CLIC Muon Sweeper Design

There are several background sources which may affect the analysis of data and detector performans at the CLIC project. One of the important background source is halo muons, which are generated along the beam delivery system (BDS), for the detector performance. In order to reduce muon background, magnetized muon sweepers have been used as a shielding material that is already described in a previous study for CLIC [1]. The realistic muon sweeper has been designed with OPERA. The design parameters of muon sweeper have also been used to estimate muon background reduction with BDSIM Monte Carlo simulation code [2, 3].Comment: Talk presented at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS15), Whistler, Canada, 2-6 November 2015, 7 pages, 6 figure

Reducing the seismic vulnerability of cultural heritage buildings

European-Indian Economic Cross Cultural Programme - contract n.º ALA-95-23-2003-077-122

Dynamic identification of the Qutb Minar, New Delhi, India

Eu-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme “Improving the Seismic Resistance of Cultural Heritage Buildings” - Contract ALA-95-23-2003-077-122.Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, India.Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.Archaeological Survey of India

Simplified indexes for the seismic assessment of masonry buildings : international database and validation

Heritage masonry buildings are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because they are deteriorated and damaged, they were built with materials with low resistance, they are heavy and the connections between the various structural components are often insufficient. The present work details a simplified method of seismic assessment of large span masonry structures that was applied to a database of forty-four monuments in Italy, Portugal and Spain, providing lower bound formulas for different simplified geometrical indexes. Subsequently, the proposed thresholds are validated with data from the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes, which includes forty-eight stone and clay brick masonry churches. Finally, fragility curves that can be used to estimate the damage as a function of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) are also provided

Investigations techniques carried out on the Qutb Minar, New Delhi, India

In the framework of the Eu-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme “Improving the Seismic Resistance of Cultural Heritage Buildings”, aimed at the preservation of ancient masonry structures with regard to the seismic risk, different NDT were applied to the Qutb Minar, New Delhi, India, in September 2005. The paper describes the different investigation techniques applied (Ambient Vibration and Pulse Sonic Velocity Tests), intended to define the dynamic response of the tower and to qualitatively define the masonry conditions. For the dynamic modal identification analysis different test equipments were used, in order to compare the data and to have more reliable results. The dynamic parameters resulted from the acquisition campaigns will be used to estimate the mechanical properties of the masonry walls and the boundary conditions of the structure, to be considered in successive seismic nonlinear analyses of the Qutb Minar, aimed at the assessment of the safety level of the construction

Reinforced brick-masonry light vaults : semi-prefabrication, construction, testing and numerical modeling

This work deals with short to mid span-length light vaults made of reinforced brick-masonry. The research is oriented at proposing semi-prefabrication and construction techniques. Numerical models for predicting the structural behavior of this type of structures are developed. Experimental research is performed with the following three main objectives: (i) validating the proposed construction techniques, (ii) investigating the structural performance, and (iii) calibrating the numerical models. The obtained results show that the proposed techniques are feasible, and that the structural behavior is adequate in terms of ductility and of strength. The structural system can be modeled with the developed numerical tools.This work has received financial support from the Catalonian Government (CIDEM, "CERARMAT" IT - Technological Innovation - project 605) the Spanish Government (Ministry of Industry and Energy, "PRECERAM" ATYCA project M172/1999) and the European Commission ("ISO-BRICK" CRAFT - Cooperative Research - Project G5ST-CT-2001-50095). All these supports are gratefully acknowledged

Persistence of magnetic field driven by relativistic electrons in a plasma

The onset and evolution of magnetic fields in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas is determined by several mechanisms, including instabilities, dynamo effects and ultra-high energy particle flows through gas, plasma and interstellar-media. These processes are relevant over a wide range of conditions, from cosmic ray acceleration and gamma ray bursts to nuclear fusion in stars. The disparate temporal and spatial scales where each operates can be reconciled by scaling parameters that enable to recreate astrophysical conditions in the laboratory. Here we unveil a new mechanism by which the flow of ultra-energetic particles can strongly magnetize the boundary between the plasma and the non-ionized gas to magnetic fields up to 10-100 Tesla (micro Tesla in astrophysical conditions). The physics is observed from the first time-resolved large scale magnetic field measurements obtained in a laser wakefield accelerator. Particle-in-cell simulations capturing the global plasma and field dynamics over the full plasma length confirm the experimental measurements. These results open new paths for the exploration and modelling of ultra high energy particle driven magnetic field generation in the laboratory

PREVALENCE OF 'BORDERLINE' VALUES OF CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS IN THE CLINICAL PRACTICE OF GENERAL MEDICINE IN ITALY: RESULTS OF THE BORDERLINE STUDY.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of patients with 'borderline' levels of cardiovascular risk factors has been rarely investigated, being often reported in studies evaluating abnormal values of these parameters. The BORDERLINE study represents a pilot experience to primarily identify the prevalence of 'high-normal' conditions, such as pre-hypertension, lipid and glucose levels in the upper range of normality in the setting of general practice in Italy. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of patients with 'borderline' values of cardiovascular risk factors in Italy. METHODS: Involved physicians were asked to evaluate the first 20 outpatients, consecutively seen in June 2009. Data were collected in a study-designed case-report form, in which physicians identified thresholds rather than reported absolute values of several clinical parameters. High-normal values were defined as follows: blood pressure (BP) 130-140/85-90 mmHg; total cholesterol 180-200 mg/dL; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) 130-150 mg/dL; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) 30-40 mg/dL in males and 40-50 mg/dL in females; triglycerides 130-150 mg/dL and fasting glucose 100-110 mg/dL. RESULTS: Fifty-three Italian physicians provided valuable clinical data on 826 individual outpatients, among which 692 (83.7%, 377 women, mean age 60.9 ± 13.2 years, body mass index 26.6 ± 5.0 kg/m2) were included in the present analysis. Prevalence of borderline values of systolic BP and total cholesterol levels were at least comparable with those in the normal limits of the corresponding parameters, whereas prevalence of borderline diastolic BP, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides and fasting glucose levels was significantly lower than that of normal values, but higher than that of abnormal values of the corresponding parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Using this sample of healthy subjects in the setting of general practice in Italy, our results demonstrated a relatively high prevalence of borderline values of cardiovascular risk factors, which was at least comparable with that of normal, but significantly higher than that of abnormal thresholds. These preliminary findings may prompt more extensive investigations in the area of 'borderline' cardiovascular risk. This information may, in fact, potentially enable the design of more effective prevention strategies in the future to limit the burden of cardiovascular disease in the general population in Italy

Performance of the LHC Arc Superconducting Quadrupoles Towards the End of their Series Fabrication

The fabrication of the 408 main arc quadrupole magnets and their cold masses will come to an end in summer 2006. A rich collection of measurement and test data has been accumulated and their analysis is presented in this paper. These data cover the fabrication and the efficiency in the use of the main components, the geometrical measurements and the achieved dimensional precision, the warm magnetic measurements in the factory and the performance at cold conditions, especially the training behaviour. The scrap rate of the Nb-Ti/Cu conductor as well as that of other components turned out to be acceptably low and the quench performance measured was in general very good. Most quadrupoles measured so far exceeded the operating field gradient with one or no quench. The multipole content at cold was measured for a limited number of quadrupoles in order to verify the warm-to-cold correlation. From the point of view of field quality, all quadrupoles could be accepted for the machine. The measures taken to overcome the problem of a too high permeability of a batch of collars are discussed

Selected Papers from the 10th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC 2016)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio