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

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

Efficient seeding techniques for protein similarity search

We apply the concept of subset seeds proposed in [1] to similarity search in protein sequences. The main question studied is the design of efficient seed alphabets to construct seeds with optimal sensitivity/selectivity trade-offs. We propose several different design methods and use them to construct several alphabets.We then perform an analysis of seeds built over those alphabet and compare them with the standard Blastp seeding method [2,3], as well as with the family of vector seeds proposed in [4]. While the formalism of subset seed is less expressive (but less costly to implement) than the accumulative principle used in Blastp and vector seeds, our seeds show a similar or even better performance than Blastp on Bernoulli models of proteins compatible with the common BLOSUM62 matrix

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

Efficient seeding techniques for protein similarity search

We apply the concept of subset seeds proposed in [1] to similarity search in protein sequences. The main question studied is the design of efficient seed alphabets to construct seeds with optimal sensitivity/selectivity trade-offs. We propose several different design methods and use them to construct several alphabets.We then perform an analysis of seeds built over those alphabet and compare them with the standard Blastp seeding method [2,3], as well as with the family of vector seeds proposed in [4]. While the formalism of subset seed is less expressive (but less costly to implement) than the accumulative principle used in Blastp and vector seeds, our seeds show a similar or even better performance than Blastp on Bernoulli models of proteins compatible with the common BLOSUM62 matrix

A Petri Nets-based Scheduling Methodology forMultipurpose Batch Plants.

This article presents an optimization methodology of batch production processes assembled by shared resources which rely on a mapping of state-events into time-events allowing in this way the straightforward use of a well consolidated scheduling policies developed for manufacturing systems. A technique to generate the timed Petri net representation from a continuous dynamic representation (Differential-Algebraic Equations systems (DAEs)) of the production system is presented together with the main characteristics of a Petri nets-based tool implemented for optimization purposes. This paper describes also how the implemented tool generates the coverability tree and how it can be pruned by a general purpose heuristic. An example of a distillation process with two shared batch resources is used to illustrate the optimization methodology proposed

First record of the sawfly family Xyelidae (Hymenoptera) from Malta

Xyela cf. altenhoferi Blank, 2013 is recorded from Buskett (Malta). Its host is Pinus halepensis. This is the first species of the sawfly family Xyelidae to be found in the Maltese Islands.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