102,622 research outputs found
SURVEY, ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND COMMUNICATION: THE MAUSOLEUM OF THEODORIC IN RAVENNA (ITALY)
No full textThe Mausoleum of Theodoric (520 ca.), one of Ravenna’s most globally renouned monuments and UNESCO heritage site, has been object of archeoastronomical research in the past years. This paper examines the orientation of the building as well as other elements of the architecture, especially the small openings of the building, to investigate their possible archaeoastronomical significance. The architectural survey was carried out with a laser scanner device (Faro-Focus 3D, software Scene) while the textures were extracted using digital photomodelling software. Starting from the archaeoastronomical analysis, a 3D model was developed to check astronomical phenomena and allow the communication of scientific content through several forms of media. This second part of the contribution is part of the experiments conducted by the research group (Incerti and Iurilli 2014), (Incerti and Iurilli 2015), focusing on new means of multimedia communication, both interactive and not. The research looks at virtual models as a means of edutainment, aiming to maximise the fruition of artifacts and cultural sites
All optical 2R regeneration systems for broadband agile dense wavelength division multiplexing transparent optical networks
No full textRecentemente è stata notata una crescita dei servizi multimediali richiesti dagli utenti finali; in tal modo numerose soluzioni sono state implementate per garantire elevati bit rate e qualità del servizio necessari per questo tipo di applicazioni. Le reti completamente ottiche sono state stese in molte nazioni (Giappone, Corea, Cina) per fornire servizi a banda larga fino a casa dell'utente.
Conseguentemente, sono richiesti dispositivi in grado di operare nel dominio ottico in modo tale da evitare il noto “collo di bottiglia” derivante dalle conversioni di formato O/E/O (ottico/elettrico/ottico). In questo modo, nuovi tipi di sistemi (per esempio: optical processing e passive optical network) in grado di operare nel dominio completamente ottico sono richiesti poiché solo questo tipo di soluzione è la miglior strada per offrire alte prestazioni in termini di servizi, rate e riduzione dei costi per bit.
Il lavoro eseguito durante questo dottorato di ricerca è stato incentrato sull'evoluzione di dispositivi per la rigenerazione ottica in grado di operare al contempo una Ri-amplificazione e Ri-sagomatura (2R) dei segnali ottici. Studi ed esperimenti sono stati effettuati nei laboratori dell’ ISCOM sfruttando la possibilità di rigenerazione completamente ottica di un dispositivo 2R multi-canale in grado di lavorare e gestire più clients nel medesimo istante temporale. Il sistema è stato implementato in uno scenario DWDM (Dense Wavelegth Division Multiplexing); inoltre, lavorando nel dominio completamente ottico sono state eliminate le conversioni di formato (O/E/O).
Il sistema di rigenerazione è basato sulla modulazione di fase presente all'interno della fibra ottica usata per ottenere, sotto particolari condizioni, la generazione di nuove repliche del segnale originario che si vuole rigenerare. Queste nuove repliche, essendo posizionate a nuove lunghezze d’onda, possono essere usate sia per ottenere una conversione di lunghezza d’onda sia per ottenere una rigenerazione ottica dei segnali. Ciascuna replica, infatti, è caratterizzata dall’ avere un andamento simile alle funzioni di Bessel in grado di eliminare il rumore accumulatosi durante la trasmissione dei segnali.
L’idea di questo lavoro è basato su un approccio multi-lunghezza d’onda in modo tale da poter usare un solo dispositivo per fornire una rigenerazione 2R completamente ottica ai numerosi utenti operanti a 10 Gbps.
La capacità dei sistemi, implementati nei laboratori ISCOM, di risagomare i segnali, è stata confermata sperimentalmente in termini di misurazioni di diagramma ad occhio dei segnali di uscita e dalle curve di BER (Bit Error Rate).A recent increase of multimedia service demand from end-users has been noticed, thus several solutions have been implemented to guarantee the high rate and relative QoS (Quality of Service) needed for these kind of services. All optical networks have been deployed in many countries (Japan, Korea, China, at all) in order to supply broadband services to the home.
Consequently, devices able to operate in optical domain are requested in order to avoid the so called “bottle-neck” coming from the O/E/O data conversion format. Thus, new kind of systems (optical processing and passive optical networks, at all) able to operate in photonic domain are requested because only this kind of solution is the better way to offer high performances in term of services, rate and low cost per bit.
