The Experts below are selected from a list of 177 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Patrizia Tassinari - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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multidimensional measurement of the level of consistency of Farm Buildings with rural heritage a methodology tested on an italian case study
Sustainability, 2019Co-Authors: Stefano Benni, Elisabetta Maino, Elisabetta Carfagna, Marco Bovo, Daniele Torreggiani, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:The industrialization after World War II marked a severe discontinuity between rural heritage and contemporary Farm Buildings. Rural landscapes have thus become more and more uniform; historical Buildings are often abandoned and degraded, while contemporary Buildings are often disconnected from their surrounding environment. Besides aiming to protect and restore rural heritage—more and more acknowledged as a common good contributing to societal identity—attention should be paid to increasing the quality of new Buildings, a crucial issue to improve landscape quality in everyday landscape contexts. Based on a series of previous studies carried out to develop and test a robust methodology allowing the analysis of the main formal features of rural Buildings, organized in a comprehensive framework known as the FarmBuiLD model (Farm Building Landscape Design), this study aims to perform an integrated and compared analysis of sets of traditional and contemporary rural Buildings through experimental trials on an Italian case study. In particular, the study focuses on defining and measuring indexes allowing the quantification of the level of consistency of contemporary Buildings with the traditional typologies. A contemporary Farm Building is evaluated based on the distance of each of its formal features from those which proved to be representative of the corresponding traditional Building type, evaluated through a cluster analysis of the typological characters of traditional Buildings in the study area. The results showed that different degrees of dissonance can be detected. Similarities have been found, in particular with respect to the shape of Buildings and their closure with regards to landscape. The major dissonances are related to the perception of Buildings as flattened on the ground, due to their excessively elongated shape, and in the case of Buildings completely permeable to landscape, this being necessary for structural purposes and for the type of use of historic Buildings. The expected impact of this study is to provide designers and planners with indicators allowing the evaluation, on an objective basis, of the level of consistency of new Buildings with local rural heritage, thus supporting both design phases and project evaluation as well as Building management processes (maintenance, restoration, extension, change in use, etc.).
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ICT monitoring and mathematical modelling of dairy cows performances in hot climate conditions: a study case in Po valley (Italy)
2018Co-Authors: Filippo Bonora, Patrizia Tassinari, Stefano Benni, Matti Pastell, Daniele TorreggianiAbstract:Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) measure and record specific data about milk production and cow behaviour, providing Farmers with useful real-time information for each animal. At the same time, indoor climatic conditions in terms of temperature and humidity within a dairy livestock barn represent a well-known crucial issue in Farm Building design and management, since these parameters can remarkably influence cows behaviour, milk yield and animal welfare. The goal of the study is to develop and test an innovative procedure for the comprehensive analysis of AMS-generated multi-variable time-series, with a focus on the analysis of the relationship between milk production and indoor climatic conditions. The specific purpose of the study is to develop and test a mathematical computer procedure using AMS-generated data and environmental parameters, designed to provide a forecasting model based on the integration of milking data and temperature and humidity levels surveyed from local sensor grids, designed to model milk production scenarios and, specifically, yield trends depending on the expected environmental conditions. For this purpose, a typical Italian Farm with AMS has been adopted as a study case and internal climatic data of the barn have been analysed to understand the influence of high values of the Temperature Humidity Index (THI) on milk production in time. Then the correlation between yield variations and THI has been computed and characterized. Finally, external climatic data have been used to forecast the milk production in summertime. Once the model was validated, tests has led to predict milk yield with a relative error smaller than 2%. This study represents a step of a research aimed to define integrated systems for cow monitoring and to develop guidelines for the optimization of barn layouts
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a quantitative physiognomic analysis of contemporary Farm Buildings to improve awareness in rural planning
Transactions of the ASABE, 2016Co-Authors: Elisabetta Maino, Stefano Benni, Alberto Barbaresi, Daniele Torreggiani, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:. Ordinary citizens and stakeholders are gaining increasing awareness of rural landscapes as a common good, where architectural quality is an integral part of the environment. While historic rural Buildings represent an acknowledged landscape value, this does not apply to contemporary Buildings, which up to now have been considered service architecture to support the production of material goods. This study developed a method for analyzing the formal characteristics of contemporary Farm Building that adds quantitative aspects to the qualitative descriptions with the application of analytical tools. In particular, this work presents a validation and implementation of the methodological model FarmBuiLD (Farm Building Landscape Design) through application to contemporary rural Buildings (constructed after World War II) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, as well as a study of the relationships between the formal features and functional requirements of contemporary rural architecture. The results show how the contemporary rural architecture is diversified in terms of shape, relationship with the surrounding landscape, and articulation or compactness. Physiognomic clusters were defined on the basis of joint interpretation of the results. They allowed definition of the correspondences between physiognomic characteristics and specific functional requirements expressed by users of the rural landscape. This research also shows how the application of analytical tools can increase knowledge of contemporary Farm Buildings.
