LARAM School 2018: the doctoral school on “LAndslide Risk Assessment and Mitigation”

The international school for PhD students and young doctors on “LAndslide Risk Assessment and Mitigation” (LARAM) is presented and, specifically, information is provided about the next edition of the doctoral school that will held in Italy, at the University of Salerno, on September 3–14, 2018. The LARAM School is managed by the Geotechnical Engineering Group (GEG) of the University of Salerno, which recently became an Associate member of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL). The 2018 edition of the LARAM School is organised as an ICL/IPL activity.     

Re-testing the JET-X Flight Module No. 2 at the PANTER facility

The Joint European X-ray Telescope (JET-X) was the core instrument of the Russian Spectrum-X- γ space observatory. It consisted of two identical soft X-ray (0.3–10 keV) telescopes with focusing optical modules having a measured angular resolution of nearly 15 arcsec. Soon after the payload completion, the mission was cancelled and the two optical flight modules (FM) were brought to the Brera Astronomical Observatory where they had been manufactured. After 16 years of storage, we have utilized the JET-X FM2 to test at the PANTER X-ray facility a prototype of a novel X-ray polarimetric telescope, using a Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) with polarimetric capabilities in the focal plane of the FM2. The GPD was developed by a collaboration between INFN-Pisa and INAF-IAPS. In the first phase of the test campaign, we have re-tested the FM2 at PANTER to have an up-to-date characterization in terms of angular resolution and effective area, while in the second part of the test the GPD has been placed in the focal plane of the FM2. In this paper we report the results of the tests of the sole FM2, using an unpolarized X-ray source, comparing the results with the calibration done in 1996.     

The Intra-Pontide ophiolites in Northern Turkey revisited:From birth to death of a Neotethyan oceanic domain

The Anatolian peninsula is a key location to study the central portion of the Neotethys Ocean(s)and to understand how its western and eastern branches were connected.One of the lesser known branches of the Mesozoic ocean(s)is preserved in the northern ophiolite suture zone exposed in Turkey,namely,the Intra-Pontide suture zone.It is located between the Sakarya terrane and the Eurasian margin(i.e.,Istanbul-Zonguldak terrane)and consists of several metamorphic and non-metamorphic units containing ophiolites produced in supra-subduction settings from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous.Ophiolites preserved in the metamorphic units recorded pervasive deformations and peak metamorphic conditions ranging from blueschist to eclogite facies.In the nonmetamorphic units,the complete oceanic crust sequence is preserved in tectonic units or as olistoliths in sedimentary melanges.Geochemical,structural,metamorphic and geochronological investigations performed on ophiolite-bearing units allowed the formulation of a new geodynamic model of the entire"life"of the IntraPontide oceanic basin(s).The reconstruction starts with the opening of the Intra-Pontide oceanic basins during the Late Triassic between the Sakarya and Istanbul-Zonguldak continental microplates and ends with its closure caused by two different subductions events that occurred during the upper Early Jurassic and Middle Jurassic.The continental collision between the Sakarya continental microplate and the Eurasian margin developed from the upper Early Cretaceous to the Palaeocene.The presented reconstruction is an alternative model to explain the complex and articulate geodynamic evolution that characterizes the southern margin of Eurasia during the Mesozoic era.     

Environmental suitability of ceramic raw materials: a geochemical approach to volatile emissions and leaching potentials

Growing environmental concern is promoting the necessity of additional ceramic tests. The use of unknown materials with potential contamination conditions requires further studies to demonstrate that the piece encapsulates the pollutant and that during its firing it does not produce the emission of harmful volatile elements. The objective of this work was to perform both tests in a ceramic paste made with slip-casting wastes and electro-plating residues. The leaching methods for determining the encapsulation of potential harmful elements were performed following the TCLP, EP-Tox norm. Having precise chemical analysis of both crude and fired brick, the problem of emissions losses during the firing can be solved by the gain/loss techniques used in geological studies. In particular, the Isocon method that permits a quick visualization of the lost elements is useful. Once the volatile elements were determined, their amount was calculated considering a constant element and the chemical concentrations normalized by the loss of ignition, or using the crude/fired brick ratio densities. The leaching tests indicate that the ceramic brick does not produce harmful leachates according to Argentinean specifications. The leachates of B and Ca are high. Ca does not seem to be a problem while the B content is beyond the permitted limits. During the firing, volatilized elements are Ag, Br, Cl, F, Hg, S, Se, and H₂O. The loss of Ag, Br, and Se are negligible. For F and Cl the potential emission rate is very low (100 mg/kg) while in the case of S, the 2,600 mg/kg rate is high. However, extrapolated emission rates at the chimney assuming an air-to-brick ratio of 2.5 N m³/kg, are approximately 1,040 mg/N m³ for S and 40 mg/N m³ for F and Cl, falling inside environmentally acceptable values. The geochemical procedures proved to be useful tools to assess the element mobilization during firing of ceramic wares and in the analyzed case, the results indicate that the paste is environmentally acceptable.     

High-order expansion of the solution of preliminary orbit determination problem

A method for high-order treatment of uncertainties in preliminary orbit determination is presented. The observations consist in three couples of topocentric right ascensions and declinations at three observation epochs. The goal of preliminary orbit determination is to compute a trajectory that fits with the observations in two-body dynamics. The uncertainties of the observations are usually mapped to the phase space only when additional observations are available and a least squares fitting problem is set up. A method based on Taylor differential algebra for the analytical treatment of observation uncertainties is implemented. Taylor differential algebra allows for the efficient computation of the arbitrary order Taylor expansion of a sufficiently continuous multivariate function. This enables the mapping of the uncertainties from the observation space to the phase space as high-order multivariate Taylor polynomials. These maps can then be propagated forward in time to predict the observable set at successive epochs. This method can be suitably used to recover newly discovered objects when a scarce number of measurements is available. Simulated topocentric observations of asteroids on realistic orbits are used to assess the performances of the method.     

The 100th anniversary of Ivan Dmitrievich Sedletskii

Chronicle

The 100th anniversary of Ivan Dmitrievich Sedletskii