4,358 research outputs found
Cultural Heritage and natural disasters: the insurance choice of the Italian Cathedrals
Given the threat of natural disasters to Cultural Heritage, this paper aims to investigate how the use of the insurance instrument contributes to the definition of an adequate risk management strategy. The analysis focuses on the role that insurance can play both by supplying policies covering damage and proactively stimulating prevention behaviors, taking into consideration information imperfections (i.e., adverse selection, moral hazard and charity hazard). Through a survey among Italian Dioceses, data about the diffusion of insurance contracts were collected together with other qualitative and quantitative elements linked to the decisional process of insuring Italian Cathedrals. The empirical analysis shows that the administrators of the Dioceses are aware of the economic value of the cultural assets and in safeguarding the Cathedrals they identify in the insurance system a useful and efficient risk management instrument
A fitness model for the Italian Interbank Money Market
We use the theory of complex networks in order to quantitatively characterize
the formation of communities in a particular financial market. The system is
composed by different banks exchanging on a daily basis loans and debts of
liquidity. Through topological analysis and by means of a model of network
growth we can determine the formation of different group of banks characterized
by different business strategy. The model based on Pareto's Law makes no use of
growth or preferential attachment and it reproduces correctly all the various
statistical properties of the system. We believe that this network modeling of
the market could be an efficient way to evaluate the impact of different
policies in the market of liquidity.Comment: 5 pages 5 figure
Low temperature dynamics of kinks on Ising interfaces
The anisotropic motion of an interface driven by its intrinsic curvature or
by an external field is investigated in the context of the kinetic Ising model
in both two and three dimensions. We derive in two dimensions (2d) a continuum
evolution equation for the density of kinks by a time-dependent and nonlocal
mapping to the asymmetric exclusion process. Whereas kinks execute random walks
biased by the external field and pile up vertically on the physical 2d lattice,
then execute hard-core biased random walks on a transformed 1d lattice. Their
density obeys a nonlinear diffusion equation which can be transformed into the
standard expression for the interface velocity v = M[(gamma + gamma'')kappa +
H]$, where M, gamma + gamma'', and kappa are the interface mobility, stiffness,
and curvature, respectively. In 3d, we obtain the velocity of a curved
interface near the orientation from an analysis of the self-similar
evolution of 2d shrinking terraces. We show that this velocity is consistent
with the one predicted from the 3d tensorial generalization of the law for
anisotropic curvature-driven motion. In this generalization, both the interface
stiffness tensor and the curvature tensor are singular at the
orientation. However, their product, which determines the interface velocity,
is smooth. In addition, we illustrate how this kink-based kinetic description
provides a useful framework for studying more complex situations by modeling
the effect of immobile dilute impurities.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Disability and higher education: assessing students’ capabilities in two Italian universities using structured focus group discussions
Caesar II: An Italian decision support tool for the seismic risk. The case study of Torre Pellice, Villar Pellice and Pinerolo municipalities
Italy is a country with high seismic risk; however, a broad seismic classification of the national territory has been introduced only in the last twenty years. Therefore, most of the existing buildings stock do not comply with the current anti-seismic codes. In recent years, the seismic events that occurred in Italy have highlighted the complexity of emergency management and the great challenge for public authorities called to answer to the post-event reconstruction and the planning of effective risk prevention and mitigation measures implemented in "peacetime". In this perspective, the CAESAR II project (Controlling, Mitigating and Managing Earthquake Emergency: Cost-Benefit and Multi-criteria Analysis of Impact Scenarios for Risk Reduction and Increased Resilience) has been developed as a decision support system for public authorities engaged in the development of seismic disaster risk reduction plans. CAESAR II includes a module for the simulation of retrofitting measures applied at the municipal scale, integrating different categories of anti-seismic and energy improvement measures based on the vulnerability analysis of the existing buildings stock. The CAESAR II tool's core is the module for evaluating "seismic impact scenarios" based on the end-users' hazard. The output of the model includes information on expected damage levels for buildings (from D0-no