3D Experimental investigation of the hygro-mechanical behaviour of wood at cellular and sub-cellular scale: detection of local deformations

The swelling/shrinkage of spruce wood samples (Picea Abies) is documented with high resolution XRay Tomography and advanced image analysis tools. We report the reversible moisture-induced global and local deformations at the cellular and sub-cellular scales. In particular, we present sophisticated methods for detecting local deformations in the cell wall. Insight is given on the hygromechanical behaviour of wood cell material and on the role of ultra-cellular components in wood, such as bordered pits and rays

Form-function relationships in dragonfly mandibles under an evolutionary perspective

© 2017 The Author(s). Functional requirements may constrain phenotypic diversification or foster it. For insect mouthparts, the quantification of the relationship between shape and function in an evolutionary framework remained largely unexplored. Here, the question of a functional influence on phenotypic diversification for dragonfly mandibles is assessed with a large-scale biomechanical analysis covering nearly all anisopteran families, using finite element analysis in combination with geometric morphometrics. A constraining effect of phylogeny could be found for shape, the mandibular mechanical advantage (MA), and certain mechanical joint parameters, while stresses and strains, the majority of joint parameters and size are influenced by shared ancestry. Furthermore, joint mechanics are correlated with neither strain nor mandibular MA and size effects have virtually play no role for shape or mechanical variation. The presence of mandibular strengthening ridges shows no phylogenetic signal except for one ridge peculiar to Libelluloidea, and ridge presence is also not correlated with each other. The results suggest that functional traits are more variable at this taxonomic level and that they are not influenced by shared ancestry. At the same time, the results contradict the widespread idea that mandibular morphology mainly reflects functional demands at least at this taxonomic level. The varying functional factors rather lead to the same mandibular performance as expressed by the MA, which suggests a many-to-one mapping of the investigated parameters onto the same narrow mandibular performance space

A GIS interface to the new Euro-Mediterranean Tsunami Catalogue produced by the TRANSFER project

TRANSFER, acronym standing for “Tsunami Risk ANd Strategies For the European Region”, is a three-year EU-funded research project that tackled all the main fields of interest in tsunami research, ranging from the improvement of the existing tsunami catalogue and the inventory of seismic and non-seismic tsunami sources, to the assessment of tsunami hazard, vulnerability and risk through innovative deterministic and statistical methodologies, with the final goal of identifying the best strategies for the reduction of tsunami risk. One of the largest efforts produced by the TRANFER consortium has been to convey all the results obtained during the project life into a unique and standardised GIS platform. We present here in some detail the GIS implementation of the improved version of the Euro-Mediterranean Tsunami Catalogue, which is the result of a careful revision, re-analysis, correction and integration of the results produced in the nineties by the EU funded GITEC and GITEC-TWO projects. All the TRANSFER partners involved in this work made some relevant improvements of the quality of the database, in terms of inclusion of new events or updating (or even exclusion) of existing events. The major improvements introduced in the TRANSFER tsunami catalogue with respect to the previous ones are: 1) the enlargement of the geographical area containing historical events (now the catalogue integrates events belonging to the Levantine sea and to Iceland); 2) the inclusion of the tide-gauge data relative to specific historical events; 3) for few events, the position of the places for which tsunami run-up and inundation data are available; 4) the introduction of the 12- points tsunami intensity scale by Papadopoulos and Imamura (2001). The GIS environment and the power of the underlying Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) allows to query the database in several respects. The most obvious starts from the geographical map containing the position of the historical events plotted with symbol size and colours depending on their intensities. Two main ArcGIS tools are then used to access the other information on the event. The "Identify" tool opens up a mask from which the user can retrieve all the details on date, time, source region and sub-region, reliability, cause, source parameters (intensity, magnitude and focal depth for earthquakes), position of the source. In the same mask, different layers give access to the list of places hit by that specific tsunami, containing the position of the site and the maximum reported run-up and inundation distance, when available. Moreover, it contains the list of references to studies dealing with that particular event. On the other hand, the "Hyperlink" tool opens up a text file containing the full description of the event and, when available, diagrams of measured sea-level data and photographs or similar material. The whole catalogue can be accessed and queried also in table format, allowing the user to perform his/her specific searches

