New Insights into the Provenance of the Obsidian Fragments of the Island of Ustica (Palermo,Sicily)

In this study we applied a multidisciplinary approach, coupling geophysical and geochemical measurements, to unveil the provenance of 170 obsidian flakes, collected on the volcanic island of Ustica (Sicily). On this island there are some prehistoric settlements dated from the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age. Despite not having geological outcrops of obsidian rocks, the countryside of Ustica is rich in fragments of this volcanic glass, imported from other source areas. The study of obsidian findings was carried out first through visual observations and density measurements. At least two different obsidian families have been distinguished, probably imported from Lipari and Pantelleria islands. Analysing the magnetic properties of the samples, these two main sources were confirmed, but the possibility of other provenances was inferred. Finally, we characterized the geochemical signature of the Ustica obsidians by performing microchemical analyses through electron microprobe (EMPA) and laser ablation (LA–ICP–MS). The results were compared with literature data, confirming the presence of the Lipari and Pantelleria sources (Sicily) and indicating for the first time in this part of Italy a third provenance from Palmarola island (Latium). Our results shed new light on the commercial exchanges in the peri‐Tyrrhenian area during the prehistoric age.     

Sailing virtual canoes across Oceania: revisiting island accessibility

Understanding sailing conditions is a basic requirement for understanding the two periods of settlement of the distant islands of Oceania, initially from the Bismarck Islands off New Guinea as far as Samoa and later from Samoa throughout East Polynesia. The question of a “navigational threshold” between these two worlds is the focus of this paper. A computer simulation is presented that quantifies the difficulty of sailing virtual canoes in the differing wind conditions in both areas. The model demonstrates substantial differences in ease of voyaging up to and beyond Samoa. That this measure is so markedly different between these two worlds gives support for the hypothesised pause between the discovery and settlement of islands West and East of Samoa.     

Network position and innovation capability in the regional innovation network

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the positioning of actors characterized by different natures in a regional innovation network and explores how these actors improve their innovation capabilities by assuming prominence or brokering positions. Innovation capability is widely seen to be the driving force in building regional competitive advantage, therefore investigating how the positioning of actors improves their innovation-related activities is relevant in terms of regional competitiveness. This paper builds on a survey conducted on the Sicilian regional area in Italy. A questionnaire was used to collect data concerning the relationships established between actors and the extent to which these relationships impact actors’ innovation capability. Results suggest that regional actors cannot be considered as a homogeneous group regarding their positioning in a regional network and that the innovation benefits of assuming different network positions depend on their nature. This paper offers some theoretical implications to the literature on regional innovation network and practical suggestions to organizations and regional policy makers.     

Direct Displacement-Based Design of Glulam Timber Frame Buildings

We introduce a direct Displacement-Based Design methodology for glued laminated timber portal frames with moment-resisting doweled joints. We propose practical expressions to estimate ultimate target displacement and equivalent viscous damping, and we demonstrate that these expressions provide prior values that are close to those obtained a posteriori using a more refined model. Applied to case studies, the method yields base-shear forces lower than those obtained using the force-based approach of Eurocode 8. This is due to the high dissipation capacity of the specific connection technology, which apparently is conservatively accounted for in the q-factor of Eurocode 8.     

Squatting Social Centres in a Sicilian City: Liberated Spaces and Urban Protest Actors

The Social Centres in Italy are simultaneously “liberated spaces”, empty and unused large buildings squatted by groups of radical left/antagonist activists to self‐manage social and countercultural activities, and “political contentious places”. They are indeed urban but not only local protest actors, denouncing the scarcity of spaces of sociability outside of commercial circuits, campaigning against market‐oriented urban renewal, property speculation, and on other anti‐capitalistic issues addressed outside the occupied spaces. The long history of Social Centres in Catania, the second largest city of Sicily, is reconstructed and explained through the choices and actions made by the squatters/activists, depending on their political‐ideological orientation, on the one hand; and by the opportunities and constraints of the specific political and socio‐spatial structure, which they had to face, on the other. The Social Centres, CPO Experia, CSOA Guernica, CSA Auro, and more recently CSO Liotru, are the main analysed empirical cases.     

