A decidable weakening of Compass Logic based on cone-shaped cardinal directions

We introduce a modal logic, called Cone Logic, whose formulas describe properties of points in the plane and spatial relationships between them. Points are labelled by proposition letters and spatial relations are induced by the four cone-shaped cardinal directions. Cone Logic can be seen as a weakening of Venema's Compass Logic. We prove that, unlike Compass Logic and other projection-based spatial logics, its satisfiability problem is decidable (precisely, PSPACE-complete). We also show that it is expressive enough to capture meaningful interval temporal logics - in particular, the interval temporal logic of Allen's relations "Begins", "During", and "Later", and their transposes

Reference values for railway sidings track geometry

Railway sidings are operated at speeds much lower than those used on national railway lines; a typical speed is 6 km/h. In establishing reference values for maintenance of railway infrastructure in terms of the geometry for such operating conditions, it is noted that both national and European regulations do not provide specific information regarding railway sidings. The overall objective of the research is, therefore, the definition of possible reference values for track geometry, based on those adopted by European rail networks (European and national standards), which can guarantee the appropriate security level for low speed operation typical of railway sidings connected to the national network. The basic principle in defining these values is the maximization of technical-economic efficiency and the maintenance of the acceptability of the risk associated to railway operation. The research results can therefore provide useful information about the cost-effective management of maintenance and safe operation for railway sidings. For this purpose, the approach was inspired to that of Regulation 402/2013, which defines at European level a common safety method for risk analysis. Quantification of probabilities and damages should be based on simulation models because the available statistics do not allow significant results to be inferred. However, the research sector has not yet produced a consolidated modelling. For these reasons, and since it is not possible to quantify probabilities reliably, the proposals resulting from this research are based on the identification of situations where it can be shown that the hazard probability remains unchanged. The approach used to formulate possible reference values valid outside of national networks (railway sidings) is based on an understanding of the underlying principles of the codes of good practice, on the formulation of hypotheses conform to the same principles, and the proposals about mitigative measures of risk associated to the use of different reference values, such as to keep the risk of the railway within the limits of acceptability, acting conservatively so as to keep unchanged, or reduce, the probability of hazardous events.The assessment parameters, object of the first phase of the research referred to in this work and used here as an example, are longitudinal level and alignment of railway track. In the case of vehicles running at low speed, the study was conducted by varying the magnitude of the reference values by using values that belong to external intervals with respect to those in accordance with European and national codes of good practice, examining the corresponding effects on the physical quantities related to safety. The effects of their variations on the wheel-rail interaction forces were studied using a simple dynamic model (with one degree of freedom) and a random generated excitation given by track defectiveness and the corresponding random response in terms of vertical and lateral contact forces (Q and Y)

Development of innovative system to contain the odourous impact of industrial plants

