Search results for "Gili"
showing 10 items of 234 documents
EVALUATION OF FRAGILITY OF INFILLED FRAME STRUCTURES SUBJECT AFTERSHOCKS BY MEANS OF DOUBLE INCREMENTAL DYNAMIC ANALYSIS APPROACH
2018
The paper investigates the role of masonry infill walls on the seismic fragility of reinforced concrete structures subject to mainshock/aftershock sequences. An assessment framework aimed at determining aftershock fragility curves of bare frames and infilled frames is presented. The framework is based on a Double Incremental Dynamic Analysis (D-IDA) approach, which provides the adoption of ground motions defined by combining a fixed intensity mainshock with a set of variable intensity aftershocks. Mainshock (MS) intensity is scaled several times and combined with the same set of aftershocks (AS). Chord-rotation and shear limit states are specifically defined to consider the influence of mas…
Molecular dynamics of carrageenan composites reinforced with Cloisite Na+ montmorillonite nanoclay
2017
[EN] Nanocomposites comprising biodegradable carrageenan and glycerol(KCg) as the host polymer, with different contents of natural montmorillonite (MMT) as filler, were prepared by a solution casting process. Different techniques have been used to determine the interaction/behavior among the different components of the samples such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and, mainly, Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS). FTIR indicates hydrogen interaction between carrageenan matrix and silicate that is confirmed by the XRD data indicating some kind of carrageenan intercalation between the MMT layers. A rather ho…
Effect of Chitin Whiskers on the Molecular Dynamics of Carrageenan-Based Nanocomposites
2019
[EN] Films of carrageenan (KC) and glycerol (g) with different contents of chitin nanowhiskers (CHW) were prepared by a solution casting process. The molecular dynamics of pure carrageenan (KC), carrageenan/glycerol (KCg) and KCg with different quantities of CHWs as a filler was studied using dielectric relaxation spectroscopy. The analysis of the CHW effect on the molecular mobility at the glass transition, T-g, indicates that non-attractive intermolecular interactions between KCg and CHW occur. The fragility index increased upon CHW incorporation, due to a reduction in the polymer chains mobility produced by the CHW confinement of the KCg network. The apparent activation energy associated…
Cooperativity Scaling and Free Volume in Plasticized Polylactide
2019
The authors would like to thank the region Haute Normandie for their financial support and the acquisition of the Broadband Dielectric Spectrometer. R.G. acknowledges U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant no. DMR-1725188) for the acquisition of PAL spectrometer. The experimental evidence of the increase of activation energy associated with the super Arrhenius behavior governing amorphous polylactide by free volume variations has been obtained through a combination of calorimetric, dielectric, and positron annihilation lifetime measurements. The amount of free volume in polylactide was controlled by the amount of acetyltributylcitrate plasticizer in the composition. Plasticization is shown…
Dielectric Spectroscopy of Recycled Polylactide
2014
The effects of multiple mechanical recycling on amorphous polylactide (PLA) were simulated by means of five successive injection-grinding cycles. The influence of the induced thermo-mechanical degradation on the dielectric properties of PLA was analysed. The relaxation spectra were studied in terms of the complex dielectric permittivity (ε0 and ε00) and the dielectric loss tangent, tg(d) in the frequency range from 102 to 107 Hz over the temperature interval from 0 C to 140 C. It was possible to distinguish two relaxations zones, one at low temperatures and high frequencies (b relaxation) and another at higher temperatures and lower frequencies (a relaxation). The individual relaxations wer…
Cryptic invasion in Southern Europe: The case of Ferrissia fragilis (Pulmonata: Ancylidae) Mediterranean populations
2011
Four populations of the North American ancylid gastropod Ferrissia fragilis have been found in Southern Italy, thus expanding the known Eurasian distribution range of this invasive gastropod to the Mediterranean area. Both mitochondrial markers used for the molecular identification of the sampled specimens (16S and COI) showed a modest to absent haplotypic diversity in the studied Ferrissia populations from Europe and Asia, and their perfect identity with some of the haplotypes observed in North American F. fragilis populations. In the light of the scarce molecular diversity observed in the whole Palaearctic area and of the growing evidences for the ongoing spreading of the species in Europ…
Protective effect of melatonin against cytotoxic actions of malondialdehyde: an in vitro study on human erythrocytes
2002
Malondialdehyde (MDA), a by-product of the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, is strongly cytotoxic. Here we report the in vitro ability of melatonin to protect intact human erythrocytes against the damage induced by the exposure to MDA. MDA at 20 microM caused marked variations in the red blood cell (RBC) membrane. High molecular weight fluorescent adducts were formed within minutes with membrane proteins. A 6-hr incubation led to the oxidation of membrane lipids, as reflected by the formation of conjugated diene (CD) lipid hydroperoxides and oxidation of vitamin E, and to an increase of the high molecular weight fluorescent adducts, which were an indication of MDA finally generated…
Dielectric study of supercooled triphenylphosphite and butyronitrile: Comparison with a mesoscopic model
1996
Abstract Dielectric relaxation has been studied in the supercooled liquids triphenylphosphite (TPP) and butyrontrile (BN). BN is relatively strong according to Angell's classification and can be characterized by a fragility index m = 47. TPP, on the other hand, appears to be the most fragile non-polymeric liquid studied so far (m = 160). The dielectric response of the two glass-formers exhibits different degrees of non-exponentiality which is analyzed in terms of a mesoscopic model of dynamically correlated domains. The relation of this model to the strong versus fragile liquid classification scheme is discussed.
One Health Approach to Zoonotic Parasites: Molecular Detection of Intestinal Protozoans in an Urban Population of Norway Rats, Rattus norvegicus, in …
2021
Rattus norvegicus, the brown or Norway rat, is the most abundant mammal after humans in urban areas, where they live in close proximity to people. Among rodent-borne diseases, the reservoir role of Norway rats of zoonotic parasites in cities has practically been ignored. Considering the parasitic diseases in the One Health approach, we intended to identify and quantify the zoonotic intestinal protozoans (ZIP) in an urban population of R. norvegicus in the city of Barcelona, Spain. We studied the presence of ZIP in 100 rats trapped in parks (n = 15) as well as in the city’s sewage system (n = 85) in the winter of 2016/17. The protozoans were molecularly identified by means of a multiplex PCR…
Gut Microbiota Analysis in Postoperative Lynch Syndrome Patients
2019
Lynch syndrome (LS) is a dominantly inherited condition with incomplete penetrance, characterized by high predisposition to colorectal cancer (CRC), endometrial and ovarian cancers, as well as to other tumors. LS is associated with constitutive DNA mismatch repair (MMR) gene defects, and carriers of the same pathogenic variants can show great phenotypic heterogeneity in terms of cancer spectrum. In the last years, human gut microbiota got a foothold among risk factors responsible for the onset and evolution of sporadic CRC, but its possible involvement in the modulation of LS patients’ phenotype still needs to be investigated. In this pilot study, we performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing of ba…