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An assessment of the impact of a collaborative didactic approach and students' background in teaching computer animation
No full textThe purpose of this study was to compare different students' backgrounds and two different didactic methodologies to profitably teach computer animation in Italian schools of design and engineering. Teachers and instructors have long been engaged in discussions to define effective curricula for teaching computer animation. Various multidisciplinary and collaborative methodologies have been proposed. This manuscript assesses both the impact of a collaborative teaching approach and the curriculum. Two equivalent learning paths are compared; both of them encompass courses of photography, storytelling and computer animation and require prerequisites in 3D modeling and rendering. The learning path of the "Systemic Design" degree is taught by the collaborative Open Space Technology (OST) approach, whereas the path of "Cinema and Media Engineering" is taught more conventionally (independent courses). The results clearly show how effective teaching methodologies cannot completely compensate for a nontechnical background; on the other hand, as expected, students appreciate and can take advantage of collaborative forms of teaching
Ionosphere Monitoring in South East Asia in the ERICA Study
No full textThe ERICA study aims to find out signatures of the interplay between the magnetosphere-geomagnetic field and the ionosphere that degrade trans-ionospheric signals such as those transmitted by GNSS satellites. The project activity focuses on the characterization of the ionospheric variability of the Equatorial Ionospheric Anomaly in the South East Asian region through the analysis of datasets collected with an ad hoc measurements campaign. The campaign has been conducted with ground-based instruments located in the footprints of the Equatorial Ionospheric Anomaly and Equatorial Ionospheric Trough. This paper presents some of the relevant results achieved by the project, in terms of ionospheric climatology and weather assessment over the interested area. In particular, the paper describes the average condition of the Equatorial Ionospheric Anomaly recorded during the entire campaign and provides interesting insights on relevant scintillation events
Assessment of the Ecosystem Services Capacity in Natural Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation
No full textRecently, in Italy, a legislative proposal has been set to reform the role and the functions of natural protected areas promoting their aggregation (or the abolition) pursuing a better efficiency for their administration and economic saving. The system of natural protected areas is composed of different conservation levels: there are the Natural parks, established in the '80 by national or regional institution for the safeguard of natural elements, the Natura 2000 -Habitat 92/43/CEE promoted by European Union, with conservation measures for maintaining or restoring habitats and species of Communitarian interest, and the local parks of supra-municipal interest (namely PLIS) created by single municipalities or their aggregation aimed at limiting the soil sealing process. The hierarchical level of protection has determined differences in the management of the areas which leads to various approaches and strategies for biodiversity conservation and integrity. In order to assess strengths and weaknesses of the legislative initiative, the new management framework should be designed, considering the ecosystem characteristics of each natural protected area to define the future opportunities and critics, rather than, in the extreme case, remove the level of protection due to the absence of valuable ecosystem conditions. The paper provides an operative support to better apply the legislative proposal investigating the dynamics that affect all protected areas using the land take process as a major threat to biodiversity conservation in natural zones. The land take process is explored using the Land Use Change analysis (LUCa) as a possible way to determine the impact and the environmental effects of land transitions. LUCa is also useful to determine the loss of protected zones capacity to support Ecosystem Services. Finally, the assessment of the Ecosystem Services Capacity (ESC) index expresses the ability of each LULC to provide ES and, in particular, the Ecological Integrity, Regulating Services and Provisioning Services. The efficacy of the proposal is tested in the Lombardy Region (Northwest of Italy) where the natural protected areas are more than 500 with a territorial extension of 740 thousand hectares that correspond to 31% of the regional surface
Estimation of P-S-N curves in very-high-cycle fatigue: Statistical procedure based on a general crack growth rate model
No full textExtensive experimental investigations show that internal defects play a key role in the very-high-cycle fatigue (VHCF) response of metallic materials and that crack growth from internal defects can take place even if the stress intensity factor associated to the initial defect is below the threshold for crack growth. By introducing a reduction term in the typical formulation of the threshold for crack growth, the authors recently proposed a general phenomenological model, which can effectively describe crack growth from internal defects in VHCF. The model is able to consider the different crack growth scenarios that may arise in VHCF and is enough general to embrace the various weakening mechanisms proposed in the literature for explaining why crack can grow below the threshold. In the present paper, the model is generalized in a statistical framework. The statistical distributions of the crack growth threshold and of the initial defect size are put into the model. The procedure for the estimation of the Probabilistic-S-N curves and of the fatigue limit distribution is illustrated and numerically applied to an experimental dataset
La valorizzazione degli scarti di lana e Canapa
