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The MSW landfill of the city of Rome, one of the largest in Europe, was created in the area of Malagrotta. Between the 1950s and the early 1960s, this area hosted important sand and gravel quarries, which supplied aggregates for construction projects, such as those necessary for the rapid urban expansion of Rome after the second world war. The area has a complex stratigraphy, schematically consisting (from top to bottom) of volcanic deposits, sands, gravels, and very compact gray-blue clays. This geological setting, with cavities from the previous quarrying of large volumes of aggregates (estimated at over 200 × 106 m3 in 1987), offered an ideal site for MSW disposal. Remediation and safe confinement projects were undertaken at the landfill site after the issuing of Decree of the President of the Republic 915/82 of 10 September 1982, transposing three European Directives, including Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste, into the Italian legislation. From a financial and technical-scientific viewpoint, the most important project to make the landfill compliant with the new legislation was the construction of a hydraulic sealing wall around the internal subareas of the landfill that would accommodate MSW. The wall consisted in a plastic diaphragm of variable depth (Fig. 1). This is one of the major barrier walls built in the world for the confinement of MSW landfills (Table 1). As part of the activities undertaken at the Malagrotta landfill site, we investigated the functional efficiency of the diaphragm. Several in situ tests were thus planned and implemented. This paper analyses the results of hydraulic stress tests carried out in appropriate sections, provided with piezometers and other measuring instruments making part of the system for monitoring the entire surface area of the landfill (161 ha). Figure 3 is a sketch of the section used for hydraulic tests, representing the entire confinement system (Fig. 2). The entire set of data confirms the efficiency of the confinement system examined. The results obtained, by imposing Darcy's solution based on a reductio ad absurdum argument, demonstrates that the cement-bentonite diaphragm is totally "impermeable" and thus fully suitable for performing the function for which it was designed and built (Prestininzi & Romagnoli, 1991). The data shown in Table 2 corroborates this assumption, i.e. the hydraulic heads in V7 and in Z7 are linked by a linear proportionality ratio, connected with a transfer of energy (pressure). The findings from our hydrogeological analysis and the application of Darcy's law were validated by a mechanical analysis of the elastic behaviour of the diaphragm, made up of a cement-bentonite mixture. The results of the application of the equations of the elastic line revealed that the undrained behaviour of the soil-diaphragm system was in line with our analyses based on experimental data from hydraulic tests and statistical tests. By using Equations (3) and (4), we computed the values umax and Aumax for all the time steps ti. Statistical processing of the data enabled us to compare all the available results: piezometric heads in V7, piezometric heads induced in Z7, arrow umax (x = 0), and surface area Aumax acting on the diaphragm. In particular, the comparison highlighted their mutual relationships under the various conditions of stress q, thereby validating the linear proportionality of the diaphragm displacement and the origin of the piezometric changes ΔHZ7. Indeed, the data of Tables 2 and 3 shows the linear proportionality of ratios (V7/Z7) and of changes in hydraulic head with the data connected with the diaphragm displacement, ΔH(Z7)/[(Au)/(umax (x = 0)]. The analysis of these results confirmed what we had observed during hydraulic investigations: the behaviour of the system, subjected to hydraulic stress tests, proved to be typical of undrained systems, which respond to stress changes with exchanges of energy and induced deformations at constant volume (Figs. 3, 5, 6 a) and b)). After more than 34 years since its construction, the cement-bentonite plastic diaphragm retains an excellent hydromechanical efficiency, allowing it to perform its hydraulic sealing and mechanical elastic behaviour function in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of spatial dependence, spatial heterogeneity and spatial scale in principal component analysis for geographically distributed data. It considers spatial heterogeneity by adopting geographically weighted principal component analysis at a fine spatial resolution. Moreover, it focuses on dependence by introducing a novel approach based on spatial filtering. These methods are applied in order to derive a composite indicator of socioeconomic deprivation in the Italian province of Rome while considering two spatial scales: municipalities and localities. The results show that considering spatial information uncovers a range of issues, including neighbourhood effects, which are useful in order to improve local policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the acoustic characteristics of the "Dives in Misericordia" Church in Rome. The church was designed by architect Richard Meier and opened in 2003. It was made entirely of white concrete and consists of three septa with a double curve shaped like a sail. The nave roof is glass. The volume is approximately 14.000 cubic meters. The highest measuring is approximately 26 m. the width of the nave is 19.5 m, while the maximum width is 29.5 m, while the internal length is 32.0 m, while the total length is 45.6 m. It can seat approximately 240 people. The acoustic measurements were taken by placing a microphone at different points of the nave (the area occupied by the audience), with the sound source being placed on the altar. It was therefore possible to obtain a spatial distribution of the average acoustic characteristics inside the church. At a frequency of 1000 Hz, the average values of the reverberation time is about 10 s. In its current configuration, the church is neither suitable for understanding speech nor listening to music. A 3D virtual model was created and with the help of the building acoustics software it was possible to study the sound field inside the church. The possibility to carry out an appropriate acoustic correction was analyzed, in order to reduce the values of the reverberation time, by pacing on a side wall of the church an adequate number of sound-absorbing polyester panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 21 CE, a series of localized movements broke out in Gallia Comata due to heavy debts among provincials according to Tacitus. Modern scholars have long argued that the indebtedness occurred because of rising interest rates, resulting from dwindling currency in