Microcracking in piezoelectric materials by the Boundary Element Method

A 3D boundary element model for piezoelectric polycrystalline micro-cracking is discussed in this contribution. The model is based on the boundary integral representation of the electro-mechanical behavior of individual grains and on the use of a generalized cohesive formulation for inter-granular micro-cracking. The boundary integral formulation allows to address the electro-mechanical boundary value problem in terms of generalized grain boundary and inter-granular displacements and tractions only, which implies the natural inclusion of the cohesive laws in the formulation, the simplification of the analysis pre-processing stage, and the reduction of the number of degrees of freedom of the overall analysis with respect to other popular numerical methods

A Model for Configuration Management of Open Software Systems

The article proposes a model for the configuration management of open systems. The model aims at validation of configurations against given specifications. An extension of decision graphs is proposed to express specifications. The proposed model can be used by software developers to validate their own configurations across different versions of the components, or to validate configurations that include components by third parties. The model can also be used by end-users to validate compatibility among different configurations of the same application. The proposed model is first discussed in some application scenarios and then formally defined. Moreover, a type discipline is given to formally define validation of a configuration against a system specificationComment: 13 page

Urban and regional land use analysis: CARETS and Census Cities experiment package

The author has identified the following significant results. Areas of post 1970 and 1972 land use changes were identified solely from the Skylab imagery from comparisons with 1970 land use maps. Most land use changes identified involved transition from agriculture to single family residential land use. The second most prominent changes identified from the Skylab imagery were areas presently under construction. Post 1970 changes from Skylab were compared with the 1972 changes noted from the high altitude photographs. A good correlation existed between the change polygons mapped from Skylab and those mapped from the 1972 high altitude aerial photos. In addition, there were a number of instances where additional built-up land use not noted in the 1972 aerial photo as being developed were identified on the Skylab imagery. While these cases have not been documented by field observation, by correlating these areas with the appearance of similar land use areas whose identity has been determined, we can safely say that we have been able to map further occurrences of land use change beyond existing high altitude photo coverage from the Skylab imagery. It was concluded that Skylab data can be used to detect areas of land use change within an urban setting

Census Cities experiment in urban change detection

The author has identified the following significant results. Mapping of 1970 and 1972 land use from high-flight photography has been completed for all test sites: San Francisco, Washington, Phoenix, Tucson, Boston, New Haven, Cedar Rapids, and Pontiac. Area analysis of 1970 and 1972 land use has been completed for each of the mandatory urban areas. All 44 sections of the 1970 land use maps of the San Francisco test site have been officially released through USGS Open File at 1:62,500. Five thousand copies of the Washington one-sheet color 1970 land use map, census tract map, and point line identification map are being printed by USGS Publication Division. ERTS-1 imagery for each of the eight test sites is being received and analyzed. Color infrared photo enlargements at 1:100,000 of ERTS-1 MSS images of Phoenix taken on October 16, 1972 and May 2, 1973 are being analyzed to determine to what level land use and land use changes can be identified and to what extent the ERTS-1 imagery can be used in updating the 1970 aircraft photo-derived land use data base. Work is proceeding on the analysis of ERTS-1 imagery by computer manipulation of ERTS-1 MSS data in digital format. ERTS-1 CCT maps at 1:24,000 are being analyzed for two dates over Washington and Phoenix. Anniversary tape sets have been received at Purdue LARS for some additional urban test sites

Some findings on the applications of ERTS and Skylab imagery for metropolitan land use analysis

The author has identified the following significant results. Work undertaken on a three-sensor land use data evaluation for a portion of the Phoenix area is reported. Analyses between land use data generated from 1970 high altitude photography and that detectable from ERTS and Skylab, especially in terms of changes in land use indicate that ERTS and Skylab imagery can be used effectively to detect and identify areas of post-1970 land use change, especially those documenting urban expansion at the rural-urban fringe. Significant preliminary findings on the utility of ERTS and Skylab data for metropolitan land use analysis, substantiated by evaluation with 1970 and 1972 ground control land use data are reported

A discontinuous Galerkin formulation for nonlinear analysis of multilayered shells refined theories

