Towards an efficient multiscale modeling of low-dimensional reactive systems: study of numerical closure procedures

In this paper, we present a study on how to develop an efficient multiscale simulation strategy for the dynamics of chemically active systems on low-dimensional supports. Such reactions are encountered in a wide variety of situations, ranging from heterogeneous catalysis to electrochemical or (membrane) biological processes, to cite a few. We analyzed in this context different techniques within the framework of an important multiscale approach known as the equation free method (EFM), which "bridges the multiscale gap" by building microscopic configurations using macroscopic-level information only. We hereby considered two simple reactive processes on a one-dimensional lattice, the simplicity of which allowed for an in-depth understanding of the parameters controlling the efficiency of this approach. We demonstrate in particular that it is not enough to base the EFM on the time evolution of the average concentrations of particles on the lattice, but that the time evolution of clusters of particles has to be included as well. We also show how important it is for the accuracy of this method to carefully choose the procedure with which microscopic states are constructed, starting from the measured macroscopic quantities. As we also demonstrate that some errors cannot be corrected by increasing the number of observed macroscopic variables, this work points towards which procedures should be used in order to generate efficient and reliable multiscale simulations of these systems.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

“If it be the case that the appellants are under such an obligation…”: A comparative study of conditionals in English legal discourse

Legal communication is an area where English has increasingly been employed by both native and non-native speakers. In an attempt to carry out a comparative study, the aim of this paper is to focus on language variation in the genre of judgments. For this purpose, a key feature of judicial texts, namely conditionality, was studied. On the basis of a collection of recent EU and Irish judgments, a large sample of conditional subordinators was analysed. Data showed that conditional clauses mainly express what Quirk et al. (1985) call direct open conditions. More specifically, there is evidence that conditionals occur in four outstanding contexts: the expression of obligations; the formulation of conditions under which permissions are granted; the laying down of prohibitions; and the expression of the judge’s recommendations. Finally, an important role is also played by the second category of direct condition identified by Quirk at al. (1985), i.e. hypothetical conditions. Taken together, data appear to suggest that language-relevant findings are indicative of interesting differences also to be read in terms of underlying legal culture

Construction of coincident indicators for the euro area. 5th EUROSTAT Colloquium on Modern Tools For Business Cycle Analysis, Luxembourg, 29th September – 1st October 2008.

The availability of timely and reliable information on main macroeconomic variables is considered both by policy makers and analysts as crucial for an effective process of decision making. Unfortunately official statistics cannot always meet adequately user needs. This is the reason why, using econometric techniques analysts try to anticipate or estimate in real time main macroeconomic movements. In this paper we compare several econometric models for the estimation of the period on period growth rate for the euro area Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Industrial Production Index (IPI). This comparison is made on the basis of real time results provided by these models over six years (2002-2007). Tests of absence of bias are performed and Diebold-Mariano tests help us to select among the models. The paper also presents a new indicator for euro area employment quarterly growth, which seems to perform rather well in the recent past, although this is still a preliminary assessment as we are only at an early stage of running the indicator.coincident indicators;GDP;industrial production;employment;euro area;

Off-design performance model of Organic Rankine Cycle systems

In questa tesi un modello di off-deisign dinamico di un ciclo Rankine organico è presentato. L'obiettivo del lavoro è sviluppare un modello dinamico per ogni singolo componente del sistema, creando una libreria di componenti pronti all'uso, utilizzabile anche in futuro per diverse simulazioni e diversi studi. Il modello sviluppato è utilizzato per simulare un'applicazione di recupero di calore di scarto da processi industrialiopenEmbargo per motivi di segretezza e/o di proprietà  dei risultati e informazioni di enti esterni o aziende private che hanno partecipato alla realizzazione del lavoro di ricerca relativo alla tes

\u201cBy partially renouncing their sovereignty...\u201d: on the discourse function(s) of lexical bundles in EU-related Irish judicial discourse

It is well known that the creation of such ever-expanding supra-national bodies as the European Union has brought not only speakers but also different and at times heterogeneous legal systems closer together (Maley 1994; Barcel\uf3 1997). EU Membership therefore had a strong impact on common-law countries like the Republic of Ireland: from a legal point of view, these yielded to Community law, i.e. a legal system largely influenced by the civil-law tradition, and they had to create a new legal infrastructure to accommodate the influx of vast amounts of EU legislation in economic and social matters (Dimitrakopoulos 2001; Tomkin 2004; Byrne, McCutcheon et al. 2014). In this context, this paper offers a corpus-based perspective to the study of the judicial discourse of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ireland within EU-related judgments. On the basis of a corpus of authentic judgments delivered by the Court between 2001 and 2014 (742,194 words), the study is aimed at implementing and combining computer-assisted quantitative methods with manual qualitative text analysis, in the attempt to discern recurrent phraseological patterns in the Court\u2019s discourse. Drawing on the studies by Biber, Conrad and Cortes (2004), Pecorari (2009) and Breeze (2013) on lexical bundles, the investigation therefore focuses on key instances of phraseology in context. Results interestingly show that terms such as jurisdiction, (national) interest, sovereignty and Constitution (mainly collocating with compatible with) may be observed to be particularly prominent in the frequency lists generated for the corpus. By means of a concordance-based study (Sinclair 2003; Morley and Partington 2009), these terms and the related clusters can be taken into account to answer the question of how the Court\u2019s argumentative discourse deals with the fuzzy notion of national jurisdiction and/or interest in the context of an enlarged EU, where national and EU legislation may well overlap or compete with each other on a variety of legal subjects

Construction of coincident indicators for euro area key macroeconomic variables. 28th International Symposium on Forecasting, Nice, June 23 2008.

The availability of timely and reliable information on main macroeconomic variables is considered both by policy makers and analysts crucial for an effective process of decision making. Unfortunately official statistics cannot always meet adequately users' needs, especially concerning their timely availability. This is the reason why, using econometric techniques, analysts try to anticipate or estimate in real time short-term movements of main macroeconomic variables. In this paper we propose a strategy simple and easily replicable in production processes for the estimation of the period on period growth rates of the euro area Industrial Production Index and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Our strategy is based on the classical multivariate regression model on growth rates with autoregressive error term which is widely used in anticipating economic movements. Concerning GDP three different equations were identified, while for Industrial Production Index we have identified only two suitable representations. Furthermore for both variables we also use a purely autoregressive representation as a benchmark.

“In Other Words, …”: A Corpus-based Study of Reformulation in Judicial Discourse

The language of the law has been a favourite subject of investigation for both legal professionals and linguists for more than a decade now. Linguists, for instance, have paid increasing attention to the interplay of precise and flexible terms in legal drafting, and language variation across the genres of legal discourse. Among the latter, judgments have been discussed as a case in point by argumentation scholars, although the linguistic components of judicial argumentative discourse have often been overlooked. In the light of this, the aim of this paper is to carry out a corpus-based analysis of the open-ended category of reformulation markers as outstanding discursive items of judicial discourse in two comparable corpora of authentic judgments issued by two different courts of last resort, namely the Court of Justice of the European Communities and Ireland’s Supreme Court. By combining a qualitative with a quantitative analysis, the study shows that reformulation markers tend to activate a variety of discursive configurations across the two courts. Hence, data reveal that reformulation strengthens the quality of both judicial narrative, as it were – as is clear from its deployment in clarifying the normative background and specifying the factual framework of disputes – and at once judicial argument, when judges characterise, refine or grade reported arguments/interpretations or they wish to make their reasoning more solid and convincing