A framework for integrity assessment of multiscale energy infrastructures

The climate change phenomena represent a global issue that could significantly impact on world economic and social systems. During last decades, several international bodies and institutions (like the IPCC) developed scientific techniques to analyse the causes and effects of these phenomena, their evolution over time and possible future scenarios. According to these studies, in order to face climate change and air pollutant emissions issues several targets have been hypothesized and proposed. In particular, the ones related to the Paris Agreement (COP21) can be mentioned. These goals require, in the mid/long-term, significant changes in the structure of the energy systems at global level, aiming at achieving their substantial decarbonisation through the so-called “energy transition”. The implementation of this transition could be obtained by means of different pathways. In particular, two extreme options can be identified. On one side, a wide electrification of final uses, coupled with power generation from renewables and long-distance transmission through global interconnections. On the other, small-scale energy systems based on electricity, heat and gas produced by renewables sources, characterized by power generation from wind, solar photovoltaic and small hydro and with a relevant role played by storage systems. It can be expected that the future configuration of the global energy systems will be a mix of these extreme solutions. In every case, however, a crucial role will be played by the infrastructures for supplying, transmitting and distributing energy. For this reason, the integrity of these infrastructures – at all spatial levels (transnational gas and oil pipelines, maritime routes, power lines, district heating networks, etc.) – is a key factor for ensuring the long-term energy transition strategies. The integrity measures the capability of a given infrastructure to perform its function according to what is requested and to be properly managed from several points of view, including safety, environmental protection, maintainability, productivity, etc. Therefore, it is a concept more general than “security”, as it is multi-dimensional. Furthermore, the integrity is directly related to the development of infrastructures. The evolution of the current energy systems in the sense of the energy transition needs to plan the infrastructures architecture according to criteria that have to be not only technological, but also able to consider all the possible issues that can threat their integrity. In a long-term perspective, these issues should not be investigated through ex-post analyses, but they should be taken into account as much as possible in the design phase. Starting from this, the main goal of the doctoral project has been the identification of a multiscale approach for assessing the integrity of energy infrastructures. A two-dimensional scheme has been proposed, considering different spatial scales (energy corridors, transmission/distribution infrastructures, local networks) and kind of threats (natural, accidental, intentional) and assessing the impacts on the integrity dimensions (technological, geopolitical, environmental, economic) In particular, five case studies have been considered, covering all the considered spatial scales with respect to different integrity dimensions and threats. They focused on the geopolitical supply security, the resilience of distribution infrastructures, the effects of renewables penetration, the reliability of district heating networks and the impact of innovative vectors on the security. The obtained results showed that this multidimensional approach can be useful in defining guidelines for the integrity assessment and the development of energy infrastructure under a holistic perspective, in order to support the policy decision-making about strategical investments and their prioritization, planning, management, and identification and ranking of criticalities

Mishaps, errors, and cognitive experiences: on the conceptualization of perceptual illusions

Although a visual illusion is often viewed as an amusing trick, for the vision scientist it is a question that demands an answer, which leads to even more questioning. All researchers hold their own chain of questions, the links of which depend on the very theory they adhere to. Perceptual theories are devoted to answering questions concerning sensation and perception, but in doing so they shape concepts such as reality and representation, which necessarily affect the concept of illusion. Here we consider the macroscopic aspects of such concepts in vision sciences from three classic viewpoints—Ecological, Cognitive, Gestalt approaches—as we see this a starting point to understand in which terms illusions can become a tool in the hand of the neuroscientist. In fact, illusions can be effective tools in studying the brain in reference to perception and also to cognition in a much broader sense. A theoretical debate is, however, mandatory, in particular with regards to concepts such as veridicality and representation. Whether a perceptual outcome is considered as veridical or illusory (and, consequently, whether a class of phenomena should be classified as perceptual illusions or not) depends on the meaning of such concepts

Automatic Passenger Counting on the Edge via Unsupervised Clustering

We present a device- and network-based solution for automatic passnger counting that operates on the edge in real time. The proposed solution consists of a low-cost WiFi scanner device equipped with custom algorithms for dealing with MAC address randomization. Our low-cost scanner is able to capture and analyze 802.11 probe requests emitted by passengers' devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The device is configured with a Python data-processing pipeline that combines data coming from different types of sensors and processes them on the fly. For the analysis task, we have devised a lightweight version of the DBSCAN algorithm. Our software artifact is designed in a modular way in order to accommodate possible extensions of the pipeline, e.g., either additional filters or data sources. Furthermore, we exploit multi-threading and multi-processing for speeding up the entire computation. The proposed solution has been tested with different types of mobile devices, obtaining promising experimental results. In this paper, we present the key ingredients of our edge computing solution

Population status, distribution and trophic implications of Pinna nobilis along the South-eastern Italian coast

