R. Fabiani, I decreti onorari di Iasos. Cronologia e storia, München, Verlag C. H. Beck, 2015 (Vestigia. Beiträge zur alten Geschichte Band 66), p. XIV + 354

Si offre una recensione del volume "R. Fabiani, I decreti onorari di Iasos. Cronologia e storia, Mu\u308nchen, Verlag C. H. Beck, 2015 (Vestigia. Beitr\ue4ge zur alten Geschichte Band 66), p. XIV + 354

Documents, public information and the historian : perspectives on fifth-century Athens

Anche dopo l\u2019intenso dibattito che, a partire dagli anni '80 del secolo scorso, ha mirato a dar conto dell\u2019impatto della diffusione della scrittura e della \uabliteracy\ubb sulla cultura tradizionalmente orale del mondo greco, lo statuto e il significato dei documenti epigrafici rimangono ancora non sempre ben chiariti. Gli studiosi hanno analizzato le dinamiche dell\u2019\uababitudine epigrafica\ubb ateniese ma la questione fondamentale del perch\ue9 i testi venissero iscritti su materiale durevole, se con valore funzionale oppure con significato simbolico, ideologico e religioso, \ue8 tuttora dibattuta. L\u2019articolo si propone di contribuire alla discussione su questi aspetti collocando il fenomeno epigrafico nel quadro pi\uf9 ampio della produzione di documenti su materiale deperibile per l\u2019affissione pubblica, che dobbiamo immaginare come un regolare strumento di comunicazione e di diffusione delle informazioni ufficiali, e per la conservazione in archivio \u2013 pratiche scrittorie rispetto alle quali gi\ue0 un passo delle Supplici di Eschilo (942-949) rivela la familiarit\ue0 del pubblico ateniese. Si insiste sul carattere selettivo della pubblicazione epigrafica, su come la conservazione dei documenti in archivio sia anteriore alla creazione del Metroon alla fine del V sec. e appaia anzi presupposta dalla procedura della graphe paranomon e dai processi dell\u2019iter legislativo e giudiziario, e sull\u2019importanza, come strumento euristico, dello studio dei dossier e dei titoli epigrafici. Nell\u2019ultima parte della relazione si confrontano i risultati di tale indagine con il contemporaneo uso dei documenti nell\u2019opera di Tucidide. A titolo esemplificativo vengono considerati il trattato tra Argo e Sparta (5,41), il dossier di testi relativo alla tregua di un anno stipulata da Sparta e Atene nel 423 (4,118-119) e i decreti ateniesi sulla spedizione in Sicilia del VI libro.Following the past decades when scholars have attempted to come to terms with the emergence and impact of literacy and literate culture in Greek society, and, in particular, with the ways orality and literacy interacted in the different political, cultural and religious contexts, the status and meaning of epigraphic documents still remains difficult to pin down. Recent investigations have focused on the \uabepigraphic habit\ubb and examined the somewhat anomalous case of classical Athens so as to highlight, and account for, the differences from other epigraphically productive centres. However, the question why inscriptions were produced at all, whether with functional value to make information available to the public or with symbolic and ideological significance still remains highly controversial. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion by placing the epigraphic habit within the larger context of the production of documents both for posting and temporary display, which must have played a significant role in the dissemination of public information, and for storing as archival records. Familiarity with such literate practices appears to be already reflected by Aeschylus in a locus of the Suppliants, most probably produced in the late 460s (942-949). It is stressed that publication on stone was selective, that archival texts were already kept in the Bouleuterion before the Metroon was established (and e.g. is taken for granted by the procedure of the graphe paranomon), and that so-called \uabdossiers\ubb and \uabepigraphic titles\ubb can be useful heuristic tools to shed light on archival practices. The last section of the paper compares the results of the first part with the use of documents in Thucydides. By way of example, the text of the aborted treaty between Argos and Sparta (5,41), the dossier of texts concerning the one-year truce between the Spartans (and their allies) and the Athenians of 423 (4,118-119) and the Athenian decrees for the Sicilian expedition in book 6 are briefly considered

Editorial: The functional anatomy of the reticular formation

Editorial on the research topic of a special issue on the functional anatomy of the reticular formatio

Forme e modalità di gestione amministrativa nel mondo greco e romano: terra, cave, miniere

I saggi raccolti in questo volume esplorano, secondo ottiche diverse ma in egual misura ricche di suggestioni interpretative interessanti e originali, le prassi di volta in volta messe in atto nelle diverse realt\ue0 del mondo greco-romano, tanto a livello centrale quanto a livello locale, per il controllo pubblico sugli assetti fondiari e sullo sfruttamento economico delle altre risorse del suolo e del sottosuolo. L\u2019amministrazione e la gestione della terra, delle cave e delle miniere ne costituiscono, in particolare, il filo conduttore. Tutti insieme i saggi rivelano l\u2019utilit\ue0 di una prospettiva di indagine incentrata sulla storia amministrativa come chiave di lettura \u201ctrasversale\u201d per la comprensione dei meccanismi di funzionamento delle societ\ue0 antiche nei loro aspetti politici, giuridici, economici e sociali

Automatic Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP) analysis: Local and multi-trace approaches

The Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP) is composed of cycles of two different electroencephalographic features: an activation A-phase followed by a B-phase representing the background activity. CAP is considered a physiological marker of sleep instability. Despite its informative nature, the clinical applications remain limited as CAP analysis is a time-consuming activity. In order to overcome this limit, several automatic detection methods were recently developed. In this paper, two new dimensions were investigated in the attempt to optimize novel, efficient and automatic detection algorithms: 1) many electroencephalographic leads were compared to identify the best local performance, and 2) the global contribution of the concurrent detection across several derivations to CAP identification. The developed algorithms were tested on 41 polysomnographic recordings from normal (n = 8) and pathological (n = 33) subjects. In comparison with the visual CAP analysis as the gold standard, the performance of each algorithm was evaluated. Locally, the detection on the F4-C4 derivation showed the best performance in comparison with all other leads, providing practical suggestions of electrode montage when a lean and minimally invasive approach is preferable. A further improvement in the detection was achieved by a multi-trace method, the Global Analysis—Common Events, to be applied when several recording derivations are available. Moreover, CAP time and CAP rate obtained with these algorithms positively correlated with the ones identified by the scorer. These preliminary findings support efficient automated ways for the evaluation of the sleep instability, generalizable to both normal and pathological subjects affected by different sleep disorders

Newborns' preference for face-relevant stimuli: effects of contrast polarity

There is currently no agreement as to how specific or general are the mechanisms underlying newborns' face preferences. We address this issue by manipulating the contrast polarity of schematic and naturalistic face-related images and assessing the preferences of newborns. We find that for both schematic and naturalistic face images, the contrast polarity is important. Newborns did not show a preference for an upright face-related image unless it was composed of darker areas around the eyes and mouth. This result is consistent with either sensitivity to the shadowed areas of a face with overhead (natural) illumination and/or to the detection of eye contact

Influence of Reaction Parameters and Feedstock Type on the Synthesis of Fatty Acid Propyl, Butyl, Isobutyl, Pentyl, and Isopentyl Esters

In recent decades, conventional biodiesel synthesis from methanol or ethanol and sunflower and rapeseed oil as feedstock has also introduced the use of higher and branched alcohols and the use of waste sources of triglycerides. This study examined the influence of reactant molar ratio (5:1–12:1), mass fraction of the potassium hydroxide catalyst (1–3 wt%), time (30–120 min), type of feedstock and alcohol on the conversion of fatty acid alkyl esters. The results showed that the presence of structural branching had a negative influence on the reaction conversion. Regarding the feedstocks, the highest conversions were obtained when using coconut oil rich in short-chain saturated fatty acids, while the conversions of biodiesel obtained from animal fat and unsaturated oils were lower. Molar ratio of the reactants and the mass fraction of the catalyst had the highest influence on the reaction conversion. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Actigraphic sleep detection: an artificial intelligence approach

Objective: Polysomnography is the gold standard for sleep monitoring, despite its many drawbacks: it is complex, costly and rather invasive. Medical-grade actigraphy represents an acceptably accurate alternative for the estimation of sleep patterns in normal, healthy adult populations and in patients suspected of certain sleep disorders. An increasing number of consumer-grade accelerometric devices populate the “quantified-self” market but the lack of validation significantly limits their reliability. Our aim was to prototype and validate a platform-free artificial neural network (ANN) based algorithm applied to a high performance, open source device (Axivity AX3), to achieve accurate actigraphic sleep detection. Methods: 14 healthy subjects (29.35 14.40 yrs, 7 females) were equipped for 13.3 2.58 h with portable polysomnography (pPSG), while wearing the Axivity AX3. The AX3 was set to record 3D accelerations at 100 Hz, with a dynamic range of 8 g coded at 10 bit. For the automatic actigraphy-based sleep detection, a 4 layer artificial neural network has been trained, validated and tested against the pPSG-based expert visual sleep-wake scoring. Results: When compared to the pPSG gold standard scoring, the ANN-based algorithm reached high concordance (85.3 0.06%), specificity (87.3 0.04%) and sensitivity (84.6 0.1%) in the detection of sleep over 30-sec epochs. Moreover there were no statistical differences between pPSG and actigraphy-based Total Sleep Time and Sleep Efficiency measurements (Wilcoxon test). Conclusions: The high concordance rate between ANN-actigraphy scoring and the standard visual pPSG one suggests that this approach could represent a viable method for collecting objective sleep-wake data using a high performance, open source actigraph

Heart rate detection by Fitbit ChargeHR™: A validation study versus portable polysomnography

Consumer "Smartbands" can collect physiological parameters, such as heart rate (HR), continuously across the sleep-wake cycle. Nevertheless, the quality of HR data detected by such devices and their place in the research and clinical field is debatable, as they are rarely rigorously validated. The objective of the present study was to investigate the reliability of pulse photoplethysmographic detection by the Fitbit ChargeHR (FBCHR, Fitbit Inc.) in a natural setting of continuous recording across vigilance states. To fulfil this aim, concurrent portable polysomnographic (pPSG) and the Fitbit's photoplethysmographic data were collected from a group of 25 healthy young adults, for ≥12hr. The pPSG-derived HR was automatically computed and visually verified for each 1-min epoch, while the FBCHR HR measurements were downloaded from the application programming interface provided by the manufacturer. The FBCHR was generally accurate in estimating the HR, with a mean (SD) difference of -0.66(0.04)beats/min (bpm) versus the pPSG-derived HR reference, and an overall Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) of 0.93 (average per participant r=0.85±0.11), regardless of vigilance state. The correlation coefficients were larger during all sleep phases (rapid eye movement, r=0.9662; N1, r=0.9918; N2, r=0.9793; N3, r=0.9849) than in wakefulness (r=0.8432). Moreover, the correlation coefficient was lower for HRs of >100bpm (r=0.374) than for HRs of <100bpm (r=0.84). Consistently, Bland-Altman analysis supports the overall higher accuracy in the detection of HR during sleep. The relatively high accuracy of FBCHR pulse rate detection during sleep makes this device suitable for sleep-related research applications in healthy participants, under free-living conditions