136 research outputs found
Coping with Iberian monopolies: Genoese trade networks and formal institutions in Spain and Portugal during the second half of the eighteenth century
No full textThis article explores Genoese trade interests in Cadiz and Lisbon, the two capitals of Iberian colonial trade at the end of the early-modern period. The author aims to explain the persisting intermediary role of a merchant community that has been largely overlooked by historians. The structure of the trade networks established in the two cities will be reconstructed by using the primary sources conserved in the archive of the Durazzos, a powerful aristocratic family of the Republic which has left a unique collection of private correspondence. This sizeable and largely unexplored documentation illuminates the different strategies used to access the Spanish and Portuguese monopolistic systems, the main actors who traded in both contexts, their relations with the local elite, and the nature of the business networks linking Genoese investors in the mother city with the expatriated agents. The author concludes with a comparative analysis of the institutional resources that Genoese used to maintain their interests, with particular attention paid to the religious institutions established by the 'nation' in the two port cities
Fluid inclusions constraints on P-T conditions during accretionary complex formation: the case of the Robertson Bay Terrane (north Victoria Land, Antartica).
No full textThis paper describes the fluids circulating in the extensive thrust-related quartz-bearing vein systems developed within the low-grade turbidite-dominated Early Paleozoic Robertson Bay Terrane of north Victoria Land, Antarctica. It provides a well-preserved example of fossil accretionary complex, developed during the Paleozoic subdution-related accretionary process at the paleo-Pacifica margin of Gondwana. Fluid inclusions are analysed in quartz crystals hosted within distinct generations of veins, which are interpreted to record the incremental deformation history during shortening and accretionary complex formation. Our data provides clues to the tectono-thermal history associated with orogenic complex formation, also providing inferences on the fluid storage and recycling through time
Patterns of fluid flow in the contact aureole of the Late Miocene Monte Capanne pluton (Elba Island, Italy): the role of structures and rheology
No full textFluid-rock interaction was investigated in the inner aureole of the Late Miocene Monte Capanne pluton on Elba Island (Tuscany, central Italy) by integrating structural, petrological, fluid inclusion, and stable isotope analyses. In the north-western sector of the aureole (Procchio-Spartaia area), calc-silicates alternate with nearly pure carbonate layers at the metre scale. Close to the pluton, the prograde metamorphic sequence includes calc-silicates that transition within a few metres to overlying nearly pure calcite marbles. The calc-silicates are extensively metasomatised to form massive wollastonite-grossular-bearing exoskarn. The mineralogical assemblage found in the marbles and the unshifted carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios in calcite attest that the fluid phase was internally buffered. On the other hand, the calc-silicates constituted channels for infiltration of disequilibrium fluids of magmatic origin. Fluid infiltration was enhanced by hydrofracturing and structurally-controlled by existing planar anisotropies in calc-silicates (layering and lithological boundaries). At the metamorphic peak (600 degrees C and 1.5-2 kbar), the marble-calc-silicate interface acted as a barrier to fluids exsolved from the crystallising intrusions, separating two different flow patterns in the inner aureole: a high fluid-flux region on its higher grade side (Wol-zone) and a low fluid-flux region on the lower-grade side (Cpx zone). Results of this study: (1) documented that fluid pathways in the aureole rocks at the top of the pluton were largely horizontal, controlled by the lithological layering and the pluton-host rock contact; and (2) elucidated the primary control exerted by the structural and rheological properties of the host rocks on the geometry of fluid flow during pluton emplacement
Deformation and fluid flow during orogeny at the palaeo-pacific active margin of Gondwana: the Early Palaeozoic Robertson Bay accretionary complex (north Victoria Land, Antarctica
No full textStructural investigations, integrated with X-ray diffraction, fluid inclusion microthermometry and
oxygen-stable isotope analyses are used to reconstruct the deformation history and the palaeo-fluid
circulation during formation of the low-grade, turbidite-dominated Early Palaeozoic Robertson Bay
accretionary complex of north Victoria Land (Antarctica). Evidence for progressive deformation is
elucidated by analysing the textural fabric of chronologically distinct, thrust-related quartz vein
generations, incrementally developed during progressive shortening and thickening of the Robertson
Bay accretionary complex. Our data attest that orogenic deformation was mainly controlled by
dissolution–precipitation creep, modulated by stress- and strain-rate-dependent fluid pressure cycling,
associated with local and regional permeability variations induced by the distribution and evolution of
the fracture network during regional thrusting. Fracture-related fluid pathways constituted efficient
conduits for episodic fluid flow. The dominant migrating fluid was pre-to-syn-folding and associated
with the migration of warm (160–200 C) nitrogen- and carbonic (CO2 and CH4)-bearing fluids. Both
fluid advection and diffusive mass transfer are recognized as operative mechanisms for fluid–rock
interaction and vein formation during continuous shortening. In particular, fluid–rock interaction was
the consequence of dissolution–precipitation creep assisted by tectonically driven cooling fluids moving
through the rock section as a result of seismic pumping. The most likely source of the migrating fluids
