Torsional Dynamic Performance of a Transmission Test Bench: An Investigation on the Effect of Motors Controllers Parameters

Besides in-vehicle testing, automotive powertrains and their subsystems are extensively studied and verified, in the different development phases, through dedicated test benches having various mechanical layouts according to the specific target. The torsional load is typically applied to the transmission by electric motors connected at both ends of the driveline. The electric motors drives allow speed and torque closed-loop control so that the desired combination of speed and torque can be imposed over time during the experiment. The parameters of such controllers therefore play a crucial role in the torsional dynamic behavior of the bench and therefore must be carefully selected and tuned to achieve optimal reference tracking and disturbance rejection performance. This paper aims at proposing a model-based sensitivity analysis of the PID controllers parameters starting from an experimentally validated torsional model of a Dual Clutch Transmission test rig. The methodology here proposed also contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 11 promoted by ONU

THE MANAGEMENT AND CAPITALIZATION OF THE LANDSCAPING POTENTIAL OF THE CRUCII SQUARE FROM TIMISOARA CITY

The Crucii Square is situated in the Elisabetin district in the city of Timisoara, in a residential area. According to a map from 1849, the current Crucii Square is situated on the very line of the building injunction circle around the fortress of Timisoara. The square name originates from an old cross which was preserved until today. Taking into the age of the oldest trees, the square was set as a green space after 1920. The current landscaping consists in tracing and slabbing the allies and building a new hero monument, also dates from after 1920. The square’s surface is of 6255mp. In the present paper we carried out an estimate of the green space and determined the current vegetation state, since green cadastre is the only way to determine the real state of green spaces belonging to a city’s patrimony, including parks and squares as well as the entire street vegetation (Ciupa et al., 2005). The paper‘s character is thus that of a vegetation fund inventory, as well as organisational design based on ecologic and landscaping criteria. The paper also comprises a square landscaping proposal, highlighting the site’s historic character and the high vegetation value

Quantum-thermal annealing with cluster-flip algorithm

A quantum-thermal annealing method using a cluster-flip algorithm is studied in the two-dimensional spin-glass model. The temperature (T) and the transverse field (Gamma) are decreased simultaneously with the same rate along a linear path on the T-Gamma plane. We found that the additional pulse of the transverse field to the frozen local spins produces a good approximate solution with a low computational cost.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Power-Gating Technique for Network-on-Chip Buffers

A new approach to reducing leakage power in network-on-chip buffers is presented. The non-uniformity of buffer utilisation is leveraged across the network and power-gating is applied to scarcely utilised buffers. Instead of turning-off the buffers completely, a buffer portion is kept turned-on. This design choice has a significant performance benefit because the buffer is always able to receive network packets. Design aspects and trade-offs in a 45 nm CMOS technology are discussed and results obtained over video application benchmarks are presented. It is shown that it is possible to reduce buffer leakage by 40% without performance penalt

Vehicle sideslip estimation for four-wheel-steering vehicles using a particle filter

The availability of the most relevant vehicle states is crucial for the development of advanced vehicle control systems and driver assistance systems. Specifically the vehicle sideslip angle plays a key role, yet this state is unpractical to measure and still not straightforward to estimate. This paper investigates a particle filter approach to estimate the chassis sideslip angle of road vehicles. The filter relies on a physical model of the vehicle and on measurements available from cheap and widespread sensors including inertial measurement unit and steering wheel angle sensor(s). The approach is validated using experimental data collected with the research platform RoboMobil (RoMo), a by-wire electric vehicle with wheel-individual traction and steering actuators. Results show that the performance of the proposed particle filter is satisfactory, and indicate directions for further improvement

On the model-based design of front-to-total anti-roll moment distribution controllers for yaw rate tracking

In passenger cars active suspensions have been traditionally used to enhance comfort through body control, and handling through the reduction of the tyre load variations induced by road irregularities. However, active suspensions can also be designed to track a desired yaw rate profile through the control of the anti-roll moment distribution between the front and rear axles. The effect of the anti-roll moment distribution relates to the nonlinearity of tyre behaviour, which is difficult to capture in the linearised vehicle models normally used for control design. Hence, the tuning of anti-roll moment distribution controllers is usually based on heuristics. This paper includes an analysis of the effect of the lateral load transfer on the lateral axle force and cornering stiffness. A linearised axle force formulation is presented, and compared with a formulation from the literature, based on a quadratic relationship between cornering stiffness and load transfer. Multiple linearised vehicle models for control design are assessed in the frequency domain, and the respective controllers are tuned through optimisation routines. Simulation results from a nonlinear vehicle model are discussed to analyse the performance of the controllers, and show the importance of employing accurate models of the lateral load transfer effect during control design

