HYBRID GIS-BIM APPROACH FOR THE TORINO DIGITAL-TWIN: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A FLOOR-LEVEL 3D CITY GEODATABASE

Abstract. The research tries to present a preliminary work into geo-spatial management of public administration assets thanks to interoperability of BIM-GIS models, related to urban scale scenarios. The strategy proposed tries to deepen the management, conversion and integration of databases related to public assets and particularly schools building, and related them into city-related geo-databases. The methodology, based on the real scenario of Torino Municipality and their needs addressed in recent studies in collaboration with FULL – Future Urban Legacy Lab from Politecnico di Torino, take advantage from the availability of two test dataset at different scale, with different potential and bottlenecks. The idea of developing a 3D digital twin of Torino actually stop long before the 3D city modelling only, but rather we have to deal with the integration and harmonization of existing databases. These data collections are often coming from different updating and based on non-homogeneous languages and data models. The data are often in table format and managed by different offices and as many management systems. Moreover, recently public administrations as the one of Torino, have increase availability of BIM models, especially for public assets, which need to be known, archived, and localized in a geographic dimension in order to benefit from the real strategic potential of a spatial-enabled facility management platform as Digital Twin. Combining the use of parametric modeler software (Revit) and visual programming language (Dynamo), the proposed methodology tries to elaborate rules on a set of shared language parameters (characterizing the buildings as attributes in both datasets: ID; address; construction; floors; rooms dimensions, use, floor; height; glass surfaces). This is tested as conversion workflow between the Municipality DB and the BIM model. This solution firstly allows the interaction and query between models, and then it proposes open issues once the enriched BIM model is imported into the geographical dimension of the Torino 3D city model Digital Twin (ArcGIS Pro platform), according to LOD standards, and enriched with semantic components from municipality DB

HBIM MODELLING FOR AN HISTORICAL URBAN CENTRE

Abstract. The research in the geospatial data structuring and formats interoperability direction is the crucial task for creating a 3D Geodatabase at the urban scale. Both geometric and semantic data structuring should be considered, mainly regarding the interoperability of objects and formats generated outside the geographical space. Current reflections on 3D database generation, based on geospatial data, are mostly related to visualisation issues and context-related application. The purposes and scale of representation according to LoDs require some reflections, particularly for the transmission of semantic information.This contribution adopts and develops the integration of some tools to derive object-oriented modelling in the HBIM environment, both at the urban and architectural scale, from point clouds obtained by UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) photogrammetry.One of the paper's objectives is retracing the analysis phases of the point clouds acquired by UAV photogrammetry technique and their suitability for multiscale modelling. Starting from UAV clouds, through the optimisation and segmentation, the proposed workflow tries to trigger the modelling of the objects according to the LODs, comparing the one coming from CityGML and the one in use in the BIM community. The experimentation proposed is focused on the case study of the city of Norcia, which like many other historic centres spread over the territory of central Italy, was deeply damaged by the 2016-17 earthquake

HBIM MODELLING FOR AN HISTORICAL URBAN CENTRE

The research in the geospatial data structuring and formats interoperability direction is the crucial task for creating a 3D Geodatabase at the urban scale. Both geometric and semantic data structuring should be considered, mainly regarding the interoperability of objects and formats generated outside the geographical space. Current reflections on 3D database generation, based on geospatial data, are mostly related to visualisation issues and context-related application. The purposes and scale of representation according to LoDs require some reflections, particularly for the transmission of semantic information. This contribution adopts and develops the integration of some tools to derive object-oriented modelling in the HBIM environment, both at the urban and architectural scale, from point clouds obtained by UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) photogrammetry. One of the paper’s objectives is retracing the analysis phases of the point clouds acquired by UAV photogrammetry technique and their suitability for multiscale modelling. Starting from UAV clouds, through the optimisation and segmentation, the proposed workflow tries to trigger the modelling of the objects according to the LODs, comparing the one coming from CityGML and the one in use in the BIM community. The experimentation proposed is focused on the case study of the city of Norcia, which like many other historic centres spread over the territory of central Italy, was deeply damaged by the 2016-17 earthquake

