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The integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM), or Historic BIM (HBIM), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has assumed a crucial role not only in the management of smart cities or urban districts, as well as in the construction sector or infrastructures but also in the management, conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage. This integration opens up new opportunities for decision-makers to assess the impact of interventions on heritage sites, evaluate preservation strategies, and facilitate informed decision-making processes. This contribution presents and describes the open-source web platform developed within the Interreg MAIN10ANCE project. The project aims to promote a common methodology for the cooperation and collaboration of the various stakeholders involved in the restoration, management and maintenance activities of built and cultural heritage sites. This objective has been pursued by creating a BIM-GIS database, focused on the definition of planned maintenance activities, whose data has been made available to professionals and management bodies by means of a shared web platform, usable directly in situ on a tablet or portable devices. The paper highlights the key components of the web platform, including the BIM, GIS, and artifact Viewers, the Planner, and the overall Dashboard. The platform's multiscale and multi-source approach makes it extensible to various cultural assets, whether environmental, architectural, or movable. By integrating historical and geometric information and planning maintenance activities, the web platform thus supports public administrations and professionals, amending existing state-of-the-art solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first edition of the SUNRISE (Seashore and UNderwater documentation of aRchaeological herItage palimpSests and Environment) summer school was carried out in Marina di Ragusa in Sicily (Italy) from 3rd to 9th September 2022. It was jointly organized by Politecnico di Torino, IUAV, University of Sassari, FBK, University of Udine and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia with the support of SIFET, ISPRS Student Consortium, private companies (Images, Microgeo, Stonex, Leica and Geomax) and the municipality of Santa Croce Camerina.The five days of summer school were attended by 20 students from Europe, Asia and USA. After the first day of lectures focused on the theoretical basis of surveying, photogrammetry, LiDAR, and SLAM, the field activities took place in a submerged and terrestrial scenario. The underwater surveying involved a submerged amphora, and the terrestrial activity was focused on the Arab bath of Mezzagnone, a 6th-century AD building that has been fully preserved until today. The paper deal with this experience and underline the followed approach. Finally some results achieved by the students are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mobile mapping systems (MMSs) are increasingly used in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector (AEC). Their involvement in the digital transition of our cities and built heritage could be a valuable solution in speeding up the scan-to-BIM processes. In this framework, the course "Knowledge of the built heritage in the era of climate change" of Politecnico di Torino offers an innovative approach for MSc degree students in Building Engineering. In fact, it deals with the whole workflow from the surveying activities (data acquisition and processing), to the BIM modelling up to the final digital twin integrated with e.g. sensors data and management information. This contribution describes the case studies of the multidisciplinary course as an application for this methodology, where not only terrestrial laser scanning or UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have been used, but also MMSs have been tested to understand if they could be a suitable option. This paper aims to show the course experience derived from the collaboration of the geomatics and drawing domains along with students' results and feedback. Moreover, the research underlines the pros and cons of this procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main topic of this work focuses on the semantic, historical and spatial documentation of Minor Historical Centres (MHC) with a focus on (semi-abandoned alpine) hamlets. The key point is the possibility to standardise spatial information in the domain of MHC and their related cultural, architectural, built and landscape heritage. This work analyses the notions of historical centre and ancient area, which took different meanings and evolved over the centuries. MHC are historical part of cities, villages and hamlets (urban, rural, minor or abandoned) with cultural, social and economic values. Thus, MHC need to be preserved, documented and safeguarded. The spatial and semantic documentation is a fundamental tool for increasing their knowledge. In these places, many actors and stakeholders are involved in different activities, and for this reason, they need to share common knowledge and use a unique language. In this regard, spatial ontology is of relevant interest and usability. Ontologies are conceptual structures that formalise specific knowledge and create a unique and standard thesaurus that ensures semantic interoperability. This paper is part of a PhD research targeted at developing an ontology containing helpful information to manage, share and collect data on MHC due to the lack of an interoperable structure to formalise such knowledge. The main aim is to populate