Characterization and Weathering of the Building Materials of Sanctuaries in the Archaeological Site of Dion, Greece

The sanctuaries of Demeter and Asklepios are part of the Dion archaeological site that sits among the eastern foothills of Mount Olympus. The main building materials are limestones and conglomerates. Sandstones, marbles, and ceramic plinths were also used. The materials consist mainly of calcite and/or dolomite, whereas the deteriorated surfaces contain also secondary and recrystallized calcite and dolomite, gypsum, various inorganic compounds, fluoroapatite, microorganisms and other organic compounds. Cracks and holes were observed in various parts of the stones. The influence of specific weathering agents and factors to the behavior of the materials was examined. The particular environmental conditions in Dion combine increased moisture and rain fall, insolation and great temperature differences, abundance of intensive surface and underground water bodies in the surrounding area, an area full of plants and trees, therefore, they can cause extensive chemical, biological and mechanical decay of the monuments. The following physical characteristics of the building materials have been studied: bulk density, open porosity, pore size distribution, water absorption and desorption, capillary absorption and desorption. The chemical composition of bulk precipitation, surface and underground water was investigated. The salts presence and crystallization was examined. The influence of the water presence to the behavior of the materials was examined by in situ IR thermometer measurements. Temperature values increased from the lower to the upper parts of the building stones and they significantly depend on the orientation of the walls. The results indicate the existence of water in the bulk of the materials due to capillary penetration. The existence of water in the bulk of the materials due to capillary penetration, the cycles of wet-dry conditions, correlated with the intensive surface and underground water presence in the whole surrounding area, lead to partial dissolution-recrystallization of the carbonate material and loss of the structural cohesion and the surface stability

45S rDNA external transcribed spacer organization reveals new phylogenetic relationships in Avena genus

Research ArticleThe genus Avena comprises four distinct genomes organized in diploid (AA or CC), tetraploid (AABB or AACC) and hexaploid species (AACCDD), constituting an interesting model for phylogenetic analysis. The aim of this work was to characterize 45S rDNA intergenic spacer (IGS) variability in distinct species representative of Avena genome diversity±A. strigosa (AA), A. ventricosa (CvCv), A. eriantha (CpCp), A. barbata (AABB), A. murphyi (AACC), A. sativa (AACCDD) and A. sterilis (AACCDD) through the assessment of the 5' external transcribed spacer (5'-ETS), a promising IGS region for phylogenetic studies poorly studied in Avena genus. In this work, IGS length polymorphisms were detected mainly due to distinct 5'-ETS sequence types resulting from major differences in the number and organization of repeated motifs. Although species with A genome revealed a 5'-ETS organization (A-organization) similar to the one previously described in A. sativa, a distinct organization was unraveled in C genome diploid species (C-organization). Interestingly, such new organization presents a higher similarity with other Poaceae species than A-genome sequences, supporting the hypothesis of C-genome being the ancestral Avena genome. Additionally, polyploid species with both genomes mainly retain the A-genome 5'-ETS organization, confirming the preferential elimination of C-genome sequences in Avena polyploid species. Moreover, 5'-ETS sequences phylogenetic analysis consistently clustered the species studied according to ploidy and genomic constitution supporting the use of ribosomal genes to highlight Avena species evolutive pathways.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On (n,n-1) punctured convolutional codes and their trellis modules

It is known that an (n,n-1) non catastrophic antipodal punctured convolutional encoder of memory m is minimal. That is, the corresponding code cannot be produced by an encoder of smaller memory size. In this letter it is shown that the trellis module of a code produced by an (n,n-1) non catastrophic punctured convolutional encoder is optimum, if and only if the encoder is antipodal. © 2011 IEEE

Secretly Pruned Convolutional Codes: Security Analysis and Performance Results

Constructions of secure channel encoders, based on secret pruning, are considered in this paper. The key defines how pruning is applied on a mother convolutional code. This results in a secret subspace that legitimate users are using to perform decoding, in contrast to an eavesdropper that employs the mother code. Both reliability and security aspects of the joint scheme are treated. We derive the expected weight enumerating function of the secret subcode and show that the legitimate users achieve a better performance (that depends on the pruning rate) in terms of word and bit error rate compared with the eavesdroppers. The security relies on the notion of indistinguishability against chosen plaintext attacks. The security proofs are given in the random oracle model, and it is shown that a randomized version of the proposed joint scheme is semantically secure by relying on the hardness of the learning parities with noise problem. The above-mentioned results are achieved by introducing a new model for physical encryption to consider the contribution of the channel noise to the system's security. © 2016 IEEE

New constructions of high-performance low-complexity convolutional codes

In this paper, new constructions of low trellis complexity convolutional codes are presented. New codes are found by searching into a specific class of time varying convolutional codes, which is shaped by some basic properties and search restrictions. An efficient technique for obtaining minimal trellis modules for the proposed codes is provided. Finally, new low complexity convolutional codes of various code rates and memory sizes are tabulated. © 2010 IEEE

Flexible convolutional codes: Variable rate and complexity

In this study, a method is presented for constructing convolutional codes of variable rate and decoding complexity. Starting with an (n,1,m) mother code, the techniques of puncturing and path pruning are utilized in order to construct large families of convolutional codes of various code rates and complexity. Decoding is performed using the trellis of the mother code. © 2012 IEEE

Evolutionary insights inferred by molecular analysis of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 and IGS Avena sp. sequences

In an attempt to clarify phylogenetic and genome relationships among 35 diploid (A and C genomes), 13 tetraploid (AB and AC genomes) and 6 hexaploid (ACD genome) Avena taxa, 71 clones of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 fragment were sequenced, aligned and a network was constructed. In addition, the intergenic spacer (IGS) fragment was fingerprinted by means of a RFLP analysis using three different restriction enzymes. Both approaches led to comparable results. Clustering among the 54 Avena sp. entries was according to karyotype. Major genic divergence between the A and C genomes was revealed, while distinction among the A and B/D genomes was not possible. High affinity among the AB genome tetraploids and the A(s) genome diploid A. lusitanica was found, while AC genome tetraploids and ACD hexaploids were highly affiliated with the A(l) genome diploid A. longiglumis. The possible role of A. longiglumis in Avena sp. evolution is discussed