Il fr. 191 B. delle Menippee di Varrone: una testimonianza tardo-repubblicana del culto di Iside a Roma?

In favour of the Isiac reading of the fr. 191 B. of Varro’s Menippean Satires, which was suggested by Lucian Müller with no argumentation and never gained wide recognition, some parallel texts may be adduced, particularly from Book XI of the Metamorphoses by Apuleius. I propose a reading of the fragment as Varro’s polemic against the great popularity with the Roman matrons of nocturnal initiations in honour of Isis, whose moral standard was commonly regarded as doubtful

Due frammenti menippei di parodia filosofico-religiosa: i frr. 582a-b e 583 B.

This essay analyzes two Menippean fragments, quotations of Varro by Seneca and Tertullian respectively (frr. 583 and 582 a-b B., original text incertae sedis). The former describes the image of Stoic god satirically as “round, without head, without prepuce.” This can be read as a caustic rebuttal of the main attributes of the god, such as in fr. 583 B., considered the rational origin of the whole. The latter, fr. 582 a-b B. mentions a multitude of Ioves without heads and can be interpreted as an ironic reference to the Stoic view of the deity: the Stoic God is at the same time singular and multiple because it is the sole source of generation of the whole. The allusion to the acephalous character of the deities in both fragments suggests an attribution of the passages to the same, lost satire, where a discussion about the nature of the gods took place. In particular, the comparison with some pieces of Cicero’s De Natura Deorum permits the identification of the speaker with an Epicurean philosopher who opposes the Stoic conception of the divine

Lifting restrictions on coherence loss when characterizing non-transparent hypersonic phononic crystals

Abstract Hypersonic phononic bandgap structures confine acoustic vibrations whose wavelength is commensurate with that of light, and have been studied using either time- or frequency-domain optical spectroscopy. Pulsed pump-probe lasers are the preferred instruments for characterizing periodic multilayer stacks from common vacuum deposition techniques, but the detection mechanism requires the injected sound wave to maintain coherence during propagation. Beyond acoustic Bragg mirrors, frequency-domain studies using a tandem Fabry–Perot interferometer (TFPI) find dispersions of two- and three-dimensional phononic crystals (PnCs) even for highly disordered samples, but with the caveat that PnCs must be transparent. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid technique for overcoming the limitations that time- and frequency-domain approaches exhibit separately. Accordingly, we inject coherent phonons into a non-transparent PnC using a pulsed laser and acquire the acoustic transmission spectrum on a TFPI, where pumped appear alongside spontaneously excited (i.e. incoherent) phonons. Choosing a metallic Bragg mirror for illustration, we determine the bandgap and compare with conventional time-domain spectroscopy, finding resolution of the hybrid approach to match that of a state-of-the-art asynchronous optical sampling setup. Thus, the hybrid pump–probe technique retains key performance features of the established one and going forward will likely be preferred for disordered samples

Assessment of Natural Resources Use for Sustainable Development - DPSIR Framework for Case Studies in Portsmouth and Thames Gateway, U.K.

This chapter reports on the uses of the DPSIR framework to assess the sustainability of the intertidal environments within the two UK case study areas, Portsmouth and Thames Gateway. It focuses on statutory conservation areas dominated by intertidal habitats. Two are located in Portsmouth (Portsmouth and Langstone Harbours) and four in the Thames Gateway (Benfleet Marshes, South Thames Estuary, Medway Estuary and the Swale in the Thames Gateway). Based on the reduction of a number of pressures and impacts observed in recent decades and the improvement of overall environmental quality, all six SSSIs are considered to be sustainable in the short and medium term. In the future, it is possible that the impacts of climate change, especially sea-level rise, might result in further reduction in the area and/or quality of intertidal habitats. Further integration between conservation and planning objectives (both for urban development and management of flood risk) at local level is needed to support the long-term sustainability of intertidal habitats