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Open image in new window On October 24th 2015, following a period of heavy rainfall, a landslide triggered in the Calatabiano Municipality (Sicily Island, Southern Italy) causing the rupture of a water pipeline transect of the aqueduct supplying water to the city of Messina. This event, caused critical water shortages for several days to a large part of the city inhabitants. In order to restore the city water supplies, a provisional by-pass, consisting of three 350 m long pipes passing through the landslide area, was carried out. On November 11th 2015, a landslide monitoring system was installed, based on the combined use of advanced remote sensing techniques such as Ground-Based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-InSAR), Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and Infrared Thermography (IRT). The installed monitoring system allowed to: (i) analyze the landslide geomorphological and kinematic features in order to assess the landslide residual risk; (ii) support the early warning procedures needed to ensure the safety of the personnel involved in the by-pass realization and the landslide stabilization works. In this work, the preliminary results of the monitoring activities and a 3-D mapping of the landslide area are presented.

In this paper, the potential of Infrared Thermography (IRT) as a novel operational tool for landslide surveying, mapping and characterization was tested and demonstrated in different case studies, by analyzing various types of instability processes (rock slide/fall, roto-translational slide-flow). In particular, IRT was applied, both from terrestrial and airborne platforms, in an integrated methodology with other geomatcs methods, such as terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and global positioning systems (GPS), for the detection and mapping of landslides’ potentially hazardous structural and morphological features (structural discontinuities and open fractures, scarps, seepage and moisture zones, landslide drainage network and ponds). Depending on the study areas’ hazard context, the collected remotely sensed data were validated through field inspections, with the purpose of studying and verifying the causes of mass movements. The challenge of this work is to go beyond the current state of the art of IRT in landslide studies, with the aim of improving and extending the investigative capacity of the analyzed technique, in the framework of a growing demand for effective Civil Protection procedures in landslide geo-hydrological disaster managing activities. The proposed methodology proved to be an effective tool for landslide analysis, especially in the field of emergency management, when it is often necessary to gather all the required information in dangerous environments as fast as possible, to be used for the planning of mitigation measures and the evaluation of hazardous scenarios. Advantages and limitations of the proposed method in the field of the explored applications were evaluated, as well as general operative recommendations and future perspectives.

members of the third generation of a late-onset Pompe disease family which counts 36 individuals. Clinical, laboratory, and GAA enzymatic and genetic studies disclosed widespread myalgias and low back pain as well as mild weakness of the pelvic girdle muscles in 5 individuals (3 females, 2 males; aged 24–30 years), 3 of whom had a slight increase in CPK. Symptom onset was during the second decade of life. GAA enzyme activity ranged from 2 to 4 μmol/h/L in all patients. Direct sequencing of the GAA gene carrying the mutations, previously identifi ed in their parents, disclosed the R40X mutation in the 5 symptomatic individuals, whereas the splicing Symptomatic Heterozygosity due to Defi nite GAA Mutations in Late-Onset Pompe Disease

Numerous artefacts from Antonio Stradivari’s workshop are currently preserved in the “Museo del Violino” (Museum of the Violin) in Cremona, Italy. A large number of them are paper models containing instructions and technical notes by the great violin maker. After his death, this collection has had several owners, while new annotations added to the original ones, sometimes imitating Stradivari’s handwriting, caused problems of authenticity. The attribution of these relics is a complex task and, until now, only a small part of them has been examined by palaeographers. This paper introduces a multi-analytical approach able to facilitate the study of handwriting in manuscripts with the combined use of image processing and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy: the former provides a fast and automatic screening of documents; the latter allows to analyse the chemical composition of inks. For our tests, 17 paper relics, dated between 1684 and 1729, were chosen. Palaeographic analysis was used as reference. The results obtained showed the validity of the combined approach proposed herein: the two techniques proved to be complementary and useful to clarify the attribution of different pieces of handwriting.

