Flow curvature effects on dynamic behaviour of a novel vertical axis tidal current turbine: numerical and experimental analysis

The paper deals with performances analysis of vertical axis turbine to exploit tidal marine currents. Flow curvature effects on performences of a novel vertical axis turbine have been investuigated. It has been shown that the flow curvature effect allows to design properly an accurate airfoil shape to increase turbine performances

Econometric and Machine Learning Methods to Identify Pedestrian Crash Patterns

Walking plays an important role in overcoming many challenges nowadays, and governments and local authorities are encouraging healthy and environmentally sustainable lifestyles. Nevertheless, pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users and crashes with pedestrian involvement are a serious concern. Thus, the identification of pedestrian crash patterns is crucial to identify appropriate safety countermeasures. The aims of the study are (1) to identify the road infrastructure, environmental, vehicle, and driver-related patterns that are associated with an overrepresentation of pedestrian crashes, and (2) to identify safety countermeasures to mitigate the detected pedestrian crash patterns. The analysis carried out an econometric model, namely the mixed logit model, and the association rules and the classification tree algorithm, as machine learning tools, to analyse the patterns contributing to the overrepresentation of pedestrian crashes in Italy. The dataset consists of 874,847 crashes—including 101,032 pedestrian crashes—that occurred in Italy from 2014 to 2018. The methodological approach adopted in the study was effective in uncovering relations among road infrastructure, environmental, vehicle, and driver-related patterns, and the overrepresentation of pedestrian crashes. The mixed logit provided a clue on the impact of each pattern on the pedestrian crash occurrence, whereas the association rules and the classification tree detected the associations among the patterns with insights on how the co-occurrence of more factors could be detrimental to pedestrian safety. Drivers’ behaviour and psychophysical state turned out to be crucial patterns related to pedestrian crashes’ overrepresentation. Based on the identified crash patterns, safety countermeasures have been proposed

Dynamic Behaviour of the Patented Kobold Tidal Current Turbine: Numerical and Experimental Aspects

This paper provides a summary of the work done at DPA on numerical and experimental investigations of a novel patented vertical axis and variable pitching blades hydro turbine designed to harness energy from marine tidal currents. Ponte di Archimede S.p.A. Company, located in Messina, Italy, owns the patented KOBOLD turbine that is moored in the Messina Strait, between the mainland and Sicily. The turbine has a rotor with a diameter of 6 meters, three vertical blades of 5 meters span with a 0.4 m chord ad hoc designed curved airfoil, producing high lift with no cavitation. The rated power is 160 kW with 3.5 m/s current speed, which means 25% global system efficiency. The VAWT and VAWT_DYN computer codes, based on Double Multiple Steamtube, have been developed to predict the steady and dynamic performances of a cycloturbine with fixed or self-acting variable pitch straight-blades. A theoretical analysis and a numerical prediction of the turbine performances as well as experimental test results on both a model and the real scale turbine will be presented and discussed.

A mild photochemical approach to the degradation of phenols from olive oil mill wastewater

Photooxidation of cathecol (1) is carried out in aqueous solution at k > 300 nm using different sensitizers: rose bengal (RB), 9,10-dicyanoanthracene (DCA), 2,4,6-triphenylpyrylium tetrafluoroborate (Pyryl). The highest degradation is observed in the UV/RB-sensitized reaction (66% after 15 h of irradiation), mineralization and formation of dimers are the final events. This procedure has been extended to tyrosol (2), caffeic acid (3), vanillic acid (4), 4-hydroxycinnamic acid (5) and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (6) as well as to a mixture of all phenols. A reduced toxicity of the UV/RB-irradiated solutions of cathecol and tyrosol towards alga Ankistrodesmus braunii is also verified

Dynamic behavior of novel vertical axis tidal current turbine: numerical and experimental investigations

This paper presents a summary of the recent work done by the authors regarding the design, construction and test of a novel patented vertical axis and variable pitching blade hydro turbine, named KOBOLD, capable of harnessing clean and renewable energy from marine tidal currents. The KOBOLDturbine, currently moored in Messina Strait, between mainland Italy and Sicily island, is the only existing turbine of this type devoted to exploit tidal currents, and has a 25% global system efficiency. Theoretical analysis and numerical prediction performanceshave been compared and validated with experimental test results on both model and real scale turbines. Moreover, the recent activities in terms of numerical and experimental investigations on vertical axis hydro turbines are presente

Effects of pidotimod and bifidobacteria mixture on clinical symptoms and urinary metabolomic profile of children with recurrent respiratory infections: a randomized placebo-controlled trial

Many preschool children develop recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRI). Strategies to prevent RRI include the use of immunomodulators as pidotimod or probiotics, but there is limited evidence of their efficacy on clinical features or on urine metabolic profile

Metabolic syndrome and the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women

Background: Only a few small studies investigated the association between postmenopausal breast cancer and metabolic syndrome (MetS) as a single entity. Materials and methods: We analyzed the data of two Italian and Swiss case-control studies conducted between 1983 and 2007, including 3869 postmenopausal women with incident breast cancer and 4082 postmenopausal controls admitted to the same hospitals as cases for acute conditions. MetS was defined as the presence of at least three components among diabetes, drug-treated hypertension, drug-treated hyperlipidemia, and obesity. Results: The odds ratios (ORs) of postmenopausal breast cancer were 1.33 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09-1.62] for diabetes, 1.19 (95% CI 1.07-1.33) for hypertension, 1.08 (95% CI 0.95-1.22) for hyperlipidemia, 1.26 (95% CI 1.11-1.44) for body mass index ≥30 kg/m2, and 1.22 (95% CI 1.09-1.36) for waist circumference ≥88 cm. The risk of postmenopausal breast cancer was significantly increased for women with MetS (OR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.37-2.22, for three or more MetS components, P for trend for increasing number of components < 0.0001) and the risk was higher at older age (OR = 3.04, 95% CI 1.75-5.29, at age ≥70 years for three or more MetS components). Conclusions: This study supports a direct association between MetS and postmenopausal breast cancer ris