Urban greenways planning. A vision plan for Milan (Italy)

Greenways are “green infrastructure” to link people and places (Fabos, 1995) and can be planned at different scales (from national to municipal) and for multiple purposes, “including ecological, recreational, cultural, aesthetic” (Ahern, 1995), “to provide people with access to open spaces close to where they live” (President\u27s Commission on Americans Outdoors, 1987), in order to “enhance both the environment and quality of life” (European Greenways Association, 2000). At the municipal scale, the urban greenways network can help to reshape the city, making it more livable; urban greenways represent “at once the parks for the 21st century and a part of the transportation infrastructure, providing for pleasant, efficient, healthful and environmentally-sound travel by foot, bicycle or skates” (New York City Department of City Planning, 1993). Turner (2006) reported the results of a research conducted in 2001 among the British local authorities, in which come out the different purpose of urban greenway planning: creating a coherent (green) network of public open spaces, creating a green transport network that confers a vital new use on public open spaces, contributing to the reintegration of planning for ‘town’ and ‘country’ in order to serve the needs of a new urban population seeking active recreation in the countryside. The most important benefits of greenways in urban areas are environmental protection, recreation, and alternative transportation. These benefits cannot be realized unless the greenway planners take a systematic approach to the delineation of greenway paths (Conine et al., 2004). Various methodologies for greenways planning that take into account the many factors in a cohesive manner have been developed for and successfully applied, such as those described in Flink and Searns (1993), Smith and Hellmund (1993), Fabos (1995), Tzolova (1995), Xiang (1996), Toccolini et al. (2004), Ribeiro and Barao (2006) and Toccolini et al. (2006). In the present study three significant experiences were analyzed more in depth: New York City (New York City Department of City Planning, 1993), Vancouver (City of Vancouver, 1995) and Brussels (Institut Bruxellois pour la Gestion de l’Environnement, 2001). There has always been a strong link between the city of New York and the Greenways; as a matter of fact it is right here where it was first conceived the first plan of the modern age concerning a network of urban greenways (in 1866, with the Parkways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux). Over the years, the great metropolis has preserved this link and recently this link has led to a plan of Greenways for the city. The plan was proposed in 1993 by NYC Department of City Planning. The plan states that “greenways would be a system of bicycle-pedestrian pathways along natural and manmade linear spaces such as rail and highway rightsof- way, river corridors, waterfront spaces, parklands and, where necessary, city streets. They are at once the parks for the 21st century and a part of the transportation infrastructure, providing for pleasant, efficient, healthful and environmentally-sound travel by foot, bicycle or skates”. The plan concerns a system of about 570 km of greenways designed to create new opportunities from a recreational point of view, increase the mobility of cyclists and pedestrians and generally speaking was created to enhance the quality of life of NY citizens. The network of greenways brings advantages in many fields, such as citizens health, transportation, socializing development and recreational aspects. As a matter of fact, the plan for NY wants greenways to accomplish different tasks: ⎯ build new spaces that are easily reachable from home and work, through which it is possible to explore and appreciate the different metropolitan environments; ⎯ offer recreational advantages (sunbathing, staying outdoors, admiring the landscape, relax, getting in touch with nature, etc.); ⎯ improve people health (physical activities, outdoor sports); ⎯ provide an alternative, completion and integration with traditional means of transportation; ⎯ provide the possibility to decrease traffic and urban pollution; ⎯ build natural “buffer zones” to separate areas with different functions (residential areas, commercial areas, etc.); ⎯ represent a meeting place to socialize with other people

Hajar bin Ḥumeid , l'ultima capitale di Qataban

Hajar bin Humeid Indice 1. Hajar bin Humeid 1.1. Lo Wadi Beihan 1.2. Il tell 1.3. Le vie commerciali 2. Ricostruzione della storia del sito di D-Gylum 3. La missione americana nel Beihan 3.1. Storia della spedizione 3.1.1. La spedizione 3.1.2. Lo scavo di Hajar bin Humeid 3.2. Metodologia 3.2.1. Stratigrafia 3.2.2. Ceramica 4. 1969, pubblicazione dei risultati di Hajar bin Humeid 4.1. La cronologia in discussione 4.2. L’impatto accademico 4.2.1. I dubbi di J.Pirenne 4.2.2. Le recensioni specialistiche 5. Bibliografi

