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The fireplace is the centre of the traditional house, a sacred space that relates numerous beliefs, practices and customs to it. From Prehistory, it has been perceived as a symbol, and even a pillar of steadfastness, a domestic shrine, a convergent point of the internal space, specific to the dwelling. The fireplace has always constituted the centre of the family life, being the place where the food is prepared, a sacred place in which there is still preserved the connection with the ancestors, with divinity, the protective gods of the house. Along the time, the form and the dimension of the fireplace has varied, tightly connected to the traditions and the customs of the communities. Thus, there have been found fixed round and rectangular fireplaces, positioned in the floor of the houses or on a higher base (20 - 30 cm). There have also been identified portable fireplaces, with similar functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an archeomagnetic study from the Early Iron Age archeological site of Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca, Spain). The studied materials were sampled from one roundhouse and its central fireplace, a surrounding burnt floor, and slags with a twofold objective. First, to archeomagnetically determine the last use of the central fireplace, because dating with other methods was imprecise. Second, to retrieve information about the Earth's magnetic field in Western Europe from a period when the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly (LIAA) has been occasionally reported. This study includes mineralogical, archeomagnetic directional analyses, and multimethod archeointensity determinations. Paleomagnetic analyses of the central fireplace yield a mean direction: declination D = 15.1°, inclination I = 52.5°; k = 477.1, and α95 = 5.6°. Archeointensity determinations yield a mean anisotropy‐corrected archeointensity of 72.4 ± 2.0 μT (74.7 ± 4.3 μT if a pTRM‐check correction is applied) on the central fireplace and 48.2 ± 2.0 μT on slags. A full‐vector archeomagnetic dating was performed with the SHA.DIF.4k geomagnetic field model which yielded an age interval of last use of the central fireplace between 644 and 575 BCE (654–575 BCE with the pTRM‐check corrected data) at 95% confidence level. This date agrees with the archeological context. Results allows to place the high paleointensity obtained near the maximum observed in Iberia at this age, confirming the existence of this peak related to the LIAA in Western Europe where records of this feature are still scarce. Plain Language Summary: The direction and the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field (EMF) change with time at a regional scale. Archeomagnetism uses this variation to date burnt archeological materials that have registered the EMF during their last use. We present the archeomagnetic study of a house in Cerro de San Vicente, an Early Iron Age archeological site in Salamanca (Spain). Archeomagnetic dating is especially interesting because other dating techniques like 14C do not yield a precision better than 400 yr in this period. Archeomagnetic data for this period and region are scarce, and our data support the existence of an intensity peak in the EMF for this period and region. The study is focused on the central fireplace of the house, a burnt surrounding floor area, and slags which were found on the floor. The dating obtained for the central fireplace yields an age of 644–575 BCE, determining the last use and the probable abandonment of the house. The dating obtained for slags yields 912–804 BCE, indicating that they are older than the central fireplace. Additionally, we have obtained geoarcheological information related with domestic activities, such as the covering of floors with textile matting items and habitual chores like sweeping. Key Points: New high quality full‐vector archeomagnetic dating of an Iron Age site in Spain proves to be a more suitable method than 14C for this ageIntensity‐high linked with the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly in Southwestern Europe is corroboratedA multimethod comparison of Thellier‐type and multispecimen paleointensity techniques is performed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical models of epidemic spreading based on making contact within a susceptible population assume a constant infection rate and uniform mixing. As such, they cannot account for surges and waves which have been observed in practice. This paper describes the spreading as a byproduct of interacting with a threat surface S(x, y) containing susceptible populations at location (x, y) in a 2D grid. The discretized grid acts as a transmission vector for COVID-19 and may explain why COVID-19 spreading exhibits surges rather than obey a smooth logistics curve. Furthermore, the strong correlation between infection cases and population indicates that population and distribution of population over a 2D area may explain most of why infection cases surge and waves form. It is impossible to obtain an accurate prediction of the extent of spreading without taking public sentiment, spatial separation, and size of populations into account. The best predictor of the ultimate spread of COVID-19 considers population as well as infection rate. We find that a terrain-based model is capable of modeling surges and waves of epidemics in most countries and regions where public sentiment is mild. In other cases where public sentiment is opposed to social distancing, wearing masks, and generally against public health policy, a two or three phase approach is necessary, whereby each phase is fit with different parameters, suggesting that public sentiment has a bigger influence on contagion spreading than population. We validate our results through simulation of outbreaks in a diverse