and enrich the already developed ontological structure with data of a mountain semi-abandoned hamlet: Pomieri. The methodological workflow is validated, enriching and populating the ontology, adding classes and instances with information and unstructured data of a real data case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the need for new sustainable future alternatives, the re-inhabitation of rural areas, hinterlands, small historical urban centres and villages has become a unique real opportunity. Therefore, it is necessary to define and adopt new sustainable urban planning and building permits to follow this path. These processes involve both various actors and disciplines and a variety of spatial and semantic data. For this reason, the present research aims at providing a methodology to build the necessary spatial documentation of historical centres and villages by adopting an ontology-based workflow. Existing ontologies and conceptualisations have been considered together with classes and rules from city historical core regulations. A case study has been selected considering its available spatial datasets and national data models. The bottom-up approach here adopted aims at validating and enriching a reference ontology previously developed in the domain of historical centre by adding new concepts and relations from selected regulation plans and other existing ontologies and data models. Finally, the obtained ontology is also populated with instances of concepts and relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architectural, built heritage and historical buildings embody cultural heritage value and - as known - they need to be studied, documented, persevered and represented. Although there are many fields involved in these activities, none of these considered individually can fully represent the heritage with a complete level of detail and information. The present work aims to investigate the different levels of detail and granularity among different communities involved in historical buildings tasks to semantically define different concepts. In this context, ontologies are considered as an effective solution for the formal conceptualization of the domains involved, providing a common language for knowledge sharing and reuse. The study starts from existing knowledge (standards, vocabularies, thesauri, classifications) and conceptualisations for regional, urban and architectural heritage and geographic information for various tasks (restoration, documentation and heritage studies, risk prevention, heritage asset and facility management, education and tourism, urban planning and energy refurbishment/performance). A specific use case involving historical buildings in fortified centres across different levels of detail is described to show how existing knowledge and standards conceptualisation need to be integrated and extended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decades, the development of geomatics and geomechanics techniques integration in the environmental field permits to obtain more detailed and accurate results, reducing the survey costs. The aim of the present work was aimed to apply these innovative combined methods and techniques in order to gain a detailed analysis of landslide hazard and on the stability condition of rocky slopes, to get useful information for subsequent design and feasibility planning of Vallone d'Elva road. During two different surveys period, geostructural surveys were carried out in situ (i.e. spatial orientation of discontinuity planes, their spacing and persistence), associated with geomatics surveys using drones (UAV technique – Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and terrestrial photogrammetric technique to get high-resolution images of the rockwalls along the road in areas with complex orography and inaccessible. Their data processing has allowed the generation of different kind of data at different scales, like some 3D dense point clouds with a huge definition, which have been used to generate three-dimensional surfaces models. This procedure has allowed obtaining DSM (Digital Surface Model), DTMs (Digital Terrain Models) and orthophotos with centimetre resolution (mean 4 cm). Moreover, to identify the geomechanical rockmasses features, have been computed a new photogrammetric product on 16 specific rockwall sites along the road: "vertical orthophotos", with details of few mm. Besides, over then twenty detailed DTMs of rockwalls along the entire road have been generated to measure plane orientation, spacing and other geometrical characteristics of outcropping rock masses, which have been statistically collected and analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work describes the different attempts and the consequent results derived from the integration of an HBIM model into an already structured spatial database (DB) and its 3D visualisation in a GIS project.This study is connected to the European ResCult (Increasing Resilience of Cultural Heritage) project where a DB for multiscale analyses was defined. To test the methodology proposed, the case study of Santa Maria dei Miracoli church in Venice was chosen since it represents a complex architectural heritage piece in a risk zone, it has been subject to a vast restoration intervention in the recent past but a digital documentation and model concerning it was missing.The 3D model of the church was structured in Revit as a HBIM, with the association of different kind of information and data related to the architectural elements by means of 'shared parameters' and 'system families'. This procedure allows to reach