Anti-establishment voting and Euroscepticism: The case of Italy and the Five Star Movement

This paper explores the meaning of the Italian anti-establishment voting and whether the Five Star Movement’s anti-establishment label is appropriate. More specifically the investigation addresses the policies of the Five Star Movement towards the now creaking European Union, especially as growing Euroscepticism has been boosted by the Brexit referendum and the Trump dismissal and disdain for the European Union. In doing so, the paper examines the historic approach of so-called ‘anti- establishment’ parties that have had an almost ‘normal’ occurrence within the Italian political environment since the end of the Second World War. In this sense the paper concludes that addressing parties and systems as anti-establishment does little to help our understanding of this most fluid political period in Italy and across Europe

Having the cake and eating it too: the benefits of decoupling Australia’s trade governance in Europe after Brexit and beyond

The process towards Brexit will impact on the entire global trading system and significantly influence the global value chains that rely on ease of trade and investment within a single European market. In light of this process, Australia with its high levels of international economic integration and interdependency of trade and investment to and from the European region, now faces a stark challenge in forging an economic position that best suits its national interests. This paper analyses the possible implications of Brexit on Australia’s economic governance position, with specific regard to the global value chains that rely on ease of trade and investments in the European single market. The exploration relies on empirical analysis that distinguishes between and disaggregates data on Australian trade and investment with the UK and the rest of the European Union. This analysis indicates that it is in Australia’s best interest is to prioritise a preferential partnership with the EU over a new free trade agreement with the UK. However, in order to maximise Australia’s position, the paper argues that, under the present political climate and technical difficulties, a multi-pronged and decoupled approach of concerted unilateralism with the UK and preferential bilateralism with the EU is best placed to enhance Australia’s geo-economic role in Europe in the post-Brexit era

Investigation of Yb-doped LiLuF4 single crystals for optical cooling

Optical cooling of solids, relying on annihilation of lattice phonons via anti-Stokes fluorescence, is an emerging technology that is rapidly advancing. The development of high-quality Yb-doped fluoride single crystals definitely led to cryogenic and sub-100-K operations, and the potential for further improvements has not been exhausted by far. Among fluorides, so far the best results have been achieved with Yb-doped LiYF4 (YLF) single crystals, with a record cooling to 91 K of a stand-alone YLF:10%Yb. We report on preliminary investigation of optical cooling of an LiLuF4 (LLF) single crystal, an isomorph of YLF where yttrium is replaced by lutetium. Different samples of 5% Yb-doped LLF single crystals have been grown and optically characterized. Optical cooling was observed by exciting the Yb transition in single-pass at 1025 nm and the cooling efficiency curve has been measured detecting the heating/cooling temperature change as a function of pumping laser frequency

Cascade Superfluorescence in Er:YLF

We report the analysis of paired photon pulses arising from two cascading transitions in continuously pumped Erbium-doped YLiF$_4$ 1% and 0.01% crystals at 1.6 K. The dependence of the pulse peak intensity on the squared number of involved Erbium ions, between 10$^{11}$ and 10$^{13}$, definitely identifies the cooperative nature of the two pulsed emissions, that are generated by the subsequent, spontaneous formation of coherent states. The observed fluctuations of the time interval between the paired pulses and, most importantly, its correlation with the second pulse duration, demonstrate that the Erbium ions coherence is indeed seeded by vacuum fluctuations

Educational Robotics and empowerment of executive cognitive processes: from typical development to special educational needs

This paper describes a new Educational Robotic (ER) approach aimed to empower higher cognitive functions in school-setting. As robot programming requires to mentally plan a complex sequence of actions before the motor act, ER may indeed promote several crucial cognitive processes underlying learning. The steps needed and the mental acts for robot programming may involve Executive Functions (EF), that are complex higher cognitive processes, particularly crucial in the early development, because they are the base for abstraction and logical reasoning, decision-making, sequential thinking, maintaining and updating information in memory and problem-solving. Recent studies attempting to attest with a scientific approach the effect of ER on executive functioning are described. They concern both classroom with typical development or special educational needs and rehabilitation environment for children with developmental disorder. Robotica Educativa e potenziamento dei processi cognitivi esecutivi: dallo sviluppo tipico ai bisogni educativi specialiIl presente lavoro descrive come la Robotica Educativa (RE) possa essere utilizzata per potenziare alcune funzioni cognitive di controllo. Le azioni necessarie e gli atti mentali per la programmazione di un robot implicano le Funzioni Esecutive (FE), processi cognitivi di alto ordine, particolarmente importanti durante lo sviluppo cognitivo perché coinvolti nel ragionamento logico e nell’astrazione, nel decision-making, nel pensiero sequenziale, nel problem-solving e nel mantenimento/ aggiornamento delle informazioni in memoria. Nell’articolo sono sintetizzati e discussi gli studi con cui abbiamo cercato di provare con metodi scientifici l’effetto della RE sulle FE, nel gruppo classe per bambini con sviluppo tipico o con bisogni educativi speciali, e in ambito riabilitativo per bambini con disturbo del neurosviluppo

GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2

We describe the observation of GW170104, a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of a pair of stellar-mass black holes. The signal was measured on January 4, 2017 at 10 11:58.6 UTC by the twin advanced detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory during their second observing run, with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a false alarm rate less than 1 in 70 000 years. The inferred component black hole masses are 31.2-6.0+8.4M\u27 and 19.4-5.9+5.3M (at the 90% credible level). The black hole spins are best constrained through measurement of the effective inspiral spin parameter, a mass-weighted combination of the spin components perpendicular to the orbital plane, χeff=-0.12-0.30+0.21. This result implies that spin configurations with both component spins positively aligned with the orbital angular momentum are disfavored. The source luminosity distance is 880-390+450 Mpc corresponding to a redshift of z=0.18-0.07+0.08. We constrain the magnitude of modifications to the gravitational-wave dispersion relation and perform null tests of general relativity. Assuming that gravitons are dispersed in vacuum like massive particles, we bound the graviton mass to mg≤7.7×10-23 eV/c2. In all cases, we find that GW170104 is consistent with general relativity