This paper describes the realization of an automated system for rubber characterization in spearfishing applications. These materials, once lengthened, thanks to their ability to shrink very quickly, are used as dart propellers in fishing spears. The system permits the evaluation of the rubber behavior getting its stress vs. strain curve, allowing also the study of the effects of one or more parameters change like the maximum percentage elongation and the time elapsed between the stretching and shrinking phases at which the device under test is subj

In this paper a prototype of an energy monitoring device based on an open source concept is presented. This architecture assures several advantages with respect to traditional energy meters, such as easy development of new applications making cost- and time-effective the migration to future smart grid infrastructures and simple adjustments to change in the relevant standards. The open source philosophy has been adopted designing the software components in order to make all features easily customizable by the user. In this work the characterization of the acquisition channels using measurement data obtained stimulating them with signals generated using a high-accuracy waveform generation module is presented.

The shore-side electrical power supply to a ship at berth (also known as Cold Ironing –CI) is an important issue to obtain the reduction of ship emissions and to make ports more environmental-friendly. Due to European Commission recommendations the principal European ports are planning to install this technology, especially for harbour areas with high pollution levels. In this context, the municipality of Taranto (Italy) is focusing its attention on new actions aimed at the environmental requalification of port area based on cold ironing. In this paper, the authors gather and analyze the data associated with the berthing operations and resulting emissions to better define suitable actions for emissions reduction and to suggest some possible strategies for bringing down pollutants, in order to reach a wealth based on environmental preservation.

The aim of this work is to present the new activities planned by the Electric and Electronic Measurements Research Group of Polytechnic of Bari, Department of Electric and Information Engineering, under the strategic project named "Magna Grecia - Rafforzamento Strutturale", funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research within the National Operating Program Research and Competitiveness 2007-2013. The project aims to cooperate with many Apulia Regional Authorities to build a network for the monitoring of many pollution sources in the State of Taranto, which have already caused and continue to cause a heavy degradation of air, water, soil and electromagnetic spectrum

The paper presents a novel denoising method for ultrasound medical images, whose quality is degraded by the peculiar phenomenon of speckle noise. The method is constructed step-by-step on the basis of recent research on the topic, and consists in Gaussian filtering of proper wavelet coefficients of the image, corresponding to vertical and diagonal details. A comparison with other filtering techniques for ultrasound imaging, i.e. Wiener and median filter, is presented. The obtained results, combined with those reported in independent research, demonstrate that the proposed denoising scheme has very good performance and is very promising for actual medical application.

The paper discusses the problem of designing attribute sampling plans by means of closed-form approximate formulae. A methodology is developed to fully characterize the formulae, in terms of design error, i.e. difference between "estimated" and "true" parameters of the sampling plan for given requirements. The focus is on the quality control of isolated lots, but the proposed methodology is applicable to any attribute single sampling plan. The cases in which the design formulae are "exact", and the cases in which they are not, are identified.