I tetradrammi di Leontinoi. Dinamiche produttive e storico-artistiche

Il lavoro rappresenta il primo studio sistematico sulla produzione di tetradrammi da parte di Leontinoi, le cui emissioni, tra le maggiori testimonianze dell’arte incisoria siceliota, si concentrano tra gli anni Settanta e Venti del V secolo a.C. La ricerca affronta la coniazione di centosessantadue serie di tetradrammi, commentate attraverso la ricostruzione delle sequenze dei conii, l’analisi stilistico-formale dei tipi monetali, il confronto con i nominali minori, nonché lo spoglio dei ripostigli noti, offrendo nuovi elementi e considerazioni nell’ambito degli studi di numismatica e arte siceliote.The book contains a completely new systematic study on the tetradrachms struck by Leontinoi in the 5th century BC. Among the greatest testimonies of the Greek art in Sicily, the one hundred and sixty series of tetradrachms collected here are commented on through the recognition of die-sequences, the figurative analysis of coin types, the relationships with minor denominations, and, finally, through an upgraded survey on the most important coin finds of Sicily

Dynamic Facility Condition Index calculation for asset management

Aim of this research is to investigate the possibility of dynamically computing the Facility Condition Index (FCI) using a database of maintenance operations and costs of fabric and services components. This would lead to an instrument able to support decision making during asset and portfolio management because FCI is widely considered a good indicator for monitoring assets and portfolios conditions; so being able to efficiently calculate and update it is fundamental for a proper asset management. There are many ways to benchmark assets condition, but most of them are qualitative and lead to ratings in percentage, that need to be further elaborated to be connected to annual OM&R costs. The FCI can be considered an economic rating, based on money paid for maintenance, repair and replacement performed over the current asset value. The objective is to make an appraisal of the maintenance costs in a dynamic way, so to be able to examine multiple scenarios and make forecasts; the facility value comes from market appraisals with some coefficient applied, if need be. This calculation procedure, together with a maintenance operations and costs database developed by the authors (either forecasted or real costs), can be used by asset managers to support decisions about maintenance and repair actions to be undertaken. This paper shows preliminary results of this research, with the help of a case study. Further correlations should be investigated, even if this calculation procedure leads to an effective management. The calculation procedure and the database organization are an original work of the authors, as well as the case study used to show the results. In addition to this, connections among the indicators provided and BIM (Building Information Modelling) models are analyzed

A Multi-criteria Framework for Decision Process in Retrofit Optioneering through Interactive Data Flow

Aim of this research is to deliver a system of procedures and instruments that allows comparing different scenarios of restoration and retrofit of existing buildings applicable each time a relevant decision about the asset has to be made. The system developed takes advantages of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), thus to focus on main clients’ needs. Decisions about real estate assets are frequently made by managers with incomplete and scattered data, not sufficient to fully support the decision making process. Using a BIM model as a central repository of information could strongly support to compare objectively different scenarios and consequently to decide the application of a multi-criteria matrix involving management, energy, economic and social issues. BIM and BEM (Building Energy Modelling) techniques have a wide potential and analysis capabilities; however, they are often adopted without an integrated framework, causing missing performances and costs overrun. The result is a system enabling to analyze the asset, to produce BIM and BEM models ready to include life cycle data, to evaluate feasible alternatives and scenarios and to extract relevant performance indicators for decision makers’ support. An existing office building in Milan representing an awkward field for intervention is the case study for the system application. While the tools and software adopted are commonly used, the system of procedures developed by the authors can be considered as an ensemble of workflows otherwise typically used independently. Using them together enhance the decision process providing data on which to set up a strategic plan of the refurbishment considering costs, continuity in occupancy and energy efficiency

The maintenance paradox

This research will spot main features of servitization in real estate, placing main emphasis to current and future development of the trend. In manufacturing the servitization process has already been studied since the late 1980’s, whereas in real estate is a phenomenon not yet been clearly defined yet. Despite being a market characterised by low speed innovation, currently some changings in management of the built environment can be noticed: with new business models and financing structures, a shifting from a product-oriented market to a service-oriented one can be spotted. Therefore, through this research will be investigated the servitization process, with regard to maintenance management, no longer conceived as an optional non-core activity, after the transaction of the asset, but as part of the services included in the purchasing of the building and its facilities. Accordingly, the building is conceived more and more as a complex tangible and intangible entity, not only characterised by its production and location value, but also by its capability to offer provide users with a wide array of services to users. Thus, after a phase featured by the willingness to acquire legitimacy in the building process by the maintenance operators, we are witnessing to the maintenance paradox: the servitization of business model in real estate, leading to performing “the maintenance without maintenance”. The paper concludes with some considerations on future developments of the research and trends in the real estate marke

