Robotics and Vibration Mechanics

Robotics and vibration mechanics are among the main research areas in mechanical engineering [...

Romanesque and territory. The construction materials of Sardinian medieval churches: new approaches to the valorization, conservation and restoration

This paper is intended to illustrate a multidisciplinary research project devoted to the study of the constructive materials of the Romanesque churches in Sardinia during the “Giudicati” period (11th -13th centuries). The project focuses on the relationship between a selection of monuments and their territory, both from a historical-architectural perspective and from a more modern perspective addressing future restoration works. The methodologies of the traditional art-historical research (study of bibliographic, epigraphic and archival sources, formal reading of artifacts) are flanked by new technologies: digital surveys executed with a 3D laser-scanner, analyses of the materials (stones, mortars, bricks) with different instrumental methods: X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for chemical composition, X-ray diffractometer (XRD) to determine the alteration phases (e.g., soluble salts), optical microscopy and electronic (SEM) to study textures, mineral assemblages and microstructures, termogravimetric/differential scanning, calorimetric analysis (TG/DTA) for the composition of the binder mortars. This multidisciplinary approach allows the achieving of important results in an archaeometric context: 1) from a historical point of view, with the possible identification of ancient traffics, trade routes, sources of raw materials, construction phases, wall textures; 2) from a conservative point of view, by studying chemical and physical weathering processes of stone materials compatible for replacement in case of future restoration works. Sardinian Romanesque architectural heritage is particularly remarkable: about 200 churches of different types and sizes, with the almost exclusive use of cut stones. Bi- or poly-chromy, deriving from the use of different building materials, characterizes many of these monuments, becoming also a vehicle for political and cultural meanings. The paper will present some case studies aimed to illustrate the progress of the project and the results achieved

The cardiovascular risk of young women with polycystic ovary syndrome: an observational, analytical, prospective case-control study

To evaluate the cardiovascular risk of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), we investigated lipid profile, metabolic pattern, and echocardiography in 30 young women with PCOS and 30 healthy age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched women. PCOS women had higher fasting glucose and insulin levels, homeostasis model assessment score of insulin sensitivity, total cholesterol (TC) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels, and TC/high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio and lower HDL-C levels than controls. Additionally, PCOS women had higher left atrium size (32.0 +/- 4.9 vs. 27.4 +/- 2.1 mm; P < 0.0001) and left ventricular mass index (80.5 +/- 18.1 vs. 56.1 +/- 5.4 g/m(2); P < 0.0001) and lower left ventricular ejection fraction (64.4 +/- 4.1 vs. 67.1 +/- 2.6%; P = 0.003) and early to late mitral flow velocity ratio (1.6 +/- 0.4 vs. 2.1 +/- 0.2; P < 0.0001) than controls. When patients and controls were grouped according to BMI [normal weight (BMI, >18 and <25 kg/m(2)), overweight (BMI, 25.1-30 kg/m(2)), and obese (BMI, >30 kg/m(2))], the differences between PCOS women and controls were maintained in overweight and obese women. In normal weight PCOS women, a significant increase in left ventricular mass index and a decrease in diastolic filling were observed, notwithstanding no change in TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, TC/HDL-C ratio, and TG compared with controls. In conclusion, our data show the detrimental effect of PCOS on the cardiovascular system even in young women asymptomatic for cardiac disease

Distinguishing between dark-matter interactions with gravitational-wave detectors

Ground-based gravitational-wave interferometers could directly probe the existence of ultralight dark matter ($\mathcal{O}(10^{-14}-10^{-11})$ eV/$c^2$) that couples to standard-model particles in the detectors. Recently, many techniques have been developed to extract a variety of potential dark-matter signals from noisy gravitational-wave data; however, little effort has gone into ways to distinguish between types of dark matter that could directly interact with the interferometers. In this work, we employ the Wiener filter to follow-up candidate dark-matter interaction signals. The filter captures the stochastic nature of these signals, and, in simulations, successfully identifies which type of dark matter interacts with the interferometers. We apply the Wiener filter to outliers that remained in the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA search for dark photons in data from the most recent observing (O3), and show that they are consistent with noise disturbances. Our proof-of-concept analysis demonstrates that the Wiener filter can be a powerful technique to confirm or deny the presence of dark-matter interaction signals in gravitational-wave data, and distinguish between scalar and vector dark-matter interactions.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Translating Video Recordings of Mobile App Usages into Replayable Scenarios

