Ruins and urban context: analysis towards conservation and enhancement

The paper presents the results of a study of classics theatres and amphitheatres in Europe and in the Mediterranean basin. The analysis started from the mapping of the Greek and Roman cities and has been focused in particular to the study of the transformations of these cities from the Middle Age to today, carried out through cartographic surveys, archival investigations and direct analysis. This process has led to understanding the different kinds of reuse that the theaters and amphitheatres have undergone throughout the centuries. Then, by comparing the historical city maps to the current ones (e.g. the maps of urban land registers), the archaeological traces of theatres and amphitheatres still incorporated in the current urban buildings have been located. Finally, a survey of the current situation has allowed identifying the material consistency and morphological characterization of these ancient artifacts. The process led to the proposal of strategies for the conservation and enhancement of ancient entertainment buildings, that respect both the archeological elements and the successive stratification that characterize today our historical citie

Pure Parsimony Xor Haplotyping

The haplotype resolution from xor-genotype data has been recently formulated as a new model for genetic studies. The xor-genotype data is a cheaply obtainable type of data distinguishing heterozygous from homozygous sites without identifying the homozygous alleles. In this paper we propose a formulation based on a well-known model used in haplotype inference: pure parsimony. We exhibit exact solutions of the problem by providing polynomial time algorithms for some restricted cases and a fixed-parameter algorithm for the general case. These results are based on some interesting combinatorial properties of a graph representation of the solutions. Furthermore, we show that the problem has a polynomial time k-approximation, where k is the maximum number of xor-genotypes containing a given SNP. Finally, we propose a heuristic and produce an experimental analysis showing that it scales to real-world large instances taken from the HapMap project

Accidental Destruction & Intentional Destruction. Considerations for archaeological sites and monuments

The research intends to investigate the link between accidental destruction due to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or spontaneous collapses, and intentional destruction operated by unfortunate conservation and restoration strategies. In order to conceptually embrace the buildings’ decay as inalienable, the essay aims at establishing a parallelism between what the nature has destroyed and the strategies to fix to such damage, and what has been modified or destructed, instead, by human work, often scarcely aware of the historical, value-driven and technological properties of the asset. The article will examine many archeological realities present in Asia Minor and attributable to the Roman or late Roman age, with the purpose to provide for operational examples of intervention and modification of the archeological context and to fulfill a parallelism that proposes itself as interesting critical reading of the intervention strategies

Industrial Heritage: reflections on the use compatibility of cultural sustainability and energy efficiency

AbstractToday the industrial heritage represents a great functional and cultural resource. In fact, analyzing the international situation about it, it's possible to identify features that meet the increasing demand for architectural and urban spaces intended to cultural and social needs.However the type of industrial complexes discharged suggests solutions regarding heir sustainability for what concerns the energy standards. At the same time the cultural sustainability demands the utmost respect to the architectural elements, the space, the materials and to the structures that have historically characterized the proto-industry. The contribution, through a specific set of examples, analyzes projects and proposes actions in which the intervention achieves both the respect to the compatibility of use and the requirements of cultural and energy sustainability

Thoughts about conservation and enhancement of archaeological heritage in France

French archaeological heritage of the classic age has been subjected, over the centuries, to phenomena that have caused either its abandonment or the continuation of its use, its transformation or the loss of its integrity. In particular, the sites for entertainment such as theatres, amphitheatres, circuses, stadiums and hippodromes are now often in ruins (as a result of either destructive events or the interruption of their use) after knowing seasons of transformation, conversion to new uses, repairing of damage of various kinds, restoration, adaptation to new stylistic canons: processes that have ensured the survival of these buildings through a continuous integration in urban activities. Today, these goods, mostly located in relevant urban contexts, are part of a landscape whose transformations guided by illusions aimed to make them attractive for tourists, are creating sharp separations between these monuments and the contest in which they are. Based on these premises, the paper presents the results of a research aimed the preservation of this heritage, suggesting strategies for its valorization that, in accordance with the requirements of the contemporary world, propose a project for tourist fruition which must be compatible with such goods that are architectural and parts of a landscape. In particular, the paper analyzes some interventions of enhancement on the archaeological heritage in comparison with those cases in which development strategies have proved compatible effects with the demands of conservation

Photobiomodulation therapy on orthodontic movement: analysis of preliminary studies with a new protocol

