailed the text should be. This discussion has dragged on over the years and this project has repeatedly been lost in the stream of other everyday tasks. Every now and then there was a small attempt to return to this topic, but it quickly got lost in the daily hustle and bustle. In 2012, we presented the results at a conference. The death of both of them within two years hit me hard. I very much regret that this work was not published earlier. This special volume was the right motivation for me to finally publish this data. I no longer have access neither to the computer programs used at the time, which ran on large computer systems, nor to the original measurement data. I have not been able to find out what happened to the large quantity of paper (printed list of peak wavenumbers anda printed paper chart of spectra). But I have a bunch of input and output files of the calculations that have become a bit jumbled over the years, which contain a lot of information, as well as our unfinished manuscript. The resulting data contain important information for posterity – particularly since the element is radioactive and the experiments to collect laboratory data are unlikely to be repeated any time soon. I think it is worth publishing these data.Graphic abstractHigh precision FT spectra of Pa: analysis of fine and hyperfine structure

Critical school finance: special volume commentary

ABSTRACT This collection of papers in this special volume explains how school funding policies and community policies perpetuate racial and socioeconomic inequities in the United States, Canada, and Australia. These papers highlight two important research themes in school finance that have been missing: (a) the role that race plays in creating enduring educational funding disparities and by extension school facilities; and (b) the danger that privatisation poses for meeting the resource needs of less affluent and minoritised communities. This commentary explains how these papers contribute to the burgeoning field of critical school finance.

Is logic useful for doing Philosophy?

Providing some basic arguments and a historical context, I introduce the special volume What can we do in Philosophy using Logic? In this introduction, I discuss whether logic is useful for understanding, evaluating or building arguments in philosophy. I argue that, although there has been research supporting the idea that logic can serve as a philosophical instrument, this has not shown completely its utility. This is the reason I offer to discuss the importance of logic in philosophy, trying to show that philosophers employ logic when they work with arguments and also obtain worth benefits by applying it.

Christopher Tam: Brief history and accomplishments

This introduction provides a brief personal background and highlights the scientific accomplishments of Professor Christopher Tam. He has maintained extremely high standards of research and an enviable track record for productivity, spanning more than five decades. The depth and breadth of his technical output are truly breathtaking, and he has inspired scores of researchers and graduate students. When the first author was an Acoustics Engineer at Lockheed, Georgia, he started collaborating with Chris in the early 1990s. There were several joint projects when the author moved to Boeing, which encompassed both fundamental research and applications. The second author has an even longer association with Chris, initially as a PhD advisee in the late 1980s and then as a co-researcher. In this special volume we pay tribute to Chris’s many achievements, an endeavor that provides us with great satisfaction and which is long overdue.

Eosinophil plasticity and diversity: proceedings of the 2023 International Eosinophil Society Symposium.

This issue highlights and details the program and scientific presentations at the International Eosinophil Society's 12th biennial symposium, which was held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in July 2023. The meeting included sessions on regulation of eosinophil development; cell death, stress, and autophagy in eosinophils; local immunity interactions of eosinophils with multiple cell types; eosinophils in host defense; eosinophils and mast cells in gastrointestinal disorders; reciprocal interactions between eosinophils and the microbiome in homeostasis and dysbiosis; and eosinophils in tissue injury and repair and in tumor biology and cancer therapy. There was a mixture of special invited lectures and cutting-edge abstracts on specific aspects of eosinophil science, as well as enlivened pro-con debates on targeting eosinophils with biologics. A major thrust and overarching theme was that eosinophils exhibit remarkable plasticity and heterogeneity in executing their functions both in homeostasis and in pathobiology; there is a new "eo-verse" to understand. We trust that this special volume of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology will be of interest across many disciplines and medical subspecialties in biomedical sciences and demonstrate both the complexity and versatility of the eosinophil in biology and medicine.

