Modelling sustainable lighting with eyetracker and spatial syntax techniques

This research provides an integrated methodological approach based on the combined use of spatial syntax modelling and eyetracker analysis techniques for lighting sustainability aimed to adaptive reuse of all the spaces with high historical, architectural, philological value of Cultural Heritage (CH). MosLESS (Modelling Sustainable Lighting with Eyetracker and Spatial Syntax techniques) is the proposed method, that can suggest fundamental guidelines for dynamic and static lighting in the museographic and museological areas, but also for reuse, conservation and enhancement of historical and CH buildings integrated with efficient energy management and conservation and protection needs. The National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa (Italy) was the pilot project. Particular environments were chosen for the experimental measurement campaigns carried out to assess dynamic and static visual fields, vision and perception. Methodological approach and results can be useful tools for exhibition planning with important energy, social and cultural effects. A further objective of the research will be to facilitate cultural exchanges, communication and new procedures for the digital management of the transmission or modification of museographic and exhibition projects, up to relations with public clients, as well as integrated management of information and decision-making processes

Exploring the impact of external shading system on cognitive task performance, alertness and visual comfort in a daylit workplace environment

The authors examined the effect of external shading system on cognitive performance, alertness and visual comfort of visual display terminal (VDT) users under two realistic office lighting settings in this study. Daylight was the source of illumination being considered as the most significant and preferred one. A total of 26 participants performed visual and cognitive demanding tasks as well as providing subjective alertness, performance and visual evaluations in a full-scale mock-up VDT workstation. Two trials (with and without shading system) were executed during one experimental session. Results revealed that the use of a shading system improves the performance of a user on colour-naming task requiring sustained attention, while no differential effects were observed on tasks involving other cognitive skills such as search velocity and vigilance. Within-subject performance differences were more pronounced during morning hours. Higher performance was reported in some cognitive tests when the subjective sensation of visual discomfort was lower

Impact of Illumination Correlated Color Temperature, Background Lightness, and Painting Color Content on Color Appearance and Appreciation of Paintings

© 2019, © 2019 Illuminating Engineering Society. Lighting design for art exhibitions has a significant impact on the enjoyment and understanding of the displayed artworks. In particular, the selection of the light sources and the design of the museum space affect the visitors' visual perceptions of the artworks and their color appearance. This project investigated some of the potential factors—the correlated color temperature (CCT) of the illumination, the overall color content of the painting and the lightness of its background—affecting a painting's color appearance and appreciation in a museum setting. The study involved a survey conducted in the laboratory with both naïve observers and lighting experts. The CCT of the lighting was found to be the main factor affecting the painting's appearance and the observers' overall preference for the lighting arrangements, whereas the overall hue content of the painting and the background lightness had a minor influence. Furthermore, it has been found that the perceived brightness increases along with the CCT. ispartof: LEUKOS vol:16 issue:1 pages:25-44 status: publishe

Study on the suitable lighting design of Beato Angelico’s artworks displayed at the National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa (Italy)

The lighting design of exhibition space has a great impact on visual and colour perception and different lighting arrangements can create very different visual impression of artworks and, if not carefully designed, compromise the enjoyment of the viewers. This study involved the design of a new lighting solution for two of Beato Angelico’s artworks displayed at the National Museum of San Matteo (Pisa, Italy). Multiple test lighting configurations were designed using different LED luminaires and different settings of the luminaires. The test lighting configurations were evaluated by a restricted group of observers through a survey in order to individuate the most suitable solution, able to enhance the two artworks simultaneously and to provide a good visual experience for museum visitors

the bowed string instruments acoustic characterization of unique pieces from the italian lutherie

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Probiotic Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium Strains Counteract Adherent-Invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) Virulence and Hamper IL-23/Th17 Axis in Ulcerative Colitis, but Not in Crohn's Disease

Hypersecretion of proinflammatory cytokines and dysregulated activation of the IL-23/Th17 axis in response to intestinal microbiota dysbiosis are key factors in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). In this work, we studied how Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains affect AIEC-LF82 virulence mechanisms and the consequent inflammatory response linked to the CCR6-CCL20 and IL-23/Th17 axes in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. All Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains significantly reduced the LF82 adhesion and persistence within HT29 intestinal epithelial cells, inhibiting IL-8 secretion while not affecting the CCR6-CCL20 axis. Moreover, they significantly reduced LF82 survival within macrophages and dendritic cells, reducing the secretion of polarizing cytokines related to the IL-23/Th17 axis, both in healthy donors (HD) and UC patients. In CD patients, however, only B. breve Bbr8 strain was able to slightly reduce the LF82 persistence within dendritic cells, thus hampering the IL-23/Th17 axis. In addition, probiotic strains were able to modulate the AIEC-induced inflammation in HD, reducing TNF-\u3b1 and increasing IL-10 secretion by macrophages, but failed to do so in IBD patients. Interestingly, the probiotic strains studied in this work were all able to interfere with the IL-23/Th17 axis in UC patients, but not in CD patients. The different interaction mechanisms of probiotic strains with innate immune cells from UC and CD patients compared to HD suggest that testing on CD-derived immune cells may be pivotal for the identification of novel probiotic strains that could be effective also for CD patients

A First Step for the Molecular Characterization of Neurological Involvement of Behçet Syndrome: an Italian Pivotal Study