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) on the acceleration of orthodontic movements, deriving from its biostimulating and regenerative capacity on soft tissues, consequent to the increase in differentiation, proliferation, and activity of cells that are involved with alveolar bone remodeling. The present randomized controlled trial was conducted on six patients who required extractive orthodontic therapy because their ectopic canines had erupted. A total of eight canines were analyzed, four of which received laser irradiation (i.e., experimental group). Two weeks after the extractions, all canines of the experimental and placebo groups were distalized simultaneously and symmetrically with the laceback retraction technique. The PBMT protocol consisted of four cycles of laser applications, one each on days 0, 3, 7, and 14 of the study, with session treatment durations of 2-4 min. The results of the descriptive analysis on the distal displacement speed of the canines after 1 month of follow-up indicate an average displacement of 1.35 mm for the non-irradiated group and 1.98 mm for the irradiated group. Through inferential analysis, a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between the average speed of the irradiated canines and the control canines. The low energy density laser used in this study, with the parameters set, was found to be a tool capable of statistically significantly accelerating the distal displacement of canines

Complexity Insights of the Minimum Duplication Problem

International audienceThe Minimum Duplication problem is a well-known problem in phylogenetics and comparative genomics. Given a set of gene trees, the Minimum Duplication problem asks for a species tree that induces the minimum number of gene duplications in the input gene trees. Recently, a variant of the Minimum Duplication problem, called Minimum Duplication Bi-partite, has been introduced, where the goal is to find all pre-duplications, that is duplications that in the evolution precede the first speciation with respect to a species tree. In this paper, we investigate the complexity of both Minimum Duplication and Minimum Duplication Bipartite. First of all, we prove that the Minimum Duplication problem is APX-hard, even when the input consists of five uniquely leaf-labelled gene trees (improving upon known results on the complexity of the problem). Then, we show that the Minimum Duplication Bipartite problem can be solved efficiently with a randomized algorithm when the input gene trees have bounded depth. An extended abstract of this paper appeared in SOFSEM 2012

Rovine e frammenti classici nei contesti urbani: dall’interpretazione dell’iconografia storica agli attuali strumenti di lettura e divulgazione

Il saggio presenta i risultati di un’indagine sulle rovine e sui frammenti classici presenti in contesti urbani europei, effettuata tramite l'analisi del materiale iconografico, cartografico e grafico che, per secoli, ne ha documentato le trasformazioni. Un sondaggio sull’attuale situazione ha permesso, infine, di identificare la consistenza materica e i caratteri morfologici di questi manufatti suggerendo, attraverso moderni strumenti di divulgazione, strategie per la loro conservazione e valorizzazione

Post-traumatic growth, distress and attachment style among women with breast cancer

6Identifying factors fostering post-traumatic growth (PTG) is very important to promote PTG itself through specific psychological interventions. To this end, we investigated PTG and its relationship with clinical and psychological variables in a sample of 108 female breast cancer survivors. Results showed that women with higher depressive symptoms presented lower levels of PTG than women without. Moreover, women who had undergone combined treatment presented higher levels of PTG than women who had not. The results highlighted the resulting importance of psychological intervention focusing on depressive symptoms, which negatively interfere with the patients’ psychological growth.nonemixedROMEO, ANNUNZIATA; GHIGGIA, ADA; TESIO, VALENTINA; DI TELLA, MARIALAURA; TORTA, Riccardo; CASTELLI, LorysRomeo, Annunziata; Ghiggia, Ada; Tesio, Valentina; DI TELLA, Marialaura; Torta, Riccardo; Castelli, Lory

Soft tissue management and prosthetic rehabilitation in a tongue cancer patient

One major challenge in treating head and neck oncologic patients is to achieve an acceptable recovery of physiologic functions compatible with the complete tumor excision. However, after tumor resection, some patients present a surgically altered anatomy incompatible with prosthetic rehabilitation, unless some soft tissue correction is carried out. The aim of the present study is to describe the overall mandibular prosthetic rehabilitation of a postoncologic patient focusing on the possibility of soft tissue correction as a part of the treatment. A 72-year-old woman, who undergone a hemiglossectomy for squamous cell carcinoma several years before, was referred to our department needing a new prosthesis. The patient presented partial mandibular edentulism, defects in tongue mobility, and a bridge of scar tissue connecting one side of the tongue to the alveolar ridge. A diode laser (980 nm) was used to remove the fibrous scar tissue. After reestablishing a proper vestibular depth and soft tissue morphology, two implants were placed in the interforaminal region of the mandible to support an overdenture