1,285 research outputs found
Side scan sonar and the management of underwater cultural heritage
Chapter 15This chapter deals with side scan sonar, not because I believe it is superior to other
available technologies but rather because it is the tool that I have used in the context of
a number of off shore surveys. It is therefore opportune to share an approach that I have
developed and utilised in a number of projects around the Mediterranean. These projects
were conceptualised together with local partners that had a wealth of local experience
in the countries of operation. Over time it became clear that before starting to plan a
project it is always important to ask oneself the obvious question – but one that is oft en
overlooked: “what is it that we are setting out to achieve”? All too oft en, researchers and
scientists approach a potential research project with blinkers. Such an approach may prove
to be a hindrance to cross-fertilisation of ideas as well as to inter-disciplinary cooperation.
Therefore, the aforementioned question should be followed up by a second query: “and
who else can benefi t from this project?” Beneficiaries may vary from individual researchers
of the same field such as archaeologists interested in other more clearly defined historic
periods (World War II, Early Modern shipping etc) to other researchers who may be
interested in specific studies (African amphora production for example). Finally there may
also be researchers from other disciplines such as marine biology, marine geology and
volcanology. From the same data sets gathered by marine archaeologists such scientists
can study and consider a variety of interests which may including, but not limited to,
habitat mapping, seabed classification and the identification of submerged volcanic vents.
Answers to such questions may not be immediately forthcoming but it is essential to
keep potential collaborations in mind when planning methodologies. In the light of this
it would be opportune to explore the resolutions and other desiderata that fellow marine
scientists require when planning their surveys. Although it may prove impossible to match
their exact parameters it could well be that some small compromises are made in order
to accommodate these requirements. Given that the expenses related to off shore survey
are very elevated, it is hardly conceivable that the data acquired with adapted parameters will be refused by fellow marine scientists. Such a practice does not only make economic
sense but is also good scientific etiquette. Such selfless cooperation may lead to scientific
reciprocation with data eventually fl owing both ways.peer-reviewe
Mapping ancient water management systems
Upon the mention of underwater archaeology one's
mind drifts to shipwrecks and sunken cargo lying on
the seafloor. There are however other underwater sites
besides shipwrecks and some of these sites are not
necessarily in the sea. Since 2006, the Department of
Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta
together with California Polytechnic (CALPOLY)
University from the USA have conducted an innovative
project exploring wells, cisterns and water galleries in
both Malta and Gozo. This project has a number of
aims. Primarily, the intention of this survey is to create
a record of the various systems and features used for
water management in the past. The second aim (but
no less important) is to train computer engineering
students in robotics and control engineering. The
project co-directors are Dr Timmy Gambin from the
University of Malta and Professor Chris Clark from
CALPOLY.peer-reviewe
Carapecchia's intervention at the Inquisitor's Palace, 1733-34
The Inquisitor's Palace, sited in the heart of the historical
city of Vittoriosa, is one of the very few surviving palaces
of its kind which in the early modern period could be
found all over Europe and South America. Many simply
succumbed to the ravages of time or else were victims
of the reactionary power unleashed by the French
Revolution. Fortunately, the Maltese Inquisitor's Palace,
throughout its five centuries of history, always hosted
high-ranking officials representing the main powers on
the island, who ensured its survival. The Palace also
managed to survive through the ordeal of the Second
World War and the threat of modern development, and
although much has been changed in its structure by its
successive occupants, it is today an architectural gem,
representative of the chequered history of the Maltese
islands.
Yet, until now, our knowledge of the Palace arid its
history remained very incomplete, and all one can find
is small pieces of information scattered here and there
in various sources. The history of the Palace received a
boost last year with the publication of three previously
unknown plans of the building discovered in Rome.1
Yet much still remains to be done in foreign as well as
(as in this case) in local archives, in order to fully
appreciate the history and vicissitudes of the Inquisitor's
Palace, especially when placed in a wider Maltese and
European context.peer-reviewe
The model of proteolysis
This document presents the original approach for estimating parameters of proteolysis process. Data used to fit the model are taken from mass
spectrometric experiments. For parameters estimation the Levenberg-Marquadt algorithm is used. The motivation for model is a hypothesis
that discrimination between cancer patients and healthy donors can be based on activity of peptide cleaving enzymes (i.e. peptidases)
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Exploring the links between skills and productivity
An assessment of the direct and indirect link between skills and productivity in the context of the Treasury's '5 drivers' of growth. Based on a literature review covering the debate around the extent and nature of the contribution of skills to economic performance, tested through an analysis of labour market data for the East Midlands region
Pollen characterisation of Maltese honey
In 2004 and 2005, pollen characterisation of 35 samples of honey collected from the islands of Malta and Gozo, was carried out with the aim to identify the botanical origin of honey produced on these islands. Pollen was extracted from the honey samples via centrifugation and identified to pollen type, generic level and where possible, specific level via microscopic analysis. This was done by comparison with available literature and with the aid of prepared reference slides of pollen collected from the plant species commonly present in the Maltese islands. A total of 61 pollen types were identified from 33 families. The best represented families were the Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae and Apiaceae. Thyme (Thymbra capitata (L.) CAV.) pollen was found to be predominant in ten samples, with a percentage frequency that ranged from 10\% to 67\%. Hedysarum coronarium L. was found to be predominant in five honey samples with percentage frequencies from 48\% to 78\% while Lotus spp. pollen was found to be predominant in one honey sample with a percentage frequency of 57\%. The remaining 14 honey samples possessed pollen spectra which were characterized by a few frequent pollen types that possessed similar percentage frequencies and were thus considered to be multifloral. This is the first work of pollen characterisation of Maltese honey.peer-reviewe
Microfabricated rubber microscope using soft solid immersion lenses
We show here a technique of soft lithography to microfabricate efficient solid immersion lenses (SIL) out of rubber elastomers. The light collection efficiency of a lens system is described by its numerical aperture (NA), and is critical for applications as epifluorescence microscopy [B. Herman, Fluorescence Microscopy (BIOS Scientific, Oxford/Springer, United Kingdom, 1998). While most simple lens systems have numerical apertures less than 1, the lenses described here have NA=1.25. Better performance can be engineered though the use of compound designs; we used this principle to make compound solid immersion lenses (NA=1.32). An important application of these lenses will be as integrated optics for microfluidic devices. We incorporated them into a handheld rubber microscope for microfluidic flow cytometry and imaged single E. Coli cells by fluorescence
The harbours of ancient Gozo
Paper read at the Conference on Maritime Archaeology, Maritime Museum, 2002It is not unreasonable to assume that Gozo, too, was
seen as a similar haven. However, on the basis that
present day Gozo is devoid of any good natural
harbours, some have, not unreasonably, dismissed
the possibility that the island could have had any
significant maritime role in antiquity.6 Through this
paper I intend to show that the island did indeed
have its fair share of maritime activity, an activity
that would have needed more than small open bays
to be sustained.peer-reviewe
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