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Maximizing Power Transfer for Dynamic Wireless Charging Electric Vehicles
No full textDynamic (on the go) wireless electrical charging is a new, challenging frontier for vehicular technologies, as it would allow a dramatic increase in the feasible distance range of electrical vehicles. This paper presents a system under development for optimizing the power transfer for dynamic charging vehicles. The system relies on a coil coupling sensor and a camera. The coupling sensor measures the coupling level between the road and vehicle coils, while the camera detects the distance of the vehicle from the two lines of the lane. A sensor fusion system is needed because, on one hand, the coil sensor is highly accurate but cannot distinguish the direction of the misalignment, while the camera is less precise but can provide information about the position of the lane center, where the centroid of the transmitting coil is expected to be and complete a series of other non-magnetic information needed like the obstacle presence
Natural stone: artificial ageing test versus natural weathering
No full textNatural stone has always been one of the main materials used in architecture for its singular beauty and durability. However, ornamental and structural stone elements might show decay essentially induced by climate factors such as atmospheric pollution, freezing-thaw action, thermal shock or acid rains. The deterioration of natural stone doesn't concern only a worsening of its aesthetical properties, but mostly a decreasing in mechanical strength. To detect and to analyse the dominant destructive factors for stone durability is important to forecast the trend of the deterioration in the long term. For this reason, the comparison of the natural weathering with the results of artificially ageing tests on the same kind of stone is useful. This research compare the decay artificially induced in laboratory (according with the test method foreseen by European standard to evaluate the durability) with the one caused by natural ageing (with the action of the different climatic agents). In laboratory, six different kind of stone and in particular marble, sandstone, limestone, gneiss, granite and tephra, have been tested by means of two different artificial ageing tests: determination of resistance to ageing by means of thermal shock and freeze and thaw cycles. In order to assess the variation of mechanical resistance, flexural strength tests under concentrate load and ultrasonic test have been performed before and after the artificially ageing cycles. The tested stone gave different variations in mechanical strength for the two different artificial ageing test. This different behaviour have been explained by means the analysis of petrographic characteristics of the stone tested. Finally, a comparison of three case study of natural weathering of stones in historical building in different climatic zones of Europe have been made. For the evaluation of in situ decay, the study has been focused on marble, granite and gneiss, recognising their main weathering forms and comparing them with those obtained with the artificially ageing tests
UAV-based technique for the characterization of the Intrinsic Cross-Polarization Ratio (IXR)
No full textThis paper presents a measurement strategy for the Intrinsic Cross Polarization Ratio (IXR) of Jones Polarimeters operating at VHF /UHF bands. It is based on a suitable representation of the Jones matrix which identifies the relevant antenna parameters for IXR evaluation. The same representation is used within a best-fit procedure with experimental results that can be obtained using a rotating UAV-mounted test source
How Professional Hackers Understand Protected Code while Performing Attack Tasks
No full textCode protections aim at blocking (or at least delaying) reverse engineering and tampering attacks to critical assets within programs. Knowing the way hackers understand protected code and perform attacks is important to achieve a stronger protection of the software assets, based on realistic assumptions about the hackers' behaviour. However, building such knowledge is difficult because hackers can hardly be involved in controlled experiments and empirical studies. The FP7 European project Aspire has given the authors of this paper the unique opportunity to have access to the professional penetration testers employed by the three industrial partners. In particular, we have been able to perform a qualitative analysis of three reports of professional penetration test performed on protected industrial code. Our qualitative analysis of the reports consists of open coding, carried out by 7 annotators and resulting in 459 annotations, followed by concept extraction and model inference. We identified the main activities: understanding, building attack, choosing and customizing tools, and working around or defeating protections. We built a model of how such activities take place. We used such models to identify a set of research directions for the creation of stronger code protections
Distributions-oriented wind forecast verification by a hidden Markov model for multivariate circular-linear data
No full textPromising chemical stable membranes developed through combined effect of radical polymerization and non - solvent induced phase separation of acrylic functionalized polysulfone
No full textEarned schedule formulation using nonlinear cost estimates at completion
No full textThis work contributes to improving available methodologies for duration and cost estimates of ongoing projects with nonlinear cost profiles. It is demonstrated that accurate time estimates can be made when a generalized mathematical formulation of the Earned Schedule and the point estimate methodology are used. It also highlights the advantages of using these duration estimate methodologies to provide more accurate nonlinear schedule-based cost estimates at completion. This is shown via application and comparison of the proposed methodologies to datasets of eight real case projects from the construction industry. In particular, the defined methodologies tend to perform better, on average, than traditional index-based formulae, especially in the early stages of project development when the practical benefits are the greatest for project teams to take their corrective actions
The Role of a Panel of Pro-Fibrogenic miRs in Fibrotic Lung Disorders
No full textRationale: Pulmonary idiopathic fibrosis (IPF), Cryptogenetic organizing pneumonia (COP) and bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) are rare pulmonary disorders, linked by the presence of fibrotic lesions. In our previous work (Di Carlo, 2016) on BOS we computationally identified a panel of candidate miRNAs and demonstrated by in situ hybridization analysis (ISH) and qRT-PCR, a dysregulation of two highly ranked miRNAs, miR-21 and miR-34a;ISH confirmed abnormal miR-21 and miR-34a expression in BOS lesions; other miRNAs where indicated as potential candidates in BOS by computational analysis. Aim We extended our previous work by analyzing the expression of miR-21, miR-34a and three other highly ranked miRNAs (miR-145, miR-146b-5p and miR-381) in BOS and other lung diseases associated with fibroblast activation/proliferation and collagen deposition. Identifying a specific profile of dysregulated miRNAs could provide useful diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic target. Methods :We evaluated miRNAs expression profile by ISH and RT-PCR quantification in a series of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded lung samples obtained from patients with IPF (n. 8), OP (n. 8), BOS (n. 12) and normal lung from organ donors. Results In BOS, COP and IPF/UIP miR-21 and miR-145 were expressed in fibroblasts of BO lesions, OP plugs and in fibroblast foci respectively, and in reactive alveolar epithelia; miR-146b expression correlated to the amount of inflammatory cell infiltrates and epithelial activation in all cases, while a weak expression was evident in OP and IPF/UIP lesions. miR-34a overexpression was associated with the activation of alveolar epithelia and to a lesser extent with fibroblast lesions in OP. miR-381 showed a weak expression in all diseases, and was localized especially in inflammatory cells. ISH data have been confirmed by qRTPCR analysis obtained on same samples. Conclusions: miR-21, miR-145 and miR-146b are over-expressed in fibroblasts in all the cases analyzed, but their expression is not disease-specific, although some differences are observed in different diseases. This finding underlies their role in non-specific fibrotic lung processes.ISH complements the results of qPCR, allows the precise cellular localization of miR expression, and improves correlations with cell-specific pathway