Microwave Treatment of Stone Surfaces for the Devitalization of Biodeteriogens

The experimental work described in this paper is aimed at evaluating the possibility of applying microwave heating to a restoration project. The technique involves the application of microwaves to stone surfaces affected by biodeterioration. Results showed that the pests were completely devitalised. The materials chosen for the survey were yellow and grey tuff. Samples of both tuffs were taken in the area of agro nocerino-sarnese and samples of lime mortar and brick were taken from a ruin located in Saint Eustachio (AV). The methodology consists of two phases: in the first, samples of material are placed in a reverberation chamber and treated by varying the parameters of power and exposure time; in the second, they underwent chemical-physical analysis aimed at establishing whether the treatment had induced aesthetic and/or structural alterations. The procedure was performed both on intact samples and on powdered samples for further analysis. Specifically selected and treated samples were subjected to colorimetric analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, of x-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, SEM, and analysis of transport properties and compressive strength. Results from the chemical and structural analyses relating to the samples treated with the protocol showed no differences between the treated and untreated material. The only difference between the two types of material used related to the absorption capacity of water after treatment. From this, it can be deduced that the heating of stone materials using microwaves devitalizes pests, while leaving the substrate unaltered and the microstructure unaffected by any change

Entre el rio y las murallas: las fortificaciones del pueblo de Capua entre los siglos XVI y XIX

The realization of the bastions, in the mid-sixteenth century, radically changed the urban image of Capua and, at a broader scale, the landscape context, preciously connoting the city as key stronghold of the Southern territory and place of experimentation of the adaptation of the fortifications to the innovations of the oxidative techniques, until the first half of the nineteenth century. The paper makes use of a remarkable corpus of unpublished graphs, found in different European archives, the reconsideration of those already known and of new documents (mainly of the eighteenth-century procurement) to trace, in one with a systematic analysis stratigraphy of the elevated, to identify the chronologies of the imposing surviving structures, proposing significant advancements of knowledge on the subject. This paper also reconsiders the relationship between the project experiments carried out in Italy during the first half of the sixteenth century and those conducted in the new world for the fortifications of Spanish colonial cities

Dental twinning in the primary dentition: new archaeological cases from Italy

Dental twinning (or “double teeth”) is a rare developmental condition that implies the fusion of two or more adjacent teeth. Clinical literature reports individual cases and extensive population studies to clarify causation, distribution, heritability and differential diagnosis of the different types of dental twinning (i.e. fusion, gemination, and accretion) whereas, documentation for past populations is still scarce. Aims: the present study documents four new archaeological cases of dental twinning of deciduous teeth from four different Italian archeological sites and positions them within the framework of the known literature.Materials and methods: the observed cases include five deciduous teeth from four subadults from Sardinia (Monte Sirai, 7th-4th cent. BCE and Santa Filitica, 7th cent. CE), Campania (Velia, 1st-2nd cent. CE) and Latium (Villamagna, 13th-15th cent. CE). The identification, descriptions and differential diagnoses of the anomalies were performed with the use of morphological analyses and, in one case, radiographic means.Results: all cases fall within the category of double teeth; each involving a different set of processes (gemination and dental fusion), teeth (deciduous central incisors, lateral incisors and canines), locations (upper and lower) and occurrence (unilateral and bilateral). Conclusion: to this day, cases reported in literature of dental twinning in archaeological samples are sparse and limited to specific geographical areas. This study adds four more cases from Italy suggesting such anomalies should be recorded in dental analyses in order to, one day, obtain a more reliable modelling of the frequencies and distributions in past populations