circulation after decades of free-spending following Augustus' victory at Actium, and that Gallic communities were subjected to an additional tribute to support the wars of Germanicus (14–16 CE), which continued unabated after the wars and pushed Gauls beyond their means. These claims are misguided, however, in that there is no certain evidence of a special tax to support Germanicus' wars and that the argument for a dwindling circulation of currency in Gaul falters under closer inspection. Rather, the pressing statal and military needs imposed on communities in Gallia Comata after 9 CE on top of routine exactions could significantly increase burden levels levied on provincial populations, thus contributing to rising debts. Through examining how Roman logistics and conscription operated in this period, it is possible to trace how populations were impacted by such demands and which communities were most heavily affected by them, too. Individually, the impact of each factor is unlikely to have been burdensome enough to have caused large-scale resistance, it is only the cumulative effect that these explanations had on top of routine Roman extraction schemes that could create the conditions for this revolt. This paper argues that in extraordinary circumstances, such as the period after the Varian Disaster for Gallia Comata, the costs of supporting military campaigns places real short-term strains on local economies, which creates the conditions for revolt. The benefit of this approach is that it may explain other episodes of anti-fiscal resistance that broke out during or within a decade of wars in neighboring regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on universal criminal jurisdiction in western European countries. Although the International Criminal Court has facilitated some compliance with the Statute of Rome 1998, some European countries have been criticised for placing restrictive conditions on the exercise of this jurisdiction. However, with the Syrian Conflict and the emergence of terrorist groups, universal jurisdiction has again been proposed to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity by perpetrators who have sought asylum in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurement and Applications—MeMeA 2018, which took place in Rome, Italy, on June 11–13, 2018, was a real and concrete opportunity for presenting recent developments in measurement and instrumentation related to medicine. The 13th edition of the Symposium concretely promoted discussion on electrical, chemical, and physiological sensors and measurement systems, which delivers trustable measurement data for prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of different diseases. Other aspects related to the measurement sciences were also presented during the event, such as biosignal processing, quality control of medical devices, medical instrumentation uncertainty/calibration, e-health technologies, wearable devices, and biomechanics/rehabilitation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1894 Germain Morin identified a collection of 31 Pseudo-Chrysostomic sermons as the work of a single late antique Latin author. Although widely read in the Middle Ages, there is still little consensus about where or when this author wrote. Morin himself originally proposed sixth-century Naples, Adalbert de Vogüé noticed parallels with the Rule of the Master, and, most recently, Jean-Paul Bouhot and Francois Leroy have argued for fifth-century North Africa. This paper explores the collection's contextual clues, pre-baptismal liturgy, and anti-Arian and anti-Pelagian theology to make a case for considering it the product of clerical circles within Ostrogothic Rome. The author may have been writing during the Second Semi-Pelagian Controversy (519–529 CE), perhaps in direct dialogue with Fulgentius of Ruspe. He displays an attitude towards human free will that is surprisingly similar to Boethius's and may have been a member of the circles of Boethius, Proba, and the deacon John in the early 520s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an energy sustainability perspective, the renewables penetration is expected to importantly increase over the next decade, requiring modifications in the current electric system in terms of flexibility and reliability. In this respect, storage systems will play a central role and the production of green hydrogen is seen as a promising solution for both short-term and seasonal storage. In this context, the aim of this paper is the development of a methodology for the optimal design of hybrid storage micro-grids based on renewables and hydrogen and the definition of an optimal management strategy in a perspective of hydrogen employment as seasonal storage. In detail, an optimization code – based on mathematical models for each component and on specifically developed optimization strategies for the management of the components interaction – will be presented and applied to a case study. The code optimizes the sizes of the integrated electrolyzer and fuel cell, based on an objective function that maximizes the storage efficiency. It has been applied to the S.A.P.I.E.N.T.E. micro-grid installed at the ENEA Research Centre near Rome (Italy) – composed of photovoltaic panels, batteries, heat pump and thermal storage systems – obtaining the optimal design of the hydrogen section to be integrated as seasonal storage strategy. Furthermore, a parametric analysis on the battery size has been performed. The application of the developed optimization routine resulted in the introduction of a 3.7 kW electrolyzer and 4 kW fuel cell coupled with 36 kWh of battery capacity, enabling a total hydrogen production of about 87.5 kg (corresponding to 1159 kWh of electricity produced during the thermal year). • Green hydrogen production as seasonal storage strategy within hybrid micro-grids. • Development of a model for the optimal components design and management. • Objective function to maximize storage efficiency and renewables self-consumption. • Application to a case study, optimizing electrolyzer, fuel cell and battery sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Geotagged data gathered from social media can be used to discover places‐of‐interest (PoIs) that have attracted many visitors. Since a PoI is generally identified by geographical coordinates of a single point, it is hard to match it with people trajectories. Therefore, we define an area, called region‐of‐interest (RoI), represented by the boundaries of a PoI. The main goal of this study is to discover RoIs from PoIs using spatial data mining techniques. In this paper, we propose a new parallel method for extracting RoIs from social media datasets. It consists of two main steps: (i) automatic keyword extraction and data grouping and (ii) parallel RoI