set of countries and regions, e.g., a county in the US, Bahrain, Israel, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, and Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel gauge fluid solver based on Clebsch wave functions to solve incompressible fluid equations. Our method combines the expressive power of Clebsch wave functions to represent coherent vortical structures and the generality of gauge methods to accommodate a broad array of fluid phenomena. By evolving a transformed wave function as the system's gauge variable enhanced by an additional projection step to enforce pressure jumps on the free boundaries, our method can significantly improve the vorticity generation and preservation ability for a broad range of gaseous and liquid phenomena. Our approach can be easily implemented by modifying a standard grid-based fluid simulator. It can be used to solve various fluid dynamics, including complex vortex filament dynamics, fluids with different obstacles, and surface-tension flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) can cause serious impact damage to long-term on-orbit spacecraft. MMOD impact detection and location are essential to improve the safety and reliability of the on-orbit spacecraft. In this article, a combined artificial neural network (ANN) and Mahalanobis distance method for MMOD impact detection and location based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor network is proposed. The inputs of the proposed ANN are the Mahalanobis distances determined by the wavelength changes of the FBG sensors at impact points and reference points. A finite element model is developed to explore the relationship between the Mahalanobis distance and the actual distance, which proved to be nonlinear based on the finite element simulation results of MMOD impacts. Four FBG sensors were installed on the back of the test board and sampled at a frequency of 100 Hz using a four-channel FBG demodulator. A total of 360 impact experiments were carried out on this experiment system. The average location error of the proposed method is 0.89 cm, which is 39% and 31% lower compared with the Mahalanobis distance discriminant analysis method and the ANN method, respectively. The combined ANN and Mahalanobis distance method reduces the location errors and has higher accuracy of position prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studies of Lithuania's History is the property of Lietuvos Istorijos Studijos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Roman Aqaba Project seeks to reconstruct diachronically the economic history of the ancient port of Aila on the Red Sea (now modern Aqaba in southern Jordan). Excavations of Aila between 1994 and 2003 yielded an enormous quantity of stratified ceramic evidence. This paper focuses on coarse ware cooking vessels recovered from Aila dating to the 1st to early 5th centuries. Although the potters of Aila were influenced by the ceramic traditions of the Nabataean capital at Petra, they also developed an independent ceramic tradition. Further, the Roman annexation of Nabataea in 106 CE, including Aila, seems to have had little impact on the local ceramic industry, which continued with little change until the mid-3rd century, which seems to mark an important transition characterized by the disappearance of many long established types and the appearance of new types, including cooking vessels. Although most of these were produced locally, a significant minority was imported to Aila, mostly from the Petra region about 100 km away. This paper presents a typology of these cooking vessels and offers some explanation for the differing quantities of various types of imported cooking vessels over these centuries, with implications for the regional economy in this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remains of a Nabataean private complex located west of the Roman-period apsidal building in the Qasr al-Bint area of Petra, excavated by the French Archaeological Mission between 2005 and 2008, turned out to be reused by squatters during the Roman period. This occupation phase, one of the latest in this complex, was of a domestic nature, characterized by the installation of ovens (tawabeen) and other fireplaces, as well as of a channel in the courtyard. The large assemblage of well preserved, often complete pottery vessels from the corresponding levels was dated by coins and Nabataean pottery, supported by radiocarbon datings, to the second half of the 2nd and the early 3rd century CE. Consequently, the group offers the opportunity to study a homogeneous corpus of ceramic material from a period that is not at all well documented in Petra. The repertoire includes all kinds of vessels, especially cooking pots, small storage jars and drinking vessels. In addition, a set of multi-nozzled lamps was associated with this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The northern Bohemian sandstone region brings an exceptionally rich record of Mesolithic settlement, particularly in the form of fireplaces as key structures to be studied when addressing cooking and consumption practices. A large number of different fireplace structures – including kettle-shaped pits and surface or sunken fireplaces, some lined with stones – can be interpreted in terms of performing roasting, boiling, steaming or smoking procedures. The organic remains directly associated with them reveal which resources were exploited and almost certainly consumed, although in many cases they seem to have been discarded into the fire after processing. A Mesolithic inland settlement of northern Bohemia was undoubtedly economically based on the exploitation of plant and animal resources occurring in varied local forest and river environments. According to the evidence, hazelnuts were a staple component of the plant diet, probably processed using roasting