Effects of Surface Geology on Seismic Ground Motion Deduced from Ambient-Noise Measurements in the Town of Avellino, Irpinia Region (Italy)

The effects of surface geology on ground motion provide an important tool in seismic hazard studies. It is well known that the presence of soft sediments can cause amplification of the ground motion at the surface, particularly when there is a sharp impedance contrast at shallow depth. The town of Avellino is located in an area characterised by high seismicity in Italy, about 30 km from the epicentre of the 23 November 1980, Irpinia earthquake (M = 6.9). No earthquake recordings are available in the area. The local geology is characterised by strong heterogeneity, with impedance contrasts at depth. We present the results from seismic noise measurements carried out in the urban area of Avellino to evaluate the effects of local geology on the seismic ground motion. We computed the horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) noise spectral ratios at 16 selected sites in this urban area for which drilling data are available within the first 40 m of depth. A Rayleigh wave inversion technique using the peak frequencies of the noise H/V spectral ratios is then presented for estimating Vs models, assuming that the thicknesses of the shallow soil layers are known. The results show a good correspondence between experimental and theoretical peak frequencies, which are interpreted in terms of sediment resonance. For one site, which is characterised by a broad peak in the horizontal-to-vertical spectral-ratio curve, simple one-dimensional modelling is not representative of the resonance effects. Consistent variations in peak amplitudes are seen among the sites. A site classification based on shear-wave velocity characteristics, in terms of Vs30, cannot explain these data. The differences observed are better correlated to the impedance contrast between the sediments and basement. A more detailed investigation of the physical parameters of the subsoil structure, together with earthquake data, are desirable for future research, to confirm these data in terms of site response

Design of a flight qualified long-life cryocooler

A second generation Stirling cycle cryogenic refrigerator with a linear drive, magnetic bearings, and clearance seals; designed to produce 5 watts of cooling at 65 Kelvin and to meet Space Shuttle mission requirements is described. The first generation refrigerator met all performance specifications, and operated with no failure for over 12,030 hours. Meeting launch requirements necessitated improvements in the electromagnetic bearings, the radial position sensors, and in the structural design of the moving elements. Organic contamination was eliminated by the use of all metal and ceramic construction. Reductions in system input power are attained by an integral magnetic spring/motor for the displacer and by more efficient linear motors and drive electronics

The locality of the fourth root of staggered fermion determinant in the interacting case

The fourth root approximation in LQCD simulations with dynamical staggered fermions requires justification. We test its validity numerically in the interacting theory in a renormalization group framework.Comment: 6 pages, Talk presented at Lattice 2005 (Machines and Algorithms

The Equation of State for QCD with 2+1 Flavors of Quarks

We report results for the interaction measure, pressure and energy density for nonzero temperature QCD with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered quarks. In our simulations we use a Symanzik improved gauge action and the Asqtad $O(a^2)$ improved staggered quark action for lattices with temporal extent $N_t=4$ and 6. The heavy quark mass $m_s$ is fixed at approximately the physical strange quark mass and the two degenerate light quarks have masses $m_{ud} =0.1m_s$ or $0.2m_s$. The calculation of the thermodynamic observables employs the integral method where energy density and pressure are obtained by integration over the interaction measure.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, contribution to the XXIIIrd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 25-30 July 2005, Trinity College, Dublin, Irelan

More evidence of localization in the low-lying Dirac spectrum

We have extended our computation of the inverse participation ratio of low-lying (asqtad) Dirac eigenvectors in quenched SU(3). The scaling dimension of the confining manifold is clearer and very near 3. We have also computed the 2-point correlator which further characterizes the localization.Comment: presented at Lattice2005(Topology and Confinement), Dublin, July 25-30, 2005, 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proceedings of Scienc

Comparison of high-specific-activity ultratrace 123/131I-MIBG and carrier-added 123/131I-MIBG on efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and tissue distribution

Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is an enzymatically stable synthetic analog of norepinephrine that when radiolabled with diagnostic ((123)I) or therapeutic ((131)I) isotopes has been shown to concentrate highly in sympathetically innervated tissues such as the heart and neuroendocrine tumors that possesses high levels of norepinephrine transporter (NET). As the transport of MIBG by NET is a saturable event, the specific activity of the preparation may have dramatic effects on both the efficacy and safety of the radiodiagnostic/radiotherapeutic. Using a solid labeling approach (Ultratrace), noncarrier-added radiolabeled MIBG can be efficiently produced. In this study, specific activities of >1200 mCi/micromol for (123)I and >1600 mCi/micromol for (131)I have been achieved. A series of studies were performed to assess the impact of cold carrier MIBG on the tissue distribution of (123/131)I-MIBG in the conscious rat and on cardiovascular parameters in the conscious instrumented dog. The present series of studies demonstrated that the carrier-free Ultratrace MIBG radiolabeled with either (123)I or (131)I exhibited similar tissue distribution to the carrier-added radiolabeled MIBG in all nontarget tissues. In tissues that express NETs, the higher the specific activity of the preparation the greater will be the radiopharmaceutical uptake. This was reflected by greater efficacy in the mouse neuroblastoma SK-N-BE(2c) xenograft model and less appreciable cardiovascular side-effects in dogs when the high-specific-activity radiopharmaceutical was used. The increased uptake and retention of Ultratrace (123/131)I-MIBG may translate into a superior diagnostic and therapeutic potential. Lastly, care must be taken when administering therapeutic doses of the current carrier-added (131)I-MIBG because of its potential to cause adverse cardiovascular side-effects, nausea, and vomiting

Chronic Contained Rupture of an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: From Diagnosis to Endovascular Resolution

A male patient, 69 years old, presented with fever, leucocytosis, and persistent low back pain; he also had an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), as previously diagnosed by Doppler UltraSound (US), and was admitted to our hospital. On multislice computed tomography (msCT), a large abdominal mass having no definite border and involving the aorta and both of the psoas muscles was seen. This mass involved the forth-lumbar vertebra with lysis, thus simulating AAA rupture into a paraspinal collection; it was initially considered a paraspinal abscess. After magnetic resonance imaging examination and culture of the fluid aspirated from the mass, no infective organisms were found; therefore, a diagnosisof chronically contained AAA rupture was made, and an aortic endoprosthesis was subsequently implanted. The patient was discharged with decreased lumbar pain. At 12-month follow-up, no evidence of leakage was observed. To our knowledge, this is the first case of endoprosthesis implantation in a patient, who was a poor candidate for surgical intervention due to renal failure, leucocytosis and high fever, having a chronically contained AAA ruptured simulatingspodilodiscitis abscess. Appropriate diagnosis and therapy resolved potentially crippling pathology and avoided surgical graftrelated complications. Keywords Abdominal aortic aneurysm Endoprosthesis implantation Vertebral erosio

Distributed coherent radars enabled by fiber networks

In the last few years, we have been proposing the use of photonics to bring new functionalities in radar systems, exploiting its precision and tunability to give radars improved performance and reconfigurability. This paper will present the most recent evolution of the original idea of photonics-based radars, which considers the exploitation of the increasingly available fiber connections to implement a network of widely distributed radars. The centralized photonic approach allows driving several separated radars simultaneously, enabling the novel class of distributed coherent radar systems. Through the implementation of specific multi-input multi-output (MIMO) processing, the photonics-enabled radar network is capable to push the radar detection resolution far beyond the limits usually set by the signal bandwidth alone

Widely distributed photonics-based dual-band MIMO radar for harbour surveillance

A new architecture for a widely distributed dual-band coherent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar system is illustrated, and its implementation and testing are reported. The system consists in a central unit where radar signals are coherently generated and detected, which serves multiple remote sensors connected over transparent WDM optical network. Every remote node operates coherently both in the S- and X-band, and is displaced over distances of several kilometers, allowing to monitor a scene under different angles of view. All the remote sensors share the same oscillator and digital signal processing unit, both located in the central office, allowing to perform centralized raw data fusion on the acquired signals. By virtue of the system coherence, the system takes advantage of the coherent MIMO processing strategy to offer a superior spatial resolution, which is even magnified by the dual-band approach