System design for optical PPM communications with diode combining

The most efficient way to encode laser diodes for maximum data rate is studied. Three different system architectures are considered, with combining achieved by dichroic mirrors operating in conjunction with a pulse-position-modulated (PPM) format. The basic criterion is to maximize the data rate with increasing number of diodes, while maintaining diode power constraints and decoding bit error probability. The three systems are: power combining into a single pulse, followed by PPM encoding; parallel channels, in which each diode is separately PPM encoded; and color coding, in which diodes are encoded over a common wavelength-time slot alphabet. Data rate equations are presented as a function of the number of diodes, mirror combining losses, PPM alphabet size, and the operating optical signal-to-noise ratio     

Noonan syndrome: structural abnormalities of the mitral valve causing subaortic obstruction

Among 41 consecutive children with classic Noonan syndrome, 27 patients (66%) presented cardiac anomalies. Eight patients (19.5%) had a congenital anomaly of the mitral valve consisting of 5 with partial atrioventricular canal defect and 3 with anomalous insertion of the mitral valve on the ventricular septum. Five patients (12%) presented with a significant left ventricular outflow tract obstruction caused by the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve: two cases with atrioventricular canal and three cases with isolated anomalous insertion of the mitral valve. Echocardiography is the best tool for the diagnosis. Cardiac defects of patients with Noonan syndrome may be explained on the basis of anomalies of the extracellular matrix involving cardiac valves including the mitral valve. CONCLUSION: In children with Noonan syndrome and left ventricular hypertrophy a careful echocardiographic assessment of the mitral valve should reveal those in whom the left ventricular outflow tract obstruction is anatomical in nature.     

Innovative metamodelling-based process design for manufacturing: an application to Incremental Sheet Forming

The use of metamodelling techniques in process design has become indispensable to perform faster solutions reducing time to market. This approach allows the implementation of decision support tools which are easier to use than the conventional numerical simulations. In this paper, a robust metamodelling technique has been designed and its feasibility has been validated for the crucial problem of localised thinning in sheet metal forming process. The proposed methodology is based on the innovative integration between the Design of Experimental statistical method and the Kriging one. This approach, in fact, allows to analyse contemporary the continuous and categorical factors and, as a consequence, to define a single tool for changing process conditions (i.e., material and product shape). To test the reliability of the mathematical approach, the same was performed for the case study of Incremental Sheet Forming, a process strongly affected by the not homogeneous distribution of the thickness. Taking advantage of this strategy, a wide experimental investigation has been performed to build the base of knowledge of the problem both for the metamodelling design and for the validation of the decision support tool; moreover, the experimental data were utilized to set and validate a numerical model, which was subsequently used to enrich the dataset. The proposed metamodel, suitably modified according to each process peculiarities, can be generally adapted for sheet thickness prediction.     

Reduction of Lung Metastases by Na[trans-RuCl(4)(DMSO)Im] is not Coupled With the Induction of Chemical Xenogenization

The effects of the treatment of tumor cells of MCa mammary carcinoma and TLX5 lymphoma with the ruthenium complex Na[trans-RuCl(4) (DMSO)lm] for several transplant generations were studied on tumor growth and metastases formation. On TLX5 lymphoma cells, treatment was performed in vitro prior to in vivo inoculation of tumor cells in intact or immunesuppressed mice. Either considering tumor take and growth or its capacity to invade the brain of the inoculated hosts, Na[trans-RuCl(4)(DMSO)lm] did not induce any significant modification. Conversely, in mice with MCa mammary carcinoma, the in vivo treatment of tumor cells in immunesuppressed hosts caused a progressive increase of DNA activity and, starting from the 4th transplant generation, a significantly increased susceptibility of lung metastasis formation to a further treatment in intact mice. These data seem to suggest that Na[trans-RuCl(4)(DMSO)Im] does not induce chemical xenogenization of tumor cells nor its repeated treatment induces resistance in tumor cells. Conversely, it appears that Na[trans-RuCl(4)(DMSO)lm] may select a tumor cell population which maintains its capacity to metastasise to the lung but with enhanced sensitivity to the antimetastatic properties of this compound.     

On the high-speed Single Point Incremental Forming of titanium alloys

Single Point Incremental Forming processes show some limitations related to both dimensional accuracy and process slowness. The process slowness is here overcome by introducing the high speed forming, which allows a reduction to less than 1 min of execution time of target components made in Titanium alloys. The paper is aimed at analyzing the influence of the feed increasing on the material quality in order to investigate if the development of high speed machines could be a suitable solution to implement more extensively the Single Point Incremental Forming technique in practice.     

Chiral Resolution and Pharmacological Characterization of the Enantiomers of the Hsp90 Inhibitor 2‐Amino‐7‐[4‐fluoro‐2‐(3‐pyridyl)phenyl]‐4‐methyl‐7,8‐dihydro‐6H‐quinazolin‐5‐one Oxime

Heat‐shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a molecular chaperone involved in the stabilization of key oncogenic signaling proteins, and therefore, inhibition of Hsp90 represents a new strategy in cancer therapy. 2‐Amino‐7‐[4‐fluoro‐2‐(3‐pyridyl)phenyl]‐4‐methyl‐7,8‐dihydro‐6H‐quinazolin‐5‐one oxime is a racemic Hsp90 inhibitor that targets the N‐terminal adenosine triphosphatase site. We developed a method to resolve the enantiomers and evaluated their inhibitory activity on Hsp90 and the consequent antitumor effects. The (S) stereoisomer emerged as a potent Hsp90 inhibitor in biochemical and cellular assays. In addition, this enantiomer exhibited high oral bioavailability in mice and excellent antitumor activity in two different human cancer xenograft models.     

Physico-chemical characterization of NiO/YSZ powders prepared by the citrate route

NiO/YSZ powders prepared by the citrate route were characterized in order to check the effectiveness of this method for the preparation of materials suitable for solid oxide fuel cell application. Powders were obtained in the form of agglomerates of small YSZ and NiO particles (dimensions <0.1 m). Both stoichiometry of YSZ and NiO content derived by quantitative XRD analysis are consistent with the results of chemical analysis.     

Scaling up software architecture analysis

This paper will show how architecture design and analysis techniques rest on a small number of foundational principles. We will show how those principles have been instantiated as a core set of techniques. These techniques, combined together, have resulted in several highly successful architecture analysis and design methods. Finally, we will show how these foundations, and the techniques that instantiate them, can be re-combined for new purposes addressing problems of ever-increasing scale, specifically: addressing the highly complex problems of analyzing software-intensive ecosystems.