Galen in the Late Antique, Byzantine, and Syro-Arabic Alchemical Traditions

Study on the reception of Galen and Galenic medicine in the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic alchemical traditions

Design and development of a software architecture for seamless vertical handover in mobile communications

In this work I firstly present an overview on current wireless technology and network mobility focusing on challenges and issues which arise when mobile nodes migrate among different access networks, while employing real-time communications and services. In literature many solutions propose different methods and architectures to enhance vertical handover, the process of transferring a network communication between two technologically different points of attachment. After an extensive review of such solutions this document describes my personal implementation of a fast vertical handover mechanism for Android smartphones. I also performed a reliability and performance comparison between the current Android system and my enhanced architecture which have both been tested in a scenario where vertical handover was taking place between WiFi and cellular network while the mobile node was using video streaming services. Results show the approach of my implementation to be promising, encouraging future works, some of which are suggested at the end of this dissertation together with concluding remarks

Medicine in early Graeco-Egyptian alchemical texts (1st-3rd century AD)

Graeco-Egyptian alchemical texts share two peculiar features : they focus on a broad array of dyeing techniques and include many references to contemporary medical writings and practices. Insofar, scholars have only cursorily hinted at these medical elements without investigating their relevance. In this paper, I shall explore these relationships between alchemy and medicine, by comparing the earliest alchemical texts both with contemporary pharmacological treatises and with some relevant papyri that may offer a significant insight on a set of common practices shared by ancient druggists, dyers, and metalworkers

Alchemical lexica in Syriac: planetary signs, code names and medicines

Technical terminology and Decknamen represent key hallmarks of the alchemical literature in different traditions. The opacity of this vocabulary makes the reading of alchemical texts difficult and, in order to cope with similar challenges, Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic scholars soon started compiling technical vocabularies. In my paper I shall investigate two (partially overlapping) lexica, which open the BL Syriac alchemical MSS Egerton 709 and Oriental 1593. On the one hand, I will explore the variety of sources used by the anonymous compiler(s) to assemble these useful tools (Byzantine alchemists as well as the Greek medical tradition; Syro-Arabic lexicography). On the other, particular attention will be given to the structure and mise en page of the two lexica, which will be compared with analogous alchemical dictionaries in the Byzantine (e.g. MS Marcianus gr. 299) and Arabic (e.g. MS Gotha 1261) traditions

Metals as Living Bodies. Founts of Mercury, Amalgams, and Chrysocolla

Ancient and medieval alchemical works include several comparisons between the generation and development of metals and those of plants, animals, and living beings. These comparisons could refer to adopt physiological models in the explanation of the natural formation of metals and their artificial transformation, to justify the place occupied by alchemy within the broader study of the natural world, and to stand as metaphorical descriptions of specific alchemical procedures. This article analyses these features by focusing on the relationship between mercury and gold, the latter being the "perfect " metal that constituted both an ambitious goal of alchemical practice and one of its key ingredients. The interrelationship between gold and mercury emerges in complex myths about metallic rivers, in the use of gold-mercury amalgams in ancient technology, and in the discussion that alchemists developed around the enigmatic chrysocolla (literally "gold solder "). These three foci are discussed in relation to a variety of ancient sources - from Aristotle and the Stoics to late antique, Byzantine, and Syriac alchemical texts - to explore the different forms of conceptualising metals as living bodies and the interactions of these models with ancient theories on the formation of metals and the alchemical practices aimed at their transformation

Hyperbolic manifolds that fibre algebraically up to dimension 8

We construct some cusped finite-volume hyperbolic n-manifolds M-n that fibre algebraically in all the dimensions 5 <= n <= 8. That is, there is a surjective homomorphism pi(1)(M-n) -> Z with finitely generated kernel. The kernel is also finitely presented in the dimensions n = 7,8, and this leads to the first examples of hyperbolic n-manifolds (M) over tilde (n) whose fundamental group is finitely presented but not of finite type. These n-manifolds (M) over tilde (n) have infinitely many cusps of maximal rank and, hence, infinite Betti number b(n-1). They cover the finite-volume manifold M-n. We obtain these examples by assigning some appropriate colours and states to a family of right-angled hyperbolic polytopes P-5, ..., P-8, and then applying some arguments of Jankiewicz, Norin and Wise [18] and Bestvina and Brady [7]. We exploit in an essential way the remarkable properties of the Cosset polytopes dual to P-n, and the algebra of integral octonions for the crucial dimensions n = 7,8

Hyperbolic manifolds that fiber algebraically up to dimension 8

We construct some cusped finite-volume hyperbolic $n$-manifolds $M_n$ that fiber algebraically in all the dimensions $5\leq n \leq 8$. That is, there is a surjective homomorphism $\pi_1(M_n) \to \mathbb Z$ with finitely generated kernel. The kernel is also finitely presented in the dimensions $n=7, 8$, and this leads to the first examples of hyperbolic $n$-manifolds $\widetilde M_n$ whose fundamental group is finitely presented but not of finite type. These $n$-manifolds $\widetilde M_n$ have infinitely many cusps of maximal rank and hence infinite Betti number $b_{n-1}$. They cover the finite-volume manifold $M_n$. We obtain these examples by assigning some appropriate colours and states to a family of right-angled hyperbolic polytopes $P_5, \ldots, P_8$, and then applying some arguments of Jankiewicz, Norin, Wise and Bestvina, Brady. We exploit in an essential way the remarkable properties of the Gosset polytopes dual to $P_n$, and the algebra of integral octonions for the crucial dimensions $n=7,8$.Comment: 40 pages, 21 figure

Dynamic behaviour of a battery pack for agricultural applications

Abstract Fight and contrast against climate change and global warming can be considered the most important challenge for the next decades. One of the most involved sectors is the one related to the carriage of passengers and goods, and, recently, also the work vehicles too. The agricultural machines and tractors are no exception to this. Indeed, agricultural industry is the second contributor in terms of pollutant emissions. So, research about agricultural machinery is focusing itself about the development of more sustainable propulsion systems such as hybrid or full-electric solutions. One of the most important components of a hybrid or full electric vehicle is the battery pack. The lack of adequate vibration isolation is the main cause of battery pack failure during operation. In the field of the agricultural vehicles, since the maximum speed is quite low and the weight of the various subsystems are high, combined with heavy working cycles, the dynamic analysis of the battery pack focuses on its low frequency behaviour. In this context, this paper focuses the attention on the dynamic behaviour of a battery pack, thought for a plug-in hybrid electric orchard tractor, through simulations obtained taking advantage of FEM and multibody software. In particular, it will be illustrated the dynamic behaviour of the battery pack while the tractor is moving on a bumpy road and when the tractor chassis is subjected to an impulsive load