84 research outputs found
High Performance & Smart Manufacturing
No full textAdditive Manufacturing can be considered as one of the key factors for sustainable economic growth, increasing competitiveness and innovative technology with the potential to transform global manufacturing industry, to influence the environmental impact and to change the European economies. In recent years, 3D printing has grown rapidly and has shown great potential in various application fields: from bioengineering, to microfluidics and electronics. There is a growing interest for 3D printing focused on the production of functional structures. The possibility to obtain functional elements by 3D printing, such as batteries, antennas, membranes, sensors etc. is one of the key points of the evolution of this technology. Research on new kinds of printable materials and the ability to control and predict their performance are essential to achieve broader use of 3-D printing. Engineered materials, specifically studied for being 3D printable and exhibiting optimized properties and multifunctionality, will provide intense potential and opportunities in a myriad of applications, resulting in better functionality of the manufactured device (e.g, biocompatibility, electrical conductivity, optical response, chemical sensitivity, mechanical behaviour...) coupled with improved printability. The main approaches in the evolution of 3D printable materials consist in working with multiple materials or nanocomposites to create new combinations that have unique properties expanding the range of 3D printable objects. This Ph.D research activity on High Performance & Smart Manufacturing has been held in Materials and Micro Systems Laboratory of Politecnico di Torino (ChiLab) and in collaboration with Microla Optoelectronics S.r.l. First, a study of Additive Manufacturing techniques, already on the market, was performed. Then the optimization of a stereolithographic printing machine was carried out. One part of the PhD research was based on the study of new smart materials, with intrinsic features that can give to the printed objects a concrete function. For this purpose, functionalized photosensitive polymers, realized by Politecnico di Torino, were used to build 3D structures. Also aromatic polymers were laser processed with the aim to make them conductive and, in the future, reliable for additive manufacturing processes. A further and important task during the PhD activity was the integration of stereolithographic processes both at micro and nanoscale. This important task was possible thanks to the fruitful collaboration with the Laser Zentrum of Hannover (LZH - Germany). At LZH laboratories, a two-photon polymerization (2PP) set-up allowed the fabrication of different nano-structures for microfluidic application. The first attempt was the fabrication of a nano-filter printed directly inside a micro-channel outlet as published in “3D printed suspended micro-filter integrated in a printed microfluidic channel”. This work, once established the process feasibility, may lead to an interesting application in Bioanalytics for the sieving of extracellular vesicles of endocytic origin
IL TRATTATO DELL’ARTE RAPPRESENTATIVA PREMEDITATA, ED ALL’IMPROVVISO. L’ “IMPRESA BELLISSIMA E PERICOLOSA” DI ANDREA PERRUCCI
No full textIl saggio esamina il famoso trattato Dell’arte rappresentativa premeditata, ed all’improvviso,
pubblicato da Andrea Perrucci a Napoli nel 1699, noto per la ricchezza
di materiali poetici relativi alla Commedia dell’Arte. Si affrontano alcune delle tematiche
salienti che affiorano tra le regole delle due parti: l’eco del pregiudizio antiteatrale
e la giustificazione morale del palcoscenico; la drammaturgia della santita` come
forma della ‘‘perfetta tragedia’’; l’influenza del pensiero gesuitico; le fonti preferite
(Lope de Vega, Boulenger, Minturno); il metodo dell’improvvisazione, i suoi rapporti
con la retorica e l’aspirazione ad un attore ‘‘perfetto’’, capace di farsi autore del proprio
teatro. La struttura dell’opera, le apparenti contraddizioni (soprattutto nel proemio),
i riferimenti personali, le affermazioni conclusive sembrano rivelare come quel
che si intendeva dovesse essere una tradizionale ‘‘poetica’’ e` un testo critico dominato
da una pulsione autobiografica incontenibile, che e` il suo tratto piu` inquietante e gli
conferisce un’indiscutibile modernita`
La Stellidaura vendicante
No full textAlmanacco in occasione della messinscena de La Stellidaura vendicante di Perrucci-Provenzale nell'ambito del Festival der alten Musik di Innsbruck (Austria)
Chapter Burladores e Convitati a Napoli tra Sei e Settecento, da Perrucci ad Abri (e oltre)
No full textThis essay provides a comparison of select testimonies of the enduring tradition of Convitato di pietra (The Stone Guest) in Central and Southern Italy from the late 17th to the early 19th century. The text by Perrucci, the scenario from the Casamarciano collection, the anonymous revision located in the Italian Castle Archive at the Beinecke Library at Yale, and Abri’s opera tragica (which relies significantly on Perrucci’s setting) testify to the longevity of this plot – as well as of the Spanish repertoire – on the stage, in spite of notable changes, which reveal dramatic transformations in taste and sensitivity on the part of theatre practitioners and the audience
The occupants' perspective as catalyst for less energy intensive buildings
