Time to Change. The Six Day War and the Origins of Italy’s Pro-Arab Foreign Policy

The Six Day War marked a turning point in Italy’s attitude toward the Arab-Israeli conflict. During the crisis the Italian diplomacy tried to mediate in order to prevent an open war but this policy gave rise to harsh polemics among the coalition government. These disagreements revealed a deep rooted change which involved political and security matters. Energy issues became a top priority in the economic and political agenda and most of the Italian public opinion shifted toward a pro-Arab stance while the memories of the Holocaust were fading away. Moreover, the growing Soviet infiltration in the Mediterranean drove the Italian government to envisage security on a global scale while Israel maintained a regional approach. All these differences contributed in gradually shaping a new trend in Israeli-Italian relationships which lasted for a long time

Un sistema, due visioni. Le relazioni monetarie tra Italia e Francia nell’era de Gaulle

Il saggio ricostruisce le relazioni diplomatico-monetarie tra Italia e Francia durante la seconda parte dell’era gollista. Pur nell’ambito dei comuni vincoli atlantici ed europei, i due paesi svilupparono visioni e approcci diversi sul futuro del sistema monetario internazionale imperniato sulla centralità del dollaro. Differenze destinate a riflettersi sul rapporto con gli Stati Uniti ma anche sull’elaborazione di soluzioni politico-economiche alternative rispetto alla progressiva crisi di un sistema monetario sempre più ostaggio delle sue contraddizioni interne e della speculazione internazionale.L’essai reconstitue les relations diplomatiques et monétaires entre l’Italie et la France pendant la seconde partie de l’ère de Gaulle. Tout en étant liés par les mêmes engagements atlantiques et européens, les deux pays ont développé des visions et des approches différentes quant à l’avenir du système monétaire international, axé sur le dollar. Ces différences étaient destinées à se refléter sur le rapport avec les États-Unis, mais aussi sur l’élaboration de solutions politico-économiques de plus en plus prisonnières de leurs contradictions internes et de la spéculation internationale.This essay analyses diplomatic and monetary relations between Italy and France during the second part of de Gaulle’s era. Within the context of the common Transatlantic and European links, the two countries developed different perspectives and approaches to the future of the international monetary system geared to the pivotal role of the dollar. These differences affected not only the relationship with the US but also the search for political and economic alternatives to the growing crisis of the international monetary system plunged into the throes of internal contradictions and international speculation

A Rain Estimation System Based on Electromagnetic Propagation Models and DVB-S Opportunistic Sensors

Weather conditions have in general huge impact on the global economy, in particular on agriculture, industry, transport, and so forth. In recent years, also the occurrences of rapid and localized heavy rainfall in complex topographic areas became more frequent, possibly due to global warming. These facts cause injuries and deaths, and an accurate and early alert system is required to warn people and operators. In this chapter, we describe a real-time and low-cost system for precipitation detection, aimed at collecting additional data with respect to those obtainable from traditional sensors. Such a system is based on the opportunistic usage of satellite digital video broadcasting (DVB-S) microwave signals and estimates the rain intensity from the detected attenuation. Our system proved to accurately obtain results comparable with rain gauges located in the experimentation area, with much tighter spatial and temporal scales than traditional schemes

Comparison between an in-flight UAV refueling platform and ground-based vehicles for plant protection product distribution

Limited payload range generally caused by the poor weight-energy performance, flight autonomy, manual replacement of spent batteries, and agrochemical tank refilling procedure are limiting factors affecting UAVs' agrochemical distribution. This work aims to evaluate the effectiveness of agrochemical distribution by a UAV operated by a reactive robotic payload replacement (M.A.R.S.) platform and compare it with ground-based distribution systems in a viticulture scenario. The work considers a hybrid technology UAV with an onboard gasoline-powered electric generator, characterized by an "in-flight" refill of fuel and agrochemicals without the need for landing. Results report a limited ability of the aerial system to cover large areas with a single tank, balanced by 2.3 minutes to perform a tank refill, significantly less than ground-based distribution systems. The volumes of plant protection products delivered per hectare by the aerial platforms are more suitable for low-volume treatments but they can be logistically advantageous because of their rapid response and lack of impact on soil and crops. The proposed approach represents a solution for UAV implementation for spraying operations on vineyards and opens new scenarios for large areas treatments

