18,070 research outputs found
Ovid, the Fasti and the stars
According to Quintilian, poetry cannot be fully understood without a good knowledge of the
stars. As one example he cites the fact that poets frequently indicate the time of year by the
rising and setting of stars and constellations, a device familiar to us from Hesiod onwards.1
For Quintilian, who had the benefit of a stable civil calendar, there may have seemed little
reason beyond a desire for poetic expression to specify the date in this manner: but before
Caesar’s calendar reforms in 45 BC, the appearance and disappearance of certain stars just
before sunrise and just after sunset provided a much more regular guide to the year than the
erratic calendars of Greece and Rome, which were often out of step with the solar year.2 It is
therefore not surprising to find the same method of specifying the date in prose authors too;3
and lists of these stellar phenomena, arranged in various calendar-like formats, are found in
both texts and inscriptions. These lists, known as parapegmata, can be traced back to fifth
century Greece, but the tradition may be considerably older.4
Whatever our reaction to Quintilian’s claim, it is certainly the case that a good knowledge of
the stars is important for a full understanding of Ovid’s calendar poem, the Fasti. To a large
extent the poem presents itself as a poetic version of the Roman calendar: each book covers a
different month, and as the year and the work progress, Ovid marks the dates of various
religious festivals and historical events, as in the real fasti. However, unlike many of the
extant fasti, Ovid combines this material with material from the parapegmatic tradition, giving
dates for the rising and setting of various stars and constellations, and for the journey of the
sun through the zodiac. The inclusion of the constellations – and of the aetiological tales
explaining their presence in the sky – enables Ovid to introduce a variety of Greek myths into
the Roman calendar, where they would otherwise have no place
The TerraSAR-X Mission and System Design
This paper describes the TerraSAR-X Mission Concept within the context of a public-private-partnership (PPP) agreement between the German Aerospace Center DLR and industry. It briefly describes the PPP-concept as well as the overall project organization. The paper then gives an overview of the satellite design, the corresponding Ground Segment as well as the main mission parameters. After a short introduction to the scientific and commercial exploitation scheme, the paper finally focuses on the mission accomplishments achieved so far during the ongoing mission
Pediatric extraspinal sacrococcygeal ependymoma (ESE): an Italian AIEOP experience of six cases and literature review
Background: Primary pediatric extraspinal sacrococcygeal ependymoma (ESE) is a very rare disease, poorly described in literature, whose diagnostic, therapeutic, and follow-up approach is still controversial. Methods: We describe six cases of pediatric ESE treated at Associazione Italiana Ematologia Oncologia Pediatrica (AIEOP) centers in Italy since 1983, with a review of the literature. Results: All six patients had primary sacrococcygeal disease (two presacral and four subcutaneous) with median age of 10 years. Three patients were males, and two of them are metastatic at diagnosis; 3/6 had myxopapillary ependymoma grade I and 3/6 had classic ependymoma grade II. Five patients underwent surgical resection with complete removal only in one case with coccygectomy. Adjuvant chemoradiotherapy was administered to one metastatic patient obtaining a complete remission. Two patients relapsed at 3 and 8 years from diagnosis: they were treated with salvage chemotherapy (high-dose sequential chemotherapy with myeloablative regimen in one case), surgery, and radiotherapy achieving complete remission (CR). All six patients are in complete continuous remission (CCR) at a median follow-up of 12.8 years. Conclusions: Pediatric patients with this peculiar disease need to be referred to specialized pediatric cancer centers that can provide multidisciplinary treatment after a centralized pathology review. Our experience highlights the role of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in adjuvant and relapse setting. The final prognosis is relatively optimistic, but with a careful follow-up due to the high risk of recurrence
Two new Lamiogethes Audisio & Cline from China (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Meligethinae)
Two new species of the genus Lamiogethes Audisio & Cline, 2009are described from China (Sichuan): L.forcipenissp. n.,and L.con-vexistrigosussp. n., based on a series of recently collected specimens. The new species are both likely morphologically related to L.po-tanini (Kirejtshuk, 1979) from Sichuan and to L. conjungens (Grouvelle, 1910) from Yunnan. These new species clearly differ from their related taxa by details of the body shape and color, and the distinct shape of the male and female genitalia. Both new species are likely associated as larvae with a member of the genus PhlomoidesMoench (Lamiaceae)
Moments with Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich
A recollection of special moments spent with Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich and
with the scientists of Soviet Union and abroad.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the international conference "The
Sun, the Stars, The Universe and General Relativity" in honor of Ya.B.
