A new era of pollution requires an important focus on the conservation of archaeological sites and monuments. In the last years great efforts were required to develop various sensors for different tasks. The fiber Bragg grating (FBG) was one of the most studied thanks to the multitude of applications and the surprising performances. An original fiber optic sensor that combines the fiber Bragg gratings with a pH responsive polymer coating for monitoring the pH of the rains on critical and prestigious monuments is proposed. The core consists of four different materials, which makes the sensor very innovative and allowing it to reach a high sensitivity. In this study, the setup arrangement of the optical sensor is modeled with COMSOL Multiphysics (Wave Optics Module), based on the FEM (Finite Element Method) solver. Monitoring the pH of water can be used by experts to predict and control the corrosion phenomenon of specific materials, especially limestone and marble, thus scheduling the timely restoration.

An analysis of multiple scattering by two Perfect Electric Conducting (PEC) spheres using translation Addition Theorem (AT) for spherical vector wave functions is presented. Specifically, the Cruzan formalism is used to represent the AT for spherical harmonics, which introduces the translation coefficients for transformation of spherical harmonics from one coordinate to another. The adoption of these coefficients with the use of two PEC spheres in a near zone region makes the calculation of multiple scattering electric fields very efficient. As an illustration, the mathematical formation using advanced computational approaches was inspected. Then, the generic truncation criteria in the scattered electric field by two PEC spheres was deeply investigated using translation AT. However, the numerical validation was obtained using Comsol simulation software. This approach will allow to evaluate the scattering from macro-structures composed of spherical particles, i.e., biological molecules, clouds of airborne particles, etc. An original and fully general solution to the problem using vector quantities is introduced, and the convergence of the solution in several numerical examples is also demonstrated. This approach takes into account the effect of multiple scattering by two PEC spheres for spherical vector function.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, one of the main focuses worldwide has been to collect data on cases and deaths in the widest collaborative innovation to better understand the epidemic spread and keep its evolution under control. Under an “Open Innovation in Science” approach, researchers can contribute to producing new scientific knowledge on the features and, thus, the evolution of the epidemic, by which policymakers can have the tools to adopt optimal containment measures in order to maximize the economic growth and minimize the social impact. Little focus was given to identifying economic and socio-political factors that could drive the spreading of the coronavirus. In its initial stages, the spread of the virus seemed to follow specific paths without a clear explanation. The study aimed to analyze the relationships between mathematical factors obtained from the curves characterizing the COVID-19 spread during its first wave and economic and socio-political factors of the considered countries with an exploratory approach based on data available from different sources. The intent was to identify the elements affecting the contagion and, thus, the COVID-19 cases. Twenty factors for specific countries were selected. In MATLAB environment, a homemade software was used to obtain the mathematical factors, and statistical software was used to identify the potential correlations existing between the mathematical parameters and the economic and socio-political factors. Interesting relationships were found with economic factors such as economic growth forecast and health spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), just to cite a few, with the spread of the epidemic. This study shows that a better understanding of the link between the epidemic and the economic and socio-political factors of human society can be the key to forecast more accurately the evolution of the pandemic, and even to predict the progress of future insurgencies. Vulnerabilities and weaknesses of our societies could also have the opportunity to be addressed with the ultimate goal of improving the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of human society.

In this paper, a rigorous theoretical approach, adopted in order to generalize the Vectorial CylindricalHarmonics (VCH) expansion of an inhomogeneous elliptically polarized plane wave, is presented. An application of the VCH expansion to analyze electromagnetic field scattered by an infinite circular cylinder is presented. The results are obtained using the so-called complex-angle formalism reaching a superposition of Vectorial Cylindrical-Harmonics. To validate the method, a Matlab code was implemented. Also, the validity of the methodology was confirmed through some comparisons between the proposed method and the numerical results obtained based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) in the canonical scenario with a single cylinder.