would be the frontal part of the growing accretionary complex, where fluids from the deep levels in the
hinterland are driven trough channelization operated by the thrust-related fracture (fault) systems
Exploiting Plant Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in Agriculture to Improve Sustainable Defense Strategies and Productivity of Crops
No full textThere is an urgent need for new sustainable solutions to support agriculture in facing current environmental challenges. In particular, intensification of productivity and food security needs require sustainable exploitation of natural resources and metabolites. Here, we bring the attention to the agronomic potential of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from leaves, as a natural and eco-friendly solution to defend plants from stresses and to enhance crop production. To date, application of VOCs is often limited to fight herbivores. Here we argue that potential applications of VOCs are much wider, as they can also protect from pathogens and environmental stresses. VOCs prime plant’s defense mechanisms for an enhanced resistance/tolerance to the upcoming stress, quench reactive oxygen species (ROS), have potent antimicrobial as well as allelopathic effects, and might be important in regulating plant growth, development, and senescence through interactions with plant hormones. Current limits and drawbacks that may hamper the use of VOCs in open field are analyzed, and solutions for a better exploitation of VOCs in future sustainable agriculture are envisioned
Dante’s New Lives: Biography and Autobiography
No full textInternational audienceNumerous books have attempted to chronicle the life of Dante Alighieri, yet essential questions remain unanswered. How did a self-taught Florentine become the celebrated author of the Divine Comedy? Was his exile from Florence so extraordinary? How did Dante make himself the main protagonist in his works, in a literary context that advised against it? And why has his life interested so many readers? In Dante’s New Lives, eminent scholars Elisa Brilli and Giuliano Milani answer these questions and many more. Their account reappraises Dante’s life and work by assessing archival and literary evidence and examining the most recent scholarship. The book is a model of interdisciplinary biography, as fascinating as it is rigorous
Dante’s New Lives: Biography and Autobiography
No full textInternational audienceNumerous books have attempted to chronicle the life of Dante Alighieri, yet essential questions remain unanswered. How did a self-taught Florentine become the celebrated author of the Divine Comedy? Was his exile from Florence so extraordinary? How did Dante make himself the main protagonist in his works, in a literary context that advised against it? And why has his life interested so many readers? In Dante’s New Lives, eminent scholars Elisa Brilli and Giuliano Milani answer these questions and many more. Their account reappraises Dante’s life and work by assessing archival and literary evidence and examining the most recent scholarship. The book is a model of interdisciplinary biography, as fascinating as it is rigorous
Dante attraverso i documenti. II. Presupposti e contesti dell’impegno politico a Firenze (1295-1302)
No full textLa sezione monografica comprende dodici articoli volti a investigare il significato del breve impegno di Dante Alighieri nelle istituzioni politiche fiorentine avvenuto tra 1295 e 1302. Un primo blocco di testi (i contributi di E. Faini, A. Montefusco, P. Borsa, M. Grimaldi) dà conto dei presupposti di tale impegno, analizzando le valenze politiche della formazione culturale e poetica dei fiorentini alla fine del Duecento. Un secondo gruppo di contributi (di L. Tanzini, E. Brilli e A. Zorzi) indaga il contesto istituzionale e politico di quegli anni alla luce delle fonti normative e cronachistiche. Infine un terzo insieme di saggi (di D. Cappi, D. Carron, P. Gualtieri e D. Bortoluzzi) Dante e Firenze vengono comparati con comuni cittadini e personaggi ad essi legati. Conclude la sezione un saggio di G. Milani in cui, anche alla luce delle indagini raccolte, la documentazione relativa all’impegno politico del poeta è sottoposta a un complessivo riesame
Dante attraverso i documenti: una discussione tra storici e italianisti
No full textL’articolo è la versione scritta e rivista della discussione che si è tenuta in occasione del workshop “Intorno al Codice diplomatico dantesco I. I documenti relativi a Dante e al loro uso. I documenti sulla famiglia e il patrimonio”. I relatori erano stati convocati a reagire alle proposte metodologiche e alle relazioni degli intervenuti
Carbonatization and overprinting mineralisation in Siah-Kamar porphyry Mo deposit, NW Iran
No full textThe Siah-Kamar porphyry Mo deposit (SKD) is located at the north-western termination of the Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic arc and it is the only known porphyry Mo ore reserve in Iran. The SKD formed in two main mineralisation stages, at ~33–32 Ma (late-stage, disseminated) and ~ 29–28 Ma (late-stage, high-grade), within a context of a long-lived magmatism. We integrate results from the whole-rock geochemistry, the Osingle bondC stable and Sr isotope systematics across the mineralised alteration zones with the available drilling data (ore element concentration) to define the ore-forming processes leading to Mo enrichment in the SKD. Our investigation shows that CO2 bearing magmatic fluids had the major role in both early and late-stage mineralisation. The Mo shows show positive correlation with SiO2 content but a clear negative correlation with W, Cu, and S, due to a delayed precipitation of Mo during the early-stage mineralisation. The released fluids from the new acidic magmas and subsequent fluid-rock interaction in an open-system, primarily assisted by brittle fracturing, cooling and mixing with various amounts of meteoric water and fluid neutralisation, was responsible for the selective ore depletion and Mo-ore enhancement during carbonatization along structurally-controlled pathways
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