The JEM-EUSO time synchronization system

Abstract JEM-EUSO is a wide-angle refractive UV-telescope proposed to be attached on International Space Station. The tracks generated by Extensive Air Showers (EAS) produced by Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) are reconstructed registering the data coming from 4932 MAPMTs of 64-pixels and retrieving the interesting ones on the occurrence of second level triggers. To guarantee correct time alignment of the events and to measure the event time with a precision of few microseconds, a time synchronization system for the focal surface electronics has been developed. Here we will present the status and the technical solutions adopted so far

The “Essential Practice of Religion” Doctrine in India and its application in Pakistan and Malaysia

Article peer reviewed. An article based on the same research is due to be published in Proceedings of the Conference “Gli elementi essenziali delle religioni nella giurisprudenza delle Corti” held in Rome at the LUISS “Guido Carli”, May 12, 2015.SUMMARY: 1. Introduction – 2. Understanding the complexity: the role of religions in the Indian, Pakistani and Malaysian contexts – 3. The discipline of the religious phenomenon in India: which influences from foreign models in the Constitution? – 4. The Supreme Court and the “essential elements of religion” doctrine – 5.The migration of the Indian essential practice doctrine in Pakistan and Malaysia – 5.1 Interpreting the essential practice doctrine in Pakistan: the long-lasting history of the Ahmadis (non)recognition – 5.2 Cloths and Words always matter. The essential doctrine in Malaysia – 6. Concluding RemarksAbstract: The Supreme Court of India elaborated the “essential elements doctrine” to ascertain which elements are fundamental for a religious practice and which may be purged, as mere superstition, by the intervention of the State without infringing the principle of State neutrality in religious affairs. The doctrine has been discussed and in some cases applied also by constitutional interpreters in Pakistan and Malaysia, whose Constitutions echo the provisions on freedom of religion of the Union of India but also establish Islam as the religion of the State.Therefore, the present essay discusses the interpretation of constitutional provisions by the Supreme Court of India in order to introduce the essential elements doctrine as well as its application by the Pakistani and Malaysian Courts with the aim to asses, relying on the theory of cross-fertilization, whether they merely imported the doctrine or adapted it to the national context

Constitutional dismemberment via referenda: a comparative overview

Constitutional dismemberment is one of the main consequences attached to constitutional amendments that Albert's book analyses. After having analyzed Albert’s definition, the present essay focuses on the practice of constitutional dismemberment via referendum and discusses whether, in times of populism and democratic decay, the constitutional design should provide for specific measures in order to protect the political opposition from the allegiance between the populist leadership and the majority of the population. Building on the existing literature and on a comparative analysis, the essay concludes by highlighting the pros and cons of introducing special protections for political minorities during constitutional referenda to protect democracy against populist deviations, suggesting the need to provide further studies in this field.

Constitutional amendments and constitutional core values: the Brazilian case in a comparative perspective

The debate over the exercise of primary and secondary constituent power is a long-lasting one and is grounded on positions diverging according to the interpretation of constitutionalism and democracy, and to the conception of constitution’s flexibility. In order to safeguard the sacrality of fundamental Charter at the same time ensuring its flexibility, framers, moreover after WWII, entrenched therein both specific procedures for the exercise of the secondary constituent power and clauses for the protection of constitutional fundamentals. After the exhaustion of the primary constituent power, a relevant role has been played by Supreme Courts, which ensured the enforceability of the abovementioned clauses and procedures, and, in some cases, inferred them in the lack of explicit constitutional provisions. The Brazilian Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) is among those Courts which had to infer their competence in reviewing constitutional amendments from the unamendability clauses entrenched in the Charter. The analysis, in a comparative perspective, of the STF’s activism is the focus of this article

the euso balloon instrument

EUSO-Balloon is a pathfinder mission for JEM-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory on-board the Japanese Experiment Module), the near-UV telescope proposed to be installed on board the International Space Station (ISS) before the end of this decade. The main objective of this pathfinder mission is to perform a full scale end-to-end test of all the key technologies and instrumentation of JEM-EUSO detectors and to prove the entire detection chain. The JEM-EUSO instrument consists of an UV telescope designed to focus the signal of the UV tracks generated by Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays propagating in Earth's atmosphere, onto a finely pixelized UV camera. The EUSO-Balloon instrument, smaller than the one designed for the ISS, is currently developed as a payload of a stratospheric balloon operated by the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and will be launched during the CNES flight campaign in August 2014. This telescope will point towards the nadir from a float altitude of about 40 km. With its Fresnel Optics and Photo-Detector Module, EUSO-Balloon will monitor a 12◦×12◦ wide field of view in a wavelength range between 290 and 430 nm, at a rate of 400'000 frames/sec. In this paper, we will review the main stages of the signal processing of the EUSO-Balloon instrument: the photodetection, the analog electronics, the trigger stages, which select events while rejecting random background, the electronic acquisition system which performs the data management and the monitoring, allowing the instrument control during operation