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are innovative systems able to confer to either new or existing structures a significant capacity to resist earthquake and wind loads. Many tests have shown that these devices may exhibit high strength, initial stiffness and ductility, as well as an excellent ability to dissipate energy. When full SPSWs are used as bracing devices of buildings, they may induce excessive stresses in the surrounding main structure where they are inserted, so to require the adoption of large cross section profiles. For this reason, perforated steel panels, which are weakened by holes aiming at limiting the actions transmitted to the surrounding frame members, represent a valid alternative to full panels. In this work, aiming at showing the advantages of such devices, a FEM model of perforated panels has been calibrated on the basis of recent experimental tests. Subsequently, a parametric FEM analysis on different series of perforated panels, by changing the number and diameter of the holes, the plate thickness and the metal material, has been carried out. Finally, the achieved numerical results have been used to set up design charts to correctly estimate the strength and stiffness of perforated metal shear panels.

Traditional surveying methods are often not sufficient to achieve a complete geomechanical characterization of the rock mass, to analyze the instability mechanisms threatening the cultural heritage of hilltop historic towns. In Pitigliano (Tuscany, Central Italy), terrestrial laser scanning was employed complementarily to conventional geomechanical techniques. The overall 3D survey of the exposed surfaces was combined with scanlines of the inner walls of the subterranean cavities running underneath the historic centre. The rock mass discontinuities geometry was extracted, and the most critical instability mechanisms were mapped, with particular interest in the potential impacts on the ancient buildings located along the cliff edge. The geomechanical analysis of the surveyed joint sets confirmed a structural control on the cliff morphology by two main joint sets. Thanks to the laser scanner-based kinematic analysis, flexural toppling and wedge failure were found as the main hazardous instability mechanisms in Pitigliano. Finally, the conservation criticalities were identified and a pilot monitoring system was installed in a sector highly susceptible to block detachment.

Late onset Pompe disease (LOPD) is characterized by significant motor disabilities, which affect in particular ambulation. Only one study reports on spatial-temporal parameters of gait assessed in a clinical heterogeneous group of unrelated patients. In this study spatiotemporal and kinematic gait patterns are described in a genetically homogenous group of LOPD patients using 3d movement analysis. 7 LOPD siblings, harbouring the same GAA mutations compound, were assessed with clinical scales and with 3d movement analysis to measure spatial-temporal and kinematic parameters during gait cycle and “sit to stand test”. Relevant abnormalities were observed either in spatial-temporal and kinematic parameters. The former consisted in a trend towards a decreased velocity and cadence, a prolonged time in double limb support, shorter step and stride length, and a widening of base of support; the latter in an increased anterior pelvic-tilt and posterior trunk-tilt during the whole gait cycle, a decreased pelvic obliquity, active hip extension and ankle dorsiflexion. This study shows, in homogenous group of LOPD patients, either spatial-temporal and kinematic deviations that may improve understanding of the musculoskeletal alterations, the evolution of disease and the answer to the enzyme replacement therapy.

In the last years, several museums and exhibits have adopted new kinds of interactive installations that present artworks in more attractive ways, especially for young visitors. At the same time, new communication technologies have been introduced to allow vision and motion impaired people to visit arts centers. In this work, we present the multi-sensory solutions we have implemented for the "Battle of Pavia" Exhibition, a collateral event of Milan Expo 2015. The installation combined different interaction methods to achieve two main goals: providing visitors with engaging experiences and allowing blind and partially sighted people to appreciate the exposed artworks. The used technologies include gesture communication, gaze-based interaction, 3D character reconstruction, virtual avatars, and 3D tactile images. This work can be also viewed in the context of digital humanities for cultural heritage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first exhibit to gather such a high number of interactive technologies in a single installation. The positive response from visitors is a great spur to continue our research in this direction.

Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSWs) are innovative systems able to confer to either new or existing structures a significant capacity to resist earthquake and wind loads. Many tests have shown that these devices may exhibit high strength, initial stiffness and ductility, as well as an excellent ability to dissipate energy. When full SPSWs are used as bracing devices of buildings, they may induce excessive stresses in the surrounding main structure where they are inserted, so to require the adoption of large cross-section profiles. For this reason, perforated steel panels, which are weakened by holes aiming at limiting the actions transmitted to the surrounding frame members, represent a valid alternative to full panels. In this work, aiming at showing the advantages of such devices, a FEM model of perforated panels has been calibrated on the basis of recent experimental tests. Subsequently, a parametric FEM analysis on different series of perforated panels, by changing the number and diameter of the holes, the plate thickness and the metal material, has been carried-out. Finally, the achieved numerical results have been used to set up an analytical tool to correctly estimate the strength and stiffness of perforated metal shear panels.

