Experimental results on an energy pile within a sheet pile wall in Napoli

Energy geo-structures are renewable energy solutions with a double role of structural support and heat exchangers. Some installations are recorded worldwide, but only limited information is available regarding the impact of thermal processes on the structural and geotechnical performance of energy geo-structures. A proper experimental campaign was conducted within the underground railway construction site of Piazza Municipio in Napoli (South Italy). An energy sheet pile wall was built and equipped with fibre optic sensors system allowing the evaluation of strains and temperature distributions along the piles, during geothermal processes. Results on a single energy pile and measurements undertaken during the field experiment are presented highlighting the effects of temperature variations on the mechanical behaviour of the soil-structure system. From temperature measurements, it can be observed that, due to the excavation, there was a strong influence of the outside air temperature. Despite measurement uncertainties and some data gaps resulting from cut cables, the data presented makes a contribution to improving the available monitored case studies in the literature on energy structures

Heavy-quark jets in hadronic collisions

We present a next-to-leading order QCD calculation of the production rates of jets containing heavy quarks. This calculation is performed using the standard Snowmass jet algorithm; it therefore allows a comparison with similar results known at next-to-leading order for generic jets. As an application, we present results for the inclusive transverse energy of charm and bottom jets at the Tevatron collider, with a complete study of the dependence on the jet cone-size and of the theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 23 pages Latex, uses epsfig.sty, 16 eps figures appended as uuencoded, gzipped, tarred fil

Transport Phenomena and Shrinkage Modeling During Convective Drying of Vegetables

Abstract: The aim of the present work is the formulation of a theoretical model describing the transport phenomena involved in food drying process. The attention has been focused on the simultaneous transfer of momentum, heat and mass occurring in a convective drier where hot dry air flows, in turbulent conditions, around the food sample. Shrinkage, as well as all the transport phenomena occurring in both air and food domains, have been described. The proposed model does not rely on the specification of interfacial heat and mass transfer coefficients and, therefore, represents a general tool capable of describing the behavior of real driers over a wide range of process and fluiddynamic conditions. The system of non-linear unsteady-state partial differential equations modelling the process has been solved by means of the Finite Elements Method coupled to the ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) procedure that, by a proper modification of integration domain, accounts for shrinkage effects. In order to describe shrinkage phenomenon, the abovementioned transport equations have been coupled with a structural mechanics analysis performed on the food sample

La prima infrastruttura di data management per le nanoscienze

In questo articolo presentiamo la prima infrastruttura di data management per le nanoscienze. L’infrastruttura, denominata IDRP (Information and Data management Repository Platform), è stata sviluppata dal CNR-IOM (Istituto di Officina dei Materiali) di Trieste all’interno di NFFA-EUROPE (Nanoscience Foundries & Fine Analysis). Questo progetto europeo Horizon 2020, coordinato dal CNR-IOM, coinvolge 20 partner ed ha lo scopo di fornire una infrastruttura di ricerca distribuita per la comunità di nanoscienze. La IDRP è nata con l’obiettivo di gestire ed archiviare in maniera FAIR la grande varietà di dati generati dalla strumentazione NFFA-EUROPE offrendo un accesso standardizzato

Deep Learning, Feature Learning, and Clustering Analysis for SEM Image Classification

In this paper, we report upon our recent work aimed at improving and adapting machine learning algorithms to automatically classify nanoscience images acquired by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). This is done by coupling supervised and unsupervised learning approaches. We first investigate supervised learning on a ten-category data set of images and compare the performance of the different models in terms of training accuracy. Then, we reduce the dimensionality of the features through autoencoders to perform unsupervised learning on a subset of images in a selected range of scales (from 1 $\mu$m to 2 $\mu$m). Finally, we compare different clustering methods to uncover intrinsic structures in the images

Jet photoproduction at HERA

We compute various kinematical distributions for one-jet and two-jet inclusive photoproduction at HERA. Our results are accurate to next-to-leading order in QCD. We use the subtraction method for the cancellation of infrared singularities. We perform a thorough study of the reliability of QCD predictions; in particular, we consider the scale dependence of our results and discuss the cases when the perturbative expansion might break down. We also deal with the problem of the experimental definition of the pointlike and hadronic components of the incident photon, and briefly discuss the sensitivity of QCD predictions upon the input parameters of the calculation, like $\alpha_S$ and the parton densities.Comment: 26 pages Latex, uses epsfig.sty, 24 eps figures include

IGHV mutational status of nodal marginal zone lymphoma by NGS reveals distinct pathogenic pathways with different prognostic implications

The precise B cell of origin and molecular pathogenesis of nodal marginal zone lymphoma (NMZL) remain poorly defined. To date, due to the rarity of NMZL, the vast majority of already-published studies have been conducted on a limited number of samples and the technical approach to analyze the immunoglobulin genes was of amplifying rearranged variable region genes with the classical direct sequencing of the PCR products followed by cloning. Here, we studied the B cell Ig heavy-chain repertoires by next-generation sequencing (NGS) in 30 NMZL cases. Most of the cases were mutated (20/28; 71.5%) with homologies to the respective germ line genes ranging from 85 to 97, 83%, whereas 8/28 (28.5%) were unmutated. In addition, our results show that NMZL cases have a biased usage of specific immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable (IGHV) region genes. Moreover, we documented intraclonal diversity in all (100%) of the mutated cases and ongoing somatic hypermutations (SHM) have been confirmed by hundreds of reads. We analyzed the mutational pattern to detect and quantify antigen selection pressure and we found a positive selection in 4 cases, whereas in the remaining cases there was an unspecific stimulation. Finally, the disease-specific survival and the progression-free survival were significantly different between cases with mutated and unmutated IGHV genes, pointing out mutational status as a possible new biomarker in NMZL

Failure envelopes of pile groups under combined axial-moment loading: Theoretical background and experimental evidence

Abstract The problem of failure envelopes of pile groups subjected to vertical and eccentric load is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. A critical review of literature works on failure envelopes for pile groups under combined axial-moment loading is first provided. Emphasis is placed on a recent, exact solution derived from theorems of limit analysis by idealizing piles as uniaxial rigid-perfectly plastic elements. The application of the relevant equations over a practical range of problems needs only the axial capacities in compression and uplift of the isolated piles. An intense program of centrifuge experiments carried out along with different load paths on annular shaped pile groups aimed at validating the equations pertinent to the above solution is presented and discussed. The endpoints of the load paths followed in the centrifuge lie approximately above the analytical failure envelope, giving confidence that the reference equations can be reliably adopted to assess the capacity of a pile group under combined axial-moment loading. Finally, the kinematics of the collapse mechanism observed experimentally is compared to that determined from the application of the reference theory

A general approach to jet cross sections in QCD

I illustrate a general formalism based upon the subtraction method for the calculation of next-to-leading order QCD cross sections for any number of jets in any type of hard collisions. I discuss the implementation of this formalism in a numerical program which generates partonic kinematical configurations with an appropriate weight, thus allowing the definition of arbitrary jet algorithms and cuts matching the experimental setup at the last step of the computation. I present results obtained with computer codes which calculate one-jet and two-jet inclusive quantities in photon-hadron and hadron-hadron collisions.Comment: 25 pages Latex, uses epsfig.sty, 2 eps figures include