Heat Recovery from Urban Wastewater: Analysis of the Variability of Flow Rate and Temperature in the Sewer of Bologna, Italy

Domestic wastewater were characterize by higher temperature because inside the buildings 60% of the water was heated by showers, tubs, sinks, dishwashers and clothes washers. This heat, nowadays lost into the sewer system, could be make the wastewater a carrier of heat. This heat can be reused, for the production of clean and regenerable thermal energy, through heat exchangers and heat pumps, for the conditioning and heating of buildings. There are several options to recover this heat embedded in the wastewater: within houses (small scale applications), from the sewer (medium scale applications), or at wastewater treatment plants (large scale applications). In this paper results of a monitoring period of six months in the sewer system of Bologna (Italy) have showed the variability of wastewater flow rate and temperature and their daily trend. The trend of the flow (ratio between the hourly flow and the medium daily flow) for the generic day is linked with the population, with coefficients that are in the range of 0.25 - 1.50 with peak values ranging between 1.30 and 1.50; the trend of the sewage temperature for the generic day has coefficients in a range between 0.90 and 1.05, and it is independent by the population. The amount of thermal energy that can be obtained from wastewater and the optimally design of heat recovery systems depend on knowledge of the flow rate and wastewater temperature. This study can be useful to map the potential thermal energy of sewage systems and to design the heat recovery systems. © 2013 The Authors

Clinical and in vitro efficacy of colistin plus vancomycin and rifampin against colistin-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii causing ventilator-associated pneumonia

We present the case of a patient with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by a pan-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii successfully treated with the combination colistin plus vancomycin plus rifampin, whose in vitro activity was investigated by checkerboard method and killing testing. Furthermore, the serum bactericidal activity (SBA) was assessed. Our case shows that an innovative regimen consisting of colistin plus antimicrobials active only against Gram-positive microorganisms might represent a valid therapeutic option for severe infections caused by colistin-resistant A. baumannii

Combined Application of Real-Time Control and Green Technologies to Urban Drainage Systems

The increase in waterproof surfaces, a typical phenomenon of urbanization, on the one hand, reduces the volume of rainwater that naturally infiltrates the subsoil and, on the other, it determines the increase in speeds, flow rates, and outflow volume surface; at the same time, it causes a qualitative deterioration of the water. This study researched the optimal management of urban drainage systems via the combined application of real-time control and green technologies. A hydraulic model of the sewer system of the suburbs of Bologna (Italy) was set up using the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to evaluate the reduction in water volume and the masses of pollutants discharged in water bodies. The combined application of these technologies allows significantly reducing both the pollutants released into the receiving water bodies and the overflow volumes, while optimizing the operation of the treatment plants. Green technologies cause an average reduction equal to 45% in volume and 53% of total suspended solids (TSS) sent to the receiver. The modeled cases represent only some of the possible configurations achievable on urban drainage systems; the combined use of different solutions could lead to further improvements in the overall functioning of the drainage system

WAGNER: a new code for parametrical structural study of fuselages of civil transport aircraft

In the present paper, a new code (named WAGNER) for a parametric and automatic Finite Element mesh generation of fuselages of civil transport aircraft is presented. The code aims at providing a time saving and reliable tool in the conceptual design phase in order to evaluate stresses and deformations in the whole fuselage structure; these data allows us a preliminary structural sizing to be used as a baseline for deeper investigations and to determine the empty weight of the fuselage in view of a preliminary prediction of the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft. As an example of application, two layouts have been analysed: a non conventional two aisle single-deck (SD) with 2-4-2 passengers abreast and a double-deck (DD) with 3-3 passengers abreast/deck. FEM results for two different load cases (combined loads at limit load factor and ultimate pressurization) with geometrical linear and non-linear solutions, are finally discussed

Multi-scale analysis of the European airspace using network community detection

We show that the European airspace can be represented as a multi-scale traffic network whose nodes are airports, sectors, or navigation points and links are defined and weighted according to the traffic of flights between the nodes. By using a unique database of the air traffic in the European airspace, we investigate the architecture of these networks with a special emphasis on their community structure. We propose that unsupervised network community detection algorithms can be used to monitor the current use of the airspaces and improve it by guiding the design of new ones. Specifically, we compare the performance of three community detection algorithms, also by using a null model which takes into account the spatial distance between nodes, and we discuss their ability to find communities that could be used to define new control units of the airspace.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure

PARSIFAL Project: a breakthrough innovation in air transport

PARSIFAL is a Horizon 2020 project, started on May 2017, with the aim to design an innovative aircraft, based on the "PrandtlPlane" (PrP) conguration, for the civil aviation of the future. The PrP conguration allows us to reduce the fuel consumption and the external noise, especially during low speed ight. The high aerodynamic performances are used to limit the span to 36m, compliant with ICAO Aerodrome Reference Code C standard, and to extend the payload capacity to 250-350 passengers without signicant penalties of aerodynamic efficiency. The paper presents the overall characteristics of this innovative aircraft and how the PrP conguration could allow to improve the civil air transport of the future, as far as aircraft manufacturers, airports, airlines and passengers are concerned; in particular, some aspects of the architectural solutions and the aerodynamic design and optimization are underlined in subsonic and transonic regimes. Some details are given here on the fuselage design and the lifting system

