Ecodesign: Green Solutions for Design of Steel Building Envelopes

In recent years, the impact that man has on the environment has become increasingly evident, and the planet itself is starting to re-bel against this great and uncontrolled exploitation of its resources. The need to seek change by approaching a totally sustainable lifestyle is now obvious. Sustainability has in fact become a major player in today's society, infiltrating every area of it, including construction. In the construction field, man's impact is unfortunately inevitable, but it can be mitigated by developing new sustainable technologies, and it is precisely with these that we have had the opportunity to approach a new vision of architecture, arriving at what is called Ecodesign, a way of designing that respects the environment and the resources offered by Nature. The research was conducted on a new building, under construction, within the university campus of Fisciano, Salerno, designed mainly with a steel construction system

New estimation of the post little ice age relative sea level rise

The study area is located in NW Sardinia Island (Italy), Mediterranean Sea. Sardinia is considered stable since the late Pliocene with a negligible subsidence of about 0.01 mm/y. It is therefore normally used to reconstruct the Pleistocene and Holocene sea level curves. Our research focusses on the sea-facing city of Alghero that from 1353 to 1720 was under the Spanish government. During this time, the city was renovated and new buildings edified. Dimension stones were quarried all around Alghero both in the nearby inland and along the coast. Coastal quarries were considered the most suitable for both rock quality and the easiest way to transport the quarried material by boat. The quarried rocks are late Pleistocene dune and beach sandstones deposited from the 132 ka (Marine Isotopic Stage-MIS5) to about 65 ka (MIS4). Sandstones crop out from few cm to 3 m above the present sea level and underwent several consolidation processes related to loading and marine weathering. This latter favoured dissolution and circulation of calcium carbonate which cemented the rocks. It is reported that the Spanish were looking for these "marine" sandstones for their high geotechnical characteristics. Different rules were adopted through time for the size of the dimension stones and this has allowed us to establish a quarry exploitation chronology. For example, "40 x 60 x 20" cm was the size of the dimension stones used for the Alghero Cathedral dated at 1505-1593. Nowadays most of the coastal Spanish quarry floors are 30 centimetres below mean sea level (tidal range is 30 cm). Accordingly, we infer that relative sea level from 1830 AD (and of the Little Ice Age) rose in about 200 years to the present level at the rate of about 1.4 mm/y. Considering that relative sea level rise during the Medieval warm period was of 0.6 mm/y over a period of about 400 years, we may deduce that human influence was strong enough to lead to a relative sea-level rise faster and in shorter time

Il castello crociato di Qala’at al-Bahr a Sidone. Contributo alla storia degli insediamenti d’Oltremare attraverso l’analisi dei paramenti murarie delle marche lapidarie.

The practice to mark blockstones with etched signs by craftsmen is a well known method they used to highlight their work, in order to be paid (piecerates marks) or to identify the location of the block (position marks). The Glyptography assists the studies above the craftsmen related to their way to be associated. The Saida sea-castle of Qala’at al-Bahr was erected during the Crusade period, by a group of pilgrim builders from France, England and Spain. The structures of the castle are plenty of blockstone marks, most of these are piecerates marks, with recurring signs. This case-study, also considering the particular construction techniques of bugnato style, could be a reference point for the Crusade archaeology. The quality of the great number of marks confirms the thesis above the nature of land occupation by crusaders. It took place by not only monks, soldiers or merchants, but also by groups of builders, which stabilized at least for the last of construction

Dialettica del rudere urbano: storia di un isolato Shikumen a Shanghai

Regeneration and renewal are the contemporary topics for the management activities in historical areas of Shanghai. Introducing a personal experience, the author argues the main projects which have affected the historical compounds in Shanghai during the last twenty years, with particular reference to the Shikumen block (typical housing since the urban expansion in the late XIX century). The building in Shikumen style, characterized by terraced houses with high population density and inhabited by lower working classes until today, behind the name of restoration has been  replaced with low population density building addressed to reach people, as gentrification strategy. The constructions are quite often rebuilt in the same style with a particular mix of invention and anastilosi or new parts in contemporary style

