Studio dell'edizione 2007 del Codice ASME per la progettazione, costruzione e controllo degli apparecchi in pressione e analisi comparativa con l'edizione precedente

La tesi è stata svolta presso l’Ufficio Tecnico della Nuovo Pignone GE Oil and Gas, stabilimento di Massa, la cui principale produzione sono i reattori da raffineria del petrolio. L’obiettivo del lavoro è analizzare la nuova edizione 2007 della Sezione VIII Divisione 2 del Codice ASME “Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code” e confrontarla con la vecchia edizione 2004, al fine di comprendere con esattezza quali cambiamenti riguardino il campo di interesse dell’azienda e in che modo questi influiscano sulla progettazione e produzione dei reattori che qui vengono costruiti. Si presentano brevemente le problematiche generali di progettazione degli apparecchi in pressione non sottoposti a fiamma (UFPV) e le esistenti normative inerenti. Sono quindi delineate le differenze generali tra le due edizioni del Codice. Le parti relative alla progettazione by rules, allo stress analysis e studio della fatica e alle proprietà richieste ai materiali sono dettagliatamente analizzate, confrontate e commentate. In ogni ambito è stata riscontrata la netta tendenza del nuovo Codice ad una progettazione più rigorosa e precisa, volta ad ottenere risparmi in termini di spessori e pesi dei componenti. A sostegno di tali analisi è stata effettuata un’applicazione pratica di progettazione di un reattore in entrambe le edizioni e a tal fine sono stati creati numerosi fogli di calcolo; seguendo la versione nuova del Codice è stato ottenuto un risparmio in peso circa del 16 % rispetto all’ed. 2004. Per la parte di progettazione by rules, la parte relativa ai materiali, quella relativa alla targa dati e al Manufacturer’s Design Report, sono stati creati su esplicita richiesta dell’azienda degli schemi di diretta comparazione tra le due edizioni

Western Kentucky University\u27s Athletic Program: Financial Burden or Boon?

Analysis of football spending based on managerial accounting taking into consideration marginal costs and marginal revenues

Freedom to Explore: Using the Eleventh Amendment to Liberate Researchers at State Universities from Liability for Intellectual Property Infringements

In its 1999 decision in Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank, the Supreme Court held that the Eleventh Amendment protected states from suit for patent infringement, effectively making state universities immune from intellectual property suits. This Article analyzes how the Florida Prepaid decision affects researchers at state universities, and how those researchers may avoid liability under existing law. It first concludes that researchers at state universities might still be subject to injunctions against future infringement. The Article next observes that individual researchers at state universities might also face personal liability for damages, but then suggests that researchers at state universities should be entitled to assert qualified immunity when they are accused of patent or copyright infringement, and thereby potentially avoid liability. It then provides a framework for applying this qualified immunity, proposing that courts should grant researchers at state universities qualified immunity when their conduct does not violate a clearly established right of the patentee or copyright holder. Whether such a violation has occurred should be analyzed in much the same way that willful infringement is analyzed. Going beyond existing law, this article proposes a counterthrust against the current trend towards diminishing the public domain, in the form of legislation granting researchers at state universities absolute immunity from liability for patent and copyright infringement. Such a grant of immunity would create in state universities a space for exploring and developing new innovations that would otherwise be blocked by the presence of intellectual property protection—a particularly acute problem in some areas, where a veritable patent thicket would necessitate that any researcher desiring to work in those areas license a prohibitive number of patents from a variety of patentees. Thus freed from concerns over patent infringement, researchers at state universities could continue their work for the benefit of the citizens of their states and the public, in keeping with the mission of state universities

