A Decidability Result for the Model Checking of Infinite-State Systems

We present a decidability result for the model checking of a certain class of properties that can be conveniently expressed as ground formulae of a first-order temporal fragment. The decidability result is obtained by importing into the context of model-checking problems some techniques developed for the combination of decision procedures for the satisfiability of constraints. The general decidability result is then specialized for checking properties of particular interest, such as liveness and safety, and, for the latter case, a more optimized algorithm has been proposed.     

Bounded error identification of Hammerstein systems through sparse polynomial optimization

In this paper we present a procedure for the evaluation of bounds on the parameters of Hammerstein systems, from output measurements affected by bounded errors. The identification problem is formulated in terms of polynomial optimization, and relaxation techniques, based on linear matrix inequalities, are proposed to evaluate parameter bounds by means of convex optimization. The structured sparsity of the formulated identification problem is exploited to reduce the computational complexity of the convex relaxed problem. Analysis of convergence properties and computational complexity is reported.     

Self-Organising Maps: A new way to screen the level of satisfaction of dialysis patients

Evaluation of patient satisfaction has become an important indicator for assessing health care quality. Fresenius Medical Care (FME) as a global provider of dialysis services through its NephroCare network has a strong interest in monitoring patient satisfaction.The aim of the paper is to test and validate a methodology for detecting a residual area of low satisfaction in dialysis patients.The FME Patient Satisfaction Programme questionnaire was distributed to haemodialysis (HD) patients treated in 335 centers of its network. It contained 79 questions covering various satisfaction aspects regarding Dialysis Unit, Dialysis Arrangement, Nurses, Doctors, etc.To analyse the data provided by the questionnaire, the Self-Organising Map (SOM) method was used. SOM is a neural network model for clustering and projecting high-dimensional data into a low-dimensional space, preserving topological relationships of original high-dimensional data spaces.10,632 HD patients completed the questionnaire. Mean age was 63.05 ± 14.93 years with 56.69% males. Response rate was 66%. Overall level of satisfaction was 1.99 (range from ?3 to +3). On average patients were very satisfied with all issues. Nevertheless, a group of patients, around 60 years old, balanced gender ratio, whose level of satisfaction was lower than 1, were highlighted.In the NephroCare clinics patient satisfaction with service is rather high. While traditional analysis usually stops here, the SOM method allows identification of areas of potential improvement for specific patient groups.     

Multipurpose modular experimental station for the DiProI beamline of Fermi@Elettra free electron laser

We present a compact modular apparatus with a flexible design that will be operated at the DiProI beamline of the Fermi@Elettra free electron laser (FEL) for performing static and time-resolved coherent diffraction imaging experiments, taking advantage of the full coherence and variable polarization of the short seeded FEL pulses. The apparatus has been assembled and the potential of the experimental setup is demonstrated by commissioning tests with coherent synchrotron radiation. This multipurpose experimental station will be open to general users after installation at the Fermi@Elettra free electron laser in 2011.     

Discovery of an Allosteric Ligand Binding Site in SMYD3 Lysine Methyltransferase

SMYD3 is a multifunctional epigenetic enzyme with lysine methyltransferase activity and various interaction partners. It is implicated in the pathophysiology of cancers but with an unclear mechanism. To discover tool compounds for clarifying its biochemistry and potential as a therapeutic target, a set of drug-like compounds was screened in a biosensor-based competition assay. Diperodon was identified as an allosteric ligand; its R and S enantiomers were isolated, and their affinities to SMYD3 were determined (K_D=42 and 84 μM, respectively). Co-crystallization revealed that both enantiomers bind to a previously unidentified allosteric site in the C-terminal protein binding domain, consistent with its weak inhibitory effect. No competition between diperodon and HSP90 (a known SMYD3 interaction partner) was observed although SMYD3–HSP90 binding was confirmed (K_D=13 μM). Diperodon clearly represents a novel starting point for the design of tool compounds interacting with a druggable allosteric site, suitable for the exploration of noncatalytic SMYD3 functions and therapeutics with new mechanisms of action.     

