Investigation via morphological analysis of aluminium foams produced by replication casting

Foams and porous materials with cellular structure have many interesting combinations of physical and mechanical properties coupled with low specific weight. By means of replication casting it is possible to manufacture foams from molten metal without direct foaming. A soluble salt is used as space holder, which is removed by leaching in water. This can be done successfully if the content of space holding fillers is so high that all the granules are interconnected. One of the main advantages of using the replication casting is a close control of pore sizes which is given by the distribution of particle sizes of the filler material. This contrasts with the pore size distribution of the materials foamed by other processes where a wider statistical distribution of pores is found. On the other hand, the maximum porosities that can be achieved using space holders are limited to values below 60%, whereas the other methods allow for porosities up to 98%. Temperature of the mould and infiltration pressure are critical process parameters: a typical problem encountered is the premature solidification of the melt, especially due to the high heat capacity of the salt. In this work foam properties such as cell shape, distribution and anisotropy and defect presence are investigated by using digital image processing technique. For this purpose replicated AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy foams are produced by infiltrating preforms of NaCl particles, varying the metal infiltration pressure and the mould preheating temperature. An original procedure based on image analysis has been set up to determine size, morphology and distribution of cells. The paper demonstrates that this methodology, coupled with microstructural analysis, is a useful tool for investigating the effects of process parameters on foam properties

Patient Active Approaches in Osteopathic Practice: A Scoping Review

Background: In the field of manual therapies there is a growing interest in moving from passive hands-on approaches to patient active approaches. In the osteopathic field there are both active and passive methods described as integrated in the process of care. However, this prospective linkage has not been formally explored and is not well shared in the community of practice. The present review aims to appraise the relevant literature on the functioning and principles of Patient active osteopathic approaches (PAOAs) and explore a prospective model for selecting the different types of PAOA, highlighting their integration into patient management strategies. Methods: A scoping review was conducted to analyze the relevant literature on the functioning and the different principles of PAOA and to obtain a comprehensive perspective on the phenomenon. Results: The eligible articles provide insights into the mechanisms of functioning and principles of application of active approaches to be integrated with hands-on approaches. These results provide new insights into the relevance of PAOA to clinical practice. Conclusions: The proposal, emerging from the review, may promote discussions in the community of practice and provide a road map for research towards achieving an evidence-based structure for PAOA

Running towards amblyopia recovery

Amblyopia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of the visual cortex arising from abnormal visual experience early in life which is a major cause of impaired vision in infants and young children (prevalence around 3.5%). Current treatments such as eye patching are ineffective in a large number of patients, especially when applied after the juvenile critical period. Physical exercise has been recently shown to enhance adult visual cortical plasticity and to promote visual acuity recovery. With the aim to understand the potentialities for translational applications, we investigated the effects of voluntary physical activity on recovery of depth perception in adult amblyopic rats with unrestricted binocular vision; visual acuity recovery was also assessed. We report that three weeks of voluntary physical activity (free running) induced a marked and long-lasting recovery of both depth perception and visual acuity. In the primary visual cortex, ocular dominance recovered both for excitatory and inhibitory cells and was linked to activation of a specific intracortical GABAergic circuit

Vertical Greenery as Natural Tool for Improving Energy Efficiency of Buildings

The European Construction Sector Observatory outlined that green building envelopes as green roofs and walls contribute to the reduction of energy demand and CO2 emissions due to the air conditioning in summer periods, and the mitigation of heat islands in urban areas. For this reason, the understanding about the contribution of urban greening infrastructures on buildings to sustainable energy use for air conditioning is urgent. This paper focuses on the analysis of a vertical surface provided with a Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch., a winter deciduous species, as green cover of a building, assessing the reduction of the solar radiation energy absorbed by the facade and, consequently, the heat flux (HF) transmitted into the internal ambient. This research shows that, in July, surface temperatures (STs) on the vegetated facade were up to 13 degrees C lower than on the unvegetated (bare) facade. Under the climate and environmental conditions of the green wall located at ENEA Casaccia Research Center, a saving of 2.22 and 1.94 kWh(e)/m(2) , respectively in 2019 and 2020, for the summer cooling electricity load, was achieved. These energy reductions also allowed the saving of 985 and 862 g CO2/m(2) emissions, respectively, in 2019 and 2020. Ultimately, a green factor named K-v* was also elaborated to evaluate the influence of vegetation on the STs as well as on HFs transmitted into the indoor ambient and adapted to the case of a detached vertical green cover. Measurements of K-v* factor lasting three years showed the suitability of this index for defining the shading capacity of the vegetation on the building facade surfaces, which can be used to predict thermal gains and effects in a building endowed of a vertical green system

Forebulge migration in the foreland basin system of the central-southern Apennine fold-thrust belt (Italy): New high-resolution Sr-isotope dating constraints

