Accounting for both electron--lattice and electron--electron coupling in conjugated polymers: minimum total energy calculations on the Hubbard--Peierls hamiltonian

Minimum total energy calculations, which account for both electron--lattice and electron--electron interactions in conjugated polymers are performed for chains with up to eight carbon atoms. These calculations are motivated in part by recent experimental results on the spectroscopy of polyenes and conjugated polymers and shed light on the longstanding question of the relative importance of electron--lattice vs. electron--electron interactions in determining the properties of these systems.Comment: 6 pages, Plain TeX, FRL-PSD-93GR

Resistenza a fatica di strutture in leghe di alluminio: normative a confronto e verifica sperimentale

Le problematiche relative all’utilizzo delle normative nell’ambito della progettazione a fatica di strutture in leghe di alluminio sono state di recente affrontate in numerosi lavori che hanno messo in luce sia le difficoltà legate al passaggio da normative oramai obsolete ad altre di nuova concezione, ma di caratteristiche e struttura completamente diverse, che la sostanziale carenza anche all’interno delle più recenti normative europee, quale l’Eurocodice 9, di molti risultati e metodi sviluppati in anni di ricerca scientifica e ormai indiscutibilmente consolidati. Il presente lavoro si propone di approfondire entrambe le tematiche tramite il confronto tra risultati sperimentali tratti da letteratura e le corrispondenti curve di resistenza proposte rispettivamente dalla normativa italiana UNI 8634, di recente ritirata, e dall’Eurocodice 9. In questo modo verranno messe in luce le differenze tra i valori di resistenza proposti dalle due norme e verrà illustrata sia la corrispondenza a volte poco soddisfacente con i risultati sperimentali che le conseguenze dovute alla mancata applicazione di assodati risultati teorici

Frontostriatal deficit in Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (MND/ALS)

So far, cognitive derangements in MND/ALS have not been widely studied. Nevertheless, it seems that in subgroups of patients cognitive functions are impaired in different degree, so that often at least two sub-types of the syndrome are reported: Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Dementia Syndrome (MND/ALS/DS) and Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/ Aphasia Syndrome (MND/ALS/AS. A third subtype showing both symptoms of cognitive impairment may be identified in subgroups of patients and denominated Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Dementia-Aphasia Syndrome (MND/ALS/DAS). Frontostriatal system is reported as a network heavily damaged in MND/ALS/DS, MND/ALS/AS, MND/ALS/DAS. The system is plausibly responsible of motor skills and verbs production, hence to become aware of a possible frontostriatal deficit in subgroup of MND/ALS patients might consent us to link at the brain level (motor) action and verbs and possibly ideomotor praxia and verbs. We have used Goal-Oriented Perception Task (GOPT) and Action Fluency Task (AFT) in order to detect with some accuracy impairments related to gestaltic analysis directed toward a goal, and verb retrieval deficits possibly underlying executive system dysfunction that destabilizes the ability to mentally coordinate the information associated with a verb. These tests should consent to detect possible frontostriatal derangements. We have tested 10 MND/ALS patients and 10 healthy subjects matched fore age, sex and laterality. AFT showed that 3 out of 6 patients are heavily impaired in this test (6.3 (mean) verbs generated vs 13.3 of the control group). GOPT detected a remarkable impairment in all patients: p=0.0021 (grammatical side), p=0.0002 (perceptual side). Reported frontostriatal deficit in MND/ALS seems confirmed by this study, and probably it is more easily detected by GOPT than by AFT

Can Modus Vivendi Save Liberalism from Moralism? A Critical Assessment of John Gray’s Political Realism

This chapter assesses John Gray’s modus vivendi-based justification for liberalism. I argue that his approach is preferable to the more orthodox deontological or teleological justificatory strategies, at least because of the way it can deal with the problem of diversity. But then I show how that is not good news for liberalism, for grounding liberal political authority in a modus vivendi undermines liberalism’s aspiration to occupy a privileged normative position vis-à-vis other kinds of regimes. So modus vivendi can save liberalism from moralism, but at cost many liberals will not be prepared to pay

Design and advancement status of the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility (BEaTriX)

The BEaTriX (Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility) project is an X-ray apparatus under construction at INAF/OAB to generate a broad (200 x 60 mm2), uniform and low-divergent X-ray beam within a small lab (6 x 15 m2). BEaTriX will consist of an X-ray source in the focus a grazing incidence paraboloidal mirror to obtain a parallel beam, followed by a crystal monochromation system and by an asymmetrically-cut diffracting crystal to perform the beam expansion to the desired size. Once completed, BEaTriX will be used to directly perform the quality control of focusing modules of large X-ray optics such as those for the ATHENA X-ray observatory, based on either Silicon Pore Optics (baseline) or Slumped Glass Optics (alternative), and will thereby enable a direct quality control of angular resolution and effective area on a number of mirror modules in a short time, in full X-ray illumination and without being affected by the finite distance of the X-ray source. However, since the individual mirror modules for ATHENA will have an optical quality of 3-4 arcsec HEW or better, BEaTriX is required to produce a broad beam with divergence below 1-2 arcsec, and sufficient flux to quickly characterize the PSF of the module without being significantly affected by statistical uncertainties. Therefore, the optical components of BEaTriX have to be selected and/or manufactured with excellent optical properties in order to guarantee the final performance of the system. In this paper we report the final design of the facility and a detailed performance simulation.Comment: Accepted paper, pre-print version. The finally published manuscript can be downloaded from http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.223895

Evaluation of the uncertainty due to dynamic effects in linear measuring devices – Preliminary results

Systematic dynamic effects in linear measuring devices include possible amplification or attenuation, and phase shift of the spectral components of the indicated signal in respect to the original phenomenon. When this effect is non negligible, dynamic compensation should be applied. Yet in any case uncertainty on the modulus and the phase of the frequency response of the device will cause uncertainty on the final measurement results. Therefore, a simple formula for the evaluation of such uncertainty is presented, for periodic or harmonic dynamic phenomena

Evaluation of the uncertainty due to dynamic effects in linear measuring devices

The evaluation of the uncertainty due to systematic dynamic effects is addressed. When high dynamic performance is required, they should be compensated, by solving the associated inverse dynamic problem. When instead they are considered compatible with the target uncertainty, they may be simply included in the uncertainty budget. Furthermore, even in the case of dynamic compensation, a residual uncertainty remains, due to the imperfect compensation, and should be evaluated. Therefore, simple formulas are presented here, applicable to many classes of dynamic phenomena, including periodic, harmonic, transitory impulsive and stochastic stationary ones