Archaeological site monitoring: UAV photogrammetry can be an answer

During archaeological excavations it is important to monitor the new excavated areas and findings day by day in order to be able to plan future excavation activities. At present, this daily activity is usually performed by using total stations, which survey the changes of the archaeological site: the surveyors are asked to produce day by day draft plans and sections which allow archaeologists to plan their future activities. The survey is realized during the excavations or just at the end of every working day and drawings have to be produced as soon as possible in order to allow the comprehension of the work done and to plan the activities for the following day. By using this technique, all the measurements, even those not necessary for the day after, have to be acquired in order to avoid a ‘loss of memory'. A possible alternative to this traditional approach is aerial photogrammetry, if the images can be acquired quickly and at a taken distance able to guarantee the necessary accuracy of a few centimeters. Today the use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) can be considered a proven technology able to acquire images at distances ranging from 4 m up to 20 m: and therefore as a possible monitoring system to provide the necessary information to the archaeologists day by day. The control network, usually present at each archaeological site, can give the stable control points useful for orienting a photogrammetric block acquired by using an UAV equipped with a calibrated digital camera and a navigation control system able to drive the aircraft following a pre-planned flight scheme. Modern digital photogrammetric software can solve for the block orientation and generate a DSM automatically, allowing rapid orthophoto generation and the possibility of producing sections and plans. The present paper describes a low cost UAV system realized by the research group of the Politecnico di Torino and tested on a Roman villa archaeological site located in Aquileia (Italy), a well-known UNESCO WHL site. The results of automatic orientation and orthophoto production are described in terms of their accuracy and the completeness of information guaranteed for archaeological site excavation managemen

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Nuove tecnologie di rapid mapping. Ricerche di soluzioni innovative ed esperienze formative.

Questo primo contributo finalizzato alla presentazione delle tecnologie di rapid mapping ha il ruolo di considerare ed evidenziare i caratteri generali dei metodi senza addentrarsi nei risvolti applicativi dell’articolata serie di esperienze, anche condotte negli scenari interdisciplinari, presenti in questo volume. Esso intende fornire una panoramica generale a partire dai sistemi di acquisizione ormai usualmente definiti image e range based, cioè fotogrammetrici e basati sul laser scanning, con particolare accento su quelli rapidi, fino ad alcuni cenni sui sistemi di archiviazione e diffusione delle informazioni spaziali, principalmente 3D. Un secondo ruolo è quello di collegare le tematiche ad un quadro, seppur schematico, della letteratura di riferimento, leggermente più approfondito di quella dei report successivi, in quanto l’organizzazione in approfondimenti sperimentali ed operativi avrebbe reso ridondante il contributo dei riferimenti bibliografici riproposti. Sono inseriti infine numerosi rimandi agli altri report del volume che approfondiscono i temi enunciati

Sinergie per la pianificazione del rapid mapping e per la condivisione dei DB spaziali.

Questo progetto ha rappresentato un’occasione importante per indagare oltre alle tecniche di rilevamento 3D rapide, anche lo scenario della trasformazione degli archivi metrici 3D, che si presentano in prima battuta sotto forma di nuvole di punti, e che necessitano di essere organizzati in database spaziali strutturati dal punto di vista sia geometrico che semantic

Plasma-mediated radiofrequency ablation followed by percutaneous cementoplasty under fluoro-CT guidance: a case report

We report a case of a 81-year-old Caucasian man with colorectal carcinoma, treated by surgery in 1998, referred for palliative treatment of a refractory painful caused by osteolytic metastases of 2.5 cm in back-upper ilium spine. Plasma-mediated radiofrequency ablation was performed under conscious sedation, using Fluoroscopic Computer Tomography guidance. After completing the ablation phase of the procedure, a mixture of bone cement and Biotrace sterile barium sulfate was injected into the ablated cavity

Autoimmune central diabetes insipidus in a patient with ureaplasma urealyticum infection and review on new triggers of immune response