Hepatic tumor diagnosis by analysing dense transport fields in contrast-enhanced ultrasound

International audienceDynamic contrast agent enhanced ultrasound (DCEUS) is considered as a safe, noninvasive, accurate, and economic tool for analysing blood perfusion of various organs [1]. Gas-filled mi-crobubble contrast agents are used as intravascular flow tracers. In this study, a new methodology is proposed to quantify the divergence (i.e sources, sinks), curl (i.e sheering) and amplitude in the apparent microbubble transports during the bolus arrival. The efficiency of proposed methodology is evaluated in-vivo, for the classification of focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) and inflammatory hepatic adenomas (I-HCA)

Hepatic tumor diagnosis by analysing dense transport fields in contrast-enhanced ultrasound

International audienceDynamic contrast agent enhanced ultrasound (DCEUS) is considered as a safe, noninvasive, accurate, and economic tool for analysing blood perfusion of various organs [1]. Gas-filled mi-crobubble contrast agents are used as intravascular flow tracers. In this study, a new methodology is proposed to quantify the divergence (i.e sources, sinks), curl (i.e sheering) and amplitude in the apparent microbubble transports during the bolus arrival. The efficiency of proposed methodology is evaluated in-vivo, for the classification of focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) and inflammatory hepatic adenomas (I-HCA)

Effectiveness of different local actions to control vitamin D prescription in Italy

Introduction. In the last decade, the significant expenditure and consumption increase of vitamin D in Italy led some regions to adopt strategies to improve prescribing appropriateness and contain expenditure. Materials and methods. Using the statistical analysis method of interrupted time series for consumption and expenditure of cholecalciferol, different types of interventions adopted in four Italian regions and their efficacy were evaluated. Results. Molise achieved the best results by adopting a health professionals’ education program in addition to a prescriber-sanction system. Emilia-Romagna also opted for a medical education strategy, but the results were less relevant due to the lack of penalties. Lazio obtained a slowdown in consumption growth by targeting on the utilization of lower-cost per defined daily dose (DDD) packs and adopting a therapeutic plan. Sardinia showed a decrease in expenditure by adopting a target threshold of lower-cost  formulation. Conclusion. The reimbursement of the lowest-cost packs within the National Health Service (NHS) undoubtedly influences spending trend, but it does not solve prescriptive  inappropriateness

ASS1 Overexpression:A Hallmark of Sonic Hedgehog Hepatocellular Adenomas; Recommendations for Clinical Practice

Until recently, 10% of hepatocellular adenomas (HCAs) remained unclassified (UHCA). Among the UHCAs, the sonic hedgehog HCA (shHCA) was defined by focal deletions that fuse the promoter of Inhibin beta E chain with GLI1. Prostaglandin D2 synthase was proposed as immunomarker. In parallel, our previous work using proteomic analysis showed that most UHCAs constitute a homogeneous subtype associated with overexpression of argininosuccinate synthase (ASS1). To clarify the use of ASS1 in the HCA classification and avoid misinterpretations of the immunohistochemical staining, the aims of this work were to study (1) the link between shHCA and ASS1 overexpression and (2) the clinical relevance of ASS1 overexpression for diagnosis. Molecular, proteomic, and immunohistochemical analyses were performed in UHCA cases of the Bordeaux series. The clinico-pathological features, including ASS1 immunohistochemical labeling, were analyzed on a large international series of 67 cases. ASS1 overexpression and the shHCA subgroup were superimposed in 15 cases studied by molecular analysis, establishing ASS1 overexpression as a hallmark of shHCA. Moreover, the ASS1 immunomarker was better than prostaglandin D2 synthase and only found positive in 7 of 22 shHCAs. Of the 67 UHCA cases, 58 (85.3%) overexpressed ASS1, four cases were ASS1 negative, and in five cases ASS1 was noncontributory. Proteomic analysis performed in the case of doubtful interpretation of ASS1 overexpression, especially on biopsies, can be a support to interpret such cases. ASS1 overexpression is a specific hallmark of shHCA known to be at high risk of bleeding. Therefore, ASS1 is an additional tool for HCA classification and clinical diagnosis