Polytechnic University of Milan

About: Polytechnic University of Milan is a education organization based out in Milan, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Finite element method. The organization has 18231 authors who have published 58416 publications receiving 1229711 citations. The organization is also known as: PoliMi & L-NESS.

Benefits and challenges of using smart meters for advancing residential water demand modeling and management

Abstract: Over the last two decades, water smart metering programs have been launched in a number of medium to large cities worldwide to nearly continuously monitor water consumption at the single household level. The availability of data at such very high spatial and temporal resolution advanced the ability in characterizing, modeling, and, ultimately, designing user-oriented residential water demand management strategies. Research to date has been focusing on one or more of these aspects but with limited integration between the specialized methodologies developed so far. This manuscript is the first comprehensive review of the literature in this quickly evolving water research domain. The paper contributes a general framework for the classification of residential water demand modeling studies, which allows revising consolidated approaches, describing emerging trends, and identifying potential future developments. In particular, the future challenges posed by growing population demands, constrained sources of water supply and climate change impacts are expected to require more and more integrated procedures for effectively supporting residential water demand modeling and management in several countries across the world. We review high resolution residential water demand modeling studies.We provide a classification of existing technologies and methodologies.We identify current trends, challenges and opportunities for future development.

Theory of Systems of RodIike Particles: II. Thermotropic systems with orientation-dependent interactions

Abstract: A system of rigid, inpenetrable, rodlike molecules subject to orientation-dependent mutual attractions is treated by extension of the theory presented in the preceding paper. This energy is formulated, for a system at constant volume, by considering interactions between pairs of segments in contact, rather than in terms of interactions between entire molecules. The orientation-dependent energy between a pair of segments is taken to be proportional to cos2 Ψij, where Ψij is the angle between the principal axes of their polarizability tensors, assumed to be cylindrically symmetric with respect to the molecular axis. A characteristic temperature T∗ measures the intensity of these interactions. The orientational energy of the system as a whole is of the form derived by Maier and Saupe. The orientation distribution with respect to the domain axis and the partition function are formulated with T∗ and the axial ratio x as parameters, Steric effects of molecular shape asymmetry, embodied in x, are of for...

Current Status and Opportunities of Organic Thin-Film Transistor Technologies

Abstract: Attributed to its advantages of super mechanical flexibility, very low-temperature processing, and compatibility with low cost and high throughput manufacturing, organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) technology is able to bring electrical, mechanical, and industrial benefits to a wide range of new applications by activating nonflat surfaces with flexible displays, sensors, and other electronic functions. Despite both strong application demand and these significant technological advances, there is still a gap to be filled for OTFT technology to be widely commercially adopted. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current status of OTFT technologies ranging from material, device, process, and integration, to design and system applications, and clarifies the real challenges behind to be addressed.

A model for the human cornea: constitutive formulation and numerical analysis.

Abstract: The human cornea (the external lens of the eye) has the macroscopic structure of a thin shell, originated by the organization of collagen lamellae parallel to the middle surface of the shell. The lamellae, composed of bundles of collagen fibrils, are responsible for the experimentally observed anisotropy of the cornea. Anomalies in the fibril structure may explain the changes in the mechanical behavior of the tissue observed in pathologies such as keratoconus. We employ a fiber-matrix constitutive model and propose a numerical model for the human cornea that is able to account for its mechanical behavior in healthy conditions or in the presence of keratoconus under increasing values of the intraocular pressure. The ability of our model to reproduce the behavior of the human cornea opens a promising perspective for the numerical simulation of refractive surgery.

Quality Control in Crowdsourcing: A Survey of Quality Attributes, Assessment Techniques, and Assurance Actions

Abstract: Crowdsourcing enables one to leverage on the intelligence and wisdom of potentially large groups of individuals toward solving problems. Common problems approached with crowdsourcing are labeling images, translating or transcribing text, providing opinions or ideas, and similar—all tasks that computers are not good at or where they may even fail altogether. The introduction of humans into computations and/or everyday work, however, also poses critical, novel challenges in terms of quality control, as the crowd is typically composed of people with unknown and very diverse abilities, skills, interests, personal objectives, and technological resources. This survey studies quality in the context of crowdsourcing along several dimensions, so as to define and characterize it and to understand the current state of the art. Specifically, this survey derives a quality model for crowdsourcing tasks, identifies the methods and techniques that can be used to assess the attributes of the model, and the actions and strategies that help prevent and mitigate quality problems. An analysis of how these features are supported by the state of the art further identifies open issues and informs an outlook on hot future research directions.