Rendering the reality: Development of a video mapping show on a mountain cliff face for a music festival

Rendering the Reality, como conceito, quer difundir a ideia de que aquilo que as pessoas experimentam não é apenas a representação objetiva da realidade, mas a sua interpretação subjetiva. Todos podem perceber algo diferente dos outros e este aspeto é analisado neste trabalho através de uma imersão total no mundo das projeções. O principal objetivo desta tese de projeto, de facto, é desenvolver um espetáculo de video mapping sobre uma superfície irregular dentro de um festival de música. Para tal, inicialmente, foram analisados os antecedentes históricos e o estado da arte. Foi levado em consideração três tópicos principais: história do cinema, história do som no cinema, e história do video mapping. Relativamente a este último, no qual o desenvolvimento é mais recente, foi também discutida uma análise adicional e notícias relacionadas ao assunto. Posteriormente, foram apresentados e investigados alguns projetos inspiradores. Estes são instalações ou espetáculos que levam à concretização da tarefa principal. A parte central é o desenvolvimento do projeto. Primeiro, foi apresentado o conceito do festival e detalhes relacionados. Fundamental nesta secção é a análise do local, uma vez que o mapeamento da projeção teve de ser assentado numa falésia de uma montanha. Uma vez analisado o espaço, foram feitas muitas inspeções ao local a fim de produzir uma maquete. Esta última foi feita utilizando fotogrametria e impressão 3D. O protótipo 3D foi então mapeado e o conteúdo de vídeo foi projetado sobre ele. Os conteúdos para o video mapping foram devidamente registados, editados e distorcidos para se obter uma proposta do programa no protótipo. O resultado final é um video mapping de 3 minutos ao vivo feito de conteúdos visuais mistos e uma faixa musical criada para o efeito. Este resultado é a soma de todo o processo e dos obstáculos encontrados ao longo do percurso. Em conclusão, a relação que o público pode estabelecer com este espetáculo de video mapping não pode ser esclarecida, já que o festival não se realizou. Mas é evidente que o artista que desenvolveu o espetáculo tentou dar uma interpretação do festival e da sua localização através do conteúdo audiovisual, ou seja, tentando renderizar a realidade.Rendering the Reality, as a concept, wants to spread the idea that what people experience is not only the objective representation of reality but the subjective interpretation of it. Everyone can perceive something different from others and this aspect is analyzed in this work through full immersion in the world of projections. The main goal of this project thesis, indeed, is to develop a video mapping show on an irregular surface within a music festival. To do so, initially, the historical background and state of the art were analyzed. Three main topics were taken into consideration: History of filmmaking, History of sound in movies, and History of projection mapping. Concerning this latter, whose development is most recent, additional analysis and related news were discussed, too. Subsequently, some inspiring projects were presented and investigated. Those are installations or shows that lead to the concretization of the main task. The central part is the development of the project. First, the festival concept and related details were presented. Fundamental in this section is the analysis of the location since the projection mapping had to be settled on a cliff face of a mountain. Once analyzed the space, lots of site inspections were made in order to produce a maquette. This latter was made using photogrammetry and 3D printing. The 3D prototype, then, was mapped and video contents were projected on it. Contents for video mapping were appositely recorded, edited, and distorted to obtain a proposal of the show on the prototype. The final result is a 3-minute video mapping live made of mixed visual contents and a music track created for the purpose. This outcome is the sum of the entire process and obstacles encountered along the way. In conclusion, the relationship the audience can establish with this video mapping show cannot be clarified, as the festival did not take place. But it is clear that the artist who developed the show tried to give an interpretation of the festival and its location through the audiovisual content, that is, trying to render the reality

Blazars distance indications from Fermi and TeV data

A new method to constrain the distance of blazars with unknown redshift using combined observations in the GeV and TeV regimes will be presented. The underlying assumption is that the Very High Energy (VHE) spectrum corrected for the absorption of TeV photons by the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) via photon-photon interaction should still be softer than the extrapolation of the gamma-ray spectrum observed by Fermi/LAT. Starting from the observed spectral data at VHE, the EBL-corrected spectra are derived as a function of the redshift z and fitted with power laws. Comparing the redshift dependent VHE slopes with the power law fits to the LAT data an upper limit to the source redshift can be derived. The method is applied to all TeV blazars detected by LAT with known distance and an empirical law describing the relation between the upper limits and the true redshifts is derived. This law can be used to estimate the distance of unknown redshift blazars: as an example, the distance of PKS 1424+240 is inferred.Comment: Contribution to SciNeGHE 2010, Trieste, Italy, September 2010; 4 pages, 2 figur

