6,234 research outputs found
Seismic and solar performance of historical city. Urban form-based multicriteria analysis
The understanding of the global performance of a historical city is a complex balance
of several specific issues and requires a multi-disciplinary approach to face with actual urban
phenomena and challenges, such as the seismic risk and energy efficiency, that are strongly
influenced by urban form. This paper focuses on the potential of urban metrics and typological
indicators for describing the seismic vulnerability and the solar radiation availability of distinct
urban textures, and the correlation between the two aspects. Comparative analysis at fabric scale
was conducted on the historical centre of Rieti (Latium, Italy), to underline the main seismic and
solar indicators. In the last decade, we witnessed the spreading of urban scale assessment and
analysis tools, but seldom using an integrated approach to face the complexity of the historical
city. Relying on morpho-typological indicators, the proposed method characterizes the fabrics in
terms of seismic vulnerability and solar availability through a multicriteria analysis. The analysis
reveals substantial differences between fabrics using three groups of indicators: Plan, Space and
Analysis-oriented. Each group describes different features of the urban fabrics that affect seismic
and solar performance and suggests improvement strategies. The purpose is to support
policymaker and designer in the urban renovation process
On the population of remnant FRII radio galaxies and implications for radio source dynamics
The purpose of this work is two-fold: (1) to quantify the occurrence of
ultra-steep spectrum remnant FRII radio galaxies in a 74 MHz flux limited
sample, and (2) perform Monte-Carlo simulations of the population of active and
remnant FRII radio galaxies to confront models of remnant lobe evolution, and
provide guidance for further investigation of remnant radio galaxies. We find
that fewer than 2 of FRII radio galaxies with S Jy are
candidate ultra-steep spectrum remnants, where we define ultra-steep spectrum
as . Our Monte-Carlo simulations
demonstrate that models involving Sedov-like expansion in the remnant phase,
resulting in rapid adiabatic energy losses, are consistent with this upper
limit, and predict the existence of nearly twice as many remnants with normal
(not ultra-steep) spectra in the observed frequency range as there are
ultra-steep spectrum remnants. This model also predicts an ultra-steep remnant
fraction approaching 10 at redshifts . Importantly, this model
implies the lobes remain over-pressured with respect to the ambient medium well
after their active lifetime, in contrast with existing observational evidence
that many FRII radio galaxy lobes reach pressure equilibrium with the external
medium whilst still in the active phase. The predicted age distribution of
remnants is a steeply decreasing function of age. In other words young remnants
are expected to be much more common than old remnants in flux limited samples.
For this reason, incorporating higher frequency data GHz will be of
great benefit to future studies of the remnant population.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 4 table
Natural Polymers and Cosmeceuticals for a Healthy and Circular Life: The Examples of Chitin, Chitosan, and Lignin
The present review considers the design and introduction of new cosmeceuticals in the market, based on natural polymers and active molecules extracted from biomass, in a biomimetic strategy, starting with a consideration of the biochemical mechanisms, followed by natural precision biopolymer production. After introducing the contest of nanobiotechnology in relationship with its applicability for skin contact products and classifying the currently available sustainable polymers, some widely selected abundant biopolymers (chitin, chitosan, and lignin), showing specific functionalities (anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, etc.), are described, especially considering the possibility to combine them in nanostructured tissues, powders, and coatings for producing new cosmeceuticals, but with potentialities in other sectors, such as biomedical, personal care, and packaging sectors. After observing the general increase in market wellness and beauty forecasts over the next few years, parallelisms between nano and macro scales have suggested that nanobiotechnology application expresses the necessity to follow a better way of producing, selecting, and consuming goods that will help to transform the actual linear economy in a circular economy, based on redesigning, reducing, recycling, and reusing
What triggers a radio AGN? The intriguing case of PKSB 1718-649
We present new Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of the
young (< 10^2 years) radio galaxy PKS B1718-649. We study the morphology and
the kinematics of the neutral hydrogen (HI) disk (M(HI) = 1.1x 10^10 M(sun),
radius ~ 30 kpc). In particular, we focus on the analysis of the cold gas in
relation to the triggering of the nuclear activity. The asymmetries at the
edges of the disk date the last interaction with a companion to more than 1 Gyr
ago. The tilted-ring model of the HI disk shows that this event may have formed
the disk as we see it now, but that it may have not been responsible for
triggering the AGN. The long timescales of the interaction are incompatible
with the short ones of the radio activity. In absorption, we identify two
clouds with radial motions which may represent a population that could be
involved in the triggering of the radio activity. We argue that PKS B1718-649
may belong to a family of young low-excitation radio AGN where, rather than
through a gas rich merger, the active nuclei (AGN) are triggered by local
mechanisms such as accretion of small gas clouds.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Accepted to A&
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