The Contemporary EU's Notion of Territoriality and External Borders

The predominant spatial conception of the EU contributes to an evident emergence of a sharpened territorial building of the European space. By all evidence the idea of both the territorial cohesion and territorial continuity shows how relevant the notion of territoriality in the ‘European discourse’ is and consequently how accepted the instrument of hard and closed border and the sharp inside/outside dichotomy are. Due to this pragmatic notion of territoriality, the idea of the EU as a ‘non-Westphalian new empire’ (according to the ‘neo-medieval paradigm’) became at least unrealistic. Its borders are getting more territorial, physical and visible. Hard border policies and practices on the Eastern and Western Balkan borders mirror the existence of a de facto barrier and of a deep ‘Westphalian memory’ in the way of using the territory as support of political unity

Derivation based differential calculi for noncommutative algebras deforming a class of three dimensional spaces

We equip a family of algebras whose noncommutativity is of Lie type with a derivation based differential calculus obtained, upon suitably using both inner and outer derivations, as a reduction of a redundant calculus over the Moyal four dimensional space.Comment: 18 page

Supercritical carbon dioxide applications for energy conversion systems

In the present paper, the possibility of increasing the thermodynamic efficiency of an electric energy production plant, by using an advanced energy conversion system based on supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) as working fluid, has been analyzed. Since the supercritical carbon dioxide cycles are being considered as a favorable candidate for the next generation of nuclear power plant energy conversion systems, a lead cooled fast reactor has been selected as reference in the present analyses. The main aim of the present study is to compare two different S-CO2 thermal cycles applied on the conversion system of a nuclear power plant. The reference Lead cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) used for the present analyses is the ALFRED reactor, which has a thermal power of 300 MW and it is considered the scaled down prototype of the industrial European Lead Fast Reactor (ELFR). Thermodynamic cycles selected for the present study are a Recompression Cycle and a Brayton Cycle with Regeneration. Each of them has been analyzed under several design conditions regarding the maximum pressure and the regeneration coefficient. Among different design conditions, the solution allowing the maximization of the overall efficiency has been identified. Thermodynamic analyses have been carried out with GateCycle™ v. 6.1.1, which is a General Electric software able to predict design and off-design performance of power plants

Towards Informed Disaster Management Planning: An Approach to Predict Future Urban Hazard Exposure

Considering the high spatio-temporal variability of urban transformations, methodolo- gies, instruments, and detailed and updated information are urgently needed to support adequately informed spatial planning in defining preventive disaster management policies. The authors pro- pose an innovative methodology to predict and assess future hazard exposure in urban areas by combining statistical, geospatial, and scenario-modeling analysis. The proposed methodology is ap- plied to a small-medium-sized urban area by considering the hydraulic hazard to test its validity. The findings highlighted that providing planners and decision-makers with operation tools could be valuable for better risk-reduction planning

The phaseolin vacuolar sorting signal promotes transient, strong membrane association and aggregation of the bean storage protein in transgenic tobacco

n/

Urgency, utility, and time horizon of transplant benefit

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110847/1/lt24082.pd

Россия и 90-е годы. Забытая весна

In the West, it is increasingly difficult to talk about the years of the crisis of the Soviet Union, about the processes that they set in motion, as well as the turning point of 1991, the people who participated in it firsthand, with their hopes, their courage, their illusions and their fears. Moreover, it is also difficult to talk about the 1990s experienced in Russia with any hope of being understood. Indeed, this era now seems light-years away, in the face of what has happened since the 2000s. Even scholars can no longer grasp its meaning and simply end up describing it in heavily negative tones. Thus, the rough and repetitive stereotypes about Russia, about its “autocratic destiny,” about the Russian people being “incapable of self-government” and renewal, the bearers of a “destiny of servitude,” burdened with the “unchanging” character already described by the Marquis Astolphe de Custine in the 19th century, easily prevail. However, in spite of that, those years contain very different and useful insights and tools for reading the history and political evolution of post-Soviet Russia. Those years, which may be called the “Springtime of Russia,” were the fruit of a long process full of attempts at renewal and enthusiasms that gave a new dignity to the Russian people — alongside and on the same level as that of the other peoples of the Union — and the pride of a regained belonging, after having been humiliated for decades. The brakes on the renewal that begun chaotically in those years have favored and are favoring hasty interpretations and stereotypes. From nationalism to the “loss of empire syndrome,” from the obsession with internal security to the difficult relationship between state and society, to the failure to consolidate a federal structure, all these elements have contributed to fostering a distorted image of contemporary Russian history. The image that forgets fifteen years of life that were full of potential and quite different from how they are portrayed. Going against the mainstream in judging those years — denigrated and often misunderstood — the article’s author also draws on personal experience from more than three decades of exploring Russia and participating directly in the events the country experienced at the turn of the millennium.На Западе все труднее говорить о годах кризиса Советского Союза, о том какие процессы там были запущены, о поворотном моменте 1991 года, о людях, которые участвовали в нем лично, со своими надеждами, своим мужеством, своими иллюзиями и своими страхами. Однако и говорить о 1990-х годах в России с надеждой быть понятым тоже сложно. На самом деле, это эпоха, которая сейчас кажется далекой по сравнению с тем, что произошло в 2000-х годах, эпоха, значение которой даже ученые уже не могут оценить и просто описывают ее в крайне негативных тонах. Таким образом, снова возвращаются грубые и повторяющиеся стереотипы о России, о ее «самодержавной судьбе», о том, что русский народ «неспособен к самоуправлению» и обновлению, является носителем «судьбы рабства», отягощенной «неизменным» характером, описанным еще маркизом Астольфом де Кюстином в XIX веке. Тем не менее эти годы содержат очень разные и полезные указания и инструменты для осмысления истории и политической эволюции постсоветской России. Эти годы, которые также можно назвать «весной России», были плодом длительного процесса, полного попыток обновления и энтузиазма, который дал русскому народу новое достоинство — наряду с другими народами Союза и на одном уровне с ними — и гордость за вновь обретенное достоинство после десятилетий унижения. Задержка обновления, хаотично начавшегося в те годы, благоприятствовала и продолжает благоприятствовать поспешным интерпретациям и стереотипам, далеким от истины. Пройденный путь от национализма до «синдрома потери империи», от одержимости внутренней безопасностью до сложных отношений между государством и обществом, до неспособности консолидировать федеральную структуру — все эти элементы способствовали созданию искаженного образа современной российской истории, который как бы вычеркивает пятнадцать лет жизни, что были полны потенциала и кардинально отличались от того, как их сейчас описывают. Идя против течения в своей оценке тех лет, очерненных и часто неправильно трактуемых, автор статьи также опирается на свой личный опыт более чем трех десятилетий изучения и проживания в России и непосредственного участия в событиях, которые переживала страна на рубеже тысячелетий