Automated calibration of the EPA-SWMM model for a small suburban catchment using PEST: a case study.

Rainfall-runoff models must be calibrated and validated before they can be used for urban stormwater management. Manual calibration is very difficult and time-consuming due to the large number of model parameters that must be estimated concurrently. Automatic calibration offers as a promising alternative, ideally supporting a user-independent and time-efficient approach to model parameters estimation. In this article, we test the use of a state-of-the-art standard package (PEST, Parameter ESTimation, http://www.pesthomepage.org/) for the automatic calibration of a rainfall-runoff EPA-SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) model developed for a small suburban catchment. Results reported in the paper demonstrate that the performance of automatically calibrated models still depends on a number of user-dependent choices (the level of catchment discretization, the selection of significant parameters, the optimization techniques adopted). Through a systematic analysis of the results, we try to identify the guidelines for the effective use of automatic calibration procedures based on modeling assumptions and target of the analysis.

Protocols to compare infusion distribution of wound catheters.

Multi-holed wound catheters are increasingly used in clinical practice to administer analgesic/anaesthetic locally to the painful region. The distribution of flow infused during controlled (continuous or intermittent) administration of medication is believed to be an important issue for successful pain relief. Nevertheless, this information is not available from the literature. In this paper, we propose protocols to screen the performance of wound infusion catheters in the laboratory environment. Four wound infusion systems (PAINfusor by Baxter, OnQ Pump with Soaker catheter by I-Flow, PolyFuser Polymedic by Temena and Infiltralong by Pajunk) have been tested. Test results demonstrate that the distribution of the infused flow is different for the four catheters and closely connected to the catheter design (i.e. hole size and position, lumen diameter). Catheters characterized by small size holes (e.g. Baxter, Pajunk) distribute the flow more homogeneously than catheters characterized by large size holes (e.g. I-Flow, Temena). The distribution of infused flow does not change significantly during continuous or intermittent infusion.

Water quality control in the river Arno.

In this work, we analyzed pollution in the river Arno using a non-steady advection-dispersion-reaction equation (ADRE) calibrated on experimental data. We examined the influence different pollution control strategies have on dissolved oxygen (DO). We considered (i) flow rate variation; (ii) local oxygenation at critical points; (iii) dynamic modification of wastewater load. Results indicate first, that reservoir management is effective in reducing pollution; second, that local oxygenation is necessary to ensure that DO does not fall below safety levels; and finally, that tuning wastewater loads appears to be impractical to manage the river quality given the stringent limitations it would impose on the industrial effluents.