Virtual Representations of Cultural Heritage: Sharable and Implementable Case Study to Be Enjoyed and Maintained by the Community

This paper is related to the field of digital-informed modelling of heritage assets (HBIM). The scientific literature has been addressing this topic for years with many different facets: focusing digitalization on the analysis and modelling of heritage asset geometries, construction, development over time, or the representation of materials and degradations. This research aims not only to optimize the common digital workflows but also to demonstrate the effectiveness of digitalization and virtual reality applications in preserving the memory of places. Furthermore, a strategy for the maintenance of cultural heritage through virtual reality in a participatory process is proposed. The applied method develops appropriate new workflows and tools to enable enjoyment of monuments of the developed case study remotely; moreover, it allows the creation of content from ordinary users that can be incorporated into the digital models over time. Therefore, virtual and augmented reality environments are proving to be effective methods even for non-experts to understand space, allowing for active citizenship involvement

Per un museo virtuale della Via Francigena del Sud

The Goal of the Virtual Museum project of the "Via Francigena del Sud" is based on the method of how the museum was conceived; no longer as the physical place of conservation and display of works of art, but as an "immaterial place" dedicated to the production of culture and to its promotion, a place where knowledge is built in a joint and interdisciplinary way on material and immaterial heritage, and shared within a complex system of relations between different entities, subjects and users, using the most innovative digital technologies, through images, videos, graphics, diagrams, slide shows, 3D models, animation and all the multimedia features that can be created. The project essentially involves the creation of an integrated system of knowledge, communication and enhancement of the resulting areas of culture, which are the foundation of European civilisation, created around the "Via Francigena del Sud", from the same Roman road structure to archaeological contexts, from assisting buildings, to Romanesque cathedrals, and those intangible that develop along the path on which pilgrims, merchants, crusaders, the religious, knights, emperors etc. passed, for more than nine hundred years, starting from more than one thousand, five hundred years ago, that from Rome travelled to the ports of Puglia, from where they embarked for the Holy Land. Per un museo virtuale della Via Francigena del SudL’obiettivo del progetto del Museo Virtuale della Via Francigena del Sud si fonda sul modo di concepire il museo, non più come il luogo fisico della conservazione e della esposizione di opere d’arte, ma come “luogo immateriale" deputato alla produzione di cultura ed alla sua promozione, luogo dove la conoscenza viene costruita in modo congiunto e interdisciplinare sul patrimonio materiale e immateriale, e condivisa all’interno di un complesso sistema di relazioni tra enti, soggetti e fruitori diversi, mediante l’ausilio delle più innovate tecnologie digitali, attraverso immagini, video, grafici, diagrammi, slide show, modelli 3D, animazioni e tutti gli oggetti multimediali che si possono creare. Il progetto prevede in sostanza la creazione di un sistema integrato di conoscenza, comunicazione e valorizzazione del risultato che l’intreccio di culture, che sono a fondamento della civiltà europea,  ha creato attorno alla Via Francigena del Sud, dalla stessa struttura viaria romana ai contesti archeologici, dagli edifici assistenziali, alle cattedrali romaniche, e immateriali dell'area che si sviluppa lungo il percorso su cui sono transitati pellegrini, commercianti, crociati, religiosi, cavalieri imperatori ecc., per più di novecento anni, a partire da più di mille e cinquecento anni fa, che da Roma si recavano nei porti pugliesi, da dove ci si imbarcava per la Terrasanta.  L’obiettivo del progetto del Museo Virtuale della Via Francigena del Sud si fonda sul modo di concepire il museo, non più come il luogo fisico della conservazione e della esposizione di opere d’arte, ma come “luogo immateriale" deputato alla produzione di cultura ed alla sua promozione, luogo dove la conoscenza viene costruita in modo congiunto e interdisciplinare sul patrimonio materiale e immateriale, e condivisa all’interno di un complesso sistema di relazioni tra enti, soggetti e fruitori diversi, mediante l’ausilio delle più innovate tecnologie digitali, attraverso immagini, video, grafici, diagrammi, slide show, modelli 3D, animazioni e tutti gli oggetti multimediali che si possono creare. Il progetto prevede in sostanza la creazione di un sistema integrato di conoscenza, comunicazione e valorizzazione del risultato che l’intreccio di culture, che sono a fondamento della civiltà europea,  ha creato attorno alla Via Francigena del Sud, dalla stessa struttura viaria romana ai contesti archeologici, dagli edifici assistenziali, alle cattedrali romaniche, e immateriali dell'area che si sviluppa lungo il percorso su cui sono transitati pellegrini, commercianti, crociati, religiosi, cavalieri imperatori ecc., per più di novecento anni, a partire da più di mille e cinquecento anni fa, che da Roma si recavano nei porti pugliesi, da dove ci si imbarcava per la Terrasanta. For a Virtual Museum of the "Via Francigena del Sud"The Goal of the Virtual Museum project of the "Via Francigena del Sud" is based on the method of how the museum was conceived; no longer as the physical place of conservation and display of works of art, but as an "immaterial place" dedicated to the production of culture and to its promotion, a place where knowledge is built in a joint and interdisciplinary way on material and immaterial heritage, and shared within a complex system of relations between different entities, subjects and users, using the most innovative digital technologies, through images, videos, graphics, diagrams, slide shows, 3D models, animation and all the multimedia features that can be created. The project essentially involves the creation of an integrated system of knowledge, communication and enhancement of the resulting areas of culture, which are the foundation of European civilisation, created around the "Via Francigena del Sud", from the same Roman road structure to archaeological contexts, from assisting buildings, to Romanesque cathedrals, and those intangible that develop along the path on which pilgrims, merchants, crusaders, the religious, knights, emperors etc. passed, for more than nine hundred years, starting from more than one thousand, five hundred years ago, that from Rome travelled to the ports of Puglia, from where they embarked for the Holy Land

