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Closure to "new resilience index for urban water distribution networks" by G. P. Cimellaro, A. Tinebra, C. Renschler, and M. Fragiadakis
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Defense heritage: strategies for disposal and use. The case of the "La Marmora" Barracks in Via Asti, Turin
No full textThe debate on the enhancement and management of real estate emphasizes the State Property (45397 of which 13% historical heritage): it's brittle assets with risk of loss of identity. The case of the La Marmora Barracks is emblematic: an interdisciplinary research has tested the method of the valuation cycle. The barracks is included in the list of the Properties Defense desused, which create the urban voids in areas to return to the city with reuse strategic operations can't be postponed. The road map of support decision-making wed to valorization scenarios, abiding memory factory. Attention is focused on the building to define restoration and put in efficiency, the cost estimate and the timing in the preliminary works, according to the approach of the construction management. The definition of the interventions represents an analytical phase of the factory knowledge through reliefs, study of treaties and non-destructive surveys. The method requires a shift from the knowledge to the intervention and valuation, that occurs the feasibility of the enhancement scenarios with assessment tools of a strategic nature. Costs and revenues are tested in the investment and management steps, to verify the feasibility. The process instructed is aimed at defining strategies and a meta-project. It developed a plan of financing and/or investment starting from social and economic requirements, given the complexity and the planimetric
Digital reconstruction after disaster: what seems to be lost
No full textThe case study we are presenting in this article is the Church of San Salvatore in Campi di Norcia. The church was built between the ninth and fifteenth centuries in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, and is a very important example of Benedictine architecture in Valnerina. It was completely destroyed by the recent earthquake that badly affected most of the region's cultural heritage. The only surviving information comes from a "virtual tour" uploaded by a local photographer on the Google Earth platform, which shows the church in January 2016. Additional information was also gathered from (non-spherical) pictures taken by other photographers with reflex cameras. The spherical photos (obtained by stitching together four pictures taken with a reflex camera with an 8 mm lens, rotated around a nodal point), processed in Agisoft Photoscan, were used as the basis for modelling the whole building with a dense point cloud. The digital model was validated using topographic measurements taken on site from the surviving masonry. This digital model was used as a reference to develop an Historic Building Information Model (HBIM). To create the HBIM (and particularly the various parts of the vault) research into the invariant parameters and the geometric genesis that led to the current appearance of the building was required. This reverse process represents the core of this research: the reconstruction following the disaster aims not only to search for the form of the lost heritage, but also to discover the cognitive processes that generated it
Polymeric 3D Printed Functional Microcantilevers for Biosensing Applications
No full textIn this study, we show for the first time the production of mass-sensitive polymeric biosensors by 3D printing technology with intrinsic functionalities. We also demonstrate the feasibility of mass-sensitive biosensors in the form of microcantilever in a one-step printing process, using acrylic acid as functional comonomer for introducing a controlled amount of functional groups that can covalently immobilize the biomolecules onto the polymer. The effectiveness of the application of 3D printed microcantilevers as biosensors is then demonstrated with their implementation in a standard immunoassay protocol. This study shows how 3D microfabrication techniques, material characterization, and biosensor development could be combined to obtain an engineered polymeric microcantilever with intrinsic functionalities. The possibility of tuning the composition of the starting photocurable resin with the addition of functional agents, and consequently controlling the functionalities of the 3D printed devices, paves the way to a new class of mass-sensing microelectromechanical system devices with intrinsic properties
Metal oxides catalysts for the synthesis of value-added chemicals from 2nd generation sugars and sugar derivatives
