5D BIM FOR CONSTRUCTION SITE SURVEYNG

The scope of work presented in this paper is to provide a BIM-based workflow supporting clients and contractors in construction site surveying. It is well known that BIM technology offers many profitable issues that benefit owners, designers and constructors, especially in terms of design efficiency and interoperability. Moreover, it can become a powerful instrument for the client’s team and the General Contractor all along the construction phase, starting from the construction site organization to answer the bid requests. It can also support the supervision of work progress and amount, and allow to periodically reconsider them in compliance with available resources. Starting from these statements, the authors have developed some studies to obtain a systematic and methodological approach for site surveying and optimization. Then, the research focuses primarily on the definition of proper requirements to outline a 5D site management throughout the whole construction process. After the definition of different needs for the different actors of construction process, the research moved to the possible BIM use for the satisfaction of these needs by the definition of customized parameters dealing with site spaces and facilities, quantities, time and cost management. The parameters have been identified to respond the needs of the on-field case study concerning the realization of a school complex in Cernusco sul Naviglio (Milan). Furthermore the field test proved efficiency and promptness to changes of the developed method in particular concerning scheduling optimization. By further inspections, this process is also supposed to become an instrument of dialog and comparison with the Health & Safety team, to verify work items clashes against health and safety on construction site

Surface functionalisation of sol-gel-based bioactive glass scaffolds for drug delivery

ITN FP-7 project “GlaCERCo

Elevated Concentrations of Liver Enzymes and Ferritin Identify a New Phenotype of Insulin Resistance: Effect of Weight Loss After Gastric Banding

BACKGROUND: Several studies have associated elevated liver enzymes (LFTs), obesity, and type 2 diabetes (T2DM), and a link has been established between insulin resistance (IR) and elevated ferritin concentrations. We examined the relationship between LFTs, ferritin, and IR in morbid obese subjects and the effect of weight loss after bariatric surgery. METHODS: We measured liver enzymes, ferritin, insulin resistance, and glucose tolerance (by OGTT) in 159 morbid obese subjects (BMI = 44.4 +/- 0.4 kg/m(2)) at baseline, 6 months and 1 year after laparoscopic-adjustable-gastric banding (LAGB). Subjects were divided in two groups: increased LFTs (ALT > 30; AST/ALT < 1) vs. normal LFTs. RESULTS: A large proportion of morbid obese subjects had increased LFTs (44%) which were associated with increased IR and ferritin, suggesting potential liver disease. A majority of the morbidly obese with increased LFTs, IGT, and T2DM, were male and had almost double ferritin concentrations, strongly correlated with ALT (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001). Both ferritin and ALT correlated with waist circumference and IR. One year after, LAGB glucose tolerance improved, LFTs and IR were reduced; ferritin did not change significantly, but was still correlated with IR. CONCLUSIONS: Ferritin may be an additional useful marker for more severe hepatic IR

Zn-doped titania nanoparticles as building blocks for solid foam filters of water and air via photocatalytic oxidation

Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) could provide energy-efficient purification of water and air. Its efficacy is constrained mainly by limited photocatalytic activity and active surface. To address both, solid foams with hierarchic porous structures spanning multiple length-scales, stabilized by photocatalytic Zn-doped titania nanoparticles (NP) were synthesized and tested. The NP were characterized by SEM, EDS, DLS, XRD, Raman and UV–Vis spectroscopies. Solid foams were stabilized by NP complexes with cationic surfactants. The foam morphology was characterized and photocatalytic activity was demonstrated in water. The present work paves the way for the development of efficient systems for air and water purification in demanding technological sectors, such as aerospace

Surface functionalisation of sol-gel-based bioactive glass scaffolds for drug delivery

Bioactive glasses are widely used in bone tissue engineering (BTE) since they can develop strong bonds with bone through the formation of a hydroxyapatite (HA) layer1. Within these materials, sol-gel-based bioactive glasses (SGBGs) are attractive due to their enhanced bioactivity and resorbability and their capacity of being functionalised with a large variety of moieties2-3. Surface functionalisation is an interesting approach to load drugs into the material and allow their release in a controlled manner3. The aim of this study is the development of new SGBGs for 3D porous scaffolds and functionalisation of their surface by two different methods4-5 in order to enhance the drug delivery capability

An optically stimulated superconducting-like phase in K3C60 far above equilibrium Tc

The control of non-equilibrium phenomena in complex solids is an important research frontier, encompassing new effects like light induced superconductivity. Here, we show that coherent optical excitation of molecular vibrations in the organic conductor K3C60 can induce a non-equilibrium state with the optical properties of a superconductor. A transient gap in the real part of the optical conductivity and a low-frequency divergence of the imaginary part are measured for base temperatures far above equilibrium Tc=20 K. These findings underscore the role of coherent light fields in inducing emergent order.Comment: 40 pages, 23 figure

Prospecting environmental mycobacteria: combined molecular approaches reveal unprecedented diversity

