An objective assessment to investigate the impact of turning angle on freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease

Freezing of gait (FoG) is often described in subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD) as a sudden inability to continue the forward walking progression. FoG occurs most often during turning, especially at sharp angles. Here, we investigated 180 and 360 degrees turns in two groups: PD subjects reporting FoG (FoG+), and PD subjects without FoG (FoG-). Forty-three subjects (25 FoG+, 18 FoG-) wore an inertial sensor on their back while walking back and forth continuously for 2 min (reversing direction with a 180° turn), and while turning in place for 1 min (alternating 360° turning in opposite directions). Objective measures (turn duration, peak velocity, jerkiness and range of acceleration) were computed during the turns and compared across FoG+ and FoG-groups. Results showed that FoG+ compared to FoG-took significantly a longer time to complete 360° turns than 180° turns. A significant lower turn peak velocity, higher jerkiness and an increased range of medio-lateral acceleration was also found in FoG+. Significant differences between the two groups across the two turning tasks validated the hypothesis that sharper turns might cause higher instability in FoG+ compared to FoG-

Il BOW THRUSTER: funzionamento idrodinamico ed "effetti collaterali".

Bow thruster is a useful aid to vessels maneuver, absolutely necessary on boats of a certain size. But often the bow thruster is placed in an approximate or even improper way, so as to reduce its efficiency and produce adverse effects in terms of increasing the hydrodynamic resistance, vibration, structural, etc.. In this article we analyze the factors and the precautions to be taken into in order to have a proper installation.Il bow thruster ? un utile ausilio alla manovra delle imbarcazioni, assolutamente necessario su barche di una certa stazza. Ma spesso il bow thruster viene collocato in maniera approssimativa o addirittura impropria, tanto da ridurre la sua efficienza e produrre effetti dannosi in termini di aumento della resistenza idrodinamica, di vibrazioni, strutturali, etc. In questo articolo si analizzano i fattori e gli accorgimenti di cui tenere conto per una corretta installazione

La forza non ? tutto

Experiment in a towing tank canoes and kayaks is an activity that is carried out for decades, especially in the imminence of important races like the Olympics. But in recent years, engineers dell\u27Insean, the Italian Federation of canoeing and kayaking, CONI, have tried to go beyond the simple resistance tests of the past, experiments that could give only limited information on canoe insulated from athlete, ignoring a crucial aspect related to the interaction athlete-canoe.Provare in una vasca navale canoe e kayak ? un\u27attivit? che viene svolta da decenni, specie nell\u27imminenza di gare importanti come le Olimpiadi. Ma, in questi ultimi anni, i tecnici dell\u27Insean, la federazione italiana di canoa e kayak, il CONI, hanno cercato di andare oltre i semplici test di resistenza del passato, esperimenti che potevano dare informazioni limitate esclusivamente al mezzo canoa isolato dall\u27atleta che poi lo avrebbe utilizzato, ignorando invece un aspetto fondamentale rappresentato dall\u27interazione atleta-canoa

BOW REVERSE:FASHION OR NEED?

Fashion, design, style, are all part of the fundamental characteristics that make up a yacht, which is neither just a toy or mode of transport nor a sophisticated piece of technology but it actually stands for something: a luxury item, a status symbol. This is how fashion suddenly becomes need, the need to impress an owner. This is where designers, project managers and shipyards, all try to come up with something different, unique, preferably yet to be seen, " different from anything that floats"! As some yacht proposed in recent years characterized by incredible upside down bow which coins the term "bow reverse", is only the more striking aspect of these new shapes and styles: a clean and smooth deck with minimal superstructures, narrow forward sections with slick and lean hull lines, complete the picture.La moda, il design, lo stile, fanno parte per definizione degli elementi fondamentali e caratterizzanti di uno yacht inteso non solo come mezzo di svago e di trasporto, nonch? sofisticato oggetto tecnologico, ma anche per quello che rappresenta: un oggetto di lusso, uno status symbol. Ecco allora che la moda diventa una necessit?, la necessit? di stupire l\u27armatore. Da qui l\u27esigenza da parte di designer, progettisti e cantieri, di proporre sempre qualcosa di diverso, di unico, di mai visto, "differente da qualsiasi altra cosa galleggi"! Come alcuni yacht proposti in questi ultimi anni caratterizzati dalla inconfondibile inclinazione rovesciata della prora, da cui il termine "bow riverse", Ma si tratta solo dell\u27aspetto pi? evidente di queste nuove forme e questo nuovo stile, a cui si uniscono il ponte pulito e liscio con sovrastrutture limitate, le sezioni di prua strette con linee di carena tirate e filanti