No full textThe present Ph.D. thesis provides some examples of innovative 2nd generation catalytic processes for the conversion of renewable raw materials into green value-added chemicals. In particular, D-glucose and some its derivatives, all ideally representing waste materials of dedicated biomasses, agricultural residues, or solid organic urban waste exploitation in the biorefinery plant, were converted into useful chemical building-blocks. After a brief introduction to the topic and the description of the experimental method, each chapter of the work is based on one or more scientific articles either published or submitted. Among the possible catalytic reactions, the hydrogenation, oxidation and hydrodeoxygenation were investigated: for this purpose, several novel catalysts were synthetized, tested and characterized. The catalysts were made from precursor solutions with the incipient wet impregnation method or with the solution combustion synthesis, depending by the catalyst type. The conversion of glucose and some glucose-derivatives was typically performed under gentle operative conditions and in aqueous mean. Pt-based catalysts were tested for glucose conversion to adipic acid in a two-step process carried out in water solution without any pH control by investigating the effect of a series of supporting materials (active carbon, alumina, silica and ceria). The process consisted in the D-saccharic acid (SacA) production by D-glucose catalytic wet air oxidation followed by a hydrodeoxygenation treatment of SacA to adipic acid (AA) with the same catalyst. The main limit of using Pt for D-glucose oxidation is represented by the catalyst inhibition operated by the first product of the reaction, the gluconic acid (GluA), which prevents the consecutive reaction of SacA formation, but a deeper investigation of the reaction scheme allowed us to assess that over Pt/alumina the consecutive oxidation of gluconic acid to SacA is slightly favored under uncontrolled pH too.We have demonstrated that a 5.2 wt.% Pt on γ-alumina sample, the catalysts presenting the larger amount of strong Brønsted acid sites, was the best material for obtaining SacA (with a molar yield of about 13.5%); afterward, by performing the halogen-promoted hydrodeoxygenation of the resulting solution, the SacA was quantitatively converted into AA (and thus the overall adipic acid molar yield from glucose was about 13.0%). Effectively, The efficient conversion of common biomass derivatives, as D-glucose, into value-added chemicals has received a great deal of attention in the last few years. Several heterogeneous catalytic systems, characterized by noble metals, have already been investigated for the Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation (CWAO) of derived biomass. Nevertheless, the redox effect of such catalysts on biobased compounds has not been described in detail. In the present thesis, some perovskite type oxides (Fe, Co, Mn) that present high redox properties and stability under hydrothermal conditions have been tested to establish their ability to convert D-glucose into C6 aldaric acid, lactic acid (LacA) and levulinic acid (LevA). The influence of the reaction temperature, and the affinity of the catalysts to hydrogen and oxygen on the distribution of the liquid products have been investigated. In the best conditions, 50.3 mol.% and 69.5 mol.% of lactic and levulinic acid have been obtained by employing LaCoO3 and LaMnO3, respectively. Apart from the oxidative effect, which has led to several oxidation products, a high reductive effect of the catalysts has enabled the conversion of some key intermediates, such as pyruvic acid (PyrA) and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), into the desired products. LaMnO3, which has resulted to be the most oxidizable/reducible catalyst over a low temperature range, has shown the best performance of the studied perovskite type oxides; it has been found to promote the conversion of hydroxymethylfurfural to levulinic acid and to give the highest overall molar yield. Moreover, performing catalysts have been synthetized through incipient wet impregnation and tested for cis,cis-muconic acid (ccMA) hydrogenation to adipic acid. Before the hydrogenation, the investigation on the solubility of ccMA dissolution in different polar solvents has been carried out by characterizing and modelling the dissolution as a function of temperature. Water, ethanol, 2-propanol and acetic acid have been investigated as solvents in the range temperatures from a 298.15 to 348.15 K. Owing to the absence of ccMA solubility data, the reliability of the adopted experimental set-up was validated comparing published and experimental solubility data of a similar compound, that is, AA. From the results, it has emerged that the employed system is appropriate for the determination of molar fractions of an organic compound dissolved in polar solvents. The molar fraction and temperature were correlated using the Apelblat equation model, which is applied for the mathematic fitting of experimental data. A total relative average deviation of 3.54% was obtained for the experimental results and the solubility data obtained with the model, thus attesting the adequacy for this study. The use of Apelblat equation also allowed to determine the apparent molar enthalpy and molar entropy of dissolution. The dissolution of ccMA in water, ethanol, 2-propanol and acetic acid, over temperatures ranging from 298.15 to 348.15 K, has been shown to be endothermic. The activity of Pt-based catalysts has been compared with a Ni-based catalyst at a gentle condition. A supported 14.2 wt.