Zeldovich 95th Anniversary, held in Minsk, Belarus on April 20-23, 200
Egyptian pit-looms from the late first millennium AD — attempts in reconstruction from the archaeological evidence
In discussions on the development of weaving technology, specifically treadle looms in the Mediterranean area, Egypt is often referred to as one of the earliest countries in which people used foot-powered looms for producing cloth. It is thought to have been in regular use in the production of cloth as early as the second half of the 1st millennium AD. This belief is built on results from excavations undertaken during the early 20th century by the Egypt Exploration Fund at the hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in Luxor, as well as on textile studies. Unfortunately, none of the postulated looms has ever been found and no pictorial evidence has survived illustrating the apparatus that the weavers worked on. Texts provide only scant information, none of which is sufficiently descriptive. For the reconstruction of the weaving device used in Egypt during the Late Roman and Early Islamic periods one therefore depends on the scarce archaeological and architectural information from excavations. This consists predominantly of pits, which were identified by Herbert E. Winlock as substructures of a horizontal treadle loom. However, Winlock’s identification was criticised by various researchers, and subsequently his suggestion was disproved by the experimental reconstruction of a loom within one of the pits of the monastery of Epiphanius, as well as the comparison with more recent archaeological evidence. Although Winlock was with much certainty correct in proposing that the pits were once loom emplacements, the type and features of the weaving apparatus are still uncertain
New results from DAMA/LIBRA
DAMA/LIBRA is running at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the I.N.F.N..
Here the results obtained with a further exposure of 0.34 ton x yr are
presented. They refer to two further annual cycles collected one before and one
after the first DAMA/LIBRA upgrade occurred on September/October 2008. The
cumulative exposure with those previously released by the former DAMA/NaI and
by DAMA/LIBRA is now 1.17 ton x yr, corresponding to 13 annual cycles. The data
further confirm the model independent evidence of the presence of Dark Matter
(DM) particles in the galactic halo on the basis of the DM annual modulation
signature (8.9 sigma C.L. for the cumulative exposure). In particular, with the
cumulative exposure the modulation amplitude of the single-hit events in the (2
-- 6) keV energy interval measured in NaI(Tl) target is (0.0116 +- 0.0013)
cpd/kg/keV; the measured phase is (146 +- 7) days and the measured period is
(0.999 +- 0.002) yr, values well in agreement with those expected for the DM
particles.Comment: presented at the Int. Conf. Beyond the Standard Models of Particle
Physics, Cosmology and Astrophysics (BEYOND 2010), 1-6 February 2010, Cape
Town, South Afric
Contacts, exchange and marble supply in late antique Ravenna and the port of Classe
The paper focuses on the commercial mechanism in Late Antiquity with special regard to the Late Antique sedes imperii, Ravenna, and its maritime port of Classe from the point of view of qualitative and quantitative analyses of marble and pottery importation within a long-distance trade in the Mediterranean. In the 5th and 6th centuries, Ravenna represented an important political, commercial, and cultural centre, involved in interregional sea trade through its port of Classe, and represented a significant production and redistributive centre. The research is based on archaeological material evidence: provenance and quantity of imported stone artefacts from the late antique complex of S. Severo in Classe, and provenance of pottery find from a harbour area of Podere Chiavichetta in Classe. The mechanism of commercial exchange of late antique Ravenna and Classe with various regions of the Mediterranean is based on the quantitative and qualitative comparison of imported marble and pottery. The question of the statio marmorum in the port area of Classe is also discussed on the basis of both the archaeological evidence and the comparison with the stone supply of Rome
Final model independent result of DAMA/LIBRA-phase1
The results obtained with the total exposure of 1.04 ton x yr collected by
DAMA/LIBRA-phase1 deep underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS)
of the I.N.F.N. during 7 annual cycles (i.e. adding a further 0.17 ton x yr
exposure) are presented. The DAMA/LIBRA-phase1 data give evidence for the
presence of Dark Matter (DM) particles in the galactic halo, on the basis of
the exploited model independent DM annual modulation signature by using highly
radio-pure NaI(Tl) target, at 7.5 sigma C.L.. Including also the first
generation DAMA/NaI experiment (cumulative exposure 1.33 ton x yr,
corresponding to 14 annual cycles), the C.L. is 9.3 sigma and the modulation
amplitude of the single-hit events in the (2-6) keV energy interval is: (0.0112
\pm 0.0012) cpd/kg/keV; the measured phase is (144 \pm 7) days and the measured
period is (0.998 \pm 0.002) yr, values well in agreement with those expected
for DM particles. No systematic or side reaction able to mimic the exploited DM
signature has been found or suggested by anyone over more than a decade.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables; in publication on Eur. Phys. J.
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