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A Mixed Methodology for Defining a New Spatial Decision Analysis towards Low Carbon Cities
No full textCities play a leading role in economic development, security, sustainability, and climate change. The fact that the built environment energy consumption contributes to a huge amount of CO2 emissions has a significant impact on the public agenda. Consequently, the emergence of the low carbon city concept has enhanced the necessity for a both quantitative and qualitative evaluation of related energy strategies and policies. Support decision maker's tools can play an essential role for sustainable and effective land use governance, in particular, geo-referencing territorial data. This paper proposes a mixed approach method, integrating GIS Urban Energy Mapping, Stakeholders Analysis, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis whit the aim at defining urban energy saving scenarios in two sides which includes (a) the development of an energy consumption model of the building stock that is able to explore a number of possible futures scenarios based on GIS and give a representative picture of the actual energy consumption state and performance of urban systems (b) and the pre-selection of evaluation criteria based on environmental, economic, and social sustainability pillars. The expected result is the development of spatial decision support tool able to support urban planners, policy makers and built environment stakeholders in their efforts to plan, design and manage low carbon cities in their future strategic decisions by visualizing scenarios analysis. This paper is part of an ongoing Smart City research, a national cluster project, called Zero Energy Buildings in Smart Urban Districts (EEB)
Mini-radar System for Flying Platforms
No full textSurveillance of maritime areas attracts huge in- terest, because of the different activities that impact the se- curity, safety, economy, or environment in sea domain. These activities require both the identification of areas of interest and the deployment of suitable assets. The types of assets to be deployed depend on different aspects such as their endurance, coverage and cost. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) together with the Department of Aeronautic and Space Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, have developed two complementary low-cost radar systems on board of an aerostat and of a drone. A Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar has been identified as the technical solution, whereas an integrated IMU/GPS platform has been used as navigation engine. The synchronization between units is fundamental, therefore various solutions have been investigated. The selected approach exploits the time-referenced matching between radar and navigation data- sets. To evaluate the performance of the assembled system, several tests have been carried out in pre-operational conditions with the radar performing several azimuthal scans with fixed elevation angle. From the results, no drift nor bias in the attitude parameters have been observed. Moreover the adopted integration strategy allows reconstructing the polar radar picture, exploiting the synergy between the radar and the navigation units. The obtained radar pictures are consistent from scan to scan and correctly characterize the actual scenario
Mitigation of Intra-coil Eddy Currents in Split Gradient Coils in a Hybrid MRI-LINAC System
No full textObjective: The aim of this study is to mitigate intra-gradient coil eddy currents in a hybrid MRI-LINAC system. Methods: The tracks of the gradient coils are modified by cutting slits along the current flow direction. The electromagnetic model developed was first experimentally validated and then used to study the impacts of the slit conductors on the energized and surrounding coils. In this study, gradient coils were slit with different numbers of sub-Tracks and driven by a current with frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 10 kHz. The proposed configuration was assessed by evaluating a number of system parameters, such as the gradient magnetic field, the power loss generated in the surrounding unenergized coil (hereafter referred to as passive coils), and the performance of the energized coil. Results: It was found that at a typical operating frequency of 1 kHz and compared with a conventional (no cut) split coil structure, the new coil pattern (with four slits) offered improved coil parameters. 1) The average power loss dissipated in the surrounding passive coil was significantly reduced by 85%, 2) the cuts largely reduced the secondary field generated by the eddy currents in the passive coil, which was reduced to about 4% of that produced by the uncut coil and, 3) the performance of the energized coil with slit tracks was significantly improved. Some typical gradient coil parameters, such as the figure of merit, efficiency (η), and \eta ^{2}/R (where η is the efficiency and R is the resistance), were improved by 8.0%, 11.9%, and 45.7%, respectively. Conclusion and Significance: The new slit coil structure is effective in mitigating intra-coil eddy current effects, which is an important issue in the MRI-LINAC system
Constructing, Remaking, and Remembering: Historic Preservation in the Early Decades of the Turkish Republic
No full textSommario Quando la Repubblica Turca venne fondata nel 1923, si trattava di un progetto per la creazione di un moderno stato nazione al di fuori del secolare vecchio Impero ottomano che era uno Stato islamico con una monarchia dinastica. Per il successo di questo progetto, la Repubblica dovette prendere le distanze dalla memoria del periodo ottomano. Le istituzioni ottomane e le pratiche di vita quotidiane furono costantemente abolite, la capitale ottomana di Istanbul fu sostituita con Ankara, una nuova e moderna città fu pianificata. Gli architetti ed esperti europei furono invitati a progettare grandi progetti pubblici finanziati dallo Stato e ad insegnare in ambito accademico. Dopo un decennio di guerre prima della fondazione della Repubblica le vecchie strutture erano già in cattive condizioni e diventarono ancora peggio durante i primi decenni della repubblica. Specialmente ad Istambul, furono fatti degli sforzi per la protezione di queste vecchie strutture; però, non erano abbastanza forti per avere una eco in Ankara. In questo contesto, questo lavoro intende mettere a fuoco gli sforzi per la preservazione storica durante la prima decade della Repubblica Turca per comprendere come il concetto di "patrimonio culturale" fu concepito dal giovane Stato durante questo intenso periodo di modernizzazione. Abstract When the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923, it was a project to create a modern secular nation-state out of the centuries-old Ottoman Empire which was an Islamic state ruled with dynastic monarchy. For the success of this project, the Republic had to distance itself from the Ottoman memories. Ottoman institutions and daily life practices were steadily abolished; the Ottoman capital of İstanbul was replaced with Ankara; new modern cities were planned; European architects and experts were invited to design state-funded large-scale public projects and to teach in academia. Old structures were already in a bad condition after a decade of wars before the foundation of the Republic, and their condition became even worse during the first decades of the Republican era. Especially in İstanbul, there were efforts for the protection of these old structures; however, they were not powerful enough to echo in Ankara. In this given context, this paper will focus on the historic preservation efforts during the early decades of the Turkish Republic to understand how ‘cultural heritage' was conceived by this young state during this intense period of modernization
CHALLENGES IN FLYING QUADROTOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE FOR 3D INDOOR RECONSTRUCTION
No full textThree-dimensional modelling plays a vital role in indoor 3D tracking, navigation, guidance and emergency evacuation. Reconstruction of indoor 3D models is still problematic, in part, because indoor spaces provide challenges less-documented than their outdoor counterparts. Challenges include obstacles curtailing image and point cloud capture, restricted accessibility and a wide array of indoor objects, each with unique semantics. Reconstruction of indoor environments can be achieved through a photogrammetric approach, e.g. by using image frames, aligned using recurring corresponding image points (CIP) to build coloured point clouds. Our experiments were conducted by flying a QUAV in three indoor environments and later reconstructing 3D models which were analysed under different conditions. Point clouds and meshes were created using Agisoft PhotoScan Professional. We concentrated on flight paths from two vantage points: 1) safety and security while flying indoors and 2) data collection needed for reconstruction of 3D models. We surmised that the main challenges in providing safe flight paths are related to the physical configuration of indoor environments, privacy issues, the presence of people and light conditions. We observed that the quality of recorded video used for 3D reconstruction has a high dependency on surface materials, wall textures and object types being reconstructed. Our results show that 3D indoor reconstruction predicated on video capture using a QUAV is indeed feasible, but close attention should be paid to flight paths and conditions ultimately influencing the quality of 3D models. Moreover, it should be decided in advance which objects need to be reconstructed, e.g. bare rooms or detailed furniture
