Design of all electric secondary power system for future advanced MALE UAV

SAvE (Systems for UAV Alternative Energy) is a research project funded in 2007 by Piemonte Regional Government, Italy, and assigned to Politecnico di Torino and Alenia Aeronautica. Aim of the project is the study of new, more efficient, more effective and more environmentally friendly on board systems for future advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), particularly for future advanced MALE UAVs. The paper deals with the analysis and design of the all electric Secondary Power System of a future advanced MALE UAV, that we consider as "reference aircraft". After a thorough trade-off analysis of different configurations of the Secondary Power System, the hybrid configuration, characterized by generators (or better, starter/generators), fuel cells and traditional and innovative batteries, has been selected as the most promising. Detailed investigations to find the best way to apportion the supply of secondary power, considering the various power sources (generators or starter/generators, batteries and fuel cells) in the different modes of operations, have been performed thanks to an integrated simulation environment, where physical, functional and mission scenario simulations continuously exchange data and results

Design, Development and Test of Engineering Models of Tethered Nanosatellites to Observe the Solar Corona

The present work, which is based on a cooperative effort between the Group of Space Solar Physics at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino (OATo), and the AeroSpace Systems Engineering Team (ASSET), at Politecnico di Torino, is part of a wider research program known as "Studies of Solar System Exploration," funded in 2007 by ASI (Italian Space Agency). The request made by OATo was the development of the capability of taking pictures of the solar corona by means of simple and low cost optical components. ASSET developed the concept of a system consisting of two low-cost tethered nanosatellites, the Occulting and the Observing. The research program, which ended in 2010, envisaged both the conceptual design of the system and the development of experimental test-benches to test critical technologies. The following tests were performed in the Aerospace Systems Laboratory: attitude determination and control of the Occulting engineering model on a frictionless table; acquisition and transmission of pictures from the Observing engineering model to the control station; rotation of the Observing engineering model on a frictionless table; translation of the Observing engineering model on a frictionless table; and separation between the Occulting and Observing engineering models. This article summarizes the research activities carried out within the program and the primary results obtaine

Mini-uav remote control: a case study at Politecnico di Torino

Recent development of modern micro and nano technologies allows aerospace vehicles extremely small size to be constructed. Wide availability and mass production of small dimension components drastically reduce the price of such vehicles. This fact allows them to be constructed by Universities and it makes them useful for education. The Aerospace Systems Engineering Research Group (ASSET) at Politecnico di Torino the design, development and testing small, but quite complex, integrated systems. The goal of this paper is to present one of the contemporary works of this group: the Mini-UAV "ASSET" remote control/flight simulator site. This paper contains a short presentation of the Mini-UAV, a description of its onboard and ground systems and the use of COTS components. The paper explains how the ground control site has also been designed to run as a flight simulator. For this purpose MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR for 3D scenario visualization and Matlab/Simulink for airplane and environmental modeling has been used and integrated. In the system are included possibilities of ALTIA Design software exploitation for avionic display visualization. In particular some new modes for HUD, conceived and simulated, are presented and discussed in the paper. The hardware configuration of the Remote Control System/Flight Simulator is briefly described

Characterizing rings in terms of the extent of injectivity and projectivity of their modules

Given a ring R, we define its right i-profile (resp. right p-profile) to be the collection of injectivity domains (resp. projectivity domains) of its right R-modules. We study the lattice theoretic properties of these profiles and consider ways in which properties of the profiles may determine the structure of rings and viceversa. We show that the i-profile is isomorphic to an interval of the lattice of linear filters of right ideals of R, and is therefore modular and coatomic. In particular, we give a practical characterization of the i-profile of a right artinian ring. We show through an example that the p-profile is not necessarily a set, and also characterize the right p-profile of a right perfect ring. The study of rings in terms of their (i- or p-)profile was inspired by the study of rings with no (i- or p-) middle class, initiated in recent papers by Er, L\'opez-Permouth and S\"okmez, and by Holston, L\'opez-Permouth and Orhan-Ertas. In this paper, we obtain further results about these rings and we also use our results to provide a characterization of a special class of QF-rings in which the injectivity and projectivity domains of any module coincide.Comment: 19 pages, examples and propositions added. Title change

Autonomous take-off and landing for unmanned aircraft system: Risk and safety analysis

The aim of this paper is to conceive the possibility of applying the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) requirements where Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) augmentations are considered for the Automatic Take-Off and Landing (ATOL). An aircraft, belonging to the Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) category of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) has been considered as case-study. Once the avionic architecture has been designed, the Safety and risk analysis was carried out with a particular focus on Functional Hazard Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis techniques. The proposed methodology allows the researchers to evaluate the reliability of each avionic equipment and the safety level of the whole avionic system. Furthermore, the results pointed out the main criticalities of the architecture and some future in-depth studies are proposed

Is It Safe to Combine a Fundoplication to Sleeve Gastrectomy? Review of Literature

