Spatial extension of stochastic Pi calculus

We introduce a spatial extension of stochastic pi-calculus that provides a formalism to model systems of discrete, connected locations. We define the extended stochastic semantics and also give deterministic semantics in terms of a system of ordinary differential equations. We describe two simple examples, one based on a standard epidemic model and one modelling resistance in plant tissues

The fate of the Volturno delta (northern Campania, Italy) among geological history and human influence

The present geomorphology of the Volturno River delta system (northern Campania, southern Italy) is largely a product of complex, long-lived relationships between geological evolution and human impacts. This presentation describes the evolution of the alluvial and coastal plain from the Holocene to the present time. The study was based on stratigraphic well log data analysis, cartographic sources from the last 150 years, bathymetric data acquired in 1887 and in 1987 and compared to extract seafloor changes in the delta offshore (Ruberti et al., 2022). The basis for the Holocene reconstruction was provided by the top of the Campania Grey Tuff (CGT) relief map, which evidences the incised valley excavation following the LGM sea level drop. The CGT is the product of a huge pyroclastic eruption of the Campi Flegrei volcanic district, occurred 39 ky BP, and thus represents both a major marker for the reconstruction of the subsurface stratigraphic record and a sturdy morphologic substrate engraved by river incision associated with the sea level fall that accompanied the last glacial period. The lowstand, transgressive and aggradation/highstand stacking of the Holocene facies were displayed. The present landscape appears largely inherited by the past MIS5 and LGM landscapes. A progressive increment of anthropic forcing took place after 2000 yr BP but the strongest modifications of the landscape occurred since the end of the XVII century. Until that time the landscape was largely covered by marshes and ponds. Human interventions started during the Spanish vice-Kingdom, at the end of the XVI century, when reclamation works were carried out with the aim to drain most of the marshy areas. The availability of reclaimed lands resulted in an intensive land transformation and the loss of most coastal wetland coupled with coastal erosion. Progradation of the delta ended during the early-middle XIX century. A peak of major alterations of the deltaic environment, and retreat of the coastline was attained between the 1960s and the 1990s. It is evident that the transformations of the landscape that have taken place over the last millennium are largely caused by anthropogenic impacts (i.e., reclamation, development of drainage network, land use changes). The sediment input of the river to the Tyrrhenian Sea sharply decreased, thus resulting in a dramatic change of the deltaic morphology and significant coastal land loss. The coastal zone, considered as a dissipative-type shoreline, evolved to an irreversible non-dissipative inshore profile characterized by mean erosional rates of 5 m/yr along the beaches and 24 m/yr on the delta mouth. The river delta changed from a cuspate, wave-dominate delta to arcuate and eventually delta-estuary type

The hidden world of artificial cavities in the northern Campania Plain: architectural variability and cataloging challenge

In Campania (southern Italy), sinkholes phenomena induced by the widespread presence of anthropogenic cavities in the Neapolitan and Caserta provinces are frequent and well-known. Nevertheless in many urban centers of this area, cavities have been reported in specific geological investigations although their real extent is almost unknown. In these towns the underground mining activities were performed to extract volcanic tuffs for buildings. The urban development have sealed every signal of the presence of cavities, which thus represent a geological hazard and contribute to subsoil instability of many places. The need to carry out a survey of underground quarrings in urban centers has two reasons: a) The anthropic hypogea represent an absolute documentary value, still unduly neglected and little used for the purposes of a correct and sustainable management of the territory, natural resources and historical and artistic heritage. The enhancement and sustainable reuse of hypogea contributes to enhancing the cultural and tourist promotion of a territory. b) In a correct urban management, the knowledge of the city subsoil is a priority, as the presence of cavities may easily trigger the collapse of the shallow or deeper soils. The difficulty of drawing up a univocal cataloging system lies in the definition of database framework that includes all the possible architectural, geological and geotechnical elements of the cavities. In fact, the type of extraction is not the same throughout the territory even over short distances as it was strongly conditioned by the lithological characteristics of the volcanoclastic material in the subsoil, as well as by the purpose of extraction. The construction of a cavity system initially involved an excavation carried out as a “bottle” or a “bell” from the ground level up to the tuff unit, developing at depth according to its thickness. During excavation, access points were realized through the poorly lithified or loose deposits, with a square or pseudo-circular cross-section; sometimes they were supported by containment walls made of tuff bricks resting on the lower tuff bank. A single vertical excavation is sometimes added at certain distance, so as to determine in depth the coalescence of several chambers, also through the construction of narrow tunnels or wide passages, long connecting tunnels, multiple level chambers. Access shafts were often realized with a system of stairs with one or more ramps, with steps directly carved into the tuff. This contribution will show the main cavity typologies recognized across an area north of Naples, although the study is still far from exhaustive. Data were managed into a GIS environment such as to provide a first proposal of a geological underground database framework

