Architettura - ri-Costruzione - Geometria: un percorso conoscitivo applicato allo studio delle volte "planteriane" in Torino

Le volte planteriane, dal nome dall'architetto Plantery attivo a Torino dai primi del ‘700, sono composte da una volta principale in cui si innestano voltine secondarie, assiali e angolari rispetto alla pianta, che consentono di coprire ambienti unitari ottenendo effetti di leggerezza e ariosità anche con frecce ridotte. La loro diffusione, fino agli anni ‘80 del secolo, in spazi di rappresentanza come gli atri dei palazzi, e la ricchezza delle variazioni sul tema legittimano una ricerca, che si avvale del rilevamento e della modellazione digitale, sulle relazioni fra i modelli geometrici e l'architettura realizzata, mediate dall'uso dei materiali, dalle tecniche costruttive e dagli stilemi decorativi. Plantery's vaults, by the name of the architect working in Turin since first years of ‘700, are composed by a main vault intersected by some axial and angular secondary vaults. Plantery's vaults allow to roof over unitary spaces obtaining effects of lightness also by small rises. Their diffusion, up to the ‘80s of the century, in boardrooms as palaces halls, and the richness of variations on the theme, justifies a research, that makes use of survey and digital modeling. This research is focused on the relationships between geometric models and built architecture, connected by use of materials, construction techniques and decorative styles

Parametric Thinking: Recognizing the "Architectural Formulas" in Cultural Built Heritage by Parametric Digital Modelling

Parametric digital modeling is today one of the most interesting tools on the international architectural design scene. At the same time it is one of the areas on which architectural criticism debates for some time. The use of parametric methods throughout the whole design process is favored by the rapid evolution of hardware and software devices and the everincreasing programming capabilities. However, the so-called Parametric Architecture has revealed its existence even before the digital revolution. Parametric Architecture is a definition coined by Luigi Moretti in the '40s. Furthermore, several scholars have found examples of parametric thinking from the origin of the history of Western architecture. The idea of verifying the existence of a "parametric thinking" in the Cultural Built Heritage, recognizing the parameters that could have guided the architectural composition and re-creating their relationships using tools of parametric digital modelling is the focus of the present proposal. It follows, deepens and develops a research carried out on the atria's vaults of several Baroque palaces in Turin

Design Drawing

At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the architectural field, we witness the break with the nineteenth century tradition produced by the season of historical avant-gardes, in contrast with the strict control exercised by the academies. The early stages of development of the Modern Movement, which start from it, encourage a further departure from the past and from tradition: architecture, abandoning all sorts of decoration, becomes a vehicle for progress and new social commitments, in a utopian and idealistic key. The Modern Movement, considered in its entire temporal development, is expressed in a very articulated way, to the point that we can speak of a sort of collection of movements, which produces a very wide and diversified architectural proposal, conveyed through a representation (sketches, drawings, etc.), which reflects the essence of protagonists, of their value systems, of the critical points on which they are questioned, of the materials used and of the formal appearance of the buildings

Reference intervals for urinary cotinine levels and the influence of sampling time and other predictors on its excretion among italian schoolchildren

(1) Background: Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) exposure remains a public health problem worldwide. The aims are to establish urinary (u-) cotinine reference values for healthy Italian children, to evaluate the role of the sampling time and of other factors on children’s u-cotinine excretion. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 330 children. Information on participants was gathered by a questionnaire and u-cotinine was determined in two samples for each child, collected during the evening and the next morning. (3) Results: Reference intervals (as the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of the distribution) in evening and morning samples were respectively equal to 0.98-4.29 and 0.91-4.50 µg L-1(ETS unexposed) and 1.39-16.34 and 1.49-20.95 µg L-1(ETS exposed). No statistical differences were recovered between median values found in evening and morning samples, both in ETS unexposed and exposed. Significant predictors of u-cotinine excretions were ponderal status according to body mass index of children (β = 0.202; p-value = 0.041 for evening samples; β = 0.169; p-value = 0.039 for morning samples) and paternal educational level (β = -0.258; p-value = 0.010; for evening samples; β = -0.013; p-value = 0.003 for morning samples). (4) Conclusions: The results evidenced the need of further studies for assessing the role of confounding factors on ETS exposure, and the necessity of educational interventions on smokers for rising their awareness about ETS

