Application of Rapid Serologic Tests for Detection of Mycobacterium bovis Infection in Free-Ranging Warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus)—Implications for Antemortem Disease Screening

Warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) have been implicated as potential maintenance hosts of Mycobacterium bovis. Our preliminary investigation of bovine tuberculosis in three warthogs describes pathologic findings and associated positive serologic results in two infected animals. This demonstrates the potential use of serodiagnostic tests for M. bovis infection in this species.

Data World Does Not Lack Standards

File Naming in Digital Media Research: Examples from the Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper identifies organizational challenges faced by Social Science and Humanities (SSH) scholars when dealing with digital data and media, and suggests improved file naming practices in order to maximize organization, making files easier to find, more useable, and more easily shared. We argue that such skills are not formally discussed in the literature and therefore many scholars do not recognize the problem until they cannot locate a specific file or are sharing files with colleagues. We asked SSH scholars to share their file naming strategies (or lack thereof ) and we use these narrative anecdotes to discuss common problems and suggest possible solutions for their general file naming needs.

A MESHLESS NEURAL NETWORK APPROACH FOR THE DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF ELASTIC SYSTEMS

. A meshless approach is presented for the computation of the approximated solution of static and dynamic problems in linear elasticity in terms of displacement fields. The displacement field is modeled by means of two different kinds of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). This task is accomplished by means of a meshless approach coupled to a net training based on the weak formulation of the differential problem, related to Hu-Washizu principle. A common benchmark, namely the Timoshenko cantilever beam, is analyzed and discussed in detail; several researches have shown that severe difficulties are encountered with the Galerkin and the collocation approach since the neural networks never satisfy essential boundary conditions (EBC): in the proposed meshless approach, the trial functions can be modified in order to satisfy EBC. A possibility to overcome such difficulty in elasticity is to employ an energy-based training, that is, to employ an approach (such as the Hu-Washizu functional) which can take into account EBC in the error function to be minimized. An example is given in one dimension, analyzing the deflection of a horizontal beam subject to transverse loads. The presented examples clearly show the importance of the optimization of the non-linear pa-rameters of the network, which control the shape and location of the activation functions. It is shown that such parameters can be optimized for a static problem and subsequently employed for a dynamic problem. The paper in fact aims to extend the results investigating the bench-mark problem in the dynamic field.

ON THE SEISMIC RISK OF MEDIEVAL ITALIAN MASONRY TOWERS

The paper, after a brief discussion of the methodologies of the research project RiSEM (Seismic Risk of Monumental Buildings), a research project started in 2011 and concluded at the end of 2013, discusses on the seismic assessment of historic masonry towers according to the Italian "Guidelines for the assessment and mitigation of the seismic risk of the cultural heritage". The RiSEM project aimed at developing and testing innovative and expeditious methodologies (i.e. without direct contact with the masonry building) to evaluate all the main structural features of the monumental buildings that are required for the assessment of their seismic safety. As a relevant case study the historic towers of the city of San Gimignano (Italy) in the UNESCO list of the World Cultural Heritage was selected, and the paper summarizes the analyses and the results obtained on three of the analysed towers. The Italian Guidelines identify a methodology of analysis based on three different levels of evaluation, according to an increasing path of knowledge (or requirement) of the structure, namely: LV1 (analysis at territorial level), LV2 (local analysis) and LV3 (global analysis). The paper, summarizing the results obtained for two of the above three levels, highlights a few issue concerning the seismic risk of historic masonry tower. Gianni Bartoli, Michele Betti and Silvia Monchetti

SEISMIC PROTECTION OF HEAVY NON-STRUCTURAL MONOLITHIC OBJECTS AT THE TOP OF A HISTORICAL MASONRY CONSTRUCTION THROUGH BASE ISOLATION

