Balancing power production and coastal protection: A bi-objective analysis of Wave Energy Converters

Wave Energy Converters (WECs) have the potential to serve dual purposes, generating power and protecting coastlines. Although traditionally the focus has been on maximizing power generation for cost-effectiveness, growing impacts of climate change have made coastal protection increasingly imperative. However, power production and coastal protection have been addressed separately, missing potential synergies. This paper addresses this gap by conducting a bi-objective analysis to investigate the interactions between power extraction and wave attenuation for a single Oscillating Surge Wave Converter (OSWC) and WEC farms of three and five units. A linear Power Take-Off (PTO) system, with passive and reactive control strategies, is examined. By varying the PTO parameters, we assess their influence on both power production and wave field attenuation. Results demonstrate a significant impact of the PTO choice on wave attenuation, with a similar trend observed for power production. This finding highlights the potential for a trade-off, where maximizing wave attenuation may come at the cost of moderate energy output. Furthermore, the interactions observed within the WEC farms enhance this trend. The study emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to WEC technology development, promoting sustainable and resilient harnessing of wave energy resources, considering both power generation and coastal protection

Questões avançadas de design: uma abordagem estratégica e investigativa para projetos sem mercado

The economic crisis that has hit countries in the west in recent years has generated a decline in the presence and the strength of the entrepreneurial class and also of its traditional role of “customer” of the design sector. Design has recently responded to this new situation by generating new working methods. Politecnico di Torino has evolved its classic demanding approach to design and brought it up to date by incorporating “explorative” capacities into the training of its students, providing them with the necessary skills to cope with an absence of market, proposing the designer as a key fi gure capable of exploring existing situations and off ering new solutions. The aim of this paper is to show how, in the absence of market, the strategies that Exploring Design can implement generate system-product, process, service design projects that are always original and innovative, capable of leading quite easily to new methods, business ideas and spheres of activity in which customers can become involved later on.Keywords: Advanced design, Exploring Design, Design education, Design methodology.A crise econômica que atingiu os países do oeste nos últimos anos tem gerado uma queda na presença e na força da classe empresarial e também no seu tradicional papel de “cliente” do setor de design. O design recentemente respondeu a essa nova situação gerando novos métodos de trabalho. A Politecnico di Torino tem evoluído a sua abordagem clássica para projetar e a mantém atualizada incorporando capacidades “exploratórias” na formação dos seus alunos, proporcionando-lhes as habilidades necessárias para lidar com a ausência de mercado, apresentando o designer como uma fi gura importante capaz de explorar as situações existentes e oferecendo novas soluções. O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar como, na ausência de mercado, as estratégias que Explorando o Design pode implementar, gerando produto do sistema, processo, projetos de design que são sempre originais e inovadores, capazes de conduzir facilmente a novos métodos, ideias de negócios e esferas de atividade em que os clientes possam se envolver no futuro.Palavras-chave: Design avançado, Explorando o Design, Educação do design, Metodologia de design

Advanced Design issues: a strategic and investigating research approach to design without a market

The economic crisis that has hit countries in the west in recent years has generated a decline in the presence and the strength of the entrepreneurial class and also of its traditional role of "customer" of the design sector. Design has recently responded to this new situation by generating new working methods. Politecnico di Torino has evolved its classic demanding approach to design and brought it up to date by incorporating "explorative" capacities into the training of its students, providing them with the necessary skills to cope with an absence of market, proposing the designer as a key fi gure capable of exploring existing situations and off ering new solutions. The aim of this paper is to show how, in the absence of market, the strategies that Exploring Design can implement generate system-product, process, service design projects that are always original and innovative, capable of leading quite easily to new methods, business ideas and spheres of activity in which customers can become involved later on. Keywords: Advanced design, Exploring Design, Design education, Design methodology

Real-Life Assessment of the Ability of an Ultraviolet C Lamp (SanificaAria 200, Beghelli) to Inactivate Airborne Microorganisms in a Healthcare Environment

Airborne-mediated microbial diseases represent one of the major challenges to public health. Ultraviolet C radiation (UVC) is among the different sanitation techniques useful to reduce the risk of infection in healthcare facilities. Previous studies about the germicidal activity of UVC were mainly performed in artificial settings or in vitro models. This study aimed to assess the sanitizing effectiveness of a UVC device (SanificaAria 200, Beghelli, Valsamoggia, Bologna, Italy) in 'real-life' conditions by evaluating its ability to reduce microbial loads in several hospital settings during routine daily activities. The efficacy of the UVC lamp in reducing the bacterial component was evaluated by microbial culture through the collection of air samples in different healthcare settings at different times (30 min-24 h) after turning on the device. To assess the anti-viral activity, air samplings were carried out in a room where a SARS-CoV-2-positive subject was present. The UVC device showed good antibacterial properties against a wide range of microbial species after 6 h of activity. It was effective against possible multi-drug resistant microorganisms (e.g., Pseudomonas spp., Acinetobacter spp.) and spore-forming bacteria (e.g., Bacillus spp.). In addition, the UVC lamp was able to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 in just one hour. Thanks to its effectiveness and safety, SanificaAria 200 could be useful to inactivate airborne pathogens and reduce health risks