an even higher Level of Detail (LOD4), but lead to some issues related to the semantic and software interoperability. To solve these problems the existing DB for the resilience of cultural heritage was extended adding a new entity representing the architectural elements designed in the BIM project.The aim of the test is to understand how the data and attributes inserted in the HBIM are converted and handled when dealing with a GIS DB, stepping from the IFC to the CityGML standard, through the FME software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to share information about architectural heritage effectively after a disaster event, in order to foster its preservation, requires the use of a common language between the involved actors and stakeholders. A database able to connect the architectural heritage representation with the data useful for hazard and risk analysis can thus be a powerful instrument. This paper outlines a methodology to represent 3D models of the architectural heritage, according to some existing standards data models, and relate their geometric features to the damage mechanisms that could occur after an earthquake. Among all the existing standard to represent cartographic, cultural heritage and hazard/risk information, respectively INSPIRE, CityGML, UNESCO, CIDOC-CRM, its extension MONDIS and the Getty Institute vocabularies, compliant to the CIDOC-CRM, have been taken into account. An INSPIRE extension has been proposed for increasing the level of detail (LoD) of the representation and improving the description of heritage buildings, adding some macro-elements and elements "feature types" connected with the damage mechanisms, identified in structural studies. The suggested method allows to archive, in a multi-scale database, 3D information with a very high level of detail about architectural heritage and can help structural engineers and conservator-restorers in preventing further damages through individuating useful targeted actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Suicide rates vary across different cultural groups and some immigrant or refugee populations display higher risk for suicide. This study aimed to produce guidelines to help members of the public provide assistance to a person from an immigrant or refugee background who is having suicidal thoughts or displaying suicidal behaviour. Method: The Delphi expert consensus method was used to identify warning signs and first aid actions to include in guidelines. Forty-four professionals and/or advocates with lived experience were asked to rate whether each statement contained in an online questionnaire should be included in the guidelines and to suggest additional statements considered by the respondent to be particularly relevant to a person from an immigrant or refugee background. The Delphi process started with 473 statements and 80 new items were written based on suggestions from panel members. Results: Out of the total 553 statements, 345 were endorsed as appropriate warning signs or helping actions. These statements were used to develop the guidelines. Discussion: The guidelines specific to people from immigrant or refugee backgrounds contain additional items to those included in similar guidelines for English-speaking countries. The guidelines may be used for gatekeeper training for suicide prevention in culturally diverse societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years, the researchers in the field of Geomatics have focused their attention in the experimentation and validation of new methodologies and techniques, stressing especially the potential of low-cost and COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) solutions and sensors. In particular, these tools have been used with purposes of rapid mapping in different contexts (ranging from the construction industry, environmental monitoring, mining activities, etc.). The Built Heritage, due to its intrinsic nature of endangered artefact, can largely benefit from the technological and methodological innovations in this research field. The contribute presented in this paper will highlight these main topics: the rapid mapping of the Built Heritage (in particular the one subjected to different types of risk) using low-cost and COTS solutions. Different sensors and techniques were chosen to be evaluated on a specific test site: the Duomo Vecchio of San Severino Marche (MC - Italy), that was partially affected by the earthquake swarm that hit the area of Central Italy starting from the 24th of August 2016. One of the main aims of this work is to demonstrate how low-cost and COTS sensors can contribute to the documentation of the Built Heritage for its safeguard, for damage assessment in case of disastrous events and operations of restoration and preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an emblematic project where several multi-sensor strategies for spatial data acquisition and management, range based and image based, were combined to create a series of integrated territorial and architectural scale products characterized by a rich multi-content nature. The work presented here was finalized in a test site that is composed by an ensemble of diversified cultural deposits; the objects that were surveyed and modelled range from the landscape with its widespread mining sites, the main tower with its defensive role, the urban configuration of the settlement, the building systems and techniques, a medieval mine. For this reason, the Rocca of San Silvestro represented a perfect test case, due to its complex and multi-stratified character. This archaeological site is a medieval fortified