3,119 research outputs found
Teaching and Learning of Cultural Heritage: Engaging Education, Professional Training, and Experimental Activities
The preservation of cultural heritage through education and training has always been a
relevant issue and, sure enough, can contribute to the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development
Goals of Agenda 2030 (e.g., 4: Quality education, 8: Decent work and economic growth, 11:
Sustainable cities and communities). The pandemic experience substantially influenced this topic for
two key reasons. First, it has revolutionized the approach to teaching and learning activities, involving
technological and digital innovations in this area for extreme and urgent necessities. The second
aspect is that it has encouraged the rediscovery of minor heritages closer to one’s own territorial
identity, strengthening the link with the local community. Understanding the role and importance of
cultural heritage begins in the school; therefore, education is an essential and indispensable stage. At
all educational levels, beginning with primary school, the necessary training activities for specific
professional figures should be implemented. The transformation related to the cultural heritage
professional figure must include both awareness of heritage value and excellent practical and theoretical
skills. The research presented focuses on proposing new training paradigms that are highly
professionalizing and involving
Towards Master Data Management for Cultural Heritage: the Sacri Monti web platform
This paper focuses on managing the Cultural Heritage maintenance process through web platforms, exploring a data-driven new approach that relies on the framework of Master Data Management (MDM). The MDM framework is based on data quality, revisioning and auditing of information, and the Microsoft SQL Server Master Data Services (MDS) was used. It is a highly customizable commercial tool that proved to be effective and able to manage extended and articulated databases and provide stability and long-term software support. MDS provides powerful tools to avoid duplicates, ensure data quality, and record all the modifications that occurred on the dataset over time. These are key features to build a reliable platform for information management of complex CH assets. The paper presents some first tests applied for the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy case of study. It is a UNESCO wide religious architectural complex site in northern Italy’s mountainous part. The paper compares approaches and previous experiences of Sacri Monti management using web platform information systems, such as the BIM3DSG, Chimera, and Main10ance, to support Sacri Monti management activity
Chemical defence by sterols in the freshwater ciliate Stentor polymorphus
Heterotrich ciliates typically retain toxic substances in specialized ejectable organelles, called extrusomes, which are used in predator-prey interactions. In this study, we analysed the chemical defence strategy of the freshwater heterotrich ciliate Stentor polymorphus against the predatory ciliate Coleps hirtus, and the microturbellarian flatworm Stenostomum sphagnetorum. The results showed that S. polymorphus is able to defend itself against these two predators by deploying a mix of bioactive sterols contained in its extrusomes. Sterols were isolated in vivo and characterized by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), as ergosterol, 7-dehydroporiferasterol, and their two peroxidized analogues. The assessment of the toxicity of ergosterol and ergosterol peroxide against various organisms, indicated that these sterols are essential for the effectiveness of the chemical defence in S. polymorphus
Integration of historical GIS data in a HBIM system
The integration between BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information System) is currently a highly debated research topic. However, the effective integration of the two workflows in a unique information system is still an open research field, especially when dealing with Cultural Heritage (CH). The paper describes an ongoing research on the development of a web information system able to integrate BIM and GIS data, with particular focus on the analysis of the historicized city and its main buildings over time. Three main aspects, in particular, are considered more relevant: (i) conceptual data organization to integrate GIS and BIM in a single environment; (ii) integration of data belonging to different historical periods for analyses over time (4D); (iii) integration into the system of datasets already structured in pre-existing HGIS and HBIM. Most (if not all) of the attributes must be linked with both 2D and 3D entities. The system should be queryable and with the possibility to edit the information regardless of the actual focus of the current user, either if he is more BIM or GIS oriented. This is one of the main requirement for the system not to be just a simple viewer of BIM and GIS data in a unique software environment. The system can manage, from a spatial point of view, different scales of detail, allowing the connection between data from the architectural scale to the territorial one and, from a temporal point of view, data belonging to different periods. All these features have been designed to meet, in particular, the requirements of CH and realize a Historical BIM-GIS system. Besides, the web architecture allows sharing information even between actors with different digital skills, without the need for specific software installed, and ensures portability and access from mobile devices
Tourism, natural protected areas and open source geospatial technologies.
The Covid-19 outbreak has greatly impacted society behaviours fostering proximity tourism and valorising the social role of peri-urban natural protected areas as key locations for outdoor activities. FOSS and FOSS4G can play a critical role to support the value creation for these sites. This work evaluates its application in the context of two different protected areas for the creation of 3D digital products, the monitoring of touristic fluxes and the conduction of parks management activities. To this aim three solutions that copes with the mentioned aspects are presented and gaps, weakness and limitations evaluated. The investigated solutions consists in: the data workflow from survey to 3D rendering using Blender and GIS plugin; the touristic fluxes monitoring system based on a machine learning algorithm for image recognition from captured video data streams and istSOS; and finally the park assets management system which is based on PostGIS and OpenLayers
Phase behaviour of hard cylinders
Using isobaric Monte Carlo simulations, we map out the entire phase diagram
of a system of hard cylindrical particles of length and diameter , using
an improved algorithm to identify the overlap condition between two cylinders.
