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Modelling and simulating human behavior in buildings
No full textPredicting future users’ behaviour and their activities in a building is a cardinal and highly complex task that designers have to face during the design process.
Even though architects and their clients have at their disposal several computational
tools which can help them to predict and evaluate many aspects of building performance such as cost, energy consumption, and structural integrity, they have no means to predict and evaluate how well the proposed design will perform from the users’ point of view. Simulative approaches are gradually overcoming this shortcoming but, at present, they are limited to the representation of specific occurrences and behavioural performance aspects -such as emergency egress and crowd behaviour- while more extensive and comprehensive representations of human behaviour in built environments, able to simulate everyday life and activities
in buildings, are still missing.
Capitalizing on current developments in the video game industry, this research
-partially developed at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and at Berkeley
University of California- aims at establishing a new approach to human behaviour simulation in built environments, based on a clear, reliable and precise
formalization of the use processes as specific structures of active entities called
Events. Their role is to comprise knowledge about the building users, the activities
they perform and the spaces where those specific activities are performed.
Equipped with AI engines, events control and coordinate the actors’ behaviour during the simulation, providing a coherent representation of their interaction,
cooperation and collaboration.
The proposed model allows designers to test and evaluate the impact of their decisions on future users’ life and activities in the design process, when it is still possible to intervene to improve the quality of the final product, to solve critical
issues and to reduce time and costs. To test its reliability, the model has been applied
to simulate the functioning of a hospital nursing ward, both in routine and
emergency circumstances.La valutazione della qualità funzionale dell’edificio e del suo impatto sulle attività dei futuri utenti è uno dei compiti più difficili che l’architetto si trova ad affrontare nel corso della pratica progettuale. Nel passato, norme, manuali e regole di buona pratica hanno parzialmente supportato le scelte funzionali dei progettisti ma, ad oggi, esse risultano sostanzialmente inadeguate in relazione
all’ alto grado di unicità e dipendenza dal contesto dell’organismo edilizio ed alla complessità e dinamicità del suo processo d’uso. Le conseguenze di tali limiti sono ogni giorno davanti ai nostri occhi: una volta realizzati, spesso gli edifici non funzionano in modo ottimale, ma a quel punto intervenire diventa particolarmente
difficile e oneroso. Con l’esponenziale aumento della potenza dei calcolatori e con
l’introduzione di nuovi paradigmi di modellazione, alcuni approcci simulativi sono stati introdotti nella progettazione architettonica al fine di simulare virtualmente il possibile comportamento degli
utenti nell’ edificio. Le loro reali applicazioni sono però limitate alla
rappresentazione solo di alcuni aspetti del comportamento umano e in presenza di particolari condizioni (ad esempio la fuga in caso di in incendio), mentre una simulazione affidabile e comprensiva del fenomeno generale d’uso dell’edificio è ancora mancante.
Sulla base dei recenti sviluppi nel campo della simulazione ludica, la ricerca descritta in questa dissertazione (sviluppata
prevalentemente presso il Technion Israel Institute of Technology e la Berkeley University of California) mira a definire un nuovo approccio alla simulazione del comportamento degli utenti in un edificio, basato su una accurata e gestibile formalizzazione del suo processo d’uso e sulla sua simulazione virtuale attraverso
l’ l’introduzione di opportune entità di modellazione definite come eventi. Il loro compito è, da un lato, quello di strutturare la conoscenza relativa alle attività previste, agli attori coinvolti e alla loro collocazione nell’edificio, e dall’altro quello di gestire e controllare i comportamenti dei singoli attori durante la
simulazione, al fine di ottenere un fenomeno risultante coerente e realistico. Con lo scopo di testare la validità del modello e valutarne le reali potenzialità, sono stati sviluppati differenti esperimenti e casi studio nell’ ambito dell’edilizia ospedaliera, simulando il comportamento degli utenti in condizioni sia normali che di emergenza
L'uso del verbo in alcuni trattati matematici tra Autolico e Apollonio
No full textLa tesi intende indagare l'impiego del verbo in alcuni trattati matematici scritti nei primi secoli dell'Ellenismo ed evidenziare l'evoluzione del sistema verbale in un genere letterari
L'impatto del confine sul mercato dei carburanti per autotrazione: il caso del Friuli Venezia Giulia
No full textCOGNITIVE SOCIAL AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF PATIENTS WITH SPINAL CORD INJURY
No full textA successful human-environment interaction requires a continuous integration of information
concerning body parts, object features and affective dynamics. Multiple neuropsychological
studies show that tools can be integrated into the representation of one's own body. In
particular, a tool that participates in the conscious movement of the person is added to the
dynamic representation the body – often called “Body schema” – and may even affect social
interaction. In light of this the wheelchair is treated as an extension of the disabled body,
essentially replacing limbs that don't function properly, but it can also be a symbol of frailty
and weakness.