No full textEnvironmental and life quality low standards signal that the well-balanced relation between building and dwelling is jeopardized. Reliable data should be combined with the evaluation given by users. In fact, the study of occupants' perception and behaviour supplies designers with meaningful feedback and enables them to detect solutions which meet users' requirements better and reduce the gap between expected and actual building performance. This paper presents part of an operational approach that aims to rebuild the synergy among architectural design, building management and use: an in-depth enquiry conducted through surveys and questionnaires, that offers a new perspective aimed at validating the actual effectiveness and suitability of design solutions. The innovative aspect of this methodology is the contextual analysis and evaluation of objective and subjective aspects. The related outcomes concern the definition of actual, prior areas of action and strategies that are congruent with both building physical characteristics and people's perception
Environmental sustainability requires a synergy between urban and building upgrading
No full textThe paper presents the theoretical and applied research carried out in the Department of Architecture, Roma Tre University, for the upgrading of a historical working class neighborhood in Rome: Testaccio. The main objective is to face the discomfort, consequent to the heat island effect and heavy traffic, acting both on private and public spaces with environmentally sustainable strategies. The two main topics are:
At urban level, the use of an Italian prescriptive tool: the "Environmental Island" for improving sustainability and liveability of Testaccio public spaces and streets. Strategies aimed at eliminating through traffic, at reducing local traffic flow and at taming its speed, at increasing permeable surfaces and “green and blue” features, at promoting sustainable transport modes help to increase besides accessibility and safety, comfort. They indeed reduce atmospheric, acoustic and visual pollution as well as overheating, making thus pedestrian and bike networks become attractive even to older and vulnerable people, otherwise threatened by health problems and stress.
At block level, the upgrading of semi-public and private spaces by deep energy retrofit and use of bioclimatic solutions in order to improve buildings efficiency and thence to reduce their environmental impact on outdoor spaces. Strategies aimed at decreasing gas consumptions and emissions and at increasing evaporative cooling and green features help to control overheating and air pollution. The research was carried out by academic staff together with students of the Course “City & Environment”, of the Master Degree in Urban Design (first topic) and with architects attending a post degree course in Eco-sustainable Design ( second topic ).
At urban level, after in depth analyses and assessments, made using methods developed and tested in previous European research, applied also in other areas of Rome, maps were drawn showing were and how to act in order to solve problems detected both as experts and by residents. Connections were made among different aspects in order to study their interrelation with the aim to find solutions solving more problems at one time: traffic and activities in relation to air pollution and noise, to materials used on streets and façades, to green features, to the most used pedestrian paths etc. For the assessment specific thresholds were used with reference to laws, standards and recommendations. Congruent interventions were proposed focusing on innovative technological devices and natural materials.
At block level, methodologies already tested in previous research were used both to make surveys and energy audits; objective parameters and requirements/expectations of the dwellers, participating to the design process, were analyzed in order to consider them in identifying the proposals. These concern terrace roofs, facades and courtyards, are environmentally conscious and of passive solar type; they focus indeed on the use of natural materials (green roofs and walls, permeable paving) and renewable energies (photovoltaic and geothermal). The final products were presented at various stages in public seminars to local administration and political staff as well as to dwellers associations and citizens, who appreciated the possibility of choosing among alternative proposals and their feasibility, in technical and economical terms
Reduced Dynamic Coupling Between Spontaneous BOLD-CBF Fluctuations in Older Adults: A Dual-Echo pCASL Study
No full textMeasurement of the dynamic coupling between spontaneous Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) fluctuations has been recently proposed as a method to probe resting-state brain physiology. Here we investigated how the dynamic BOLD-CBF coupling during resting-state is affected by aging. Fifteen young subjects and 17 healthy elderlies were studied using a dual-echo pCASL sequence. We found that the dynamic BOLD-CBF coupling was markedly reduced in elderlies, in particular in the left supramarginal gyrus, an area known to be involved in verbal working memory and episodic memory. Moreover, correcting for temporal shift between BOLD and CBF timecourses resulted in an increased correlation of the two signals for both groups, but with a larger increase for elderlies. However, even after temporal shift correction, a significantly decreased correlation was still observed for elderlies in the left supramarginal gyrus, indicating that the age-related dynamic BOLD-CBF uncoupling in this region is more pronounced and can be only partially explained with a simple time-shift between the two signals. Interestingly, these results were observed in a group of elderlies with normal cognitive functions, suggesting that the study of dynamic BOLD-CBF coupling during resting-state is a promising technique, potentially able to provide early biomarkers of functional changes in the aging brain
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