Between the archaeological site and the contemporary stage: an example of acoustic and lighting retrofit with multifunctional purpose in the ancient theatre of Syracuse

A research conducted on the contemporary use of ancient theatres is presented, focusing on sustainable solutions for passive acoustics and artificial lighting devices. The case study is the theatre of Syracuse, well known as archaeological tourist attraction and as traditional stage for theatrical events. A retrofit was suggested to avoid the use of loudspeakers in the theatre during representations, through the selection of the best performing orchestra shells. For the lighting part, the study focused on the theatre as archaeological site, improving the monumental light system present in the theatre from the maintenance and energy saving points of view

Walk Safe Project: Perceived Urban Safety related to Soundscape, Lightscape and Urban Decay

Starting from Lynch works [1], urban perceptive aspects are studied to improve the human-space interaction, mediated by visual, auditory and sensory receptors. Particularly in this historical period, safety and its perception are rarely the same: this depends on mental processes with various implications. Walk Safe Project aims to analyze the perception of urban safety in relation to soundscape, lightscape and urban decay, with the purpose to develop an evaluation protocol based on objective and subjective investigations. Walk Safe protocol was applied to four critical areas of the City of Turin (Italy). Subjective data, gathered by a 6 minutes-long survey, was obtained by 124 subjects from October to December 2018, during the night hours. Acoustic measurements were performed using the calibrated binaural recording system Siemens SCADAS XS and the values of A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level and some psychoacoustic metrics were extracted. Simultaneously HDR photos were taken in the observer direction and converted into luminance images, in order to document the lightscape. All the data were subsequently processed together through statistical analysis and perceived safety parameters were extracted. The results show that individual characteristic like gender, instruction level and frequency of use of the space have a fundamental role on perceived safety. Furthermore, the social presence and the environmental quality are strongly implicated, such as the buildings market value. Safety perception is negatively related to the pleasantness of technological sounds and positively related to the pleasantness of anthropic sound. Sharpness Aures and Tonality are the objective parameters that significantly relate with the pleasantness of anthropic soundscape. Perceived safety is also positively correlated to visual interest and visual lightness and to the architectural and urban quality aspects. [1] Lynch, K. The Image of the City; MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 1960

Neo-adjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy in bladder cancer.

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Qualità ambientale interna e percezione del comfort negli uffici

La qualità ambientale interna (domini acustico, termico, visivo e qualità dell’aria) influisce sul comfort degli occupanti. In seguito ad un’analisi di norme, strumenti di certificazione ambientale e letteratura, sono stati simulati lo stato di fatto e il progetto di un ufficio della sede dell'ARPA Valle d'Aosta. Sono stati sviluppati un protocollo e una visualizzazione grafica per individuare un metodo di valutazione e rappresentazione della qualità ambientale interna e del comfort percepito

Development and Metrological Characterization of a Multi-sensor Device for Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) monitoring

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), which affects people's health, comfort, well-being and productivity, combines thermal, visual, acoustic and air quality conditions. This work deals with design, development and metrological characterization of a low-cost multi-sensor device that is able to detect the quality conditions of indoor environments for IEQ purposes. The device, hereafter referred as PROMET&O (PROactive Monitoring for indoor EnvironmenTal quality & cOmfort) embeds a set of low-cost sensors that measure air temperature and relative humidity, illuminance, sound pressure level, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, formaldehyde, and nitrogen dioxide. The basic architecture of the device is described and the design criteria that are related to the measurement requirements are highlighted. Particular attention has been paid towards the traceability assurance of the measurements provided by PROMET&O by means of specifically conceived calibration procedures, which have been tailored to the requirements of each measurement quantity. The calibration is based on the comparison to reference standards following commonly employed or ad-hoc developed technical procedures. The defined calibration procedures can be applied both for the single sensors and for the set of sensors integrated in the multi-sensor case. For the latter, the effects of the percentage of permeable case surface and the sensors allocation are also investigated. A preliminary uncertainty evaluation of the proposed multi-sensor device is reported for the carbon dioxide and the illuminance sensors taking the defined calibration procedures into account

An ontology-based approach supporting holistic structural design with the consideration of safety, environmental impact and cost

Early stage decision-making for structural design critically influences the overall cost and environmental performance of buildings and infrastructure. However, the current approach often fails to consider the multi-perspectives of structural design, such as safety, environmental issues and cost in a comprehensive way. This paper presents a holistic approach based on knowledge processing (ontology) to facilitate a smarter decision-making process for early design stage by informing designers of the environmental impact and cost along with safety considerations. The approach can give a reasoning based quantitative understanding of how the design alternatives using different concrete materials can affect the ultimate overall performance. Embodied CO2 and cost are both considered along with safety criteria as indicative multi-perspectives to demonstrate the novelty of the approach. A case study of a concrete structural frame is used to explain how the proposed method can be used by structural designers when taking multi performance criteria into account. The major contribution of the paper lies on the creation of a holistic knowledge base which links through different knowledge across sectors to enable the structural engineer to come up with much more comprehensive decisions instead of individual single objective targeted delivery

A New Genetic Risk Score to Predict the Outcome of Locally Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients Treated With First-Line Exemestane: Results From a Prospective Study

Currently there are no reliable biomarkers to predict outcome of exemestane treatment. We designed a prospective study to investigate whether constitutive genetic background might affect response to therapy. In a population of 302 advanced breast cancer patients treated with exemestane we showed that a 5-polymorphism-based genetic score could be used to identify patients with different risks of progression and death.Introduction: Approximately 50% of locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients treated with first-line exemestane do not show objective response and currently there are no reliable biomarkers to predict the outcome of patients using this therapy. The constitutive genetic background might be responsible for differences in the outcome of exemestane-treated patients. We designed a prospective study to investigate the role of germ line polymorphisms as biomarkers of survival. Patients and Methods: Three hundred two locally advanced or MBC patients treated with first-line exemestane were genotyped for 74 germ line polymorphisms in 39 candidate genes involved in drug activity, hormone balance, DNA replication and repair, and cell signaling pathways. Associations with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were tested with multivariate Cox regression. Bootstrap resampling was used as an internal assessment of results reproducibility. Results: Cytochrome P450 19A1-rs10046TC/CC, solute carrier organic anion transporter 1B1-rs4149056TT, adenosine triphosphate binding cassette subfamily G member 2-rs2046134GG, fibroblast growth factor receptor-4-rs351855TT, and X-ray repair cross complementing 3-rs861539TT were significantly associated with PFS and then combined into a risk score (0-1, 2, 3, or 4-6 risk points). Patients with the highest risk score (4-6 risk points) compared with ones with the lowest score (0-1 risk points) had a median PFS of 10 months versus 26.3 months (adjusted hazard ratio [AdjHR], 3.12 [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.18-4.48]; P < .001) and a median OS of 38.9 months versus 63.0 months (AdjHR, 2.41 [95% CI, 1.22-4.79], P = .012), respectively. Conclusion: In this study we defined a score including 5 polymorphisms to stratify patients for PFS and OS. This score, if validated, might be translated to personalize locally advanced or MBC patient treatment and management