extraction. The first step extracts keywords identifying the PoIs; these keywords are used to group social media items according to the places they refer to. The second step uses a Parallel Clustering Approach (ParCA) of spatial dataset to identify RoIs. ParCA exploits a parallel execution of DBSCAN on subsets of data to generate subclusters on each processing node and then merge overlapping subclusters to form global clusters. ParCA was implemented using the MapReduce model. Experiments performed over a set of PoIs in the city of Rome using social media data show that our approach is highly scalable and reaches an accuracy of 79% in detecting RoIs. On a parallel computer with 50 cores, we obtained a speedup of 52 by processing large datasets divided into 32 splits, compared with the execution time registered when each dataset is not partitioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roman women - priestesses, patrician women, mysterious guardians of the sacred flame of goddess Vesta, admired and respected, sometimes blamed for misfortune of the Eternal City. Vestals identified with the eternity of Rome, the priestesses having a specific, unavailable to other women power. That power gained at the moment of a ritual capture (captio) and responsibilities and privileges resulted from it are the subject matter of this paper. The special attention is paid to the importance of Vestals for Rome and Romans in various historic moments, and to the purifying rituals performed by Vestals on behalf of the Roman state's fortune. The study presents probable dating and possible causes of the end of the College of the Vestals in Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medea's emotions loom large in a wide range of dramatic, literary, and philosophical sources from Euripides onwards. In focusing on aspects of the emotional texture of the original Euripidean play, all one can do is scratch the surface of an enormous subject, both in that play and in its reception in ancient literature and thought. Fortunately, we have the other articles in this issue of Greece & Rome to supplement this inevitably limited perspective. My procedure in this short paper is simply to highlight certain aspects of the dramatization of emotion in Euripides' Medea that strike me as especially worthy of analysis in terms of ancient or modern emotion theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alleged lower standard of the rights of the accused under the Rome Statute compared to those guaranteed by the US Constitution was one of the most important areas of criticism of the Rome Statute by American scholars. This criticism was made in the early 2000s and was based on the text of the Rome Statute alone, before any ICC jurisprudence existed. This article draws on the 20 years of operation of the ICC to ascertain whether the judicial interpretation and application of the procedural rights of the defendant, guaranteed under the Rome Statute, have made them more compatible with their counterparts under the US Constitution. The premise of this article is that the 20 years of interpretation and application of those rights may have strengthened them to the point where the gap between the procedural guarantees under the Rome Statute and the US Constitution has become negligible. This, in turn, would make the early criticism of the ICC system obsolete, at least insofar as the legal argument is concerned. Accordingly, this paper examines existing jurisprudence of the ICC in the areas of prosecutorial disclosure obligations, admission of evidence and the examination of witnesses. This is for several reasons: firstly, the selected three rights were among those criticised by American scholars in the early 2000s as falling short of what was required under the US Constitution; secondly, unlike some other criticised rights, which reflect the ICC's institutional design and, therefore, are unlikely to change in scope, the selected three are relatively vaguely phrased, thus making it possible to transform their meaning through judicial interpretation; thirdly, the selected rights have been sufficiently elaborated on by the ICC through case law so as to carry a meaning exceeding what the Rome Statute alone provides. The findings of the study indicate that inasmuch as the ICC's jurisprudence has moved some aspects of the three areas under examination towards their counterparts under the US Constitution, the procedural rights of the defendant before American courts generally remain more robust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ius et Praxis (07172877) is the property of Universidad de Talca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the present paper we provide a new estimate of the body mass (BM) of the dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon ex gr. P. falconeri from Spinagallo cave (Sicily) at three different ontogenetic stages. The new estimates are based on 3D in-vivo restorations, digitally sculpted on anatomically updated photogrammetric models of the skeletons mounted at the Museo Universitario di Scienze della Terra (MUST), University of Rome (Italy). The new method provided an average BM of 249.98 kg for the adult male, 150.47 kg for the adult female, 38.81 kg for the juvenile male and 7.83 kg for the new-born male. Assuming as reliable these estimates, the values previously obtained by applying the regression formulae based on pad circumferences, shoulder height and long bone circumferences substantially would underestimate or overestimate the Spinagallo elephant BM up to 103%. The results obtained indicate that the volumetric methods can be regarded as the most solid and reliable to estimate the BM in those extinct vertebrates for which accurate mounted skeletons are available. This new method is therefore of critical importance for inferring the BM of taxa characterised by peculiar osteological proportions, such as those shown by the insular dwarf elephant analysed in the present work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I investigate the relationship between Penelope's letter to Odysseus (Her. 1) and the letters of Leander and Hero (Her. 18–19), especially Hero's letter to Leander (Her. 19). The peculiarity of this comparative approach lies mainly in the fact that whereas Penelope and Odysseus were one of the most famous couples in ancient literature and the protagonists of a great epic, the Odyssey , Leander and Hero were considerably less known in Rome during Ovid's time. To prove the close relationship between the letters of Penelope, Leander, and Hero, I present their numerous similarities, and then I suggest the reasons why Ovid took pains to compose the letters of Leander and Hero in a way so closely reminiscent of Penelope's letter to Odysseus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The C