The study of rural landscape at the farm scale: changes in traditional signs and structures

The importance of cultural, historical and identity values of traditional rural landscapes is widely acknowledged in the relevant scientific fields and in legislation. Furthermore, the knowledge of their evolution represents a fundamental basis in order to manage landscape transformations appropriately. The work is part of a broader research aimed at developing and testing a method for the systematic high time and spatial resolution assessment of changes in traditional rural landscape signs. We describe here the main phases of this original quantitative method and a summary of the first results over an Italian case study. A set of parameters allows to provide complementary information about the evolution of the main characters of rural settlements and their components. This proves to be essential to achieve a deep understanding of the traditional physiognomy of places, and to support landscape management and restoration, and the definition of transformation projects

Development of a Pilot Borehole Storage System of Solar Thermal Energy: Modeling, Design, and Installation

Borehole thermal energy storage systems represent a potential solution to increase the energy efficiency of renewable energy plants, but they generally have to comply with strict regulatory frameworks, mainly due to the deliberate modification of the subsoil’s natural state. This paper presents the design, testing, and monitoring phases carried out to set up a borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system able to exploit the excess solar heat from photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors. The case study is the refurbishment of a pig nursery barn, hosting up to 2500 weaners, in Northern Italy. This study aims to define a BTES suitable to develop a heating system based on renewable energy, ensuring environmental protection and long-term sustainability. The retrofitting intervention includes the installation of a dual-source heat pump (DSHP), in order to recover the solar heat stored in summer during winter. Specific constraints by the Environmental Authority were as follows: maximum storage temperature of 35 °C, authorization to intercept the shallowest aquifer at a maximum depth of 30 m, obligation of BHE grouting, and the definition of a strategy for continuous measuring and monitoring of the groundwater’s thermophysical properties. The results were used as inputs to optimize the design and installation of the integrated system with PVT, BTES, and DSHP

Assessment of construction and demolition waste materials for sublayers of low traffic rural roads

The need for exploiting massive amounts of natural raw materials for constructing pavements of roads as a key element for development of infrastructures in modern age, together with enormous production amounts of wastes related to civil engineering activities as biggest portion of solid waste generated all over the world, have highlighted the importance of utilizing recycled aggregates of these materials in road pavement layers. The key factor in this quest, is to evaluate load-bearing abilities of various kinds of waste aggregates. Aggregates of reclaimed asphalt, pre-stressed or normal concrete, masonry and demolition waste (CDW) exhibit different behavior under loading after compaction. The ideal situation would be to achieve the densest compacted and durable layer in order to get the highest durability, comparing to traditional road materials. In this study, aggregates from four types of recycled materials are being subjected to study for unbound and cemented pavement layers. Initial laboratory evaluations of size and composition are followed by constructing a field on a subgrade with high non-homogenous surface. Vibrating elastic modulus (Evib) for these materials were determined by Continuous Compaction Control (CCC) Oscillating Rollers. It is observed that, despite the weaknesses arisen from weak components such as masonry and elongated tiles, the stabilized distribution of the particle size can accelerate reaching to final compaction of unbound aggregates with roller passing. This process could be repeated with more or less same pattern in cemented layer, which exhibited an enhanced stiffness and uniformity in order to minimize the weak parts of non-uniform subgrade layer, and provide a high rigid pavement

Research model for farm building design: General structure and physiognomic characterization phase

The design of contemporary farm buildings often subordinates architectural quality and aesthetic features to economic aspects, thus leading to poor landscape consistency and compatibility.  The research presented in this paper is based on the theoretical principle that historic rural buildings, being expression of an accumulation of empirical knowledge broadly associated with high architectural quality, have remarkable potentials to contribute with useful elements to the design of contemporary buildings, and on the awareness that the design process is also necessarily and substantially determined by technological, economic and functional variables.  The paper presents the FarmBuiLD model (Farm Building Landscape Design), a research model proposed by the authors as a tool for the analysis of the architectural characteristics of both historical and contemporary rural buildings, as well as the meta-design of new construction and transformation of contemporary rural buildings.  In particular, the work focuses on the general structure of this model and a synthesis of the main results of the critical analysis of the scientific literature aimed at identifying a set of synthetic architectural parameters suitable for its implementation, through the interpretation of the main physiognomical characteristics of rural buildings.  These parameters are not meant as a tool to obtain quantitative data to be translated into design constraints automatically; on the contrary, they are mainly considered as an interpretive-analytical tool, part of a broader knowledge framework aimed at supporting, stimulating and suggesting the design choices.Keywords: Rural building design, historical-typological consistency, landscape compatibility, architectural quality, analytical and meta-design criteria, Italian rural building heritage Citation: Tassinari P, D. Torreggiani, S. Benni, and E. Dall’Ara.  Research model for farm building design: General structure and physiognomic characterization phase.  Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 2010; 12(1): 47-54