Complicacions; Fundoplicatura; MànigaComplicaciones; Funduplicatura; MangaComplications; Fundoplication; SleeveBackground and Objectives: The rising numbers of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) procedures now being performed worldwide will likely be followed by an increasing number of patients experiencing gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). The purpose of the current review was to analyze in terms of safety different techniques of fundoplication used to treat GERD associated with LSG. Methods: An online search was performed in PubMed/MEDLINE in December 2020 to identify articles reporting LSG and fundoplication. The following term combination was used: (sleeve, fundoplication), (sleeve, Nissen), (sleeve, Rossetti), (sleeve, Toupet) and (sleeve, Dor). The extracted information included details of the methods (e.g., retrospective case series), demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender), clinical characteristics, number of patients, rate of conversion, and postoperative outcomes. Results: A total of 154 studies were identified and after an assessment of title according to our exclusion criteria, 116 articles were removed. Of the 38 studies analyzed for full content review, a total of seven primary studies (487 patients) were identified with all inclusion criteria. Analyzing the different types of fundoplication used, we have identified: 236 cases of Nissen-Sleeve, 220 cases with modified Rossetti fundoplication, 31 cases of Dor fundoplication, and no case of Toupet fundoplication. The overall postoperative complication rate was 9.4%, with the most common reported complication being gastric perforation, 15 cases—3.1%. The second most common complication was bleeding identified in nine cases (1.8%) followed by gastric stenosis in six cases (1.2%). The mortality was nil. Conclusions: Different types of fundoplication associated with LSG appear to be a safe surgical technique with an acceptable early postoperative complication rate. Any type of fundoplication associated with LSG to decrease GERD should be evaluated cautiously while prospective clinical randomized trials are needed.This research received no external funding

Endoscopic Gastric Band Removal

Complication; Endoscopy; Laparoscopic adjustable gastric bandComplicación; Endoscopia; Banda gástrica ajustable laparoscópicaComplicació; Endoscòpia; Banda gàstrica ajustable laparoscòpicaBackground: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB) procedures have declined worldwide in recent years. A known complication is the intraluminal erosion of the prosthetic material. The endoscopic management of gastric band erosion represents the recommended approach nowadays, and it avoids any additional trauma to the gastric wall already damaged by the migration. The purpose of our study was to assess the feasibility of endoscopic management for intraluminal gastric band erosion following LAGB. Methods: From January 2009–December 2020, a total of 29 patients were retrospectively reviewed after undergoing endoscopic gastric band removal. The study included all consecutive patients who underwent endoscopic gastric band removal in this period. No patients were excluded from the study. Data on patient demographic characteristics, case history, operative details (procedural time, adverse events), and complications were reviewed retrospectively. Results: Twenty-nine patients underwent endoscopic gastric band removal: 22 women (75.8%) with a mean age of 45 years (range: 28–63) and mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of 31 ± 4.7 kg/m2 (range: 24–41). The average time to the identification of erosion after LAGB was 42 months (range: 28–137). The initial upper endoscopy found a migrated band of more than half of the diameter in 21 cases, less than a half but more than a third in seven cases and in one case, less than a third (use of a stent). Twenty-seven patients were successfully treated with endoscopic removal, and in two cases, the endoscopic approach failed, and laparoscopy was further performed. Conclusions: The endoscopic management of intraluminal erosion after LAGB can be safe and effective and should be considered the procedure of choice when treating this complication. The percentage of the band migration is important for the timing of the endoscopic removal

Is the Surgical Drainage Mandatory for Leak after Sleeve Gastrectomy?

Septotomy; Sleeve gastrectomy; Surgical drainageSeptotomía; Gastrectomía en manga; Drenaje quirúrgicoSeptotomia; Gastrectomia en màniga; Drenatge quirúrgicIntroduction: Despite the unanimous acknowledgement of the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) worldwide, the leak remains its deficiency. For the last decade, the surgical treatment was practically considered mandatory for almost any collection following LSG. The aim of this study is to evaluate the need for surgical drainage for leak following LSG. Methods: All consecutive patients having gone through LSG from January 2017 to December 2020 were enrolled in our study. Once the demographic data and the leak history were registered, we analyzed the outcome of the surgical or endoscopic drainage, the characteristics of the endoscopic treatment, and the evolution to complete healing. Results: A total of 1249 patients underwent LSG and the leak occurred in 11 cases (0.9%). There were 10 women with a mean age of 47.8 years (27–63). The surgical drainage was performed for three patients and the rest of the eight patients underwent primary endoscopic treatment. The endoscopic treatment was represented with pigtails for seven cases and septotomy with balloon dilation for four cases. In two out of these four cases, the septotomy was anticipated by the use of a nasocavitary drain for 2 weeks. The average number of endoscopic procedures was 3.2 (range 2–6). The leaks achieved complete healing after an average duration of 4.8 months (range 1–9 months). No mortality was recorded for a leak. Conclusions: The treatment of the gastric leak must be tailored to each patient. Although there is still no consensus for the endoscopic drainage of leaks after LSG, the surgical approach can be avoided in up to 72%. The benefits of pigtails and nasocavitary drains followed by endoscopic septotomy are undeniable, and they should be included in the armamentarium of any bariatric center