Search results for "WALL"
showing 10 items of 970 documents
Physical characterization of alginate-Pluronic F127 gel for endoluminal NABDs delivery
2014
Here we focus the attention on the physical characteristics of a highly biocompatible hydrogel made up of crosslinked alginate and Pluronic F127 (PF127). This is a composite polymeric blend we propose for artery endoluminal delivery of an emerging class of molecules named nucleic acid based drugs (NABDs). The physical characterization of our composite gel, i.e. mesh size distribution and PF127-alginate mutual organization after crosslinking, can significantly determine the NABDs release kinetics. Thus, to explore these aspects, different technical approaches, i.e. rheology, low/high field NMR and TEM, were used. While rheology provided information at the macroscopic and nano-level, the othe…
Carbon nanotube – Protamine hybrid: Evaluation of DNA cell penetration
2016
International audience; Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) represent a class of nanomaterials with important potential for biomedical and biotechnological applications. CNT based vectorization is an emerging approach to the transport of nucleic acid through cell membrane but limited by detachment of DNA and degradation process. To increase DNA internalization, it was proved that cationic functionalized CNT was essential. In such a way, protamine efficiently used in several transfection processes is a cationic protein which was never associated to CNT.We propose here a novel nanovector based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) functionalized by protamine. Our results based on qPCR methods clearly…
Preliminary analysis of mastication dynamics and fragmentation during chewing of brittle cereal foods
2013
We studied the masticatory behaviour of five commercial brittle cereal foods, with different formulations, shapes and mechanical properties, chewed by an individual. The investigation of oral behaviour consisted in a simultaneous recording of jaw kinematics and muscle activity by electromyography (EMG) and we also determined the food size distribution at the swallowing point by image analysis. Similar behaviour was found for the evolution of all criteria, and especially the predominance of compression, which could be attributed to the brittle behaviour of the foods. The amplitude of the jaw motion decreased with the number of chewing cycles, or sequence duration, whereas the maximum mastica…
Maximum forces acting on the abdominal wall: Experimental validation of a theoretical modeling in a human cadaver study
2011
Incisional hernias following median laparotomy have a high incidence and recurrence rate after repair, so that a better understanding of the linea alba biomechanics is desirable. The mechanical stress exerted on the linea alba in living humans is primarily generated by the musculature. In this human cadaver study, intraabdominal pressure was simulated by insertion of a balloon that was increasingly filled to maximal pressures of 200 mbar. The related forces acting transversely on the linea alba at maximum pressure were found to be between 41.6 and 52.2 N/cm (mean = 45.9 N/cm), which is in agreement with a recent modeling of the related forces.
On-chip purification via liquid immersion of arc-discharge synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotubes
2016
Arc-discharge synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (AD-MWNT) have been proven to be of high quality, but their use is very limited due to difficulties in obtaining them in a clean and undamaged form. Here, we present a simple method that purifies raw AD-MWNT material in laboratory scale without damage, and that in principle can be scaled up. The method consists of depositing raw AD-MWNT material on a flat substrate and immersing the substrate slowly in water, whereby the surface tension force of the liquid–substrate contact line selectively sweeps away the larger amorphous carbon debris and leaves relatively clean MWNTs on the substrate. We demonstrate the utility of the method by prepa…
Measurements of the transport gap in semiconducting multiwalled carbon nanotubes with varying diameter and length
2015
Low temperature transport in multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) has been studied at different diameters and lengths, within 2–10 nm, and 0.3–3.5μm, respectively. In a majority of the samples, semiconductivity showed up as a transport gap in the gate voltage controlled conduction, but metallic MWNTs are found in all diameters. The transport gap is seen to be quantitatively determined by a diameter dependent band gap, and length dependent localization of charge carriers. The band gap of semiconducting MWNTs is estimated to be smaller than that extrapolated from the conventional expression applicable to semiconducting single wall carbon nanotubes. The results constitute a systematical study …
A fast heuristic for solving the D1EC coloring problem
2010
In this paper we propose an efficient heuristic for solving the Distance-1 Edge Coloring problem (D1EC) for the on-the-fly assignment of orthogonal wireless channels in wireless as soon as a topology change occurs. The coloring algorithm exploits the simulated annealing paradigm, i.e., a generalization of Monte Carlo methods for solving combinatorial problems. We show that the simulated annealing-based coloring converges fast to a sub optimal coloring scheme even for the case of dynamic channel allocation. However, a stateful implementation of the D1EC scheme is needed in order to speed-up the network coloring upon topology changes. In fact, a stateful D1EC reduces the algorithm’s convergen…
A heuristic for fast convergence in interference-free channel assignment using D1EC coloring
2010
This work proposes an efficient method for solving the Distance-1 Edge Coloring problem (D1EC) for the assignment of orthogonal channels in wireless networks with changing topology. The coloring algorithm is performed by means of the simulated annealing method, a generalization of Monte Carlo methods for solving combinatorial problems. We show that the simulated annealing-based coloring converges fast to a suboptimal coloring scheme. Furthermore, a stateful implementation of the D1EC scheme is proposed, in which network coloring is executed upon topology changes. The stateful D1EC is also based on simulated annealing and reduces the algorithm’s convergence time by one order of magnitude in …
Experimental Study on the Performance of Timber Frame Wall Panels in Mediterranean Construction
2018
Only recently, the use of wooden buildings is spreading in the central and southern parts of the Italy due to national and EU policies on eco-sustainability and energy saving. Knowledge of the durability of the building envelope elements, generally made with dry assembled stratified systems, is still insufficient. The paper presents the first results of a durability evaluation of multilayer timber panel applied to Platform Frame System buildings, focusing on the variation of energy performance over time. The case study describes the construction of two single-family houses in the municipality of San Cataldo (Sicily, Italy). The used timber multilayer panel presents a stratigraphy suitable f…
Il mare e la città. Cefalù e il Parco delle mura megalitiche di Pasquale Culotta, Giuseppe Leone e Tania Culotta.
2019
Il Mediterraneo è una delle fonti dell’architettura tout court ed è all’origine della storia dell’abitare del Vecchio Mondo. Al ruolo costante e di fondazione del Mare Nostrum si collega, diversi millenni dopo, quello avuto come impulso all’architettura contemporanea e, in particolare, al Movimento Moderno. Su tale imprescindibile rapporto si innesta una specifica questione relativa alle città costiere e al modo in cui queste abbiano concretamente declinato l’interazione con il mare. Se l’arco cronologico si restringe dal secondo dopoguerra ad oggi, molti di questi rapporti sono occasioni mancate, incontri distratti, dove le coste, al pari dei fondi agricoli, sono state considerate, in modo…