Piano digitale di emergenza

CONOSCERE QUANTO STA ACCADENDO ALL’INTERNO DEL “SISTEMA GALLERIA” E ATTIVARE ISTANTANEAMENTE UN ADEGUATO MECCANISMO DI COMUNICAZIONE TRA GLI OPERATORI PREPOSTI A INTERVENIRE IN CASO DI EMERGENZA. È QUESTO UN OBIETTIVO DI MIGLIORAMENTO DELLE PROCEDURE DI TUNNEL MANAGEMENT RESO POSSIBILE DA INFORMATICA ED ELETTRONICA

Tunnel stradali - L’analisi costi-benefici come strumento per l’adeguamento

TRA I CRITERI GUIDA NELL’ASSUMERE DECISIONI NELLA GESTIONE DEL RISCHIO, NEI CASI DI ADEGUAMENTO DELLE GALLERIE STRADALI, IL DECRETO LEGISLATIVO 264/2006 INDICA ANCHE L’ANALISI COSTI-BENEFICI. DI SEGUITO UN APPROFONDIMENTO DELLA QUESTIONE SVILUPPATA CONFRONTANDO IL DETTATO NORMATIVO CON LE RECENTI “LINEE GUIDA PER LA VALUTAZIONE DEGLI INVESTIMENTI IN OPERE PUBBLICHE” NEI SETTORI DI COMPETENZA DEL MINISTERO DELLE INFRASTRUTTURE E DEI TRASPORTI DEL 1° GIUGNO 2017

Causation in Hepatitis B. Vaccination Litigation in France: Breaking Through Scientific Uncertainty?

Vaccination against hepatitis B has been available since 1982 and is strongly recommended by most health professionals. In France, the hepatitis B vaccine is very widespread, but it has come under suspicion that it can cause demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Several epidemiological studies have been carried out to discover if there is indeed a connection between the hepatitis B vaccination and demyelinating diseases, but no such connection has been established so far. Many cases have nevertheless been brought before French courts, in which plaintiffs argue that they have developed a demyelinating disease due to the hepatitis B vaccination, and claim damages either from the State or from hepatitis B vaccine producers. French courts have been surprisingly favorable to such claims. They have accepted that causation between the hepatitis B vaccination and the plaintiff’s disease could be established on a case-by-case basis, despite the state of scientific uncertainty regarding the possible side effects of this vaccination. This article presents the context in which litigation about the hepatitis B vaccination has emerged in France and how it has developed. It goes on to explain what positions French courts have adopted and how the latter have managed to bypass scientific uncertainty. It finally offers a critical assessment of the state of French law, focusing on its conceptual shortcomings on the issue of causation as well as on the argumentative flaws in the justifications given by French courts for their position

Smart Grid Technologies in Europe: An Overview

The old electricity network infrastructure has proven to be inadequate, with respect to modern challenges such as alternative energy sources, electricity demand and energy saving policies. Moreover, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) seem to have reached an adequate level of reliability and flexibility in order to support a new concept of electricity network—the smart grid. In this work, we will analyse the state-of-the-art of smart grids, in their technical, management, security, and optimization aspects. We will also provide a brief overview of the regulatory aspects involved in the development of a smart grid, mainly from the viewpoint of the European Unio

Formation and seasonal occurrence of xylem embolism in Alnus cordata.

We investigated the vulnerability of xylem to embolism and the seasonal occurrence of xylem embolism in Italian alder (Alnus cordata Loisel.) by acoustic and hydraulic methods. Wood anatomy was also studied. More than eighty percent of the vessels were less than 50 mm long and no vessels were longer than 120 mm. Mean vessel diameter was 48 μm. Ultrasound acoustic emissions from root and branch segments dehydrating in air followed a similar pattern: in both tissues, emission peaks were recorded when the relative water content of the xylem was around 0.2. In branches dehydrating in air, xylem embolism increased linearly as water potential decreased. In trees in the field, more than 80 percent of hydraulic conductivity was lost in the tree crowns during winter. Recovery from winter embolism occurred mostly before bud burst. In summer, xylem embolism was low (< 30%) and acoustic emissions from roots, stem and branches of trees in the field were also low

Cross-border critical transportation infrastructure: a multi-level index for resilience assessment

