A 3-field earth-heat-exchange system for a school building in Imola, Italy: Monitoring results

The present study reports the results of a 12-month-long monitoring campaign of an earth-to-air horizontal heat exchanger (EAHX) system in a school complex in Imola, Italy. With more than 2kmof buried pipes, it represents one of the biggest Italian applications of this technology. Considerable differences between inlet and outlet air temperature have been noticed both in winter and in summer. Air temperature and relative humidity have been represented over a psychrometric chart while the energy performance of the system was analysed based on data of sensible heat exchange.The monitored results have been compared with three other cases presented in literature in order to verify the parameter values of different EAHX in various climates and design condition

Daptomycin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clinical Strain With Novel Non-synonymous Mutations in the mprF and vraS Genes:A New Insight Into Daptomycin Resistance

Objectives: Daptomycin (DAP) resistance in Staphylococcus aureus is uncommon but there are increasing reports of the emergence of resistance during DAP therapy. Most clinical DAP-resistant S. aureus isolates investigated carried mutations in the mprF gene. The aim of this study was to identify mutations between a clinical pair of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) isolates (DAP-susceptible and DAP-resistant). Additionally, the activity of genes previously associated with DAP resistance was assessed. Materials and Methods: Two MSSA isolates from patient with left-sided endocarditis were analyzed by whole genome sequencing (WGS) and reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). The first isolate, DAP-susceptible, was obtained before initiation of treatment and the second isolate, DAP-resistant, was recovered after 4 weeks of DAP therapy. Results: Comparison of complete genomes of DAP-susceptible and its DAP-resistant variant identified two non-synonymous and one synonymous mutations. The non-synonymous mutations consisted of a S829L substitution in mprF and a T331I substitution in vraS. The RT-qPCR experiments revealed an increased expression of vraS, dltA, mprF, and sceD genes in DAP-resistant variant. Strikingly, the expression of dltA and mprF genes was significantly downregulated by DAP. Conclusion: The mprF and vraS genes were previously associated with DAP resistance, however, none of the mutations described in this study had been previously identified and linked to DAP resistance. Moreover, we provide a new insight into the DAP action on S. aureus, in which the expression of key genes in DAP resistance is decreased by the antibiotic

Análise de um stick de hóquei em patins em remate para futuro desenvolvimento de soluções de reforço estrutural

Do ponto de vista da engenharia, existe pouca informação sobre o hóquei em patins [1], daí ter surgido o interesse pelo estudo do remate deste desporto. O objetivo desta investigação foi criar condições para analisar o comportamento do stick durante um remate de hóquei em patins, recorrendo a técnicas videográficas. Através da análise das imagens obtidas em alta-velocidade, foi possivel obter uma melhor perceção do comportamento do stick em função da força que lhe é aplicada.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analyse der Altersverteilung von Rippenfrakturen anhand von landesweiten Routinedaten

While rib fractures occur in about half of all severely injured, rarely described in children and often in the elderly, there are no scientific studies on the age distribution of rib fractures in a large population collective. In this study, the DRG data of the Federal Statistical Office from 2005 to 2012 were used. The age distribution of 569,957 cases with rib fractures as main diagnosis and secondary diagnosis was analyzed. There was a general growth trend in cases from 2005 (64,733) to 2012 (80,150). The analysis of age distribution rarely showed rib fractures up to the age of 15 years (0.5% of total cases), a rapid increase in cases was seen between 15 and 20 years, followed by a further increase in cases up to the age of 15 years Age between -81.-85. Year of life with 70623 cases (12.39%). From the age group of 86-90 years shows a drop in cases, most demographically caused there, as the data of the Federal Statistical Office show, only a limited part of the population reaches this age. There was a direct correlation between rib fractures and age. In fact, 52.16% of cases were in patients aged 66 to 90 years. We can conclude that the incidence of rib fractures increases with age. The first increase in cases occurring among the group of 16-20 year olds corresponds to the rapid increase in traffic accidents at this age. The increase in cases of age-related rib fractures follows the distribution of osteoporosis in Europe and the age-related risk of falls. Rib fractures rarely occur in children below 16 years of age and relatively often in the age between 40 and 60. After the age of 65 there is an enormous increase of rib fractures.Während Rippenfrakturen bei etwa der Hälfte aller Schwerverletzten vorkommen, selten bei Kindern und häufig bei alten Menschen beschrieben werden, gibt es keine wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen über die Altersverteilung von Rippenfrakturen an einem großen Bevölkerungskollektiv. In dieser Studie wurden die DRG Daten des statistischen Bundesamts von 2005 bis 2012 verwendet. Es wurde die Altersverteilung von 569.957 Fällen mit Rippenfrakturen als Hauptdiagnose und Nebendiagnose analysiert. Es zeigte sich generell eine Wachstumstendenz der Fälle von 2005 (64.733) bis 2012 (80.150). In der Analyse der Altersverteilung zeigten sich selten Rippenfrakturen bis zum Alter von 15 Jahren (0,5% der gesamten Fälle), eine schnelle Zunahme der Fälle war zwischen 15 und 20 Jahren zu sehen, daran anschließend zeigte sich eine weitere Zunahme der Fälle bis zum Alter zwischen dem -81.-85. Lebensjahr mit 70623 Fälle (12,39%). Ab der Altersgruppe von 86-90 Jahren zeigt sich ein Rückgang der Fälle, am ehesten demographisch bedingt da, wie die Daten des statistischen Bundesamts zeigen, nur ein limitierter Teil der Bevölkerung dieses Alter erreicht. Es konnte eine direkte Korrelation zwischen Rippenfrakturen und Alter festgestellt werden. In der Tat betrafen 52,16% der Fälle die Patienten mit einem Alter von 66 bis 90 Jahren. Wir können damit darauf schließen, dass mit zunehmendem Alter die Häufigkeit von Rippenfrakturen zunimmt. Die Erste Zunahme der Fälle, die bei der Gruppe der 16-20 Jährigen auftritt, entspricht der raschen Zunahme der Verkehrsunfälle in diesem Alter. Die Zunahme der Fälle der Rippenfrakturen im Alter folgt der Verteilung der Osteoporose in Europa und dem altersbedingten Sturzrisiko