No full textConsinterra 2016 è un evento tenutosi a Bastia Umbra il 30 settembre l'1 e il 2 Ottobre 2016, organizzato da Umbriafiere in collaborazione con 3A-Parco Tecnologico Agroalimentare dell'Umbria e Università degli studi di Perugia. Nell'ambito di Cosinterra 2016 sono stati relaizzati seminari tematici su Canapa, Piante Officinali, Piante tintorie, Fibre Animali, Agro-omeopatia e la valutazione della qualità degli alimenti attraverso l'analisi d'immagine, con l'obiettivo di avviare un confronto sulla concreta possibilità di avviare filiere produttive sostenibili dal punto di vista ambientale ed economico. l'evento ha visto la partecipazione di aziende e centri di ricerca provenienti da tutto il territorio nazionale; tra questi citiamo oltre all'Università degli Studi di Perugia, l'Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Piacenza, l'Università degli studi di Camerino, l'Università di Pisa, CNR-ISMAC- Biella, l'ENEA, il CNR
Dynamic characterization of high performance materials for application to cultural heritage
No full textNatural hazards, such as earthquakes, can compromise the integrity of the cultural heritage with potentially devastating effects. The reduction of the seismic vulnerability of the cultural heritage constitutes a question of maximum importance especially in countries where vast cultural heritage combines with a medium or high seismic risk, such as in Italy. From the second half of the last century, the scientific community edited a number of important documents and charts for the conservation, reinforcement and restoration of the cultural heritage. The aim is to mitigate the seismic vulnerability of the cultural heritage. This research focused on high performance materials for applications aimed to structural and seismic protection of cultural heritage, with a special focus on historical masonry structures. In particular, the final aim is to define a self-diagnosis strategy for fibres, yarns and ties in view of efficient, non-invasive and reversible interventions on cultural heritage buildings. In order to set up the scene, the present thesis starts by introducing the reader to the seismic protection of cultural heritage thorough an extensive review on high performance materials, strengthening techniques and systems, taking care to highlight real world applications and limitations of their use. The second step of this work concerns in the mechanical and rheological characterization of high performance material fibres. The materials investigated are essentially Kevlar® 29 (para-aramid), Carbon and Silicon Carbide. To reach this goal, an extensive experimental testing campaign was conducted on fibres and yarns in accordance with specific protocols. A further step was defining appropriate damage indices for different materials, with a special focus on Kevlar® 29. Within the same research programme, a novel testing machine was also designed in cooperation with the Laboratory of Electronic Measurements of the Politecnico di Torino. A prototype-testing machine for dynamic testing on high resistance fibres was built using recycled materials and components. A distinctive feature of this machine is that it can apply to the sample any kind of dynamic excitation (random, impulse, harmonic etc.). A second testing campaign concerned the durability of Kevlar® 29 fibres, which are known to be sensitive to long-term exposure to UV radiation. Accordingly, for this campaign, the samples were artificially damaged by using UV lamps. The analysis of the resonance profiles allowed for the extraction of parameters such as the elastic moduli, quality factors, and non-linear coefficient for a set of fibres. In particular, non-linearity parameters derived from the Krylov-Bogoliubov method demonstrated to be consistent with the damage affecting the fibres. The final chapter of the dissertation concerns a new concept for a tie endowed with self-diagnosis properties, which are obtained by integrating a low cost testing device into the tie model. The self-diagnosis properties system of existing structures has an important role in the preservation of the cultural heritage because the best therapy is preventive maintenance. Specifically, the para-aramid tie system proposed for the reinforcement of historic building constitutes a non-invasive, reversible and repeatable intervention, as required by the main guidelines on preservation of cultural heritage
BUILT HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION and MANAGEMENT: AN INTEGRATED CONSERVATION APPROACH in BAGAN
No full textStatistical analysis of some main geomechanical formulations evaluated with the Kaniadakis exponential law
No full textThe following paper reviews four well-known geomechanical equations, i.e. the elastic modulus of the rock mass as function of the Rock Mass Rating (RMR) system, the relation between Rock Quality Designation (RQD) and spacing distribution of the natural discontinuities in the rock mass, the distribution of the discontinuity spacing along a straight line for a rock mass and the intact rock strength in function of the specimen diameter by using a power-law flat tails equation based on the theory of Kaniadakis. The results show that by using novel formulations, the experimental data are better approximated by the power-law flat tails statistical approach, which shows a trend similar to ordinary exponential for a certain part of the interval of variability of x; the tails, however, follow the power law for extreme values of x. It was, therefore, possible to obtain new formulations able to better represent some fundamental aspects of geomechanics
Improved melting and solidification in thermal energy storage through topology optimization of highly conductive fins
No full textThermal energy storage units based on phase change materials (PCMs) need a fine design of highly conductive fins to improve the average heat transfer rate. In this paper, we seek the optimal distribution of a highly conductive material embedded in a PCM through a density-based topology optimization method. The phase change problem is solved through an enthalpy-porosity model, which accounts for natural convection in the fluid. Results show fundamental differences in the optimized layout between the solidification and the melting case. Fins optimized for solidification show a quasi-periodic pattern along the angular direction. On the other hand, fins optimized for melting elongate mostly in the bottom part of the unit leaving only two short baffles at the top. In both cases, the optimized structures show non-intuitive details which could not be obtained neglecting fluid flow. These additional features reduce the solidification and melting time by 11 % and 27 % respectively compared to a structure optimized for diffusion