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Gold(III)-catalyzed activation of alkynes has been applied for the synthesis of 2,5-disubstituted furans from substituted 5-methoxy-hex-3-yn-2-ols. Mechanistically, the reaction proceeds via an allenyl carbocation intermediate followed by 5-endo-dig cyclization. The high-yielding, open-air, room temperature reaction conditions applied to synthesize a series of alkyl, aryl, and hetero aryl-substituted furans provide uniqueness to the strategy.

Although respective research has proliferated, little attention has been given to the processual nature of festivals. By drawing upon the concept of host event zones, we examine how different spectators perceive the development of the heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air (WOA) with respect to the dynamics between the festival as a temporary place in which visitors enjoy spectacle and ritual, a commercial site and the everyday living space of local inhabitants. WOA has grown in 30 years from an initiative by a few friends for devoted metal fans into an internationally renowned music mega-event. WOA represents a consumption mediated 'peaceful utopia' where festivalgoers find social meaningfulness in neo-tribes. However, the accelerating mainstream appeal of Wacken Open Air for a non-metal fan audience, which significantly spurt by the media, challenges both regular attendees' experience of this idealized space and the relationship between the host community and the festival.

With increase in number of vehicles worldwide the amount of waste tires is also increasing. These waste tires are either discarded to a dump site or burnt in open air. In both the cases they contam...

The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that control event runoff characteristics at the small catchment scale. The study area is the Hydrological Open Air Laboratory, Lower Austria. Event runoff coefficient (Rc), recession time constant (Tc) and peak discharge (Qp) are estimated from hourly discharge and precipitation data for 298 events in the period 2013–2015. The results show that the Rc and their variability tend to be largest for the tile drainages (mean Rc = 0.09) and the main outlet (mean Rc = 0.08) showing larger Rc in January/February and smaller Rc in July/August. Tc does not vary much between the systems and tends to be largest at the main outlet (mean Tc = 6.5 h) and smallest for the tile drainages (mean Tc = 4.5 h). Groundwater levels explain the temporal variability of Rc and Tc more than soil moisture or precipitation, suggesting a role of shallow flow paths.

Manus prison was officially closed in 2017 following Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Supreme Court decision that the existence of the camp breached the PNG Constitution. The ‘Namah’ decision was significa...

This research note explores and examines the ideological underpinnings of the open air group dances of Chinese senior females (Dama), a leisure pursuit that has been regularly attended to by 160 mi...

In Berlin, party-related activities in public spaces are increasingly leading to conflicts between people seeking leisure and those needing quietness. The Model Space project aims to mitigate these...

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age rock carvings in the United Kingdom and Ireland represent an internationally unique rock art tradition as it is, to the best of our knowledge, the only wholly...

Two different stockpiles, one loose and another compact, in the open air were formed using approximately 500 tons of less than 200 mm size run of mines thermal coal on a concrete floor. Coal sample...

The Basilicata region (Southern Italy) is characterized by a peculiar environmental as well as biological, geological, and cultural heritage features that are evident in national and regional parks as well as places of monumental and archaeological relevance, including the Matera UNESCO Site. Basilicata hosts the highly studied Vulture volcanic complex and the largest hydrocarbon reservoir in continental Europe. Furthermore, the region falls among the Italian regions most prone to landslides and floods and it is located in a seismotectonic background responsible of strong earthquakes. Therefore, the territory of Basilicata can be considered an open-air laboratory, both natural and "human-built". The laboratory, with its features, has attracted many scientists worldwide and over time. The researchers have focused their attention on manifold studies. That being stated, the article aims to analyse the outputs of the scientific investigations targeting the territory of Basilicata within the last 24 years (1994-2017) with a bibliometric approach. The Thomson Reuters' Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index were the two bibliographic databases considered. Once the pertinent articles were extracted from the two citation indexes, the authors analysed the publication trends, Web of Science categories, countries, and hot topics.

Differentiating between charred and uncharred plant remains may appear straightforward but for some taxa (here fat-hen, Chenopodium album type) can be very problematic. Recognition of the preservat...

The trance-dancing culture in Israel is expressed by dance parties held in open, rather than closed, spaces. This research wished to investigate the effect of open-air dancing on self-image, body i...

