Architectural perspectives in the cathedral of Palermo : image-based modeling for cultural heritage understanding and enhancement

Palermo off ers a repertoire of both artistic and architectural solid perspective of great beauty and in large quantity. This paper addresses the problem of the 3D survey of these works and their related study through the use of image-based modelling (IBM) techniques. We propose, as case studies, the use of IBM techniques inside the Cathedral of Palermo. Indeed, the church houses a huge and rich sculptural repertoire, dating back to 16th century, which constitutes a valid field of IBM techniques application. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the e ffectiveness and potentiality of these techniques for geometric analysis of sculptured works. Indeed, usually the survey of these artworks is very diffi cult due the geometric complexity, typical of sculptured elements. In this study, we analysed cylindrical and planar geometries as well as carrying out an application of perspective return.peer-reviewe

Turning Migration Disadvantage into Educational Advantage. Autobiographies of Successful Students with an Immigrant Background

The article focuses on unexpected pathways of successful students with an immigrant background, in order to investigate the implication of this phenomenon from a theoretical, methodological and empirical point of view. After a review of the main sociological studies on ?immigrant optimism? towards educational success, I will reflect on biographical approach, particularly suitable to study this topic. A on-going research project based on the collection of educational autobiographies of successful immigrant-origin students, attending upper secondary schools in Northern Italy, is presented. Then, the story of Destiny, a 16 years-old girl with Moroccan origin, is used as a case study to explore transformative actions that lead second-generation students to educational success and to identify the social logic enrolled in a single case. Destiny, with the support of parents and teachers, shows the capacity to turn the disadvantage of migration into an educational advantage, through specific strategies developed to contrast adversities and inequalities, assuming education to handle social constraints. In Destiny autobiography, migration reveals its nature of biographical resource and its important role to lead disadvantaged students to excellent school outcomes: migration appears as a an experience of familiar sufferance and failure, but also a source of a biographical learning; a chance of reflexivity on failure and of awareness of disadvantage; an experience that transmit and foster non-cognitive skills, that are strong predictor of educational success. The methodological choice of ?educational autobiography? is thus considered crucial to track new narratives and discourses on ethnic inequalities in education

Interculturalism, education and society: Education policies for immigrant students in Italy

The article seeks to illustrate Italian educational policies for students with an immigrant background within the context of the EU intercultural framework. Italy can be considered the EU country where interculturalism is more widely recognized in terms of pedagogical theory and school legislation. However, the Italian approach is characterized by a weak and contradictory relationship between policy, teaching strategies and educational experiences. To support this argument, I will refer to a review of Italian sociological studies, which demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the interculturalism as applied to the Italian education system. The conflict between theory and practices is illustrated by empirical findings that suggest immigrant students are still not granted equality of opportunity, linguistic and cultural diversities are almost absent from most school curricula, and a positive dialogue between culturally different subjects is still more of an aspiration than a fact. More research is needed in order to monitor and evaluate if intercultural practice is indeed a true expression of the ideas to which it aspires

Using dense stereo matching techniques in survey

In recent years there has been an enormous increase in the dissemination of modelling techniques known as dense stereo matching (DSM) or image-based modelling (IBM) using free, low cost, open source software, especially applications involving the survey of cultural heritage (architecture, archaeology, and town planning). The algorithms used by these software programmes process photographic datasets and provide a 3D model of the scene in question. During complex survey and 3D restitution procedures, these techniques save time (processing) and money: these advantages Can he useful to any professional. This is why it is important to identify the real potential and limits of these software programmes and how they should be used to produce the best possible results. We carried out parallel tests to verify how to use the two software packages: 123D Catch by Autodesk and VisualSfM+CMVS/PMVS2 by Changchang Wu. The photographic dataset was the most critical part of the procedure involving DSM or IBM techniques. The article illustrates three case studies in which only the third study, provides an optimal dataset capable of generating a reliable model. The tests were carried out on three different architectural objects, ranging from a small to large scale; terrestrial laser scansions were used for the metric comparisons of the ensuing models

Moving towards a new life cycle analysis approach by implementing low cost structural 3d monitoring of historic building safety by means of image based modelling.

