178,386 research outputs found
Development and application of a planning support tool in the municipal wastewater sector: The case study of Italy
No full textFinancing investment needs during the next 20 years for Integrated Water Service facilities which includes aqueducts, sewers, drinking water as well as wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), is a significant challenge for government institutions all over the world. There is an urgent need for new approaches to help decisions makers in order to evaluate the quality and efficiency of these infrastructures and consequently planning investments in the best possible way. Taking into account only the municipal wastewater sector in Italy, the aim of this study was to develop and apply a planning support tool to numerous WWTPs based on secondary biological processes, able to: (i) assess the plants efficiency identifying also their environmental and technological critical issues; (ii) propose technical solutions through the definition of appropriate Action Plans; (iii) simulate WWTPs improvements quantifying the results of the proposed upgrade and; (iv) extend the results of the WWTPs efficiency evaluation on a regional scale comparing the performance of each District by means of specific indices (technological equipment, legal requirement compliance, treatment capacity). Our main hypothesis was that the evaluation of quality as well as the efficiency of the wastewater treatment facilities is the basis for the estimation of investments. We applied this methodology to large Italian municipal WWTPs with a treatment capacity greater than a 50,000 population equivalent (PE) even though it is possible to consider smaller facilities (excluding small wastewater treatment systems generally with a PE less than 2000 inhabitants). Our results demonstrate that the tool can be implemented using official data such as those provided by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) although some verification is required. Finally, the paper addresses the policy implications due to the methodology application highlighting the importance of having well-defined planning support tools especially for those areas needing further social cohesion policies. The developed case study shows the suitability of our proposal for governmental institutions and water utility companies in Italy, however it could also be extended to other countries. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd
2nd AgentLink III Technical Forum (AL3-TF2)
No full textForum Chair: Andrea Omicini (Universita' di Bologna a Cesena)
Forum Co-chairs: Matjaz Gams (University of Ljubljana), Paolo Petta (OFAI and Medical University of Vienna, Austria)
AgentLink III seeks to promote the development and adoption of agent research and technology across Europe. One of its main means for achieving this goal is the Technical Forum Groups (TFGs). Successors of AgentLink I & II Special Interest Groups (SIGs), TFGs are intended to provide a common meeting place for researchers and developers who share an interest in a specific sub-area of agent technology. The AgentLink III Technical Fora are periodical events held throughout the two-year lifespan of AgentLink III, which provide TF Groups with the opportunity to meet, to share ideas and results, and to co-ordinate their future research agendas. In short, the aims of the AgentLink III Technical Fora are:
• to facilitate the development of communities around specific areas of strategic importance for European agent R&D, enabling them to share common problems, issues, and results in a manner that other fora (e.g., academic workshops and conferences) do not allow;
• to respond dynamically to fast-changing developments;
• to support the updating of the AgentLink III roadmap from that produced during AgentLink II;
• to provide the AgentLink III management committee with “bottom-up” input to its decision- making process, and hence ensure that the strategic direction of the network is reactive to the needs of its members;
• to establish links with related areas within computing, and related areas in other research disciplines, such as economics and biology. Differently from normal scientific activity, as it usually occurs in conferences and workshops, TFGs were not designed to be “publication-oriented”, but primarily “connection-oriented”.
The Second AgentLink III Technical Forum (AL3-TF2) took place in Ljubliana, Slovienia, from 28 February to 2 March 2005. More than 100 researchers from across Europe made of this third Forum a very successful event, with each TFG counting on a wide and diverse group of participants. The overall atmosphere was friendly and fruitful throughout, with several new co-operations and possible future initiatives emerging from the presentations and discussions
Implementation of water efficiency strategies for Italian urban wastewater treatment plants through performance indicators assessment
No full text3rd AgentLink III Technical Forum (AL3-TF3)
No full textForum Chair: Paolo Petta (OFAI and Medical University of Vienna, Austria)
Forum Co-chairs: Andrea Omicini (Universita' di Bologna a Cesena), László Z. Varga (MTA SZTAKI, Budapest, Hungary)
AgentLink III seeks to promote the development and adoption of agent research and technology across Europe. One of its main means for achieving this goal is the Technical Forum Groups (TFGs). Successors of AgentLink I & II Special Interest Groups (SIGs), TFGs are intended to provide a common meeting place for researchers and developers who share an interest in a specific sub-area of agent technology. The AgentLink III Technical Fora are periodical events held throughout the two-year lifespan of AgentLink III, which provide TF Groups with the opportunity to meet, to share ideas and results, and to co-ordinate their future research agendas. In short, the aims of the AgentLink III Technical Fora are:
• to facilitate the development of communities around specific areas of strategic importance for European agent R&D, enabling them to share common problems, issues, and results in a manner that other fora (e.g., academic workshops and conferences) do not allow;
• to respond dynamically to fast-changing developments;
• to support the updating of the AgentLink III roadmap from that produced during AgentLink II;
• to provide the AgentLink III management committee with “bottom-up” input to its decision- making process, and hence ensure that the strategic direction of the network is reactive to the needs of its members;
• to establish links with related areas within computing, and related areas in other research disciplines, such as economics and biology. Differently from normal scientific activity, as it usually occurs in conferences and workshops, TFGs were not designed to be “publication-oriented”, but primarily “connection-oriented”.
