Seismic noise measurements in the Mt. Amiata geothermal area, Italy

A seismic noise study has been carried out on the well-known Mt. Amiata geothermal area; the aim of this work is to understand the correlation between the geothermal system and seismic noise characteristics. The power spectra of the recorded noise show that in the whole geothermal area a low frequency noise (3 Hz) is predominant. The fitting of the results with a pressure variation source model shows contradictory results.     

Block copolymers of L-lactide and poly(ethylene glycol) for biomedical applications

Poly (L-lactide)-poly (oxyethylene)-poly (L-lactide) block copolymers obtained in bulk, by a ring opening mechanism, from poly (ethylene glycol)s (PEG)s and L-lactide (LA), at 120–140°C, in the absence of added catalysts are described. By using PEGs with different molecular masses, 3000 and 35000, respectively, and varying the initial molar ratio LA to PEG, two series of copolymers with different molecular masses, relative length of blocks and hydrophilicity were obtained. Physico-chemical characterization of the copolymers had been previously performed. The morphological characteristics of the copolymers were investigated by means of X-ray diffractometry, optical and scanning electron microscopy. The biological properties of the materials were determined by evaluating their cytotoxicity, cytocompatibility, hemocompatibility and degradability using different standard tests. The results obtained indicate that the block copolymers synthesized may be useful for biomedical applications, in particular as resorbable drug vehicles. The materials are brittle and their mechanical properties are not appropriate for implant devices.     

Topographic measurements of precision-ground optical glasses

We studied the surfaces of six precision-ground optical glass samples of fused silica, BK-7, BaCD16, LaC14, NbF1, and LHG8 glass, using a mechanical profiler, a photon tunneling microscope, and a scanning force microscope. The measured roughnesses of the scanning force microscope varied from 3.5 A rms for BK-7 glass to 30 A rms for LHG8 laser glass. Good agreement was obtained among the roughness values measured with all three instruments.     

Efficacy and complications of intraprostatic prosthesis in the treatment of benign hyperplasia of the prostate

Heat shock (HS) proteins (HSP) function as molecular chaperones and protect cells from thermal and oxidative injury. The signals leading to HSP synthesis, i.e. the "cellular thermometer(s)," are still a matter of debate. In the human premonocytic line U937, we investigated the effects of specific modification of membrane fatty acid (FA) composition by incubation with various saturated and unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) on the HS response and on hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced cell death. FA readily incorporated into U937 cell membranes. UFA did not modulate the HS response but potentiated H2O2-mediated damage, while pre-exposure to HS protected the UFA-treated cells from this increased H2O2 toxicity.     

Monocytes-macrophages and cytokines/chemokines in fine-needle aspiration biopsy cultures: enhanced interleukin-1 receptor antagonist synthesis in rejection-free kidney transplant patients

BACKGROUND: Monocytes-macrophages are found within kidney allografts during the first days after surgery, where they perform "housekeeping" tasks, participate in postreperfusion injury, and act as antigen-presenting cells, as well as become involved in the effector phase of acute rejection. They also seem to play a prominent role in chronic rejection. We quantified their presence in fine-needle aspiration biopsies and studied the growth factors that, we hypothesized, would mark the different implications of the presence of monocytes-macrophages. METHODS: Fine-needle aspiration biopsies were obtained from 56 adult renal transplants and analyzed for CD14+ using the alkaline phosphatase-anti-alkaline phosphatase procedure. Thirty-three patients were studied on the production of interleukin (IL)-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), IL-6, IL-8, macrophage colony-stimulating factor, monocyte chemotactic protein 1, and macrophage inflammatory protein 1alpha by aspiration biopsies cultures using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. RESULTS: CD14+ cells were present at significantly higher numbers in steroid-resistant acute rejections but also during the first days after surgery, especially if acute tubular necrosis was present. We found a significantly higher production of IL-1ra by rejection-free patients compared with acutely rejecting patients, and this difference was already established on day 7 after surgery (10+/-10.5 days before rejection). CONCLUSIONS: Monocytes-macrophages are present at higher numbers in aspiration biopsies of kidney transplant patients suffering either acute tubular necrosis or steroid-resistant rejections, but they are present during the first days after transplant in stable patients, too. The production of IL-1ra is significantly up-regulated in stable patients, which suggests that monocytes-macrophages may constitute an early key factor in the down-regulation of the anti-allograft immune response.     

Continuous Fixed‐Time Controller Design for Dynamic Systems with Unmeasurable States Subject to Unbounded Disturbances

This paper presents a nonlinear continuous observer‐based controller that provides fixed‐time convergence to the origin (a vicinity of the origin) of a higher‐order dynamic system subject to unbounded disturbances, whose only measurable state is the highest relative degree one. The settling time estimation problem is solved computing an uniform upper bound of the fixed convergence time of the designed controller. Finally, the designed algorithm is verified in a case study of an industrial armature‐controlled DC motor.     

Quick fixing ATL transformations with speculative analysis

Model transformations are central components of most model-based software projects. While ensuring their correctness is vital to guarantee the quality of the solution, current transformation tools provide limited support to statically detect and fix errors. In this way, the identification of errors and their correction are nowadays mostly manual activities which incur in high costs. The aim of this work is to improve this situation. Recently, we developed a static analyser that combines program analysis and constraint solving to identify errors in ATL model transformations. In this paper, we present a novel method and system that uses our analyser to propose suitable quick fixes for ATL transformation errors, notably some non-trivial, transformation-specific ones. Our approach supports speculative analysis to help developers select the most appropriate fix by creating a dynamic ranking of fixes, reporting on the consequences of applying a quick fix, and providing a pre-visualization of each quick fix application. The approach integrates seamlessly with the ATL editor. Moreover, we provide an evaluation based on existing faulty transformations built by a third party, and on automatically generated transformation mutants, which are then corrected with the quick fixes of our catalogue.     

Recommender systems in model-driven engineering

Software and Systems Modeling - Recommender systems are information filtering systems used in many online applications like music and video broadcasting and e-commerce platforms. They are also...     

Kinetics and modified clay thermodynamic from the Brazilian amazon region for lead removal

Modified Brazilian smectite-bearing clay samples displayed ability for lead adsorption. The structure modification of smectite were obtained through pillaring process and functionalization with [3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyl]trimethoxysilane. The chemical modification process increases the basal spacing of the natural smectite from 1.354 to 2.364 nm. The Langmuir model was fitted to experimental data in linear regression. Kinetic studies showed an equilibrium adsorption time of 700 min on the modified clay. The experimental data were correlated with two distinct kinetic models were used: (i) external mass transfer diffusion and (ii) intraparticular mass transfer diffusion. However, the intraparticle mass transfer diffusion model gave a better fit to these experimental data. The energetic effects caused by lead interactions were determined through calorimetric titration at the solid-liquid interface and gave a net thermal effect that enabled the calculation of the exothermic values and the equilibrium constant.