Guías propias de BIM para la gestión de portfolio

BIM is blooming in many Countries but in most of them it is unclear how its adoption can be governed and by whom. The BIM-market is increasing every day, with plenty of training courses and software, but there still is a great lack of guidelines and procedures to take clients (owners and users) through the risky path of BIM adoption. This paper aims to show main results of a case study research carried out by the authors for a public Italian client: development of guidelines, procedures, BIM objects and templates to be used for managing an asset portfolio. The proprietary guidelines developed are meant to solve problems related to e.g. missing and not updated data, loss of subcontractors’ control and inaccurate quantity take-offs. Starting from a clear definition of roles and activities to be done, the research focused on the steps to be taken to write some comprehensive guidelines that deal with new construction, existing buildings and maintenance. The results of the research will guide the public client in his transition from traditional to BIM-based procedures. Examples are provided in this paper aim at exemplifying the use of the proprietary guidelines; the case study presented in this paper is the RAI (Italian public broadcaster) settlement of Bologna, composed by a set of four buildings used for several activities.BIM se está desarrollando en muchos países, pero en su mayoría no es claro cómo y quién debería gestionar su adaptación. El mercado de BIM crece cada día, con un número significativo de cursos de formación y software disponibles, pero aún hace falta definir directrices y procedimientos que permitan orientar a clientes (propietarios e usuarios) a través del complejo proceso de adopción de BIM. Este trabajo pretende mostrar los principales resultados de una investigación realizada por los autores en un caso de estudio para un cliente público italiano que comprende: elaboración de guías, procedimientos, objetos BIM y plantillas para la gestión de una cartera de activos. Las directrices desarrolladas están destinadas a resolver problemas como, por ejemplo, datos faltantes o desactualizados, pérdida de control por parte de los subcontratistas y calculo inexacto de cantidades. Partiendo de una clara definición de los roles y las actividades a realizar, la investigación se concentró en los pasos a seguir para redactar directrices comprensibles dedicadas a construcciones nuevas, edificaciones existentes y al mantenimiento de las mismas. Los resultados de la investigación guiarán al cliente público en su transición desde procedimientos tradicionales a procedimientos basados en BIM. En este documento, se proveen ejemplos con la intención de ejemplificar el uso de directrices específicas, el caso de estudio presentado en este artículo es el asentamiento de la RAI (Emisora pública italiana) en Bologna (Italia), compuesto por el conjunto de cuatro edificaciones utilizados para diferentes propósitos

Smoking, health and ageing

On March 19, 2008 a Symposium on Pathophysiology of Ageing and Age-Related diseases was held in Palermo, Italy. Here, the lecture of V. Nicita-Mauro on Smoking, health and ageing is summarized. Smoking represents an important ageing accelerator, both directly by triggering an inflammatory responses, and indirectly by favoring the occurrence of several diseases where smoking is a recognized risk factor. Hence, non-smokers can delay the appearance of diseases and of ageing process, so attaining longevity

a performance based management system for cost prediction suitable for school building stock

The national existing school heritage is wide and varies significantly (e.g. morphology, age, construction, capacity, etc.) and many initiatives are ongoing to improve its safety, energy and functional situation. In a case study research the Municipality of Seregno has been adopted as sample municipality to analyze data collection and processing procedures with the aim to highlight the critical points and to develop and configure a management system able to bridge them. The research starts from the analysis of the energy performance of the school buildings pointing out the main needs and weaknesses. The following step is the tracking of the management procedures and data organization introduced to define a structure of the information able to support the new management system. Thus, a description and application of KPI helps to provide clear and data driven strategies for the improvement of the management system enabling a cost reduction. Finally, a proposed new energy management system, to be implemented within the Municipality procedures, defines a database, crucial to collect all the information about different properties and the energy audit procedures to gather and analyze the heating costs. The system is tested and discussed and furthermore allows to provide an energy predictive model for energy costs suitable for the Municipality to support a reliable resources plan

Integrated Design and Modelling-based Smart School Concept to Renovate the Existing School Building Sector

The schools lacking energy performance promotes deep buildings refurbishments, considering also LCC evaluation to define the cost-optimality criteria in building renovation. Moreover, available funding programs are not frequently appropriate to deal with energy law compliance because of the safety and accessibility issues are currently leading topics to be accomplished before. The governance indicates the school as the favoured centre of local community improvement and activities and the school building is advocated to encourage social interaction, clusters’ cooperation and space sharing, as a civic centre. These growing needs ask for new methodologies to approach the renovation of the school buildings considering on the one hand the energy demand and on the other hand the management of the spaces flexibility and of the whole asset during the entire life span. The method described here and applied to a case study is based on BIM to BEM procedures; it aims to demonstrate how to define a building database to store all the data able to endorse the management of maintenance strategies and energy developments, together with cost analysis for energy retrofitting

Utilization of Water Resources and Sustainable Crop Production

BIM is representing a shift in the traditional process of building delivery. Its adoption in US reached 71% in 2012 rising from 17% in 2007; moreover, Europe is going to adopt BIM for public contracting as promoted by the European Union Public Procurement Directive. Meanwhile, BIM is widely diffused in UK and Northern Europe, as it includes a more accurate documentation, less rework and shorter project timelines. The use of BIM to provide data for energy performance evaluation and sustainability assessment is defined Green BIM and pioneering design organizations are adopting this approach to enable integrated design, construction and maintenance towards Net Zero Energy buildings. Green BIM includes Building Energy Modelling dealing with project energy performance to identify options optimising building energy efficiency during the life cycle. By allowing revisions during the design phase, project teams can ensure that customers' green ambitions beyond regulation compliance can be realized, together with technical and economic requirements. Thus, BIM can provide information to support the calculation of a number of credit points to define goal levels of sustainability related to rating systems. The aim of the paper is to investigate the opportunity to include the "green dimension" in BIM considering the more diffused rating systems.</p