Microclimate monitoring of Ariadne's house (Pompeii, Italy) for preventive conservation of fresco paintings

Background: Ariadne's house, located at the city center of ancient Pompeii, is of great archaeological value due to the fresco paintings decorating several rooms. In order to assess the risks for long-term conservation affecting the valuable mural paintings, 26 temperature data-loggers and 26 relative humidity data-loggers were located in four rooms of the house for the monitoring of ambient conditions. Results: Data recorded during 372 days were analyzed by means of graphical descriptive methods and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results revealed an effect of the roof type and number of walls of the room. Excessive temperatures were observed during the summer in rooms covered with transparent roofs, and corrective actions were taken. Moreover, higher humidity values were recorded by sensors on the floor level. Conclusions: The present work provides guidelines about the type, number, calibration and position of thermohygrometric sensors recommended for the microclimate monitoring of mural paintings in outdoor or semi-confined environments. © 2012 Merello et al.; licensee Chemistry Central Ltd.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion) under projects HAR2010-21944-C02-01 and HAR2010-21944-C02-02.Merello Giménez, P.; García Diego, FJ.; Zarzo Castelló, M. (2012). Microclimate monitoring of Ariadne's house (Pompeii, Italy) for preventive conservation of fresco paintings. Chemistry Central Journal. 6:145-161. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-153X-6-145S1451616Ribera A, Olcina M, Ballester C: Pompeya Bajo Pompeya, las Excavaciones en la Casa de Ariadna. Valencia: Fundación MARQ; 2007.World Monuments Fund: World Monuments Watch: 100 Most Endangered Sites. 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Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Sansepolcro (AR). Trebbio

Relazione sulla campagna di scavi archeologici condotta nel 2008 nell'insediamento dell'età del ferro (VIII-VI sec. .C.) di Trebbio di Sansepolcro. Nel sito, ubicato sulla riva orientale del Tevere e pertinente a una comunità umbra, vi sono evidenze di produzione ceramica su ampia scala e di scambi di beni con l'area romagnola

Greening MSW management systems by saving footprint. The contribution of the waste transportation

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management constitutes a highly challenging issue to cope with in order of moving towards more sustainable urban policies. Despite new Standards call for recycling and reusing materials contained in the urban waste, several municipalities still use landfilling as a waste disposal method. Other than the environmental pressure exerted by these plants, waste transportation from the collection points to the landfill needs a specific attention to correctly assess the whole burden of the waste management systems. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint (EF) indicator is applied to the actual MSW of the city of Palermo (Sicily). Results show that the effects produced by the involved transportation vehicles are not negligible, compared to those generated by the other segments of the waste management system. This issue is further deepened by analysing the role of transportation in an upgraded waste management system that is represented by the newly designed waste management plan of Palermo. The computed saved ecological footprint is used here for suitably comparing the environmental performances of the MSW system in both scenarios. Finally, the suitability of the EF method to address not only complete waste management plans but also single segments of the waste management system, is also discussed

Integrated methods for establishing the sustainability of urban policies: applying Ecological Footprint to the Municipal Solid Waste management

The Ecological Footprint (EF) method is applied here to assess alternative policies regarding the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management. This approach arises from two considerations. First, the MSW management certainly requires a great attention by politicians and technicians, due to its importance for effectively administrating and environmentally controlling urban contexts. On the other hand, the EF method, thanks to its holistic structure of analysis, supposedly provides a synthetic and effective measure of the sustainability of waste management systems, so allowing public administrations to prioritizing policies aimed at implementing environmental actions. Here the EF method is used for ranking different policies about the MSW management. The case study concerns the MSW management of Palermo and Ustica island. The suitability of this method for this purpose is assessed through the comparative environmental evaluation of the main segments composing the waste handling chain

Multi-Agent Systems as Effective Tools for the User-Based Thermal Comfort: an Introduction

Through the paper the characterization of a comfort model, enriching that proposed by Fanger with an adaptive approach, is carried out using a Multi Agent System (MAS). This is a well suited coordinated set of Intelligent Agents, that are software applications interacting in order to follow user in his own needs and preferences in relation to indoor comfort, adapting to the changes of context variables. As a matter of fact, MAS are systems aware of the scenery where users live, following them in their own needs and preferences and adapting to their expectations. Indeed, thermal comfort conditions in the built environment are strictly related not only to the thermal and geometric building features and to air-conditioning systems, but also to the building using profile and to the biological-metabolic-psychological characteristics of the users. Within this frame, as a consequence, it is very useful to formalize new models, both subjective and adaptive to the environmental scenery, where users are represented as an integral part of the global experience context, in a particular holistic vision of the problem, strongly addressed towards the personalization of the service, with regards to the novel tern user-plant-building system. In this aim, Intelligent Agents can be considered as the best solution to be adopted, allowing characterization of a control model for an Advanced Smart Conditioning System, that would realize integration of Fanger’s theory with an adaptive approach, also proposed by other authors (Brager and de Dear, Nicols, etc.), in particular by means of a Multi Agent System (MAS)