Valutazioni tecniche ed economiche sull'uso degli inseguitori solari

I processi di antropizzazione connessi allo sviluppo del settore energia hanno determinato delle “impronte” sul nostro pianeta ormai indelebili. Non resta che provare a ridurre i consumi energetici e affidare la produzione dell’energia ad un mix equilibrato di fonti. In questo contesto, con particolare riferimento alla produzione dell’energia elettrica, lo sfruttamento della risorsa solare ha assunto un ruolo di primo ordine. Gran parte delle attività di ricerca e sviluppo del settore si è concentrata sulle tecniche e sulle metodologie innovative di conversione della fonte in energia elettrica. Accanto a queste, a parità di tecnologia di conversione adottata, altre attività di ricerca e sviluppo sono state indirizzate alla ottimizzazione della produzione di energia elettrica mediante “concentrazione” della radiazione solare nel punto di collocazione del dispositivo di conversione ovvero mediante opportuna variazione dell’orientamento del dispositivo rispetto alla direzione della radiazione stessa. Tali attività di ricerca e sviluppo, intraprese dalla comunità scientifica e dal mondo imprenditoriale, certamente favoriranno un migliore sfruttamento della fonte solare e avranno ricadute in tempi diversi. Questo articolo concentra la sua attenzione su gli inseguitori solari, dispositivi di semplice applicazione basati su tecnologie consolidate, la cui diffusa applicazione potrebbe portare, in breve termine, ad un rilevante incremento di producibilità degli impianti fotovoltaici. In particolare, dopo una disamina delle caratteristiche degli inseguitori solari vengono presentati alcuni dati sull’incremento della producibilità degli impianti e alcune considerazioni di ordine tecnico ed economico circa la corretta valutazione della convenienza economica dell’uso di tali dispositivi, che sta alla base dell’effettivo sviluppo del relativo mercato

An embedded diagnostic system for wheelchairs brushless drives monitoring

The implementation of a microcontroller based monitoring system for the diagnosis of a brushless synchronous motor drives is presented. It finds its primarily interest on motorized wheelchair for disabled people. The embedded system mainly controls all the principal parameters of the electrical drives together with the power supply system. Pre-failure and failure conditions are routinely logged and, depending on the malfunction severity, alarm messages are created and sent to a remote base station by using the GSM wireless network

Design of Bilateral Switched Reluctance Linear Generator to Convert Wave Energy: Case Study in Sicily

The aim of this work is a case study of the adaptation bilateral switched reluctance linear generator to the exploitation of energy of the sea. This type of generator can be used to convert wave energy in electrical energy. In this paper we present an analytical sizing and FEM simulation. As for the results, analysis of the data extracted through the simulations it was possible to calculate the emf. The emf was calculated in two cases of motion of the slider: first hypothesis has set the constant speed while the second is a variable speed according to the law of an oscillatory motion of the sea.</jats:p

Test Bench Realization and Application of Specific Working Cycles for the Characterization of Wheelchair Electrical Drives

The life quality of motion disabled people is increased by the use of more and more sophisticated electrical wheelchairs. Despite the diffusion of such aid tools, specific technical standards for the determination of characteristic parameters of their electric drives are not so developed as the ones available for urban electric vehicles. In this paper, in order to define new technical standards for wheelchairs electrical drives, a wheelchair test bench has been purposely carried out. Moreover two specific working cycles, previously conceived and defined by some of the Authors to characterize the performances of the propulsion systems suitable for electrical wheelchair applications, have been here implemented into the test bench and exploited to test an electrical wheelchair. The tests results are particularly suitable to characterize the propulsion drive of the wheelchair

Since 2015, the first solitary bee hotels in Sicily located in the small island of Isola delle Femmine Nature Reserve, Sicily (Italy)

Natural pollinators, mainly represented by solitary apoidea, play an essential role in ecosystems and biodiversity. Their population has sharply declined recently, putting both flora and fauna biodiversity at risk. Many studies report that artificial nesting for reproducing solitary bees, also known as bee hotels, can support conservation and increase the number of pollinators. Unipa and LIPU Isola delle Femmine Nature Reserve wanted to create the first bee hotels in 2015 near the coast. In particular, the goal of this project was to protect and increase biodiversity on the islet of Isola delle Femmine, a peculiar and challenging to-balance environment where there are more than 200 botanical taxa present on the island, some of which are endemic to Sicilian north-western coast, including pollination by insects. In the current state of knowledge, it is the first case of installing bee hotels in a coastal area so close to the sea, which entailed a significant technical challenge in the construction using recycled material. The hotels built were wholly colonized in a very short period, and even when maintenance and replacement of materials were carried out in less than a week, the recolonization was rapid. Most individuals belonged to the Megachilidae family, which is characteristic of the Mediterranean. The bee hotels have also been a source of curiosity and insight for the reserve visitors. In conclusion, the bee hotel proved useful for colonizing pollinators and increasing reserve use

Practice patterns and 90-day treatment-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer

To evaluate the impact of the Laparoscopic Approach to Cervical Cancer (LACC) Trial on patterns of care and surgery-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer

Non-cruelty eradication of european rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from a small mediterranean island (Isola delle Femmine, Italy)

