SCINTILLA A European project for the development of scintillation detectors and new technologies for nuclear security

Europe monitors transits using radiation detectors to prevent illicit trafficking of nuclear materials. The SCINTILLA project aims to develop a toolbox of innovative technologies designed to address different usage cases. This article will review the scope, approach, results of the first benchmark campaign and future plans of the SCINTILLA project.Comment: To appear on the Proceedings of the 13th ICATPP Conference on Astroparticle, Particle, Space Physics and Detectors for Physics Applications, Villa Olmo (Como, Italy), 23--27 October, 2013, to be published by World Scientific (Singapore

Investigations on anomalies of ovule development and on pollination in mutated grapevines, cv. Barbera

In order to point out the reasons for reduced fertility in tetraploid and 2n-4n periclinal chimera grapevines, ovule development and pollination shown by these plants were investigated.Anomalies in embryo sac formation and non-fertilization, mainly due to difficulties in pollination, were observed and related to fertility

Autonomous detection and ascent of a step for an electric wheelchair

With the number of individuals using a wheelchair on the rise, the issue of removing architectural barriers, or at least overcoming them, has to be faced to improve independence, inclusiveness, and participation of wheelchair users. Some electric wheelchairs can climb and descend stairs and obstacles, however, the actual operations required to do so safely may be complex and may require an experienced or trained user. To overcome this issue, a method to first detect and classify a step and then autonomously climb it safely is proposed here. The same method is then applied and tested on an actual stair-climbing wheelchair prototype to prove its reliability in different conditions

The phlebological surgery in elderly patients

The pathogenesis of the lower limbs varicose veins in the elderly patients is the same one as in the juvenile and adult age. What changes is the severity of the clinical picture, because the disease is a chronic pathology and it is aggravated with the passing of the years in absence of prophylaxis and missed or inadequate therapy. Equally the surgical operations on the superficial venous system of the elderly patients from a technical point of view are the same that are practiced in other ages of life. What changes is the anaesthesiological risk, which is increased, because other chronic pathologies are frequently associated with the old ones. Currently both the use of techniques of peripheral anesthesia, as the blocks of the lower limbs nervous trunks, and the introduction of poor toxic anesthetics for the heart in therapeutical practice allow in an inci¬sive way to submit elderly people to surgical procedures. Above all the out-patient hemodynamic surgery of the superficial chronic venous insufficiency, which requires a careful and meticulous instrumental investigation aimed surgical gestures, but simple, effective, of brief duration, has convinced many surgeons of the possibility to operate on the varicose patients of a more and more advance age. On the other hand the rapid postoperative mobiliza¬tion of those sick, in absence of immediate complica¬tions, means that they can be discharged from the hospital on the same day of the operation. This undoubtedly involves positive reflexes on the sanitary expense and it increases at the same time the compliance in terms of motivation and acceptance of the proposed procedure. The elderly patient, perhaps more than the younger adult, once informed of the new anaesthesiological and surgical techniques, gladly gives his consent to the inter¬vention, pleased to return to his own house and tquickly return to his daily occupations. How much I dictate you is translated in our experi¬ence, that is carried out near the Phlebological Center of the Siena University, in a progressive increase in the last 5 years both in absolute terms (223) and percen¬tages (12%) of the number of subjects older than sixty¬five years old that have been submitted to surgical operations for the venous disease. Of all 223 patients, males are 68 and females are 155; 144of them have an age between 66 and 70 years, 73 belonging to the eighty years of life and 6 subject to the ninty. All patients have been operated in Day Hospi¬tal admission. No mortality has been found. Local post-operative complications was encountered in 1,8% of the cases

Slow pyrolysis as a method for biochar production from carob waste: Process investigation and products’ characterization

The zero-waste city challenge of the modern society is inevitably addressed to the development of model’s waste-to-energy. In this work, carob waste, largely used in the agro-industrial sector for sugar extraction or locust beangum (LBG) production, is considered as feedstock for the slow pyrolysis process. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in 2012, the world production of carobs was ca. 160,000 tons, mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean area (Spain, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, and Greece). To evaluate the biomass composition, at first, the carob waste was subjected to thermo-gravimetric analysis. The high content of fixed carbon suggests that carobs are a plausible candidate for pyrolysis conversion to biochar particles. The thermal degradation of the carob waste proceeds by four different steps related to the water and volatile substances’ removal, degradation of hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose degradation, and lignin decomposition. Considering this, the slow pyrolysis was carried out at three different temperatures, specifically, at 280, 340, and 400◦C, and the obtained products were characterized. Varying the processing temperature, the proportion of individual products’ changes with a reduction in the solid phase and an increase in liquid and gas phases, with an increase in the pyrolysis temperature. The obtained results suggest that carob waste can be considered a suitable feedstock for biochar production, rather than for fuels’ recovery

