Identifying and Classifying, Quantifying and Visualizing Green Infrastructure via Urban Transects in Rome, Italy and Sydney, Australia

Green Infrastructure is increasingly recognised as an approach to deliver a wide-ranging set of ecosystem services in cities and to operationalize concepts of urban resilience through the better delivery of urban planning, water sensitive urban design and a broad diversity of open space types. This paper argues that the first step in the delivery of effective Green Infrastructure planning and hence ecosystem services is the identification, visualisation and calculus of the full spectrum of existing open space types within urban contexts. To test this idea two case study cities – Rome and Sydney – were selected for their differing geographical origins and planning history. In each city an analysis of the urban fabric through a novel transect mapping process revealed a range of Green Infrastructure types including a diversity of open space, public parks and plazas, streetscapes, greenways and terrain vague. This began by analysing and comparing identified land-uses with existing planning rules, strategies and mechanisms within each city. Through this process we found that for each city significant differences were evident between the formally recognised urban open space and a range of potential additional Green Infrastructure candidates were identified. We then considered the potential recognition and activation of these spaces as critical pieces of overlooked Green Infrastructure into the metrics of a sustainable future city. Comparing these two cities against each other also confirmed the richness of Green Infrastructure types globally across both expanding and contracting cities and highlights differences in data precision, land policy, governance, nomenclature and urban conditions. This research posits that in the absence of the holistic and multi-faceted understanding, metrification and the visualisation of the diversity and distribution of green infrastructure in all its forms then progress towards implementation of robust and resilient cities and their urban ecosystem services will be limited

Integrating Agriculture in Greenways: a Methodology for Planning Connected Urban and Peri-Urban Farmlands in a Mediterranean City

Cities are often threatened by a loss of environmental quality due the rapid increase of urbanized areas that fragment natural landscapes. This is particularly true at the cities’ fringe where uncontrolled urbanization is often characterized by discontinuous patterns and consequent fragmentation of farmlands. These phenomena are particularly relevant in Mediterranean cities, where the high degree of land-use transitions, a consequence of urban growth with poor environmental regulations produce urban landscapes characterized by a lack of green areas and high levels of ecological fragmentation (EEA, 2006). Greenways are one of the most powerful and widespread tools used at urban, metropolitan and regional scales. Their aim is to counteract ecological fragmentation and to integrate urban development, nature conservation and public health promotion (Ahern, 1995; Fabos & Ryan, 2006). They facilitate linkages between rural and urban spaces along the rural-urban interface through linear systems (Walmsley, 2006). As networks of linear elements they are planned, designed and managed for multiple purposes, including the provision of ecosystem services such as purification of air and water, mitigation of floods, climate regulation, generation and renewal of soil fertility, accessibility to open spaces and intellectual stimulation. Urban contexts present particular challenges for greenways development due to the complex arrangement of urban landscape features. The large number and diversity of land-cover types often produce high degrees of fragmentation of open spaces and heterogeneity of their roles and functions. For this reason a number of different types of patches of Non Urbanized Areas (NUAs) are present in urban contexts: this calls for a characterization of these spaces in order to highlight their physical features and their ecological and social functions. Particularly, they could represent a big opportunity for planning policies oriented to support new forms of urban agriculture (La Greca et al., 2011a). When formulating planning approaches to greenways in urban contexts, new forms of agriculture have been the focus of very few studies and applications but they can significantly contribute to cities’ sustainability (Zasada, 2011). Proposing an agricultural greenway that integrates different NUAs into a network of farmlands and other green spaces (parks, playgrounds and so on) could significantly improve the overall accessibility of these areas, redefining the rural-urban interface and enhancing the provision of urban ecosystem services

Evaluating The Potential Energy Savings Of An Urban Green Infrastructure Through Environmental Simulation

Green infrastructure is a very important aspect to be considered in designing and preparing cities to adapt and mitigate climate change impacts on the built environment. Green based solutions have a strong impact on many aspects, such as controlling storm-water, reducing urban heat island effect, stabilizing soils, facing earthquakes, etcetera. In this paper an environmental analysis is performed by simulation with TRNSYS Studio tool. The cooling potential that can be obtained by trees in residential compounds is assessed, considering shadowing effect, changes in air movement, sky view factor reduction and other simulation-parameter changes. Results show that a reduction of 30 to 50% in cooling demand can be obtained by using a raw of trees on South, East and especially West façades. Two types of trees are tested, showing different cooling performances depending on the height and form of the trees

Green Infrastructure to reduce cooling loads and heat stress in Mediterranean Climates

