FOSTRAD : An advanced open source tool for re-entry analysis

This work responds to the need of modeling the atmospheric re-entry of space debris, satellites, and spacecraft quickly, efficiently and with a reasonable reliability. The Free Open Source Tool for Re-entry of Asteroids and Debris (FOSTRAD) is a simulation suite that allows for the estimation of aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics of an entry object in a continuum or rarefied hypersonic flow by employing the local panel formulation. In this paper, the work done to integrate the tool within a comprehensive framework allowing the simulation of complex geometries using a mesh handler module, a 3DOF trajectory propagator, and a surrogate model generation function, is presented. In addition, a synchronous coupling with a 1D thermal ablation code has been implemented and tested. The mesh module allows operations such as surface local radius computation, surface facets visibility identification, and objects geometrical evolution due to the burn-up during the re-entry. In the continuum regime, the simplified aerothermodynamics are computed using a local radius formulation, while the tool employs a flat-plate based approach in the free molecular regime. A generalized nose radius-based bridging model has been introduced for the rarefied transitional regime. The tests have demonstrated that applying a local radius formulation along with the radius-based bridging model greatly improves the accuracy of re-entry heat-flux estimations. The integrated framework has been tested on two different examples of atmospheric re-entries: the ESA Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) trajectory optimization and the Stardust sample return capsule Thermal Protection System (TPS) burn-up recession; and the coupling between FOSTRAD and the thermal ablation code allowed to study a step-by-step trajectory evolution of Stardust TPS. The obtained results show good agreement with the literature

DMTMM, un nuovo reattivo di "coupling" per la sintesi di ammidi in fase solida ed in fase omogenea

La formazione di un legame ammidico é la reazione per la quale esistono forse più metodi disponibili in letteratura. Nonostante tale abbondanza di metodi, non sono molti i reattivi che formano un legame ammidico direttamente a partire dall’acido carbossilico e dalla ammina, che funzionano sia su fase solida che su fase omogenea senza la formazione di molti sottoprodoti e che limitano la possibilità di racemizzazione allorquando si lavori con α-amminoacidi. Molto versatile é risultato il sale di N-metil morfolinio della 4,6-dimetossi[1,3,5]triazina (DMTMM), ottenuto direttamente dalla 2-cloro, 4, 6-dimetossi[1,3,5]triazina per reazione con Nmetil morfolina, che é un solido isolabile e stabile

Aero-thermal re-entry sensitivity analysis using DSMC and a high dimensional model representation-based approach

This paper presents a sensitivity analysis for the hypersonic aero-thermal convective heat transfer from the free molecular to the slip-flow regime for cylindrical and cubic geometries. The analyses focus on a surface-averaged heat transfer coefficient at various atmospheric conditions. The sensitivity analyses have been performed by coupling a High Dimensional Model Representation based approach and a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code. The geometries have been tested with respect to different inputs parameters; altitude, attitude, wall temperature and geometric characteristics. After the initial sensitivity analyses, the N-dimensional surrogate models of the surface-averaged heat transfer coefficient have been defined and tested. Hereby, a shape-based DSMC mesh refinement correction factor for reducing the overall analyses computational times is also presented

Sviluppo di "spot tests" visivi per la determinazione della presenza di gruppi funzionali in sintesi organica supportata su fase solida

Nei nostri laboratori abbiamo messo a punto due "spot tests" visivi molto efficienti per la determinazione di gruppi -COOH e per gruppi -OH di tipo alcolico o fenolico

Launcher vehicle aerothermodynamics and fairing separation altitude effects on payload temperature

The first part of this research investigates and compares VEGA launcher vehicle aerothermodynamics during a nominal ascent trajectory simulated by means of Direct Simulation Monte Carlo and hypersonic local panel methods. In the second part of the work, the coupled aerothermal-structural simulation of the ascent phase up to 250s was performed, studying the heat transfer between the payload fairing and a dummy payload. The results have shown a good match among the aerothermal fluxes estimated by the different methodologies, and that an optimal theoretical fairing separation time can be found by minimizing the aerothermal fluxes incident on the payload

