1,721,054 research outputs found
A robust approach based on time variable trigger levels for pump control
No full textAn approach for the control of a pumping plant feeding a tank at the inlet of a water distribution system is presented. The approach is aimed at minimizing the energy costs by maximizing pumping during off-peak electricity tariff periods. It is based on trigger levels which are variable during the day according to a prefixed pattern in order to ensure that the water level in the elevated tank is at its minimum and maximum values at the end of the peak and off-peak tariff periods, respectively. The pattern of the trigger levels is defined by solving a multi-objective problem aimed at minimizing the energy costs and the number of pump switches.
The approach was applied to a couple of real cases with a single tank. The approach was compared with other methodologies typically used for pump control, i.e. fixed trigger levels and pump scheduling. The results show for the two particular cases that the proposed approach achieves energy costs that are lower than those obtainable by using fixed trigger levels, and comparable with those obtainable by using pump scheduling. This is based on achieving a similar number of pump switches
Short-Term Efficacy and Safety of Non-Ablative Laser Treatment Alone or with Estriol or Moisturizers in Postmenopausal Women with Vulvovaginal Atrophy
No full textBackground: Among treatments for vulvo-vaginal atrophy (VVA), there is a new kind of energy-based device, the non-ablative CO2 laser. Aim: This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of the non-ablative CO2 laser in menopausal women with VVA as a monotherapy or in association with vaginal estriol or moisturizer. Methods: Seventy-five women with VVA received laser treatment (Laser group), laser plus estriol gel (Laser+E) or laser plus moisturizers (Laser+M). The study protocol consisted of 3 monthly laser sessions (t0, t1, t2) and a gynecological examination at baseline and 1 month after last laser treatment (t3). Objective measures included VHI (Vaginal Health Index) and VuHI (Vulvar Health Index); subjective symptoms of VVA (Dryness, Burning, Itching, Dysuria) evaluated via visual analog scales, sexual function evaluated by FSFI (Female Sexual Function Index), FSDS (Female Sexual Distress Score) and MENQOL (Mopause-specific Quality Of Life). Adverse events and discomfort encountered during the procedure were also assessed. Outcomes: Primary outcomes were the evaluation of VHI and VuHI and secondary outcomes were changes in VVA symptoms (VAS), sexual function (MENQOL, FSFI, FSDS) and discomfort during the procedure. Results: Seventy-five women (25 in Laser, 25 in Laser+E and 25 in Laser+M group) completed the study. At t3, mean VHI, VuHI, dryness, burning and itching VAS scores improved significantly with no differences between the groups. The lubrication domain of FSFI improved significantly only in the Laser+M group, while the pain domain improved significantly in all women with no differences between the groups. FSFI and FSDS overall scores and MENQOL sexual domain improved in all women with no significant difference between the groups. The mean score of the pain during the procedure was low at t0 and did not change throughout the study. Clinical implications: This study extends knowledge concerning the effectiveness of a new non-ablative CO2 laser in post-menopausal women with VVA. Strengths & limitations: This is one of the first studies on this kind of laser and is the first to compare the effectiveness of laser treatment alone or in combination with vaginal estriol or moisturizers. Parameters of VVA and sexual function were evaluated using validated tools. Study limitations include short follow-up time, the limited number of participants and the absence of a sham-controlled group. Conclusion: Non-ablative CO2 laser seems to be an effective treatment for VVA in menopausal women. Our preliminary data shows that it can be effective as monotherapy or with adjuvant treatments. Alvisi S, Lami A, Baldassarre M, et al. Short-Term Efficacy and Safety of Non-Ablative Laser Treatment Alone or with Estriol or Moisturizers in Postmenopausal Women with Vulvovaginal Atrophy. J Sex Med 2022;19:761–770
Automated Household Water End-Use Disaggregation Through A Rule-Based Methodology
No full textApplication of smart meters to the residential sector can provide insight into where and when water is used, thereby enabling utilities to achieve an efficient management of water distribution systems. Moreover, detailed information about domestic water use can be obtained by disaggregating smart meter data collected at the household inlet point. In this paper, a rule-based, automated methodology for disaggregating household water-use data into end uses is presented. The methodology is applicable to 1-min temporal resolution data, whose granularity is slightly lower than the one generally used in other methodologies, potentially allowing it to be applied to several contexts in the field of water-use monitoring. The methodology was set up and validated with data collected for 2 months through intrusive monitoring of four households in Bologna, Italy, and represents a pioneering case in which disaggregation performance is directly assessed by the comparison against data collected at each end use. The results obtained showed that the methodology enables household water use to be efficiently disaggregated even if detailed information about end-use features is not available
Using water consumption smart metering for water loss assessment in a DMA: a case study
No full textIn this study we analyse the benefits that may be gained from using a smart metering system to assess water losses at a district level with reference to a real case. Consumptions of all the users of this district metered area (DMA) were monitored at an hourly time step by means of electromagnetic meters. Assuming that information on water consumption was available for only a portion of users, we then estimated the water consumption of the entire DMA and calculated the error committed in this estimation as the number of available users varied. Finally, as the simultaneous hourly pattern of inflow into the DMA was also available, we used the water balance method to assess water losses. The results obtained show that monitoring even only 60% of users makes it possible to achieve an error of less than 2% in the estimation of daily consumption across the entire DMA
Application of Water Consumption Smart Metering for Water Loss Assessment: A Case Study
No full textThanks to the advancement of ICT technology, water consumption smart metering is nowadays becoming more popular. Indeed, smart meters can provide several advantages to a water utility such as an easier definition of the bill cost, detection of losses within the buildings and evaluation of leakage rates at DMA level. This paper focuses on this latter aspect, and an application to a real case study is described. It refers to Gorino Ferrarese (FE, Italy), where no tanks are present and where the water balance for leakage assessment between smart metered users water consumption time series and net DMA inflow time series is performed. Sensitivity of the procedure to the lack of different numbers of user water consumption time series is also evaluated. The results highlighted that, for the case study considered and with proper selection of the users, just monitoring 60% of the users would lead to an error in the estimation of the daily total water consumption, and thus in the closing of the water balance, lower than 2%. Thus, even without a complete coverage of all the DMA users, water consumption smart metering can represent a valuable tool for water loss assessment
Analysis of MNF and FAVAD Model for Leakage Characterization by Exploiting Smart-Metered Data: The Case of the Gorino Ferrarese (FE-Italy) District
No full textLeakages in water distribution systems have great economic and environmental impacts and are a major issue for water utilities. In this work, the water balance and the Minimum Night Flow (MNF) method for evaluating the amount of water loss, as well as the power and Fixed and Variable Area Discharge (FAVAD) equations for analyzing the relationship between leakage and pressure, were applied to a fully monitored District Metered Area (DMA) located in Gorino Ferrarese (FE, Italy). Time series of (a) the water consumption of each user, (b) the DMA inflow, and (c) the pressure at the DMA inlet point were monitored with a 5 min time step. The results of an analysis carried out by exploiting the collected time series highlighted that: (a) The application of the MNF method based on literature values can lead to significant inaccuracies in the presence of users with irregular consumption, and (b) the estimation of the parameters of the power and FAVAD equations is highly affected by the amounts and types of observed data used
Closure to “Extending the Global-Gradient Algorithm to Solve Pressure-Control Valves”
No full textNot Available - Closure to "Extending the Global-Gradient Algorithm to Solve Pressure-Control Valves" by Gioia Foglianti, Stefano Alvisi, Marco Franchini, and Ezio Todin
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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