Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace-vehicle Design (IPAD) system. Volume 6: Implementation schedule, development costs, operational costs, benefit assessment, impact on company organization, spin-off assessment, phase 1, tasks 3 to 8

A baseline implementation plan, including alternative implementation approaches for critical software elements and variants to the plan, was developed. The basic philosophy was aimed at: (1) a progressive release of capability for three major computing systems, (2) an end product that was a working tool, (3) giving participation to industry, government agencies, and universities, and (4) emphasizing the development of critical elements of the IPAD framework software. The results of these tasks indicate an IPAD first release capability 45 months after go-ahead, a five year total implementation schedule, and a total developmental cost of 2027 man-months and 1074 computer hours. Several areas of operational cost increases were identified mainly due to the impact of additional equipment needed and additional computer overhead. The benefits of an IPAD system were related mainly to potential savings in engineering man-hours, reduction of design-cycle calendar time, and indirect upgrading of product quality and performance

A review of in-situ loading conditions for mathematical modelling of asymmetric wind turbine blades

This paper reviews generalized solutions to the classical beam moment equation for solving the deflexion and strain fields of composite wind turbine blades. A generalized moment functional is presented to effectively model the moment at any point on a blade/beam utilizing in-situ load cases. Models assume that the components are constructed from inplane quasi-isotropic composite materials of an overall elastic modulus of 42 GPa. Exact solutions for the displacement and strains for an adjusted aerofoil to that presented in the literature and compared with another defined by the Joukowski transform. Models without stiffening ribs resulted in deflexions of the blades which exceeded the generally acceptable design code criteria. Each of the models developed were rigorously validated via numerical (Runge-Kutta) solutions of an identical differential equation used to derive the analytical models presented. The results obtained from the robust design codes, written in the open source Computer Aided Software (CAS) Maxima, are shown to be congruent with simulations using the ANSYS commercial finite element (FE) codes as well as experimental data. One major implication of the theoretical treatment is that these solutions can now be used in design codes to maximize the strength of analogues components, used in aerospace and most notably renewable energy sectors, while significantly reducing their weight and hence cost. The most realistic in-situ loading conditions for a dynamic blade and stationary blade are presented which are shown to be unique to the blade optimal tip speed ratio, blade dimensions and wind speed

Industrial Policy and Artisan Firms in Italy 1945-1971

This paper shows that from the end of WW2 to the establishment of the regional governments in the early 1970s the Italian state carried out an artisanship policy (that is, for the smallest firms) of an extent that was unparalleled in Europe. This policy was based on the provision, on the one hand, of lower tax and employers' contributions and welfare benefits at reduced premiums and, on the other hand, of 'substitutive factors': soft loans, services and promotional initiatives by state agencies. Such an artisan policy played a twofold role: partly 'defensive', protecting a segment of marginal firms, and partly 'proactive', prompting modernisation and innovation of more promising firms. The latter were clustered especially in the industrial district of the centre and north-easte of the country, whose development turned out to be boosted to a significant extent by state intervention.Italy; Industrial districts; Artisanship policy

Characterization of craft beer through flavour component analysis by GC-MS and multivariate statistical tools

Beer is a rather popular drink and represents the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world.The present research aims at characterizing the flavour profile of lager pilsner, the category of low fermentation beers most common in Europe. The largest portion of the global market is dominated by a few multinational companies, but in the last years the number of independent craft breweries has increased very rapidly also in countries where there weren’t an established craft brewing tradition. According to the Italian Brewers Association, in Italy there are eight brewing companies which operate 14 industrial breweries, which in the years have standardized the product to increase their slice of market. The craft-beer sector represents a niche market, about 3% of total production (1% in 2011) [EU Report, 2016]. Italy has a relatively young craft brewing tradition, but the data together with the new ways of consumption, can be considered promising for the sector development. In 2016, the “craft beer” has been defined for the first time in Italy with DDL 1328-B (art.35). Legislation does not consider the quality of the raw materials, but only the manufacturing processes: the artisanal beer-making is a beer obtained without microfiltration and pasteurization steps, unlike industrial products. In this contest, the aim of the study was to characterize the beers (all lager style) purchased on the market through the analysis of the aromatic profile of samples produced under different processes (craft methods or industrial processes). In fact, in addition to smaller production scale and independent, the main characteristic of craft beer is to put the emphasis on flavour and brewing techniques. Flavour, consisting of a large number of volatile compounds, has a great influence on consumer acceptability and, when safety and nutritional value are guaranteed, sensory parameters become the discriminating factor in the product quality assessment which determines the differentiation on the market. The identification of specific compounds, which confer a particular aroma, suitable to be used as potential quality/process markers in order to discriminate beer samples according to their production method. A headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was performed to evaluate the beer samples fingerprint. Multivariate statistical methods were then applied to the collected profiles to built model which could allow differentiating craft beers from all the others. Hence, the proposed method may represent an interesting tool to authenticate craft beer by verification of the compliance with their label description which, at the same time, can entail brand protection

