Industrial corrosion monitoring

The paper describes the experience accumulated on electrochemical methods for corrosion monitoring. Electrical resistance, linear polarization, electrochemical potential and amperometric measurements are described and their reliability is evaluated together with that of the related commercial equipments. The main drawbacks of each method (e.g. sensibility, linear or non linear response, causes of error and correction…) are discussed.     

A fast and reliable technique for muscle activity detection from surface EMG signals

The estimation of on-off timing of human skeletal muscles during movement is an important issue in surface electromyography (EMG) signal processing with relevant clinical applications. In this paper, a novel approach to address this issue is proposed. The method is based on the identification of single motor unit action potentials from the surface EMG signal with the use of the continuous wavelet transform. A manifestation variable is computed as the maximum of the outputs of a bank of matched filters at different scales. A threshold is applied to the manifestation variable to detect EMG activity. A model, based on the physical structure of the muscle, is used to test the proposed technique on synthetic signals with known features. The resultant bias of the onset estimate is lower than 40 ms and the standard deviation lower than 30 ms in case of additive colored Gaussian noise with signal-to-noise ratio as low as 2 dB. Comparison with previously developed methods was performed, and representative applications to experimental signals are presented. The method is designed for a complete real-time implementation and, thus, may be applied in clinical routine activity.     

A pseudojoint estimation of time delay and scale factor for M-wave analysis

A pseudojoint estimation of time scale and time delay between an unknown deterministic transient type signal and a reference signal is proposed. The method is based on the separation between the estimations of the two dependent parameters. The time autocorrelation function (TACF) preserves the time scale and is invariant with respect to the time delay between the signals. The time scale factor can, thus, be estimated independently from time delay using the TACFs of the two signals. After estimating the time scale factor, the signal can be scaled by the estimated amount. The time delay is then estimated without bias due to the time scale factor. To obtain high resolution joint estimates, the time scale factor is estimated in the scale domain from the scale transforms of the TACFs of the two signals. The proposed method has low computational cost. Moreover, the results on synthetic signals show good performance of the method with respect to the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound and the joint Maximum Likelihood Estimation. A possible application of the technique to the analysis of electromyogram (EMG) signals detected during electrically elicited contractions is also presented. In a few representative cases, it is shown that the time scale estimate reveals myoelectric manifestations of muscle fatigue and is less affected by M-wave truncation than spectral EMG attributes.     

Nitric oxide synthases in pregnant rat uterus

The conversion of [14C]arginine into [14C]citrulline as an indicator of nitric oxide synthesis was studied in uteri isolated from rats on different days of gestation, after labour and during dioestrus. Nitric oxide synthesis was present in uterine tissues isolated at each stage of gestation and also in tissues collected during dioestrus and after labour. Expression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase was not detectable at any of the stages studied. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase was present at all the stages studied, but there was a significant increase on day 13 of gestation and a decrease thereafter, with the lowest expression recorded on the day after labour. Inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in rat uteri increased substantially during pregnancy, with the highest expression on day 13 of gestation; expression decreased at term and after labour. The changes in expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase were coincident with the changes in nitric oxide synthase activity in uteri treated with aminoguanidine. Thus, these findings indicate that an increase in expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase in the uterus may be important for maintenance of uterine quiescence during pregnancy and its decrease near the time of labour could have an effect on the start of uterine contractility.     

Assessment of water quality in Lake Garda (Italy) using Hyperion

For testing the integration of the remote sensing related technologies into the water quality monitoring programs of Lake Garda (the largest Italian lake), the spatial and spectral resolutions of Hyperion and the capability of physics-based approaches were considered highly suitable. Hyperion data were acquired on 22nd July 2003 and water quality was assessed (i) defining a bio-optical model, (ii) converting the Hyperion at-sensor radiances into subsurface irradiance reflectances, and (iii) adopting a bio-optical model inversion technique. The bio-optical model was parameterised using specific inherent optical properties of the lake and light field variables derived from a radiative transfer numerical model. A MODTRAN-based atmospheric correction code, complemented with an air/water interface correction was used to convert Hyperion at-sensor radiances into subsurface irradiance reflectance values. These reflectance values were comparable to in situ reflectance spectra measured during the Hyperion overpass, except at longer wavelengths (beyond 700 nm), where reflectance values were contaminated by severe atmospheric adjacency effects. Chlorophyll-a and tripton concentrations were retrieved by inverting two Hyperion bands selected using a sensitivity analysis applied to the bio-optical model. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the assessment of coloured dissolved organic matter was not achievable in this study due to the limited coloured dissolved organic matter concentration range of the lake, resulting in reflectance differences below the environmental measurement noise of Hyperion. The chlorophyll-a and tripton image-products were compared to in situ data collected during the Hyperion overpass, both by traditional sampling techniques (8 points) and by continuous flow-through systems (32 km). For chlorophyll-a the correlation coefficient between in situ point stations and Hyperion-inferred concentrations was 0.77 (data range from 1.30 to 2.16 mg m^− 3). The Hyperion-derived chlorophyll-a concentrations also match most of the flow-through transect data. For tripton, the validation was constrained by variable re-suspension phenomena. The correlation coefficient between in situ point stations and Hyperion-derived concentrations increased from 0.48 to 0.75 (data range from 0.95 to 2.13 g m^− 3) if the sampling data from the re-suspension zone was avoided. The comparison of Hyperion-derived tripton concentrations and flow-through transect data exhibited a similar mismatch. The results of this research suggest further studies to address compatibilities of validation methods for water body features with a high rate of change, and to reduce the contamination by atmospheric adjacency effects on Hyperion data at longer wavelengths in Alpine environment. The transferability of the presented method to other sensors and the ability to assess water quality independent from in situ water quality data, suggest that management relevant applications for Lake Garda (and other subalpine lakes) could be supported by remote sensing.     

