Flight Tests, Performances and Flight Certification of a Twin-Engine Light Aircraft

This paper deals with flight test activities performed on P2006T, a twin-engine light aircraft recently designed and produced by Tecnam. Research activities and flight tests have been conducted during the flight certification of P2006T for the normal category under CS-23. All the acquired data and flight results presented have been focused on both aircraft certification and on aircraft performances, stability and flight qualities measurement. The data have been acquired through a light, accurate and reliable flight instrumentation available at DIAS (Department of Aerospace Engineering). Some flight data about aircraft leveled speed, stall speed, climb characteristics and ground performances (take-off and landing) will be presented. After preliminary flight tests, winglets have been designed and added to the final configuration in order to obtain good climb performances also in OEI (One Engine Inoperative) conditions. Accurate stall tests have been performed in all configurations and influence of both entry-rate and load factor on stall speed have been highlighted. Excellent ground performances have been measured with short take-off and landing distances compared with similar airplanes. All measured flight performances can be considered very good for this aircraft category and have been used to demonstrate aircraft safety and to obtain CS23 certification

Design of a Three Surfaces R/C Aircraft Model

Design of a three lifting surfaces radio-controlled model has been carried out at Dipartimento di Progettazione Aeronautica (DPA) by the authors in the last year. The model is intended to be a UAV prototype and is now under construction. The main goal of this small aircraft's design is to check the influence of the canard surface on the aircraft's aerodynamic characteristics and flight behavior, especially at high angles of attack. The aircraft model is also intended to be a flying platform to test sensors, measurement and acquisition systems for research purposes and a valid and low-cost teaching instrument for flight dynamics and flight maneuvering. The aircraft has been designed to fly with and without canard, and all problems relative to aircraft balance and stability have been carefully analyzed and solved. The innovative configuration and the mixed wooden-composite material structure has been obtained with very simple shapes and all the design is focused on realizing a low-cost model. A complete aerodynamic analysis of the configuration up to high angles of attack and a preliminary aircraft stability and performance prediction will be presented

Design of a Three Surfaces R/C Aircraft Model

Design of a three lifting surfaces radio-controlled model has been carried out at Dipartimento di Progettazione Aeronautica (DPA) by the authors in the last year. The model is intended to be a UAV prototype and is now under construction. The main goal of this small aircraft's design is to check the influence of the canard surface on the aircraft's aerodynamic characteristics and flight behavior, especially at high angles of attack. The aircraft model is also intended to be a flying platform to test sensors, measurement and acquisition systems for research purposes and a valid and low-cost teaching instrument for flight dynamics and flight maneuvering. The aircraft has been designed to fly with and without canard, and all problems relative to aircraft balance and stability have been carefully analyzed and solved. The innovative configuration and the mixed wooden-composite material structure has been obtained with very simple shapes and all the design is focused on realizing a low-cost model. A complete aerodynamic analysis of the configuration up to high angles of attack and a preliminary aircraft stability and performance prediction will be presented

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.

Post-stroke depression increases disability more than 15% in ischemic stroke survivors: a case-control study

We performed a retrospective, case-control study in consecutive ischemic stroke patients admitted to our stroke rehabilitation unit. Patients were matched for severity of neurological impairment (evaluated with the Canadian Neurological Scale, CNS), age (difference within 1 year), and onset admission interval (difference within 3 days). Participants were divided into two subgroups according to the presence or absence of PSD. Aim was to assess the specific influence of post-stroke depression (PSD) and antidepressant treatment on both basal functional status and rehabilitation outcomes. All PSD patients were treated primarily with serotoninergic antidepressants (AD). The final sample included 280 patients with depression (out of 320 found in a whole case series of 993 ischemic patients, i.e., 32.25%) and 280 without depression. Forty patients with depression were excluded because they had a history of severe psychiatric illness or aphasia, with a severe comprehension deficit. On one hand, PSD patients obtained lower Barthel Index (BI) and Rivermead Mobility Index (RMI) scores at both admission and discharge, with minor effectiveness of rehabilitative treatment and longer length of stay; on the other hand, this group had a lower percentage of dropouts. Lastly, PSD patients showed a different functional outcome, based on their response to antidepressant therapy, that was significantly better in responders than in non-responders (13.13%). Our results confirm the unfavorable influence of PSD on functional outcome, despite pharmacological treatment

experiences in developing tidal current and wave energy devices for mediterranean sea

