Mechanical behaviour modelling of a new anchor system for large diameter GFRP bars

The strong anisotropy of unidirectionally-reinforced FRP composites makes it difficult to design an efficient anchorage for measuring the tensile strength and this difficulty increases together with the cross section area of the specimen. To overcome this difficulty a new anchor system was developed for tension testing of large diameter GFRP bars in a universal testing machine. The anchor body designed and tested consists of two shells, pushed one against the other by the jaws of the testing machine, leaving an inner conical hole. The ends of the bar are provided with resin heads having the shape of the hole inside the anchor body. The present paper details the modelling investigation to verify and improve the shape and hence the performances of this anchor system. The approach adopted consists in a parametric numerical analysis that rests on the experimental data already gathered.     

Comparative LCA of methanol-fuelled SOFCs as auxiliary power systems on-board ships

Fuel cells own the potential for significant environmental improvements both in terms of air quality and climate protection. Through the use of renewable primary energies, local pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions can be significantly minimized over the full life cycle of the electricity generation process, so that marine industry accounts renewable energy as its future energy source. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of methanol in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), as auxiliary power systems for commercial vessels, through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The LCA methodology allows the assessment of the potential environmental impact along the whole life cycle of the process. The unit considered is a 20 kWel fuel cell system. In a first part of the study different fuel options have been compared (methanol, bio-methanol, natural gas, hydrogen from cracking, electrolysis and reforming), then the operation of the cell fed with methanol has been compared with the traditional auxiliary power system, i.e. a diesel engine. The environmental benefits of the use of fuel cells have been assessed considering different impact categories. The results of the analysis show that fuel production phase has a strong influence on the life cycle impacts and highlight that feeding with bio-methanol represents a highly attractive solution from a life cycle point of view. The comparison with the conventional auxiliary power system shows extremely lower impacts for SOFCs.     

Local Therapies and Modulation of Tumor Surrounding Stroma in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: A Translational Approach

Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare and aggressive neoplasm of the pleural mesothelium, mainly associated with asbestos exposure and still lacking effective therapies. Modern targeted biological strategies that have revolutionized the therapy of other solid tumors have not had success so far in the MPM. Combination immunotherapy might achieve better results over chemotherapy alone, but there is still a need for more effective therapeutic approaches. Based on the peculiar disease features of MPM, several strategies for local therapeutic delivery have been developed over the past years. The common rationale of these approaches is: (i) to reduce the risk of drug inactivation before reaching the target tumor cells; (ii) to increase the concentration of active drugs in the tumor micro-environment and their bioavailability; (iii) to reduce toxic effects on normal, non-transformed cells, because of much lower drug doses than those used for systemic chemotherapy. The complex interactions between drugs and the local immune-inflammatory micro-environment modulate the subsequent clinical response. In this perspective, the main interest is currently addressed to the development of local drug delivery platforms, both cell therapy and engineered nanotools. We here propose a review aimed at deep investigation of the biologic effects of the current local therapies for MPM, including cell therapies, and the mechanisms of interaction with the tumor micro-environment.     

Interferometer for ground-based observations of emitted spectral radiance from the troposphere: evaluation and retrieval performance

We evaluate the spectral quality, radiometric noise, and retrieval performance of a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, which has been developed for recording spectrally resolved observations in a region of the spectrum which is important both for the science of Earth's climate and applications, such as the remote sensing of temperature and atmospheric gas species. This spectral region extends from 100 to 1600 cm(-1) and encompasses the two fundamental, rotation and vibration, absorption bands of water vapor. The instrument is a customized version of a Bomem AERI (Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer) spectrometer, whose spectral coverage has been extended in the far infrared with the use of uncooled pyroelectric detectors. Retrieval examples for water vapor and temperature profiles are shown, which also allow us to intercompare the retrieval performance of both H(2)O vibration and rotation bands.     