New generation multimedia may have a great impact on exhibition visit experience. This contribution focuses on the innovative use of interactive digital technologies in cultural heritage practices. “Live” displays steered by visitors support the creation of various content formats, smartly adapt the content delivered to the visitor, stimulate self-motivated learning, and lead to a memorable and effective experience. Multimodal interaction modalities have been developed for the exhibition “1525–2015. Pavia, the Battle, the Future. Nothing was the same again”, a satellite event of the Universal Exhibition in Milan (Expo 2015). The Computer Vision & Multimedia Lab of the University of Pavia, in cooperation with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, in the framework of the European project “Advanced Computing for Innovation”, has contributed to set up the exhibition, enriching an educational and experiential room with products and targeted applications. Visitors can observe and analyze seven ancient tapestries, illustrating different phases of the battle, through 3D reconstructions, virtual simulations, eye interaction and gesture navigation, along with transpositions of the tapestries into tactile images that enable the exploration by partially sighted and blind people. In the near future, we may assess the impact of this interactive experience. Due to the novelty of the approach, new insights can be potentially derived about the effectiveness and manageability of each specific system component. Under this scope, not only the exhibition success is important, but also the augmented learning experience in cultural heritage contexts.

The selection of representative areas to be analyzed is a common problem in the study of Cultural Heritage items. UV fluorescence photography is an extensively used technique to highlight specific surface features which cannot be observed in visible light (e.g. restored parts or treated with different materials), and it proves to be very effective in the study of historical musical instruments. In this work we propose a new semi-automatic solution for selecting areas with the same perceived color (a simple clue of similar materials) on UV photos, using a specifically designed interactive tool. The proposed method works in two steps: (i) users select a small rectangular area of the image; (ii) program automatically highlights all the areas that have the same color of the selected input. The identification is made by the analysis of the image in HSV color model, the most similar to the human perception. The achievable result is more accurate than a manual selection, because it can detect also points that users do not recognize as similar due to perception illusion. The application has been developed following the rules of usability, and Human Computer Interface has been improved after a series of tests performed by expert and non-expert users. All the experiments were performed on UV imagery of the Stradivari violins collection stored by "Museo del Violino" in Cremona.

We report the clinical, neuro-imaging, pathological and biochemical features of an Italian family in which two siblings have the Adult Polyglucosan Body Disease (APBD). APBD is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by a gradually progressive involvement of both the central and peripheral nervous systems caused by the deficiency of the glycogen branching enzyme (GBE1). The two affected siblings, a 64-year-old man and his 67-year-old sister who had complained of urinary urgency and sporadic incontinence and also progressive gait difficulty for 6 and 7 years respectively, had severely impaired deep sensations on direct examination and a moderately severe symmetrical, axonal sensory-motor neuropathy on electrophysiological testing. GBE1 activity was below 25% of the normal rate in leukocytes and sural nerves. The siblings were homozygous for the novel GBE1 mutation p.N541D. All other members of the pedigree are heterozygous and manifest no symptoms, even in the very elderly. The affected siblings showed polyglucosan bodies (PBs) included within non-myelinating Schwann cells and within lymphocyte vesicles, which were positive for the autophagy markers P62 and LC3-II at immunofluorescence microscopy.

Measuring historical violins provides crucial information about the morphology of the instruments, useful both for researchers and violin makers. Generally, these measures are taken manually using a calliper, but they can be repeated only occasionally due to both the restricted access to these precious instruments and the need of avoiding accidental damages to the wood or to the varnishes. In this work, we describe and assess the accuracy of a protocol for the acquisition and creation of high quality 3D models of violins, suitable for taking accurate measurements. Six historical violins of 17th – 18th centuries, kept in “Museo del Violino” in Cremona (Italy), were used as test set. The quality of the final outcomes was checked comparing measures taken on the 3D meshes with the correspondent ones taken by calliper on the original instruments. Finally, a comparison between the sound board of the instruments were performed.

