An RBF Meshless Approach to Evaluate Strain Due to Large Displacements in Flexible Printed Circuit Boards

Thin plates are very often employed in a context of large displacements and rotations, for example, whenever the extreme flexibility of a body can replace the use of complicated kinematic pairs. This is the case of the flexible Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) used, for example, within last-generation foldable laptops and consumer electronics products. In these applications, the range of motion is generally known in advance, and a simple strategy of stress assessment leaving out nonlinear numerical calculations appears feasible other than desirable. In this paper, Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) are used to represent a generic transformation of a bi-dimensional plate, with all the derivate fields being analytically achieved without the need for a numerical grid for large-displacement applications. Strains due to bending are easily retrieved with this method and satisfactorily compared to analytical and shell-based Finite Element Method (FEM) benchmarks. On the other hand, the computational costs of the juxtaposed methods appear far different; with the machine being equal, the orders of magnitude of the time elapsed in computation are seconds for the RBF-based strategy versus minutes for the FEM approach

Omalizumab treatment in Samter's triad: case series and review of the literature

OBJECTIVE: Samter’s triad is the combination of asthma, aspirin sensitization, and nasal polyposis. Few data are available on the use of omalizumab in this disease. The study aimed to describe the impact of omalizumab on clinical and functional parameters and the quality of life of a series of patients with Samter’s triad. Moreover, we aimed to provide a review of the literature on this topic. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively described four patients with Samter’s triad undergoing omalizumab therapy. Clinical, functional, and immunological data of these patients were collected at baseline and follow-up. RESULTS: Reduction of asthma exacerbations and salbutamol rescue therapy were observed in all patients after anti-IgE treatment together with an improvement in the quality of life. A significant improvement in FEV1, FVC, and FEF25-75 was observed. No major side-effects were observed. A total of 14 studies regarding omalizumab in aspirin-exacerbated respiratory diseases were included in the review, comprising 78 patients. All studies reported a good efficacy in improving asthma control; restoration of aspirin tolerance was repeatedly reported. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our case series and review of the literature suggest that omalizumab effectively improves asthma control, lung function tests, and quality of life in patients with Samter’s triad

Victoria land, antarctica: An improved geodynamic interpretation based on the strain rate field of the current crustal motion and moho depth model

In Antarctica, the severe climatic conditions and the thick ice sheet that covers the largest and most internal part of the continent make it particularly difficult to systematically carry out geophysical and geodetic observations on a continental scale. It prevents the comprehensive understanding of both the onshore and offshore geology as well as the relationship between the inner part of East Antarctica (EA) and the coastal sector of Victoria Land (VL). With the aim to reduce this gap, in this paper multiple geophysical dataset collected since the 1980s in Antarctica by Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) were integrated with geodetic observations. In particu-lar, the analyzed data includes: (i) Geodetic time series from Trans Antarctic Mountains DEFormation (TAMDEF), and Victoria Land Network for DEFormation control (VLNDEF) GNSS stations installed in Victoria Land; (ii) the integration of on-shore (ground points data and airborne) gravity measurements in Victoria Land and marine gravity surveys performed in the Ross Sea and the nar-row strip of Southern Ocean facing the coasts of northern Victoria Land. Gravity data modelling has improved the knowledge of the Moho depth of VL and surrounding the offshore areas. By the integration of geodetic and gravitational (or gravity) potential results it was possible to better con-strain/identify four geodynamic blocks characterized by homogeneous geophysical signature: the Southern Ocean to the N, the Ross Sea to the E, the Wilkes Basin to the W, and VL in between. The last block is characterized by a small but significant clockwise rotation relative to East Antarctica. The presence of a N-S to NNW-SSE 1-km step in the Moho in correspondence of the Rennick Geo-dynamic Belt confirms the existence of this crustal scale discontinuity, possibly representing the tectonic boundary between East Antarctica and the northern part of VL block, as previously pro-posed by some geological studies

Radioisotopic purity and imaging properties of cyclotron-produced 99mTc using direct 100Mo(p,2n) reaction

Evaluation of the radioisotopic purity of technetium-99m (99mTc) produced in GBq amounts by proton bombardment of enriched molibdenum-100 (100Mo) metallic targets at low proton energies (i.e. within 15\u201320 MeV) is conducted. This energy range was chosen since it is easily achievable by many conventional medical cyclotrons already available in the nuclear medicine departments of hospitals. The main motivation for such a study is in the framework of the research activities at the international level that have been conducted over the last few years to develop alternative production routes for the most widespread radioisotope used in medical imaging. The analysis of technetium isotopes and isomeric states (9xTc) present in the pertechnetate saline Na99mTcO4 solutions, obtained after the extraction/purification procedure, reveals radionuclidic purity levels basically in compliance with the limits recently issued by European Pharmacopoeia 9.3 (2018 Sodium pertechnetate (99mTc) injection 4801\u20133). Moreover, the impact of 9xTc contaminant nuclides on the final image quality is thoroughly evaluated, analyzing the emitted high-energy gamma rays and their influence on the image quality. The spatial resolution of images from cyclotron-produced 99mTc acquired with a mini-gamma camera was determined and compared with that obtained using technetium-99m solutions eluted from standard 99Mo/99mTc generators. The effect of the increased image background contribution due to Compton-scattered higher-energy gamma rays (E \u3b3 \u2009\u2009>\u2009\u2009200\u2009keV), which could cause image-contrast deterioration, was also studied. It is concluded that, due to the high radionuclidic purity of cyclotron-produced 99mTc using 100Mo(p,2n)99mTc reaction at a proton beam energy in the range 15.7\u201319.4 MeV, the resulting image properties are well comparable with those from the generator-eluted 99mTc

