Transformation in Composition

This study enlarges on the notion of composition in landscape architecture. It builds upon the ‘Delft method’, which elaborates composition as a methodological framework from its sister discipline architecture. At the same time takes a critical stance in respect to this framework, informed by recent epistemological developments in landscape architecture such as the site-specificity and process discourses. The notion of composition is examined from a historical and theoretical perspective, before turning to an examination of the brownfield park project realised in the period 1975-2015. These projects emerge as an important laboratory and catalyst for developments in landscape architecture, whereby contextual, process, and formal-aesthetic aspects emerge as central themes. The thesis of this research is that a major theoretical and methodological expansion of the notion of composition can be distilled from the brownfield park project, in which seemingly irreconcilable paradigms such as site and process are incorporated. By extension, the study elaborates on the disciplinary specificity of landscape architecture as distinct to its sister disciplines architecture and urbanism, propositioning a ‘radical maturation’ of the foundations of the discipline in the period 1975 – 2015, via the brownfield park project. A metaphor for this process is offered by the phenomenon of ecdysis in arthropods (such as the blue swimmer crab), whereby the growth from juvenile to adult takes place in stages involving the moulting of an inelastic exoskeleton. Once shed, a larger exoskeleton is formed, whose shape and character is significantly different to its forebears. The research sketches the contours of a similar ‘disciplinary ecdysis’ in the period 1975-2015, whereby an evolution of design-as-composition praxis in landscape architecture takes place. In the slipstream of these findings, the research sheds new light on the shifts in the form and content of the city itself in this period, and the agency of the urban park in the problematique of the contemporary urban realm. In the cases studied, the park typology has been able to address problems that much of the traditional apparatus of spatial planning and design has failed to do. By extension, the study reveals that many of the paradigms of urban planning and design are in need of major review in the context of deindustrialization. The urban park typology – in its guise as the brownfield park – also appears also able to shape and qualify larger urban regions. As such, the research highlights the rise of brownfield lands and their impact on the fabric of the city, the life of their inhabitants and the paradigms that dominate urban cultures, in turn fundamentally revising the definitions and agencies of notions such as city, nature and landscape

Transformation in Composition:

This study enlarges on the notion of composition in landscape architecture. It builds upon the ‘Delft method’, which elaborates composition as a methodological framework from its sister discipline architecture. At the same time takes a critical stance in respect to this framework, informed by recent epistemological developments in landscape architecture such as the site-specificity and process discourses. The notion of composition is examined from a historical and theoretical perspective, before turning to an examination of the brownfield park project realised in the period 1975-2015. These projects emerge as an important laboratory and catalyst for developments in landscape architecture, whereby contextual, process, and formal-aesthetic aspects emerge as central themes. The thesis of this research is that a major theoretical and methodological expansion of the notion of composition can be distilled from the brownfield park project, in which seemingly irreconcilable paradigms such as site and process are incorporated. By extension, the study elaborates on the disciplinary specificity of landscape architecture as distinct to its sister disciplines architecture and urbanism, propositioning a ‘radical maturation’ of the foundations of the discipline in the period 1975 – 2015, via the brownfield park project. A metaphor for this process is offered by the phenomenon of ecdysis in arthropods (such as the blue swimmer crab), whereby the growth from juvenile to adult takes place in stages involving the moulting of an inelastic exoskeleton. Once shed, a larger exoskeleton is formed, whose shape and character is significantly different to its forebears. The research sketches the contours of a similar ‘disciplinary ecdysis’ in the period 1975-2015, whereby an evolution of design-as-composition praxis in landscape architecture takes place. In the slipstream of these findings, the research sheds new light on the shifts in the form and content of the city itself in this period, and the agency of the urban park in the problematique of the contemporary urban realm. In the cases studied, the park typology has been able to address problems that much of the traditional apparatus of spatial planning and design has failed to do. By extension, the study reveals that many of the paradigms of urban planning and design are in need of major review in the context of deindustrialization. The urban park typology – in its guise as the brownfield park – also appears also able to shape and qualify larger urban regions. As such, the research highlights the rise of brownfield lands and their impact on the fabric of the city, the life of their inhabitants and the paradigms that dominate urban cultures, in turn fundamentally revising the definitions and agencies of notions such as city, nature and landscape

Dynamic characterization of soils by means seismic passive measures and their utility in Seismic Microzonation studies