Background: Environmental mycobacteria (EM) include species commonly found in various terrestrial and aquatic environments, encompassing animal and human pathogens in addition to saprophytes. Approximately 150 EM species can be separated into fast and slow growers based on sequence and copy number differences of their 16S rRNA genes. Cultivation methods are not appropriate for diversity studies; few studies have investigated EM diversity in soil despite their importance as potential reservoirs of pathogens and their hypothesized role in masking or blocking M. bovis BCG vaccine. Methods: We report here the development, optimization and validation of molecular assays targeting the 16S rRNA gene to assess diversity and prevalence of fast and slow growing EM in representative soils from semi tropical and temperate areas. New primer sets were designed also to target uniquely slow growing mycobacteria and used with PCR-DGGE, tag-encoded Titanium amplicon pyrosequencing and quantitative PCR. Results: PCR-DGGE and pyrosequencing provided a consensus of EM diversity; for example, a high abundance of pyrosequencing reads and DGGE bands corresponded to M. moriokaense, M. colombiense and M. riyadhense. As expected pyrosequencing provided more comprehensive information; additional prevalent species included M. chlorophenolicum, M. neglectum, M. gordonae, M. aemonae. Prevalence of the total Mycobacterium genus in the soil samples ranged from 2.3×107 to 2.7×108 gene targets g−1; slow growers prevalence from 2.9×105 to 1.2×107 cells g−1. Conclusions: This combined molecular approach enabled an unprecedented qualitative and quantitative assessment of EM across soil samples. Good concordance was found between methods and the bioinformatics analysis was validated by random resampling. Sequences from most pathogenic groups associated with slow growth were identified in extenso in all soils tested with a specific assay, allowing to unmask them from the Mycobacterium whole genus, in which, as minority members, they would have remained undetected

Evidence for an inhibitory effect of physiological levels of insulin on the growth hormone (GH) response to GH-releasing hormone in healthy subjects

It has been previously reported that in healthy subjects, the acute reduction of free fatty acids (FFA) levels by acipimox enhances the GH response to GHRH. In the present study, the GH response to GHRH was evaluated during acute blockade of lipolysis obtained either by acipimox or by insulin at different infusion rates. Six healthy subjects (four men and two women, 25.8 +/- 1.9 yrs old, mean +/- SE) underwent three GHRH tests (50 micrograms iv, at 1300 h) during: 1) iv 0.9% NaCl infusion (1200-1500 h) after oral acipimox administration (250 mg) at 0700 h and at 1100 h; 2) 0.1 mU.kg-1.min-1 euglycemic insulin clamp (1200-1500 h) after oral acipimox administration (250 mg at 0700 h and at 1100 h); 3) 0.4 mU.kg-1.min-1 euglycemic insulin clamp (1200-1500 h) after oral placebo administration (at 0700 and 1100 h). Serum insulin (immunoreactive insulin) levels were significantly different in the three tests (12 +/- 2, 100 +/- 10, 194 +/- 19 pmol/L, P < 0.06), plasma FFA were low and similar (0.04 +/- 0.003, 0.02 +/- 0.005, 0.02 +/- 0.003, not significant), and the GH response to GHRH was progressively lower (4871 +/- 1286, 2414 +/- 626, 1076 +/- 207 micrograms/L 120 min), although only test 3 was significantly different from test 1 (P < 0.05). Pooling the three tests together, a significant negative regression was observed between mean serum immunoreactive insulin levels and the GH response to GHRH (r = -0.629, P < 0.01). Our results indicate that in healthy subjects, acipimox and hyperinsulinemia produce a similar decrease in FFA levels and that at similar low FFA, the GH response to GHRH is lower during insulin infusion than after acipimox. These data suggest that insulin exerts a negative effect on GH release. Because the insulin levels able to reduce the GH response to GHRH are commonly observed during the day, for instance during the postprandial period, we conclude that the insulin negative effect on GH release may have physiological relevance

Insulin-secreting pituitary GH3 cells : a potential beta-cell surrogate for diabetes cell therapy

In a companion article, we describe the engineering and characterization of pituitary GH3 cell clones stably transfected with a furin-cleavable human insulin cDNA (InsGH3 cells). This article describes the performance of InsGH3 (clones 1 and 7) cell grafts into streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic nude mice. Subcutaneous implantation of 2 7 106 InsGH3 cells resulted in the progressive reversal of hyperglycemia and diabetic symptoms, even though the progressive growth of the transplanted cells (clone 7) eventually led to glycemic levels below the normal mouse range. Proinsulin transgene expression was maintained in harvested InsGH3 grafts that, conversely, lose the expression of the prolactin (PRL) gene. Elevated concentrations of circulating mature human insulin were detected in graft recipients, demonstrating that proinsulin processing by InsGH3 cells did occur in vivo. Histologic analysis showed that transplanted InsGH3 grew in forms of encapsulated tumors composed of cells with small cytoplasms weakly stained for the presence of insulin. Conversely, intense insulin immunoreactivity was detected in graft-draining venules. Compared to pancreatic \u3b2TC3 cells, InsGH3 cells showed in vitro a higher rate of replication, an elevate resistance to apoptosis induced by serum deprivation and proinflammatory cytokines and significantly higher antiapoptotic Bcl-2 protein levels. Moreover, InsGH3 cells were resistant to the streptozotocin toxicity that, in contrast, reduced \u3b2TC3 cell viability to 50-60% of controls. In conclusion, proinsulin gene expression and mature insulin secretion persisted in transplanted InsGH3 cells that reversed hyperglycemia in vivo. InsGH3 cells might represent a potential \u3b2-cell surrogate because they are more resistant than pancreatic \u3b2 cells to different apoptotic insults and might therefore be particularly suitable for encapsulation

Stage per studenti delle scuole secondarie nell&#8217;ambito del PLS-Fisica

Il Piano Lauree Scientifiche Fisica pone da sempre grande attenzione alla partecipazione di studenti delle scuole secondarie ad attivita' laboratoriali e stage organizzati presso le strutture universitarie al fine di stimolare la curiosit`a, incoraggiare la passione per la scienza, illustrare il percorso accademico in fisica e le prospettive lavorative. Le iniziative sono ricche e variegate in tutte le sedi e riscontrano sempre un elevato gradimento da parte di studenti, insegnanti e famiglie. La comunicazione che proponiamo illustra lo stato dell\u2019arte di queste iniziative, i loro punti di forza e le criticit`a, anche confrontandosi con la letteratura scientifica di riferimento