Shaking Table Testing of a Full-Scale Prefabricated Three-Story Timber-Frame Building

Shake table tests were carried out on a 7 m × 5 m three-story, timber light-frame building (7.5 m height) at the TreesLab laboratory (Eucentre) in Pavia. The aim of the research was to evaluate the seismic behavior of a typical Italian prefabricated timber building and to study the interaction between the individual structural components tested in quasi-static manner in a previous experimental study. The 1979 Montenegro Earthquake ground motion, recorded at the Ulcinj-Hotel Albatros station, was selected as the ground motion for seismic tests. The maximum peak ground acceleration was scaled to 0.07 g, 0.27 g, 0.5 g. 0.7 g, and 1 g in order to evaluate the building’s performance at different levels of seismic input. More than 100 instruments were used to monitor the behavior of the building during seismic tests measuring acceleration, displacement, and forces. The visual inspection shows that the building did not show any damage during all seismic tests. However the data analysis (dynamic identification, capacity spectrum, inter-story drift) confirm that during the 1.00 g test the structure went beyond its linear elastic limit. The results obtained from this experimental study suggest that the design hypotheses commonly adopted in practice for seismic analysis (e.g., in terms of force distributions between the walls, and also the behavior factor q) are not always consistent with the real behavior of timber frame multi-story buildings, and should be backed by more accurate knowledge of the contributions of the individual structural components.     

Combined application of pansharpening and enhancement methods to improve archaeological cropmark visibility and identification in QuickBird imagery: two case studies from Apulia,Southern Italy

Launch of Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite sensors meant a significant evolution for Remote Sensing archaeological applications since data with high spatial resolution may be used to identify signals related to buried archaeological remains (e.g. cropmarks, soilmarks, dampmarks) in very extended territories. The aim of this work is to develop a suitable image processing workflow to improve the cropmark visibility in the VHR satellite images. The workflow implemented consists of two steps: first the panchromatic and multispectral images have been pansharpened in order to merge the two images, then some Enhancement methods have been applied on the pansharpened image. As a result of the several tested pansharpening techniques, the Principal Component Resolution Merge yields images of very good quality useful not only for visualization but also as input for further processing. Among the different enhancement methods taken into consideration, the Spatial Enhancement, carried out by applying the Wallis Adaptive filter further improve the visibility and recognition of the archaeological signals.     

Considering the effects of the Byzantine–Islamic transition: Umayyad glass tesserae and vessels from the <Emphasis Type="Italic">qasr</Emphasis> of Khirbet al-Mafjar (Jericho,Palestine)

The paper reports and discusses data obtained by archaeological and archaeometric studies of glass vessels and tesserae from the qasr of Khirbet al-Mafjar (near Jericho, Palestine). Archaeological contextualisation of the site and chrono-typological study of glass vessels were associated to EPMA and LA–ICP–MS analyses, performed to characterise the composition of the glassy matrix (major and minor components as well as trace elements). Analyses allowed achieving meaningful and intriguing results, which gain insights into the production and consumption of glass vessels and tesserae in the near East during the Umayyad period (seventh–eighth centuries). Within the analysed samples, both an Egyptian and a Levantine manufacture have been identified: such data provide evidence of a double supply of glass from Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian coast in the Umayyad period occurring not only in the glassware manufacture but also in the production of base glass intended to be used in the manufacture of mosaic tesserae. Thus, the achieved results represent the first material evidence of a non-exclusive gathering of glass tesserae from Byzantium and the Byzantines in the manufacture of early Islamic mosaics.     

The Democratic Islamic Republic of Iran in Exile

This paper examines the political, organizational, and ideological shifts necessitated by the chief Iranian oppositional group, the progressive Islamist Mojahedin-e Khalq (People's Mojahedin) organization, beginning with its exile from the Islamic Republic starting in June of 1981 through the present day. An analysis of these shifts is presented as a chronological series of evolving relationships including the Mojahedin's collaboration with a broad-base of oppositional groups and individuals during its Paris exile and founding of the National Council of Resistance (NCR); the Mojahedin's relocation to Baghdad and subsequent foundation of the National Liberation Army (NLA); and the Mojahedin's courtship of Western governments and international organizations to promote its cause. Following the depiction of the transformations undertaken by the Mojahedin throughout these three phases is an analysis of both the status of the organization as a result of these changes and an assessment of the price of exile.     

Florence baptistery: chemical and mineralogical investigation of glass mosaic tesserae

A recent restoration of the mosaics of the Baptistery in Florence enabled the collection and analysis of a group of glass tesserae. Twenty-three tesserae, dated between the end of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, showing different colors were sampled and analyzed to identify the raw materials, colorants and opacifiers employed in their production.