87 research outputs found
Living Lab and Cities as Smart Specialisation Strategies Engine
No full textAbstractThe paper reflects the progressive attention given to Smart Specialization Strategies (S3) in boosting the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy at regional and local level. The aim is to focus on the potentials that the so-called Living Labs can reveal by connecting the urban regeneration with the S3, considering the current European programming period. The Living Lab, based on Open Innovation Model, is conceived as “smart interface” among enterprises, researchers, citizens and public authorities in order to respond the increasing service demand, to stimulate creativity for new ideas, markets with the use of KETs. Itcombines spatial dimension with innovation
In divenire, il cammino pedagogico di Romano Guardini
No full textPensatore appassionato e inarrestabile ricercatore
della verità, Romano Guardini (1885-1968) indagò, a
fianco ai molteplici ambiti del sapere e del vivere
umano, il mondo dell’educazione. Diede contenuto e
forma al proprio ruolo di educatore a diretto contatto
con i giovani, che con cura seguì presso le realtà della
Juventus, del Quickborn, delle aule universitarie. In
eredità fra le righe dei suoi più noti scritti, le linee di
una teoria pedagogica, premessa ed esito del suo agire
educativo. Il presente contributo assume i tratti di un
tentativo – parola tanto cara all’autore – di illuminare
il profilo pedagogico di Guardini per scoprire che egli
stesso sia, e perché sia, un maestro dell’essenziale.A passionate thinker and restless seeker of truth, Romano
Guardini (1885-1968) dedicated himself to investigate
different fields of knowledge and human life and, among these,
the world of education. Guardini outlined his role as a teacher
– in substance and shape - to his role as an educator in close
contact with young people, whom he carefully guided in the
Juventus, Quickborn and university classes. Between the lines
of his most famous writings, we find the draft of his pedagogical
theory, premise and theoretical outcome of his educational work.
Hence this contribution: an attempt -a word cherished by the
author- to shine a light on the pedagogical profile of Romano
Guardini, in order to discover that he is, and why he is, teacher
of essential
Polarity reversal inhibitor for the future meshed HVDC Grids in presence of DC circuit breakers
No full textThe development of DC circuit breakers (DCCB) will enable the meshed operation of the future HVDC grids. DCCBs are however expected to cause switching overvoltages and polarity reversal during the fault current interruption process. The attendant higher stresses on dielectric materials, especially on solid insulation systems such as cables, terminations and bushings, could in turn hinder the expansion of existing Voltage Source Converters (VSC) based conventional point-to-point dc links, whose components are not tested for polarity reversal in meshed networks. As a consequence, when evaluating the feasibility of introducing HVDC-DCCBs in existing links, those additional stresses must be carefully assessed, since metal-oxide surge arresters mitigate the overvoltage amplitude but cannot address the polarity reversal phenomenon per se. The paper proposes a device called Polarity Reversal Inhibitor (PRI), which includes both passive and power electronic components, aimed at suppressing the polarity reversal and at the same time reducing the overvoltage amplitude, thus mitigating the stresses caused by the introduction of HVDC breakers into dc links
Unravelling the effect of carbon black in the autoxidation mechanism of polyunsaturated oils
No full textCarbon black-based particles are widely employed as pigment and they are known to slow down the drying time of oil paints. In this work, the effect of amorphous carbon black on the mechanism and speed of autoxidation of a polyunsaturated oil was investigated. Moreover, the effect of the addition of aluminium stearate and zinc stearate was studied. These are two common additives used in the artists’ paint industry to facilitate pigment dispersion. The curing of the oil paints with and without the addition of the two stearates at 80 °C under airflow was followed by isothermal Thermogravimetry. The oxygen uptake profiles were fitted by a semi-empiric equation to comparatively study the kinetics of the oil oxidation and estimate oxidative degradation. Moreover, model paintings were left to cure at ambient conditions and Differential Scanning Calorimetry was then used to monitor their curing progress over time and to evaluate the stability of peroxides formed in the paint layers. Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry was performed at 7 and 12 months of natural ageing of the model paintings, to investigate the non-covalently cross-linked fractions. Analytical Pyrolysis coupled with Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry was used to characterise the whole organic fraction of the model paintings, including the cross-linked network. Amorphous carbon has an antioxidant effect and inhibits the radical chain propagation. The presence of aluminium and zinc stearates in the black paint affects the autoxidation process, by leading, in the first months, to a faster consumption of unsaturated moieties, and, accordingly, to accelerate and increase peroxides formation. After a few months though, the whole curing slows down, and active peroxides and radicals are still present even after 12 months
A versatile method to fingerprint and compare the oxidative behaviour of lipids beyond their oxidative stability
No full text: In this work we propose the use of isothermal thermogravimetry to evaluate the oxidative stability of a lipid and to evaluate how the glyceride composition affects the entire oxidative process, to quantify the oxidation undertaken by the lipid, and numerically compare the oxidative behaviour of different lipids. The innovative aspect of the present method lies in the acquisition of a prolonged "oxygen uptake" curve (4000-10,000 min) of a lipid under oxygen and in the development of a semi-empirical fitting equation for the experimental data. This provides the induction period (oxidative stability), and allows to evaluate the rate of oxidation, the rate and the magnitude of oxidative degradation, the overall mass loss and the mass of oxygen taken by the lipid upon time. The proposed approach is used to characterize the oxidation of different edible oils with different degrees of unsaturation (linseed oil, sunflower oil, and olive oil) as well as chemically simpler compounds used in the literature to model the autoxidation of vegetable oils and lipids in general: triglycerides (glyceryl trilinolenate, glyceryl trilinoleate and glyceryl trioleate) and methyl esters (methyl linoleate and methyl linolenate). The approach proves very robust and very sensitive to changes in the sample composition
Brain Computer Interface and Amyotrophic Lateral sclerosis: attention and P300-based BCI performance.
