253puse of red clover in premenopausal breast cancer patients receiving hormonal adjuvant treatment biological and clinical implications from a randomized clinical trial

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Validation of compact models of microcantilever actuators for RF-MEMS application

Electromechanical behavior of microcantilever specimens for in-plane and out-of-plane bending tests, currently designed by industry for Radio-Frequency application, are here analyzed. Main features of these two layouts are discussed. In particular, a comprehensive experimental validation of 2D and 3D numerical models implemented to predict the coupled electromechanical behavior of these microsystems is performed. Effectiveness of plane models to predict pull-in, in presence of geometric non-linearity, due to large tip displacement and initial curvature of microbeam, is investigated. Three dimensional models are then used to investigate the local effects of the electric field and the limits of the two dimensional approach. In addition, this paper investigates the effectiveness of 2D models to be used as compact numerical tools in substitution of some known Model Order Reduction techniques, which unfortunately are unsuitable to predict simultaneously the effects of both the electromechanical and geometric non-linearitie

FEM modelling and experimental characterization of microbeams in presence of residual stress

Out-of-plane bending tests are here used to experimentally validate some numerical models of microbeams actuated by the electric field. Out-of-plane bending microcantilevers and clamped\u2013clamped microbeams often suffer the presence of residual strain and stress, respectively, which affect their static and dynamic behaviour and pull-in voltage. In case of microcantilever an accurate modelling has to include the effect of an initial curvature due to microfabrication process, while in double clamped microbeams constraints may impose a pre-loading caused by a tensile stress. So-called geometrical nonlinearity sometimes occurs, when microcantilever exhibits large displacement, or because of the mechanical coupling between axial and flexural behaviours in double clamped microbeams. Modelling this kind of nonlinearity is an additional goal of this study. Experiments demonstrated a good agreement with results of FEM approaches proposed. In the case of microbridges numerical models are used to identify the residual stress. A reverse analysis is implemented, the axial pre-stress is calculated by means of the measured pull-in voltage

Quantitative Methods in Economics and Finance

Evaluation of Financial and Actuarial Risk. The research group has focused on several different aspects of quantitative finance. As a first research subject, we faced the problem of pricing credit default swaps (CDSs), which entails the calculation of the risk of default. As a second research subject, we considered the problem of pricing complex derivatives. Precisely, we took into account barrier options on an underlying described by either the geometric fractional Brownian motion or a timechanged Brownian motion. Finally, we dealt with the problem of pricing real options in the presence of stochastic interest rates. Nonlinear Dynamics in Economic and Financial Models. Nonlinear Dynamics is an interdisciplinary area characterized by a rapid and extensive development in recent years, which has proved to be very useful in explaining some important facts in Economics and Finance (such as endogenous fluctuations). In this contribution, we provide an overview of our research on this topic, both in continuous and in discrete time