Vertical sintering to measure the uniaxial viscosity of thin ceramic layers

A novel method is proposed for the determination of the uniaxial viscosity of porous ceramic layers upon sintering. This approach is based on the application of a continuous but very low tensile stress to the densifying powder compact whose deformation is continuously monitored by an optical system. The viscosity of the system can be determined as a function of temperature and density from the sintering rate differences measured between loaded and unloaded samples. The uniaxial viscosity of porous Y₂O₃ doped ZrO₂ (YSZ) and NiO–YSZ composites was measured using the proposed approach. The results were used to predict the curvature evolution of bilayers used in solid oxide fuel cell applications, obtaining a fairly good agreement between the model and the data recorded experimentally.     

Cold recovery during regasification of LNG part one: Cold utilization far from the regasification facility

The paper deals with cold recovery during LNG regasification. The applications analyzed pertain to the use in deep freezing agro food industry and in space air conditioning facilities in commercial sector (Supermarkets and Hypermarkets) of cold recovered from the regasification process.     

Psychic retreats or psychic pits?: Unbearable states of mind and technological addiction.

New technologies are highly interactive. They promote imaginative involvement and allow the experience of different self-states, such as those involving withdrawal or “psychic retreat”. According to Steiner, psychic retreats are areas of the mind populated by imagination and ideas which are poorly aligned with reality. Psychic retreats are not necessarily pathological in themselves—for instance, they can be used positively for counteracting anxiety or enhancing creativeness. However, with technological addiction there is a misuse of psychic retreat: here the total absorption with computer applications serves to hide painful or unbearable states of mind, and to protect the patient from overwhelming feelings through segregating self-states with a disconnection in their representations. Therefore, in clinical work with individuals suffering from technological addiction exploring the use of psychic retreats can serve as an aid to both diagnosis and treatment. Where the dysfunctional use of new technologies constitutes a temporary withdrawal from a specific painful event, this can have the function of protecting the individual from inner conflict; in the most serious cases however, technological addiction is grounded in more chronic and pathological dissociative mechanisms, and serves to prevent the mind from reactivating traumatic states connected to childhood experience of emotional neglect or abuse. While it is likely that the first condition can be positively handled with appropriate identification and treatment, the latter is much more difficult to deal with, particularly where the addictive behavior hides the weakness of the self, and psychic retreats are pervasively used to protect the patient from mental breakdown. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment of Postharvest Dehydration Kinetics and Skin Mechanical Properties of “Muscat of Alexandria” Grapes by Response Surface Methodology

The dipping of berries in a dilute solution of sodium hydroxide during a short time was evaluated as pretreatment undertaken prior to convective dehydration of wine grapes. The impact of the sodium hydroxide content and dipping time on weight loss (WL) at different dehydration times was thoroughly assessed using central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). Furthermore, the effects of these two variables were also investigated on the skin mechanical properties of dehydrated grapes. The effect of these two pretreatment factors on the dehydration kinetics and skin hardness was satisfactorily fitted to regression models. The berry pretreatment with low sodium hydroxide contents (from 10 to 20 g/L) facilitated the dehydration process during the first 5 days when dipping times longer than 300 s were used. From the seventh day of dehydration, at which time the average WL% was close to 50, the highest values of WL% were obtained using intermediate sodium hydroxide contents and dipping times (around 45 g/L and 185 s, respectively). Because skin hardness affects the dehydration kinetics during postharvest withering, the strongest decrease in skin hardness corresponded to these last berry pretreatment conditions, whereas the greatest increase required the highest sodium hydroxide contents and longest dipping times. The quality of berries dehydrated may be influenced by the pretreatment conditions used, and the present study contributes to increase the knowledge on this effect to a better management of the alkaline pretreatment and dehydration process.     

Determination of plasticisers and BPA in Sicilian and Calabrian nectar honeys by selected ion monitoring GC/MS

Twenty-six plasticisers and bisphenol A (BPA) in 39 Sicilian and Calabrian nectar honeys of different botanical south Italian origin were determined by GC-MS. Di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate was the most abundant plasticiser in all samples, reaching up 202.7 ± 153.1 µg kg^–1, followed by di-butylphthalate with a concentration of 40.3 ± 9.3 µg kg^–1, whereas the concentration of the other phthalates varied from not detectable to 68.2 µg kg^–1. Trace levels of adipate, sebacate and BPA were not detected in any samples. Among the different floral origin honeys, di-ethylphthalate levels were above the limit of quantification (LOQ) in orange blossom, wildflower and chestnut honey samples. Among the honeys of different geographical origin, di-methylphthalate, di-butylphthalate and di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate concentrations were similar. Calabrian honeys showed levels of di-ethylphthalate always lower than the LOQ, moreover di-(2-methylpropyl)phthalate levels were lower than the Sicilian ones. On the contrary, in Sicilian honeys di-(2-methylpropyl)phthalate levels were higher and di-ethylphthalate was present in 37% of samples.     

Neoantigen-Specific T-Cell Immune Responses: The Paradigm of NPM1-Mutated Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The C-terminal aminoacidic sequence from NPM1-mutated protein, absent in normal human tissues, may serve as a leukemia-specific antigen and can be considered an ideal target for NPM1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) immunotherapy. Different in silico instruments and in vitro/ex vivo immunological platforms have identified the most immunogenic epitopes from NPM1-mutated protein. Spontaneous development of endogenous NPM1-mutated-specific cytotoxic T cells has been observed in patients, potentially contributing to remission maintenance and prolonged survival. Genetically engineered T cells, namely CAR-T or TCR-transduced T cells, directed against NPM1-mutated peptides bound to HLA could prospectively represent a promising therapeutic approach. Although either adoptive or vaccine-based immunotherapies are unlikely to be highly effective in patients with full-blown leukemia, these strategies, potentially in combination with immune-checkpoint inhibitors, could be promising in maintaining remission or preemptively eradicating persistent measurable residual disease, mainly in patients ineligible for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Alternatively, neoantigen-specific donor lymphocyte infusion derived from healthy donors and targeting NPM1-mutated protein to selectively elicit graft-versus-leukemia effect may represent an attractive option in subjects experiencing post-HSCT relapse. Future studies are warranted to further investigate dynamics of NPM1-mutated-specific immunity and explore whether novel individualized immunotherapies may have potential clinical utility in NPM1-mutated AML patients.     

Evaluation of Epigenetic and Radiomodifying Effects during Radiotherapy Treatments in Zebrafish

Radiotherapy is still a long way from personalizing cancer treatment plans, and its effectiveness depends on the radiosensitivity of tumor cells. Indeed, therapies that are efficient and successful for some patients may be relatively ineffective for others. Based on this, radiobiological research is focusing on the ability of some reagents to make cancer cells more responsive to ionizing radiation, as well as to protect the surrounding healthy tissues from possible side effects. In this scenario, zebrafish emerged as an effective model system to test for radiation modifiers that can potentially be used for radiotherapeutic purposes in humans. The adoption of this experimental organism is fully justified and supported by the high similarity between fish and humans in both their genome sequences and the effects provoked in them by ionizing radiation. This review aims to provide the literature state of the art of zebrafish in vivo model for radiobiological studies, particularly focusing on the epigenetic and radiomodifying effects produced during fish embryos’ and larvae’s exposure to radiotherapy treatments.     

Sloshing cargo in silo vehicles

The driving stability of silo vehicles is significantly affected by the type of cargo that is transported and the design of the tank. Cargo motion can have both beneficial and negative aspects in terms of driving stability and braking performance. Neglecting the influence of the dynamically moving cargo in driving simulations of silo vehicles leads to significant errors in the simulation results. We propose a new method for the dynamic simulation of silo vehicles carrying granulates. The method couples Lagrangian particle methods, such as the discrete element method, and multibody systems methods using co-simulations. We demonstrate the capability of the new approach by providing simulation results of two benchmark maneuvers. This paper was presented at the 4th Asian Conference on Multibody Dynamics(ACMD2008), Jeju, Korea, August 20–23, 2008. Florian Fleissner received his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Erlangen, Germany, in 2003. He is currently working as research and teaching assistant, completing his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Vincenzo D’Alessandro graduated in 2008 in Mechanical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He is currently working as a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the department of mechanical engineering at the Politecnico di Milano. Werner Schiehlen was educated as a mechanical engineer and received a Ph.D. on satellite dynamics in 1966. After working for 10 years with the Technical University Munich and spending one year with NASA in the US he was appointed full professor of mechanics with the University of Stuttgart until his retirement in 2002. He published more than 320 scientific papers in applied and computational dynamics including 7 books mostly translated in foreign languages, too. Werner Schiehlen served as President of IUTAM. Since 1997 he is Editor-in-Chief of the international journal MULTIBODY SYSTEM DYNAMICS. Peter Eberhard received his Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering, his Dr.-Ing. and his Habilitation in Mechanics from the University of Stuttgart in Germany. In 2000 he was appointed as Professor of Mechanics and System Dynamics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg before he became 2002 Full Professor and Director of the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart. In 2000 he received the Richard-von-Mises award and in 2007 an Honorary Professorship at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, P.R. China. His research interests include multibody dynamics, contact mechanics, mechatronics, optimization and biomechanics.     

On the self-piercing riveting of aluminium blanks and carbon fibre composite panels

In the present paper the possibility to join aluminium alloys blanks and carbon fibre composites panels by self-piercing riveting operation is considered. In particular a few case studies were carried out at the varying of the process parameters. The effectiveness of the obtained joints was tested through tensile tests and through fatigue ones; what is more the process mechanics was highlighted through proper macro and micro observations of the transverse sections of the joints. The failure mechanics of the obtained joints were also considered in order to highlight the mechanisms which occur and determine the lost of the load carrying capability of the joints. Finally a numerical model of the process was carried out and the residual stress state after piercing was highlighted. The developed experiments and simulations demonstrated that self-piercing riveting can be effectively used to join carbon fiber composite panels and aluminum blanks.