Deconstructing the Myth of Byzantine Crown: The Head Reliquary of Saint Blaise in Dubrovnik

The head reliquary of Saint Blaise in Dubrovnik, made in 1694 by the Venetian goldsmith Francesco Ferro, has long been thought to replicate an earlier version that was mentioned in the 1335 inventory of Dubrovnik cathedral. The article examines the history of the head relic and the assumption that it may have replicated or connoted a shape of the Byzantine imperial crown, a kamelaukion. From the available evidence such reading has been rejected. Instead, it is proposed that it resembled the dome-shaped reliquary such as that of Saint James in Zadar dated to the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century. Furthermore, it is proposed that group I enamels that adorn the reliquary were not made in Constantinople, but in Dubrovnik between 1164 and 1180, given that they show a number of non-Byzantine stylistic and iconographical features and inscriptions in Beneventan script incompatible with enamel production in Constantinople

Liber amicorum

Prizak knjige: Scripta in honorem Igor Fisković. Zbornik povodom sedamdesetog rođendana / Festschrift on the occassion of his 70th birthday, ur. Miljenko Jurković, Predrag Marković, 2015

Collective action in ant control:

Leaf-cutting ants (Atta. cephalotes) represents a serious problem to farmers in many parts of Latin America and accounts of ants eating up a whole cassava plot or destroying one or more fruit trees overnight are not uncommon. Ants do not respect farm boundaries. Therefore, farmers who control anthills on their own fields might still face damage on their crops caused by ants coming from neighboring fields where no control measures are taken. In that sense, crop damage caused by leaf-cutting ants constitutes a transboundary natural resource management problem which, in addition to technical interventions, requires organizational interventions to ensure a coordinated effort among farmers to be solved. This paper reports on a research effort initiated by CIAT and implemented jointly between CIAT and farmers in La Laguna - a small community in the Andean Hillsides of Southwestern Colombia. The objective of the research effort was two-fold: i) to identify low cost technical options for ant control, and ii) to analyze and visualize the transboundary nature of the ant control problem and thus identify organizational options to enable collective or coordinated ant control.

Iconographic and Stylistic Analysis of the Holy City of Jerusalem Icon from the Studenica Monastery

Rad se bavi analizom ikone Jeruzalema iz 1841. godine koja se danas nalazi u manastiru Studenica kod Kraljeva u Srbiji. Pripada tipu ikona koje su hodočasnici donosili s putovanja u Svetu zemlju kao memoriju i blagoslov, a na njima su prikazivana palestinska sveta mjesta. Radi se o ikonografski izuzetno kompleksnim, likovno atraktivnim i kulturološki značajnim ikonama koje sve više privlače pažnju istraživača koji se bave poviješću hodočasništva i vizualne reprezentacije Jeruzalema i Svete Zemlje te povezanim vjerskim praksama kao što je produkcija i diseminacija suvenira.The paper deals with the analysis of Jerusalem icon from 1841, which is now located in the Studenica Monastery near Kraljevo, Serbia. It represents the type of icons that pilgrims brought from their travels to the Holy Land as a memory and a blessing, and they depicted Palestinian holy sites. These iconographically extremely complex, visually attractive, and culturally significant icons lately attract more attention of researchers dealing with the history of pilgrimage and visual representation of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and related production and dissemination of souvenirs

Association of health, nutrition, and socioeconomic variables with global antimicrobial resistance: a modelling study

Background: Although antimicrobial use is a key selector for antimicrobial resistance, recent studies have suggested that the ecological context in which antimicrobials are used might provide important factors for the prediction of the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. Methods: We used 1547 variables from the World Bank dataset consisting of socioeconomic, developmental, health, and nutritional indicators; data from a global sewage-based study on antimicrobial resistance (abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes [ARGs]); and data on antimicrobial usage computed from the ECDC database and the IQVIA database. We characterised and built models predicting the global resistome at an antimicrobial class level. We used a generalised linear mixed-effects model to estimate the association between antimicrobial usage and ARG abundance in the sewage samples; a multivariate random forest model to build predictive models for each antimicrobial resistance class and to select the most important variables for ARG abundance; logistic regression models to test the association between the predicted country-level antimicrobial resistance abundance and the country-level proportion of clinical resistant bacterial isolates; finite mixture models to investigate geographical heterogeneities in the abundance of ARGs; and multivariate finite mixture models with covariates to investigate the effect of heterogeneity in the association between the most important variables and the observed ARG abundance across the different country subgroups. We compared our predictions with available clinical phenotypic data from the SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program from eight antimicrobial classes and 12 genera from 56 countries. Findings: Using antimicrobial use data from between Jan 1, 2016, and Dec 31, 2019, we found that antimicrobial usage was not significantly associated with the global ARG abundance in sewage (p=0·72; incidence rate ratio 1·02 [95% CI 0·92-1·13]), whereas country-specific World Bank's variables explained a large amount of variation. The importance of the World Bank variables differed between antimicrobial classes and countries. Generally, the estimated global ARG abundance was positively associated with the prevalence of clinical phenotypic resistance, with a strong association for bacterial groups in the human gut. The associations between bacterial groups and ARG abundance were positive and significantly different from zero for the aminoglycosides (three of the four of the taxa tested), β-lactam (all the six microbial groups), fluoroquinolones (seven of nine of the microbial groups), glycopeptide (one microbial group tested), folate pathway antagonists (four of five microbial groups), and tetracycline (two of nine microbial groups). Interpretation: Metagenomic analysis of sewage is a robust approach for the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in pathogens, especially for bacterial groups associated with the human gut. Additional studies on the associations between important socioeconomic, nutritional, and health factors and antimicrobial resistance should consider the variation in these associations between countries and antimicrobial classes.</b

Low-Q whispering gallery modes in anisotropic metamterials shells

Anisotropic and inhomogeneous metamaterial shells are studied in order to exploit all their resonant mode richness. These multilayer structures are based on a cylindrical distribution of radially dependent constitutive parameters including an inner void cavity. Shell, cavity, and whispering gallery modes are characterized, and special attention is paid to the latter ones. The whispering gallery modes are created at the boundary layers of the shell with the background. Energy localization is produced with highly radiative characteristics when the localization takes place at the external layer. These low-Q resonant states have frequencies that are independent of the shell thickness. However, their quality factors can be controlled by the number of layers forming the shell, which allows confining electromagnetic waves at the interface layers (internal or external), and make them suitable for the harvesting of electromagnetic energy.The authors acknowledge the financial support of Spanish Ministry MINECO (Grants No. TEC 2010-19751 and No. Consolider CSD2008-00066), and the US Office of Naval Research (USA). J. Sanchez-Dehesa acknowledges useful discussions with Federico Sabina and Matthew Guild.Diaz Rubio, A.; Carbonell Olivares, J.; Torrent Martí, D.; Sánchez-Dehesa Moreno-Cid, J. (2013). Low-Q whispering gallery modes in anisotropic metamterials shells. Physical Review B. 88(11):115118-115128. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.88.115118S1151181151288811Williams, C. R., Andrews, S. R., Maier, S. A., Fernández-Domínguez, A. I., Martín-Moreno, L., & García-Vidal, F. J. (2008). Highly confined guiding of terahertz surface plasmon polaritons on structured metal surfaces. Nature Photonics, 2(3), 175-179. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.301Watts, C. M., Liu, X., & Padilla, W. J. (2012). Metamaterial Electromagnetic Wave Absorbers. Advanced Materials, 24(23), OP98-OP120. doi:10.1002/adma.201200674Spinelli, P., Verschuuren, M. A., & Polman, A. (2012). Broadband omnidirectional antireflection coating based on subwavelength surface Mie resonators. Nature Communications, 3(1). doi:10.1038/ncomms1691Munk, B. A. (2000). Frequency Selective Surfaces. doi:10.1002/0471723770Carbonell, J., Lheurette, E., & Lippens, D. (2011). FROM REJECTION TO TRANSMISSION WITH STACKED ARRAYS OF SPLIT RING RESONATORS. Progress In Electromagnetics Research, 112, 215-224. doi:10.2528/pier10121402Wang, S., Garet, F., Blary, K., Croënne, C., Lheurette, E., Coutaz, J.-L., & Lippens, D. (2010). Composite left/right-handed stacked hole arrays at submillimeter wavelengths. Journal of Applied Physics, 107(7), 074510. doi:10.1063/1.3374703Aznabet, M., Navarro-Cia, M., Kuznetsov, S. A., Gelfand, A. V., Fedorinina, N. I., Goncharov, Y. G., … Sorolla, M. (2008). Polypropylene-substrate-based SRR- and CSRR- metasurfaces for submillimeter waves. Optics Express, 16(22), 18312. doi:10.1364/oe.16.018312Barnes, W. L., Dereux, A., & Ebbesen, T. W. (2003). Surface plasmon subwavelength optics. Nature, 424(6950), 824-830. doi:10.1038/nature01937Pendry, J. B. (2004). Mimicking Surface Plasmons with Structured Surfaces. Science, 305(5685), 847-848. doi:10.1126/science.1098999Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2009). Radial Wave Crystals: Radially Periodic Structures from Anisotropic Metamaterials for Engineering Acoustic or Electromagnetic Waves. Physical Review Letters, 103(6). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.103.064301Carbonell, J., Díaz-Rubio, A., Torrent, D., Cervera, F., Kirleis, M. A., Piqué, A., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2012). Radial Photonic Crystal for detection of frequency and position of radiation sources. Scientific Reports, 2(1). doi:10.1038/srep00558Horiuchi, N., Segawa, Y., Nozokido, T., Mizuno, K., & Miyazaki, H. (2005). High-transmission waveguide with a small radius of curvature at a bend fabricated by use of a circular photonic crystal. Optics Letters, 30(9), 973. doi:10.1364/ol.30.000973Lee, P.-T., Lu, T.-W., Fan, J.-H., & Tsai, F.-M. (2007). High quality factor microcavity lasers realized by circular photonic crystal with isotropic photonic band gap effect. Applied Physics Letters, 90(15), 151125. doi:10.1063/1.2724899Carbonell, J., Torrent, D., & Sanchez-Dehesa, J. (2013). Radial Photonic Crystal Shells and Their Application as Resonant and Radiating Elements. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 61(2), 755-767. doi:10.1109/tap.2012.2225015Harrington, R. F. (2001). Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields. doi:10.1109/9780470546710Vinogradov, A. P., Dorofeenko, A. V., Erokhin, S. G., Inoue, M., Lisyansky, A. A., Merzlikin, A. M., & Granovsky, A. B. (2006). Surface state peculiarities in one-dimensional photonic crystal interfaces. Physical Review B, 74(4). doi:10.1103/physrevb.74.045128Goto, T., Baryshev, A. V., Inoue, M., Dorofeenko, A. V., Merzlikin, A. M., Vinogradov, A. P., … Granovsky, A. B. (2009). Tailoring surfaces of one-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals: Optical Tamm state and Faraday rotation. Physical Review B, 79(12). doi:10.1103/physrevb.79.125103Carbonell, J., Torrent, D., Díaz-Rubio, A., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2011). Multidisciplinary approach to cylindrical anisotropic metamaterials. New Journal of Physics, 13(10), 103034. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/13/10/103034Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2010). Acoustic resonances in two-dimensional radial sonic crystal shells. New Journal of Physics, 12(7), 073034. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/12/7/073034Yao, Y., Yao, J., Narasimhan, V. K., Ruan, Z., Xie, C., Fan, S., & Cui, Y. (2012). Broadband light management using low-Q whispering gallery modes in spherical nanoshells. Nature Communications, 3(1). doi:10.1038/ncomms1664Navau, C., Prat-Camps, J., & Sanchez, A. (2012). Magnetic Energy Harvesting and Concentration at a Distance by Transformation Optics. Physical Review Letters, 109(26). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.109.263903Carbonell, J., Cervera, F., Sánchez-Dehesa, J., Arriaga, J., Gumen, L., & Krokhin, A. (2010). Homogenization of two-dimensional anisotropic dissipative photonic crystal. Applied Physics Letters, 97(23), 231122. doi:10.1063/1.352638

