An algorithm for the Italian atomic time scale

During the past twenty years, the time scale at the IEN has been realized by a commercial cesium clock, selected from an ensemble of five, whose rate has been continuously steered towards UTC to maintain a long term agreement within 3 x 10(exp -13). A time scale algorithm, suitable for a small clock ensemble and capable of improving the medium and long term stability of the IEN time scale, has been recently designed taking care of reducing the effects of the seasonal variations and the sudden frequency anomalies of the single cesium clocks. The new time scale, TA(IEN), is obtained as a weighted average of the clock ensemble computed once a day from the time comparisons between the local reference UTC(IEN) and the single clocks. It is foreseen to include in the computation also ten cesium clocks maintained in other Italian laboratories to further improve its reliability and its long term stability. To implement this algorithm, a personal computer program in Quick Basic has been prepared and it has been tested at the IEN time and frequency laboratory. Results obtained using this algorithm on the real clocks data relative to a period of about two years are presented

Long-Range Low-Power Soil Water Content Monitoring System for Precision Agriculture

World population growth and desertification are increasing the food demand. Food production must increase to ensure food security in the following years. Smart agriculture tries to improve food production thanks to the adoption of electronic sensors to monitor and control fruit and vegetable crops. Another critical point in agriculture is the use of potable water. Precision irrigation strategies can be implemented to reduce water waste and increase crop production. This paper proposes a long-range, low-power sensor node to monitor soil water content. It is possible to place multiple sensor nodes in the field and use the gathered data to determine the most suitable irrigation strategy. The node communicates thanks to the LoRa protocol and it can also be used in remote areas where it is impossible to have an internet connection

Precision measurement of the neutrino velocity with the ICARUS detector in the CNGS beam

During May 2012, the CERN-CNGS neutrino beam has been operated for two weeks for a total of 1.8 10^17 pot in bunched mode, with a 3 ns narrow width proton beam bunches, separated by 100 ns. This tightly bunched beam structure allows a very accurate time of flight measurement of neutrinos from CERN to LNGS on an event-by-event basis. Both the ICARUS-T600 PMT-DAQ and the CERN-LNGS timing synchronization have been substantially improved for this campaign, taking ad-vantage of additional independent GPS receivers, both at CERN and LNGS as well as of the deployment of the "White Rabbit" protocol both at CERN and LNGS. The ICARUS-T600 detector has collected 25 beam-associated events; the corresponding time of flight has been accurately evaluated, using all different time synchronization paths. The measured neutrino time of flight is compatible with the arrival of all events with speed equivalent to the one of light: the difference between the expected value based on the speed of light and the measured value is tof_c - tof_nu = (0.10 \pm 0.67stat. \pm 2.39syst.) ns. This result is in agreement with the value previously reported by the ICARUS collaboration, tof_c - tof_nu = (0.3 \pm 4.9stat. \pm 9.0syst.) ns, but with improved statistical and systematic errors.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

Measurement of CNGS muon neutrino speed with Borexino

We have measured the speed of muon neutrinos with the Borexino detector using short-bunch CNGS beams. The final result for the difference in time-of-flight between a =17 GeV muon neutrino and a particle moving at the speed of light in vacuum is {\delta}t = 0.8 \pm 0.7stat \pm 2.9sys ns, well consistent with zero.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

POS1246 COVID-19 IN ITALIAN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATIC AUTOIMMUNE SYSTEMIC DISEASES: RESULTS OF A NATIONWIDE SURVEY STUDY

Background: SARS-CoV-2 infection poses a serious challenge for patients with rheumatic autoimmune systemic diseases (ASD), characterized by marked immune-system dysregulation and frequent visceral organ involvement. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in a large series of Italian patients with ASD. Methods: Our multicenter telephone survey (8-week period, March-April 2020) included a large series of 2,994 patients (584 M, 2,410 F, mean age 58.9±13.4SD years) with ASD followed at 34 tertiary referral centers of 14 regions of northern, central, and southern Italian macro areas, characterized by different prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. According to currently used criteria, Covid-19 was classified as definite Covid-19 (signs or symptoms of Covid-19 confirmed by positive oral/nasopharyngeal swabs at PCR testing) or highly suspected Covid-19 (signs or symptoms highly

Il Precise Point Positioning: confronto a distanza di orologi mediante ricevitori GPS per geodesia

Rapporto Tecnico IEN n. 68

Il Precise Point Positioning: confronto a distanza di orologi mediante ricevitori GPS per geodesia

Rapporto Tecnico IEN n. 68

Analysis of the performance of a turbocharged s.i. engine under transient operating conditions by means of fast running models

The aim of this work is the assessment of the predictive capabilities of fast running models, obtained through an appropriate reduction and simplification process from detailed 1D fluid-dynamic models, for a turbocharged s.i. engine under highly transient operating conditions. Simulations results have been compared with experimental data for different types of models, ranging from fully detailed 1D fluid-dynamic models to map-based models, quantifying the degradation of the model accuracy and the reduction in the computational time for different kinds of driving cycles, from moderately transient such as the NEDC to highly dynamic such as the US06. Although the map based approach was confirmed to be be a viable means to predict fuel economy over the NEDC cycle, even for a downsized and turbocharged engine, thanks to the low accelerations involved and to the almost negligible transients effects, it showed significant discrepancies (error higher than 5%) with the experimental data when applied to highly dynamic driving cycles such as the US06. On the other hand, the use of fast running models was demonstrated to be a suitable solution to obtain a satisfactory accuracy in the estimate of the fuel consumption also over highly dynamic driving cycles, with differences between the simulation results and the measured values which were within the repeatability range of the experimental tests. Moreover, the reduced computational effort of the fast running models allowed to reach close to real-time simulation performance

Recovery of nanoferrites from metal bearing wastes: Synthesis, characterization and adsorption study

Manganese ferrite (MnFe2O4) nanoparticles were produced by surfactant-assisted method using as metal sources both synthetic chemicals and industrial wastes (spent Li-ion batteries and pyrite ash) and performing different thermal treatments (microwave, autoclave, furnace at different temperature, oven). Nanoferrites obtained using synthetic precursor by microwave-surfactant assisted hydrothermal route showed distinct XRD peak of spinel phase; nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, BET, magnetism and adsorption tests. Nanoferrites were found to have plate shape with 715 nm width size, 5.23 emu/g, 57 ± 1 m2/g surface size, 0.59 ± 0.03 mmol/g arsenic and 0.80 ± 0.04 mmol/g copper adsorption capacity. Thermal treatment performed during synthesis by microwaves gave the best results in terms of crystallinity, surface area, magnetism and metals sorption capacity. In particular, the ideal nanoparticles were found to have octahedron shape with 22.3 nm size, 38.63 emu/g magnetism, 159 ± 1 m2/g surface size, 0.63 ± 0.03 mmol/g As(V) and 1.17 ± 0.05 mmol/g Cu(II) adsorption capacity. Then experimental findings showed that using the same optimized conditions (microwave assisted hydrothermal route) waste precursors gave nanoferrites with different morphology, similar mineralogical phase, and improved characteristics in terms of magnetic properties, surface area and metal sorption capacity