Approaching Skyscape Archaeology: A Note on Method and Fieldwork for the Case Study of Pompeii

The urban layout of Pompeii presents several orientations, possibly due to an uneven bare ground plateau. However, its main east-west axes have the same orientation of Herculaneum ones, suggesting that not only geomorphological constrains acted as topographical factors. Starting from a hypothesis by Nissen (1906), the method of skyscape archaeology was applied to Pompeii urban grid and temples, testing digital models with fieldwork measurements. The results show that the main east-west axes aligned with the rising summer solstice sun above the local horizon. Furthermore, the Doric Temple was oriented with the sunset on the same time of the year, suggesting an intentional design

Reconstructing the ancient urban landscape in a long-lived city: the Asculum Project, combining research, territorial planning and preventative archaeology

The Asculum Project started in 2012 by the Bologna University in agreement with the former Soprintendenza per iBeni Archeologici delle Marche and the Municipality of Ascoli Piceno, mainly as a project of urban archaeology and preventative archaeology in a city which has been inhabited for a very long period of time. A proper integrated methodology and the combination of a wide range of data, including that gathered from geophysical surveys, archaeological digs, historic cartography, bibliographic and archival data, allowed us to reconstruct the cityscape during the Roman Age and its development over the centuries. The understanding of the ancient urban landscape also included a detailed morphological study aimed at the reconstruction of the Roman paleosurface, carried out using data derived from coring samples and stratigraphic digs. In parallel, particular attention was directed to the modern 3D documentation of the historical buildings of the city, by means of laser scanner and the analysis of the stratigraphy of the surviving walls. The new surveys covered, in particular, the still extant Roman buildings, such as the temples incorporated by the churches of San Venanzio and San Gregorio Magno, as well as the Sostruzioni dell’Annunziata. These last acquisitions made it possible to reconstruct the overall layout and urban plan of the town during the Roman Age, as well as to shed new light on the conformation of the ancient landscape at the time of the oldest Piceni settlement. One of the most interesting aspects of the operating practices applied in the project was to reconcile the needs for preservation and research with the aim of a sustainable urban development

Tharros - Capo San Marco in the Phoenician and Punic Age. Geophysical investigations and virtual rebuilding

The project described in this paper was started in 2012 and concerns the study of the relationship between the urban and suburban districts of the Phoenician and Punic city of Tharros (Cabras, Oristano). The structures of Phoenician and Punic Tharros have been largely cancelled by the Roman occupation. For this reason it is very difficult to determine the original function of many of the neighbourhoods during the Carthaginian period. The archaeological excavation primarily involved the southern necropolis of Capo San Marco. The cemetery must still be fully explored and understood under several aspects, mainly because of the devastation of the site caused by the repeated plundering of the ancient tombs which occurred during the 19th century. In addition to the new dig activities, a 3D topographical survey aimed at the complete documentation of the site and at the virtual rebuilding of the Phoenician and Punic funerary landscape was completed. Another goal of the project is the insertion of this sector of the promontory into the usual tourist route, in order to foster the public fruition of Capo San Marco, while continuing to adopt proper scientific methods and modern techniques. In this direction, geophysical prospecting surveys were carried out in the southern sector of the Capo San Marco, near the so-called ‘Rustic Temple’, in order to assess human presence in the farthest point of the Sinis peninsula (characterised by the presence of the Late Punic ruins of a probable light-house with sacred functions), and across the whole isthmus Sa Codriola towards the hill of San Giovanni, with the aim of analysing the northern boundary of the cemetery and its relationship to the city. The Punic-Roman settlement is now enclosed in the archaeological park, which is a fraction of what was supposed to be the administrative capital of Carthage in Sardinia. 3D modelling and virtual reconstructions were focused also on the residential Punic and Roman area inside the park. The integrated application of the most advanced topographical and geophysical techniques to the site greatly contributed to the recording and understanding of the ancient landscape

