Acoustic waveguide filters made up of rigid stacked materials with elastic joints

Meccanica - The acoustic dispersion properties of monodimensional waveguide filters can be assessed by means of the simple prototypical mechanical system made of an infinite stack of periodic...     

Nonlinear wave propagation in locally dissipative metamaterials via Hamiltonian perturbation approach

Nonlinear Dynamics - The cellular microstructure of periodic architected materials can be enriched by local intracellular mechanisms providing innovative distributed functionalities. Specifically,...     

Quantification of glycoalkaloids in tomato plants by time-resolved fluorescence using a europium chelator entrapped in liposomes

In the control of tomato transgenic cultivars it is important to determine the glycoalkaloid content, which requires the screening of many samples. We have developed a simple method for the extraction and determination of glycoalkaloids in the leaf and fruit extracts of tomatoes using a europium chelator entrapped in phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol containing liposomes. The concentration values were quantified from liposome lysis effected by glycoalkaloid action. The fluorescent signal is linear between 1 and 10 micrograms of tomatine, which makes the method useful for the analysis of tomato samples.     

Second-gradient homogenized model for wave propagation in heterogeneous periodic media

The paper is focused on a homogenization procedure for the analysis of wave propagation in materials with periodic microstructure. By a reformulation of the variational-asymptotic homogenization technique recently proposed by Bacigalupo and Gambarotta (2012a), a second-gradient continuum model is derived, which provides a sufficiently accurate approximation of the lowest (acoustic) branch of the dispersion curves obtained by the Floquet–Bloch theory and may be a useful tool for the wave propagation analysis in bounded domains. The multi-scale kinematics is described through micro-fluctuation functions of the displacement field, which are derived by the solution of a recurrent sequence of cell BVPs and obtained as the superposition of a static and dynamic contribution. The latters are proportional to the even powers of the phase velocity and consequently the micro-fluctuation functions also depend on the direction of propagation. Therefore, both the higher order elastic moduli and the inertial terms result to depend by the dynamic correctors. This approach is applied to the study of wave propagation in layered bi-materials with orthotropic phases, having an axis of orthotropy parallel to the direction of layering, in which case, the overall elastic and inertial constants can be determined analytically. The reliability of the proposed procedure is analysed by comparing the obtained dispersion functions with those derived by the Floquet–Bloch theory.     

Time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay for quantitative determination of ampicillin in cow milk samples with different fat contents

In this paper, we have reported an immunoassay with time-resolved revelation system for ampicillin in raw milk samples. Immunological methods appear to be a promising approach in the analysis of β-lactam compounds, because they do not need previous sample pre-treatments. In fact, β-lactam ring is not very stable in extensive sample pre-treatment procedures requested in conventional analytical techniques. Specimens were collected from lactating cows bred in various conditions and assayed for the fat contents. Ampicillin was assayed in samples with different fat concentrations. The assay was performed using ampicillin-specific polyclonal antibody raised in rabbit; the immunogen was synthesized using bovine thyroglobulin conjugated to ampicillin by glutaraldehyde reaction; as fluorescent marker we used goat anti-rabbit IgG conjugated with a chelating molecule complexed with Eu³⁺. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugated with ampicillin was synthesized and used to prepare a solid phase on polystyrene microtiter plates. The use of a lanthanide chelate as label allowed to achieve 1 ng mL⁻¹ sensitivity, which is four times more sensitive than limits requested from European Community. Fat contents did not affect the assay performance.     

Second-order homogenization of periodic materials based on asymptotic approximation of the strain energy: formulation and validity limits

In this paper a second-order homogenization approach for periodic material is derived from an appropriate representation of the down-scaling that correlates the micro-displacement field to the macro-displacement field and the macro-strain tensors involving unknown perturbation functions. These functions take into account of the effects of the heterogeneities and are obtained by the solution of properly defined recursive cell problems. Moreover, the perturbation functions and therefore the micro-displacement fields result to be sufficiently regular to guarantee the anti-periodicity of the traction on the periodic unit cell. A generalization of the macro-homogeneity condition is obtained through an asymptotic expansion of the mean strain energy at the micro-scale in terms of the microstructural characteristic size ?; the obtained overall elastic moduli result to be not affected by the choice of periodic cell. The coupling between the macro- and micro-stress tensor in the periodic cell is deduced from an application of the generalised macro-homogeneity condition applied to a representative portion of the heterogeneous material (cluster of periodic cell). The correlation between the proposed asymptotic homogenization approach and the computational second-order homogenization methods (which are based on the so called quadratic ansätze) is obtained through an approximation of the macro-displacement field based on a second-order Taylor expansion. The form of the overall elastic moduli obtained through the two homogenization approaches, here proposed, is analyzed and the differences are highlighted. An evaluation of the developed method in comparison with other recently proposed in literature is carried out in the example where a three-phase orthotropic material is considered. The characteristic lengths of the second-order equivalent continuum are obtained by both the asymptotic and the computational procedures here analyzed. The reliability of the proposed approach is evaluated for the case of shear and extensional deformation of the considered two-dimensional infinite elastic medium subjected to periodic body forces; the results from the second-order model are compared with those of the heterogeneous continuum.     

Development of a time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay for phthalate esters in water

Summary An antigenic derivative of dimethylphthalate has been synthesized and used to raise an antibody that selectively recognizes o-phthalate esters. With this antibody we have standardized a direct time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay for these esters in water. Its sensitivity is 0.5 pmol/ml.     

Antibodies conjugated with new highly luminescent Eu and Tb chelates as markers for time resolved immunoassays. Application to simultaneous determination of clenbuterol and free cortisol in horse urine

Highly luminescent Eu³⁺ and Tb³⁺ complexes of 10-[4-(3-isothiocyanatopropoxy)benzoylmethyl]-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7 triacetic acid Eu³⁺ ⊂ 1 and Tb³⁺ ⊂ 1 were conjugated with a goat anti-rabbit IgG and a rabbit anti-mouse IgG, respectively, and applied as markers in a time resolved immunoassay for simultaneous quantitative determination of anabolic compounds clenbuterol (CL) and hydrocortisone (HC). The assay was performed in horse urine, using a monoclonal antibody specific to CL and a rabbit polyclonal antibody specific to the free HC. These lanthanide chelates are very stable and highly luminescent in aqueous solution and allowed to reach 10 μg L⁻¹ and 40 μg L⁻¹ sensitivities for CL and for HC, respectively. Application to the horse urine, that is a very complex matrix, has a considerable interest in the control of illegal use of these compounds.