Actual and forecasted vulnerability assessment to seawater intrusion via galdit-susi in the volturno river mouth (Italy)

Coastal areas have become increasingly vulnerable to groundwater salinization, especially in the last century, due to the combined effects of climate change and growing anthropization. In this study, a novel methodology named GALDIT-SUSI was applied in the floodplain of the Volturno River mouth for the current (2018) and future (2050) evaluation of seawater intrusion accounting for the expected subsidence and groundwater salinization rates. Several input variables such as digital surface model, land use classification, subsidence rate and drainage system have been mapped via remote sensing resources. The current assessment highlights how areas affected by salinization coincide with the semiperennial lagoons and inland depressed areas where paleosaline groundwaters are present. The future assessment (2050) shows a marked increase of salinization vulnerability in the coastal strip and in the most depressed areas. The results highlight that the main vulnerability driver is the Revelle index, while predicted subsidence and recharge rates will only slightly affect groundwater salinization. This case study indicates that GALDIT-SUSI is a reliable and easy-to-use tool for the assessment of groundwater salinization in many coastal regions of the world

Regeneração urbana : 'O diálogo entre os espaços públicos e espaços sobrantes na cidade'

A dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Arquitetura, realizada e apresentada na Universidade Lusófona do Porto (ULP), assenta no domínio da regeneração do património urbano, refletindo particularmente no impacto dos viadutos na malha urbana, expondo o potencial dos espaços que este deixa para traz como solução para a recuperação e requalificação de espaços urbanos que entraram em degradação por via destas estruturas. Esta reflexão é materializada numa proposta de requalificação urbana e arquitetónica de uma área da cidade do Porto, em que se implanta o viaduto da Rua Duque de Loulé. É feito, uma breve descrição do que é designado como espaço sobrante e os elementos que levaram ao seu desenvolvimento. Isto permite que tenhamos um melhor domínio sobre estes vazios urbanos, de forma a poder intervir neles de uma maneira consciente. Este processo, é apoiado por uma breve abordagem e análise a quatro casos de estudo, que serviram de enriquecimento e compreensão de métodos válidos de intervenção nos vazios urbanos. As propostas dispõem soluções práticas, sólidas e válidas que servem de inspiração base, para a integração, expansão e consolidação dos espaços sobrantes na malha urbana do Porto.A Master´s thesis in Architecture, written and presented at the Lusófona University of Porto (ULP), based on the regeneration of urban heritage, particularly reflecting on the impacts of viaducts in the urban network, exposing the potential the spaces that it leaves behind as solutions for the recovery and requalification of the urban spaces that have degraded through these structures. This reflection is materialised in the proposal made for the urban and architectural requalification of the section in the city of Oporto, in which the Duque de Loulé viaduct is implanted. A brief description of what is defined as surplus spaces is made, including the elements that led to the development of such spaces. This allows us to have a better dominion over these urban voids, so as to allow us to intervene in these in a conscious manner. This process is supported by a brief approach and analysis of four case studies that have served as the bases to enrich and understand the best methods of intervention in urban voids. The proposals provide practical, solid and valid solutions that serve as the inspirational bases for the integration, expansion and consolidation of these void spaces in the Oporto urban networkOrientação: José Manuel dos Santos Gigante ; co-orientação: João Nuno P. B. Moreira Gome

Advanced documentation methodologies combined with multi-analytical approach for the preservation and restoration of 18th century architectural decorative elements at Palazzo Nuzzi in Orte (Central Italy)

This contribution reports the documentation of the conservation status and the pictorial technique of a wall painting and a stucco arch at Palazzo Nuzzi in Orte, central Italy (Viterbo district), achieved using a wide combination of non-invasive and micro-invasive diagnostic techniques. Specifically, a photogrammetric approach has been used for 2D and 3D ultraviolet fluorescence (UVF) acquisitions. Moreover, the conservation status of the wall painting has been also investigated by a non-invasive active infrared thermograghy technique, i.e. Pulse Compression Thermography (PuCT), used here for the first time on a wall painting to map the surface and sub-surface cracks in the first layers. Pigments, grounds and organic binders were characterised by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, micro-stratigraphic analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The results of this unique combination of advanced tools corroborated the historical-artistic attribution to the school of the architect Andrea Pozzo

Crustal Contamination and Hybridization of an Embryonic Oceanic Crust during the Red Sea Rifting (Tihama Asir Igneous Complex, Saudi Arabia)

The Red Sea rift system represents a key case study of the transition from a continental to an oceanic rift. The Red Sea rifting initiated in Late Oligocene to Early Miocene (24-23 Ma) and was accompanied by extensive magmatism throughout the rifted basin, from Afar and Yemen to northern Egypt. Here, we present a petrological and geochemical study of two gabbro bodies and associated basalts from the Tihama Asir igneous complex, which formed at 24-20 Ma within the rifted Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS). The Tihama Asir is therefore an ideal location to study the initial phase of syn-rift magmatism and its influence on the geodynamic evolution of the Red Sea rift system. The most primitive olivine gabbros present modal, bulk and mineral compositions consistent with formation from Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalt (MORB)-type parental melts, whereas the evolved olivine-free gabbros and oxide-bearing gabbros show saturation of phlogopite and a crystal line of descent diverging from fractional crystallization trends. In detail, whole-rock and mineral compositions in the most evolved lithologies show high Light over Middle Rare Earth Elements (LREE/MREE) ratios (La-N/Sm-N = 0.89-1.31) and selective enrichments in Sr, K and highly incompatible elements (Rb, Ba, U, Th). We relate these geochemical characteristics to a process of progressive assimilation of host continental crust during the emplacement of the gabbroic plutons. Interestingly, high LREE/MREE ratios (La-N/Sm-N = 1.45-4.58) and high Rb, Ba, Th and U contents also characterize the basaltic dike swarms associated to the gabbros. Incompatible trace element compositions of these basalts approach those of the melts that formed the most hybridized gabbros. Therefore, we propose that the dike swarms represent melts partially contaminated by assimilation of continental crust material, extracted from the underlying gabbroic crystal mush. Our results suggest that early syn-rift magmatism led to the partial replacement of the thinned continental crust by MORB-type gabbroic bodies, in turn suggesting that oceanic magmatism started prior to continental break-up. Extensive syn-rift magmatism is consistent with the interpretation of the southern Red Sea rift system as a volcanic rifted margin. One possible implication of this study is that extensive but diffuse syn-rift magmatism possibly hampered continental break-up, leading to a protracted rifting stage

Hidden but Ubiquitous: The Pre-Rift Continental Mantle in the Red Sea Region

Volcanism in the western part of the Arabian plate resulted in one of the largest alkali basalt provinces in the world, where lava fields with sub-alkaline to alkaline affinity are scattered from Syria and the Dead Sea Transform Zone through western Saudi Arabia to Yemen. After the Afar plume emplacement (∼30 Ma), volcanism took place in Yemen and progressively propagated northward due to Red Sea rifting-related lithospheric thinning (initiated ∼27–25 Ma). Few lava fields were emplaced during the Mesozoic, with the oldest 200 Ma volcanic activity recorded in northern Israel. We report results from volcanic pipes in the Marthoum area, east of Harrat Uwayrid, where over a hundred pipes occupy a stratigraphic level in the early Ordovician Saq sandstones. Most of them are circular or elliptical features marked by craters aligned along NW-SE fractures in the sandstone resulting from phreatomagmatic explosions that occurred when rising magma columns came in contact with the water table in the porous sandstone host. These lavas have Sr-Pb-Nd-Hf isotopic compositions far from the Cenozoic Arabian alkaline volcanism field, being considerably more enriched in Nd-Hf and Pb isotopes than any other Arabian Plate lava ever reported. New K-Ar dating constrains their age from Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene, thus anticipating the Afar plume emplacement and the Red Sea rift. Basalt geochemistry indicates that these volcanic eruptions formed from low-degree partial melting of an enriched lithospheric mantle source triggered by local variations in the asthenosphere-lithosphere boundary. This mantle source has a composition similar to the HIMU-like enriched isotopic component reported in the East African Rift and considered to represent the lowermost lithospheric mantle of the Nubian Shield. The generated melt, mixed in different proportions with melt derived from a depleted asthenosphere, produces the HIMU-like character throughout the Cenozoic Arabian alkaline volcanism. Although apparently hidden, this enriched lithospheric component is therefore ubiquitous and widespread in the cratonic roots of the African and Arabian subcontinental mantle

Severe population decline of marsh deer, Blastocerus dichotomus (Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae), a threatened species, caused by flooding related to a hydroelectric power plant.

Balancing power production and environmental conservation can be problematic. The objective of this study was to investigate the abundance of marsh deer in the Paraná River Basin, above the Sergio Motta (Porto Primavera) Dam, before and after the impact of the dam closure. A fixed-wing, flat window aircraft was used to survey study transects. Observations were recorded based on the distance sampling line transect method, assuming that the detection probability decreases with increased distance