Design and Performance of a High Temperature Superconducting Axial Flux Generator

In this paper, a high temperature axial flux (HTSAF) generator is presented. In this generator the excitation of the generator is obtained by using some high temperature superconducting magnets. In order to reduce the negative effects of vibrations, the excitation is located on the stationary part of the generator. Starting, running and endurance tests of the machine are presented

Evaluation of the Potential Energy from Wave Motion on the Sicilian coast

The purpose of this articles is quantitatively evaluate the wave climate variations of the northern Sicilian coasts. In particular, the objective of the study is Castellammare del Golfo, a marine site between Trapani and Palermo. In particular in this research, the wave energy of the Sicily has been studied by an analysis of wave data carried out in a 10- year period, using the measurements of buoyant of RON. The north-western and southern coasts of Sicily have a lower potential with average wave power ranging between 2.5 and 6.5 kW/m

Smoothing T cell roads to the tumor: Chemokine post-translational regulation

We described a novel tumor-associated immunosuppressive mechanism based on post-translational modifications of chemokines by reactive nitrogen species (RNS). To overcome tumor immunosuppressive hindrances, we designed and developed a new drug, AT38, that inhibits RNS generation at the tumor site. Combinatorial approaches with AT38 boost the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy protocols

Gli effetti della scala Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool nella valutazione e gestione del dolore nei pazienti con lesioni cerebrali ricoverati in terapia intensiva

INTRODUCTION. Accurate pain assessment and management in critically ill patients withcognitive alterations who are unable to communicate constitute a major challenge for themedical and nursing staff of Intensive Care Units (ICUs). This study want assess the impact of Critical Care Pain Observation Tool (CCPOT) scale in ICU practice and evaluate the effects on pain assessment and management in brain-injured critically ill adult patients.  METHODS. This before-and-after study was carried out in an Italian ICU, where data were collected before (T0) and after (T1) implementation of the CCPOT in brain-injured critically ill adults.  RESULTS. The study population consisted of 81 patients (35 before and 46 after intervention). The use of propofol fell significantly (propofol: t(80) = 1.83, p =.03) and at the same time the use of morphine increase significantly (morphine: t(80) = 1.51, p =.02) after intervention.Analysis of the data with respect to pain relief and prevention during some nursing care activities revealed a significant increase in the use of fentanyl citrate (x2(1)= 4.04, p =.04) and paracetamol (x2(1)= 5.30, p =.02). Pain management was in line with the protocol, which envisaged administration of pain medications to patients with CCPOT scores > 3 in 76.8% of cases.  CONCLUSION. The present findings strongly support the value of the CCPOT scale in managing ICU patient pain in conjunction with medical and nursing staff training. However, further studies of larger patient samples should be performed. critiche con alterazioni cognitive non in grado di comunicare, costituiscono una grande sfida per il personale medico e infermieristico delle Terapie Intensive (TI). Questo studio vuole valutare l'impatto della scala CCPOT in TI, valutandone gli effetti sulla valutazione e gestione del dolore nei pazienti adulti con lesioni cerebrali.  METODI. Questo studio before-after è stato condotto in una terapia intensiva italiana, in cui i dati sono stati raccolti prima (T0) e dopo (T1) l'implementazione dello strumento.  RISULTATI. La popolazione di studio era composta da 81 pazienti (35 prima e 46 dopo l'intervento). L'uso di propofol è diminuito in modo significativo (propofol: t(80) = 1.83, p = .03) e allo stesso tempo, l'uso della morfina è aumentata in modo significativo (morfina: t(80) = 1,51, p = .02) dopo il nostro intervento. L'analisi dei dati relativi al sollievo dal dolore e alla prevenzione durante alcune attività di assistenza infermieristica ha rivelato un aumento significativo dell'uso di fentanil citrato (x2(1) = 4.04, p = .04) e paracetamolo (x2(1) = 5.30, p = .02). La gestione del dolore era in linea con il protocollo, che prevedeva la somministrazione di antidolorifici a pazienti con punteggi CCPOT > 3 nel 76.8% dei casi.  CONCLUSIONE. I risultati supportano fortemente il valore della scala CCPOT nella gestione del dolore dei pazienti in terapia intensiva unitamente alla formazione del personale medico einfermieristico. Tuttavia, devono essere eseguiti ulteriori studi su campioni di pazienti didimensioni maggiori.&nbsp

