Computation of Fiber Orientation in X-Ray Micro-Tomography Reconstructions

No abstract availabl

Technologies and techniques offering new interpretations of the landscape evolution

The need for specific documents in terms of environment and landscape has its origin in late eighties, when in Italy both at European and Regional level several dispositions related to the improvement of the landscape quality came out to guarantee the compatibility of territorial transformations. Within this traditional context, how innovative, mainly BIM-oriented, technologies can be useful in offering new ways of interpretation for the landscape planning and safeguarding? The aim of the present work is to read and translate landscape elements using digital BIM-oriented platforms, in order to develop an optimized procedure to collect/organize/implement data and define guidelines for landscape and visual impact assessment; furthermore, the aim is to understand the limits that are still present within available tools. After having read the features of the territory another key point is the creation of digital parametric libraries to represent environmental mitigation works. As far as visual mitigation works are concerned, visibility analysis of the infrastructure is possible through Virtual and Mixed Reality. Once the modeling of specific components is performed, they can be located within the contextual model, where outputs related to the “whole” can be extracted and updated afterwards. New digital technologies and techniques undoubtedly offer new interpretation scenarios of the landscape evolution; nevertheless, there are still strong limits related to the interactions among these tools. The present work provides a valid methodology to involve landscape and urban planning in the BIM process. The research also proposes a series of BIM oriented tools and software to develop a typical output (landscape report) required during the design process, useful for landscape architects

Microscale Analysis of Spacecraft Heat Shields

Imagine entering Earths atmosphere after returning from the outer solar system. A heat shield less than 2 inches thick protects you from temperatures up to 2,900 Celsius (5,252 Fahrenheit). Such conditions were experienced by NASAs Stardust capsule during reentry in 2006. The only materials capable of providing the necessary protection are composites with complex microstructures. Evaluating these materials is difficult, requiring precise knowledge of their properties. To this end, NASA scientists are developing research codes to compute material properties and simulate ablation at the microscale using agency supercomputers. Utilizing these tools, along with experiments, researchers are working to push the limits of spaceflight, allowing for greater flexibility in future space missions

Modeling the Effective Thermal Conductivity of Anisotropic Porous Materials

No abstract availabl

Therapeutic Challenges to Retinitis Pigmentosa: From Neuroprotection to Gene Therapy

Syndromic retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is the result of several mutations expressed in rod photoreceptors, over 40 of which have so far been identified. Enormous efforts are being made to relate the advances in unraveling the patho-physiological mechanisms to therapeutic approaches in animal models, and eventually in clinical trials on humans. This review summarizes briefly the current clinical management of RP and focuses on the new exciting treatment possibilities. To date, there is no approved therapy able to stop the evolution of RP or restore vision. The current management includes an attempt at slowing down the degenerative process by vitamin supplementation, trying to treat ocular complications and to provide psychological support to blind patients. Novel therapeutic may be tailored dependant on the stage of the disease and can be divided in three groups. In the early stages, when there are surviving photoreceptors, the first approach would be to try to halt the degeneration by correction of the underlying biochemical abnormality in the visual cycle using gene therapy or pharmacological treatment. A second approach aims to cope with photoreceptor cell death using neurotrophic growth factors or anti-apoptotic factors, reducing the production of retino-toxic molecules, and limiting oxidative damage. In advanced stages, when there are few or no functional photoreceptors, strategies that may benefit include retinal transplantation, electronic retinal implants or a newly described optogenetic technique using a light-activated channel to genetically resensitize remnant cone-photoreceptor cells

Evidence that cells from experimental tumours can activate coagulation factor X.

The procoagulant activity of cells from some experimental tumours isolated in culture or in single-cell suspensions from ascitic fluid was investigated. Cells from Lewis lung carcinoma (primary and metastasis), Ehrlich carcinoma ascites and JW sarcoma ascites were able to shorten markedly the recalcification time of normal, Factor VIII- and Factor VII-deficient but not of Factor X-deficient human plasma. The same cells generated thrombin when mixed with a source of prothrombin and Factor X, absorbed bovine serum (as a source of Factor V), phospholipid and calcium chloride. Thrombin formation was not influenced by the presence of Factor VII. Cells from Sarcoma 180 ascites were completely inactive in both test systems. It is concluded that cells from some experimental tumours have the capacity to activate Coagulation Factor X directly. These findings suggest the existence of an alternative "cellular" pathway in the initiation of blood clotting distinct from both the intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms

Социально ориентированные программы, KIDS SAVE LIVES (Дети спасают жизни), World Restart a Heart (Перезапусти сердце) и другие кампании для повышения выживаемости при внебольничной остановке сердца

Sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is the third leading cause of death in industrialized nations.While educating lay bystanders in CPR is clearly the most important way to increase survival in this third leading cause of death and the community programs are helpful, it is less easy to reach the entire population if programs are not obligatory. Therefore experts see the need for obligatory inclusion of CPR education in schools. And this is exactly our clear expectation to all politicians involved in health care and school politics worldwide. Until this is reality in all countries, we invite everyone to help to convince the responsible politicians and to take part in campaigns like KIDS SAVE LIVES and WRAH.Внезапная внебольничная остановка сердца (ВОС) — третья по частоте причина смерти в развитых странах.Обучение основам СЛР лиц без медицинского образования — наиболее важная стратегия повышения выживаемости при остановке сердца. Программы, включающие такое обучение, весьма эффективны, однако полного охвата населения достичь очень трудно вследствие их необязательного статуса. В связи с этим, по мнению экспертов, СЛР необходимо ввести в школьную программу в качестве обязательного предмета. Именно этого мы ждем от политиков, ответственных за систему здравоохранения и образование, во всех странах. Пока наша цель не достигнута, мы призываем всех помочь нам убедить ответственных лиц и принять участие в таких кампаниях, как KIDS SAVE LIVES и World Restart a Heart

Microscale Modeling of High-Temperature Heat Transfer in Anisotropic Porous Materials

No abstract availabl

The Porous Microstructure Analysis (PuMA) Software for High-Temperature Microscale Modeling

No abstract availabl

Key fundamental aspects for mapping and assessing ecosystem services: Predictability of ecosystem service providers at scales from local to global

How an apparent static and ordered landscape condition in social ecological landscapes (SELs), can be made sustainable in terms of maintenance and improvement of the provision of ecosystem services (ESs) in face of unpredictable disturbance and change? Our contribution to the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Services (MAES) working group is to advance some recommendations on how to approach the dynamic analysis of complex adaptive systems to improve ecosystem resilience, habitat connectivity and the delivery of ESs. We show exemplary cases where we utilize the NDVI provided by remote sensing to evaluate land cover transformations and processes and ES provisioning. We focus on NDVI because it allows the supply of information on net primary production, i.e., the energetic foundation of nearly all ecosystems and that provides the basis of most of ESs. The use of spectral entropy, and nonlinear analysis of spatial temporal dynamics to investigate trajectory predictability of SELs provide very useful insight into the dynamics of SELs and can assist in the characterization of the links between land cover patterns with ecological processes to support more reliable assessments and accountings of ESs