IN QUEL VICOLO DIMENTICATO... Logge di Banchi: nuove forme, funzioni e luci

Il presente Lavoro di Tesi si propone, attraverso il recupero funzionale delle Logge di Banchi, di portare un contributo al problema della riqualificazione e rinascita di una zona simbolo del centro storico di Pisa. Il progetto, attualmente in fase di realizzazione, è stato sviluppato in collaborazione con l’Ufficio Tecnico del Comune di Pisa. Ciò ha condizionato il Lavoro di Tesi, che si è configurato come un’esperienza che coinvolge non solo il mondo universitario, ma anche altri enti quali il Comune di Pisa e la Soprintendenza ai Monumenti delle Provincie di Pisa e di Livorno. La mia esperienza è avvenuta quindi sul campo, vivendo le numerose problematiche connesse alla concretezza del tema. Il sito oggetto di Tesi ha la particolarità di trovarsi nel centro storico di Pisa, in uno dei punti più significativi del tessuto urbano della città, all’incrocio tra l’asse storico-commerciale delineato da Corso Italia e Ponte di Mezzo ed i Lungarni. Il fulcro del progetto consiste nella costruzione del nuovo accesso al piano superiore delle Logge di Banchi, laddove già esisteva un corpo di fabbrica, destinato alle stesse funzioni, demolito dai bombardamenti nel 1944. Tramite un piccolo volume addossato a Palazzo Gambacorti, contenente i collegamenti verticali, dal quale si staglia verso le Logge di Banchi una passerella in vetro, si è mirato a ripristinare, nel rispetto dell’unità di ogni nucleo edilizio e della sua organizzazione autonoma, i collegamenti tra i due edifici e le loro interazioni. Partendo da una profonda riflessione sul contesto, mediata da accurate ricerche storico-iconografiche è stato sviluppato un progetto giocato su materiali, geometrie e archetipi piuttosto tradizionali, reinterpretati con aperture a tutta altezza e setti murari pieni. L’intervento propone, oltre alla definizione del nuovo accesso al primo piano delle Logge di Banchi, la riqualificazione dei tre livelli di utilizzo: gli ambienti al primo piano, il seicentesco loggiato ed il piano seminterrato dell’ex Albergo Diurno Cobianchi, con lo scopo di ridonare alla città un edificio di straordinaria importanza e di rendere via degli Uffizi partecipe all’attività della zona. Alla luce del recupero funzionale fin qui descritto, al progetto architettonico è stato affiancato il progetto illuminotecnico, che può considerarsi come una possibile proposta per una futura, necessaria, riqualificazione illuminotecnica dell’intera zona oggetto di tesi. Lo studio ha ipotizzato 4 scenari di illuminazione del complesso delle Logge di Banchi, distinti in base a differenti livelli di illuminazione, a seconda delle attività che hanno luogo nella zona durante le ore serali e notturne, nel rispetto delle indicazioni normative in tema di inquinamento luminoso e risparmio energetico. Lo studio illuminotecnico si prefigge i seguenti obiettivi: assicurare un adeguato livello di illuminamento sulla facciata Nord delle Logge di Banchi, segnalando così la rinascita dell’edificio; adeguare l’illuminazione del loggiato alle esigenze funzionali; illuminare il nuovo edificio in via degli Uffizi con effetti scenografici e garantire livelli di illuminamento adeguati in piazza XX Settembre e via degli Uffizi

Design and realization of the CUFF - clenching upper-limb force feedback wearable device for distributed mechano-tactile stimulation of normal and tangential skin forces

Rendering forces to the user is one of the main goals of haptic technology. While most force-feedback interfaces are robotic manipulators, attached to a fixed frame and designed to exert forces on the users while being moved, more recent haptic research introduced two novel important ideas. On one side, cutaneous stimulation aims at rendering haptic stimuli at the level of the skin, with a distributed, rather than, concentrated approach. On the other side, wearable haptics focuses on highly portable and mobile devices, which can be carried and worn by the user as the haptic equivalent of an mp3 player. This paper presents a light and simple wearable device (CUFF) for the distributed mechano-tactile stimulation of the user's arm skin with pressure and stretch cues, related to normal and tangential forces, respectively. The working principle and the mechanical and control implementation of the CUFF device are presented. Then, after a basic functional validation, a first application of the device is shown, where it is used to render the grasping force of a robotic hand (the Pisa/IIT SoftHand). Preliminary results show that the device is capable to deliver in a reliable manner grasping force information, thus eliciting a good softness discrimination in users and enhancing the overall grasping experience

