Between Community Spaces. Squares of Minor Centers of Calabria

The theme of open “community spaces” in recent years has to the development of important interdisciplinary issues. Nevertheless, the reading of smaller towns, in urbanistic, historical-anthropological and geographical terms appears less extended, considering the declination of public spaces as "squares." Starting from this declension we would like to introduce the first results of a research. The research had the aim of (re)interpreting the particular characteristics of these areas in specific areas such as small towns, using the region of Calabria for the case of analytic application. These communities have diverse and stratified living cultures, altered by settlement processes that have triggered two different types of urban contexts. The former often lead either to urban areas in depopulated decay or, in contrast, in places of memories: empty containers of relationships, sterile and crystallized museum objects, reduced to scenarios on which passing groups of visitors move necessarily from those realities. The latter often encircle primitive nuclei, asphyxiating them, or characterizing the so-called "dual" or "satellites" towns, completely detached from the original urban center in which all public functions are decentralized. The applied methodology is based on the reading of the historical-functional evolution of squares by the identification of codified compositional criteria. Through this research we seek to verify how urban planning, in synergy with other disciplines, can define processes of regeneration aimed at restoring the meaning of "center", and thus of an urban-community reference center

Ultra-High performance concrete (UHPC) with polypropylene (Pp) and steel Fibres: Investigation on the high temperature behaviour

Ultra-high performance concretes (UHPC) are advanced cement-based materials characterised by superior me-chanical properties with respect to normal and high-strength concretes; however, their dense and compact matrix can facilitate the onset of spalling at high temperatures. This problem is often coped up by adding polypropylene (PP) fibres to the mix design, alone or with other types of fibres; steel fibres enhance the material’s tensile ca-pacity. The paper presents a series of tests on two UHPC types (150 and 180 N/mm2) with PP fibres (0.27% of volume) and variable content of steel fibres (0% to 1.92%), aimed at investigating the residual mechanical properties of the material after high temperature exposure. The experimental results are compared to available research on small UHPC specimens exposed to high temperatures, with dosages in PP fibres from 0.03% to 2%, and in steel fibres from 0 to 3%. The results of this research demonstrate that UHPCs need hybrid fibre rein-forcement (PP +steel) to withstand high temperatures, and that the residual strength increases after 200 ◦C exposure, at all steel fibre dosages; this is in line with literature. Available research also shows that strength loss is possible in hot conditions, as found in the present research, while PP fibres alone do not always prevent the occurrence of spalling in small UHPC sample

SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis and viral load methods based on quantitative RT-PCR

En diciembre de 2019, se produjo un nuevo brote de enfermedad por coronavirus (COVID-19) en Wuhan, China. El síndrome respiratorio agudo severo-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), que es el séptimo coronavirus conocido que infecta a los humanos, es altamente infeccioso y se ha expandido rápidamente en todo el mundo desde su descubrimiento. El diagnóstico de la infección por SARS-CoV-2 se basa en la detección del genoma viral (ARN) a través de técnicas de biología molecular. Con este fin, se extrae el ARN total para su posterior detección mediante PCR cuantitativa en tiempo real (RT-qPCR). Las pruebas cuantitativas de ácidos nucleicos se han convertido en el “estándar de oro” para el diagnóstico y guía en la toma de decisiones clínicas. Sin embargo, los ensayos de RT-qPCR dirigidos al SARS-CoV-2 tienen varios desafíos, especialmente en términos de diseño de cebadores / sondas y de desarrollo de metodologías que permitan estimar la carga viral en pacientes con diagnóstico de COVID-19.In December 2019, a new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China. Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the seventh coronavirus known to infect humans, is highly contagious and has rapidly expanded worldwide since its discovery. Quantitative nucleic acid testing has become the gold standard for diagnosis and guiding clinical decisions regarding the use of antiviral therapy. Total RNA is purified for subsequent SARS-CoV-2 detection by a real time quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR). However, the RT-qPCR assays targeting SARS-CoV-2 have a number of challenges, especially in terms of primer / probe design and in the development of methodologies to estimate viral load in patients diagnosed with COVID-19.Este proyecto ha sido financiado por el Programa de Articulación y Fortalecimiento Federal de las Capacidades en Ciencia y Tecnología COVID-19 del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de Argentina. (Proyecto BUE 21).Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnic

ATLANTIC-PRIMATES: a dataset of communities and occurrences of primates in the Atlantic Forests of South America

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta. The dataset includes 700 primate communities, 8,121 single species occurrences and 714 estimates of primate population sizes, covering most natural forest types of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and some other biomes. On average, primate communities of the Atlantic Forest harbor 2 ± 1 species (range = 1–6). However, about 40% of primate communities contain only one species. Alouatta guariba (N = 2,188 records) and Sapajus nigritus (N = 1,127) were the species with the most records. Callicebus barbarabrownae (N = 35), Leontopithecus caissara (N = 38), and Sapajus libidinosus (N = 41) were the species with the least records. Recorded primate densities varied from 0.004 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta guariba at Fragmento do Bugre, Paraná, Brazil) to 400 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta caraya in Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Our dataset reflects disparity between the numerous primate census conducted in the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to the scarcity of estimates of population sizes and densities. With these data, researchers can develop different macroecological and regional level studies, focusing on communities, populations, species co-occurrence and distribution patterns. Moreover, the data can also be used to assess the consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and disease outbreaks on different ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, species invasion or extinction, and community dynamics. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this Data Paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data. © 2018 by the The Authors. Ecology © 2018 The Ecological Society of Americ

