Rye secalin characterisation and use to improve zein-based film performance

Rye prolamins (secalin) were extracted, characterised and used as biopolymer source to produce plasticised films, as well as composite films in the presence of corn zein. Secalin film showed lower contact angle values and higher moisture content, solubility and swelling index than zein film, whereas the water vapour permeability of the two films was not different. Also, secalin film exhibited lower tensile strength and Young’s modulus and higher elongation at break. The average functional properties of the secalin/zein blend were morphologically confirmed by SEM analysis of the composite film surface that showed a good miscibility and compatibility of the two different biopolymers. These results indicated that secalin films were less hydrophobic and more flexible than those previously prepared by using other prolamins, whereas a material with hydrophobic features similar to those of zein films and a flexibility comparable to that exhibited by secalin films was obtained by preparing a secalin/zein blend.     

Different miRNA Profiles in Plasma Derived Small and Large Extracellular Vesicles from Patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases

Identifying biomarkers is essential for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). Large (LEVs) and small extracellular vesicles (SEVs) are extracellular vesicles (EVs) of different sizes and biological functions transported in blood and they may be valid biomarkers for NDs. The aim of our study was to investigate common and different miRNA signatures in plasma derived LEVs and SEVs of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Fronto-Temporal Dementia (FTD) patients. LEVs and SEVs were isolated from plasma of patients and healthy volunteers (CTR) by filtration and differential centrifugation and RNA was extracted. Small RNAs libraries were carried out by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). MiRNAs discriminate all NDs diseases from CTRs and they can provide a signature for each NDs. Common enriched pathways for SEVs were instead linked to ubiquitin mediated proteolysis and Toll-like receptor signaling pathways and for LEVs to neurotrophin signaling and Glycosphingolipid biosynthesis pathway. LEVs and SEVs are involved in different pathways and this might give a specificity to their role in the spreading of the disease. The study of common and different miRNAs transported by LEVs and SEVs can be of great interest for biomarker discovery and for pathogenesis studies in neurodegeneration.     

The RRA‐ISA multiple access protocol with and without simple priority schemes for real‐time and data traffic in wireless cellular systems

A multiple access protocol, based on a Reservation Random Access (RRA) scheme, is derived for a wireless cellular network carrying real-time and data traffic. Given a TDMA framed channel and a cellular structure, the aim of the protocol is that of maximizing the one-step throughput over an entire frame. This is achieved by deciding on the access rights at the cell base station, which then broadcasts this information at the beginning of the frame. The decision is made on the basis of binary channel feedback information (collision/no collision) over the previous frames, as well as of long term averages of packet generation rates at the mobile stations, assuming independence in the presence of packets at the latter. The resulting protocol has therefore been termed Independent Stations Algorithm (ISA), and the overall scheme RRA-ISA. As in other RRA protocols, time constrained (e.g., voice) traffic operates in a dynamic reservation mode, by contending for a slot in the frame with the first packet of a burst, and then keeping the eventually accessed slot for the duration of the burst; packets of the time constrained traffic unable to access a slot within a maximum delay are dropped from the input buffer. No such constraint is imposed on data traffic. Together with the “basic” version of the access algorithm, three other variants are presented, which exploit three simple different priority schemes in the RRA-ISA “basic” structure, in order to give a prominence to the voice service. The aim of these variants is to improve the performance in terms of the maximum number of stations acceptable in the system, by slightly increasing the data packets delay. All the proposed schemes are analyzed by simulation in the presence of voice and data traffic. Several comparisons show a relevant performance improvement (in terms of data delay and maximum number of voice stations acceptable within a cell) over other protocols that use ALOHA as a reservation mechanism (RRA-ALOHA or PRMA schemes). This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Hippocampal and amygdaloid involvement in working memory for nonspatial stimuli.

Hippocampal lesions in rats lead to an impairment of performance in spatial delayed conditional discriminations. The effect of such lesions on nonspatial tasks is controversial. In monkeys, both the hippocampus and the amygdala are involved in nonspatial delayed conditional discriminations. The effect of amygdaloid lesions in rats on this type of task has not been studied. To clarify the role of hippocampus and amygdala in a cue-relevant/space-irrelevant delayed conditional discrimination, rats were trained on a delayed match-to-sample task with visual and tactile cues as discriminative stimuli. Rats were then given one of five lesions: control, complete fimbria-fornix, partial fimbria-fornix, complete amygdala, or partial amygdala. Amygdaloid lesions, partial or complete, did not impair choice accuracy. Fimbria-fornix lesions did impair choice accuracy, and the magnitude and duration of the impairment was a function of the size of the lesion. Partial fimbria-fornix lesions produced a slight impairment that disappeared with continued testing. Complete fimbria-fornix lesions produced chance performance throughout postoperative testing. These results indicate that the fimbria-fornix, but not the amygdala, is involved in nonspatial delayed match-to-sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An apparatus for cyclic tests on cylindrical concrete specimens

An apparatus specifically designed for static and cyclic testing of concrete and rock cylindrical samples is described. A particular characteristic of this equipment is the possibility of cyclic variation of the confining pressure, in addition to variation of the vertical load. The technical features of the apparatus are illustrated, as well as those of the instruments used for measuring and recording the variation of loads and displacements during the tests, up to the failure of the specimens. Comments are also presented on the devices controlling the variation of load with time and on the characteristics of the load histories adopted in an experimental research aimed at investigating the behaviour of concrete under repeated triaxial loads.     