Energy Retrofit of a Historic Building Using Simplified Dynamic Energy Modeling

Energy retro-commissioning of historical buildings is an important challenge that implies both historic-artistic and technological aspects concerning the improvement in energy efficiency and comfort. A critical analysis of each possibility is essential in order to preserve the balance between efficiency and architecture. The research focuses on a historical building owned by ANCE (Associazione Nazionale Costruttori Edili), situated in Rome in the Nomentano district. Retrofitting hypothesis were made in order to improve HVAC systems, building's envelope and building's management, always respecting its architectural features. An energy audit has been done in order to evaluate the possibilities. The first step of the study consisted of a measure campaign conducted by Avvenia to know more about the actual use of the building. Next, a dynamic simplified energy modeling of the building has been built using the software Archi Energy. This allowed to preview the effect of modifications on the HVAC and envelope systems. Although starting from an original medium energy performance, simulations showed that it would be possible to reach a further reduction of energy needs by making simple changes in the management/controls domain and, with higher costs, by upgrading envelope components. This study shows that a correct approach can lead to both relevant energetic results and the conservation of architectural characteristics of historical buildings

Towards an overall framework to assess the sustainability of the use of natural resources

Over the years, the sustainable supply of natural resources for the global economy has drawn increasing political interest. The efficient use of resources is a fundamental issue for sustainability assessment, entailing and affecting environmental, economic and social aspects. It is not surprising that they hold a central role in many different sustainability assessment frameworks. In conventional life cycle assessment (LCA), natural resources are considered as one area of protection (AoP). It is well recognized that the typical approach of this AoP starts from the provisioning function of resources, but natural resources however are also dealt with in totally different frameworks. If one starts from an ecological point of view, provisioning services is only one role natural resources fulfill next to regulating, cultural and supporting functions, all captured by the Ecosystems Services framework. The access to certain resources is a further issue of concern for policy. The identification of the so-called Critical Raw Materials for EU took into account their economic importance for specific sectors and supply risk, the latter being focused on concentration of supply from producing countries showing poor governance and low environmental standards, in turn mitigated by substitutability and recyclability of the materials. Further on, there is no doubt that resource exploitation and use may affect several social aspects (e.g. working conditions) as can be identified by the Social Hotspot Database, and that emissions generated along their use in supply chains (from extraction to manufacturing, use and end of life) might affect human health and natural ecosystems, other two areas of protection in conventional LCA. This presentation proposes an integration of the aforementioned frameworks aiming at depicting an overall framework to assess the sustainability of the use of natural resources

Vortex pinning and flux flow microwave studies of coated conductors

Demanding microwave applications in a magnetic field require the material optimization not only in zero-field but, more important, in the in-field flux motion dominated regime. However, the effect of artificial pinning centers (APC) remains unclear at high frequency. Moreover, in coated conductors the evaluation of the high frequency material properties is difficult due to the complicated electromagnetic problem of a thin superconducting film on a buffered metal substrate. In this paper we present an experimental study at 48 GHz of 150-200 nm YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-x}$ coated conductors, with and without APCs, on buffered Ni-5at%W tapes. By properly addressing the electromagnetic problem of the extraction of the superconductor parameters from the measured overall surface impedance $Z$, we are able to extract and to comment on the London penetration depth, the flux flow resistivity and the pinning constant, highlighting the effect of artificial pinning centers in these samples.Comment: 5 pages, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., accepted for publication (2019