A field assessment of a novel rain measurement system based on earth-to-satellite microwave links

This work presents the performance of an innovative environmental monitoring system - Smart Rainfall System (SRS) - that estimates rainfall in real-time by means of the analysis of the attenuation of satellite signals (DVB-S in the microwave Ku band). SRS consists in a set of peripheral microwave sensors placed on the field of interest, and connected to a central processing and analysis node. It has been developed jointly by the University of Genoa, with its departments DITEN and DICCA and the University spin-off \u201cArtys Srl\u201d. The rainfall intensity measurements accuracy and sensitivity performance of SRS are discussed, based on preliminary results from a field comparison experiment at the urban scale. The test-bed is composed by a set of preliminary measurement sites established since Autumn 2016 in the Genoa (Italy) municipality and the data collected from the sensors during a selection of rainfall events is studied. Point-scale rainfall intensity measurements made by calibrated tipping-bucket rain gauges constitute the reference for the comparative analysis of the system performance. The dynamic calibration of the reference rain gauges has been carried out at the laboratories of DICCA using an automatic calibration rig and the measurements have been processed taking advantage of smart algorithms to reduce counting errors. Additional information about the spatial distribution of precipitation have been provided by the WSR radar of Monte Settepani. An objective of this investigation is the optimization of the specific attenuation model parameters for rain with respect to those recommended by the International Telecommunication Union standard ITU-R P.838-3. In addition, the experimental set-up allows a fine tuning of the retrieval algorithm and a full characterization of the accuracy of the rainfall intensity estimates from the microwave signal attenuation as a function of different precipitation regimes

An Advanced Real-Time Rainfall Monitoring System Based on Commercial Satellite Broadcasting Service

Correct regulation of meteoric surface and subsurface flow waters is a fundamental goal for the sustainable development of the territories. In this paper, a new system for real-time monitoring of rainfall and cumulated rainfall is resented and discussed. The system implements a Sensor Network based on the IoT paradigm and can cover a wide area with a relatively small number of sensors, strategically placed. A real application case, based on the implementation of the Monte Scarpino pilot plant, is also presented and discussed

Enhancing Cyber Security of LoRaWAN Gateways under Adversarial Attacks

The Internet of Things (IoT) has disrupted the IT landscape drastically, and Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) is one specification that enables these IoT devices to have access to the Internet. Former security analyses have suggested that the gateways in LoRaWAN in their current state are susceptible to a wide variety of malicious attacks, which can be notoriously difficult to mitigate since gateways are seen as obedient relays by design. These attacks, if not addressed, can cause malfunctions and loss of efficiency in the network traffic. As a solution to this unique problem, this paper presents a novel certificate authentication technique that enhances the cyber security of gateways in the LoRaWAN network. The proposed technique considers a public key infrastructure (PKI) solution that considers a two-tier certificate authority (CA) setup, such as a root-CA and intermediate-CA. This solution is promising, as the simulation results validate that about 66.67% of the packets that are arriving from an illegitimate gateway (GW) are discarded in our implemented secure and reliable solution

Recensioni

Massimo Piattelli Palmarini, Le scienze cognitive classiche: un panorama di Daniela Mario Arthur L. Costa, Bena Kallick, Habits of Mind: A developmental series, Association Supervision for Curriculum Development di Daniele Morselli Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Uta Frith, The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education di Giuseppe Longo Xenia Chryssochoou, Cultural diversity. Its social psychology di Francesca Lazzari Carl Bereiter, Education and mind in the knowledge age di Francesco Caviglia Isabel Beck, Margareth McKeown, Improving Comprehension with Questioning the Author: A Fresh and Expanded View of a Powerful Approach di Irith Davidzo

Recensioni

Massimo Piattelli Palmarini, Le scienze cognitive classiche: un panorama di Daniela MarioArthur L. Costa, Bena Kallick, Habits of Mind: A developmental series, Association Supervision for Curriculum Development di Daniele MorselliSarah-Jayne Blakemore, Uta Frith, The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education di Giuseppe LongoXenia Chryssochoou, Cultural diversity. Its social psychologydi Francesca LazzariCarl Bereiter, Education and mind in the knowledge age di Francesco Caviglia Isabel Beck, Margareth McKeown, Improving Comprehension with Questioning the Author: A Fresh and Expanded View of a Powerful Approach di Irith Davidzo