Il seguente progetto di dottorato si occupa dello sviluppo di sistemi innovativi per l'abbattimento delle emissioni odorose degli impianti industriali, concentrandosi su due settori industriali sviluppati nella Regione Marche: l'industria del legno e il riciclaggio dei rifiuti vegetali. L'impatto odorigeno delle attività industriali è un grave problema per le attività produttive stesse; anzi, spesso le autorità competenti per il controllo sono costrette ad agire. La causa principale di tali impatti non è sempre dovuta al superamento delle concentrazioni imposte dai limiti di legge; anzi, una pianificazione urbanistica inefficace in passato ha portato all'insediamento di stabilimenti industriali in prossimità di zone residenziali: le molestie olfattive diventano motivo di denuncia dei cittadini, che ostacolano lo svolgimento del lavoro delle aziende. In questo contesto è fondamentale lo sviluppo di sistemi innovativi efficaci, finalizzati al contenimento degli odori provenienti dai processi produttivi. Il presente progetto di ricerca di dottorato è stato cofinanziato da una società (Pan Eco srl), la cui missione è quella di supportare le diverse industrie presenti sul campo nel rispetto delle normative ambientali; in questo settore ottiene autorizzazioni e sviluppa progetti volti al rispetto di tutti i vincoli ambientali. Considerando lo scenario appena descritto e la mission aziendale, l'obiettivo generale del programma di ricerca è stato lo sviluppo di sistemi innovativi per il contenimento delle emissioni odorose in atmosfera da parte di diversi impianti industriali. L'obiettivo generale del progetto è stato raggiunto attraverso obiettivi e attività specifici: - definizione dello stato dell'arte dei sistemi attualmente applicati per l'abbattimento delle emissioni in atmosfera di composti organici, compreso il contesto legislativo. Attraverso la ricerca bibliografica è stata realizzata una sintesi delle principali tecniche di campionamento, analisi e abbattimento delle emissioni odorigene, anche facendo riferimento alle principali normative a livello nazionale ed europeo; - individuazione delle aziende marchigiane (almeno due) con problematiche legate all'impatto olfattivo della produzione industriale. Sono state individuate due società, una operante nel settore del legno e l'altra operante nel riciclaggio dei rifiuti organici; - progettazione e realizzazione di un sistema innovativo di abbattimento delle emissioni. In entrambi i settori presi in considerazione è stato individuato e implementato un innovativo sistema di abbattimento odori: verniciatura UV per il settore legno e vermicomposting per il riciclo dei rifiuti organici; - campionamento, caratterizzazione delle emissioni e valutazione degli eventuali miglioramenti. In entrambe le società è stato effettuato il campionamento delle emissioni utilizzando tecniche consolidate ed è stato valutato l'effettivo abbattimento delle emissioni odorigene con l'introduzione dei sistemi innovativi.This PhD project deals with the development of innovative systems for the abatement of odorous emissions from industrial plants, focusing on two industrial sectors developed in Marche Region: the wood industry and vegetable waste recycling. The odor impact of industrial activities is a serious problem for the production activities themselves; indeed, the competent authorities for control are often forced to take action. The main cause of such impacts is not always due to an overcoming of the concentrations imposed by the legal limits; indeed, an ineffective urban planning in the past has led to industrial plants located near residential areas: olfactory harassment becomes reason for citizens reports, that hinder the correct operation of companies. The problem of odorous emissions mainly concerns the following companies (Bertoni, 1993): - Companies in the industrial sector (wood industry, chemical industry, oil and gas refineries, foundries, plastic and paint production); - Agri-food companies (meat processing); - Companies that deal with waste and wastewater treatment (landfills and composting companies). In particular, the main odorous compounds are (Bertoni, 1993): - VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds): aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, aldehydes and ketons; - VSCs (Volatile Sulfur Compounds): hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and mercaptans (SH); - Nitrogen compounds: ammonia (NH3) and amines. The odorous emission from industrial facilities can be the cause of annoyance to the people living in the surrounding area. A long-term exposure may bring up serious damage to human health such as nausea, headaches and other related respiratory problems (Lebrero et al., 2011; Zarra et al., 2009b). In this context, the development of effective innovative systems is fundamental, aimed at containing odors from the production processes. The present PhD research project has been cofunded by a company (Pan Eco srl), whose mission is to support the various industries in the field compliance with environmental regulations; in this sector, it obtains authorizations and develops projects aimed at respecting all environmental constraints. Considering the scenario just described and the company mission, the general goal of the research program was the development of innovative systems for the containment of odorous emissions into the atmosphere by various industrial plants. The general goal of the project has been achieved through specific objectives and activities: - definition of the state of the art of the systems currently applied for the abatement of atmospheric emissions of organics compounds, including the legislative context. Through bibliographic research, a summary was made regarding the main techniques for sampling, analysis and abatement of odor emissions, also referring to the main laws at national and European level; - identification of companies in the Marche region (at least two) with problems associated with the odor impact of industrial production. Two companies have been identified, one operating in the wood industry and the other operating in the recycling of organic waste; - design and implementation of innovative emissions abatement system. In both sectors taken into consideration, an innovative odor abatement system was identified and implemented: UV painting for wood sector and vermicomposting for the recycling of organic waste; - sampling, characterization of emissions and assessment of the performance. In both companies, the sampling of emissions using consolidated techniques was carried out and the effective abatement of odor emissions was assessed

Modeling and Design of Multi-Stable Composite Structures

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

An Architecture for Declarative Real-Time Scheduling on Linux

This paper proposes a novel framework and programming model for real-time applications supporting a declarative access to real-time CPU scheduling features that are available on an operating system. The core idea is to let applications declare their temporal characteristics and/or requirements on the CPU allocation, where, for example, some of them may require real-time POSIX priorities, whilst others might need resource reservations through SCHED_DEADLINE. The framework can properly handle such a set of heterogeneous requirements configuring an underlying multi-core platform so to exploit the various scheduling disciplines that are available in the kernel, matching applications requirements. The framework is realized as a modular architecture in which different plugins handle independently certain real-time scheduling features within the underlying kernel, easing the customization of its behavior to support other schedulers or operating systems by adding further plugins

Full characterization of the quantum linear-zigzag transition in atomic chains

A string of repulsively interacting particles exhibits a phase transition to a zigzag structure, by reducing the transverse trap potential or the interparticle distance. The transition is driven by transverse, short wavelength vibrational modes. Based on the emergent symmetry Z_2 it has been argued that this instability is a quantum phase transition, which can be mapped to an Ising model in transverse field. We perform an extensive Density Matrix Renormalization Group analysis of the behaviour at criticality and evaluate the critical exponents and the central charge with high precision. We thus provide strong numerical evidence confirming that the quantum linear-zigzag transition belongs to the critical Ising model universality class. These results show that structural instabilities of one-dimensional interacting atomic arrays can simulate quantum critical phenomena typical of ferromagnetic systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Fermionic Sen's Mechanism for Self-Dual Super Maxwell theory

In several elementary particle scenarios, self-dual fields emerge as fundamental degrees of freedom. Some examples are the $D=2$ chiral boson, $D=10$ Type IIB supergravity and $D=6$ chiral tensor multiplet theory. For those models, a fully satisfactory variational principle was missing until the works of Ashoke Sen. We generalize this technique to the fermionic sector of self-dual super Maxwell gauge theory in $D=4$ Euclidean spacetime both in the component formalism and in the superspace. For the latter, we use the geometric tools of rheonomy together with integral forms. We show the equivalence between the two formulations by choosing a different integral form defined by means of a Picture Changing Operator. That leads to a meaningful action functional for the variational equations. In addition, we couple the model to a non-dynamical gravitino in order to extend the analysis slightly beyond the rigid case. A full-fledged self-dual supergravity analysis will be presented elsewhere.Comment: 15 pages, no figure