Severe bloodstream infection due to KPC-producer e coli in a renal transplant recipient treated with the double-carbapenem regimen and analysis of in vitro synergy testing a case report

Transplant recipients are at high risk of infections caused by multidrug resistant microorganisms. Due to the limited thera- peutic options, innovative antimicrobial combinations against carbape- nem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae causing severe infections are necessary. A 61-year-old woman with a history of congenital solitary kidney underwent renal transplantation. The postoperative course was compli- cated by nosocomial pneumonia due to Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and pan-sensitive Escherichia coli, successfully treated with antimicrobial therapy. On postoperative day 22, diagnosis of surgical site infection and nosocomial pneumonia with concomitant bacteremia due to a Kle- bisella pneumoniae carbapenemase-producer E coli was made. The patient was treated with the double-carbapenem regimen (high dose of merope- nem plus ertapenem) and a potent synergistic and bactericidal activity of this un-conventional therapeutic strategy was observed in vitro. Despite a microbiological response with prompt negativity of blood cultures, the patient faced a worse outcome because of severe hemorrhagic shock. The double-carbapenem regimen might be considered as a rescue therapy in those subjects, including transplant recipients, in whom previous antimicrobial combinations failed or when colistin use might be discouraged. Performing in vitro synergy testing should be strongly encouraged in cases of infections caused by pan-drug resistant strains, especially in high-risk patients

VA-086 methacrylate gelatine photopolymerizable hydrogels: A parametric study for highly biocompatible 3D cell embedding

The ability to replicate in vitro the native extracellular matrix (ECM) features and to control the three-dimensional (3D) cell organization plays a fundamental role in obtaining functional engineered bioconstructs. In tissue engineering (TE) applications, hydrogels have been successfully implied as biomatrices for 3D cell embedding, exhibiting high similarities to the natural ECM and holding easily tunable mechanical properties. In the present study, we characterized a promising photocrosslinking process to generate cell-laden methacrylate gelatin (GelMA) hydrogels in the presence of VA-086 photoinitiator using a ultraviolet LED source. We investigated the influence of prepolymer concentration and light irradiance on mechanical and biomimetic properties of resulting hydrogels. In details, the increasing of gelatin concentration resulted in enhanced rheological properties and shorter polymerization time. We then defined and validated a reliable photopolymerization protocol for cell embedding (1.5% VA-086, LED 2 mW/cm2) within GelMA hydrogels, which demonstrated to support bone marrow stromal cells viability when cultured up to 7 days. Moreover, we showed how different mechanical properties, derived from different crosslinking parameters, strongly influence cell behavior. In conclusion, this protocol can be considered a versatile tool to obtain biocompatible cell-laden hydrogels with properties easily adaptable for different TE applications

HEp-2 Cell Classification with heterogeneous classes-processes based on K-Nearest Neighbours

We present a scheme for the feature extraction and classification of the fluorescence staining patterns of HEp-2 cells in IIF images. We propose a set of complementary processes specific to each class of patterns to search. Our set of processes consists of preprocessing,features extraction and classification. The choice of methods, features and parameters was performed automatically, using the Mean Class Accuracy (MCA) as a figure of merit. We extract a large number (108) of features able to fully characterize the staining pattern of HEp-2 cells. We propose a classification approach based on two steps: the first step follows the one-against-all(OAA) scheme, while the second step follows the one-against-one (OAO) scheme. To do this, we needed to implement 21 KNN classifiers: 6 OAA and 15 OAO. Leave-one-out image cross validation method was used for the evaluation of the results

Preliminary transonic CFD analyses of a PrandtlPlane transport aircraft

In the framework of the PARSIFAL research project, funded by the European Community in the Horizon 2020 program, the PrandtlPlane (PrP) configuration has been proposed as an innovative alternative to the current commercial aircraft of conventional architecture; the PrP configuration development is presented in order to satisfy the future air traffic growing requirements with better performances than conventional one, in terms of fuel efficiency, safety, pollution and noise emissions. In this paper a preliminary aerodynamic investigation of the transonic behaviour of the PrP wing system is presented; this study has been carried out by means of CFD analyses, with the aim to collect relevant information and to detect the proper design and operative space, fundamental for the following aerodynamic design activity of the aircraft. Investigations have been made on macro parameters (like wing loading or cruise Mach number) and also on local critical issues. The results obtained allows to design some initial reference configurations with satisfactory cruise performance in this very initial stage of the design process