Tomato puree convective heat transfer simulation using boussinesq approximation

With the advance of new technologies, the food industries are requiring systems that allow to produce the desired products with faster rates at cheaper costs. In this case, the study was initiated with the purpose to better understand what happens inside a package containing tomato puree when this is heated above 343 K in a tunnel pasteurizer. If the fluid must reach the thermal and microbiological condition of “pasteurization”, the system must guarantee that the temperature (around 343° Kelvin) is kept for a certain time allowing to pasteurize even the cooler package’s fluid-particle. The faster the system can heat the bottle, the higher the productivity could be but, to guarantee the same heat treatment, it may be needed a longer tunnel, raising equipment costs and space allocation. While looking at the thermal conditions of the package, it was decided to check the existence of any convective movement along the boundaries of the very viscous fluid. The research was conducted using the OpenFoam application, an open-source CFD simulation system based on Linux OS. The study started from simple cases in 2-dimensional geometry, and gradually were added more complex situations to the model (3D, non-newtonian conditions, rotation). The simulation showed the fluid flow behavior resulting in very poor convective movements along the fluid’s boundaries; temperature profiles were studied for both vertical, horizontal and rotating cylinders proving the latter as the most efficient condition for a pasteurization heat treatment

The Construction of “Discomfort Psychological”: An Exploration of Italians Teachers\u27 Reports

Although there are several studies on youth problems in school, there are few studies on how teachers report psychological discomfort of the students and on what criteria does their procedure. Considering that schools increasingly make such reports to social or neuropsychiatry services, we wanted to find out whether it is flawless (bias, etc.) and how it can affect a student\u27s career. This research presents an investigation on how the practice of signaling psychological discomfort at school is set up. Objects of the survey are the procedures used by the teachers to submit the psychological problems. The research subjects were Secondary School teachers. In this research, we used qualitative research methods. We specifically chose to use a semi-structured interview. The data analysis was conducted in line with the analysis of the conventional content. From an analysis of the responses, it is possible to highlight that there is no generally agreed description of psychological discomfort, that the criteria for identifying distress are different and that the way in which they follow the reporting procedure varies very much from teacher to teacher. Finally, we discuss the implications of individualized reports both for the school course of the student and for the requirements of the teachers

Analysis of different Hybrid TEG/TEC Configurations

The growing demand for electricity and the looming environmental crisis are the main challenges to be faced and solved today. This calls for innovative energy conversion systems, for which efficiency and reliability are among the most sought-after features. Thermoelectric generators are devices that can offer partial or complete solutions to these challenges of the new millennium. The advantages of these technologically advanced devices are many: they are environmentally friendly, reliable and have a long service life. Furthermore, by applying thermoelectric generators, it is possible to improve the efficiency of existing systems or meet the electricity demand of different systems with high flexibility. At the same time, their low conversion efficiency has so far prevented their wide application, limiting them mainly to research. However, recent advances in thermoelectric materials and devices are pushing this technology to find its place among state-of-the-art energy conversion systems. This review explores the state of the art in terms of research and solutions already on the market, in order to illustrate a comprehensive and realistic perspective of the PV-TEG/TEC structures

Integrated apparatus for supporting and cooling a photovoltaic panel

The patented integrated Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) cooling system efficiently and space-savingly removes heat from solar cells during periods of high solar radiation. Unlike existing products that utilise the Peltier and Seebeck effect, in the patented system the Seebeck effect occurs internally in the heat sink itself, which acts entirely as a carrier for the cells, and only a small part of the removed heat is used to provide the required temperature difference. The invention results in a clear simplification of solar cell cooling and thermoelectric conversion technology. This also leads to cascading economic advantages in terms of overall system costs. We have started extensive research into new innovative and efficient materials to further improve the efficiency of the system and provide an increasingly competitive product for the market..We are looking for collaborators, joint-venturers and investors

Progetto per una chiave interattiva per l’identificazione delle libellule italiane

La Società Italiana per lo Studio e la Conservazione delle Libellule (ODONATA.IT) ha tra i suoi scopi quello di promuovere lo studio odonatologico di base e applicativo, di promuovere la diffusione delle conoscenze sull'argomento e di adoperarsi alla loro divulgazione. Nel 2014 pubblica l’Atlante delle libellule italiane, volume che rappresenta la prima mappatura delle specie di libellule in Italia e che offre un quadro aggiornato e reale della conoscenza sulla composizione e la distribuzione degli odonati in Italia. Dall'ottobre dello stesso anno poi, aderisce alla piattaforma Ornitho.it per la raccolta dati sul territorio nazionale. Il processo di segnalazione prevede una fase di verifica e validazione dei dati da parte di esperti che, grazie alla possibilità da parte del segnalatore di poter allegare immagini, vengono facilitati nello svolgimento del loro compito. Infatti, con l'apertura a un pubblico anche di meno esperti alla raccolta dei dati, la possibilità di ricevere informazioni inesatte è sempre dietro l'angolo. Quindi se da un lato la piattaforma Ornitho.it apre enormi possibilità sul piano del monitoraggio, della raccolta di informazioni e della loro divulgazione, dall'altro diventa anche una possibile fonte di dati erronei. Per questo motivo si è resa da subito evidente la necessità di formare o poter fornire strumenti che aiutino un pubblico anche meno esperto, ma comunque estremamente appassionato, nella determinazione delle libellule osservate. Si è pensato perciò di creare una chiave dicotomica che aiuti e faciliti il grande pubblico nell'identificazione degli adulti di libellula italiani. La chiave sarà costruita attraverso la struttura del progetto KeyToNature, appongiandosi alla versione italiana Dryades. KeyToNature è un progetto europeo, coordinato dall'Università di Trieste e finanziato dalla Commissione Europea nell'ambito del Programma eContentplus, centrato sullo sviluppo di strumenti innovativi per l'identificazione degli organismi e sulla loro introduzione nel mondo della scuola, dalle elementari all'università. Il sito web di Dryades permette l'accesso a guide interattive per l'identificazione di piante funghi e animali, ad archivi iconografici e a diverse banche dati sulla biodiversità dell'Italia. Oltre a essere un perfetto strumento da affiancare alla piattaforma Ornitho.it sarà anche una grande opportunità di sensibilizzazione e diffusione delle conoscenze sul mondo delle Libellule. Per la realizzazione del progetto sarà chiesto il coinvolgimento di tutti i soci di ODONATA.IT per il reperimento della parte iconografica, fondamentale per lo sviluppo e la realizzazione della chiave e per la fase di test, che servirà ad affinare e a migliorare il prodotto in modo tale che sia di facile utilizzo e comprensione sin da subito

Generative Adversarial Models for People Attribute Recognition in Surveillance

In this paper we propose a deep architecture for detecting people attributes (e.g. gender, race, clothing ...) in surveillance contexts. Our proposal explicitly deal with poor resolution and occlusion issues that often occur in surveillance footages by enhancing the images by means of Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks (DCGAN). Experiments show that by combining both our Generative Reconstruction and Deep Attribute Classification Network we can effectively extract attributes even when resolution is poor and in presence of strong occlusions up to 80% of the whole person figure

Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law: possession, property, and coordination in a Hawk–Dove Experiment

In all legal systems, possession and property are inextricably linked. Game theory captures this relationship in the Hawk–Dove game: players competing for an asset are better off when the possessor plays Hawk and the intruder plays Dove (the bourgeois strategy) so that property can emerge as a spontaneous convention. This theory has been supported by large experimental evidence with animals. This paper presents a lab experiment where possession is manipulated to study the emergence of the property convention with human subjects. We show that the highest coordination emerges when possession is achieved meritoriously and that possession induces only bourgeois coordination (never antibourgeois)

Multilevel Hidden Markov Models for Behavioral Data: A Hawk-and-Dove Experiment

Motivated by the analysis of behavioral data taken from an economic experiment based on the Hawk-and-Dove game, this article describes a multilevel hidden Markov model, that includes covariates, autoregression, and endogenous initial conditions under a unified framework. The data at hand are affected by multiple sources of latent heterogeneity, due to multilevel unobserved factors that operate in conjunction with observed covariates at all the levels of the data hierarchy. We fit a multilevel logistic regression model for repeated measurements of player behaviors, nested within groups of interacting players. The model integrates discrete random effects at the group level and Markovian sequences of discrete random effects at the player level. Parameters are estimated by a computationally feasible expectation-maximization algorithm. We model the probability of playing the Hawk strategy, which implies fighting aggressively for controlling an asset, and test the role played by initial possession, property, and other player-specific characteristics in driving hawkish behaviors. The results from our study suggest that crucial factors in determining hawkish behavior are both the way possession is achieved - which depends on our treatment manipulation- and possession itself. Furthermore, a clear time-dependence is observed in the data at the player level as accounted for by the Markovian random effects