The Navigli Circle in Milan, yesterday and today

Through most of their circuit, the Milanese Navigli surround the historical center of the city, however without showing any segment of this old canal that was built together with other hydraulic projects for the purpose of bringing water to an urban space lacking in rivers. In fact, Milan is located 25 km east from Ticino, 25 km west from Adda and 35 km north of Po, without ever being crossed by any water course that is navigable or useful for water supply

The Marine Environment: Hazards, Resources and the Application of Geoethics Principles

Oceans cover three quarters of the Earth surface and represent a fundamental component of the global climate system. Life on Earth is closely tied to the climate system and thus to the oceans. Marine regions are subjected to numerous submarine natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides, in many cases producing tsunamis that threaten coastal areas and many onshore and offshore man-made facilities. On the other hand, as society and technological needs progressively increase, the impact of human activities on coastal and deep waters become more severe, with consequences that include global warming and sea-level rise, coastal erosion, pollution, ocean acidification, damage to marine resources and ecosystem degradation. Nevertheless, humankind seems not to be adequately conscious about the different kind of hazards threatening the marine environment. The challenge for marine geoscientists is to be conscious of the geoethical compromise in order to alert society, industries and policy makers about the needs to minimize the risks of natural and human impacts in the ocean system.Fil: Violante, Roberto Antonio. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval. Departamento Oceanografía; ArgentinaFil: Bozzano, Graziella. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval. Departamento Oceanografía; ArgentinaFil: Rovere, Elizabeth Ivonne. Secretaría de Industria y Minería. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino; Argentin

Novel Control Flow Checking Implementations for Automotive Software

Safety-critical applications shall be implemented on highly dependable systems, and a part of their reliability is based on checking if the software is executed correctly. Various techniques are available for this purpose, like Control Flow Checking (CFC). Many CFC algorithms can be found in the literature, but their detection performances are assessed in theoretical scenarios, when implemented in Assembly language. The international standard on functional safety for automotive applications is ISO26262. It mandates to develop using high-level programming languages and the computation of the Diagnostic Coverage (DC). The DC measures the effectiveness of the chosen hardening method, in order to detect various Failure Modes (FMs). This paper discusses two alternative solutions, one software-only, and the other involving customized hardware, for these concerns: (i) address the FMs affecting the computation units described by Table 30 of part 11 of the ISO26262 (ii) guarantee the Freedom From Interference between the hardening method and the monitored entity

The Argentine Continental Margin: A Potential Paleoclimatic-Paleoceanographic Archive for the Southern Ocean

The Argentina Continental Margin, located in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean, is inserted in a key region of the World Ocean due to its significance in the global oceanographic-climatic interaction, and because it is the only place where Antarctic- and Equator-sourced water-masses interact in mid-latitudes. On the other hand, the geotectonic history of the region imprints it with significant geological characteristics. As a result, the climatically-, oceanographically- and physically-driven sedimentary processes occurred in the region originated particular and almost unique morphosedimentary features, which constitute complete records of the processes involved in its evolution. Those features contain different kinds of proxies, tracers and records (biological, geochemical, sedimentological, morphological and structural) which provide valuable quantitative and qualitative evidences for detailed paleoceanographic, paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Therefore, the Argentine margin potentially behaves as a complete archive for understanding most of the unique oceanographic and climatic characteristics that occur in the region and impact in the rest of the Southern Hemisphere.Fil: Violante, Roberto Antonio. No especifíca;Fil: Laprida, Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: García Chapori, Natalia Luz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; Argentin

Use of Facial Expressions to Improve the Social Acceptance of Level 4 and 5 Automated Driving System Equipped Vehicles

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one million people die yearly from car accidents. At the same time, between 20 and 50 million people suffer non-fatal injuries, which can also lead to permanent disabilities. Recently, vehicles equipped with SAE level 3, 4, and 5 Automated Driving System (ADS) have become one of the hottest topics in the automotive industry. In fact, their main expected benefit is that they could significantly reduce the number of road accidents. Their actual success will depend on how people react to their introduction: considering that the absence of the steering wheel and pedals is possible for levels 4 and 5, will people trust these advanced forms of driving automation? In this regard, the authors of this paper have proposed two different ideas. The first, which can be implemented during the proactive phase, consists in calibrating the driving algorithm of the vehicle based on the volunteers’ reaction to simulations of common driving situations. The second, which can be implemented during the reactive phase, consists in dynamically adapting the driving style of the vehicle based on the average feeling inside the vehicle. Both of these ideas could help improve social acceptance and facilitate the transition to vehicles equipped with SAE level 4 and 5 ADS

The submarine canyons of the Argentine Continental Margin: a review of their formation and sedimentary dynamics

