Among territorial project and architectural design

AbstractThe contribution develops a reflection on the urban space project in contexts characterized by historical-cultural relevance by exploring interdisciplinary approaches through the intersection of research and didactic actions in the field, which make the project emerge from specific ways of interacting with local societies. These relationships find a sense starting from the identification of some traditionally configured places in the city that present obsolete functions or abandoned conditions, but characterized by a strong urban value and can become hubs of potential and learning laboratories. In this sense, knowledge can be a tool capable of favouring forms of social relations and initiating the construction of new citizenships.The research identifies in the context of the historic city of Sassari some nuclei of urbanity, spaces and significant areas of the city that more than others recall an educational dimension. The relationship between the formative character of the historic city and the emergence of new forms of sociality favours the possibility of identifying areas outside standardization that contain the genetic code of urban conviviality. In this perspective, public space defined as the place of production of sociality, designed to bring out a different urban organization.The identification of these latent traces of a system full of meaning and full of potential for urban life can open fertile perspectives to think of new spaces of relationship for active participation in the project of the city. Marking the distance from an object-oriented position in favor of an ontology of urban and territorial relations, the project continuously aimed at revealing new forms of spatial distribution that relate different nuclei, interpreting their specific role in the overall system of generative structures environmental aspects of the city

How Demanding Should Equality of Opportunity Be, and How Much Have We Achieved?

[Excerpt] This chapter proposes tests of various notions of equality of opportunity and applies them to intergenerational income data for the United States and Britain. Agreement is widespread that equality of opportunity holds in a society if the chances that individuals have to succeed depend only on their own efforts and not on extraneous circumstances that may inhibit or expand those chances. What is contentious, however, is what constitutes effort and circumstances. Most people, we think, would say that the social connections of an individual\u27s parents would be included among circumstances: equality of opportunity is incomplete if some individuals get ahead because they have well-connected parents. This and other channels through which circumstances affect income opportunities in an intergenerational context are discussed in Section 2. Section 3 then formulates four, increasingly stringent criteria for equality of opportunity. In Section 4, we turn to an empirical implementation of these criteria to test for equality of opportunity in the United States and Britain. The results, presented in Section 5, provide only the weakest of support for equality of opportunity in the United States and no support at all in Britain. Concluding remarks are presented in Section 6

Blue Gravity Waves from BICEP2 ?

We present new constraints on the spectral index n_T of tensor fluctuations from the recent data obtained by the BICEP2 experiment. We found that the BICEP2 data alone slightly prefers a positive, "blue", spectral index with n_T=1.36\pm0.83 at 68 % c.l.. However, when a TT prior on the tensor amplitude coming from temperature anisotropy measurements is assumed we get n_T=1.67\pm0.53 at 68 % c.l., ruling out a scale invariant $n_T=0$ spectrum at more than three standard deviations. These results are at odds with current bounds on the tensor spectral index coming from pulsar timing, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, and direct measurements from the LIGO experiment. Considering only the possibility of a "red", n_T<0 spectral index we obtain the lower limit n_T > -0.76 at 68 % c.l. (n_T>-0.09 when a TT prior is included).Comment: 3 Pages, 4 Figure

Environmental monitoring using a drone-enabled wireless sensor network

Water quality monitoring traditionally occurs via resource intensive field surveys, such as when a researcher manually collects data in a stream. Limiting factors such as time, money, and accessibility often result in less oversight of impaired water bodies, significantly threatening ecosystemic health and related ecosystem services. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 84% of rivers and streams within the United States remain unassessed, resulting in significant lapses in available data. Such lapses prohibit efficient and effective monitoring, restoration, and conservation efforts throughout the United States. The objective of this project was to employ an unmanned aerial vehicle to remotely collect data regarding water quality from a wireless sensor network. The site under analysis was Boones Run, a tributary of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River near Elkton, Virginia. This project served as a proof-of-concept that communication with a wireless sensor node has the capability to be deployed to collect data in remote areas efficiently and effectively. This system would be useful in areas where accessibility is difficult, and transmission of data for processing is not readily available due to the lack of network connectivity. Initial analysis of environmental data gathered by hand indicated that surrounding land use had a significant impact on Boones Run water quality. This conclusion was reached given the trends seen in dissolved oxygen, water temperature, pH, and conductivity data from upstream to downstream over time. The completion of this project also lead to the successful data flow amongst all parts in the wireless sensor network. Three sensors soldered to a breadboard and connected to an Arduino Uno were able to gather data and send it to a Raspberry Pi 0. The Raspberry Pi 0 acted as a temporary storage device for the data before it was sent wirelessly to a Raspberry Pi 3 acting as an access point. The Raspberry Pi 3 device was mounted to an unmanned aerial vehicle so it could be flown over the node to decrease data collection time as well as adding the ability to collect data from places that are otherwise difficult for humans to access