Merchandising as a strategic tool to enhance and spread intangible values of cultural resources

The design of cultural and environmental goods can aim at valorising both material and immaterial cultural heritage at different scales. Specifically, the merchandising product, which is often the victim of production stereotypes, can instead collaborate with a disruptive force in the construction of the non-ephemeral “sense” of a visit. It is, in fact, able to spread complex contents in scientifically correct and comprehensible ways for different targets, condensing the immaterial patrimony into (small) new, low-cost and rich-in-meaning artefacts. This case study, proposed as evidence of such an approach, pertains to a research and teaching activity that was developed in 2017 with 230 university students of design, with the aim of setting up a collection of dedicated merchandising products for a regional talc mine Ecomuseum. The challenge involved narrating the material culture of the location through products that were philologically coherent with the context, but new from the language, functionality, productivity, user involvement and economic accessibility points of view. The resulting projects are, at present, being screened by the Ecomuseum in order to select the most significant for future production. In conclusion, the activity was shown to be potentially scalable and repeatable in other contexts, in which design can valorise an intangible heritage of immense value through products that, inserted into a more extensive strategy of valorisation of the cultural heritage, are within the reach of all

Unsteady RANS CFD Simulations of Sailboat’s Hull and Comparison with Full-Scale Test

The hydrodynamic investigation of a hull’s performance is a key aspect when designing a new prototype, especially when it comes to a competitive/racing environment. This paper purports to perform a fully nonlinear unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation to predict the motion and hydrodynamic resistance of a sailboat, thus creating a reliable tool for designing a new hull or refining the design of an existing one. A comprehensive range of speeds is explored, and results are validated with hydrodynamic full-scale tests, conducted in the towing tank facility at University of Naples Federico II, Italy. In particular, this work deals with numerical ventilation, which is a typical issue occurring when modeling a hull; a simple and effective solution is here proposed and investigated, based on the phase-interaction substitution procedure. Results of the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) campaign agree with the experimental fluid dynamic (EFD) within a 2% margin

Questões avançadas de design: uma abordagem estratégica e investigativa para projetos sem mercado

The economic crisis that has hit countries in the west in recent years has generated a decline in the presence and the strength of the entrepreneurial class and also of its traditional role of “customer” of the design sector. Design has recently responded to this new situation by generating new working methods. Politecnico di Torino has evolved its classic demanding approach to design and brought it up to date by incorporating “explorative” capacities into the training of its students, providing them with the necessary skills to cope with an absence of market, proposing the designer as a key fi gure capable of exploring existing situations and off ering new solutions. The aim of this paper is to show how, in the absence of market, the strategies that Exploring Design can implement generate system-product, process, service design projects that are always original and innovative, capable of leading quite easily to new methods, business ideas and spheres of activity in which customers can become involved later on.Keywords: Advanced design, Exploring Design, Design education, Design methodology.A crise econômica que atingiu os países do oeste nos últimos anos tem gerado uma queda na presença e na força da classe empresarial e também no seu tradicional papel de “cliente” do setor de design. O design recentemente respondeu a essa nova situação gerando novos métodos de trabalho. A Politecnico di Torino tem evoluído a sua abordagem clássica para projetar e a mantém atualizada incorporando capacidades “exploratórias” na formação dos seus alunos, proporcionando-lhes as habilidades necessárias para lidar com a ausência de mercado, apresentando o designer como uma fi gura importante capaz de explorar as situações existentes e oferecendo novas soluções. O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar como, na ausência de mercado, as estratégias que Explorando o Design pode implementar, gerando produto do sistema, processo, projetos de design que são sempre originais e inovadores, capazes de conduzir facilmente a novos métodos, ideias de negócios e esferas de atividade em que os clientes possam se envolver no futuro.Palavras-chave: Design avançado, Explorando o Design, Educação do design, Metodologia de design

