1,298 research outputs found

    EXPERIENCING HERITAGE DYNAMIC THROUGH VISUALIZATION

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    Abstract. The present article aims to consider the added value attached to the usage of new technologies in a project aimed to study heritage. Indeed, multimedia devices could be used to create representations useful to develop and disseminate information integrating the architectural and territorial framework and to reach a general understanding.The processed data come from a research project, based on an interdisciplinary approach, address to the study of medieval buildings in Armenia, Vayots Dzor region, with the aim of studying and understanding the cultural heritage.Three different technologies are used to visualize and disseminate the results of the analyses carried out: the video, the hologram, and the virtual reality. These digital visualization methods enable experts to make the topics investigated accessible and comprehensible to a wider general public with a didactic and informative aim.The solid 3D-model of the site allows to virtually reproduce the reality and to provide a spatial perception of the site. Indeed, it is a neutral base, represents the morphological conformation and settlements, a landscape whose reference points are easily identified with the historical architectures, helping the public and spectators to get oriented inside the territory. These methods of representation allow to move from general view to particular, or to a different frame appropriate to the addressed topic. Thus, it binds the scientific research with the visual part, and enable communication, even in a context where it is difficult to use a common spoken or written language.</p

    Noise, age and gender effects on speech intelligibility and sentence comprehension for 11- to 13-year-old children in real classrooms.

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    The present study aimed to investigate the effects of type of noise, age, and gender on children\u2019s speech intelligibility (SI) and sentence comprehension (SC). The experiment was conducted with 171 children between 11 and 13 years old in ecologically-valid conditions (collective presentation in real, reverberating classrooms). Two standardized tests were used to assess SI and SC. The two tasks were presented in three listening conditions: quiet; traffic noise; and classroom noise (non-intelligible noise with the same spectrum and temporal envelope of speech, plus typical classroom sound events). Both task performance accuracy and listening effort were considered in the analyses, the latter tracked by recording the response time (RT) using a single-task paradigm. Classroom noise was found to have the worst effect on both tasks (worsening task performance accuracy and slowing RTs), due to its spectro-temporal characteristics. A developmental effect was seen in the range of ages (11\u201313 years), which depended on the task and listening condition. Gender effects were also seen in both tasks, girls being more accurate and quicker to respond in most listening conditions. A significant interaction emerged between type of noise, age and task, indicating that classroom noise had a greater impact on RTs for SI than for SC. Overall, these results indicate that, for 11- to 13-year-old children, performance in SI and SC tasks is influenced by aspects relating to both the sound environment and the listener (age, gender). The presence of significant interactions between these factors and the type of task suggests that the acoustic conditions that guarantee optimal SI might not be equally adequate for SC. Our findings have implications for the development of standard requirements for the acoustic design of classrooms

    Photoluminescence-Based Techniques for the Detection of Micro- and Nanoplastics

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    The growing numbers related to plastic pollution are impressive, with ca. 70 % of produced plastic (&gt;350 tonnes/year) being indiscriminately wasted in the environment. The most dangerous forms of plastic pollution for biota and human health are micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs), which are ubiquitous and more bioavailable. Their elimination is extremely difficult, but the first challenge is their detection since existing protocols are unsatisfactory for microplastics and mostly absent for nanoplastics. After a discussion of the state of the art for MNPs detection, we specifically revise the techniques based on photoluminescence that represent very promising solutions for this problem. In this context, Nile Red staining is the most used strategy and we show here its pros and limitations, but we also discuss other more recent approaches, such as the use of fluorogenic probes based on perylene-bisimide and on fluorogenic hyaluronan nanogels, with the added values of biocompatibility and water solubility

    Feedback cooling of the normal modes of a massive electromechanical system to submillikelvin temperature

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    We apply a feedback cooling technique to simultaneously cool the three electromechanical normal modes of the ton-scale resonant-bar gravitational wave detector AURIGA. The measuring system is based on a dc Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) amplifier, and the feedback cooling is applied electronically to the input circuit of the SQUID. Starting from a bath temperature of 4.2 K, we achieve a minimum temperature of 0.17 mK for the coolest normal mode. The same technique, implemented in a dedicated experiment at subkelvin bath temperature and with a quantum limited SQUID, could allow to approach the quantum ground state of a kilogram-scale mechanical resonator.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