Line of the Rome underground underpasses the historical city center, facing significant problems for the presence of archaeological artefacts and the necessity to prevent damage to the historical and monumental heritage. This paper describes the field performance of a 30-m-deep excavation that has been constructed at a short distance from the Aurelian Walls at Porta Asinaria (third century). An extensive instrumentation program was conducted during construction, as well as field observations including deflection of the diaphragm walls, ground movements, pore water pressures, settlements, and rotation of the Aurelian Walls. Observed ground settlements and diaphragm wall displacements were smaller than those monitored in other case histories worldwide, inducing no damage to the Aurelian Walls. The lessons learned from this case study showed that a stiff retaining system and a strict control of the construction sequence were the key to minimize the effects of a deep excavation with millennia of history at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the complexity of the traditional motion intention recognition method using a multi-mode sensor signal and the lag of the recognition process, in this paper, an inertial sensor-based motion intention recognition method for a soft exoskeleton is proposed. Compared with traditional motion recognition, in addition to the classic five kinds of terrain, the recognition of transformed terrain is also added. In the mode acquisition, the sensors' data in the thigh and calf in different motion modes are collected. After a series of data preprocessing, such as data filtering and normalization, the sliding window is used to enhance the data, so that each frame of inertial measurement unit (IMU) data keeps the last half of the previous frame's historical information. Finally, we designed a deep convolution neural network which can learn to extract discriminant features from temporal gait period to classify different terrain. The experimental results show that the proposed method can recognize the pose of the soft exoskeleton in different terrain, including walking on flat ground, going up and downstairs, and up and down slopes. The recognition accuracy rate can reach 97.64%. In addition, the recognition delay of the conversion pattern, which is converted between the five modes, only accounts for 23.97% of a gait cycle. Finally, the oxygen consumption was measured by the wearable metabolic system (COSMED K5, The Metabolic Company, Rome, Italy), and compared with that without an identification method; the net metabolism was reduced by 5.79%. The method in this paper can greatly improve the control performance of the flexible lower extremity exoskeleton system and realize the natural and seamless state switching of the exoskeleton between multiple motion modes according to the human motion intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution in urban areas is a problem of complex nature and one of its principal characteristics is the variability of pollutants concentrations even at short distances from main road arteries. Nevertheless, the common approach for air pollution monitoring is by means of fixed stations, which are expensive, complex and provide low spatial resolution data, as they are low density deployed. These stations satisfy legislative requirements but do not provide data about local gradients of pollutants concentrations that can be significant for health protection: space–time variables are increasingly important to adequately characterise urban air quality. A possible solution to increment spatial resolution data in a city is by means of low-cost sensors, which are small and portable. Although these sensors do not allow the same accuracy and precision as certified analysers, they are increasingly used and tested all over the world and have the potential to integrate regulatory air pollution monitoring stations and promoting community engagement. In this paper LILI-1, a prototype of a low-cost air quality platform, is presented. It allows measuring meteoclimatic parameters and concentrations of principal air quality pollutants (NO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.5) by means of electrochemical and optical sensors. LILI-1 has been tested in the city of Rome and compared with certified analysers, showing very encouraging results for all the monitored pollutants. It has also been used by mounting it on a bicycle and showing its ability to increment spatial resolution and obtain distributed data throughout the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upon hearing "Some of Michelangelo's sculptures are in Rome," adults can easily generate a scalar implicature and infer that the intended meaning of the utterance corresponds to "Some but not all Michelangelo's sculptures are in Rome." Comprehension experiments show that preschoolers struggle with this kind of inference until at least 5 years of age. Surprisingly, the few studies having investigated children's production of scalar expressions like some and all suggest that production is adult-like already in their third year of life. Thus, children's production of implicatures seems to develop at least 2 years before their comprehension of implicatures. In this paper, we present a novel account of scalar implicature generation in the framework of Bidirectional Optimality Theory: the Asymmetry Account. We show that the production–comprehension asymmetry is predicted to emerge because the comprehension of some requires the hearer to consider the speaker's perspective, but the production of some does not require the speaker to consider the hearer's perspective. Hence, children's comprehension of scalar expressions, but not their production of scalar expressions, is predicted to be related to their theory of mind development. Not possessing fully developed theory of mind abilities yet, children thus have difficulty in comprehending scalar expressions such as some in an adult-like way. Our account also explains why variable performance is found in experimental studies testing children's ability to generate scalar implicatures; moreover, it describes the differences between children's and adults' implicature generation in terms of their ability to recursively apply theory of mind; finally, it sheds new light on the question why the interpretation of numerals does not require implicature generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of INTRECCI d'Arte is the property of Universita di Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti visive, performative e mediali, Alma Mater Studiorum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that Pompeius’ refusal to disband his army and his decision to stay with it near Rome in 77 BCE was not merely an act of disobedience toward the proconsul Catulus, but