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Studies of childbearing across partnerships-having children with more than one partner-have generally focused on countries with relatively high separation rates. We complement this previous research with analyses for Italy using nationally representative, retrospective data and event-history techniques. This study offers three key findings. First, we detected a non-negligible share of childbearing across partnerships, although at substantially lower levels relative to other wealthy countries (5 per cent of parents aged 25-54 with at least two children). Second, multivariate analyses revealed an impressive similarity to the demographic correlates found elsewhere. Finally, we showed that childbearing across partnerships was initiated by the 'social vanguard' of new family behaviours but then diffused among the least well-off. Overall, this paper adds to the growing literature on childbearing across partnerships by showing the phenomenon to be demographically and sociologically relevant, even in countries with strong family ties and a limited diffusion of union dissolution.

The implementation of BIM methodologies for historical buildings presupposes not only the collection of data and information related to its geometric configuration and to the technical parameters of its constituent elements, but more generally the identification of those semantic values which make it part of the historical-cultural heritage shared in a specific context. It is therefore essential that the modelling objectives are explicitly defined in relation to the specific BIM uses required, in order to avoid risks of over-modelling. This paper proposes a process of geometric validation of building information models of high morphological complexity implemented through Scan-to-BIM procedures. By means of a controlled and interoperable workflow, a chain of software applications is defined that is able to determine the level of geometric accuracy (LOA) of the information model with respect to the numerical model derived from the point cloud. Two case studies of H-BIM modelling of historical monumental complexes dating back to the Romanesque period in Sardinia (Italy) are illustrated: the churches of Sant'Efisio a Nora (Cagliari) and Santa Maria del Regno (Sassari). In the discussion of the results, the need for a prior definition of modelling strategies in relation to the expected BIM uses is highlighted. The digital survey was carried out as a part of the research project titled, “The Romanesque and the territory. Construction materials of the Sardegna Giudicale”, and coordinated by prof. Stefano Columbu. The BIM model was developed by a students’ team as part of the teaching activities of the Architectural Drawing course at the School of Engineering, University of Florence. The imagines are extracted from the drawings of the students, Valeria Siddi, Elena Pastorelli, Liuba Gabrielli, Simone Riccio, Elisa Ricotti.

The application of protective coatings is an effective preventive strategy to avoid metal corrosion. Constant monitoring of the coating’s quality is fundamental for the successful preservation of the metallic objects by reducing their interaction with corroding agents. Their evaluation over time helps to identify failure at early stages and promote their removal and substitution. Several methods have been employed for coating evaluation (i.e., chemical analysis, thickness and homogeneity investigation). In this paper, we compare three methods—Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy (CRM), and Eddy Currents (ECs)—to evaluate thickness values and coating integrity. The results from the two optical techniques (CRM and OCT) agree, being able to detect the inhomogeneity of the layer on a micron scale but requiring correction to account for the refraction phenomenon. The Eddy Current is a fast and efficient method for thickness estimation, providing data with millimetric lateral resolution.

The addition of azorubine to a viscoelastic aqueous dispersion of sodium oleate (NaOL, 0.43 M, 13% w/w) and KCl (up to 4% w/w) leads to a green gel-like system whose rheological behavior can be efficiently and reversibly triggered from remote by using UV light. Rheology, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) measurements and phase behavior studies indicate that the original texture of the NaOL dispersion is significantly hardened upon UV irradiation for 8 hours in the presence of azorubine, showing a seven hundred-fold increase in viscosity. The UV treatment brings about the trans to cis isomerization of azorubine, which modifies the structure of the NaOL wormlike micellar system, leading to a more entangled, close-textured network. The cooperative effect of KCl on the fluid viscosity is found to be concentration-dependent. The system slowly reverts to its original rheological behaviour after standing for about 1 day. These results are relevant for the development of stimuli-responsive innovative systems based on biocompatible, non expensive and commercially available materials that can be used in a wide range of applications, such as in drug delivery or enhanced oil recovery, where a quick change in the physico-chemical features of the system is required but difficult to be performed.

Abstract Infrared spectroscopy allows to reliably distinguish between calcites formed by different processes, e.g. geogenic and anthropogenic calcite. This approach can be used for rapid sample analysis in the radiocarbon dating of mortars. The datable component is represented by anthropogenic calcite, that results from the reaction of calcium hydroxide with the atmospheric CO2 during the hardening of the material. However, different possible sources of contamination can alter the true radiocarbon concentration and can thus make the mortar appearing either older or younger. The preventive identification of the origin of calcite present in the sample allows to measure only anthropogenic calcite, reducing the time and cost of Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) measurements. Many papers are present in the literature discussing the use of Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) with the KBr pellet method, to distinguish the origin of calcite. In this paper, the use of attenuated total reflectance mode (ATR-FTIR) is evaluated since it may present valuable advantages such as non-destructivity, in the perspective of sample reuse for dating.

