108 research outputs found
Samuele R. Bacchiocchi and Family
No full textSeventh-day Adventist author and theologian, Samuele R. Bacchiocchi and his wife and their children at a graduation ceremony at Pontifical University
sd920/FIJI-macros-for-IHC-and-SHG-analysis: Batch Split Channels (3 channels)
No full textThis macro allows to split channels for Z-stack .tiff files and save them in a new folder in batch mode.
Author: Samuele Di Carmine, [email protected]
Version 1.0
July 13, 2021
//License: BSD3
Copyright 2021 Samuele Di Carmine, Imperial College Londo
Samuele R. Bacchiocchi
No full textSamuele R. Bacchiocchi was a Seventh-day Adventist author and theologian best known for his work on the Sabbath in Christianity, particularly in the historical work "From Sabbath to Sunday," based on his doctoral thesis from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Bacchiocchi defended the validity of the Feasts of the Lord, situated in Leviticus 23. He wrote two books on the subject. He was also known within the Seventh-day Adventist church for his opposition to rock and contemporary Christian music, jewelry, the celebration of Christmas and Easter, certain dress standards, and alcohol. This photograph was taken during a graduation ceremony from Pontifical University
The Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on Local Vehicular Traffic and Its Consequences for the Environment: The Case of the City of Reggio Emilia (Italy)
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Open AccessArticle
The Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on Local Vehicular Traffic and Its Consequences for the Environment: The Case of the City of Reggio Emilia (Italy)
by Samuele Marinello 1,*OrcID,Francesco Lolli 1,2 andRita Gamberini 1,2OrcID
1
En&Tech Interdepartmental Center, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy
2
Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2021, 13(1), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010118
Received: 3 December 2020 / Revised: 21 December 2020 / Accepted: 22 December 2020 / Published: 24 December 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 8th World Sustainability Forum—Selected Papers)
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Abstract
The COVID-19 health emergency has imposed the need to limit and/or stop non-essential economic and commercial activities and movement of people. The objective of this work is to report an assessment of the change in vehicle flows and in air quality of a specific study area in the north of Italy, comparing the periods February–May 2020 and February–May 2019. Circulating vehicles have been measured at nine characteristic points of the local road network of the city of Reggio Emilia (Italy), while atmospheric pollutant concentrations have been analysed using data extracted from the regional air quality monitoring network. The results highlight a rapid decline in the number of vehicles circulating in 2020 (with values of up to −82%). This has contributed to a reduction in air concentrations of pollutants, in particular for NO2 and CO (over 30% and over 22%, respectively). On the other hand, O3 has increased (by about +13%), but this is expected. Finally, the particulate matter grew (about 30%), with a behaviour similar to the whole regional territory. The empirical findings of this study provide some indications and useful information to assist in understanding the effects of traffic blocking in urban areas on air quality
L'Alcesti di Samuele di Alberto Savinio: studio dell'opera e confronto con l'Alcesti di Euripide
No full textLa tesi si propone di confrontare l’Alcesti di Euripide, tragedia greca messa in scena nel 438 a.C. e l’Alcesti di Samuele di Alberto Savinio, rappresentata per la prima volta al Piccolo Teatro di Milano nel 1950. Il primo capitolo fornisce informazioni biografiche sull’autore. Il secondo capitolo raccoglie e descrive gli interventi sulla figura di Alcesti pubblicati da Savinio sui giornali ed esamina le fonti dell’opera teatrale. Il terzo capitolo è dedicato all’illustrazione delle due opere. Nel quarto capitolo si procede all’analisi e al confronto. Nell’ultimo capitolo si presentano alcune considerazioni sul metateatro, sulla trama, sui personaggi e sui temi principali dell’Alcesti di Samuele.
The aim of this work is to compare the Greek tragedy Alcesti by Euripides, performed on stage in 438 B.C., with the Alcesti di Samuele by Alberto Savinio, first performed at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in 1950. The first chapter provides biographical information about the Author. The second chapter collects and describes the works about the character of Alcesti published by Savinio on newspapers and examines the sources of the play. The third chapter is about the description of the two works. The fourth chapter contains their analysis and comparison. In the last chapter some considerations about metatheatre and about the plot, the characters and the main themes of the Alcesti di Samuele are carried out
A heuristic approach to the scheduling of automated packaging systems
No full textLAUREA MAGISTRALEL'ingegneria dell'automazione diventa sempre più importante per l'umanità. Infatti, la crescita della popopazione provoca un'aumento della domanda di mercato. Perciò, uno degli obbiettivi principali è la ricerca di un aumento di produttività ed efficienza degli impianti di produzione automatizzati. Tuttavia, maggiore è l'obbiettivo di produttività, maggiore diventa la complessità di progetto dei sistemi di produzione e dei loro componenti. Con il passare del tempo, nascono nuove soluzioni e occorre concentrare gli sforzi ingegneristici su nuove problematiche.
