Search

International audience

Two tests for woven fabrics with orthogonal fibres are examined using simplified kine-matic assumptions. The aim is to analyse how different constitutive assumptions may affect the response of the specimen. The fibres are considered inextensible, and the kinematics of 2D continua with inextensible chords due to Rivlin is adopted. In addition to two forms of strain energy depending on the shear deformation, also two forms of energy depending on the gradient of shear are examined. It is shown that this energy can account for the bending of the fibres. In addition to the standard Bias Extension Test, a modified test has been examined, in which the head of the specimen is rotated rather than translated. In this case more bending occurs, so that the results of the simulation carried out with the different energy models adopted differ more that what has been found for the BE test.

International audience; We study infinitesimal deformations of a porous linear elastic body saturated with an inviscid fluid and subjected to conservative surface tractions. The gradient of the mass density of the solid phase is also taken as an independent kinematic variable and the corresponding higher-order stresses are considered. Balance laws and constitutive relations for finite deformations are reduced to those for infinitesimal deformations, and expressions for partial surface tractions acting on the solid and the fluid phases are derived. A boundary-value problem for a long hollow porous solid cylinder filled with an ideal fluid is solved, and the stability of the stressed reference configuration with respect to variations in the values of the coefficient coupling deformations of the two phases is investigated. An example of the problem studied is a cylindrical cavity leached out in salt formations for storing hydrocarbons.

Background Mutations in the LMNA (lamin A/C) gene have been associated with neuromuscular and cardiac manifestations, but the clinical implications of these signs are not well understood. Objective To learn more about the natural history of LMNA-related disease. Design Observational study. Setting 13 clinical centers in Italy from 2000 through 2018. Patients 164 carriers of an LMNA mutation. Measurements Detailed cardiologic and neurologic evaluation at study enrollment and for a median of 10 years of follow-up. Results The median age at enrollment was 38 years, and 51% of participants were female. Neuromuscular manifestations preceded cardiac signs by a median of 11 years, but by the end of follow-up, 90% of the patients had electrical heart disease followed by structural heart disease. Overall, 10 patients (6%) died, 14 (9%) received a heart transplant, and 32 (20%) had malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Fifteen patients had gait loss, and 6 had respiratory failure. Atrial fibrillation and second- and third-degree atrioventricular block were observed, respectively, in 56% and 51% of patients with combined cardiac and neuromuscular manifestations and 37% and 33% of those with heart disease only. Limitations Some of the data were collected retrospectively. Neuromuscular manifestations were more frequent in this analysis than in previous studies. Conclusion Many patients with an LMNA mutation have neurologic symptoms by their 30s and develop progressive cardiac manifestations during the next decade. A substantial proportion of these patients will have life-threatening neurologic or cardiologic conditions. Primary funding source None.

Spatial planning in Italy has experienced significant processes of inno- vation in the last 15 years, due to the growing devolution of powers from the national level both in legislative and operational terms. The paper aims to reconstruct the evolution of regional planning in Sicily, a region of the Italian Mezzogiorno which has experienced significant autonomy in the field of urban and regional policy. Through a critical review of the planning experiences carried out by various sectors of the regional administration, the paper discusses some critical question in the relationship between urban planning and sectoral planning and the role of physical planning in address- ing the regional development. In a context in which it is still prevailing a normative and regulatory ap- proach to planning, and without the more strategic and structural tools ex- perienced in other regions, the role of addressing regional development may be described as a puzzle of sectoral and unconnected strategies and policies. The paper argues that the lack of a structural and spatially in- formed vision of the regional territory is one of the reason (but not the on- ly) for the enduring weakness of regional development.

The paper presents an integrated approach to landscape analysis and planning by describing the application of a new assessment method of landscape degradation in the case of Emilia-Romagna Region, in Italy. Landscape degradation is intended as a change in the landscape charac- ter and quality, namely in the configuration of separate, identifiable and consistent set of elements that make each landscape different from another in perceptual and functional terms. The identification of the major degradation phenomena of the regional landscape and their mapping is assumed as a necessary knowledge base for the definition of restoration and rehabilitation of significantly damaged or degraded areas. The joint analysis of land use covers at different dates has provided a first indication of those landscapes that may potentially be more exposed to different types of degradation and it permitted to identify the main causes that have produced the degradation phenomena and a few major reasons, underlying landscape changes. Although the different phenomena have been investigated separately, the results show that they are not mutually in- dependent and they provide an important clues to design future approaches and guidelines for the rehabilitation or regeneration of degraded land- scapes, in compliance with the European Landscape Convention and the New Italian Code of Cultural and Landscape Heritage.

The paper explores potential of a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), named Integrated Spatial Assessment (ISA), in the field of land-use planning, considering boththe technical knowledge of the decision-making problem and the lay knowledge of the local community for the con-struction of shared transformationchoices.Through the empirical investigation in an operative case study, the Avellino-Rocchetta S. Antonio railway line, in the South of Italy, an inte-grated evaluative approach implemented in a SDSS can make us go beyond space and hierarchical limits, taking into account the different multidimen-sional components, making clear the weights and recognizing the different priorities, and finding fit and situated strategies, according to an interactive and dynamic dialogue among expertise and local communities.

The approach that is offered by Living Labs, particularly for their territorial perspective, can represent one of the ways in which to set the transition from the stage of a “free game”, about scenarios and visions, to the definition of the plan social demand, specifically within the framework of a real experience of the citizenship life. In this sense, such an approach may represent the guarantee of an effectiveness of the plan. Despite the limits, which the previous failures represent, we can remark that through the dimension of openness, roles co-presence and competence of those stakeholders that are involved in Living Labs, the participation processes – from the perspective of a planning – does not end but continuously tend to a gradual improvement, both of the quality of the projects and of those cohesion factors, which lead to the constitution of spontaneous partnerships.

The following is a report on a large family with 5 males affected by the X-linked recessive form of Emery–Dreifuss muscular dystrophy with mutation in the STA gene. A detailed longitudinal cardiological evaluation and muscle imaging studies allowed for the assessment of intrafamilial variability of cardiac and muscle involvement. Long term cardiological follow up in the 5 affected males and in 7 female carriers revealed different degrees of severity, ranging from tachycardia–bradycardia syndrome and variable biatrial and left ventricle dilatation, to an episode of isolated symptomatic sustained ventricular tachycardia requiring a device implantation. Muscle imaging in the affected males showed involvement of the soleus and medial head of gastrocnemius on leg muscles and variable involvement on thigh muscles that have not been previously reported. In some cases, imaging showed clear signs of muscle involvement even when no overt signs of weakness could be detected during clinical examination.