Recupero di un ex-serbatoio dell’acqua a Medellín, Colombia. Transformation of Medellín Water Reservoir, Colombia

La trasformazione delle riserve idriche di Medellín dimostra come una serie di vecchie infrastrutture dell’acqua, per lo più escluse dai quartieri in cui si trovano, possano diventare al contempo spazi della socialità in grado di rivitalizzare gli agglomerati esistenti, pur conservando la funzione per la quale sono nate. Si tratta del programma municipale Unidades de Vida Articulada (UVA), che prevede lo sviluppo di spazi e attrezzature pubblici nelle aree che ospitano le riserve di acqua dell’acquedotto comunale e i campetti sportivi. Nato nel 2013 e sviluppato dal Grupo EPM Empresas e da INDER, il progetto ha intravisto nel riuso delle vecchie infrastrutture idriche industriali e dei campetti da gioco, circa un centinaio di lotti che popolano la città, l’occasione per far fronte alla carenza di servizi e spazi pubblici.The transformation of Medellin’s water reservoirs demonstrates how a series of old water infrastructures, more isolated from the neighbourhoods in which they are located, can become a space of social interaction with the power to revitalize existing settlements, while conserving their original function. The project is part of the Unidades de Vida Articulada (UVA) municipal program for the development of public spaces and facilities in areas hosting reservoirs serving the municipal aqueduct and playing fields. Created in 2013 and developed by the Grupo EPM Empresas and INDER, the project saw the reuse of old industrial water infrastructures and playing fields – approximately 100 lots across the city – as an occasion to confront a lack of public services and spaces

Urbanities

Following a consolidated tradition since the first number of the journal, the 16th of Archi-DOCT is the result of a call for contribution focused on one single word “Urbanities”. When we were discussing the direction that we wanted to give to this issue, we concluded that we aimed to focus its critical slant - through a specific call to action to the schools of architectures and their students - towards a new interest concerning the multiple scales and resolutions of the so-called urban dimension. During the last decades, centralized planning - as a result of the Modernist heritage - fostered the implementation of top-down hierarchic processes that despite the political and ideological background led the city to be suffering phenomena such as sprawling, undefined expansions, and the emergence of the alleged “urban voids” (that aroused a new matrix of problems and issues to be tackled. Whether we refer to Rome, Tirana, Valencia, Athens, or any contemporary metropolis, these criticalities are far from being solved and, even less, we are close to defining a methodological approach that could suggest effective strategies to proactively remedy this condition. For this, we have been interested in collecting inputs from our authors in order to set the scene so that everyone could tell a specific story and personally question the keyword we choose

Dorotea, the city, can be different: urban projects in Rome based on the seminal role of infrastructures

This paper offers a semiotic perspective of the city as an enunciation of different signs in which contemporary projects (the alleged urbanities) play a fundamental role in resemantizing the urban environment. Such design outcomes allow us to understand the city as a hypotactic complex system, not created then only by the simple juxtaposition of elements, but intended as the results of multiple primary and secondary intertwined narrations. The work adopts a structuralist-based approach to the topic where the examples presented act on two combinatory levels: a first one, where each of them maintains its autonomy and functions as an independent predicate, and a second one where the importance relies on the structural system in a dyachronic perspective. What we argue for is the possibility for architects to promote a bottom-up incremental design strategy in the urban enviroment to trigger sustainable urban transformation processes. Moreover, through the specific experience of the authors in the Tevere Cavo project, the papers aims to demonstrate the importance of multitasking interactive spaces and new generation infrastructures for the revitalization and re-activation of the abandoned urban spaces using the city of Rome as object of such investigation

Infrastrutture dell'acqua. Strategie adattive all’emergenza idrica dei mutamenti climatici. Progettare infrastrutture idriche di nuova generazione

Nel tentativo di dimostrare come il fenomeno dell’urban flooding possa essere occasione per intervenire nei contesti urbani che oggi rivendicano una nuova veste, questo lavoro sul tema dell’infrastruttura rappresenta un’indagine delle best urban practice per la mitigazione del rischio di inondazione che perseguono il contenimento del consumo di suolo e sono volano di rigenerazione urbana. La dissertazione, innanzitutto una riflessione sul tema dell’emergenza idrica della città contemporanea e sui rinnovati paradigmi che scaturiscono da tale fenomeno globale, mira all’individuazione di modelli operativi di intervento e azioni progettuali tali da affrontare il problema dell’acqua nei contesti urbani e trasformarla in una risorsa per la città contemporanea

Length–weight relationships for some plecoptera and ephemeroptera from a carbonate stream in central Apennine (Italy)

