Letters of a king. Alexander Romance between epistolary tradition, historiography and fictional narrative

Il presente lavoro è concepito come parziale revisione della complessa teoria sulla genesi del Romanzo di Alessandro che è stata elaborata da Reinhold Merkelbach e si è affermata nella critica filologica quale tesi vulgata. Lo studioso tedesco ascrive la composizione dell’opera ad un “ingenuo” redattore che – verso la fine del III sec. d. C. – avrebbe maldestramente assemblato testi già esistenti, mutuati da due fonti distinte: una trattazione storiografica di età ellenistica e una corposa raccolta di lettere contenente brani cronologicamente e qualitativamente differenziati, oltre ad un vero e proprio romanzo epistolare. La congettura consente di giustificare alcune patenti incongruenze generate dall’innesto di lettere nel racconto; sembra trovare conferma, peraltro, nei testi restituiti dal PSI XII 1285, testimone del supposto Briefroman. L’analisi delle missive qui condotta, tuttavia, rileva significative interconnessioni con il tessuto narrativo del Romanzo: sembra invalidare, pertanto, l’assunto fondamentale della ricostruzione di Merkelbach, ossia la presunta eterogeneità della componente epistolare rispetto a quella diegetica. Evidenzia, inoltre, che le lettere condivise con il papiro possono essere penetrate nel testo come aggiunte tarde. La tradizione del Romanzo, del resto, è eccezionalmente aperta e contaminata: è verosimile che le vistose incoerenze presenti nella recensio vetusta (databile con largo margine di approssimazione entro la prima metà del IV sec. a. C.) siano già dovute ad una lunga e travagliata trasmissione, non all’imperizia di un singolo estensore ignorante e sconsiderato. Ipotizzare l’origine del Romanzo in età ellenistica, come fanno Adolf Ausfeld e Richard Stoneman, permette di spiegare la presenza di materiali narrativi allogeni nella più antica redazione pervenuta. È altresì funzionale a definire l’incerta identità storico-letteraria del Romanzo: evidenti tratti di contiguità, infatti, emergono dal raffronto con i frammenti superstiti della perduta storiografia di IV e III sec. a. C.. Anche l’utilizzo delle lettere risulta compatibile con le convenzioni del genere storiografico.The thesis is a partial review of the theory about the genesis of the Alexander Romance which was suggested by R. Merkelbach and which has become as the vulgata in the criticism. Merkelbach affirms that the author of the Romance was a 'naive' editor, who, at the end of the III century AD, would have assembled texts starting from two different sources: an Hellenistic historiographical work and a large collection of letters, as well as a real epistolary novel. This suggestion allows to explain some inconsistencies due to the mixture between the letters and the narrative sections; moreover, it seems to have been confirmed by the evidence provided by PSI 1285. However, the analysis of the letters shows interesting connections with the narrative perspectives of the Romance, so that it could invalidate the main point of the Merkelbach's theory, ie. the heterogeneity of the epistolary aspect in comparison with the narrative one. Then the survey underlines that the letters which are also transmitted by the papyrus can be a later addition to the text of the Romance. Indeed, the tradition of the Romance is very opened and contaminated: it is possible that the inconsistencies in the recensio vetusta are due to the process of transmission, and not to the inexperience of the editor. The suggestion made by A. Ausfeld and R. Stoneman about an Hellenistic origin of the Romance allows to explain the presence of narrative sections which appear to be 'allogenic' in the most ancient phase of the text. Indeed such suggestion provides a possibility to define the uncertain identity of the Romance, since there are evident traces of contiguity with the remain fragments of the historiography of the IV and III century BC. Also the use of the letters is compatible with the conventions of the historiographical genre

Evaluating the impact of hydrometeorological conditions on E. coli concentration in farmed mussels and clams: experience in Central Italy.

Abstract Highly populated coastal environments receive large quantities of treated and untreated wastewater from human and industrial sources. Bivalve molluscs accumulate and retain contaminants, and their analysis provides evidence of past contamination. Rivers and precipitation are major routes of bacteriological pollution from surface or sub-surface runoff flowing into coastal areas. However, relationships between runoff, precipitation, and bacterial contamination are site-specific and dependent on the physiographical characteristics of each catchment. In this work, we evaluated the influence of precipitation and river discharge on molluscs' Escherichia coli concentrations at three sites in Central Italy, aiming at quantifying how hydrometeorological conditions affect bacteriological contamination of selected bivalve production areas. Rank-order correlation analysis indicated a stronger association between E. coli concentrations and the modelled Pescara River discharge maxima (r = 0.69) than between E. coli concentration and rainfall maxima (r = 0.35). Discharge peaks from the Pescara River caused an increase in E. coli concentration in bivalves in 87% of cases, provided that the runoff peak occurred 1–6 days prior to the sampling date. Precipitation in coastal area was linked to almost 60% of cases of E. coli high concentrations and may enhance bacterial transportation offshore, when associated with a larger-scale weather system, which causes overflow occurrence

Innovative Vibrating Hydraulic Dredge for Striped Venus (Chamelea gallina) Fishing

Special issue Evaluation of New Technological Solutions in Agriculture.-- 16 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables, supplementary materials https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/agriengineering4010001/s1.-- Data Availability Statement: Not applicableThis work proposes the experimentation of an innovative hydraulic dredge for clam fishing (Chamelea gallina) in the Adriatic Sea (Italy). This innovative gear aimed at increasing the selectivity of the typical hydraulic dredge used currently, while at the same reducing the impact on benthos through the conception, installation, and experimentation of innovative technological solutions, consisting mainly of a vibrating bottom panel on the dredge and a “warning device” on the dredge mouth. Comparative experiments of the traditional vs. the modified gear, employing two boats fishing in parallel on the northern coast of Abruzzi (Adriatic Sea) and contrasting the catch with both paired comparisons and through modelling, showed that the innovative hydraulic dredge retains fewer undersize clams while yielding similar amounts of commercial product, moreover of higher quality; at the same time, it takes on board less discard, and catches significantly less vagile fauna. In short, the innovative gear is gaining five times over a list of six parameters considered as positive and/or advantageous for the clam fishery. The results allow proposals of potential improvements to clam-fishing instruments to make the selection processes more effective while promoting a lower impacting fishery, which is essential for clam managementThis work has been funded by the Italian Ministry for Policies regarding Food, Agriculture and Forestry (MiPAAF), within the framework of the measure 1.39 of the program FEAMP 2014 2020With the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)Peer reviewe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Pseudorapidity and transverse-momentum distributions of charged particles in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

The pseudorapidity (eta) and transverse-momentum (p(T)) distributions of charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions are measured at the centre-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV. The pseudorapidity distribution in vertical bar eta vertical bar <1.8 is reported for inelastic events and for events with at least one charged particle in vertical bar eta vertical bar <1. The pseudorapidity density of charged particles produced in the pseudorapidity region vertical bar eta vertical bar <0.5 is 5.31 +/- 0.18 and 6.46 +/- 0.19 for the two event classes, respectively. The transverse-momentum distribution of charged particles is measured in the range 0.15 <p(T) <20 GeV/c and vertical bar eta vertical bar <0.8 for events with at least one charged particle in vertical bar eta vertical bar <1. The evolution of the transverse momentum spectra of charged particles is also investigated as a function of event multiplicity. The results are compared with calculations from PYTHIA and EPOS Monte Carlo generators. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Centrality evolution of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density over a broad pseudorapidity range in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76TeV

Peer reviewe