One day at The Sands: Exploring Las Vegas’ intangible heritage through virtual reality

The construction, negotiation and dissemination of cultural heritage in the digital era can take advantage of several approaches, including Virtual Reality (VR). Leveraging on the provision of contextualized multimedia content, VR can foster awareness about the histories of specific times and places, encouraging personal interpretative processes.This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of “One Day at the Sands”, a VR application aimed at conveying the atmosphere of one of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas from the 1950s onwards. First, we collected a digital database, including a wide range of historical material; then, we developed a presentation medium that allows viewers to navigate the virtual reconstructions and access the archival material following their curiosity and interests. User tests underlined the capability of the application to facilitate a deep and meaningful exploration of the contents reinforcing the argument that virtual reality solutions represent valuable tools to engender awareness and explorative attitudes towards heritage

Robust decadal hydroclimate predictions for northern Italy based on a twofold statistical approach

The Mediterranean area belongs to the regions most exposed to hydroclimatic changes, with a likely increase in frequency and duration of droughts in the last decades. However, many climate records like, e.g., North Italian precipitation and river discharge records, indicate that significant decadal variability is often superposed or even dominates long-term hydrological trends. The capability to accurately predict such decadal changes is, therefore, of utmost environmental and social importance. Here, we present a twofold decadal forecast of Po River (Northern Italy) discharge obtained with a statistical approach consisting of the separate application and cross-validation of autoregressive models and neural networks. Both methods are applied to each significant variability component extracted from the raw discharge time series using Singular Spectrum Analysis, and the final forecast is obtained by merging the predictions of the individual components. The obtained 25-year forecasts robustly indicate a prominent dry period in the late 2020s/early 2030s. Our prediction provides information of great value for hydrological management, and a target for current and future near-term numerical hydrological predictions

Robust decadal hydroclimate predictions for northern Italy based on a twofold statistical approach

The Mediterranean area belongs to the regions most exposed to hydroclimatic changes, with a likely increase in frequency and duration of droughts in the last decades. However, many climate records like, e.g., North Italian precipitation and river discharge records, indicate that significant decadal variability is often superposed or even dominates long-term hydrological trends. The capability to accurately predict such decadal changes is, therefore, of utmost environmental and social importance. Here, we present a twofold decadal forecast of Po River (Northern Italy) discharge obtained with a statistical approach consisting of the separate application and cross-validation of autoregressive models and neural networks. Both methods are applied to each significant variability component extracted from the raw discharge time series using Singular Spectrum Analysis, and the final forecast is obtained by merging the predictions of the individual components. The obtained 25-year forecasts robustly indicate a prominent dry period in the late 2020s/early 2030s. Our prediction provides information of great value for hydrological management, and a target for current and future near-term numerical hydrological predictions

Water Mass Transport Changes through the Venice Lagoon Inlets from Projected Sea-Level Changes under a Climate Warming Scenario

In this study, an ensemble of numerical simulations with a state-of-the-art hydrodynamic model for coastal applications is used to characterize, for the first time, the expected mid-21st-century changes in circulation and associated sea-level height inside the Venice lagoon induced by projected Mediterranean sea level rise and atmospheric circulation changes over the Adriatic Sea under the RCP8.5 emission scenario. Our results show that water transports through the three inlets connecting the Venice lagoon to the open sea are expected to change significantly, with consequent significant persistent alterations of the circulation and sea-level height inside the lagoon. The projected water mass redistributions motivate further studies on the implications of climate change for the lagoon environment

Quantum Transmission Line Modelling and Experimental Investigation of the Output Characteristics of a Terahertz Quantum Cascade Laser

We describe a new approach to modelling the optoelectronic properties of a terahertz-frequency quantum cascade laser (THz QCL) based on a quantum transmission line modelling (Q-TLM) method. Parallel quantum cascade transmission line modelling units are employed to describe the dynamic optical processes in a nine-well THz QCL in both the time and frequency domains. The model is used to simulate the current-power characteristics of a QCL device and good agreement is found with experimental measurements, including an accurate prediction of the threshold current and emitted power. It is also confirmed that the Q-TLM model can accurately predict the Stark-induced blue shift of the emission spectrum of the THz QCL with increasing injection current. Furthermore, we establish the new Q-TLM model to describe the properties of a THz QCL device incorporating a photonic lattice patterned on the laser ridge, by linking the transmission line structure to each scattering module. The predicted effects of the lattice structure on the steady-state emission spectra of the THz QCL, including the side-mode suppression, are found to be in good agreement with experimental results. Our Q-TLM modelling approach is a promising tool for the future design of THz QCLs and analysis of their temporal and spectral behaviors

Analysis of the DNA methylation pattern of the promoter region of calcitonin gene-related peptide 1 gene in patients with episodic migraine: An exploratory case-control study

Recent studies suggested that epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, may be involved in migraine pathogenesis. The calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), encoded by calcitonin gene-related peptide 1 (CALCA) gene, plays a key role in the disease. The aim of the study was to evaluate DNA methylation of CALCA gene in patients with episodic migraine. 22 patients with episodic migraine (F/M 15/7, mean age 39.7 ± 13.4 years) and 20 controls (F/M 12/8, mean age 40.5 ± 14.8 years) were recruited. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood. Cytosine-to-thymine conversion was obtained with sodium bisulfite. The methylation pattern of two CpG islands in the promoter region of CALCA gene was analyzed. No difference of methylation of the 30 CpG sites at the distal region of CALCA promoter was observed between migraineurs and controls. Interestingly, in patients with episodic migraine the methylation level was lower in 2 CpG sites at the proximal promoter region (CpG −1461, p = 0.037, and −1415, p = 0.035, respectively). Furthermore, DNA methylation level at different CpG sites correlates with several clinical characteristics of the disease, as age at onset, presence of nausea/vomiting, depression and anxiety (p < 0.05). In conclusion, we found that DNA methylation profile in two CpG sites at the proximal promoter region of CALCA is lower in migraineurs when compared to controls. Intriguingly, the −1415 hypomethylated unit is located at the CREB binding site, a nuclear transcription factor. In addition, we found a correlation between the level of CALCA methylation and several clinical features of migraine. Further studies with larger sample size are needed to confirm these results