1,721,071 research outputs found
Smart sensor systems for environmental monitoring: implications and applications
No full textQuella del cambiamento climatico è una delle più grandi sfide che l'umanità dovrà affrontare nei prossimi decenni. Per questo, negli ultimi anni, gli sforzi della ricerca si sono focalizzati sullo sviluppo ed implementazione di sistemi distribuiti di monitoraggio ambientale. Questi sistemi sono in grado di produrre grandi quantità di dati, che possono essere usati per descrivere i cambiamenti climatici e, sperabilmente, indirizzare le future decisioni politiche allo scopo di mitigarne gli effetti. Ad ogni modo, per rendere questi sistemi effettivamente intelligenti, è necessario tenere in considerazione diversi aspetti, inclusi i due su cui si è focalizzato questo lavoro di tesi. Il primo, spesso sottovalutato, riguarda la progettazione dell'esperimento di acquisizione dei dati: infatti, un setting sperimentale poco consono porta a dati in qualche modo affetti da un bias, e, di conseguenza, a risultati non significativi. Il secondo aspetto invece riguarda l'algoritmo usato per modellare i dati, che dovrebbe essere scelto per riflettere la natura degli stessi. Questo lavoro prova quindi a dare un (primo) contributo ad entrambi questi aspetti, descrivendo i risultati di due specifici scenari di utilizzo, e mostrando come gli esperimenti possano beneficiare da alcune semplici linee guida. L'obiettivo finale a cui tende questo lavoro è quindi quello di definire una pipeline di elaborazione dei dati ambientali, che possa, a lungo andare, diventare abbastanza flessibile da essere adattata a scenari eterogenei e relativi ad una varietà di fenomeni ambientali.Climate change is one of the biggest challenges that humanity will face in the upcoming decades. Hence, over the last few years, the environmental engineering research community has focused its effort on the development and deployment of (often distributed) smart sensor systems, specifically designed for environmental monitoring. These sensors produce large amounts of data, which can be used to describe climate changes and, hopefully, suggest future actions to prevent further damages to the environment. However, to enable the ’smart’ capabilities in such systems, researchers must pay attention to several aspects, including two on which this thesis work is focused. The first one, which is often underestimated, is the design of the data acquisition phase: a poor experimental setting will lead to biased data, and therefore ineffective results. The second one concerns the algorithm used to model data, which should be chosen to reflect their intrinsic nature. This work tries to give a first contribution to both these aspect, describing the results of two specific use case scenarios, and highlighting how experiments can greatly benefit from some simple, yet effective, design guidelines. The final goal is to define an initial working pipeline for environmental data processing, which can be both flexible to be adapted to different scenarios, and accurate enough to give an effective description of the observed phenomena
Effect of Automatic Milking Systems on Milk Yield in a Hot Environment
No full textA comparative study was performed to evaluate differences in milk yield between an automatic milking system (AMS) and a conventional herringbone milking parlor system. Two herds of Italian-Friesian cows were reared in the same barn, located in the Po Valley in northern Italy. Twenty-five primiparous cows and 10 multiparous cows were milked with an AMS, while at the same time 29 primiparous and 9 multiparous were milked twice daily in a milking parlor on the other side of the barn. A selection gate allowed cows to access the AMS only if the interval from last milking was >5 h. Multiparous cows in the AMS yielded more milk than multiparous cows in the milking parlor (34.2 ± 0.7 vs. 29.4 > 0.6 kg/d). There was no difference in milk yield between primiparous cows in the AMS and in the milking parlor (28.9 > 0.4 vs. 28.8 > 0.3 kg/d). Milking frequency in the AMS was significantly higher in primiparous (2.8 > 0.03) than in multiparous cows (2.5 > 0.04). The hot season negatively affected milk yield; the milk yield reduction was higher for cows milked with the AMS (-4.5 > 0.6 kg/d) than in the milking parlor (-3.0 > 0.8 kg/d). In the AMS, milking frequency decreased during the hot season in primiparous cows (-0.3 > 0.1). We concluded that a positive AMS effect on milk yield is possible, but that steps must be taken to alleviate the discomfort involved with attracting cows to the AMS
Milk production and carbon footprint in two samples of Italian dairy cattle and buffalo farms.
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Le stazioni ferroviarie come nuovi centri intermodali e multiservizio: il caso di Bergamo
No full textGoing 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
La ciclo-logistica come risorsa per la sostenibilità futura delle aree urbane: potenzialità e limiti.
No full textLa ciclo-logistica, cioè i servizi di trasporto e consegna di beni e merci operati da corrieri alla guida di speciali mezzi a pedali (cargo-bike), costituisce oggi una delle forme più interessanti della logistica urbana sostenibile e può contribuire alla riduzione delle esternalità negative generate dal traffico motorizzato nelle aree centrali delle città.
Se l’efficacia di questo tipo di servizi è ormai attestata e condivisa da una pluralità di studi e ricerche, meno agevole è definire le condizioni utili a una sostanziale transizione modale della logistica urbana verso forme di trasporto attuate con mezzi a pedali.
La ciclo-logistica, in Italia, così come in molti altri contesti europei ed extraeuropei, è per lo più operata da compagnie di corrieri in bicicletta di piccole dimensioni: realtà imprenditoriali locali e ‘di nicchia’.
Questo contributo propone una riflessione sul possibile sviluppo futuro della ciclo-logistica, nelle nostre città, a partire dal riconoscimento delle peculiarità della figura del corriere in bicicletta e attraverso l’analisi del progetto pilota “Zero Emission Goods Transportation” attualmente in corso a Milano.Cycle logistics is the transport and delivery of freight operated by couriers riding special pedal vehicles (cargo-bikes). Today it is one of the most effective forms of sustainable urban logistics and can contribute to reducing the negative externalities generated by motorized traffic, especially in cities’ central areas.
The effectiveness of this type of service is highlighted and shared by a plurality of studies and projects. Still, it is less easy to define the conditions that favor a substantial modal transition of urban logistics towards pedal vehicles.
In Italy, as in many other European and non-European contexts, cycle logistics is mainly operated by small companies of bike couriers: local and ‘niche’ businesses.
This paper proposes a reflection on the possible future development of cycle logistics in our cities, starting by recognizing the peculiarities of the bike courier’s figure and analyzing the pilot project “Zero Emission Goods Transportation” currently underway in Milan
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