Synchro-push: A new production control paradigm

The paper aims at proposing a new production control paradigm, the Synchro-push, that offers a step forward with respect to the traditional push and pull production paradigms as for plant re-configurability power and quick reaction to demand changes: in fact, theoretically, it offers the advantages of the two traditional approaches without suffering their drawbacks. This could be of advantage for any manufacturing company and especially for SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprises), acting as a support against worldwide competition. The paper presents a brief history of the evolution of the push and pull approaches, the comparison between them and among the different alternatives that have been proposed in literature for their implementation. It presents the new approach, its theory and the subsequent industrial implications. The new approach is now made possible by the development of innovative smart technologies that allow the close-to-real-time decision making in scheduling and a higher level of modularity in the plant

Assessing Color Rendering in a 3d Setup

Abstract The Color-Rendering Index (CRI) for light source is a quantitative measure of the capability to preserve color appearance of illuminated objects. Recently, CRI has had a renewed interest because of the new LED systems, which usually have a CRI rather low, but a good preservation of color appearance and a pleasant visual appeal. This article presents an experiment performed by human observers to assess the appearance preservation of colors under a set of light sources. Results are then compared with a range of available color rendering indices, in order to assess CRIs variability relative to human judgment

Impact of high resolution radar imagery on reservoir monitoring

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Egas Moniz: 90 years (1927-2017) from cerebral angiography

In June 2017 we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the pioneer discovery of cerebral angiography, the seminal imaging technique used for visualizing cerebral blood vessels and vascular alterations as well as other intracranial disorders. Egas Moniz (1874-1955) was the first to describe the use of this revolutionary technique which, until 1975 (when computed tomography, CT, scan was introduced in the clinical practice), was the sole diagnostic tool to provide an imaging of cerebral vessels and therefore alterations due to intracranial pathology. Moniz introduced in the clinical practice this fundamental and important diagnostic tool. The present contribution wishes to pay a tribute to the Portuguese neurosurgeon, who was also a distinguished neurologist and statesman. Despite his tremendous contribution in modern brain imaging, Egas Moniz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 for prefrontal leucotomy, the neurosurgical intervention nowadays unacceptable, but should rather be remembered for his key contribution to modern brain imaging. KEYWORDS

Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium deposition to the Prunus laurus cerasus leaf surface as an indicator of the vehicular traffic pollution in the city of Varese area. An easy and reliable method to detect PGEs released from automobile catalytic converters

Background, aim, and scope The widespread use of some Platinum Group Elements (PGE) as catalysts to minimize emission of pollutants from combustion engines produced a constantly growing increase of the concentration of these elements in the environment; their potential toxicological properties explain the increasing interest in routine easy monitoring. We have found that leaves of Prunus laurus cerasus are efficient collectors of particulate with a dimension < 60-80 \u3bcm, and a simple and reliable procedure was developed to reveal traces of platinum, palladium and rhodium released from automotive catalysts. The analysis of the dust deposited on the foliage is a direct indicator of traffic pollution. Materials and methods Leaves of prunus laurus cerasus were washed by sonication in a mixture of water and 2 propanol and the washings, to be discarded, were separated by centrifugation to yield typically 0.05-1.2 g of dust that, after mineralization, were directly submitted to Atomic Absorption analysis. Results Comparison of the 2007 and 2004-5 results showed a dramatic reduction of the platinum levels and revealed that palladium is now the main component of this traffic related pollution. Discussion The results are consistent with the increasing diffusion of cars with a diesel engine whose catalysts are made up of Pt and/or Pd alone, and gives a significant insight into the recent evolution in catalyst design that replaces platinum for palladium. Conclusion The proposed analytical procedure is simple, with short preparation times, and greatly reduces matrix effects so that atomic absorption spectroscopy can easily detect the three noble metals at the ng/g level in the dust. Recommendation and perspectives The results clearly show that Pd concentrations have increased over time, and must be cause of concern