From Science to Design: the Design4Materials virtuous cycle

Despite the large number of innovative materials developed in laboratories worldwide, their application in new mass-produced products is complicated. Design can reduce the risk that the research developed in scientific laboratories could fail to be properly exploited and triggering a beneficial cycle linking Science to Design. This paper present the Design4Materials, an italian network founded by the laboratories of leading schools of design: MaterialdesignLab|Sapienza Rome, Madec|Politecnico di Milano, HybridesignLab|SUN Naples, Soft Surfaces and Polisensoriality|Poliba Bari. After presenting the different skills of the network members, the authors describe the capabilities and the goals of the network and the main results developed like the project that define characteristics and identities for an open material, starting from a research of the IIT of Genoa. The Design4Materials aim is to play a leading role on design-driven innovation process, responding to society’s changing needs and developing a ‘circular’ methodology of innovation from a design standpoint

MADEC. Material Design Culture

reserved2noThis paper wants to present a research promoted by the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano and funded by FARB (University Funds for Basic Research), for the creation of a Research Centre named MADEC, with the ambition of recognizing peculiarities of Italian Material Design Culture, and tracking their evolution in the contemporary era of “tailor-made materials” as technological paradigma. This paper is divided into three parts: the first part concerns reasons, motivations and the state of the art of the research; the second part describes in detail the research activities developed during the first year of the project; the third part is dedicated to conclusions with some critical considerations and future actions.Ferrara, M., Lecce, C.Ferrara, MARIA RITA; Lecce, Chiar

Relating Agulhas leakage to the Agulhas Current retroflection location

The relation between the Agulhas Current retroflection location and the magnitude of Agulhas leakage, the transport of water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean, is investigated in a high-resolution numerical ocean model. Sudden eastward retreats of the Agulhas Current retroflection loop are linearly related to the shedding of Agulhas rings, where larger retreats generate larger rings. Using numerical Lagrangian floats a 37 year time series of the magnitude of Agulhas leakage in the model is constructed. The time series exhibits large amounts of variability, both on weekly and annual time scales. A linear relation is found between the magnitude of Agulhas leakage and the location of the Agulhas Current retroflection, both binned to three month averages. In the relation, a more westward location of the Agulhas Current retroflection corresponds to an increased transport from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. When this relation is used in a linear regression and applied to almost 20 years of altimetry data, it yields a best estimate of the mean magnitude of Agulhas leakage of 13.2 Sv. The early retroflection of 2000, when Agulhas leakage was probably halved, can be identified using the regression

MADEC: Exploring new methodologies to transfer material knowledge into design disciplines

Due to the increased complexity of materials and production processes, the responsibility of the development of a design is often left in the hands of technicians and production personnel. This lack of knowledge about materials thus effectively creates a barrier between the designer and the product. Bridging this gap represents a challenge to designers and especially to the design schools. (Bak-Andersen 2013, p.69) Designers cannot know everything but they can open their minds and develop a more conscious understanding of this new field of design practice starting from a cultural point of view. MADEC is a research group based in the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano in 2014 with the initial support provided by FARB founding (Fondi di Ateneo per la Riceca di Base), which deals with the relation between design and materials in design history and actuality. The center carries out researches on the “Italian Culture of Materials Design”, intended as the capacity of the Italian design to “interpret” materials and technologies to generate products and environments innovation. The main goal of MADEC is to develop vocational students’ and apprentices’ design-related competencies, integrating design into materials’ research and development, to better support commercial and societal applications benefiting from a cultural and multidisciplinary knowledge. This paper will report in particular two significant experiences carried on during the first year of MADEC: the e-journal issue “Italian Material Design: learning from history” and the open lectures cycle “The Ideas and the Matter”. The general project has been basically divided in four main activities: creating a open source on-line platform and a research and co-design network; enhancing academic papers and publications both concerning design history studies and contemporary topics; organizing transdisciplinary symposiums, workshops and seminars; participating to European projects seeking for collaboration between researches, designers and material suppliers and manufacturers. To the conclusion the paper will try to figure out the points of force and weakness of the research project and to trace future guidelines to improve its research and educational methodology

GODIVA2: interactive visualization of environmental data on the Web

GODIVA2 is a dynamic website that provides visual access to several terabytes of physically distributed, four-dimensional environmental data. It allows users to explore large datasets interactively without the need to install new software or download and understand complex data. Through the use of open international standards, GODIVA2 maintains a high level of interoperability with third-party systems, allowing diverse datasets to be mutually compared. Scientists can use the system to search for features in large datasets and to diagnose the output from numerical simulations and data processing algorithms. Data providers around Europe have adopted GODIVA2 as an INSPIRE-compliant dynamic quick-view system for providing visual access to their data

Diagnostic of post-weaning diarrhoea on the farm level

Introduction Post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) is a multi-factorial disease. Clinical symptoms are often linked to a combination of different factors such as specific pathogens, low feed intake after weaning, low hygiene, low age at weaning, low piglet live weight at weaning, and a high number of piglets per pen (Madec et al., 1998). Although organically reared piglets are, in general, six weeks of age at weaning, and are kept with a high space allowance, post-weaning diarrhoea is a severe problem in organic pig production (Bonde & Sörensen, 2006; Sundrum et al., 2010). Due to restrictions in the use of antibiotics in organic livestock production, there is a need to focus primarily on the implementation of preventive measures. When health problems are recognised, it is of high importance to make an accurate diagnosis and identify the farm-specific causes. The objective of this study was to identify the presence of pathogens and enterotoxins in weaners with PWD in comparison to clinical healthy weaners within the same group. Materials and Methods Case studies were performed on six organic sow herds in Germany, affected with PWD problems. Clinical examinations and data on Critical Control Points (CCPs) regarding performance data, hygiene management, feeding regime, and medicine usage were assessed on the farms. Piglets were housed in stables with outdoor runs. Weaning age averaged 44.8 days. To assess the bacteriological infection status, faecal swabs were taken per rectum from five clinical healthy and five piglets suffering from postweaning diarrhoea on each farm, respectively. Faecal samples were bacteriologically examined for the content of non-haemolytic and haemolytic E. coli which were subsequently tested for the presence of virulence genes for heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable (STa and STb) enterotoxins, Stx toxins and fimbriae using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (Casey & Bosworth, 2009). Results Concerning the CCPs, all farms showed more or less severe deficits in the hygiene management and in the nutrient regime, although varying in their details considerably between the farms. Laboratory analyses provided proof for the presence of different strains of E. coli (Tab. 1) and their associated enterotoxins. Non-haemolytic and haemolytic Escherichia coli were detected to a high degree in weaners with diarrhea and clinical healthy weaners within the same group (Fig. 1). There was, however, no significant difference between healthy and diseased piglets neither in relation to the presence of pathogens nor in relation to the associated enterotoxins (p>0.05), whereas the toxin pattern (LT = heat-labile; ST = heat-stable) differed markedly between the farms. Conclusions Identification of pathogens and their virulence genes provides only little diagnostic information when striving for appropriate preventive measures. Investigations should be directed in the first place towards the impact of hygiene management and feeding regime on piglet susceptibility to GIT disorders and enteric infections. The development of adequate diagnostic tools to be used on the farm level should be enforced to enable appropriate and promptly counteractive measures