Institute of Marine Engineering

This study explored the influence of different counter movement jump (CMJ) goals on performance, kinetics, and kinematics between 56 highly-trained and elite track and field (T&F), football, and futsal athletes. Within and between-sport difference were compared when aiming to: (a) "jump as high as possible" (CMJh) and (b) "jump as fast as possible" (CMJf), using a mixed MANOVA and follow-up univariate mixed ANOVAs. Movement goals had a significant main effect on all variables (p < 0.001). Comparatively, CMJf elicited higher mean propulsive power normalized to body mass (MPPbm, ηp2 = 0.794) and reactive strength index modified (RSIMOD, ηp2 = 0.755), alongside lower jump height (ηp2 = 0.782), contraction time (ConT, ηp2 = 0.857), propulsive displacement (ηp2 = 0.751), and countermovement velocity (CMvelocity, ηp2 = 0.600). Sport interaction analyses revealed that T&F athletes consistently outperformed the other sports in RSIMOD across both movement goals (d = 1.105 - 1.598). MPPbm and ConT differed significantly between T&F and football (d = 0.947 - 1.324). A Movement goal × Sport interaction for CMvelocity indicated that T&F and football athletes increased CMvelocity under CMJh (d = 1.242 - 1.635, p < 0.001) compared to CMJf, whereas futsal players maintained similar downward motion across goals (p = 0.938). In conclusion, movement goals significantly modify CMJ performance variables in such athletes, and these effects are further influenced by sport specialization. Clear and goal-specific verbal instructions should be standardized in CMJ testing to ensure reliable athlete monitoring and performance evaluation.

• Paper Title : Can oil gravity-based platforms be converted into viable oscillating water columns? A preliminary hydrodynamic study. • Conversion of oil platforms into oscillating water columns for energy is assessed. • Systematic parameter study conducted using analytical models and CFD simulations. • Peak efficiency achieved under resonance conditions and longer wave periods. • Increased OWC opening size improves WEC efficiency, within structural limits. • Initial 2D assessment shows competitive power conversion ratio (CWR). Wave energy converters (WECs) offer a sustainable solution to produce electricity without greenhouse gas emission. This study examines a patented WEC design, utilizing decommissioned gravity-based structures with oscillating water column (OWC) principles. The design involves creating holes in the concrete cylindrical structure, causing water levels to oscillate and drive a bidirectional turbine to generate electricity. To assess energy potential, specific platforms were selected, and wave energy availability was evaluated using the NORA-10 hindcast. The efficiency of the energy conversion is estimated assuming a single opening, long-crested waves, and simplifying the geometry as two dimensional. This allows a systematic, careful study of the relevant wave-body parameters and paves the way for more realistic three-dimensional investigations of the concept. A three-step strategy was employed. First, two linear potential-flow semi-analytical solutions examined the effects of size and submergence of the opening, respectively, on 1) the wave transmission and on 2) the WEC efficiency. The latter approach incorporated the turbine characteristics and was obtained adapting the solution by Evans and Porter (1995) to the present scenario using specific eigenfunctions from Porter (1995) to define the spatial velocity potential. Then, CFD simulations were examined using an open-source solver within the OpenFOAM platform, neglecting turbulence and the damping effects of the turbine. Occurrence of resonance phenomena for the internal water was examined, both within the potential-flow and the real-flow scenario; in the latter case, information from air-water interface and local real-flow features complemented the analysis. The studies within linear regular waves were used as basis to estimate the WEC efficiency as a function of WEC parameters and wave period, as well as extracted power and energy within long-term analyses for a selected platform column. Turbine influence has also been examined. Based on the results, the proposed WEC concept is potentially a competitive candidate but it is expected that the 2D simplification is optimistic and simple estimations suggest that, in realistic 3D scenarios, more holes would be needed to ensure similar performance levels.

EP3.2, e-Poster Terminal 3, September 3, 2025, 13:05 - 14:00IntroductionIn 2024 immigrants represented 8.9% of the population residing in Italy. They have better overall health conditions compared to the native population. However, the presence of formal and informal barriers often limits their appropriate access to healthcare, which needs to be closely monitored. The objective of this study is to compare the differences in access to emergency care between Italians and immigrants.MethodsThe National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (INMP) coordinates a monitoring system for the health status and healthcare of the resident immigrant population, which currently includes 10 regions (Piedmont, Lombardy, Trento and Bolzano Autonomous Provinces, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio, Puglia, and Sicily), where 75% of the total residents in Italy and 83% of foreign nationals live.To date, the monitoring system covers the period 2016-2022. Data collected by the regions through different healthcare information systems are summarized in a set of 60 indicators covering hospital care, maternal-child care, and emergency care services.ResultsDuring the observation period (2016-2022), the percentage distribution of emergency department visits by triage code showed a higher proportion of white and green codes among immigrants compared to Italians, with trends remaining fairly stable over time. The 2022 data show the following proportions for foreigners and Italians: 16.3% vs 10.2% for white codes and 68.1% vs 64.2% for green codes, among men; 13.4% vs 9.7% for white codes and 70.5% vs 65.5% for green codes, among women.ConclusionsIt can be hypothesized that the failure to promptly or adequately care for immigrants leads to acute events that require emergency department visits for conditions that could be managed in different care settings, such as primary healthcare and specialist care. Furthermore, the use of emergency services by immigrants for less severe conditions suggests inappropriate use due to difficulties in accessing primary care.

Reinforcement learning has shown remarkable potential for autonomous skill acquisition. However, effective exploration-exploitation of possible actions and states remains a fundamental challenge, especially in soft robotic manipulation tasks where the continuous deformation of soft materials causes complex nonlinear dynamics and high-dimensional state spaces. A promising solution to this problem is intrinsic motivation, which allows learning agents to explore the environment more systematically by producing self-supervised reward signals. Existing intrinsic reward techniques, however, frequently approach the whole state space as a single entity, which may reduce their efficacy in robotic manipulation, where interactions can take place between the manipulated item and the robot. In this work, we introduce a new method of intrinsic reward decomposition which focuses exploration on task-relevant interactions. Our method implements a weighted combination of random network distillation rewards derived separately from robot observations and manipulation object states. Experimental results across various manipulation tasks in the soft robotic benchmark show that this attention-inspired decomposition enables more effective discovery of manipulation strategies and significantly enhances performance.

This paper is associated with a video winner of a 2024 American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) Milton van Dyke Award for work presented at the DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion. The original video is available online at the Gallery of Fluid Motion, .

Throughout humanity’s quest to unravel Earth’s mysteries, polar and cold regions have consistently served as critical "sentinels" of the global climate system. These regions are not only regulators of Earth’s climate but also sensitive indicators of global change. As global warming accelerates, these areas are undergoing unprecedented transformations. These changes not only reshape local ecosystems but also profoundly impact global climate systems, sea-level rise, and the sustainable development of human societies.