The “demonstrative city”: a model from a global architectural process

[EN] This research springs from the idea that the human-built environment, from its origin until today, is the result of a constantly developing process. Throughout this progression, one can observe the evolution of the courtyard house as if it was an architectural organism, that has now followed more than two thousand years of unfolding of human building, from the formation of the fence (interpreted as a primitive construction) till the latest innovations of housing and urban research (latter combining elements of various cultures and ages). As society has been growing and changing – recently more rapidly than ever before in history – so has the development of courtyard house, always in tight correlation with the population’s ever changeable needs. From this analysis arises a hypothesis about the dynamics of this process (a theory already established by Muratori), of which ideas materialized in practice have been most profitable for contemporary urban design. Organized within a model called “demonstrative city”, the resulting layout is a blueprint of a simplified urban environment. This system serves as a tool capable of inserting the beneficial aspects extracted from this research into the urban environment, which further confirm the validity of these results. For this reason the “demonstrative city” can’t be considered as a project, but more so as a simulation of urban reality. Establishing this as a tool in architecture will be the first step to its test in the urban project.Amato, AR. (2018). The “demonstrative city”: a model from a global architectural process. En 24th ISUF International Conference. Book of Papers. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 241-249. https://doi.org/10.4995/ISUF2017.2017.5680OCS24124

Città formale e città informale. Le ragioni sociali della forma urbana

This research start from the hypothesis that the design method, based on the study of urban morphology, can be a guide for urban interventions within the so-called 'informal' fabric. The studies demonstrate that the 'informal' city, the development of which is independent from urban design or legal rules, is closely related to social and economic dynamics. From this point of view the development of the contemporary informal city can be compared with the dynamics of formation and transformation of pre-modern urban fabric, emphasizing the analogy that links the urban transformation to the social needs, own of the surroundings cultural context in which these urban organisms are identified. The recognition of a logical development of these fabrics, becomes the tool that can guide the urban regeneration, respecting the living culture.La ricerca proposta parte dal presupposto che il metodo di progettazione basato sullo studio della morfologia urbana possa costituire una guida per interventi urbani all’interno dei cosiddetti tessuti “informali”. Gli studi condotti dimostrano infatti che il tessuto urbano informale, il cui sviluppo prescinde da pianificazioni o da logiche normative, risulta però strettamente legato a dinamiche sociali ed economiche. Sotto questo punto di vista lo sviluppo della città informale contemporanea può essere messa a confronto con le dinamiche di formazione e trasformazione dei centri urbani pre-moderni, sottolineando la netta analogia che lega le trasformazioni urbane alle necessità e alle dinamiche sociali, proprie dell’intorno culturale in cui tali organismi urbani si identificano.Il riconoscimento di una logica di sviluppo di tali tessuti, diventa lo strumento in grado di guidarne la rigenerazione urbana, rispettandone la cultura abitativa

DEPUIS project: Design of Environmentally-friendly Products Using Information Standards

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The wild taxa utilized as vegetables in Sicily (Italy): A traditional component of the Mediterranean diet

Background: Wild vegetables in the Mediterranean Basin are still often consumed as a part of the diet and, in particular, there is a great tradition regarding their use in Sicily. In this study, an ethnobotanical field investigation was carried out to (a) identify the wild native taxa traditionally gathered and consumed as vegetables in Sicily, comparing the collected ethnobotanical data with those of other countries that have nominated the Mediterranean diet for inclusion in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and (b) highlight new culinary uses of these plants. Methods: Interviews were carried out in 187 towns and villages in Sicily between 2005 and 2015. A total of 980 people over the age of 50 were interviewed (mainly farmers, shepherds, and experts on local traditions). Plants recorded were usually collected in collaboration with the informants to confirm the correct identification of the plants. The frequencies of citation were calculated. Results: Two hundred fifty-three taxa (specific and intraspecific) belonging to 39 families, and 128 genera were recorded (26 were cited for the first time). The most represented families were Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Apiaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Malvaceae, and Polygonaceae. Only 14 taxa were cited by 75% of the people interviewed. The aerial parts of wild plants, including leaves, tender shoots, and basal rosettes, are the main portions collected, while the subterranean parts are used to a lesser extent. For some vegetables, more parts are utilized. Most of the reported vegetables are consumed cooked. In addition to the widely known vegetables (Borago officinalis, Beta spp., Cichorium spp., Brassica spp., Carduus spp., etc.), the so-called ancient vegetables are included (Onopordum illyricum, Centaurea calcitrapa, Nasturtium officinale, Scolymus spp., Smyrnium rotundifolium), and some unique uses were described. Comparing the Sicilian findings to those from other countries, a very high number of vegetable taxa were detected, 72 of which are eaten only in Sicily, while 12 are consumed in all the Mediterranean countries examined. Conclusions: The research shows a high level of Sicilian knowledge about using wild plants as a traditional food source. Wild vegetables are healthy and authentic ingredients for local and ancient recipes, which are fundamental to the revitalization of quality food strictly connected to traditional agroecosystems

Combined mechanistic modeling and machine-learning approaches in systems biology - A systematic literature review