Preface: IJM Special Volume Dedicated to Prof. Oscar García-Prada’s 60th Birthday

Preface: IJM Special Volume Dedicated to Prof. Oscar García-Prada’s 60th Birthday

Preface

This book collects papers selected from the 25th Annual Conference & 14th International Conference of the Chinese Society of Micro-Nano Technology (CSMNT2023).CSMNT2023 took place in the city of Shenzhen, China, from the 20th to the 23rd of October, 2023, which was hosted by Chinese Society of Micro-Nano Technology, and organized by Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Peking University ShenZhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology and Shenzhen Society of Micro-Nano Technology.With the topic “Magical Micro-Nano • Wonderful World”, CSMNT2023 invited scientists in micro-nano technology all over the world to discuss the state-of –the-art and the development of the micro-nano technology. The conference set up a variety of activities such as general report, session report, poster exchanging and technical exhibition. CSMNT2023 focused on new technologies, new achievements, new breakthroughs and new trends in the fields of micro and nano technology and related frontiers. Topics include, but are not limited to: Design, simulation and analysis of micro/nano devices; Micro/nanomaterials; Fabrication technologies and processes; Micro/nano detection and characterization; Micro/nano sensors; Intelligent micro-systems and so on.There are 12 top level MEMS and NANO technology researchers were invited to make plenary presentations. Also 320 invited talks were given in 33 sessions. Thanks to all the staff and CSMNT Secretary for the efforts they have made, and thanks all honored participants. Their contributions in all aspects are indispensable to the conference’s success.Thanks to IOP Publishing for their work on publishing the special volume for the selected papers of the conference. We have good experience for cooperation, and hope that we can continue this cooperation in coming conferences in the future.The 26th Annual Conference of the Chinese Society of Micro/Nano Technology and 15th International Conference of the Chinese Society of Micro/Nano Technology (CSMNT2024) will be held in September 2024, Taiyuan, China.List of Conference organising committee is available in the pdf

Zooarchaeological perspectives in the framework of the Anthropocene: Contributions to ecological, environmental and conservation studies from South America

This special volume considers major recent changes in southern South American animal communities. Eleven papers consider megafauna, pinnipeds, marine mammals, small terrestrial mammals and birds and are grouped under four sub-headings: (1) Isotopic insights into guanaco populations; (2) Historical sources and marine ecosystem change; (3) Changes in small mammal communities and human impacts; and (4) megafaunal extinction, domestication, avifauna and recent interactions with humans. Although some of these contributions include changes that occurred earlier in the Holocene, many highlight a current decrease in the taxonomic diversity of communities and ecosystems in different environments, which are likely to have been caused by modern human activities. The Anthropocene concept is seen as providing a useful framework for understanding and mitigation of such adverse human impacts.

Preface

This special volume of Fungal Systematics and Evolution is dedicated to Michael John Wingfield, who celebrated his 70th birthday on April 21, 2024. This is the PREFACE to this special issue.

Rethinking Evaluator Competencies in an Age of Discontinuity – Implications of Inequities, Sustainability and the Pandemic for Training Evaluators: An Introduction to a Special Volume

Rethinking Evaluator Competencies in an Age of Discontinuity – Implications of Inequities, Sustainability and the Pandemic for Training Evaluators: An Introduction to a Special Volume

2022 HP special volume: Interdisciplinary high pressure science and technology

2022 HP special volume: Interdisciplinary high pressure science and technology

:Cryptic Species: Morphological Stasis, Circumscription, and Hidden Diversity. The Systematics Association Special Volume 89

:<i>Cryptic Species: Morphological Stasis, Circumscription, and Hidden Diversity. The Systematics Association Special Volume 89</i>

Re- Exploring translanguaging in teacher education

This special volume examines the role translanguaing has in teacher education. Authors explore how pre and inservice teachers enact translanguaging pedagogy in linguistically and culturally diverse K-12 classrooms and community settings. The special issue explores some of the current tensions and perspectives in the field of multilingual education and teacher education in ways that illuminate new ideas and offer new approaches associated with translanguaging.