The relationship between dry weight and body length for larvae of Plecoptera (Leuctra spp., Isoperla grammatica, Nemoura cinerea) and Ephemeroptera (Baetis spp., Habrophlebia fusca, Paraleptophlebia submarginata, Ecdyonurus helveticus, Rhithrogena semicolorata), collected from a carbonate stream in the Apennine (central Italy), is reported. The power equation f(x) = Ax B has been applied to fit the curves of dry weight vs. body size (length) in the ranges 0.03–13.00 mg and 2–14 mm, respectively; a total of 674 larvae were examined. The power model was in very good agreement with experimental data. Moreover, the error between measured and estimated weight was in the 4–20% range. The data on Isoperla grammatica, Leuctra spp., Rhithrogena semicolorata and Baetis spp. were compared to those in a previous study in a different geographical setting (south-western Germany's Black Forest) obtaining similar results but with lower errors. We used and compared two methods: the weighted least-square method (WLS) and an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The values of the A and B coefficients obtained with the two methods were very similar (<6% discrepancy for either A or B). We found the best fits for all the examined Plecoptera (species, genus, and order level), while the results for Ephemeroptera were varied, with loose fits at the order level and also for Leptophlebiidae collectively considered

Versatile Multimodality Imaging System Based on Detectorless and Scanless Optical Feedback Interferometry-A Retrospective Overview for A Prospective Vision

In this retrospective compendium, we attempt to draw a "fil rouge" along fifteen years of our research in the field of optical feedback interferometry aimed at guiding the readers to the verge of new developments in the field. The general reader will be moved at appreciating the versatility and the still largely uncovered potential of the optical feedback interferometry, for both sensing and imaging applications. By discovering the broad range of available wavelengths (0.4-120 μm), the different types of suitable semiconductor lasers (Fabry-Perot, distributed feedback, vertical-cavity, quantum-cascade), and a number of unconventional tenders in multi-axis displacement, ablation front progression, self-referenced measurements, multispectral, structured light feedback imaging and compressive sensing, the specialist also could find inspirational suggestions to expand his field of research

Correction: Rheometry-on-a-chip: measuring the relaxation time of a viscoelastic liquid through particle migration in microchannel flows

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Early impairment of endothelial structure and function in young normal-weight women with polycystic ovary syndrome

The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of early vascular damage in young normal-weight women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).Thirty young normal-weight women with PCOS, who had no additional metabolic or cardiovascular diseases, and 30 healthy women (controls) matched for age and body mass index were studied. A complete hormonal assay was performed in each subject. Serum insulin and glucose levels were measured at baseline and after the oral glucose tolerance test. Plasma endothelin-1 levels and serum lipid profile were also assessed. The endothelial function was studied by flow-mediated dilation on the brachial artery, and arterial structure was evaluated by intima-media thickness measurement using Doppler ultrasound of both common carotid arteries.A significant (P &lt; 0.05) difference in flow-mediated dilation (14.3 +/- 1.9% vs. 18.1 +/- 2.0% for PCOS patients and controls, respectively) and in intima-media thickness (0.53 +/- 0.09 mm vs. 0.39 +/- 0.08 mm for PCOS patients and controls, respectively) was found between PCOS and control subjects. Serum endothelin-1 levels were also significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher in PCOS patients compared with controls (1.1 +/- 0.4 pmol/liter vs. 0.5 +/- 0.2 pmol/liter for PCOS patients and controls, respectively).In conclusion, our data show that young, normal-weight, nondyslipidemic, nonhypertensive women with PCOS have an early impairment of endothelial structure and function

Endothelial progenitor cells in coronary artery disease. from bench to bedside

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are a heterogeneous group of cells present in peripheral blood at various stages of endothelial differentiation. EPCs have been extensively investigated in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), with controversial findings both on their role in atherosclerosis progression and in the process of neointimal growth after a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Despite nearly 2 decades of experimental and clinical investigations, however, the significance of EPCs in clinical practice remains unclear and poorly understood. This review provides an update on the role of EPCs in the most common clinical scenarios that are experienced by cardiologists managing patients with CAD. We here summarize the main findings on the association of EPCs with cardiovascular risk factors, coronary atherosclerosis, and myocardial ischemia. We then discuss the potential effects of EPCs in post-PCI in-stent restenosis, as well as most recent findings with EPC-coated stents. Based on the mounting evidence of the relationship between levels of EPCs and several different adverse cardiovascular events, EPCs are emerging as novel predictive biomarkers of long-term outcomes in patients with CAD