ArchNURBS: NURBS-Based Tool for the Structural Safety Assessment of Masonry Arches in MATLAB

A new approach toward a fully computer-aided design (CAD) integrated structural analysis of arched masonry structures is proposed and a new MATLAB-based computational tool, named ArchNURBS, is developed. It is addressed to professionals dealing with the restoration or structural rehabilitation of historical constructions, who need to assess the safety of masonry arches under assigned load distributions. By using it, they can easily produce estimates of the carrying capacity of curved masonry members, and specifically arches of arbitrary shape. A CAD environment, which is very popular among professionals, can be employed to provide a nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS) representation of arch geometry. On the basis of this representation, it is possible to perform both an elastic isogeometric analysis and a limit analysis of the structure up to the collapse load. Moreover, the developed tool is devised for handling the presence of fiber-reinforced polymers reinforcement strips at the extrados and/or intrados. This allows for the design of properly dimensioned reinforcement and its verification according to current building codes. The entire procedure relies upon a sound theoretical background. ArchNURBS is going to be freely distributed as an open-source project (http://sourceforge.net/projects/archnurbs/)

Knee stability, athletic performance and sport-specific tasks in non-professional soccer players after ACL reconstruction: comparing trans-tibial and antero-medial portal techniques.

Background: a wrong position of bone tunnels, in particular on the femur, is one of the most frequent causes of a failed anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruct ion. Several studies demonstrated that drilling the femoral tunnel through the antero-medial portal (AMP) allows a more anatomical placement on the lateral femoral condyle and higher knee stability, compared to trans-tibial (TT) technique. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate two groups of soccer players operated on for ACL reconstruction according to either one of these two techniques. Methods: two groups of non-professional soccer players operated on for a single bundle ACL reconstruction with hamstrings autograft using either a TT (20 patients) or an AMP (23 patients) technique were retrospectively evaluated with KT- 1000 arthrometer, manual pivot shift test, isokinetic test, the incremental treadmill-running test, athletic and sport specific tasks, and knee scores (IKDC, Lysholm and KOOS). Results: the AMP group showed better results at pivot shift test and KOOS, but lower flexion angles at single leg squat test. There were no differences in all the other considered outcomes. Conclusions: the better rotational stability of the knee achieved in AMP group did not lead to significantly better clinical and functional results in our patients. Level of evidence III. Treatment study: Case-control study

New results on focusing of gamma-rays with Laue lenses

We report on new results on the development activity of broad band Laue lenses for hard X-/gamma-ray astronomy (70/100-600 keV). After the development of a first prototype, whose performance was presented at the SPIE conference on Astronomical Telescopes held last year in Marseille (Frontera et al. 2008), we have improved the lens assembling technology. We present the development status of the new lens prototype that is on the way to be assembled.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, to be Published in SPIE Proceedings, vol.7437-19, 200

Peptidomic approach for the identification of peptides with potential antioxidant and anti-hyperthensive effects derived from Asparagus by-products

Asparagus waste represents products of great interest since many compounds with high biological value are located in the lower portion of the spears. The extraction of bioactive compounds from asparagus by-products is therefore crucial for the purpose of adding value to these by-products. In this paper, bioactive peptides from asparagus waste were extracted, digested, purified and identified. In particular, Alcalase® was chosen as the enzyme to use to obtain protein hydrolysate due to its low cost and, consequently, the possibility of implementing the method on a large scale. In order to simplify the peptide extract to reach better identification, the hydrolysate was fractionated by reversed-phase chromatography in 10 fractions. Two tests were carried out for antioxidant activity (ABTS-DPPH) and one for antihypertensive activity (ACE). Fractions with a higher bioactivity score were identified by peptidomics technologies and screened for bioactivity with the use of bioinformatics. For ACE-inhibitor activity, two peptides were synthetized, PDWFLLL and ASQSIWLPGWL, which provided an EC50 value of 1.76 µmol L-1 and 4.02 µmol L-1, respectively. For the antioxidant activity, by DPPH assay, MLLFPM exhibited the lowest EC50 value at 4.14 µmol L-1, followed by FIARNFLLGW and FAPVPFDF with EC50 values of 6.76 µmol L-1 and 10.01 µmol L-1, respectively. A validation of the five identified peptides was also carried out. The obtained results showed that peptides obtained from asparagus by-products are of interest for their biological activity and are suitable for being used as functional ingredients

ANDIL experience for building process optimization through an efficient data management / L’esperienza di ANDIL per l’ottimizzazione del processo edilizio attraverso una gestione efficiente delle informazioni

A building process optimization needs a systemic approach in order to correctly manage its complexity. Despite many important contributions have been provided in the last few years, both from a procedural point of view and from a normative one, building process management is often fragmented. This may cause repercussions on building quality and inefficiency in cost and time management. That is why, the research project INNOVance has developed an unambiguous classification system for every object and informative attribute for construction, creating a unique database to smartly store and share information. This through a proper definition of the content of data sheets which can be collected and easily shared together with their complementary attributes by different stakeholders. Unambiguous language and standardized information, in and of themselves, increase building process efficiency. If we then consider that data exchange is possible through the exploitation of a user friendly web portal and some interoperable web services, efficiency and economic savings in the entire construction chain could be extremely relevant. The present paper describes the results achieved during the last year of the research project, in terms of information standardization and data collection

Development status of the LAUE project

We present the status of LAUE, a project supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and devoted to develop Laue lenses with long focal length (up to 100 meters), for hard X--/soft gamma--ray astronomy (80-600 keV). Thanks to their focusing capability, the design goal is to improve the sensitivity of the current instrumention in the above energy band by 2 orders of magnitude, down to a few times $10^{-8}$ photons/(cm$^2$ s keV).Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, presented at the Space Telescopes and Instrumentation Symposium in Amsterdam, 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray Conference. Published in the Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, id. 84430B-84430B-9 (2012