% Ni on γ-alumina converted 100% of muconic acid, yielding 99.4 mol.% of AA. Finally, the oxidative cracking of 5-keto-L-aldonic acids to tartaric acid (TarA) was successfully performed at room temperature and atmospheric pressure in a carbonate buffer (pH = 10.34), by employing various V-based catalysts. The performance of the novel heterogeneous V-based catalysts was compared with the one of a conventional homogeneous system. The effect of the catalysts was obvious and 2%VOx/ZrO2 was found to be the best catalyst for the 5-keto-aldonic acids conversion to tartaric acid. The tartaric acid selectivity was equal to 74.5% and 44.3% starting from the 5-keto-D-gluconic acid (5kGl) and 5-keto-L-galactonic acid (5kGa), respectively. The best performances in terms of tartaric acid selectivity were obtained at the beginning of reaction, and about one fourth of the carbon moles were converted into tartaric acid after 24 h of reaction. The substrate was entirely converted after 24 h indicating that several by-products were also produced during the reaction. So, an overall reaction pathway was supposed and the effect of the vanadium structure to the catalytic activity was hypothesized. Moreover, the reaction mechanism of the 5-keto-aldonic acids conversion to tartaric acid promoted by the anchoring VOx-support bond was described
Ambient groundwater flow diminishes nitrate processing in the hyporheic zone of streams
No full textModeling and experimental studies demonstrate that ambient groundwater reduces hyporheic exchange, but the implications of this observation for stream N-cycling is not yet clear. Here we utilize a simple process-based model (the Pumping and Streamline Segregation or PASS model) to evaluate N-cycling over two scales of hyporheic exchange (fluvial ripples and riffle-pool sequences), ten ambient groundwater and stream flow scenarios (five gaining and losing conditions and two stream discharges), and three biogeochemical settings (identified based on a principal component analysis of previously published measurements in streams throughout the United States). Model-data comparisons indicate that our model provides realistic estimates for direct denitrification of stream nitrate, but overpredicts nitrification and coupled nitrification-denitrification. Riffle-pool sequences are responsible for most of the N-processing, despite the fact that fluvial ripples generate 3-11 times more hyporheic exchange flux. Across all scenarios, hyporheic exchange flux and the Damköhler Number emerge as primary controls on stream N-cycling; the former regulates trafficking of nutrients and oxygen across the sediment-water interface, while the latter quantifies the relative rates of organic carbon mineralization and advective transport in streambed sediments. Vertical groundwater flux modulates both of these master variables in ways that tend to diminish stream N-cycling. Thus, anthropogenic perturbations of ambient groundwater flows (e.g., by urbanization, agricultural activities, groundwater mining, and/or climate change) may compromise some of the key ecosystem services provided by streams
La nascita del turismo in Trentino alla fine dell'Ottocento: la costruzione del Gran Hotel Trento
No full textL'articolo vuole analizzare le vicende urbane che portano alla realizzazione dell'Imperiale Hotel di Trento alla fine del XIX secolo. La costruzione del complesso alberghiero, il primo in città di una certa importanza, si inserì nel progetto politico comunale volto, a incentivare lo sviluppo turistico della regione. Paolo Oss Mazzurana, sindaco della città di Trento, a più riprese, dal 1872 al 1895, intuì le potenzialità delle attrattive naturali della regione per lo sviluppo del turismo, fonte di lavoro e ricchezza economica e sociale. Per poter realizzare questo progetto politico, il podestà capì che bisognava realizzare un vasto sistema tramviario, che avrebbe portato turisti e merci dalla città di Trento verso ogni più piccolo paese di montagna (Corsini, 1983, p. 32-34). Secondo il podestà «una sola società avrebbe fornito i turisti di biglietti circolari validi per le tramvie e per gli alberghi connessi al servizio dei trasporti» (Garbari, 1983, p. 90). Per realizzare l'opera1 «ci si sarebbe dovuti servire delle strade, per quanto possibile, delle strade esistenti e della collaborazione dei Comuni interessati [al progetto], che avrebbero» dovuto coprire parte dei costi di costruzione (Leonardi, 1976, p. 174). Le tramvie avrebbero permesso la trasformazione dell'economia prettamente agricola del Trentino con l'introduzione «del settore terziario del commercio, dei servizi e del turismo». Grazie allo sviluppo dell'industria alberghiera si sarebbe favorita anche una forte trasformazione sociale dell'intero territorio. Oltre ciò il progetto mirava a superare le differenze tra la «città» borghese e la «campagna» rurale per avvicinare i due mondi ed integrarli insieme (Corsini, 1983, p. 34-43)