David Gordon White, The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali : A Biography (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014, 273 pp. ISBN 978-0-691- 14377-4)

David Gordon White, The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. A Biography(Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014, 273 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-14377-4) di Maria AngelilloDavid Gordon White,The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. A Biography(Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014, 273 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-14377-4)di Maria Angelill

Censire l'esistente per creare il reale : l'origine indiana e la costruzione dei "rrom"

This paper means to show how British Colonialism in India was made possible, and then sustained and strengthened, as much by cultural technologies of rule as it was by the more obvious and brutal modes of conquest. In fact colonialism was itself a cultural project of control. Colonial knowledge both enabled conquest and was produced by it. Cultural forms in Indian society were reconstructed and transformed by this knowledge. In the conceptual scheme which the British created to understand and to act in India they reduced vastly complex codes and their associated meanings to a few metonyms. An example of colonial way of organizing and representing Indian social identity is offered by the British construction of Indian Gypsies. This communication is meant to explain first the logic of such an identification and then the new authority and vitality currently attained by this product of Orientalism in Romani political organizations and cultural associations

Rethinking resources : service nomadism adjusted

This article is based on six years fieldwork with Kalbelia community living in the environs of Pushkar, a famous place of pilgrimage, t\u12brtha, for Hindus and a popular tourist destination, especially for foreigner backpacker travelers, situated at the edge of the Thar desert and at the foot at the outer fringes of the Aravalli mountain chain, at the centre of the western state of Rajasthan. It will be explained how Kalbelias\u2019 traditional means of living describe a form of economic, social and cultural adaptation common to groups defined both as service nomads and as peripatetic peoples. The purpose of the present article is to show that both the definitions fit not only the past identity of Kalbelias as wandering snake charmers, but they can be still effective in describing the present of the caste and its new emerging working profile as folk dancers and musicians. It will be argued in fact that, even if in the past few years the meaning and the content of Kalbelia service nomadism have been going through a deep transformation which can be considered to be mainly a creative answer to a whole string of significant social changes occurring in Indian and Rajasthani society, Kalbelias\u2019 new occupational profile entails new forms of spatial mobility. If spatial mobility is proving to be a meaningless economic strategy as far as snake charming and begging is concerned, it is in fact yet highly effective with regard to the new professional identity of the caste. The article will deal with the way Kalbelias have been able to translate their peripatetic identity into contemporary globalized world

I luoghi del riconoscimento : spazi sacri e spazi profani

Nel presente contributo si introducono i luoghi abitati dai membri della comunit\ue0 kalbelia di Pushkar e gli spazi che a vario titolo sono ritenuti significativi, se non addirittura imprescindibili, nella definizione del profilo socio-culturale del gruppo. Dall\u2019interazione con i luoghi che ne scandiscono la quotidianit\ue0 e la vita spirituale, rituale e cultuale, i Kalbelia ricavano ed esprimono il proprio posizionamento all\u2019interno della pi\uf9 ampia societ\ue0 r\u101jasth\u101n\u12b. La descrizione etnografica dello spazio vissuto, percepito, ricordato e immaginato dagli appartenenti alla comunit\ue0 kalbelia contribuisce a rendere evidente come lo spazio sia socializzato e localizzato attraverso pratiche consapevoli ed elaborate di rappresentazione, esecuzione e azione e come, lungi dal costituire semplicemente uno sfondo, esso influenzi e determini la prassi degli attori sociali

Numerical experiments in 2D variational fracture

In the present work we present some results of numerical experiments obtained with a variationalmodel for quasi-static Griffith-type brittle fracture. Essentially the analysis is based on a recent formulation byFrancfort and Marigo the main difference being the fact that we rely on local rather than on globalminimization. Propagation of fracture is obtained by minimizing, in a step by step process, a form of energythat is the sum of bulk and interface terms. To solve the problem numerically we adopt discontinuous finiteelements based on variable meshes and search for the minima of the energy through descent methods. We use asort of mesh dependent relaxation of the interface energy to get out of small energy wells. The relaxationconsists in the adoption of a carefully tailored cohesive type interface energy, tending to the Griffith limit as themesh size tends to zero

Equilibrium of masonry vaults and open stairs

In this paper the unilateral model for masonry is applied to explain the equilibrium of vaults. In particular, the present study is concerned with the application of the safe theorem of limit analysis to spiral vaults, that is, curved constructions modeled as continuous unilateral bodies. On allowing for singular stresses in the form of line or surface Dirac deltas, statically admissible stress fields concentrated on surfaces (and on their folds) lying inside the masonry, are considered. The unilateral restrictions require that the membrane surface lies in between the extrados and intrados surfaces of the vault and that the stress function, representing the stress, be concave. Such a constraint is, in general, not satisfied on a given shape for given loads: in such a case, the shape has to be modified to fit the constraint. A particular application, namely the double spiral stair of Sanfelice’ palace in Naples, is considered

Seroprevalence of sars-cov-2 antibodies in adults and healthcare workers in southern italy

Background: This study was carried out to estimate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a Southern Italian population. Methods: The study was performed among students and workers of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” and the relative Teaching Hospital. Participants were invited to undergo a blood sampling, an interview or to complete a self-administered questionnaire. Results: A total of 140 participants (5.8%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Positive SARS-CoV-2 test results increased significantly during the months of testing, and those who had had at least one symptom among fever, cough, dyspnea, loss of taste or smell and who had had contact with a family member/cohabitant with confirmed COVID-19 were more likely to test positive. Faculty members were less likely to have a positive test result compared to the healthcare workers (HCWs). Among HCWs, physicians showed the lowest rate of seroconversion (5.2%) compared to nurses (8.9%) and other categories (10%). Nurses and other HCWs compared to the physicians, those who had had at least one symptom among fever, cough, dyspnea, loss of taste or smell, and who had had contact with a family member/cohabitant with confirmed COVID-19 were more likely to test positive. Conclusions: The results have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection is rapidly spreading even in Southern Italy and confirm the substantial role of seroprevalence studies for the assessment of SARS-CoV-2 infection circulation and potential for further spreading

Investigation of the Response of a Masonry Arch Railway Bridge using Membrane Equilibrium Analysis

This paper presents an application of Membrane Equilibrium Analysis (MEA) to a historic masonry arch railway bridge in Leeds, United Kingdom. This case study structure is representative of the many masonry arch bridges present on UK and European railway transport networks. It has been chosen because, since 2016, it has been the subject of a detailed Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) campaign, making it an ideal candidate against which to test analytic models. Typically, asset engineers will be responsible for maintaining a large stock of these structures and will lack the time to perform thorough computational analyses. Therefore, simplified approaches, such as MEA, which can offer insight into structural behaviour, have the potential to be highly valuable. This study represents the first step in applying MEA to masonry arch railway bridges

Numerical experiments in 2D variational fracture

In the present work we present some results of numerical experiments obtained with a variationalmodel for quasi-static Griffith-type brittle fracture. Essentially the analysis is based on a recent formulation byFrancfort and Marigo the main difference being the fact that we rely on local rather than on globalminimization. Propagation of fracture is obtained by minimizing, in a step by step process, a form of energythat is the sum of bulk and interface terms. To solve the problem numerically we adopt discontinuous finiteelements based on variable meshes and search for the minima of the energy through descent methods. We use asort of mesh dependent relaxation of the interface energy to get out of small energy wells. The relaxationconsists in the adoption of a carefully tailored cohesive type interface energy, tending to the Griffith limit as themesh size tends to zero