Thermochemical Conversion of Microalgae: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract Research in Advanced Biofuels steadily developed during recent years. A number of highly innovative technologies have been explored at various scale: among these, lignocellulosic ethanol and CTO (Crude Tall Oil)-biofuel technologies already achieved the early-commercial status, while hydrotreating of vegetable oils (HVO, or HEFA) can be considered today fully commercial. However, despite the level of innovation in each specific technological process under consideration, the feedstock maintains a central role in making a biofuel chain really sustainable. In this context, microalgae grown in salt-water and arid areas offers a considerable opportunity for advanced biofuel production: at the same time, however, they also represent a considerable challenge. Processing microalgae in an economic way into a viable and sustainable liquid biofuel (a low-cost mass-produced product) is not trivial. So far, the main attention has been given to cultivating the microorganism, accumulating lipids, extracting the oil, valorising co-products, and treating the algae oil into biodiesel (through esterification) or HEFA (Hydrotreated Esthers and Fatty Acids), this second one representing a very high quality biofuels, almost a drop-in fuel (suitable either for road transport or for aviation), which production exceed 2 Mt y-1 today. However, extracting the algae oil at low cost and at industrial scale is not yet a full industrial mature process, and the still limited market size of algae-to-biofuels makes difficult the development of industrial-scale systems. Nevertheless, another option can be considered, i.e. processing the whole algae into dedicated thermochemical reactors, thus approaching the downstream processing of algae in a completely different way from separation. The present work examines the possible routes for thermochemical conversion of microalgae, distinguishing between dry-processes (namely pyrolysis and gasification) and wet-processes (near critical water hydrothermal liquefaction and hydrothermal gasification). Typical expected elementary composition of major products is given. Main peculiarities of batch versus continuous processing are also discussed from an engineering point of view. Major engineering advantages and challenges in thermochemically conversion of algae are identified and discussed, in view of the production of a transport biofuel. Finally, future perspectives for each route are given in terms of current and expected technological readiness level

Lab-scale pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization of biomass digestate: Characterization of solid products

The aim of the present study is to investigate the production of biochar from anaerobic digestion (AD) digestate. Re-Cord selected digestate from real and representative (regarding the scale and the process technology) anaerobic digestion plant. Please click on the file below for full content of the abstract

A Feature-Based Forensic Procedure for Splicing Forgeries Detection

Nowadays, determining if an image appeared somewhere on the web or in a magazine or is authentic or not has become crucial. Image forensics methods based on features have demonstrated so far to be very effective in detecting forgeries in which a portion of an image is cloned somewhere else onto the same image. Anyway such techniques cannot be adopted to deal with splicing attack, that is, when the image portion comes from another picture that then, usually, is not available anymore for an operation of feature match. In this paper, a procedure in which these techniques could also be employed will be shown to get rid of splicing attack by resorting to the use of some repositories of images available on the Internet like Google Images or TinEye Reverse Image Search. Experimental results are presented on some real case images retrieved on the Internet to demonstrate the capacity of the proposed procedure

“Test Tube Cetaceans”: From the Evaluation of Susceptibility to the Study of Genotoxic Effects of Different Environmental Contaminants Using Cetacean Fibroblast Cell Cultures

Population estimates of various species of cetaceans indicate that certain species have declined dramatically this century. Most studies of contamination and biomarker responses in marine mammals have been conducted using animals killed by hunting, tacitly approving this activity. The development of a series of nondestructive techniques to evaluate biomarker responses and residue levels is strongly recommended for the hazard assessment, protection and conservation of endangered species of marine mammals. A non-invasive sampling method, represented by skin biopsy or integument biopsy (epidermis, dermis and blubber), have been developed and validated in cetaceans. In this paper we present the cetacean fibroblast cell cultures obtained from the skin biopsies as the “test tube cetacean” for evaluate both the susceptibility that the genotoxicity of different environmental contaminants. Fibroblast cell cultures were obtained from many species of cetaceans sampled in Mediterranean Sea (Italy) and in the Mar de Cortez (Mexico). Using test tube cetaceans we can study the relationships between contamination and biochemical responses. One of the principal applications of this developed in vitro system was the assessment of interspecies differences in the mixed function oxidase activity (Cyp1A1 and Cyp2B) induced by in vitro treatment of various contaminants, such as some Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) but also emerging contaminants (such as bisphenol A (BpA)) and nanoparticles, added at different concentrations. The induction of Cyp1A1 and Cyp2B was evaluated with the indirect immunofluorescence technique. Therefore, another purpose of this work was to evaluate the qualitative and quantitative MICA protein expression in fibroblast cell cultures with immunofluorescence technique as toxicological stress marker of the immune system of different species of cetaceans. Finally, In this paper we will present how to evaluate the presence of DNA damage by comet assay in test tube cetaceans, after treatment with different genotoxic compounds (for example PCBs, DDTs, PAHs, BPA)