Fruizioni immateriali per la promozione territoriale

Al fine di consentire ad un contesto territoriale di diventare competitivo è necessario che lo stesso promuova altresì la propria immagine con una presenza intelligente sul web (fruizione immateriale); l’obiettivo principale è quello di favorire la virtualizzazione del patrimonio territoriale restituendolo in rete come “bene comune” per i cittadini e per i visitatori, permettendo alle amministrazioni di internazionalizzare la conoscenza dello stesso bene e dell’intero territorio, nonché migliorando lo stato dell’arte sia in termini di ricaduta scientifica che di prodotto territoriale. Tale obiettivo di ricerca necessita l’adozione di tecniche avanzate, modelli condivisi di indicizzazione e identificazione univoca, utili a produrre anche percorsi e “mappature” tematiche in grado di rendere facilmente fruibile e di promuovere un’offerta territoriale coordinata ed intelligente, a garanzia di un facile accesso alla rete dei servizi in linea con le esigenze dei residenti e dei turisti, permettendo, contestualmente, agli stessi di interagire e di integrare direttamente le informazioni. Particolare riguardo, inoltre, deve essere riservato ai rapporti intercorrenti tra città-campagna e tra aree interne-costa, anche al fine di ottimizzare delle connessioni tra il miglioramento dei bilanci energetici e ambientali dei territori e la gestione delle risorse naturalistiche e socio-culturali, secondo principi di equità e sostenibilità

Spazi dell'agricoltura tra produzione e riproduzione

La sezione raccoglie i paper dell'atelier "Spazi dell'agricoltura tra produzione e riproduzione", coordinato dagli autori nel quadro del convegno nazionale annuale della Societ\ue0 Italiana degli Urbanisti tenutosi a Venezia nel giugno del 2015. Negli ultimi anni il dibattito urbanistico ha riservato una crescente attenzione alle attivit\ue0 agricole e allo spazio dell\u2019agricoltura. La societ\ue0 contemporanea esprime nei confronti dello spazio coltivato esigenze diverse: produzione di derrate alimentari e di biomasse a scopo energetico, conservazione dell\u2019ambiente e della biodiversit\ue0, servizi alle popolazioni urbane e occasioni di socialit\ue0, riproduzione del patrimonio culturale. Si tratta di richieste contrastanti che entrano facilmente in conflitto tra loro, mettendo a dura prova il concetto di multifunzionalit\ue0 dell\u2019agricoltura, proposto dalle politiche settoriali negli ultimi anni. \uc8 evidente per\uf2 che queste funzioni non sono facilmente conciliabili nello stesso, scarso, spazio a disposizione, n\ue9 \ue8 pi\uf9 possibile gestire la convivenza tra abitanti e attivit\ue0 agricole senza un quadro comune territoriale di riferimento, senza un progetto di territorio. Oggi questo quadro territoriale manca. Il territorio agricolo e quello urbanizzato sono governati da politiche e da strumenti diversi e autonomi: lo spazio coltivato \ue8 campo d\u2019azione di politiche settoriali e di competenze specializzate, su cui gli strumenti urbanistici sono sostanzialmente afasici oppure propongono mere strategie di \u201cprotezione\u201d, per lo pi\uf9 inefficaci. D\u2019altro canto le norme urbanistiche in nome della zonizzazione omogenea e dei principi di igiene hanno fatto di tutto per espellere anche il ricordo dell\u2019agricoltura urbana dalle citt\ue0

Combining Deep Learning and Multi-Source GIS Methods to Analyze Urban and Greening Changes

Although many authors have observed a degradation in greening cover alongside an increase in the built-up areas, resulting in a deterioration of the essential environmental services for the well-being of ecosystems and society, few studies have measured how greening developed in its full spatiotemporal configuration with urban development using innovative remote sensing (RS) technologies. Focusing on this issue, the authors propose an innovative methodology for the analysis of the urban and greening changes over time by integrating deep learning (DL) technologies to classify and segment the built-up area and the vegetation cover from satellite and aerial images and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. The core of the methodology is a trained and validated U-Net model, which was tested on an urban area in the municipality of Matera (Italy), analyzing the urban and greening changes from 2000 to 2020. The results demonstrate a very good level of accuracy of the U-Net model, a remarkable increment in the built-up area density (8.28%) and a decline in the vegetation cover density (5.13%). The obtained results demonstrate how the proposed method can be used to rapidly and accurately identify useful information about urban and greening spatiotemporal development using innovative RS technologies supporting sustainable development processes

Costruzioni di nuove conoscenze condivise:la definizione di Tecniche urbanistiche e ambientali per centri di medie e piccole dimensioni

Dottorato di Ricerca in Tecnologie e Pianificazione Ambientale, Ciclo XXI a.a.2007-2008Università della Calabri