Out‐of‐plane reinforcement of masonry walls using joint-embedded steel cables

The out-of-plane mechanism (rocking) of walls often causes fatalities and collapses of historic buildings during earthquakes. This paper addresses the problem of assessing the seismic resistance of walls subjected to out-of-plane bending, before and after reinforcement. A new retrofitting method, consisting in the use of high-strength steel cables fully embedded in the mortar bed joints was studied. An experimental investigation using full-scale brickwork specimens was therefore conducted in an attempt to assess the walls’ structural response when these are subject to out-of-plane loads. Test results demonstrated that it is possible to increase the out-of-plane capacity with the proposed method. A simplified macro-element procedure is also presented along with recommendations for the calculation of the walls’ capacity before and after the application of the steel cable reinforcement. Predictions of the magnitude of horizontal force required to cause out-of-plane failure using the proposed procedure and quasi-static analysis procedures are compared with the results of laboratory experiments

Chemical communication between synthetic and natural cells: a possible experimental design

The bottom-up construction of synthetic cells is one of the most intriguing and interesting research arenas in synthetic biology. Synthetic cells are built by encapsulating biomolecules inside lipid vesicles (liposomes), allowing the synthesis of one or more functional proteins. Thanks to the in situ synthesized proteins, synthetic cells become able to perform several biomolecular functions, which can be exploited for a large variety of applications. This paves the way to several advanced uses of synthetic cells in basic science and biotechnology, thanks to their versatility, modularity, biocompatibility, and programmability. In the previous WIVACE (2012) we presented the state-of-the-art of semi-synthetic minimal cell (SSMC) technology and introduced, for the first time, the idea of chemical communication between synthetic cells and natural cells. The development of a proper synthetic communication protocol should be seen as a tool for the nascent field of bio/chemical-based Information and Communication Technologies (bio-chem-ICTs) and ultimately aimed at building soft-wet-micro-robots. In this contribution (WIVACE, 2013) we present a blueprint for realizing this project, and show some preliminary experimental results. We firstly discuss how our research goal (based on the natural capabilities of biological systems to manipulate chemical signals) finds a proper place in the current scientific and technological contexts. Then, we shortly comment on the experimental approaches from the viewpoints of (i) synthetic cell construction, and (ii) bioengineering of microorganisms, providing up-to-date results from our laboratory. Finally, we shortly discuss how autopoiesis can be used as a theoretical framework for defining synthetic minimal life, minimal cognition, and as bridge between synthetic biology and artificial intelligence.Comment: In Proceedings Wivace 2013, arXiv:1309.712

Implementation of an IP table lookup algorithm based on an Adaptive Stratified Tree

IP Table Lookup is one of the bottlenecks operation of a router. M. Pellegrini, G. Fusco and G. Vecchiocattivi in Adaptive Stratified Search Trees for IP Table Lookup (manuscript) presented a new solution for this problem based on a data structure called Adaptive Stratified Tree (AST). The algorithm has been implemented and compared with the state of the art software solution, notably the LC-Trie of S. Nilsson and G. Karlson. Here we present some experimental results and the complete C code of our program

Sodium hydroxide pretreatment as an effective approach to reduce the dye/holes recombination reaction in P-Type DSCs

We report the synthesis of a novel squaraine dye (VG21-C12) and investigate its behavior as p-type sensitizer for p-type Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. The results are compared with O4-C12, a well-known sensitizer for p-DSC, and sodium hydroxide pretreatment is described as an effective approach to reduce the dye/holes recombination. Various variable investigation such as dipping time, dye loading, photocurrent, and resulting cell efficiency are also reported. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was utilized for investigating charge transport properties of the different photoelectrodes and the recombination phenomena that occur at the (un)modified electrode/electrolyte interface

Floristic survey of the former royal hunting reserve of Renda, near Palermo (Sicily, Italy)

A mountainous area in western Sicily, where relic wood vegetation is still preserved notwithstanding past and present human pressure, is here analysed in order to prepare a checklist of its vascular flora. Field investigations allowed to compile a floristic inventory including 601 infrageneric taxa belonging to 304 genera and 80 families. Some remarks on the biological and chorological spectra are presented, and some measures to protect flora and vegetation are suggested, too

A MATLAB toolbox for computation of velocity and strain rate field from GNSS coordinate time series

We propose a MATLAB toolbox for the computation of the strain rate field from the coordinate time series of some continuous GNSS stations. It consists of several functions, also compatible with GNU Octave, implementing the following steps: (i) time series download from a data repository (e.g., the Nevada Geodetic Laboratory database); (ii) calculation of velocities of the selected stations by means of the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method implemented in the external package Hector, including modeling of offsets, outliers, noise and periodic components; (iii) (optional) filtering of Common Mode Errors; (iv) calculation of the strain rate field with the modified least squares method, in which a scale factor can be introduced to define the locality of the deformation analysis and, besides uncertainty estimation, a geometric evaluation of the significance of the results is provided; (v) visualization of the results for immediate use and easy interpretation for scientific purposes. The toolbox is divided into two components: the first one, named StaVel, performs the steps (i)-(iii) and the second component, GridStrain, performs the steps (iv) and (v). The potential of the toolbox is demonstrated on a real dataset. Time series from several continuous GNSS stations in South-Eastern Sicily (Southern Italy) are processed by means of StaVel and GridStrain in order to provide the strain rate field

Near-Field Opto-Chemical Sensors

Non

Automatic Identification of the Best Auscultation Area for the Estimation of the Time of Closure of Heart Valves through Multi-Source Phonocardiography

In the latest years, multi-source phonocardiography (PCG) is gaining interest in relation to the home monitoring of cardiovascular diseases. An application of interest regards the monitoring of the time of closure of the four cardiac valves, which would enable the follow-up of at-risk patients for heart failure. In this work, we propose a hybrid system based on hierarchical clustering and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for automatically selecting the best auscultation area for the mentioned application through multi-source PCG. We simultaneously recorded 48 PCG signals from the subject's chest and divided them into morphologically homogenous groups using agglomerative hierarchical clustering, based on their correlation. Then, we explored three different approaches to select the best auscultation area, based respectively on the minimum latency, on the maximum signal-to-noise ratio, and on multiple criteria using ELECTRE III. The results obtained on the follow-up of a healthy subject over consecutive days show that a) the selection of the auscultation area using MCDA overcomes the limits of single-criteria approaches, b) the estimate of the time of closure of the heart valves using the proposed system is more robust than what obtained through the state-of-the-art single-source methodology