INTEROPERABILITY FOR MODELING AND SIMULATION IN MARITIME EXTENDED FRAMEWORK

This thesis reports on the most relevant researches performed during the years of the Ph.D. at the Genova University and within the Simulation Team. The researches have been performed according to M&S well known recognized standards. The studies performed on interoperable simulation cover all the environments of the Extended Maritime Framework, namely Sea Surface, Underwater, Air, Coast & Land, Space and Cyber Space. The applications cover both the civil and defence domain. The aim is to demonstrate the potential of M&S applications for the Extended Maritime Framework, applied to innovative unmanned vehicles as well as to traditional assets, human personnel included. A variety of techniques and methodology have been fruitfully applied in the researches, ranging from interoperable simulation, discrete event simulation, stochastic simulation, artificial intelligence, decision support system and even human behaviour modelling

A STRATEGIC SERIOUS GAME ADDRESSING SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Serious Games are currently extending their capabilities to strategic Education and Training by innovative approaches and new technological solutions. In this paper, the authors propose a new Serious Game devoted to address such aspects with special focus on System of Systems Engineering (SoSE). The proposed case uses a challenging framework related to the development of an innovative System of Systems for defense and homeland security that could be used by users to acquire the fundamental concepts of SoSE. The scenario allows to investigate alternative interoperable solutions among different platforms, sensors, infrastructures and doctrines respect evolving threats in relation to an air defense solution based on airborne radars

Digital Twin in Naval Environment

A naval vessel is usually engaged in demanding operations that take place in a multifaceted environment. This requires a solid design of the ship as a platform and a prompt decision-making response. To support both the design and operation phases, digital tools and techniques have been widely implemented, along with a significant number of sensors and probes installed onboard. All of these features pave the way for the development of a Digital Twin model, which will be beneficial for the naval sector. In this work, relevant applications and a use case have been presented and discussed, with the goal of highlighting the added value and critical issues in the perspective of gathering them in a Digital Twin environment. The steps required to develop a shared reference digital architecture have been identified, as well as the gaps that need to be filled

Stimulation of S1PR5 with A-971432, a selective agonist, preserves blood-brain barrier integrity and exerts therapeutic effect in an animal model of Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is themost common neurodegenerative disorder for which no effective cure is yet available. Although several agents have been identified to provide benefits so far, the number of therapeutic options remains limited with only symptomatic treatment available. Over the past few years, we have demonstrated that sphingolipid-based approachesmay open the door to newandmore targeted treatments for the disease. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of stimulating sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor 5 by the new selective agonist A-971432 (provided by AbbVie) in R6/2mice, a widely used HD animalmodel. Chronic administration of low-dose (0.1mg/kg) A-971432 slowed down the progression of the disease and significantly prolonged lifespan in symptomatic R6/2mice. Such beneficial effects were associated with activation of pro-survival pathways (BDNF, AKT and ERK) and with reduction of mutant huntingtin aggregation. A-971432 also protected blood-brain barrier (BBB) homeostasis in the same mice. Interestingly, when administered early in the disease, before any overt symptoms, A-971432 completely protected HDmice fromthe classic progressivemotor deficit and preserved BBB integrity. Beside representing a promising strategy to take into consideration for the development of alternative therapeutic options for HD, selective stimulation of S1P receptor 5may be also seen as an effective approach to target brain vasculature defects in the disease

Aerated Buffalo Slurry Improves Spinach Plant Growth and Mitigates CO2 and N2O Emissions from Soil

Manure management is the main strategy for mitigating gas emissions from livestock farming. In this study, a laboratory-scale experiment was set up to identify suitable conditions to be applied in a farm-scale experiment. The liquid fraction (LF) of slurry was aerobically treated and greenhouse gas emissions from soil were evaluated. Furthermore, the value of treated LF as a fertilizer on spinach plants was also tested. The aeration of LF determined an increase in mean alkalinity due to ammonia loss. The mass fraction of heavy metals also decreased, likely due to the reduction in solubility. After being applied on soil, aerated LF determined lower CO2 and N2O emissions compared to untreated LF due to a reduced nitrogen load. Spinach plants fertilized with treated LF showed a lush growth and exhibited a lower heavy metal mass fraction as well as a higher content of antioxidants compared to plants fertilized with untreated slurry. Our results show that aeration might be an effective alternative for slurry management as it is able to produce an eco-friendly final product with a high fertilizing value