Today, more than ever before, our society depends on interdependent infrastructure systems, such as transportation, energy, water, and telecommunications networks. These systems are often considered critical because they are necessary for the organization, functionality, and stability of a modern industrialized country. However, these infrastructures are vulnerable to accidents, malicious failures, and disruptions that could generate consequences impacting on the economy, health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of a country or of several neighboring countries. The disruption of critical cross-border transportation infrastructure, road or rail, as a result of a major event can affect the area where the event occurs and a wider area. Depending on the type and duration of an event, which can be natural or anthropogenic in origin, it is possible to estimate the impacts on the mobility of people and goods in terms of delays (alternative routes), increased traffic (congestion), and a potential increase in accidents. For instance, in 2019 there was an accident in Rastatt (Germany) that affected rail traffic on the Karlsruhe-Basel line of the Rhine-Alpine corridor in Europe. The rail line was disrupted for more than 50 days, causing disservices and about 2 billion Euro in economic losses in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The extended disruption of road and rail sections can have consequences (impacts) not only on the transport system but also on the socio-economic system in a macro-regional context. The research is part of the SICt project - Resilience of Critical Cross-Border Infrastructure developed in the Interreg VA Italy-Switzerland Programme 2014-2020. The work aims to define a RI - Resilience Index for the road and rail transport network falling within the study area. The RI index describes the capability of each network element (i-th link) to cope with a relevant event. The formulation of the index involves the calculation of three independent indicators: i) RIRM - Rescue Management related to the resources that can be activated and used to cope with an event; ii) RIPP - Plans &amp; Management related to the speed with which the necessary resources can be activated and in fact, considers management aspects such as the presence of plans and procedures; iii) RIRN - Network &amp; Traffic related to the robustness of the elements of the transport network. This work aims to present the proposed model and its application to the project area that includes the Lombardy Region (Italy) and the Canton Ticino (Switzerland) within the SICt Project

Germination, initial growth, and biomass allocation in three native Cerrado species

The parameters of germination, initial growth, and biomass allocation of three native plant species of Cerrado (Copaifera langsdorffii, Dipteryx alata and Kielmeyera coriacea) were established. The species had germination percentages above 88% and average germination times longer than 139 hours. The average time for the opening of the first leaf pair was more than 538 hours for all three species. The average root length of C. langsdorffii and D. alata seedlings after 80 days of growth was around 40 cm, four times larger than the average shoot length (< 10 cm), although the root and shoot biomasses were similar for both species. The average root length (> 20 cm) of K. coriacea seedlings was four times larger than the average shoot length (< 5 cm), and the root biomass was 243% greater than the shoot biomass. Increase in seedling biomass was sustained primarily by the cotyledons in C. langsdorffii and D. alata, which acted as reserve organs and showed progressive weight reductions. Increase in seedling biomass in K. coriacea was sustained primarily by photosynthesis, since the cotyledons showed no significant weight reduction, acting primarily as photosynthetic organs. The length of the root systems was at least four times larger than the length of the shoots parts in all three species. Higher investment in root length rather than in root biomass suggest that the initial growth of these species is primarily to ensure access to water resources, apparently putting off the function of the radicular system as storage organ

An organic nanoparticle transistor behaving as a biological synapse

Molecule-based devices are envisioned to complement silicon devices by providing new functions or already existing functions at a simpler process level and at a lower cost by virtue of their self-organization capabilities. Moreover, they are not bound to von Neuman architecture and this feature may open the way to other architectural paradigms. Neuromorphic electronics is one of them. Here we demonstrate a device made of molecules and nanoparticles, a nanoparticle organic memory filed-effect transistor (NOMFET), which exhibits the main behavior of a biological spiking synapse. Facilitating and depressing synaptic behaviors can be reproduced by the NOMFET and can be programmed. The synaptic plasticity for real time computing is evidenced and described by a simple model. These results open the way to rate coding utilization of the NOMFET in dynamical neuromorphic computing circuits.Comment: To be publsihed in Adv. Func. Mater. Revised version. One pdf file including main paper and supplementary informatio

Ultrasound emission after cycles of water stress in Picea abies

The relationships among rate of ultrasound acoustic emission (AE), xylem water potential and transpiration rate were investigated in 5-year-old potted saplings of Picea abies Karst. after cycles of water stress. Water-stressed plants displayed minimum xylem water potentials of –3.9 MPa, near-zero transpiration rates and up to 45 AE counts per minute. After rewatering, water-stressed plants no longer produced AEs. Well-watered control plants produced only a small number of ultrasonic AEs. After three cycles of water stress (lasting 24 days in total), it was estimated that about two-thirds of the functional tracheids were embolized. The concomitant reduction in hydraulic conductance was about 70%