This article starts from histoire croisée to develop a genuinely relational analysis of performances of health education in the context of open-air schools. It interrogates through places, people and things conceived of as being performatively entangled the notion of an internationalization of school hygiene. These places, people and things – “international” conferences and exhibitions, “figureheads” of the aspiring New Schools and open-air schools movements, and printed, photographed, and designed materials – reveal open-air schools as “practice[s] and movement[s]” unbound by national or otherwise (real-)imagined borders. Fragmentation accompanied their circulation and ensued from their co-constitutive role in the mediation of knowledge and praxis around hygiene. While still underexplored, economic factors were key to this process. Their analysis from within the “meshwork” in which non-/humans were (are) entangled opens up new lines of inquiry.

The information presented here is based on 174 sites; it is a result of a detailed historical collection revision of materials from Silesia and also the first comprehensive paper after the ...

The agriculture industry is an integral part of global development. Traditionally, the operation of drying agricultural produce is performed using an open air sun drying process despite its inadequacies and disadvantages. Technologically appropriate solar energy-operated systems, like solar air heaters, are versatile enough to get rid of the discrepancies. A new jet plate solar air heater with continuous longitudinal fins underneath the absorber plate is investigated. Performance characteristics with the help of significant parameters are presented. Results are compared with smooth, roughened and finned type solar air heaters. An enhancement of 3–14.7% in thermal efficiency is observed for the Reynolds number range (3000–15,000) in comparison to the mentioned works. Increase in heat transfer enhancement of the order of 28–39% is achieved, which implies higher efficiency of the JPSAHCLF at higher values of Reynolds number. The results are plotted corresponding to Reynolds number (Re) = 3000–15,000,...

Yield and quality of wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) cultivars ‘Regina delle Valli’ and ‘Alpine’ cultivated in soil, as the traditional production system, and in soilless (both in open air and ...

This paper considers the established phenomenon of the integration of pre-existing natural features into Western European Upper Palaeolithic parietal imagery, aiming to present a preliminary inventory of such cases in the Coa Valley and Siega Verde rock-art sites. Attention is also given to other cases at these sites from which it can be inferred that areas of the engraved surfaces persisted since the original motifs were made until today in quite reasonable condition. It is concluded that the present research further emphasizes the complex traits behind the creation of Upper Palaeolithic artistic motifs in both the Portuguese and Spanish sites, and also suggests a reasonable preservation rate of Coa and Siega Verde rock-art.

Pioneer villages in the province of Ontario, Canada, are examples of the open-air type of museum. Most focus primarily on rural settlement by Europeans in the 1800s and are considered ‘community museums’ under provincial standards. As definitions of ‘community’ have changed, along with community demographics and preferences, there have been various impacts upon pioneer villages. This paper explores those impacts and the responses of eight pioneer villages with respect to their role as steward\s of these communities of heritage.

This article posits that open‐air museums, with their unique capacity for sustaining values, safekeeping material and immaterial knowledge of culture and creating opportunities in social and econom...

In 2006–2007, Den Gamle By, National Open Air Museum of Urban History and Culture in Denmark staged a large exhibition of christening garments dating from the eighteenth century until the present. It was called “Christian Clothing and Baptismal Robes over 300 years.” More than 100 objects were exhibited. Garments for babies remind us of the vulnerability of the newborn and in this way they are emotional objects for us today and probably also in the past. Elements of vulnerability are especially obvious for modern viewers when the garments originate from earlier periods with much higher infant mortality rates than today. Parents in earlier centuries used various strategies to protect their small pagans from exposure to evil before baptism. In this way emotions were invested in the garments, but it is a challenge to access and analyze these emotions because the garments themselves do not constitute a language in the same way as written texts. The article will deal with three different material eleme...

Superhydrophobic coatings based on PDMS and TiO2-NPs/SiO2-NPs were prepared. Due to the photocatalytic property of TiO2-NPs, the PDMS/TiO2-NPs coatings could remove the organic pollutes efficiently, and showed an excellent self-cleaning properties. The superhydrophobicity of the PDMS/TiO2-NPs coatings was still remained after 6 months in the open air, which is much better than the PDMS/SiO2-NPs coatings.

Nuclear heated open air-Brayton cycles have been investigated both as topping cycles for combined cycle Brayton-Rankine cycles and as standalone recuperated Brayton cycles. The peak turbine inlet t...

This practice-based paper discusses an approach to an innovative collaborative pilot project between Beamish Museum, The Living Museum of the North, and an Occupational Therapist. The “Men's Group” was developed in response to a growing need in the community for more opportunities for men to engage in activities to help combat isolation and mental and physical health issues. Despite the accumulation of qualitative data which indicated a hugely positive impact upon the well-being of the men who attended, this pilot highlighted deficiencies in previous approaches to evaluate and communicate such findings with others. It has since led to further explorations of more appropriate methodologies and key learning outcomes for both partners involved.