The Apennines are a retreating collisional belt where the foreland basin system, across large domains, is floored by a subaerial forebulge unconformity developed due to forebulge uplift and erosion. This unconformity is overlain by a diachronous sequence of three lithostratigraphic units made of (a) shallow-water carbonates, (b) hemipelagic marls and shales and (c) siliciclastic turbidites. Typically, the latter two have been interpreted regionally as the onset of syn-orogenic deposition in the foredeep depozone, whereas little attention has been given to the underlying unit. Accordingly, the rate of migration of the central-southern Apennine fold-thrust belt-foreland basin system has been constrained, so far, exclusively considering the age of the hemipelagites and turbidites, which largely post-date the onset of foredeep depozone. In this work, we provide new high-resolution ages obtained by strontium isotope stratigraphy applied to calcitic bivalve shells sampled at the base of the first syn-orogenic deposits overlying the Eocene-Cretaceous pre-orogenic substratum. Integration of our results with published data indicates progressive rejuvenation of the strata sealing the forebulge unconformity towards the outer portions of the fold-thrust belt. In particular, the age of the forebulge unconformity linearly scales with the pre-orogenic position of the analysed sites, pointing to an overall constant migration velocity of the forebulge wave in the last 25 Myr

MDT data quality assessment at the Calibration Centres for the ATLAS experiment at LHC

ATLAS is a large multipurpose detector, presently in the final phase of construction at the CERN Large Hadron Collider accelerator. In ATLAS the muon detection is performed by a huge magnetic spectrometer, built with the Monitored Drift Tube technology. It consists of more than 1,000 chambers and 350,000 drift tubes, which have to be controlled to a spatial accuracy better than 10 μm and an efficiency close to 100%. Therefore, the automated monitoring of the detector is an essential aspect of the operation of the spectrometer. The quality procedure collects data from online and offline sources and from the Calibration Stream at the Calibration Centres, situated in Ann Arbor (Michigan), MPI (Munich) and INFN Rome. The assessment at the Calibration Centres is performed using the DQHistogramAnalyzer utility of the ATHENA package. This application checks the histograms in an automated way and, after a further inspection with a human interface, reports results and summaries. The analysis results are stored in an Oracle Database using the COOL LCG library, through a C++ object-oriented interface. In this study a complete description of the entire chain, from the calibration stream up to the database storage is presented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/85418/1/jpconf10_219_032062.pd

Accounting for Napoleonic Imperialism in Tuscany and the Kingdom of Naples

Purpose. The study examines the role of accounting in the enactment of the Napoleonic imperial project in Tuscany and the Kingdom of Naples in the early 19th century. Design/methodology/approach. The study adopts the Foucauldian theoretical framework of governmentality and a comparative approach to highlight similarities and differences between the two regions. Findings. The presence of different cultural understandings and structures of power meant that in Tuscany accounting mirrored and reinforced the existing power structure, whereas in the Kingdom of Naples accounting practices were constitutive of power relations and acted as a compensatory mechanism. In the Kingdom of Naples, where local elites had been traditionally involved in ruling municipalities, control of accounting information and the use of resources ‘re-adjusted’ the balance of power in favour of the French whilst letting local population believe that Napoleon was respectful of local customs. Research implications. The ability of accounting technologies to act as compensatory mechanisms within governmentality systems paves the way to further investigations about the relationships between accounting and other governmentality technologies as well as the adjustment mechanisms leading to accounting resilience in different contexts. Social implications. By identifying accounting as an adaptive instrument supporting less obvious practices of domination the study helps unmask a hidden mechanism underlying attempts to know, govern and control populations which still characterises modern forms of imperialism. Originality/value. The comparative perspective leads to a new specification of the multifaceted roles that accounting plays in different cultural and political contexts in the achievement of the same set of imperial goals and enhances understanding of the translation of politics, rhetoric and power into a set of administrative tasks and calculative practices

Selective hydrogenation of 1,3-butadiene by transition metal compounds immobilized in 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium room temperature ionic liquids

The compounds [Co(acac)2], [Co(acac)3], [Fe(acac)3] and [Ni(acac)2] (acac = acetylacetonate) dissolved in 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (1), trifluoromethanesulphonate (2) or hexafluorophosphate (3) catalyze the reduction of 1,3-butadiene into butenes in a typical two-phase catalytic reaction. The 1,3-butadiene conversion, the selectivity and turnover frequencies (TOF) are strongly dependent on the nature of the transition metal catalyst precursor and the ionic liquid. For [Co(acac)2] dissolved in 1, kinetic studies strongly suggest that the reaction takes place in the ionic solution bulk, having an apparent activation energy for the overall process of 33.8 kJ mol-1. The recovered ionic catalyst solution can be reused several times without any significant changes on activity and selectivity.Os complexos [Co(acac)2], [Co(acac)3], [Fe(acac)3] e [Ni(acac)2] (acac = acetilacetonato) dissolvidos em tetrafluoroborato de 1-butil-3-metilimidazônio (1), trifluorometanosulfonato de 1-butil-3-metilimidazólio (2) ou hexafluorofosfato de 1-butil-3-metilimidazólio (3), catalisam a hidrogenação de 1,3-butadieno em butenos em sistema catalítico tipicamente bifásico. A conversão do 1,3-butadieno, a seletividade e a freqüência de rotação (TOF) são fortemente dependentes do metal de transição e do líquido iônico. Para [Co(acac)2] dissolvido em 1, estudos cinéticos sugerem que a reação ocorre no meio líquido iônico, com uma energia aparente de ativação de of 33.8 kJ mol-1. A solução iônica do catalisador pode ser recuperada e reutilizada várias vezes sem mudanças perceptíveis na atividade e seletividade da reação