Detergency and its implications for oil emulsion sieving and separation

Separating petroleum hydrocarbons from water is an important problem to address in order to mitigate the disastrous effects of hydrocarbons on aquatic ecosystems. A rational approach to address the problem of marine oil water separation is to disperse the oil with the aid of surfactants in order to minimize the formation of large slicks at the water surface and to maximize the oil-water interfacial area. Here we investigate the fundamental wetting and transport behavior of such surfactant-stabilized droplets and the flow conditions necessary to perform sieving and separation of these stabilized emulsions. We show that, for water soluble surfactants, such droplets are completely repelled by a range of materials (intrinsically underwater superoleophobic) due to the detergency effect; therefore, there is no need for surface micro/nanotexturing or chemical treatment to repel the oil and prevent fouling of the filter. We then simulate and experimentally investigate the effect of emulsion flow rate on the transport and impact behavior of such droplets on rigid meshes to identify the minimum pore opening (w) necessary to filter a droplet with a given diameter (d) in order to minimize the pressure drop across the mesh and therefore maximize the filtering efficiency, which is strongly dependent on w. We define a range of flow conditions and droplet sizes where minimum droplet deformation is to be expected and therefore find that the condition of is sufficient for efficient separation. With this new understanding, we demonstrate the use of a commercially available filter--without any additional surface engineering or functionalization--to separate oil droplets from a surfactant stabilized emulsion with a flux of 11,000 L m$^{-2}$ hr$^{-1}$ bar$^{-1}$. We believe these findings can inform the design of future oil separation materials

Hubungan Kadar Carcinoembryonic Antigen (Cea) Dan Albumin Serum Dengan Lokasi Kanker Kolorektal Studi Kasus Di Rsup Dr. Kariadi

Latar belakang : Kolonoskopi masih menjadi alat deteksi utama untuk mengetahui lokasi kanker kolorektal. Diperlukan pemantuan petanda yang tidak invasif untuk membantu mengetahui lokasi kanker kolorektal. Kadar Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) dan albumin pada pasien kanker kolorektal dapat digunakan sebagai petanda lokasi dan prognosis.Tujuan : Untuk mengetahui hubungan kadar carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) dan albumin serum dengan lokasi kanker kolorektal.Metode Penelitian : ini merupakan penelitian observasional dengan desain belah lintang. Data didapatkan dari rekam medik pasien kanker kolorektal di RSUP Dr. Kariadi dari Januari 2012-Desember 2015. Sejumlah 63 pasien menjadi subyek penelitian. Kadar CEA dan albumin dilihat dari hasil pemeriksaan laboratorium darah sebelum terapi. Lokasi tumor diketahui setelah pasien menjalani prosedur sigmoidoskopi atau kolonoskopi. Uji hipotesis yang digunakan adalah uji korelasi Spearman.Hasil : Subyek penelitian rerata berusia 50,50±13,69 tahun, dengan 49,2% pasien pria dan 50,8% wanita. Sebanyak 55,6% subyek penelitian mengalami peningkatan kadar CEA (>5 ng/mL). Sebanyak 52,4% subyek penelitian memiliki kadar albumin rendah, 46,0% memiliki kadar albumin normal, dan 1,6% memiliki kadar albumin tinggi. Lokasi tumor tersering berada di rektum (77,8%). Kadar CEA tidak berhubungan dengan lokasi tumor(rs = -0,019). Kadar albumin tidak berhubungan dengan lokasi tumor(rs= -0,060). Kadar CEA dan albumin tidak berhubungan dengan lokasi tumor(rs = -0,048).Kesimpulan : Tidak terdapat hubungan kadar CEA dan albumin dengan lokasi kanker kolorektal

The ASTARTE Paleotsunami Deposits data base – web-based references for tsunami research in the NEAM region