In a series of experiments, I studied plastic changes of action, tool and body representation in
individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Due to their peripheral loss of sensorimotor
functions, in the absence of brain lesions and spared higher order cognitive functions, these
patients represent an excellent model to study this topic in a multi-faceted way, investigating
both fundamental mechanisms and possible therapeutic interventions.
In a series of experiments, I developed new behavioral methods to measure the
phenomenological aspects of tool embodiment (Chapter 3), to study its functional and neural
correlates (Chapter 4) and to assess the possible computational model underpinning these
phenomena (Chapter 5). These tasks have been used to describe changes in tool, action and
body representation following the injury (Chapter 3 and 4), but also social interactions
(Chapter 7), with the aim of giving a complete portrait of change following such damage.
I found that changes in the function (wheelchair use) and the structure (body brain
disconnection) of the physical body, plastically modulate tool, action and body representation.
Social context and social interaction are also shaped by the new configuration of bodily
representations. Such a high degree of plasticity suggests that our sense of body is not given
at once, but rather it is constantly constructed and adapted through experience
Sacra peregrina ad Ostia e Porto: Mithra, Iuppiter Sabazius, Iuppiter Dolichenus, Iuppiter Heliopolitanus
No full textEsame delle evidenze, soprattutto epigrafiche, relative ai Culti cd. Orientali, ovvero Sacra Peregrina, di Mithra, Iuppiter Sabazius, Dolichenus ed Heliopolitanus ad Ostia e Porto in età imperiale. Analisi della topografia dei luoghi di culto, degli attori del culto, delle cariche rivestite all'interno della comunità religiosa e in quella della comunità civile, con particolare riguardo alla determinazione della loro condizione giuridica e sociale
Analysis and evaluation of the coactivator protein Mastermind-like 1 and its pivotal role in inter-pathway signalling
No full textThe research leading to these results has received funding from the [European
Community’s] Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant
agreement n° PITN-GA-2008-21576
Caratterizzazione sedimentologica, produzione carbonatica e fattori di controllo dei substrati colonizzati da praterie a fanerogame marine nel Mediterraneo Occidentale
No full textGuidance and control for defense systems against ballistic threats
No full textA defense system against ballistic threat is a very complex system from the engineering point of view. It involves different kinds of subsystems and, at the same time, it presents very strict requirements. Technology evolution drives the need of constantly upgrading system’s capabilities. The guidance and control fields are two of the areas with the best progress possibilities.
This thesis deals with the guidance and control problems involved in a defense system against ballistic threats. This study was undertaken by analyzing the mission of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Trajectory reconstruction from radar and satellite measurements was carried out with an estimation algorithm for nonlinear systems. Knowing the trajectory is a prerequisite for intercepting the ballistic missile.
Interception takes place thanks to a dedicated tactical missile. The guidance and control of this missile were also studied in this work. Particular attention was paid on the estimation of engagement’s variables inside the homing loop. Interceptor missiles are usually equipped with a seeker that provides the angle under which the interceptor sees its target. This single measurement does not guarantee the observability of the variables required by advanced guidance laws such as APN, OGL, or differential games-based laws. A new guidance strategy was proposed, that solves the bad observability problems and returns satisfactory engagement performances.
The thesis is concluded by a study of the interceptor most suitable aerodynamic configuration in order to implement the proposed strategy, and by the relative autopilot design. The autopilot implements the lateral acceleration commands from the guidance system. The design was carried out with linear control techniques, considering requirements on the rising time, actuators maximum effort, and response to a bang-bang guidance command.
The analysis of the proposed solutions was carried on by means of numerical simulations, developed for each single case-study
Selection and transport of hammer tools in wild bearded capuchin (Sapajus libidinosus, Spix, 1823)
No full textNeural networks, surrogate models and black box algorithms: theory and applications
No full textIn this Ph. D. Thesis we will analyze some of the most used surrogate models,
together with a particular type of line search black box strategy. After introducing
these powerful tools, we will present the Canonical Duality Theory, the potentiality
it has to improve these tools, and some of their applications.
The principal contributes of this Thesis are the reformulation of the Radial Basis
Neural Network problem in its canonical dual form in Section 2.2 and the application
of the surrogate models and black box algorithms presented in this Thesis on various
real world problems reported in Chapter 3