Análisis comparatico técnico-tecnológico y de materiales entre los astilleros medievales italianos y españoles (los casos de Venecia y Sevilla)

Research on historical dockyards is currently dealt purely from the historical and archaeological point of view, biased to classical examples (Hellenistic neoria and Roman navalia). The projects are mainly concerned with the analysis of material remains of vessels leaving aside the architectural structures where they actually took shape. The shipyards experimented their greater typological progress in the Middle Ages, a period in which architecture developed new construction techniques, such as the Gothic style, originally used for cult buildings, were promptly transferred to military structures, as in the case of arsenals in which it was possible to preserve and create more and larger vessels. These huge monuments, today obsoleted for their original function, are embedded within the fabric of ancient cities with historical harbors and which are involved in recovery and restructuring their urban planning. The research project aims to fulfil a better recording of these structures, from an architectural and engineering point of view, in order to detect the architectonic type, define the traditional construction technics and the employed technologies and identify the used material in relation to the latter; this are indispensable requirements for future recovery interventions of these structures and spaces

Management properties and procedures in the information model of the historic building HBIM on building facades

Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) has become the ideal tool for professionals studying building conservation and restoration. The BIM model allows one to identify structural deformations following three-dimensionally resolved models. In addition, this methodology is specifically designed to register parametric construction models, as an information manager by adding semantic components to the model, including information on the different transformations of the historical artefact, and allowing continuous progress in the building's life cycle. In this work, graphic information and data related to conservation projects are compiled that allow a management of all the documentation integrated in the same Project, from all the disciplinary fields related to the heritage conservation and rehabilitation process. Specifically, from the geometric identification and the restoration documents, it is intended to develop an experimental application where both terrestrial laser scanning records and the use of image processing routines can allow automatic operations to monitor alterations in façades, in order to subsequent control by conservation experts. For this, a building with certain characteristics has been chosen, such as the Miguel de Mañara palace in the city of Seville. A building that has a main façade of 43.30 metres in length by 6.75 metres in height and, in which its façade rotates in an angled guideline to adapt to the urban planning of the time. The analysis is based on the applicability of two segmentation algorithms and the construction of the multilayer enclosure model where the different stratigraphies of the results obtained are exposed

Systemic immunosuppression plus local production of CTLA4-Ig to control rejection of transgenic pig neuroblasts in non-human primates

International audienc

Toward sustainable regeneration of historic endangered towns: strategies for increasing resilience

Europe has numerous urban sites ranging from towns to hamlets with valuable heritage significance that are experiencing progressive and harmful abandon because of urbanization and globalization phenomena. Tangible heritage values (historic buildings and urban settings), as well as intangible ones (history, cultural and social values, and handcraft) contribute in preserving the site identity and maintaining the collective memory of local communities. The town architecture, together with its complex of symbols, conserves the place identity and characterizes the site historic development. Several reasons are responsible for this abandon process, such as unfavourable location, ending of industrial/commercial activities, natural disasters, lack of services, progressive aging of the local population, and social replacement. Globalization has a deep impact on community development, town improvement and economic growth; meanwhile it presents several vulnerability aspects that hinder the system adaptation capacity to react to environmental changing and to control citizens’ health and safety. The recent COVID-19 pandemic experience clearly demonstrated a transnational system weakness. Urbanization provides economic, social and cultural opportunities that can enhance life quality; on the other hand, sudden changes in urban density and growth can weaken the sense of place (the specific ‘genius loci’), the integrity of the social fabric, the traditional character of urban areas, and the identity of communities. Here we propose a new approach for contrasting the impoverishing of historic towns, which takes into consideration the different evolution of plant and animal organisms. While the animal organism functions as a unique one, in which single organs are strictly interdependent on each other, plants are modular organisms, where each single part functions independently on the others. In this way, single parts of the plant individual can be removed without threatening the organism survival. The regeneration strategy we propose tends to assimilate the functioning of small towns and hamlets to the plant organism, i.e. small communities independent on large and globalised societies and characterised by high resilience potential for contrasting unfavourable situations. Opposite to this model, globalisation represents centralised operative authorities that are responsible for the whole country, thus recalling the animal organism regulated by a single operation centre. Our model is based on a conscious and sustainable improvement of site resilience involving public administration and citizens by mitigating the impact of globalization process and re-discovering the cultural identity, history and traditions of urban areas, in other words, we propose to diffuse the “vital resources of the towns” at different levels and contests. Abandoned, neglected or disused villages and towns require restoration of their integrity in every respect: historic, artistic, architectural, social and cultural. This regeneration strategy should follow sustainable procedures, which requires the detailed knowledge of building material, of monuments and urban vegetation, as well as their decay phenomena in order to design an effective restoration program considering long-term conservation and durability. In order to realize a real regeneration, restoration should not be limited to building recovering and compliance, rather, it should aim at drawing a new cultural and social identity. This target represents a challenge that should take into account architectural aspects linked to: accessibility, historical and artistic context, as well as economic sustainability including agri-food excellence and specific traits of the territory. The rationale of this strategy is to maintain a balance between historical and landscape features, to avoid isolation of towns, and to promote their employment not only as tourist destination but also as living centres

