Footprints of element mobility during metasomatism linked to a late Miocene peraluminous granite intruding a carbonate host (Campiglia Marittima, Tuscany)

The Campiglia Marittima magmatic-hydrothermal system includes a peraluminous granite, its carbonatic host, and skarn. The system evolved generating a time-transgressive exchange of major and trace elements between granite, metasomatic fluids, and host rock. The process resulted in partial metasomatic replacement of the granite and severe replacement of the carbonate host rocks. The fluid activity started during a late-magmatic stage, followed by a potassic–calcic metasomatism, ending with a lower temperature acidic metasomatism. During the late-magmatic stage, B-rich residual fluids led to the formation of disseminated tourmaline–quartz orbicules. High-temperature metasomatic fluids generated a pervasive potassic–calcic metasomatism of the granite, with replacement of plagioclase, biotite, ilmenite, and apatite by K-feldspar, phlogopite–chlorite–titanite, titanite–rutile, and significant mobilization of Fe, Na, P, Ti, and minor HFSE/REE. The metasomatized granite is enriched in Mg, K, Rb, Ba, and Sr, and depleted in Fe and Na. Ca metasomatism is characterized by crystallization of a variety of calc-silicates, focusing along joints into the granite (endoskarn) and at the marble/pluton contact (exoskarn), and exchange of HFSE and LREE with hydrothermal fluids. Upon cooling, fluids became more acidic and fluorine activity increased, with widespread crystallization of fluorite from disequilibrium of former calc-silicates. At the pluton-host boundary, fluids were accumulated, and pH buffered to low values as temperature decreased, leading to the formation of a metasomatic front triggering the increasing mobilization of REE and HFSE and the late crystallization of REE–HFSE minerals

Catadioptric stereo-vision system using a spherical mirror

Abstract In the computer vision field, the reconstruction of target surfaces is usually achieved by using 3D optical scanners assembled integrating digital cameras and light emitters. However, these solutions are limited by the low field of view, which requires multiple acquisition from different views to reconstruct complex free-form geometries. The combination of mirrors and lenses (catadioptric systems) can be adopted to overcome this issue. In this work, a stereo catadioptric optical scanner has been developed by assembling two digital cameras, a spherical mirror and a multimedia white light projector. The adopted configuration defines a non-single viewpoint system, thus a non-central catadioptric camera model has been developed. An analytical solution to compute the projection of a scene point onto the image plane (forward projection) and vice-versa (backward projection) is presented. The proposed optical setup allows omnidirectional stereo vision thus allowing the reconstruction of target surfaces with a single acquisition. Preliminary results, obtained measuring a hollow specimen, demonstrated the effectiveness of the described approach

Sensor architectures and technologies for upper limb 3d surface reconstruction: A review

3D digital models of the upper limb anatomy represent the starting point for the design process of bespoke devices, such as orthoses and prostheses, which can be modeled on the actual patient’s anatomy by using CAD (Computer Aided Design) tools. The ongoing research on optical scanning methodologies has allowed the development of technologies that allow the surface reconstruction of the upper limb anatomy through procedures characterized by minimum discomfort for the patient. However, the 3D optical scanning of upper limbs is a complex task that requires solving problematic aspects, such as the difficulty of keeping the hand in a stable position and the presence of artefacts due to involuntary movements. Scientific literature, indeed, investigated different approaches in this regard by either integrating commercial devices, to create customized sensor architectures, or by developing innovative 3D acquisition techniques. The present work is aimed at presenting an overview of the state of the art of optical technologies and sensor architectures for the surface acquisition of upper limb anatomies. The review analyzes the working principles at the basis of existing devices and proposes a categorization of the approaches based on handling, pre/post-processing effort, and potentialities in real-time scanning. An in-depth analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the approaches proposed by the research community is also provided to give valuable support in selecting the most appropriate solution for the specific application to be addressed

Towards the ultimate regime in Rayleigh-Darcy convection

Numerical simulations are used to probe Rayleigh-Darcy convection in fluid-saturated porous media towards the ultimate regime. The present three-dimensional dataset, up to Rayleigh-Darcy number, suggests that the appropriate scaling of the Nusselt number is, fitting the computed data for. Extrapolation of current predictions to the ultimate linear regime yields the asymptotic law, about less than indicated in previous studies. Upon examination of the flow structures near the boundaries, we confirm previous indications of small flow cells hierarchically nesting into supercells, and we show evidence that the supercells at the boundary are the footprints of the megaplumes that dominate the interior part of the flow. The present findings pave the way for more accurate modelling of geophysical systems, with special reference to geological sequestration