This study investigates bicycle parking behavior at public transport stations. More specifically, this article discusses the siting of bicycle parking spaces at stations and selection between different bicycle parking devices. The insight can improve bicycle parking patronage at public transport stations.A revealed preference database collected jointly by the Roads and Maritime Services of Australia and Parsons Brinckerhoff during October and November 2008 is used in this study. This data was obtained by visiting 146 of New South Wales's train stations, whereby observations of bicycles parked outside in the open air were made. The observations included counts of parked bicycles, counts of bicycle parking spaces, parking distances to station entrances, and the presence of streetscape features surrounding parking locations. The study also utilizes similar revealed preference data of bicycle parking in secure bicycle lockers, which are provided at 102 Sydney train stations. This data was collected in...

James Haldane and his older brother Robert are important figures in Scottish Baptist Church history. Many of the Baptist Churches they are credited as founding emerged out of a period of evangelical renewal at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. Significant to this renewal was James Haldane’s open-air preaching. This preaching attracted crowds with transformative spiritual success. It gathered supporters who joined together with the Haldane brothers in missionary activity. On the other hand, however, the missionaries were opposed and condemned not least by the Established Church of Scotland. This led to the formation of Independent evangelical congregations. The impact of Haldane’s open-air preaching can be explained in part by the irregular and novel nature of the practice which created and at times courted controversy. It was also due, however, to the particular persona and skills that James Haldane brought to the activity.

In this paper, we examine the nonlinear effect of an open-air, mixed-use shopping center on residential property prices in the surrounding area. Using difference-in-difference estimators and accoun...

Circular paired-post structures have been recognized as a quintessential trait of the “Adena” concept. Although once thought restricted to ritual contexts beneath burial mounds, work over the last 30 years has identified several open-air structures in contexts apart from burial mounds or ditches. Uncluttered by overlapping features, open-air examples present a unique opportunity to document the initial roles played by these features. Currently, no unequivocal evidence for mortuary processing has been found directly associated with open-air paired-post structures. This fact calls into question the prevailing belief that most of these features were used to process, or prepare, the dead. Instead, a more reasonable interpretation is that these structures were involved in rituals minimally related to, or entirely devoid of, mortuary activity.

The court hunt provided relaxation and vigorous sport in the open air, but it could also be a powerful engine of economic growth. King Frederik II of Denmark and Norway demonstrated this when he reorganized his entire domain to serve the needs of a particular kind of royal hunt. But what was the Great Hunt (storjagt, Hauptjagen) at a northern court of the late sixteenth century? When did this form of hunting make the transition from a fiercely dangerous field sport into a safe and secure public ritual of domination over nature? That question remains elusive.

The effect of different drying methods (room temperature, open air and oven drying at 30, 40 and 50°C) was studied on the content and chemical composition of essential oil of Lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora). The essential oils were isolated from aerial flowering parts of the plants by hydrodistillation method and then the oil subjected to GC and GC-MS analyses to determine the constituents. Fifty-four different components were identified in lemon verbena essential oil, which were mostly oxygenated monoterpenes. Geranial, Neral and limonene were the major components of essential oil. The highest content of essential oil and total monoterpens were obtained by oven drying under 30°C tratment. Moreover, neral and geranial were maximized in samples dried in oven 30°C. Increasing temperature of oven had a negative effect on oil content and monoterpenes like neral and geranial. Whereas, total sesquiterpenes and also some monoterpenes like limonene were enhanced as temperature increased. The method of o...

An unexpected formation of cis-1,2,2-trimethyl-3-(benzoxazol-2-yl)cyclopenta-necarboxylic acids was observed as the result of an oxidative C-C bond cleavage of the camphor ring in the intermediate imine during the condensation reactions between camphoroquinone and o-aminophenols conducted under open air conditions. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Synthetic Communications® to view the free supplemental file.

Bat carcasses from two wind farms in Tasmania (2002–2010) were assessed to determine the species, sex, age, reproductive state, morphometrics, presence of food in the gastrointestinal tract, and evidence of spatial and seasonal patterns. Thirty-eight of the 54 carcasses were Gould's wattled bats, with another 14 likely to be, and two Vespadelus sp. All but two were adults, with an equal ratio of females and males. None were actively breeding when found, and five of the six bats tested, had not been recently feeding. Mortalities predominantly occurred in autumn, with a small difference between sites. There was no pattern in the location of carcasses. There appear to be particular ecological, morphological and behavioural characteristics associated with bat collision risk—tree roosting bats with high wing aspect ratios that forage in the open air at high altitude appear to be susceptible. Seasonal patterns may be associated with specific behaviours.