Association of Country Income Level With the Characteristics and Outcomes of Critically Ill Patients Hospitalized With Acute Kidney Injury and COVID-19

Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) has been identified as one of the most common and significant problems in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. However, studies examining the relationship between COVID-19 and AKI in low- and low-middle income countries (LLMIC) are lacking. Given that AKI is known to carry a higher mortality rate in these countries, it is important to understand differences in this population. Methods: This prospective, observational study examines the AKI incidence and characteristics of 32,210 patients with COVID-19 from 49 countries across all income levels who were admitted to an intensive care unit during their hospital stay. Results: Among patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit, AKI incidence was highest in patients in LLMIC, followed by patients in upper-middle income countries (UMIC) and high-income countries (HIC) (53%, 38%, and 30%, respectively), whereas dialysis rates were lowest among patients with AKI from LLMIC and highest among those from HIC (27% vs. 45%). Patients with AKI in LLMIC had the largest proportion of community-acquired AKI (CA-AKI) and highest rate of in-hospital death (79% vs. 54% in HIC and 66% in UMIC). The association between AKI, being from LLMIC and in-hospital death persisted even after adjusting for disease severity. Conclusions: AKI is a particularly devastating complication of COVID-19 among patients from poorer nations where the gaps in accessibility and quality of healthcare delivery have a major impact on patient outcomes

Thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications of COVID-19 in adults hospitalized in high-income countries compared with those in adults hospitalized in low- and middle-income countries in an international registry

Background: COVID-19 has been associated with a broad range of thromboembolic, ischemic, and hemorrhagic complications (coagulopathy complications). Most studies have focused on patients with severe disease from high-income countries (HICs). Objectives: The main aims were to compare the frequency of coagulopathy complications in developing countries (low- and middle-income countries [LMICs]) with those in HICs, delineate the frequency across a range of treatment levels, and determine associations with in-hospital mortality. Methods: Adult patients enrolled in an observational, multinational registry, the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections COVID-19 study, between January 1, 2020, and September 15, 2021, met inclusion criteria, including admission to a hospital for laboratory-confirmed, acute COVID-19 and data on complications and survival. The advanced-treatment cohort received care, such as admission to the intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation, or inotropes or vasopressors; the basic-treatment cohort did not receive any of these interventions. Results: The study population included 495,682 patients from 52 countries, with 63% from LMICs and 85% in the basic treatment cohort. The frequency of coagulopathy complications was higher in HICs (0.76%-3.4%) than in LMICs (0.09%-1.22%). Complications were more frequent in the advanced-treatment cohort than in the basic-treatment cohort. Coagulopathy complications were associated with increased in-hospital mortality (odds ratio, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.52-1.64). The increased mortality associated with these complications was higher in LMICs (58.5%) than in HICs (35.4%). After controlling for coagulopathy complications, treatment intensity, and multiple other factors, the mortality was higher among patients in LMICs than among patients in HICs (odds ratio, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.39-1.51). Conclusion: In a large, international registry of patients hospitalized for COVID-19, coagulopathy complications were more frequent in HICs than in LMICs (developing countries). Increased mortality associated with coagulopathy complications was of a greater magnitude among patients in LMICs. Additional research is needed regarding timely diagnosis of and intervention for coagulation derangements associated with COVID-19, particularly for limited-resource settings