Climate change impact on cities and urban warming due to anthropogenic effects are urgent problems to be solved. Among the most beneficious strategies to reduce those impacts we can account the development of green infrastructures in cities, a kind of intervention that assure both mitigation of global warming by reducing greenhouse gases emissions, and adaptation to warmer urban environments. This work presents a building simulation and machine learning methodology to estimate the energy and comfort-related benefits that can be obtained by using a green infrastructure to shadow buildings' façades and roofs. We used previously developed simulation models to test the energy savings provided by different types of trees planted to produce shadows on buildings. Then, we tested different algorithms to predict using a machine learning approach the saving that can be obtained in different buildings-trees contexts for the cities of Catania, Rome, Santiago de Chile and Viña del Mar. Results show that the saving obtained is in the range 5-60%, mainly depending on the number of façade shadowed and on the specie of trees; and the prediction accuracy of machine learning process is over 90% for a binary classification (energy saving > 15% or <15%

Building green infrastructure to enhance urban resilience to climate change and pandemics

The looming climate crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of green infrastructure in and around cities, prompting an urgent call for more functional and sustainable urban planning and design. A number of recent studies have shown that green infrastructure offers a wide range of ecosystem functions and services essential to human wellbeing and urban sustainability (O’Brien et al. 2017; Staddon et al. 2018) which are of particular relevance under climatic and health crises. In this editorial we stress the importance of the existing green infrastructure to withstand climate change-induced stresses, namely those related to increasing climate variability and extreme temperature and precipitation events, and to contribute to human physical and mental health of urban dwellers during lockdown periods. In both cases, green infrastructure plays a major role in providing urban areas with resilience capacity that is key to urban sustainability. We also highlight the need to expand and improve green infrastructure, in particular in regions that are more vulnerable, based on integrative and participatory processes. This editorial was motivated by a webinar organized by the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) Landscape Ecology Working Party (https://iufrole-wp.weebly.com/) held on November 17th, 2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Borderline Personality in Patients with Poly-Diagnoses Treated for a Bipolar Disorder

Some patients with dysphoria, explosive behaviour, or suicidal ideation, may receive a diagnosis of, and treatment for Bipolar Disorder (BD) and, not infrequently. The coexistence of these two diagnoses has been explained in different ways. Some authors include the BPD in the bipolar spectrum; others are sceptical about the existence of real comorbidity, suggesting a misdiagnosis. This study aimed to assess the personality of this group of poly-diagnosed patients (PolyD) and hypothesised they had a pathological borderline organisation. Via the administration of the Schedler Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200), we compared PolyD patients with those suffering from BPD or BD only. We performed two different MANCOVAs to test PolyD, BPD and BD patients’ differences in PD-factors, Q-traits and age. The sample comprised 45 patients (Mean age=43.3, SD=15.7; Females 57.7%, N=26). BD patients (N=15) did not present any personality disorder, they had a higher functioning and Obsessive Q-traits, and a lower Histrionic PD-factor than both PolyD (N=20) and BPD (N=10) patients. Compared to PolyD patients, BD had inferior PD-Borderline, PD-Antisocial factor and Dependent-Masochistic Q-traits, but there were no other differences with BPD patients. PolyD did not differ from BPD patients in any of the PD-factors and Q-traits. Our results suggest that PolyD patients are different from BD patients and propose to consider the pathological borderline personality as a central core of their disease

Root-end resection with or without retrograde obturation after orthograde filling with two techniques: A micro-CT study

To evaluate the filling ability of two orthograde obturation techniques followed by the apical resection with or without retrograde obturation through micro-computed tomography (CT). Thirty-two single-rooted permanent teeth were prepared and randomised into four groups (n = 8) according to the orthograde obturation technique (single cone technique [SCT] and mineral trioxide aggregate placement) combined or not with retrograde obturation. The volume of voids (VoV) within the entire endodontic space, the apical 3 mm, and 1 mm after root resection was calculated by micro-CT. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference among the groups regarding the total VoV in all root canals, as well as within the apical 1 mm after root resection. The SCT and apical resection without retrograde filling showed significantly better results in terms of VoV at the apical 3 mm after root resection. Within the study limitations, SCT associated with apical resection without retrograde preparation exhibited a similar or less amount of voids than the other groups

A new technique for probing the internal structure of volcanoes using cosmic-ray muons

