130,723 research outputs found
Pickel D, Montagnetti R, Soren D (2019). Pietre contro la malaria. ARCHEO, 412, ISSN: 1120-4559
No full textDuring the 2018 field season of the Necropilis of Poggio Gramignano - Lugnano in Teverina (Italy), a remarkable discovery was made. In the early afternoon under the beating July sun, while the cicadas sang out from the old oak tree looming over the villa’s ruins, the archaeologists involved in the project began to reveal the first signs of a new burial. Amphorae sherds capped a tegula (roof tile) leaning up against one of the storage magazine’s walls. But as excavation continued, it became clear to all that this burial was different. Not long after Gabriele and Danny had come across the first signs of this burial, the two had fully uncovered a partial “alla cappuccina” style burial, much larger than those so far discovered at Poggio Gramignano. Alla cappuccina burials are typical of this cemetery and Roman Italy in general, in which tegulae are stacked and pitched against one another to create a make-shift tomb, often for ordinary individuals. This was a partial alla cappuccina burial, constructed by leaning two large roof tiles against an existing wall of the room. Beneath the tegulae was found the remains of a single individual placed resting on the left side and facing the wall of the room. Designated as “Burial 51,” this individual and the burial are remarkable for two reasons. First, this child is much older than those infants and children so far discovered (52 in total). Based on the stage of dental development evident, this young child (whose sex remains undetermined at this moment) was around 10 years old at the time of its death. While the body had been subject to some taphonomic disturbance over time, it was well-protected by the tegulae, evidenced by the skeleton’s completeness and the high degree of articulation. This preservation made the second remarkable fact of this burial all the more apparent. A stone was found within his or her mouth. This stone was revealed to be a small limestone cut in a shape similar to a wall cubilium. A cubilium is a kind of cut stone crafted by the Romans, pointed on end and inserted into stone-faced cement walls. Because of the way the child’s head was positioned, the jaw would not have fallen open as the masseter muscles decomposed, suggesting that the placement of the stone was intentional and did not result from the slow collapse of the surrounding edifice. Moreover, this stone had cement on two sides, in which small tooth-shaped depressions are visible, lending further weight to the interpretation that the stone was purposefully inserted within the child’s mouth
SOREN D, DELANEY F, MONTAGNETTI R, PICKEL D, WILSON J (2024). Di cosa avevano paura? Il cimitero degli infanti di Poggio Gramignano in Umbria. Dubuque, IO, USA:Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, ISBN: 9798385138913
No full textDi cosa avevano paura: La storia del cimitero infantile tardo romano di Poggio Gramignano - Lugnano in Teverina di David Soren, Delaney Fisher, Roberto Montagnetti e Jordan Wilson racconta dell'epidemia che si ritiene fosse malaria da Plasmodium falciparum, diffusasi probabilmente lungo il fiume Tevere intorno al 450 d.C., penetrata in quest’area a causa del commercio con il Nord Africa di beni come il vino trasportato attraverso grandi anfore. L'epidemia causò aborti spontanei, neonati nati morti e decessi di bambini, per un totale di circa 62 individui. Essa generò anche un'immensa paura tra la popolazione di questa comunità. Gli infanti furono trovati con pietre conficcate nelle cavità orali e grandi pietre e altri materiali da costruzione posizionate su mani e piedi per impedire ai morti di risorgere e diventare revenant. Cuccioli di cane di circa 5-6 mesi furono anch'essi sacrificati, con uno addirittura tagliato in due, e associati alle sepolture dei bambini insieme ad altri reperti come: grandi calderoni di bronzo, una bambola d'osso senza braccia e gambe, resti di caprifoglio bruciato, un artiglio di corvo, parte di un portalucerne e altri oggetti. Gli scavi, eseguiti essenzialmente sotto la direzione dei principali autori, iniziati nel 1987 con il Dr. Soren e tuttora in corso, hanno portato alla luce la più grande villa romana finora scoperta in Umbria, a nord di Roma e a sud di Siena. Sebbene la società tardo romana di quel periodo fosse presumibilmente già convertita al cristianesimo, gli scavi non hanno trovato alcuna testimonianza della professione di tale fede sul sito e si crede che, per far fronte alle misteriose morti che stavano flagellando la comunità, si fece ricorso a pratiche e culti precedenti, soprattutto l’utilizzo di talismani per scongiurare il male
John W. Pickel
No full textPortrait, Pickel seated in armchair. On verso: [photo. Stamp]. [label]:".photo taken February 1935. ba 1882. d. 9-13-46. Dr. John W. Pickel. U of Arkansas
Come nasce una base GIS per l'archeologia opensource, sviluppata da archeologi per gli archeologi: lo scavo di Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina (TR)
No full textThis contribution traces the history of pyArchInit, the first QGIS plugin created directly by archaeologists for the management of archaeological sites. The article describes the structure of the plugin, its features and the main innovations brought to the field of archaeological data management compared to the commonly used applications (CAD and Office package). Furthermore, practical examples of its use and potential will be provided through the description of the methodological procedure, based on pyArchInit, put into the field during the excavation of the archaeological site of Poggio Gramignano - Umbria - Italy. Such excavation is directed by Prof. David Soren of the University of Arizona and has revealed the remains of an important Roman villa reused in the Late Roman period as a cemetery for children
The Modernisation of Gender Relations and Religion: Comparative Analysis of Secularization Processes
No full textSammet K, Bergelt D. The Modernisation of Gender Relations and Religion: Comparative Analysis of Secularization Processes. In: Pickel G, Sammet K, eds. Transformations of Religiosity. Religion and Religiosity in Eastern Europe1989 – 2010. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag; 2012: 51-68