For the 2010 Commonwealth Games, it was decided that the swimming facility built for the 1982 Asian Games will be upgraded to suit the current requirements. The original was an open air facility ov...

Molossid bats are considered as morphologically specialized for fast enduring flights within obstacle-free environments. The only European species of the family, the European free-tailed bat Tadarida teniotis, exhibits a similar flight behavior and is thus expected to demonstrate analogous morphological adaptations. The present report investigates external and muscular forelimb features that could be associated with open air high-speed flight patterns. For the scope of the study, we calculated standard external ecomorphological indices and carried out gross anatomical dissections on six adult specimens of T. teniotis from northern Greece. In this way, we qualitatively and quantitatively examined patterns of relative mass and strength in selected muscles. In terms of external morphology, T. teniotis possessed long and narrow wings with slightly pointed tips. Regarding forelimb muscular anatomy, the species is characterized by powerful wing adductors (e.g. pectorales), an enlargement of the coracoid head of biceps brachii, and equal mass of elbow joint flexors and extensors. These characteristics, partly shared by other molossids, may correlate to a powerful, controlled downstroke and a semi-extended elbow for fast enduring non-maneuverable flight.

This study evaluated socio-economic, institutional and product characteristics that influence the choice for African indigenous vegetable (AIV) retail outlets among rural and urban households in Kenya. Multistage sampling technique was used to select a sample of 450 respondents from four counties in Kenya. Data was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and a multinomial Probit model was used in the analysis. Findings revealed that local open air markets and green groceries were the most preferred retail outlets in rural and urban households, respectively. Additionally, gender, age and education level of the key decision-maker, household size, varietal diversity, vegetable bunch size, market distance and perceptions regarding AIV retail prices significantly influenced the choice for AIV retail outlets. Interventions that would standardize the quantity of vegetables sold per bunch in both supermarkets and green groceries and a further development of more green grocery retail outlets can increase their preference in urban households. Moreover, strategies that would expand farm gate varietal diversity and reinforce hygiene standards in local open air outlets can enhance their preference in rural households.

Then she fancies she is on the stage of an ancient theatre out in the open air, with hundreds of faces upturned towards her… . She bounds forward and dances, bends her lissom waist, and curves her slender arms, and gives to the soul of each man what he craves, be it good or evil. And she can feel now, lying here in the shade of Irish hills with her head resting on her scarlet shawl and her eyes closed, the grand intoxicating power of swaying all these human souls to wonder and applause. She can see herself with parted lips and panting, rounded breasts, and a dancing devil in each glowing eye, sway voluptuously to the wild music that rises, now slow, now fast, now deliriously wild, seductive, intoxicating, with a human note of passion in its strain. She can feel the answering shiver of feeling that quivers up to her from the dense audience, spellbound by the motion of her glancing feet, and she flies swifter and swifter, and lighter and lighter, till the very serpents seem alive with jeweled scintillations...

The paper aims to advance the scholarship on Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855) with a study that situates her writing in its art historical context. While critics often acknowledge her extraordinary visual perceptiveness, none has examined her descriptive landscape prose in relation to turn-of-the-century developments in landscape painting. Dorothy's The Alfoxden Journal (1798) and The Grasmere Journals (1800–3) coincide with the intensification of sketching the landscape en plein air (c. 1800) among painters in Britain and Europe. Specifically, I discuss these two journals in relation to sketches by John Constable, the most committed and sustained practitioner of plein-airpainting in early nineteenth-century England. Natural effects that Dorothy describes in the Alfoxden and Grasmere journals closely resemble features that Constable was simultaneously depicting in the open air: natural light observed at specific times of day; a broad and vivid range of colours; and fluctuating atmospheric and weather condit...