N-type Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFT): Effects of treatments of the insulator/semiconductor interface on the devices performances

2015 - 2016The organic electronic devices are finding a great consideration for applications where silicon limitations make this semiconductor unsuitable. Many properties of organic materials open new frontiers of the research; some example of applications are flexible displays, smart textiles, new lighting fixtures, intelligent packaging. Furthermore, an interesting attraction of organic devices is their being environmentally friendly. Organic materials provide also an inspiration for always new applications stimulated by the continuing efforts of characterization, fabrication, synthesis and design. This thesis work wants to contribute to the comprehension of the properties of solution processed organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) that use a n-type semiconductor. These devices are the basic element of the driving circuits, where the n channel transistors still result poorly understood. In this PhD activity, it is studied the effect of surface treatments at SiO2 dielectric layer and organic semiconductor interface to improve the OTFTs performance. These transistors, that are fabricated employing a specific combination of treatments before the deposition of a soluble semiconductor, are studied in order to analyze the relationship between the surface treatments and the devices electrical parameters; so to calculate one or more variables able to better adapt the conditions of the treatments to the performances of the device. The devices are fabricated using as semiconductor the [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) deposited from drop casting technique on a SiO2 layer where a combination of ultraviolet/ozone cleaning (UV/O3) and self-assembled monolayer (SAM) coating is previously carried out. The hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) is the SAM used, and it is deposited at three different temperatures, 7°C, 25°C and 60°C. UV/O3 cleaning allows to remove organic contaminations on the dielectric surface, thanks to the formation of hydroxyl groups (-OH) generated by the UV/O3 ambient. While the HMDS can reduce the traps induced by Si-OH groups on the gate insulators, making layer treated hydrophobic. In this work, it is observed that different deposition temperatures of the SAM produce surfaces with different hydrophobic characters resulting in different electric performances of the devices. The techniques of analysis employed to observe the effects of the treatments have been: contact angle measurements, AFM imaging of the organic semiconductor, I vs. V static characterization and admittance measurements. Particular effort is given to evaluate the presence of electronic trap states in organic thin film transistors based on n-type semiconductor in bottom-gate bottom-contact configuration, thus it is proposed a new and accurate equivalent electrical, which is capable to model the properties of the semiconductor bulk and the conductive channel, through the calculation of the density of the trap states and the channel resistance. From the performed analysis, the transistors treated at temperature of 25°C show a high roughness, a very inhomogeneous surface of the semiconductor layer and a higher degree of the SiO2 surface hydrophobicity compared to the transistors processed at 7°C and 60°C. The HMDS behaving as a silane coupling reactant, provides a better tailored hydrophobic surface during the processes at 7°C and at 60°C, resulting in an improved surface energy, matching between the gate insulator and the organic semiconductor. From DC measurements, it is observed that the samples at 60°C temperature for HMDS deposition show the best performances: the highest electron mobility of 13·10-3 cm2/Vs and the lowest threshold voltage of 12.0 V. While for the devices prepared at 7 °C and at 25 °C, the values of the mobility and the threshold voltage are 7.6·10-3 cm2/Vs - 13.6 V, and 2.8·10-3 cm2/Vs - 17.8 V, respectively. The densities of the resulting trap states, calculated by admittance measurements and equivalent circuit, show the minimum quantity of the traps for the devices treated at 60°C compared to other devices, with a value of 1.48 1016 cm-3 eV-1. In conclusion, in this thesis it has been studied the effect of the deposition processing of HDMS layers on the behavior of PC70BM bottom-gate bottom-contacts OTFTs. In particular, the temperature of the HMDS process influences the quality of the semiconductor films and the devices performances. The hydrophobicity of the dielectric surface, induced by the HDMS process at 60°C, measured trough the value of the contact angle, which is of the order of 104.1° for this process, results in the formation of the highest quality of the PC70BM films, with homogeneous layers and a reduced quantity of traps, giving the OTFTs with the best performances. This results have allowed to develop a new equivalent electrical circuit, which, for the first time, models the AC behavior of bottom-gate bottom-contacts OTFTs with n-type semiconductors. [edited by author]I dispositivi elettronici organici