Red mud and fly ash for remediation of mine sites contaminated with As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn

The paper presents the results of a laboratory investigation conducted for assessing the feasibility of immobilising the heavy metals (As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn) contained in a disused mine tailings dam. Samples of tailings were mixed with relatively small proportions of bauxite red mud and power station fly ash. The sorption capacity of these two materials, already determined for Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn, has been determined here for arsenic by means of batch experiments on purposely prepared solutions. The results of this preliminary investigation show that sorption capacity is strongly influenced by pH. While the red mud performs better at low pH, the ability of fly ash to adsorb As increases with increasing pH. Tests carried out in leach columns containing tailings alone and tailings mixed with 15% by weight neutralized red mud or fly ash demonstrate the heavy metal sorption potential of the two materials, the red mud proving to be the more effective.     

Answer set based design of knowledge systems

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that A-Prolog is a powerful language for the construction of reasoning systems. In fact, A-Prolog allows to specify the initial situation, the domain model, the control knowledge, and the reasoning modules. Moreover, it is efficient enough to be used for practical tasks and can be nicely integrated with programming languages such as Java. An extension of A-Prolog (CR-Prolog) allows to further improve the quality of reasoning by specifying requirements that the solutions should satisfy if at all possible. The features of A-Prolog and CR-Prolog are demonstrated by describing in detail the design of USA-Advisor, an A-Prolog based decision support system for the Space Shuttle flight controllers.     

Plug-and-play model predictive control based on robust control invariant sets

We consider the problem of designing decentralized controllers for large-scale linear constrained systems composed by a number of interacting subsystems. As in Riverso et al. (2013b), (i) the design of local controllers requires limited transmission of information from other subsystems and (ii) the addition/removal of a subsystem triggers the design of local controllers for child subsystems only. These properties enable Plug-and-Play (PnP) operations, and we show how to perform them while preserving global stability of the origin and constraint satisfaction. We improve several aspects of the PnP design procedure proposed in Riverso et al. (2013b) and, using recent results in the computation of Robust Control Invariant (RCI) sets, we show that all critical steps in the design of a local controller can be solved through Linear Programming (LP). Finally, an application of the proposed design procedure to a large-scale mechanical system is presented.     

Biocontrol Potential of Endophytic Plant-Growth-Promoting Bacteria against Phytopathogenic Viruses: Molecular Interaction with the Host Plant and Comparison with Chitosan

Endophytic plant-growth-promoting bacteria (ePGPB) are interesting tools for pest management strategies. However, the molecular interactions underlying specific biocontrol effects, particularly against phytopathogenic viruses, remain unexplored. Herein, we investigated the antiviral effects and triggers of induced systemic resistance mediated by four ePGPB (Paraburkholderia fungorum strain R8, Paenibacillus pasadenensis strain R16, Pantoea agglomerans strain 255-7, and Pseudomonas syringae strain 260-02) against four viruses (Cymbidium Ring Spot Virus—CymRSV; Cucumber Mosaic Virus—CMV; Potato Virus X—PVX; and Potato Virus Y—PVY) on Nicotiana benthamiana plants under controlled conditions and compared them with a chitosan-based resistance inducer product. Our studies indicated that ePGPB- and chitosan-treated plants presented well-defined biocontrol efficacy against CymRSV and CMV, unlike PVX and PVY. They exhibited significant reductions in symptom severity while promoting plant height compared to nontreated, virus-infected controls. However, these phenotypic traits showed no association with relative virus quantification. Moreover, the tested defense-related genes (Enhanced Disease Susceptibility-1 (EDS1), Non-expressor of Pathogenesis-related genes-1 (NPR1), and Pathogenesis-related protein-2B (PR2B)) implied the involvement of a salicylic-acid-related defense pathway triggered by EDS1 gene upregulation.     

Failure Analysis of a Cyclic Contact Testing Machine Pin

The goal of this paper is to investigate the failure of a mandrel pin mounted on a rolling contact test bench. For this purpose, different methods of analysis were conducted, including metallography and stress analysis. The stress values in the failed pin were determined by Finite Elements. The high notch effect and the incorrect mounting of the specimens were identified as the failure causes. A pin design change is proposed to reduce the maximum stress even in the case of incorrect specimen mounting.     

Composition,Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial Activities of Satureja intermedia C.A.Mey Essential Oil

In this study, the essential oil (EO) constituents from the aerial parts of Satureja intermedia C.A.Mey were detected by GC and GC/MS. The antimicrobial activity of EO on oral pathogens and its cytotoxicity to human cancer cells were determined by the microbroth dilution method and the crystal violet staining method, respectively. Thirty-nine compounds were identified and the main EO constituents were γ-terpinene (37.1%), thymol (30.2%), p-cymene (16.2%), limonene (3.9%), α-terpinene (3.3%), myrcene (2.5%), germacrene B (1.4%), elemicine (1.1%) and carvacrol (0.5%). The S. intermedia EO showed a concentration-dependent decrease in viability of Hep-G2 (hepatocellular carcinoma) and MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma) human cancer cell lines (p < 0.05). Antimicrobial screening of S. intermedia EO demonstrated slight antibacterial and antifungal activities against Streptococcus mutants, S. salivarius, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and C. glabrata. Further preclinical studies are needed to assess the efficacy and safety of S. intermedia EO as a new promising anticancer agent.     

Reshaping the Coliseum in Rome: An Integrated Data Capture and Modeling Method at Heritage Sites

The paper describes the process of building Internet‐transmittable, 3‐D digital virtual models of ancient heritage monuments from on‐site data, focusing especially on 3‐D dimensional data acquisition techniques and color processing methods. Section 1 considers project goals and the attendant problems; Section 2 provides a brief summary of state‐of‐the‐art experience and the technologies adopted by the Authors; Section 3 illustrates the key features of the 3‐D color data acquisition methods used as well as the shape and color processing pipeline; Section 4 describes the specific study conducted on single elements and faades of the Coliseum in Rome, while Section 6 outlines future work.     

Fuzzy logic controller in a packaging plant

This paper deals with the analysis of a controller used to synchronize two parallel belt conveyors in a packaging plant. A first conveyor carries the products, while the second delivers the packages. The insertion is obtained by a proper mechanical action. The control system is based on a ‘hybrid’ fuzzy logic controller, whose parameters are optimized by using an advanced ‘operational’ genetic algorithm. ‘Hybrid’ means that a conventional fuzzy logic controller is integrated with a set of special rules needed to solve particular situations characterizing the system. An important constraint is given, since the physical structure of the existing control system is to be kept unchanged. It is shown that the controller efficiently governs the belt conveyors when: (a) the distances between goods and the relative packages become higher than a certain value; (b) the performance of the electrical engine deteriorates during working time; and also (c) interference phenomena occur between consecutive good‐package couples. Copyright ©2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.