[EN] European rabbit is, among mammals, one of the most widespread species almost worldwide, introduced on over 800 islands. In microinsular habitats, the introduction of alien species represents a major threat to biodiversity, and the European rabbit is included in the IUCN published list of the 100 worst invasive species. In 2008, an eradication plan was launched on Isola delle Femmine , a small and uninhabited island of about 14.5 ha, located in the Mediterranean basin and established as a nature reserve in 1997 to protect its flora and vegetation. The present work was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a non-cruelty intervention through the trapping and translocation of live animals, avoiding the use of poisons or hunting in a sensitive microinsular habitat. The European rabbit eradication plan began in December 2007 and ended in 2016, with the complete eradication of the species achieved in 2012. During the 5 yr in which trapping took place on the island, a total of 799 rabbits were trapped and translocated. A significant positive correlation (r=0.986; P=0.014) was observed between the number of catches made during the year and the estimated rabbit density in July (considered the highest of the year). The method used showed considerable efficacy for the management of rabbit populations in microinsular environments, highlighting the possibility of intervention with these methods when control using poison or direct culling is impractical or inadvisable.The project has been funded by Assessorato del Territorio e dell’Ambiente della Regione Siciliana.Lillo, F.; Di Dio, V.; Lo Valvo, M. (2023). Non-cruelty eradication of european rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from a small mediterranean island (Isola delle Femmine, Italy). 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Palermo, 20: 121-159.Di Vittorio M., Lo Valvo M., Di Trapani E., Sanguinetti A., Ciaccio A., Grenci S., Zafarana M., Giacalone G., Patti N., Cacopardi S., Rannisi P., Scuderi A., Luiselli L., La Grua G., Cortone G., Merlino S., Falci A., Spinella G., López-López P. 2019. Longterm changes in the breeding period diet of Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata) in Sicily, Italy. Wildlife Res., 46: 409-414. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR18081Eberhardt L., Van Etten R.C. 1956. Evaluation of the pellet group count as a deer census method. J. Wildl. Manage., 20: 70-74. https://doi.org/10.2307/3797250Ferrand N. 2008. Inferring the evolutionary history of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from molecular markers. In: Lagomorph Biology: Evolution, Ecology and Conservation (eds Alves PC, Ferrand N, Hacklander K). Springer, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72446-9_4Flux J.E.C. 1994. World distribution. In: Thompson HV, King CM (eds). The European rabbit. Oxford Science Publications, Oxford, United Kingdom, 8-21.Flux J.E.C., Fullagar P.J. 1992. World distribution of the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus on islands. Mammal Rev., 22: 151-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2907.1992.tb00129.xFukami T., Wardle D.A., Bellingham P.J., Mulder C.P..H, Towns D.R., Yeates G.W., Bonner K.I., Durrett M.S., Grant-Hoffman M.N., Williamson W.M. 2006. Above-and below-ground impacts of introduced predators in seabird-dominated island ecosystems. Ecol. Lett., 9: 1299-1307. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00983.xGálvez-Bravo L., López-Pintor A., Rebollo S., Gómez-Sal A. 2011. European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) engineering effects promote plant heterogeneity in Mediterranean dehesa pastures. J. Arid Environ., 75: 779-786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.03.015Genovesi P., Carnevali L. 2011. Invasive alien species on European islands: eradications and priorities for future work. Pages 56-62 In: Veitch CR, Clout MN and Towns DR (eds.). 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Final report 2007 Isola delle Femmine Nature Reserve Relazione Tecnica dell’Ente Gestore LIPU Onlus, Regione Siciliana-Assessorato Territorio e Ambiente.López-Martínez N. 1989. Revisión sistemática y Biostratigráfica de los Lagomorfos (Mammalia) del Terciario y Cuaternario inferior de España. Mem. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Zaragoza: 31, 343.López-Martínez N. 2008. The Lagomorph Fossil record and the origin of the European Rabbit. In: Alves P.C., Ferrand N., Hackländer K. (eds). Lagomorph biology: evolution, ecology and conservation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, 2746. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72446-9_3Lo Valvo M., Massa B., Sarà M. 1993. Uccelli e paesaggio in Sicilia alle soglie del terzo millennio. Naturalista Sicil., 17: 1-376.Lo Valvo M., La Scala A., Scalisi M. 2014. Biometric characterisation and taxonomic considerations of european rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus 1758) in Sicily (Italy). 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Diagnosi wireless su apparecchiature elettriche affette da scariche parziali di origine interna

Tra le tecniche di rilevazione per apparecchiature elettriche affette da scariche parziali, un metodo innovativo è costituito dalla rilevazione di tipo wireless che produce vantaggi e benefici per gli utenti, i produttori di apparecchiature e le imprese distributrici dell’energia elettrica

A magnetostrictive generator for sensors network

In this paper we present a vibration harvesting electric power generator based on magnetostrictive effect for sensors network in hazardous area and we validate it experimentally. The generator has been designed by using Dynamic Preisach hysteresis Model (DPM). DPM is a development of classical Preisach Model which is able to include dynamical features in the mathematical model of hysteresis. We measure the output power capability of the generator and we estimate its power density generation capability