Hydrogen Production from Sea Wave for Alternative Energy Vehicles for Public Transport in Trapani (Italy)

The coupling of renewable energy and hydrogen technologies represents in the mid-term a very interesting way to match the tasks of increasing the reliable exploitation of wind and sea wave energy and introducing clean technologies in the transportation sector. This paper presents two different feasibility studies: the first proposes two plants based on wind and sea wave resource for the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen for public transportation facilities in theWest Sicily; the second applies the same approach to Pantelleria (a smaller island), including also some indications about solar resource. In both cases, all buses will be equipped with fuel-cells. A first economic analysis is presented together with the assessment of the avoidable greenhouse gas emissions during the operation phase. The scenarios addressed permit to correlate the demand of urban transport to renewable resources present in the territories and to the modern technologies available for the production of hydrogen from renewable energies. The study focuses on the possibility of tapping the renewable energy potential (wind and sea wave) for the hydrogen production by electrolysis. The use of hydrogen would significantly reduce emissions of particulate matter and greenhouse gases in urban districts under analysis. The procedures applied in the present article, as well as the main equations used, are the result of previous applications made in different technical fields that show a good replicability

The Desalination Process Driven by Wave Energy: A Challenge for the Future

The correlation between water and energy is currently the focus of several investigations. In particular, desalination is a technological process characterized by high energy consumptionnevertheless, desalination represents the only practicable solution in several areas, where the availability of fresh water is limited but brackish water or seawater are present. These natural resources (energy and water) are essential for each otherenergy system conversion needs water, and electrical energy is necessary for water treatment or transport. Several interesting aspects include the study of saline desalination as an answer to freshwater needs and the application of renewable energy (RE) devices to satisfy electrical energy requirement for the desalination process. A merge between renewable energy and desalination is beneficial in that it is a sustainable and challenging option for the future. This work investigates the possibility of using renewable energy sources to supply the desalination process. In particular, as a case study, we analyze the application of wave energy sources in the Sicilian context.Univ Palermo UNIPA, Dept Energy Informat Engn & Math Models, I-90128 Palermo, ItalyUniv Fed Sao Paulo UNIFESP, Dept Ciencias Exatas & Terra, BR-09910720 Sao Paulo, BrazilDepartament of Ciências Exatas e da Terra, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Sao Paulo 09910-720, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Dynamic Preisach hystersis model for magnetostrictive materials for energy application

Recently Magnetostrictive materials have been proposed as active materials to be used in several energy harvesting technology [1]. In this kind of application, the working condition of the material is highly dynamic and non linear. As a result static models of magnetostrictive materials are usually not very accurate and can be not reliable to develop a sufficiently accurate designof the energy harvesting devices. The presence of hysteresis requires accurate mathematical modeling in order to correctly foresee the behavior of real materials (ferromagnetic or magnetostrictive) used in control systems or in electrical machines and thus simplifying the design of such controllers or predicting with acceptable accuracy electromagnetic fields in such devices[2]. In order to overcome this problem, this paper addresses the development of Dynamic Preisach hysteresis model (DPM) for magnetostrictive materials for energy application operating in hysteretic and time varying nonlinear regimes. DPM is a development of classical Preisach Model which is able to include dynamical features in the mathematical model of hysteresis. In this paper the magnetostrictive material considered is Terfenol-D. Its hysteresis is modeled by applying the DPM whose identification procedure is performed by using a neural network procedure previously publised [3]. The neural network used is a multiplayer perceptron trained with the Levenberg-Marquadt training algorithm. This allows to obtain both Everett integrals and the Preisach distribution function, without any special conditioning of the measured data, owing to the filtering capabilities of the neural network interpolators. The model is able to reconstruct both the magnetization relation and the Field-strain relation. The model is validated through comparison and prediction of data collected from a typical Terfenol-D transducer

A procedure to evaluate the indoor global quality by a sub objective-objective procedure

This paper proposes two complementary procedures for assessing the indoor global comfort: the first one, prevalently objective, is based on the acquisition of microclimate measured data and computed subjective values; the second one, that is purely subjective, uses a questionnaire drawn from the ISO/DP 10551 Recommendation. An application to some lecture-halls is here showe