Le Archeidi di Giulio Turcato problematiche conservative e proposte di intervento

Le Archeidi, gruppo scultoreo composto da cinque elementi realizzati con laminati di ferro a struttura tubolare assemblati artigianalmente, sono alte circa quattro metri e il loro ingombro varia tra gli ottanta e i novanta centimetri. Vennero realizzate da Giulio Turcato nel 1989 per la citt\ue0 di Salerno, in occasione della prima edizione di \u201cSalerno Incontri d\u2019Arte\u201d, parallelamente alla mostra \u201cGiulio Turcato per/Corso\u201d, tenutasi in tre gallerie della citt\ue0 \u201cLa Bottegaccia\u201d, \u201cIl Catalogo\u201d e \u201cLa Seggiola\u201d. Il gruppo scultoreo era composto da quattro elementi che erano stati scherzosamente definiti dal maestro \u201caculei\u201d e da un quinto che ricordava le sembianze di un \u201cfiore\u201d. Purtroppo, appena le opere vennero collocate lungo il percorso cittadino, una sub\uec un atto vandalico mentre un\u2019altra venne trafugata. Le cinque sculture furono realizzate, seguendo il progetto dell\u2019artista, nella bottega di un fabbro salernitano e successivamente trattate cromaticamente. Le ragioni principali del degrado delle Archeidi sono legate alla collocazione in ambiente esterno e al fatto che l\u2019aspettativa di vita dei materiali utilizzati non garantisce la durabilit\ue0 del gruppo scultoreo. Quattro strutture, di propriet\ue0 del Comune di Salerno, si presentano oggi in un precario stato di conservazione, aggravato dall\u2019umidit\ue0 dello spazio dove sono conservate. Ad un\u2019osservazione preliminare si riscontra un viraggio completo dei colori e la presenza diffusa di ruggine. Le opere, dopo un accurato intervento di restauro, attendono di trovare una nuova collocazione che risponda alle necessit\ue0 di una buona conservazione e al tempo stesso alla natura di \u201copera ambientale\u201d cos\uec come ideata dall\u2019artista

Can a brief interaction with online, digital art improve wellbeing? A comparative study of the impact of online art and culture presentations on mood, state-anxiety, subjective wellbeing, and loneliness

When experienced in-person, engagement with art has been associated—in a growing body of evidence—with positive outcomes in wellbeing and mental health. This represents an exciting new field for psychology, curation, and health interventions, suggesting a widely-accessible, cost-effective, and non-pharmaceutical means of regulating factors such as mood or anxiety. However, can similar impacts be found with online presentations? If so, this would open up positive outcomes to an even-wider population—a trend accelerating due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its promise, this question, and the underlying mechanisms of art interventions and impacts, has largely not been explored. Participants (N = 84) were asked to engage with one of two online exhibitions from Google Arts and Culture (a Monet painting or a similarly-formatted display of Japanese culinary traditions). With just 1–2 min exposure, both improved negative mood, state-anxiety, loneliness, and wellbeing. Stepdown analysis suggested the changes can be explained primarily via negative mood, while improvements in mood correlated with aesthetic appraisals and cognitive-emotional experience of the exhibition. However, no difference was found between exhibitions. We discuss the findings in terms of applications and targets for future research

Bladder tissue passive response to monotonic and cyclic loading

The fundamental passive mechanical properties of the bladder need to be known in order to design the most appropriate long-term surgical repair procedures and develop materials for bladder reconstruction. This study has focused on the bladder tissue viscoelastic behavior, providing a comprehensive analysis of the effects of fibers orientation, strain rate and loading history. Whole bladders harvested from one year old fat pigs (160 kg approximate weight) were dissected along the apex-to-base direction and samples were isolated from the lateral region of the wall, as well as along apex-to-base and transverse directions. Uniaxial monotonic (stress relaxation) and cyclic tests at different frequencies have been performed with the Bose Electroforce® 3200. Normalized stress relaxation functions have been interpolated using a second-order exponential series and loading and unloading stress-strain curves have been interpolated with a non-linear elastic model. The passive mechanical behavior of bladder tissue was shown to be heavily influenced by frequency and loading history, both in monotonic and cyclic tests. The anisotropy of the tissue was evident in monotonic and in cyclic tests as well, especially in tests performed on an exercised tissue and at high frequencies. In contrast, transverse and apex-to-base samples demonstrated an analogous relaxation behavior