stanno vivendo un periodo di grande interesse scientifico nel campo delle applicazioni dove le limitazioni del silicio semiconduttore li rendono inadatti. Le innumerevoli proprietà dei materiali organici aprono nuove frontiere della ricerca; alcuni esempi di applicazioni sono: display flessibili, tessuti intelligenti, nuovi apparecchi di illuminazione e imballaggi intelligenti. Inoltre, un'interessante attrattiva risiede nel ridotto impatto ambientale. I materiali organici forniscono anche una fonte d'ispirazione per sempre nuove applicazioni supportati da continui sforzi di caratterizzazione, fabbricazione, sintesi e design da parte del mondo della ricerca. Questa attività di tesi vuole contribuire alla comprensione delle proprietà dei transistori organici a film sottile (OTFTs) da soluzione che utilizzano un semiconduttore di tipo n. Questi dispositivi sono l'elemento di base dei circuiti di pilotaggio, in cui i transistori a canale n risultano ancora poco compresi. Durante l'attività di dottorato, si è dunque analizzato l'effetto dei trattamenti superficiali all'interfaccia tra lo strato dielettrico SiO2 e il semiconduttore organico per migliorare le prestazioni dei OTFTs. Questi transistori, che sono fabbricati impiegando una specifica combinazione di trattamenti prima della deposizione del semiconduttore solubile, sono studiati per analizzare il rapporto che intercorre tra i trattamenti superficiali e i parametri elettrici dei dispositivi; in modo da calcolare una o più variabili in grado di adattare le condizioni dei trattamenti alle prestazioni del dispositivo. I dispositivi sono fabbricati usando come semiconduttore il [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) depositato con la tecnica del drop casting su uno strato di SiO2 su cui è stato precedentemente effettuata una combinazione del trattamento di pulizia con raggi ultravioletti e ozono (UV/O3) ed un monostrato auto-assemblato (SAM, self-assembled monolayer). L'esametildisilazano (HMDS) è il SAM utilizzato, questo è depositato a tre diverse temperature, 7 ° C, 25 ° C e 60 ° C. Il trattamento di pulizia UV/O3 permette di rimuovere i contaminanti organici sulla superficie dielettrica, grazie alla formazione di gruppi ossidrilici (-OH) generate dall'ambiente UV/O3. Mentre l'HMDS può ridurre le trappole indotte dai gruppi Si-OH sull'isolante di gate rendendo tale strato di tipo idrofobo. In questo lavoro, è stato osservato che le diverse temperature di deposizione del SAM sono in grado di produrre superfici con diverso carattere idrofobico che comportano differenti prestazioni elettriche dei dispositivi. Le tecniche di analisi utilizzate per osservare gli effetti dei trattamenti sono stati: la misura di angolo di contatto, immagini AFM del semiconduttore organico, caratterizzazione statica I vs. V e misure di spettroscopia di ammettenza. Uno sforzo particolare è stato fatto per valutare la presenza di stati elettronici di trappola nei transistor organici a film sottile di tipo n in configurazione bottom-gate bottom-contact (BG-BC), per i quali si propone un nuovo e accurato circuito elettrico equivalente, che è in grado di modellare le proprietà del semiconduttore e del canale conduttivo, attraverso il calcolo della densità degli stati trappola e la resistenza di canale. Dall'analisi effettuata, i transistor trattati a temperatura di 25 ° C hanno mostrano una elevata rugosità, una superficie dello strato semiconduttore molto disomogenea e un più alto grado idrofobicità della superficie SiO2 rispetto ai transistor trattati a 7 ° C e 60 ° C. Probabilmente, questo risultato è dovuto all'azione chimica dei gruppi silanici terminali che sono più efficaci durante i processi a temperatura più alta e più bassa in esame. Il miglioramento dell'energia superficiale che ne consegue, crea dunque una più efficace crescita del semiconduttore organico sullo strato isolante di gate. Dalle misure DC, si osserva che i campioni trattati a temperatura di 60°C per la deposizione di HMDS hanno mostrano le migliori prestazioni elettriche, ovvero la più alta mobilità elettronica, 13·10-3 cm2/Vs, e la minima tensione di soglia, 12.0 V. Inoltre, le densità degli stati trappola, calcolati dalle misure di ammettenze e dal circuito equivalente, mostrano il valore minimo delle trappole per i dispositivi trattati a 60°C rispetto ad altri dispositivi, circa 1.48 1016 cm-3 eV-1. In conclusione, in questo lavoro di tesi è stato studiato l'effetto del trattamento di deposizione HDMS sul comportamento del PC70BM per OTFTs in configurazione BG-BC. In particolare, la temperatura del processo HMDS influenza la qualità del film semiconduttore e le prestazioni dei dispositivi. L'idrofobicità della superficie dielettrica, indotto dal processo HDMS a 60°C, porta ad un incremento della qualità dei film PC70BM, con strati omogenei e una ridotta quantità di trappole, realizzando dei OTFTs con le migliori prestazioni. Questo risultato ha permesso di sviluppare per la prima volta un modello elettrico per OTFT di tipo n in architettura BG-BC attraverso un circuito equivalente a parametri concentrati che riproduce il comportamento in regime AC dei transistor a film sottile. [a cura dell'autore]XXIX n.s