Improving Optical Trap Measurements with Adaptive Nonlinear Control Methods
No full textAn optical trap uses radiation pressure of light to manipulate microscopic objects. The interaction between the light and the microscopic objects result in the objects experiencing optical forces. These forces are on the same order of magnitude as biological forces (typically \SIrange[range-units=single]{0.1}{100}{\pico\newton}) and this feature makes optical traps appropriate for single-molecule studies. Currently, there is a growing need to create an automated optical trap that uses the entire operating range of the optical trap to study the biological forces. Spatial nonlinearities in the optical force and parameter uncertainty complicate feedback control for optical traps. A consequence is that users are spending an enormous amount of time calibrating the instrument and designing a controller, and this diverts their time away from studying the biophysics. This research explores the use of nonlinear and adaptive feedback methods to create an automated optical trap. \ud
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A model is defined to describe the coupling between the dynamics of the optical trap and molecule, and the nominal force within the molecule is treated as a disturbance. The disturbance information is obtained by creating a disturbance model and combining its dynamics with the system dynamics. The system nonlinearities are addressed by using a nonlinear Kalman filter to estimate the system state, then the system state is used in a input-output feedback linearization and linear quadratic structure to satisfy performacne requirements. Statistical analyses are performed to assess the effectiveness the feedback methods have on the open-loop and closed-loop systems. Its performance is compared with that of linear integral control used in practice to quantify the performance improvement when considering the system nonlinearities in the control design. The system nonlinearities and parameter uncertainty are addressed by using adaptive and nonlinear feedback methods. An adaptive state observer provides a simultaneous estimate of the system state and parameters, then these estimated entities are used in an adaptive input-output feedback linearization and LQ structure. The result is the creation of an automated self-tuning optical trap that minimizes the user interaction with the instrument calibration and control design, uses the entire operating range of the optical trap, and obtains an unbiased estimate of the molecule force. The closed-loop performance of these feedback methods are demonstrated by replicating the force-extension curve of a DNA molecule
Evangelische Pfarrerinnen in Deutschland: Berufsbilder und Geschlechterdiskurse
No full textSammet K. Evangelische Pfarrerinnen in Deutschland: Berufsbilder und Geschlechterdiskurse. In: Heinz M, Pickel G, Pollack D, Libiszowska-Żółtkowska M, Firlit E, eds. Zwischen Säkularisierung und religiöser Vitalisierung. Religiosität in Deutschland und Polen im Vergleich. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag; 2014: 247-255
MeSH term explosion and author rank improve expert recommendations
No full textInformation overload is an often-cited phenomenon that reduces the productivity, efficiency and efficacy of scientists. One challenge for scientists is to find appropriate collaborators in their research. The literature describes various solutions to the problem of expertise location, but most current approaches do not appear to be very suitable for expert recommendations in biomedical research. In this study, we present the development and initial evaluation of a vector space model-based algorithm to calculate researcher similarity using four inputs: 1) MeSH terms of publications; 2) MeSH terms and author rank; 3) exploded MeSH terms; and 4) exploded MeSH terms and author rank. We developed and evaluated the algorithm using a data set of 17,525 authors and their 22,542 papers. On average, our algorithms correctly predicted 2.5 of the top 5/10 coauthors of individual scientists. Exploded MeSH and author rank outperformed all other algorithms in accuracy, followed closely by MeSH and author rank. Our results show that the accuracy of MeSH term-based matching can be enhanced with other metadata such as author rank
Adaptive Control for the Position of Magnetic Particles using Magnetic Traps
No full textMagnetic traps are an important instrument for analyzing the behavior of systems and biological processes. They manipulate magnetic particles by applying a force under the influence of magnetic fields. Controlling the position of the magnetic particle for single molecule studies is difficult due to the complexity of the instrument because its dynamics can change per experiment. This results in users spending an immense amount of time designing compensators to meet experimental requirements, yielding insufficient time spent concentrating on the experiment.One method to alleviate users of designing compensators is to incorporate adaptive control methods into the design of magnetic traps. Adaptive control is able to adjust the parameters of the compensator to ensure the performance of the instrument meets specific requirements. The magnetic particle constantly moves from the Brownian disturbances acting upon it. These disturbances can be minimized by using an adaptive Q-parametrized compensator structure with LMS to minimize a frequency weighted version of the displacement of the magnetic particle for low frequencies.An adaptive Q-parametrized compensator structure was incorporated into the design of the magnetic trap, resulting in the position of the magnetic particle being stabilized, the effects of the Brownian disturbances being reduced, and the dynamics of the instrument changing into account. The displacement of the magnetic particle due to the Brownian disturbances was suppressed more as the number of FIR weights increased than using the nominal adaptive compensator
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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