Damasus Winzen Lecture

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. It was my good fortune recently to acquire some long unavailable commentaries on the sacred liturgy by some of the pioneers of the liturgical movement. Among these are Dame Aemiliana Löhr‘s The Mass Through the Year – the latter being a German Benedictine nun of Herstelle where Dom Odo Casel of Maria Laach served as chaplain. Of course, it is from Maria Laach that the person in whose name this lecture is presented came with two companions to found this monastery of Mt. Savior. And it was he who wrote the foreword to the English translation of Löhr‘s work in 1958. I would like to begin this lecture, therefore, with a brief but profound passage from that introduction

Triduum: A Drama in Three Acts

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. And to think he called them friends. If anyone ever had a right to say, “With friends like mine, who needs enemies?” it was Jesus Christ. Just look at those so-called “friends” around the table with him that night: There’s Peter, who denied him three times. There’s Thomas who doubted him -- the same Thomas who told him the night of the Supper he didn’t know Jesus was the way to the Father. Philip too was there that night – Philip who didn’t know that by seeing Jesus he could see the Father who sent him. James and John were there as well: the two brothers who vied to be first in the kingdom, though they slept through Jesus’ agony in the garden later that night

The Second Vatican Council Fifty Years Later: Achievements and Challenges

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. I would like to begin this lecture with a personal perspective followed by some introductory comments concerning the ongoing “clash of interpretations” surrounding Vatican II and its documents, followed by a brief survey of each document noting some of its achievements and, in my opinion, ongoing challenges

Stochastic background from extra dimensions

The existence of extra dimensions is a common feature in almost all quantum theories of gravity. These extra dimensions, whose size and number vary from theory to theory, have a signature on the gravitational stochastic background. Here we review the predictions of the individual theories and the hope of revealing such signals with earthbound detectors

Summer air temperature anomalies in Europe during the century 1811-1910

Solar cycle, volcanic eruptions, sea surface temperature anomalies (ENSO) and increase of the concentration of the greenhouse gases are the main forcing factors in the evolution of the Earth climate. Therefore, a sizeable amount of research is devoted to assess the impact of these factors on the climate parameters, as the mean air temperature. In the present work a study concerning the behaviour of the summer temperatures over Europe during the century 1811-1910 is carried out. The possible influence of the volcanic eruptions and ENSO has been also analysed. The results show the presence of a volcanic signal in the summer temperature during the year following an eruption, even if the anomalous coldest summers do not seem to be driven by the volcanic activity. The connection between thermal anomalies and ENSO events is more uncertain because of the paucity of data. Finally, the anomalous summers—both very cold and very warm—can be explained in terms of the atmospheric circulation, since cold events seem to be associated to persistent blocking systems and warm events are associated to persistent high-pressure patterns

Rainfall over the Central-Western Mediterranean basin in the period 1951-1995. Part I: precipitation trends

Climatic changes due to the anthropic enhancement of the greenhouse effect could modify the hydrological cycle, resulting in a reduction of the precipitation over the Mediterranean basin. In particular, a negative trend over the Italian peninsula could occur with prolonged periods of dryness as that recorded in the biennium 1988-1990. In order to verify if a climatic variability is already detectable, the pluviometric regime over the Central-Western Mediterranean is here analysed for the period 1951-1995. The analysis indicates that a reduction of about 20% in the total precipitation has occurred, which is statistically significant and can have serious impact on the availability of the water supplies

Prospects for Stochastic Background Searches Using Virgo and LSC Interferometers

We consider the question of cross-correlation measurements using Virgo and the LSC Interferometers (LIGO Livingston, LIGO Hanford, and GEO600) to search for a stochastic gravitational-wave background. We find that inclusion of Virgo into the network will substantially improve the sensitivity to correlations above 200 Hz if all detectors are operating at their design sensitivity. This is illustrated using a simulated isotropic stochastic background signal, generated with an astrophysically-motivated spectrum, injected into 24 hours of simulated noise for the LIGO and Virgo interferometers.Comment: 11 pages, uses IOP style files, submitted to CQG for GWDAW11 proceedings; revised in response to referee comment