RIASSUNTO Le vibrazioni ambientali contengono informazioni sulla struttura di velocità delle onde di taglio nel sottosuolo che può essere stimata dalla curva di dispersione delle velocità di fase delle onde di Rayleigh ottenuta mediante le misure di array sismico. La curva dei rapporti spettrali H/V (o HVSR) ottenuta dalle misure a stazione singola fornisce una stima diretta della frequenza di risonanza del sito e contiene informazioni sulla velocità media delle onde S e sullo spessore totale della copertura sedimentaria. Entrambe le curve possono essere utilizzate in una procedura di inversione congiunta con lo scopo di ottenere un profilo di VS del sottosuolo più dettagliato. L’uso di queste tecniche di sismica passiva finalizzate alla caratterizzazione dinamica dei terreni sta crescendo significativamente negli ultimi anni e, in particolare, la loro applicazione nel contesto degli studi di Microzonazione Sismica sta diventando di fondamentale importanza. Questa tesi di dottorato è caratterizzata da una natura applicativa. I suoi scopi principali sono stati: • verificare e valutare l’affidabilità delle tecniche di sismica passiva in presenza di una marcata inversione di velocità delle onde S nel sottosuolo; • verificare la capacità informativa dell’uso estensivo di tali metodi, identificando anche le eterogeneità geologiche laterali alla scala che va dalle centinaia di metri alle decine di chilometri. Gli obiettivi e le linee di ricerca trattati in questa tesi sono finalizzati a migliorare il potenziale informativo delle misure di sismica passiva per scopi connessi agli studi di Microzonazione Sismica. I primi tre Capitoli sono dedicati alla rassegna dello stato dell’arte riguardante l’origine e la natura delle vibrazioni ambientali e le differenti procedure di analisi adottate per le misure a stazione singola e per quelle di array sismico. Inoltre, nel Capitolo 4 è stata fornita una rassegna dei metodi finalizzati alla stima del profilo di VS, comprendente sia gli approcci semplificati, sia le più comuni procedure di inversione. Per conseguire il primo scopo del lavoro, è stato realizzato uno studio nell’Arcipelago Maltese, dove la stratigrafia dei siti indagati è caratterizzata dalla presenza di uno spesso strato sepolto a bassa velocità delle onde S. Questa configurazione geologica è chiaramente visibile in affioramento e facilmente deducibile consultando la carta geologica. Questo studio ha dimostrato l’ottima capacità delle tecniche di sismica passiva e della procedura di inversione congiunta basata sugli Algoritmi Genetici nel determinare sia la presenza che le caratteristiche dello strato a bassa velocità nel sottosuolo. Inoltre, è stato mostrato che la curva di dispersione effettiva delle velocità delle onde di Rayleigh ottenuta attraverso il metodo ESAC rappresenta un eccellente indicatore per identificare questa particolare configurazione di sottosuolo. Per quanto riguarda il secondo obiettivo della tesi, nel Capitolo 6 sono stati mostrati e analizzati i risultati di un utilizzo estensivo delle prospezioni di simica passiva effettuate nell’area danneggiata dalla sequenza sismica di Maggio-Giugno 2012 in Emilia Romagna (Italia Settentrionale). L’ispezione visuale delle curve HVSR ha permesso di identificare tre zone dove è attesa la stessa risposta sismica. Nonostante gli andamenti generali delle curve siano effetto della configurazione del sottosuolo, i rapporti spettrali H/V mostrano una significativa dipendenza alle condizioni meteo-climatiche: in particolare, le ampiezze dei picchi in bassa frequenza (< 0.5 Hz) sono significativamente correlate con l’attività delle onde del mare nel Mediterraneo Centrale. Tuttavia, le frequenze di risonanza stimate dai picchi HVSR appaiono persistenti e sono state usate per stimare la profondità dei contrasti di impedenza responsabili dei fenomeni di risonanza sismica individuati. A questo scopo, sono stati stimati i valori di VS media usando una procedura semplificata vincolata dalle curve di dispersione delle onde di Rayleigh ricavate dagli array sismici. In questo modo, sono state individuate due interfacce principali, una alla profondità di 50-100 m e l’altra a 500-600 m. Infine, con lo scopo di effettuare un’identificazione automatica delle aree a larga scala individuate da curve HVSR simili, nel Capitolo 7 è stata proposta una procedura basata sull’Analisi delle Componenti Principali (PCA). Dopo aver definito i criteri di raggruppamento, è stato osservato che questa tecnica è in grado di raggruppare insieme simili curve H/V, ottenendo in questo modo una prima identificazione delle eterogeneità a larga scala dell’area di studio. Un’altra caratteristica significativa della PCA è l’immediato riconoscimento dei pattern principali che rappresentano la varianza complessiva del dataset originale. Inoltre, i casi studio analizzati dimostrano che questa tecnica e le procedure di raggruppamento adottate discriminano particolarmente bene le eterogeneità a larga scala in contesti caratterizzati da variazioni geologiche significative. ABSTRACT Ambient vibrations contain information on the local S-wave velocity structure, which can be obtained from the Rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion curve by means of seismic array measurements. The horizontal-to-vertical (HVSR or H/V) spectral ratio from single stations provides a direct estimate of the soil resonance frequency and also contains information on the average S-wave velocity and the total thickness of the sedimentary cover. Both curves can be used in a joint inversion procedure in order to obtain a more detailed VS profile of the subsoil. The use of these passive seismic techniques for dynamic characterization of soils is significantly growing in the last few years and, in particular, their application in the framework of Seismic Microzonation studies is becoming of paramount importance. This PhD thesis is characterized by an applicative nature. Its main goals were: • to verify and evaluate the reliability of the passive seismic techniques in presence of a significant S-wave velocity inversion in the subsoil; • to check the informative capability of the extensive use of the ambient vibration prospecting, also identifying the lateral geological heterogeneities at the scale ranging from hundreds of meters to tens of kilometers. The objectives and the research lines dealt in this dissertation are devoted to improve the informative potential of the passive seismic measurements for purposes related to Seismic Microzonation studies. The first three Chapters of the thesis were devoted to review the state of the art concerning the origin and the nature of the ambient vibrations and the different analysis procedures adopted for the single station and seismic array measurements. Moreover, in the Chapter 4 a review of the methods aimed to estimate the VS profile was given, both concerning the simplified approaches and the most common inversion procedures. In order to accomplish the first purpose of the dissertation, a study is carried out in the Maltese Archipelago, where the stratigraphy of the investigated sites is characterized by the presence of a thick buried low S-wave velocity layer. This geological setting is clearly visible in outcropping and easily deduced by using the geological map. This study is showed in Chapter 5 and it demonstrated the optimal capability of the passive seismic techniques and the joint inversion procedure based on Genetic Algorithms in resolving both the presence and the characteristics of the thick buried low-velocity layer in the stratigraphy. Moreover, it has been shown that the effective Rayleigh wave dispersion curves obtained using the ESAC method represents an excellent marker to identify this particular subsoil characteristic. As concerns the second objective of this thesis, the results of an extensive use of the ambient vibration prospecting carried out in the area damaged by May-June 2012 seismic sequence in Emilia Romagna (Northern Italy) are summarized and analyzed in Chapter 6. The visual inspection of the HVSR curves allowed to identify three zones where analogous seismic response is expected. Despite the fact these general trends are the effect of the subsoil configuration, H/V spectral ratios show a significant dependence on meteo-climatic conditions: in particular, HVSR peak amplitudes in the low frequency range (< 0.5 Hz) correlate significantly with the sea wave activity in the Central Mediterranean. Anyway, resonance frequencies estimated from HVSR peaks appear persistent and have been used to estimate the local depth of impedance contrasts responsible for seismic resonance phenomena. To this purpose, average VS values were assessed using a simplified procedure constrained by Rayleigh dispersion curves deduced from the seismic arrays. In this way, two main interfaces have been detected: at depths of about 50–100 and 500–600 m. Finally, in order to perform an automatic identification of the large scale areas detected by similar HVSR curves, a procedure based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was proposed in Chapter 7. After defining the grouping criteria, It was observed that this technique is able to group together similar HVSR curves, obtaining in this way a first identification of the large scale heterogeneities of the study area. Another significant characteristic of PCA is the immediate recognition of the main patterns representing the overall variance of the original dataset. Moreover, the analyzed study cases demonstrate that this technique and the adopted grouping procedure discriminate especially well the large scale heterogeneities in contexts where significant geological changes occur