This contribution addresses the problem of earthquake protection of heavy nonstructural monolithic objects, which are usually placed at the top of historical masonry constructions for mainly decorative purposes like pinnacles, merlons, sculptures and heavy artwork. Such objects, when subjected to base accelerations due to seismic actions, may undergo rocking phenomena, which may eventually lead to the overturning of the whole body. In particular, the specific case of the seismic protection of ancient marble pinnacles placed at the top of a three-arched masonry city gate in Ferrara (ITALY) is illustrated. In a preliminary rocking analysis, the pinnacles have been idealized as rigid bodies in unilateral contact with the underlying moving base and the resulting rocking motion have been analyzed. The structural safety level of the pinnacles have thus been assessed. As a consequence of these considerations, a base isolation system designed around multiple double concave curved-surface steel sliders have been devised. The effectiveness of the proposed isolation system has been assessed through numerical simulations. The amplification effect of the ground acceleration due to the underlying three-arched structure has been established through time-history dynamic analyses, where masonry has been considered as a viscoelastic material. To this aim, an equivalent viscous damping coefficient has been calculated for masonry following an iterative procedure involving the computation of capacity curves for both inand out-of-plane load directions and the definition of simplified biand tri-linear inelastic load-displacement capacity curves for masonry panels.

D4V: a peer-to-peer architecture for data dissemination in smartphone-based vehicular applications

Vehicular data collection applications are emerging as an appealing technology to monitor urban areas, where a high concentration of connected vehicles with onboard sensors is a near future scenario. In this context, smartphones are, on one side, effective enablers of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) applications and, on the other side, highly sophisticated sensing platforms. In this paper, we introduce an effective and efficient system, denoted as D4V, to disseminate vehicle-related information and sensed data using smartphones as V2I devices. D4V relies on a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) overlay scheme, denoted as Distributed Geographic Table (DGT), which unifies the concepts of physical and virtual neighborhoods in a scalable and robust infrastructure for application-level services. First, we investigate the discovery procedure of the DGT overlay network, through analytical and simulation results. Then, we present and discuss an extensive simulation-based performance evaluation (considering relevant performance indicators) of the D4V system, in a 4G wireless communication scenario. The simulation methodology combines DEUS (an application-level simulation tool for the study of large-scale systems) with ns-3 (a well-known network simulator, which takes into account lower layers), in order to provide a D4V proof-of-concept. The observed results show that D4V-based information sharing among vehicles allows to significantly reduce risks and nuisances (e.g., due to road defects and congestions)

The atherosclerosis of the sinus node artery is associated with an increased history of supra-ventricular arrhythmias: a retrospective study on 541 standard coronary angiograms

Background. The ischemic damage of the sinus node (SN) is a well known cause of cardiac arrhythmias and can be a consequence of any flow abnormality in the sinus node artery (SNA). Accordingly we aimed this retrospective study to: (1) evaluate the suitability of the standard coronary angiography to study the SNA and (2) determine if the percentage of subjects with a positive retrospective history of supra-ventricular arrhythmias (SVA) differs in patients with normal and diseased SNA ascertained at the time of coronary angiography. Methods and Results. Out of the 541 coronary angiograms reviewed the SNA was visible for its entire course in 486 cases (89.8%). It was found to arise from the right side of the coronary circulation in 266 cases (54.7%) slightly more often than from the left, 219 cases (45.1%). One patient had 2 distinct SNA arising from either side of the coronary circulation. For the second objective, we studied the 333 patients with: (a) coronary artery disease (CAD), (b) properly evaluable SNA and (c) complete clinical history available. In 51 (15.3%) a SNA disease was found, 41.2% of them had a positive SVA history, mainly atrial fibrillation (AF), whereas only 7.4% of patients with a positive history of SVA could be found in the non-SNA diseased. This difference was statistically significant ( P < 0.001). Conclusions. (1) The evaluation of the SNA is feasible in clinical practice during a standard coronary angiography; (2) this may be relevant since angiographically detectable SNA disease was significantly associated with a positive history of SVA.

From the Editors

From the Editors