Accuracy Characterization of a MEMS Accelerometer for Vibration Monitoring in a Rotating Framework

Active and passive vibration control systems are of paramount importance in many engineering applications. If an external load excites a structure’s resonance and the damping is too low, detrimental events, such as crack initiation, growth and, in the worst case, fatigue failure, can be entailed. Damping systems can be commonly found in applications such as industrial machines, vehicles, buildings, turbomachinery blades, and so forth. Active control systems usually achieve higher damping effectiveness than passive ones, but they need a sensor to detect the working conditions that require damping system activation. Recently, the development of such systems in rotating structures has received considerable interest among designers. As a result, the development of vibration monitoring equipment in rotating structures is also a topic of particular interest. In this respect, a reliable, inexpensive and wireless monitoring system is of utmost importance. Typically, optical systems are used to measure vibrations, but they are expensive and require rather complex processing algorithms. In this paper, a wireless system based on a commercial MEMS accelerometer is developed for rotating blade vibration monitoring. The proposed system measurement accuracy was assessed by means of comparison with a reference wired measurement setup based on a mini integrated circuit piezoelectric (ICP) accelerometer adapted for data acquisition in a rotating frame. Both the accelerometers were mounted on the tip of the blade and, in order to test the structure under different conditions, the first four blade resonances were excited by means of piezoelectric actuators, embedded in a novel experimental setup. The frequency and amplitude of acceleration, simultaneously measured by the reference and MEMS sensors, were compared with each other in order to investigate the viability and accuracy of the proposed wireless monitoring system. The rotor angular speed was varied from 0 to 300 rpm, and the data acquisitions were repeated six times for each considered condition. The outcomes reveal that the wireless measurement system may be successfully used for vibration monitoring in rotating blades

Incompressible viscous flow near the leading edge of a flat plate admitting slip

The shear stress at the leading edge, calculated on basis of the Navier-Stokes equations and the no-slip boundary condition, approaches infinity. However, taking into account the mean free path of the molecules, which implies admitting a certain slip, the shear stress becomes inversely proportional to the square root of the Knudsen number κ if κ→0. κ is defined as the ratio between the mean free path and the viscous length. The new boundary condition modifies the shear stress only within the Knudsen region of which the size is of the order of 3 to 4 times the mean free path.

High spin Fe(III)-doped nanostructures as T1 MR imaging probes

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) T1 contrast agents based on Fe(III) as an alternative to Gd-based compounds have been under intense scrutiny in the last 6-8 years and a number of nanostructures have been designed and proposed for in vivo diagnostic and theranostic applications. Excluding the large family of superparamagnetic iron oxides widely used as T2 -MR imaging agents that will not be covered by this review, a considerable number and type of nanoparticles (NPs) have been employed, ranging from amphiphilic polymer-based NPs, NPs containing polyphenolic binding units such as melanin-like or polycatechols, mixed metals such as Fe/Gd or Fe/Au NPs and perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions. Iron(III) exhibits several favorable magnetic properties, high biocompatibility and improved toxicity profile that place it as the paramagnetic ion of choice for the next generation of nanosized MRI and theranostic contrast agents. An analysis of the examples reported in the last decade will show the opportunities for relaxivity and MR-contrast enhancement optimization that could bring Fe(III)-doped NPs to really compete with Gd(III)-based nanosystems. This article is categorized under: Diagnostic Tools > In Vivo Nanodiagnostics and Imaging Diagnostic Tools > Diagnostic Nanodevices Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease

In silico, in vitro, and in vivo approaches to identify molecular players in fragile X tremor and Ataxia syndrome

Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is a late-onset neurodegenerative monogenetic disorder affecting carriers of premutation (PM) forms of the FMR1 gene, resulting in a progressive development of tremors, ataxia, and neuropsychological problems. This highly disabling disease is quite common in the general population with an estimation of about 20 million PM carriers worldwide. The chances of developing FXTAS increase dramatically with age, with about 45% of male carriers over the age of 50 being affected. Both the gene and pathogenic trigger, a mutant expansion of CGG RNA, causing FXTAS are known. This makes it an interesting disease to develop targeted therapeutic interventions for. Yet, no such interventions are available at this moment. Here we discuss in silico, in vitro, and in vivo approaches and how they have been used to identify the molecular determinants of FXTAS pathology. These approaches have yielded substantial information about FXTAS pathology and, consequently, many markers have emerged to play a key role in understanding the disease mechanism. Integration of the different approaches is expected to provide crucial information about the value of these markers as either therapeutic target or biomarker, essential to monitor therapeutic interventions in the future