Background and objective: Mechanistic-based Model simulations (MM) are an effective approach commonly employed, for research and learning purposes, to better investigate and understand the inherent behavior of biological systems. Recent advancements in modern technologies and the large availability of omics data allowed the application of Machine Learning (ML) techniques to different research fields, including systems biology. However, the availability of information regarding the analyzed biological context, sufficient experimental data, as well as the degree of computational complexity, represent some of the issues that both MMs and ML techniques could present individually. For this reason, recently, several studies suggest overcoming or significantly reducing these drawbacks by combining the above-mentioned two methods. In the wake of the growing interest in this hybrid analysis approach, with the present review, we want to systematically investigate the studies available in the scientific literature in which both MMs and ML have been combined to explain biological processes at genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics levels, or the behavior of entire cellular populations. Methods: Elsevier Scopus®, Clarivate Web of Science™ and National Library of Medicine PubMed® databases were enquired using the queries reported in Table 1, resulting in 350 scientific articles. Results: Only 14 of the 350 documents returned by the comprehensive search conducted on the three major online databases met our search criteria, i.e. present a hybrid approach consisting of the synergistic combination of MMs and ML to treat a particular aspect of systems biology. Conclusions: Despite the recent interest in this methodology, from a careful analysis of the selected papers, it emerged how examples of integration between MMs and ML are already present in systems biology, highlighting the great potential of this hybrid approach to both at micro and macro biological scales

Overcrowding analysis in emergency department through indexes: a single center study

Overcrowding in the Emergency Department (ED) is one of the major issues that must be addressed in order to improve the services provided in emergency circumstances and to optimize their quality. As a result, in order to help the patients and professionals engaged, hospital organizations must implement remedial and preventative measures. Overcrowding has a number of consequences, including inadequate treatment and longer hospital stays; as a result, mortality and the average duration of stay in critical care units both rise. In the literature, a number of indicators have been used to measure ED congestion. EDWIN, NEDOCS and READI scales are considered the most efficient ones, each of which is based on different parameters regarding the patient management in the ED

The Effect of Verbal and Iconic Messages in the Promotion of High-Quality Mountain Cheese: A Non-Hypothetical BDM Approach

To ensure the sustainable development of mountain livestock farming, the adequate remuneration of high-quality dairy products is fundamental. In this sense, communication strategies aimed at promoting mountain products and ensure better positioning and higher market prices are fundamental. The present research seeks to expand the literature regarding consumers’ willingness to pay for mountain foods by using an online real auction experiment aimed at evaluating the premium price that consumers are willing to pay for summer over winter mountain cheese, depending on the information provided concerning the taste anticipation or animal welfare. The results showed an overall small premium price given to the higher quality summer cheese; this could be, partially, due to a generally low degree of consumer knowledge about mountain dairy farming. With reference to communication strategies, the results provide evidence about the effectiveness of the rational messages founded upon sensorial characteristics and the anticipated taste of cheese. In addition, this study explored that adding a logo had no main effect on the price premium participants were willing to pay. This may be due to the fact that logos and claims, having a lower information content, are more indicated to lead the choice of consumers with a higher level of awareness. In the conclusion section, policy and agribusiness implications of the findings are provided

High-density EEG power topography and connectivity during confusional arousal.

Confusional arousal is the milder expression of a family of disorders known as Disorders of Arousal (DOA) from non-REM sleep. These disorders are characterized by recurrent abnormal behaviors that occur in a state of reduced awareness for the external environment. Despite frequent amnesia for the nocturnal events, when actively probed, patients are able to report vivid hallucinatory/dream-like mental imagery. Traditional (low-density) scalp and stereo-electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings previously showed a pathological admixture of slow oscillations typical of NREM sleep and wake-like fast-mixed frequencies during these phenomena. However, our knowledge about the specific neural EEG dynamics over the entire brain is limited. We collected 2 consecutive in-laboratory sleep recordings using high-density (hd)-EEG (256 vertex-referenced geodesic system) coupled with standard video-polysomnography (v-PSG) from a 12-year-old drug-naïve and otherwise healthy child with a long-lasting history of sleepwalking. Source power topography and functional connectivity were computed during 20 selected confusional arousal episodes (from -6 to +18 sec after motor onset), and during baseline slow wave sleep preceding each episode (from - 3 to -2 min before onset). We found a widespread increase in slow wave activity (SWA) theta, alpha, beta, gamma power, associated with a parallel decrease in the sigma range during behavioral episodes compared to baseline sleep. Bilateral Broadman area 7 and right Broadman areas 39 and 40 were relatively spared by the massive increase in SWA power. Functional SWA connectivity analysis revealed a drastic increase in the number and complexity of connections from baseline sleep to full-blown episodes, that mainly involved an increased out-flow from bilateral fronto-medial prefrontal cortex and left temporal lobe to other cortical regions. These effects could be appreciated in the 6 sec window preceding behavioral onset. Overall, our results support the idea that DOA are the expression of peculiar brain states, compatible with a partial re-emergence of consciousness