The steam turbine stage efficiency is significantly affected by clearance losses due to leakage flow re-entering the main flowpath. The impact, in terms of delta of efficiency Δη, is usually assessed by assuming the proportionality Δη = K × (mLeak/mMain), being mLeak/mMain the fraction of the leakage flow relative to the main mass flow rate and K the constant evaluated by experimental and numerical evidence. Several studies are present in the literature concerning low aspect ratio blades, where this constant K is found to be equal to 1, or even higher for very low percentage leakage massflow. The main purpose of the current work consists of assessing this factor in the case of steam turbine reaction blades of the HP sector, characterized by a high aspect ratio. A numerical analysis has been set up where the detailed 3D geometry of two HP stages has been modeled and simulated by a 3D-CFD approach. Then a sensitivity analysis has been carried out by varying the leakage flows coming from stator and rotor labyrinth seals, realized by changing the radial gap of the clearance. This analysis has been repeated for several working points in order to obtain the leakage impact in the whole operating range of the reaction stages. The K factor comes out to be close to 0.8 at design point, whilst it increases up to 1 for highly loaded off-design condition.

We present a method for compressing binary images via monochromatic pattern substitution. Such method has no relevant loss of compression effectiveness if the image is partitioned into up to a thousand blocks, approximately, and each block is compressed independently. Therefore, it can be implemented on a distributed system with no interprocessor communication. In the theoretical context of unbounded parallelism, interprocessor communication is needed. Compression effectiveness has a bell-shaped behaviour which is again competitive with the sequential performance when the highest degree of parallelism is reached. Finally, the method has a speed-up if applied sequentially to an image partitioned into up to 256 blocks. It follows that such speed-up can be applied to a parallel implementation on a small scale system.

Increased computational capabilities make available for the aero/thermal designers new powerful tools to include more geometrical details, improving the accuracy of the simulations and reducing design costs and time. In the present work, a low-pressure turbine was analyzed, modeling the rotor-stator including the wheel space region. Attention was focused on the interaction between the coolant and the main flow in order to obtain a more detailed understanding of the behavior of the angel wings, to evaluate the wall heat flux distribution, and to prevent hot gas ingestion. Issues of component reliability related to thermal stress require accurate modeling of the turbulence and unsteadiness of the flow field. To satisfy this accuracy requirement, a full 3D URANS simulation was carried out. A reduced count ratio technique was applied in order to decrease numerical simulation costs. The study was carried out to investigate a new two-stage low-pressure turbine from GE Infrastructure Oil & Gas to be coupled to a new aeroderivative gas generator (the LM2500+G4) developed by GE Infrastructure, Aviation.

In this paper the problem of the detection of milepost signs, a specific type of road sign showing distances, placed on Italian highway has been faced. First step concerns the robust identification of rectangular sign by optical flow analysis. Second step concerns rectangular sign detection based on searching grey level discontinuity on image and Hough transform. Classification is based on analysis of surface color on inner part, detection of shape and color of rectangular border around the sign, characters analysis. Our approach can detect sign candidates in presence of complex background.

Increased computational capabilities make available for the aero/thermal designers new powerful tools to include more geometrical details, improving the accuracy of the simulations, and reducing design costs and time. In the present work, a low-pressure turbine was analyzed, modeling the rotor-stator including the wheel space region. Attention was focused on the interaction between the coolant and the main flow in order to obtain a more detailed understanding of the behavior of the angel wings, to evaluate the wall heat flux distribution, and to prevent hot gas ingestion. Issues of component reliability related to thermal stress require accurate modeling of the turbulence and unsteadiness of the flow field. To satisfy this accuracy requirement, a full 3D URANS simulation was carried out. A reduced count ratio technique was applied in order to decrease numerical simulation costs. The study was carried out to investigate a new two-stage Low Pressure Turbine from GE Infrastructure Oil&Gas to be coupled to a new aeroderivative gas generator, the LM2500+G4, developed by GE Infrastructure, Aviation.