Dental twinning in the primary dentition: new archaeological cases from Italy

Dental twinning (or “double teeth”) is a rare developmental condition that implies the fusion of two or more adjacent teeth. Clinical literature reports individual cases and extensive population studies to clarify causation, distribution, heritability and differential diagnosis of the different types of dental twinning (i.e. fusion, gemination, and accretion) whereas, documentation for past populations is still scarce. Aims: the present study documents four new archaeological cases of dental twinning of deciduous teeth from four different Italian archeological sites and positions them within the framework of the known literature.Materials and methods: the observed cases include five deciduous teeth from four subadults from Sardinia (Monte Sirai, 7th-4th cent. BCE and Santa Filitica, 7th cent. CE), Campania (Velia, 1st-2nd cent. CE) and Latium (Villamagna, 13th-15th cent. CE). The identification, descriptions and differential diagnoses of the anomalies were performed with the use of morphological analyses and, in one case, radiographic means.Results: all cases fall within the category of double teeth; each involving a different set of processes (gemination and dental fusion), teeth (deciduous central incisors, lateral incisors and canines), locations (upper and lower) and occurrence (unilateral and bilateral). Conclusion: to this day, cases reported in literature of dental twinning in archaeological samples are sparse and limited to specific geographical areas. This study adds four more cases from Italy suggesting such anomalies should be recorded in dental analyses in order to, one day, obtain a more reliable modelling of the frequencies and distributions in past populations

Peptide-modified liposomes for selective targeting of bombesin receptors overexpressed by cancer cells: a potential theranostic agent.

OBJECTIVES: Drug delivery systems consisting of liposomes displaying a cell surface receptor-targeting peptide are being developed to specifically deliver chemotherapeutic drugs to tumors overexpressing a target receptor. This study addresses novel liposome composition approaches to specifically target tissues overexpressing bombesin (BN) receptors. METHODS: A new amphiphilic peptide derivative (MonY-BN) containing the BN(7-14) peptide, the DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetate) chelating agent, a hydrophobic moiety with two C(18) alkyl chains, and polyethylene glycol spacers, has been synthesized by solid-phase methods. Liposomes have been generated by co-aggregation of MonY-BN with 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC). The structural and biological properties of these new target-selective drug-delivery systems have been characterized. RESULTS: Liposomes with a DSPC/MonY-BN (97/3 molar ratio) composition showed a diameter of 145.5 ± 31.5 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.20 ± 0.05. High doxorubicin (Dox) loading was obtained with the remote pH gradient method using citrate as the inner buffer. Specific binding to PC-3 cells of DSPC/MonY-BN liposomes was obtained (2.7% ± 0.3%, at 37°C), compared with peptide-free DSPC liposomes (1.4% ± 0.2% at 37°C). Incubation of cells with DSPC/ MonY-BN/Dox showed significantly lower cell survival compared with DSPC/Dox-treated cells, in the presence of 100 ng/mL and 300 ng/mL drug amounts, in cytotoxicity experiments. Intravenous treatment of PC-3 xenograft-bearing mice with DSPC/MonY-BN/Dox at 10 mg/kg Dox dose produced higher tumour growth inhibition (60%) compared with nonspecific DSPC/ Dox liposomes (36%) relative to control animals. CONCLUSION: The structural and loading properties of DSPC/MonY-BN liposomes along with the observed in-vitro and in-vivo activity are encouraging for further development of this approach for target-specific cancer chemotherapy

Murge and Pre-murge in southern Italy: the last piece of Adria, the (almost) lost continent, attempting to became an aUGGp candidate (MurGEOpark)

In 2019, the executive of the Alta Murgia National Park (southeastern Italy) decided to propose its territory as possible inclusion in the network of the UNESCO Global Geoparks. Since then, in cooperation with the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (Aldo Moro University of Bari) and SIGEA, it is working to candidate the area as an aUGGp (called “MurGEOpark”). The MurGEOpark comprises the Alta Murgia area, where a Cretaceous sector of the Apulia Carbonate Platform crops out, and the adjacent Pre-Murge area, where the southwestward lateral continuation of the same platform, being flexed toward the southern Apennines mountain chain, is thinly covered by Plio-Quaternary foredeep deposits. The worldwide geological uniqueness is that the area is the only in situ remnant of the AdriaPlate, the old continent almost entirely squeezed between Africa and Europe. In such a contest, AltaMurgia is a virtually undeformed sector of Adria (the Apulia Foreland), while other territories of theplate are, and/or were, involved in the subduction/collision processes. In the MurGEOpark, the crustof Adria is still rooted to its mantle, and the Cretaceous evolution of the continent is spectacularlyrecorded in Alta Murgia thanks to the limestone succession of one of the largest peri-Tethyancarbonate platform (the Apulia Carbonate Platform). The MurGEOpark comprises also the Pre-Murge area, which represents the outer south-Apennines foredeep, whose Plio-Quaternaryevolution is spectacularly exposed thanks to an “anomalous” regional middle-late Quaternary uplift.The international value of the proposal is enriched by the presence of several geological singularities such as two paleontological jewels of very different age: a Neanderthal skeletonpreserved in speleothems within a karst cave, and one of the largest surfaces in the world withupper Cretaceous dinosaur tracks (about 25.000 footprints). Moreover, the close relationships between man and geology are spectacularly documented in the MurGEOpark: among the others, the use and conservation of water in a karst area, the prehistoric and ancestral choices ofurbanization, karst caves traditionally used as religious sites, etc. All these examples demonstratehow the MurGEOpark could offer a good opportunity to spread the geological culture to a wide and diverse audienc