The Culturable Mycobiota of Sediments and Associated Microplastics: From a Harbor to a Marine Protected Area, a Comparative Study

Fungi are an essential component of marine ecosystems, although little is known about their global distribution and underwater diversity, especially in sediments. Microplastics (MPs) are widespread contaminants worldwide and threaten the organisms present in the oceans. In this study, we investigated the fungal abundance and diversity in sediments, as well as the MPs, of three sites with different anthropogenic impacts in the Mediterranean Sea: the harbor of Livorno, the marine protected area "Secche della Meloria"; and an intermediate point, respectively. A total of 1526 isolates were cultured and identified using a polyphasic approach. For many of the fungal species this is the first record in a marine environment. A comparison with the mycobiota associated with the sediments and MPs underlined a "substrate specificity", highlighting the complexity of MP-associated fungal assemblages, potentially leading to altered microbial activities and hence changes in ecosystem functions. A further driving force that acts on the fungal communities associated with sediments and MPs is sampling sites with different anthropogenic impacts

Health technology assessment of pathogen reduction technologies applied to plasma for clinical use

Although existing clinical evidence shows that the transfusion of blood components is becoming increasingly safe, the risk of transmission of known and unknown pathogens, new pathogens or re-emerging pathogens still persists. Pathogen reduction technologies may offer a new approach to increase blood safety. The study is the output of collaboration between the Italian National Blood Centre and the Post-Graduate School of Health Economics and Management, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy. A large, multidisciplinary team was created and divided into six groups, each of which addressed one or more HTA domains.Plasma treated with amotosalen + UV light, riboflavin + UV light, methylene blue or a solvent/detergent process was compared to fresh-frozen plasma with regards to current use, technical features, effectiveness, safety, economic and organisational impact, and ethical, social and legal implications. The available evidence is not sufficient to state which of the techniques compared is superior in terms of efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness. Evidence on efficacy is only available for the solvent/detergent method, which proved to be non-inferior to untreated fresh-frozen plasma in the treatment of a wide range of congenital and acquired bleeding disorders. With regards to safety, the solvent/detergent technique apparently has the most favourable risk-benefit profile. Further research is needed to provide a comprehensive overview of the cost-effectiveness profile of the different pathogen-reduction techniques. The wide heterogeneity of results and the lack of comparative evidence are reasons why more comparative studies need to be performed

A khorasan wheat-based replacement diet improves risk profile of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM): a randomized crossover trial

PURPOSES: The aim of the present study was to examine whether a replacement diet with products made with organic ancient khorasan wheat could provide additive protective effects in reducing glucose, insulin, lipid and inflammatory risk factors, and in restoring blood redox balance in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients compared to diet with product made with modern organic wheat. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blinded crossover trial with two intervention phases on 21 T2DM patients (14 females, 7 males). The participants were assigned to consume products (bread, pasta, crackers and biscuits) made using semi-whole flour from organic wheat that was either from ancient khorasan wheat or modern control wheat for 8 weeks in a random order. An 8-week washout period was implemented between the interventions. Laboratory analyses were performed both at the beginning and at the end of each intervention phase. RESULTS: The metabolic risk profile improved only after the khorasan intervention period, as measured by a reduction in total and LDL cholesterol (mean reduction: −3.7 and −3.4 %, respectively), insulin (−16.3 %) and blood glucose (−9.1 %). Similarly, there was a significant reduction in circulating levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin-1ra, and a significant increase of total antioxidant capacity (+6.3 %). No significant differences from baseline were noted after the modern control wheat intervention phase. The change (from pre- to post-intervention) between the two intervention arms was significantly different (p < 0.05) for total and LDL-c, insulin and HOMA index. CONCLUSIONS: A replacement diet with ancient khorasan wheat consumption provided additive protection in reducing total and LDL cholesterol, insulin, blood glucose, ROS production, and some inflammatory risk factors, which are all key factors warranting of control in secondary prevention of T2DM compared to a diet with products made with modern wheat