Strong Rayleigh-Darcy convection regime in three-dimensional porous media

We perform large-scale numerical simulations to study Rayleigh-Darcy convection in three-dimensional fluid-saturated porous media up to Rayleigh-Darcy number. At these large values of, the flow is dominated by large columnar structures - called megaplumes - which span the entire height of the domain. Near the boundaries, the flow is hierarchically organized, with fine-scale structures interacting and nesting to form larger-scale structures called supercells. We observe that the correlation between the flow structure in the core of the domain and at the boundaries decreases only slightly for increasing, and remains rather high even at the largest considered here. This confirms that supercells are the boundary footprint of megaplumes dominating the core of the domain. In agreement with available literature predictions, we show that the thickness of the thermal boundary layer scales very well with the Nusselt number as. Measurements of the mean wavenumber - inverse of the mean length scale - in the core of the flow support the scaling, in very good agreement with theoretical and numerical predictions. Interestingly, the behaviour of the mean wavenumber near the boundaries scales as, which is distinguishably different from the presumed linear behaviour. We hypothesize that a linear behaviour can only be observed in the ultimate regime, which we argue to set in only at in excess of, whereas a sublinear behaviour is recovered at more modest. The present results are expected to help the development of long desired reliable models to predict the large- and fine-scale structure of Rayleigh-Darcy convection in the high- regime typically encountered in geophysical processes, such as for instance in geological carbon dioxide sequestration

Long non-axisymmetric fibres in turbulent channel flow

In this work, we investigate the dynamics of long non-axisymmetric fibres in turbulent channel flow. The experimental facility is the TU Wien Turbulent Water Channel, consisting of a closed water channel (aspect ratio of 10), and the experiments are performed at a shear Reynolds number of 360. Fibres are neutrally buoyant rods that are curved and characterised by a length-to-diameter ratio of 120. Illumination is provided by a laser sheet and the motion of fibres is recorded by four high-speed cameras in a fully developed flow section. We apply multiplicative algebraic reconstruction techniques to the recorded images from four high-speed cameras to identify the three-dimensional location, shape and orientation of the fibres. The fibres are also tracked in time to obtain their three-dimensional vectors of velocity and rotation rate. We investigate the behaviour of the fibres, from the near-wall region to the channel centre, and we produce original statistics on the effect of curvature of the fibres on their orientation and rotation rate. Specifically, we measured the orientation and rotation rate of the fibres, and we can confirm that in the centre, the most homogeneous part of the channel, statistics, although influenced by the curvature, bear similarities to those obtained in previous investigations in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. In addition, we have been able to compare the tumbling rate of our long non-axisymmetric fibres with previous solutions for curved ellipsoids in simple shear flow

The importance of standard operating procedures in physical fitness assessment: a brief review

Background: Physical fitness status is a key aspect of health and, consequently, it is important to create and adopt appropriate interventions to maintain or improve it, and assess it using valid measures. While in other testing contexts, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are commonly and widely adopted, in physical fitness testing, a variety of unstandardized testing protocols are proposed. Aims: The topic of this review was to evaluate the existing literature on SOPs in physical fitness assessment and to provide guidelines on how SOPs could be created and adopted. Method: The electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were screened and original, peer-reviewed studies that included SOPs, related to physical fitness, were recorded. Results: After the inclusion and exclusion criteria screening, a total of six studies were included and these were critically and narratively analyzed. Conclusions: Standard operating procedures are rarely adopted in the field of physical fitness and a step by step guide has been provided in this manuscript. In the future, it is suggested to follow protocols as a routine, because this is the only way to generalize and contextualize findings

The influence of closed or open grip type during a pull-up test to exhaustion

The aim of this study is to assess whether a closed (CG) or open grip (OC) can influence the maximum number of repetitions during the pull-up test to exhaustion. Ninety-five physically active males (age 23.5 ± 6.2 years, body mass 69 ± 7.9 kg, height 174.0 ± 6.4 cm, BMI 22.9 ± 2.2) randomly performed the pull-up test to exhaustion twice, once for each type of grip, one week apart. No significant difference (p = 0.092) was found between the maximum number of repetitions performed with the OG (14.2 ± 5.7) or the CG (13.9 ± 5.9). Spearman's correlation showed no significant association between participants' body mass and the number of repetitions (r = 0.128, p = 0.22 for OG; r = 0.157, p = 0.13 for CG). According to our results, the grip is not relevant in the determination of the performance during a pull-up test to exhaustion. Thus, using one grip instead of another may be recommended independently of performance needs. Grip type may be adapted considering the practised sport, and specific athletic requirements, as well as individual preference

UWB device for breast microwave imaging: phantom and clinical validations

Microwave imaging has received increasing attention in the last decades, motivated by its application in diagnostic imaging. Such effort has been encouraged by the fact that, at microwave frequencies, it is possible to distinguish between tissues with different dielectric properties. In such framework, a novel microwave device is presented here. The apparatus, consisting of two antennas operating in air, is completely safe and non-invasive since it does not emit any ionizing radiation and it can be used for breast lesion detection without requiring any breast crushing. We use Huygens Principle to provide a novel understanding into microwave imaging; specifically, the algorithm based on this principle provides images which represent homogeneity maps of the dielectric properties (dielectric constant and/or conductivity). The experimental results on phantoms having inclusions with different dielectric constants are presented here. In addition, the capability of the device to detect breast lesions has been verified through clinical examinations on 51 breasts. We introduce a metric to measure the non-homogeneous behaviour of the image, establishing a modality to detect the presence of inclusions inside phantoms and, similarly, the presence of a lesion inside a breast