Search results for "Building"
showing 10 items of 1985 documents
Riqualificazione e sostenibilità - L’involucro verde come campo privilegiato di sperimentazione tecnologica.
2015
The study of the housing green for the redevelopment of the buildings along with the testing of innovative products for the realization of vertical gardens and the design of guidelines for the construction and environmental transformation of the waterfront of Marina Todaro of Palma di Montechiaro "act as instruments to define the possible prospects to Palma di Montechiaro can apply for green city of the Province of Agrigento, exploring scenarios still little practiced in this context and in the short and medium term can be attributed character priority ". The originality of this research is also experienced in site participatory approach with the participation of the inhabitants, considered…
Are subjective outcomes a “missing link” between driving stress and risky driving behaviors of commuters? Assessing the case of a LMIC
2023
Despite the efforts made by different stakeholders, most of Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) continue to systematically report very negative road safety outcomes. In fact, in countries like Colombia, the rate of deaths from traffic crashes has increased in recent years. One of the most affected collectives in this regard -and at the same time one of the least addressed in specialized literature- are driving commuters, which are commonly exposed to several types of threats and stressors configuring an “everyday risk” potentially impairing their health and safety. This study aimed to assess whether there exists an indirect path -mediated by subjective outcomes- linking driving stress a…
Rocking behaviour of multi-block columns subjected to pulse-typeground motion accelerations
2016
Ancient columns, made with a variety of materials such as marble, granite, stone or masonry are an important part of theEuropean cultural heritage. In particular columns of ancient temples in Greece and Sicily which support only the architrave arecharacterized by small axial load values. This feature together with the slenderness typical of these structural members clearlyhighlights as the evaluation of the rocking behaviour is a key aspect of their safety assessment and maintenance. It has to be notedthat the rocking response of rectangular cross-sectional columns modelled as monolithic rigid elements, has been widely investigatedsince the first theoretical study carried out by Housner (19…
Improving the Downwind Sail Design Process by Means of a Novel FSI Approach
2021
The process of designing a sail can be a challenging task because of the difficulties in predicting the real aerodynamic performance. This is especially true in the case of downwind sails, where the evaluation of the real shapes and aerodynamic forces can be very complex because of turbulent and detached flows and the high-deformable behavior of structures. Of course, numerical methods are very useful and reliable tools to investigate sail performances, and their use, also as a result of the exponential growth of computational resources at a very low cost, is spreading more and more, even in not highly competitive fields. This paper presents a new methodology to support sail designers in ev…
Multi-Energy School System for Seasonal Use in the Mediterranean Area
2020
School buildings represent an energy-consuming sector of real estate where different efficiency actions are necessary. The literature shows how the design of a multi-energy system offers numerous advantages, however, there are problems related to the integration of cogeneration units with renewable energy sources due to the low flexibility of the first one and the high degree of uncertainty of the latter. The authors provide an alternative solution through the analysis of a case study consisting of a multiple energy system in three Sicilian schools, focusing on the system&rsquo
School Staff-centered School Development by Communicative Action: Working Methods for Creating Collective Responsibility - From the Idea to Action
2020
School development is often seen as a concerted (re-)action to educational policies, curriculum development, and change in education laws or regulations, and sometimes, as stakeholders’ reactions to low school performance. Generally, school development incorporates organizational, managerial, and educational activities and measures. This is done to adapt to the new situation to achieve the desired changes and goals initiated by a given curriculum reform. In contrast, this paper focuses on school staff–driven development: It describes how teachers together with paraprofessionals contribute to school-development. Using collective responsibility creating working methods of communication, the e…
Geological and cultural heritage: Dissemination experiences in Tuscany
2019
We report on some recent experiences of scientific dissemination activities on geomaterials carried out by a network of scientific organizations in Tuscany (Italy). The primary message we want to disseminate is that even the most "insignificant" rock (e.g., those constituting the bar or kitchen counter-tops) stores in their interior very useful information beyond the beautiful colors and their aesthetic appearance. These rocks can tell stories of very old geological periods on how they were formed. Their structures, texture and shape, as well as their chemistry and mineralogy provide clues to the reconstruction of geological events. Moreover, the rocks used in urban architecture and monumen…
Innovative In Situ and Ex Situ Conservation Strategies of the Madonie Fir Abies nebrodensis
2022
Abies nebrodensis (Lojac.) Mattei is an endemic species of the north-west of Sicily located in an 84 ha area in the Madonie Regional park. The current population is limited to 30 relic adult trees and a fluctuating number of juveniles of natural regeneration. The species is defined as “Critically Endangered” in the Italian list of threatened plants and is classified as CR-D in the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This article reports the key action undertaken by the LIFE4FIR project aimed at preserving A. nebrodensis, and the results obtained so far in three years of activity. OpenArrays SNPs genotyping revealed a high rate of inbreeding in the natural population and that the adult…
First Evidence of Contourite Drifts in the North-Western Sicilian Active Continental Margin (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea)
2021
We present the results of an integrated geomorphological and seismo-stratigraphic study based on high resolution marine data acquired in the north-western Sicilian continental margin. We document for the first time five contourite drifts (marked as EM1a, EM2b, EM2, EM3a, and EM3b), located in the continental slope at depths between ca. 400 and 1500 m. EM1a,b have been interpreted as elongated mounded drifts. EM1a,b are ca. 3 km long, 1.3 km wide, and have a maximum thickness of 36 m in their center that thins northwards, while EM1b is smaller with a thickness up to 24 m. They are internally characterized by mounded seismic packages dominated by continuous and parallel reflectors. EM2 is loc…
Performance Improvement of Grid-Integrated Doubly Fed Induction Generator under Asymmetrical and Symmetrical Faults
2023
The doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind energy conversion system (WECS) suffers from voltage and frequency fluctuations due to the stochastic nature of wind speed as well as nonlinear loads. Moreover, the high penetration of wind energy into the power grid is a challenge for its smooth operation. Hence, symmetrical faults are most intense, inflicting the stator winding to low voltage, disturbing the low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) functionality of a DFIG. The vector control strategy with proportional–integral (PI) controllers was used to control rotor-side converter (RSC) and grid-side converter (GSC) parameters. During a symmetrical fault, however, a series grid-side converter…