The 11 September 2001 terrorist action organized on US soil by the transnational jihadist group al-Qaeda represented a phenomenological novelty with epochal implications: The ability to simultaneously hijack four airliners and crash them, with hundreds of passengers forced to die along with the suicide bombers, against the capital symbols of American > (the capitalist economy projected by the Twin Towers, the military organisation centred on the Pentagon, the democratic liberalism recognised in the Capitol), causing almost 3,000 casualties, over 6,000 injured, and 25 billion dollars in material damage, effectively revolutionised the offensive and communicative modus operandi of politically motivated violence as it had been expressed in the modern Western sphere. At the same time, this huge and traumatic event decreed a securitarian reaction throughout the Euro-Atlantic system, driven by the winds of the > launched by the G. W. Bush administration. With the unprecedented terrorist rupture of the USA's inviolability and the consequent American attempt to unilaterally reestablish its own planetary hegemony through pre-emptive strikes, the marginalisation of international humanitarian law and the forced export of the Western model of democracy, a new historical era was thus inaugurated, coinciding with the beginning of the third millennium, under the sign of existential fear.

Seismic-resistant design incorporates measures to ensure that structures perform adequately under specific limit states, focusing on seismic forces derived from both the equivalent static and spectral modal methods. This study examined buildings on slopes in densely built urban areas, a common scenario in Latin American cities with high seismic risks. The adjustment of high-rise buildings to sloping terrains induces structural asymmetry, leading to plan and elevation irregularities that significantly impact their seismic response. This paper explores the asymmetry in medium-height reinforced concrete frame buildings on variable inclines (0 degrees, 15 degrees, 30 degrees, and 45 degrees) and its effect on their nonlinear response, assessed via displacements, rotations, and damage. Synthetic accelerograms matched with Chile's high seismic hazard design spectrum, scaled for different performance states and seismic records from the Chilean subduction zone, were applied. The findings highlight structural asymmetry's role in influencing nonlinear response parameters such as ductility, transient interstory drifts, and roof rotations, and uncover element demand distributions surpassing conventional analysis and in earthquake-resistant design expectations.

For the first time in Azerbaijan, differences in the morphological parameters of oak trees growing in different regions have been determined, the agrochemical properties of soils under oak trees have been studied, and the influence of environmental pollution on tree leaves has been shown. In different regions of Azerbaijan, morphological polymorphism, caused by the influence of various environmental factors, is different in oak taxa. The level of intrapopulation polymorphism established by dispersion analysis is higher than that of traits with the greatest diversity of variability N (YU/YE) (CV = 111.01%), F (CV = 54.11%) and YS (CV = 35 . 01 %). The Jaccard similarity coefficient is 0.334 with a significant variation of genotypes from each other of 0.827, which indicates its difference in degree and adaptability in the studied taxa. The asymmetry index we calculated (coefficient of fluctuating asymmetry) for Q. petraea sp. and Q. robur sp. equal to 0.067 is considered a conditional norm. The highest indicators are typical for Q. petraea sp. both in areas with intense traffic flow and in the territory of the botanical garden. For Q. rubra, the highest coefficient of fluctuating asymmetry was noted in the botanical garden. The stomal fissure width and stomal fissure length of leaves Q. robur L. and Q. rubra L. are high in the area of Absheron Garadag highway. Intensity of damage to oak leaves spotting and rust high level are registered in Absheron Garadag highway region. Indicators obtained through scientific research are conveniently used in preliminary forecasting as a non-invasive test that protects the principles of green technologies, without involving other more complex tests that require financial and labour resources, such as an indicative test that is sensitive to small changes within a plant organism.

