The Contribution of Air Logistics to the Development of Sicilian Economy

The role, played by globalization and the “just in time” supplying logic in present world economic scenario, implies that the opportunity of frequent, quick, safe and low-priced freight deliveries can be considered a key element for competitiveness. For these reasons, transportation systems, in the last years, have been characterized by the diffusion of intermodality and the “hub and spoke” distribution pattern. The phenomenon of organizing freight transport services according to a network and modal integration logic, has involved also the air transport field: to meet the new requirements of freight transportation market, in many cases, airline companies have become “global players”, expanding their network, in order to develop links among the main economic centres in the world. The goods moving by air can be defined as “top range products”; which means that only high value products (“market value” and “need value”) and the perishable ones (from a physical and economic point of view) demand air transport. The research described in this abstract aims at determining the contribution that can derive from air logistics to face a challenging problem: overcoming the peripheral role, in international trade, played by Sicily, which can boast high quality outputs in the agroindustrial sector and in the high technology one. The research consists of the following stages: 1. Analysing the sicilian freight transport system, with regard to the demand-supply relationship, paying particular attention to the commodity typologies mentioned above. 2. Identifying key actions for the air cargo services, in order to make Sicily improve in competitiveness, also taking into account the possibility of connecting Sicily with hub airports. 3. Determining the economic and social impact of the proposed solutions, considering different evolutionary scenarios and using also input-output analysis techniques.

Depth-averaged momentum equation for gravity currents with varying density : coefficient in pressure term

The second author is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant 200021 159249).Peer reviewedPostprin

A system to integrate unstructured and semistructured information resources: an application in an innovation design process

A system that integrates different tools, from multicriteria analysis and mathematical programming but also cognitive and social psychology, can be proposed to cope with complexities and uncertainties that generate criticality in the socio technical approach. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potentialities of this system, above all in terms of information fusion and use in various contexts, and to propose an application in relation to an industrial project, in order to support the conceptual phase of the design processr

Double-average methodology applied to turbulent gravel-bed river flows

River hydrodynamicsTurbulent open channel flow and transport phenomen

O desafío do agnosticismo

We are now witnessing something new in human history: many persons including those involved in scientific disciplines like engineering, psychology, chemistry, philosophy, economy, etc. declare to be agnostics but in the same time lead a life committed and coherent with ethical principles peculiar to Christianity. In fact, we are witnessing nowadays an agnosticism more practical than theoretical. Any citizen may lead a pleasant life without adhering to anyreligion. This situation proper to our times implies a serious reflection about the reasons which make possible certain agnostic attitudes, the cultural pluralism as a challenge to the access to God, the crisis of the metaphysical thought, the fragmentation of reason, the anthropological change of philosophy and the condition of a consumerist and hedonistsociety. All these aspects bring about great difficulties when we want to structure a speech about God today; nevertheless, this article triesto find a way based on the existential life which takes into account the personal experience of the mystery of God, without giving up the requirements of reason. Hoy asistimos a un hecho inédito de la historia de la humanidad; muchas personas incluso entre ellas de diversas áreas del saber ingeniería, psicología, química, filosofía, economía, etc., se declaran agnósticos, pero a la vez viven comprometidos y con coherencia los valores éticos y morales del propio cristianismo. Asistimos, pues, actualmente a una vivencia de un agnosticismo práctico más que a un agnosticismo teórico. Cualquier ciudadano hoy puedevivir tranquilamente sin adherir a una religión. Este hecho que es propio de las circunstancias actuales exige una reflexión seria sobre las razones que posibilitan ciertas actitudes agnósticas, el pluralismo cultural como desafío para un acceso a Dios, la crisis del pensamiento metafísico y la fragmentación de la razón, el cambio antropocéntrico de la filosofía y la situación de una sociedad hedonista y consumista. Todo estos aspectos traen enormes dificultades para articular un discurso sobre Dios en nuestros días, sin embargo, en este artículo se busca señalar un camino que tiene como fundamento, sin renunciar a las exigencias de la razón, la vía existencial que valora la experiencia personal del misterio de Dios.&nbsp

Movimentos eclesiais, novas comunidades e igreja local

Human groups and individuals show a great capacity of adaptation in the socio-cultural context of our world and this happens even in everyday situations. The Catholic Church is not alien to this environment and, in fact, is affected by this phenomenon. No one wonders if in such context appear new ecclesial movements, new communities and new groups, many of them claiming to be the result of the charismatic action of the Holy Spirit. No one wonders also, in this case, if they are looking for a convenient status within the believers’ community. The author describes this situation and considers some criteria to deal with it (even canonical) to facilitate a dialogue with these movements and with only one aim in mind: to be faithful to the Lord Jesus, to announce him and his Kingdom in a pluralistic world.El actual contexto sociocultural del mundo muestra la capacidad dinámica de las personas y de los grupos humanos para adaptarse a las variadas situaciones diarias; la Iglesia Católica no es ajena a este entorno, incluso se siente afectada por este fenómeno, por eso aparecen dentro de ella nuevos movimientos eclesiales, nuevas comunidades, nuevos grupos. Muchos de ellos reclaman un origen carismático fruto de la acción del Espíritu Santo y por ello piden un estatus conveniente dentro de la comunidad creyente. El autor describe este evento actual y vislumbra los criterios (incluso canónicos) desde donde la Iglesia podría dialogar con los nuevos movimientos, buscando ser fieles al Señor Jesús, en el anuncio y la expansión del reino en un mundo plural

Influence of bed morphology on double-averaged turbulent quantities in low submergence gravel-bed flows

River hydrodynamicsTurbulent open channel flow and transport phenomen

Temporal evolution of bedload in a steep channel over a long duration experiment

Bedload fluctuations over time in steep rivers with wide grain size distributions have been observed, even under constant sediment feeding and water discharge. Observed bedload pulses are periodical and a consequence of grain sorting. Along with bedload, flow velocity and bed morphology fluctuate in time as well. The presence of large relatively immobile boulders, such as erratic stones often present in mountain streams, have an impact on flow conditions. Their influence on these bedload fluctuations has not been studied yet, namely in what concerns the frequency and amplitude of bedload fluctuations. The influence of boulders on sediment transport and flow conditions is herein investigated by means of laboratory experiments carried out in a 8 m long and 0.25 m wide tilting flume. The detailed analysis of one set of measurements obtained during a 12.8 hours (774 minutes) test is presented in this paper. For this experiment 12 boulders of diameter D=0.075 m were randomly placed in the flume, corresponding to 3% of the flume surface initially occupied by boulders. The flume slope was set to 6.7%. Input sediment discharge was constant and equal to qs,in=0.0563 x10-3 m2/s and the liquid discharge was fixed at q=1.68 x10-2 m2/s. Sediment transport and boulder protrusion are measured regularly during the experiment. Furthermore, bulk mean flow velocities are measured every 15 minutes. Periodical bedload pulses are clearly visible on this long duration experiment. Bulk velocity and boulder protrusion are linked with the fluctuations of the bedload transport as demonstrated by correlational analysis. The period and the phase of the fluctuations are similar for all the measured variables. Observations indicate that the detected periodical fluctuations correspond to different bed states. Grain size distribution through the channel, varying in time and space, is clearly influencing these bedload pulses. During low sediment discharges, coarse stable riffles are formed. On the other hand, in high sediment fluxes the destruction of riffles followed by bed fining is observed. A detailed description of the experimental observations and an analysis of amplitude and frequency of fluctuations for this long duration test are presented in this article