The work performed during this PhD program has been focused on the evolution of regeneration devices able to perform Re-amp and Re-shaping also know as 2R. Studies and experiments have been carried out at the ISCOM labs exploiting the possibility to a multi-channel 2R all optical regeneration device which is able to work with different client signals at the same time. The system has been implemented in a dense WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) scenario. Moreover, working completely in optical domain, the format conversion (O/E/O) is avoided. The regeneration system is based on phase modulation present in the fiber and used to obtain, under particular conditions, the generation of new signal replica.
These new replica, being placed at new different wavelengths can be used both to reach a wavelength conversion and to obtain an all optical regeneration effect. Each replica, in fact, is characterized by a Bessel like transfer function able to clean the noise accumulated along the signal transmission.
The idea of this work is based on a multi-wavelength approach, thus only one device can be used to provide all optical 2R regeneration to several client signals at 10 Gbps at the same time.
The ability of the systems, implemented at the ISCOM labs, to reshape the signals, has been experimentally confirmed in terms of eyes diagrams and BER (Bit Error Rate) measurements
The ocular albinism type 1 protein, an intracellular G protein-coupled receptor, regulates melanosome transport in pigment cells
No full textThe protein product of the ocular albinism type 1 gene, named OA1, is a pigment cell-specific G protein-coupled receptor exclusively localized to intracellular organelles, namely lysosomes and melanosomes. Loss of OA1 function leads to the formation of macromelanosomes, suggesting that this receptor is implicated in organelle biogenesis, however the mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of the disease remains obscure. We report here the identification of an unexpected abnormality in melanosome distribution both in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and skin melanocytes of Oa1-knock-out (KO) mice, consisting in a displacement of the organelles from the central cytoplasm towards the cell periphery. Despite their depletion from the microtubule (MT)-enriched perinuclear region, Oa1-KO melanosomes were able to aggregate at the centrosome upon disruption of the actin cytoskeleton or expression of a dominant-negative construct of myosin Va. Consistently, quantification of organelle transport in living cells revealed that Oa1-KO melanosomes displayed a severe reduction in MT-based motility; however, this defect was rescued to normal following inhibition of actin-dependent capture at the cell periphery. Together, these data point to a defective regulation of organelle transport in the absence of OA1 and imply that the cytoskeleton might represent a downstream effector of this receptor. Furthermore, our results enlighten a novel function for OA1 in pigment cells and suggest that ocular albinism type 1 might result from a different pathogenetic mechanism than previously thought, based on an organelle-autonomous signalling pathway implicated in the regulation of both membrane traffic and transport
The influence of climate on the distribution of lichens: a case study in a borderline area (Liguria, NW Italy)
No full textThe purposes of this article are to quantify the relationship between epiphytic lichen distribution and macroclimatic variables in the study area and to provide a case study for evaluating the predictive role of epiphytic lichens as bioclimatic indicators. The study was carried out in the Liguria region (NWItaly), a small (5432 km2) borderline area, where phytoclimatic features range from the dry Mediterranean to the Alpine in a few kilometers. Epiphytic lichen diversity was sampled using a standardized protocol [Asta et al (2002) In: Nimis et al (eds) Monitoring with lichens: monitoring lichens. Kluwer, Dordrecht]. Abundance of the species in the sampling sites was related to macroclimatic parameters (yearly average temperature and rainfall) and non-parametric multivariate models were calculated to find significative relationships among predictive and response
variables. A total of 59 species showed highly significant relation with macroclimatic parameters. Four groups were selected, by means of a cluster analysis, related to four climatic niches (warm-humid, cold-humid, mesothermic-humid, warm-dry). Distributional pattern of the groups in the survey area showed a good correspondence with the bioclimatic units of Liguria region described by Nimis [(2003) Checklist of the Lichens of Italy 3.0. University of T r i e s t e , D e p t o f B i o l o g y . h t t p : / /
www.dbiodbs.univ.trieste.it. Cited 1 Jun 2006]. A significant subset of epiphytic lichen species in the study area have been proved to be efficient bioclimatic indicator and it is supposed to give good results to monitor climatic changes, in a long-term perspective
Days of Architetecture . Sense_the_exhibition, NEW WAY TO LIVE SARAJEVO, Sarajevo Earns Natural Shared Environment, he Regeneration of the Marshall Tito Barracks
No full textThe regeneration of the Kasarna Marsal Tito is an opportunity to transform a former barracks on the University Campus, today dismissed. The Campus is therefore considered here as an urban part of experimental nature, both in its more autonomous expression and in that of being an integrated element in the urban fabric; a university environment that can become a key community for the development and regeneration of a circular city. Working on the mutation of the area of the former Kasarna Marsal Tito and on its existing architectures and spaces, therefore, does not only imply simply preserving them, protecting them, fixing them, but that it is also necessary to proceed further, through a sustainable circular system of overlapping - an overwriting of places and of the existing buildings and inserting different philosophies into current lifes, shapes, spaces and materials. The application of the method refers to the concept of a circular system: a model that puts back into circulation resources that have already been used but that aren’t yet totally obsolescent, so that it is possible to obtain not only primary material (recycling) but also a new device by converting waste into value. A device that results from the integration between what exists and new insertions, implemented via the logic of minimum intervention. A project strategy based on urban insertions, or Clusters, that are punctually able to revitalize the object itself first and then the whole environment, through an osmotic principle, connected through an open space made up of paths and services, which act as a single background and connection of the whole complex.
