Optical sensing in microfluidic lab-on-a-chip by femtosecond-laser-written waveguides

We use direct femtosecond laser writing to integrate optical waveguides into a commercial fused silica capillary electrophoresis chip. High-quality waveguides crossing the microfluidic channels are fabricated and used to optically address, with high spatial selectivity, their content. Fluorescence from the optically excited volume is efficiently collected at a 90° angle by a high numerical aperture fiber, resulting in a highly compact and portable device. To test the platform we performed electrophoresis and detection of a 23-mer oligonucleotide plug. Our approach is quite powerful because it allows the integration of photonic functionalities, by simple post-processing, into commercial LOCs fabricated with standard techniques. Figure Femtosecond laser written waveguides can selectively excite fluorescence in a microfluidic channel of a commercial lab-on-a-chip. A compact scheme for on-chip detection by laser induced fluorescence is applied to capillary electrophoresis of a 23-mer Cy3-labeled oligonucleotide     

Two-dimensional lipid mixing entropy regulates the formation of multicomponent lipoplexes

The mechanism of formation of multicomponent lipoplexes was investigated by means of synchrotron Small-Angle X-ray Diffraction (SAXD). Mixed lipid dispersions were prepared by mixing different populations of binary cationic liposomes. When adding DNA to mixed lipid dispersions, multicomponent lipoplexes spontaneously formed exhibiting structural properties, i.e., membrane thickness, surface charge density, and one-dimensional DNA packing density, intermediate between those of binary lipoplexes. These results suggested that DNA lets liposomes come into contact and fuse and that a complete lipid mixing at the molecular level occurs. The equilibrium structure of multicomponent lipoplexes was found to be unique and did not depend on the number and kind of populations composing lipid dispersion but only on the lipid species involved and on their relative molar ratio. According to recent theoretical models we identified two-dimensional lipid mixing entropy as the key factor regulating the existence of only multicomponent lipoplexes with ideally mixed lipid species.     

Thermodynamic basis for viscoelastic and non-isothermal fracture mechanics

Stability criteria for crack propagation have been analysed which are based on the second law of thermodynamics. The isothermal case has been studied both for elastic and viscoelastic materials. The non-isothermal criteria have been considered with particular attention to a fast adiabatic loading process.The thermodynamic constitutive equations which are demanded and their relationships with the elastic energy have been analyzed.     

The propagation of the tide inside a lagoon

Summary Propagation of the tide in a lagoon is studied, taking into account expansion of the waves in the shallows, but otherwise utilizing the classic theory of first approximation. The time lag in propagation and the attenuation of the wave may thus be determined.

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Sommario Si studia la propagazione della marea in una laguna, tenendo conto della espansione delle onde sui bassifondi, ma per il resto, utilizzando la teoria classica di prima approssimazione. Si giunge così a determinare il ritardo nella propagazione e l'attenuazione dell'onda.

     

Upper bounds on dynamic deformations of elastoplastic continua

Summary Suitable measures of plastic and of total deflections developed over a time interval by an elastic-perfectly plastic continuous structure in the presence of significant inertia and viscous forces, is shown to be bounded from above by a quantity which can be evaluated merely on the basis of a linear-elastic dynamic analysis. The results achieved are extended to elastic-workhardening bodies under the assumption of piecewiselinear yield surfaces. The practical use of the present results is checked comparatively by a simple example.

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Sommario Si mostra come misure opportunamente definite delle deformazioni plastiche o totali che si sviluppano in un certo intervallo di tempo in un continuo perfettamente elastoplastico soggetto ad azioni dinamiche, siano delimitate superiormente da quantità valutabili attraverso un'analisi dinamica in campo elastico-lineare. I risultati ottenuti vengono estesi a materiali incrudenti, mediante linearizzazione a tratti della superficie di snervamento. La loro utilizzabilità pratica è illustrata da unsemplice esempio.