Disegno e narrazione in alcune vedute calabresi di Edward Lear

In the literature and iconography of journeys to Calabria between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is difficult to find a more successful work than Edward Lear's Journal of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria regarding the level of integration between textual narration and visual narration. The recent discovery of some drawings and paintings concerning Reggio, Staiti and Bagnara offers the opportunity to compare the extraordinary connection between the two narrative forms in different landscape contexts but united by the same poetic attraction on the part of English travellers.Nella letteratura e nell’iconografia del viaggio in Calabria tra Settecento e Ottocento è difficile trovare un’opera più efficace del Journal of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria di Edward Lear a livello di integrazione tra narrazione testuale e narrazione visiva. La recente scoperta di alcuni disegni e dipinti riguardanti Reggio, Staiti e Bagnara offre l’occasione di confrontare la straordinaria connessione tra le due forme narrative in contesti paesaggistici diversi ma accomunati dalla medesima attrazione poetica nei confronti del viaggiatore inglese

Water Conservation Behavior and Environmental Concerns

Water conservation represents important pro-environmental behavior for a sustainable environment. This paper investigates the link between water conservation behavior and general environmental concerns using a large dataset from the Multipurpose Household Survey conducted annually by the Italian Central Statistics Office. Univariate probit models show that pollution and resource exhaustion are positively related to individual water conservation behavior while alteration of environmental heritage exhibits a negative relationship with water saving behavior. These findings are robust to the inclusion of environment knowledge and social capital variables. Robustness analysis also indicates that television and radio, participation in environmental initiatives, money for environmental protection and churchgoing are significant determinants of water conservation behavior

The double game played by Th17 cells in infection: host defense and immunopathology

T-helper 17 (Th17) cells represent a subpopulation of CD4+ T lymphocytes that play an essential role in defense against pathogens. Th17 cells are distinguished from Th1 and Th2 cells by their ability to produce members of the interleukin-17 (IL-17) family, namely IL-17A and IL-17F. IL-17 in turn induces several target cells to synthesize and release cytokines, chemokines, and metalloproteinases, thereby amplifying the inflammatory cascade. Th17 cells reside predominantly in the lamina propria of the mucosa. Their main physiological function is to maintain the integrity of the mucosal barrier against the aggression of infectious agents. However, in an appropriate inflammatory microenvironment, Th17 cells can transform into immunopathogenic cells, giving rise to inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. This review aims to analyze the complex mechanisms through which the interaction between Th17 and pathogens can be on the one hand favorable to the host by protecting it from infectious agents, and on the other hand harmful, potentially generating autoimmune reactions and tissue damage