Renewing Criminalized and Hegemonic Cultural Landscapes

The Mafia's long historical pedigree in Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy, has empowered the Mafioso as a notorious, uncontested, and hegemonic figure. The counter-cultural resistance against the mafiosi culture began to be institutionalized in the early 1990s. Today, Libera Terra is the largest civil society organization in the country that uses the lands confiscated from the Mafia as a space of cultural repertoire to realize its ideals. Deploying labor force through volunteer participation, producing biological fruits and vegetables, and providing information to the students on the fields are the principal cultural practices of this struggle. The confiscated lands make the Italian experience of anti-Mafia resistance a unique example by connecting the land with the ideals of cultural change. The sociocultural resistance of Libera Terra conveys a political message through these practices and utters that the Mafia is not invincible. This study draws the complex panorama of the Mafia and anti-Mafia movement that uses the ‘confiscated lands’ as cultural and public spaces for resistance and socio-cultural change. In doing so, this article sheds new light on the relationship between rural criminology and crime prevention policies in Southern Italy by demonstrating how community development practice of Libera Terra changes the meaning of landscape through iconographic symbolism and ethnographic performance

Catestatin Increases the Expression of Anti-Apoptotic and Pro-Angiogenetic Factors in the Post-Ischemic Hypertrophied Heart of SHR.

BACKGROUND:In the presence of comorbidities the effectiveness of many cardioprotective strategies is blunted. The goal of this study was to assess in a hypertensive rat model if the early reperfusion with anti-hypertensive and pro-angiogenic Chromogranin A-derived peptide, Catestatin (CST:hCgA352-372; CST-Post), protects the heart via Reperfusion-Injury-Salvage-Kinases (RISK)-pathway activation, limiting infarct-size and apoptosis, and promoting angiogenetic factors (e.g., hypoxia inducible factor, HIF-1α, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase, eNOS, expression). METHODS AND RESULTS:The effects of CST-Post on infarct-size, apoptosis and pro-angiogenetic factors were studied in isolated hearts of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), which underwent the following protocols: (a) 30-min ischemia and 120-min reperfusion (I/R); (b) 30-min ischemia and 20-min reperfusion (I/R-short), both with and without CST-Post (75 nM for 20-min at the beginning of reperfusion). In unprotected Wistar-Kyoto hearts, used as normal counterpart, infarct-size resulted smaller than in SHR. CST-Post reduced significantly infarct-size and improved post-ischemic cardiac function in both strains. After 20-min reperfusion, CST-Post induced S-nitrosylation of calcium channels and phosphorylation of RISK-pathway in WKY and SHR hearts. Yet specific inhibitors of the RISK pathway blocked the CST-Post protective effects against infarct in the 120-min reperfusion groups. Moreover, apoptosis (evaluated by TUNEL, ARC and cleaved caspase) was reduced by CST-Post. Importantly, CST-Post increased expression of pro-angiogenetic factors (i.e., HIF-1α and eNOS expression) after two-hour reperfusion. CONCLUSIONS:CST-Post limits reperfusion damages and reverses the hypertension-induced increase of I/R susceptibility. Moreover, CST-Post triggers antiapoptotic and pro-angiogenetic factors suggesting that CST-Post can be used as an anti-maladaptive remodeling treatment

The scientist' experience in participated science communication

Since 2006 a small group of researchers from the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics started to realized one of the first European Researchers' Night in Europe: a one night-event, supported by the European Commission, that falls every last Friday of September to promote the researcher's figure and its work. Today, after thirteen editions, the project has evolved by involving more than 60 scientific partners and more than 400 events/year spread from the North to the South of Italy in 30 cities, captivating more than 50.000 attendees with a not negligible impact on the people and the press. During the years, the project has followed and sometimes anticipated the science communication trend, and BEES (BE a citizEn Scientist) is the last step of this long and thrilling evolution that brought to a huge public engagement in our territory. The experience, the methodology, and the major successful examples of the organized events are presented together with the results of the long term project impact