Screen recordings of mobile applications are easy to obtain and capture a wealth of information pertinent to software developers (e.g., bugs or feature requests), making them a popular mechanism for crowdsourced app feedback. Thus, these videos are becoming a common artifact that developers must manage. In light of unique mobile development constraints, including swift release cycles and rapidly evolving platforms, automated techniques for analyzing all types of rich software artifacts provide benefit to mobile developers. Unfortunately, automatically analyzing screen recordings presents serious challenges, due to their graphical nature, compared to other types of (textual) artifacts. To address these challenges, this paper introduces V2S, a lightweight, automated approach for translating video recordings of Android app usages into replayable scenarios. V2S is based primarily on computer vision techniques and adapts recent solutions for object detection and image classification to detect and classify user actions captured in a video, and convert these into a replayable test scenario. We performed an extensive evaluation of V2S involving 175 videos depicting 3,534 GUI-based actions collected from users exercising features and reproducing bugs from over 80 popular Android apps. Our results illustrate that V2S can accurately replay scenarios from screen recordings, and is capable of reproducing $\approx$ 89% of our collected videos with minimal overhead. A case study with three industrial partners illustrates the potential usefulness of V2S from the viewpoint of developers.Comment: In proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'20), 13 page

PCR-RFLP approaches to easily identify Pleuronectes platessa from other flatfishes: a rapid and efficient tool to control label information

Submitted by Patrícia Correia ([email protected]) on 2017-11-21T09:48:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Caldelli et al. - 2014 - PCR- RFLP approaches to easily identify Pleuronect.pdf: 566430 bytes, checksum: b24dccaef6a451b030a229b797e2e7c0 (MD5) Approved for entry into archive by Patrícia Correia([email protected]) on 2017-11-21T09:48:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Caldelli et al. - 2014 - PCR- RFLP approaches to easily identify Pleuronect.pdf: 566430 bytes, checksum: b24dccaef6a451b030a229b797e2e7c0 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-21T09:48:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Caldelli et al. - 2014 - PCR- RFLP approaches to easily identify Pleuronect.pdf: 566430 bytes, checksum: b24dccaef6a451b030a229b797e2e7c0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 201

Differences in gene expression profiles of seven target proteins in third-stage larvae of anisakis simplex (Sensu stricto) by sites of infection in blue whiting (micromesistius poutassou)

The third-stage larvae of the parasitic nematode genus Anisakis tend to encapsulate in different tissues including the musculature of fish. Host tissue penetration and degradation involve both mechanic processes and the production of proteins encoded by an array of genes. Investigating larval gene profiles during the fish infection has relevance in understanding biological traits in the parasite’s adaptive ability to cope with the fish hosts’ defense responses. The present study aimed to investigate the gene expression levels of some proteins in L3 of A. simplex (s.s.) infecting different tissues of blue whiting Micromesistius poutassou, a common fish host of the parasite in the NE Atlantic. The following genes encoding for Anisakis spp. proteins were studied: Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor (TI), hemoglobin (hb), glycoprotein (GP), trehalase (treh), zinc metallopeptidase 13 (nas 13), ubiquitin-protein ligase (hyd) and sideroflexin 2 (sfxn 2). Significant differences in gene transcripts (by quantitative real-time PCR, qPCR) were observed in larvae located in various tissues of the fish host, with respect to the control. ANOVA analysis showed that relative gene expression levels of the seven target genes in the larvae are linked to the infection site in the fish host. Genes encoding some of the target proteins seem to be involved in the host tissue migration and survival of the parasite in the hostile target tissues of the fish host