    Integrin-Targeting Dye-Doped PEG-Shell/Silica-Core Nanoparticles Mimicking the Proapoptotic Smac/DIABLO Protein

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    Cancer cells demonstrate elevated expression levels of the inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), contributing to tumor cell survival, disease progression, chemo-resistance, and poor prognosis. Smac/DIABLO is a mitochondrial protein that promotes apoptosis by neutralizing members of the IAP family. Herein, we describe the preparation and in vitro validation of a synthetic mimic of Smac/DIABLO, based on fluorescent polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated silica-core nanoparticles (NPs) carrying a Smac/DIABLO-derived pro-apoptotic peptide and a tumor-homing integrin peptide ligand. At low \u3bcM concentration, the NPs showed significant toxicity towards A549, U373, and HeLa cancer cells and modest toxicity towards other integrin-expressing cells, correlated with integrin-mediated cell uptake and consequent highly increased levels of apoptotic activity, without perturbing cells not expressing the \u3b15 integrin subunit

    New lanthanide metalloligands and their use for the assembly of Ln-Ag bimetallic coordination frameworks : stepwise modular synthesis, structural characterization, and optical properties

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    Stepwise self-assembly processes using new lanthanide metalloligands (Ln-MLs) and silver salts have been successfully applied to isolate 4f-4d heterometallic coordination networks of four different structural types. In particular, the new lanthanide tetrakis-chelate complexes NEt4[Ln(L1)4] [HL1 = 1,3-bis(4\u2032-cyanophenyl)-1,3-propanedione; Ln = Eu (1a), La (1b), Nd (1c), Tb (1d)] and NEt4[Ln(L2)4] (HL2 = 1,3-bis(4\u2032-pyridyl)-1,3-propanedione; Ln = Eu (1e), Nd (1f)] have been synthetized, characterized and reacted with different silver salts. The use of NEt4[Ln(L1)4] allowed then to isolate and characterize i) neutral one-dimensional ladder-like species of formula [Ln(L1)4Ag] [Ln = Eu (2a), La(2b), Nd(2c), Tb(2d)] and ii) their supramolecular isomers [Ln(L1)4Ag] [Ln = Eu (3a), La (3b), Nd (3c), Tb (3d)] showing a very unstable 2D network structure, iii) the cationic 2D species [Ln(L1)4Ag2]X [Ln = Eu, X = PF6\u203e, CF3SO3\u203e, ClO4\u203e (4a\u20134c); Ln = Tb, Nd, La X = PF6\u203e (4d\u20134f)] and, only for lanthanum, iv) a fourth 2D species of formula [La(L1)4(H2O)Ag] (5) and sql topology. Of the eight nitrile groups on the MLs potentially coordinating, only a partial number is used for networking with Ag(I), that is, only two in families 2 and 3, and four in family 4 and in network 5. Finally, the four structural types are rationalized in terms of a new \u201cpincer-like\u201d Secondary Building Unit (SBU) consisting of a silver cation coordinating two central carbon atoms (\uf067 carbon) of two different diketonate ligands on the same ML. Therefore, it is shown that compounds 5, 4 and 2\u20133 contain, respectively, none, one or two of such pincer-like SBUs. The luminescence properties of the Ln-MLs and some of their polymeric species have been also investigated in solution and in the solid state

    SK antar waktu sekretaris prodi apoteker a/n rahmi yosmar

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    SK antar waktu sekretaris prodi apoteker a/n rahmi yosma

    3-mode detection for widening the bandwidth of resonant gravitational wave detectors

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    We have implemented a novel scheme of signal readout for resonant gravitational wave detectors. For the first time, a capacitive resonant transducer has been matched to the signal amplifier by means of a tuned high Q electrical resonator. The resulting 3-mode detection scheme widens significantly the bandwidth of the detector. We present here the results achieved by this signal readout equipped with a two-stage SQUID amplifier. Once installed on the AURIGA detector, the one-sided spectral sensitivity obtained with the detector operated at 4.5 K is better than 10^-20 Hz^-1/2 over 110 Hz and in good agreement with the expectations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
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