Search results for "CEM"

USE OF FOAMED END-OF-WASTE PLASTIC AGGREGATES AS INTERNAL CURING WATER RESERVOIR INTO A CEMENTITIOUS MORTAR

2017

Shrinkage phenomena represent an important issue for cementitious materials. There are several procedures able to reduce shrinkage phenomena, in particular, external and internal curing. The latter consider the possibility to add water reservoir that are able to release water during the curing period. In this study, porous plastic aggregates were used as internal curing water reservoir.

Effect of sheep wool fibres on thermal-insulation and mechanical properties of cement matrix

2015

The use of sheep wool as reinforcement of cement in order to produce mortar or plaster involves several advantages for environment and energy. Moreover, in several regions it is treated as a waste and, consequently, its employ is characterized by low cost. Aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of wool fibres on thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of cement. The samples were prepared using wool fibres, obtained from a breed of Sicilian sheep, with three different length (i.e. 1 mm, 6 mm and 20 mm). Moreover, in order to evaluate the influence of fibre content, the samples were prepared by varying the fibres weight fraction up to maximum level. The thermal conductivity of …

Metal displacement deposition: a new route for template fabrication of metal and metal oxide nanostructures

2011

Nanostructures of Lanthanide Oxy/Hydroxides Obtained by Metal Displacement Deposition

2012

Metal displacement deposition: a new method to grow amorphous silicon nanotubes

2013

Experimental Analysis via Thermochromic Liquid Crystals of the Temperature Local Distribution in Membrane Distillation Modules

2013

A reliable and optimized design of channels for Membrane Distillation (MD) requires knowledge of local temperature distributions within the module. This information is essential to measure the temperature polarization, choice the module configuration (net spacer features, channel size, etc) providing the best process performance. Notwithstanding such crucial aspects, only few studies have been devoted to the experimental characterization of MD channels and none of them includes data on the local temperature distribution. In the present work, an experimental technique based on the use of Thermochromic Liquid Crystals (TLCs) and digital image processing, previously proposed by the authors (Pi…

A Gabor-based Technique for Bias Removal in MR images

2007

Magnetic Resonance images are often characterized by irregularly displaced luminance fluctuations that are called bias artifact. This disturb is due to a drop in signal intensity caused by the distance between imaged sample and receiver coil. An original approach to bias removal in Magnetic Resonance images is presented, which is based on the use of Gabor filter to extract the artifact. The proposed technique restores the image using a correction model, which is derived from the attenuation of signal diffusion across the tissues. No hypotheses are made about the structure of the tissues under investigation and the used MR spectrum. The approach is presented in detail, and extensive experime…

Roboception and adaptation in a cognitive robot

2023

In robotics, perception is usually oriented at understanding what is happening in the external world, while few works pay attention to what is occurring in the robot’s body. In this work, we propose an artificial somatosensory system, embedded in a cognitive architecture, that enables a robot to perceive the sensations from its embodiment while executing a task. We called these perceptions roboceptions, and they let the robot act according to its own physical needs in addition to the task demands. Physical information is processed by the robot to behave in a balanced way, determining the most appropriate trade-off between the achievement of the task and its well being. The experiments show …

Deep learning techniques for visual object tracking

2023

Visual object tracking plays a crucial role in various vision systems, including biometric analysis, medical imaging, smart traffic systems, and video surveillance. Despite notable advancements in visual object tracking over the past few decades, many tracking algorithms still face challenges due to factors like illumination changes, deformation, and scale variations. This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part introduces the visual object tracking problem and discusses the traditional approaches that have been used to study it. We then propose a novel method called Tracking by Iterative Multi-Refinements, which addresses the issue of locating the target by redefining the search…

Enabling peer-to-peer User-Preference-Aware Energy Sharing Through Reinforcement Learning

2020

Renewable, heterogeneous and distributed energy resources are the future of power systems, as envisioned by the recent paradigm of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). Residential electricity generation, e.g., through photovoltaic panels, plays a fundamental role in this paradigm, where users are able to participate in an energy sharing system and exchange energy resources among each other. In this work, we study energy sharing systems and, differently from previous approaches, we consider realistic user behaviors by taking into account the user preferences and level of engagement in the energy trades. We formulate the problem of matching energy resources while contemplating the user behavior as a …