Some Marginal Remarks on Prof. Randazzo's Paper

L'interessante intervento del Prof. Randazzo sulla continuità e discontinuità del decurianato ha offerto molti spunti di riflessione. Certamente il decurionato rappresenta in questi secoli, oggetto del Convegno, la spina dorsale dell'amministrazione locale. Vorrei fare alcune osservazioni in proposito, anche in relazione a quanto detto dal prof. Randazzo. Prof. Randazzo’s paper on the question of continuity or discontinuity in the decurionate is very interesting and he made many inspiring observations. It is a long period we are talking of, and the decurionate was in any case for a greater part of this period the backbone of local government. It is, therefore, a large subject and I can only hope to make some marginal remarks and contribute to his paper

VI. The colonate in the west of Europe after ca. 500 AD

Summary: The colonate as it was established under Diocletian depended on the credit an estate owner provided to a farmer. The latter had to provide at any moment services instead of interest and consequently had to reside in or near the estate. If the credit was used for the poll tax and the credit agreement was inserted into the census of the estate, the colonate in its public law form was created. It involved also a change in the status of the colonus. The subservience to the estate owner made his status into one of a subjected status which passed on to the offspring. In the east abolition of the poll tax implied the lifting of the colonate. In the west, in provinces of the former West-Roman Empire, we see in the sixth century a colonate which is hereditary but which has to all appearances no connection with the poll tax, if that still existed. It seems that a group of law texts which only deal with the descent of coloni was interpreted as standing on their own, not connected with taxation. In this way, it is submitted, the colonate shed its fiscal component and became a category of mere personal law

Exploring Pompeii: discovering hospitality through research synergy

Hospitality research continues to broaden through an ever-increasing dialogue and alignment with a greater number of academic disciplines. This paper demonstrates how an enhanced understanding of hospitality can be achieved through synergy between archaeology, the classics and sociology. It focuses on classical Roman life, in particular Pompeii, to illustrate the potential for research synergy and collaboration, to advance the debate on hospitality research and to encourage divergence in research approaches. It demonstrates evidence of commercial hospitality activities through the excavation hotels, bars and taverns, restaurants and fast food sites. The paper also provides an example of the benefits to be gained from multidisciplinary analysis of hospitality and tourism

Fish and fishing in the Roman world

This article focuses on two aspects related to fish and fishing. It first discusses the social context for the consumption of preserved and fresh fish, showing that generally consumption of certain types of fresh fish conferred status, whereas consumption of preserved fish, being more affordable, was attested across social strata. The paper then moves on to examine the organization of the ‘fishing industry’, specifically the relationship between fish-salting establishments and the fishermen who provided the fish. Although we have many literary, documentary, and archaeological sources for fish preservation and fishing techniques in classical antiquity, the fishermen engaged in large-scale fishing remain rather elusive

Cosmological simulations for combined-probe analyses: covariance and neighbour-exclusion bias

We present a public suite of weak-lensing mock data, extending the Scinet Light Cone Simulations (SLICS) to simulate cross-correlation analyses with different cosmological probes. These mocks include Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS)-450- and LSST-like lensing data, cosmic microwave background lensing maps and simulated spectroscopic surveys that emulate the Galaxy And Mass Assembly, BOSS, and 2-degree Field Lensing galaxy surveys. With 844 independent realizations, our mocks are optimized for combined-probe covariance estimation, which we illustrate for the case of a joint measurement involving cosmic shear, galaxy–galaxy lensing, and galaxy clustering from KiDS-450 and BOSS data. With their high spatial resolution, the SLICS are also optimal for predicting the signal for novel lensing estimators, for the validation of analysis pipelines, and for testing a range of systematic effects such as the impact of neighbour-exclusion bias on the measured tomographic cosmic shear signal. For surveys like KiDS and Dark Energy Survey, where the rejection of neighbouring galaxies occurs within ∼2 arcsec, we show that the measured cosmic shear signal will be biased low, but by less than a per cent on the angular scales that are typically used in cosmic shear analyses. The amplitude of the neighbour-exclusion bias doubles in deeper, LSST-like data. The simulation products described in this paper are made available at http://slics.roe.ac.uk/

Robust diffraction-limited near-infrared-to-near-ultraviolet wide-field imaging from stratospheric balloon-borne platforms — super-pressure balloon-borne imaging telescope performance

At a fraction of the total cost of an equivalent orbital mission, scientific balloon-borne platforms, operating above 99.7% of the Earth’s atmosphere, offer attractive, competitive, and effective observational capabilities—namely, space-like seeing, transmission, and backgrounds—which are well suited for modern astronomy and cosmology. The Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SUPERBIT) is a diffraction-limited, wide-field, 0.5 m telescope capable of exploiting these observing conditions in order to provide exquisite imaging throughout the near-infrared to near-ultraviolet. It utilizes a robust active stabilization system that has consistently demonstrated a 48 mas 1σ sky-fixed pointing stability over multiple 1 h observations at float. This is achieved by actively tracking compound pendulations via a three-axis gimballed platform, which provides sky-fixed telescope stability at < 500 mas and corrects for field rotation, while employing high-bandwidth tip/tilt optics to remove residual disturbances across the science imaging focal plane. SUPERBIT’s performance during the 2019 commissioning flight benefited from a customized high-fidelity science-capable telescope designed with an exceptional thermo- and opto-mechanical stability as well as a tightly constrained static and dynamic coupling between high-rate sensors and telescope optics. At the currently demonstrated level of flight performance, SUPERBIT capabilities now surpass the science requirements for a wide variety of experiments in cosmology, astrophysics, and stellar dynamics

Observation of the suppressed Λb0→DpK−Λ_b^0\to D p K^- decay with D→K+π−D\to K^+ π^- and measurement of its C ⁣PC\!P asymmetry

A study of $\Lambda_b^0$ baryon decays to the $DpK^-$ final state is presented based on a proton-proton collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the LHCb detector. Two $\Lambda_b^0$ decays are considered, $\Lambda_b^0\to DpK^-$ with $D\to K^-\pi^+$ and $D\to K^+\pi^-$, where $D$ represents a superposition of $D^0$ and $\overline{D}^0$ states. The latter process is expected to be suppressed relative to the former, and is observed for the first time. The ratio of branching fractions of the two decays is measured, and the $C\!P$ asymmetry of the suppressed mode, which is sensitive to the CKM angle $\gamma$, is also reported