Simulation of power plant environmental impacts within the extended marine framework

This paper proposes the use of Modelling and Simulation to analyse the different Environmental Impacts of Industrial Facilities with special attention to Power Plant located within the Extended Maritime Framework. The approach proposed is based on combining different simulation approaches to be able to reproduce the phenomena affecting this context in a comprehensive way. The simulation experimental results are dynamically presented and updated within a Synthetic Environment, based on a Serious Game, in order to be able to augment the virtual representation with additional information. It is proposed a case study related to a Power Plant including different Gas Turbines located in front the coast and the scenario include the evaluation of the emissions on the Atmosphere, Sea Water and Ground, the inclusions on these domains as well as their impact on the flora, fauna and social layers

SIMULATION OF AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS COLLABORATING IN INDUSTRIAL PLANTS FOR MULTIPLE TASKS

The autonomous systems are continuously extending their application fields and current advances in sensors and controls are enabling the possibility to operate also inside buildings and industrial plants. These new capabilities introduce challenges to be addressed in order to carry out new tasks and missions. This paper proposes advances in Modeling, interoperable Simulation and Serious Games devoted to support researches supporting autonomous system operations within Industrial Facilities

Interoperable Simulation and Serious Games for creating an Open Cyber Range

The paper proposes an open architecture to support the creation of a synthetic environment devoted to simulate complex scenarios related to the protection of cyber-physical systems. The proposed approach is based on applying the combination of interoperable simulation and serious games to develop a framework where different models, as well as real equipment, could interoperate based on High Level Architecture standard. By this approach, it becomes possible to create a federation reproducing a scenario including multiple physical and cyber layers interacting dynamically and reproducing complex situations. The authors propose an example of specific case study conceptually developed to apply this approach

A Single Centre Retrospective Evaluation of Laparoscopic Rectal Resection with TME for Rectal Cancer: 5-Year Cancer-Specific Survival

Laparoscopic colon resection has established its role as a minimally invasive approach to colorectal diseases. Better long-term survival rate is suggested to be achievable with this approach in colon cancer patients, whereas some doubts were raised about its safety in rectal cancer. Here we report on our single centre experience of rectal laparoscopic resections for cancer focusing on short- and long-term oncological outcomes. In the last 13 years, 248 patients underwent minimally invasive approach for rectal cancer at our centre. We focused on 99 stage I, II, and III patients with a minimum follow-up period of 5 years. Of them 43 had a middle and 56 lower rectal tumor. Laparoscopic anterior rectal resection was performed in 71 patients whereas laparoscopic abdomino-perineal resection in 28. The overall mortality rate was 1%; the overall morbidity rate was 29%. The 5-year disease-free survival rate was 69.7%, The 5-year overall survival rate was 78.8%

Disasters and emergency management in chemical and industrial plants: Drones simulation for education and training

The use of simulation for training is proven to be extremely effective both in term of costs and in term of its flexibility for different uses and applications, such as building situation awareness and creating scenarios for training scopes. The aim of the project proposed is to demonstrate the powerful rule of simulation in UAV pilots\u2019 cooperative training; the project presented makes use of a 3D simulation environment in order to build a realistic condition of an emergency situation in a chemical plant for the first responders. The model proposed makes use of HLA (High Level Architecture) standards in order to be potentially federated with other existing simulators. In the solution proposed, the pilot of the drone must accomplish the mission in a given time piloting a UAV; the scenario is based inside a chemical plant where a disaster is newly occurred. Then ability of the pilot is measured by the system and several constraints are reproduced to provide a realistic training scenario (such as small spaces and barriers to overcome, battery durations, risks of damages due to high temperatures zones, etc.); the system records and tracks all the actions of the pilot and gives a feedback to the user at the end of the simulation time