Both the prolate and the oblate phase diagrams are reported
with no solution of continuity. In the prolate case, we find
intermediate nematic \textrm{N} and smectic \textrm{SmA} phases in addition to
a low density isotropic \textrm{I} and a high density crystal \textrm{X} phase,
with \textrm{I-N-SmA} and \textrm{I-SmA-X} triple points. An apparent columnar
phase \textrm{C} is shown to be metastable as in the case of spherocylinders.
In the oblate case, we find stable intermediate cubatic \textrm{Cub},
nematic \textrm{N}, and columnar \textrm{C} phases with \textrm{I-N-Cub},
\textrm{N-Cub-C}, and \textrm{I-Cub-C} triple points. Comparison with previous
numerical and analytical studies is discussed. The present study, accounting
for the explicit cylindrical shape, paves the way to more sophisticated models
with important biological applications, such as viruses and nucleosomes.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, JCP in press. Supplementary material has been
included as Appendix
A numerical study of a binary Yukawa model in regimes characteristic of globular proteins in solutions
The main goal of this paper is to assess the limits of validity, in the
regime of low concentration and strong Coulomb coupling (high molecular
charges), for a simple perturbative approximation to the radial distribution
functions (RDF), based upon a low-density expansion of the potential of mean
force and proposed to describe protein-protein interactions in a recent
Small-Angle-Scattering (SAS) experimental study. A highly simplified Yukawa
(screened Coulomb) model of monomers and dimers of a charged globular protein
(-lactoglobulin) in solution is considered. We test the accuracy of the
RDF approximation, as a necessary complementary part of the previous
experimental investigation, by comparison with the fluid structure predicted by
approximate integral equations and exact Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. In the
MC calculations, an Ewald construction for Yukawa potentials has been used to
take into account the long-range part of the interactions in the weakly
screened cases. Our results confirm that the perturbative first-order
approximation is valid for this system even at strong Coulomb coupling,
provided that the screening is not too weak (i.e., for Debye length smaller
than monomer radius). A comparison of the MC results with integral equation
calculations shows that both the hypernetted-chain (HNC) and the Percus-Yevick
(PY) closures have a satisfactory behavior under these regimes, with the HNC
being superior throughout. The relevance of our findings for interpreting SAS
results is also discussed.Comment: Physical Review E, in press (2005
Prognostic value of quantitative analysis of WT1 gene transcripts in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Prognostic value of the rapidity of bone marrow blast cell proliferation in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Effect of external PEEP in patients under controlled mechanical ventilation with an auto-PEEP of 5Â cmH2O or higher.
In some patients with auto-positive end-expiratory pressure (auto-PEEP), application of PEEP lower than auto-PEEP maintains a constant total PEEP, therefore reducing the inspiratory threshold load without detrimental cardiovascular or respiratory effects. We refer to these patients as complete PEEP-absorbers. Conversely, adverse effects of PEEP application could occur in patients with auto-PEEP when the total PEEP rises as a consequence. From a pathophysiological perspective, all subjects with flow limitation are expected to be complete PEEP-absorbers, whereas PEEP should increase total PEEP in all other patients. This study aimed to empirically assess the extent to which flow limitation alone explains a complete PEEP-absorber behavior (i.e., absence of further hyperinflation with PEEP), and to identify other factors associated with it.One hundred patients with auto-PEEP of at least 5 cmH2O at zero end-expiratory pressure (ZEEP) during controlled mechanical ventilation were enrolled. Total PEEP (i.e., end-expiratory plateau pressure) was measured both at ZEEP and after applied PEEP equal to 80 % of auto-PEEP measured at ZEEP. All measurements were repeated three times, and the average value was used for analysis.Forty-seven percent of the patients suffered from chronic pulmonary disease and 52 % from acute pulmonary disease; 61 % showed flow limitation at ZEEP, assessed by manual compression of the abdomen. The mean total PEEP was 7 ± 2 cmH2O at ZEEP and 9 ± 2 cmH2O after the application of PEEP (p < 0.001). Thirty-three percent of the patients were complete PEEP-absorbers. Multiple logistic regression was used to predict the behavior of complete PEEP-absorber. The best model included a respiratory rate lower than 20 breaths/min and the presence of flow limitation. The predictive ability of the model was excellent, with an overoptimism-corrected area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.89 (95 % CI 0.80-0.97).Expiratory flow limitation was associated with both high and complete PEEP-absorber behavior, but setting a relatively high respiratory rate on the ventilator can prevent from observing complete PEEP-absorption. Therefore, the effect of PEEP application in patients with auto-PEEP can be accurately predicted at the bedside by measuring the respiratory rate and observing the flow-volume loop during manual compression of the abdomen
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