International Trade Linkages in Interregional I/O Economic Modeling: The Model for the Tuscany Case Study

This paper deals with the treatment of the international linkages and the relationships between foreign flows and interregional ones, in a context of a biregional input-output model, which will be built within the Tuscany case study. In the first part of the paper, different approaches are surveyed with reference to some existing models including I/O matrices, even if they were not designed at a biregional level. The second part of the paper aims at describing the approach we have followed in designing the model for the Tuscany region with respect to the international trade components

The Tuscany Case Study: A Background Report

This report presents a brief survey of the regional development process and socioeconomic problems of Tuscany. The purpose is to define the main issues that should be addressed by regional planners, with special reference to those items that can be analyzed with the use of models. Thus, the report lays the foundations for the applied modeling activity of the Tuscany case study. The main aim of this case study is to use systems-analytical methods and models already developed at IIASA and elsewhere, and to create new methodologies for studying this region, in order to be able to solve existing and future development problems

Emergency Management in the Event of Radiological Dispersion in an Urban Environment

Dispersion of a radiological source is a complex scenario in terms of first response, especially when it occurs in an urban environment. The authors in this paper designed, simulated, and analyzed the data from two different scenarios with the two perspectives of an unintentional fire event and a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) intentional explosion. The data of the simulated urban scenario are taken from a real case of orphan sources abandoned in a garage in the center of the city of Milan (Italy) in 2012. The dispersion and dose levels are simulated using Parallel Micro Swift Spray (PMSS) software, which takes into account the topographic and meteorological information of the reference scenarios. Apart from some differences in the response system of the two scenarios analyzed, the information provided by the modeling technique used, compared to other models not able to capture the actual urban and meteorological contexts, make it possible to modulate a response system that adheres to the real impact of the scenario. The authors, based on the model results and on the evidence provided by the case study, determine the various countermeasures to adopt to mitigate the impact for the population and to reduce the risk factors for the first responders

Special issue on “Ultrasound-assisted engineering of materials for biomedical uses”

[no abstract available

The correlation of VLF propagation variations with atmospheric planetary-scale waves

Variations in the received daytime phase of long distance, cesium-controlled, VLF transmission were compared to the height variations of the 10-mb isobaric surface during the first three months of 1965 and 1969. The VLF phase values are also compared to height variations of constant electron densities in the E-region and to variations of f-min which have been shown to be well correlated with planetary-scale variations in the stratosphere by Deland and Cavalieri (1973). The VLF phase variations show good correlation with these previous ionospheric measurements and with the 10-mb surfaces. The planetary scale waves in the stratosphere are shown to be travelling on the average eastward in 1965 and westward in 1969. These correlations are interpreted as due to the propagation of travelling planetary scale waves with westward tilted wave fronts. Upward energy transport due to the vertical structure of those waves is also discussed. These correlations provide further evidence for the coupling between the lower ionosphere at about 70 km altitude (the daytime VLF reflection height and the stratosphere, and they demonstrate the importance of planetary wave phenomena to VLF propagation

On the applicability of transfer function models for ssi embedment effects

Soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects are typically neglected for relatively lightweight buildings that are less than two-three storeys high with a limited footprint area and resting on shallow foundations (i.e., not featuring a basement). However, when the above conditions are not satisfied, and in particular when large basements are present, important kinematic SSI may develop, causing the foundation-level motion to deviate from the free-field one due to embedment effects. In the literature, transfer function models that estimate the filtering effect induced by rigid massless embedded foundations are available to “transform” foundation-level recordings into free-field ones, and vice-versa. This work describes therefore a numerical study aimed at assessing potential limits of the applicability of such transfer functions through the employment of a 3D nonlinear soil-block model representing a layered soil, recently developed and validated by the authors, and featuring on top a large heavy building with basement. A number of finite element site response analyses were carried out for different seismic input signals, soil profiles and embedment depths of the building’s basement. The numerically obtained transfer functions were compared with the curves derived using two analytical models. It was observed that the latter are able to reliably predict the embedment effects in “idealised” soil/input conditions under which they have been developed. However, in real conditions, namely when a non-homogeneous profile with nonlinear behaviour under a given seismic excitation is considered, especially in presence of a basement that is more than one storey high, they may fail in capturing some features, such as the frequency-dependent amplification of the motion at the basement level of a building with respect to the free-field one

Lift-up, Kelvin-Helmholtz and Orr mechanisms in turbulent jets

Three amplification mechanisms present in turbulent jets, namely lift-up, Kelvin–Helmholtz and Orr, are characterized via global resolvent analysis and spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) over a range of Mach numbers. The lift-up mechanism was recently identified in turbulent jets via local analysis by Nogueira et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 873, 2019, pp. 211–237) at low Strouhal number ( St ) and non-zero azimuthal wavenumbers ( m ). In these limits, a global SPOD analysis of data from high-fidelity simulations reveals streamwise vortices and streaks similar to those found in turbulent wall-bounded flows. These structures are in qualitative agreement with the global resolvent analysis, which shows that they are a response to upstream forcing of streamwise vorticity near the nozzle exit. Analysis of mode shapes, component-wise amplitudes and sensitivity analysis distinguishes the three mechanisms and the regions of frequency–wavenumber space where each dominates, finding lift-up to be dominant as St/m→0 . Finally, SPOD and resolvent analyses of localized regions show that the lift-up mechanism is present throughout the jet, with a dominant azimuthal wavenumber inversely proportional to streamwise distance from the nozzle, with streaks of azimuthal wavenumber exceeding five near the nozzle, and wavenumbers one and two most energetic far downstream of the potential core

Coherent pressure structures in turbulent channel flow

Most of the studies on pressure fluctuations in wall-bounded turbulent flows aim at obtaining statistics as power spectra and scaling laws, especially at the walls. In the present study we study energetic coherent pressure structures of turbulent channel flows, aiming at a characterization of dominant coherent structures throughout the channel. Coherent structures are detected using spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) and modeled using resolvent analysis, similar to related works dealing with velocity fluctuations, but using pressure fluctuations as the output of interest. The resolvent operator was considered with and without the Cess eddy viscosity model. Direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of incompressible turbulent channel flows at friction Reynolds numbers of approximately 180 and 550 were employed as databases. Three representative dominant structures emerged from a preliminary spectral analysis: near-wall, large-scale and spanwise-coherent structures. For frequency-wavenumber combinations corresponding to these three representative structures, SPOD results show a strong dominance of the leading mode, highlighting low-rank behavior of pressure fluctuations. The leading resolvent mode closely agrees with the first SPOD mode, providing support to studies that showed better performance of resolvent-based estimators when predicting pressure fluctuations compared to velocity fluctuations. The dominant mechanisms of the analyzed modes are seen to be the generation of quasi-streamwise vortices with pressure fluctuations appearing close to vortex centers. A study on the individual contributions of the nonlinear terms (treated as forcing in resolvent analysis) to the pressure output reveals that each forcing component plays a constructive role to the input-output formulation, which also helps understanding the weaker role of forcing color in driving pressure fluctuations.Comment: 24 pages, 23 figure