Abstract A building’s structural safety is often remit to human life fatalities and the measures of social protection and security often used following the collapse of a portion of the building. It is quite clear that, if it were possible to monitor the increase of static deterioration, it would be easier to prevent the collapse. There are two fundamental aspects closely linked to the building’s collapse: the first concerns the security of lives and the second concerns the well-being and quality of life when it is considered in relation to Cultural Heritage survival. Unfortunately, the high cost of a 3D survey does not usually permit a constant monitoring of the visible instability. The paper aims to carry out a low-cost workflow for structural 3D monitoring of historical buildings based on Image Based Modeling (IBM) techniques. IBM techniques create a 3D model of the sample by taking a structured dataset of images according to photogrammetric rules. In recent years, the experimentation of several research teams demonstrated the affordability of these techniques, which are able to ascertain data with accuracy within a millimeter (according to the size of the sample and the camera resolution)

123D Catch: efficiency, accuracy, constraints and limitations in architectural heritage field

Today, the accurate and detailed reconstruction of geometric models of real objects has become a common process. The diffusion of Image-based 3D modeling techniques, through image-based free, low cost and open source software, have increased drastically in the past few years, especially in the sector of Cultural Heritage (Architecture, Archeology, Urban planning). Nevertheless, web based software (ARC3D, 123D Catch, Hyp3D, my3Dscanner) offer another opportunity respect the desktop systems: they use the power of cloud computing to carry out a semi-automatic data processing. In this way is overcome the considerably slowing-down of the computer of hardware-heavy approaches. Our research investigates the limits and potentialities of 3D models obtained by using Autodesk 123D Catch in Architectural Heritage field, in order to verify the applicability of the method for the practitioner purpose. Our goal is to evaluate Catch efficiency, accuracy, constraints and limitations in order to provide insight into the current state of 3D modeling products. Our methodology forecasts the comparison between 123D Catch models and terrestrial laser scanner 3D acquisition in order to verify metric accuracy. Therefore, we propose a lot of interesting examples applied in architectural heritage field from the detail to the large scale

Education in a crisis. Italy within southern Europe: Trends and the way forward

El artículo analiza la reacción peculiar del sistema educativo italiano a la reciente crisis, en comparación con países dotados de un «modelo de bienestar Mediterráneo», como Grecia, Portugal y España. Analizando los principales indicadores estadísticos nacionales de los sistemas educativos –acceso a la educación, éxito escolar, equidad e inclusión de alumnos inmigrantes– se ha profundizado en las dificultades, pero también en la resiliencia del sistema italiano de educación. El análisis permite concluir que las prioridades en términos de reforma son: completar el proceso de autonomía escolar, completar el plan de digitalización, dotando todas las escuelas de TICs actualizadas, cambiar la jornada escolar e implementar un sistema de evaluación nacional. El articulo presenta los resultados de un Proyecto de investigación trasnacional llevado a cabo por ISCTE-IUL de Lisboa con el apoyo de la Fundación de Ciencias y tecnología (Gobierno de Portugal).The essay draws on this crisis-frame and aims at showing as the education system in Italy, compared with Greece, Portugal, and Spain that converge for the similar Mediterranean welfare regime, reacted to crisis in a peculiar way. By comparing statistical indicators of national performances (about: educational access, school success, equity, and inclusion of students with ethnic background) during the crisis time (2000-2014), we want to focus on the sufferance but also on the resilience of the Italian system of education. Four priorities rise in the direction of its reformability: completion of school autonomy, completion of the digitalization plan providing all schools with updated ICTs, changes in time scheduling of the school offer, and implementation of the national evaluation system. The essay reports findings from a cross-national research project, carried out by ISCTE-IUL of Lisbon with the support of the Foundation of Science andTechnology (Portugal Government

Hardy--Littlewood fractional maximal operators on homogeneous trees

We study the mapping properties of the Hardy--Littlewood fractional maximal operator between Lorentz spaces of the homogeneous tree and discuss the optimality of all the results.Comment: 15 page