199 research outputs found
No time out: scaling material diversity and change in the Alpine foreland Neolithic
Within a project exploring the difference which high-precision chronologies make for narratives of the European Neolithic, this paper examines the place of material culture in the flow of social existence. In contrast to approaches based on imprecise chronologies and stressing gradual change, we examine increasingly high-resolution dendrochronological data in the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland, where sharp boundaries between material styles were not in evidence. While 60-year filters allow a more differentiated analysis of the relative distribution of Cortaillod and Pfyn pottery, higher-resolution dendrochronology enables a very detailed narrative of the rapid introduction of Corded Ware in the Lake ZĂĽrich area, highlighting significant differences between eastern and western Switzerland. At the scale of individual sites, Concise shows continuity of the local potting tradition, despite repeated episodes of outside influence. At the short-lived site Arbon Bleiche 3, pottery changes much less than diet. This reveals a complex pattern of exactly contemporary diversity, seen even more sharply at the very briefly occupied settlement of Bad Buchau Torwiesen II. To get at agency within the flow of social life, we need as much temporal and spatial detail as possible, close attention to the material, and approaches that allow for nuanced narratives
General description of quasi-adiabatic dynamical phenomena near exceptional points
The appearance of so-called exceptional points in the complex spectra of
non-Hermitian systems is often associated with phenomena that contradict our
physical intuition. One example of particular interest is the state-exchange
process predicted for an adiabatic encircling of an exceptional point. In this
work we analyse this and related processes for the generic system of two
coupled oscillator modes with loss or gain. We identify a characteristic system
evolution consisting of periods of quasi-stationarity interrupted by abrupt
non-adiabatic transitions, and we present a qualitative and quantitative
description of this switching behaviour by connecting the problem to the
phenomenon of stability loss delay. This approach makes accurate predictions
for the breakdown of the adiabatic theorem as well as the occurrence of chiral
behavior observed previously in this context, and provides a general framework
to model and understand quasi-adiabatic dynamical effects in non-Hermitian
systems.Comment: Main text: 9 pages; 5 figures. Appendix: 4 pages; 1 figur
High-resolution isotopic evidence of specialised cattle herding in the European Neolithic.
Peer reviewe
Virtual Reality applications for visualization of 6000-year-old Neolithic graves from Lenzburg (Switzerland)
The last decade has seen a steady increase in the application of virtual 3D approaches in cultural heritage research. Although a large literature exists about the advantages of 3D methods in this field, here we go one step further and elucidate a) how image-based 3D reconstructions can be displayed in virtual reality (VR) space using freeware game engine software and low-cost VR hardware and b) highlight the relative benefits and advantages with a focus on interactive museum displays of relatively large archaeological objects. Specifically, we present three 3D models of different stone grave structures from the Neolithic necropolis of Lenzburg (Northern Switzerland, 4450-3500 BCE). The site has been excavated in 1959/60 and certain graves were subsequently preserved for museum display. By means of VR applications, it is now possible to experience these approximately 6000-year-old tombs with an innovative approach circumventing various barriers or constraints and offering interactive display options
Dynamique d'avalanches sous-marines en cellule de Hele-Shaw
En inclinant un milieu granulaire immergé au-delà de son angle de stabilité, on provoque une avalanche. La durée de cette avalanche dépend de la taille du tas, et de la taille des grains et nous obtenons des avalanches pouvant durer plus de 8 heures ! Par contre la surface de chaque avalanche reste plate et l'angle du tas évolue en temps sur une portion d'une courbe unique. Des mesures par PIV (vélocimétrie par image de particules) donnent la vitesse des grains en paroi et montrent que l'avalanche démarre en quelques secondes seulement avant d'évoluer vers une lente relaxation de l'angle du tas. Une modélisation de l'écoulement par un coefficient de friction dépendant du cisaillement adimensionné permet de retrouver l'essentiel des résultats
Sensitivity and specificity of the antigen-based anterior nasal self-testing programme for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in schools, Austria, March 2021.
This study evaluates the performance of the antigen-based anterior nasal screening programme implemented in all Austrian schools to detect SARS-CoV-2 infections. We combined nationwide antigen-based screening data obtained in March 2021 from 5,370 schools (Grade 1-8) with an RT-qPCR-based prospective cohort study comprising a representative sample of 244 schools. Considering a range of assumptions, only a subset of infected individuals are detected with the programme (low to moderate sensitivity) and non-infected individuals mainly tested negative (very high specificity)
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