Bóvedas delgadas autoportantes en Italia. Espacio y estructura de los edificios industriales (1930-1970)

In the Twentieth Century, the industrial buildings featured a broad experimentation on the load-bearing structures suited to the production spaces. Among the structural elements explicitly designed for factories were reinforced concrete thin shells. In Italy, where reinforced concrete was the predominant construction technique for the entire century, the evolution of the thin shells for industrial buildings traced a significant story: starting from the introduction of foreign systems and patents in the 1920s, the design and construction of the thin shells gradually stacked to national productive and technological specificities. This paper presents a historical investigation of the application of thin shells in Italy between 1930 and 1970, remarking, thus, the local contribution of Italian contractors and designers in the evolution of both the design solutions and production process. Furthermore, the study presents a systematic historical and technical framework related to thin shells to support the actions of knowledge and safeguard the industrial building heritage.En el siglo XX, los edificios industriales presentaron una amplia experimentación sobre las estructuras de carga adecuadas para los espacios de producción. Entre los elementos estructurales diseñados explícitamente para las fábricas se encontraban las bóvedas delgadas de hormigón armado. En Italia, donde el hormigón armado fue la técnica de construcción predominante durante todo el siglo, la evolución de las bóvedas delgadas para edificios industriales trazó un hito histórico significativo: a partir de la introducción de sistemas y patentes extranjeras en la década de 1920, el diseño y la construcción de las bóvedas delgadas se aplicaron gradualmente a las especificidades productivas y tecnológicas nacionales. Este artículo presenta una investigación histórica de la aplicación de las bóvedas delgadas en Italia entre 1930 y 1970, destacando, por lo tanto, la contribución local de los contratistas y diseñadores italianos en la evolución de las soluciones de diseño y el proceso de producción. Además, el estudio presenta un marco histórico y técnico sistemático relacionado con las bóvedas delgadas para apoyar las acciones de conocimiento y salvaguardia del patrimonio de la construcción industrial

L’Autostrada del Sole e la Scuola italiana di ingegneria

The Autostrada del Sole, with its high number of bridges and viaducts, gathered the several personalities of the Italian School of Engineering. Prestressed concrete bridges mainly crossed the rivers of the valley of the Po; wide reinforced concrete arches played a main role on the Appennine Mountains. Its construction, divided into a multitude of small parts that small firms had to deal with, represented an epic and spectacular version of the Made in Italy

“Test Tube Cetaceans”: From the Evaluation of Susceptibility to the Study of Genotoxic Effects of Different Environmental Contaminants Using Cetacean Fibroblast Cell Cultures

Population estimates of various species of cetaceans indicate that certain species have declined dramatically this century. Most studies of contamination and biomarker responses in marine mammals have been conducted using animals killed by hunting, tacitly approving this activity. The development of a series of nondestructive techniques to evaluate biomarker responses and residue levels is strongly recommended for the hazard assessment, protection and conservation of endangered species of marine mammals. A non-invasive sampling method, represented by skin biopsy or integument biopsy (epidermis, dermis and blubber), have been developed and validated in cetaceans. In this paper we present the cetacean fibroblast cell cultures obtained from the skin biopsies as the “test tube cetacean” for evaluate both the susceptibility that the genotoxicity of different environmental contaminants. Fibroblast cell cultures were obtained from many species of cetaceans sampled in Mediterranean Sea (Italy) and in the Mar de Cortez (Mexico). Using test tube cetaceans we can study the relationships between contamination and biochemical responses. One of the principal applications of this developed in vitro system was the assessment of interspecies differences in the mixed function oxidase activity (Cyp1A1 and Cyp2B) induced by in vitro treatment of various contaminants, such as some Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) but also emerging contaminants (such as bisphenol A (BpA)) and nanoparticles, added at different concentrations. The induction of Cyp1A1 and Cyp2B was evaluated with the indirect immunofluorescence technique. Therefore, another purpose of this work was to evaluate the qualitative and quantitative MICA protein expression in fibroblast cell cultures with immunofluorescence technique as toxicological stress marker of the immune system of different species of cetaceans. Finally, In this paper we will present how to evaluate the presence of DNA damage by comet assay in test tube cetaceans, after treatment with different genotoxic compounds (for example PCBs, DDTs, PAHs, BPA)

Evaluation of virological response and resistance profile in HIV-1 infected patients starting a first-line integrase inhibitor-based regimen in clinical settings

