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Città storica e innovazione urbana: alcuni elementi di riflessione. Il caso di Paris Smart City
No full textNegli ultimi anni il fenomeno smart city si è dimostrato essere in continua espansione, divenendo centrale all'interno dell'attuale dibattito relative allo sviluppo sostenibile delle città. Partendo da queste premesse, il presente articolo si vuole concentrare sul rapporto esistente tra smart city e città storica, sollevando alcuni interrogativi e presentando alcune criticità. Infatti, nei contesti urbani storici, le strategie smart devono altresì assicurare la protezione del patrimonio urbano delle città: ma in che modo è possibile conciliare tutela e "smartness"? Quali sono le strategie portate avanti? Quale ruolo riveste il patrimonio in queste strategie? Per rispondere questi interrogativi l'articolo presenta il caso studio di Parigi, con l'intento di valutare la considerazione di tali problematiche nelle attuali politiche smart intraprese dalla città
TOFFEE: a full custom amplifier-comparator chip for timing applications with silicon detectors
No full textWe report on the design of a full custom amplifier-comparator readout chip for silicon detectors with internal gain designed for precise timing applications. The ASIC has been developed in UMC 110 nm CMOS technology and is aimed to fulfill the CMS-TOTEM Precision Proton Spectrometer (CT-PPS) time resolution requirements (~ 30 ps per detector plane). It features LVDS outputs and the signal dynamic range matches the requirements of the High Precision TDC (HPTDC) system. The preliminary measurements results with a test board are included
A simplified method for predicting early-age stresses in slabs of steel-concrete composite beams in partial interaction
No full textThermal effects due to the heat produced by cement reaction and shrinkage deformations affecting concrete generally results in stresses that can lead to early age cracking in the concrete slab of composite beams. This work provides a simplified approach for determining the time evolution of stresses developing at early age in curing concrete slabs of composite beams. Specifically, the method generally used in practice and based on a simple sectional analysis is extended to the case of steel-concrete composite beams in partial interaction. The time evolution of the force-slip relationship characterising the shear connector response as a result of the concrete curing process is also taken into account by means of a simple assumption corroborated by some experimental results available in the literature. The results obtained by applying the two proposed methods are compared to those achieved by means of the general practice-oriented procedure. Different types of cement, featuring a variable time evolution of the hydration process, are taken into account. Moreover, the effect of different external temperature at casting is also considered. It is worth highlighting that the proposed method enhances the predicting capability of the current practical ones, with almost no increase in calculation effort
An algorithm of the wildfire classification by its acoustic emission spectrum using Wireless Sensor Networks
No full textCrown fires are extremely dangerous as the speed of their distribution is dozen times higher compared to surface fires. Therefore, it is important to classify the fire type as early as possible. A method for forest fires classification exploits their computed acoustic emission spectrum compared with a set of samples of the typical fire acoustic emission spectrum stored in the database. This method implies acquisition acoustic data using Wireless Sensors Networks (WSNs) and their analysis in a central processing and a control center. The paper deals with an algorithm which can be directly implemented on a sensor network node that will allow reducing considerably the network traffic and increasing its efficiency. It is hereby suggested to use the sum of the squares ratio, with regard to amplitudes of low and high frequencies of the wildfire acoustic emission spectrum, as the indicator of a forest fire type. It is shown that the value of the crown fires indicator is several times higher than that of the surface ones. This allows classifying the fire types (crown, surface) in a short time interval and transmitting a fire type indicator code alongside with an alarm signal through the network
Energy Consumption Data as a Decision-making Tool for Energy Efficient Interventions in PA: The Case-study of Turin
No full textIs myoelectric activity distributed equally within the rectus femoris muscle during loaded, squat exercises?