Improving the Bike lane Network and Enhancing the Heritage of Almese

In recent years increasing problems of pollution's effects on public health have moved the attention of local authorities on innovative strategies to promote low-carbon mobility. Bicycle represents an alternative and complementary vehicle to private car, so it's important focusing the attention on facilities and services design linked on cycling. In this paper it is presented a project proposal of a bike lane network, which is a sustainable option of urban and suburban mobility and also it represents an important tool to enhance landscape and cultural heritage of the Susa Valley

Effect of the temperature in a mixed culture pilot scale aerobic process for food waste and sewage sludge conversion into polyhydroxyalkanoates

The utilisation of urban organic waste as feedstock for polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production is growing since it allows to solve the main concerns about their disposal and simultaneously to recover added-value products. A pilot scale platform has been designed for this purpose. The VFA-rich fermentation liquid coming from the anaerobic treatment of both source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and waste activated sludge (WAS) has been used as substrate for the aerobic process steps: a first sequencing batch reactor (SBR, 100 L) for the selection of a PHA-producing biomass, and a second fed-batch reactor (70 L) for PHA accumulation inside the cells. The SBR was operated at 2.0-4.4 kg COD/(m3 d) as OLR, under dynamic feeding regime (feast-famine) and short hydraulic retention time (HRT; 1 day). The selected biomass was able to accumulate up to 48% g PHA/g VSS. Both steps were performed without temperature (T) control, avoiding additional consumption of energy. In this regard, the applied OLR was tuned based on environmental T and, as a consequence, on biomass kinetic, in order to have a constant selective pressure. The latter was mainly quantified by the PHA storage yield (YP/Sfeast 0.34-0.45 CODP/CODS), which has been recognized as the main parameters affecting the global PHA productivity [1.02-1.82 g PHA/(L d)] of the process

Orexins Mediate Sex Differences in the Stress Response and in Cognitive Flexibility

BACKGROUND: Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from stress-related psychiatric disorders. However, the biological basis of these sex differences is poorly understood. Orexins are altered in anxious and depressed patients. Using a rat model of repeated stress, we asked whether orexins contribute to sex differences in outcomes relevant to stress-related psychiatric diseases. METHODS: Behavioral, neural, and endocrinal habituation to repeated restraint stress and subsequent cognitive flexibility was examined in adult male and female rats. In parallel, orexin expression and activation was determined in both sexes, and chromatin immunoprecipitation was used to determine transcription factors acting at the orexin promoter. DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) were used to inhibit orexin activation throughout repeated restraint to determine if the stress related impairments in females could be reduced. RESULTS: Female rats exhibited impaired habituation to repeated restraint with subsequent deficits in cognitive flexibility compared to male rats. Increased orexin expression and activation was observed in females compared to males. The higher expression of orexin mRNA in females was due to actions of glucocorticoid receptors on the orexin promoter, as determined by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Finally, inhibition of orexins using DREADDs in females throughout repeated restraint abolished their heightened HPA responsivity and reduced stress-induced cognitive impairments. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that orexins mediate the impairments in adaptations to repeated stress and in subsequent cognitive flexibility exhibited by female rats and provide evidence for a broader role for orexins in mediating functions relevant to stress related psychiatric diseases

A Novel null homozygous mutation confirms <i>CACNA2D2</i> as a gene mutated in epileptic encephalopathy

Contribution to epileptic encephalopathy (EE) of mutations in CACNA2D2, encoding α2δ-2 subunit of Voltage Dependent Calcium Channels, is unclear. To date only one CACNA2D2 mutation altering channel functionality has been identified in a single family. In the same family, a rare CELSR3 polymorphism also segregated with disease. Involvement of CACNA2D2 in EE is therefore not confirmed, while that of CELSR3 is questionable. In a patient with epilepsy, dyskinesia, cerebellar atrophy, psychomotor delay and dysmorphic features, offspring to consanguineous parents, we performed whole exome sequencing (WES) for homozygosity mapping and mutation detection. WES identified extended autozygosity on chromosome 3, containing two novel homozygous candidate mutations: c.1295delA (p.Asn432fs) in CACNA2D2 and c.G6407A (p.Gly2136Asp) in CELSR3. Gene prioritization pointed to CACNA2D2 as the most prominent candidate gene. The WES finding in CACNA2D2 resulted to be statistically significant (p = 0.032), unlike that in CELSR3. CACNA2D2 homozygous c.1295delA essentially abolished α2δ-2 expression. In summary, we identified a novel null CACNA2D2 mutation associated to a clinical phenotype strikingly similar to the Cacna2d2 null mouse model. Molecular and statistical analyses together argued in favor of a causal contribution of CACNA2D2 mutations to EE, while suggested that finding in CELSR3, although potentially damaging, is likely incidental