hearths. Some fireplaces also yielded carbonised remains of other edible plants, such as raspberry (Rubus idaeus , Rubus sp.), elderberry (Sambucus nigra), red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) and fat hen (Chenopodium album). The faunal vertebrate assemblages suggest a broad-spectrum economy, exploiting terrestrial mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. The molluscan record suggests the exploitation of edible land snails as well as thick-shelled river mussels. Rather than assuming a simple connection between fireplace type and the resources identified, a complex set of biases is considered and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave (Ardèche, France), famous for its remarkable rock art, also contains unique thermal-alterations such as rock spalling and color changes on the walls. These alterations resulted from intense fires that have not been observed in the other decorated caves thus far discovered. The functions of these unusual fires challenge archaeologists. To characterize these combustions, we used a numerical tool, previously validated with experimental data, to study the thermo-alterations in the Megaceros Gallery. This unprecedented approach in cave art research enabled us to assess the wood quantities and locations of the hearths responsible for the thermo-alterations. We report here that at least ten fires took place in the Megaceros Gallery while burning more than 170 kg of wood. Both simulation and in situ observations suggest that the branches were arranged in a tepee shape and purposefully positioned, some distance from the walls. This method therefore enables further analysis of the functions of these fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data on air temperature and relative humidity collected at Hardwick Hall between July 2018 and August 2019. By reference to historic weather records of the climate of the Elizabethan period and consideration of the changes that have been made to the fabric of the building it is possible to recreate a picture of the environment of the house at the time of its construction. The monitored data have been input into a model of the effect of the fireplaces and windows in promoting thermal comfort in key spaces of the house. This allows us to build a more complete description of the inhabitation of the house, informed by contemporary records of building accounts and inventories. The outcome is to provide a new understanding of the environment of the house through the combination of modern building science and architectural history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We build a system to sense the micro-deformation of connecting rods. • We design a connecting rod sensing network based on FBG. It not only detects the deformation of the connecting rod after compression but also detects the deformation of the connecting rod in the tensile state. • The work provides a new detection scheme to ensure the machining quality of connecting rods. As a key component of the ship power equipment, the deformation of the connecting rod directly affects its performance and life. Therefore, the deformation detection of the connecting rod plays an important role in ensuring the service life of the power equipment. In this paper, we propose a deformation perception and reconstruction method based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) for the connecting rod of the marine diesel engine. According to the deformation characteristics under loads of different sizes and directions obtained from the finite element, a sensing distribution FBG-based is designed for the connecting rod. On this basis, we establish the FBG-based deformation sensing system and develop a three-dimensional deformation reconstruction model, which can realize the real-time monitoring of the deformation during the processing of the connecting rod. The experiments show that the deformation trends obtained by FBG and finite element are consistent. Therefore, the FBG-based deformation perception and reconstruction method is feasible. It provides a new and accurate detection scheme to ensure the processing quality of the connecting rod and a new idea for the deformation detection of other key parts of the ship power equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Optical fiber sensor for pH measurement as low-cost solution. • pH sensitive material as polyaniline using synthetic oxidative polymerization on optical fiber surface. • Transition between protonated and deprotonated polyaniline increasing RI of the layer as the pH increases. • FBGs inscribed by UV laser in tapering fiber and D-shaped fiber as optical solution. • Sensors with good reproducibility and repeatability with excelent sensitivities for tapers and D-shape fibers. Optical fiber sensors show potential for monitoring multiple parameters essential to the growth and health of fish, particularly the pH value of the aquaculture medium. Two types of optical fiber sensors, using tapered silica single mode fibers with a Bragg grating inscribed and D-shaped plastic optical fibers (home-made and reused) were produced. A pH-sensitive layer made of polyaniline (PANI) was deposited on the optical fibers' surface. The sensors demonstrated reproducibility and repeatability with a sensitivity of −0.22 ± 0.02 dB/pH, −472 ± 9 Counts/pH, and −(26 ± 2) × 102 Counts/pH for tapers, D-shape home-made, and reused, respectively, but only for increasing pH. Stabilization time tests indicated that a minimum of 60 s is required for a stable response, with no significant cross-sensitivities regarding temperature and ionic strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accordion was the stalwart staple of spiritualist encounters in Victorian London. Introduced into s'eances by the Scottish American Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-86), the