Mountain Water Management through Systemic Design: The Monviso Institute real-world laboratory

This research deals with the sustainable management of water resources in rural areas, through the study and design of integrated water systems in a mountain environment. The work promotes a new model of sustainable use and treatment of water in a real context, created to be experimented by the public, by the research centre and born from the need for the development of new environmental activism, based on conscience and awareness. Thinking across scales of space and governance, a scalable and replicable system is outlined, based on cooperation between local actors, addressing current tensions while thinking of long-term effects. The trans-disciplinary approach joins systemic projects from different fields, brought together to model a single cooperating system. We outline the regenerative water management model at the campus of the MonViso Institute, a real-world laboratory advancing sustainability and regenerative design in the Italian Alps, as an illustrative case for the design of regenerative water systems. The delineation of the project came to life thanks to a careful initial research phase, which clarified the identity of the chosen site and the local culture. These were the foundations for the design project of water systems on campus, applying the development of natural technologies, creation of connections and circularity as of reusing water and nutrient flows. The interaction between the components highlights the desired dependence between one and the other, which generates the value of the whole system

Effect of Circuit Geometry on Steady Flow Performance of an Automotive Turbocharger Compressor

Downsizing and turbocharging are today considered an effective way to reduce CO2 emissions in automotive gasoline engines. To this aim, a deep knowledge of turbocharger behavior could be a key solution to improve the engine-turbocharger matching calculation. The influence of the intake system geometry on the surge line position is an important aspect to guide the project of the intake manifold, enlarging the compressor stable zone. This aspect has a considerable impact on engine performance, especially during transient operation. A wide experimental investigation was carried out at the turbocharger test facility of the University of Genoa on a small turbocharger compressor. Compressor characteristic curves measured considering an automotive intake circuit are compared with standard maps provided by turbocharger\u2019s manufacturer. This information allows the optimization of 1D model implementing more realistic maps of compressor. The influence of three different layouts has been investigated varying overall circuit volume and length, keeping values in a range compatible with passenger cars packaging constraints. In the paper, the main results of the experimental campaign are presented taking into account the influence of geometry variations on compressor map and surge line position

Photocatalytic bacterial inactivation by TiO2-coated surfaces

The aim of this study was the evaluation of the photoactivated antibacterial activity of titanium dioxide (TiO(2))-coated surfaces. Bacterial inactivation was evaluated using TiO(2)-coated Petri dishes. The experimental conditions optimized with Petri dishes were used to test the antibacterial effect of TiO(2)-coated ceramic tiles. The best antibacterial effect with Petri dishes was observed at 180, 60, 30 and 20 min of exposure for Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas putida and Listeria innocua, respectively. The ceramic tiles demonstrated a photoactivated bactericidal effect at the same exposure time. In general, no differences were observed between the antibacterial effect obtained with Petri dishes and tiles. However, the photochemical activity of Petri dishes was greater than the activity of the tiles. Results obtained indicates that the TiO(2)-coated surfaces showed a photoactivated bactericidal effect with all bacteria tested highlighting that the titania could be used in the ceramic and building industry for the production of coated surfaces to be placed in microbiologically sensitive environments, such as the hospital and food industry

RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Navigation, Recognition and Manipulation

This paper proposes RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle able to autonomously navigate through, identify, and reach areas of interest; and there recognize, localize, and manipulate work tools to perform complex manipulation tasks. The proposed contribution includes a modular software architecture where each module solves specific sub-tasks and that can be easily enlarged to satisfy new requirements. Included indoor and outdoor tests demonstrate the capability of the proposed system to autonomously detect a target object (a panel) and precisely dock in front of it while avoiding obstacles. They show it can autonomously recognize and manipulate target work tools (i.e., wrenches and valve stems) to accomplish complex tasks (i.e., use a wrench to rotate a valve stem). A specific case study is described where the proposed modular architecture lets easy switch to a semi-teleoperated mode. The paper exhaustively describes description of both the hardware and software setup of RUR53, its performance when tests at the 2017 Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge, and the lessons we learned when participating at this competition, where we ranked third in the Gran Challenge in collaboration with the Czech Technical University in Prague, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Lincoln (UK).Comment: This article has been accepted for publication in Advanced Robotics, published by Taylor & Franci

Metabolomics: moving towards personalized medicine

In many fields of medicine there is a growing interest in characterizing diseases at molecular level with a view to developing an individually tailored therapeutic approach. Metabolomics is a novel area that promises to contribute significantly to the characterization of various disease phenotypes and to the identification of personal metabolic features that can predict response to therapies. Based on analytical platforms such as mass spectrometry or NMR-based spectroscopy, the metabolomic approach enables a comprehensive overview of the metabolites, leading to the characterization of the metabolic fingerprint of a given sample. These metabolic fingerprints can then be used to distinguish between different disease phenotypes and to predict a drug's effectiveness and/or toxicity