Lagrange formal calculus as applied to Lagrange mechanics: an exercise in anachronism

When Lagrange wrote his masterpiece Mecanique Analytique, the foundations of analysis were not completely understood: to erect the great building of Analytical Mechanics upon solid foundations, the Piedmontese mathematician tried to lay the foundations of differential calculus in a purely algebraic way, using power series instead of functions, regardless about convergence and uniqueness issues. While this foundation was unsatisfactory as shown by Cauchy some decades later, it can shed light on how Lagrange considered the analytical objects (curves, energies, etc.) he dealt with in Mechanics. In this paper, we review these Lagrangian foundations of analysis, and we try to adopt its obvious modern counterpart, i.e., formal power series, to express some results in Analytical Mechanics related to Helmholtz conditions and Rayleigh description of dissipation. By means of purely algebraic manipulations, we will easily recover results otherwise proved by means of modern analysis

APPLICATION OF A FUNCTIONAL MATHEMATICAL QUALITY INDEX

In this article, we apply a functional mathematical index (FMI), introduced in a previous publication, to 20 commercial potato varieties. The index allows evaluation of nutritional, safety and processing "quality parameters" of different potato cultivars. The main goal of the index is to link the quality of the chemical composition with factors that may affect the growth, production, distribution and processing of potatoes and potato products for commercial use. The index has been used to assess FMI values of 20 commercial potato cultivars in terms of their content of asparagine and reducing sugars, which form heat-induced potentially toxic acrylamide and of antioxidative phenolic compounds, which participate in nonenzymatic browning reactions and may exert beneficial effects after consumption. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The index could be useful to a wide set of users, including consumers of potatoes as well as to potato producers and breeders, because it makes it possible to relate the index to the potato price and operate a more accurate choice for selection of so-called "optimal potatoes." Potato producers may find the index useful because it can help them detect the critical points throughout the whole food production chain in order to facilitate selection of high-quality potatoes for sale to consumers. Potato breeders could apply the index to the development and selection of improved cultivars for commercial use

A Reaction-Diffusion Numerical Model to Predict Cardiac Tissues Regeneration Via Stem Cell Therapy

Myocardial infarction is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized world. Extensive loss of cardiomyocytes, substituted by scarred tissue, is the key pathological mechanism leading to post infarc- tion heart failure [1]. The use of exogenous cells to replace lost cardiomy- ocytes has been demonstrated in animal models and in clinical trials by transplanting mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into the infarcted area. To optimize the initial conditions of the stem cell therapy, many experimen- tal studies are focused on determining the number and the localization of stem cells that must be implanted near the necrotic area. In this work we develop a quantitative numerical model able to simulate substrate con- centration profile, stem cells distribution and their proliferation near the ischemic area. The model describes the cell growth, the nutrient transport and its consumption through reaction-diffusion equations. The shrinking of the necrotic area leads in fact to a moving boundary problem. Some preliminary results, obtained in a 3D framework, are shown and discuss

A model predictive approach to control vehicle skidding by sideslip angle estimation

Circular external fixators using hexapod struts are a valuable tool in the treatment of complex, multiplanar limb deformities

ECT, rTMS, and deepTMS in pharmacoresistant drug-free patients with unipolar depression: a comparative review

Background: Biological treatments are considered as additional options for the treatment of resistant unipolar depression. Controversial data exist about the efficacy and tolerability of three of the most used somatic treatments: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (deepTMS). The aim of this review is to investigate and compare the efficacy and tolerability of these three techniques in drug-free patients with pharmacoresistant unipolar depression. Methods: Three independent reviewers extracted data and assessed the quality of methodological reporting of selected studies. The first outcome was the clinical response to the three different techniques defined as a percentage improvement of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). The second outcome was the evaluation of their neuropsychological effects. The third outcome was the evaluation of the number of remitted patients; remission was defined as an absolute HDRS-24 score of <= 11 or as an absolute HDRS-17 score of <= 8. Tolerability was the fourth outcome; it was evaluated by examining the number of dropped-out patients. Results: The comparative evaluation of HDRS percentage variations shows ECT as the most effective method after 4 weeks of therapy; on the other hand, a better efficacy is obtainable by deepTMS after 2 weeks of therapy. DeepTMS is the technique that gives the best improvement of cognitive performances. The percentage of remitted patients obtained with ECT treatment is the same obtained in the deepTMS group. Both techniques have a remitted patients percentage two times larger than the rTMS. DeepTMS shows a tolerability, measured by the number of dropped-out patients, worse than ECT. Conclusion: Our investigation confirms the great therapeutic power of ECT. DeepTMS seems to be the only therapy that provides a substantial improvement of both depressive symptoms and cognitive performances; nevertheless it is characterized by a poor tolerability. rTMS seems to provide a better tolerability for patients, but its therapeutic efficacy is lower. Considering the small therapeutic efficacy of deepTMS in the last 2 weeks of treatment, it could be reasonable to shorten the standard period of deepTMS treatment from 4 to 2 weeks, expecting a reduction of dropped-out patients and thus optimizing the treatment outcome

Hyperbaric exposure and oxidative Stress in occupational activities (HEOxS): the study protocol

Background: Hyperbaric exposure (HE) is proven to be a stressor to several mechanisms in living cells. Even if after homeostasis restoration, harmful effects are expected, in particular a presence of free radicals. These latter are the stimulus to negative phenomenon as inflammation or cancer. In Italy, with 7500 km of sea shores, a large quantity of workers is exposed to HE during occupational activities. A deep knowledge of HE and bodily effects is not well defined; hence a multidisciplinary assessment of risk is needed. To detect one or more indicators of HE a research group is organised, under the INAIL sponsorship. The research project focused on the oxidative stress (OxS) and this paper details on the possible protocol to estimate, with a large amount of techniques on several human liquids, the relationship between OxS and HE. Specific attention will be paid to identify confounding factors and their influence. Methods: Blood and urine will be sampled. Several lab techniques will be performed on samples, both targeted, to measure the level of well-known biomarkers, and untargeted. Regard the formers: products of oxidation of DNA and RNA in urine; inflammation and temperature cytokines and protein carbonyles in blood. Untargeted evaluation will be performed for a metabolomics analysis in urine. Confounding factors: temperature, body fat, fitness, allergies and dietary habits. These factors will be assessed, directly or indirectly, prior and after HE. The final scope of the project is to determine one or more indicators that relates to HE in hits twofold nature: depth and duration. Conclusion: The relationship between OxS and HE is not deeply investigated and literature proposes diverging results. The project aims to define the time dependence of biomarkers related to OxS, to rise knowledge in risk assessment in workers exposed to HE

A Woman’s Loss of Imagination: Paola Masino’s Magical Realism in Nascita e morte della Massaia

Criticism on Paola Masino has flourished since the early 2000s. This increased attention has contributed towards reclaiming an author often overshadowed by the attention received by her partner, Massimo Bontempelli, the father of realismo magico. Masino experimented with a variety of styles—realismo magico was one of them—as she rejected strictly naturalistic forms of representation, preferring to co-opt myths and the supernatural. Nascita e morte della Massaia (1945) is Masino’s most renowned literary effort, both for its critique of Fascist Italy and for its sophisticated stylistic effects. Nascita, while indebted to Bontempelli’s theorizations, features all the chief characteristics listed in Faris’s analysis of magical realism as an international phenomenon, and illustrates how magical realism offers strategies for evading censorship to those writing against totalitarianism regimes. At the same time, it is an example of how magical realism can be used to denounce socially imposed gender roles. My analysis shows how this narrative mode emerges on multiple levels within Masino’s text

The reference site collaborative network of the european innovation partnership on active and healthy ageing

Seventy four Reference Sites of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) have been recognised by the European Commission in 2016 for their commitment to excellence in investing and scaling up innovative solutions for active and healthy ageing. The Reference Site Collaborative Network (RSCN) brings together the EIP on AHA Reference Sites awarded by the European Commission, and Candidate Reference Sites into a single forum. The overarching goals are to promote cooperation, share and transfer good practice and solutions in the development and scaling up of health and care strategies, policies and service delivery models, while at the same time supporting the action groups in their work. The RSCN aspires to be recognized by the EU Commission as the principal forum and authority representing all EIP on AHA Reference Sites. The RSCN will contribute to achieve the goals of the EIP on AHA by improving health and care outcomes for citizens across Europe, and the development of sustainable economic growth and the creation of jobs

Total quality indexes for extra-virgin olive oils

In this article, we propose a new and functional mathematical index, able to describe and compare the nutritional, safety and process quality in extra-virgin olive oil, introducing a definition of “optimal” oil, through the use of appropriate distances in a N-dimensional parameter space. Our index does not pretend to be the unique answer to the need of a “quality index,” but it presents a way through which we can establish if an extra-virgin olive oil can be considered of high, medium or low quality. The main goal of our index is to link oil chemical quality to its commercial price; furthermore, it can be, in perspective, useful to detect the critical points (such as harvest time, drupe storage, processes and finally oil storage) during all the production chain, and to show how to increase nutritional, safety and technological quality

Metodo di misurazione della capacità antiossidante

L'invenzione concerne un metodo di misurazione della capacità antiossidante. Più in particolare l'invenzione si riferisce ad un metodo di misurazione della capacità antiossidante totale di una sostanza che presenti una frazione lipofila, o idrofila, o entrambe