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landscape quality of Farm Buildings the evolution of the design approach in italy
Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2012Co-Authors: Daniele Torreggiani, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:Abstract Rural Buildings have undergone deep changes with the historical transition from traditional agriculture to industrial society. This paper discusses these trends in Italy, focusing on major changes in agriculture, design approach, and land-use planning, referring to some regional cases and relative Building typologies. The analysis of the main historical treatises on the subject of Farm Building design allowed us to evaluate how the evolution of the technical approach influenced the architectural quality of rural Buildings. This latter was traditionally based on a close relation between aesthetic values, functionality, and simplicity, broadly acknowledged only recently, as shown by the loss of landscape integration of Farm Buildings constructed in the last decades. By analysing the processes of reuse of historical Buildings and construction of new Farm Buildings, we have found out different and time-evolving ways of referring to rural heritage and identity. In some cases, they have been considered important references, even through typological evolution aimed at combining traditional values with new needs and available techniques. In other cases, old Farm Buildings have been considered unsuitable things of the past, or rather have inspired new constructions based on an idealized and mystified concept of rurality. Since landscape integration of rural Buildings plays a crucial role in the EU concept of agriculture, the choice of architectural quality postulates to be adopted for the design of new rural Buildings is a key theme. Both consistency with pre-industrial tradition and typological discontinuity must necessarily consider consciously the relationships with historical Buildings, whose important values have increasingly come to the fore over the last years. Once consistency with historical Farm Buildings is assumed as a design postulate, contemporary interpretation of traditional typologies through modern Building techniques is a very challenging and topical field of study. Various degrees of consistency with traditional typologies are possible. Therefore, this approach calls for the development of analytic and metadesign methods aimed at decomposing rural Building typologies into their essential physiognomical features, allowing designers to modulate them to meet ever-changing requirements.
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Integrating landscape quality in Farm Building design: assessment of the main morphological features of rural Buildings.
2012Co-Authors: Stefano Benni, Daniele Torreggiani, Enrica Dall’ara, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:Contemporary Farm Buildings are often designed based on industrial or urban models, with no ad hoc design research, thus leading to poor landscape compatibility and loss of economic opportunities for the agricultural sector. The paper presents a set of synthetic parameters conceived to assess the main morphological aspects of rural Buildings. They represent fundamental tools within the FarmBuiLD model, proposed by the authors for the definition of Farm Building design criteria combining improved landscape quality with functional efficiency. Given the semiologic and aesthetic values nowadays broadly associated with traditional rural Buildings, the parameters are conceived for the compared analysis of historical and contemporary rural Buildings. Based on a critical analysis of the scientific literature and in-depth studies of rural Building typologies, we defined the following parameters, here listed with reference to the relevant physiognomical features of form: height-to-width ratio and height-to-length ratio (horizontality/verticality feature); enclosed-toopen volumes ratio and enclosing walls ratio (enclosed and open portions of the volume); Building front openings ratio (openness/closure of perimeter surfaces). Their application and joint interpretation are discussed through illustrative examples, referring to the built heritage of a northern Italy study area. Based on methodologies for the definition of suitable samples of rural Buildings and their quantitative survey elaborated by the authors, these parameters have been analyzed on a case study of traditional rural Buildings. The results of these experimental calculations have proved useful to analyze the suitability of the proposed model, and allowed the identification of form classes, thus confirming the effectiveness and accuracy of the sampling and surveying methodology, as well as providing further insights in terms of morphological interpretation of the built heritage under study.