The Third AgentLink III Technical Forum (AL3-TF3) took place in Budapest, Hungary, 15-17 September 2005, in co-location with the 4th International Central and Eastern European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (CEEMAS 2005), one of the most prominent international conferences in the agent field. More than 100 researchers from across Europe made of this third Forum a very successful event, with each TFG counting on a wide and diverse group of participants. The overall atmosphere was friendly and fruitful throughout, with several new co-operations and possible future initiatives emerging from the presentations and discussions
Engineering Societies in the Agents' World III
No full textThis book contains revised and expanded versions of the papers presented at the international workshop on engineering societies in the agents' world
Antioxidant therapy and drugs interfering with lipid metabolism: could they be effective in NAFLD patients?
No full textThis review is part of a special issue dealing with various aspects of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We will focus on promising treatments of NASH with antioxidants and drugs that interfere with lipid metabolism.The other therapies of interest, such as diet, behavioral changes, and insulin sensitizers are presented elsewhere. Oxidative stress is believed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of NASH and other liver diseases. Antioxidants aimed at improving chronic alcoholic or viral liver diseases have been an object of study for some time. However, only a few high quality, randomized, versus placebo-controlled, double-blinded trials have been carried out to assess these drugs. Vitamin E is currently the most widely assessed antioxidant. Several questions need to be answered, including long-term tolerance and efficacy of vitamin E in particular subsets, such as diabetes and NASH-related cirrhosis. Other antioxidants are promising, and should be assessed using the standards of evidence-based medicine. NAFLD frequently coexists with hyperlipidemia and carries an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Furthermore, altered lipid metabolism is thought to be central to the pathogenesis of liver injury in NASH. Therefore, lipid-lowering drugs are attractive therapeutic tools in the treatment of NAFLD. Statins have ameliorated surrogate markers of steatosis in several randomized controlled trials, but their impact on liver histology is unknown. They have, however, been found to be the only class of lipid-lowering drugs that reduces cardiovascular risk in NAFLD. Preliminary evidence suggests that ezetimibe, an inhibitor of intestinal and hepatic cholesterol absorption, may improve liver histology, but its impact on the risk of CVD and on clinical outcome remains to be determined. Despite strong experimental evidence supporting the use of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in NAFLD, the studies published on humans have consisted of small sample sizes and had a number of methodological flaws, including the absence of post-treatment histology. Association of antioxidants and/or lipid-lowering drugs plus other drugs of interest in NASH, such as insulin sensitizers, warrant investigation. However, as promising as these drug treatments may continue to be, they should be associated with diet and modifications in lifestyle
La Denitrificazione delle Acque Potabili nei Bioreattori a Membrana Confinati. Parte II: Sperimentazione su Impianto Pilota e Validazione del Modello Teorico
No full textIl lavoro costituisce la seconda parte di una ricerca finalizzata a presentare i sistemi di denitrificazione biologica in reattori a membrana confinati (MBRC), come possibile alternativa per il trattamento delle acque destinate al consumo umano. Dopo aver introdotto, nella prima parte, un modello matematico semplificato, utile per la verifica e la progettazione di reattori che utilizzano membrane a fibre cave secondo lo schema MBRC, vengono qui presentati i risultati di una serie di sperimentazioni effettuate su impianto in scala pilota. In particolare vengono illustrati i rendimenti depurativi ottenibili in diverse configurazioni idrauliche del sistema, al variare della portata e della fonte di carbonio organico utilizzata per consentire lo sviluppo del processo biologico eterotrofo. I risultati delle sperimentazioni per mettono di individuare le principali problematiche che si possono verificare nella gestione di questi impianti, tra cui, in particolare, lo sviluppo di processi parassiti all’interno del comparto biologico. Essi, inoltre, consentono di valicare il modello matematico proposto, che fornisce valori delle concentrazioni in uscita dal sistema poco distanti da quelli rilevati sperimentalmente
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