Recommendation of RILEM Technical Committee 250-CSM: Test method for Textile Reinforced Mortar to substrate bond characterization

Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM), also known as Fabric Reinforced Mortar or Fabric Reinforced Cementitious Matrix, composites are an emerging technology for the external repair and strengthening of existing structures. For most applications, the effectiveness of the TRM reinforcement relies on its bond performance. This recommendation identifies the best practice to characterize the bond behaviour of TRM. A shear bond test method is proposed to determine the peak axial stress (associated with the maximum load that can be transferred from the structural member to the externally bonded TRM reinforcement), the stress–slip relationship and the failure mode that controls the TRM-to-substrate load transfer capacity. Guidelines on specimen manufacturing, experimental setup, test execution, and determination of test results are provided.     

An agent-based signal processing in-node environment for real-time human activity monitoring based on wireless body sensor networks

Nowadays wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs) have great potential to enable a broad variety of assisted living applications such as human biophysical/biochemical control and activity monitoring for health care, e-fitness, emergency detection, emotional recognition for social networking, security, and highly interactive games. It is therefore important to define design methodologies and programming frameworks which enable rapid prototyping of WBSN applications. Several effective application development frameworks have been already proposed for WBSNs designed for TinyOS-based sensor platforms, e.g. CodeBlue, SPINE, and Titan. In this paper we present an application of MAPS, an agent framework for wireless sensor networks based on the Java-programmable Sun SPOT sensor platform, for the development of a real-time WBSN-based system for human activity monitoring. The agent-oriented programming abstractions provided by MAPS allow effective and rapid prototyping of the sensor-side software. In particular, the architecture of the developed system is a typical star-based WBSN composed of a coordinator node and two sensor nodes located respectively on the waist and the thigh of the monitored assisted living. The coordinator relies on a JADE-based enhancement of the SPINE coordinator and allows configuring sensors, receiving their data, and recognizing pre-defined human activities. On the other hand, each sensor node runs a MAPS-based agent that performs sensing of the 3-axial accelerometer sensor, computation of significant features on the acquired data, feature aggregation and transmission to the coordinator. The experimentation phase of the prototype, which allows evaluating the obtainable monitoring performances and activity recognition accuracy, is described. Moreover, a comparison of the monitoring system based on MAPS, AFME and SPINE in terms of programming effectiveness and system performances is discussed.     

Reasoning about reasoning in a meta-level architecture

In this paper we discuss reasoning about reasoning in a multiple agent scenario. We consider agents that are perfect reasoners, loyal, and that can take advantage of both the knowledge and ignorance of other agents. The knowledge representation formalism we use is (full) first order predicate calculus, where different agents are represented by different theories, and reasoning about reasoning is realized via a meta-level representation of knowledge and reasoning. The framework we provide is pretty general: we illustrate it by showing a machine checked solution to the three wisemen puzzle. The agents' knowledge is organized into units: the agent's own knowledge about the world and its knowledge about other agents are units containing object-level knowledge; a unit containing meta-level knowledge embodies the reasoning about reasoning and realizes the link among units. In the paper we illustrate the meta-level architecture we propose for problem solving in a multi-agent scenario; we discuss our approach in relation to the modal one and we compare it with other meta-level architectures based on logic. Finally, we look at a class of applications that can be effectively modeled by exploiting the meta-level approach to reasoning about knowledge and reasoning.     

Fast algorithms for bit-serial routing on a hypercube

In this paper we describe anO(logN)-bit-step randomized algorithm for bit-serial message routing on a hypercube. The result is asymptotically optimal, and improves upon the best previously known algorithms by a logarithmic factor. The result also solves the problem of on-line circuit switching in anO(1)-dilated hypercube (i.e., the problem of establishing edge-disjoint paths between the nodes of the dilated hypercube for any one-to-one mapping).Our algorithm is adaptive and we show that this is necessary to achieve the logarithmic speedup. We generalize the Borodin-Hopcroft lower bound on oblivious routing by proving that any randomized oblivious algorithm on a polylogarithmic degree network requires at least (log² N/log logN) bit steps with high probability for almost all permutations.This research was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contracts N00014-87-K-825 and N00014-89-J-1988, the Air Force under Contract AFOSR-89-0271, and the Army under Contract DAAL-03-86-K-0171. This work was completed while the third and fourth authors were at the Laboratory for Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.     

FRP confinement of masonry: analytical modeling

International and National Building Codes provide requirements for design and construction of new masonry structures, but design provisions for the repair, retrofitting, and rehabilitation of masonry structures are not always available and included in the same documents. Due to the extremely large variability in masonry performances, equations of general validity cannot often be provided, namely relationships suitable for every masonry type. Despite the great research effort in the experimental field, considerable theoretical work is still needed to fully outline a definitive analytical model to predict the behavior of FRP confined masonry. Most of the available models, empirical in nature, have been calibrated against their own sets of experimental data, or they are simply derived from concrete. Even if large amount of results obtained for concrete led to consolidated design guidelines, they cannot be simply extended to masonry. In this study, a mechanically based confinement model is proposed based on mechanical parameters able to differentiate similar masonry types and to highlight that they present different confinement performance. Crucial aspects of masonry confinement will be also discussed, namely: lateral dilation; confinement effectiveness; lateral pressure also in non-circular shapes; effective strain of FRP.     

Cellular and Molecular Signatures of Oxidative Stress in Bronchial Epithelial Cell Models Injured by Cigarette Smoke Extract

Exposure of the airways epithelium to environmental insults, including cigarette smoke, results in increased oxidative stress due to unbalance between oxidants and antioxidants in favor of oxidants. Oxidative stress is a feature of inflammation and promotes the progression of chronic lung diseases, including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Increased oxidative stress leads to exhaustion of antioxidant defenses, alterations in autophagy/mitophagy and cell survival regulatory mechanisms, thus promoting cell senescence. All these events are amplified by the increase of inflammation driven by oxidative stress. Several models of bronchial epithelial cells are used to study the molecular mechanisms and the cellular functions altered by cigarette smoke extract (CSE) exposure, and to test the efficacy of molecules with antioxidant properties. This review offers a comprehensive synthesis of human in-vitro and ex-vivo studies published from 2011 to 2021 describing the molecular and cellular mechanisms evoked by CSE exposure in bronchial epithelial cells, the most used experimental models and the mechanisms of action of cellular antioxidants systems as well as natural and synthetic antioxidant compounds.     

A new cooling scheme for the HCLL TBM

The Helium Cooled Lithium Lead (HCLL) blanket is one of the two blanket concepts selected by the European Union to be tested in ITER. It is based on the use of Eurofer as structural material, helium as coolant and eutectic lithium–lead as breeder/neutron multiplier material. The design of the corresponding Test Blanket Module (TBM) for ITER has undergone several revisions in the last years. This paper presents an alternative cooling scheme for the HCLL-TBM, where the First Wall (FW) is cooled by vertical (poloidal) instead of horizontal (toroidal) channels. New Finite Element models have been developed and thermal and thermo-hydraulical analyses of the new design have been performed. Results show that the new cooling scheme presents several advantages with respect to the previous one: (i) the total number of cooling channels in the FW can be reduced; (ii) the overall pressure drops in one cooling channel are lower; (iii) the temperature profile in the breeding zone is more uniform.     

An integrated approach to the facilities and material handling system design

The facility layout problem involves the optimal location of manufacturing facilities into a workshop. The classical approach to the layout design is carried out in two separate steps: the first step is the construction of the block layout, i.e. the location of the departments into the workshop, and the second step is the design of the material handling system. The separate optimization of these two aspects of the problem leads to solutions that can be far from the total optimum. In this paper, an integrated approach to the facilities and material handling system design is proposed. Referring to a physical model, named the bay structure , and to a unidirectional AGV system, a genetic approach is proposed to individuate the locations of the departments, the positions of the pickup/delivery stations and the direction of the flow-path. The minimization of material handling cost is adopted as optimality criterion.     

Multi-Criteria Decision Making support system for pancreatic islet transplantation

Pancreatic islet transplantation consists of replacing insulin-producing cells to restore normal glycemia in diabetic patients. This is a minimal invasive procedure that has been proved successful. Unfortunately unpredictability of islet transplant outcome remains a frustrating and costly issue limiting the clinical implementation of this procedure. Multiple variables are involved in the procedure and assessment is subjective to individual operators. The aim of this study was to generate a system expressing the probability of transplant success in relation to four classes of identified variables (donor, organ, isolation and recipient). We have proposed the utilization of Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods (MCDM) as a powerful tool for evaluating pancreatic islet transplant-related information with the goal to achieve optimal decision. Technique Ordered Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), one of the most widely used MCDM methods in decision support systems, was here utilized with modification to fit better in a medical system. In our modified method, we have utilized fuzzy logic in order to consider uncertain and vague data.