The Legendre Transform in Non-additive Thermodynamics and Complexity

We present an argument which purports to show that the use of the standard Legendre transform in non-additive Statistical Mechanics is not appropriate. For concreteness, we use as paradigm, the case of systems which are conjecturally described by the (non-additive) Tsallis entropy. We point out the form of the modified Legendre transform that should be used, instead, in the non-additive thermodynamics induced by the Tsallis entropy. We comment on more general implications of this proposal for the thermodynamics of "complex systems".Comment: 23 pages. LaTeX2e. No figure

A survey to evaluate how non designers perceive aesthetic properties of styling features

World-wide market competition and the need to create products that better satisfy the market expectations require a more comprehensive involvement of the customer in the product definition loop. Therefore, it is crucial to provide customers with very easy-to-use shape definition and modification tools, allowing them to verify and evaluate possible shape alternatives without requiring specific knowledge on geometric modeling. A set of aesthetic properties guiding the shape characterization and appraisal have been identified together with measures for their evaluation and shape modeling methods for their direct modification. Since these properties have been indicated by stylists, no guarantee exists that they are usable in a context directly involving customers in the product definition loop. To verify the extent to which the terms indicating the properties, their meaning and their measures are significant and understandable by non-expert designer people we carried out a survey. This paper describes the methodology adopted and the outcomes of this survey