Statistical properties of thermodynamically predicted RNA secondary structures in viral genomes

By performing a comprehensive study on 1832 segments of 1212 complete genomes of viruses, we show that in viral genomes the hairpin structures of thermodynamically predicted RNA secondary structures are more abundant than expected under a simple random null hypothesis. The detected hairpin structures of RNA secondary structures are present both in coding and in noncoding regions for the four groups of viruses categorized as dsDNA, dsRNA, ssDNA and ssRNA. For all groups hairpin structures of RNA secondary structures are detected more frequently than expected for a random null hypothesis in noncoding rather than in coding regions. However, potential RNA secondary structures are also present in coding regions of dsDNA group. In fact we detect evolutionary conserved RNA secondary structures in conserved coding and noncoding regions of a large set of complete genomes of dsDNA herpesviruses.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

A semi-automated approach to model architectural elements in Scan-to-BIM processes

In the last years, the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) domain has exponentially increased the use of BIM and HBIM models for several applications, such as planning renovation and restoration, building maintenance, cost managing, or structural/energetic retrofit design. However, obtaining detailed as-built BIM models is a demanding and time-consuming process. Especially in historical contexts, many different and complex architectural elements need to be carefully and manually modelled. Meshes or surfaces and NURBS or polylines, derived from 3D reality-based data, are recently used as a reference for the HBIM accurate modelling. This work proposes a comprehensive and novel semi-automated approach to reconstruct architectural elements through the Visual Programming Language (VPL) Dynamo software and a Boundary-Representation method (B-rep), starting from 3D surveying data and point clouds classification. A wide package of scripts provides solutions for modelling complex shapes and transferring the obtained 3D models into BIM Authoring tools for a complete reconstruction phase. The presented procedure, useful for different BIM or HBIM applications, proved to reduce the modelling time significantly

The small GTPase Rab29 is a common regulator of immune synapse assembly and ciliogenesis

Acknowledgements We wish to thank Jorge Galán, Gregory Pazour, Derek Toomre, Giuliano Callaini, Joel Rosenbaum, Alessandra Boletta and Francesco Blasi for generously providing reagents and for productive discussions, and Sonia Grassini for technical assistance. The work was carried out with the financial support of Telethon (GGP11021) and AIRC.Peer reviewedPostprin

UAV PHOTOGRAMMETRY WITH OBLIQUE IMAGES: FIRST ANALYSIS ON DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING

In recent years, many studies revealed the advantages of using airborne oblique images for obtaining improved 3D city models (e.g. including façades and building footprints). Expensive airborne cameras, installed on traditional aerial platforms, usually acquired the data. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possibility of acquire and use oblique images for the 3D reconstruction of a historical building, obtained by UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and traditional COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) digital cameras (more compact and lighter than generally used devices), for the realization of high-level-of-detail architectural survey. The critical issues of the acquisitions from a common UAV (flight planning strategies, ground control points, check points distribution and measurement, etc.) are described. Another important considered aspect was the evaluation of the possibility to use such systems as low cost methods for obtaining complete information from an aerial point of view in case of emergency problems or, as in the present paper, in the cultural heritage application field. The data processing was realized using SfM-based approach for point cloud generation: different dense image-matching algorithms implemented in some commercial and open source software were tested. The achieved results are analysed and the discrepancies from some reference LiDAR data are computed for a final evaluation. The system was tested on the S. Maria Chapel, a part of the Novalesa Abbey (Italy)

Pen shell Pinna nobilis L. (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from different peculiar environments: adaptive mechanisms of osmoregulation and neurotransmission