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

Astronautics and aeronautics, 1963 chronology on science, technology, and policy

Chronological compilation of events relating to space exploration and exploitatio

Anales del XIII Congreso Argentino de Ciencias de la Computación (CACIC)

Contenido: Arquitecturas de computadoras Sistemas embebidos Arquitecturas orientadas a servicios (SOA) Redes de comunicaciones Redes heterogéneas Redes de Avanzada Redes inalámbricas Redes móviles Redes activas Administración y monitoreo de redes y servicios Calidad de Servicio (QoS, SLAs) Seguridad informática y autenticación, privacidad Infraestructura para firma digital y certificados digitales Análisis y detección de vulnerabilidades Sistemas operativos Sistemas P2P Middleware Infraestructura para grid Servicios de integración (Web Services o .Net)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Anales del XIII Congreso Argentino de Ciencias de la Computación (CACIC)

Contenido: Arquitecturas de computadoras Sistemas embebidos Arquitecturas orientadas a servicios (SOA) Redes de comunicaciones Redes heterogéneas Redes de Avanzada Redes inalámbricas Redes móviles Redes activas Administración y monitoreo de redes y servicios Calidad de Servicio (QoS, SLAs) Seguridad informática y autenticación, privacidad Infraestructura para firma digital y certificados digitales Análisis y detección de vulnerabilidades Sistemas operativos Sistemas P2P Middleware Infraestructura para grid Servicios de integración (Web Services o .Net)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI