Creating a map of the underground heritage in the Mediterranean area: A visual representation for a comprehensive research

Interest in man-made (or artificial) cavities in the countries of the Mediterranean Basin led the Commission of the Italian Speleological Society to study and catalogue some of the most common troglodyte types in the region. Since 2000, the Commission has drawn up a study of the geographical distribution of rock-cut structures through a project initially developed by Mario Mainetti and Erica Besana in 1994. This geographical catalogue has been realised through integrating the information available in the international bibliography with the scientific research carried out by the Commission and the research groups affiliated therewith. The result of this work is a list of 1948 rupestrian sites distributed throughout 31 countries and represented on a general map. In this chapter, a general overview of the project is presented, along with a description of some case studies from different countries, including Tunisia, Libya, Turkey and Italy

Spectroscopic investigation of Cappadocia proto‐Byzantine paintings

The present contribution focuses the attention on the mural paintings of two among the oldest Cappadocia churches, belonging to the group of "proto-Byzantine paintings." These materials have never been extensively investigated before and represent a starting point of paramount importance to understand the evolution of both materials and techniques during the ages in this extraordinary region of central Turkey. Specifically, among the several investigated churches and after the synergic work of art historians, conservators, and scientists, we selected the church of St. John the Baptist at cavusin, whose architectural structure is dated back to fifth-sixth century, and Church nr. 5 (Suslu church, sixth-ninth century) in Gullu Dere. A limited but exhaustive number of samples was carefully selected and then collected during the on-site campaign in Cappadocia. Samples were investigated with a multianalytical approach by using cross-section examination, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), and micro-Raman spectroscopy to characterize materials, execution technique, and conservation state. The wall paintings in the church of St. John the Baptist are characterized by the presence of superimposed or adjacent layers ascribable to different historical periods, as it occurs in many of the Cappadocia churches. Their discrimination has been based on the mortar/ground layer. Pigments have been successfully identified and are mainly based on iron earths and ochres; the presence of gypsum and anhydrite, oxalates, and organic materials have been highlighted on the surface, thus suggesting alteration processes. The church nr. 5 at Gullu Dere shows a unique pictorial phase. Pigments are applied on a gypsum based ground layer and exhibit alteration patterns being made of lead based compounds, such as lead oxides and carbonates. A peculiarity of this church is the presence of anatase, detected in correspondence of red and yellow areas of the samples

New fuzzy EWMA control charts for monitoring phase II fuzzy profiles

In many quality control applications, the quality of a process or product is explained by the relationship between response variable and one or more explanatory variables, called a profile. In this paper, a new fuzzy EWMA control chart for phase II fuzzy profile monitoring is proposed. To this end, we extend EWMA control charts to its equivalent Fuzzy type and then implement fuzzy ranking methods to determine whether the process fuzzy profile is under or out of control. The proposed method is capable of identifying small changes in process under condition of process profile explaining parameters vagueness, roughness and uncertainty. Determining the source of changes, this method provides us with the possibility of recognizing the causes of process transition from stable mode, removing these causes and restoring the process stable mode