amounted to a persistent and open intervention in political agenda-setting in the city of Rome, despite the fact that, as a promagistrate, Pompeius was not expected to play any active part in city politics. His interference disrupted real political debate, because it forcefully promoted a single “correct” decision. However, Pompeius was able to intervene successfully only due to support from some senators in Rome, who legitimately exercised power in the sphere domi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that one of the central theses of the counter-imperial reading of Paul has been more asserted than proved – namely, the thesis that Paul disguised anti-imperial sentiments in his letters specifically because speaking out against imperial authorities was too dangerous. This claim is the basic assumption behind the search in Paul's letters for 'hidden' or 'coded' transcripts. Such an approach can be found in the works of Warren Carter, N. T. Wright, and Richard Horsley, among others. But how likely is it that Paul would have felt the need to encode his anti-imperial sentiments? Was there really a risk that Roman soldiers would have intercepted Paul's mail or prosecuted him for its contents? Is the 'hidden transcript' idea an anachronistic concept based on modern surveillance states and transposed into the ancient world? This paper questions how likely it is that Rome's provincial governments would have had the inclination or ability to police private correspondence for seditious sentiments. From there, we can determine whether Paul is speaking as openly as he wants or is in fact protecting himself using 'hidden transcripts'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Roman period" of Josquin des Prez resulted in a small but impressive body of work, and the Missa La solfa re mi has been received as one of the most substantial and finest members of this corpus. Closer inspection of the transmission of this mass, however, suggests that despite its copying at the Sistine Chapel before 1500, there is reason to situate it instead among the problematic and derivative copies of Josquin's music made at the papal chapel after his departure. I argue that rather than originating from the composer's tenure in Rome, the Misa La solfa re mi entered the papal chapel repertoire as part of an influx of music by composers associated with the French royal court surrounding the Italian campaign of King Charles VIII in 1494-95. Decoupling the Missa La solJa re mi from Josquin's tenure at the papal chapel raises new possibilities surrounding his works-chronology, biography, and milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Signed in Rome in 1950 under the auspices of the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention) is the first international instrument by which sovereign states have agreed to be legally obliged to provide a relatively broad corpus to everyone within their jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Convention established a system of human rights protection with the effectiveness of which no other universal or regional system can be compared. The effectiveness of this system is based on the fact that the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR/Court) as supranational instances have the force of an enforceable title, which is why they are fully implemented by states. The cooperation of states is the result of the realization that resistance to the Court's decisions would challenge human dignity, personal freedoms and the rule of law as fundamental values of European civilization. Judgments of the ECHR often go beyond the cases in which they were rendered, having an impact in the field of creation and application of law in the contracting states. Many CoE member states, respecting the Court's interpretations, have reformed their legislation and made it compatible with the Convention. At the same time, the process of harmonizing the practice of state bodies with the requirements of the Court is taking place, which it is constantly improving and perfecting. Accordingly, the paper analyzes in detail the Court's jurisprudence on violations of Article 3 of the Convention, which guarantees the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. This makes it possible to see the practical reach of the Convention and the Court in preventing and combating this global problem, which poses a serious danger to the achievements of civilized humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Form@re is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper deals with the first results of the Armenian-German Artaxata Project which was initiated in 2018. The city of Artaxata was founded in the 2nd century BC as the capital of the Artaxiad kingdom. The city stretches over the 13 hills of the Khor Virap heights and the adjacent plain in the Ararat valley. The new project focusses on Hill XIII and the Lower city to the south and the north of it. This area was investigated by magnetic prospections in 2018 and on the basis of its results, in total eleven 5 × 5 m trenches were excavated in 2019. On the eastern part of Hill XIII several structures of possibly domestic function were uncovered. They were laid out according to a regular plan and in total three phases could be determined. According to 14C data, the first phase already dates to the 2nd century BC while the subsequent two phases continue into the 1st/2nd century AD. In the 2019 campaign, the overall layout and exact function of the structures could not be determined and more excavations will be undertaken in the forthcoming years. North of Hill XIII the foundations of piers of an unfinished Roman aqueduct on arches were excavated. This aqueduct is attributed to the period 114-117 AD when Rome in vain tried to establish the Roman province of Armenia with Artaxata being the capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Thiasos is the property of Edizioni Quasar di Severino Tognon s.r.l. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper illustrates the attempts to limit power in Russia between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the tradition of the Byzantine origins of the imperial autocracy. The direct link between the ancient authority of Byzantium and the authority of the tsars in the modern age would have made the muscovite ruler very resilient. The author argues that the characteristics of the autocratic power may have lead to the failure of the efforts to reduce it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free-field conditions on the ground surface are widely used to assess the local seismic response. Nevertheless, this assumption is a very strong approximation in urban areas since the dynamic interaction between the urban agglomerate and the soil cannot be neglected. Several studies evidenced the transmission of vibrations from the buildings to the soil and the multiple interactions between a building network and the site through so-called Site-City Interaction (SCI). This paper focuses on the spatial variability of the seismic ground motion due to SCI in the case of highly heterogeneous site-city configurations. The Fosso di Vallerano valley in Rome (Italy) has been chosen as a case study because of the high heterogeneity of the deposits which characterize the local geological setting as well as the intensive urbanization. A proper 2D numerical modelling (Finite Elements Method) of the seismic response in free-field conditions as well as with the city agglomerates (SCI-based condition) has been performed. The numerical results show a strong spatial variability of the wave field induced by the presence of the buildings and their interaction with the heterogeneous soil. The SCI effect causes a strong or global reduction of ground motion, amplification levels and kinetic energy close to the buildings. Induced perturbations affect the ground motion along the surface of the model, increasing the amplification values and the kinetic energy in the vicinity of the buildings. These findings highlight that buildings generate significant variability effects all around their foundations as well as in the entire alluvial basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SAMM (Solar Activity MOF Monitor) is a ground based robotic instrument that has been developed to study and constantly monitor the magnetic activity of the Sun, focusing on Active Regions (ARs). These regions are characterized by complex magnetic structures that may result in explosive events usually associated with large amount of particle and matter ejections in the space environment. When interacting with the Earth magnetosphere they can represent a threat for our infrastructures both in space (satellites, navigation systems) and on the ground (power plants and electrical grids). Based on Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) magneto optical filters (MOFs), SAMM provides a "tomographic" view of the magnetic structures delivering high cadence magnetograms and dopplergrams at different heights of the solar atmosphere thus providing a unique dataset with the aim to push forward the current space weather forecasting capabilities. Being able to forecast these events enough in advance (even few hours) is a fundamental task to put in place mitigation strategies to reduce the potential catastrophic impact on vital infrastructures on earth. In this scenario the SAMM observatory has been realized to be a "node" that can be replicated in a world-wide network with the aim to give a continuous coverage of the Sun situation. This project has been initially funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE) in 2015 through a soft loan grant and its development and operation is carried on within a scientific collaboration between the INAF -- Rome and Naples Astronomical Observatories and the Italian small enterprise (SME) Avalon Instruments. After three years of development, SAMM is in the commissioning phase. In this paper we are presenting a final instrument description along with the first light images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper tries to synthesise the evolution and specificity of Latin mythology. Its primitive forms were mostly rural, with minor indigenous deities, and consisted mainly of ritual for practical purposes (invoking protection for agricultural crops, wars and family). An absorption of the rich Greek and Oriental mythological corpus followed. In the imperial age, in Rome, "there are so many gods that it is easier to meet one than it is to find a man" (Petronius Arbiter). A large part of this heterogeneous and complex corpus was inherited by the European Romanic and non-Romanic peoples. All around, written culture has copiously fed on traditional unwritten mythology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Immanuel of Rome's Bisbidis abounds with onomatopoeic inventiveness, it has received little critical attention aside from its status as a curiosity: a dazzling poem by the only Italian Jew with extant medieval Italian lyrics. While this paper explores Immanuel's familiarity with works by Cecco Angiolieri, Dante Alighieri, and other duecento Italian poets, it aims to demonstrate the ways in which Bisbidis embodies the medieval Hebrew-via-Arabic genre of the maqāma. After providing background on secular medieval Hebrew literature composed in the Mediterranean region and situating Immanuel's composition in its literary-historical context, I evaluate several components – including thematic, formal, and philological correspondences – that Bisbidis shares with the Hebrew maqāma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wie alle ituräischen Dynasten wird auch der Tetrarch Zenodoros in den Quellen negativ dargestellt. Seine Abwertung als eine Art Räuberhauptmann verdeckt dabei das offenkundige Bemühen des Zenodoros, seine Territorien herrschaftlich zu durchdringen. Gerade sein Zugriff auf die Ressourcen führte zu einer intensiven ökonomischen Konkurrenz mit den Nachbarn, die sich in den negativen Quellenberichten niederschlägt. Der Beitrag zeichnet nach, warum Zenodoros in dieser Konkurrenz unterlag und welche Rolle dabei insbesondere sein Verhältnis zur römischen Zentrale spielte. Denn obwohl er etwa durch seine Münzprägung und vielleicht auch durch Bauprojekte versuchte, die an ihn als Klientelherrscher Roms gerichtete Erwartungshaltung zu erfüllen, scheint er nicht über ein ausreichend einflussreiches Netzwerk in Rom verfügt zu haben, so dass seine Nachbarn ihn um seinen Ruf und schließlich um seine Tetrarchie bringen konnten. Like the other Ituraean dynasts, the tetrarch Zenodoros is depicted as a villain in the literary sources. His characterization as some kind of robber baron obscures Zenodoros' evident attempts to properly administer his territories. It is particularly his use of the economic resources of his tetrarchy that lead to an intensive rivalry with his neighbours which finds its expression in the negative sources. The paper shows why Zenodoros ultimately lost out in this competition and what role his relationship to the central power in Rome played here. Because even though Zenodoros tried to fulfil Rome's expectations of a client ruler, for example through his coinage and potential building activity, he does not seem to have had a sufficiently influential network in Rome so that his neighbours were able to tarnish his reputation and ultimately take away his tetrarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Treaty of Rome adopted in 1957 included provisions on the elections of the then European Parliamentary Assembly elections, but it took more than two decades for the members of the European Parliament to be directly elected. Immediately after the first direct elections of the European Parliament in 1979, the second-order elections model was conceived in order to understand the new type of supranational but less important elections. The model includes several hypotheses deriving from the idea that in the European elections there is less at stake, so instead of having genuine EU elections, in reality there are now 27 simultaneous national elections. The paper tests the second order elections to see whether its hypotheses are valid in the case of 2019 EU elections in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nabataean history is significantly overlooked in the works of ancient historians. Josephus is an exception to this, as he includes several important events from Nabataean history in De Bello Judaico and Antiquitates Judaicae. However, his retelling of these events differs between the two works. In this paper, I argue that Josephus became more "pro-Roman" over time and eventually overshadowed an accurate portrayal of Nabataean history in his later narrative. He undermined moments of tension between Rome and Nabataea in order to showcase Roman power in the Near East, even beyond reality. In support of this argument, I analyze the Nabataean sections of Josephus' works, as each passage has overlapping details, but significantly different emphasis, characterization, and perspective through variations in terminology, imagery, and tone. Though problematic, Josephus has preserved a unique look into Roman-Nabataean relations in the two centuries prior to the incorporation of Nabataea into the Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven emblematic Leonardo da Vinci's drawings were investigated through third generation sequencing technology (Nanopore). In addition, SEM analyses were carried out to acquire photographic documentation and to infer the nature of the micro-objects removed from the surface of the drawings. The Nanopore generated microbiomes can be used as a "bio-archive" of the drawings, offering a kind of fingerprint for current and future biological comparisons. This information might help to create a biological catalog of the drawings (cataloging), a microbiome-fingerprint for each single analyzed drawing, as a reference dataset for future studies (monitoring) and last but not least a bio-archive of the history of each single object (added value). Results showed a relatively high contamination with human DNA and a surprising dominance of bacteria over fungi. However, it was possible to identify typical bacteria of the human microbiome, which are mere contaminants introduced by handling of the drawings as well as other microorganisms that seem to have been introduced through vectors, such as insects and their droppings, visible through the SEM analyses. All drawings showed very specific bio-archives, but a core microbiome of bacteria and fungi that are repeatedly found in this type of material as true degraders were identified, such as members of the phyla Proteobacteria , Actinobacteria , and Firmicutes among bacteria, and fungi belonging to the classes Sordariomycetes and Eurotiomycetes. In addition, some similarities were observed that could be influenced by their geographical location (Rome or Turin), indicating the influence of this factor and denoting the importance of environmental and storage conditions on the specific microbiomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lutheran tradition shares with the Catholic Church a reformatio ideal, which is a striking feature of the Western ecclesiological tradition of the last millennium more generally. This paper first examines some aspects of Lutheran ecclesiology as it relates to the Una Sancta, the canonical and synodical tradition, and ecumenical pursuits. It then goes on to use the 'reformatio' lens to reflect on the councils of Constantinople of 869-70 and 879-80 and the current estrangement between Rome and the Eastern churches in regard to the diverging standings of these councils. A solution is provided, it is suggested, in the call of Unitatis redintegratio (1964) to 'continual reformation' in the context of ecumenism as well as to an honouring of the conditions that held between East and West before the schism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In trying to find a proper way to proceed in respect of a dialogue between churches that have already been living for centuries under the shadow of schism, we struggle to see that there is already a paradigm for such a dialogue to hand. This was furnished already in the first half of the sixth century, in the midst of what was probably one of the most important theological quarrels afflicting both East and West: one which concerned two issues, the union of natures in Christ and the doctrine of grace. Those who stood behind this paradigm were the Scythian monks, who united, in both their faith and their overall way of thinking, Western and Eastern traditions. The Scythians saw both traditions as one, and therefore did not hesitate to address problems simultaneously of concern to both Rome and Constantinople, putting forward a solution based on a synthesis of Augustine's and Cyril's theologies. Their proposal was not well received in Rome, but was surprisingly welcome in Constantinople and exercised a significant influence on the defense of the Chalcedonian faith. The present paper will be devoted to analyzing it from a methodological point of view, as well as to the question of whether and how it could be adopted as a model for modern theologians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contextualises and interprets a text seldom addressed in Anglophone scholarship: De die natali ('On the birthday'), written by Censorinus to celebrate his patron Caerellius' birthday in 238 c.e. By exploring both gestation (natalis) and time measurement (dies), the work seeks to elucidate and isolate Caerellius' birthday in time; it is the ultimate guide to his dies natalis. Despite a seemingly narrow focus, De die natali is best understood as part of a broad 'spectrum' of encyclopaedic texts, exemplifying the 'totalising' impetus of knowledge ordering in the Roman Empire, while simultaneously exposing the limits of such efforts. An interlocking set of tensions underlie the text, which resonate with other encyclopaedic projects — tensions between unity and plurality, centre and periphery, and the relationship between nature and culture. De die natali is both a product of, and commentary on, the conditions of human knowledge and the Empire's cultural diversity in the early third century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a pioneering study of an unknown historical drug formulation preserved in the Spezieria of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, founded