Confocal ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy: a new technique to explore nanoscale composites

This article is devoted to the exploration of the benefits of a new ultrafast confocal pump-probe technique, able to study the photophysics of different structured materials with nanoscale resolution. This tool offers many advantages over standard stationary microscopy techniques because it directly interrogates excited state dynamics in molecules, providing access to both radiative and non-radiative deactivation processes at a local scale. In this paper we present a few different examples of its application to organic semiconductor systems. The first two are focussed on the study of the photophysics of phase-separated polymer blends: (i) a blue-emitting polyfluorene (PFO) in an inert matrix of PMMA and (ii) an electron donor polythiophene (P3HT) mixed with an electron acceptor fullerene derivative (PCBM). The experimental results on these samples demonstrate the capability of the technique to unveil peculiar interfacial dynamics at the border region between phase-segregated domains, which would be otherwise averaged out using conventional pump-probe spectroscopy. The third example is the study of the photophysics of isolated mesoscopic crystals of the PCBM molecule. Our ultrafast microscope could evidence the presence of two distinctive regions within the crystals. In particular, we could pinpoint for the first time areas within the crystals showing photobleaching/stimulated emission signals from a charge-transfer state.     

Fluoro-functionalized PLA polymers as potential water-repellent coating materials for protection of stone

A series of sixteen fluoro-functionalized poly(lactic acid)s were synthesised using two commercial fluorinated alcohols [3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8-tridecafluoro-1-octanol and 4-(3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8-tridecafluorooctyl)benzyl alcohol] as co-initiators in the ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide and rac-lactide (the racemic mixture of L- and D-lactide) catalyzed by Tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate. The polymers were characterized by NMR, IR, GPC, DSC and tested as potential protective coating for stone. The performances were comparatively evaluated in terms of water protection efficacy and colour changes of the treated stone. Furthermore, the photo-stability of nine selected polymers under Solar Box condition was also investigated. It has been shown that the presence of fluorine makes the stone more water-repellent. The polymers showed also interesting photo-stability and some of them provided a behavior close to PLA-FLK-PLA block copolymers recently reported in the literature, in spite of their lower fluorine content © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Boosting Infrared Light Harvesting by Molecular Functionalization of Metal Oxide/Polymer Interfaces in Efficient Hybrid Solar Cells

Hybrid solar cells based on light absorbing semiconducting polymers infiltrated in nanocrystalline TiO₂ electrodes, have emerged as an attractive concept, combining benefits of both low material and processing costs with well controlled nano‐scale morphology. However, after over ten years of research effort, power conversion efficiencies remain around 0.5%. Here, a spectroscopic and device based investigation is presented, which leads to a new optimization route where by functionalization of the TiO₂ surface with a molecular electron acceptor promotes photoinduced electron transfer from a low‐band gap polymer(poly[2,6‐(4,4‐bis‐(2‐ethylhexyl)‐4H‐cyclopenta[2,1‐b;3,4‐b0]dithiophene)‐alt‐4,7‐(2,1,3‐benzothiadia‐zole)] (PCPDTBT) to the metal oxide. This boosts the infrared response and the power conversion efficiency to over 1%. As a further step, by “co‐functionalizing” the TiO₂ surface with the electron acceptor and an organic dye‐sensitizer, panchromatic spectral photoresponse is achieved in the visible to near‐IR region. This novel architecture at the heterojunction opens new material design possibilities and represents an exciting route forward for hybrid photovoltaics.     

Thermoelastic finite element model updating with application to monumental buildings

A reliable and predictive model of an existing structure entails the use of model updating techniques, which are usually performed on the basis of operational modal analysis campaigns. In this paper, a new model calibration strategy is proposed that adopts a multiphysics approach to exploit data collected by both static and dynamic monitoring systems. More specifically, mechanical and temperature data are assimilated into the model through a thermoelastic updating. The proposed scheme is validated with numerical simulations and applied on the Sanctuary of Vicoforte, a complex historical building that is subjected to both static and dynamic monitoring.