IPAD: Integrated Programs for Aerospace-vehicle Design

Early work was performed to apply data base technology in support of the management of engineering data in the design and manufacturing environments. The principal objective of the IPAD project is to develop a computer software system for use in the design of aerospace vehicles. Two prototype systems are created for this purpose. Relational Information Manager (RIM) is a successful commercial product. The IPAD Information Processor (IPIP), a much more sophisticated system, is still under development

Industrial Policy and Artisan Firms in Italy, 1945-1981

This paper shows that after the Second World War the Italian state carried out an artisanship policy (that is, for the smallest firms) of an extent that was unparalleled in Europe. This policy was based on the provision, on the one hand, of lower tax and employers' contributions and welfare benefits at reduced premiums and, on the other hand, of 'substitutive factors': soft loans, services and promotional initiatives by state agencies. Such an artisan policy played a twofold role: partly 'defensive', protecting a segment of marginal firms, and partly 'proactive', prompting modernisation and innovation of more promising firms. The latter were clustered especially in the industrial district of the centre and north-easte of the country, whose development turned out to be boosted to a significant extent by state intervention.Italy; Industrial districts; Artisan firms; Indsutrial Policy

Rephrasing rules for off-the-shelf SQL database servers

We have reported previously (Gashi et al., 2004) results of a study with a sample of bug reports from four off-the-shelf SQL servers. We checked whether these bugs caused failures in more than one server. We found that very few bugs caused failures in two servers and none caused failures in more than two. This would suggest a fault-tolerant server built with diverse off-the-shelf servers would be a prudent choice for improving failure detection. To study other aspects of fault tolerance, namely failure diagnosis and state recovery, we have studied the "data diversity" mechanism and we defined a number of SQL rephrasing rules. These rules transform a client sent statement to an additional logically equivalent statement, leading to more results being returned to an adjudicator. These rules therefore help to increase the probability of a correct response being returned to a client and maintain a correct state in the database

A review of described Metacyrba, the status of Parkella, and notes on Platycryptus and Balmaceda : with a comparison of the genera (Araneae: Salticidae: Marpissinae)

Parkella Chickering 1946 = Metacyrba F. O. P.-Cambridge 1901, n. syn.; Parkella venusta Chickering 1946 = Metacyrba venusta (Chickering 1946), n. comb.; Parkella fusca Chickering 1946 and Dendryphantes franganilloi Caporiacco 1955 = Metacyrba venusta (Chickering 1946), n. syn. The six valid described species of Metacyrba are diagnosed and re-illustrated to show previously unrecognized genitalic differences. Metacyrba similis Banks 1904 is resurrected as a subspecies, becoming Metacyrba taeniola similis Banks 1904, n. status. The female of Metacyrba pictipes Banks 1903 is described for the first time. Metacyrba arizonensis Barnes 1958 = Platycryptus arizonensis (Barnes 1958), n. comb., and Marpissa magna (Peckham & Peckham 1894) = Platycryptus magnus (Peckham & Peckham 1894), n. comb. Platycryptus broadwayi (Peckham & Peckham 1894) = Platycryptus magnus (Peckham & Peckham 1894), n. syn. [lectotypes and paralectotypes are designated for both names]. Metacyrba nigrosecta (Mello-Leitão 1945) = Balmaceda nigrosecta Mello-Leitão 1945, comb. restored. The genera Balmaceda Peckham & Peckham 1894, Metacyrba, and Platycryptus Hill 1979 are compared morphologically among themselves and to Breda Peckham & Peckham 1894 and Fuentes Peckham & Peckham 1894. The distributions of Balmaceda picta Peckham & Peckham 1894 and Metacyrba species are updated. Marpissa melanura F.O.P.-Cambridge 1901 is resurrected; it is not a synonym of Marpissa minor F.O.P.-Cambridge 1901 nor Platycryptus californicus (Peckham & Peckham 1888)