Forecasting Parking Lots Availability: Analysis from a Real-World Deployment

Smart parking technologies are rapidly being deployed in cities and public/private places around the world for the sake of enabling users to know in real time the occupancy of parking lots and offer applications and services on top of that information. In this work, we detail a real-world deployment of a full-stack smart parking system based on industrial-grade components. We also propose innovative forecasting models (based on CNN-LSTM) to analyze and predict parking occupancy ahead of time. Experimental results show that our model can predict the number of available parking lots in a ±3% range with about 80% accuracy over the next 1-8 hours. Finally, we describe novel applications and services that can be developed given such forecasts and associated analysis

Effect of Iron Cocatalysts on the Palladium-Catalyzed Oxidative Carbonylation of Aniline

Isocyanates are key intermediates for the chemical industry, but their production is actually based on the use of toxic phosgene (path A in Figure 1). Among suitable alternatives, the reductive carbonylation of nitroarenes (Path B) and the oxidative carbonylation of amines (Path C) are the most investigated. Research in our group mostly focused on the reductive carbonylation of nitroarenes, but the connections we could identify between this reaction and the oxidative carbonylation of amines1 recently pushed us to investigate the latter reaction. The most active catalytic system reported to date is based on palladium catalysts with iodide as promoter.2 We decided to investigate this system in more detail and found some surprising results. The most important new findings are: 1) When the reaction is performed directly in a steel autoclave, the reported data are fully reproducible. However, if the reaction is performed in a glass liner or a Teflon lined autoclave, the activity of the catalytic system drops to about 1/3 of the original one or lesser. 2) One essential role of iodide is to etch some iron from the autoclave walls. The high activity can be restore even in a Teflon coated autoclave if small amounts of iron salts are added. 3) Iodide and iron have complex interactions and can even deactivate each other when their molar ratio falls within a certain range. 4) If iron is present, iodide is no longer necessary, but a halide (chloride) is anyway required. 5) The solvent is not completely innocent in the reaction. These and other trends will be discussed

Vino e Ambiente: sostenibilità e qualità primaria nel sottobacino Iudeo-Bucari (TP).

In questa raccolta di scritti, vengono riportati i risultati dell’attività di ricerca realizzata con la collaborazione della cantina UVAM e dell’Istituto Regionale Vino e Olio di Sicili

Palladium/iodide catalyzed oxidative carbonylation of aniline to diphenylurea: Effect of ppm amounts of iron salts

The palladium/iodide couple is the most investigated catalytic system for the oxidative carbonylation of amines to give ureas or carbamates. In reinvestigating it, we found that the most prominent role of iodide is to etch the stainless steel of the autoclave employed in most of previous works, releasing in solution small amounts of iron salts. The latter are much better promoters than iodide itself. Iron and iodide have a complex interplay and, depending on relative ratios, can even deactivate each other. The presence of a halide is beneficial, but chloride is better than iodide in this respect. The ideal Fe/Pd ratio is around 10, but even an equimolar amount of iron with respect to palladium (0.02 mol% with respect to aniline, corresponding to 12 ppm Fe with respect to the whole solution) is sufficient to boost the activity of the catalytic system. Such small amount may also come from Fe(CO)5 impurities present in the CO gas when stored in steel tanks. The role of the solvent has also been investigated. It was found that the reason for the better selectivity in some cases is at least in part due to a hydrolysis of the solvent itself, which removes the coproduced water

La risposta produttiva di alcuni vitigni nel sottobacino Iudeo - Bucari (TP).

Gli Autori dopo aver descritto le caratteristiche ambientali del sottobacino Iudeo Bucari e l’attività agricola prettamente legata alla vitivinicoltura, soffermano l’attenzione sulle potenzialità produttiva di questo territorio espressa da diversi vitigni. L'obiettivo è quello di trasferire su di una basecartografica il diverso comportamento produttivo dei vitigni più rappresentati nel sottobacino Iudeo - Bucari, con il fine ultimo di fornire un valido strumento agli agronomi liberi professionisti ed ai tecnici delle cantine al fine di indirizzare l’attività produttiva dei viticoltori e migliorare la gestione dei suoli del territorio

Le prove di vinificazione della cultivar grillo su tre vigneti sperimentali site nel sottobacino Iudeo - Bucari (TP).

Gli Autori, dopo aver descrittole caratteristiche ambientali del sottobacino Iudeo Bucari e l’attività agricola prevalentemente legataalla vitivinicoltura, descrivono alcune prove di vinificazione di uve Grillo provenienti da tre vignesite nel sottobacino Iudeo – Bucari gestite in modo ordinario, delle quali si è monitorata la maturazione delle uve. L'obiettivo è quello di caratterizzare il prodotto vino ottenuto attraverso una tecnica di vinificazione uniforme ed ordinaria nella zona, ma che mira a mettere in evidenza la diversa qualità tecnologica delle uve utilizzate espressione dicontesti eco-pedologici diversi

Nintedanib in NSCLC: Evidence to date and place in therapy

The treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is currently driven by the detection of targetable oncogenic drivers, i.e. epidermal growth factor receptor, echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4-anaplastic lymphoma kinase, etc. Those patients who are wildtype for known and valuable oncogenes can receive standard chemotherapy as first-line treatment, with the possibility of adding bevacizumab. With regard to second-line treatment, nintedanib can improve the efficacy of docetaxel. Nintedanib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting three angiogenesis-related transmembrane receptors. The usefulness of nintedanib as an anticancer agent for NSCLC has been proved by both preclinical and clinical phase I and II trials; however, its approval for the use in clinical practice has been possible because of the positive results of the LUME-Lung 1 trial (nintedanib + docetaxel versus docetaxel alone) in terms of progression-free survival and overall survival, and a manageable tolerability profile. Therefore, the good results seen in the clinical trials with nintedanib in the second-line setting for NSCLC patients with adenocarcinoma subtype are encouraging enough to recommend it in clinical practice