Detecting Images Generated by Diffusers

This paper explores the task of detecting images generated by text-to-image diffusion models. To evaluate this, we consider images generated from captions in the MSCOCO and Wikimedia datasets using two state-of-the-art models: Stable Diffusion and GLIDE. Our experiments show that it is possible to detect the generated images using simple Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs), starting from features extracted by CLIP, or traditional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). We also observe that models trained on images generated by Stable Diffusion can detect images generated by GLIDE relatively well, however, the reverse is not true. Lastly, we find that incorporating the associated textual information with the images rarely leads to significant improvement in detection results but that the type of subject depicted in the image can have a significant impact on performance. This work provides insights into the feasibility of detecting generated images, and has implications for security and privacy concerns in real-world applications. The code to reproduce our results is available at: https://github.com/davide-coccomini/Detecting-Images-Generated-by-Diffuser

Alveolar ridge split technique using piezosurgery with specially designed tips

The treatment of patients with atrophic ridge who need prosthetic rehabilitation is a common problem in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Among the various techniques introduced for the expansion of alveolar ridges with a horizontal bone deficit is the alveolar ridge split technique. The aim of this article is to give a description of some new tips that have been specifically designed for the treatment of atrophic ridges with transversal bone deficit. A two-step piezosurgical split technique is also described, based on specific osteotomies of the vestibular cortex and the use of a mandibular ramus graft as interpositional graft. A total of 15 patients were treated with the proposed new tips by our department. All the expanded areas were successful in providing an adequate width and height to insert implants according to the prosthetic plan and the proposed tips allowed obtaining the most from the alveolar ridge split technique and piezosurgery. These tips have made alveolar ridge split technique simple, safe, and effective for the treatment of horizontal and vertical bone defects. Furthermore the proposed piezosurgical split technique allows obtaining horizontal and vertical bone augmentation

The genetic study of three population microisolates in South Tyrol (MICROS): study design and epidemiological perspectives

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is increasing evidence of the important role that small, isolated populations could play in finding genes involved in the etiology of diseases. For historical and political reasons, South Tyrol, the northern most Italian region, includes several villages of small dimensions which remained isolated over the centuries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The MICROS study is a population-based survey on three small, isolated villages, characterized by: old settlement; small number of founders; high endogamy rates; slow/null population expansion. During the stage-1 (2002/03) genealogical data, screening questionnaires, clinical measurements, blood and urine samples, and DNA were collected for 1175 adult volunteers. Stage-2, concerning trait diagnoses, linkage analysis and association studies, is ongoing. The selection of the traits is being driven by expert clinicians. Preliminary, descriptive statistics were obtained. Power simulations for finding linkage on a quantitative trait locus (QTL) were undertaken.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Starting from participants, genealogies were reconstructed for 50,037 subjects, going back to the early 1600s. Within the last five generations, subjects were clustered in one pedigree of 7049 subjects plus 178 smaller pedigrees (3 to 85 subjects each). A significant probability of familial clustering was assessed for many traits, especially among the cardiovascular, neurological and respiratory traits. Simulations showed that the MICROS pedigree has a substantial power to detect a LOD score ≥ 3 when the QTL specific heritability is ≥ 20%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The MICROS study is an extensive, ongoing, two-stage survey aimed at characterizing the genetic epidemiology of Mendelian and complex diseases. Our approach, involving different scientific disciplines, is an advantageous strategy to define and to study population isolates. The isolation of the Alpine populations, together with the extensive data collected so far, make the MICROS study a powerful resource for the study of diseases in many fields of medicine. Recent successes and simulation studies give us confidence that our pedigrees can be valuable both in finding new candidates loci and to confirm existing candidate genes.</p