The determinants of SMEs capital structure: Overcoming supply constraints

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThis paper studies the most relevant literature on firms’ capital structure, in general, and Small and Medium Enterprises, in particular. Evidencing that SMEs’ financing needs to evolve with their age, literature notes that failures in this market stem generally from a shortage in capital supply and from the extreme degree of opacity which characterizes young and small corporations. The forthcoming Basel III regulations will strengthen the future banking environment but probably affect even more financing to small businesses. Given that the imperfections of this market are not only present in periods of economic turmoils but also on a structural basis, finding ways to enhance SMEs’ transparency, and designing instrument to reduce dependence from bank credit, should be a priority for future actions undertaken by practitioners and regulators. Following the effective examples of the Indian SMEs Rating Agency, of the Korean corporate bonds market and of the growing phenomenon of crowdfunding, this work analyzes their pros and cons as well as their potential to become worldwide industry standards

Simulazione termofluidodinamica non stazionaria per corpi rotanti: problemi legati alla generazione della griglia di calcolo

Il presente lavoro di tesi rappresenta il risultato dei circa sei mesi trascorsi presso la Gestione Sportiva Ferrari - Maranello (MO) e consiste nella creazione di una "sliding mesh" nel gruppo ruota anteriore della monoposto di F1 Ferrari F2007. La creazione della sliding mesh ha consentito di mettere fisicamente in rotazione sia il disco del freno sia le razze ed effettuare quindi una simulazione termofluidodinamica non stazionaria dei flussi transitori interni alla ruota. Lo scopo di tale studio è quello di costruire uno strumento che permetta una migliore comprensione dei flussi interni alla ruota in modo da poter in futuro migliorare le prestazioni della frenata. Mediante l’uso dei software ANSA e TGrid sono state realizzate le sliding mesh del disco del freno e delle razze, mentre per le simulazioni è stato utilizzato il software Fluent. In una prima parte viene riportato il lavoro necessario a rendere la mesh funzionante per un calcolo prima stazionario, poi non stazionario utilizzando il Reynolds Stress Model(RSM). Si riporta poi un primo tentativo di costruzione delle sliding mesh non andato a buon fine a causa di problemi sulle "non-conformal-interfaces" (NCI). Viene presentata una nuova e definitiva strategia per il posizionamento delle NCI e un'analisi sul comportamento delle stesse: in questo secondo tentativo è stato infatti riscontrato un comportamento "anomalo" delle NCI. A questo punto vengono mostrati anche i rimedi adottati per evitare tutti i problemi incontrati sulle "sliding interfaces", nonché i metodi per verificarne il corretto funzionamento. Nella seconda parte vengono analizzati e discussi i risultati delle simulazioni CFD effettuate utilizzando la "sliding mesh" appena realizzata: sono analizzate in dettaglio sia la simulazione "fredda" che la simulazione "calda". E’ emerso un problema riguardante la simulazione termofluidodinamica effettuata: la temperatura statica registrata è piuttosto inferiore rispetto alle previsioni. A questo punto vengono analizzate le possibili cause del problema e viene presentata una possibile soluzione. Infine sono riportate alcune proposte sulle possibili vie che possono essere seguite per i futuri studi

School Makerspace Manifesto

AbstractThis contribution describes a sustainable model for makerspaces in primary and lower secondary schools. Based on Indire research on innovative school spaces, it discusses the theoretical background that schools should adopt and create before starting a makerspace lab. It also looks at which aspects of the maker culture can successfully be combined with active pedagogy. In this way, educational institutions and makers can come together to build makerspaces within schools that will be useful to both

Responsible Research in IT

The file attached to this record is the author's version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link

The Verrès Castle Access Project

The article describes the access project of the Verrès castle, located in Aosta Valley in Italy, underlining some urban and transport planning and design elements. This project constitute in fact an interesting example of integration between transport infrastructure planning and design with urban planning strategy for tourism development. The transport infrastructure (in this case a vertical lift for tourism use) has furthermore a deep attention to the landscape and social contest and a good architectural design. The Verrès castle access project represents and interesting example of sustainable mobility and of touristic area accessibility which is strong integrated with urban renewal and territorial development. The feasibility study, financed by the Verrès municipality, is part of a the INTERREG IIIA ACOLTRA Project financed by Italy and France with the aim of creating a network of transnational tourist itineraries. Through this initiative Aosta Valley and Haute-Savoy are developing a common tourism strategy that intends to promote cultural heritage and tourism mobility through the RITT (Reseaux d’Itineraires Touristiques Transfrontalieres). In this contest of intervention the study for the accessibility of the Verrès castle is inserted, with the aim of designing a mobility infrastructure for the main attraction of the valley and at the same of strengthening the appeal of tourist attraction of the whole area. The project is located in the small city of Verrés, that lies at 390m, on the banks of the river Evançon. As many of the Valdostani municipalities is characterized by several small urban centers, which are located in a around 8kmq, in a territory where live 2.700 inhabitants. The feasibility study examines three different alternative for a lift that should connect the Verrès centre with the castle. In particular different transport technology (inclined and vertical lift) and several path alternatives have been evaluated. The final solution is constituted by a vertical lift and an horizontal corridor thought the mountain. This alternative in fact minimize the environmental and landscape impacts. The main entrance to the access structure in located in the valley near the Evançon torrent banks: the entrance space has been designed as an covered and inviting atrium. The gallery path is 80m long and is interrupted by a central hall that divides the long corridor into two segments. In the central hall a tourist information point and Verrès Castle history exhibition are located. After the second corridor segment the lift waiting room is positioned. The vertical lift has a 15 person capacity and a journey time of 1 minute and 30 seconds. In the hypothesis that the two sides of the lift cabin are made by transparent glass, the project propose to install light projection on the rock. The lift entrance near the castle is characterized by a minimal design in order to contrast with the castle strong structure

