Plasma transport in the interplanetary space: Percolation and anomalous diffusion of magnetic-field lines

The magnetic fluctuations due to, e.g., magnetohydrodynamic turbulence cause a magnetic-field line random walk that influences many cosmic plasma phenomena. The results of a three-dimensional numerical simulation of a turbulent magnetic field in plane geometry are presented here. Magnetic percolation, L´evy flights, and non-Gaussian random walk of the magnetic-field lines are found for moderate perturbation levels. In such a case plasma transport can be anomalous, i.e., either superdiffusive or subdiffusive. Increasing the perturbation level a Gaussian diffusion regime is attained. The implications on the structure of the electron foreshock and of planetary magnetopauses are discussed

A Monte Carlo simulation of magnetic field line tracing in the solar wind

International audienceIt is well known that the structure of magnetic field lines in solar wind can be influenced by the presence of the magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We have developed a Monte Carlo simulation which traces the magnetic field lines in the heliosphere, including the effects of magnetic turbulence. These effects are modelled by random operators which are proportional to the square root of the magnetic field line diffusion coefficient. The modelling of the random terms is explained, in detail, in the case of numerical integration by discrete steps. Furthermore, a proper evaluation of the diffusion coefficient is obtained by a numerical simulation of transport in anisotropic magnetic turbulence. The scaling of the fluctuation level and of the correlation lengths with the distance from the Sun are also taken into account. As a consequence, plasma transport across the average magnetic field direction is obtained. An application to the propagation of energetic particles from corotating interacting regions to high heliographic latitudes is considered

First results from an aging test of a prototype RPC for the LHCb Muon System

Recent results of an aging test performed at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility on a single--gap RPC prototype developed for the LHCb Muon System are presented. The results are based on an accumulated charge of about 0.45 C/cm$^2$, corresponding to about 4 years of LHCb running at the highest background rate. The performance of the chamber has been studied under several photon flux values exploiting a muon beam. A degradation of the rate capability above 1 kHz/cm$^2$ is observed, which can be correlated to a sizeable increase of resistivity of the chamber plates. An increase of the chamber dark current is also observed. The chamber performance is found to fulfill the LHCb operation requirements.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, presented at the International Workshop on Aging Phenomena in Gaseous Detectors'', DESY-Hamburg (Germany), October 200

Preliminary results of an aging test of RPC chambers for the LHCb Muon System

The preliminary results of an aging test performed at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility on a single--gap RPC prototype developed for the LHCb Muon System are presented. The results are based on an accumulated charge density of 0.42 C/cm^2, corresponding to about 4 years of LHCb running at the highest background rate. We observe a rise in the dark current and noise measured with source off. The current drawn with source on steadily decreased, possibly indicating an increase of resistivity of the chamber plates. The performance of the chamber, studied with a muon beam under several photon flux values, is found to still fulfill the LHCb operation requirements.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, presented at RPC2001, VIth Workshop on Resistive Plate Chambers and Related Detectors, November 26-27 2001, Coimbra, Portuga

Model for the spatio-temporal intermittency of the energy dissipation in turbulent flows

Modeling the intermittent behavior of turbulent energy dissipation processes both in space and time is often a relevant problem when dealing with phenomena occurring in high Reynolds number flows, especially in astrophysical and space fluids. In this paper, a dynamical model is proposed to describe the spatio-temporal intermittency of energy dissipation rate in a turbulent system. This is done by using a shell model to simulate the turbulent cascade and introducing some heuristic rules, partly inspired by the well known $p$-model, to construct a spatial structure of the energy dissipation rate. In order to validate the model and to study its spatially intermittency properties, a series of numerical simulations have been performed. These show that the level of spatial intermittency of the system can be simply tuned by varying a single parameter of the model and that scaling laws in agreement with those obtained from experiments on fully turbulent hydrodynamic flows can be recovered. It is finally suggested that the model could represent a useful tool to simulate the spatio-temporal intermittency of turbulent energy dissipation in those high Reynolds number astrophysical fluids where impulsive energy release processes can be associated to the dynamics of the turbulent cascade.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure

Spice-up your coding lessons with the ACME approach

It is nowadays considered a fundamental skill for students and citizens the capacity of undertaking a problem-solving process in various disciplines (including STEM, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics) using distinctive techniques that are typical of computer science. These abilities are usually called Computational Thinking and at the roots of them stands the knowledge of coding. With the goal of encouraging Computational Thinking in young students, we discuss tools and techniques to support the teaching and the learning of coding in school curricula. It is well known that this problem is complex due to the fact that it requires abstraction capabilities and complex cognitive skills such as procedural and conditional reasoning, planning, and analogical reasoning. In this paper, we present ACME (“Code Animation by Evolved Metaphors”) that stands at the foundation of the Diogene-CT code visualization environment and methodology. We discuss visual metaphors for both procedural and object-oriented programming. Based on them, we introduce a playground architecture to support teaching and learning of the principles of coding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scalable code visualization tool using consistent metaphors in the field of Computing Education Research (CER)

Diogene-CT: tools and methodologies for teaching and learning coding

Computational thinking is the capacity of undertaking a problem-solving process in various disciplines (including STEM, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics) using distinctive techniques that are typical of computer science. It is nowadays considered a fundamental skill for students and citizens, that has the potential to affect future generations. At the roots of computational-thinking abilities stands the knowledge of computer programming, i.e. coding. With the goal of fostering computational thinking in young students, we address the challenging and open problem of using methods, tools and techniques to support teaching and learning of computer-programming skills in school curricula of the secondary grade and university courses. This problem is made complex by several factors. In fact, coding requires abstraction capabilities and complex cognitive skills such as procedural and conditional reasoning, planning, and analogical reasoning. In this paper, we introduce a new paradigm called ACME (“Code Animation by Evolved Metaphors”) that stands at the foundation of the Diogene-CT code visualization environment and methodology. We develop consistent visual metaphors for both procedural and object-oriented programming. Based on the metaphors, we introduce a playground architecture to support teaching and learning of the principles of coding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scalable code visualization tool using consistent metaphors in the field of the Computing Education Research (CER). It might be considered as a new kind of tools named as code visualization environments

New results from an extensive aging test on bakelite Resistive Plate Chambers

We present recent results of an extensive aging test, performed at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility on two single--gap RPC prototypes, developed for the LHCb Muon System. With a method based on a model describing the behaviour of an RPC under high particle flux conditions, we have periodically measured the electrode resistance R of the two RPC prototypes over three years: we observe a large spontaneous increase of R with time, from the initial value of about 2 MOhm to more than 250 MOhm. A corresponding degradation of the RPC rate capabilities, from more than 3 kHz/cm2 to less than 0.15 kHz/cm2 is also found.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, presented at Siena 2002, 8th Topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors 21-24 October 2002, Siena, Ital

The impact of ESG factors on financial efficiency: An empirical analysis for the selection of sustainable firm portfolios

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are increasingly at the center of corporate and investment decisions. In this context, the aim of the paper was to test whether ESG factors impact on financial efficiency of a sample of firms belonging to different European sectors. This study enriches the literature of the field through a multi-sectoral analysis. The Data Envelopment Analysis was used as widely considered in empirical and financial studies. Research findings showed that ESGs impact on firm efficiency differently over sectors: some of them are more sensitive than others to ESG factors. Furthermore, for most sensitive sectors the risk-return characteristics related to ESGs were represented in order to provide insights for investors aiming to construct efficient and sustainable firm portfolios to invest in