Report WS1. Il binomio “Città porto”: conflitti e sinergie multilivello fra trasformazioni urbane e competitività globale

The paper collects the best practices and considerations from two sessions of the workshop “Città porto: la dimensione multipla della pianificazione spaziale”. The leitmotiv of the first session’s reporters has been: the harbour, as urban gateway, origins conflicts, synergies and moments of cooperation with the urban structure. They’ve referred about North and South European harbours of medium level that, for advanced technical and logistic features and strategies of intervention, represent a substantial landmark for similar realities. Genoa, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Bilbao rehabilitation plans, despite their own peculiarities, have in fact dragged aspects of the industrial sector, urban design, identity, quality and sustainability in the planning process. The waterfront upgrading represents either the catalyst for transformation or socioeconomic development of disused and strategic contexts (for city’s competitiveness): the integration between the harbour structures and the city means upgrading and a new skyline, i.e. new “downtown scape” (Hamburg Harbour), or “flagship elements” (Bilbao). The second session has looked at the volume of traffic trades, the competitivity, the strategies and the imbalance between global and local that the harbour gives. According to R. Bruttomesso, the harbour, as a gateway, is evolving and complicating things. E.Musso focuses on the rise in volume of traffic trades and in competitivity: it’s necessary to improve logistics and relocate globally activities, keeping up both environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of the harbour. He proposes three strategies: spaces’ razionalization, governance and occupation. P.Grass states that Eastern countries’ horbours are more attractive, for their city-harbour system, upgrading approaches and competitivity. So, the redevelopment plans of Marsiglia, La Spezia and Santander harbours have a common goal: making the horbour a polyfunctional area, in contact with the remaining parts of the city

Evaluation of the masonry and timber structures of San Francisco Church in Santiago de Cuba through nondestructive diagnostic methods

Recently, due to a renewed interest in the religious architectural heritage of the Caribbean island of Cuba, some important interventions for the restoration and reinforcement of the colonial churches of the island were carried out. The authors, collaborating with the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba in a project concerning the protection of Cuban churches, applied some nondestructive and noninvasive destructive tests for an in-depth study of the main characteristics of those structures. The diagnostic method, developed mainly for the historical buildings or monuments of Europe and North America, was used to study some peculiarities of the building construction traditions of this area. The proposed techniques revealed the existence of several original solutions, for example, defenses for seismic mitigation, developed to resist the earthquakes that frequently affect the area

Intrinsic Qp at Mt. Etna from the inversion of rise times of 2002 microearthquake sequence

About three-hundred microearthquakes, preceeding and accompanying the 2002-2003 Mt. Etna flank eruption, were considered in this study. On the high-quality velocity seismograms, measurements of the first half cycle of the wave, the so-called rise time τ, were carried out. By using the rise time method, these data were inverted to infer an estimate of the intrinsic quality factor Qp of P waves and of the source rise time τ0 of the events, which represents an estimate of the duration of the rupture process. Two kind of inversions were carried out. In the first inversion τ0 was derived from the magnitude duration of the events, assuming a constant stress drop and Qp was inferred from the inversion of reduced rise times τ−τ0. In the second inversion both τ0 and Qp were inferred from the inversion of rise times. To determine the model parameters that realize the compromise between model simplicity and quality of the fit, the corrected Akaike information criterion was used. After this analysis we obtained Qp=57±42. The correlation among the inferred τ0 and Qp, which is caused by some events which concomitantly have high τ0 (>30 ms) and high Qp (>100) indicates that the technique used is able to model rise time versus travel time trend only for source dimensions less than about 80 m

Destination Online Communication: Why Less is Sometimes More. A Study of Online Communications of English Destinations

This research investigates the relationship between Web site design and the Web site end-user experience of a vast number of English tourism destinations, both local and regional ones. Following recent research in the field, this paper evaluates destinations' online communication based on the implemented Web site features and on the effectiveness of the communication itself, borrowing its research methodology from different domains. After content and functionality analysis, a user-experience, scenario-based investigation has been carried out, which demonstrated that complex Web sites do not always serve end-users' needs properly; in other words, Web site complexity is not directly related with good user experience. This research may help destination managers to foster their online communication if they have fewer content and functionalities but are better focused and clearly user-oriented. © 2014 Taylor & Francis