I sistemi di confezionamento robotizzati pick and place vivono in questo contesto. Questi sistemi utilizzano dei robot per la movimentazione di prodotti consentendo l'imballaggio nelle rispettive confenzioni. Nasce quindi una problematica di controllo che consiste nella pianificazione delle attività dei robot. Questo problema di pianificazione si complica all'aumentare del numero dei vincoli da rispettare, molti dei quali derivano dai processi a monte e a valle del sistema. I vincoli nei sistemi di confezionamento possono derivare dalle specifiche di produzione (tasso di produzione, vincolo di scatole completamente piene, confezionamenti multigusto), dalle problematiche dei sistemi elettromeccanici (nastri di trasporto, robot), dalle problematiche di prodotto (fragilità, massimo tempo di permanenza a temperatura ambiente).
Per molti sistemi, è necessario risolvere un problema combinatorio di assegnamento avente come scopo trovare una lista di attività da eseguire (riguardante prodotti, scatole e missioni dei robot).
In questo lavoro, viene presentato un approccio euristico per ridurre il numero di prodotti non confezionati e trovare assegnamenti che rendono l'impianto più efficiente. Sulla base di questo approccio nascono due diversi algoritmi di assegnamento. Il primo algoritmo è di tipo greedy, mentre il secondo è di tipo ciclico. Successivamente, vengono proposti dei miglioramenti a questi due algoritmi. Il punto di partenza è la modellizzazione di tutti i componenti del sistema. Successivamente, viene presentato un'algoritmo di valutazione della qualità di un assegnamento parziale o completo. Grazie ad una sua implementazione di riferimento è stata verificata l'affidabilità dell'algoritmo con diversi metodi. Infine viene esteso l'insieme degli impianti trattati con l'introduzione di robot capaci di effettuare missioni multipresa. Nell'ultima parte della tesi, viene discussa l'approccio euristico al problema di pianificazione analizzato.Automation engineering becomes increasingly important for humanity. In fact, the growth of population causes an increase of the market demand. Therefore, one of the main objectives is the search for an increase in productivity and efficiency of automated production plants. However, the greater the productivity target, the greater the design complexity of the production systems and their components. With the passing of time, new solutions are born and engineering efforts must be focused on new problems.
Pick and place robotic packaging systems live in this context. These systems use robots which allows packaging the products in their respective confusions. Therefore, a control problem arises that consists in the allocation of the tasks of the robots. This allocation problem is complicated by increasing the number of constraints to be respected, many of which derive from the upstream and downstream processes of the system. The constraints in the packaging systems can derive from the production specifications (production rate, constraint of fully filled boxes, multi-pick packaging), the problems of electromechanical systems (conveyor belts, robots) or product problems (fragility, maximum permanence at room temperature).
For many systems, it is necessary to solve a combinatorial assignment problem with the purpose to find a list of activities to perform (concerning products, boxes and robot missions).
In this work, a heuristic approach is presented in order to reduce the number of unpackaged products and find the assignments that make the plant more efficient. Based on this approach, two different assignment algorithms are born. The first algorithm is greedy, while the second is cyclic. Subsequently, improvements are proposed to these two algorithms. The starting point is the modeling of all the components of the system. Next, a quality evaluation algorithm of a partial or complete assignment is presented. Thanks to its reference implementation, the reliability of the algorithm has been verified by different methods. Finally, the set of systems treated with the introduction of robots capable of carrying out multi-task missions is extended. In the last part of the thesis, the heuristic approach to the problem of planning analyzed is discussed
Review and classification of industrial boilers maintenance and a reliability-centered maintenance methodology proposal for production plants
No full textLAUREA MAGISTRALEIndustrial boilers are very important equipment since they play a key role on supplying more than 65% of world energy demand and because they are essential machinery in the manufacturing processes of many of industries. Moreover, they are also highly valuable assets that require suitable maintenance plans as they represent a great investment for businesses. Their costs oscillate between hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars and it is estimated that their yearly maintenance expenditure can represent between 1% and 4% of their initial cost. Nevertheless, in spite of the big potential positive impact of industrial boilers maintenance on business, there is a lack of knowledge about the current research status on this field and the most important outcomes obtained so far.
