Reliability Assessment of a Packaging Automatic Machine by Accelerated Life Testing Approach

Industrial competitiveness in innovation, the time of the market introduction of new machines and the level of reliability requested implies that the strategies for the development of products must be more and more efficient. In particular, researchers and practitioners are looking for methods to evaluate the reliability, as cheap as possible, knowing that systems are more and more reliable. This paper presents a reliability assessment procedure applied to a mechanical component of an automatic machine for packaging using the accelerated test approach. The general log-linear (GLL) model is combined based on a relationship between a number strains, in particular mechanical and time based. The complete Accelerated Life Testing - ALT approach is presented by using Weibull distribution and Maximum Likelihood verifying method. A test plan is proposed to estimate the unknown parameters of accelerated life models. Using the proposed ALT model, the reliability function of the component is evaluated and then compared with data from the field collected by customers referring to 8 years of real work on a fleet of automatic packaging machines. The results confirm that the assessment method through ALT is effective for lifetime prediction with shorter test times, and for the same reason it can improve the design process of automatic packaging machines

Inverse diffraction for the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly in the Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly in the Solar Dynamics Observatory provides full Sun images every 1 seconds in each of 7 Extreme Ultraviolet passbands. However, for a significant amount of these images, saturation affects their most intense core, preventing scientists from a full exploitation of their physical meaning. In this paper we describe a mathematical and automatic procedure for the recovery of information in the primary saturation region based on a correlation/inversion analysis of the diffraction pattern associated to the telescope observations. Further, we suggest an interpolation-based method for determining the image background that allows the recovery of information also in the region of secondary saturation (blooming)

Unmet Needs in Understanding Sublingual Immunotherapy to Grass Pollen

The lack of medication for allergy symptoms at the end of the last millennium has been the promoter of the idea of treating allergies as if you were treating an infectious disease, by vaccination prophylaxis. Two forms of AIT 1) subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) and 2) sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) are used in the world. Considerable interest has emerged in SLIT both scientifically and especially financially. SLIT is not a new treatment modality. First description dates back to 1900 when H. Curtis. It was relatively widely used until the late 1970’s mainly in US by homeopathic therapists

Experiences, Emotions, and Health Consequences among COVID-19 Survivors after Intensive Care Unit Hospitalization

Literature suggested that COVID-19 patients experienced hospitalization as a physically and psychologically stressful event, with the risk to develop post-traumatic stress symptoms. The study aimed to understand psychological experiences of COVID-19 survivors with severe complications during and after ICU hospitalization, and any relevant health consequences. From October 2020 to January 2021, a qualitative study was conducted in Italy via semi-structured interviews by phone or video call addressed to COVID-19 survivors, randomly enrolled among people who released their stories publicly on newspapers, television, or social media. Fifteen individuals (three women and twelve men with average age of 56.4 years) were interviewed. Four main themes emerged: (i) emotion of fear; (ii) isolation and loneliness; (iii) unawareness about the gravity of the situation as a protective factor; (iv) "Long COVID" as consequences of the disease on physical and psychological health. During hospitalization, 66.7% of participants had mild or moderate values of anxiety and depression. After discharge, 86.7% moved to normal values. The results suggest that long-COVID is an important problem to manage to improve patients' quality of life. It is essential to guarantee a holistic take in charge starting before the discharge and continuing care after discharge in the community where they live