Behçet syndrome (BS) is a vasculitis characterized by several clinical manifestations including the rare neurological involvement (neuro-BS, NBS). The aim of our pivotal study was to investigate the mutational status of several inflammation-related genes in a cohort of Italian patients with and without the neurological involvement (20 NBS vs 40 no-NBS patients). The preliminary in silico single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) selection and primer design were performed by NCBI Primer-Blast tool. Genomic DNA was isolated and amplified using PCR. PCR amplicons were sequenced and bioinformatically analysed. Twelve tagSNPs were selected and genotyped: ERAP1 rs30187, rs17482078, and rs27044; IL10 rs1800872 and rs1518111, IL12A rs17810546, IL23R rs17375018, IL23R-IL12RB2 rs924080, STAT4 rs7572482, CCR1 rs7616215, KLRC4 rs2617170, and UBAC2 rs3825427. ERAP1 and IL23R SNPs showed statistically significant higher frequencies in NBS group than no-NBS. ERAP1 rs30187 AA was more common in no-NBS patients (20.0% NBS vs 47.5% no-NBS; p < 0.05), while rs17482078 GA frequency was higher in NBS patients (55.0% NBS vs 22.5% no-NBS; p < 0.05, OR: 4.21). IL23R rs17375018 GG was more frequent in NBS group (65.0% NBS vs 40.0% no-NBS; p < 0.05), according to a previous finding. No other statistically significant differences were found. In conclusion, ERAP1 and IL23R SNPs were found associated with neurological involvement of BS. Additional and larger analyses were required to verify our preliminary findings

Role of Capsid anchor in the morphogenesis of Zika virus

The flavivirus capsid protein (C) is separated from the downstream pre-membrane (PrM) protein by a hydrophobic sequence named capsid anchor (Ca). During polyprotein processing, Ca is sequentially cleaved by the viral NS2B/NS3 protease on the cytosolic side and by signal peptidase on the luminal side of the ER. To date, Ca is considered important mostly for directing translocation of PrM into the ER lumen. In this study, the role of Ca in the assembly and secretion of ZIKV was investigated using a pseudovirus-based approach. Our results show that, while Ca-mediated anchoring of C to the ER membrane is not needed for the production of infective particles, Ca expression in cis with respect to PrM is strictly required to allow proper assembly of infectious particles. Finally, we show that the presence of a heterologous, but not the homologous, Ca induces degradation of E through the autophagy/lysosomal pathway.IMPORTANCE The capsid anchor (Ca) is a single pass transmembrane domain at the C-terminus of the capsid protein (C) known to function as a signal for the translocation of PrM into the ER lumen. The objective of this study was to further understand the role of Ca in ZIKV life cycle, whether involved in the formation of nucleocapsid through association with C or in the formation of viral envelope. In this study, we show that Ca has a function beyond the one of translocation signal, controlling protein E stability and therefore its availability for assembly of infectious particles

Sailing for Science: on board experiences for transferring knowledge on Historical Oceanography for Future Innovation

Smart, sustainable and inclusive Blue Growth means also knowing past technology and the paths followed by ancients in order to understand and monitor marine environments. In general, history of Science is a matter that is not enough explored and explained or promoted in high schools or university official programmes, and, usually, scientist do not consider it as an important part of their curricula. However, bad or good ideas, abandoned or forgotten beliefs, concepts, opinions, do still have a great potential for inspiring present and future scientists, no matter in which historical period they may have been formulated: they should be always be taken into consideration, critically examined and observed by a very close point of view, not just as part of the intellectual framework of some obsolete ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ with limited access except for the chosen few. Moreover, history of Science should be transmitted in a more practical way, with hands-on labs showing the limits and challenges that prior generations of ocean explorers, investigators and seafarers had to face in order to answer to crucial questions as self-orientation in open sea, understanding main currents and waves, predicting meteorological conditions for a safe navigation. Oceanography is a relatively young branch of science, and still needs further approvals and knowledge (National Science Foundation, 2000). The Scientific Dissemination Group (SDG) “La Spezia Gulf of Science” – made up by Research Centres, Schools and Cultural associations located in La Spezia (Liguria, Italy) - has a decadal experience in initiatives aimed at people and groups of people of all ages, who are keen on science or who can be guided in any case to take an interest in scientific matters (Locritani et al., 2015). Amongst the SDG activities, the tight relationship with the Historical Oceanography Society, the Italian Navy and the Naval Technical Museum (that collects a rich heritage of civilization, technology and culture witnesses, related to the naval history of seamanship from the origins up to nowadays), allowed the creation of a special educational format based on Historical Oceanography, for university and high school students as an integration for their curriculum. The Historical Oceanography Society has provided the major knowledges included in the ancient volumes of its archive, thanks to the availability of its members that also held theoretical and practical lessons during the course. The present paper will describe the one-week special course (about 60 hours of theory and practice with technical visits to Research centres and Museums) that has been planned to be carried out on board of the Italian Training Navy Ship (A. Vespucci) and has been organized in order to give the hints about on board life, as well as theoretical lessons on modern and historical oceanography, hands-on labs on oceanographic instruments from public and private collections, physiology of diving techniques and astronomy. The general aim of this course has been, hence, to give to excellent students all those technological but also creative and imaginative features of our past.PublishedVienna1TM. Formazion