Shape factors of cylindrical permeameters

Silvestri, Vincenzo,Samra, Ghassan Abou,Bravo-Jonard, Christian Techno-Press 2011 Geomechanics & engineering Vol.3 No.1

This paper presents an analytical solution for steady state flow into a close-ended cylindrical permeameter. The soil medium is considered to be uniform, isotropic, and of infinite thickness. Laplace equation is solved by considering rotational symmetry and by using curvilinear coordinates obtained from conformal mapping. The deduced shape factors, which are compared to approximate relationships obtained from both numerical and physical modelling, and idealizations involving ellipsoidal cavities, are proposed for use in field measurements. It is shown that some of the shape factors obtained are significantly different from published values and show a much higher dependence of the rate of flow on the aspect ratio, than deduced from approximate solutions.

A note on Hvorslev's shape factor for a flush bottom piezometer in uniform soil

Silvestri, Vincenzo,Bravo-Jonard, Christian,Abou-Samra, Ghassan Techno-Press 2011 Geomechanics & engineering Vol.3 No.2

This note presents an analytical solution for the determination of the shape factor of a flush bottom piezometer in a uniform, isotropic, and incompressible deep soil deposit. The deduced shape factor is compared to published values obtained by approximate methods. Depending on the selected value, the difference may reach 11%.

Analytical solution of stress-strain relationship of modified Cam clay in undrained shear

Silvestri, Vincenzo,Abou-Samra, Ghassan Techno-Press 2009 Geomechanics & engineering Vol.1 No.4

The modified Cam clay (MCC) model is used to study the response of virgin compressed clay in undrained compression. The MCC deviatoric stress-strain relationship is obtained in closed form. Elastic and plastic deviatoric strains are taken into account in the analysis. For the determination of the elastic strain components, both a variable shear modulus and constant shear modulus are considered. Constitutive relationships are applied to the well-known London and Weald clays sheared in undrained compression.

Analytical solution for undrained plane strain expansion of a cylindrical cavity in modified cam clay

Silvestri, Vincenzo,Abou-Samra, Ghassan Techno-Press 2012 Geomechanics & engineering Vol.4 No.1

This paper presents the results of analytical and numerical analyses of the effects of performing a pressuremeter test or driving a pile in clay. The geometry of the problem has been simplified by the assumptions of plane strain and axial symmetry. Pressuremeter testing or installation of driven piles has been modelled as an undrained expansion of a cylindrical cavity. Stresses, pore water pressures, and deformations are found by assuming that the clay behaves like normally consolidated modified Cam clay. Closed-form solutions are obtained which allow the determination of the principal effective stresses and the strains around the cavity. The analysis which indicates that the intermediate principal stress at critical state is not equal to the mean of the other two principal stresses, except when the clay is initially isotropically consolidated, also permits finding the limit expansion and excess pore water pressures by means of the Almansi finite strain approach. Results are compared with published data which were determined using finite element and finite difference methods.

Inserting the mass proportional damping (MPD) system in a concrete shear-type structure

Silvestri, Stefano,Trombetti, Tomaso,Ceccoli, Claudio Techno-Press 2003 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.16 No.2

This paper presents an illustrative example of the advantages offered by inserting added viscous dampers into shear-type structures in accordance with a special scheme based upon the mass proportional damping (MPD) component of the Rayleigh viscous damping matrix. In previous works developed by the authors, it has been widely shown that, within the class of Rayleigh damped systems and under the "equal total cost" constraint, the MPD system provides best overall performance both in terms of minimising top-storey mean square response to a white noise stochastic input and maximising the weighted average of modal damping ratios. A numerical verification of the advantages offered by the application of MPD systems to a realistic structure is presented herein with reference to a 4-storey reinforced-concrete frame. The dynamic response of the frame subjected to both stochastic inputs and several recorded earthquake ground motions is here analysed in detail. The results confirm the good dissipative properties of MPD systems and indicate that this is achieved at the expense of relatively small damping forces.

