351 research outputs found
Invaluable trees: cultures of nature, 1660-1830
No full textTrees and tree products have long been central to human life and culture, taking on intensified significance during the long eighteenth century. As basic raw material they were vital economic resources, objects of international diplomatic and commercial exchange, and key features in local economies. In an age of ongoing deforestation, both individuals and public entities grappled with the complex issues of how and why trees mattered. In this interdisciplinary volume, contributors build on recent research in environmental history, literary and material culture, and postcolonial studies to develop new readings of the ways trees were valued in the eighteenth century. They trace changes in early modern theories of resource management and ecology across European and North American landscapes, and show how different and sometimes contradictory practices were caught up in shifting conceptions of nature, social identity, physical health and moral wellbeing. In its innovative and thought-provoking exploration of man’s relationship with trees, Invaluable trees: cultures of nature, 1660 –1830 argues for new ways of understanding the long eighteenth century and its values, and helps re-frame the environmental challenges of our own time. Laura Auricchio, Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook and Giulia Pacini, Introduction: invaluable trees I. Arboreal lives Hamish Graham, ‘Alone in the forest’? Trees, charcoal and charcoal burners in eighteenth-century France J. L. Caradonna, Conservationism avant la lettre,? Public essay competitions on forestry and deforestation in eighteenth-century France Paula Young Lee, Land, logs and liberty: the Revolutionary expansion of the Muséum d’histoire naturelle during the Terror Peter Mcphee, ‘Cette anarchie dévastatrice’: the légende noire of the French Revolution Paul Elliott, Erasmus Darwin’s trees Giulia Pacini, At home with their trees: arboreal beings in the eighteenth-century French imaginary II. Strategic trees Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook, The vocal stump: the politics of tree-felling in Swift’s ‘On cutting down the old thorn at Market Hill’ Michael Guenther, Tapping nature’s bounty: science and sugar maples in the age of improvement Meredith Martin, Bourbon renewal at Rambouillet Susan Taylor-Leduc, Assessing the value of fruit trees in the marquis de Fontanes’s poem Le Verger Elizabeth Hyde, Arboreal negotiations, or William Livingston’s American perspective on the cultural politics of trees in the Atlantic world Lisa Ford, The ‘naturalisation’ of François André Michaux’s North American sylva: patriotism in early American natural history III. Arboreal enlightenments Tom Williamson, The management of trees and woods in eighteenth-century England Steven King, The healing tree Nicolle Jordan, ‘I writ these lines on the body of the tree’: Jane Barker’s arboreal poetics Waltraud Maierhofer, Goethe and forestry Paula R. Backscheider, Disputed value: women and the trees they loved Aaron S. Allen, ‘Fatto di Fiemme’: Stradivari’s violins and the musical trees of the Paneveggio Summaries Bibliography Inde
Plants and Cultural Heritage: botanical investigations in the Roman archaeological sites
No full textComparative analysis of 12 methods using wearable inertial sensors for gait parameters estimation during walking
No full textGait events estimation using wearable inertial sensors: comparison among 17 algorithms identified from a systematic literature review
No full textThe Colosseum's use and state of abandonment as analysed through its flora
No full textOver the past four centuries, different lists of the flora of the Colosseum have been published. The rich plant colonization (684 species, as the sum of the various lists) appears to be due to the great variety of habitats in the monument and to its state of abandonment. The comparison among the different floras allows a quantitative estimate of the following general changes to be determined: a gradual yet notable decrease of typical elements of mature dynamic stages; a constant decrease in species related to grazing and animal droppings, as well as in weeds from cultivated fields; and a constant increase of widely distributed and alien species, indicators of a different but ever stronger impact of man on the area
Analyses of the Colosseum's floristic changes during the last four centuries.
No full textDifferent floristic lists of the Colosseum have been carried out
starting from the XVII century (PANAROLI, 1643; SEBASTIANI, 1815; DEAKIN,
1855; FIORINI MAZZANTI, 1874; ANZALONE, 1951; and recently CELESTI
GRaPOW et al., 2001). The comparison among these investigations reveals the
rich plant colonisation, due to the great variety of habitats present in the
monument and to its state of abandon. The maximum peak of 418 species can
be referred in Deakin s list, and the minimum are the current 242 species,
mainly distributed in the hypogeans. The total amount of colonising species in
time was 684 vascular plants. The species listed for the monument in all the
studies are 135, and all the common ones are 192. These are mainly herbaceous
plants of ruderal habitats, widely distributed in more or less nitrophylous
pastures or pioneer on rocks and walls. 426 species were enumerated before the
XX century and later disappeared from the places. 117 species no longer belong
to the Roman flora, and 24 species are no longer listed in the regional flora.
These were mainly herbaceous and woody species typical of dynamically
developed stages, belonging to forest and border line communities. Typical
species of very disturbed habitats are also frequent. 66 species were cohected
only in more recent times. These belong to the synanthropic flora, though tess
nitrophylous compared with the previous, or are cultivated plants capable of
becoming spontaneous under favourable conditions. The comparison among
the different floras indicates not only the change in use of the monument, but
also that climatic and microclimatic changes occurred in the last centuries. The
relative biological and chorological spectra confirm the progressive warming
and average reduction of humidity of the site
Data for: Estimation of gait timing using wearable inertial sensors: comparison of 17 algorithms from a systematic literature review
No full text'Walking' and 'Walking_Plate' data are referred to walking tasks of 35 healthy subjects acquired using inertial measurement units and platform force, respectively, in controlled laboratory condition
The Colosseum floras as bio-indicators of the climatic changes in Rome
No full textOver the last four centuries several botanists have analysed the Colosseum flora, and by using modern ecological and biogeographical approaches to these same floras, we have observed similar trends with respect to the climatic phenomena as those of the historic Torre Calandrelli Observatory and by other older historical records. The elements of which can be summarised as follows: 1) a substantial reduction of all the biogeographical components taken as indicators of cooler and damper habitats, such as the Euro-Asiatic and Boreal areas starting from the 17th Century in particular; 2) a decrease in numbers of all the species more dependent on water (independent of their chorology); 3) similar clear-cut increases in the species belonging to phytosociological classes typical to Mediterranean climatic conditions, to the detriment of those typical to Middle-European temperate bioclimates. All of which can be interpreted as clear indicators of non-negligible climatic changes towards hotter and drier conditions independent of local variations due to urbanisation
Nonlinear Analysis of Human Movement Dynamics Offers New Insights in the Development of Motor Control during Childhood
No full textWhen aiming at assessing motor control development, natural walking (NW), and tandem walking (TW) are two locomotor tasks that allow analyzing different characteristics of motor control performance. NW is the reference locomotor task, expected to become more and more automatic with age. TW is a nonparadigmatic task used in clinics to highlight eventual impairments and to evaluate how a child deals with a new challenging motor experience. This work aims at investigating motor development in school-aged children, by assessing quantitatively their performance during TW and NW. Eighty children (6-10 years) participated in the study. Trunk acceleration data and nonlinear measures (recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), and multiscale entropy (MSE)) were used to characterize trunk postural control and motor complexity. The results were analyzed with respect to age and standard clinical assessment of TW (number of correct consecutive steps), by means of Spearman correlation coefficients. RQA and MSE allowed highlighting age-related changes in both postural control of the trunk and motor complexity, while classic standard assessment of TW resulted uniformly distributed in the different age groups. The present results suggest this quantitative approach as relevant when assessing the motor development in schoolchildren and complementary to standard clinical tests
GTF2I mutations are common in thymic epithelial tumors but not in hematological malignancies
No full textBackground: Mutation of general transcription factor IIi (GTF2I) (chromosome 7 c.74146970T>A) is common in thymic epithelial tumors and is a candidate driver aberration for cancer growth. To our knowledge, this mutation has not been described in other diseases. We evaluated the presence of GTF2I mutation in hematological malignancies. Materials and Methods: We sequenced samples from 31 patients with acute leukemia, 29 with chronic leukemia and 12 with myelodysplastic syndrome. The genomic fragment of exon 15 containing the hotspot of mutation was amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced. Results: We did not identify any GTF2I mutation in patients with hematological malignancies. Conclusion: Even though our sample size was limited, our data and reports from the literature suggest that GTF2I mutation is not present or is uncommon in these diseases
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