Search results for "context"
showing 10 items of 6304 documents
THE BLACK GOLD THAT CAME FROM THE SEA. A REVIEW OF OBSIDIAN STUDIES AT THE ISLAND OF USTICA
2018
Volcanism has produced a natural glass called obsidian that during prehistoric times, from Neolithic to the Metal Ages, was considered a valuable raw material in order to produce efficient cutting tools. Ustica, a small and solitary island in the southwestern Tyrrhenian Sea, despite being volcanic, did not generate any obsidian. Yet the island's soils return large quantities of obsidian fragments, residues of prehistoric use. Where did this material, defined by some archaeologists as the Black Gold of prehistory, come from? This article reviews the archaeometric studies on Ustica’s obsidians, carried out since the middle o f the 1990s, to answer this question. The obsidians of Ustica have b…
Critical features about urban pedestrian crossings: a case study
2011
This paper describes how the theme of safety for vulnerable road users (disabled, elderly, and children) in urban areas plays an important role for many implications in these users’ quality of life. The deficiency of safety on city streets is primarily due to the simultaneous presence of different components of traffic in an increasingly complex and inappropriate surrounding for their cohabitation. In urban areas the road intersections, which are crossed by different categories of traffic (motorized vehicles, pedestrians, non-motorized vehicles), represent a critical node, both in terms of quality of circulation and that of road safety. In recent years , 76% of accidents have occurred in th…
Tectonics and seismicity of the Tindari Fault System, southern Italy: Crustal deformations at the transition between ongoing contractional and extens…
2006
[1] The Tindari Fault System (southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) is a regional zone of brittle deformation located at the transition between ongoing contractional and extensional crustal compartments and lying above the western edge of a narrow subducting slab. Onshore structural data, an offshore seismic reflection profile, and earthquake data are analyzed to constrain the present geometry of the Tindari Fault System and its tectonic evolution since Neogene, including the present seismicity. Results show that this zone of deformation consists of a broad NNW trending system of faults including sets of right-lateral, left-lateral, and extensional faults as well as early strike-slip faults rewor…
The societal contexts for sound and music computing: Research, education, industry, and socio-culture
2007
Abstract The paper addresses the various contexts that determine the societal framework for research in the field of sound and music computing. Four of these contexts are identified, namely, the research context, the educational context, the industrial context and the socio-cultural context. For each context, the major trends are analysed and summarized as short statements, thus providing a background in which the state-of-the-art and the challenges of sound and music research can be situated.
A Choquet Integral Based Assessment Model of Projects of Urban Neglected Areas: A Case of Study
2014
This paper describes a multi-criteria evaluation model to support decisions related to the redevelopment of urban residual areas, a central theme in planning practices. Renewal projects on urban or neighborhood scale are complex problems because of the social, economic and environmental implications generated on the different categories of stakeholders. In the awareness of the specific characteristics of each city, the cognitive and evaluation model is especially defined for a given urban context, although it is easily adaptable to different urban ones. In order to take into account the interactions among the criteria by which we compare design alternatives, the Choquet integral is implemen…
Metamorphic and structural evolution of the Maures-Tanneron massif (SE Variscan chain): evidence of doming along a transpressional margin
2009
AbstractThe Variscan metamorphic and structural evolution of the Maures-Tanneron massif is divided in two main post-collisional phases: (1) a MP-MT regional gradient is developed during nappe-piling process between 350 and 320 Ma, followed by (2) LP-HT regional gradient coeval with doming between 320 and 300 Ma. During this late phase, the tectonic context was dominated by E-W shortening, which produced crustal-scale upright folds and major strike-slip displacement along trans-crustal faults. Symmetric extensional fabrics are observed on the limbs of crustal-scale anticlines, and are ascribed to local accommodation of lower crust exhumation. Heat and magma transfer are allowed by these larg…
Early warning thresholds for partially saturated slopes in volcanic ashes
2013
Rainfall-induced landslides in steep soil slopes of volcanic origin are a major threat to human lives and infrastructure. In the context of constructing early warning systems in regions where extensive data on landslide occurrences and associated rainfall are inexistent, physically-based tools offer the possibility to establish thresholds for measurable field quantities. In this paper, a combined finite element infinite slope model is presented to study the transient hydraulic response of volcanic ash slopes to a series of rainfall events and to estimate seasonal safety factors. Furthermore, analytical considerations of partially saturated infinite slopes are made to define capillary stress…
Soil geography and diversity of the European biogeographical regions
2013
For decades, soil geography has beenmainly a qualitative and descriptive discipline. There are nowtechnologies and mathematical tools available that allow formalizing soil geography in more quantitative terms. In this paper, the distribution and diversity of the soils of Europe are analyzed using GIS tools and pedodiversity algorithms. Soil data were taken from the European Soil Database (V2.0) and computed within the spatial framework of the Biogeographical Regions of Europe (BGRE) as defined by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) on the basis of climate and vegetation. The results obtained show the soil assemblages, including dominant soils and endemic and non-endemic soil minorities,…
Rhine flood deposits recorded in the Gallo-Roman site of Oedenburg (Haut-Rhin, France).
2006
13 pages; International audience; From the first to the fourth century AD, the Gallo-Roman town of Oedenburg developed in the alluvial landscape of the southern Upper Rhine Graben. Throughout this period, the landscape mosaic, composed of palaeochannels, stable palaeoislands and river terraces, continued to evolve. A district of this town, situated on a lateral Rhine channel system, was archaeologically excavated. Largescale excavation and cross-section analysis provide evidence of changing fluvial conditions during the period under study. At about AD 20 or earlier, this lateral part of the floodplain, affected by very fine sedimentation, was occupied by moribund marshy palaeochannels. When…
Presence of cave bears in western Austria before the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum: new radiocarbon dates and palaeoclimatic considerations
2014
Tischoferhohle and Pendling-Barenhohle near Kufstein, Tyrol, are among the only locations where remains of cave bear, Ursus spelaeus-group, were found in the western part of Austria. One sample from each site was radiocarbon-dated four decades ago to ca. 28 14C ka BP. Here we report that attempts to date additional samples from Pendling-Barenhohle have failed due to the lack of collagen, casting doubts on the validity of the original measurement. We also unsuccessfully tried to date flowstone clasts embedded in the bone-bearing sediment to provide maximum constraints on the age of this sediment. Ten cave bear bones from Tischoferhohle showing good collagen preservation were radiocarbon-date…