TeV blazars and their distance

Recently, a new method to constrain the distance of blazars with unknown redshift using combined observations in the GeV and TeV regimes has been developed, with the underlying assumption that the Very High Energy (VHE) spectrum corrected for the absorption of TeV photons by the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) via photon-photon interaction should still be softer than the gamma-ray spectrum observed by Fermi/LAT. The constraints found are related to the real redshifts by a simple linear relation, that has been used to infer the unknown distance of blazars. The sample will be revised with the up-to-date spectra in both TeV and GeV bands, the method tested with the more recent EBL models and finally applied to the unknown distance blazars detected at VHE.Comment: Contribution to "Cosmic Radiation Fields: Sources in the early Universe", Desy, Germany, November 9-12, 2010; 6 pages, 3 figures (revised version

Effect of preceding crop on the agronomic and economic performance of durum wheat in the transition from conventional to reduced tillage

Preceding crop greatly affects the agronomic and economic performance of durum wheat, but its interaction with tillage intensity was scarcely investigated at the early transition from conventional to reduced tillage. This work was aimed at studying how preceding crop determines the performance of durum wheat during the early transition from conventional to reduced tillage. To this end, the effect of four preceding crops (sunflower, durum wheat, alfalfa and maize) in interaction with two tillage systems without inversion (RT1 – chisel ploughing, disking twice, and harrowing and RT2 – disking twice and harrowing) and a conventional tillage (CT – mouldboard ploughing, disking twice, and harrowing) was studied on durum wheat in two years of cultivation. The effect of preceding crop on grain yield and yield components of durum wheat was different depending on tillage intensity, and this effect varied depending on the year of cultivation. Grain yield increased by 1.1–4.2 t ha−1 with the increase of the intensity of tillage in both years and all preceding crops, with the only exception of wheat crop following sunflower in 2009–2010 and following maize in 2010–2011. RT2 decreased wheat grain yield when compared with RT1 only with alfalfa as preceding crop. Differences in grain yield among tillage systems and crops preceding wheat in both years were mainly due to variations of mean kernel weight and number of spikes per unit area. The profitability of durum wheat varied according to the year of cultivation, the preceding crop and the tillage system. Overall, in both years profitability was lowest and negative following wheat under reduced tillage system, while it was highest and positive following alfalfa under CT. Reduced growth of durum wheat with reduced tillage systems was mainly consequence of weeds and volunteers plants development and nitrogen availability in soil resulting from nutrient immobilization. It can be concluded that potential yield penalties in durum wheat in the transition from conventional to reduced tillage can be alleviated by an appropriate selection of preceding crops

Clinical and laboratory characterization of patients with localized scleroderma and response to UVA-1 phototherapy: In vivo and in vitro skin models

Background/Purpose Localized scleroderma (LS) is a rare disease leading to progressive hardening and induration of the skin and subcutaneous tissues. LS is responsive to UVA-1 phototherapy, though its exact mechanism of action dermal fibrosis is yet to be fully elucidated. We aimed to investigate the molecular changes induced by UVA-1 rays in human primary fibroblasts cultures. Methods A total of 16 LS patients were treated with medium-dose UVA-1 phototherapy. At baseline, during and after therapy, Localized Scleroderma Assessment Tool, Dermatology Life Quality Index and lesions' staging and mapping were performed along with high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) examination for dermal thickness assessment. Gene expression analysis for 23 mRNA transcripts, in vitro UVA-1 irradiation and viability tests were realized on lesional fibroblasts' primary cultures, before and 3 months after therapy. Results The dermal thickness, the LoSCAT and the DLQI progressively decreased starting from the last phototherapy session up to the 6 and 9 month follow-ups (-57% and -60%, respectively). Molecular gene analysis (rt-PCR) revealed that UVA-1 phototherapy exerts multiple effects: the activation of specific anti-fibrotic pathways (e.g., overexpression of CTHRC1 and metalloproteases 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 12, suppression of TIMP-1), the downregulation of peculiar pro-fibrotic pathways (e.g., downregulation of TGF-ss, TGF-ssrII, Grb2, SMAD 2/3, TNRSF12A, CTGF) through a significant overexpression of IL-1ss; the stabilization of collagen synthesis acting on genes COL1A1, COL3A1, COL8A1, COL10A1, COL12A1. Conclusion UVA-1 phototherapy adds significant benefits in local tissue remodeling, rebalancing the alteration between pro-fibrotic and anti-fibrotic pathways; these changes can be well monitored by HFUS. © 2022 The Authors