at the end of the seventeenth century by the Discalced Carmelites. Due to limited literature related to pharmaceutical remedies and drugs of the Early Modern Era (between the XV and XVIII centuries) and the complexity in their formulations, the study of these drugs represents a great challenge. The untargeted nature of the selected drug required a multi-analytical approach with complementary techniques to formulate a compositional hypothesis: FT-IR spectroscopy, gas chromatography-associated/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were successfully employed to identify different organic compounds. Systematic archaeobotanical research was performed as well, allowing us to acquire data related to the possible genus of plants from which these natural compounds derive and their geographical origin. The unknown drug formulation turned out to be a complex mixture used as an ointment with an anti-inflammatory purpose. It mainly contains a mixture of Venetian turpentine; a Pine resin (colophony) from the Pinaceae family; an exudate of a plant from South America, whose identified components are triterpenic compounds such as alpha- and beta-amyrins, betulin and lupeol; and saturated fatty acids which act as carriers and/or to reduce the viscosity of abovementioned exudates and resins. The study of historical drugs is important not only in order to know the practices handed down by the speziali in the past but also to reconstruct historical recipes, which can inspire new dermatological, cosmetic, hygienic and current healing products. Graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land cover change (LCC) is the most important factor in causing ecosystems services (ES) loss. In Mediterranean basins, coastal areas historically suffer from great anthropic pressure. These changes influence runoff, and municipal authorities often cannot estimate the impact of complex land cover transitions. In such context, the great urban and industrial development of the towns surrounding the city of Rome (Italy) represents a paradigmatic case study. In this paper, land cover evolution in a watershed located in a peri-urban environment has been studied in terms of LCC and the consequential flood risk. The information concerning land cover transformations was analyzed in following time scenarios: 1954, 1967 and 2018. The identification of occurred rainfall events, and the application of a combined hydrological and hydraulic modelling, allowed the estimation of flooded areas and volumes. The obtained results allowed to quantify the increase in the flood risk, that was more pronounced in the part of the selected area that has been more extensively interested by the soil sealing. The increase in the flood risk was larger in the hypothesis of a rainfall occurring when the soil is dry, like it can happen for the common case of summer precipitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the reactions to the eviction of squatters in two very different neighbourhoods of Rome: the centrally located, former working-class and traditionally leftist San Lorenzo; and the peripheral, recently built, speculation and mortgage-driven Nuova Ponte di Nona. While the reaction of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood to the eviction of Communia (August 2013) was highly supportive of the squatters, the residents’ committee in Nuova Ponte di Nona promoted a strong public campaign for the eviction of squatters in a building in Cerruti Street (December 2013). This raised the question of how such different responses, taking place within the same metropolitan area in the same year, can be framed. Based on interviews and the collection of secondary data, the paper addresses this question by showing how the residents of these two neighbourhoods embody the two poles of the process of subjectification created by the singular asset-based Italian welfare regime, the ‘financialization of home’ and the increasingly precarious nature of living conditions. However, a dualistic and rigid account of the neighbourhood reactions is avoided by considering the ‘commoning’ dimension as central to the actions and campaigns of both. Indeed, it shows how the residents’ committees in both cases were engaged in (re)creating new urban commons challenging the increasing privatization and individualization of everyday life prompted by neoliberal/austerity-based urbanism. The case of Nuova Ponte di Nona, however, shows that urban commons are not intrinsically emancipatory, and that the material conditions shaping the community life can lead to viewing the ‘other’ (i.e. the squatters) as a threat to their lifestyle aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to analyse the evolution of domestic production and consumption of chicken in Romania during the period 2006-2015. Romania's poultry meat supply was influenced by the value of inputs, reducing trend for the specific feed consumption, increasing the average daily gain, reducing mortality as a result of the implementation of good practices, and capitalization of production. This study covered the 2006-2015 period and was based on statistical data provided online by the Romanian Institute of Statistic and professional magazines. The production of poultry meat in Romania has been developed during the analyzed period and was influenced by the applied technology, as well as by impact of the subsidies which led to improvement of the production's performance. The results indicated by the regression method revealed the relationship between poultry meat production and the sales price of poultry meat in Romania, because the increase of the market price for poultry meat made this product more attractive to producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the prolonged aftermath of the economic crisis, urban citizenship is becoming nuanced with a multifarious array of quotidian grassroots organisational forms, aiming at re-appropriating essential right to the city, such as housing. In the case of the Italian capital city, Rome, squatting has become a widespread practice for both native and migrant dwellers for tackling with conditions of severe housing deprivation and lack of public housing, despite the punitive legislative context. This paper contends that their subjective composition, and the forms of organisation and life stemming from squatting nowadays, can contribute to updating Lefebvre’s definition of right to the city, and his critique of the citizen as the enfranchised subject for exerting a transformative power over the urban environment. In order to ground this argument, I will discuss the evidences collected in two big housing occupations located in the marginalised borough of Tor Sapienza, Metropoliz and four Stelle Occupato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]