Multidifferential study of identified charged hadron distributions in ZZ-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s}=13 TeV

Jet fragmentation functions are measured for the first time in proton-proton collisions for charged pions, kaons, and protons within jets recoiling against a $Z$ boson. The charged-hadron distributions are studied longitudinally and transversely to the jet direction for jets with transverse momentum 20 $< p_{\textrm{T}} < 100$ GeV and in the pseudorapidity range $2.5 < \eta < 4$. The data sample was collected with the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.64 fb$^{-1}$. Triple differential distributions as a function of the hadron longitudinal momentum fraction, hadron transverse momentum, and jet transverse momentum are also measured for the first time. This helps constrain transverse-momentum-dependent fragmentation functions. Differences in the shapes and magnitudes of the measured distributions for the different hadron species provide insights into the hadronization process for jets predominantly initiated by light quarks.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-013.html (LHCb public pages

Study of the B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} decay

The decay $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ is studied in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. In the $\Lambda_{c}^+ K^{-}$ system, the $\Xi_{c}(2930)^{0}$ state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is resolved into two narrower states, $\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}$ and $\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}$, whose masses and widths are measured to be $$m(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = 2924.5 \pm 0.4 \pm 1.1 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ m(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = 2938.5 \pm 0.9 \pm 2.3 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = \phantom{000}4.8 \pm 0.9 \pm 1.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},\\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = \phantom{00}11.0 \pm 1.9 \pm 7.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},$$ where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a prompt $\Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ sample. Evidence of a new $\Xi_{c}(2880)^{0}$ state is found with a local significance of $3.8\,\sigma$, whose mass and width are measured to be $2881.8 \pm 3.1 \pm 8.5\,\mathrm{MeV}$ and $12.4 \pm 5.3 \pm 5.8 \,\mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode $\Xi_{c}(2790)^{0} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ is found with a significance of $3.7\,\sigma$. The relative branching fraction of $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ with respect to the $B^{-} \to D^{+} D^{-} K^{-}$ decay is measured to be $2.36 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.22 \pm 0.25$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb public pages

Measurement of the ratios of branching fractions R(D∗)\mathcal{R}(D^{*}) and R(D0)\mathcal{R}(D^{0})

The ratios of branching fractions $\mathcal{R}(D^{*})\equiv\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu})$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^{0})\equiv\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu})$ are measured, assuming isospin symmetry, using a sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to 3.0 fb${ }^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The tau lepton is identified in the decay mode $\tau^{-}\to\mu^{-}\nu_{\tau}\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$. The measured values are $\mathcal{R}(D^{*})=0.281\pm0.018\pm0.024$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^{0})=0.441\pm0.060\pm0.066$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The correlation between these measurements is $\rho=-0.43$. Results are consistent with the current average of these quantities and are at a combined 1.9 standard deviations from the predictions based on lepton flavor universality in the Standard Model.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-039.html (LHCb public pages

I mattoni di Velia nel quadro delle produzioni laterizie magno-greche

The production of bricks in Velia is one of the most significant aspects of the Hellenistic city. This intense activity is mainly developed for the public building site, as shown by the strict state control. The workshops elaborate peculiar and standardized types, which determine a modular series, sui-table for the different building requirements. The stamping system has two stamps: one ‘constant’, composed of the letters delta-heta, the other ‘va-riable’, consisting of the abbreviation of an anthroponym, an indication of the magistrate or of the owner or manager of the workshop. The stamping system, with the initials delta-heta, abbreviation of the adjective demosios, alludes to the state referring to its main political organism, the demos. The most stringent comparisons come from Neapolis and Pithecusa