A new model for network traffic forecast based on user's mobility in cellular networks with highway stretches

Wireless communications have always faced the scarceness of bandwidth and until today the cellular division has solved this problem by making radio cells always smaller. However, as cell size is reduced, more users will probably require handoffs, and signaling can overload the system. Further, the decrease in cell dimension cannot ensure the best utilization of system resources, because user density in the cell is not constant over the time. Dynamic allocation might be the solution, but it is a complex task, basically due to complexity of the models for the mobility prediction, especially in those environments where users move very fast (e.g. highways). This last one is a typical environment where high mobility of vehicles does not allow small cell sizes and thus system capacity is intrinsically bounded. In this paper, we deploy an analytical model for a cellular network operating in a high mobility environment. Such a model is capable of representing and forecasting wireless system evolution in terms of channel occupancy, starting from the current state of the mobile network and road traffic. This model has been defined by integrating a vehicular traffic model with a wireless cellular communication one. With such approach the dynamic behaviour of the most critical mobile terminals, those associated with vehicles, are described in a very precise and specific way with respect to mobility. Many results obtained with specific simulation tools and herein reported show the good behaviour of our proposal. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of cytosolic pH onin vivo assessment of human muscle mitochondrial respiration by phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy

The authors present anin vivo phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy systematic study on the effects of cytosolic pH on skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration in human calf muscle. In 49 normal subjects, the effect of cytosolic pH on kinetics of phosphocreatine and adenosine diphosphate recovery and on maximum rate of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate production (Q_max) was evaluation. The results show a strong relationship between the rate of postexercise phosphocreatine recovery and the lowest value of cytosolic pH reached during recovery from exercise (termed minimum pH;r=0.89); in constrast, both adenosine diphosphate recovery halftime andQ _max were independent of cytosolic pH at the end of exercise.     

Convergence of the Kleiser Schumann method for the Navier-Stokes equations

Calcolo - We analyze the Kleiser-Schumann metho for the numerical approximation of Navier-Stokes' equations with two directions of periodicity. In these directions a pseudo-spectral Galerkin...     

Effect of dicumyl peroxide concentration on the polymerization kinetics of a polysilazane system

The effect of dicumyl peroxide (DCPO) concentration on the polymerization kinetics of a polysilazane system has been investigated through DSC analyses. DCPO acts as polymerization initiator by activating the polyaddition of vinyl groups. The overall heat of reaction is found to be a linear function of the DCPO concentration above 1.5 wt%, due to the addition of the heat of fully initiated polymerization and the heat of DCPO decomposition. Below 1.5 wt% of DCPO, the polymerisation of polysilazane is not fully initiated and only part of the reaction occurs. The resulting overall heat of reaction is therefore lower than that provided by the linear law valid for higher concentrations. A two‐reaction kinetic model built on this interpretation leads to a satisfactory representation of the DSC analyses performed for each DCPO concentration between 0.1 and 20 wt%. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:859–869, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A new approach to study the influence of the weld bead morphology on the fatigue behaviour of Ti–6Al–4V laser beam-welded butt joints

Ti–6Al–4V is an alloy increasingly used in aeronautics due to its high mechanical properties coupled with lightness. An effective technology used to manufacture titanium components with a reduced buy-to-fly ratio is laser beam welding. Previous studies showed that the key factor that rules the mechanical properties and the fatigue life of the joint is its morphology. The aims of this paper were to investigate the influence of the geometrical features of the joints (height of the top and root reinforcement, depth and radius of the underfill, and the valley–valley underfill distance) on their mechanical properties and also to conduct a finite element (FE) analysis on the real geometry of the welded joints. Ti–6Al–4V rolled sheets 3.2 mm thick were welded in butt joint configuration using a laser source and their performance was studied in terms of weld morphology, microstructure, Vickers microhardness and fatigue life. A full factorial plan, designed varying the welding speed and laser power, was carried out. The real geometry and then the joint morphology were studied through an innovative approach: for each specimen, both the total weld face and the total root surface were acquired using a confocal microscope. Finally, through these acquisitions, the clouds of points of the scanned surfaces were used in order to carry out a FE analysis capable of providing a stress concentration factor, K _t , value for each detected joint. The main results are the realization of a reliable FE model by an experimental agreement and the relationship found amongst the fatigue performances and some noticeable metallurgical and geometrical features, such as the underfill depth and the aspect ratio defined as the ratio between the maximum height of the joint and the valley–valley underfill distance.