Introduction: the politics and cultures of East Asia’s Olympic Opening Ceremonies

ABSTRACT Just as they are to the events themselves, the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics have become central to academic research on the Games and their political, social, and cultural roles. And so the recent string of Olympic Games held in East Asia – two of them under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic – offer the opportunity to think both about region-specific meanings associated with these highly scripted affairs and about the ways they might destabilize broader judgments about the Olympics and their implications. This paper introduces the contributions to this special volume on the Opening Ceremonies at Asia’s recent Olympic Games, aiming to draw attention not only to the specific contributions of each paper but also to the themes that they collectively engage.

GARRAFÃO PROJECT: ORIGIN, HISTORY AND MAIN ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LONGEST LONG-TERM STUDY OF ECOLOGY OF SMALL MAMMALS IN BRAZIL

This article introduces the special volume dedicated to one of the longest wildlife monitoring programs ever carried out in Brazil: the long-term study on small mammals developed by the Laboratório de Vertebrados at UFRJ from 1996 to 2019 in Garrafão, Municipality of Guapimirim, RJ. The guiding ideas of this study emerged from a previous project developed at the Restinga de Barra de Maricá, RJ, in the 1980s on the ecology of small mammal populations and communities. The main research objectives were related to community structure, population growth and population dynamics, aiming to understand the ecological processes and the mechanisms explaining the fluctuation of population size in several species over time. Initially, models of genetic population structure and population dynamics were tested. Further developments in the project allowed further aspects to be studied, such as diet and nutritional aspects, population genetics, use of space, habitat, biogeography, taxonomy and systematics. These approaches, based on relevant ecological questions, have provided advances in knowledge in several areas of biology, especially in population ecology. The study resulted in dozens of articles, book chapters, dissertations and theses and was interrupted by conjuncture factors and abrupt changes in the funding policy for the development of scientific research in Brazil.

The Power of Symmetries in Nuclear Structure and Some of Its Problems

A review of several classical, algebraic models in nuclear structure physics, which use symmetries as an important tool, are presented. After a conceptual introduction to group theory, a selection of models is chosen to illustrate the methods and the power of the usage of symmetries. This enables us to describe very involved systems in a greatly simplified manner. Some problems are also discussed, when ignoring basic principles of nature, such as the Pauli exclusion principle. We also show that occasionally one can rescue these omissions. In a couple of representative models, applications of symmetries are explicitly applied in order to illustrate how extremely complicated systems can be treated. This contribution is meant as a review of the use of algebraic models in nuclear physics, leading to a better understanding of the articles in the same special volume.

