Rigor Mortis and News obtained by the Body\u2019s Scientific Reconstruction of the Turin Shroud Man

After various tentative to artistically build a tridimensional form of the Turin Shroud (TS) Man, the authors faced the problem of the scientific construction of a 3D model of this Man with an accuracy of the order of 1 cm. It is well known that the TS wrapped a human body heavily tortured, but it is not easy to build a 3D model starting only from the 2D information shown on two body images visible on a linen sheet and on the hypothesis that these images really corresponds to a real man wrapped in it. The study showed that, while the two TS body images (frontal and dorsal) seem to appear not coherent with the image of a human body because distorted in many parts, these two images are perfectly coherent with the distortions provoked by a man wrapped in this linen sheet. This model confirmed the evident rigor mortis of the human body and evidenced the particular posture corresponding to the position on the cross that also showed a rotation never detected previously of the human body around his spine. The study of this 3D model partially confirmed previous results but also evidenced interesting news, like the position of the exit hole of the nail posed on the palm of the hand. The Gospels place the Resurrection in the early hours of Sunday, at least 36 hours after death. The effect of the preservation of rigidity up to this moment may be not consistent with the thanato-chronological alterations expected in a man in the same pre-mortal clinical condition, but this problem has been solved by the \u201cmixture of aloe and myrrh\u201d that allowed the preservation of the corpse, thus prolonging the rigor mortis for tens of hours. In fact, this body seems not to have undergone any significant putrefactive phenomenon

The effects of vent location, event scale and time forecasts on pyroclastic density current hazard maps at Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy)

This study presents a new method for producing long-term hazard maps for pyroclastic density currents (PDC) originating at Campi Flegrei caldera. Such method is based on a doubly stochastic approach and is able to combine the uncertainty assessments on the spatial location of the volcanic vent, the size of the flow and the expected time of such an event. The results are obtained by using a Monte Carlo approach and adopting a simplified invasion model based on the box model integral approximation. Temporal assessments are modeled through a Cox-type process including self-excitement effects, based on the eruptive record of the last 15 kyr.Mean and percentilemaps of PDC invasion probability are produced, exploring their sensitivity to some sources of uncertainty and to the effects of the dependence between PDC scales and the caldera sector where they originated. Conditional maps representative of PDC originating inside limited zones of the caldera, or of PDC with a limited range of scales are also produced. Finally, the effect of assuming different time windows for the hazard estimates is explored, also including the potential occurrence of a sequence of multiple events. Assuming that the last eruption of Monte Nuovo (A.D. 1538) marked the beginning of a new epoch of activity similar to the previous ones, results of the statistical analysis indicate a mean probability of PDC invasion above 5% in the next 50 years on almost the entire caldera (with a probability peak of 25% in the central part of the caldera). In contrast, probability values reduce by a factor of about 3 if the entire eruptive record is considered over the last 15 kyr, i.e., including both eruptive epochs and quiescent periods

Osteoporosis after Stroke: A Review of the Causes and Potential Treatments

Osteoporosis is a known consequence of stroke, associated with an increased incidence of fractures, mainly of the hip, leading to further disability. The pattern of bone loss seen in stroke patients is different from that usually encountered with postmenopausal osteoporosis, since it is limited to the paretic side and more evident in the upper extremities. Several factors appear to have an influence on bone mass in stroke patients, such as the degree of paresis, gait disability and the duration of immobilization. The pathogenesis of osteoporosis after stroke remains unclear. Paresis, reduced mobility and reduced bone load seem to play a major role. Other factors such as nutritional and iatrogenic ones may also play an important part. In this paper, the clinical evidence, pathophysiology and possible treatments of poststroke osteoporosis will be reviewed

BDDC preconditioners for virtual element approximations of the three-dimensional Stokes equations

The Virtual Element Method (VEM) is a novel family of numerical methods for approximating partial differential equations on very general polygonal or polyhedral computational grids. This work aims to propose a Balancing Domain Decomposition by Constraints (BDDC) preconditioner that allows using the conjugate gradient method to compute the solution of the saddle-point linear systems arising from the VEM discretization of the three-dimensional Stokes equations. We prove the scalability and quasi-optimality of the algorithm and confirm the theoretical findings with parallel computations. Numerical results with adaptively generated coarse spaces confirm the method's robustness in the presence of large jumps in the viscosity and with high-order VEM discretizations

Internet of Things - Enabled visual analytics for linked maintenance and product lifecycle management

When closed loop product lifecycle management was first introduced, much effort focused on establishing ways to communicate data between different lifecycle phase activities. The concept of a smart product, able to communicate its own identity and status, had a key role to play to this end. Such a concept has further matured, benefiting from internet things-enabled product lifecycle management advancements. Product data exchanges can now be brought closer to the point of end use consumption, enabling users to become more proactive actors within the product lifecycle management process. This paper presents a conceptual approach and a pilot implementation of how this can be achieved by superimposing middle of life relevant product information to beginning of life product views, such as a 3D product CAD model. In this way, linked maintenance data and knowledge become visual features of a product design representation, facilitating a user’s understanding of middle-of life concepts, such as occurrence of failure modes. The proposed approach can be particularly useful when dealing with product data streams as a natural visual analytics add-in to closed loop product lifecycle management

A 64-Channel 965-μW Neural Recording SoC with UWB Wireless Transmission in 130-nm CMOS

This brief presents a 64-channel neural recording system-on-chip (SoC) with a 20-Mb/s wireless telemetry. Each channel of the analog front end consists of a low-noise bandpass amplifier, featuring a noise efficiency factor of 3.11 with an input-referred noise of 5.6 μVrms in a 0.001- to 10-kHz band and a 31.25-kSps 6-fJ/conversion-step 10-bit SAR analog-to-digital converter. The recorded signals are multiplexed in the digital domain and transmitted via an 11.7% efficiency pulse-position modulation ultrawideband transmitter, reaching a transmission range in excess of 7.5 m. The chip has been fabricated in a 130-nm CMOS process, measures 25 mm2, and dissipates 965 μW from a 0.5-V supply. This SoC features the lowest power per channel (15 μW) and the lowest energy per bit (48.2 pJ) among state-of-the-art wireless neural recording systems with a number of channels larger than 32. The proposed circuit is able to transmit the raw neural signal in a large bandwidth (up to 10 kHz) without performing any data compression or losing vital information, such as local field potentials