In the last years, the interest for renewable energies has shown a continuously increasing trend, in search of a convenient and sustainable source alternative to carbon and fossil fuels, also due to government incentive systems, as can be seen for example in the objectives proposed by the EU 2020 target. In such context, marine energy sources are particularly attractive, both for the high conceptual available resource and for some specific technical characteristics, such as a more predictable behavior with respect to other sources like wind energy. The work here presented resumes the experience gained over more than twenty years of activities conducted at Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Naples "Federico II", in collaboration with research consortium Seapower scrl, in the field of ocean renewable energies. The work refers to several case reports related to different projects in which the research group has been involved. Two main energy sources have been investigated, namely tidal currents and wave energy, through the development, among others, of two different projects reported in this paper: • GEMSTAR: a submerged floating tidal current hydrokinetic turbine system (an evolution of GEM turbine) • PIVOT: a wave energy converter based on a pivoting buoy GEMSTAR is a project which is at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 being the first prototype tested in real field while PIVOT is at TRL 5 since the full-scale prototype has been tested only in controlled environment. In any case both projects are still in development, evolving to more mature technology levels. The article reports the two case studies related to the above-mentioned systems at the present development stage along with the resource assessment of both energy sources in Mediterranean area

Colonic metastasis from breast carcinoma detection by CESM and PET/CT: A case report

Introduction: Metastatic spread in invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of breast mainly occurs in bones, gynecological organs, peritoneum, retroperitoneum, and gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Metastases to the GI tract may arise many years after initial diagnosis and can affect the tract from the tongue to the anus, stomach being the most commonly involved site. Clinical presentations are predominantly nonspecific, and rarely asymptomatic. CEA, CA 15-3, and CA 19-9 may be informative for symptomatic patients who have had a previous history of breast cancer. Case presentation: We introduce the case of asymptomatic colonic metastasis from breast carcinoma in a 67-year-old woman followed-up for Luminal A ILC. Diagnosis was performed through positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan and contrast-enhancement spectral mammography (CESM), steering endoscopist to spot the involved intestinal tract and in ruling out further dissemination in the breast parenchyma. Conclusion: In colonic metastases, tumor markers might not be totally reliable. In asymptomatic cases, clinical conditions might be underappreciated, missing local or distant recurrence. CT and PET/CT scan might be useful in diagnosing small volume diseases, and steering endoscopist toward GI metastasis originating from the breast. CESM represents a tolerable and feasible tool that rules out multicentricity and multifocality of breast localization. Moreover, particular patients could tolerate it better than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Accuracy and reproducibility of contrast-enhanced mammography in the assessment of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with calcifications in the tumor bed

This study aimed to evaluate contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) accuracy and reproducibility in the detection and measurement of residual tumor after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer (BC) patients with calcifications, using surgical specimen pathology as the reference. Pre-and post-NAC CEM images of 36 consecutive BC patients receiving NAC in 2012–2020, with calcifications in the tumor bed at diagnosis, were retrospectively reviewed by two radiologists; described were absence/presence and size of residual disease based on contrast enhancement (CE) only and CE plus calcifications. Twenty-eight patients (77.8%) had invasive and 5 (13.9%) in situ-only residual disease at surgical specimen pathology. Considering CE plus calcifications instead of CE only, CEM sensitivity for invasive residual tumor increased from 85.7% (95% CI = 67.3–96%) to 96.4% (95% CI = 81.7–99.9% ) and specificity decreased from 5/8 (62.5%; 95% CI = 24.5–91.5%) to 1/8 (14.3%; 95% CI = 0.4–57.9%). For in situ-only residual disease, false negatives decreased from 3 to 0 and false positives increased from 1 to 2. CEM pathology concordance in residual disease measurement increased (R squared from 0.38 to 0.45); inter-reader concordance decreased (R squared from 0.79 to 0.66). Considering CE plus calcifications to evaluate NAC response in BC patients increases sensitivity in detection and accuracy in measurement of residual disease but increases false positives

Effects of Walking Endurance Reduction on Gait Stability in Patients with Stroke

Control of gait is usually altered following stroke, and it may be further compromised by overexertion and fatigue. This study aims to quantitatively assess patients' gait stability during six-minute walking, measuring upper body accelerations of twenty patients with stroke (64 ± 13 years old) and ten age-matched healthy subjects (63 ± 10 years old). Healthy subjects showed a steady gait in terms of speed and accelerations over the six minutes. Conversely, the patients unable to complete the test (n = 8) progressively reduced their walking speed (−22 ± 11%, confidence interval CI95%: −13, −29%, P = 0.046). Patients able to complete the test (n = 12) did not vary their walking speed over time (P = 0.493). However, this ability was not supported by an adequate capacity to maintain their gait stability, as shown by a progressive increase of their upper body accelerations (+5 ± 11%, CI95%: −1; +12%, P = 0.010). Walking endurance and gait stability should be both quantitatively assessed and carefully improved during the rehabilitation of patients with stroke