Among the considerable number of studies that can be carried out using muons, we pay specific attention to the radiography of volcanoes based on the same principle of the X-ray radiography of human body. Thanks to their high penetration capability, cosmic-ray muons can be used to reconstruct the density distribution of the interior of huge structures by measuring the attenuation induced by the material on the muon flux. In particular, the quantitative understanding of the inner structure of volcanoes is a key-point to forecast the dangerous stages of activity and mitigate volcanic hazards. The instrumental approach is currently based on the detection of muons crossing hodoscopes made up of scintillator planes. Unfortunately, these detectors are affected by a strong background comprised by accidental coincidence of vertical shower particles, horizontal high-energy electrons and upward going particles. We propose an alternative technique based on the detection of the Cherenkov light produced by muons. This can be achieved with an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope composed of a high reflectivity optical system that focus the Cherenkov light onto a multi-pixel focal camera with fast read-out electronics. The Cherenkov light emitted by a muon is imaged on the camera as an annular pattern which contains information to reconstruct the direction of the incident muon. We have estimated that using the Cherenkov imaging technique for muon radiography of volcanoes gives the advantage of a negligible background and improved spatial resolution, compared to the majority of the particle detectors. We present results of simulations based on a telescope with a positioning resolution of 13.5 m which corresponds to an acceptance of 9 cm2 sr. The telescope is located 1500 m far from a toy-model volcano, namely, a cone with a base diameter of 500 m and a height of 240 m. We test the feasibility of the proposed method by estimating the minimum number of observation nights needed to resolve inner empty conduits of different diameter.Published122–1252V. Struttura e sistema di alimentazione dei vulcaniN/A or not JC

Looking inside volcanoes with the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes

Cherenkov light is emitted when charged particles travel through a dielectric medium with velocity higher than the speed of light in the medium. The ground-based Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT), dedicated to the very-high energy γ-ray Astrophysics, are based on the detection of the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic charged particles in a shower induced by TeV photons interacting with the Earth atmosphere. Usually, an IACT consists of a large segmented mirror which reflects the Cherenkov light onto an array of sensors, placed at the focal plane, equipped by fast electronics. Cherenkov light from muons is imaged by an IACT as a ring, when muon hits the mirror, or as an arc when the impact point is outside the mirror. The Cherenkov ring pattern contains information necessary to assess both direction and energy of the incident muon. Taking advantage of the muon detection capability of IACTs, we present a new application of the Cherenkov technique that can be used to perform the muon radiography of volcanoes. The quantitative understanding of the inner structure of a volcano is a key-point to monitor the stages of the volcano activity, to forecast the next eruptive style and, eventually, to mitigate volcanic hazards. Muon radiography shares the same principle as X-ray radiography: muons are attenuated by higher density regions inside the target so that, by measuring the differential attenuation of the muon flux along different directions, it is possible to determine the density distribution of the interior of a volcano. To date, muon imaging of volcanic structures has been mainly achieved with detectors made up of scintillator planes. The advantage of using Cherenkov telescopes is that they are negligibly affected by background noise and allow a consistently improved spatial resolution when compared to the majority of the current detectors.Published111-1142V. Struttura e sistema di alimentazione dei vulcaniJCR Journa

Shaping ability of Procodile and R6 Reziflow nickel-titanium reciprocating instruments in curved mesial root canals of mandibular molars: A MicroCT study

To compare the shaping ability of Procodileand R6 Reziflow instruments used in reciprocating motion in severely curved root canals, assessed with micro-computed tomography (mu CT). Fourteen extracted human mandibular first molars were randomly assigned to two instrumentation techniques (n = 14 mesial root canals): Procodile or R6 Reziflow. For both groups, root canals were prepared to the working length up to a size 25,.06 taper. Molars were virtually divided into apical, middle and coronal thirds and mu CT was used to scan all samples pre- and post-root canal. Canal transportation, centring ability, volume, surface area and unprepared area were evaluated. Geometrical parameter changes were compared with preoperative values (one-way analyses of variance and Tukey multiple comparison post-hoc test) between groups and Student t-test within groups (alpha = 0.05) Significantly less transportation was observed associated with the Procodile technique in the molar's coronal third compared to the R6 Reziflow technique (p <.05). No significant differences in root canal centring ability, volume, surface area and unprepared area were observed. Procodile showed a lower percentage increase of surface area compared to R6 Reziflow (p <.05). The Procodile and R6 Reziflow techniques applied to first molar root canal performed similarly except for the less transportation observed in the coronal third using Procodile.Research Highlights MicroCT analysis of canal geometry before and after instrumentation revealed that Procodile and R6 Reziflow showed a similar shaping ability to shape curved root canals without substantially modifications of the original tooth anatomy