Monitoring of Two Great Venetian Cathedrals: San Marco and Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari

Two examples of monitoring systems of great Venetian Cathedrals, are presented. The first, concerning the Basilica of San Marco, is an example of a long-term monitoring system for a structure that has not undergone any strengthening intervention. The criteria for interpreting this monitoring system data are illustrated. The second example, concerning the Basilica of S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, is a clear example of the use of monitoring during the execution of strengthening intervention. This study illustrates the interventions that were carried out on the supporting structures: consolidation of the soil foundation of the bell tower by using the soil-fracturing technique and creation of a structural joint between the bell tower and the Basilica. Through the observational method, this monitoring system was able to check the structural behavior during all the phases of the interventions, thus becoming a precious design tool able to guarantee the safety of the structure and to modify the design solutions during the strengthening intervention, according to the real deformation behavior observed through the monitoring system.     

“Riding the rip”: an experiential and integrated human–physical geography curriculum in Costa Rica

Integrating research into short-term study abroad programs is challenging because of language, fieldwork logistics, and traditional learning models based on passive classroom experiences. Experiential learning often makes use of research as experience, but relatively few examples integrate human and physical geography. Here, we describe an experiential and integrated human–physical undergraduate geography curriculum in Costa Rica. We combine rip current morphodynamics, beach-user surveys, and cultural landscape in a 3-week program in Costa Rica. Emotions associated with the direct and indirect experience of “riding the rip” positively influenced the cognitive domain of student learning.     

PART I: Pierre Bayle’s Reply of a New Convert (1689)

This is the first English translation of Pierre Bayle’s political pamphlet, Réponse d’un nouveau converti à la Lettre d’un refugié of 1689. It may be one of the most critical attacks on a writer’s own side in the history of political ideas. It is a stinging rebuke of Bayle’s own party, the Protestants, for their incoherence, hypocrisy, and violence. It came three years after his similarly savage refutation of the Catholics in The Condition of Wholly Catholic France, also recently published in its first English translation in this journal. A substantial introduction explains some of the context, explores the political theology of this pamphlet, and reviews scholarly interpretations.     

Two Roman and medieval cases of symmetrical erosive polyarthropathy from Normandy: anatomico-pathological and radiological evidence for rheumatoid arthritis

With continued archaeological discoveries of skeletal remains in the USA and Europe, discussion of the possible aetiology for recognized cases of symmetrical erosive polyarthropathy include the spondylarthropathies and rheumatoid arthritis. One skeleton from the fourth century site of Lisieux and a second from the eleventh century site of Rouen are characterized by numerous symmetrical marginal erosions, primarily involving the metacarpophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints. Results of maroscopic, microscopic and radiological examination are highly suggestive of a modern-day diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. These data are consistent with the presence of rheumatoid arthritis before the onset of the fourteenth century. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Minimally destructive DNA extraction from archaeological artefacts made from whale baleen

Here we demonstrate the successful extraction and amplification of target species DNA from artefacts made of whale baleen collected from excavations of past palaeo-Eskimo and Inuit cultures in Greenland. DNA was successfully extracted and amplified from a single baleen bristle of 1.5 cm length dated based on archaeological context to the period of the Saqqaq culture, more than 4000 years ago and following decades of storage at room temperature at the National Museum. The results reveal ancient baleen in archaeological material as a potential source of DNA that can be used for population genetic studies. We conclude that genetic investigation of historical baleen collections can contribute to our knowledge of the prehistoric population genetics of baleen whales, for example by quantifying the impact of modern whaling on the genetic diversity of bowhead whales.     

John Shary,Charles Pease,and contested irrigation landscapes in early-twentieth-century South Texas

The paper contributes to notions of ‘hybrid’ historical geographies of irrigation by focusing on contested visions for irrigation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Adding to geographical work using biography, notions of performance, and racialized landscapes, the paper analyzes debates between John Shary and Charles Pease. Shary and Pease were protagonists, respectively, of pumping water from the Rio Grande and a gravity scheme reliant on action by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The pumping system survived; the gravity system was never constructed. However, the debate between Shary and Pease illustrates tensions within the Anglo elite. The analysis focuses on three early-twentieth-century moments. The first is a 1918 crisis in Shary’s irrigation company, followed by a 1927 debate between Shary and Pease over the flaws of the pumping system and benefits of gravity irrigation. Finally, the paper focuses on Shary and Pease’s constructions of racialized landscapes that subordinated Hispanics as voters to be utilized for Shary’s accumulation strategy, or as ‘non-water users’ that should be excluded from water politics. The paper argues that Shary and Pease projected similarly exclusionary social visions onto the irrigated landscape in spite of their differences on irrigation systems.