Background: Virological response and resistance profile were evaluated in drug-naïve patients starting their first-line integrase inhibitors (INIs)-based regimen in a clinical setting. Study design: Virological success (VS) and virological rebound (VR) after therapy start were assessed by survival analyses. Drug-resistance was evaluated at baseline and at virological failure. Results: Among 798 patients analysed, 38.6 %, 27.1 % and 34.3 % received raltegravir, elvitegravir and dolutegravir, respectively. Baseline resistance to NRTIs, NNRTIs, PIs and INIs was: 3.9 %, 13.9 %, 1.6 % and 0.5 %, respectively. Overall, by 12 months of treatment, the probability of VS was 95 %, while the probability of VR by 36 months after VS was 13.1 %. No significant differences in the virological response were found according to the INI used. The higher pre-therapy viremia strata was (<100,000 vs. 100,000-500,000 vs. > 500,000 copies/mL), lower was the probability of VS (96.0 % vs. 95.2 % vs. 91.1 %, respectively, P < 0.001), and higher the probability of VR (10.2 % vs. 15.8 % vs. 16.6 %, respectively, P = 0.010). CD4 cell count <200 cell/mm3 was associated with the lowest probability of VS (91.5 %, P < 0.001) and the highest probability of VR (20.7 %, P = 0.008) compared to higher CD4 levels. Multivariable Cox-regression confirmed the negative role of high pre-therapy viremia and low CD4 cell count on VS, but not on VR. Forty-three (5.3 %) patients experienced VF (raltegravir: 30; elvitegravir: 9; dolutegravir: 4). Patients failing dolutegravir did not harbor any resistance mutation either in integrase or reverse transcriptase. Conclusions: Our findings confirm that patients receiving an INI-based first-line regimen achieve and maintain very high rates of VS in clinical practice

Il tubo Innocenti e il “Sistema Nervi”: la realizzazione artigianale delle grandi coperture in ferrocemento

On Febraury 1934 Ferdinando Innocenti patented an original “device for uniting tubes of metallic structures”, a steel coupler producing the friction to clamp two perpendicular steel tubes, forming versatile scaffolding and scaffolding. The efficiency was so evident that, in those years, even Pier Luigi Nervi decided to combine his ideas with the Innocenti tube and coupler. In the Air Force Angar of Orvieto and Orbetello, the Innocenti scaffolding became part of the invention of structural prefabrication. The scaffolding easy to assemble/disassemble and reusable support, in terms of cost and time, the idea of the construction of large roof, by combining, small on-site prefabricated pieces. In the aftermath of WWII, the Innocenti scaffolding support the first application of the Nervi System for the spectacular roofing of Salone B in Turin. A huge movable scaffold, supported the set up of the 144 light waves in “ferroconcrete” composing the vault: each arch is made up of 13 wave segments that, only 3,8 cm thick, can be easily mounted on a spectacular movable Innocenti castle. The combination of the two systems allows the conclusion of the time in just 80 days. In 1956, for the construction of the “Palazzetto dello Sport”, the tube-coupler” was included in the overall price of the dome as an essential component of the “Sistema Nervi” and in 1958, in the monumental building site of the “Palazzo dello Sport”, it was used, alongside the traditional timber framing, for the set up of the prefabricated pieces in “ferroconcrete”. So the two Olympic domes were composed on exoskeletons of metallic tubes: their image, widely diffused by the international press, establishing itself as an icon of the Italian artisanal construction site

Costruire la scuola. Industrializzazione per l’istruzione di massa 1960-1975

Il contributo costituisce una sintesi degli esiti della collaborazione di ricerca con l’Archivio Storico del Ministero della Pubblica per la catalogazione e la valorizzazione del fondo Edilizia Scolastica Sperimentale. Negli anni ’60 in Italia il rinnovamento dell’edi cio-scuola è sostanziato dagli appalti-concorso indetti dal MPI (1962- 1978) e rappresenta un concreto tentativo di innescare un generale processo d’industrializzazione dell’edilizia. Oggi, un ingente numero di scuole, testimoniando, nell’uso il valore e i limiti di tale esperienza, costituisce un problema speci co e attuale della conservazione e valorizzazione del patrimonio architettonico del 90

Design strutturale a Milano (1960-1980). Una mutazione interna alla scuola italiana d'ingegneria

In the 1950s and 1960s Italian structural engineering received international attention due to a number of extremely original structural works in reinforced concrete. The material embodied the needs of a country that lagged far behind others in term of industrialization. In situ casting, with its prominent artisanal dimension, played a crucial role. However, techniques of pre-casting were wide used as well, presenting original hand-crafted aspects. Reversing the paradox of the ‘proto-industrial’ dimension of the country, Italian structural engineering seems to provide a side story of international pre-cast concrete. Starting in the 1930s with Pier Luigi Nervi’s invention of ‘structural prefabrication’, this evolved into a continuous experimentalism and the development of a prominent Italian structural language in the North of Italy, overcoming the prejudices against industrialised structures, in both technical and aesthetical terms