Anna Santarsiero

Hygienic aspects related to burial

Burial grounds are generally provided by local authorities in cemeteries (subject to planning consent and to compliance with any considerations for environmental health). Their design has been submitted to studies of hydrogeological characteristics of soil with regard to its ability to purify wastewater coming from corpse decomposition, its ability to avoid the infiltration of pollutants in groundwater, and its ability to skeletonize buried corpses within the given times foreseen by the law in force. Greater environmental awareness has necessitated that new and existing burial grounds are assessed to determine the environmental load which they could release to soil or any downstream component. This problem arises in countries where there is a high density of built-up areas, a custom of disposing of the dead by burial, a lack of available spaces and suitable soils to designate as burial grounds. This paper reports some results from a study carried out on ground lands of Italy in order to revise articles 82 and 83 of the Decree No 285 of 1990 in force in relation to burial grounds. Soil permeability to water and air is a parameter of critical importance in relation to purification and/or diffusion of leachates from inhumed corpses in the soil, and in relation to its influence on the time necessary to completely skeletonize a human corpse.

Environmental and legislative aspects concerning existing and new cemetery planning

This study was carried out in order to revise the law in force in Italy (Decree no. 285 of 1990) in the field of cemeteries, funeral services and all that concerns disposal of human remains. Countries which have space limitation for existing cemeteries or difficulty finding new suitable areas for cemetery planning have to re-examine all the systems of disposal of human remains (cremation, burial by ground and by walled-graves) and all the parameters involved in the process of the bodies decomposition. In this paper, on the basis of data collected from some municipal cemeteries in Italy, the reasons that have led to current insufficient areas for burial are analyzed. It is a very difficult question to single out possible solutions because they involve technical parameters as well as a new way of considering the burial. In this paper some possible solutions to the problem of recovering burial sites are analyzed and some guidelines for the planning of municipal plan-cemeteries are outlined.

Mechanical qualification of collagen membranes used in dentistry

AIM The aim of this work is the qualification of commercially available collagen membranes in a comparative manner. The natural origin of collagen makes standardization difficult. Nevertheless, through dimensional and mechanical measures it is possible to mechanically qualify collagen membranes, and compare them. METHODS Three commercially available collagen membranes used in Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR) and in Guided Tissue Regeneration (GTR) techniques, namely Bio-Gide, Collprotect and Jason, were chosen for the comparison. Quasi-static (tensile tests) and time-dependent (stress relaxation test) mechanical tests together with a functional test (tear test) were done to determine the responses of collagen membranes under different loading conditions. RESULTS The tested membranes exhibited different behaviours, different deformability values and thickness, Jason being the thinnest and Bio-Gide the thickest. Similar differences were also observed in terms of surface density. DISCUSSION Even though clinical observations were not within the aim of this study, our findings indicate that a better understanding of the correlation between mechanical properties and thickness could lead to a more rational design and use of these membranes in the face of specific clinical cases.

Numerical Simulation of Laser Bending of Aluminum Foams

Laser forming of open-cell aluminum foams has been modeled by means of a 3D finite element model which is able to take into account the real foam geometry as well as the main process variables. A parametric procedure has been defined for the geometry construction and meshing, and the simulation run. In order to calibrate and validate numerical modeling, compression and flexure tests were performed on a closed-cell aluminum foam. The simulation of mechanical tests allowed a correct modeling of the aluminum alloy behavior under plastic deformation. The same material behavior was implemented in a complex thermo-mechanical model for laser bending simulation. The final model is able to predict the shape evolution during forming and the correlation between process variables and final bent angles.

Numerical Simulation of Laser Forming of Aluminum Sponges: Effect of Temperature and Heat Treatments

Laser forming ofopen-cell aluminum foams can be modeled by means of 3D thermo-mechanical models but the correct evaluation of the alloy material properties is a key-factor for obtaining good predictions. In order to increase the model predictability from a quantitative point of view, further information about the material behavior under laser exposure is necessary. In this study the effect of the temperature on the mechanical properties of a commercial aluminum sponge has been evaluated in terms of yielding stress and tangent modulus. Experimental tests have been performed by compression and used to infer mechanical properties by means of a 3D FE model. The same approach has been used also to evaluate the effect of a heat treatment of the sponge on the material behavior during forming. In conclusion numerical simulation of laser heating has been used to show the effect of the laser-material interaction on the final homogeneity of processed foams.

Air pollution/working activity correlation: a case study in a dental hospital

The paper deals with a multidimensional approach demonstrating a direct link between the entity of ongoing dentistry activity (number and kind of interventions) and specific pollution components. Simultaneously indoor/outdoor air concentrations of a set of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and activity variables, describing the amount and nature of ongoing dentistry activities, were monitored over a year at a dental hospital located in an urban area. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to single out mutually orthogonal pollution components which were then correlated to “pathology” factors arising from the analysis of dentistry activity indexes. The use of a multidimensional perspective allowed us to obtain a statistically significant model of the link between level of pollution and dentistry activity. In particular, the correlation approach linking pollution results to pathological variables allows us to establish a causative link even in the presence of sub-threshold concentrations of pollutants.