Multiresolution representations have been proposed for object recognition since they provide the framework for emulating the focus of attention strategy typical of biological systems. The authors consider the problem of matching two-dimensional objects described by multiresolution representations. Each object is modeled as a tree, in which notes correspond to boundary segments and arcs connect nodes at successive levels of resolution. The children of a given node describe the structural change occurred to a given segment between consecutive resolution levels. A two-dimensional object O can be recognized as an instance of M, possibly rotated and translated, if the corresponding tree T/sub O/ can be mapped into the tree T/sub M/ by cyclically rotating the children of the root. The authors describe two algorithms for matching two-dimensional objects represented by labelled trees. The first algorithm is for exact matching and determines whether one tree can be mapped into the other by cyclically rotating the children of the root. The algorithm uses a top-down strategy and takes time linear in the number of nodes of the trees. The authors then outline an exact tree matching algorithm that finds the best correspondence between nodes at all levels of the two trees according to a given figure of merit and satisfies certain constraints.

In this paper we propose a new page segmentation method for recognizing text and graphics based on a multiresolution representation of the page image. Our approach is based on the analysis of a set of feature maps available at different resolution levels.

We introduce two different representation approaches and propose two techniques to estimate the position of vanishing points in an image, one bused on a probabilistic strategy and the other focused on a deterministic analysis. Unlike most of the methods so far developed, which exploit the Gaussian sphere, the new techniques operate in the (/spl rho/, /spl theta/) polar parameter space and in the (x, y) image plane coordinate space. Both the solutions are described and compared, through the discussion of the results obtained from their application to real images.

The analysis of scanned documents is important in the construction of digital libraries and paperless offices. One significant challenge is coping with artifacts of photocopying and scanning. We present a series of simple techniques for handling these difficulties. Using 125 images of the University of Washington scanned documents database, we demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods in preparing the images for segmentation by a multiresolution algorithm.

This paper presents a multiresolution approach for progressive image coding at very-low bit rate and transmission via web. A real application concerning a real- time traffic monitoring system for unattended motorway or urban areas is considered. First, semantic information, e.g., alarm generation and vehicle classification provided by a recognition subsystem, is sent to a remote control center; then, binary shape information is transmitted, in order to allow the remote operator to validate the alarm situation. Pictorial information can be also required as a further step by the operator of the control center. The coding scheme allows to use the web as useful transmission channel.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

A computer vision system (CVS), which works in real time, must be capable of rapidly selecting the regions of interest (both in space and time), of re-allocating resources following data resolution changes, and of updating the strategies on the basis of the partial results thus achieved. The most promising proposals for CVSs that directly address these requirements are based on logmap transformations and on multi-resolution computations. In this paper, among these solutions, we will describe three different approaches in which the hardware follows guidelines typical of the focus of attention mechanism in biological systems.

This paper presents a composer's plea for the abandonment of the aesthetics of “musica negativa” and the adoption of a “postmodern”, anti ‐ doctrinaire, communication ‐ oriented idiomatic, technical and aesthetic eclecticism.

On 24 October 2015, following a period of heavy rainfall, a landslide occurred in the Calatabiano Municipality (Sicily Island, Southern Italy), causing the rupture of a water pipeline supplying water to the city of Messina. Following this event, approximately 250,000 inhabitants of the city suffered critical water shortages for several days. Consequently, on 6 November 2015, a state of emergency was declared (O.C.D.P. 295/2015) by the National Italian Department of Civil Protection (DPC). During the emergency management phase, a provisional by-pass, consisting of three 350-m long pipes passing through the landslide area, was constructed to restore water to the city. Furthermore, on 11 November 2015, a landslide remote-sensing monitoring system was installed with the following purposes: (i) analyse the landslide geomorphological and kinematic features in order to assess the residual landslide risk and (ii) support the early warning procedures needed to ensure the safety of the personnel involved in the by-pass construction and the landslide stabilization works. The monitoring system was based on the combined use of Ground-Based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-InSAR) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). In this work, the preliminary results of the monitoring activities and a remote 3D map of the landslide area are presented.

The advantages deriving from a hierarchical imp1ementation of the “Labeled Hough Transform” are pointed out. It offers flexibility? confidence and a reduced computation time. Moreover it furnishes more information? useful when we face the partial occlusion problem. After a description of the technique and its main characteristics, we present some encouraging experimental results obtained with artificial images.