Inhibition Of Order-disorder Phase Transition And Improvements In The Bicuvox.1 Properties By Using Yttria-stabilized Zirconia Particles

Composite solid electrolytes were prepared varying the addition of yttria-stabilized zirconia (3Y-TZP) from 3 to 26wt% using a matrix of copper-substituted bismuth vanadate (BICUVOX.1). The effects of stabilized zirconia concentration were added and their relation with the tensile strength, thermal expansion, phase transition and electrical conductivity were evaluated. When compared to pristine BICUVOX.1, the addition of 26wt% of 3Y-TZP led to an increase of 144% in tensile strength and a reduction of the thermal expansion coefficient from 12.3×10-6 °C-1 to 9.6×10-6 °C-1. Such improvements stems from grain growth inhibition due to the Zener pinning effect. Impedance measurements and thermal analyses showed that the addition of high zirconia concentrations is an effective way to prevent the γ'↔γ phase transition in the BICUVOX.1 matrix. Nevertheless, the total electrical conductivity has been continuously reduced with a progressive increase in the amount of zirconia. © 2014

Developing Municipal e-Government in Italy: The City of Alfa Case

The paper aims to analyze the new trends in the public administration’s way of doing government business. Specifically, it takes stock of the various actions developed to modernize the administrative and management structures of public companies (PA) and their outcomes. The modernization effort is the result of two macro actions: public administration reforms and the successive pervasion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The e-Government process is driven by ICTs and the search for a new way to govern. Given that many aspects of the reforms highlight the PA’s multifaceted nature, the outcome of the phenomenon also needs to be defined and studied by taking into account how it straddles the technological, organizational, managerial, informatics, relational and cultural dimensions. The paper analyzes a case study of e-Government implementation in a mid-sized municipality in Northern Italy; the aim is to understand how Italy’s new reforms and the advent of ICTs have shaped the City of Alfa’s route to change