A novel pure penalty discontinuous Galerkin method is proposed for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of multilayered composite plates and shells, modelled via high-order refined theories. The approach allows to build different two-dimensional equivalent single layer structural models, which are obtained by expressing the covariant components of the displacement field through-the-thickness via Taylor’s polynomial expansion of different order. The problem governing equations are deduced starting from the geometrically nonlinear principle of virtual displacements in a total Lagrangian formulation. They are addressed with a pure penalty discontinuous Galerkin method using Legendre polynomials trial functions. The resulting nonlinear algebraic system is solved by a Newton–Raphson arc-length linearization scheme. Numerical tests involving plates and shells are proposed to validate the method, by comparison with literature benchmark problems and finite element solutions, and to assess its features. The obtained results demonstrate the accuracy of the method as well as the effectiveness of high-order elements

Inauguration of the Centro 3R for the promotion of 3Rs principles in teaching and research.

the first European interuniversity center dedicated to promoting 3Rs principles in teaching and research was inaugurated in Pisa, Italy on March 14, 2018. The Centro 3R was spearheaded by the Universities of Pisa and Genoa. Membership is open to all Italian universities and agreements for twinning across Europe and other countries are being pursued. the Centro\u2019s mission to promote rational and scientific thinking in experimental science through a multidisciplinary teaching and research approach inclusive of all 3Rs as a means to accelerate the R of replacement. The projects to develop an open resource-sharing web platform and interdisciplinary elective courses were also mentioned

Size and asymmetry of the reaction entrance channel: influence on the probability of neck production

The results of experiments performed to investigate the Ni+Al, Ni+Ni, Ni+Ag reactions at 30 MeV/nucleon are presented. From the study of dissipative midperipheral collisions, it has been possible to detect events in which Intermediate Mass Fragments (IMF) production takes place. The decay of a quasi-projectile has been identified; its excitation energy leads to a multifragmentation totally described in terms of a statistical disassembly of a thermalized system (T$\simeq$4 MeV, E$^*\simeq$4 MeV/nucleon). Moreover, for the systems Ni+Ni, Ni+Ag, in the same nuclear reaction, a source with velocity intermediate between that of the quasi-projectile and that of the quasi-target, emitting IMF, is observed. The fragments produced by this source are more neutron rich than the average matter of the overall system, and have a charge distribution different, with respect to those statistically emitted from the quasi-projectile. The above features can be considered as a signature of the dynamical origin of the midvelocity emission. The results of this analysis show that IMF can be produced via different mechanisms simultaneously present within the same collision. Moreover, once fixed the characteristics of the quasi-projectile in the three considered reactions (in size, excitation energy and temperature), one observes that the probability of a partner IMF production via dynamical mechanism has a threshold (not present in the Ni+Al case) and increases with the size of the target nucleus.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication on Nuclear Physics

On the occurrence of the silverstripe blaasop Lagocephalus sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789) along the Libyan coast

Five individuals of Lagocephalus sceleratus were caught by trammel and gill nets off Ain Al Ghazala, Libya (approximately 32°09'N − 23°15'E) between 15 and 25 m depth in September 2010. Our findings represent the first record of this toxic species from Libya and provide further evidence of its occurrence along North African coasts

Growth of Rhodococcus sp. strain BCP1 on gaseous n-alkanes: New metabolic insights and transcriptional analysis of two soluble di-iron monooxygenase genes

Rhodococcus sp. strain BCP1 was initially isolated for its ability to grow on gaseous n-alkanes, which act as inducers for the co-metabolic degradation of low-chlorinated compounds. Here, both molecular and metabolic features of BCP1 cells grown on gaseous and short-chain n-alkanes (up to n-heptane) were examined in detail. We show that propane metabolism generated terminal and sub-terminal oxidation products such as 1- and 2-propanol, whereas 1-butanol was the only terminal oxidation product detected from n-butane metabolism. Two gene clusters, prmABCD and smoABCD-coding for Soluble Di-Iron Monooxgenases (SDIMOs) involved in gaseous n-alkanes oxidation-were detected in the BCP1 genome. By means of Reverse Transcriptase-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis, a set of substrates inducing the expression of the sdimo genes in BCP1 were assessed as well as their transcriptional repression in the presence of sugars, organic acids, or during the cell growth on rich medium (Luria-Bertani broth). The transcriptional start sites of both the sdimo gene clusters were identified by means of primer extension experiments. Finally, proteomic studies revealed changes in the protein pattern induced by growth on gaseous- (n-butane) and/or liquid (n-hexane) short-chain n-alkanes as compared to growth on succinate. Among the differently expressed protein spots, two chaperonins and an isocytrate lyase were identified along with oxidoreductases involved in oxidation reactions downstream of the initial monooxygenase reaction step