Los cañones submarinos son los mayores rasgos erosivos de los márgenes continentales tanto activos como pasivos. Desde los albores del siglo XX, representan un fructífero tema de debate e investigación por su gran relevancia como agentes de transferencia de sedimento y materia orgánica de continente a océano, por ser lugar de surgencia de aguas profundas, elevada producción primaria y riqueza en biodiversidad, y por ser potenciales factores de riesgo en las rupturas de infraestructuras submarinas. El presente trabajo comprende una revisión de las principales teorías de formación y evolución de los cañones submarinos así como de los procesos de interacción entre dinámica oceanográfica, flujos sedimentarios y morfologías asociadas a los cañones. El objetivo es presentar una síntesis del estado del conocimiento sobre los cañones del Margen Continental Argentino (MCA), discutir su formación y evolución en el marco de los modelos genéticos más aceptados en la actualidad así como proponer una hipótesis de trabajo vinculada a la dinámica sedimentaria del Cañón Mar del Plata (MdP), el más estudiado del margen. Este cañón, como la mayoría de los del MCA, por un lado se desarrolla exclusivamente en el talud (cañón ciego) y por el otro interrumpe un gran sistema depositacional contornítico relacionado con la circulación oceanográfica regional. De aquí que su génesis en principio se explicaría por el modelo de erosión retrogradante a partir de fenómenos de inestabilidad del talud, pero además podría funcionar como trampa de sedimento captando el material transportado por el Agua Antártica Intermedia a lo largo del talud medio. Se propone que en la Terraza Ewing, donde el cañón tiene su cabecera, podrían generarse corrientes turbidíticas que afectarían a la evolución y dinámica del cañón. Estas corrientes se encauzarían cañón abajo contribuyendo a profundizar su valle y a conformar su trazado en parte sinuoso. En los sistemas de cañones Patagonia otros factores podrían activar la génesis de los cañones submarinos. Se ha sugerido la posibilidad que irregularidades morfológicas provocadas por la acción erosiva de las corrientes contorníticas sobre el fondo puedan dar origen a los cañones de esta zona. Este mecanismo podría no limitarse exclusivamente al sistema Patagonia sino aplicarse a los demás sistemas de cañones argentinos ya que el MCA está intersectado por intensas corrientes de contorno que operan a diferentes profundidades.Submarine canyons are the most outstanding geomorphologic features of continental margins. They play a fundamental role in transferring sediment and organic matter from shallow to deep waters. Also, they influence oceanographic and sedimentary processes, interact with productivity and benthic ecosystems, and pose a serious threat to seafloor infrastructures. Submarine canyons have been described as steep-walled, sinuous valleys with V-shaped cross sections, axes sloping outward as continuously as river-cut land canyons and relief comparable to even the largest of land canyons. The understanding of the origin and evolution of submarine canyons has been matter of intense debate since the first geologists observed them characterizing both passive and active margins. Canyons have been interpreted as (1) the off-shore prolongation of river systems that during low sealevel stages migrated seaward; (2) the product of the erosion caused by gravity dense flows- called turbidity currents- produced at the shelf-slope transition; (3) the deepening of pre-existing tectonic structures (e.g. faults) and (4) the result of slope instability combined with headward erosion. The first model only explains the genesis of the breaching-shelf canyons that connect with river systems, but does not resolve the formation of those that are unrelated to fluvial input. Turbidity currents take place at the shelf break when sufficient amount of sediment is injected into the water column by (re) suspension, resulting in a flow with higher density than the surrounding waters. These high-density flows, moving down-slope under the effect of gravity, cut the valleys that finally evolve into submarine canyons. Turbidity currents, though effective agents of erosion, do not account for the formation of slopeconfined canyons. From the other side, tectonic control can apply for limited examples of canyons, which are located in specific geological contexts. Continental slopes often show scars that are left behind by instability events. Mass wasting processes may arise from fluid escape, sediment over pressure and steepening or be triggered by seismic shocks. These initial scars would evolve into rills and then into valleys by a process that combines localized slope failures, sediment funneling and headward erosion. According to this genetic model, slope-confined and shelf-breaching canyons are, respectively, the early and mature stages in the evolution of canyons, which starts with a pre-canyon rill that advances upslope by retrogressive failure and ends with the canyon cutting the shelf break. The objective of this contribution is to review the knowledge on the submarine canyons from the Argentine Continental Margin and to suggest a working hypothesis concerning the sedimentary dynamics of the Mar del Plata Canyon, by far the best known canyon of this margin. Four main systems have been described: La Plata River, Colorado-Negro (or Bahía Blanca), Ameghino (or Chubut) and Patagonia (or Deseado). Mar del Plata Canyon, belonging to the first of these systems, cuts the slope between ~1000 m (Ewing Terrace, middle slope) and ~3900 m (lower slope-continental rise transition) as a deep valley with steep walls. In its proximal sector, between 1100 and 3000 m, it shows a sinuous path whereas the thalweg is mostly linear between 3000 an 3900 m. Seismic profiles, obtained during the Meteor research cruise M78/3a, demonstrate no evidences of incisions that could suggest past fluvial connections with the canyon head. For this reason, the origin of this canyon has been explained as an example of headward erosion. During the Holocene, the sedimentation rate inside the canyon is much higher than outside. This occurs because the large amount of sediment mobilized by bottom currents along the Ewing Terrace is intercepted by the canyon. In contrast, during the Late Glacial and deglaciation phase, turbidite accumulation has been attributed to slope instability of the drift deposits at the southern flank of the canyon. In this study, we put forward the following working hypothesis: the canyon most probably generated from slope instability and retrogressive erosion. However, when the valley moved upslope and etched the Ewing Terrace (middle slope), turbidity currents might have been produced at this water depth (1000-1200 meters) by the peculiar oceanographic dynamics driven by the interaction between bottom currents and seafloor. If confirmed by future investigations, this hypothesis would account both for the turbidite deposition and the sinuous path of the canyon in its proximal sector, which is more typical, although not exclusive, for canyons routed by turbidity currents. The detailed morphological investigations, performed in the Patagonia Canyons system by a Spanish research group in 2011, add a stimulating source of discussion about canyon formation in the Argentine Margin. These authors have proposed that topographic irregularities shaped by scars resulting from the sea-floor erosion under strong contour currents and the step separating terraces located at different water depths, might be the precursors for a pre-canyon incision. This hypothesis, of great relevance in a continental margin where downslope and along-slope sedimentary processes often coexist and interact, probably apply not only to the Patagonia but also to the other, less investigated, canyons systems of the Argentine Margin.Fil: Bozzano, Graziella. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Martín de Nascimento, Jacobo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Spoltore, Daniela V.. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; ArgentinaFil: Violante, Roberto Antonio. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentin

Knee osteoarthritis in a chestnut farmer – Case Report

Introduction Several studies have dealt with the issue of professional risk factors and onset of knee osteoarthritis (OA). In particular, occupational epidemiological studies have provided evidence that activities resulting in biomechanical overload may be linked with an increased risk of knee OA – also among farmers. To our knowledge, no cases of knee OA among chestnut farmers have been reported in the literature. Case report We report the case of a 70-year-old Caucasian male who has worked for more than 50 years on a chestnut farm. In 2007, an X-ray and a MRI, performed after a workplace accident to his left knee, showed the presence of knee OA. His job required a range of repetitive tasks, such as squatting, kneeling, climbing, walking on sloping terrain, assuming uncomfortable postures, and lifting and carrying heavy loads for the great majority of the working day. All the aforementioned tasks are known occupational risk factors for knee OA. Regarding individual risk factors, at the time of the first diagnosis of knee OA, the worker was 64-years-old with a body mass index of 26.5 kg/m2. He reported no cases of arthritis among his relatives and no sports playing on his part. In addition, his medical history revealed the presence of two minor lumbar disc herniations and tendinitis of the long head of the biceps. Conclusions Considering the lack of major individual risk factors for knee OA, it is reasonable to suppose that five decades of exposure to biomechanical overload as a chestnut farmer was a relevant risk factor for the onset of the disease

Towards an exploitation of the salary structure survey in hospitality from the exploratory data analysis with application to the gender salary gap

Este trabajo indaga las posibilidades que presenta la Encuesta Cuatrienal de Estructura Salarial (EES), especialmente para los estudios económicos y sociológicos en el sector del turismo, utilizando el análisis exploratorio de datos (AED) de la estructura salarial en la Hostelería. El artículo se divide en dos partes diferenciadas; en primer lugar, se repasan las instrucciones y la estructura de los datos para la explotación correcta de la encuesta. En segundo lugar, se realiza un ejercicio de AED en el sector económico hostelero donde se testan las diferencias salariales y geográficas, por sectores económicos, cohortes de edad y sexo. Finalmente, tras el análisis efectuado, se concluye poniendo de relieve las grandes posibilidades analíticas que puede desarrollar la base de datos de la encuesta, y se ofrecen algunas líneas de análisis confirmatorias que coadyuvan a complementar esta introducción exploratoria de la brecha salarial.This paper reviews the possibilities presented by the Quadrennial Salary Structure Survey (EES), especially for economic and sociological studies in the spanish tourist sector, using exploratory data analysis (EDA) of the salary structure in Hospitality. The article is divided into two different parts, first, the instructions and the structure of the data for the correct exploitation of the survey are reviewed. Second, an EDA exercise is carried out in the hospi- tality economic sector where salary and geographical differences are tested, by economic sector, age and sex cohorts. Finally, after the analysis carried out, it is concluded by high- lighting the great analytical possibilities that the survey database can develop, and some confirmatory lines of analysis are offered that help to complement this exploratory intro- duction to the wage gap