28,978 research outputs found
Refined shell elements for the analysis of functionally graded structures
The present paper considers the static analysis of plates and shells made of Functionally Graded Material (FGM), subjected to mechanical loads. Refined models based on the Carrera's Unified Formulation (CUF) are employed to account for grading material variation in the thickness direction. The governing equations are derived from the Principle of Virtual Displacement (PVD) in order to apply the Finite Element Method (FEM). A nine-nodes shell element with exact cylindrical geometry is considered. The shell can degenerate in the plate element by imposing an infinite radius of curvature. The Mixed Interpolation of Tensorial Components (MITC) technique is extended to the CUF in order to contrast the membrane and shear locking phenomenon. Different thickness ratios and orders of expansion for the displacement field are analyzed. The FEM results are compared with both benchmark solutions from literature and the results obtained using the Navier method that provides the analytical solution for simply-supported structures subjected to sinusoidal pressure loads. The shell element based on refined theories of the CUF turns out to be very efficient and its use is mandatory with respect to the classical models in the study of FGM structures
Properties of light scalar mesons from lattice QCD
Lattice QCD with flavours of sea quark is used to explore the
spectrum and decay of scalar mesons. We are able to determine the -
mass difference and this leads to the conclusion that the lightest non-singlet
scalar meson () has a mass of 1.01(4) GeV. We determine from the lattice
the coupling strength to KK and . We compute the leptonic decay
constant of the lightest non-singlet scalar meson.
We discuss the impact of these lattice results on the interpretation of the
state. We also discuss states.Comment: version accepted by Phys Rev
Age-related differences in pointing accuracy in familiar and unfamiliar environments
This study aimed to investigate age-related differences in spatial mental representations of familiar and unfamiliar places. Nineteen young adults (aged 18\u201323) and 19 older adults (aged 60\u201374), all living in the same Italian town, completed a set of visuospatial measures and then pointed in the direction of familiar landmarks in their town and in the direction of landmarks in an unknown environment studied on a map. Results showed that older adults were less accurate in the visuospatial tasks and in pointing at landmarks in an unfamiliar environment, but performed as well as the young adults when pointing to familiar places. Pointing performance correlated with visuospatial tests accuracy in both familiar and unfamiliar environments, while only pointing in an unknown environment correlated with visuospatial working memory (VSWM).
The spatial representation of well-known places seems to be well preserved in older adults (just as well as in young adults), while it declines for unfamiliar environments. Spatial abilities sustain the mental representations of both familiar and unfamiliar environments, while the support of VSWM resources is only needed for the latter
A FIRST DETERMINATION OF THE SURFACE DENSITY OF GALAXY CLUSTERS AT VERY LOW X--RAY FLUXES
We present the first results of a serendipitous search for clusters of
galaxies in deep ROSAT-PSPC pointed observations at high galactic latitude. The
survey is being carried out using a Wavelet based Detection Algorithm which is
not biased against extended, low surface brightness sources. A new
flux--diameter limited sample of 10 cluster candidates has been created from
surveyed area. Preliminary CCD observations have revealed
that a large fraction of these candidates correspond to a visible enhancement
in the galaxy surface density, and several others have been identified from
other surveys. We believe these sources to be either low--moderate redshift
groups or intermediate to high redshift clusters. We show X-ray and optical
images of some of the clusters identified to date. We present, for the first
time, the derived number density of the galaxy clusters to a flux limit of (0.5--2.0 keV). This extends the -- of previous cluster surveys by more than one decade in flux.
Results are compared to theoretical predictions for cluster number counts.Comment: uuencoded compressed Postscript, 7 pages including 4 figures.
Accepted for publication in Ap. J. Letters
The use of ultrasound in clinical setting for children affected by NAFLD. is it safe and accurate?
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become over the last decade the most common form of chronic liver disease in children and adults. Thus, establishing the diagnosis of NAFLD is of utmost importance and represents a major challenge as the disease is generally silent and the current gold standard for diagnosis is an invasive liver biopsy, a procedure that is not suitable for screening purposes. Many non-invasive diagnostic tools have been evaluated so far. Recently the utility of ultrasonography for non-invasive diagnosis and estimation of hepatic steatosis has been demonstrated in a large prospective pediatric study
The ROSAT Deep Cluster Survey: the X-ray Luminosity Function out to z=0.8
We present the X-ray Luminosity Function (XLF) of the ROSAT Deep Cluster
Survey (RDCS) sample over the redshift range 0.05-0.8. Our results are derived
from a complete flux-limited subsample of 70 galaxy clusters, representing the
brightest half of the total sample, which have been spectroscopically
identified down to the flux limit of 4*10^{-14} erg/cm^2/s (0.5-2.0 keV) and
have been selected via a serendipitous search in ROSAT-PSPC pointed
observations. The redshift baseline is large enough that evolutionary effects
can be studied within the sample. The local XLF (z < 0.25) is found to be in
excellent agreement with previous determinations using the ROSAT All-Sky Survey
data. The XLF at higher redshifts, when combined with the deepest number counts
constructed to date (f>2*10^{-14} arg/cm^2/s), reveal no significant evolution
at least out to z=0.8, over a luminosity range 2*10^{42}-3*10^{44} erg/s in the
[0.5-2 keV] band. These findings extend the study of cluster evolution to the
highest redshifts and the faintest fluxes probed so far in X-ray surveys. They
complement and do not necessarily conflict with those of the Einstein Extended
Medium Sensitivity Survey, leaving the possibility of negative evolution of the
brightest end of the XLF at high redshifts.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX (aasms4.sty). To appear in ApJ Letter
SN/GRB connection: a statistical approach with BATSE and Asiago Catalogues
Recent observations suggest that some types of GRB are physically connected
with SNe of type Ib/c. However, it has been pointed out by several authors that
some GRBs could be associated also with other types of core-collapse SNe (type
IIdw/IIn). On the basis of a comphrensive statistical study, which has made use
of the BATSE and Asiago catalogues, we have found that: i) the temporal and
spacial distribution of SNe-Ib/c is marginally correlated with that of the
BATSE GRBs; ii) we do not confirm the existence of an association between GRBs
and SNe-IIdw/IIn.Comment: Proceeding of the 4th workshop on Gamma Ray Bursts in the Afterglow
Era, Rome, 2004; 4 page
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