RRI in Higher Education

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a way to promote ethical and socially desirable research. The concept of RRI has recently become more important. Public research funders have embedded RRI principles in their policies and now it is time for higher education institutions to embrace this principles as well. With this in mind, the following editorial summarizes the work that has been done so far to integrate RRI principles into higher education. Since teaching RRI is one of the key activities to implement its principles in higher education, our focus will be also be on how to successfully deliver the teaching of responsible research. Finally, an overview of the major problems that the implementation of RRI in higher education encounters and possible suggestions will be discussed. These are important questions to be asked from the perspective of the ORBIT project, which aims to foster a culture of RRI in the UK ICT research community. Ensuring that RRI is adequately covered is a necessary condition of success for this culture shift

Coding alla scuola dell’infanzia con docente esperto della scuola primaria

La sperimentazione qui presentata, parte del progetto Coding@scuola, contenuto nel Piano Triennale delle Attività 2015-2017 di Indire, ha l’obiettivo di studiare percorsi di pensiero computazionale nell’ultimo anno della scuola dell’infanzia in una prospettiva di verticalizzazione e focalizzazione sulle aree delle Indicazioni Nazionali per il Primo Ciclo

Mitigazione degli spostamenti indotti da uno scavo profondo mediante pareti sacrificali

Per lo sviluppo delle infrastrutture è sempre più frequente il ricorso ad opere in sotterraneo, specialmente in area urbana, dove la densità del costruito rende difficile la realizzazione di nuovi attraversamenti in superficie. Tuttavia, l’esecuzione di scavi profondi in contesti fortemente urbanizzati è condizionata dalla necessità di limitare gli spostamenti indotti negli edifici preesistenti, specie se di rilevanza storico-monumentale. Tale obiettivo può essere perseguito mediante l’impiego di pareti sacrificali (cross-wall), che agiscono come puntoni preinstallati e che vengono costruiti tra le paratie perimetrali prima dell’inizio delle fasi di scavo. In questa nota, si discutono i risultati di alcune analisi numeriche, svolte in condizioni 3D con il metodo degli elementi finiti, per valutare la riduzione degli spostamenti indotti da uno scavo profondo in presenza di sistemi di pareti sacrificali di fissata lunghezza, ma installati a diverso interasse. Nelle analisi, eseguite in termini di tensioni efficaci, si è tenuto conto dell’effetto dei tempi di scavo, assumendo che a ciascuna fase di scavo non drenata segua un processo di consolidazione per intervalli di tempo definiti e compresi tra due e tre mesi.Improvement of underground infrastructures is a key factor to enhance liveability of densely populated cities. However, the construction environment of deep excavations can be very complex because of the presence of pre-existing buildings, often of historical or architectural relevance. To ensure that nearby structures would not be damaged by ground movements induced by deep excavation, sacrificial cross-walls can be adopted as a mitigation technique. They are installed between the perimeter diaphragm walls before the start of excavation and are removed during excavation together with the soil. The cross walls are expected to reduce the lateral wall deflection and ground settlement induced by excavation due to their high compressive strength and axial stiffness. In this paper, a 3D finite element study is presented in which the retaining walls and the cross-walls are modelled using tetrahedral elements. In the analyses, a portion of the box excavation was modelled extending between the centre line of two adjacent cross-walls and the plane of symmetry of a cross-wall. Excavations were modelled with and without sacrificial walls of fixed length, installed at different spacing. To account for the effects of the excavation time, the excess pore water pressures were partially allowed to dissipate after each excavation phase: a 2 months consolidation stage followed each phase, except for the last one, for which the consolidation time was set equal to 3 months. Influence of cross-walls spacing in reducing the ground movements is evaluated for a 42 m deep excavation, assuming a soil profile typical of central Rome. Analyses were carried out in terms of effective stresses. The results show that sacrificial cross-walls induce a substantial reduction of diaphragm wall deflections, ground surface settlements behind the excavation and bottom heave. The efficiency of the system, which provides a direct measure of displacement reduction, increases with decreasing cross-wall spacing: the maximum efficiency computed for the horizontal displacement of the perimeter diaphragms is equal to about 74% for s/B = 2.8 and 58% for s/B =4.7, while ground surface settlements are reduced of as much as 77 to 90%. This latter reduction extends to a distance of about 1.4 times the maximum excavation depth behind the diaphragm wall. Heave of the bottom of the excavation was also seen to reduce, in the range of 25 to 40%. Cross-walls are also beneficial in increasing the available shear strength below the bottom of excavation, thus reducing the risk of basal heave failure. Finally, in the presence of cross-walls, long term effects due to the dissipation of the negative excess pore water pressures induced by the excavation are sensibly reduced