Daniele Torreggiani - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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multidimensional measurement of the level of consistency of Farm Buildings with rural heritage a methodology tested on an italian case study
Sustainability, 2019Co-Authors: Stefano Benni, Elisabetta Maino, Elisabetta Carfagna, Marco Bovo, Daniele Torreggiani, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:The industrialization after World War II marked a severe discontinuity between rural heritage and contemporary Farm Buildings. Rural landscapes have thus become more and more uniform; historical Buildings are often abandoned and degraded, while contemporary Buildings are often disconnected from their surrounding environment. Besides aiming to protect and restore rural heritage—more and more acknowledged as a common good contributing to societal identity—attention should be paid to increasing the quality of new Buildings, a crucial issue to improve landscape quality in everyday landscape contexts. Based on a series of previous studies carried out to develop and test a robust methodology allowing the analysis of the main formal features of rural Buildings, organized in a comprehensive framework known as the FarmBuiLD model (Farm Building Landscape Design), this study aims to perform an integrated and compared analysis of sets of traditional and contemporary rural Buildings through experimental trials on an Italian case study. In particular, the study focuses on defining and measuring indexes allowing the quantification of the level of consistency of contemporary Buildings with the traditional typologies. A contemporary Farm Building is evaluated based on the distance of each of its formal features from those which proved to be representative of the corresponding traditional Building type, evaluated through a cluster analysis of the typological characters of traditional Buildings in the study area. The results showed that different degrees of dissonance can be detected. Similarities have been found, in particular with respect to the shape of Buildings and their closure with regards to landscape. The major dissonances are related to the perception of Buildings as flattened on the ground, due to their excessively elongated shape, and in the case of Buildings completely permeable to landscape, this being necessary for structural purposes and for the type of use of historic Buildings. The expected impact of this study is to provide designers and planners with indicators allowing the evaluation, on an objective basis, of the level of consistency of new Buildings with local rural heritage, thus supporting both design phases and project evaluation as well as Building management processes (maintenance, restoration, extension, change in use, etc.).
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ICT monitoring and mathematical modelling of dairy cows performances in hot climate conditions: a study case in Po valley (Italy)
2018Co-Authors: Filippo Bonora, Patrizia Tassinari, Stefano Benni, Matti Pastell, Daniele TorreggianiAbstract:Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) measure and record specific data about milk production and cow behaviour, providing Farmers with useful real-time information for each animal. At the same time, indoor climatic conditions in terms of temperature and humidity within a dairy livestock barn represent a well-known crucial issue in Farm Building design and management, since these parameters can remarkably influence cows behaviour, milk yield and animal welfare. The goal of the study is to develop and test an innovative procedure for the comprehensive analysis of AMS-generated multi-variable time-series, with a focus on the analysis of the relationship between milk production and indoor climatic conditions. The specific purpose of the study is to develop and test a mathematical computer procedure using AMS-generated data and environmental parameters, designed to provide a forecasting model based on the integration of milking data and temperature and humidity levels surveyed from local sensor grids, designed to model milk production scenarios and, specifically, yield trends depending on the expected environmental conditions. For this purpose, a typical Italian Farm with AMS has been adopted as a study case and internal climatic data of the barn have been analysed to understand the influence of high values of the Temperature Humidity Index (THI) on milk production in time. Then the correlation between yield variations and THI has been computed and characterized. Finally, external climatic data have been used to forecast the milk production in summertime. Once the model was validated, tests has led to predict milk yield with a relative error smaller than 2%. This study represents a step of a research aimed to define integrated systems for cow monitoring and to develop guidelines for the optimization of barn layouts
