Large deflection of a non-linear, elastic, asymmetric Ludwick cantilever beam subjected to horizontal force, vertical force and bending torque at the free end

The investigated cantilever beam is characterized by a constant rectangular cross-section and is subjected to a concentrated constant vertical load, to a concentrated constant horizontal load and to a concentrated constant bending torque at the free end. The same beam is made by an elastic non-linear asymmetric Ludwick type material with different behavior in tension and compression. Namely the constitutive law of the proposed material is characterized by two different elastic moduli and two different strain exponential coefficients. The aim of this study is to describe the deformation of the beam neutral surface and particularly the horizontal and vertical displacements of the free end cross-section. The analysis of large deflection is based on the Euler-Bernoulli bending beam theory, for which cross-sections, after the deformation, remain plain and perpendicular to the neutral surface; furthermore their shape and area do not change. On the stress viewpoint, the shear stress effect and the axial force effect are considered negligible in comparison with the bending effect. The mechanical model deduced from the identified hypotheses includes two kind of non-linearity: the first due to the material and the latter due to large deformations. The mathematical problem associated with the mechanical model, i.e. to compute the bending deformations, consists in solving a non-linear algebraic system and a non-liner second order ordinary differential equation. Thus a numerical algorithm is developed and some examples of specific results are shown in this paper. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Magnetic resonance tumor regression grade (MR-TRG) to assess pathological complete response following neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of a magnetic resonance (MR) automatic method for quantitative assessment of the percentage of fibrosis developed within locally advanced rectal cancers (LARC) after neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy (RCT). A total of 65 patients were enrolled in the study and MR studies were performed on 3.0 Tesla scanner; patients were followed-up for 30 months. The percentage of fibrosis was quantified on T2-weighted images, using automatic K-Means clustering algorithm. According to the percentage of fibrosis, an optimal cut-off point for separating patients into favorable and unfavorable pathologic response groups was identified by ROC analysis and tumor regression grade (MR-TRG) classes were determined and compared to histopathologic TRG. An optimal cut-off point of 81% of fibrosis was identified to differentiate between favorable and unfavorable pathologic response groups resulting in a sensitivity of 78.26% and a specificity of 97.62% for the identification of complete responders (CRs). Interobserver agreement was good (0.85). The agreement between P-TRG and MR-TRG was excellent (0.923). Significant differences in terms of overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) were found between favorable and unfavorable pathologic response groups. The automatic quantification of fibrosis determined by MR is feasible and reproducible

Equivalence of switching linear systems by bisimulation

A general notion of hybrid bisimulation is proposed for the class of switching linear systems. Connections between the notions of bisimulation-based equivalence, state-space equivalence, algebraic and input–output equivalence are investigated. An algebraic characterization of hybrid bisimulation and an algorithmic procedure converging in a finite number of steps to the maximal hybrid bisimulation are derived. Hybrid state space reduction is performed by hybrid bisimulation between the hybrid system and itself. By specializing the results obtained on bisimulation, also characterizations of simulation and abstraction are derived. Connections between observability, bisimulation-based reduction and simulation-based abstraction are studied.\ud \u

CT diagnosis of small bowel obstruction caused by internal hernia from persistent attachment of a Meckel's diverticulum to the umbilicus by the obliterated omphalomesenteric duct

We report a case of small bowel obstruction (SBO) caused by internal hernia from persistent attachment of a Meckel's diverticulum (MD) to the umbilicus by the obliterated omphalomesenteric duct that was diagnosed by multidetector CT and confirmed during laparoscopic surgery. Although clinical, pathological and radiological features of MD and its complications are well known, the diagnosis of MD is difficult to establish preoperatively. CT findings that allow the diagnosis of this very unusual cause of SBO are presented here with laparoscopic surgery correlation

Splitting neutrino masses and showering into Sky

Neutrino masses might be as light as a few time the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting. High Energy ZeV cosmic neutrinos (in Z-Showering model) might hit relic ones at each mass in different resonance energies in our nearby Universe. This non-degenerated density and energy must split UHE Z-boson secondaries (in Z-Burst model) leading to multi injection of UHECR nucleons within future extreme AUGER energy. Secondaries of Z-Burst as neutral gamma, below a few tens EeV are better surviving local GZK cut-off and they might explain recent Hires BL-Lac UHECR correlations at small angles. A different high energy resonance must lead to Glashow's anti-neutrino showers while hitting electrons in matter. In air, Glashow's anti-neutrino showers lead to collimated and directional air-showers offering a new Neutrino Astronomy. At greater energy around PeV, Tau escaping mountains and Earth and decaying in flight are effectively showering in air sky. These Horizontal showering is splitting by geomagnetic field in forked shapes. Such air-showers secondaries release amplified and beamed gamma bursts (like observed TGF), made also by muon and electron pair bundles, with their accompanying rich Cherenkov flashes. Also planet' s largest (Saturn, Jupiter) atmosphere limbs offer an ideal screen for UHE GZK and Z-burst tau neutrino, because their largest sizes. Titan thick atmosphere and small radius are optimal for discovering up-going resonant Glashow resonant showers. Earth detection of Neutrino showering by twin Magic Telescopes on top mountains, or by balloons and satellites arrays facing the limbs are the simplest and cheapest way toward UHE Neutrino Astronomy .Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures; an author's name correction and Journal Referenc

Plasma antioxidants from chocolate

There is some speculation that dietary flavonoids from chocolate, in particular (-)epicatechin, may promote cardiovascular health as a result of direct antioxidant effects or through antithrombotic mechanisms. Here we show that consumption of plain, dark chocolate results in an increase in both the total antioxidant capacity and the (-)epicatechin content of blood plasma, but that these effects are markedly reduced when the chocolate is consumed with milk or if milk is incorporated as milk chocolate. Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate in vivo and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate