Experimental and Theoretical Modelling of 3D Gravity Currents

Postprint (published version

A new freeware raycasting tool combined with fluorescent coating to allow for object visibility

Abstract Time resolved PIV encompassing moving and/or deformable objects interfering with the light source requires the employment of dynamic masking (DM). A few DM techniques have been recently developed, mainly in microfluidics and multiphase flows fields. Most of them require ad-hoc design of the experimental setup, and may spoil the accuracy of the resulting PIV analysis. A new DM technique is here presented which envisages, along with a dedicated masking algorithm, the employment of fluorescent coating to allow for accurate tracking of the object. We show results from measurements obtained through a validated PIV setup demonstrating the need to include a DM step even for objects featuring limited displacements. We compare the proposed algorithm with both a no-masking and a static masking solution. In the framework of developing low cost, flexible and accurate PIV setups, the proposed algorithm is made available through a freeware application able to generate masks to be used by an existing, freeware PIV analysis package. Graphic abstrac

Regularized lattice Boltzmann Multicomponent models for low Capillary and Reynolds microfluidics flows

We present a regularized version of the color gradient lattice Boltzmann (LB) scheme for the simulation of droplet formation in microfluidic devices of experimental relevance. The regularized version is shown to provide computationally efficient access to Capillary number regimes relevant to droplet generation via microfluidic devices, such as flow-focusers and the more recent microfluidic step emulsifier devices.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

A Gas-Kinetic Model for Shallow Water Flows in Presence of Wet/Dry Fronts

Experimental and Computational Hydraulic

Suitability of 2D modelling to evaluate flow properties in 3D porous media

AbstractThe employment of 2D models to investigate the properties of 3D flows in porous media is ubiquitous in the literature. The limitations of such approaches are often overlooked. Here, we assess to which extent 2D flows in porous media are suitable representations of 3D flows. To this purpose, we compare representative elementary volume (REV) scales obtained by 2D and 3D numerical simulations of flow in porous media. The stationarity of several quantities, namely porosity, permeability, mean and variance of velocity, is evaluated in terms of both classical and innovative statistics. The variance of velocity, strictly connected to the hydrodynamic dispersion, is included in the analysis in order to extend conclusions to transport phenomena. Pore scale flow is simulated by means of a Lattice Boltzmann model. The results from pore scale simulations point out that the 2D approach often leads to inconsistent results, due to the profound difference between 2D and 3D flows through porous media. We employ the error in the evaluation of REV as a quantitative measure for the reliability of a 2D approach. Moreover, we show that the acceptance threshold for a 2D representation to be valid strongly depends on which flow/transport quantity is sought

Out-of-Plane Plasmonic Antennas for Raman Analysis in Living Cells.

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Strumenti di analisi per esplorare reti di collaborazione scientifica

The study of the scientific collaboration networks is one of the traditional areas of interest in Network Analysis framework. The aim of the paper is to explore co-authorship networks, where researchers are connected according to the number of papers published together, in order to assess the attitude to collaborate and to identify peculiar styles of collaboration. Starting from the data base of the published papers in the period 1998-2006 produced by the members of the Department of Economics and Statistics at the University of Salerno, collaboration networks are described both by means of network measures (density, actors centrality and presence of cohesive groups) and exploratory multidimensional techniques

Thread-safe lattice Boltzmann for high-performance computing on GPUs

We present thread-safe, highly-optimized lattice Boltzmann implementations, specifically aimed at exploiting the high memory bandwidth of GPU-based architectures. At variance with standard approaches to LB coding, the proposed strategy, based on the reconstruction of the post-collision distribution via Hermite projection, enforces data locality and avoids the onset of memory dependencies, which may arise during the propagation step, with no need to resort to more complex streaming strategies. The thread-safe lattice Boltzmann achieves peak performances, both in two and three dimensions and it allows to sensibly reduce the allocated memory ( tens of GigaBytes for order billions lattice nodes simulations) by retaining the algorithmic simplicity of standard LB computing. Our findings open attractive prospects for high-performance simulations of complex flows on GPU-based architectures

Acid ceramidase controls apoptosis and increases autophagy in human melanoma cells treated with doxorubicin

Acid ceramidase (AC) is a lysosomal hydrolase encoded by the ASAH1 gene, which cleaves ceramides into sphingosine and fatty acid. AC is expressed at high levels in most human melanoma cell lines and may confer resistance against chemotherapeutic agents. One such agent, doxorubicin, was shown to increase ceramide levels in melanoma cells. Ceramides contribute to the regulation of autophagy and apoptosis. Here we investigated the impact of AC ablation via CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing on the response of A375 melanoma cells to doxorubicin. We found that doxorubicin activates the autophagic response in wild-type A375 cells, which effectively resist apoptotic cell death. In striking contrast, doxorubicin fails to stimulate autophagy in A375 AC-null cells, which rapidly undergo apoptosis when exposed to the drug. The present work highlights changes that affect melanoma cells during incubation with doxorubicin, in A375 melanoma cells lacking AC. We found that the remarkable reduction in recovery rate after doxorubicin treatment is strictly associated with the impairment of autophagy, that forces the AC-inhibited cells into apoptotic path

Giant endobronchial hamartoma resected by fiberoptic bronchoscopy electrosurgical snaring

Less than 1% of lung neoplasms are represented by benign tumors. Among these, hamartomas are the most common with an incidence between 0.025% and 0.32%. In relation to the localization, hamartomas are divided into intraparenchymal and endobronchial