Modelling smart drug release with functionally graded materials

Functionally graded materials (FGMs), possessing properties that vary smoothly from one region to another, have been receiving increasing attention in recent years, particularly in the aerospace, automotive and biomedical sectors. However, they have yet to reach their full potential. In this paper, we explore the potential of FGMs in the context of drug delivery, where the unique material characteristics offer the potential of finetuning drug-release for the desired application.

Prisma Noise Coefficients Estimation

The PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) hyperspectral satellite, launched by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) is presently operational on a global scale. The mission includes the hyperspectral imager PRISMA working in the 400-2500 nm spectral range with 234 bands and a panchromatic (PAN) camera (400-750 nm). In the context of this work, we intend to determine the two noise components (photon and thermal noise) and assess SNR with an image based approach.

Building a Realistic Simulation of theAtmospheric State in Radiative Transfer

The simulations for the inverse problem of radiative transfer, even if built with a correct Bayesian approach, do not represent the full source of errors present in the experimental data. We point out two categories of errors (atmospheric model errors and non-Gaussian instrumental errors due to the optics and hardware, that are not considered by standard methods. Moreover, we show cases taken from FORUM simulated radiances using an End to End simulator, where se show how the instrument reacts to a non homogeneousneous filed of view.

One-Dimensional Failure Modes for Bodies with Non-convex Plastic Energies

In this paper, a complete picture of the different plastic failure modes that can be predicted by the strain gradient plasticity model proposed in Del Piero et al. (J. Mech. Mater. Struct. 8:109-151, 2013) is drawn. The evolution problem of the elasto-plastic strain is formulated in Del Piero et al. (J. Mech. Mater. Struct. 8:109-151, 2013) as an incremental minimization problem acting on an energy functional which includes a local plastic term and a non-local gradient contribution.

Why diffusion-based preconditioning of Richards equation works: spectral analysis and computational experiments at very large scale.

We consider here a cell-centered finite difference approximation of the Richards equation in three dimensions, averaging for interface values the hydraulic conductivity, a highly nonlinear function, by arithmetic, upstream and harmonic means. The nonlinearities in the equation can lead to changes in soil conductivity over several orders of magnitude and discretizations with respect to space variables often produce stiff systems of differential equations.