Sustainability and welfare of Podolian cattle

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the sustainability and welfare of extensively farmed Podolian cattle. A trained interviewer visited 50 farms and filled in a checklist which included four cards corresponding to the following animal categories: calves, replacements, feeders and adults. The analysis of the farming system showed that animals were able to express their main behavioural patterns. In addition, recorded animal-related variables indicated that Podolian cattle could benefit from high standards of welfare. Sustainability of the Podolian farming system in terms of human edible returns was evaluated for two production systems producing 10-month-old calves (10 month) and 18-month-old young bulls (18 month), respectively. Edible returns for humans were low when all animal intakes were considered for both production systems. However, if returns were computed using not only the amount of food used by the animals but also consumable by humans, yields were much higher for 18-month systems [103% crude protein (CP) and 37.1% gross energy (GE)] and so high that they could not be computed for 10-month systems. These results indicate either a low degree of competition (18-month system) or no competition (10-month system) between humans and Podolian cattle. Perceptions of sustainability and welfare of Podolian cattle may promote a favourable positioning of products in premium-price markets and help preserving this breed and the related traditional farming system

Geometric deep learning for polygonal mesh denoising

Il seguente lavoro si propone come analisi degli operatori convoluzionali che caratterizzano le graph neural networks. ln particolare, la trattazione si divide in due parti, una teorica e una sperimentale. Nella parte teorica vengono innanzitutto introdotte le nozioni preliminari di mesh e convoluzione su mesh. In seguito vengono riportati i concetti base del geometric deep learning, quali le definizioni degli operatori convoluzionali e di pooling e unpooling. Un'attenzione particolare è stata data all'architettura Graph U-Net. La parte sperimentare riguarda l'applicazione delle reti neurali e l'analisi degli operatori convoluzionali applicati al denoising di superfici perturbate a causa di misurazioni imperfette effettuate da scanner 3D

Cavalier d’Arpino and Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia: ut pictura poesia

Cesare (Giovanni Campani) Ripa’s Iconologia (Overo, Descrittione Di Diverse Imagini caute dell’antichita, & di propia invenzione, Figs. 1 and 2) is a comprehensive dictionary of personifications, imagini or figurazioni (images or figurations). Ripa explains his purpose in composing the images

Giorgio Vasari’s Vulcan’s Forge, Sala degli Elementi in the Palazzo Vecchio: the Symbolism of Fire

The essay proposed here analyses Giorgio Vasari's works in the Sala degli Elementi in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. He succeeded in creating what is known in Latin as a camera picta, that is literally a painted room, in which classical imagery merges with the cultural currents of the 16th century. The study in this contribution also explores Vasari's definition of 'invenzione' (invention) and its role in the development of new decorative topos

Josefa de Óbidos’s Holy Family and Sacrificial Lamb: Emblematic Devotions

Josefa Figueira de Ayala Cabrera de Óbidos (1630–1684) was an outstanding Portuguese Baroque painter. She was renowned for her talent and creativity, making her one of the most notable female artists of her time. Her artwork covered both secular and sacred subjects, and she employed various mediums with versatility. Despite having different surnames, she signed her paintings under Josepha em Óbidos. This study delves into her religious art, focusing on her life and career, and analyses two religious paintings, the Lisbon Holy Family and the Baltimore Agnus Dei. Josefa skilfully integrated the spiritual reforms of the Counter-Reformation with the Baroque style in both paintings, emphasising the physical and spiritual aspects of nature. Her paintings were visually appealing, with pleasing colours and intricate detailing. Her use of emblematic and mystical symbolism added to their spiritual significance, resulting in devotional paintings that profoundly affected viewers

Giorgio Vasari's Fine Arts: Neoplatonic Visualization of Invention, Imitation and Beauty