Prediction of Breast and Prostate Cancer Risks in Male BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutation Carriers Using Polygenic Risk Scores

Lecarpentier, Julie,Silvestri, Valentina,Kuchenbaecker, Karoline B. American Society of Clinical Oncology 2017 Journal of clinical oncology Vol.35 No.20

<P>PurposeBRCA1/2 mutations increase the risk of breast and prostate cancer in men. Common genetic variants modify cancer risks for female carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations. We investigatedfor the first time to our knowledgeassociations of common genetic variants with breast and prostate cancer risks for male carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations and implications for cancer risk prediction.Materials and MethodsWe genotyped 1,802 male carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations from the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 by using the custom Illumina OncoArray. We investigated the combined effects of established breast and prostate cancer susceptibility variants on cancer risks for male carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations by constructing weighted polygenic risk scores (PRSs) using published effect estimates as weights.ResultsIn male carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations, PRS that was based on 88 female breast cancer susceptibility variants was associated with breast cancer risk (odds ratio per standard deviation of PRS, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.56; P = 8.6 x 10(-6)). Similarly, PRS that was based on 103 prostate cancer susceptibility variants was associated with prostate cancer risk (odds ratio per SD of PRS, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.35 to 1.81; P = 3.2 x 10(-9)). Large differences in absolute cancer risks were observed at the extremes of the PRS distribution. For example, prostate cancer risk by age 80 years at the 5th and 95th percentiles of the PRS varies from 7% to 26% for carriers of BRCA1 mutations and from 19% to 61% for carriers of BRCA2 mutations, respectively.ConclusionPRSs may provide informative cancer risk stratification for male carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations that might enable these men and their physicians to make informed decisions on the type and timing of breast and prostate cancer risk management.</P>

Inflammation Markers and FEF25-75: A Relevant Link in Children With Asthma

Maria Angela Tosca,Michela Silvestri,Nicoletta Solari,Giovanni Arturo Rossi,Giorgio Ciprandi 대한천식알레르기학회 2016 Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research Vol.8 No.1

Hepatitis B vaccination and immunotherapies: an update

Cristina Stasi,Caterina Silvestri,Fabio Voller 대한백신학회 2020 Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research Vol.9 No.1

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 257 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Highest HBV prevalence was found in the WHO Western Pacific Region (6.2%) and in the WHO African Region (6.1%). The HBV vaccine is the best protection against chronic HBV infection and its complications. Globally, routine infant immunization against HBV has increased with an estimated coverage of 84% in 2017. Nevertheless, in many countries further efforts are needed to implement this coverage and ensure national immunization programs for people at major risk for HBV infection. Therapeutic vaccination in chronic HBV infected patients can cause anti-HBV immune responses able to remove and/or cure infected hepatocytes. It shows promising results in murine model and human trials, but these results need to be consolidated by further multicenter clinical studies. In particular, the efficacy of therapeutic vaccine seems to improve by combination therapies.

Semantics-aware Obfuscation for Location Privacy

Maria Luisa Damiani,Claudio Silvestri,Elisa Bertino 한국정보과학회 2008 Journal of Computing Science and Engineering Vol.2 No.2

The increasing availability of personal location data pushed by the widespread use of location-sensing technologies raises concerns with respect to the safeguard of location privacy. To address such concerns location privacy-preserving techniques are being investigated. An important area of application for such techniques is represented by Location Based Services (LBS). Many privacy-preserving techniques designed for LBS are based on the idea of forwarding to the LBS provider obfuscated locations, namely position information at low spatial resolution, in place of actual users' positions. Obfuscation techniques are generally based on the use of geometric methods. In this paper, we argue that such methods can lead to the disclosure of sensitive location information and thus to privacy leaks. We thus propose a novel method which takes into account the semantic context in which users are located. The original contribution of the paper is the introduction of a comprehensive framework consisting of a semantic-aware obfuscation model, a novel algorithm for the generation of obfuscated spaces for which we report results from an experimental evaluation and a reference architecture.

Semantics-aware Obfuscation for Location Privacy

Damiani, Maria Luisa,Silvestri, Claudio,Bertino, Elisa Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Eng 2008 Journal of Computing Science and Engineering Vol.2 No.2

The increasing availability of personal location data pushed by the widespread use of location-sensing technologies raises concerns with respect to the safeguard of location privacy. To address such concerns location privacy-preserving techniques are being investigated. An important area of application for such techniques is represented by Location Based Services (LBS). Many privacy-preserving techniques designed for LBS are based on the idea of forwarding to the LBS provider obfuscated locations, namely position information at low spatial resolution, in place of actual users' positions. Obfuscation techniques are generally based on the use of geometric methods. In this paper, we argue that such methods can lead to the disclosure of sensitive location information and thus to privacy leaks. We thus propose a novel method which takes into account the semantic context in which users are located. The original contribution of the paper is the introduction of a comprehensive framework consisting of a semantic-aware obfuscation model, a novel algorithm for the generation of obfuscated spaces for which we report results from an experimental evaluation and reference architecture.