Interactions of Heavy Hadrons using Regge Phenomenology and the Quark Gluon String Model

The search for stable heavy exotic hadrons is a promising way to observe new physics processes at collider experiments. The discovery potential for such particles can be enhanced or suppressed by their interactions with detector material. This paper describes a model for the interactions in matter of stable hadrons containing an exotic quark of charges $\pm {1/3}e$ or $\pm {2/3}e$ using Regge phenomenology and the Quark Gluon String Model. The influence of such interactions on searches at the LHC is also discussed

Measurements of the reaction pˉp→ϕη\bar{p}p \to \phi \eta of antiproton annihilation at rest at three hydrogen target densities

The proton-antiproton annihilation at rest into the $\phi\eta$ final state was measured for three different target densities: liquid hydrogen, gaseous hydrogen at NTP and at a low pressure of 5 mbar. The yield of this reaction in the liquid hydrogen target is smaller than in the low-pressure gas target. The branching ratios of the $\phi\eta$ channel were calculated on the basis of simultaneous analysis of the three data samples. The branching ratio for annihilation into $\phi\eta$ from the $^3S_1$ protonium state turns out to be about ten times smaller as compared to the one from the $^1P_1$ state.Comment: 10 pages, 3 Postscript figures. Accepted by Physics Letters

High fidelity numerical fracture mechanics assisted by RBF mesh morphing

The study and design of cyclically loaded structures cannot neglect the evaluation of their fatigue behavior. Today numerical prediction tools allow adopting, in various industrial fields, refined and consolidated procedures for the assessment of cracked parts through analyses based on fracture mechanics. An high level of detail can be obtained through the use of well consolidated FEM methods, allowing an accurate and reliable calculation of the flaw Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) and its resulting prediction in terms of crack propagation. A challenging step for this computational workflow remains, however, the generation and update of the computational grid during crack evolution. It is in this context that radial basis functions (RBF) mesh morphing is emerging as a viable solution to replace the complex and time-consuming remeshing operation. The flaw front is updated, according to its propagation, by automatically deforming the numerical grid obtaining an evolutionary workflow suitable to be used for industrially-sized numerical meshes (many millions of nodes). A review of applications, obtained by exploiting FEA (Ansys Mechanical) and mesh morphing (RBF Morph) state of-the-art tools, is presented in this work. At first the proposed workflow is applied on a circular notched bar with a defect controlled by a two-parameters evolution. The same approach is then refined and demonstrated for a Multi Degree of Freedom (MDoF) case on the same geometry and on the vacuum vessel port stub from the fusion nuclear reactor Iter

New data on OZI rule violation in bar{p}p annihilation at rest

The results of a measurement of the ratio R = Y(phi pi+ pi-) / Y(omega pi+ pi-) for antiproton annihilation at rest in a gaseous and in a liquid hydrogen target are presented. It was found that the value of this ratio increases with the decreasing of the dipion mass, which demonstrates the difference in the phi and omega production mechanisms. An indication on the momentum transfer dependence of the apparent OZI rule violation for phi production from the 3S1 initial state was found.Comment: 11 pages, 3 PostScript figures, submitted to Physics Letter

High rate, fast timing Glass RPC for the high {\eta} CMS muon detectors

The HL-LHC phase is designed to increase by an order of magnitude the amount of data to be collected by the LHC experiments. To achieve this goal in a reasonable time scale the instantaneous luminosity would also increase by an order of magnitude up to $6.10^{34} cm^{-2} s^{-1}$ . The region of the forward muon spectrometer ($|{\eta}| > 1.6$) is not equipped with RPC stations. The increase of the expected particles rate up to $2 kHz/cm^{2}$ (including a safety factor 3) motivates the installation of RPC chambers to guarantee redundancy with the CSC chambers already present. The actual RPC technology of CMS cannot sustain the expected background level. The new technology that will be chosen should have a high rate capability and provides a good spatial and timing resolution. A new generation of Glass-RPC (GRPC) using low-resistivity (LR) glass is proposed to equip at least the two most far away of the four high ${\eta}$ muon stations of CMS. First the design of small size prototypes and studies of their performance in high-rate particles flux is presented. Then the proposed designs for large size chambers and their fast-timing electronic readout are examined and preliminary results are provided.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, Conference proceeding for the 2016 Resistive Plate Chambers and Related Detector