Stimulated emission depletion microscopy with diamond silicon-vacancy centers

The spatial resolution and fluorescence signal amplitude in stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is limited by the photostability of available fluorophores. Here, we show that negatively-charged silicon vacancy (SiV) centers in diamond are promising fluorophores for STED microscopy, owing to their photostable, near-infrared emission and favorable photophysical properties. A home-built pulsed STED microscope was used to image shallow implanted SiV centers in bulk diamond at room temperature. The SiV stimulated emission cross section for 765-800 nm light is found to be (4.0 ± 0.3)×10^−17 cm^2, which is approximately 2-4 times larger than that of the negatively-charged diamond nitrogen vacancy center and approaches that of commonly-used organic dye molecules. We performed STED microscopy on isolated SiV centers and observed a lateral full-width-at-half- maximum spot size of 89 ± 2 nm, limited by the low available STED laser pulse energy (0.4 nJ). For a pulse energy of 5 nJ, the resolution is expected to be ∼20 nm. We show that the present microscope can resolve SiV centers separated by �� \u3c 150 nm that cannot be resolved by confocal microscopy

Seeing into the past: integrating 3D documentation and non-invasive prospecting methods for the analysis, understanding and reconstruction of the ancient Pompeii. The case of the House of Obellio Firmo (IX, 14)

In 2015 the Department of History and Cultures of the Bologna University took part in the Grande Progetto Pompei - Piano della Conoscenza, with the task of providing a modern and complete documentation of the so-called Lotto 3 in Pompeii. The new survey was carried out by means of integrated innovative diagnostic survey techniques in order to provide a total documentary research of the whole sector. In 2016 a new project was started in agreement with the competent Superintendency, and focused on the study and preservation of the House of Obellio Firmo, included in the Lotto 3 of the Roman city. The new research contemplates an in-depth analysis of the building, employing systematic laser scanning and photogrammetry methods to generate an accurate 3D model of the house. This model is going to constitute the starting point for the further analysis of the wall stratigraphies and for the mapping and monitoring of the structures’ state of decay. The full-scale analytical documentation of the building also includes a detailed geophysical mapping of all the accessible domestic spaces, by using the ground penetrating radar technique. The preliminary results achieved by the non-invasive prospecting survey, integrated with the analysis of the surviving walls and building techniques, supply valid information for the archaeological interpretation of the house’s history. In order to allow the management and sharing of the information collected, the data are going to be organised within a building information model (BIM) with a triple objective: the reconstruction of a fragment of the ancient urban landscape in Pompeii during the oldest phase, with particular attention directed to the Samnitic period; the outlining of a precise strategy of intervention for the restoration and preservation of the House of Obellio Firmo; the re-opening of the building to sightseeing tours and its restitution to public use

Fourth order phase-field model for local max-ent approximants applied to crack propagation

We apply a fourth order phase-field model for fracture based on local maximum entropy (LME) approximants. The higher order continuity of the meshfree LME approximants allows to directly solve the fourth order phase-field equations without splitting the fourth order differential equation into two second order differential equations. We will first show that the crack surface can be captured more accurately in the fourth order model. Furthermore, less nodes are needed for the fourth order model to resolve the crack path. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the proposed meshfree fourth order phase-field formulation for 5 representative numerical examples. Computational results will be compared to analytical solutions within linear elastic fracture mechanics and experimental data for three-dimensional crack propagation

Distributed Optimal Load Frequency Control with Stochastic Wind Power Generation

Motivated by the inadequacy of conventional control methods for power networks with a large share of renewable generation, in this paper we study the (stochastic) passivity property of wind turbines based on the Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG). Differently from the majority of the results in the literature, where renewable generation is ignored or assumed to be constant, we model wind power generation as a stochastic process, where wind speed is described by a class of stochastic differential equations. Then, we design a distributed control scheme that achieves load frequency control and economic dispatch, ensuring the stochastic stability of the controlled network.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2010.1284

From A to Z: Using Alphabet Books as an instructional Tool with Older Readers

Alphabet books provide a literature source for teachers to use in the classroom that focuses on a common sequence of textual organization which upper elementary and middle school students have known since they were young children. These students most likely had in their repertoire of beginning to read activities, alphabet books using common symbols to match the letters such as A is for apple, B is for bear, C is for cat. The objects were selected to match the true sound of the letter with a single or small number of illustrations to demonstrate the concept. The alphabet book addresses the 26 letters in picture book format with typically 24 to 48 pages, illustrations on double pages, and brief text (Kormanski and Stevens, 1993)