ASCs-exosomes recover coupling efficiency and mitochondrial membrane potential in an in vitro model of ALS

The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motoneurons death. Mutations in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) protein have been identified to be related to the disease. Beyond the different altered pathways, the mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the major features that leads to the selective death of motoneurons in ALS. The NSC-34 cell line, overexpressing human SOD1(G93A) mutant protein [NSC-34(G93A)], is considered an optimal in vitro model to study ALS. Here we investigated the energy metabolism in NSC-34(G93A) cells and in particular the effect of the mutated SOD1(G93A) protein on the mitochondrial respiratory capacity (complexes I-IV) by high resolution respirometry (HRR) and cytofluorimetry. We demonstrated that NSC-34(G93A) cells show a reduced mitochondrial oxidative capacity. In particular, we found significant impairment of the complex I-linked oxidative phosphorylation, reduced efficiency of the electron transfer system (ETS) associated with a higher rate of dissipative respiration, and a lower membrane potential. In order to rescue the effect of the mutated SOD1 gene on mitochondria impairment, we evaluated the efficacy of the exosomes, isolated from adipose-derived stem cells, administrated on the NSC-34(G93A) cells. These data show that ASCs-exosomes are able to restore complex I activity, coupling efficiency and mitochondrial membrane potential. Our results improve the knowledge about mitochondrial bioenergetic defects directly associated with the SOD1(G93A) mutation, and prove the efficacy of adipose-derived stem cells exosomes to rescue the function of mitochondria, indicating that these vesicles could represent a valuable approach to target mitochondrial dysfunction in ALS

Too much tolerance for hyperoxemia in mechanically ventilated patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia? Report from an Italian intensive care unit

Background: In COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation, the administration of high oxygen (O2) doses for prolonged time periods may be necessary. Although life-saving in most cases, O2 may exert deleterious effects if administered in excessive concentrations. We aimed to describe the prevalence of hyperoxemia and excessive O2 administration in mechanically ventilated patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia and determine whether hyperoxemia is associated with mortality in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or the onset of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Materials and methods: Retrospective single-center study on adult patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia requiring invasive mechanical ventilation for ≥48 h. Patients undergoing extracorporeal respiratory support were excluded. We calculated the excess O2 administered based on the ideal arterial O2 tension (PaO2) target of 55–80 mmHg. We defined hyperoxemia as PaO2 > 100 mmHg and hyperoxia + hyperoxemia as an inspired O2 fraction (FiO2) > 60% + PaO2 > 100 mmHg. Risk factors for ICU-mortality and VAP were assessed through multivariate analyses. Results: One hundred thirty-four patients were included. For each day of mechanical ventilation, each patient received a median excess O2 of 1,121 [829–1,449] L. Hyperoxemia was found in 38 [27–55]% of arterial blood gases, hyperoxia + hyperoxemia in 11 [5–18]% of cases. The FiO2 was not reduced in 69 [62–76]% of cases of hyperoxemia. Adjustments were made more frequently with higher PaO2 or initial FiO2 levels. ICU-mortality was 32%. VAP was diagnosed in 48.5% of patients. Hyperoxemia (OR 1.300 95% CI [1.097–1.542]), time of exposure to hyperoxemia (OR 2.758 [1.406–5.411]), hyperoxia + hyperoxemia (OR 1.144 [1.008–1.298]), and daily excess O2 (OR 1.003 [1.001–1.005]) were associated with higher risk for ICU-mortality, independently of age, Sequential Organ failure Assessment score at ICU-admission and mean PaO2/FiO2. Hyperoxemia (OR 1.033 [1.006–1.061]), time of exposure to hyperoxemia (OR 1.108 [1.018–1.206]), hyperoxia + hyperoxemia (OR 1.038 [1.003–1.075]), and daily excess O2 (OR 1.001 [1.000–1.001]) were identified as risk factors for VAP, independently of body mass index, blood transfusions, days of neuromuscular blocking agents (before VAP), prolonged prone positioning and mean PaO2/FiO2 before VAP. Conclusion: Excess O2 administration and hyperoxemia were common in mechanically ventilated patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. The exposure to hyperoxemia may be associated with ICU-mortality and greater risk for VAP