The pen shell Pinna nobilis (Linnaeus, 1758) is the largest endemic bivalve mollusc of the Mediterranean Sea, listed as an endangered species in the European Union. Because no information is available about the adaptation of pen shells to different habitats, herein the fundamental conditions of adaptation of P. nobilis to peculiar natural environments, such as the Strait of Messina (SM) and the meromictic Faro Lake (FL; Sicily, Italy), were explored by assessing the morphology, mucous production, osmoregulation and neurotransmission of their gills. Although gills of the pen shells from both sites exhibited a regular morphology, a higher presence of acid mucous cells was detected in P. nobilis from FL than SM, as well as higher levels of osmolytes but without interfering the osmoregulatory processes. About the functioning of gills, the cholinergic (i.e. acetylcholine and AChE) neuronal system was unaltered between individuals from the two sites, whereas the GABAergic neurotransmission (i.e. 4-aminobutyrate or GABA) was significantly augmented in gills of P. nobilis from FL than SM. This may be an adaptive response to hypoxic conditions in FL, as supported by the increased hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1α) in gills of pen shells from FL than SM. Noteworthy, this study reports for the first time the presence of the GABA neurotransmitter within the metabolite profile, obtained by application of a protonic Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR)-based metabolomics approach, of a marine bivalve. Therefore, GABA may be suggested as a metabolite biomarker in pen shells. Overall, findings from this study provide new insights on the behavioural and adaptive responses of the pen shell Pinna nobilis settled in different peculiar environments

TOWARDS BUILDING A SEMANTIC FORMALIZATION OF (SMALL) HISTORICAL CENTRES

Historical small urban centres are of increasing interest to different interacting fields such as architectural heritage protection and conservation, urban planning, disaster response, sustainable development and tourism. They are defined at different levels (international, national, regional), by various organizations and standards, incorporate numerous aspects (natural and built environment, infrastructures and open spaces, social, economic, and cultural processes, tangible and intangible heritage) and face various challenges (urbanization, globalization, mass tourism, climate change, etc.). However, their current specification within large-scale geospatial databases is similar to those of urban areas in a broad sense resulting in the loss of many aspects forming this multifaceted concept. The present study considers the available ontologies and data models, coming from various domains and having different granularities and levels of detail, to represent historical small urban centres information. The aim is to define the needs for extension and integration of them in order to develop a multidisciplinary, integrated semantic representation. Relevant conventions and other legislation documents, ontologies and standards for cultural heritage (CIDOC-CRM, CRMgeo, Getty Vocabularies), 3D city models (CityGML), building information models (IFC) and regional landscape plans are analysed to identify concepts, relations, and semantic features that could form a holistic semantic model of historical small urban centres

Prospective Trial of CPAP in Community-Dwelling Adults with Down Syndrome and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Adults with Down syndrome (DS) are predisposed to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), but the effectiveness and acceptability of continuous positive airway pressure treatment (CPAP) in this group has rarely been formally assessed. This study was designed as a pilot randomised, parallel controlled trial for one month, continuing as an uncontrolled cohort study whereby the control group also received the intervention. Symptomatic, community-dwelling DS individuals exhibiting ≥10 apnoeas/hypopneas per hour in bed on a Type 3 home sleep study were invited to participate in this study, with follow-up at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months from baseline. Measurements of sleepiness, behaviour, cognitive function and general health were undertaken; the primary outcome was a change in the pictorial Epworth Sleepiness Scale (pESS) score. Twenty-eight participants (19 male) were enrolled: age 28 ± 9 year; body mass index 31.5 ± 7.9 kg/m2; 39.6 ± 32.2 apnoeas/hypopneas per hour in bed; pESS 11 ± 6/24. The pilot randomised controlled trial at one month demonstrated no change between the groups. At 12 months, participant (p = 0.001) pESS and Disruptive (p 0.0001), Anxiety/Antisocial (p = 0.024), and Depressive (p = 0.008) behaviour scores were reduced compared to baseline. Improvement was noted in verbal (p = 0.001) and nonverbal intelligence scores (p = 0.011). General health scores also improved (p = 0.02). At the end of the trial, 19 participants continued on treatment. Use of CPAP in adults with DS and OSA led to a number of significant, sustained improvements in sleepiness and behavioural/emotional outcomes at 12 months