Automated Setup to Accurately Calibrate Electrical DC Voltage Generators

At National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM), an automated setup to calibrate DC Voltage generators, mainly top-level calibrators from 1 mV to 1 kV has been developed. The heart of the setup is an INRIM-built automated fixed ratios DC Voltage divider. The significant achievement of this setup is the possibility to interconnect the divider, a DMM characterized in linearity, a DC Voltage Standard and a DC Voltage generator under calibration and automatically to manage the calibration process. This calibration method allows to save a lot of time, to improve the reliability and to increase the accuracy of the calibration of generators. The relative uncertainties of the system span from 0.6x10-6 to 1.2x10-4 improving the previous capabilities of the INRIM laboratory for calibration of programmable multifunction instruments. In addition, this system allows to avoid the employment of several Standards (some of them still manually operating) carrying out the entire process without changing the setup configuration and without the presence of operators. The concept of this setup can be transferred to secondary high-level electrical calibration Laboratories that could be consider it useful for their calibration activities.Comment: 6 pages 8 figure

Terrestrial Laser Scanning for Preserving Cultural Heritage: Analysis of Geometric Anomalies for Ancient Structures

Identifying the overhang, progressive changes of inclination, differential movements of the structure and detailing the study of structural elements are just some examples of the many fundamental information for structural engineers. Those data are required to study and analyze the behavior of a structure with the purpose to assess the stability . Laser scanning appears to be the best technology to provide an effective solution to those requirements. Surveying by means of a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS), allows to detect a huge number of information with relatively short time and high accuracy. Those data, then, do not necessarily need to be used to reconstruct the three dimensional surface model. Just analyzing the point clouds, interesting information along with useful products can be obtained in order to draw some considerations about the investigated structure. This research aims to suggest a new philosophy for using TLS in a diagnostic perspective in order to study structures along with their actual dimensions, their stability and so on. This new approach, characterized by a well- advanced vision, is really different from the traditional one because of the engineering point of view with respect to the usual application of TLS. Traditionally, indeed, laser scanning is chosen for artistic and architectural studies and the resulting three-dimensional model represents what often is of concern.The research focuses on the Cathedral of Modena, one of the most important pieces of Romanesque culture in Europe (UNESCO World Heritage List since 1997). The overall motivation of this research is to preserve the cultural heritage we are responsible for, as long as spectators. Thus, the final purpose is to illustrate the methodology to compute anomalies in structural geometry by means of TLS in order to provide an accurate description of the structure that is particularly useful for structural engineers, architects and art historians. Both outdoor as well as indoor TLS surveys were performed. The geometry of the structure was properly described by analyzing point clouds; specific measurements were focused on constituent elements with the aim of detecting anomalies of the geometric configuration. Geometric anomalies might be read as the result of deformations occurred in the past or as future deformations due to an abnormal geometric configuration. Investigations about the identified anomalies will be presented together with differential movements obtained by high precision leveling focused on a network of benchmarks that were installed along the outside perimeter. The integration of independent techniques allows to check for consistency of results

Towards Real-World Indoor Smart Electromagnetic Environments -- A Large-Scale Experimental Demonstration

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this work presents the first large-scale indoor experimental assessment of an implementation of the emerging Smart ElectroMagnetic Environment (SEME) paradigm, which is based on the deployment of static-passive EM skins (SP-EMSs) to enhance the coverage in a 5 [GHz] Wi-Fi network. Unlike standard (laboratory-based) validations reported in the state-of-the-art (SoA) literature, the scenario at hand mimics a realistic indoor environment to replicate as close as possible the user experience when using commodity devices. Representative results from the experimental field trials are re-ported to confirm the performance predictions arising from the numerical studies and the tolerance analyses carried out with a commercial ray-tracing (RT) tool. Besides experimentally validating the SEME idea, this study is also aimed at (roughly) quantifying the economic advantage of a SEME implementation, relying on simple-manufacturing/low-cost field manipulating devices without any additional biasing circuitry, with respect to standard approaches that imply the densification of the active radiating sources

El patrimonio ferroviario como recurso para fomentar el turismo de proximidad : Caso de estudio: el ramal La Plata-Pipinas

Este trabajo aborda el tema de las posibilidades que ofrece el patrimonio ferroviario para constituir un recurso para la ampliación y diversificación de la oferta turística, en especial en la modalidad de turismo de proximidad, para lo cual se ha tomado, a modo de caso de estudio, el ramal La Plata – Pipinas, perteneciente en el momento de su clausura al Ferrocarril Roca. Se ha seleccionado este tema ya que se considera importante resaltar y poner en agenda problemáticas que afecten al partido de La Plata y otros de la provincia, en relación con potencializar los recursos naturales y culturales con que se cuenta, lo que puede incidir en la dinamización de economías locales a través del desarrollo del turismo y el excursionismo. La idea principal se centra en proponer diferentes tipos de circuitos para la visita a enclaves ferroviarios y a recursos naturales y culturales asociados, los que se podrían realizar tanto en forma autónoma, a través del automóvil o la bicicleta, o en excursiones organizadas. La propuesta incorpora, asimismo, la posibilidad de recuperación de instalaciones obsoletas del ferrocarril, generando itinerarios culturales, deportivos y recreativos, promoviendo una nueva cultura del ocio, de vida al aire libre y de movilidad no motorizada, contribuyendo así al desarrollo de un turismo sostenible y sustentable en el tiempo libre de medios de comunicación poco amigables con el medioambiente. Para la realización del trabajo, se procedió a explorar los conceptos básicos relacionados en el tema, luego a una reseña histórica del devenir del ferrocarril en la República Argentina, con el fin de contextualizar el origen y devenir del ramal tomado como caso de estudio. A continuación, se procede a una descripción de los enclaves ferroviarios del ramal y de los recursos naturales y culturales asociados, lo que constituye la oferta, para pasar luego a un estudio de la demanda potencial, lo que se realizó a través de entrevistas a informantes calificados y de una encuesta. Para finalizar, se presentan conclusiones, basadas en parte en una matriz en la que se identificaron fortalezas y debilidades, oportunidades y amenazas de la propuesta.Licenciado en TurismoUniversidad Nacional de La PlataFacultad de Ciencias Económica