PALAZZO LA SAPIENZA IN PISA: STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT AND RETROFIT OF AN HISTORICAL MASONRY BUILDING IN ITALY

Palazzo La Sapienza, historical seat of the University of Pisa since the XVI century, represents one of the most important examples of the Tuscany cultural heritage, nowadays not in use due to several problems related to maintenance and structural deficiencies. The building, in its current form, is the result of several modifications, enlargements, elevations, connection with adjacent parts, resulting finally more similar to a “structural aggregate” - made up of single units connected together without specific scheme and organization - than to a single unitary building. After the earthquake of May 2012, the Palace was temporarily closed in relation to the ordinance issued by the Major’s Office and then subjected to wide in situ investigations aiming at analyzing in a very detailed manner all the criticisms related to structural, nonstructural, geotechnical and maintenance problems; the deep in situ survey campaigns allowed to reach a very deep knowledge of the building, of its progressive morphological evolution and of its actual condition, including problems not directly related to the structural condition but, as an example, to the instability and heterogeneity of the ground soil and of the foundation system. All the information so obtained allowed the execution of static and seismic vulnerability assessment – according to the actual prescriptions of Italian Standard for Constructions (D.M. 14/01/2008) – through the elaboration of complex global and local models and the final elaboration of an executive retrofit design comprehensive of local interventions on significant structural elements or subportions of the building. In the present paper, after a short description of the knowledge analysis of the building and of its safety verification, the retrofit executed to obtain a satisfying level of safety is presented

Verification of the electromagnetic deep-penetration effect in the real world

The deep penetration of electromagnetic waves into lossy media can be obtained by properly generating inhomogeneous waves. In this work, for the very first time, we demonstrate the physical implementation and the practical relevance of this phenomenon. A thorough numerical investigation of the deep-penetration effects has been performed by designing and comparing three distinct practical radiators, emitting either homogeneous or inhomogeneous waves. As concerns the latter kind, a typical Menzel microstrip antenna is first used to radiate improper leaky waves. Then, a completely new approach based on an optimized 3-D horn TEM antenna applied to a lossy prism is described, which may find applications even at optical frequencies. The effectiveness of the proposed radiators is measured using different algorithms to consider distinct aspects of the propagation in lossy media. We finally demonstrate that the deep penetration is possible, by extending the ideal and theoretical evidence to practical relevance, and discuss both achievements and limits obtained through numerical simulations on the designed antennas

Conception of a compact flow boiling loop for the International Space Station- First results in parabolic flights

International audienceThe design of a pipe flow boiling experiment for the International Space Station is proposed, taking into account typical weight, power consumption and size constraints. The effect of singularities such as elbows upstream the test section is investigated. Velocity profiles downstream two elbows, measured by Particle Image Velocimetry are in good agreement with numerical simulation and allow to determine a specific distance (decay length) downstream the elbows for which the velocity profile recover its axisymmetry. From these results a breadboard is designed and tested in parabolic flights. Care has been taken to generate boiling downstream the decay length. Two-phase bubbly flow is observed with 2 perpendicular high-speed cameras in the test section and a symmetry of the bubble distribution in the pipe is verified for different gravity conditions when the bubbles are created after the decay length

I teatri a Venezia nel 1868

In 1868 the theatrical context in Venice was affected by local abut also statal economic situation, due by the development of the new Italian State, formed after the Peace of Vienna that, signed on 23 October 1866, marked the end of the Third War of Independence and the annexation of Venice to the unitary state. Venice therefore became less important for theatrical production, and the city was no longer among the capitals of theatre and music, as it could have been considered until in the first half of 19th century. A new trend throughout Europe was moreover the 'grand opera', while in Venice the dominant show was still the traditional musical opera, in addition to opera and 'opera buffa', created by great Italian composers. The theatres active in 1868 in the city are La Fenice, Teatro San Benedetto then called Rossini, Teatro Apollo, Teatro Malibran and Teatro San Samuele. Through the reviews of the Gazzetta di Venezia and documents such as sketches of the scene made by famous set designers, that interesting moment is reconstructed

Prolonged higher dose methylprednisolone vs. conventional dexamethasone in COVID-19 pneumonia: a randomised controlled trial (MEDEAS)

Dysregulated systemic inflammation is the primary driver of mortality in severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Current guidelines favor a 7-10-day course of any glucocorticoid equivalent to dexamethasone 6 mg·day-1. A comparative RCT with a higher dose and a longer duration of intervention was lacking

Genetic dissection of the relationships between grain yield components by genome-wide association mapping in a collection of tetraploid wheats

Increasing grain yield potential in wheat has been a major target of most breeding programs. Genetic advance has been frequently hindered by negative correlations among yield components that have been often observed in segregant populations and germplasm collections. A tetraploid wheat collection was evaluated in seven environments and genotyped with a 90K SNP assay to identify major and stable quantitative trait loci (QTL) for grain yield per spike (GYS), kernel number per spike (KNS) and thousand-kernel weight (TKW), and to analyse the genetic relationships between the yield components at QTL level. The genome-wide association analysis detected eight, eleven and ten QTL for KNS, TKW and GYS, respectively, significant in at least three environments or two environments and the mean across environments. Most of the QTL for TKW and KNS were found located in different marker intervals, indicating that they are genetically controlled independently by each other. Out of eight KNS QTL, three were associated to significant increases of GYS, while the increased grain number of five additional QTL was completely or partially compensated by decreases in grain weight, thus producing no or reduced effects on GYS. Similarly, four consistent and five suggestive TKW QTL resulted in visible increase of GYS, while seven additional QTL were associated to reduced effects in grain number and no effects on GYS. Our results showed that QTL analysis for detecting TKW or KNS alleles useful for improving grain yield potential should consider the pleiotropic effects of the QTL or the association to other QTLs