Power Efficient SDR Implementation of IEEE 802.11a/p Physical Layer

Software defined physical layer modems can be considered the new trend in the field of communications. Differently from dedicated hardware, software can be easily modified to implement a large variety of standards on the same platform. The use of software can significantly reduce development costs, but generally comes at the price of an increase in silicon area and power consumption. For different reasons, this price is something that is not always convenient or even possible to pay, as in the case of low-cost ICs implementing a single waveform, or even multi-mode modems embedding legacy IPs already available in hardware. In particular, power consumption overhead can be prohibitive for mobile terminals or in general for battery-powered devices. The very first challenge for a computing fabric to be competitive is to find and implement the right trade-off between flexibility and performance. This was the guideline for the design of the Block Processing Engine (BPE), a template architecture conceived for power-efficient baseband processing. The BPE core feature is a mixed-grain instruction set balancing general-purpose fine-grain instructions with more specific coarse-grain instructions wrapping custom hardware modules. To further limit the power consumption, the BPE also implements instruction-pipelining, variable-size SIMD and multi-task support. To prove the efficiency of such an approach, a dual-mode IEEE 802.11a/p receiver has been implemented.     

Influence of the Tunnel Shape on Shotcrete Lining Stresses

Tunnel excavation is frequently carried out in rock masses by the drill and blast method and the final shape of the tunnel boundary can be irregular due to overbreaks. In order to investigate the effects of overbreaks a study of the effect of tunnel boundary irregularity has been carried out. This is done developing a computational tool able to take into account fuzzy variables (i.e., thickness of the beams of the bedded spring approach used for the model). The obtained results show that irregularity effects should be considered when a shotcrete lining is used as the final tunnel lining (for the case where the tunneling procedure does not permit a smooth surface to be obtained). This is crucial to obtain a durable lining.     

A spatial relation-based framework to perform visual information extraction

The Spatial Relation Query (SRQ) tool is a graphical software environment, supported by a SQL-like language, which enables users to perform information extraction driven by the visual appearance and the spatial arrangement of the information. The tool has been initially customised to work on specific application domains, like web pages and geospatial data. In this paper, we present the theoretical formalisation of the visual information extraction (VIE) task and accordingly the redesign of the SRQ tool, which is now a full-featured, general-purpose information extraction system. Moreover, we show a new application of the VIE framework to the analysis and visual information extraction from PDF files.     

Low-cycle fatigue behavior of flexible 3D printed thermoplastic polyurethane blends for thermal energy storage/release applications

Thermal energy storage (TES) materials constituted by a microencapsulated paraffin having a melting temperature of 6°C and a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) matrix were prepared through fused deposition modeling. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs demonstrated that the microcapsules were homogeneously distributed within the matrix, with a rather good adhesion within the layers of 3D printed specimens, even at elevated concentrations of microcapsules. The presence of paraffin capsules having a rigid polymer shell lead to a stiffness increase, associated to a decrease in the stress and in the strain at break. Tensile and compressive low-cycles fatigue tests showed that the presence of microcapsules negatively affected the fatigue resistance of the samples, and that the main part of the damage occurred in the first fatigue cycles. After the first 10 loading cycles at 50% of the stress at break, a decrease in the elastic modulus ranging from 60% for neat TPU to 80% for composite materials was detected. This decrease reached 40% of the original value at 90% of the stress at break after 10 cycles. Differential scanning calorimetry tests on specimens after fatigue loading highlighted a substantial retention of the original TES capability, in the range of 80%–90% of the pristine value, even after 1000 cycles, indicating that the integrity of the capsules was maintained and that the propagation of damage during fatigue tests took probably place within the surrounding polymer matrix. It could be therefore concluded that it is possible to apply the developed blends in applications where the materials are subjected to cyclic stresses, both in tensile and compressive mode.