On the Island Hvar (Croatia, Mediterranean), the first Neolithic open-air shore site of the Hvar-Lisicici Culture—found to the northwest of Vrboska at the western edge of the Maslinica Bay—is reported, in addition to already known cave sites. The first survey of this partially eroded beach site has produced ceramic fragments, marine mollusks, domestic animal bones, numerous chert artifacts or debris, and mobile art. Evidence suggests that the site may belong to the first island chert explorers who collected large nodules from the Middle to Upper Cenomanian limestone crops which have been found only in this region of the island. Lithic artifacts discovered, including projectile points and an abundance of small reduction debris made from chert and rare obsidian (both of which were probably imported), support this claim. Other artifacts found such as ceramics are quite uniform in their ornamentation, having only parallel scratches, which rarely form crossing lines or rhombic decorations. Ceramic ves...

In the present study, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were fabricated by a single pulse discharge using a micro-electrodischarge machining (MEDM) system in open air without a catalyst. The MEDM system could manipulate the discharge location, peak current, and pulse duration. By controlling the discharge points, patterning was made feasible. Controlling the peak current (3, 4, and 5 A) and pulse duration (fixed at 1,200 ms) made it possible to optimize the energy input to synthesize CNTs. Observations made using a field-emission scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope showed that multiwalled CNTs were formed within the discharge points. The CNTs grown at a peak current of 4 A exhibited a sharp end and a slight 10°bend.

Three different solar drying methods were carried out on four different medicinal plants to investigate the benefits of using an unglazed transpired solar dryer (UTSD) over other traditional methods. Methods involved included drying in an unglazed transpired solar dryer (using suction air flow rate of 0.06 m3s−1), drying in the open air under direct sun rays and a common traditional drying method in a shaded drying house. The three drying methods were used to dry the following medicinal plants: henna (Lawsonia inermis L.), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.), marjoram (Majorana hortensis L.), and moghat (Glossostemon bruguieri L.). Drying processes were carried out under the climatic weather conditions of Ismailia, Egypt. Drying rate, drying ratio, and the medicinal plants qualities in terms of oil quantity and sensation tests were considered. The results showed higher oil quantity obtained from rosemary and marjoram dried in the UTSD, compared with those dried in the shaded drying house and in the open ...

This paper discusses urban spatial transformation in Durban with specific focus on the ubiquitous “open-air” temples in public open spaces, office, and industrial sites. It borrows from a number of insights to try and shed light on this phenomenon. Concepts of “Insurgent planning” and “loose space,” understood as ingraining existing hitherto officially unacknowledged land uses, and/or introducing new identities and practices into the urban fabric; and “loose space” that occur where the designated use seems no longer relevant, or where different land uses are tolerated simultaneously, respectively, were relied upon to generate some insights on the phenomenon. The paper seeks to make a contribution to a growing body of literature on critical urban studies by drawing attention to other ways of conceiving and engaging urban space. Arguing that predominant planning theories are inadequate to account for the diversity of urban experiences, the paper explores alternative theoretical frameworks that speak more eloquently to contemporary issues, more especially in contexts that are increasingly marked by diversity, difference, informality, marginality, and “otherness.” These theoretical frameworks foreground these issues as constitutive of being (in the city), and as contributions to the collective reimagining of the city.

Open air freshwater hydrocanals in Tarraleah, Tasmania, Australia, exhibit significant diatom biofouling which leads to economic losses in hydroelectricity generation. These fast-flowing (flow velocity 2 m s-1) canals produce between 2 and 18 tonnes dry weight of fouling and 1-5 mg chlorophyll a/m2 over a 20 km long course, with the canal surface area being 192,000 m2. Mostly monospecific diatom communities of Tabellaria flocculosa occur in canal sections with reduced flow, whereas a stalk-forming (up to 200 μm long) Gomphonema species dominates the majority of canal fouling in fast flowing areas. Gomphonema tarraleahae Perkins et Hallegraeff is newly described, the species differing from its close relative, G. angustatum (Kutzing) Rabenhorst in its extreme stalking habit and distinctive head and footpoles. Low numbers of G. subclavatum (Grunow) Grunow and two other undescribed Gomphonema species were also present in fouling. Seasonal changes in biofouling are most likely related to temperature (5-15°C annually) and light intensity variation, with shaded, south-facing walls exhibiting higher fouling densities. Implications for fouling mitigation strategies are discussed.

The research, built work and design seminar entitled “The Politics of the Object: Transformative Public and Cultural Landscapes” examined the critical history of a 150-year old open air market in a dense urban area of Hong Kong. This culminated in a series of built installations that used light as a critical design medium to engage the public on urban renewal issues and questions of rapid development in Hong Kong. This ongoing educational initiative aimed to encourage debate about the issues of planned development and the neighborhood's preservation of cultural values.

