Healing, Translating, Collecting. Doctor Michelangelo Tilli across the Ottoman Empire (1683–85)

The article is based on the correspondence between doctor Michelangelo Tilli, the secretary of Granduke Cosimo III de’Medici in Florence and doctor Francesco Redi head physician at the Medici Court and a leading scientist in Europe. Michelangelo Tilli (1655-1750) a young physician graduated from the university of Pisa, between 1683 and 1685 travelled to the Ottoman Empire with the official charge of treating Mustafa pasha “Mussaip”, grand admiral of the Turkish fleet and son in law of Sultan Mehmed IV. It was a relevant diplomatic and political move to send a promising physician to treat the Pasha during the crucial military campaign of the Turks in Central Europe against the Holy League while Christian armies were confronting the last Ottoman attack to Vienna and Hungary.  From Istanbul Tilli travelled to Belgrade and back, while the Ottomans were at war with the Hapsburg Empire. The catastrophic consequences of the siege of Vienna in September 1683 resonate in his letters and reports, to date unpublished among the literature on these events. Tilli’s letters intersect political and diplomatic information with medical therapy, botanical observation and the search for antiquities, showing the plurality of functions performed by early modern medical practitioners across imperial boundaries

« Sans espoir d’hériter ». Les mères, les enfants et l’État en Toscane, XVIe-XVIIe siècles

A partir d’études de cas et de données chiffrées, l’essai analyse, dans la Toscane des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, les demandes que les mères veuves adressent au Magistrat des Pupilles pour obtenir la tutelle de leurs enfants. Dans une culture juridique fondée sur des stratégies d’héritage agnatique, les femmes et les pouvoirs publics négocient peu à peu un “contrat moral” qui confie aux mères la garde et la tutelle de leurs enfants. Ainsi s’affirme une structure familiale bilatérale qui était sousjacente. L’exclusion des femmes de la transmission patrimoniale est compensée par leur rôle-pivot dans la sphère des responsabilités et des soins.Focusing on specific case studies and on quantitative evidence, this essay analyses widowed mothers’ claims for the guardianship of their children vis-à-vis the Court of Wards in early modern Tuscany. Within the dominant juridical culture based on agnatic inheritance strategies, women and state officials gradually negotiate a “moral contract” which entrusts mothers with guardianship and custody of offspring . In time an underlying bilateral structure of family relationships becomes visible. Thus women’s exclusion from patrimonial transmission is compensated by their pivotal role in the sphere of responsibility and care.

Evaluation of the impact of pavement degradation on driving comfort and safety using a dynamic simulation model

The dynamic effects induced by vehicles on road pavement have been thoroughly analysed over years [1]. The main reason of such focus is the major influence exerted on the propagation and worsening of pavement damages by the dynamic loads rather than the static ones [2]. To date, the modelling theories of systems have evolved, along with the computational capability of modern calculators. To this effect, three-dimensional simulations of the tire-surface interaction [3, 4] are commonly used. The simulations take into account both the dynamics of the load and the consequent deformation of the pavement. However, previous studies aimed at analyzing the above interaction for the optimisation strategies of the maintenance activities within the context of effective road asset management. On the contrary, this work focuses on the safety-related issues by the dynamic effects suffered by the vehicle, when passing on different road defects. The goal of this study is to numerically analyse the kinematic and dynamic impacts of the pavement degradations (and in particular rutting) on the driving safety. The simulation of the main characteristics and evolution of the pavement damages over the time, such as the simulation of the tire-pavement contacts and the dynamic response on the vehicles, is a useful tool for developing safe and comprehensive rehabilitation programs. These are of paramount importance to limit the accident rates. The impact on driving safety was analysed using a simulation model for the simulation of the vehicles behaviour in the case of damaged pavements. Specifically, different road geometries and vehicle’s typologies were considered to evaluate the rutting effects on safety, as a function of the evolution stage of this pavement damage. In more detail, the performance characteristics of the vehicles, the dynamic and cinematic parameters (e.g. the vehicle trajectory and the vertical acceleration), were collected for increasingly rutted pavement conditions. The study proposes qualitative relationships between differing stages and location of rutting, and the consequent impacts on driving safety for different types of vehicles (passenger cars and powered two wheelers). It is important to emphasize how this analysis could be helpful to the road agencies in prioritizing maintenance actions on large-scale road assets. Prioritization will be mainly focused on the level of risk associated with pavement degradations

Evaluation of the impact of pavement degradation on driving comfort and safety using a dynamic simulation model

The dynamic effects exerted by the vehicles on the road pavement have been thoroughly investigated over years. The main reason for this investigation is the major influence on the propagation and worsening of the pavement damages exerted by the dynamic loads rather than the static ones. To date, the modelling theories of systems have evolved, along with the computational capability of the modern calculators. To this effect, three-dimensional simulations of the tire-surface interaction are commonly used. These simulations take into account the dynamics of the load and the consequent deformation of the pavement. However, previous studies aimed at analyzing the above interaction for the optimisation strategies of the maintenance activities within the context of effective road asset management. On the contrary, this work focuses on the safety-related issues linked with the dynamic effects suffered by the vehicle, when passing on different road defects. The goal of this study is to analyse numerically the kinematic and the dynamic effects of the pavement degradations (and in particular rutting) on the driving safety. The simulation of the main characteristics and the evolution of the pavement damages over the time (e.g., the simulation of the tire-pavement contacts and the dynamic response on the vehicles) is a useful method for the development of safe and comprehensive rehabilitation programs. These are of paramount importance to limit the accident rates. The effects on the driving safety was analysed using a simulation model for the vehicles behaviour in the case of damaged pavements. Different road geometries and vehicle types were considered to evaluate the rutting effects on safety, as a function of the evolution stage of this type of pavement damage. In more detail, the performance characteristics of the vehicles, the dynamic and kinematic parameters (e.g., the vehicle trajectory and the vertical acceleration), were collected for pavement conditions with progressively high levels of rutting. The study proposes a theoretical model of qualitative relationships between differing stages and location of rutting, and the consequent effects on driving safety for different types of vehicles (passenger cars and powered two wheelers). It is worth to emphasize the relevance of this research for maintenance prioritization purposes at the road network level. Priority is based on the level of risk associated with the pavement degradations and with different types of vehicle