village near the municipality of Campiglia Marittima (LI), Italy. The Rocca is part of an Archaeological Mines Park and is included in the Parchi della Val di Cornia (a system of archaeological parks, natural parks and museums in the south-west of Tuscany). The fundamental role of a deep knowledge about a cultural artefact before the planning of a restoration and valorisation project is globally recognized; the qualitative and quantitative knowledge provided by geomatics techniques is part of this process. The paper will present the different techniques that were used, the products that were obtained and will focus on some mapping and WEB GIS applications and analyses that were performed and considerations that were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Climate change can alter the synchronous accumulation of sugar and other main berry compounds during ripening. The aim of this study was to determine whether post-veraison trimming could delay sugar accumulation and influence the production of anthocyanins and seed tannins in Sangiovese grapes. Methods and Results Shoots were trimmed in 2009, 2010 and 2011 when the berry total soluble solids ( TSS) reached 15-17° Brix, leaving eight nodes on each main shoot. The accumulation of TSS, anthocyanins and seed tannins was measured during ripening, and yield parameters were recorded at harvest. Grapes from trimmed vines contained a lower TSS in 2009 and 2010, but there was no impact on the concentration of anthocyanins and seed tannins. In 2011, leaf area limitation was insufficient to reduce TSS accumulation, because yield constraints were observed and the leaf area/yield ratio was within the optimal range. Conclusions The lower rate of TSS accumulation in berries had no impact on the concentration of anthocyanins and seed tannins, suggesting that this approach could produce grapes with a lower TSS at harvest or delay harvest. In low-vigour vines suffering from water deficit, the post-veraison trimming repeated over the years could reduce yield, which may be responsible for the lack of TSS reduction compared with that of control vines. Significance of the Study Our study provides insight into the relationship between TSS accumulation and the production of anthocyanins and seed tannins in the berry in response to post-veraison leaf area reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in focus group discussions has grown recently, and so has the recognition of them as a valuable method for qualitative data collection. Despite increasing popularity, they are not an easy option, and moderators must find appropriate ways to approach participants to achieve good-quality data. A path to reach this aim is the inclusion in the focus group agenda of some 'exercises' (or activity-oriented questions) that are enjoyable and productive supplements to questions. Exercises provide a different way of gathering information and are beneficial, for instance, for more reflective participants. They can help focus the group's attention on the core study topic and also make subsequent comparative analysis more straightforward. They can also be helpful with young people and to discuss sensitive topics. The author describes and provides suggestions for use and examples of several exercises, illustrating their application in a research project investigating the cultural meaning of youth suicide in university students in Italy, India, and Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uptake of vitamin B12 is essential for many prokaryotes, but in most cases the membrane proteins involved are yet to be identified. We present the biochemical characterization and high-resolution crystal structure of BtuM, a predicted bacterial vitamin B12 uptake system. BtuM binds vitamin B12 in its base-off conformation, with a cysteine residue as axial ligand of the corrin cobalt ion. Spectroscopic analysis indicates that the unusual thiolate coordination allows for decyanation of vitamin B12. Chemical modification of the substrate is a property other characterized vitamin B12-transport proteins do not exhibit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vine basal shoot leaves are known to be the primary nutritional source for fruit set at the onset of bloom. The effectiveness of mechanical removal of this foliage at that date was tested from 2012 to 2014 to control the cropping of high-yielding cv. Sangiovese in a "Toscana rosso" TGI (Typical Geographic Indication) district in Tuscany, where the yield threshold is 16 t/ha. A tractor-mounted leaf remover featuring sideby-side rotary suction and feed rollers was employed along a 50 cm basal area of cropping shoots at the beginning of bloom; control was the usual manual thinning of clusters carried out at véraison in the same vineyard. Mechanical leaf removal eliminated about 30% of leaf area and some shoots and inflorescences, thus reducing cropping potential and even resulting in a physiological effect, as the resulting clusters were composed of lower numbers of berries and were less compact and less susceptible to mould than the control. By harvest, the defoliated vines showed higher leaf area, most likely because leaf removal at the onset of bloom may have triggered compensatory new growth, and their grapes had a higher content of soluble solids than the thinned control. While both treatments kept the yield below the 16 t/ha threshold - leaf removal at an estimated 15.1 t/ha and manual cluster thinning at 15.6 t/ha - mechanical defoliation notably reduced yearly labour input: an estimated 4 h/ha against the 38 h/ha from thinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]