During the sixteenth century, artists consulted emblematic and mythological manuals as a source for their visual conceits. With a moral overtone, these manuals contain verbal and visual representations of virtues, vices, passions and temperaments, revealing a Neoplatonic philosophy. This essay analyzes Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)’s assimilation of Neoplatonism in his artistic concepts of invention, imitation and beauty depicted as visual conceits in woodcuts of The Fine Arts in the Vite (1550 and 1568 editions, figs. 1 and 2) and in his paintings of Fame and the Fine Arts (1542 and 1560, figs. 3-6 and 7-11) in his homes at Arezzo and Florence. The conception for these visual designs reveal Neoplatonic influence based on Vasari’s aesthetic and art theory

Cluster-based Vibration Analysis of Structures with GSP

This article describes a divide-and-conquer strategy suited for vibration monitoring applications. Based on a low-cost embedded network of microelectromechanical accelerometers, the proposed architecture strives to reduce both power consumption and computational resources. Moreover, it eases the sensor deployment on large structures by exploiting a novel clustering scheme, which consists of unconventional and nonoverlapped sensing configurations. Signal processing techniques for inter- and intracluster data assembly are introduced to allow for a fullscale assessment of the structural integrity. More specifically, the capability of graph signal processing is adopted for the first time in vibration-based monitoring scenarios to capture the spatial relationship between acceleration data. The experimental validation, conducted on a steel beam perturbed with additive mass, reveals high accuracy in damage detection tasks. Deviations in spectral content and mode shape envelopes are correctly revealed regardless of environmental factors and operational uncertainties. Furthermore, an additional key advantage of the implemented architecture relies on its compliance with blind modal investigations, an approach that favors the implementation of autonomous smart monitoring systems

Polarization Asymmetry In The Photodisintegration Of The Deuteron

The reaction ²(γ,p)n has been studied using a monochromatic and polarized gamma ray beam at energies E(γ)=19.8, 29.0, 38.6, and 60.8 MeV. The beam of an intensity ∼4×10⁵ γ/sec was obtained by Compton back scattering of mode-locked laser light off electron bunches in the Adone storage ring. Photoneutron yields were measured at nine neutron angles thetan≃15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 135, 150, and 165 deg in the center of mass (c.m.) for E(γ)=19.8, 29.0, and 38.6 MeV, and at thetan≃30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 deg c.m. for E(γ)=60.8 MeV. The polarization independent component Iₒ(theta) of the differential cross section and the polarization dependent component PI₁(theta) were deduced and the angular distribution of the azimuthal asymmetry factor Σ(theta)=I₁(theta)/Iₒ(theta) was obtained. An extensive comparison with theory has been carried out and the inclusion of corrections due to meson exchange currents and to Δ-isobar configurations have been shown to be mandatory at energies E(γ)≳40 MeV. Theoretical and experimental implications of intermediate energy deuteron photo- disintegration studies are discussed in some detail

Comprehensive Risk Management in Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy Associated With Autosomal Dominant Carvajal Syndrome

In a 37-year-old cardiac arrest survivor with autosomal dominant Carvajal syndrome and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a desmoplakin mutation was identified. Cascade screening identified 2 affected family members and 2 healthy children carrying the mutation. Strategies for primary and secondary risk prevention emphasize the role of genetic testing in rare cardiomyopathies. (Level of Difficulty: Advanced.

Dealing with non-metric dissimilarities in fuzzy central clustering algorithms

Clustering is the problem of grouping objects on the basis of a similarity measure among them. Relational clustering methods can be employed when a feature-based representation of the objects is not available, and their description is given in terms of pairwise (dis)similarities. This paper focuses on the relational duals of fuzzy central clustering algorithms, and their application in situations when patterns are represented by means of non-metric pairwise dissimilarities. Symmetrization and shift operations have been proposed to transform the dissimilarities among patterns from non-metric to metric. In this paper, we analyze how four popular fuzzy central clustering algorithms are affected by such transformations. The main contributions include the lack of invariance to shift operations, as well as the invariance to symmetrization. Moreover, we highlight the connections between relational duals of central clustering algorithms and central clustering algorithms in kernel-induced spaces. One among the presented algorithms has never been proposed for non-metric relational clustering, and turns out to be very robust to shift operations. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved