Differential and scanning-mode external PIXE for the analysis of the painting “Ritratto Trivulzio” by Antonello da Messina

Extensive PIXE investigations have been performed at the LABEC accelerator laboratory in Florence on the painting “Ritratto Trivulzio” by Antonello da Messina, one of the great Italian masters of XV Century and a pioneer in modern oil painting.It is well known that a complete and unambiguous characterisation of materials in paintings is often difficult, owing to their complex structure. For the “Ritratto Trivulzio”, the combination of advanced variants of PIXE, such as differential and scanning-mode analysis, provided a relevant contribution to the characterisation of paint layers, in terms of composition and structure, in a totally non-invasive and non-destructive way.Single-spot mode PIXE with external proton beams of about half millimetre diameter was first used for a general characterisation of different areas of the painting. Differential PIXE performed in many spots led to reconstruct the sequence of paints employed by the artist and to estimate in some cases the local paint layer thickness.A second run carried out with the external scanning microbeam facility, using a 3 MeV proton beam of about 80 μm size, was then crucial to clarify some issues raised by the first analysis. In particular, elemental maps from selected areas helped to understand the way some colour shades had been obtained on the red mantle of the portrayed gentleman, using different pigments irregularly distributed on the surface.     

Aging and inhibition processes: The case of metaphor treatment.

The inhibitory deficit hypothesis has often been cited as a possible explanation for cognitive changes related to age. The aim of this study was to develop a new procedure for evaluating effortful inhibition on the basis of the comprehension of metaphors. Our experiment was carried out on younger and older adults, in whom we also measured inhibitory capacity, working memory, and processing speed. The results show that older participants required a longer time and made more frequent errors in rejecting metaphors versus literally false statements. The interference effect was predicted by the psychometric tests designed to evaluate inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Session based access control in geographically replicated Internet services

Performance critical services over Internet often rely on geographically distributed architectures of replicated servers. Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are a typical example where service is based on a distributed architecture of replica servers to guarantee resource availability and proximity to final users. In such distributed systems, network links are not dedicated, and may be subject to external traffic. This brings up the need to develop access control policies that adapt to network load changing conditions. Further, Internet services are mainly session based, thus an access control support must take into account a proper differentiation of requests and perform session based decisions while considering the dynamic availability of resources due to external traffic.In this paper we introduce a distributed architecture with access control capabilities at session aware access points. We consider two types of services characterized by different patterns of resource consumption and priorities. We formulate a Markov Modulated Poisson Decision Process for access control that captures the heterogeneity of multimedia services and the variable availability of resources due to external traffic. The proposed model is optimized by means of stochastic analysis, showing the impact of external traffic on service quality. The structural properties of the optimal solutions are studied and considered as the basis for the formulation of heuristics. The performance of the proposed heuristics is studied by means of simulations, showing that in some typical scenario they perform close to the optimum.     

Push &; Pull: autonomous deployment of mobile sensors for a complete coverage

Mobile sensor networks are important for several strategic applications devoted to monitoring critical areas. In such hostile scenarios, sensors cannot be deployed manually and are either sent from a safe location or dropped from an aircraft. Mobile devices permit a dynamic deployment reconfiguration that improves the coverage in terms of completeness and uniformity. In this paper we propose a distributed algorithm for the autonomous deployment of mobile sensors called Push & Pull. According to our proposal, movement decisions are made by each sensor on the basis of locally available information and do not require any prior knowledge of the operating conditions or any manual tuning of key parameters. We formally prove that, when a sufficient number of sensors are available, our approach guarantees a complete and uniform coverage. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the algorithm execution always terminates preventing movement oscillations. Numerous simulations show that our algorithm reaches a complete coverage within reasonable time with moderate energy consumption, even when the target area has irregular shapes. Performance comparisons between Push & Pull and one of the most acknowledged algorithms show how the former one can efficiently reach a more uniform and complete coverage under a wide range of working scenarios.     

Bactericidal effect of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) on Salmonella enterica during storage

The presence of pathogenic bacteria in spices represents a public health risk as a possible cause of food contamination. Salmonella has been found in several spices and it has been involved in food-borne outbreaks, but this bacterium has not been reported as a contaminant of saffron (Crocus sativus L.). We examined a possible antibacterial effect of saffron using samples from Iran, Greece and Spain which were artificially contaminated with clinical isolates belonging to five different serovars of Salmonella. We detected a loss of viability during the room-temperature storage of the saffron samples, with bacteria being undetectable at day 16 except in the case of the DT104 strain of the Typhimurium serovar, in all of the samples, and of the Hadar serovar in the Iranian sample, both of which gave negative culture at day 32. The laboratory strain LT2 of the Typhimurium serovar was undetectable at day 4. To gain an insight into the basis for this bactericidal effect, we measured the inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations of safranal and crocin, the main compounds responsible for the flavouring and colouring capabilities of saffron. They were in the order of 8–16 mg/mL and 64–128 mg/mL for safranal and crocin, respectively. These data suggest that these compounds, and probably their chemical relatives, are involved in the antibacterial activity of saffron, and that this effect can significantly reduce the risk of food contamination with Salmonella by this spice.     

