The ‘health record’ of the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Pontecurone: contamination between historical knowledge and non-destructive testing results

The historical architecture of the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Pontecurone (Alessandria, Italy), of late medieval origins and with significant transformations until the 20th century, is a clear palimpsest of different construction and decorative phases. Nowadays, although used as a parish church, it shows a critical framework of alterations. The need to best rearrange the data in preparation for a wished restoration program required the involvement of a team of experts from the Politecnico di Torino – as members of a protocol agreement – to verify the current state of conservation of the building. Between 2019 and 2022, the study focused on examining rich but dispersed and fragmented historical sources, which provided important information for the knowledge of architectural components. In the meantime, an NDT diagnostic campaign to understand non-visible phenomena and structural problems was carried out. In particular, infrared thermography allowed the comprehension of the vaulted systems laying, the mapping of fissures and the reading of the stains caused by infiltration and rising dampness. Moreover, thanks to an innovative application of this technique, it was possible to evaluate the heating system's effectiveness through the survey of the distribution of hot air flows in the room context and on the surfaces. Instead, endoscopic inspections revealed the stratigraphy under the floor level, which is completely damaged, and resistograph analysis verified the quality of the antique roof trusses at some significant points. The contribution will deal in detail with the systematization of the data in the health record, a tool already tested in other contexts (such as at Chambord Castle, to which this project refers) that can be constantly implemented and easily consulted. Furthermore, it easily communicates and records the knowledge about the building, relating historical information with results obtained from the application of non-destructive testing

Three-Dimensional Thermal Mapping from IRT Images for Rapid Architectural Heritage NDT

Thermal infrared imaging is fundamental to architectural heritage non-destructive diagnostics. However, thermal sensors’ low spatial resolution allows capturing only very localized phenomena. At the same time, thermal images are commonly collected with independence of geometry, meaning that no measurements can be performed on them. Occasionally, these issues have been solved with various approaches integrating multi-sensor instrumentation, resulting in high costs and computational times. The presented work aims at tackling these problems by proposing a workflow for cost-effective three-dimensional thermographic modeling using a thermal camera and a consumer-grade RGB camera. The discussed approach exploits the RGB spectrum images captured with the optical sensor of the thermal camera and image-based multi-view stereo techniques to reconstruct architectural features’ geometry. The thermal and optical sensors are calibrated employing custom-made low-cost targets. Subsequently, the necessary geometric transformations between undistorted thermal infrared and optical images are calculated to replace them in the photogrammetric scene and map the models with thermal texture. The method’s metric accuracy is evaluated by conducting comparisons with different sensors and the efficiency by assessing how the results can assist the better interpretation of the present thermal phenomena. The conducted application demonstrates the metric and radiometric performance of the proposed approach and the straightforward implementability for thermographic surveys, as well as its usefulness for cost-effective historical building assessments

Monitoring Moisture Diffusion after Contact Sponge Application

The contact sponge method is applied on a piece of clay brick. According to the standard, the sponge is moistened with water, applied on the surface of the material by means of a cup, and weighted before and after the application. It allows us to determine the amount of water absorbed by the porous material by unit area and unit time. After the application, the moistened area begins to evaporate and cool down. The IR camera is used to monitor the temperature variation of the imprint of the sponge. Meanwhile, moisture diffuses on the material as well. The IR camera is used to monitor the in-plane diffusion of moisture by following the imprint of the sponge that enlarges with time. A suitable model is used to evaluate the shape of the imprint that varies with time

3D Thermal Mapping of Architectural Heritage

The combination of thermographic and geometric recording has always been an issue for architectural heritage diagnostic investigations. Multidisciplinary projects often require integrating multi-sensor information—including metric and temperature data—to extract valid conclusions regarding the state-of-preservation of historical buildings. Towards this direction, recent technological advancements in thermographic cameras and three-dimensional (3D) documentation instrumentation and software have contributed significantly, assisting the rapid creation of detailed 3D thermal-textured results, which can be exploited for non-destructive diagnostical surveys. This paper aims to briefly review and evaluate the current workflows for thermographic architectural 3D modeling, which implement state-of-the-art sensing procedures and processing techniques, while also presenting some applications on case studies of significant heritage value to help discuss current problems and identify topics for relevant future research

Rilievo 3D multisensore e indagini diagnostiche per lo studio della vulnerabilità sismica del Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie (località Varoni, Amatrice)

Il santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie di Varoni per le sue peculiarità è stato prescelto come caso campione di struttura storica da sottoporre a indagini comparate. Il valore storico culturale del santuario è dovuto all’impianto della chiesa (XV secolo), ma soprattutto è significativo il richiamo devozionale dovuto al culto mariano, che sollecita una urgente esigenza di conservazione, anche per confermare il riferimento religioso come stimolo alla rigenerazione del centro. Per garantire la salvaguardia dell’organismo, è stato realizzato un rilievo 3D con tecniche innovative terrestri ed aeree integrate, oltre ad indagini diagnostiche di caratterizzazione meccanica di murature e malte, completati da indagini termografiche. L’integrazione e il confronto del complesso di analisi mirano a restituire un quadro di conoscenza dello stato di conservazione sul quale basare la valutazione della vulnerabilità sismica, a supporto dei futuri propositi di rifunzionalizzazione della fabbrica

Skin homing of Sézary cells involves SDF-1-CXCR4 signaling and down-regulation of CD26/dipeptidylpeptidase IV

AbstractSézary syndrome (SS) is a rare form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) characterized by a distinct metastatic pattern mainly involving blood and skin. Chemokines and their receptors play a critical role in cellular recruitment and homing to tissues and in the metastatic process of several tumors including non-Hodgkin T-cell lymphomas (NHLs). Here we report that SS cells express a functionally active CXCR4 and that its ligand SDF-1 is abundantly produced in the skin, which represents the main destination of SS cell spreading. SDF-1 is normally inactivated by proteolytic cleavage by the CD26/dipeptidylpeptidase IV (DPPIV). The lack of CD26 from the cell surface is a hallmark of circulating SS cells. We also show that the CD26- phenotype is maintained also in skin-infiltrating neoplastic T lymphocytes and that SS-affected individuals exhibit a reduced activity of plasma soluble CD26. Finally, we observe that the addition of soluble CD26 reduces the migratory response of SS cells to SDF-1 whereas the inhibition of the CD26 peptidase activity in Hut78, a CD26+ CTCL cell line, enhances the SDF-1-induced migration of these cells. Our findings suggest that the SDF-1-CXCR4 axis could play an important role in skin homing of SS through the regulatory activity of CD26

16th International Workshop on Advanced Infrared Technology and Applications (AITA 2021)

n/

MSC-Regulated MicroRNAs Converge on the Transcription Factor FOXP2 and Promote Breast Cancer Metastasis

SummaryMesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are progenitor cells shown to participate in breast tumor stroma formation and to promote metastasis. Despite expanding knowledge of their contributions to breast malignancy, the underlying molecular responses of breast cancer cells (BCCs) to MSC influences remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that MSCs cause aberrant expression of microRNAs, which, led by microRNA-199a, provide BCCs with enhanced cancer stem cell (CSC) properties. We demonstrate that such MSC-deregulated microRNAs constitute a network that converges on and represses the expression of FOXP2, a forkhead transcription factor tightly associated with speech and language development. FOXP2 knockdown in BCCs was sufficient in promoting CSC propagation, tumor initiation, and metastasis. Importantly, elevated microRNA-199a and depressed FOXP2 expression levels are prominent features of malignant clinical breast cancer and are associated significantly with poor survival. Our results identify molecular determinants of cancer progression of potential utility in the prognosis and therapy of breast cancer