damage to D5- total collapse) and population (dead, injured and homeless). Impact scenarios can be customised according to the minimum unit of analysis assumed (municipality or 250x250m square mesh grid) and the availability of exposure data (from national census data or survey on the spot building by building according to the PLINIVS form). Scenarios include geo-referenced data managed by geo-servers to exchange data in a format compliant with OGC (Open Gis Consortium) standards and the European INSPIRE Directive. Simulation results can be further processed through the Multi-Criteria and Cost-Benefit Analysis modules to support the comparative assessment of alternative seismic and energy measurements. In this work, the procedures included in CAESAR II are described and a case study is reported. It concerns the analysis of the expected damage assessment on buildings and population for three municipalities in northern Italy, Torre Pellice, Villar Pellice and Pinerolo (Piedmont Region)
Multi-mode TES bolometer optimization for the LSPE-SWIPE instrument
In this paper we explore the possibility of using transition edge sensor
(TES) detectors in multi-mode configuration in the focal plane of the Short
Wavelength Instrument for the Polarization Explorer (SWIPE) of the
balloon-borne polarimeter Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) for the
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. This study is motivated by the
fact that maximizing the sensitivity of TES bolometers, under the augmented
background due to the multi-mode design, requires a non trivial choice of
detector parameters. We evaluate the best parameter combination taking into
account scanning strategy, noise constraints, saturation power and operating
temperature of the cryostat during the flight.Comment: in Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 05 January 201
Free Energy Minimizers for a Two--Species Model with Segregation and Liquid-Vapor Transition
We study the coexistence of phases in a two--species model whose free energy
is given by the scaling limit of a system with long range interactions (Kac
potentials) which are attractive between particles of the same species and
repulsive between different species.Comment: 32 pages, 1 fig, plain tex, typeset twic
In Pursuit of Closed-Loop Supply Chains for Critical Materials: An Exploratory Study in the Green Energy Sector
© 2018 by Yale University A closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) is considered not only an important solution for ensuring sustainable exploitation of materials, but also a promising strategy for securing long-term availability of materials. The latter is especially highlighted in the materials criticality discourse. Critical raw materials (CRMs), being exposed to supply disruptions, create an uncertain operational environment for many industries, particularly for green energy technologies that employ multiple CRMs. However, recycling rates of CRMs are very low and engagement of companies in CLSC for CRM is limited. This study examines factors influencing CLSC for CRM development in photovoltaic panels and wind turbine technologies. The aim is to analyze how the factors manifest themselves in different companies along the supply chain and to identify enabling and bottleneck conditions for implementation of CLSC for CRM. The novelty of the study is twofold: the focus on material rather than product flows, and examination of factors from a multiactor perspective. The evidence obtained suggests that the manufacturing companies and reverse supply-chain operators engaged in the study take different perspectives (product vs. material) regarding development of CLSC for CRM and thus emphasize different factors. The findings underline the need for interactions between supply-chain actors, a sound competitive environment for recycling processes, and investment in technologies and infrastructure development if CLSC for CRM is to be developed. The paper provides implications for practitioners and policy makers for implementation of CLSC for CRM, and suggests prospects for further research
Diffusive behavior for randomly kicked Newtonian particles in a spatially periodic medium
We prove a central limit theorem for the momentum distribution of a particle
undergoing an unbiased spatially periodic random forcing at exponentially
distributed times without friction. The start is a linear Boltzmann equation
for the phase space density, where the average energy of the particle grows
linearly in time. Rescaling time, the momentum converges to a Brownian motion,
and the position is its time-integral showing superdiffusive scaling with time
. The analysis has two parts: (1) to show that the particle spends
most of its time at high energy, where the spatial environment is practically
invisible; (2) to treat the low energy incursions where the motion is dominated
by the deterministic force, with potential drift but where symmetry arguments
cancel the ballistic behavior.Comment: 55 pages. Some typos corrected from previous versio
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