On Adaptive Density Deployment to Mitigate the Sink-Hole Problem in Mobile Sensor Networks

The use of mobile sensors is of great relevance to monitor critical areas where sensors cannot be deployed manually. The presence of data collector sinks causes increased energy depletion in their proximity, due to the higher relay load under multi-hop communication schemes (sink-hole phenomenon). We propose a new approach towards the solution of this problem by means of an autonomous deployment algorithm that guarantees the adaptation of the sensor density to the sink proximity and enables their selective activation. The proposed algorithm also permits a fault tolerant and self-healing deployment, and allows the realization of an integrated solution for deployment, dynamic relocation and selective sensor activation. We formally prove the termination of our algorithm. Performance comparisons between our proposal and previous approaches show how the former can efficiently reach a deployment at the desired variable density with moderate energy consumption under a wide range of operative settings.     

Parenteral antibiotic prophylaxis of bacterial infections does not improve cost-efficacy of oral norfloxacin in cirrhotic patients with gastrointestinal bleeding

OBJECTIVE: Selective intestinal decontamination with norfloxacin is useful in the prevention of bacterial infections in cirrhotic patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. However, bleeding cirrhotic patients with ascites, encephalopathy, or shock are at high risk to develop bacterial infections in spite of prophylactic norfloxacin. The aim of this study was to assess whether the addition of intravenous ceftriaxone could improve the efficacy of prophylaxis with norfloxacin in these patients. METHODS: Fifty-six cirrhotic patients with gastrointestinal hemorrhage and ascites, encephalopathy, or shock were randomized into two groups: Group 1 (n = 28) received oral norfloxacin 400 mg/12 h for 7 days, and group 2 (n = 28) received norfloxacin plus intravenous ceftriaxone 2 g daily during the first 3 days of admission. RESULTS: Ten patients were excluded because of community-acquired infection, surgery, or death within the first 24 h. The incidence of bacterial infections during hospitalization was 18.1% in group 1 and 12.5% in group 2 (p = NS). The incidence of severe infections (spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, bacteremia, or pneumonia) was also similar in both groups: 9% in group 1 versus 8.3% in group 2 (p = NS). There were no statistical differences between the two groups with respect to duration of hospitalization or mortality. The cost of antibiotic therapy (including prophylaxis and treatment of infections) was significantly higher in group 2. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the addition of intravenous ceftriaxone during the first 3 days of hospitalization does not improve the cost-efficacy of oral norfloxacin in the prevention of bacterial infections in cirrhotic patients with gastrointestinal bleeding and high risk of infection.     

Nadolol plus isosorbide mononitrate compared with sclerotherapy for the prevention of variceal rebleeding

BACKGROUND: Patients who have bleeding from esophageal varices are at high risk for rebleeding and death. We compared the efficacy and safety of endoscopic sclerotherapy with the efficacy and safety of nadolol plus isosorbide mononitrate for the prevention of variceal rebleeding. METHODS: Eighty-six hospitalized patients with cirrhosis and bleeding from esophageal varices diagnosed by endoscopy were randomly assigned to treatment with repeated sclerotherapy (43 patients) or nadolol plus isosorbide-5-mononitrate (43 patients). The primary outcomes were rebleeding, death, and complications. The hepatic venous pressure gradient was measured at base line and after three months. RESULTS: Base-line data were similar in the two groups, and the median follow-up was 18 months in both. Eleven patients in the medication group and 23 in the sclerotherapy group had rebleeding. The actuarial probability of remaining free of rebleeding was higher in the medication group for all episodes related to portal hypertension (P = 0.001) and variceal rebleeding (P = 0.002). Four patients in the medication group and nine in the sclerotherapy group died (P = 0.07 for the difference in the actuarial probability of survival). Seven patients in the medication group and 16 in the sclerotherapy group had treatment-related complications (P = 0.03). Thirty-one patients in the medication group underwent two hemodynamic studies; 1 of the 13 patients with more than a 20 percent decrease in the hepatic venous pressure gradient had rebleeding, as compared with 8 of the 18 with smaller decreases in the pressure gradient (P = 0.04) for the actuarial probability of rebleeding at two years). CONCLUSIONS: As compared with sclerotherapy, nadolol plus isosorbide mononitrate significantly decreased the risk of rebleeding from esophageal varices.     

BETaaS: A Platform for Development and Execution of Machine-to-Machine Applications in the Internet of Things

Wireless Personal Communications - The integration of everyday objects into the Internet represents the foundation of the forthcoming Internet of Things (IoT). Smart objects will be the building...