Thirty Years After: American Vietnam War Literature in Italian

https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/vietnam_papers/1005/thumbnail.jp

Geometric Modeling of Cellular Materials for Additive Manufacturing in Biomedical Field: A Review

Advances in additive manufacturing technologies facilitate the fabrication of cellular materials that have tailored functional characteristics. The application of solid freeform fabrication techniques is especially exploited in designing scaffolds for tissue engineering. In this review, firstly, a classification of cellular materials from a geometric point of view is proposed; then, the main approaches on geometric modeling of cellular materials are discussed. Finally, an investigation on porous scaffolds fabricated by additive manufacturing technologies is pointed out. Perspectives in geometric modeling of scaffolds for tissue engineering are also proposed

Poor weight control, alcoholic beverage consumption and sudden sleep onset at the wheel among Italian truck drivers: A preliminary pilot study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of obesity, alcoholic beverage consumption, unhealthy alcohol use and sudden sleep onset at the wheel among Italian truck drivers. In addition to prevalence rates, this study also aimed at investigating potential predictors for sudden-onset sleepiness and obesity. Material and Methods: A sample of truck drivers was extracted from the database of the High Risk Professional Driver Study. Data concerning demographics, anthropometry, medical information and working conditions were collected using anonymous questionnaires. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association of the reported body mass index (BMI), alcohol consumption and sudden sleep onset with working conditions and general lifestyle factors. Results: Three hundred and thirty-five questionnaires were collected. According to their BMI, 45% of the participants were overweight and 21.4% of them were obese. Twenty-four point two percent declared they drank alcoholic beverages during working hours or work breaks and 21.3% of the drivers had an Alcohol Use Disorders Identyfication Test Consumption (AUDIT C) score ≥ 5 (the threshold value for unhealthy alcohol use). Forty-one point six percent of the interviewees experienced one episode of sudden sleep onset at the wheel per month (5.5% per week and 0.9% daily). Predictive factors for obesity were: length of service (odds ratio (OR) = 1.09, confidence interval (95% CI): 1.04–1.15, p 55 years old (OR = 5.22, 95% CI: 1.29–21.1, p = 0.020), driving more than 50 000 km per year (OR = 2.89, 95% CI: 1.37–6.11, p = 0.006) and the Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire (CFQ) score > 11 (adjusted OR = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.22–7.21, p = 0.016). Conclusions: This study strongly emphasizes the need for intervention in order to reduce and prevent important risk factors for the sake of road safety and truck drivers' health

A sustainable approach towards the retrofit of the public housing building stock: Energy-architectural experimental and numerical analysis

Nowadays, energy retrofit interventions on the existing building stock are of paramount importance towards energy consumption and emissions reductions in the construction sector. Such interventions are also crucial in the view of increasing cities resilience with respect to the intensification of frequent extreme weather events, such as cold spells and heatwaves. Indeed, a wide portion of our cities is dated and lacking with respect to performances. These are the motivations behind the proposed sustainable approach, which deals with the environmental perspective, but also with social and economic ones, by proposing the retrofit of the Public Residential Building stock (Edilizia Residenziale Pubblica, ERP). The objective is to improve the energy performance of ERP stock by means of construction materials coming from local km0 agricultural waste and by-products. The research was conducted by means of in field and numerical analyses of the energy performances of a relevant case study building. Different layers of bio-based, recycled construction materials for the envelope were tested with respect to their efficacy in improving the energy performance of a case study building. The results demonstrate that the most performing envelope solutions and their combination are able to reduce up to 36% of the yearly energy consumption for heating

DomainSenticNet: An Ontology and a Methodology Enabling Domain-aware Sentic Computing

[EN] In recent years, SenticNet and OntoSenticNet have represented important developments in the novel interdisciplinary field of research known as sentic computing, enabling the development of a variety of Sentic applications. In this paper, we propose an extension of the OntoSenticNet ontology, named DomainSenticNet, and contribute an unsupervised methodology to support the development of domain-aware Sentic applications. We developed an unsupervised methodology that, for each concept in OntoSenticNet, mines semantically related concepts from WordNet and Probase knowledge bases and computes domain distributional information from the entire collection of Kickstarter domain-specific crowdfunding campaigns. Subsequently, we applied DomainSenticNet to a prototype tool for Kickstarter campaign authoring and success prediction, demonstrating an improvement in the interpretability of sentiment intensities. DomainSenticNet is an extension of the OntoSenticNet ontology that integrates each of the 100,000 concepts included in OntoSenticNet with a set of semantically related concepts and domain distributional information. The defined unsupervised methodology is highly replicable and can be easily adapted to build similar domain-aware resources from different domain corpora and external knowledge bases. Used in combination with OntoSenticNet, DomainSenticNet may favor the development of novel hybrid aspect-based sentiment analysis systems and support further research on sentic computing in domain-aware applications.The work of Paolo Rosso was partially funded by the Spanish MICINN under the project PGC2018-096212-B-C31.Distante, D.; Faralli, S.; Rittinghaus, S.; Rosso, P.; Samsami, N. (2022). DomainSenticNet: An Ontology and a Methodology Enabling Domain-aware Sentic Computing. Cognitive Computation. 14(1):62-77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12559-021-09825-w627714

optimization approaches in design for additive manufacturing

AbstractNowadays, topology optimization and lattice structures are being re-discovered thanks to Additive Manufacturing technologies, that allow to easily produce parts with complex geometries.The primary aim of this work is to provide an original contribution for geometric modeling of conformal lattice structures for both wireframe and mesh models, improving previously presented methods. The secondary aim is to compare the proposed approaches with commercial software solutions on a piston rod as a case study.The central part of the rod undergoes size optimization of conformal lattice structure beams diameters using the proposed methods, and topology optimization using commercial software tool. The optimized lattice is modeled with a NURBS approach and with the novel mesh approach, while the topologically optimized part is manually remodeled to obtain a proper geometry. Results show that the lattice mesh modelling approach has the best performance, resulting in a lightweight structure with smooth surfaces and without sharp edges at nodes, enhancing mechanical properties and fatigue life

All optical switches based on the coupling of surface plasmon polaritons

We studied the potentials of All Optical Switches (AOS) based on the intensity-dependent coupling and decoupling of light into the SPP modes (Surface Plasmon Polaritons) of a sinusoidally corrugated thin metal film (TMF), due to Kerr induced refractive index changes of the surrounding dielectrics. The ideal device has two spatially separated outputs, collecting the reflected and transmitted light and the active volume can be as small as 10(-2) mm(3). Gold and PTS (poly-(2,4-hexadiyne-1,6-diol bis(p-toluene sulfonate) are the materials considered. Losses are limited to 1.5 dB,while a 20 dB extinction ratio per gate has been theoretically demonstrated with signal pulsewidths of 5-10 ps , using a maximum optical switching peak power of 11 kW

Decentralised cooperation and its potential for local democratic governance: the experience of Trentino decentralised cooperation

Since the early 1990s Local Authorities (LAs) have stepped into the international development cooperation arena and in many European countries Decentralised Cooperation (DC) has become increasingly relevant as a new development cooperation modality that has great potential in terms of promoting sustainable development and local democratic governance. DC in international development is a relatively new phenomenon and its full potential is not yet fully known. Based on the findings of a two year long evaluative research of four DC programmes implemented by Trentino in Northern Italy in partnership with three municipalities in the Balkans and a rural district in Mozambique, this paper contributes to the literature on DC policies and practices in highlighting a scarcely analysed issue: the contribution of DC to local democratic governance and the possible reasons as to why DC, despite its potential, faces challenges that hinder its capacity to effectively contribute to decentralised governanc