most celebrated medium of the era, the instrument was typically used to produce music without the visible aid of a performer (what I call the "spirit accordian"). This article seeks to explain why the accordion came to capture the imagination of the nineteenth-century spiritualist community. It does so by reconstructing the auditory culture in which the instrument was embedded, relying on scientific writings, the popular press, and the sonic experiences of both the spiritualists, who heard the spirit accordion as emitting the ethereal tones of other worlds, and the skeptics, who described the same sounds as grating squeaks. Linking the instrument and its role in the s'eance to eighteenth-century theories of neurophysiology, the article traces the spirit accordion's various musical predecessors, arguing that Home's canny selection of the instrument to represent the next world reflected the intersection of specific cultural signifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay investigates a pair of early American andirons that depict identical African figures, each holding a decanter and wine glass. Manufactured by enslaved laborers at an unidentified iron foundry, the andirons depict Black bodies laboring in service. The andirons resemble contemporary representations of enslaved attendants serving White subjects in portraits, as well as woodblock-printed figures that decorated newspaper advertisements for slave auctions. Yet because of their materiality, they complicated the fantasies these visual artifacts proclaim. When considered in their original context of use in an early American parlor, the andirons reveal dis-humanization through spectacularized violence. Produced of iron, these smiling sculptures could be subjected to a fire’s flames without damage. They forged racialized understandings of personhood and supported a view of fireplaces as sites for violence against enslaved people. The andirons reveal that early American refined interiors were not simply zones for performing politeness but also anti-Black. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic patterned metasurfaces can effectively manipulate the propagation of surface plasmonic waves in the near-field regime. Extraordinary optical phenomena such as diffraction-free propagation also have been enabled by periodic uniform metallic grating metasurfaces (UMGM). However, such metallic patterned metasurfaces usually exhibit a relatively narrow-band non-diffractive property and the realization of visible-frequency broadband diffraction-free on-chip propagation has been quite challenging due to intensive structural dispersive and sensitive wavelength selectivity. Here, we proposed a novel design of a hybrid metallic grating metasurface (HMGM) with two different ridge widths, which could display a broadband diffraction-free on-chip propagation in the visible frequency. By optimization and appropriate hybridization of the ridges of different widths, it enables effective modication of the dispersion of surface plasmons, thus forming the broadband diffraction-free characteristics. Compared to the UMGM, our proposed HMGM can facilitate enhanced propagation of the surface plasmon polaritons and strongly confine the surface plasmonic field to the deep-subwavelength scale. With such hybrid implementation, the surface plasmonic waves propagate parallel to the ridges and their wavefronts remain the original shape without diverging at the broadband wavelength of 600 nm–800 nm. Overall, such broadband diffraction-free propagation along the HMGM could find many potential applications in on-chip plasmonic devices including sub-diffraction resolution imaging, hyperlenses, and photon routing, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the lens of contagion theory, this paper examines the act of sanitizing tactile references in popular music at a time of legislated and extreme isolation. "Sweet Caroline" is an infectious tune that embraces togetherness and intimacy both lyrically and through its live performance. However, on March 22, 2020, Neil Diamond posted on Twitter a clip of himself, alone in front of a fireplace, singing a modified version of his hit song which reworked the lyrics of "touching hands" to "washing hands" and "touching me, touching you" to "don't touch me, I won't touch you." More viral than COVID-19 itself, the revised "Sweet Caroline" has spread to over five million viewers in a couple of short weeks. Touch, during the COVID-19 pandemic, has become devalued at a time when it should be celebrated as a point of comfort in the present and as hope for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of the archaeological excavation at the Rio Ivinhema 1 site, located in the district of Porto Caiuá, Naviraí municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Although the site has suffered several impacts over time, the results obtained were outstanding. The zone that we consider the center of the settlement is formed by a large area of kitchens, where multiple fireplaces form a great profusion of dugouts, ashes, pottery fragments, and food remains. In light of the results, we try to situate Rio Ivinhema 1 in the Tupiguarani archaeological context of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, trying to relate the great variety in pottery decorations to the movements of the Tupi people from the coast to the inland region in colonial times. Chronologically, this is sustained by radiocarbon dating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Kunst is the property of Freunde Mainfraenkischer Kunst und Geschichte e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Art-Sanat Journal / Art-Sanat is the property of Art-Sanat and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Art-Sanat Journal / Art-Sanat is the property of Art-Sanat and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)