Global monitoring of antimicrobial resistance based on metagenomics analyses of urban sewage

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to global public health, but obtaining representative data on AMR for healthy human populations is difficult. Here, we use metagenomic analysis of untreated sewage to characterize the bacterial resistome from 79 sites in 60 countries. We find systematic differences in abundance and diversity of AMR genes between Europe/North-America/Oceania and Africa/Asia/South-America. Antimicrobial use data and bacterial taxonomy only explains a minor part of the AMR variation that we observe. We find no evidence for cross-selection between antimicrobial classes, or for effect of air travel between sites. However, AMR gene abundance strongly correlates with socio-economic, health and environmental factors, which we use to predict AMR gene abundances in all countries in the world. Our findings suggest that global AMR gene diversity and abundance vary by region, and that improving sanitation and health could potentially limit the global burden of AMR. We propose metagenomic analysis of sewage as an ethically acceptable and economically feasible approach for continuous global surveillance and prediction of AMR.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Scripta in honorem Igor Fisković: zbornik povodom sedamdesetog rođendana

The International Research Centre for Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages prepared a Festschrift in honour of one of its founders, Igor Fisković on the occassion of his 70th birthday. The Festschrift&nbsp; includes works addressing the periods that Igor Fisković has dealt with most, thus reflecting the diversity of his interests, ranging from Late Antiquity to contemporary art, with key emphasis on the Late Middle Ages and early modernity. Due to the diversity and the broad period of time the texts are covering, they have been arranged more or less chronologically. The works focus mainly on the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, Fisković’s forte and the topic of some of his best writings. There are also several texts addressing the baroque period, which was not one of the honouree’s interests, but they were written by some of his closest friends and members of the generation of his former students who have had prestigious careers. (from the Foreword)Zbornik je pripredio Međunarodni istraživački centar za kasnu antiku i srednji vijek povodom sedamdesetog rođendana jednog od svojih osnivača Igora Fiskovića. Zbornik obuhvaća radove koje pokrivaju razdoblja kojima se Igor Fisković ponajviše bavio, reflektirajući raznolikost njegovih interesa, od početne kasne antike i suvremene umjetnosti, do ključnoga naglaska na kasnom srednjem vijeku i početku modernog doba. Zbog te raznolikosti i širokog vremenskog razdoblja koje pokrivaju, radovi su poredani manje-više kronološki. Ističe se brojem radova upravo kasnosrednjovjekovno doba i početci modernoga, forte u kojem je Igor Fisković dao svoje ponajbolje radove. Uz njih je i više priloga koji pokrivaju razdoblje baroka, kojim se slavljenik nije bavio, no koji su iz pera njegovih najbliskijih prijatelja i one generacije njegovih bivših studenata koji su danas ostvarili ugledne karijere. (iz Predgovora