Introduction: Empire and (Post-)Colonialism in Austrian Studies

IntroductionEmpire and (Post-)Colonialism in Austrian Studies Tim Corbett (bio) Globalization, migration, transnationalism, empire/imperialism, (post-)colonialism/decolonization, heterogeneity, diversity, interculturality, cosmopolitanism: These are some of the most influential concepts that have shaped not only academic research but also public and political discourses across the globe in recent years. The field of Austrian studies has already been engaging innovatively and productively with these issues for quite some time now. With a number of pioneering research institutions and corresponding journals on both sides of the Atlantic,1 the field of Austrian studies has since its inception in the postwar period been rooted in a transnational, intercultural, and multilingual context (see most recently Lorenz). Unlike many comparable fields, Austrian studies has therefore from the outset been largely unfettered by the artificial boundaries imposed by language, by the often linguistically imagined "nation-state," or by "culture" however defined in the past century or more (see for example Arens; "Forum: Austrian Studies"). Indeed, it is the very polysemy of the concept "Austria" in multiple geographical, political, cultural, and historical contexts that makes the field of Austrian studies—and its practitioners—so diverse and dynamic. It has been a decade since, in 2012, one of the flagship organizations in the field of Austrian studies, the Association of Modern Austrian Literature, was renamed the Austrian Studies Association, with the association's journal being renamed accordingly, in order to reflect the growing interdisciplinarity of the field. When the journal's former editors, Hillary Hope Herzog and Todd Herzog, handed the baton over to the current editors during the course of [End Page 1] 2021, I saw this as a momentous opportunity to take stock of this vibrant and expanding field and the range of exciting research being conducted therein. Hence the idea for a special volume of the Journal of Austrian Studies dedicated to "New Directions in Austrian Studies" arose, with a call for articles going out in November 2021. The aim of this special volume was to solicit short pieces of no more than about 3,500 words in length, with a twofold reasoning: First, this would allow for a greater number of contributions to the volume, thus offering a more diverse overview of current research being conducted in the field of Austrian studies. Second, this would allow the authors to offer ludic overviews of broad yet incisive concepts, methods, or themes rather than in-depth research articles including expansive references to source materials, which might only have appealed to specialists in their particular areas. This editorial concept was inspired by the 2016 volume Habsburg neu denken (Feichtinger and Uhl), which comprises thirty snapshot articles from the field of Habsburg studies and managed to total only 250 pages. This struck me as an innovative approach to making large research fields accessible to a broad readership. We—the journal editors and I—were astounded by the response we received to our call. As a stocktaking of the current state of the field, the disciplinary and thematic range of the proposals in itself made for interesting reading. We received altogether 42 submissions from 48 authors based in ten different countries, reflecting research projects of an exceptionally high quality across the board. About half the proposals came from scholars based in Austria itself, the rest spread across (East-)Central and Western Europe and the United States, including all career levels, from PhD candidates to professors as well as a number of independent scholars. There was a conspicuous disciplinary concentration on history (albeit with a great diversity of thematic and geographical foci therein), but we also received numerous submissions from the fields of literature studies, film studies, ethnology, musicology, educational studies, political science, and sociology. Given the overarching theme of "Austrian" studies, the geographic scope of the proposed topics was also astounding, covering not only the territory of the modern Austrian Republic and the many disparate lands connected to the former Habsburg Empire but also extending to Eastern, Southern/Southeastern, and Western Europe as well as to North and South America and even further afield to Africa and Asia. The pool of submissions also revealed certain glaring absences. For example, [End Page 2] while we received several contributions focusing...

An Intriguing Array of Extrudate Patterns in Long‐Chain Branched Polymers During Extrusion

AbstractThe present study highlights a range of surface and volume extrudate patterns that can be detected during the extrusion flow of long‐chain branched polymers. Thus, four linear low‐density polyethylenes (LDPEs) have been extruded using a single‐screw extruder coupled to an inline optical imaging system. The selected LDPEs are selected to outline the influence of molecular weight and long‐chain branching on the types of melt flow extrusion instabilities (MFEI). Through the inline imaging system, space–time diagrams are constructed and analyzed via Fourier‐transformation using a custom moving window procedure. Based on the number of characteristic frequencies, peak broadness, and whether they are surface or volume distortions, three main MFEI types, distinct from those typically observed in linear and short‐chain branched polymers, are identified. The higher molecular weight, low long‐chain branching LDPEs exhibited all three instability types, including a special type volume instability. Independently of the molecular weight, higher long‐chain branching appeared to have a stabilizing effect on the transition sequences by suppressing volume extrudate distortions or limiting surface patters to a form of weak intensity type.

Introduction to Dinosaurs: New Ideas from Old Bones papers honoring Peter Dodson.

This special volume of The Anatomical Record honors the life-long commitment to anatomy and paleontology by Professor Peter Dodson (Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania). Peter's legacy is not only rooted in his own research interests, but also in the wealth of former students he mentored over his career, many of whom have made their own new contributions to the fields of anatomy and paleontology through original scientific investigation. Within these 18 scientific papers, which cover multiple taxa, multiple continents, and multiple methodologies, each of the contributors brought to this volume their own unique work that can be traced back to some form of inspiration by the honoree.