Diabetes insipidus is a disease in which large volumes of dilute urine (polyuria) are excreted due to vasopressin (AVP) deficiency [central diabetes insipidus (CDI)] or to AVP resistance (nephrogenic diabetes insipidus). In the majority of patients, the occurrence of CDI is related to the destruction or degeneration of neurons of the hypothalamic supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei. The most common and well recognized causes include local inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, vascular disorders, Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), sarcoidosis, tumors such as germinoma/craniopharyngioma or metastases, traumatic brain injuries, intracranial surgery, and midline cerebral and cranial malformations. Here we have the opportunity to describe an unusual case of female patient who developed autoimmune CDI following ureaplasma urealyticum infection and to review the literature on this uncommon feature. Moreover, we also discussed the potential mechanisms by which ureaplasma urealyticum might favor the development of autoimmune CDI

Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] KNOPE1, a class 1 KNOX orthologue to Arabidopsis BREVIPEDICELLUS/KNAT1, is misexpressed during hyperplasia of leaf curl disease

Class 1 KNOTTED-like (KNOX) transcription factors control cell meristematic identity. An investigation was carried out to determine whether they maintain this function in peach plants and might act in leaf curliness caused by the ascomycete Taphrina deformans. KNOPE1 function was assessed by overexpression in Arabidopsis and by yeast two-hybrid assays with Arabidopsis BELL proteins. Subsequently, KNOPE1 mRNA and zeatin localization was monitored during leaf curl disease. KNOPE1 and Arabidopsis BREVIPEDICELLUS (BP) proteins fell into the same phyletic group and recognized the same BELL factors. 35S:KNOPE1 Arabidopsis lines exhibited altered traits resembling those of BP-overexpressing lines. In peach shoot apical meristem, KNOPE1 was expressed in the peripheral and central zones but not in leaf primordia, identically to the BP expression pattern. These results strongly suggest that KNOPE1 must be down-regulated for leaf initiation and that it can control cell meristem identity equally as well as all class 1 KNOX genes. Leaves attacked by T. deformans share histological alterations with class 1 KNOX-overexpressing leaves, including cell proliferation and loss of cell differentiation. Both KNOPE1 and a cytokinin synthesis ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE gene were found to be up-regulated in infected curled leaves. At early disease stages, KNOPE1 was uniquely triggered in the palisade cells interacting with subepidermal mycelium, while zeatin vascular localization was unaltered compared with healthy leaves. Subsequently, when mycelium colonization and asci development occurred, both KNOPE1 and zeatin signals were scattered in sectors of cell disorders. These results suggest that KNOPE1 misexpression and de novo zeatin synthesis of host origin might participate in hyperplasia of leaf curl disease

HBIM in un database GIS 3D semantico

Questo lavoro descrive i diversi tentativi e i conseguenti risultati derivati dall’integrazione di un modello HBIM (Historical Building Information Modeling) in un database (DB) spaziale strutturato e la sua visualizzazione 3D in ambiente GIS. Si tratta di uno studio collegato al progetto europeo ResCult (“Increasing Resilience of Cultural Heritage”), nel cui ambito è stata definita la struttura di un DB per analisi multiscala finalizzate a supportare il patrimonio soggetto a rischio. Per testare la metodologia proposta, è stato scelto il caso studio della Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli a Venezia, situata sulle sponde di un canale, e dunque in una zona a rischio di inondazione. L’edificio presenta elevati valori storico-artistici, anche per il singolare rivestimento di marmi policromi. Il modello digitale 3D della Chiesa è stato generato con strategia HBIM in Revit, associando diversi tipi di informazioni in relazione agli elementi architettonici mediante “parametri condivisi” e “famiglie di sistema”. Questa procedura consente di raggiungere un alto livello di dettaglio (LOD4), ma presenta alcuni problemi dovuti all’interoperabilità semantica e geometrica nell’integrazione in ambiente GIS. Per risolvere questi problemi il DB ResCult è stato esteso aggiungendo una nuova entità che mira a rappresentare gli elementi architettonici modellati nel progetto BIM. Lo scopo dello studio è quello di investigare la conversione e la gestione di dati creati come HBIM all’interno di un ambiente GIS, sfruttando gli standards IFC e CityGML mediante l’utilizzo del software FME di Safe Software