This approach allowed the articulation of projects through different compositional grammars including interventions at different scales and on different spaces: a sort of new urban metabolism. The tools used, precisely because they have been generated by strategy and not by formal language, have the characteristic of being adaptive to the project, and are able to satisfy the possible reconfigurations over time. We thus worked through a series of juxtaposed figures, hybridized together to interpret the previous layers and introduce new ones. The strategy has therefore used adaptive tools that include interventions at different scales and on physical and digital spaces:
Grafting: with the tactics of Landmark, Density, Urban Markers and Box in the Box
Parasite: with the tactics of Adaptive prostheses
Border: in its meaning of Limit / Edge / Inhabited Margin
Level 0: open spaces as a connection system, platform ground in the form of a vacuum or fabric, and social capacitor
In-between: with Infill and Pocket Park
The overall result is to exchange an overall replacement intervention project, with a generative intervention project, able to promote a solution for the recondi-tioning of the existing and a continuous mutation so as to make the project itself adaptable to the flow of time. Work in and with time
Regime Shift by an Exotic Nitrogen-Fixing Shrub Mediates Plant Facilitation in Primary Succession
No full textEcosystem invasion by non-native, nitrogen-fixing species is a global phenomenon with serious ecological consequences. However, in the Mediterranean basin few studies addressed the impact of invasion by nitrogen-fixing shrubs on soil quality and hydrological properties at local scale, and the possible effects on succession dynamics and ecosystem invasibility by further species. In this multidisciplinary study we investigated the impact of Genista aetnensis (Biv.) DC., an exotic nitrogen-fixing shrub, on the Vesuvius Grand Cone (Southern Italy). Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that the invasion of G. aetnensis has a significant impact on soil quality, soil hydrological regime, local microclimate and plant community structure, and that its impact increases during the plant ontogenetic cycle. We showed that G. aetnensis, in a relatively short time-span (i.e. ~ 40 years), has been able to build-up an island of fertility under its canopy, by accumulating considerable stocks of C, N, and P in the soil, and by also improving the soil hydrological properties. Moreover, G. aetnensis mitigates the daily range of soil temperature, reducing the exposure of coexisting plants to extremely high temperatures and water loss by soil evaporation, particularly during the growing season. Such amelioration of soil quality, coupled with the mitigation of below-canopy microclimatic conditions, has enhanced plant colonization of the barren Grand Cone slopes, by both herbaceous and woody species. These results suggest that the invasion of G. aetnensis could eventually drive to the spread of other, more resource-demanding exotic species, promoting alternative successional trajectories that may dramatically affect the local landscape. Our study is the first record of the invasion of G. aetnensis, an additional example of the regime shifts driven by N-fixing shrubs in Mediterranean region. Further studies are needed to identity specific management practices that can limit the spread and impacts of this species
MACROLOTTO 0. hibrid hutong
No full textPrato as flexible city.
The research of the Architectural Design Laboratories of the third year of the University of Ferrara has focused, over the last two years, on the city of Prato.