Advances in hominin bioenergetics and paleoclimate reconstructions suggest that morphology was an insufficient buffer against the cool climate of Pleistocene Europe. To maintain homeostasis, hominins must have supplemented endothermy with various extrasomatic behavioral solutions. It is commonly suggested that one such solution was the use of simple windbreaks, though to date no studies have assessed the thermo-regulatory benefits, if any, they may have conferred on their users. In the experimental project discussed in this article, computer simulations and practical models of simple windbreaks in controlled wind tunnels were used to evaluate their performance. The results were integrated into models of Neandertal cold tolerance and climatic reconstructions of known occupation sites during the Last Glacial Maximum in Northern Europe, in order to assess their usefulness to Pleistocene hominins. It was clear that, within the constraints of their toolkits, early hominins could have constructed habit...

The governing principle behind both these revivals was accessibility, as the respective directors sought to render Shakespeare's texts accessible to audiences of all ages. One was incorporated into...

Rehydration experiments at the temperatures of 40°, 50°, and 60°C were performed with potato samples dried simultaneously under mixed-mode solar dryer and open air sun. Results of the investigation reveal that the ability of water absorption of dried product is influenced most by the rehydration temperature, followed by sample geometry and method of drying. Higher rehydration temperature causes faster moisture absorption in dried product. The present analysis also indicates that both cylindrical samples and mixed-mode solar drying exhibit larger values of proposed rehydration indices, better color retention during drying, and greater texture hardness, demonstrating the higher acceptability of these samples by the consumers.

This article inserts the concept of risk in the context of open-air schools and investigates its implications, capacities and limits. It is contended that applying at-risk labels to pupils who attended open-air schools is itself a risky business. The category to some extent constitutes an anomaly within most open-air schools' histories, as much of what it would come to denote, did not yet exist as such when these institutes arose and flourished. Moreover, the literature suggests that at-risk labels are often deployed, interpreted, negotiated and resisted by children and youth to whom they are applied. The article investigates that hypothesis by means of a case study of a Milanese open-air school called 'Trotter'. Studied in detail is its everyday educational practice before and after the Second World War. It is argued that open-air schools like 'Trotter' indeed (re)constructed children and youth in modes similar to those related to at-risk discourse, albeit in ambiguous and context-specific ways. Moreover, the article shows that institutes like 'Trotter' themselves put their target groups at risk, giving occasion to multiple forms of an at-risk paradox. Pupils of such a school particularly risked (but also resisted) being socially bracketed, stigmatized, institutionalized, abused and subjected to streaming.

The decoration of the Brussels Botanical Gardens is one of the most important sculpture programmes ever carried out for the city gardens in Belgium. Because of its scale, it raises some interesting...

During the last hundred years, the art and architecture of the Swedish eighteenth century has become a historic ideal, well integrated in the modern national identity. This research project deals with three eighteenth century environments which were restored and arranged as public museums in the 1930: s Skogaholm manor at the open air museum Skansen, Carl Linnaeus's house in Uppsala and the Royal Pavilion at Haga. The main isssue is how these environments were transformed into historic monuments and how the reconstructions relate to contemporary historiography, museology and restoration theories. The research project has been carried out at the School of Architecture, Royal Institue of Technology, Stockholm, and it will be published as a book in 2008.

The Lesvos Petrified Forest was created by volcanic activity in the Lower Middle Miocene and has been a protected area since 1985. Since 1997, the newly founded Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest has taken over research, excavation, conservation and restoration and undertakes protective measures in this area. Conservators treat dozens of petrified trees and face several problems, including unstable temperature and relative humidity (RH) conditions, as fossils are exposed to the open air. Conservators perform innovative work by applying and testing various treatment methods to withstand both weather conditions and careless visitors. Research and educational work are two of the areas into which the conservation team are putting a lot of effort, aiming to sensitize visitors and save the fossils for the generations to come.

A 91 kg (200 lbm) block of aluminized solid rocket propellant was burned in open air to simulate an accidental propellant fire. A suite of remote optical instruments measured the temperature and radiative properties of the plume. Solid molybdenum calorimeters provided data for heat flux estimates. Various refractory oxide and metallic witness samples placed in the fire provided temperature benchmarks and insight into how such samples may be dispersed by the fire. A thermochemical analysis assessed the overall energy balance. The results indicate that temperatures reached 3000±100 K and heat fluxes reached 200±80 W/cm2 under the propellant, which burned for 120 s, creating a severe environment.