Renovation of an UNESCO Heritage Settlement in Southern Italy: ASHP and BIPV for a "Spread Hotel" Project☆

Abstract Many small historical settlements in Mediterranean areas have a great value in terms of architectural and cultural heritage. Therefore it happens that the socio–economic situation of many of these settlements is backward and depressed. A succesful way to develop these important environments is to implement tourism, a profitable and available economical resource. "Spread Hotel" or "Diffuse Hotel" or "Albergo Diffuso" is an innovative concept which aims to renovate decayed buildings situated in historical locations. New economical inputs are needed to revitalize these settlements and their social tissue. "Diffuse Hotel" concept is very diffused in Italy due to its rich historical heritage. The present paper displays a renovation project of a rural historical settlement into a "Spread Hotel". The site under analysis is located in Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily, Italy. The settlement strongly needed to be refurbished in order to provide habitability and to guarantee a proper level of comfort according to italian standards. The area is also listed in the UNESCO Heritage. The "Diffuse Hotel" at a national level is considered as an affordable and comfortable concept that enables the travellers to experiance Italy through a tipical, historical and comfortable hotel. The historical built enviroment preservation is strategic in Italy and can strongly support economical revitalization. European Community supports the development of "Spread Hotels" projects in order to improve economical capacity of depressed areas by financing refurbishment programs. In this contest the authors present how "Palazzolo Acreide" renovation project was done. In particular, the design strategy was to respect the local characteristics, improve thermal performance and HVAC systems and exploting the on site renewable energy. In fact, in the Mediterranean areas solar radiation is a incredible resource to provide energy to the buildings

Snow data intercomparison on remote and glacierized high elevation areas (Forni Glacier, Italy)

Abstract. We present and compare 11 years of snow data (snowfall, snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE)) measured by an Automatic Weather Station and by some field campaigns on the Forni Glacier. The data have been acquired by means of (i) a Campbell SR50 sonic ranger from October 2005 (snow depth data), (ii) manual snow pits from January 2006 (snow depth and SWE data), (iii) a Sommer USH8 sonic ranger from May 2014 (snow depth data), (iv) a Park Mechanical SS-6048 snow pillow from May 2014 (SWE data), (v) a manual snow weighting tube (Enel-Valtecne©) from May 2014 (snow depth and SWE data). The aim of the analyses is to assess the mean value of fresh snow density and the most appropriate method to evaluate SWE for this measuring site. The results indicate that the daily SR50 sonic ranger measures allow a rather good estimation of the SWE, and the provided snow pit data are available for defining the site mean value of fresh snow density. For the Forni Glacier measuring site, this value turned out to be 140 kg m−3. The SWE derived from sonic ranger data is rather sensitive to this value: a change in fresh snow density of 20 kg m−3 causes a mean variation in SWE of ±0.093 m w.e. for each hydrological year, ranging from ±0.050 m w.e. to ±0.115 m w.e

Metabarcoding data reveal vertical multitaxa variation in topsoil communities during the colonization of deglaciated forelands

Ice-free areas are expanding worldwide due to dramatic glacier shrinkage and are undergoing rapid colonization by multiple lifeforms, thus representing key environments to study ecosystem development. It has been proposed that the colonization dynamics of deglaciated terrains is different between surface and deep soils but that the heterogeneity between communities inhabiting surface and deep soils decreases through time. Nevertheless, tests of this hypothesis remain scarce, and it is unclear whether patterns are consistent among different taxonomic groups. Here, we used environmental DNA metabarcoding to test whether community diversity and composition of six groups (Eukaryota, Bacteria, Mycota, Collembola, Insecta, and Oligochaeta) differ between the surface (0–5 cm) and deeper (7.5–20 cm) soil at different stages of development and across five Alpine glaciers. Taxonomic diversity increased with time since glacier retreat and with soil evolution. The pattern was consistent across groups and soil depths. For Eukaryota and Mycota, alpha-diversity was highest at the surface. Time since glacier retreat explained more variation of community composition than depth. Beta-diversity between surface and deep layers decreased with time since glacier retreat, supporting the hypothesis that the first 20 cm of soil tends to homogenize through time. Several molecular operational taxonomic units of bacteria and fungi were significant indicators of specific depths and/or soil development stages, confirming the strong functional variation of microbial communities through time and depth. The complexity of community patterns highlights the importance of integrating information from multiple taxonomic groups to unravel community variation in response to ongoing global changes

Comunicazione e Linguaggi non verbali Variazioni sul corpo. Pratiche educative, rieducative e terapeutiche

il volume presenta tre percorsi educativi e rieducativi , attraverso il corpo

Muon reconstruction performance of the ATLAS detector in proton–proton collision data at √s = 13 TeV

This article documents the performance of the ATLAS muon identification and reconstruction using the LHC dataset recorded at √s = 13 TeV in 2015. Using a large sample of J/ψ→μμ and Z→μμ decays from 3.2 fb−1 of pp collision data, measurements of the reconstruction efficiency, as well as of the momentum scale and resolution, are presented and compared to Monte Carlo simulations. The reconstruction efficiency is measured to be close to 99% over most of the covered phase space (|η| 2.2, the pT resolution for muons from Z→μμ decays is 2.9 % while the precision of the momentum scale for low-pT muons from J/ψ→μμ decays is about 0.2%

Constraints on new phenomena via Higgs boson couplings and invisible decays with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has measured the Higgs boson couplings and mass, and searched for invisible Higgs boson decays, using multiple production and decay channels with up to 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at−1at TeV. In the current study, the measured production and decay rates of the observed Higgs boson in the γγ, ZZ, W W , Zγ, bb, τ τ , and μμ decay channels, along with results from the associated production of a Higgs boson with a top-quark pair, are used to probe the scaling of the couplings with mass. Limits are set on parameters in extensions of the Standard Model including a composite Higgs boson, an additional electroweak singlet, and two-Higgs-doublet models. Together with the measured mass of the scalar Higgs boson in the γγ and ZZ decay modes, a lower limit is set on the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass of mA> 370 GeV in the “hMSSM” simplified Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Results from direct searches for heavy Higgs bosons are also interpreted in the hMSSM. Direct searches for invisible Higgs boson decays in the vector-boson fusion and associated production of a Higgs boson with W/Z (Z → ℓℓ, W/Z → jj) modes are statistically combined to set an upper limit on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio of 0.25. The use of the measured visible decay rates in a more general coupling fit improves the upper limit to 0.23, constraining a Higgs portal model of dark matter.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

Search for pair and single production of new heavy quarks that decay to a Z boson and a third-generation quark in pp collisions at √s = 8TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for the production of new heavy quarks that decay to a Z boson and a third-generation Standard Model quark. In the case of a new charge +2/3 quark (T), the decay targeted is T -> Zt, while the decay targeted for a new charge -1/3 quark (B) is B -> Zb. The search is performed with a dataset corresponding to 20.3 fb(-1) of p p collisions at root s = 8TeV recorded in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Selected events contain a high transverse momentum Z boson candidate reconstructed from a pair of oppositely charged same-flavor leptons (electrons or muons), and are analyzed in two channels defined by the absence or presence of a third lepton. Hadronic jets, in particular those with properties consistent with the decay of a b-hadron, are also required to be present in selected events. Different requirements are made on the jet activity in the event in order to enhance the sensitivity to either heavy quark pair production mediated by the strong interaction, or single production mediated by the electroweak interaction. No significant excess of events above the Standard Model expectation is observed, and lower limits are derived on the mass of vector-like T and B quarks under various branching ratio hypotheses, as well as upper limits on the magnitude of electroweak coupling parameters