No full textRecent evidence suggests different regions of the rectus femoris (RF) muscle respond differently to squat exercises. Such differential adaptation may result from neural inputs distributed locally within RF, as previously reported for isometric contractions, walking and in response to fatigue. Here we therefore investigate whether myoelectric activity distributes evenly within RF during squat. Surface electromyograms (EMGs) were sampled proximally and distally from RF with arrays of electrodes, while thirteen healthy volunteers performed 10 consecutive squats with 20% and 40% of their body weight. The root mean square (RMS) value, computed separately for thirds of the concentric and eccentric phases, was considered to assess the proximo-distal changes in EMG amplitude during squat. The channels with variations in EMG amplitude during squat associated with shifts in the muscle innervation zone were excluded from analysis. No significant differences were observed between RF regions when considering squat phases and knee joint angles individually (P>0.16) while a significant interaction between phase and knee joint angle with detection site was observed (P<0.005). For the two loads considered, proximal RMS values were greater during the eccentric phase and for the more flexed knee joint position (P<0.001). Our results suggest inferences on the degree of RF activation during squat must be made cautiously from surface EMGs. Of more practical relevance, there may be a potential for the differential adaption of RF proximal and distal regions to squat exercises
Vinylphosphonic acid/methacrylamide system as a durable intumescent flame retardant for cotton fabric
No full textA novel intumescent flame retardant treatment, consisting of vinylphosphonic acid (VPA) as the acid source and methacrylamide (MAA) as blowing agent, was designed and applied onto cotton fabrics. The grafting of reactive monomers onto cellulose chains was carried out using potassium persulfate as initiator of a radical polymerization technique. The thermal and fire behavior of the treated fabrics was thoroughly investigated: in particular, the VPA/MAA coating was able to exert a protective action, giving rise to the formation of a stable swollen char on the surface of textile fibers upon heating, hence improving the flame retardancy of cotton. In addition, the treated fabric achieved self-extinction as assessed by horizontal flame spread tests. Finally, a remarkable weight loss was observed only after the first washing cycle, then the samples did not show any significant weight loss, hence confirming the durability of the self-extinguishing treatment, even after five laundering cycles
Non-local hybrid models for collective dynamics
No full textFrom a mathematical point of view, living systems such as cell aggregates, crowd and swarms, can be regarded as collections of particles characterized by a proper behavior, and by the ability to sense and actively interact with the other individuals and the surrounding environment. In particular, living particles do not respond passively to the rules of inertia but are able to change their individual behavior and affect the collective evolution of the system. In general, there exists several approaches able to describe the collective dynamics of living individuals. First, in microscopic/individual-based models, the single components are represented as localized/discrete units and suitable rules describe their individual behavior and mutual interactions. These approaches thus account for the intrinsic granularity of living systems. However, the usually large amount of individuals involved in interesting self-emergent patterns (such as in morphogenesis and cancer evolution, as well as in pedestrian evacuations) makes it difficult to recover usable synthetic quantitative information about the whole aggregate from the reproduction of the individual behavior. On the other hand, a macroscopic/continuous modelling approach is conversely based on the assimilation of the system to a whole entity distributed in space. The evolution of the collectivity is given by means of non linear conservation laws which directly provide the evolution of average quantities such as density and flux. In this respect, these techniques are able to overcome the above highlighted critical issues posed by an individual-based approach. However, by describing a living system as a whole via phenomenological constitutive relationships rather then by an actual one-to-one interaction basis, the behavior of single entities is not accessible. It thereby results hard to reproduce complex evolutions observable at the aggregate level (for instance, pattern formations) which are generated by microscopic/individual phenomena (such as, cell phenotypic transitions in biological systems, or individual choice of own motion mode in crowd dynamics). In these situations, in order to overcome the difficulties posed by purely micro/macro approaches, it can be convenient to opt for an hybrid modelling approach, i.e., to differentiate the individuals in more groups with specific properties and behavior, and to use different descriptive instances for each subsystem. In particular, the coupling of models based on both localized/discrete and distributed/continuous formulations, might allow to take the advantages of both classical techniques. Taking into account these considerations, the thesis is organized in two parts, respectively dedicated to the illustration of hybrid modelling techniques developed over the course of my Ph.D. to capture the evolution of specific biological systems and pedestrian dynamics. More specifically, we first focus on biological systems whose evolution is regulated by cell phenotypic differentiation processes (e.g., tumor growth and invasion, and zebrafish posterior lateral line development), and then on pedestrian dynamics affected by different types of human perceptions of surrounding individuals. In particular, in both applications, the dynamics of both cells and pedestrians is defined through a phenomenological description of their velocity, which is given by the superposition of a directional contribution and non-local interaction terms accounting for the ability of living particles to perceive and consequently react to the presence of individuals located at a certain distance from them
Jacobian projection reduced-order models for dynamic systems with contact nonlinearities
No full textIn structural dynamics, the prediction of the response of systems with localized nonlinearities, such as friction dampers, is of particular interest. This task becomes especially cumbersome when high-resolution finite element models are used. While state-of-the-art techniques such as Craig-Bampton component mode synthesis are employed to generate reduced order models, the interface (nonlinear) degrees of freedom must still be solved in-full. For this reason, a new generation of specialized techniques capable of reducing linear and nonlinear degrees of freedom alike is emerging. This paper proposes a new technique that exploits spatial correlations in the dynamics to compute a reduction basis. The basis is composed of a set of vectors obtained using the Jacobian of partial derivatives of the contact forces with respect to nodal displacements. These basis vectors correspond to specifically chosen boundary conditions at the contacts over one cycle of vibration. The technique is shown to be effective in the reduction of several models studied using multiple harmonics with a coupled static solution. In addition, this paper addresses another challenge common to all reduction techniques: it presents and validates a novel a posteriori error estimate capable of evaluating the quality of the reduced-order solution without involving a comparison with the full-order solution