The Smart City Energy Infrastructures at the Savona Campus of the University of Genoa

This paper presents ongoing research activities and technology upgrades carried out by the Power System Research team of the University of Genoa on the Smart City test-bed facilities installed at the Savona Campus. These facilities consist of a Smart Polygeneration Microgrid (SPM) feeding the Campus, of a Smart Energy Building (SEB) connected to the SPM and acting as a \u201cprosumer\u201d and of an Energy Management System (EMS) controlling the Campus generating units and thermal and electrical loads. The SPM, initially set up as a grid-tied system, is now subjected to further improvements in order to be operated in islanded mode. The paper shows that all the aforementioned infrastructures constitute a real example of how to build a sustainable smart city

anomalous origin of left main coronary artery from the right coronary artery echocardiographic diagnosis

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Energy management in hybrid systems coupling PV and electrical storage

In this contribution the possible benefits of the integration of a storage system (ST) and a photovoltaic power plant (PV) are investigated by means of a Heuristic Rules System (HRS), used both for the determination of the optimal size of the components and for the power production scheduling. The HRS takes into account the well-known electrical constraints and aims at satisfying the electrical demand following a priority order (PV, ST, main grid). Experimental results in the case of four possible scenarios are presented and discussed

A simple strategy to optimally design and manage a photovoltaic plant integrated with a storage system for different applications

The main goal of the present paper is that of proposing a methodology for the optimal sizing of a Photovoltaic (PV) unit and a Storage (ST) device, basing on data concerning typical load and PV production profiles. To achieve this result, a set of simple requirements to manage the charging/discharging of the storage is firstly proposed. Then, the overall cost of the whole system is deduced as a function of two variables (PV and ST sizes) and minimized in order to find the optimal sizing of the system. Finally, an economic analysis is presented to determine whether or not the investment is profitable

Adherence to antibiotic treatment guidelines and outcomes in the hospitalized elderly with different types of pneumonia

Background: Few studies evaluated the clinical outcomes of Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP), Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia (HAP) and Health Care-Associated Pneumonia (HCAP) in relation to the adherence of antibiotic treatment to the guidelines of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) in hospitalized elderly people (65 years or older). Methods: Data were obtained from REPOSI, a prospective registry held in 87 Italian internal medicine and geriatric wards. Patients with a diagnosis of pneumonia (ICD-9 480-487) or prescribed with an antibiotic for pneumonia as indication were selected. The empirical antibiotic regimen was defined to be adherent to guidelines if concordant with the treatment regimens recommended by IDSA/ATS for CAP, HAP, and HCAP. Outcomes were assessed by logistic regression models. Results: A diagnosis of pneumonia was made in 317 patients. Only 38.8% of them received an empirical antibiotic regimen that was adherent to guidelines. However, no significant association was found between adherence to guidelines and outcomes. Having HAP, older age, and higher CIRS severity index were the main factors associated with in-hospital mortality. Conclusions: The adherence to antibiotic treatment guidelines was poor, particularly for HAP and HCAP, suggesting the need for more adherence to the optimal management of antibiotics in the elderly with pneumonia

Smoking status during first-line immunotherapy and chemotherapy in NSCLC patients: A case–control matched analysis from a large multicenter study

Background: Improved outcome in tobacco smoking patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following immunotherapy has previously been reported. However, little is known regarding this association during first-line immunotherapy in patients with high PD-L1 expression. In this study we compared clinical outcomes according to the smoking status of two large multicenter cohorts. Methods: We compared clinical outcomes according to the smoking status (never smokers vs. current/former smokers) of two retrospective multicenter cohorts of metastatic NSCLC patients, treated with first-line pembrolizumab and platinum-based chemotherapy. Results: A total of 962 NSCLC patients with PD-L1 expression ≥50% who received first-line pembrolizumab and 462 NSCLC patients who received first-line platinum-based chemotherapy were included in the study. Never smokers were confirmed to have a significantly higher risk of disease progression (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.49 [95% CI: 1.15–1.92], p = 0.0022) and death (HR = 1.38 [95% CI: 1.02–1.87], p = 0.0348) within the pembrolizumab cohort. On the contrary, a nonsignificant trend towards a reduced risk of disease progression (HR = 0.74 [95% CI: 0.52–1.05], p = 0.1003) and death (HR = 0.67 [95% CI: 0.45–1.01], p = 0.0593) were reported for never smokers within the chemotherapy cohort. After a random case–control matching, 424 patients from both cohorts were paired. Within the matched pembrolizumab cohort, never smokers had a significantly shorter progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 1.68 [95% CI: 1.17–2.40], p = 0.0045) and a nonsignificant trend towards a shortened overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.32 [95% CI: 0.84–2.07], p = 0.2205). On the contrary, never smokers had a significantly longer PFS (HR = 0.68 [95% CI: 0.49–0.95], p = 0.0255) and OS (HR = 0.66 [95% CI: 0.45–0.97], p = 0,0356) compared to current/former smoker patients within the matched chemotherapy cohort. On pooled multivariable analysis, the interaction term between smoking status and treatment modality was concordantly statistically significant with respect to ORR (p = 0.0074), PFS (p = 0.0001) and OS (p = 0.0020), confirming the significantly different impact of smoking status across the two cohorts. Conclusions: Among metastatic NSCLC patients with PD-L1 expression ≥50% receiving first-line pembrolizumab, current/former smokers experienced improved PFS and OS. On the contrary, worse outcomes were reported among current/former smokers receiving first-line chemotherapy

Evaluation of capacitance matrix of a finite-length multiconductor transmission line

A method for the evaluation of the capacitance matrix of a system of finite-length onductors is given. It is shown that the problem can be reduced to the solution of a convolution type integrodifferential equation system and an effective and accurate procedure to cope with this is described. The procedure first appfies the convolution theorem to the initial integrodifferential equation system to obtain an algebraic one in terms of the Fourier coefficient of the original unknown function. Next, this new system is diagonalised and reduced to a set of decoupled equations. These are then solved by means of an ad hoc developed algorithm, essentially based on a representation of the Fourier coefficient in terms of the Neumann series. The proposed approach is applied to a two-conductor test line and the obtained numerical results for different conductors radius values are compared with those provided by the classical infinite-length-conductor approximation. \ua9 IEE, 2004

A new method for the solution of convolution-type dual integral-equation systems occurring in engineering electromagnetics

A general method for the solution of dual integral-equation systems is discussed in the context of applications in engineering electromagnetics. The approach follows a formulation based on a Fourier-series expansion of the unknown function and a successive expansion in a Neumann series of the Fourier-series coefficients. It is characterized by better convergence properties than classical numerical techniques usually adopted to solve the same class of problems and low computational costs. The efficiency and the performance of the proposed method are illustrated using the example of a typical electrostatic problem: the evaluation of the charge distribution of a hollow conducting cylinder, starting from the knowledge of the potential on the surface. \ua9 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Current and near field calculations for cellular base-station collinear array antennas

In this paper, we present a new formulation for the evaluation of the electromagnetic field levels in the near zone of a cellular radio base-station collinear array antenna. The algorithm allows to determine the real current distribution along each half-wave dipole forming the array for a given exciting function and it enables to take into account the effects of mutual coupling among array elements. Once the antenna current distribution has been determined, the radiated field in the near zone is reconstructed using the integro-differential equation relating field and current. The developed algorithm, tested respectively on a 4-element and S-element collinear array antenna operating at 900 MHz, allows to accurately analyze the response of dipole arrays with a computational cost significantly lower than that of a classical method of moments