A tela em limites: projeções sobre a superfície urbana

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso apresentado ao Instituto Latino-Americano de Arte, Cultura e História da Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana, como requisito parcial à obtenção do título de Bacharel em Cinema e Audiovisual. Orientador: Fabio Allan Mendes RamalhoNestas últimas décadas, houve um crescente avanço tecnológico digital em diversas áreas do ramo, gerou-se assim um barateamento considerável em equipamentos eletrônicos, principalmente em relação ao audiovisual. Esse baixo custo bem como as inovações tecnológicas, fizeram com que o audiovisual pudesse alcançar outros modos de exibição, e desta maneira, abrindo um leque de possibilidades para diferentes jeitos de se fazer arte com as imagens, com o vídeo e com o áudio. O VJ é um desses artistas desta nova safra, que se utiliza de diversas linguagens audiovisuais e traz consigo um apanhado de novas representações artísticas tanto visuais quanto sonoras, como é o caso do VJing e projeções mapeadas por exemplo. Esta pesquisa faz questão de apresentar esse universo do audiovisual, proporcionando assim uma maior visibilidade à algumas performances pouco conhecidas pelo público em geral. Deste modo, foi escolhido dentre tantos artistas audiovisuais contemporâneo, o duo VJ Suave, sua performance Suaveciclo e seu curta-metragem Homeless, para poder contextualizar esses novos meios audiovisuais contemporâneos de se fazer arte.En estas últimas décadas, hubo un creciente avance tecnológico digital en diversas áreas del campo, se generó así un abaratamiento considerable en equipos electrónicos, principalmente con relación al audiovisual. Este bajo costo, así como las innovaciones tecnológicas, hicieron que el audiovisual pudiera alcanzar otros modos de exhibición, y de esta manera, se abrió un abanico de posibilidades para diferentes maneras de hacer arte con las imágenes, con el vídeo y con el audio. El VJ es uno de esos artistas de esta nueva generación, que utiliza diversos lenguajes audiovisuales y trae consigo un repertorio de nuevas representaciones artísticas tanto visuales como sonoras, como es el caso del VJing y proyecciones mapeadas por ejemplo. Esta investigación hace cuestión de presentar ese universo del audiovisual, proporcionando así una mayor visibilidad a algunas performances poco conocidas por el público en general. De este modo, fue elegido entre tantos artistas audiovisuales contemporáneos, el dúo VJ Suave, su performance Suaveciclo y su cortometraje Homeless, para poder contextualizar esos nuevos medios audiovisuales contemporáneos de hacerse art

Control of hyperglycaemia in paediatric intensive care (CHiP): study protocol.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that tight blood glucose (BG) control improves outcomes in critically ill adults. Children show similar hyperglycaemic responses to surgery or critical illness. However it is not known whether tight control will benefit children given maturational differences and different disease spectrum. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is an randomised open trial with two parallel groups to assess whether, for children undergoing intensive care in the UK aged <or= 16 years who are ventilated, have an arterial line in-situ and are receiving vasoactive support following injury, major surgery or in association with critical illness in whom it is anticipated such treatment will be required to continue for at least 12 hours, tight control will increase the numbers of days alive and free of mechanical ventilation at 30 days, and lead to improvement in a range of complications associated with intensive care treatment and be cost effective. Children in the tight control group will receive insulin by intravenous infusion titrated to maintain BG between 4 and 7.0 mmol/l. Children in the control group will be treated according to a standard current approach to BG management. Children will be followed up to determine vital status and healthcare resources usage between discharge and 12 months post-randomisation. Information regarding overall health status, global neurological outcome, attention and behavioural status will be sought from a subgroup with traumatic brain injury (TBI). A difference of 2 days in the number of ventilator-free days within the first 30 days post-randomisation is considered clinically important. Conservatively assuming a standard deviation of a week across both trial arms, a type I error of 1% (2-sided test), and allowing for non-compliance, a total sample size of 1000 patients would have 90% power to detect this difference. To detect effect differences between cardiac and non-cardiac patients, a target sample size of 1500 is required. An economic evaluation will assess whether the costs of achieving tight BG control are justified by subsequent reductions in hospitalisation costs. DISCUSSION: The relevance of tight glycaemic control in this population needs to be assessed formally before being accepted into standard practice

A revision of Stenopterygius (Ichthyosauria: Thunnosauria) in Italian museum collections