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Paper accepted for presentation at the Second Bulgarian Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Varna, 8–14 October 1973.     

Elastic-plastic dynamic behavior of a beam-column model

Summary An elastoplastic beam-column model with one degree of freedom subjected statically to an on-center or off-center axial compressive force is considered. Its dynamic behavior in the elastoplastic range, resulting from a transverse periodic acting force in resonance with the structure in the elastic range, is examined. The principal features are highlighted by a phase plane study.

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Sommario Si considera il modello a un grado di libertà di un'asta elastoplastica sollecitata staticamente da una forza assiale di compressione centrata o eccentrica. Si esamina il suo comportamento dinamico in campo elastoplastico per effetto di una forza trasversale periodica e in risonanza con la struttura in campo elastico, evidenziandone le principali caratteristiche attraverso lo studio nel piano delle fasi.

     

Quadratic programming and theory of elastic-perfectly plastic structures

Summary For elastic perfectly plastic discretized structures acted upon by given loads and dislocations, it is shown, under holonomic constitutive laws or no local unloading hypothesis, that the formulation of the analysis problem in terms of finite (not incremental) stresses, is amenable to the Kuhn-Tucker conditions of a quadratic program. Then it is readily derived a generalized form of the principle of Haar and Kármán, together with an extremum theorem for displacements and plastic strains, which is the dual of the preceding one. As special cases of this theorems known variational principles follow, which thus turn out to be related in pairs by the duality notion as understood in programming theory. Also the statical and kinematical theorems of limit analysis are proved by means of the unitary conceptual framework supplied by quadratic programming.

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Sommario Con riferimento a strutture discretizzate idealmente elastoplastiche, soggette a dati carichi e distorsioni, si mostra che nell'ipotesi di olonomia dei legami costitutivi o di assenza di ritorni elastici, la formulazione del problema strutturale negli sforzi finiti (non incrementali) è riducibile alle condizioni di Kuhn e Tucker di un programma quadratico. Se ne deducono direttamente una forma generalizzata del principio di Haar e Kármán ed un teorema di estremo negli spostamenti e nelle deformazioni plastiche, duale al precedente. Dai due teoremi discendono come casi speciali noti principi variazionali, che cosi risultano collegati in coppie dalla nozione di dualitá propria della teoria delle ottimizzazioni.Si mostra come anche i teoremi statico e cinematico del calcolo a rottura trovano una nuova dimostrazione nell'inquadramento teorico unitario fondato sulla programmazione quadratica.

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The results presented here form part of a series of studies supported by the C.N.R. (National Research Council).     

Constructal multi-scale structure of PCM-based heat sinks

This paper inquires the effectiveness of a PCM-based heat sink as a reliable solution to portable electronic devices. This sink is composed of a PCM with low thermal conductivity and fins to boost its conductivity. The optimization is subjected to fixed heat sink volume filled with PCM between vertical equidistant fins. New fins are installed in the unheated space existing in each enclosure which is not involved in thermal distribution from vertical fins to the PCM. Based on the same principle, new fins generations are augmented stepwise to the multi-scale structure. The steps of adding fins will continue up to the point that the objective function reaches its maximal value, i.e., maximizing the longest safe operation time without allowing the electronics to reach the critical temperature. The results indicate that in each length of the enclosure, the optimum volume fraction and the best fins distance values exist in which the heat sink performance becomes maximum, and adding more fins lowers the performance of the heat sink. Increasing the enclosure’s length by \(2^{n}\) does not change them. For an enclosure with constant length, the optimal number of steps for adding fins within the enclosure is a function of the fin thickness. The results indicate that increasing the thickness changes the optimal number of adding fins inside the enclosure (normally a decrease). As the fin thickness is lowered, there will be a higher effect by adding vertical fins in the enclosure. Numerical simulations cover the Rayleigh number range \(2\times 10^{5}\le \hbox {Ra}_{\mathrm{H}} \le 2.7\times 10^{8}\), where H is the heat sink height.