Using portable instruments for the preservation of artworks in heritage science is more and more common. Among the techniques, Macro X-Ray Fluorescence (MA-XRF) and digital radiography (DR) play a key-role in the field, therefore a number of MA-XRF scanners and radiographic apparatuses have been developed for this scope. Recently, the INFN-CHNet group, the network of the INFN devoted to cultural heritage, has developed a MA-XRF scanner for in-situ analyses. The instrument is fully operative, and it has already been employed in museums, conservation centres and out-door fields. In the present paper, the MA-XRF analysis conducted with the instrument on four Italian artworks undertaking conservation treatments at the conservation centre CCR “La Venaria Reale” are presented. Results on the preliminary test to combine DR with MA-XRF in a single apparatus are also shown.

Abstract. Large volcanic eruptions occurring in the last glacial period can be detected by their accompanying sulfuric acid deposition in continuous ice cores. Here we employ continuous sulfate and sulfur records from three Greenland and three Antarctic ice cores to estimate the emission strength, the frequency and the climatic forcing of large volcanic eruptions that occurred during the second half of the last glacial period and the early Holocene, 60–9 kyr before 2000 CE (b2k). Over most of the investigated interval the ice cores are synchronized, making it possible to distinguish large eruptions with a global sulfate distribution from eruptions detectable in one hemisphere only. Due to limited data resolution and large variability in the sulfate background signal, particularly in the Greenland glacial climate, we only list Greenland sulfate depositions larger than 20 kg km−2 and Antarctic sulfate depositions larger than 10 kg km−2. With those restrictions, we identify 1113 volcanic eruptions in Greenland and 737 eruptions in Antarctica within the 51 kyr period – for which the sulfate deposition of 85 eruptions is found at both poles (bipolar eruptions). Based on the ratio of Greenland and Antarctic sulfate deposition, we estimate the latitudinal band of the bipolar eruptions and assess their approximate climatic forcing based on established methods. A total of 25 of the identified bipolar eruptions are larger than any volcanic eruption occurring in the last 2500 years, and 69 eruptions are estimated to have larger sulfur emission strengths than the Tambora, Indonesia, eruption (1815 CE). Throughout the investigated period, the frequency of volcanic eruptions is rather constant and comparable to that of recent times. During the deglacial period (16–9 ka b2k), however, there is a notable increase in the frequency of volcanic events recorded in Greenland and an obvious increase in the fraction of very large eruptions. For Antarctica, the deglacial period cannot be distinguished from other periods. This confirms the suggestion that the isostatic unloading of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) ice sheets may be related to the enhanced NH volcanic activity. Our ice-core-based volcanic sulfate records provide the atmospheric sulfate burden and estimates of climate forcing for further research on climate impact and understanding the mechanism of the Earth system.

Research for this article had the purpose of exploring medieval Armenian–Ethiopian connections. The investigations revealed three main contexts where Ethiopia and Ethiopians feature in the Armenian sources of the first millennium, without necessarily implying real-life encounters. Firstly, the earliest Armenian texts locate Ethiopia and discuss the genealogy of its people in line with the biblical account of the Diamerismos, as well as notions based on Eusebius of Caesarea’s Chronicle translated into Armenian from Syriac in the fifth century. Each author, then, interpreted this information according to his narrative needs or the purpose of a given composition. The discussion of these sources reveals the circulation of classical and Hellenistic notions on Ethiopia and the Ethiopians in Armenian, too, such as the confusion between Ethiopia, Arabia, and India, as well as anthropological or spiritual features attributed to Ethiopians already by classical authors. Secondly, the article analyses a series of calendrical treatises, starting with one authored by the seventh-century polymath Anania Širakac‘i, that passed on a short tale about a sixth-century gathering of scholars in Alexandria in order to determine the date of the Easter and establish tables for its calculation in the future. An Ethiopian wise man Abdiē was part of this international endeavour too, according to this tradition, and his presence marked Ethiopia as part of the eastern Mediterranean learned world, with its own cultural traditions. Armenian language hemerologia also preserved month names in Gǝʿǝz, reproduced in the Appendix. Thirdly, the article draws attention to a completely new way of viewing Ethiopia in ninth- to eleventh-century Armenian anti-dyophysite (antiByzantine) treatises where the Armenian Church and its doctrines or ritual practices were imagined as part of a vast, non-dyophysite orthodox world that included the Ethiopian Church. Intriguingly, this argumentative technique, formulated in terms that one may callanti-colonial ante litteram, may be traced among Coptic and Syriac polemicists as well, a subject of research that would benefit from further analysis.