Pollutant emissions in common-rail diesel engines in extraurban cycle: rapeseed oils vs diesel fuel

The new energy strategy of EU (i.e., Directive 2009/28/EC) requires increasing the use of biofuels in transports up to at least 10% of the total fuel consumption. In the last years, the share of Diesel engines in automotive applications reached about 55% in EU market, thus trying to widen the alternatives to Diesel fuel is very important. In this framework straight vegetable oils (SVO) can represent one of the available possibilities at least in some specific applications (i.e., public transportation, hybrid or marine propulsion, etc.). SVO properties may be very different form Diesel fuel, thus operating a Diesel engine with SVO might result in some problems, especially in automotive configuration where the electronic unit acts as if it is working with Diesel fuel. This reflects in possible engine power and torque reduction, maintenance problems, and pollutant emissions during vehicles running. The latter aspect is the focus of the present paper. In this work, we used a turbocharged, four stroke, four cylinders, water cooled, commonrail multijet Diesel engine in automotive configuration to simulate the extraurban cycle according to the EU standard, comparing pollutant emissions in case of SVO and gasoil fuelling

A logarithmic encoder for binary word compression

Logarithmic encoding procedure and error analysis for binary word compressio

Pluriactivity Decisions by Farm Households in Italy

In this article we test whether in Italy the off-farm participation decisions of household members in working age are taken jointly and what are the variables that affect them. We find that the decisions of the operator, the spouse and the eldest child are not joint. Conversely, the participation decision of the operator and the spouse, that is of the two household's members belonging to the same generation, are found to be joint. The results suggest that policy actions for the purpose of encouraging off-farm participation rely on measures geared at improving the level of education and providing childcare services.off-farm work participation, multivariate probit, household models, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital, C35, J43, Q12,

Expertise as social institution : internalising third parties into the contract

Deutsche Fassung: Expertise als soziale Institution: Die Internalisierung Dritter in den Vertrag. In: Gert Brüggemeier (Hg.) Liber Amicorum Eike Schmidt. Müller, Heidelberg, 2005, 303-334

Stereotactic guidance for navigated percutaneous sacroiliac joint fusion.

Arthrodesis of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) for surgical treatment of SIJ dysfunction has regained interest among spine specialists. Current techniques described in the literature most often utilize intraoperative fluoroscopy to aid in implant placement; however, image guidance for SIJ fusion may allow for minimally invasive percutaneous instrumentation with more precise implant placement. In the following cases, we performed percutaneous stereotactic navigated sacroiliac instrumentation using O-arm® multidimensional surgical imaging with StealthStation® navigation (Medtronic, Inc. Minneapolis, MN). Patients were positioned prone and an image-guidance reference frame was placed contralateral to the surgical site. O-arm® integrated with StealthStation® allowed immediate auto-registration. The skin incision was planned with an image-guidance probe. An image-guided awl, drill and tap were utilized to choose a starting point and trajectory. Threaded titanium cage(s) packed with autograft and/or allograft were then placed. O-arm® image-guidance allowed for implant placement in the SIJ with a small skin incision. However, we could not track the cage depth position with our current system, and in one patient, the SIJ cage had to be revised secondary to the anterior breach of sacrum

David Andrews v. Robert Scuilli

USDC for the Western District of Pennsylvani

Do Caring Services Affect Off-Farm Work? Evidence from Italy

The article investigates the determinants of the off-farm work decision in Italian farm households, highlighting the role of caring services. Assuming that the household simultaneously decides over the optimal allocation of time of each of its members, a multivariate probit model is used to estimate the off-farm participation equations and to control for possible correlation among them. Evidence of correlation between spouse and descendant equations are found. Results suggest that policy actions geared at encouraging the off-farm participation of farm household members ought to enhance the availability and accessibility of caring services and increase the level of education of household members.Off-farm work participation, multivariate probit, household behavioural models, caring services, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics,

Performance analysis of a common-rail Diesel engine fuelled with different blends of waste cooking oil and gasoil

An experimental campaign was performed to study the behavior of a common-rail Diesel engine in automotive configuration when it is fuelled with blends of Diesel fuel (DF) and waste cooking oil (WCO). In particular the tested fuels are: B20 blend, composed of 20% WCO and 80% DF; B50, composed of 50% WCO and 50% DF; WCO 100% and 100% DF. In order to fuel the engine with fuel having a similar viscosity, this quantity, together with density, has been meas-ured at temperature ranging from rom to about 80 °C. According to these measurements, before fuelling the engine B20 was heated up to 35 °C and B50 to 75 °C. An in-house software was developed to acquire the data elaborated by the electronic control unit. Results show the trend in torque and global efficiency at different gas pedal position (gpp) and different engine speed. The experiments show that larger discrepancies are measured at smaller gpp values, while at larger ones dif-ferences become smaller. A similar trend is noticed for engine global efficiency

University-to-work transitions: the case of Perugia

The paper investigated on job transitions of graduates at the University of Perugia into the territory of the province of Perugia. In short, the paper has the following structure: after a review of the literature on university-to-work transition, original empirical results - adopting different statistical and econometric instruments - are presented and, finally, some policy implications are highlighted. University administrative information and data from the job centres of the province of Perugia are matched to reconstruct the timing of the university to job transitions of graduates at the University of Perugia since January 2004 to July 2009. Non-parametric Kaplan-Meier (KM) method and Cox proportional hazard model with competing risk are used, respectively, to estimate the survival functions and to determine the role of individual and studying characteristics in affecting the employment probabilities of graduates from a supply side point of view. Notwithstanding the paper is in a preliminary version, some key results are useful for deriving crucial considerations and policy implications.University-to-Work Transition, Perugia University and Province, Cox proportional hazard model.