The dramatic Mass Mortality Event, MME, of Pinna nobilis populations initially detected in the western Mediterranean basin, has also spread rapidly to the central and eastern basin. Unfortunately, there is still a significant lack of information on the status and health of P. nobilis, since only a fragmentary picture of the mortality rate affecting these populations is available. Regarding the Italian coast, several surveys have given only localized or point-like views on the distribution of species and the effect of the MME. Therefore, for the first time, this study investigated P. nobilis density of individuals, distribution and mortality throughout 161 surveys along 800 km of coastline in the Apulia region (South-east of Italy). The geographical scale of this investigation made it the largest ever conducted in Italy, and this was achieved through a rapid and standardized protocol. During this monitoring campaign, 90 km of linear underwater transects were surveyed, along which no live individuals were observed. This result allowed to estimate that the P. nobilis populations had totally collapsed, with a mortality rate of 100% in Apulia. The distributional pattern of the species showed a strong overlap with seagrass meadows on meso- and macro-geographical scale, however this was not the case on a micro-scale. This result evidenced that relationships between P. nobilis and seagrass meadows are not limited to the habitat patch, but cross the boundaries of seagrass leading us to suggest that the distribution of P. nobilis hold a trophic link through the cross-boundary subsidy occurring from seagrass meadows to the nearby habitat, by means of the refractory detrital pathway

Assessing the role of variable renewables in energy transition: methodologies and tools

Due to the environmental impacts brought by current energy schemes, the energy transition, a new paradigm-shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, has been widely accepted and is being realized through collective international and local efforts. Electricity, as the most direct and effective use of renewable energy sources (RES), plays a key role in the energy transition. In this paper, we first discuss a viable pathway to energy transition through the electricity triangle, highlighting the role of RES in electricity generation. Further, we propose methodologies for the planning of wind and solar PV, as well as how to address their uncertainty in generation expansion problems. Finally, by using a web-based tool, “RES-PLAT” 1 , we demonstrate the scheme in a case study of the North Africa, which evaluates the impacts and benefits of a large-scale RES expansion

Coastal benthic habitat mapping and monitoring by integrating aerial and water surface low-cost drones

Accurate data on community structure is a priority issue in studying coastal habitats facing human pressures. The recent development of remote sensing tools has offered a ground-breaking way to collect ecological information at a very fine scale, especially using low-cost aerial photogrammetry. Although coastal mapping is carried out using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones), they can provide limited information regarding underwater benthic habitats. To achieve a precise characterisation of underwater habitat types and species assemblages, new imagery acquisition instruments become necessary to support accurate mapping programmes. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate an integrated approach based on Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetric acquisition using low-cost Unmanned Aerial (UAV) and Surface (USV) Vehicles to finely map shallow benthic communities, which determine the high complexity of coastal environments. The photogrammetric outputs, including both UAV-based high (sub-meter) and USV-based ultra-high (sub-centimetre) raster products such as orthophoto mosaics and Digital Surface Models (DSMs), were classified using Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) approach. The application of a supervised learning method based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) classification resulted in good overall classification accuracies > 70%, proving to be a practical and feasible tool for analysing both aerial and underwater ultra-high spatial resolution imagery. The detected seabed cover classes included above and below-water key coastal features of ecological interest such as seagrass beds, “banquettes” deposits and hard bottoms. Using USV-based imagery can considerably improve the identification of specific organisms with a critical role in benthic communities, such as photophilous macroalgal beds. We conclude that the integrated use of low-cost unmanned aerial and surface vehicles and GIS processing is an effective strategy for allowing fully remote detailed data on shallow water benthic communities

Resilience of Critical Infrastructures: A Risk Assessment Methodology for Energy Corridors

The need for scientific methodologies to assess quantitatively the resilience of critical infrastructures against natural hazards (like earthquakes, floods, storms, landslides and wildfires) during the last decade has become a relevant aspect for several countries and for the European Union. In fact, this quantification could allow setting and implementing effective measures to prevent or mitigate the negative socio-economic effects that a possible disruption of these infrastructures, caused by extreme natural events, could cause. This paper focuses, in particular, on energy corridors and proposes a new approach for evaluating their resilience, based on the definition of a criticality index able to estimate the economic damage associated to all the hazards by taking into account the spatial dimension of the infrastructure and by combining different interdependent parameters that could affect the criticality level. The procedure was tested by means of an application to a simplified case study. The obtained results highlighted the main advantages of the defined method, especially in ranking the critical sections of the infrastructure and prioritising the investments for reinforcing and protecting it or in identifying the further tests to be performed, especially in the case of a reassessment of the acceptable risk limit

LOW COST OPEN SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE TO ACQUIRE DATA ON AIRWAY SMOOTH MUSCLE CONTRACTILITY

The contractile properties of airway smooth muscle are clearly a fundamental determinant of airway caliber and responsiveness to both contractile and relaxant stimuli in normal or pathological conditions. To perform contractile measures on airway smooth muscle tissue it is necessary to continuosly acquire data from force trasducers with adeguate temporal precision and accuracy. We realized a simple low-cost device, based on arduino due and processing, two open products, to continously record airway smooth muscle tone. In this work we introduce this device and its use. Low-cost open software and hardware to acquire data on airway smooth muscle contractility.. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266850612_Low-cost_open_software_and_hardware_to_acquire_data_on_airway_smooth_muscle_contractilit