Hydrothermal Carbonization as a Process to Facilitate the Disposal of Bioplastics

Bioplastics are steadily replacing fossil-based plastics due to their renewable origin and biodegradability. However, their end-of-life can be problematic: they are often collected with the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) but can be not satisfactorily biodegradable in plants that treat it, leading to their rejection at the entrance. This work focuses on five different commercial bioplastics employed in the eyewear industry: two based on cellulose acetate, one on galalithe, one on corn starch and one on polyamide. The aim was to assess their treatability via hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), which was never reported in the literature for these materials. Under HTC at 180 and 220 °C for 1 h, four of the tested bioplastics show significant degrees of degradation, leading to the formation of different solid and liquid products, which were respectively characterised according to their elemental composition and pH. The interesting different behaviours may be ascribed to the different compositions and structures of the materials. HTC appears as a viable route to facilitate the degradation of these recalcitrant materials and may be followed by a material recovery or an energetic valorisation through anaerobic digestion or thermochemical pathways, depending on the purity of the waste stream

Good practices for the operational safety management in the early recovery phase of a seismic event using GPR

This study deals with a case report about the planning and the performance of GPR surveys carried out in the town of Amatrice, in the district of Rieti, Italy. As sadly known, the town has been hit by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in the nighttime of August 24th 2016. The strength of the seism, along with the age and the deterioration rate of the structural asset, have caused the razing to the ground and the critical damaging of the majority of the buildings within the “red zone area”, corresponding to the historical town center. In the early recovery phase taking place afterwards, the strong seismic swarm subsequent the main shake has sensitively slowed down the rescue and rehabilitation operations. Moreover, the main issue was related to the unsafety operational conditions of volunteers and firemen. To this effect, the geotechnical stability of the roads and the large operational areas represented critical issues, as up to 40 tons crane trucks were needed to put in safety the highest buildings, such as three-floor buildings and historical towers. In this framework, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) provided a valuable help in preliminary assessing the stability of the areas where the crane trucks were planned to operate as well as to be parked over. The main objective of the GPR tests was to verify the absence of possible cavities beneath the ground surface that could undermine the strength of the surface under heavy loadings. To that effect, a multi-frequency ground-coupled GPR system was used. This radar system can simultaneously collect data at both the frequencies of 600 MHz and 1600 MHz. Four different sites were surveyed, namely, two sections of the main road passed on by the cranes, and two machinery depot areas down by the towers. In the former case, the surveys were performed by parallel longitudinal scans, due to the significant longitudinal length of the sections, whereas in the latter, two grids with differing sizes were realized and scanned for producing horizontal tomographic maps. In both the cases, useful insights have been pointed out, and relevant critical areas of possible weaknesses in the soil strength, where to focus further and more specialist analyses, have been detected. It is important to emphasize on the details provided about the working procedures in such a complex environment

FlyBase 2.0: the next generation.

FlyBase (flybase.org) is a knowledge base that supports the community of researchers that use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model organism. The FlyBase team curates and organizes a diverse array of genetic, molecular, genomic, and developmental information about Drosophila. At the beginning of 2018, 'FlyBase 2.0' was released with a significantly improved user interface and new tools. Among these important changes are a new organization of search results into interactive lists or tables (hitlists), enhanced reference lists, and new protein domain graphics. An important new data class called 'experimental tools' consolidates information on useful fly strains and other resources related to a specific gene, which significantly enhances the ability of the Drosophila researcher to design and carry out experiments. With the release of FlyBase 2.0, there has also been a restructuring of backend architecture and a continued development of application programming interfaces (APIs) for programmatic access to FlyBase data. In this review, we describe these major new features and functionalities of the FlyBase 2.0 site and how they support the use of Drosophila as a model organism for biological discovery and translational research

Precise measurements of the properties of the B-1(5721)(0,+) and B-2*(5747)(0,+) states and observation of B-+,B-0 pi(-,+) mass structures

Invariant mass distributions of B+π− and B0π+ combinations are investigated in order to study excited B mesons. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to 3.0 fb−1 of pp collision data, recorded by the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. Precise measurements of the masses and widths of the B1(5721)0,+ and B2(5747)0,+ states are reported. Clear enhancements, particularly prominent at high pion transverse momentum, are seen over background in the mass range 5850-6000 MeV in both B+π− and B0π+ combinations. The structures are consistent with the presence of four excited B mesons, labelled BJ (5840)0,+ and BJ (5960)0,+, whose masses and widths are obtained under different hypotheses for their quantum numbers