Regola and Licentia in the Extraordinario Libro by Sebastian Serlio

The Extraordinario Libro by Sebastiano Serlio, published in Lyon in 1551, is an interesting field of experimentation for the dialectical relationship, central to the Mannerist period, between Regola (Rule) and Licentia (License). This volume is composed of copper plates engraved with rich captions: “there are thirty doors of rustic work mixed with different orders: and twenty of delicate work of various species” (Serlio 1551: Frontispice). The book, not foreseen in the original editorial plan for drafting an architectural treatise, is tied with Book IV, concerning architectural orders, which was the first to be published in 1537. Indeed, in the monumental door, or portal, the architraved or arched entrance combines with the order to form an architectural element with a specific functional, formal, and decorative character (Chitham 1985: 99-101). In the twentieth century, the Extraordinario Libro was the object of some historical-critical studies that highlighted the character of “strange collection of portals and capricious cartouches” (Rykwert, in Carpo 1993: 7). However, there are no studies that analyze the geometric structure of the Serlian models, linking them to the modularity of the orders and to the unit of measurement of the period. The authors of this paper have undertaken this path with the aim not only, as in Fiore’s auspices, “to reproduce, following the text, the proposed graphic examples” (Fiore, in Serlio 2001: 17), but also to interpret, represent, and finally relate the proportional criteria underlying the iconographic corpus of the book. The geometric-modular relationships that rule the composition of the fifty portals are investigated using graphical analysis, which involves recognition, de-composition and re-composition of the elements, and philological reconstruction, aiming at: – comparing and classifying Serlian models; – identifying variants and invariants between proportions of ‘rustic’ doors and ‘delicate’ doors; – establishing connections to the rules of orders stated by Serlio in Book IV; – highlighting recurrent and exceptional compositional criteria

The Rivellino degli Invalidi and the fortification system of Turin

This contribution, of a multidisciplinary nature, connects the very recent digital survey of the Rivellino degli Invalidi with the decades-long archaeological studies culminating with the 2015-2016 excavations and with the historical cartography that reveals the substantial consistency with the digital survey in terms of position, geometry and shape of the revelin

Integrazione di nuove tecnologie di rilevamento e modellazione per l’analisi dei sistemi voltati a fascioni | Integration of New Survey and Modeling Technologies Aimed at the Analysis of Banded Vaulted Systems

This paper describes the methodological framework developed for the realization of an international research project aimed at the analysis and preservation of Architectural Heritage. This project has brought together Italian and Spanish scholars in the analysis, interpretation and representation of banded vaulted systems in Baroque Turin. Important masters, such as Guarini and Juvarra, but also lesser-known figures, between 17th and 18th centuries made use of such systems to cover medium and large rooms. In particular, in Turin historic center, eleven atria of buildings, covered by banded vaults, have been recognized. These atria were the subject of survey, laser scanner acquisition, two-dimensional graphic representations, and interpretative hypotheses of the design’s geometries, also referring to coeval architectural literature, through three-dimensional modelling. Nel presente lavoro viene descritto il framework metodologico messo a punto per la realizzazione di un progetto internazionale di ricerca finalizzato all’analisi e salvaguardia del patrimonio architettonico. Tale progetto ha unito studiosi italiani e spagnoli nell’analisi, interpretazione e rappresentazione dei sistemi voltati a fascioni nel barocco torinese. Importanti maestri, come Guarini e Juvarra, ma anche figure meno note, fra Sei e Settecento hanno fatto uso di tali sistemi per coprire ambienti di media e grande dimensione. In particolare, nel centro storico di Torino sono stati riconosciuti tredici atri di palazzi, voltati a fascioni. Questi sono stati oggetto di rilievo, di acquisizioni metriche mediante laser scanner, di restituzioni grafiche bidimensionali e di ipotesi interpretative delle geometrie di progetto, facendo anche riferimento alla letteratura architettonica coeva, attraverso modellazione tridimensionale. L’integrazione fra la tecnica di rilevamento metrico e le modalità di modellazione bi e tri-dimensionale ha comportato la definizione di nuovi flussi di lavoro, finalizzati all’ottimizzazione dell’utilizzo dei dati. Da tali procedure scaturiscono nuove opportunità per la ricerca, come il confronto (metrico, ma ancora più interessante, geometrico) mediante la sovrapposizione dei modelli ideali di progetto e delle nuvole di punti. L’analisi e la comparazione dei sistemi voltati studiati consentiranno, infine, di evidenziare modelli formali e variazioni sul tema. The integration between metric survey technique and two and three-dimensional modelling methods led to the definition of new workflows, aimed at optimizing the use of data. From these procedures, new opportunities for research arise, such as the comparison (metric, but even more interesting, geometric) through the superimposition of design ideal models and point clouds. Finally, the analysis and compariso

