A new method to restore the water quality level through the use of electric boats

In recent years, sustainability has become a focal point in the city development policies leading to the definition of smart city paradigm. A smart city paradigm was conceived with the aim to integrate technology development with different functions/component like sustainable mobility, energy management and water quality. In this paper we propose a novel water sanitization method based on the combination of the classical bioremediation approach with the use of electric boat. The proposed boat must be equipped with echo sounding, G.P.S. sensor and suitable injector. Furthermore it is provided of medium size energy storage systems and power generation from renewable source in order to ensure a completely environmentally friendly mode of operation. The use of this vessel allows to reduce the operating cost of sanitization procedure and permit to integrate a technique for the improvement of the quality of the water in the contest of the Smart City. In fact the proposed boat can interact with the energy management strategy of the city and can participate to vehicle grid policies. A preliminary implementation of the proposed sanitization procedure have been realized at the Rome EUR pond sited in the south area of city. Suitable microorganisms were distributed on three equally spaced points of the basin by meas of a prototype electric boat. The same points were used to monitor the some parameters used to validate the proposed strategy. Obtained results show that the quality of water has been restored to the optimal value after the treatment of bioremediation

Rapid Number Naming and Quantitative Eye Movements May Reflect Contact Sport Exposure in a Collegiate Ice Hockey Cohort

The King-Devick (K-D) test of rapid number naming is a reliable visual performance measure that is a sensitive sideline indicator of concussion when time scores worsen (lengthen) from preseason baseline. Within cohorts of youth athletes <18 years old, baseline K-D times become faster with increasing age. We determined the relation of rapid number-naming time scores on the K-D test to electronic measurements of saccade performance during preseason baseline assessments in a collegiate ice hockey team cohort. Within this group of young adult athletes, we also sought to examine the potential role for player age in determining baseline scores. Athletes from a collegiate ice hockey team received preseason baseline testing as part of an ongoing study of rapid rink-side performance measures for concussion. These included the K-D test (spiral-bound cards and tablet computer versions). Participants also performed a laboratory-based version of the K-D test with simultaneous infrared-based video-oculographic recordings using an EyeLink 1000+. This allowed measurement of the temporal and spatial characteristics of eye movements, including saccadic velocity, duration, and intersaccadic interval (ISI). Among 13 male athletes, aged 18-23 years (mean 20.5 ± 1.6 years), prolongation of the ISI (a combined measure of saccade latency and fixation duration) was the measure most associated with slower baseline time scores for the EyeLink-paired K-D (mean 38.2 ± 6.2 seconds, r = 0.88 [95% CI 0.63-0.96], P = 0.0001), the K-D spiral-bound cards (36.6 ± 5.9 seconds, r = 0.60 [95% CI 0.08-0.87], P = 0.03), and K-D computerized tablet version (39.1 ± 5.4 seconds, r = 0.79 [95% CI 0.42-0.93], P = 0.001). In this cohort, older age was a predictor of longer (worse) K-D baseline time performance (age vs EyeLink-paired K-D: r = 0.70 [95% CI 0.24-0.90], P = 0.008; age vs K-D spiral-bound cards: r = 0.57 [95% CI 0.03-0.85], P = 0.04; age vs K-D tablet version: r = 0.59 [95% CI 0.06-0.86], P = 0.03) as well as prolonged ISI (r = 0.62 [95% CI 0.11-0.87], P = 0.02). Slower baseline K-D times were not associated with greater numbers of reported prior concussions. Rapid number-naming performance using the K-D at preseason baseline in this small cohort of collegiate ice hockey players is best correlated with ISI among eye movement-recording measures. Baseline K-D scores notably worsened with increasing age, but not with numbers of prior concussions in this small cohort. While these findings require further investigation by larger studies of contact and noncontact sports athletes, they suggest that duration of contact sports exposure may influence preseason test performance