In the same way, Reliability-Centered Maintenance is one of the best known maintenance approaches focused on maximizing equipment reliability whilst minimizing life-cycle costs. According to John Moubray, a pioneer in this field, reliability-centered maintenance is capable of reducing between 20% and 70% maintenance costs in plants that already have a scheduled maintenance program. However, although this approach has been very well developed for single components, still does not exist a practical and effective reliability-centered maintenance methodology which can be applied in entire production plants.
This thesis presents on its first chapter all the concepts and definitions about maintenance, from the technical foundations until the managerial issues and its intrinsic relationship with the reliability discipline, which will be needed to understand the rest of the thesis. The second chapter introduces a thorough selection of the most relevant papers related to the maintenance of industrial boilers, achieved by reading and analyzing a large amount of research material from the most important scientific databases. Then, after correlating all this information it has been proposed a suitable classification for the nineteen selected papers based on their main research topic and it has also been elaborated tables providing the most significant details per each paper. In the third chapter it has been developed a practical and effective reliability-centered maintenance methodology for whole productive plants based on a previous proposal and on a study case for a steam-process plant. Improvements have been included in this
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proposition and also diagrams and tables with the objective of standardizing this procedure. The most important findings of this thesis are: • The main research topics on industrial boilers maintenance can be classified in five categories: Robotic Solutions, Boiler Critical Failures, Advanced Measuring Techniques, Diagnostics and Maintenance Approaches.
• The presence of innovative solutions pointed to increase the safety of boilers operations, such as autonomous robots performing hazardous maintenance activities and advanced monitoring techniques aimed at ensuring an appropriate and safer combustion process.
• The existence of a wide variety of diagnostics solutions capable of improving the reliability and efficiency of boilers operation. It is stated from previous research that a diagnostics system can reduce boilers operative costs by 5% whilst optimization procedures can decrease them only by 2%.
• The potential benefits of implementing maintenance approaches in industrial environments. The implementation of the reliability-centered maintenance methodology in a steam-process plant reduced labor costs by 25%, whilst the application of the risk-based maintenance approach in a high press water system decreased by 70% the risk factor and the application of condition-monitoring technologies allowed to improve by 28% the sustainability performance in a central boiler room.
This thesis pretends to be an important milestone in the continuous search about the most efficient maintenance practices, technologies and solutions for industrial boilers and about the most effective maintenance methodologies for entire productive plants. The contributions that are provided in this work aim to be a new starting point on these fields, helping future researchers on being aware of the current research status as well as motivating further research on these areas.Industrial boilers are very important equipment since they play a key role on supplying more than 65% of world energy demand and because they are essential machinery in the manufacturing processes of many of industries. Moreover, they are also highly valuable assets that require suitable maintenance plans as they represent a great investment for businesses. Their costs oscillate between hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars and it is estimated that their yearly maintenance expenditure can represent between 1% and 4% of their initial cost. Nevertheless, in spite of the big potential positive impact of industrial boilers maintenance on business, there is a lack of knowledge about the current research status on this field and the most important outcomes obtained so far.
In the same way, Reliability-Centered Maintenance is one of the best known maintenance approaches focused on maximizing equipment reliability whilst minimizing life-cycle costs. According to John Moubray, a pioneer in this field, reliability-centered maintenance is capable of reducing between 20% and 70% maintenance costs in plants that already have a scheduled maintenance program. However, although this approach has been very well developed for single components, still does not exist a practical and effective reliability-centered maintenance methodology which can be applied in entire production plants.