Functional analysis finds differences on the muscle transcriptome of pigs fed an n-3 PUFA-enriched diet with or without antioxidant supplementations

Supplementing pig diets with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) may produce meat products with an increased n-3 fatty acid content, and the combined antioxidants addition could prevent lipid oxidation in the feed. However, to date, the effects of these bioactive compounds at the molecular level in porcine skeletal muscle are mostly unknown. This study aimed to analyse changes in the Longissimus thoracis transcriptome of 35 pigs fed three diets supplemented with: linseed (L); linseed, vitamin E and Selenium (LES) or linseed and plant-derived polyphenols (LPE). Pigs were reared from 80.8 \ub1 5.6 kg to 151.8 \ub1 9.9 kg. After slaughter, RNA-Seq was performed and 1182 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were submitted to functional analysis. The L vs LES comparison did not show differences, while L vs LPE showed 1102 DEGs and LES vs LPE 80 DEGs. LPE compared to the other groups showed the highest number of up-regulated genes involved in preserving muscle metabolism and structure. Results enlighten that the combined supplementation of bioactive lipids (n-3 PUFA from linseed) with plant extracts as a source of polyphenols increases, compared to the only addition of linseed, the expression of genes involved in mRNA metabolic processes and transcriptional regulation, glucose uptake and, finally, in supporting muscle development and physiology. These results improve the knowledge of the biological effect of bioactive compounds in Longissimus thoracis muscle, and sustain the growing interest over their use in pig production

A molecular insight into the lipid changes of pig Longissimus thoracis muscle following dietary supplementation with functional ingredients

: In this work, the Longissimus thoracis pig skeletal muscle was used as a model to investigate the impact of two different diets, supplemented with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids from extruded linseed (L) and polyphenols from grape skin and oregano extracts (L+P), on the lipidomic profile of meat. A standard diet for growing-finishing pigs (CTRL) was used as a control. Changes in lipids profile were investigated through an untargeted lipidomics and transcriptomics combined investigation. The lipidomics identified 1507 compounds, with 195 compounds fitting with the MS/MS spectra of LipidBlast database. When compared with the CTRL group, the L+P diet significantly increased 15 glycerophospholipids and 8 sphingolipids, while the L diet determined a marked up-accumulation of glycerolipids. According to the correlations outlined between discriminant lipids and genes, the L diet may act preventing adipogenesis and the related inflammation processes, while the L+P diet promoted the expression of genes involved in lipids' biosynthesis and adipogenic extracellular matrix formation and functioning

Digitisation, 3D modelling and digital fabrication: an accessibility project for MAO in Turin

The activities presented are part of the project PNRR M1C3-3 aimed at removing physical and cognitive barriers in museums and public cultural places. In the first phase, curatorial investigation of the artefacts and documentary research flank digital survey through photogrammetry and structure-from-motion (SfM) technology. The interpretive phase includes 3D modelling and texturing of the artworks through the creation of high-poly and low-poly models, the result of digital twins that can be used in the conservation and restoration project, and the production of physical replicas for the expansion of the museum experience from a Design for All perspective. The third phase of presentation, communication, sharing, and interaction with the public involves the creation, through digital fabrication processes, of physical models in full or 1:2 scale, depending on the actual size of the object about the object's manipulability aims. The models, printed in polylactic acid (PLA) by the Departmental Labs at the Politecnico di Torino, take on a prototype meaning and are made for tactile enjoyment for the hypo- and visually-impaired and, in general, for inclusive communication for different age groups and users. Such objects may, in particular, be used with an educational function for younger age groups. At the same time, the optimised digital models may form the basis for 3D printing with materials able to restore the characteristics of the original materials, made by specialised firms