Experimental Investigation of the Recovery of Soaked Paper Using Evaporative Freeze Drying

The aim of this article is to develop an experiment and a procedure to investigate the restoration of water-damaged paper and archival materials using freeze drying in order to allow a reproducible test and comparison of the influence of different operating conditions on drying time and restored paper quality. Firstly, a reproducible method for the preparation of soaked samples simulating water-damaged paper has been developed. Then, the samples have been freeze-dried in a laboratory-scale apparatus that allowed monitoring the temperature as well as the weight of the samples. The technique of evaporative freezing, which reduces the drying time required, has been used in this case. An innovative procedure for the visualization of the progress of the drying process has been validated, thus allowing the validation of a simple phenomenological model of the time evolution of the ice core volume; in addition, data on the residual moisture of the dried paper sheets in different zones have been given. Finally, optimization of this particular drying process by using simple or more sophisticated approaches has been discussed.     

Proteomic profile of differentially expressed plasma proteins from dystrophic mice and following suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid treatment

Purpose: Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (DI) ameliorates dystrophic muscle regeneration restoring muscular strength in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The further development of these compounds as drugs for DMD treatment is currently hampered by the lack of knowledge about DIs effect in large dystrophic animal models and that of suitable biomarkers to monitor their efficacy. Experimental design: In this study we applied proteomic analysis to identify differentially expressed proteins present in plasma samples from mdx mice treated with the Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and relative normal controls (WT). Results: Several differentially expressed proteins were identified between untreated wild type and mdx mice. Among these, fibrinogen, epidermal growth factor 2 receptor, major urinary protein and glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) were constitutively up‐regulated in mdx, while complement C3, complement C6, gelsolin, leukaemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFr), and alpha 2 macroglobulin were down‐regulated compared to WT mice. SAHA determined the normalization of LIFr and GPX3 protein level while apoliprotein E was de novo up‐regulated in comparison to vehicle‐treated mdx mice. Conclusions and clinical relevance: Collectively, these data unravel potential serological disease biomarkers of mdx that could be useful to monitor muscular dystrophy response to DI treatment.     

Traffic analysis and synthetic models of second life

Virtual Worlds (VW), such as Massive Multiplayer Online Social Games, have been gaining increasing attention in the last few years, mainly due to the new way users interact with them. However, little effort has been devoted to understand their traffic profile and the implications to the traffic management area. With the current growing rate of VWs’ usage, their traffic demand could eventually impose a significant burden on the operation of a typical Internet Service Provider (ISP) network. In this paper, we seek to understand the traffic behavior of an increasingly popular VW application, namely Second Life (SL), from both the connection and network level perspectives. We also show results of a traffic analysis of a SL client, when an avatar performs different actions in the VW, at different places and under different network conditions. Our results show that SL makes intensive use of network resources (mostly bandwidth), since the capacity needed for having a full SL experience (listening to live music) may reach 500 kbps. We then extend the traffic analysis work on SL by providing analytical models for its traffic profile. We aim at helping the network management and planning area to estimate the impact of an intense use of such VW on access links or core networks. Such synthetic models are also useful to the networking research community for the use in network simulations.     

A ticket to ride: Education and migration from lagging areas

National policies may have heterogeneous effects at the regional level. When coming to programmes aimed at increasing human capital, worker mobility from poorer to richer regions can reduce the benefits of the policy for the former areas. We focus on Italy and estimate the impact of education on the probability of migrating from a lagging area to a leading one. Endogeneity is addressed by exploiting an increase in the minimum school-leaving age in an instrumental variable framework. We find that one additional year of education increases the probability to migrate by 1.7 percentage points (9% of the average migration rate).     

Application of nine air-dried Capsicum annum cultivars as food preservative: Micronutrient content,antioxidant activity,and foodborne pathogens inhibitory effects

Capsicum annum cultivars Yellow cayenne, Portafortuna, Idealino, Sole, Duemila, Pellegrino, Fantasia, Loco, and Effix were investigated for their antioxidant properties and foodborne pathogens inhibitory activity. The total phenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, capsaicinoids, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, and vitamin E content were also determined. Duemila and Portafortuna cultivars showed the highest total phenol content with values of 924.3 and 935.0 mg of chlorogenic acid equivalents/100 g dried weight, respectively. Idealino pepper presented the highest capsaicin content (2932.1 μg/g dried weight). The antioxidant capacity was evaluated by using 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid test, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl test, and ferric reducing ability power assay. Both Pellegrino and Idealino samples exhibited a promising radical scavenging ability against 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid radical with IC₅₀ values of 45.2 and 45.7 μg/mL, respectively. All the extracts were able to inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes investigated strains. The most active are Effix and Fantasia peppers with minimal inhibitory concentration between 12.5 and 25.0 mg/mL, respectively. Overall, these results support the use of these pepper species as dried extract in food preservation.     

By‐products formation in catalytic combustion of aromatic compounds over a pt‐based catalyst

By‐products formation in the catalytic combustion of different aromatic compounds has been experimentally investigated. A commercial Pt‐based catalyst, in the shape of a short monolith, has been employed. Toluene, styrene, o‐xylene and cumene have been tested at low concentrations for conversions in the range 5–50%. The results confirm the formation of benzene in the combustion of toluene and styrene, as previously observed by other researchers, but in a very small amount; testing cumene, significant amounts of acetone have been found in the outlet flow. Some hypothesis about the reaction mechanism are put forward.     

ECT benchmark results for 3D defect signatures in industrial applications

This paper is focused on the Eddy Current Testing (ECT) method applied to important industrial applications such as the inspection of tubes in nuclear power plants and the inspection of planar surface from aeronautical industry. Specifically, we consider the prediction of the signatures produced by small defects through two fully three-dimensional numerical models developed for ECT. In particular we consider the responses to small defects described in two experimental benchmarks from nuclear power industry and one experimental benchmark from aeronautical applications. Despite of the small size of the defects that, in some cases, is of the order of few millimetres, the numerical models reproduce correctly the experimental responses provided in the benchmarks, including the challenging case of a defect (in a tube) close to the support plate.     

Simplified analysis of cantilever diaphragm walls in cohesive soils

In this paper, a method is presented for a simplified analysis of cantilever diaphragm walls in cohesive soils under undrained and drained conditions. A rectilinear distribution of the net contact stresses that are not completely predetermined by the limit state is assumed at the soil-wall interface, consistently with the mechanism usually experienced by these structures. Simple equations are derived to readily calculate the contact stress distribution on the wall and the associated internal forces in the ultimate and service conditions. Moreover, these equations require few parameters as input data. Comparisons are carried out with a limit equilibrium method commonly used in design to show the usefulness of the proposed method for practical purposes.