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a quantitative physiognomic analysis of contemporary Farm Buildings to improve awareness in rural planning
Transactions of the ASABE, 2016Co-Authors: Elisabetta Maino, Stefano Benni, Alberto Barbaresi, Daniele Torreggiani, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:. Ordinary citizens and stakeholders are gaining increasing awareness of rural landscapes as a common good, where architectural quality is an integral part of the environment. While historic rural Buildings represent an acknowledged landscape value, this does not apply to contemporary Buildings, which up to now have been considered service architecture to support the production of material goods. This study developed a method for analyzing the formal characteristics of contemporary Farm Building that adds quantitative aspects to the qualitative descriptions with the application of analytical tools. In particular, this work presents a validation and implementation of the methodological model FarmBuiLD (Farm Building Landscape Design) through application to contemporary rural Buildings (constructed after World War II) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, as well as a study of the relationships between the formal features and functional requirements of contemporary rural architecture. The results show how the contemporary rural architecture is diversified in terms of shape, relationship with the surrounding landscape, and articulation or compactness. Physiognomic clusters were defined on the basis of joint interpretation of the results. They allowed definition of the correspondences between physiognomic characteristics and specific functional requirements expressed by users of the rural landscape. This research also shows how the application of analytical tools can increase knowledge of contemporary Farm Buildings.
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landscape quality of Farm Buildings the evolution of the design approach in italy
Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2012Co-Authors: Daniele Torreggiani, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:Abstract Rural Buildings have undergone deep changes with the historical transition from traditional agriculture to industrial society. This paper discusses these trends in Italy, focusing on major changes in agriculture, design approach, and land-use planning, referring to some regional cases and relative Building typologies. The analysis of the main historical treatises on the subject of Farm Building design allowed us to evaluate how the evolution of the technical approach influenced the architectural quality of rural Buildings. This latter was traditionally based on a close relation between aesthetic values, functionality, and simplicity, broadly acknowledged only recently, as shown by the loss of landscape integration of Farm Buildings constructed in the last decades. By analysing the processes of reuse of historical Buildings and construction of new Farm Buildings, we have found out different and time-evolving ways of referring to rural heritage and identity. In some cases, they have been considered important references, even through typological evolution aimed at combining traditional values with new needs and available techniques. In other cases, old Farm Buildings have been considered unsuitable things of the past, or rather have inspired new constructions based on an idealized and mystified concept of rurality. Since landscape integration of rural Buildings plays a crucial role in the EU concept of agriculture, the choice of architectural quality postulates to be adopted for the design of new rural Buildings is a key theme. Both consistency with pre-industrial tradition and typological discontinuity must necessarily consider consciously the relationships with historical Buildings, whose important values have increasingly come to the fore over the last years. Once consistency with historical Farm Buildings is assumed as a design postulate, contemporary interpretation of traditional typologies through modern Building techniques is a very challenging and topical field of study. Various degrees of consistency with traditional typologies are possible. Therefore, this approach calls for the development of analytic and metadesign methods aimed at decomposing rural Building typologies into their essential physiognomical features, allowing designers to modulate them to meet ever-changing requirements.
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Integrating landscape quality in Farm Building design: assessment of the main morphological features of rural Buildings.
