Inertial Control of the VIRGO Superattenuator

The VIRGO superattenuator (SA) is effective in depressing the seismic noise below the thermal noise level above 4 Hz. On the other hand, the residual mirror motion associated to the SA normal modes can saturate the dynamics of the interferometer locking system. This motion is reduced implementing a wideband (DC-5 Hz) multidimensional control (the so called inertial damping) which makes use of both accelerometers and position sensors and of a DSP system. Feedback forces are exerted by coil-magnet actuators on the top of the inverted pendulum. The inertial damping is successful in reducing the mirror motion within the requirements. The results are presented.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Talk at the 3rd Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves Experiment, Caltech, Pasadena, 12-16 July 199

Effects of Local Specialization of Investment Subsides in Italy

In Italy we currently have a lot of national and regional instruments for financial aids to enterprises. Most of them are not specialized, as syntethetized in the following points: 1. they are refferred to the whole Italian territory; 2. they have generic objects (increase of GNP, reduction of growth differences among regions, employment); 3. they are applied to all the sectors of production; 4. they have common methods of application (automatic, discretional,negotiated). This means that we establish general purposes without further specialization even if we fall into particular purposes.In addition to this types of subsides, there are anymore that are specialized both at territorial and at sectorial level. Among these, the most important are distributed by the Territorial Pacts that are one of the instruments of concerted planning. In this paper we firstly define the specialization of some forms of subsidies; then we analize the performance of two samples of enterprises, that are located in the Apulia Region (NUTS III), the first of which has been benefiting from the state support provided by law n.488/92 (Financial support of the productive activities in depressed zones), and the second one that has been benefiting from the support provided by Territorial Pacts. The enterprises performance have been assessed through quantitative index measured by three main relations: 1. Sales / Assets, that is an indicator measuring the firms efficiency. So it indicates if the total value of sales they?ve carried out, can account for the effectuated investments. 2. Profit / Sales, that estimate the enterprise ability to obtain profits, aging in the market, and let us having indications about prospects of success. 3. Profit / Assets, that assess, in a better way, the capacity in terms of global income of the enterprise. Comparing the average of the three indicators considered, related to supported enterprises, with the same indexes of Mediobanca sample about not-supported enterprises, we obtain interesting results. They have proved that: A. the enterprises having supports are, generally, less efficient than those having no support; B. the firms subsided by Territorial Pacts are more efficient than the other ones subsided by law n.488/92. From the investigation it emerges that the subsides territorially oriented are more efficient than the general support, referred to the same area. So, if we privilege efficiency results, putting the effectiveness ones in a secondary position, we probably should prefer an automatic but specialized aid system, at least from the territorial, dimensional and productive point of view according to preference scales. But, if we want to obtain effectiveness standards too, it is necessary to specialize the interventions and determine specific goals and result indicators.

A LAGRANGIAN PARTICLE CFD POST-PROCESSOR DEDICATED TO PARTICLE ADHESION/DEPOSITION

In the past few years the use of biomass in power plants has grown dramatically. As a result of this action fouling and slagging in co-firing biomass facilities have turned out to play a critical role in the efficiency of such facilities. Efficient and effective methods are therefore needed to control fouling to an acceptable level and to prevent economic losses due to reduced furnace thermal efficiency, increased maintenance or even unscheduled outages. Numerical prediction of the impact of deposit properties has proved itself to be a successful strategy to both evaluate changes in the facility performance and to investigate possible solutions to minimize fouling as well. TU Delft and ECN started a project to monitor and control fouling in furnaces co-firing biomass with coal by means of numerical simulations and experiments. Numerical investigations are based on the development of a novel in-house code to track solid particles post-processing gas phase CFD data. These have been calculated using commercial codes such as FLUENT, CINAR and CFX. The Lagrangian Particle Post- Processor code ( P3 ) strategy and numerical results are presented here. Numerical simulation compare fairly well to the available experimental data for glass particles

Higher education and research programme on sustainable development in the Mediterranean region (PESME)

Peer Reviewe

University-Industry Collaboration in the European Regional Context: the Cases of Galicia and Apulia Region

