Numerical Evaluation of Topographic Effects at the Nicastro Ridge in Southern Italy

Numerical site response analyses were carried out on the Nicastro ridge in Southern Italy in order to investigate topographic effects. First, the analyses were carried out on a simplified model by employing simple artificial signals, in order to get preliminary physical insights into the two-dimensional phenomena involved. Then, numerical analyses were carried out on a more realistic heterogeneous subsoil model developed on the basis of geotechnical and geophysical investigations. Real accelerograms were selected for these analyses. Particular attention was devoted to separating topographic from stratigraphic amplification. Finally, the topographic amplification factors were compared with literature data and Eurocode 8 recommendations.     

Friction Model for Sliding Bearings under Seismic Excitation

In this article, an experimentally validated model is proposed in order to take into account main sources of performance degradation that could be experienced by friction-based devices during a seismic event. Particular attention is dedicated to the degradation of friction characteristics due to repetition of cycles and consequent temperature rise. This effect can be responsible for overestimate of the dissipation capacity of the device. The proposed model of frictional behavior is suitable for immediate implementation in generalized structural analysis codes and provides an important design tool for realistic assessment of the seismic response of structures equipped with friction-based isolators.     

When the Past becomes the Present

L'oracle pour les Recabites (Jr 35,18-19 TM // 42,18-19 LXX) presente quelques differences notables suivant qu'on le lit dans sa version massoretique ou dans la LXX. Il s'agit essentiellement du changement de locuteur et de destinataire, de la construction differente des personnages, ainsi que d'insistances differentes d'une version a l'autre. De la sorte, ce texte se revele etre un bon terrain pour verifier a petite echelle que les differences entre les narrations paralleles des deux versions connues du livre de Jeremie impliquent une strategie narrative differente, ce qui a un impact sur le sens du recit lui-meme pour le lecteur. L'article entend montrer tout l'interet qu'il y a a prendre au serieux separement le TM et la LXX, de sorte qu'apparaisse la specificite de chaque texte dans sa confrontation a l'autre. De la comparaison ressortiront des indications quant a la qualite eraire de chaque texte, mais aussi sans doute l'un ou l'autre indice concernant l'histoire textuelle de ce livre biblique.     

Approaches to the Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Past and Emergent Perspectives

Recently, interest in the archaeology of ethnogenesis has surged. This renewed interest stems from innovations in the historical study of ethnogenesis, theoretical shifts favoring multidirectional agency, and relevant contemporary sociopolitical debates. Theoretical problems surrounding the appropriateness of the social science concept of “ethnicity,” however, have made the comparative study of ethnogenesis difficult. Drawing from past and emergent perspectives adds renewed vigor to comparative studies of ethnogenesis. A methodology that integrates the different types of theory can resolve the theoretical tensions in the archaeological study of ethnogenesis.     

A colpi di cuore. Storie del sessantotto

This article attempts to tackle the problem of how a colonial culture that was elaborated through the written word may have impacted on an Italian society that was significantly more ‘backward’ than its western European counterparts. The Prima Guerra d'Africa (1885-96) has often been seen as a military campaign desired exclusively by an isolated Italian government in a society that was incapable of using the occasion to develop cultural themes that impacted on the desires and aspirations of the ‘real’ Italy. This supposed societal dysfunction meant that Italy failed to create a ‘culture of imperialism’ in the years of the Scramble for Africa in a way that has now come to be considered of such central importance for the histories of France, Britain or even Germany.

Through an analysis of the role played by primary schools in Italian culture in these years, this article attempts to reverse this view, arguing that even taking into consideration Italy's ‘backwardness’ there was not only a great awareness of what Italy was supposedly doing in Africa but also a serious attempt to load the events that occured there with a meaning that had a much more intimate relationship with Italy's population. Although defeat in Africa meant a major setback in this process, imperialism as a cultural phenomenon continued to be of fundamental importance to the progress of nation building and the development of nationalism in Italy and, Finaldi argues, it should therefore be assigned a place in Italian culture that is much more on a par to that which culture and imperialism are deemed to have held for other European nation-states.     

经济一体化背景下的区域溢出分析

从溢出的角度研究区域间的互动关系是一个全新的视角。本文利用协方差统计模型对广东省与其他省区的溢出关系进行分析。结论是:在航空距离影响下,广东对所有省区都具有强度不同的正溢出效果,发挥了区域带动作用。在接受溢出方面,除了四川,甘肃,宁夏和黑龙江以外,其它省区对广东的溢出均表现出强度不同的正效应。对比分析广东对外溢出和获得溢出,可以看出经济水平邻近的长江三角洲地区、地理邻近省区均与广东表现出较强的相互正溢出效应。在区域间信息化缺口的影响下,广东与各区域之间溢出强度下降。     

Between containment,confinement and dispersal: the evolution of the Italian reception system before and after the ‘refugee crisis’

In this article, I will analyse how the Italian reception system has been transformed after the ‘refugee crisis’, showing how the change cannot be reduced to a mere expansion of the reception capacity. I will do this by tracing a genealogy of the Italian reception system and highlighting its main features before and after the ‘refugee crisis’. My hypothesis is that the ‘refugee crisis’ and the sense of emergency it created has stimulated the emergence of distinct segments within the Italian reception system functioning according to radically different philosophies and objectives. This, in addition to increasing the overall lack of consistency of the system, is having a profound impact on the rights of asylum seekers, greatly increasing the risk of their spatial and social segregation within Italian society.     

Archeometric characterization of prehistoric grindstones from Milazzo Bronze Age settlement (Sicily,Italy)

The results of a petrographic and geochemical study carried out on archeological grindstones allow to provide new constraints on protohistoric commercial exchanges over the Mediterranean area. Eleven grindstones, discovered in an archeological site located in Milazzo (Messina, Sicily) and dated from the Early Bronze Age, have been investigated by geochemical and petrographic techniques. The raw materials are mainly volcanic rocks characterized by calc-alkaline and K-alkaline affinities with volcanic arc geochemical signature. Only one sample, made of basalt belonging to the Na-alkaline series, shows an intraplate signature. The comparison with the available literature data for similar rocks allowed constraining the volcanic origin of the exploited lavas. While the intraplate-type raw material came from Mt. Etna Volcano (Sicily), the arc-type volcanic rocks are mostly trachyandesites, basaltic andesites, and one rhyolite. Although most of them come from the Aeolian Arc, a provenance of some samples from the Aegean Arc cannot be excluded. This last region could represent the most probable provenance area for the rhyolite sample.