TeV neutrinos and hard X-rays from relativistic reconnection in the corona of NGC 1068

The recent discovery of astrophysical neutrinos from the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068 suggests the presence of non-thermal protons within a compact "coronal" region close to the central black hole. The acceleration mechanism of these non-thermal protons remains elusive. We show that a large-scale magnetic reconnection layer, of the order of a few gravitational radii, may provide such a mechanism. In such a scenario, rough energy equipartition between magnetic fields, X-ray photons, and non-thermal protons is established in the reconnection region. Motivated by recent three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic reconnection, we assume that the spectrum of accelerated protons is a broken power law, with the break energy being constrained by energy conservation (i.e., the energy density of accelerated protons is at most comparable to the magnetic energy density). The proton spectrum is $dn_p/dE_p\propto E_p^{-1}$ below the break, and $dn_p/dE_p\propto E_p^{-s}$ above the break, with IceCube neutrino observations suggesting $s \simeq 3$. Protons above the break lose most of their energy within the reconnection layer via photohadronic collisions with the coronal X-rays, producing a neutrino signal in good agreement with the recent observations. Gamma-rays injected in photohadronic collisions are cascaded to lower energies, sustaining the population of electron-positron pairs that makes the corona moderately Compton thick.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, with Appendice

Soft Magnets for Passive Attitude Stabilization of Small Satellites

The spinning and oscillatory motions of small orbiting satellites can be damped exploiting the magnetic energy dissipation occurring in onboard soft magnetic strips, cyclically excited by the oscillation of the earth field component along their axis. In this paper we investigate the role played by the intrinsic magnetic properties of the material, the aspect ratio of the strips, and their mutual arrangement in achieving maximum energy dissipation under typical spacecraft working conditions. Grain-oriented Fe-Si, mumetal, and Fe-based amorphous alloys, all endowed with near-rectangular hysteresis loops, are considered. Their energy loss behaviour is calculated when, either as single strip samples or arranged into an array of strips, they are subjected to a slowly oscillating magnetic field of defined peak value, emulating the action of the earth magnetic field on the travelling satellite. The strip size and array layout leading to maximum energy loss are predicted. Amorphous alloys, combining high saturation magnetization with flexible hysteresis loop properties, are shown to lead to the best damping behaviour under both oscillating and spinning satellite motions. In the latter case the Fe-Si strips appear to provide comparably high damping effects, while inferior behaviour is always predicted with mumetal samples

The contribute of the Italian hydrogeological community to the congress of the Italian Geological Society

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Application of DMAIC Cycle and Modeling as Tools for Health Technology Assessment in a University Hospital

Background. The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is used to evaluate health services, manage healthcare processes more efficiently, and compare medical technologies. The aim of this paper is to carry out an HTA study that compares two pharmacological therapies and provides the clinicians with two models to predict the length of hospital stay (LOS) of patients undergoing oral cavity cancer surgery on the bone tissue. Methods. The six Sigma method was used as a tool of HTA; it is a technique of quality management and process improvement that combines the use of statistics with a five-step procedure: “Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control” referred to in the acronym DMAIC. Subsequently, multiple linear regression has been used to create two models. Two groups of patients were analyzed: 45 were treated with ceftriaxone while 48 were treated with the combination of cefazolin and clindamycin. Results. A reduction of the overall mean LOS of patients undergoing oral cavity cancer surgery on bone was observed of 40.9% in the group treated with ceftriaxone. Its reduction was observed in all the variables of the ceftriaxone group. The best results are obtained in younger patients (−54.1%) and in patients with low oral hygiene (−52.4%) treated. The regression results showed that the best LOS predictors for cefazolin/clindamycin are ASA score and flap while for ceftriaxone, in addition to these two, oral hygiene and lymphadenectomy are the best predictors. In addition, the adjusted R squared showed that the variables considered explain most of the variance of LOS. Conclusion. SS methodology, used as an HTA tool, allowed us to understand the performance of the antibiotics and provided variables that mostly influence postoperative LOS. The obtained models can improve the outcome of patients, reducing the postoperative LOS and the relative costs, consequently increasing patient safety, and improving the quality of care provided