Universities are one of the key actors within national and regional innovation systems. The nature of university-industry collaboration has changed during the last decades and it varies across countries and regions. Different factors determine the interaction among both organizations, from those related to the industrial structure of the territory to others related to institutional and legal frameworks. In this paper we aim at adding to the understanding of this process based on the comparison between two European regions, Apulia in Italy and Galicia in Spain. Our results show that a progressive transition from a separated to a more integrated approach has occurred at the relational framework affecting universities and industry in both regions. Public policies, particularly from the regional level, have been relevant for promoting university-industry collaboration in Galicia and Apulia. Nevertheless, there still remain cultural and institutional barriers, both from the academy and business sphere, which impede a closer and more fruitful interaction. Besides, the poor innovative culture of traditional industries which dominate in both regions, might affect university-industry interaction. However, an adjustment of the university offer in terms of research is also needed as we observe that collaboration is too much biased by the university scientific and departmental specialization and too little by local and regional industrial specialization.Uniwersytety pełnią rolę jednego z kluczowych podmiotów w ramach narodowych i regionalnych systemów innowacji. Charakter współpracy między uniwersytetami i przedsiębiorstwami zmienił się ciągu ostatnich kilkudziesięciu lat, przy czy wykazuje on znaczną różnorodność w poszczególnych krajach i regionach. Interakcję między tymi podmiotami determinuje szereg czynników, począwszy od branżowej struktury terytorium, aż po uwarunkowania instytucjonalne i prawne. Celem artykułu jest poszerzenie rozumienia tego procesu, na podstawie porównania dwóch europejskich regionów (nuts-2) - włoskiej Apulii i hiszpańskiej Galicji. Rezultaty badań wskazują, że w obu regionach nastąpił rozwój od rozproszonego do zintegrowanego podejścia w relacjach między nauką i gospodarką. Istotną rolę w rozwoju współpracy między środowiskiem naukowym i przedsiębiorstwami w Galicji i Apulii odegrała polityka gospodarcza, szczególnie na poziomie regionalnym. Jednocześnie jednak ciągle występują kulturowe i instytucjonalne bariery, zarówno po stronie środowiska akademickiego, jak i biznesowego, które utrudniają właściwe ukierunkowanie i większą efektywność współpracy. Ograniczeniem jest z jednej strony niski poziom kultury innowacyjnej obserwowany w tradycyjnych branżach, które dominują w obu regionach. z drugiej zaś strony, istnieje także potrzeba lepszego dostosowania badań prowadzonych przez uniwersytety, gdyż są one bardziej uzależnione od naukowej i funkcjonalnej specjalizacji uczelni niż lokalnej i regionalnej specjalizacji przemysłu

A Legitimidade na Regulamentação do Direito à Vida: Tensões Entre o Legislativo e o Judiciário na Concretização da Constituição

The trial of ADPF 54 by the Supreme Court had the effect of regulating the beginning of the constitutional protection of life, silenced in the Federal Constitution of 1988 and in the ordinary legislation. However, the presentation of a legislative proposal for criminalizing the termination of pregnancy, due to the diagnosis of fetal anencephaly, provokes rising tensions about the limits of the judicial and legislative powers in the implementation of fundamental rights. In this study, these tensions will be analyzed in the light of comparative law, in order to understand how the regulation of the right to life is disciplined in other democratic States.O julgamento da ADPF 54 pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal teve como efeito a regulamentação do início da proteção constitucional à vida, silenciada na Constituição Federal de 1988 e na legislação ordinária. Todavia, a tramitação perante o Legislativo de Projeto de Lei prevendo a criminalização da interrupção da gravidez por diagnóstico de anencefalia fetal reacende as tensões acerca dos limites da atuação dos poderes Judiciário e Legislativo na concretização dos direitos fundamentais, as quais serão analisadas no presente trabalho à luz do direito comparado, a fim de compreender como a regulamentação do direito à vida se estabeleceu em outros Estados Democráticos

Cento anni dalla Rivoluzione d’ottobre: rivoluzione sociale e rivoluzione anticoloniale

One hundred years after the October Revolution, we can try to make an assessment of its outcomes and heritage. But if we just focus on the construction of a post-capitalistic society, of socialism, our evaluation will be partial, incomplete and unable to allow an understanding of the past and the current times. So, we have to tackle this issue from a double perspective: looking to the construction of socialism but looking also to the struggle against colonial domination, against imperialism. The result of a reflection on these two levels is on one side that the movement started from the October Revolution led to the vanishing of the colonial classic system, and on the other side that the construction of socialism is a troubled process of political, economical and intellectual apprehension that is unavoidably full of contradictions. This process is still in progress – in China, for instance. On the other hand, today neocolonialism carries on the tradition of exploitation and domination, generating the premises of a new large-scale war. The construction of a post-capitalistic society is once again strictly connected with the cause of peace.Keywords: October Revolution; Socialism; Colonialism; Anti-colonial Revolutions; China.One hundred years after the October Revolution, we can try to make an assessment of its outcomes and heritage. But if we just focus on the construction of a post-capitalistic society, of socialism, our evaluation will be partial, incomplete and unable to allow an understanding of the past and the current times. So, we have to tackle this issue from a double perspective: looking to the construction of socialism but looking also to the struggle against colonial domination, against imperialism. The result of a reflection on these two levels is on one side that the movement started from the October Revolution led to the vanishing of the colonial classic system, and on the other side that the construction of socialism is a troubled process of political, economical and intellectual apprehension that is unavoidably full of contradictions. This process is still in progress – in China, for instance. On the other hand, today neocolonialism carries on the tradition of exploitation and domination, generating the premises of a new large-scale war. The construction of a post-capitalistic society is once again strictly connected with the cause of peace.Keywords: October Revolution; Socialism; Colonialism; Anti-colonial Revolutions; China

the class struggle poised between marxism and populism

The Marxian class struggle is often misunderstood as exclusively the struggle of the poor against the rich, of the humble against the powerful. It is an interpretation that is dear to populism, prisoner to a binary logic that closes its eyes to the complexity and inclines towards the celebration of poverty and want as a place of moral excellence. In Marx and Engels, however, the theory of class struggle is a general theory of social conflict. Only if it breaks away from populism can Marxism develop the ability to interpret and change the world