No full textP371: Selective attention and performance in controlling a P300-based brain computer interface in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
No full textQuestion: We investigated the involvement of attentional and memory
processes in controlling a P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) for
communication purpose in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Methods: Eight participants with ALS performed a P300-based BCI spelling
task and: (i) a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, screening the
temporal filtering capacity and the speed of the update of such attentive
filter, in order to detect two targets in a stream of distractors, and (ii) a
change detection (CD) task with the simultaneous presentation of target
and distractor stimuli, to screen the spatial filtering capacity of attention
for visual working memory consolidation. We performed correlation and
regression analyses to investigate the relationship between the indexes of
selective attention and visual working memory and the amplitude of P300
event related potential (ERP) elicited during a P300-based BCI task as well
as of the performance obtained in such task.
Results: Amongst the indexes evaluated, only the temporal filtering capacity
was found to significantly correlate with both P300 amplitude (r=0.84,
p<0.05), and the accuracy achieved during the BCI task (r=0.79, p<0.05).
We therefore conducted a linear regression analysis with such index as
independent factor, revealing that it significantly predicted both P300
amplitude and BCI accuracy (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The overall findings indicate that the capability to selectively
filter a stimulus and to keep such filter active in a temporal domain
influences the performance in achieving a P300-based BCI control. The
present study partly clarifies the cognitive substrates related to BCI control
in people with ALS
On the relationship between attention processing and P300-based brain computer interface control in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
No full textOur objective was to investigate the capacity to control a P3-based brain-computer interface (BCI) device for communication and its related (temporal) attention processing in a sample of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with respect to healthy subjects. The ultimate goal was to corroborate the role of cognitive mechanisms in event-related potential (ERP)-based BCI control in ALS patients. Furthermore, the possible differences in such attentional mechanisms between the two groups were investigated in order to unveil possible alterations associated with the ALS condition. Thirteen ALS patients and 13 healthy volunteers matched for age and years of education underwent a P3-speller BCI task and a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The RSVP task was performed by participants in order to screen their temporal pattern of attentional resource allocation, namely: (i) the temporal attentional filtering capacity (scored as T1%); and (ii) the capability to adequately update the attentive filter in the temporal dynamics of the attentional selection (scored as T2%). For the P3-speller BCI task, the online accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) were obtained. Centroid Latency and Mean Amplitude of N200 and P300 were also obtained. No significant differences emerged between ALS patients and Controls with regards to online accuracy (p = 0.13). Differently, the performance in controlling the P3-speller expressed as ITR values (calculated offline) were compromised in ALS patients (p < 0.05), with a delay in the latency of P3 when processing BCI stimuli as compared with Control group (p < 0.01). Furthermore, the temporal aspect of attentional filtering which was related to BCI control (r = 0.51; p < 0.05) and to the P3 wave amplitude (r = 0.63; p < 0.05) was also altered in ALS patients (p = 0.01). These findings ground the knowledge required to develop sensible classes of BCI specifically designed by taking into account the influence of the cognitive characteristics of the possible candidates in need of a BCI system for communication
Developing brain-computer interfaces from a user-centered perspective: Assessing the needs of persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, caregivers, and professionals
No full textBy focus group methodology, we examined the opinions and requirements of persons with ALS, their caregivers, and health care assistants with regard to developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) system that fulfills the user’s needs. Four overarching topics emerged from this analysis: 1) lack of information on BCI and its everyday applications; 2) importance of a customizable system that supports individuals throughout the various stages of the disease; 3) relationship between affectivity and technology use; and 4) importance of individuals retaining a sense of agency. These findings should be considered when developing new assistive technology. Moreover, the BCI community should acknowledge the need to bridge experimental results and its everyday application
Preliminary design of a multilevel converter based de-Icing application on the italian sub-transmission grid
No full textThe safe operation of high voltage overhead lines (OHLs) can be hampered by the accumulation of ice and snow on conductors. In this regard, the high voltage OHLs that cross the mountainous regions of the Alps and Apennines in Italy are of particular concern. Numerous utilities have also experienced this problem, requiring effective solutions to avoid and minimize the damages. The solution proposed by Terna S.p. A, the Italian Transmission System Operator, focuses on the relatively short (20-40 km) 132 kV and 150 kV OHLs of the Italian sub-transmission grid in the Alps and Apennines, which are generally equipped with small (15.75-22.8 mm diameter) conductors. The de-icing procedure is provided by a cascade connection of two multilevel neutral point clamped converters, capable to supply up to 1200 A at very low frequency. With the possibility to operate directly on the transfer bus of the substation with power electronic converters, this configuration exhibits high compactness and efficiency. This paper deals with the design of the multilevel converters based de-icing system operating across the Italian sub-transmission network in the Alps and Apennines. The electrical performance of the system is evaluated through a detailed model developed with the software ATP-EMTP. The thermal analysis of the de-icing procedure is also envisaged
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