Scattering effect in optical microring resonators

In this paper we present an investigation of detrimental effects due to roughness-induced scattering and their influence on the properties of both passive and active optical microring resonators. The theoretical analysis involves different mathematical models, such as the volume current method to determine the scattering influence, and the quantum mechanical approach based on density matrix to investigate the active ring dynamics.     

First data from the EGLE experiment onboard the ISS

EGLE is a wide frequency band search- coil magnetometer designed and built at the Roma Tre University. It has been installed onboard the ISS by the Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori on April 25, 2005 within the LAZIO- EGLE experiment carried out during the ENEIDE Soyuz mission. The scope of the experiment is to test EGLE in space and to investigate geomagnetic field variations. The main applications of EGLE are the study of electromagnetic environment inside the ISS, the correlation of magnetic field data with particle fluxes detected by LAZIO particle detector, and the monitoring of ionospheric perturbations possibly caused by Earth seismic activity. Since continuous electromagnetic field measurements on board the ISS are important for diverse space applications, a magnetometer with a suitable design is requested. Appropriate solutions for these applications, which have been adopted by EGLE, are in particular the use of 1- Wire technology and the possibility to detect by means of a search- coil magnetometer a large portion of the ULF frequency band, usually measured by flux- gate probes. To investigate the topside ionosphere electromagnetic environment and stability of Van Allen radiation belts in relation with seismic and anthropogenic electromagnetic emissions, a specific satellite mission (the ESPERIA project) has been designed for the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and up to now a few instruments of its payload have been built and tested in space. One of them is exactly the EGLE search- coil magnetometer. The first magnetic observations performed by this instrument reveal to be promising and demand for a further and deeper analysis based on a longer time series of data.     

Evaluation of Reliability Indicators for WDNs with Demand-Driven and Pressure-Driven Models

Reliability of water distribution networks (WDNs) has received much attention in recent years due to progressive aging of infrastructures and climate change. Several reliability indicators, focusing on hydraulic aspects rather than water quality, have been proposed in literature. Reliability is generally assessed resorting to well established methods coupling hydraulic simulations and stochastic techniques that describe the WDNs hydraulic performance and component availability respectively. Two main algorithms are employed to simulate WDNs: the demand driven approach (DDA) that disregards the physical relationship between actual water demand and nodal pressure, and the pressure driven approach (PDA) that explicitly incorporates it. In this paper, we show how the choice of hydraulic solver may affect reliability indicators. We modify existing quantitative indicators at nodal and network level, and define novel indicators to consider water quality aspects. These indicators are evaluated for three example WDNs; discrepancies between results obtained with the two approaches depend on network size, feeding scheme and skeletonization. Results suggest to use with caution the DDA for reliability assessment at both local and global level.     

Identification of polynomial input/output recursive models with simulation error minimisation methods

Polynomial input/output (I/O) recursive models are widely used in nonlinear model identification for their flexibility and representation capabilities. Several identification algorithms are available in the literature, which deal with both model selection and parameter estimation. Previous works have shown the limitations of the classical prediction error minimisation approach in this context, especially (but not only) when the disturbance contribution is unknown, and suggested the use of a simulation error minimisation (SEM) approach for a better selection of the I/O model. This article goes a step further by integrating the model selection procedure with a simulation-oriented parameter estimation algorithm. Notwithstanding the algorithmic and computational complexity of the proposed method, it is shown that it can sometimes achieve great performance improvements with respect to previously proposed approaches. Two different parameter estimation algorithms are suggested, namely a direct SEM optimisation algorithm, and an approximate method based on multi-step prediction iteration, which displays several convenient properties from the computational point of view. Several simulation examples are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested SEM approaches.     

Spectral identification of ozone‐damaged pine needles

Needles were collected from ponderosa and Jeffrey pine trees at three sites in the Sierra Nevada, and were assembled into 504 samples and grouped according to five dominant live needle conditions – green, winter fleck, sucking insect damage, scale insect damage, and ozone damage – and a random mixture. Reflectance and transmittance measurements of abaxial and adaxial surfaces were obtained at ca 0.3 nm spectral resolution from 400–800 nm, and binned to simulate Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data. There were no significant differences in optical properties between the two surfaces. Ozone‐damaged needles were collected from Jeffrey pine trees at one site, and exhibited significantly different (family‐wise α = 0.01) reflectance and transmittance signatures – and significantly different signature slopes – at both spectral resolutions, from green and winter fleck needles from the same site. Ozone‐damaged needles had significantly different (family‐wise α = 0.01) abaxial surface reflectance and reflectance slope signatures from all other groups of needles, at both spectral resolutions. In comparison with three chlorophyll reflectance indices, a new red fall index (RFI) provides high classification accuracies for ozone‐damaged and non‐ozone‐damaged pine needles (overall acc. = 94%; κ = 59%). Thus, ozone‐damaged Jeffrey pine needles have a unique spectral signature in relation to dominant needle conditions of ponderosa and Jeffrey pine trees.