2012Co-Authors: Stefano Benni, Daniele Torreggiani, Enrica Dall’ara, Patrizia TassinariAbstract:Contemporary Farm Buildings are often designed based on industrial or urban models, with no ad hoc design research, thus leading to poor landscape compatibility and loss of economic opportunities for the agricultural sector. The paper presents a set of synthetic parameters conceived to assess the main morphological aspects of rural Buildings. They represent fundamental tools within the FarmBuiLD model, proposed by the authors for the definition of Farm Building design criteria combining improved landscape quality with functional efficiency. Given the semiologic and aesthetic values nowadays broadly associated with traditional rural Buildings, the parameters are conceived for the compared analysis of historical and contemporary rural Buildings. Based on a critical analysis of the scientific literature and in-depth studies of rural Building typologies, we defined the following parameters, here listed with reference to the relevant physiognomical features of form: height-to-width ratio and height-to-length ratio (horizontality/verticality feature); enclosed-toopen volumes ratio and enclosing walls ratio (enclosed and open portions of the volume); Building front openings ratio (openness/closure of perimeter surfaces). Their application and joint interpretation are discussed through illustrative examples, referring to the built heritage of a northern Italy study area. Based on methodologies for the definition of suitable samples of rural Buildings and their quantitative survey elaborated by the authors, these parameters have been analyzed on a case study of traditional rural Buildings. The results of these experimental calculations have proved useful to analyze the suitability of the proposed model, and allowed the identification of form classes, thus confirming the effectiveness and accuracy of the sampling and surveying methodology, as well as providing further insights in terms of morphological interpretation of the built heritage under study.
Timothy J. Roper - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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behaviour of badgers meles meles in Farm Buildings opportunities for the transmission of mycobacterium bovis to cattle
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2009Co-Authors: Bryony A. Tolhurst, Neil J Walker, Alastair I Ward, Richard J Delahay, Timothy J. RoperAbstract:Abstract Eurasian badgers ( Meles meles ) are implicated in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis ( Mycobacterium bovis ) to cattle. Here we investigate potential spatio-temporal foci of opportunities for contact between badgers and cattle in Farm Buildings. We discuss the relative occurrence of different badger behaviours and their potential for facilitating disease transmission, and examine correlates of Building use by badgers including availability of specific Farm-based resources, badger demography, and environmental variables. In addition, we investigate seasonal variation in home range structure with respect to Farm Building use. Badger activity and ranging behaviour were monitored intensively on six cattle Farms throughout the year between July 2003 and June 2005 using remote surveillance, radio-tracking and faecal analysis. Badgers foraged in Buildings, exhibited close, investigative ‘nose-to-nose’ contact with housed cattle and excreted/scent marked on and around feed. A negative correlation was observed between frequency of visits and 24 h rainfall and a positive correlation with minimum temperature. Badgers visited feed stores most intensively and selected cattle ‘cake’ over other available food types. A peak in visits was detected in spring and summer, and male badgers were more likely to visit Buildings than females. Management prescriptions for disease prevention centre on reducing opportunities for direct or indirect contact between badgers and housed cattle. It is thus recommended that effort to exclude badgers from Buildings should focus on feed stores and cattle housing during spring and summer in warm, dry weather.
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Behaviour of badgers (Meles meles) in Farm Buildings: Opportunities for the transmission of Mycobacterium bovis to cattle?