Cultural Factories: Conversion of Industrial Areas into Cultural Hubs

The need to restore the former industrial factories so as not to leave the buildings and the neighborhood in a state of neglect has attracted scholarly and popular attention. The following contribution aims to highlight how designers can contribute to the repurposing of buildings by paying attention to the end user and planning new experiences and activities by reading case studies of industrial conversion of production sites into cultural hubs. The company’s history, intrinsically linked to the territory, and its products, are the protagonists of the reconversion so as not to forget the past local productive culture demonstrating how it is possible to generate new and different economies from before. The case studies tell the story of the industrial conversion of companies and mines in urban and decentralized areas to get a representative look at the Italian and European territories

Ask to Design. Percorso guidato tra consapevolezza e design

Ask to Design è un progetto realizzato in compartecipazione tra il Circolo del Design e la Camera di commercio di Torino, avvalendosi della partnership scientifica del Politecnico di Torino, ed intende agevolare l’incontro consapevole tra la domanda di design delle realtà aziendali e i professionisti del settore. L’attività formativa prevista all’interno del progetto Ask to Design mira a diffondere la cultura del design nel territorio piemontese, creare un legame tra aziende e progettisti, stimolare la nascita di sinergie positive in grado di valorizzare entrambe le parti. Con questo intento è stato pensato un percorso formativo - di cui questa guida rappresenta un supporto - rivolto alle aziende e finalizzato a renderle più consapevoli rispetto al concreto valore aggiunto che il design può apportare per il mondo delle imprese, nonché a mettere a fuoco il proprio brief di lavoro da sottoporre ai progettisti del territorio

Specific miRNAs Change After 3 Months of GH treatment and Contribute to Explain the Growth Response After 12 Months

Context: There is growing evidence of the role of epigenetic regulation of growth, and miRNAs potentially play a role. Objective: The aim of this study is to identify changes in circulating miRNAs following GH treatment in subjects with isolated idiopathic GH deficiency (IIGHD) after the first 3 months of treatment, and verify whether these early changes can predict growth response. Design and methods: The expression profiles of 384 miRNAs were analyzed in serum in 10 prepubertal patients with IIGHD (5 M, 5 F) at two time points before starting GH treatment (t-3, t0), and at 3 months on treatment (t+3). MiRNAs with a fold change (FC) >+1.5 or <-1.5 at t+3 were considered as differentially expressed. In silico analysis of target genes and pathways led to a validation step on 8 miRNAs in 25 patients. Clinical and biochemical parameters were collected at baseline, and at 6 and 12 months. Simple linear regression analysis and multiple stepwise linear regression models were used to explain the growth response. Results: Sixteen miRNAs were upregulated and 2 were downregulated at t+3 months. MiR-199a-5p (p = 0.020), miR-335-5p (p = 0.001), and miR-494-3p (p = 0.026) were confirmed to be upregulated at t+3. Changes were independent of GH peak values at testing, and levels stabilized after 12 months. The predicted growth response at 12 months was considerably improved compared with models using the common clinical and biochemical parameters. Conclusions: MiR-199a-5p, miR-335-5p, and miR-494-3p changed after 3 months of GH treatment and likely reflected both the degree of GH deficiency and the sensitivity to treatment. Furthermore, they were of considerable importance to predict growth response.Context: There is growing evidence of the role of epigenetic regulation of growth, and miRNAs potentially play a role. Objective: The aim of this study is to identify changes in circulating miRNAs following GH treatment in subjects with isolated idiopathic GH deficiency (IIGHD) after the first 3 months of treatment, and verify whether these early changes can predict growth response. Design and methods: The expression profiles of 384 miRNAs were analyzed in serum in 10 prepubertal patients with IIGHD (5 M, 5 F) at two time points before starting GH treatment (t-3, t0), and at 3 months on treatment (t+3). MiRNAs with a fold change (FC) >+1.5 or <-1.5 at t+3 were considered as differentially expressed. In silico analysis of target genes and pathways led to a validation step on 8 miRNAs in 25 patients. Clinical and biochemical parameters were collected at baseline, and at 6 and 12 months. Simple linear regression analysis and multiple stepwise linear regression models were used to explain the growth response. Results: Sixteen miRNAs were upregulated and 2 were downregulated at t+3 months. MiR-199a-5p (p = 0.020), miR-335-5p (p = 0.001), and miR-494-3p (p = 0.026) were confirmed to be upregulated at t+3. Changes were independent of GH peak values at testing, and levels stabilized after 12 months. The predicted growth response at 12 months was considerably improved compared with models using the common clinical and biochemical parameters. Conclusions: MiR-199a-5p, miR-335-5p, and miR-494-3p changed after 3 months of GH treatment and likely reflected both the degree of GH deficiency and the sensitivity to treatment. Furthermore, they were of considerable importance to predict growth response