Finite Element Modeling Application in Forensic Practice: A Periprosthetic Femoral Fracture Case Study

The incidence of periprosthetic fractures has rapidly increased in the last two decades and has been the cause of a large number of revision surgeries and permanent physical disability for many patients, as well as a significant socioeconomic burden for many nations. This research deals with a periprosthetic femur fracture real event, occurred following a total hip arthroplasty and treated with one of the most widespread internal fixation methods: the implant of a periprosthetic femur plate system. A Finite Element analysis was performed to investigate the implanted femur plate break after a short follow-up and to understand the plate break causes. Such events are currently object of forensic debate as more and more often hospitals, surgeons, and medical device manufacturers are denounced by patients to whom similar events occur. In this work, different load situations acting on the femur during daily and incidental activities were simulated, in order to validate the correct behavior of the plate, according to the intended use recommended by the manufacturer. The analysis demonstrates that the plate failure can occur in situations of unconventional loading such as that caused by stumbling and in presence of incomplete bone healing

Biomechanical role and motion contribution of ligaments and bony constraints in the elbow stability: A preliminary study

In flexion-extension motion, the interaction of several ligaments and bones characterizes the elbow joint stability. The aim of this preliminary study was to quantify the relative motion of ulna respect to humerus in two human elbow specimens and to investigate the constraints role for maintaining the joint stability in different dissections condition. Two clusters of 4 markers were fixed respectively to ulna and humerus, and their trajectory was recorded by a motion capture system during orthopedic maneuver. Considering the medial ulnar collateral posterior bundle (pMUCL) and the coronoid, two dissection sequences were executed. The orthopedic maneuver of compression, pronation and varus force was repeated at 30°, 60°, 90° flexion for the functional investigation of constraints. Ulna deflection was compared to a baseline flexion condition. Respect to intact elbow, the coronoid osteotomy influences the elbow stability at 90° (deflection=11.49±17.39 mm), while small differences occur at 30° and 60°, due to ligaments constraint. The contemporary pMUCL dissection and coronoid osteotomy causes elbow instability, with large deflection at 30° (deflection=34.40±9.10 mm), 60° (deflection=45.41±18.47 mm) and 90° (deflection=52.16±21.92 mm). Surgeons may consider the pMUCL reconstruction in case of unfixable coronoid fracture

Biomechanical evaluation of an intramedullary nailing device by multibody analysis

The present study investigates the suitability of the multibody method as alternative approach to the finite element method in order to evaluate biomechanical performances of a Marchetti-Vicenzi self-locking nail under dynamic loading. Torsional, compressive and bending dynamic loads were simulated. Results in terms of bone-device contact forces and device stiffness were obtained confirming and supporting issues observed in clinical reports

Personalised 3D Assessment of Trochanteric Soft Tissues Improves HIP Fracture Classification Accuracy

Passive soft tissues surrounding the trochanteric region attenuate fall impact forces and thereby control hip fracture risk. The degree of attenuation is related to Soft Tissue Thickness (STT). STT at the neutral hip impact orientation, estimated using a regression relation in body mass index (BMI), was previously shown to influence the current absolute risk of hip fracture (ARF0) and its fracture classification accuracy. The present study investigates whether fracture classification using ARF0 improves when STT is determined from the subject’s Computed-Tomography (CT) scans (i.e. personalised) in an orientation-specific (i.e. 3D) manner. STT is calculated as the shortest distance along any impact orientation between a semi-automatically segmented femur surface and an automatically segmented soft tissue/air boundary. For any subject, STT along any of the 33 impact orientations analysed always exceeds the value estimated using BMI. Accuracy of fracture classification using ARF0 improves when using personalised 3D STT estimates (AUC = 0.87) instead of the BMI-based STT estimate (AUC = 0.85). The improvement is smaller (AUC = 0.86) when orientation-specificity of CT-based STT is suppressed and is nil when personalisation is suppressed instead. Thus, fracture classification using ARF0 improves when CT is used to personalise STT estimates and improves further when, in addition, the estimates are orientation specific