Natural history museum collections are invaluable resources for scientific research, providing material for many fields, and notably for palaeontology. Over the last two centuries, many relevant vertebrate fossils have been discovered, gathered, and traded all over Europe, sometimes without being subsequently published or described. This is also the case for ichthyosaur fossils of the genus Stenopterygius, a high number of which were found in near Holzmaden (SW Germany), in lower Toarcian rocks of the Posidonia Shale Formation. From the mid-19th century onwards, these fossils made their way into palaeontological collections all over the world, including Italian museums. Stenopterygius is one of the most studied ichthyosaur taxa in literature. Research on Stenopterygius ranges from its trophic niche to ontogenesis, biological responses to environmental stress and soft tissue histology (from cells structures to skin pigmentation). Even though the role of Stenopterygius as a model organism for marine vertebrate palaeontology is well established, difficulties nonetheless exist regarding the taxonomy and systematics of this genus, with four valid species being currently differentiated using a linear morphometric approach. Here, we provide new data on 19 Stenopterygius specimens from five Italian museum collections: Pisa, Milano, Napoli, Padova and Bologna. Out of these specimens, four belong to S. triscissus (a relatively rare species), and ten are juveniles (an underrepresented ontogenetic group). Additionally, CT scans were performed on two historical Stenopterygius specimens stored at the Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Pisa, providing images of skeletal parts that are still embedded in rock, which may prove crucial for the species-level identification, as well as for detecting the presence of associated macrofaun

TRPM2 channel deficiency prevents delayed cytosolic Zn²⁺ accumulation and CA1 pyramidal neuronal death after transient global ischemia

Transient ischemia is a leading cause of cognitive dysfunction. Postischemic ROS generation and an increase in the cytosolic Zn²⁺ level ([Zn²⁺]c) are critical in delayed CA1 pyramidal neuronal death, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Here we investigated the role of ROS-sensitive TRPM2 (transient receptor potential melastatin-related 2) channel. Using in vivo and in vitro models of ischemia-reperfusion, we showed that genetic knockout of TRPM2 strongly prohibited the delayed increase in the [Zn²⁺]c, ROS generation, CA1 pyramidal neuronal death and postischemic memory impairment. Time-lapse imaging revealed that TRPM2 deficiency had no effect on the ischemia-induced increase in the [Zn²⁺]c but abolished the cytosolic Zn²⁺ accumulation during reperfusion as well as ROS-elicited increases in the [Zn²⁺]c. These results provide the first evidence to show a critical role for TRPM2 channel activation during reperfusion in the delayed increase in the [Zn²⁺]c and CA1 pyramidal neuronal death and identify TRPM2 as a key molecule signaling ROS generation to postischemic brain injury

Neuroprotective Actions of Estradiol and Novel Estrogen Analogs in Ischemia: Translational Implications

This review highlights our investigations into the neuroprotective efficacy of estradiol and other estrogenic agents in a clinically relevant animal model of transient global ischemia, which causes selective, delayed death of hippocampal CA1 neurons and associated cognitive deficits. We find that estradiol rescues a significant number of CA1 pyramidal neurons that would otherwise die in response to global ischemia, and this is true when hormone is provided as a long-term pretreatment at physiological doses or as an acute treatment at the time of reperfusion. In addition to enhancing neuronal survival, both forms of estradiol treatment induce measurable cognitive benefit in young animals. Moreover, estradiol and estrogen analogs that do not bind classical nuclear estrogen receptors retain their neuroprotective efficacy in middle-aged females deprived of ovarian hormones for a prolonged duration (8 weeks). Thus, non-feminizing estrogens may represent a new therapeutic approach for treating the neuronal damage associated with global ischemia

Insulin administration protects from paraplegia in the rat aortic occlusion model

The effect of insulin induced hypoglycemia was evaluated in a rat aortic occlusion model of ischemic paraplegia. One hour before aortic occlusion, 200-250 g Sprague-Dawley rats received either 1 cc of saline or 0.5 units regular insulin in 1 cc saline. Rats were then anesthetized, intubated, and ventilated with halothane (1-1.5%). The aortic arch was exposed and snares were placed on the right and left subclavian arteries and the aorta distal to the left subclavian. The three vessels were occluded for 10 min. Lower extremity neurologic deficit was evaluated at 1, 4, 18, and 24 hr postocclusion based on a 15-point scale (0 = normal, 15 = severe deficit). Lower extremity neurologic deficit was significantly decreased in the insulin-treated group at 18 and 24 hr postocclusion (P = 0.005 and 0.006, respectively, Student's t test). Blood glucose concentration was significantly lower at the time of occlusion in the insulin-treated group when compared to the saline-treated group (P = 0.001). We conclude that in this rat model of paraplegia, insulin induced hypoglycemia is associated with a reduction in lower extremity neurologic deficit produced by temporary aortic occlusion.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27360/1/0000385.pd