Non-invasive characterization through X-ray fluorescence and neutron radiography of an ancient Japanese lacquer

Oriental lacquer artefacts represent very interesting objects of investigation, involving a huge variety of materials and manufacturing techniques. Lacquers are very attractive not only for their stylistic features but also for understanding the variety of production processes, time evolution, use and artistic applications involved in their manufacturing. Till recently, the research activity on these materials has been mainly based on standard, more or less invasive, analytical methods. With the aim to characterise a nineteenth century Japanese lacquer in a totally non-invasive and non-destructive way, in situ X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and neutron radiography (NR) have been employed. While XRF suggested an identification of the pigments embedded into superficial layers, NR allowed revealing, in a single measurement, the average bulk properties of the sample.     

Euganean trachytic grinding stones in the Caput Adriae from the Iron Age to the Roman period: Reassessment of the Protohistoric quarries

A group of Euganean trachytic grinding stones from Slovenia and the available data about the same type of artefacts in the whole Caput Adriae are presented. The occurrence of Iron Age saddle querns in Karst and Istria is confirmed, but our study suggests a likely provenance from Mts Cero/Murale instead of Mts Altore/Rocca Pendice, as previously suggested. Este, an important Venetic centre, is just south of Mts Cero/Murale, suggesting its central role in the production and distribution of saddle querns. During the Roman period Euganean trachytes are still used for rotary millstones, but new quarries (Mt Rosso), relatively close to ancient Padua, are exploited. Such shift in the position of millstone quarries most probably reflects the changed geopolitical framework.     

Intergenerational Trust Funds in the Pacific

This paper serves to introduce the topic of intergenerational trust funds and their legal forms in the Pacific. It gives an overview of the nature of these funds, what distinguishes them one from the other, and their strengths and weaknesses from a legal point of view. Intergenerational trust funds started with primarily budget support purposes but have been adapted over the years to serve other purposes, in particular the protection of ecosystems and for climate adaptation and environmental protection and disaster relief. Following a consideration of the structural and operational aspects of some key Pacific funds, the paper concludes with a reflection on practice over the years and identifies what is or should be best practice for such funds.     

Seismic Assessment of a Historical Masonry Building in Switzerland: The “Ancien Hôpital De Sion”

This article presents the results of the evaluation of the seismic safety of the Ancien Hôpital de Sion, an important Swiss architectural heritage building, situated in the Canton of Valais, the region with the highest seismic hazard in Switzerland. Three-dimensional Applied Element (AEM) modeling of the whole structure has been performed and validated. The adopted modeling strategy, together with nonlinear dynamic analysis, was able to represent the actual behavior and failure mechanisms typical of complex masonry structures, in addition to a good computational efficiency compared to other available numerical approaches. The local collapse mechanisms have been also studied through a kinematic limit analysis based on rigid block rotation. Both linear and nonlinear approaches have been followed together with the capacity spectrum method. The results provided by the different methodologies have been compared with the aim to provide possible insights concerning a general procedure for the assessment of the safety of such type of structures.     

Use of Pushover Analysis for Predicting Seismic Response of Irregular Buildings: A Case Study

Structural irregularity undermines capability of conventional methods for 2D pushover analysis to closely approximate results from inelastic dynamic analysis. In recent years, different methods have been developed to overcome such limitation and their suitability has been checked with reference either to idealized building models or to geometrically simple tested structures. In this paper, suitability of one such method, proposed by Fajfar et al. [2005] Fajfar, P., Maru?i?, D. and Perus, I. 2005. Torsional effects in the pushover-based seismic analysis of buildings. Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 9(6): 831–854. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], is evaluated considering an existing school building which presents both vertical and plan irregularities. Types of irregularity encompass not only those usually considered by seismic codes but also those deriving from a bad conceptual design and construction inaccuracies, very frequent at the year of construction (1974). It is found that, even under such complex irregularity conditions, this ‘modified’ pushover analysis correlates well results from inelastic dynamic analysis almost up to failure, since, in most cases, its predictions of interstorey drifts and plastic rotations are conservatively close to values from inelastic dynamic analysis. Even failure mechanism, consisting of a floor mechanism at the third level, is correctly predicted, thus demonstrating adequacy of such method for actual framed structures.     

The 18th-Century Baraccato of L’Aquila

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to describe a particular form of baraccata house, found in L’Aquila, Italy. The differences between this form of baraccato and the Italian traditional timber-framed (T-F) structures, the baraccato borbonico and the baraccato alla beneventana, are shown. In the upper valley of the Aterno river (Abruzzo, Italy), a few kilometers far from L’Aquila, wonderful 18^th-century examples of T-F masonry structures are present. The use of wood pervades both the poor and noble buildings. In this article, the documentary and functional features of this peculiar anti-seismic timber-based building technique, which is widespread in L’Aquila and the neighboring areas, is described. After a comparative analysis of the technique’s features, the case of three T-F buildings, belonging to three different social classes is reported, the first is the Ricci palace in Mopolino di Montereale, the second is a middle-class building, and the third is a rural one. The 1703 earthquake, which affected the upper valley of the Aterno river and the nearby city of L’Aquila, gave rise to an ante litteram anti-seismic culture. Timber was not seen as an obstacle to durability but a material to be exploited to protect buildings from earthquakes.