L'articolo s'interroga sullo spazio del comico in Mimesis, saggio che poggia uno dei suoi assi portanti sul trattamento serio, tragico e problematico del quotidiano. Inserendo Auerbach nel suo orizzonte ideologico e ricostruendo brevemente la sua genealogia intellettuale, l'analisi indaga le ragioni che hanno portato l'autore a considerare il comico come la "forma" che impedisce l'emergere della problematicità realistica. Dopo una discussione su due problemi di fondo (uno semiologico, uno storico-letterario), l'articolo si sofferma sui capitoli di Mimesis in cui Auerbach tratta il comico – capitoli che spesso si rivelano essere i più utili per capire il suo metodo e la sua filosofia della storia.
This is the preprint version of paper SPIE11587-53, presented at the conference "SPIE smart structures + nondestructive evaluation 2021". Link to the publisher's website: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/11587/2581718/A-multi-domain-dynamical-model-for-cone-shaped-dielectric-elastomer/10.1117/12.2581718.short?SSO=1 ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 893674 (DEtune)
AbstractIn 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, containment measures were applied inducing potential changes in air pollutant concentrations and thus in air toxicity. This study evaluates the role of restrictions on biological effects of particulate matter (PM) in different Northwest Italy sites: urban background, urban traffic, rural, and incinerator. Daily PM samples collected in 2020 were pooled according to restrictions: January/February (no restrictions), March and April (first lockdown), May/June and July/August/September (low restrictions), October/November/December (second lockdown). The 2019 samples (pre-pandemic period) were pooled as 2020 for comparison. Pools were extracted with organic solvents and extracts were tested to assess cytotoxicity (WST-1 assay) and genotoxicity (comet assay) on BEAS-2B cells, mutagenicity (Ames test) on TA98 and TA100 Salmonella typhimurium strains, and estrogenic activity (gene reporter assay) on MELN cells. Pollutant concentrations were also analyzed (PM10, PM2.5, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). No difference was observed for PM and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations between 2020 and 2019. During lockdown months (2020), PM cytotoxicity/genotoxicity was significantly lower in some sites than during 2019, while considering PM mutagenicity/estrogenic activity some differences were detected but without statistical significance. PM extract effects decreased in some sites during 2020; this may be due to lockdowns that reduced/modified pollutant emissions and may be related also to complex PM origin/formation and to meteorological conditions. In conclusion, the study confirms that PM biological effects cannot be assessed considering only the PM concentration and suggests to include a battery of bioassay for air quality monitoring in order to protect human health from air pollution effects. Graphical Abstract
Scientific article published (with gold open access option) on the journal Meccanica (Springer). The present file contains the published version (with no further modifications) of the paper. Abstract: Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) are soft electrostatic generators based on low-cost electroactive polymer materials. These devices have attracted the attention of the marine energy community as a promising solution to implement economically viable wave energy converters (WECs). This paper introduces a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation framework for a class of WECs that combines the concept of the oscillating water columns (OWCs) with the DEGs. The proposed HIL system replicates in a laboratory environment the realistic operating conditions of an OWC/DEG plant, while drastically reducing the experimental burden compared to wave tank or sea tests. The HIL simulator is driven by a closed-loop real-time hydrodynamic model that is based on a novel coupling criterion which allows rendering a realistic dynamic response for a diversity of scenarios, including large scale DEG plants, whose dimensions and topologies are largely different from those available in the HIL setup. A case study is also introduced, which simulates the application of DEGs on an OWC plant installed in a mild real sea laboratory test-site. Comparisons with available real sea-test data demonstrated the ability of the HIL setup to effectively replicate a realistic operating scenario. The insights gathered on the promising performance of the analysed OWC/DEG systems pave the way to pursue further sea trials in the future. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 893674 (DEtune)
The amount of Earth observation images available to the public has been the main source of information, helping governments and decision-makers tackling the current world's most pressing global challenge. However, a number of highly skilled and qualified personnel are still needed to fill the gap and help turn these data into intelligence. In addition, the accuracy of this intelligence relies on the quality of these images in times of temporal, spatial, and spectral resolution. For the purpose of contributing to the global effort aiming at monitoring natural and anthropic processes affecting coastal areas, we proposed a framework for image processing to extract the shoreline and the shallow water depth on GeoEye-1 satellite image and orthomosaic image acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on the coast of San Vito Lo Capo, with image preprocessing steps involving orthorectification, atmospheric correction, pan sharpening, and binary imaging for water and non-water pixels analysis. Binary imaging analysis step was followed by automatic instantaneous shoreline extraction on a digital image and satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) mapping on GeoEye-1 water pixels. The extraction of instantaneous shoreline was conducted automatically in ENVI software using a raster to vector (R2V) algorithm, whereas the SDB was computed in ArcGIS software using a log-band ratio method applied on the satellite image and available field data for calibration and vertical referencing. The results obtained from these very high spatial resolution images demonstrated the ability of remote sensing techniques in providing information where techniques using traditional methods present some limitations, especially due to their inability to map hard-to-reach areas and very dynamic near shoreline waters. We noticed that for the period of 5 years, the shoreline of San Vito Lo Capo sand beach migrated about 15 m inland, indicating the high dynamism of this coastal area. The bathymetric information obtained on the GeoEye-1 satellite image ...
Fiber Specklegram Sensors (FSSs) are highly sensitive to external perturbations, however, trying to locate perturbation's position remains as a barely addressed study. In this work, a system able to classify perturbations according to the place they have been caused along a multimode optical fiber has been designed. As proof of concept, a multimode optical fiber has been perturbated in different points, recording the videos of the perturbations in the speckle pattern, processing these videos, training with them a machine learning algorithm, and classifying further perturbations based on the spatial locations they were generated. The results show classifications up to 99% when the system has to categorize among three different locations lowering to 71% when the locations rise to ten. ; This work was supported by the Spanish Government through the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness project TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R (AEI/FEDER, UE).