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2009Co-Authors: Bryony A. Tolhurst, Neil J Walker, Alastair I Ward, Richard J Delahay, Timothy J. RoperAbstract:Eurasian badgers are implicated in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) to cattle. Here we investigate potential spatio-temporal foci of opportunities for contact between badgers and cattle in Farm Buildings. We discuss the relative occurrence of different badger behaviours and their potential for facilitating disease transmission, and examine correlates of Building use by badgers including availability of specific Farm-based resources, badger demography, and environmental variables. In addition, we investigate seasonal variation in home range structure with respect to Farm Building use. Badger activity and ranging behaviour were monitored intensively on six cattle Farms throughout the year between July 2003 and June 2005 using remote surveillance, radio-tracking and faecal analysis. Badgers foraged in Buildings, exhibited close, investigative ‘nose-to-nose’ contact with housed cattle and excreted/scent marked on and around feed. A negative correlation was observed between frequency of visits and 24 h rainfall and a positive correlation with minimum temperature. Badgers visited feed stores most intensively and selected cattle ‘cake’ over other available food types. A peak in visits was detected in spring and summer, and male badgers were more likely to visit Buildings than females. Management prescriptions for disease prevention centre on reducing opportunities for direct or indirect contact between badgers and housed cattle. It is thus recommended that effort to exclude badgers from Buildings should focus on feed stores and cattle housing during spring and summer in warm, dry weather
Seung Won Yi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Prevalence of poultry red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) in Korean layer Farms and the presence of avian pathogens in the mite
Experimental and Applied Acarology, 2020Co-Authors: Sang-ik Oh, Yoon Jung Do, Seung Won YiAbstract:The poultry red mite, Dermanyssus gallinae , is a blood-feeding parasite of layer hens and a potential vector of several avian infectious agents. High infestation with D. gallinae in layer Farm Buildings could result in economic losses, and the mites may act as a reservoir of avian pathogens within Farms. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of D. gallinae in layer Farm Buildings in Korea and to investigate avian pathogens in the collected mites. The mite samples were collected from 36 Korean layer Farm Buildings on 21 Farms nationwide. Information obtained from each Farm Building included the flock size, flock age, methods for controlling D. gallinae , and cleaning status. Association between these variables and the population density of D. gallinae was analyzed. Additionally, the presence of 10 avian pathogens was assessed using DNA samples from mites collected in 16 Farm Buildings. The prevalence of D. gallinae was 75% at the Farm Building level (90.5% at the Farm level). Repetitive cleaning procedures for each Building were significantly related with the mite infestation level, and the most influential factor for determining the mite population in the layer Farm Buildings. In the 16 DNA samples, we detected avian pathogenic Escherichia coli ( n = 6), wild-type fowlpox virus ( n = 3), wild-type Marek’s disease virus ( n = 2), chicken anemia virus ( n = 1), and fowl adenovirus ( n = 1). These findings suggest that repetitive cleaning procedures for the layer Farm Buildings could decrease the numbers of D. gallinae which may transmit avian pathogens within the Farm.
Camarda2 Antonio - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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EFFICACY OF A NOVEL NEEM OIL FORMULATION (RP03TM) TO CONTROL THE POULTRY RED MITE DERMANYSSUS GALLINAE
2017Co-Authors: Giangaspero Annunziata, Pugliese2 Nicola, Bevilacqua Antonio, Circella2 Elena, Marangi Marianna, Gradoni3 Luigi, George4 David, Sparagano5 Olivier, Camarda2 AntonioAbstract:The poultry red mite (PRM) Dermanyssus gallinae is of major concern for the poultry industry. Several chemicals are effective against PRM, but acaricide resistance, the limited number of active ingredients, and the risk of residues create a demand for alternative products, such as plant-derived acaricides. We investigated the efficacy of neem oil against D. gallinae on a commercial laying egg Farm with a high infestation level. The Farm Building was arranged in four blocks of cages, each consisting of two adjacent lines arranged over four tiers. A novel formulation of 20% neem oil dilution from a 2,400 ppm azadirachtin-concentrated stock (RP03TM) was administered by nebulization three times, at three day intervals. Using corrugated cardboard traps, mite density was monitored before, during and after treatment. Following trap removal, mites were frozen and their numbers were estimated as total weight. The results were analyzed through multi-factorial ANOVA with trap position and time as criteria predictors. Mite populations in the treated block showed a 94.65%, 99.64% and 99.80% reduction after the first, second and third administration, respectively. A reduction in mite population was observed also in buffer (59.93%, 75.68% and 83.68%) and control blocks (63.24%, 80.02% and 82.27%). Trap position was the most significant variable according to the analysis run, as well as the interactive term ‘time/trap position’. Trap position showed a mean mite log-reduction of ca. 2.2-2.4 for the treated block, while in the control and buffer areas the mean reduction was 0.8 and 1.3, respectively. The reduction rate of the mite population was significantly higher for treated block (p