A genetic-based algorithm for personalized resistance training

Association studies have identified dozens of genetic variants linked to training responses and sport-related traits. However, no intervention studies utilizing the idea of personalised training based on athlete’s genetic profile have been conducted. Here we propose an algorithm that allows achieving greater results in response to high- or low-intensity resistance training programs by predicting athlete’s potential for the development of power and endurance qualities with the panel of 15 performance-associated gene polymorphisms. To develop and validate such an algorithm we performed two studies in independent cohorts of male athletes (study 1: athletes from different sports (n=28); study 2: soccer players (n=39)). In both studies athletes completed an eight-week high- or low-intensity resistance training program, which either matched or mismatched their individual genotype. Two variables of explosive power and aerobic fitness, as measured by the countermovement jump (CMJ) and aerobic 3-min cycle test (Aero3) were assessed pre and post 8 weeks of resistance training. In study 1, the athletes from the matched groups (i.e. high-intensity trained with power genotype or low-intensity trained with endurance genotype) significantly increased results in CMJ (P=0.0005) and Aero3 (P=0.0004). Whereas, athletes from the mismatched group (i.e. high-intensity trained with endurance genotype or lowintensity trained with power genotype) demonstrated non-significant improvements in CMJ (P=0.175) and less prominent results in Aero3 (P=0.0134). In study 2, soccer players from the matched group also demonstrated significantly greater (P<0.0001) performance changes in both tests compared to the mismatched group. Among non- or low responders of both studies, 82% of athletes (both for CMJ and Aero3) were from the mismatched group (P<0.0001). Our results indicate that matching the individual’s genotype with the appropriate training modality leads to more effective resistance training. The developed algorithm may be used to guide individualised resistance-training interventions

Adaptación de la madera de Eucalyptus globulus a la normativa europea de durabilidad natural

La madera de Eucalyptus globulus en algunos países como Australia es recomendada para situaciones de riesgo de ataque de organismos xilófagos por su elevada durabilidad. En Galicia esta madera ha sido utilizada desde hace muchas décadas en estructuras y carpinterías, que aún hoy perduran. Sin embargo, la norma europea EN-350-2 encuadra la especie E. globulus en la peor categoría de durabilidad natural, situación que no se corresponde con la realidad. El objetivo de este proyecto es constatar la durabilidad de esta especie frente a hongos de pudrición e insectos xilófagos y modificar en consecuencia la clase de durabilidad asignada en la norma europea. Con este fin se están realizando los correspondientes ensayos frente a hongos e insectos xilófagos, tanto en laboratorio como en campo. Los resultados que se han obtenido con los hongos de pudrición fibrosa y pudrición blanda indican que, efectivamente, el duramen es durable (clase 2), mientras que la albura no es durable (clase 4) y la madera juvenil es medianamente durable (clase 3). De este modo, se confirma la elevada durabilidad del duramen de eucalipto, a la espera de finalizar los ensayos en curso y obtener los resultados finales.__________________________In some countries as Australia the wood of Eucalyptus globulus is recommended for its high durability in risk situations where attack by organisms is likely to occur. In Galicia this species has been utilised since many decades for timber structures, which are still in service. But the European Standard EN-350-2 qualifies Eucalyptus globulus with the worst category of natural durability, situation that does not correspond with the reality. The objetive of this project is to determine the durability of the species against wood decay fungi and wood boring insects and to accordingly classify E. globulus in the mentioned standard. To achieve this objective laboratory and field tests against fungi and insect attack are carried out. The preliminary results of the laboratory tests with white and soft rot indicate that the heartwood is durable (class 2), sapwood is not durable (class 4) and juvenil wood is moderately durable (class 3). These results confirm the high durability of the heartwood of this species, pending the end of the remaining tests

Fault plane orientations of microearthquakes at Mt. Etna from theinversion of P-wave rise times

A crucial point in the analysis of tectonic earthquakes occurring in a volcanic area is the inference of the orientation of the structures along which the ruptures occur. These structures represent zones of weakness which could favor the migration of melt toward the surface and the assessment of their geometry is a fundamental step toward efficient evaluation of volcanic risk. We analyzed a high-quality dataset of 171 lowmagnitude, tectonic earthquakes that occurred at Mt. Etna during the 2002–2003 eruption. We applied a recently developed technique aimed at inferring the source parameters (source size, dip and strike fault) and the intrinsic quality factor Qp of P waves from the inversion of rise times. The technique is based on numerically calibrated relationships among the rise time of first P waves and the source parameters for a circular crack rupturing at a constant velocity. For the most of the events the directivity source effect did not allow us to constrain the fault plane orientation. For a subset of 45 events with well constrained focal mechanisms we were able to constrain the “true” fault plane orientation. The level of resolution of the fault planes was assessed through a non linear analysis based on the random deviates technique. The significance of the retrieved fault plane solutions and the fit of the assumed source model to data were assessed through a χ-square test. Most of the retrieved fault plane solutions agree with the geometrical trend of known surface faults. The inferred source parameters and Qp are in agreement with the results of previous studie