Mario Salvadori and Mauro Picone: From Student and Teacher to Professional Fellowship

The correspondence between Mario Salvadori and Mauro Picone during the years 1934–1972 sheds light on the history of the Italian Institute for the Applications of Calculation. The IAC was a groundbreaking institution for mathematics in Italy, and great attention was given to the new means of mechanical calculation, first analogue, then electronic. It was in relationship to this that Mario Salvadori consulted with his former professor. The correspondence allows us to see also how that relationship changed from one of student-teacher to one of fellowship between professionals.

The books and individuals from whom I have learned what I know of numeric calculus are too numerous to list here, but I wish to express now my gratitude to Prof. Mauro Picone, director of the Istituto Nazionale per le Applicazioni del Calcolo (the Italian laboratory for applied mathematics which will house the International Center of Mechanical Calculus, recently founded), who was the first to teach me to love numbers while I was his student at the University of Rome some 20 years ago. M. Salvadori, Preface to Numerical Methods in Engineering, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1952

     

Power-to-Gas integration in the Transition towards Future Urban Energy Systems

Temperature levels play a key role in the thermal energy demand of urban contexts affecting their associated primary energy consumption and Renewable Energy Fraction. A Smart Heating strategy accounts for those supply features requiring new solutions to be effectively renewable and to solve the RES capacity firming. Power-to-Gas (P2G) is the way to decarbonize the energy supply chain as fraction of Hybrid fuels, combination of fossil ones and Renewable Hydrogen, as immediate responsive storage solution. While, Power-To-Heat is conceived as the strategy to modernize the high and medium temperature heating systems by electricity-driven machines to switch from Fuel-to-Heat to Electricity-to-Heat solutions. The authors investigated on different urban energy scenarios at RES share increase from 25% up to 50% in the energy mix to highlight strengths and weaknesses of the P2G applications. Primary Energy Consumption was chosen as the objective function. Three Reference Cities were chosen as reference scenarios. Moreover, the analytical models of P2G was designed and implemented in the reference energy system. The results of the twelve scenarios, four for each Reference City were evaluated in terms of amount of Renewable Heat delivered. Finally, the interaction between P2G and renewable heat production was evaluated.     

Review: Heart Diseases Detection by Machine Learning Classification Algorithms

Most human deaths are caused by heart diseases. Such diseases cannot be efficiently detected for the lack of specialized knowledge and experience. Data science is important in healthcare sector for the role it plays in bulk data processing. Machine learning (ML) also plays a significant part in disease prediction and decision-making in medical care industry. This study reviews and evaluates the ML approaches applied in heart disease detection. The primary goal is to find mathematically effective ML algorithm to predict heart diseases more accurately. Various ML approaches including Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine (SVM), k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN), t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), Nave Bayes, and Random Forest were utilized to process heart disease dataset and extract the unknown patterns of heart disease detection. An analysis was conducted on their performance to examine the effecacy and efficiency. The results show that Random Forest out-performed other ML algorithms with an accuracy of 97%.     

Laser shock processing of polycrystalline alumina ceramics

Laser shock processing (LSP) has been applied to polycrystalline α‐Al₂O₃ ceramics. X‐ray characterizations have revealed that LSP results in significant compressive residual stresses which can extend to a depth of more than 1.2 mm from the surface. The presence of compressive residual stresses improves the resistance of α‐Al₂O₃ ceramics to indentation cracking. Microstructural characterization suggests that the majority of α‐Al₂O₃ grains on the surface remains intact after LSP. However, damaged regions are occasionally present, which shows intergranular fractures and a limited plastic deformation in the vicinity of grain boundaries.     

Hemoglobin system of Sparus aurata: changes in fishes farmed under extreme conditions

In order to gain more knowledge on the stress responses of gilhead seabream (Sparus aurata) under extreme conditions, this study investigated the functional properties of the hemoglobin system and globin gene expression under hypoxia and low salinity. The oxygen affinity for the two hemoglobin components present inside the S. aurata erythrocyte was practically identical as was the influence of protons and organic phosphates (Root effect). The quantification of S. aurata hemoglobin fractions performed by HPLC and the data on gene expression of globin chains assayed by PCR indicate that under hypoxia and low salinity there is a change in the ratio between the two different hemoglobin components. The result indicating that the distinct hemoglobins present in S. aurata erythrocyte have almost identical functional properties, does not explain the adaptive response (expression change) following exposure of the animal to hypoxia or low salinity on the basis of their function as oxygen transporter. We hypothesize that other parallel biological functions that the hemoglobin molecule is known to display within the erythrocyte are involved in adaptive molecular mechanisms. The autoxidation-reduction cycle of hemoglobin could be involved in the response to particular living conditions.     

The voltage mirror–current mirror pair as a universal element

The voltage mirror–current mirror (VM–CM) pair is shown to be a universal active element. It provides two alternative realizations for the nullor. The VM–CM pair is also capable of realizing the op amp and all the four types of the current conveyors namely CCII?, CCII+, ICCII? and ICCII+ as special cases. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.