Magnetoelectrochemistry and asymmetric electrochemical reactions

Magnetoelectrochemistry is a branch of electrochemistry where magnetic fields play a vital role in the oxidation and reduction process of the molecules. When it comes to spin-dependent electrochemistry (SDE), becomes a new paradigm. This work presents electrochemical response during the “chiral imprinting” on working electrodes and the effects of potentiostatic and galvanostatic methods. We explore the use of the SDE concept, which is implemented for chiral-ferromagnetic (CFM) hybrid working electrodes, and we compare various electrochemical parameters affecting the quality of deposition. We electrochemically co-deposited nickel (Ni) with a chiral compound (tartaric acid) in its enantiopure forms (L and D), which allows us to obtain a chiral co-deposited nickel-tartaric acid (Ni-LTA or Ni-DTA) working electrode

Fgf9 inhibition of meiotic differentiation in spermatogonia is mediated by Erk-dependent activation of Nodal-Smad2/3 signaling and is antagonized by Kit Ligand

Both fibroblast growth factor 9 (Fgf9) and Kit Ligand (Kl) signal through tyrosine kinase receptors, yet they exert opposite effects on meiotic differentiation in postnatal spermatogonia, Fgf9 acting as a meiosis-inhibiting substance and Kl acting as a promoter of the differentiation process. To understand the molecular mechanisms that might underlie this difference, we tried to dissect the intracellular signaling elicited by these two growth factors. We found that both Fgf9 and Kl stimulate Erk1/2 activation in Kit+ (differentiating) spermatogonia, even though with different time courses, whereas Kl, but not Fgf9, elicits activation of the Pi3k-Akt pathway. Sustained Erk1/2 activity promoted by Fgf9 is required for induction of the autocrine Cripto-Nodal-Smad2/3 signaling loop in these cells. Nodal signaling, in turn, is essential to mediate Fgf9 suppression of the meiotic program, including inhibition of Stra8 and Scp3 expression and induction of the meiotic gatekeeper Nanos2. On the contrary, sustained activation of the Pi3k-Akt pathway is required for the induction of Stra8 expression elicited by Kl and retinoic acid. Moreover, we found that Kl treatment impairs Nodal mRNA expression and Fgf9-mediated Nanos2 induction, reinforcing the antagonistic effect of these two growth factors on the meiotic fate of male germ cells

Correlation between Ferromagnetic Layer Easy Axis and the Tilt Angle of Self Assembled Chiral Molecules

The spin-spin interactions between chiral molecules and ferromagnetic metals were found to be strongly affected by the chiral induced spin selectivity effect. Previous works unraveled two complementary phenomena: magnetization reorientation of ferromagnetic thin film upon adsorption of chiral molecules and different interaction rate of opposite enantiomers with a magnetic substrate. These phenomena were all observed when the easy axis of the ferromagnet was out of plane. In this work, the effects of the ferromagnetic easy axis direction, on both the chiral molecular monolayer tilt angle and the magnetization reorientation of the magnetic substrate, are studied using magnetic force microscopy. We have also studied the effect of an applied external magnetic field during the adsorption process. Our results show a clear correlation between the ferromagnetic layer easy axis direction and the tilt angle of the bonded molecules. This tilt angle was found to be larger for an in plane easy axis as compared to an out of plane easy axis. Adsorption under external magnetic field shows that magnetization reorientation occurs also after the adsorption event. These findings show that the interaction between chiral molecules and ferromagnetic layers stabilizes the magnetic reorientation, even after the adsorption, and strongly depends on the anisotropy of the magnetic substrate. This unique behavior is important for developing enantiomer separation techniques using magnetic substrates

Cross-sectional DXA and MR measures of tibial periarticular bone associate with radiographic knee osteoarthritis severity

SummaryObjectiveWe evaluated the relationship of medial proximal tibial periarticular areal bone mineral density (paBMD) and trabecular morphometry and determined whether these bone measures differed across radiographic medial joint space narrowing (JSN) scores.Methods482 participants of the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) Bone Ancillary Study had knee dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and trabecular bone 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams assessed at the same visit. Medial proximal tibial paBMD was measured on DXA and apparent trabecular bone volume fraction (aBV/TV), thickness (aTb.Th), number (aTb.N), and spacing (aTb.Sp) were determined from MR images. Radiographs were assessed for medial JSN scores (0–3). We evaluated associations between medial paBMD and trabecular morphometry. Whisker plots with notches of these measures versus medial JSN scores were generated and presented.ResultsMean age was 63.9 (9.2) years, BMI 29.6 (4.8) kg/m2, and 53% were male. The Spearman correlation coefficients between DXA-measured medial paBMD and aBV/TV was 0.61 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.55–0.66]; between paBMD and aTb.Th was 0.38 (95%CI 0.30–0.46); paBMD and aTb.N was 0.65 (95%CI 0.60–0.70); paBMD and aTb.Sp was −0.65 (95%CI −0.70 to −0.59). paBMD and the trabecular metrics were associated with medial JSN scores.ConclusionThe moderate associations between periarticular trabecular bone density and morphometry and their relationship with greater severity of knee OA support hypotheses of remodeling and/or microscopic compression fractures in the natural history of OA. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess whether knee DXA will be a predictor of OA progression. Further characterization of the periarticular bone in OA utilizing complementary imaging modalities will help clarify OA pathophysiology

multidisciplinary approach to pyemotes ventricosus papular urticaria dermatitis

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