COMPUTER AIDED RESTORATION TOOLS TO ASSIST THE CONSERVATION OF AN ANCIENT SCULPTURE. THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF ZEUS ENTHRONED

The research focuses on the contribution of the integrated application of Computer Aided Restoration digital procedures as a means to guide the integration measure of an artifact, innovating and implementing the traditional investigation methods. The aim of the study was to provide effective geometrical-formal investigation tools in the frame of the conservation work of Zeus enthroned from Soluntum, conserved in the Archaeological Museum \u201cA. Salinas\u201d of Palermo. The paper describes the workflow of the 3D acquisition and graphical modeling with non-invasive digitalization and high information density techniques to assist the conservation of the legs of the throne, especially the integration of the missing part. Thanks to the technique of the digital fabrication it has been reconstruct the two missing parts following the theoretical criteria as: recognisability, compatibility and retractability. This innovative application of 3D digital technologies have showed as the integrated use of the new technology can be a useful tools for improving the conservation of a work of art

Il ruolo dell’odontoiatra nella medicina estetica: norme e indicazioni

Obiettivi. Scopo del lavoro e valutare al laureato in Odontoiatria e Protesi Dentaria se sia consentito attuare trattamenti di Medicina Estetica del volto prospettati per modulare gli effetti negativi dell’invecchiamento e, al contempo, analizzare i cambiamenti estetici delle strutture periorali associati all’et a. Materiali e metodi. Vengono descritti sinteticamente quali trattamenti coinvolgono clinicamente la professione odontoiatrica, con particolare riguardo alle infiltrazioni di tossina botulinica e di filler o volumizzanti, con un cenno anche agli aspetti civilistici e assicurativi correlati a tali trattamenti. Risultati e conclusioni. Nell’ultimo decennio si e registrato un imponente aumento dell’offerta e della domanda di trattamenti di Medicina Estetica del volto, a cui non e seguita, per l’odontoiatra, una chiara espressione normativa professionale; in questo scenario, nel giugno 2010, la presidenza della Commissione Albo Odontoiatri nazionale ha espresso il suo parere di liceit a dei trattamenti da parte degli odontoiatri. Secondo gli autori, il laureato in Odontoiatria ha competenza specifica, nel pedissequo rispetto dei limiti topografici e razionali della legge, nel somministrare trattamenti di Medicina Estetica

Nest guarding behaviour of a temperate wrasse differs between sites off Mediterranean CO2 seeps

Organisms may respond to changing environmental conditions by adjusting their behaviour (i.e., behavioural plasticity). Ocean acidification (OA), resulting from anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), is predicted to impair sensory function and behaviour of fish. However, reproductive behaviours, and parental care in particular, and their role in mediating responses to OA are presently overlooked. Here, we assessed whether the nesting male ocellated wrasse Symphodus ocellatus from sites with different CO2 concentrations showed different behaviours during their breeding season. We also investigated potential re-allocation of the time-budget towards different behavioural activities between sites. We measured the time period that the nesting male spent carrying out parental care, mating and exploring activities, as well as changes in the time allocation between sites at ambient (~400 μatm) and high CO2 concentrations (~1000 μatm). Whilst the behavioural connectance (i.e., the number of linkages among different behaviours relative to the total amount of linkages) was unaffected, we observed a significant reduction in the time spent on parental care behaviour, and a significant decrease in the guarding activity of fish at the high CO2 sites, with a proportional re-allocation of the time budget in favour of courting and wandering around, which however did not change between sites. This study shows behavioural differences in wild fish living off volcanic CO2 seeps that could be linked to different OA levels, suggesting that behavioural plasticity may potentially act as a mechanism for buffering the effects of ongoing environmental change. A reallocation of the time budget between key behaviours may play a fundamental role in determining which marine organisms are thriving under projected OA

Low cost system for visualization and exhibition of pottery finds in archeological museums

The objective of this project is to build a low-cost system for surveying, modeling, prototyping and interactive visualizing aimed at the enhancement of islamic pottery finds of X – XI centuries. The system will allow various applications: the creation of systems for displaying artifacts from the museum alongside the exhibition, the virtual view of restorations from fragments, including AR and VR, the physical reconstruction of the original form using 3D printer to show the pieces in their entirety, as well as the construction of interactive virtual archives to be made available to scholars and visitors

The indigenous settlement of Monte Iato (western Sicily): an ethnoarchaeometric approach for outlining local Archaic ceramic productions