In this work we present the results of the four-years (2015-2018) data-analysis of aerosols optical extensive properties such as scattering (sigma(sc)) and backscattering coefficients (sigma(bsc)), scattering Angstrom exponent (SAE), single scattering albedo (SSA), and asymmetry parameter (g). They were measured at three GAW (Global Atmosphere Watch-WMO) regional observatories in the South of Italy: CGR (Capo Granitola), LMT (Lamezia Terme) and ECO (Lecce). The aim of this work is to characterize the optical properties of the aerosols, in terms of scattering, absorption and radiative forcing, to study their relationship with the equivalent black carbon (eBC) mass concentration, meteorological parameters and to evaluate their variability in the Central Mediterranean area. From the mean values of SAE (1.73 ECO, 1.93 LMT) and SSA (0.81 ECO, 0.78 LMT) observations can be argued that ECO and LMT are mainly influenced by ultrafine particles, while CGR, with mean values of SAE and SSA of 1.15 and 0.87, respectively, is characterized by natural sources, mainly marine. In all stations, g(550) is very similar, 0.68 at CGR and 0.63 at LMT, with the greatest value (0.70) at ECO. The aerosol optical properties, at the three stations, are significantly influenced by the meteorological conditions. The daily pattern for eBC concentration at ECO and LMT is essentially influenced by local activities, namely due to vehicular traffic, and, for LMT, to local sea-land breeze circulation. Wood burning is the main source contribute to eBC concentration in the remote site of CGR. Aerosols optical properties were analysed in the cold (from October to March) and warm (from April to September) period in the three observatories to highlight the behaviour of optical parameters as a response to changing black carbon concentration, especially, from local sources. As expected, three observatories exhibited low values of SSA, during the cold season, 0.87 at CGR, 0.78 at LMT and 0.80 at ECO, which confirm an increment of industrial/traffic and wood combustion contributions at the three observatories. SSA values are very similar in warm and cold period, especially in the middle part of the day. A persistent and important results in the findings of this study is that aerosol optical properties vary widely from station to station throughout the central Mediterranean basin. Thus, the wide spatial and temporal variability of aerosol characteristics in the basin need additional investigations to study the relationship between particle size distribution, optical parameters and local sources contribution at the three sites. Further, our results show a negative radiative forcing of aerosols, with mean values of -58.8 at CGR, -45.4 at LMT and - 55.9 at ECO, according also to several studies in central Mediterranean area.

Aerosol scattering and absorption characteristics were investigated at an urban megacity Delhi in the western Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) during the period from October 2011 to September 2012 using different in-situ measurements. The scattering coefficient (sigma(sp) at 550 nm) varied between 71 and 3014 Mm(-1) (mean similar to 710 +/- 615 Mm(-1)) during the entire study period, which was about ten times higher than the absorption coefficient (sigma(abs) at 550 nm similar to 67 +/- 40 Mm(-1)). Seasonally, sigma(sp) and sigma(abs) were substantially higher during the winter/post-monsoon periods, which also gave rise to single scattering albedo (SSA) by similar to 5%. The magnitude of SSA (at 550 nm) varied between 0.81 and 0.94 (mean: 0.89 +/- 0.05). Further, the magnitude of scattering Angstrom exponent (SAE) and back-scattering Angstrom exponent (BAE) showed a wide range from -1.20 to 1.57 and -1.13 to 0.87, respectively which suggests large variability in aerosol sizes and emission sources. Relatively higher aerosol backscatter fraction (b at 550 nm) during the monsoon (0.25 +/- 0.10) suggests more inhomogeneous scattering, associated with the coarser dust particles. However, lower value of b during winter (0.13 +/- 0.02) is associated with more isotropic scattering due to dominance of smaller size particles. This is further confirmed with the estimated asymmetry parameter (AP at 550 nm), which exhibits opposite trend with b. The aerosol optical parameters were used in a radiative transfer model to estimate aerosol radiative forcing. A mean radiative forcing of -61 +/- 22 Wm(-2) (ranging from -111 to -40 Wm(-2)) was observed at the surface and 42 24 Wm(-2) (ranging from 18 to 87 Wm(-2)) into the atmosphere, which can give rise to the mean atmospheric heating rate of 1.18 K day(-1).