This paper presents the results of a physical and mechanical characterization of a volcanic ash collected during a recent eruptive episode of Mount Etna. The mineralogy and microstructure of the material are examined by means of X-ray diffractometry and electron scanning microscopy (SEM). Because of their lightweight, highly crushable and compressible nature, they are problematic from engineering and construction viewpoint. The laboratory testing programme consisted of standard drained and undrained triaxial compression tests, one-dimensional compression tests and direct shear tests. Herein, data which highlight particle damage during the one-dimensional compression are presented. Using a dynamic image analysis instrument (QicPic) the changes to particle size distribution and particle shape through breakage are investigated for samples with different initial densities to examine the effects of particle packing on their behaviour. The amount of breakage is quantified comparing the grain size distributions at the beginning and at the end of each test.

A new high capacity tensiometer (HCT) have been developed at the University of Napoli Federico II (UNINA) using a design similar to that of Ridley and Burland (1993). With respect to a first prototype developed at UNINA, the new HCT is designed to be submergible, to enhance the measurements of soil suction, to make easier the calibration in the negative water pressure range and to improve the time-response of the probe. The new HCT can be accurately calibrated either for positive value of water pressure (i.e., to act as standard pressure transducer) or for measurement of negative water pressures (i.e., to work as a tensiometer). A number of free evaporation tests and matric suction measurements against preconditioned soil samples are presented in the paper and discussed in order to highlight the performances of the HCT.

The seismic dilatometer (SDMT) is the combination of the standard flat dilatometer (DMT) with a seismic module for measuring the shear wave velocity VS, a basic input parameter for site seismic response analyses. This paper presents an overview of the SDMT equipment, test procedure and interpretation, as well as examples of SDMT results and related comments.

A review of solutions involving plasma optical spectroscopy applied to on-line welding quality monitoring is presented in this paper. After a brief introduction to welding processes and their requirements in terms of quality monitoring, different proposals for on-line monitoring will be addressed. The basics of welding monitoring via plasma spectroscopy in terms of light capture and hardware and processing requirements will be also introduced, and different approaches will be presented. Finally, a variety of examples regarding field trials in different sectors will be also discussed.

Globally asynchronous, locally synchronous (GALS) has become the standard model of computation (MoC) for designing distributed software systems. Essentially, distributed components are each internally synchronous, but operate in different clock domains and communicate with other components asynchronously. Advances in clock synchronization mechanisms, supported by the increasing availability of clock synchronization implementations, allow for establishing a common notion of time across distributed platforms. We therefore advocate for a synchronous model of computation for the distributed system as a whole, assuming synchronized clocks. The paper discusses such a MoC called Ptides (Programming Temporally Integrated Distributed Embedded Systems). A Ptides model explicitly describes platform independent time delays within and across distributed components.