MEMS-based Inertial Navigation Systems onboard Balloons

Performances of low-cost inertial navigation sensors, usually poor, can often match different mission requirements by means of a careful signal and data processing and/or an augmentation by means of different observables. The paper presents the LOWCOINS navigation experiment, intended to fly onboard BEXUS balloon mission in late 2008. LOWCOINS has as the main component a low-cost three-axes inertial unit, integrating three accelerometers and three gyros. The slow dynamic typical of a balloon flight is deemed as an ideal test to verify the performances of the unit and to improve the knowledge on the data processing needed to obtain an accurate final navigation solution. In order to enlarge the set of available data, a cluster of magnetometers and a pressure sensor, always belonging to low-cost instrumentation range, are hosted on board. Measurements are both stored on board and downlinked to a ground station. Position and velocity components (both the onboard computed first guess and the post-flight calibrated solution) will be compared with the data gathered by a GPS receiver, which is a standard component of BEXUS balloon avionics. Substantial attention to thermal aspects has been requested in order to cope with environmental conditions prior of and all along the flight. The requested navigation unit case design is shortly reported

Education in mine waste engineering: the experience of "SIGEO" Master's Course

On 19th July 1985 the failure of two tailings dams at the service of a fluorite mine in the Stava Valley (Italy) caused the death of 268 people and severe environmental and socioeconomic damage. Similar accidents have happened in Sgorigrad (Bulgaria, 1966), Aberfan (U.K., 1966), Buffalo Creek (USA, 1972), Aznalcollar (Spain, 1998), Taoshi (China, 2008) and many other places worldwide. The European Union has recognized the seriousness of the problems concerning the management and disposal of mining waste (over 400 million tonnes per year worldwide). With the 2006/21/CE Directive, the EU has urged all member States to carry out censuses, monitoring and consolidation of existing structures under the supervision of qualified experts. These experts should be provided with interdisciplinary knowledge that is difficult to attain during normal degree courses. For this reason, the Trento and Modena-Reggio Emilia Universities and the Turin Polytechnic have set up a post-graduate Master’s Course in “Analysis and Management of Geotechnical Structures”. The article describes the interdisciplinary approach adopted in the course and aims to stimulate the sharing of this initiative among other European Universities

Anaerobic biodegradation of cassava wastewater under different temperatures and inoculums.

The production of starch generates, as a by-product, the cassava wastewater (manipueira), which can be treated by anaerobic digestion to provide biogas and minimize its polluting potential. The most commonly utilized biomass in the anaerobic digestion is the anaerobic sludge. The literature presents, as an alternative to sludge, bovine manure and ruminal fluids, being scarce the studies with the cassava wastewater. This research evaluated the influence of temperature on the microbial ability of cattle and goat rumen in anaerobically biodegrading the manipueira in substitution to the anaerobic sludge. The cattle and goat rumen specific methanogenic activities (SMA) were compared with that of the anaerobic sludge. Subsequently, by using the inoculum which had the best SMA results, cassava wastewater biodegradability tests were performed, investigating the kinetics of the organic matter removal and methane production at 32 ° C and 39 ° C. The bovine rumen presented better results in the SMA (0,315 g COD-CH4 g VSS.d-1) and methane production (1,026 mL). The temperature of 32 °C did not influence the activity of bovine ruminal inoculum as the kinetics of the biodegradation of the manipueira did not differ for the evaluated temperatures (0.1799 d-1 at 32°C and 0.1781 d-1 at 39°C). Bovine rumen achieved glucose reduction of 76% and 80% and methane yield of 77% and 79% for the tests at 32°C and 39°C, respectively. It is inferred that this type of inoculum might be used in reactors of anaerobic digestion processes for the treatment of the cassava wastewater at the ambient temperature of the semiarid region

First record of the neotropical subgenus Hylaeus (Gongyloprosopis) Snelling, 1982, for Brazil (Hymenoptera: Colletidae).

We report the first record of the neotropical bee subgenus Hylaeus (Gongyloprosopis) Snelling, 1982 (Colletidae) for Brazil. Additionally, an overview of the current geographic records for the three known species of the subgenus is presented. We expand the distribution of Hylaeus (Gongyloprosopis) orbicus (Vachal, 1910), the male is illustrated, and the first floral association with Vismia japurensis Reichardt (Hypericaeae) is reported for this species

Polistes canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Vespidae: Polistinae) in the Western Amazon: a Potential Biological Control Agent

Wasps of the genus Polistes (Vespidae: Polistinae) are eusocial, considered valuable biological control agents. The objective of this work was to determine the resources collected by Polistes canadensis wasps, evaluate their performance and importance as a natural enemy and possible agent of biological control in the Brazilian Amazon. Between October 8th and November 20th, 2014, 20 evaluations were performed, totalizing 101 hours of observations of the foraging activity of an aggregation out in stage of development post-emergence with approximately 50 adult individuals distributed in 15 colonies. Additionally, observations of the predatory activity of Polistes canadensis on Plutella xylostella on a small organic plantation of kale (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala DC), were also made. During the evaluations 1742 returns were recorded, 11.72% of them with prey, 3.10% with plant fiber, 16.76% with nectar, 45.17% with water and 23.25% without any visible load. All the preys identified were classified as Lepidoptera, belonging to ten morphospecies. Only one morphospecies was identified as Spodoptera frugiperda, which was the most commonly resource used by the wasps in 37 % in immature feeding. Only returns with nectar had statistically significant difference between the evaluated schedules. Polistes canadensis wasps did not prey Plutella xylostella caterpillars. The wasp aggregation studied was able to prey an average of 10.2 caterpillars per day, which demonstrates the potential of this species for the biological control of pests in the Amazon region. © 2017 Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana. All Rights Reserved

The synergistic effect of chlorotoxin-mApoE in boosting drug-loaded liposomes across the BBB

We designed liposomes dually functionalized with ApoE-derived peptide (mApoE) and chlorotoxin (ClTx) to improve their blood-brain barrier (BBB) crossing. Our results demonstrated the synergistic activity of ClTx-mApoE in boosting doxorubicin-loaded liposomes across the BBB, keeping the anti-tumour activity of the drug loaded: mApoE acts promoting cellular uptake, while ClTx promotes exocytosis of liposomes