EU project ASTARTE aimed at developing a higher level of tsunami hazard assessment in the North-Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (NEAM) region by a combination of field work, experimental work, numerical modeling and technical development. The project was a cooperative work of 26 institutes from 16 countries and linked together the description of past tsunamigenic events, the identification and characterization of tsunami sources, the calculation of the impact of such events, and the development of adequate resilience and risks mitigation strategies (http://www.astarte-project.eu/). Within ASTARTE, a web-based database on Paleotsunami Deposits in the NEAM area was created with the purpose to be the future information repository for tsunami research in the broad region. The aim of the project is the integration of every existing official scientific reports and peer reviewed papers on this topic. The database, which archives information and detailed data crucial for tsunami modeling, will be updated on new entries every 12 months. A relational database managed by ArcGIS for Desktop 10.x software has been implemented. One of the final goals of the project is the public sharing of the archived dataset through a web-based map service that will allow visualizing, querying, analyzing, and interpreting the dataset. The interactive map service is hosted by ArcGIS Online and will deploy the cloud capabilities of the portal. Any interested users will be able to access the online GIS resources through any Internet browser or specific apps that run on desktop machines, smartphones, or tablets and will be able to use the analytical tools, key tasks, and workflows of the service. We will present the database structure (characterized by the presence of two main tables: the Site table and the Event table) and topics as well as their ArcGIS Online version. To date, a total of 151 sites and 220 tsunami evidence have been recorded within the ASTARTE database. The ASTARTE Paleotsunami Deposits database – NEAM region is now available online at the address http://arcg.is/1CWz0. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 603839 (Project ASTARTE - Assessment, Strategy and Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe).PublishedNew Orleans, USA5T. Modelli di pericolosità sismica e da maremot

Towards a Radio-guided Surgery with β−\beta^{-} Decays: Uptake of a somatostatin analogue (DOTATOC) in Meningioma and High Grade Glioma

A novel radio guided surgery (RGS) technique for cerebral tumors using $\beta^{-}$ radiation is being developed. Checking the availability of a radio-tracer that can deliver a $\beta^{-}$ emitter to the tumor is a fundamental step in the deployment of such technique. This paper reports a study of the uptake of 90Y labeled (DOTATOC) in the meningioma and the high grade glioma (HGG) and a feasibility study of the RGS technique in these cases.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

The ASTARTE Paleotsunami and Mass Transport Deposits data bases – web-based references for tsunami and submarine landslide research around Europe

EU project ASTARTE aims at developing a higher level of tsunami hazard assessment in the North East Atlantic, Mediterranean and Connected seas (NEAM) region by a combination of field work, experimental work, numerical modeling and technical development. The project is a cooperative work of 26 institutes from 16 countries and links together the description of past tsunamigenic events, the identification and characterization of tsunami sources, the calculation of the impact of such events, and the development of adequate resilience and risks mitigation strategies (www.astarte.eu). Within ASTARTE two web-based data bases on Paleotsunami and Mass Transport Deposits in the NEAM areas were created with the purpose to be the future information repositories for tsunami research in Europe.The aim is to integrate every existing official scientific reports and peer reviewed papers on these topics and update on new entries every 6-12 months, hosting information and detailed data, that are crucial e.g for tsunami modeling. A relational database managed by ArcGIS for Desktop 10.x software has been implemented. One of the final goals of the project is the public sharing of the archived datasets through a web-based map service that will allow visualizing, querying, analyzing, and interpreting all datasets. The interactive map service will be hosted by ArcGIS Online and will deploy the cloud capabilities of the portal. Any interested users will be able to access the online GIS resources through any Internet browser or specific apps that run on desktop machines, smartphones, or tablets and will be able to use the analytical tools, key tasks, and workflows of the service.We will present the data bases structure and topics as well as their ArcGIS Online version. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n 603839 (Project ASTARTE - Assessment, Strategy and Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe).PublishedWien, Austria5T. Modelli di pericolosità sismica e da maremot