Search results for " Monitoring"
showing 10 items of 3129 documents
Temperature monitoring in archaeological animal bone samples in the Near East arid area, before, during and after excavation
2008
Summary In order to estimate experimentally the intensity and amplitude of thermal shocks during and after excavation, we monitored temperatures of archaeological bones on the field at three Syrian sites of the arid steppe, Qaramel, Dja'de and Aswad. Water cleaning and sun drying appear to be the most damaging steps, with temperature variations of ca. 11,000 °C/h and 84 °C/h, respectively. Ancient DNA (aDNA) bone samples kept between −7 and +12 °C from their extraction to the lab suffered much lower thermal variations (6 °C/h). Estimation of the temperature variations at different depths in the soil suggests that aDNA has suffered negative thermal conditions shortly after burial and again d…
From Historical Silk Fabrics to Their Interactive Virtual Representation and 3D Printing
2020
The documentation, dissemination, and enhancement of Cultural Heritage is of great relevance. To that end, technological tools and interactive solutions (e.g., 3D models) have become increasingly popular. Historical silk fabrics are nearly flat objects, very fragile and with complex internal geometries, related to different weaving techniques and types of yarns. These characteristics make it difficult to properly document them, at the yarn level, with current technologies. In this paper, we bring a new methodology to virtually represent such heritage and produce 3D printouts, also making it highly interactive through the tool Virtual Loom. Our work involves sustainability from different per…
Smart lighting in a historic context: a case study
2017
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address a project for lighting an old town in Italy. Its originality lies in the holistic approach that aims to fulfil several objectives. One is to reduce energy consumption by using efficient lamps and advanced control systems; the second one is to make the network viable and useful for many purposes by integrating ICT devices; the third one is to provide a new identity to the older part of the city by using new technologies and design concepts; while the last one is to ensure street and pedestrian safety according to codes and standards. Design/methodology/approach The plan of the city of Bagheria and the stock of luminaires of the city are analys…
Multi-objective optimization of building life cycle performance. A housing renovation case study in Northern Europe
2020
While the operational energy use of buildings is often regulated in current energy saving policies, their embodied greenhouse gas emissions still have a considerable mitigation potential. The study aims at developing a multi-objective optimization method for design and renovation of buildings incorporating the operational and embodied energy demands, global warming potential, and costs as objective functions. The optimization method was tested on the renovation of an apartment building in Denmark, mainly focusing envelope improvements as roof and exterior wall insulation and windows. Cellulose insulation has been the predominant result, together with fiber cement or aluminum-based cladding …
Influence of the metabolic syndrome on aortic stiffness in never treated hypertensive patients
2004
Summary Background and aim Metabolic syndrome (MS) carries an increased risk for cardiovascular events and there is a growing awareness that large artery stiffening is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Little is known about the relationship of MS with aortic stiffness. The aim of our study was to analyze, in patients with essential hypertension, the influence of MS, defined according to the criteria proposed by the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (NCEP-ATP III), on carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), a measure of aortic stiffness. Methods N…
European society of hypertension position paper on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
2013
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is being used increasingly in both clinical practice and hypertension research. Although there are many guidelines that emphasize the indications for ABPM, there is no comprehensive guideline dealing with all aspects of the technique. It was agreed at a consensus meeting on ABPM in Milan in 2011 that the 34 attendees should prepare a comprehensive position paper on the scientific evidence for ABPM.This position paper considers the historical background, the advantages and limitations of ABPM, the threshold levels for practice, and the cost-effectiveness of the technique. It examines the need for selecting an appropriate device, the accuracy of dev…
Energy-efficient routing control algorithm in large-scale WSN for water environment monitoring with application to Three Gorges Reservoir area
2013
Published version of an article in the journal: The Scientific World Journal. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/802915 Open Access The typical application backgrounds of large-scale WSN (wireless sensor networks) for the water environment monitoring in the Three Gorges Reservoir are large coverage area and wide distribution. To maximally prolong lifetime of large-scale WSN, a new energy-saving routing algorithm has been proposed, using the method of maximum energy-welfare optimization clustering. Firstly, temporary clusters are formed based on two main parameters, the remaining energy of nodes and the distance between a node and the base station. Secondly,…
Structural Health Monitoring Procedure for Composite Structures through the use of Artifcial Neural Networks
2015
In this paper different architectures of Artifcial Neural Networks (ANNs) for structural damage detection are studied. The main objective is to investigate an ANN able to detect and localize damage without any prior knowledge on its characteristics so as to serve as a real-time data processor for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. Two different architectures are studied: the standard feed-forward Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) and the Radial Basis Function (RBF) ANNs. The training data are given, in terms of a Damage Index =D, properly defined using a piezoelectric sensor signal output to obtain suitable information on the damage position and dimensions. The electromechanical respons…
The SESAMO early warning system for rainfall-triggered landslides
2016
The development of Web-based information systems coupled with advanced monitoring systems could prove to be extremely useful in landslide risk management and mitigation. A new frontier in the field of rainfall-triggered landslides (RTLs) lies in the real-time modelling of the relationship between rainfall and slope stability; this requires an intensive monitoring of some key parameters that could be achieved through the use of modern and often low-cost technologies. This work describes an integrated information system for early warning of RTLs that has been deployed and tested, in a prototypal form, for an Italian pilot site. The core of the proposed system is a wireless sensor network coll…
A web-based autonomous weather monitoring system of the town of Palermo and its utilization for temperature nowcasting
2008
Weather data are crucial to correctly design buildings and their heating and cooling systems and to assess their energy performances. In the intensely urbanized towns the effect of climatic parameters is further emphasized by the "urban heat island" phenomenon, known as the increase in the air temperature of urban areas, compared to the conditions measured in the extra-urban areas. The analysis of the heat island needs detailed local climate data which can be collected only by a dedicated weather monitoring system. The Department of Energy and Environmental Researches of the University of Palermo has built up a weather monitoring system that works 24 hours per day and makes data available i…