On the fatigue improvement of railways superstructure components due to cold expansion – Part I: Experimental analysis

The fatigue strength improvement of materials and structures has always been the subject of studies, as a consequence of the rapid development of technologies and strictive safety requirements. In the railway field the fatigue resistance problem is thoroughly studied due to high transportation safety standard. Fatigue cracking is a major issue, in particular at rail-end-bolt holes. Cold Expansion is a common technique to induce beneficial residual compressive stresses around the holes, with the aim to improve the fatigue life of the rail. This paper is the first of a two part-series dealing with the study of the residual stress-strain field induced by the cold expansion process around rail-end-bolt holes. In Part I of this series, a contribution to better understanding the whole strain field distribution arising around rail-end-bolt holes during and after cold expansion is presented. Strains were experimentally measured using both electrical strain gauges and 2D-Digital Image Correlation. Contrary to common literature, strain-time history during the entire cold expansion process was investigated, in order to capture the highly non-linear elasto-plastic response of the material; the results of this study has been used in Part II of this series for the validation of the finite element model described there. The cold expansion process was applied to three rail holes, having equal nominal diameter. At first, the experimental results concerning each expanded hole are analysed. Then, all the results are compared, in order to evaluate the repeatability: - of the measurements; - of the Cold Expansion process; - of the adopted experimental technique, and, above all, to extrapolate the distribution of the hoop and radial residual strains as a function of the distance from the hole edge. At the end, results obtained by strain gauges and 2D-Digital Image Correlation are compared: a good agreement is found on the central flat surface of the rail web, which guarantees the availability of a robust and valuable highly non-linear reference result that has been used for the validation of the finite element model presented in Part II of this series

SCHOOL FOOD SERVICE, HOSPITAL AND HEALTCARE: NEW GUIDELINES ON NATIONAL LAW AND VETERINARY 488/99

The author reviews the guidelines of the National school catering, hospital and health care, recently published. Show only the aspect of Article 59 of the Law n.488/99, given the complexity of the issue and the rampant protectionism dictated more by ethnic and ethical and environmental claims, which has prompted some governments to fear the food self-sufficiency, in sharp contrast with European free trade rules. The issues related to Article 59 of Law No 488 of 23 December 1999 and the amendment to Article 123 of Law 388/2000, concerning the development of organic farming and quality, are commented in relation to the cd Procurement Code, in particular the legislative decree n.163 dated 12 April 2006 and subsequent amendments and additions, noting criticism of the check up as required by Article 59 and the low involvement of the veterinary hygienist

ACRYLAMIDE, FOOD AND EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES RECOMMENDATION

The exposure, often deceitful, to the acrylamide has determined notable apprehension in many consumers, so much that the Committee of the European Communities has financed the project HEATOX and has emanated the recommendation 2007/331. It is ascertained that proposed strategies have not brought to great changes in the food process chains, and neither in the traditional catering and housewife, for which more incisive measures are wished

Escherichia coli O26 IN RAW BUFFALO MILK: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Escherichia coli O26 is considered to be one of the most important food-borne pathogen. In this study, 120 buffalo milk samples collected in Lazio and in Apulia regions were tested for the presence of E. coli O26. One buffalo milk sample (0,8%) tested positive for E. coli O26; the isolate was positive at the verocytotoxicity test and it showed resistance properties to different antimicrobial classes. These preliminary results highlight the need to monitor the foods of animal origin used for production and eaten by a wide range of persons, respect VTEC organism

Variable Neighborhood Search for the Pickup and Delivery Traveling Salesman Problem with LIFO Loading

This paper addresses a variation of the traveling salesman problem with pickup and delivery in which loading and unloading operations have to be executed in a last-in-first-out (LIFO) order. We introduce three new local search operators for this problem, which are then embedded within a variable neighborhood search heuristic. We evaluate the performance of the heuristic on data adapted from TSPLIB instances

SCHOOL FOOD SERVICE, HOSPITAL AND HEALTCARE: NEW GUIDELINES ON NATIONAL LAW AND VETERINARY 488/99

The author reviews the guidelines of the National school catering, hospital and health care, recently published. Show only the aspect of Article 59 of the Law n.488/99, given the complexity of the issue and the rampant protectionism dictated more by ethnic and ethical and environmental claims, which has prompted some governments to fear the food self-sufficiency, in sharp contrast with European free trade rules. The issues related to Article 59 of Law No 488 of 23 December 1999 and the amendment to Article 123 of Law 388/2000, concerning the development of organic farming and quality, are commented in relation to the cd Procurement Code, in particular the legislative decree n.163 dated 12 April 2006 and subsequent amendments and additions, noting criticism of the check up as required by Article 59 and the low involvement of the veterinary hygienist

Characterization of the Biological Activity of the Ethanolic Extract from the Roots of Cannabis sativa L. Grown in Aeroponics

Cannabis sativa var. Kompolti, a variety routinely used for food production purposes, is characterized by a low concentration of psychoactive molecules, although containing many other biologically attractive metabolites in all parts of the plant, including the roots. In the present work, we evaluate the specific biological activities of the roots’ extract from plants cultivated through aeroponics, an affordable and reliable method facilitating the isolation and processing of roots, with the advantage of being suitable for industrial scale‐up. Furthermore, aeroponics results in an increased net accumulation of the most biologically attractive constituents (β‐sitosterol, friedelin and epi‐friedelanol) found in the roots. The ethanolic extract of the aeroponic roots of C. sativa (APEX) and its separate components are studied to evaluate their anti‐inflammatory (modulation of the expression level of specific markers upon LPS stimulation in U937 cells, such as IL‐6, IL‐8, TNF‐α, IkB‐α, iNOS, IRAK‐1 and miR‐146a) and antioxidant (in either acellular or cellular settings) activities. The APEX anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant capacities are also functionally benchmarked using the wound‐healing assay. On the whole, the data obtained show that APEX and its main components showed significant anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant activities, which may render the exploitation of roots as a source of natural antioxidants and anti‐inflammatory agents highly attrac-tive, with the additional technical and economic advantages of aeroponics compared to soil cultivation