Neurophysiological correlates of embodiment and motivational factors during the perception of virtual architectural environments

The recent efforts aimed at providing neuroscientific explanations of how people perceive and experience architectural environments have largely justified the initial belief in the value of neuroscience for architecture. However, a systematic development of a coherent theoretical and experimental framework is missing. To investigate the neurophysiological reactions related to the appreciation of ambiances, we recorded the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals in an immersive virtual reality during the appreciation of interior designs. Such data have been analyzed according to the working hypothesis that appreciated environments involve embodied simulation mechanisms and circuits mediating approaching stimuli. EEG recordings of 12 healthy subjects have been performed during the perception of three-dimensional interiors that have been simulated in a CAVE system and judged according to dimensions of familiarity, novelty, comfort, pleasantness, arousal and presence. A correlation analysis on personal judgments returned that scores of novelty, pleasantness and comfort are positively correlated, while familiarity and novelty are in negative way. Statistical spectral maps reveal that pleasant, novel and comfortable interiors produce a de-synchronization of the mu rhythm over left sensorimotor areas. Interiors judged more pleasant and less familiar generate an activation of left frontal areas (theta and alpha bands), along an involvement of areas devoted to spatial navigation. An increase in comfort returns an enhancement of the theta frontal midline activity. Cerebral activations underlying appreciation of architecture could involve different mechanisms regulating corporeal, emotional and cognitive reactions. Therefore, it might be suggested that people's experience of architectural environments is intrinsically structured by the possibilities for action

Metal Nanostructures for Environmental Pollutant Detection Based on Fluorescence

Heavy metal ions and pesticides are extremely dangerous for human health and environment and an accurate detection is an essential step to monitor their levels in water. The standard and most used methods for detecting these pollutants are sophisticated and expensive analytical techniques. However, recent technological advancements have allowed the development of alternative techniques based on optical properties of noble metal nanomaterials, which provide many advantages such as ultrasensitive detection, fast turnover, simple protocols, in situ sampling, on-site capability and reduced cost. This paper provides a review of the most common photo-physical effects impact on the fluorescence of metal nanomaterials and how these processes can be exploited for the detection of pollutant species. The final aim is to provide readers with an updated guide on fluorescent metallic nano-systems used as optical sensors of heavy metal ions and pesticides in water

ITALIAN LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICES: SOME GOVERNANCE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LARGER CITIES’ EXPERIENCE

Entrusting most local public services to local government entities has led to proliferation of public groups and, consistently, to greater complexity of the governance dynamics of local authorities. Differently from Anglo-Saxon countries, the Italian local public services provision has been characterized by a hybrid externalization process where local entities are legally autonomous but owned by the local government. This leads to a peculiar governance complexity source represented by the dual role (stakeholder and customer) assumed by the local authority. Considering these elements (hybrid externalization and governance structure), this work tries to investigate some governance issues of public groups, basing on the two most populous Italian municipalities. The empirical findings highlight a gap between the presence of the conditions for defining a group governance structure and the adoption of a group approach by the parent local government. The authors try to suggest how to bridge this gap

The enactive approach to architectural experience: A neurophysiological perspective on embodiment, motivation, and affordances

From the enactivist perspective, the way people perceptually experience the world, including architectural spaces, is governed by the dynamic sensorimotor activity of the human organism as a whole and is thereby influenced by the particular conditions of man’s embodiment

Line-shape analysis and simulation of Er3+ photoluminescence spectra in erbium-stabilized nanocrystalline zirconia structures

Peculiarities of the near-infrared and visible up-conversion spectra of nanocrystalline (Er2O3)x (ZrO2)1-x have been studied. It is shown that for the samples with 0.026 < x < 0.143 the photoluminescence spectra of Er3+ are defined a by similar erbium environment in spite of the different symmetry of the host ZrO2 matrix. The low temperature and room temperature emission bands in the spectral range of the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition are measured and interpreted in terms of the multi-electron molecular orbitals cluster model developed for the case of nanocrystal structures. The role of the intra-manifold 4I13/2 relaxatio

Electroencephalographic correlates of sensorimotor integration and embodiment during the appreciation of virtual architectural environments

Nowadays there is the hope that neuroscientific findings will contribute to the improvement of building design in order to create environments which satisfy man's demands. This can be achieved through the understanding of neurophysiological correlates of architectural perception. To this aim, the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of 12 healthy subjects were recorded during the perception of three immersive virtual reality environments (VEs). Afterwards, participants were asked to describe their experience in terms of Familiarity, Novelty, Comfort, Pleasantness, Arousal, and Presence using a rating scale from 1 to 9. These perceptual dimensions are hypothesized to influence the pattern of cerebral spectral activity, while Presence is used to assess the realism of the virtual stimulation. Hence, the collected scores were used to analyze the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the EEG for each behavioral dimension in the theta, alpha and mu bands by means of time-frequency analysis and topographic statistical maps. Analysis of Presence resulted in the activation of the frontal-midline theta, indicating the involvement of sensorimotor integration mechanisms when subjects expressed to feel more present in the VEs. Similar patterns also characterized the experience of familiar and comfortable VEs. In addition, pleasant VEs increased the theta power across visuomotor circuits and activated the alpha band in areas devoted to visuospatial exploration and processing of categorical spatial relations. Finally, the de-synchronization of the mu rhythm described the perception of pleasant and comfortable VEs, showing the involvement of left motor areas and embodied mechanisms for environment appreciation. Overall, these results show the possibility to measure EEG correlates of architectural perception involving the cerebral circuits of sensorimotor integration, spatial navigation, and embodiment. These observations can help testing architectural hypotheses in order to design environments matching the changing needs of humans

