The need of standardization and the potential role of voluntary approaches: Issues and trends in Italian GCHP market

Despite the lack of specific incentives, Ground Coupled Heat Pumps (GCHP) installations are booming in Italy both in private and public sectors of the market. Such rapid growth entails an increasing concern for environmental and technical performances since no comprehensive regulation and reliable standards exist yet. By means of an investigation of sectoral opinion leaders and SWOT-based technique for building scenarios, this paper discusses potential schemes for balancing mandatory and voluntary requirements. The analysis suggests that standardization and voluntary schemes are perceived as effective tools to encourage the greening of Italian GCHP-SMEs in short-run while laying the foundations for evolving sustainable policies in the longer run. A potential scheme that has been simulated by reflecting the supply-side orientations of the market and that involves of process and product standards is discussed.

Generalized adjoint forms on algebraic varieties

We prove a full generalization of the Castelnuovo's free pencil trick. We show its analogies with the Adjoint Theorem; see L. Rizzi, F. Zucconi, Differential forms and quadrics of the canonical image, arXiv:1409.1826 and also Theorem 1.5.1 in G. P. Pirola, F. Zucconi, Variations of the Albanese morphisms, J. Algebraic Geom. 12 (2003), no. 3, 535-572. Moreover we find a new formulation of the Griffiths's infinitesimal Torelli Theorem for smooth projective hypersurfaces using meromorphic $1$-forms.Comment: 18 page

Differential forms and quadrics of the canonical image

Let $\pi\colon\mathcal{X}\to B$ be a family over a smooth connected analytic variety $B$, not necessarily compact, whose general fiber $X$ is smooth of dimension $n$, with irregularity $\geq n+1$ and such that the image of the canonical map of $X$ is not contained in any quadric of rank $\leq 2n+3$. We prove that if the Albanese map of $X$ is of degree $1$ onto its image then the fibers of $\pi\colon\mathcal{X}\to B$ are birational under the assumption that all the $1$-forms and all the $n$-forms of a fiber are holomorphically liftable to $\mathcal{X}$. Moreover we show that generic Torelli holds for such a family $\pi\colon \mathcal{X}\to B$ if, in addition to the above hypothesis, we assume that the fibers are minimal and their minimal model is unique. There are counterexamples to the above statements if the canonical image is contained inside quadrics of rank $\leq 2n+3$. We also solve the infinitesimal Torelli problem for an $n$-dimensional variety $X$ of general type with irregularity $\geq n+1$ and such that its cotangent sheaf is generated and the canonical map is a rational map whose image is not contained in a quadric of rank less or equal to $2n+3$.Comment: 23 pages, revised version incorporating referees' comments, exposition improve

A note on Torelli-type theorems for Gorenstein curves

Using the notion of generalized divisors introduced by Hartshorne, we adapt the theory of adjoint forms to the case of Gorenstein curves. We show an infinitesimal Torelli-type theorem for vector bundles on Gorenstein curves. We also construct explicit counterexamples to the infinitesimal Torelli claim in the case of a reduced reducible Gorenstein curve.Comment: 17 page

Analysis of heat waves effects on health using GAM and bootstrap based model selection.

It is known that high summer temperature may lead to worsening health conditions among fragile individuals within exposed populations. It is also argued that multi-day patterns of high temperature – heat waves – may have relevant effects on health. We will discuss the possible measures of heat waves intensity to be included in a generalized additive model explaining the number of hospital admissions occurred during summer months in Milano. The issue of variable selection is central to the analysis: a computational method is discussed which may help in assessing the robustness of model selection method. Eventually, we obtain evidence supporting the relevance of heat waves in driving adverse health episodes

Orbit determination and control for the European Student Moon Orbiter

This paper presents the preliminary navigation and orbit determination analyses for the European Student Moon Orbiter. The severe constraint on the total mission Delta nu and the all-day piggy-back launch requirement imposed by the limited available budget, led to the choice of using a low-energy transfer, more specifically a Weak Stability Boundary one, with a capture into an elliptic orbit around the Moon. A particular navigation strategy was devised to ensure capture and fulfil the requirement for the uncontrolled orbit stability at the Moon. This paper presents a simulation of the orbit determination process, based on an extended Kalman filter, and the navigation strategy applied to the baseline transfer of the 2011-2012 window. The navigation strategy optimally allocates multiple Trajectory Correction Manoeuvres to target a so-called capture corridor. The capture corridor is defined, at each point along the transfer, by back-propagating the set of perturbed states at the Moon that provides an acceptable lifetime of the lunar orbit. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved