Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of the Urban Building Environment in Nablus,Palestine

ABSTRACT

This article describes a specifically developed framework to produce a seismic physical vulnerability model of residential buildings in Nablus (Palestine) within the European project SASPARM2.0. Based on the structural taxonomy of the territory, two different forms were defined to collect geometrical and structural data of buildings by different stakeholders (citizens and practitioners). This data was then employed to produce fragility curves using the mechanics-based procedure SP-BELA. To estimate seismic risk, the developed fragility model was combined with a hazard curve for the corresponding location. The described procedure is implemented in a WebGIS platform that allows to georeference and assess the surveyed buildings and define retrofitting strategies. Finally, the article carries out a comparison between the fragility curves of buildings in Nablus and the ones calculated for similar building typologies within a UNDP Jordan project aiming at the integrated risk assessment in Wadi Musa and surroundings.     

New Indices for the Existing City-Centers Streets Network Reliability and Availability Assessment in Earthquake Emergency

During earthquake emergencies in existing city-centers, streets network permits inhabitants to reach safe areas, and rescuers to access damaged zones and help population. However, the network can suffer from blocks due to debris of collapsed or heavily damaged buildings. Understanding urban fabric modifications and classifying elements vulnerability are fundamental steps while dealing with risk-assessment and risk-reduction strategies. This article offers a first quick approach for assessing seismic vulnerability of paths network by considering interferences with building heritage damages. Quick data about existing urban fabric (e.g., buildings typology; streets and buildings geometries) are combined for developing new vulnerability indices for streets network. The earthquake macroseismic intensity is introduced for evaluating probable street blockages and summarizing the overall rating of risks in critical network locations, thus intensity that is not included in other current quick methods for streets-building interference is here taken into account. Risk-reduction strategies based on the proposed indices could minimize the interventions on architectural heritage, maximizing the safety of evacuees. These new indices could be combined with traditional assessment of buildings vulnerability, and evaluations on pedestrians’ and vehicles evacuation flows, for evaluating management strategies.     

Morphological reconstruction of Roman <Emphasis Type="Italic">styli</Emphasis> from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Iulia Concordia</Emphasis>—Italy

Iulia Concordia is an important Roman settlement known for the production of iron objects and weapons during the Roman Empire. A huge number of well-preserved styli were found in the bed of the main channel of the city. In order to shed light on the production processes used by Roman for stylus manufacturing and the conservation state of the finds, a neutron tomography analysis was performed on NEUTRA beamline in Switzerland. SEM-EDS analyses were performed on few selected objects in order to identify the composition of metal decorations. Here, we present results from our investigation conducted on 91 styli, disclosing, in a non-invasive way, the morphological characterization related to the ancient Roman working techniques.     

New insights into Byzantine glass technology from loose mosaic tesserae from Hierapolis (Turkey): PIXE/PIGE and EPMA analyses

This study focuses on the Byzantine glass tesserae from Hierapolis (Phrygia, central Turkey). Fifty-seven samples of loose tesserae from two sites in the town (the theatre and the church of St. Philip) are analysed by particule-induced X-ray emission and particule-induced gamma ray emission and electron probe X-ray microanalysis to obtain the chemical composition and identify the colourants and opacifiers. The aims are to add new information to the scant knowledge of the Byzantine glassmaking technology, to constrain the chronology of the mosaics and to trace the supply routes of the tesserae. In the destruction layers of the theatre, tesserae produced following the Roman glassmaking technology (natron glass opacified by calcium and lead antimonate) were found. They were made using a Levantine 1 raw glass, generally attributed to the early Byzantine period (fifth to sixth c.). In the church, the samples attest a technological change from Roman tradition, and a complex pattern according to building history (two phases are attested, probably in the sixth and eighth to ninth c.), and a multiplicity of supply. Three glass types and some recipes not attested before in this chronological range for the production of tesserae are documented, such as the use of a local low-chlorine natron glass for the production of black and red tesserae, the blue colouring by a source of cobalt with zinc in a natron glass tessera and the opacification with tin oxide (both in a lead-free and in a high-lead natron glass), as well as with quartz.     

Georadar investigations in the central nave of Hagia Sofia,Istanbul (Turkey)

Within an interdisciplinary project to study Istanbul’s Hagia Sofia, a georadar survey was carried out in the central nave to assess if the deformations of the structure previously observed could be related to a differential behavior of the subsoil caused by architectural remains underneath. This study faces an unusual challenge since it was necessary to study the space beneath the scaffolding placed for the restoration works. The survey of the central nave was successful and allowed the detection of remains of walls that probably formed the basement of a previous 18- by 22-m structure. In addition, another interesting feature was discovered 2 m below the marble mosaic in the southeastern part of the nave. Although it is not possible to define its function, it seems that there could be a close relationship between this 2- by 3-m buried structure and the marble mosaic in the floor surface. Although some structures were identified under the floor of Hagia Sofia, there are no major changes in the topography of the central nave floor.     

When one heart can speak to another: the role of tenderness in Rousseau’s theory of passions

The aim of this paper is to show how tenderness (attendrissement) plays a key role in Rousseau’s theory of emotion. A deeper analysis of tenderness will shed light on the complex dynamics of Rousseau’s conception of the passions, which appears to be one of the principal means of understanding both the transition from the homme de la nature to the homme de l’homme and the development of human morality in the latter. Furthermore, the concept of attendrissement allows us to view from an unfamiliar, original standpoint a central problem of Rousseauian ethics, which has been debated, particularly in recent literature, namely that of recognition. Tenderness, thanks to its authentic and spontaneous nature, is able to retain the principles of the law of nature – pity and love of the self – while elevating them to an ethically superior height. For this reason, it might be considered a positive fulfillment of amour-propre capable of eliminating the pathological and competitive aspects that connote, from a historical but not constitutive point of view, the reciprocal interdependence of consciences.     

The ‘invisible’ product: developing markers for identifying dung in archaeological contexts

Dung is one of the most valuable resources in arid countries: traditional communities all over the world use it for heating, cooking, building and decorative purposes. It is commonly assumed that the same happened in the past, especially after the domestication of herbivores in the 11th millennium B.C. The presence and use of dung in archaeological contexts has been routinely studied through different techniques among which spherulites (calcium carbonates that form in animals guts) and small seeds assemblages’ analyses. However all the proxies considered so far to trace dung can be unreliable, especially when used singularly. After a review of the traditional methods used to trace dung in archaeological contexts, this paper presents the results of an ethnographic study on 11 modern dung cakes collected in northern India that were analysed for chemical, spherulite and phytolith content. Our results show that the lack of spherulites cannot be taken as absence of dung input and that the combination of phytolith and chemical signatures can be a reliable proxy for the inference of dung presence in archaeological contexts.     

Analytical investigation on Renaissance Venetian enamelled glasses from the Louvre collections

Venetian enamelled glass is one of the most significant subjects of the art and technology of Renaissance glassmaking. These items were made in Venice from the second half of the 15th through the 17th centuries and were imitated in other European glassmaking centers during this period and again in Murano during the 19th century. Only a limited number of analyses of these masterpieces have been published up to now.     

Modelling the eco-cultural niche of giant chestnut trees: new insights into land use history in southern Switzerland through distribution analysis of a living heritage

During the Middle Ages and the early modern period the cultivation of the chestnut tree became dominant in various mountain regions in Western Europe. Large numbers of giant chestnut trees have been reported throughout the continent that may be considered the living heritage of this period. In this paper we used a systematic inventory of giant chestnut trees in southern Switzerland for reconstructing the eco-cultural niche related to the long-term cultivation and conservation of such remarkable trees. To this purpose we implemented a retrospective logistic modelling approach with the presence of giant chestnuts as response variable compared with 65 environmental and cultural predictors. We performed different logistic regression analyses using untransformed and transformed variables. Out of the 42 models produced, we finally selected two models, on the basis of their parsimony and accuracy. Many of the selected predictors, such as distance from the lake, abundance of small livestock or number of secondary settlements, reveal that former local and regional socio-economic conditions and environmental constraints have considerable explanatory power. The approach allows us to detect several aspects of the targeted eco-cultural niche that may have acted in the distant past to support the development of the traditional fruit chestnut culture, as well as more recently, to preserve the giant chestnut tree population during the disruption phase of this culture. Most results are in line with the historical documentation, while others go beyond the dictates of written history and reveal interesting traits of the past economic and cultural systems.     

The Tenco effect. Suicide,San Remo,and the social construction of the canzone d'autore

Abstract

Canzone d'autore is an indigenous expression that has no precise equivalent in other languages. Its social use identifies a genre of popular song that presuppose the existence of an ‘autore’ taken in its most vigorous sense, meaning a ‘creator’, an ‘artist’– but how did this claim to artistry originate? How did it insinuate itself into the world of song, a genre that by definition belongs to the realm of what is traditionally called in Italian ‘musica leggera,’ with unmistakably pejorative connotations? In this essay, I will put forward a sociological interpretation of the genesis of the canzone d'autore, using as a strategic conceptual device the idea of cultural trauma. The traumatic event that I propose to explore, making use of this concept and its analytical machinery, is the suicide of the singer-songwriter Luigi Tenco during the seventeenth San Remo ‘Festival della Canzone’ (‘song festival’) – that is the best-known, most controversial, and most influential single event in the field of Italian ‘musica leggera’, an annual event regularly attended every year – via radio, television, or audience participation – by millions of Italians. Through a reconstruction of that suicide and above all of the public and dramatic events that followed in response to it, the paper examines the social process that transformed an individual tragedy into a collective, social drama, a process that not only produced a new musical classification, but also a new cultural and aesthetic category.