An ethnoarchaeometric approach has been followed to identify the textural and compositional characteristics of the ceramic pastes produced in ancient Iaitas/Ietas, an indigenous site located in western Sicily on Monte Iato, a few tens of kilometres from Palermo. This approach was primarily motivated by the lack of discovered Archaic kilns or production sites/workshops and the inability to identify reference groups. Raw clays were sampled in the territory of San Cipirello and San Giuseppe Iato (today\u2019s municipalities both sited on the northern slopes of Monte Iato), together with representative historic tiles and bricks locally produced until fairly recently. Grain-size analysis and experimental firings were performed on the clay samples. A significant number of archaeological ceramic samples (incised and painted indigenous pottery dating back to the seventh\u2013fifth centuries BCE) from stratigraphic excavations on Monte Iato, and hypothesized as local productions on a stylistic-morphological basis, was carefully selected for archaeometric analysis. This set of samples (90 in total, comprising raw clays, historic tiles/bricks and archaeological ceramics) underwent a combined chemical and mineralogical-petrographic analysis to identify any possible compositional matching. This approach enabled the identification of minero-petrographic and chemical markers pertinent to the indigenous Archaic pottery produced at Monte Iato, although no evidence of coeval ceramic kilns has been found so far. Local raw clay sources have been documented and some significant points of the cha\ueene op\ue9ratoire adopted in antiquity have been noted (clay mixing and tempering practices). Attesting Monte Iato as a centre of ceramic production and defining both the microscopic fabric and the average composition of local pastes open up new perspectives in the complex issue concerning the production and regional circulation of incised and painted indigenous ceramics in Archaic Sicily

Plastic adjustments of biparental care behavior across embryonic development under elevated temperature in a marine ectotherm

Phenotypic plasticity in parental care investment allows organisms to promptly respond to rapid environmental changes by potentially benefiting offspring survival and thus parental fitness. To date, a knowledge gap exists on whether plasticity in parental care behaviors can mediate responses to climate change in marine ectotherms. Here, we assessed the plasticity of parental care investment under elevated temperatures in a gonochoric marine annelid with biparental care, Ophryotrocha labronica, and investigated its role in maintaining the reproductive success of this species in a warming ocean. We measured the time individuals spent carrying out parental care activities across three phases of embryonic development, as well as the hatching success of the offspring as a proxy for reproductive success, at control (24℃) and elevated (27℃) temperature conditions. Under elevated temperature, we observed: (a) a significant decrease in total parental care activity, underpinned by a decreased in male and simultaneous parental care activity, in the late stage of embryonic development; and (b) a reduction in hatching success that was however not significantly related to changes in parental care activity levels. These findings, along with the observed unaltered somatic growth of parents and decreased brood size, suggest that potential cost-benefit trade-offs between offspring survival (i.e., immediate fitness) and parents' somatic condition (i.e., longer-term fitness potential) may occur under ongoing ocean warming. Finally, our results suggest that plasticity in parental care behavior is a mechanism able to partially mitigate the negative effects of temperature-dependent impacts

Phylogenomic analyses of non-Dikarya fungi supports horizontal gene transfer driving diversification of secondary metabolism in the amphibian gastrointestinal symbiont, Basidiobolus

Research into secondary metabolism (SM) production by fungi has resulted in the discovery of diverse, biologically active compounds with significant medicinal applications. However, the fungi rich in SM production are taxonomically restricted to Dikarya, two phyla of Kingdom Fungi, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Here, we explore the potential for SM production in Mucoromycota and Zoopagomycota, two phyla of nonflagellated fungi that are not members of Dikarya, by predicting and identifying core genes and gene clusters involved in SM. The majority of non-Dikarya have few genes and gene clusters involved in SM production except for the amphibian gut symbionts in the genus Basidiobolus . Basidiobolus genomes exhibit an enrichment of SM genes involved in siderophore, surfactin-like, and terpene cyclase production, all these with evidence of constitutive gene expression. Gene expression and chemical assays confirm that Basidiobolus has significant siderophore activity. The expansion of SMs in Basidiobolus are partially due to horizontal gene transfer from bacteria, likely as a consequence of its ecology as an amphibian gut endosymbiont

La produzione di ceramica da mensa a Solunto: un esempio di continuit\ue0 tecnologica dall\u2bcet\ue0 arcaica a quella ellenistico-romana.

Solunto is one of the most important Phoenician-Punic colonies of north-western Sicily. Archaeometric researches carried out in the last years ascertained a local production of transport amphorae during Archaic and Classic age (7th-5th century B.C.) through mineralogical, petrographical and chemical analysis of ceramic samples, kiln refuses and local raw materials (clays and alluvial sands). In connection with these earliest works, the present paper was focused on some specific forms of fine-tempered table ware of Archaic age and/or Classic-Hellenistic age. This pottery has been recurrently brought to light in Solunto and it is furthermore suspected to be, at least to some extent, a local reproduction. Thus a representative number of samples corresponding in style and morphology to Greek-colonial productions were subjected to thin-section and chemical analysis. Simultaneously, the same analytical routine was applied to an Hellenistic black-gloss ware form (Campana A), the plate classified as Lamboglia 36, considering a number of samples coming from Solunto as well as from others close centers. In both the cases the comparative elaboration of petrographic and chemical data concerning the ceramic samples and local raw clays let us to distinguish between the products made in the Solunto\u2bcs kilns and the imports from Greece or the Greek colony of Himera or from the Gulf of Naples area (for the black-gloss ware samples). Therefore, a durability of the manufacture crosswise more than four centuries was demonstrated for the ceramic kilns which were working at Solunto, which were able to reproduce several fine ware forms testifying an high technological level