Prato is a case of what we call as “flexible city”, as social experimentation lab, architecture and urban plan-ning, which due to its size and its social context sees accelerated the processes that lead the “post-crisis” city .
Prato is a city that relies, from the medieval age, his wealth on the commerce as well as the “regeneration” of the materials as a generator of wealth, economic and social. Famous for its manufacturing industry, which was originally established by the reuse of “rags” and that led to the birth - since the fourteenth century - the “carded fabric”, it still is part of one of the most important bought for the Italian economy and Europe: the textile manufacture.
An industry that has led, over the last sixty years, the residence of a foreign community, mostly Chinese, who today is worth about a quarter of the entire population of the city.
A community that is appropriate - at the beginning - some economic and urban interstitial spaces but that gradually increased its presence up to transform whole portions of the city in the eastern islands.
Focus
Prato become a city “scenario.” An urban and theatrical body at the same time. As Luca Ronconi has shown in the ‘70s with his “Laboratory Prato”. A laboratory where - thanks to temporary structures designed by Gae Aulenti - the city becomes a Stage. A laboratory that allowed some of the first conversions of indu-strial heritage. With part of the largest textile mill in the city, said “The Fabbricone” which became what is now, the avantgarde theater”Fabbricone” .
Prato as “urban laboratory”, as Bernardo Secchi called it during the project for the new Master Plan. Plan that has led to the clear recognizability in the urban and functional area of the Macrolotto Zero. An area in which production, residence, infrastructure constitute a homogeneous set of Production City – as La Chaus du Fond for watches - a few hundred meters from the historical center. An area that now is recognizable as the Chinatown of Prato.
Macrolotto, that, with the former area of the intramura hospital are at the core of Labs projects of the third year of the Faculty of Architecture of Ferrara. And if Macrolotto regeneration may, in addition to put the focus of the projects and its places, take the character of an Hybrid Hutong where the Mediterranean city - Flexible - hybridizes with the Chinese city thanks the public space such as points of cultural union on which the architecture can work (in a sort of overlap between the two historical models that work like common point), the former hospital area sees an innovative path for architectural research that comes from desire to “design the demolition” as the area of , the former hospital is already planned its demolition to make way for a park of three hectares within the historic walls. So avoid the black hole of the scrap yard, but rather a progressive path - part of a larger operation which is connected to the recycling of macrolotto and beyond - who see disassembly / spolio and re-use of the material is the former hospital , a time of possible - con-temporary - use, so as to accompany the disposal towards the regeneration in a path as much as possible in continuity and without the holes blacks resulting from barriers of traditional shipyards.
Prato as a challenge to the conventions. Relying on the fact that its structure has, always, he showed an absorption capacity of the architectural and social dynamics that generally see their presence in other well-sized cities.
Prato as flexible cities and urban prototype of the twenty-first century, and laboratory of the globalized province.
Design Strategies.
Landmarks
Parasites
Urban Places
Memory Grid
Set Design
The exhibition wants the presence of A1 panels with project proposals (35 projects), two video installation and a Site Specifi
Residual swing suppression of suspended loads using parametric acceleration profiles
No full textThe paper presents a motion planning method for swing suppression of suspended loads transported by bridge or gantry cranes. Acting on the reference motion command of the trolley and using a parametric acceleration profile, it is possible to avoid the generation of residual oscillations, without changing the motion time and the total displacement which must be covered by the trolley.
This technique can be easily implemented on an actual crane, provided that a servomotor with position and/or velocity feedback is available for the motion control of the trolley
Vibration control of a SCARA manipulator using pseudo-polynomial motion laws
No full textThe paper describes a motion planning procedure aimed to vibration control of industrial robots for assembly operations.
The proposed technique is based on a "pre-shaping" of the motion profiles assigned to each degree of freedom of the machine.
A mathematical model is used to simulate the dynamic behaviour of the manipulator and an optimization procedure, based on mathematical
programming techniques, is employed for the automatic selection of the motion laws that allow vibration reduction.
Some numerical results are presented in the final part of the paper, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the
proposed approach
Egnatius Cazzaniga, Incerti Auctoris De Lapsu Susannae (De Lapsu Virginis Consecratae)
No full textPréaux Jean G. Egnatius Cazzaniga, Incerti Auctoris De Lapsu Susannae (De Lapsu Virginis Consecratae). In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 18, fasc. 2, 1949. pp. 455-456
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