A regional-scale conceptual and numerical groundwater flow model in fluvio-glacial sediments for the Milan Metropolitan area (Northern Italy)

Study region: The Milan metropolitan area lies on one of the most important aquifer in Italy, heavily exploited for public and industrial water supply. The area, covering 3135 km2 in the Po Plain (Northern Italy) with a continental climate, is bounded by the Po, the Adda and the Ticino rivers and by the prealpine foothills. Regional hydrology is characterised by a network of natural and man-made elements, and lowland springs. The sedimentary sequence, from bottom to top, is formed by meandering river plain deposits, the distal fringe of the glacial outwash plains and proximal braid-plain deposits. Study focus: This study proposes a general approach for aquifer geometry reconstruction and hydrodynamic parametrization of hydrofacies in fluvio-glacial deposits, and their implementation into a 3D regional groundwater flow model. This approach is based on sedimentologically-defined lithofacies/hydrofacies and their correlation in space to obtain nearly homogeneous subunits starting from available data (i.e. 8628 borehole logs, grain size distributions, well tests) and sedimentological knowledge. New hydrological insights for the region: The calibrated 3D FEM groundwater model allows quantifying the main components of the hydrogeological budget at the regional scale, and the fluxes among the different hydro-stratigraphic units. A sensitivity analysis of groundwater levels to the main recharge components suggests importance of anthropogenic disturbances with respect to natural recharge, and that land-use change may impact water resources more than climate change

Torre Alfina Deep Geothermal Reservoir

The Castel Giorgio-Torre Alfina (CG-TA, central Italy) is a geothermal reservoir whose fluids are hosted in a carbonate formation at temperatures ranging between 120°C and 210°C. Data from deep wells suggest the existence of convective flow. We present the 3D numerical model of the CG-TA to simulate the undisturbed natural geothermal field and investigate the impacts of the exploitation process. The open source finite-element code OpenGeoSys is applied to solve the coupled systems of partial differential equations. The commercial software FEFLOW® is also used as additional numerical constraint. Calculated pressure and temperature have been calibrated against data from geothermal wells. The flow field displays multicellular convective patterns that cover the entire geothermal reservoir. The resulting thermal plumes protrude vertically over 3 km at Darcy velocity of about  m/s. The analysis of the exploitation process demonstrated the sustainability of a geothermal doublet for the development of a 5 MW pilot plant. The buoyant circulation within the geothermal system allows the reservoir to sustain a 50-year production at a flow rate of 1050 t/h. The distance of 2 km, between the production and reinjection wells, is sufficient to prevent any thermal breakthrough within the estimated operational lifetime. OGS and FELFOW results are qualitatively very similar with differences in peak velocities and temperatures. The case study provides valuable guidelines for future exploitation of the CG-TA deep geothermal reservoir

BEAT: Bioinformatics Exon Array Tool to store, analyze and visualize Affymetrix GeneChip Human Exon Array data from disease experiments

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is known from recent studies that more than 90% of human multi-exon genes are subject to Alternative Splicing (AS), a key molecular mechanism in which multiple transcripts may be generated from a single gene. It is widely recognized that a breakdown in AS mechanisms plays an important role in cellular differentiation and pathologies. Polymerase Chain Reactions, microarrays and sequencing technologies have been applied to the study of transcript diversity arising from alternative expression. Last generation Affymetrix GeneChip Human Exon 1.0 ST Arrays offer a more detailed view of the gene expression profile providing information on the AS patterns. The exon array technology, with more than five million data points, can detect approximately one million exons, and it allows performing analyses at both gene and exon level. In this paper we describe BEAT, an integrated user-friendly bioinformatics framework to store, analyze and visualize exon arrays datasets. It combines a data warehouse approach with some rigorous statistical methods for assessing the AS of genes involved in diseases. Meta statistics are proposed as a novel approach to explore the analysis results. BEAT is available at <url>http://beat.ba.itb.cnr.it</url>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>BEAT is a web tool which allows uploading and analyzing exon array datasets using standard statistical methods and an easy-to-use graphical web front-end. BEAT has been tested on a dataset with 173 samples and tuned using new datasets of exon array experiments from 28 colorectal cancer and 26 renal cell cancer samples produced at the Medical Genetics Unit of IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza.</p> <p>To highlight all possible AS events, alternative names, accession Ids, Gene Ontology terms and biochemical pathways annotations are integrated with exon and gene level expression plots. The user can customize the results choosing custom thresholds for the statistical parameters and exploiting the available clinical data of the samples for a multivariate AS analysis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Despite exon array chips being widely used for transcriptomics studies, there is a lack of analysis tools offering advanced statistical features and requiring no programming knowledge. BEAT provides a user-friendly platform for a comprehensive study of AS events in human diseases, displaying the analysis results with easily interpretable and interactive tables and graphics.</p

Cálculo de la longitud mínima de aproximación para una canaleta Parshall a través de la comparación del comportamiento hidráulico entre un modelo numérico y un modelo físico

Trabajo de InvestigaciónLa canaleta Parshall es una estructura hidraulica de gran empleabilidad dentro del campo de la Ingenieria, uno de sus usos es aforador de caudal o instrumento medidor. Pero en medio de su funcionalidad presenta problemas a la hora de encontrar obstaculos a la entrada de la canaleta, lo que hace que se alteren las laminas de agua, causando grandes problemas a su funcionalidad. El presente estudio propone un analisis en la longitud de aproximacion a la entrada de la canaleta en donde al interponer obstaculos, no se causara ninguna interferencia a las laminas de agua. Para el estudio efectivo se utiliza la herramienta computacional OpenFoam, con el fin de de determinar que longitud es la más exacta para no alterar las condiciones del flujo. De la misma manera estos resultados son comparados con un modelo a escala de laboratorioINTRODUCCIÓN 1. GENERALIDADES 2. MARCO DE REFERENCIA 3. METODOLOGIA 4. RESULTADOS 5. CONCLUSIONES 6. RECOMENDACIONES 7. ANEXOS 8. BIBLIOGRAFIAPregradoIngeniero Civi

Experimental tests of hidden variable theories from dBB to Stochastic Electrodynamics

In this paper we present some of our experimental results on testing hidden variable theories, which range from Bell inequalities measurements to a conclusive test of stochastic electrodynamics

DF2726A, a new IL-8 signalling inhibitor, is able to counteract chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a common dose-limiting side effect of several anti-neoplastics and a main cause of sensory disturbances in cancer survivors, negatively impacting patients' quality of life. Peripheral nerve degeneration or small fibre neuropathy is generally accepted as the underlying mechanism in the development of CIPN. Recent evidence has contributed to clarify the determinant role of cytokines and chemokines in the process leading to neuronal hyperexcitability. Exposure to oxaliplatin triggers alterations in peripheral neuropathic pathways previously linked to IL-8 pathway. We investigated a novel selective inhibitor of IL-8 receptors, DF2726A, and showed its effects in counteracting CINP pathways, extending the relevance of the activation of IL-8 pathway to the class of platinum chemotherapeutics. Based on our results, we suggest that DF2726A might be a promising candidate for clinical treatment of CIPN conditions due to its efficacy and optimized pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic profile