483 research outputs found
Materiales y tecnologĂas en la Arquitectura Modernista: casos de estudio de decoraciĂłn de fachadas en Italia, Portugal y Polonia persiguiendo una restauraciĂłn racional
The results of a diagnostic survey on the materials of representative Art Nouveau buildings in Italy, Portugal and Poland are here presented and compared, as a contribution to their understanding and, hence, to support compatible restoration. In particular, the facade decorations were investigated for the appraisal of their materials and technologies, often neglected in current maintenance/restoration works and so cancelled, leading to a severe loss in architectural image. The ongoing diagnostic campaign, in collaboration among different universities, is aimed to set up a database on materials and technologies of Art Nouveau facade decorations at a European scale, as a technical-scientific background for the highlighting of preservation guidelines
Hybrid Simulation Safety: Limbos and Zero Crossings
Physical systems can be naturally modeled by combining continuous and
discrete models. Such hybrid models may simplify the modeling task of complex
system, as well as increase simulation performance. Moreover, modern simulation
engines can often efficiently generate simulation traces, but how do we know
that the simulation results are correct? If we detect an error, is the error in
the model or in the simulation itself? This paper discusses the problem of
simulation safety, with the focus on hybrid modeling and simulation. In
particular, two key aspects are studied: safe zero-crossing detection and
deterministic hybrid event handling. The problems and solutions are discussed
and partially implemented in Modelica and Ptolemy II
Computing automorphic forms on Shimura curves over fields with arbitrary class number
We extend methods of Greenberg and the author to compute in the cohomology of
a Shimura curve defined over a totally real field with arbitrary class number.
Via the Jacquet-Langlands correspondence, we thereby compute systems of Hecke
eigenvalues associated to Hilbert modular forms of arbitrary level over a
totally real field of odd degree. We conclude with two examples which
illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithms.Comment: 15 pages; final submission to ANTS I
Exhaled nitric oxide in patients with PiZZ Phenotype-related α 1-anti-trypsin deficiency
AbstractThere is no report of exhaled NO (eNO) in subjects with different phenotypes ofα1 -anti-trypsin (AAT) deficiency.Exhaled nitric oxide was evaluated by means of single-breath chemiluminescence analysis (fractional exhaled concentration at the plateau level [plFENO]) in 40 patients with AAT deficiency. Patients were divided according to the protease inhibitor (Pi) phenotype: PiMZ/MS, n=25; PiSZ n=6; PiZZ, n=9. Nineteen healthy subjects served as controls. Levels of eNO in PiZZ patients were also compared with those of subjects, without AAT deficiency (PiMM), matched for diagnosis, sex, age, smoking habit and forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1). In AAT deficiency subjects airway hyper-responsiveness to methacholine (PD20FEV1) was also assessed.plFENOwas significantly lower in the PiZZ group (4·5±1·4 ppb) than in matched PiMM subjects (8·2±3·8 ppb), in healthy controls (9·3±2·8 ppb) and in patients of other phenotypes. Dynamic lung volumes and DLCOwere significantly lower in PiZZ than in other AAT-deficient patients. Bronchial hyper-responsiveness was not different among AAT phenotypes.These results suggest that eNO may be significantly reduced in PiZZ as compared to healthy control subjects and to AAT subjects with other phenotypes, independent of the level of airway obstruction. Whether, at least potentially, eNO may be considered as an early marker of lung involvement in AAT deficiency must be confirmed with studies on larger number of subjects
Zn-doped titania nanoparticles as building blocks for solid foam filters of water and air via photocatalytic oxidation
Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) could provide energy-efficient purification of water and air. Its efficacy is constrained mainly by limited photocatalytic activity and active surface. To address both, solid foams with hierarchic porous structures spanning multiple length-scales, stabilized by photocatalytic Zn-doped titania nanoparticles (NP) were synthesized and tested. The NP were characterized by SEM, EDS, DLS, XRD, Raman and UVâVis spectroscopies. Solid foams were stabilized by NP complexes with cationic surfactants. The foam morphology was characterized and photocatalytic activity was demonstrated in water. The present work paves the way for the development of efficient systems for air and water purification in demanding technological sectors, such as aerospace
The total number of acini remains constant throughout postnatal rat lung development.
The pulmonary airways are subdivided into conducting and gas-exchanging airways. The small tree of gas-exchanging airways which is fed by the most distal conducting airway represents an acinus. Very little is known about the development of the number of acini. The goal of this study was to estimate their number throughout rat postnatal development. Right middle rat lung lobes were obtained at postnatal day 4-60, stained with heavy metals, paraffin embedded, and scanned by synchrotron radiation-based X-ray tomographic microscopy or imaged with micro computed tomography after critical point drying. The acini were counted by detection of the transitional bronchioles [bronchioalveolar duct junction (BADJ)] by using morphological criteria (thickness of the walls of airways and appearance of alveoli) during examination of the resulting three-dimensional (3D) image stacks. Between postnatal days 4-60, the number of acini per lung remained constant (5,840 ± 547 acini), but their volume increased significantly. We concluded that the acini are formed before the end of the saccular stage (before postnatal day 4) and that the developmental increase of the lung volume is achieved by an increase of the acinar volume and not by an increase of their number. Furthermore, our results propose that the bronchioalveolar stem cells, which are residing in the BADJ, are as constant in their location as the BADJ itself
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