Staged Contact-Aware Global Human Motion Forecasting

Scene-aware global human motion forecasting is critical for manifold applications, including virtual reality, robotics, and sports. The task combines human trajectory and pose forecasting within the provided scene context, which represents a significant challenge. So far, only Mao et al. NeurIPS'22 have addressed scene-aware global motion, cascading the prediction of future scene contact points and the global motion estimation. They perform the latter as the end-to-end forecasting of future trajectories and poses. However, end-to-end contrasts with the coarse-to-fine nature of the task and it results in lower performance, as we demonstrate here empirically. We propose a STAGed contact-aware global human motion forecasting STAG, a novel three-stage pipeline for predicting global human motion in a 3D environment. We first consider the scene and the respective human interaction as contact points. Secondly, we model the human trajectory forecasting within the scene, predicting the coarse motion of the human body as a whole. The third and last stage matches a plausible fine human joint motion to complement the trajectory considering the estimated contacts. Compared to the state-of-the-art (SoA), STAG achieves a 1.8% and 16.2% overall improvement in pose and trajectory prediction, respectively, on the scene-aware GTA-IM dataset. A comprehensive ablation study confirms the advantages of staged modeling over end-to-end approaches. Furthermore, we establish the significance of a newly proposed temporal counter called the "time-to-go", which tells how long it is before reaching scene contact and endpoints. Notably, STAG showcases its ability to generalize to datasets lacking a scene and achieves a new state-of-the-art performance on CMU-Mocap, without leveraging any social cues. Our code is released at: https://github.com/L-Scofano/STAGComment: 15 pages, 7 figures, BMVC23 ora

Società in-house per la gestione dei rifiuti solidi urbani: alcune evidenze empiriche sui fattori che influenzano la performance economico-finanziaria

In addition to being at the center of attention because of its delicate economic balance, also highlighted by legislation, the in-house sector can also affect environmental aspects as in the case of in-house companies operating in the municipal solid waste sector. Hence, the choice of the investigated statistical universe, represented by all the in-house companies of the Italian provincial capitals operating in this sector, with the aim of investigating the factors influencing their economic and financial performance. Applying the GLS methodology (period 2011-2017), the analysis allows the authors to conclude that: 1) the size of the companies considered has an inversely proportional impact on performance; 2) the technical characteristics of the service provided influence the results in a non-univocal way; 3) the political orientation of the owner municipality negatively influences the economic and financial performance of the selected companies; 4) the higher the average age of the directors, the better the company’s performance.Il settore delle società in-house oltre ad essere al centro dell’attenzione per il suo delicato equilibrio economico, sottolineato anche dalla normativa, può interessare aspetti ambientali come nel caso delle in-house operanti nel settore dei rifiuti solidi urbani. Da qui la scelta di indagare l’universo statistico composto da tutte le società in-house dei comuni italiani capoluoghi di provincia operanti in tale settore, con l’obiettivo di indagarne i fattori di influenza sulla performance economico-patrimoniale. Applicando la metodologia GLS (periodo 2011-2017), l’analisi consente di concludere che: 1) la dimensione delle aziende considerate ha un impatto inversamente proporzionale sulla performance; 2) le caratteristiche tecniche del servizio erogato influenzano in maniera non univoca i risultati; 3) l’orientamento politico del comune proprietario influenza negativamente le prestazioni economico-patrimoniali delle aziende selezionate; 4) maggiore è l’età media degli amministratori e migliore è la performance aziendale.Le secteur des entreprises in-house n’est pas seulement au centre de l’attention en raison de son équilibre économique délicat, qui est également souligné par la législation, mais il peut également avoir des répercussions sur les aspects environnementaux, comme dans le cas des entreprises in-house opérant dans le secteur des déchets solides municipaux. D’où le choix de l’univers statistique étudié, représenté par toutes les entreprises in-house des capitales provinciales italiennes opérant dans ce secteur, dans le but d’étudier les facteurs influençant leurs performances économiques et financières. En appliquant la méthodologie GLS (période 2011-2017), l’analyse permet de conclure que 1) la taille des entreprises considérées a un impact inversement proportionnel sur les performances ; 2) les caractéristiques techniques du service fourni influencent les résultats de manière non univoque ; 3) l’orientation politique de la municipalité propriétaire influence négativement les performances économiques et financières des entreprises sélectionnées ; 4) plus l’âge moyen des directeurs est élevé, meilleures sont les performances de l’entreprise