This thesis presents on its first chapter all the concepts and definitions about maintenance, from the technical foundations until the managerial issues and its intrinsic relationship with the reliability discipline, which will be needed to understand the rest of the thesis. The second chapter introduces a thorough selection of the most relevant papers related to the maintenance of industrial boilers, achieved by reading and analyzing a large amount of research material from the most important scientific databases. Then, after correlating all this information it has been proposed a suitable classification for the nineteen selected papers based on their main research topic and it has also been elaborated tables providing the most significant details per each paper. In the third chapter it has been developed a practical and effective reliability-centered maintenance methodology for whole productive plants based on a previous proposal and on a study case for a steam-process plant. Improvements have been included in this
9
proposition and also diagrams and tables with the objective of standardizing this procedure. The most important findings of this thesis are: • The main research topics on industrial boilers maintenance can be classified in five categories: Robotic Solutions, Boiler Critical Failures, Advanced Measuring Techniques, Diagnostics and Maintenance Approaches.
• The presence of innovative solutions pointed to increase the safety of boilers operations, such as autonomous robots performing hazardous maintenance activities and advanced monitoring techniques aimed at ensuring an appropriate and safer combustion process.
• The existence of a wide variety of diagnostics solutions capable of improving the reliability and efficiency of boilers operation. It is stated from previous research that a diagnostics system can reduce boilers operative costs by 5% whilst optimization procedures can decrease them only by 2%.
• The potential benefits of implementing maintenance approaches in industrial environments. The implementation of the reliability-centered maintenance methodology in a steam-process plant reduced labor costs by 25%, whilst the application of the risk-based maintenance approach in a high press water system decreased by 70% the risk factor and the application of condition-monitoring technologies allowed to improve by 28% the sustainability performance in a central boiler room.
This thesis pretends to be an important milestone in the continuous search about the most efficient maintenance practices, technologies and solutions for industrial boilers and about the most effective maintenance methodologies for entire productive plants. The contributions that are provided in this work aim to be a new starting point on these fields, helping future researchers on being aware of the current research status as well as motivating further research on these areas
A hybrid MPC-PI control system for fire tube steam generators
No full textLAUREA MAGISTRALEA differenza del passato, oggigiorno, le aziende manifatturiere si sforzano sempre di più di personalizzare i propri prodotti. In particolare, per modelli di caldaie industriali a tubi di fumo, sono interessate a migliorare l'efficienza e ridurre i consumi e le emissioni di ossidi di carbonio e azoto. Ecco perché la modellazione dinamica delle caldaie a tubi di fumo è un argomento importante oggi.
Nelle caldaie a tubi di fumo, i gas combusti passano all'interno di tubi immersi in acqua. Viene scambiato calore con le pareti dei tubi e quindi con l’acqua circostante. Come risultato di questo processo, c'è una produzione di vapore che viene utilizzata in una varietà di applicazioni industriali. Un modello dinamico implementato in MATLAB è stato utilizzato per l'analisi delle prestazioni della caldaia.
In questa tesi è stata proposta un'architettura di controllo di un generatore di vapore a tubi di fumo. Finora, sono stati tradizionalmente usati due anelli di controllo: uno per la pressione e uno per il livello. In questa tesi, le prestazioni del sistema sono state migliorate senza modificare la sua architettura di base sovrapponendo un'architettura Model Predictive Control (MPC) a quella tradizionale (un approccio ibrido MPC-PID). Il lavoro è stato incentrato sul controllo dinamico dei setpoint dei regolatori PID con l'obiettivo di aumentare l'efficienza e superare il cosiddetto fenomeno del rigongiamento (shrink-swell).
Il caso di studio è un generatore di vapore a tubi di fumo prodotto da Bono Energia S.p.A., modello: SG-1000.Differently from the past, nowadays, manufacturing companies increasingly strive to customize fire tube boiler designs to specific model. They are interested in enhancing efficiency and reducing consumptions and carbon/nitrogen oxides emissions. That’s why dynamic modelling of fire tube boilers is an important topic today.
In fire tube boilers, the flue gas passes inside water immersed tubes, and heat is transferred to the water on the shell side. As a result of this process, there is a production of steam that is being used in applications of a variety of industrial fields. A dynamic model implemented in MATLAB has been used for the analysis of boiler performance.
In this thesis, a control architecture of a fire tube steam generator has been proposed. Two control loops have traditionally been used: pressure control loop and level control loop. In this thesis, the system performance is enhanced without changing its core architecture by applying a Model Predictive Control (MPC) architecture on top of the traditional one (an hybrid MPC-PID approach). The work has been focused on controlling the setpoints of the PID regulators with the goal of increasing efficiency and overcome the so called shrink-swell phenomenon.
The case study is a fire tube steam generator produced by Bono Energia S.p.A., model: SG-1000
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