XIPE: the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer

X-ray polarimetry, sometimes alone, and sometimes coupled to spectral and temporal variability measurements and to imaging, allows a wealth of physical phenomena in astrophysics to be studied. X-ray polarimetry investigates the acceleration process, for example, including those typical of magnetic reconnection in solar flares, but also emission in the strong magnetic fields of neutron stars and white dwarfs. It detects scattering in asymmetric structures such as accretion disks and columns, and in the so-called molecular torus and ionization cones. In addition, it allows fundamental physics in regimes of gravity and of magnetic field intensity not accessible to experiments on the Earth to be probed. Finally, models that describe fundamental interactions (e.g. quantum gravity and the extension of the Standard Model) can be tested. We describe in this paper the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE), proposed in June 2012 to the first ESA call for a small mission with a launch in 2017 but not selected. XIPE is composed of two out of the three existing JET-X telescopes with two Gas Pixel Detectors (GPD) filled with a He-DME mixture at their focus and two additional GPDs filled with pressurized Ar-DME facing the sun. The Minimum Detectable Polarization is 14 % at 1 mCrab in 10E5 s (2-10 keV) and 0.6 % for an X10 class flare. The Half Energy Width, measured at PANTER X-ray test facility (MPE, Germany) with JET-X optics is 24 arcsec. XIPE takes advantage of a low-earth equatorial orbit with Malindi as down-link station and of a Mission Operation Center (MOC) at INPE (Brazil).Comment: 49 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables. Paper published in Experimental Astronomy http://link.springer.com/journal/1068

AI-Assisted Diagnosis for Covid-19 CXR Screening: From Data Collection to Clinical Validation

In this paper, we present the major results from the Covid Radiographic imaging System based on AI (Co.R.S.A.) project, which took place in Italy. This project aims to develop a state-of-the-art AI-based system for diagnosing Covid-19 pneumonia from Chest X-ray (CXR) images. The contributions of this work are manyfold: the release of the public CORDA dataset, a deep learning pipeline for Covid-19 detection, and the clinical validation of the developed solution by expert radiologists. The proposed detection model is based on a two-step approach that, paired with state-of-the-art debiasing, provides reliable results. Most importantly, our investigation includes the actual usage of the diagnosis aid tool by radiologists, allowing us to assess the real benefits in terms of accuracy and time efficiency. Project homepage: https://corsa.di.unito.it/Comment: Accepted at 21st IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI

A fast and flexible machine learning approach to data quality monitoring

We present a machine learning based approach for real-time monitoring of particle detectors. The proposed strategy evaluates the compatibility between incoming batches of experimental data and a reference sample representing the data behavior in normal conditions by implementing a likelihood-ratio hypothesis test. The core model is powered by recent large-scale implementations of kernel methods, nonparametric learning algorithms that can approximate any continuous function given enough data. The resulting algorithm is fast, efficient and agnostic about the type of potential anomaly in the data. We show the performance of the model on multivariate data from a drift tube chambers muon detector