Prismatic to asbestiform offretite from Northern Italy. Occurrence, morphology and crystal-chemistry of a new potentially hazardous zeolite

A multi-methodological approach, based upon field investigation, morphological characterization, chemical analysis and structure refinement was applied to different samples of fibrous offretite, a new potentially hazardous zeolite recently discovered in northern Italy. Their morphology ranges from stocky-prismatic to asbestiform. All the investigated fibers may be considered as "inhalable", and they are well within the range of the "more carcinogenic fibers" regarding diameter. As regards the length, the main mode observed in the asbestiform samples is 20-25 mu m, and similar to 93% of the measured fibers are >5 mu m and may be significantly associated with carcinogenesis also in terms of lengths. The chemical-structural features of the investigated fibers are comparable: the extra-framework cations K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ are present in all samples in similar proportions, and refined cell parameters are similar among the samples. Offretite occurs in 60% of the investigated sites, with an estimated amount up to 75 vol % of the associated minerals. The presence of this mineral could be of concern for risk to human health, especially if one considers the vast number of quarries and mining-related activities that are operating in the zeolite host rocks

Using Application programming interface to integrate reverse engineering methodologies into solidworks

In this paper the authors present an application of Visual Basic Application Programming Interface (API) to develop numerical and procedural algorithm into CAD software. The paper focuses on Reverse Engineering embedded into Solidworks. In many RE applications there is the need to remodel the tessellated surface into an editable solid feature, to analyze it and to manipulate it. For this purpose they can be programmed numerical procedures which interact with native geometrical entities in order to improve the modelling capability using automation protocols. The presented example of API and Solidworks interaction is about the acquisition and processing of surfaces acquired by 3d laser scanner. The problem is to acquire the tessellated geometry, build up a parametric editable feature, perform topological analysis and manipulate more fragments to reconstruct an unique entity. The proposed methodology is based on the integration between native geometrical entities in Solidworks and advanced mathematics algorithms about nonlinear optimization. Both of them can be accessed and manipulated by the user using simple graphic windows. In the paper the authors describe how to implement the interaction among these entities, discussing the role of API focusing on limits and capabilities and presenting the proposed algorithms underling the critical points

Valproic acid induces apoptosis, p16INK4A upregulation and sensitization to chemotherapy in human melanoma cells.

It is known that melanoma develops as a consequence of multifactorial alterations. To date several studies indicate the effective implication of p16 as a tumor suppressor gene with a major role in either the development or progression of human melanoma. Deregulation of melanoma cell growth has been widely associated with mutations in the p16-cyclin D/cdk4-pRb pathway. Recently anticancer therapies are focused on restoration of p16 CDK inhibitory function and other proteins unregulated in melanoma cell cycle pathway (e.g., c-myc, p27). A combined strategy for restoration of normal homeostasis in the melanoma skin with targeted delivery of apoptosis-inducing agents does not seems to be far obtained. New class of antitumoral agents are emerging: histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have attracted much interest because of their ability to arrest cell growth, induce cell differentiation, and in some cases, induce apoptosis of cancer cells. Recently, attention has been focused on the ability of HDAC inhibitors to induce perturbation in cell cycle regulatory protein (e.g., p21(CIP1)) and down-regulation of survival signalling pathway. In the present study, we have examined the effect of valproic acid (VPA) on M14 human melanoma cell line. Here we observed that VPA induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis sensitising melanoma cells to cis-platin and etoposide treatment. IC(50) dose (2.99 mM) of VPA was able to induce G(1) arrest (up to 75%) in association with upregulation of p16, p21 and cyclin-D1 related to Rb ipo-phosphorilation. In addition VPA activated apoptosis (50%) in M14 cells, when given alone or in combination with antitumoral agents. The ability of valproic acid to reestablished the G(1) pathway in melanoma cells suggests a potential application of VPA in melanoma therapeutic protocols

Modelli virtuali predittivi del comfort vibrazionale degli occupanti di autovetture

La monografia riguarda la descrizione di metodologie innovative per la simulazione del comportamento biomecanico di un corpo umano soggetto a vibrazioni. Particolare attenzione è stata posta nella modellazione di un occupante di veicolo al fine di predire il relativo comfort vibrazionale in ottemperanza con le recenti normative. Prove sperimentali sono state eseguite a corredo per validare i modelli proposti

A Data-Driven Approach to Estimate the Power Loss and Thermal Behaviour of Cylindrical Gearboxes under Transient Operating Conditions

This paper proposes an innovative methodology to estimate the thermal behaviour of the cylindrical gearbox system, considering, as a thermal source, the power loss calculated under transient operating conditions. The power loss of the system in transient conditions is computed through several approaches: a partial elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication model (EHL) is adopted to estimate the friction coefficients of the gears, while analytical and semiempirical models are used to compute other power loss sources. Furthermore, considering a limited set of operating condition points as a training set, a reduced-order model for the evaluation of the power loss based on a neural network is developed. Using this method, it is possible to simulate thermal behaviour with high accuracy through a thermal network approach in all steady-state and transient operating conditions, reducing computational time. The results obtained by means of the proposed method have been compared and validated with the experimental results available in the literature. This methodology has been tested with the FZG rig test gearbox but can be extended to any transmission layout to predict the overall efficiency and component temperatures with a low computational burden

Sit-to-Walk predicts Freezing of Gait status over than cognitive load: an experimental study with Linear Discriminant Analysis.

Freezing of Gait (FoG) is one of the most debilitating symptom of patients with Parkinson Disease (PwP) as it could leads to fall and loss of independence. We evaluated the motor behavior in simple and complex gait movements with three groups of participants: PwP with and without FoG in ON state condition, and participants without neurologic and gait disorders. All participants were required to walk, to begin to walk (Step Initiation), and raise from a chair for walking (Sit-to-Walk). Analysis of variance helped to identify task-specific kinematic and kinetic variables which differentiate among the three groups. Classification accuracy of such variables was obtained by training a Linear Discriminant Analysis \u2013 LDA algorithm on reduced sub-samples, and by testing it on the left out subjects

Unitn-eprints: risultati di utilizzo, prospettive di sviluppo

The digital institutional archive Unitn-eprints, containing reserach outputs by the academic community of the University of Trento, was born in 2002. In this paper we analyze the software customization, some usage results and statistics, and its future perspectives and developments in connection with research evaluation systems

Unitn-eprints: risultati di utilizzo, prospettive di sviluppo

The digital institutional archive Unitn-eprints, containing reserach outputs by the academic community of the University of Trento, was born in 2002. In this paper we analyze the software customization, some usage results and statistics, and its future perspectives and developments in connection with research evaluation systems