A new CAE procedure for railway wheel tribological design

New demands are being imposed on railway wheel wear and reliability to increase the time between wheel reprofiling, improve safety and reduce total wheelset lifecycle costs. In parallel with these requirements, changes in railway vehicle missions are also occurring. These have led to the need to operate rolling stock on track with low as well as high radius curves; increase speeds and axle loads; and contend with a decrease in track quality due to a reduction in maintenance. These changes are leading to an increase in the severity of the wheel/rail contact conditions, which may increase the likelihood of wear or damage occurring. The aim of this work was to develop a new CAE design methodology to deal with these demands. The model should integrate advanced numerical tools for modelling of railway vehicle dynamics and suitable models to predict wheelset durability under typical operating conditions. This will help in designing wheels for minimum wheel and rail wear; optimising railway vehicle suspensions and wheel profiles; maintenance scheduling and the evaluation of new wheel materials. This work was carried out as part of the project HIPERWheel, funded by the European Community within the Vth Framework Programme

The Monge problem in Wiener Space

We address the Monge problem in the abstract Wiener space and we give an existence result provided both marginal measures are absolutely continuous with respect to the infinite dimensional Gaussian measure {\gamma}

Applying and validating the PTVA-3 Model at the Aeolian Islands, Italy: assessment of the vulnerability of buildings to tsunamis

The volcanic archipelago of the Aeolian Islands (Sicily, Italy) is included on the UNESCO World Heritage list and is visited by more than 200 000 tourists per year. Due to its geological characteristics, the risk related to volcanic and seismic activity is particularly high. Since 1916 the archipelago has been hit by eight local tsunamis. The most recent and intense of these events happened on 30 December 2002. It was triggered by two successive landslides along the north-western side of the Stromboli volcano (Sciara del Fuoco), which poured approximately 2–3×10<sup>7</sup> m<sup>3</sup> of rocks and debris into the Tyrrhenian Sea. The waves impacted across the whole archipelago, but most of the damage to buildings and infrastructures occurred on the islands of Stromboli (maximum run-up 11 m) and Panarea. <br><br> The aim of this study is to assess the vulnerability of buildings to damage from tsunamis located within the same area inundated by the 2002 event. The assessment is carried out by using the PTVA-3 Model (Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment, version 3). The PTVA-3 Model calculates a Relative Vulnerability Index (RVI) for every building, based on a set of selected physical and structural attributes. Run-up values within the area inundated by the 2002 tsunami were measured and mapped by the Istituto Italiano di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and the University of Bologna during field surveys in January 2003. Results of the assessment show that if the same tsunami were to occur today, 54 buildings would be affected in Stromboli, and 5 in Panarea. The overall vulnerability level obtained in this analysis for Stromboli and Panarea are "average"/"low" and "very low", respectively. Nonetheless, 14 buildings in Stromboli are classified as having a "high" or "average" vulnerability. For some buildings, we were able to validate the RVI scores calculated by the PTVA-3 Model through a qualitative comparison with photographs taken by INGV and the University of Bologna during the post-tsunami survey. With the exception of a single structure, which is partially covered by a coastal dune on the seaward side, we found a good degree of accuracy between the PTVA-3 Model forecast assessments and the actual degree of damage experienced by buildings. This validation of the model increases our confidence in its predictive capability. Given the high tsunami risk for the archipelago, our results provide a framework for prioritising investments in prevention measures and addressing the most relevant vulnerability issues of the built environment, particularly on the island of Stromboli

Corrigendum to "Applying and validating the PTVA-3 Model at the Aeolian Islands, Italy: assessment of the vulnerability of buildings to tsunamis" published in Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 10, 1547–1562, 2010

F. Dall'Osso1,2,4, A. Maramai3, L. Graziani3, B. Brizuela3, A. Cavalletti2,4, M. Gonella2,4, and S. Tinti5 1CIRSA, Interdepartmental Centre for Environmental Sciences Research, University of Bologna, via S. Alberto 163, 48100 Ravenna, Italy 2IDRA, Environmental Research Institute, via Kennedy 37, 44100 Ferrara, Italy 3INGV, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143 Roma, Italy 4Med Ingegneria S.r.l., Environmental Engineering, via P. Zangheri 16, 48124 Ravenna, Italy 5University of Bologna, Department of Physics, Viale Carlo Berti Pichat 8, 40127 Bologna, Ital

Translational and transdisciplinary approach to the human papilloma virus – Preliminary evidence from the Italian “HPV board: a future without papilloma virus” project

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered to be one of the viral infections associated with cancers and other diseases. HPV is detected asymptomatically in the oral mucosa. The presence of human papillomavirus in the oral mucosa appears to be closely associated with a series of benign and malign oral lesions. The aim of this paper is to report the Italian experience in applying translational protocols, using new technologies and multidisciplinary strategies in Human Papilloma virus detection and treatment. The “HPV board: a future without papilloma virus” project was born, promoted by CNEL (Italian Council of Economics and Labor) with the collaboration of numerous scientific societies to commonly approach to public knowledge of HPV-related oral lesions and their clinical management. The preliminary results are related to the assessment of the proof-of-concept of this new project. More in details, “HPV Board” is a project that plans the presence of a working group, made up of otolaryngologists, dentists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, in close contact with gynecologists, oncologists and pediatricians; this working group manages to combine very transversal skills, in order to promote primary prevention projects, early diagnosis and adequate therapies. The “HPV BOARD” project will give the opportunity to increase the attention of patients and doctors on the early diagnosis of oncological diseases dependent on infection by the infectious agent HPV. In this panorama, dentists will have the role of “first sentinel” of public health because oral health is an indicator, too often overlooked, for the prevention of numerous diseases

Pharmacokinetic behaviour of the chemoprotectants BNP7787 and mesna after an i.v. bolus injection in rats

0.01). In conclusion, the five-fold higher AUC of mesna in plasma after mesna administration and the fact that mesna is more reactive with (hydrated) cisplatin than its disulphide form BNP7787 represent a plausible explanation as to why mesna administration can reduce the antitumour activity of cisplatin. After BNP7787 administration, the distribution of BNP7787 and mesna was restricted to the kidney, which confirmed the selective protection of the kidney by BNP7787

Protons in near earth orbit

The proton spectrum in the kinetic energy range 0.1 to 200 GeV was measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) during space shuttle flight STS-91 at an altitude of 380 km. Above the geomagnetic cutoff the observed spectrum is parameterized by a power law. Below the geomagnetic cutoff a substantial second spectrum was observed concentrated at equatorial latitudes with a flux ~ 70 m^-2 sec^-1 sr^-1. Most of these second spectrum protons follow a complicated trajectory and originate from a restricted geographic region.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, 7 .eps figure

Search for antihelium in cosmic rays

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) was flown on the space shuttle Discovery during flight STS-91 in a 51.7 degree orbit at altitudes between 320 and 390 km. A total of 2.86 * 10^6 helium nuclei were observed in the rigidity range 1 to 140 GV. No antihelium nuclei were detected at any rigidity. An upper limit on the flux ratio of antihelium to helium of < 1.1 * 10^-6 is obtained.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, 9 .eps figure