Auto-sapiens autonomous driving vehicle

This paper presents the Auto-Sapiens project, an autonomous driving car developed by the Mechatronics and Vehicle Dynamics Lab, at Sapienza University of Rome. Auto-Sapiens is a technological platform to test and improve innovative control algorithms. The car platform is a standard car (Smart ForTwo) equipped with throttle, brake, steering actuators and different sensors for attitude identification and environment reconstruction. The first experiments of the Auto-Sapiens car test a new obstacle avoidance. The vehicle, controlled by an optimal variational feedback control, recently developed by the authors, includes the nonlinearities inherent in the car dynamics for better performances. Results show the effectiveness of the system in terms of safety and robustness of the avoidance maneuvers

Solar particle effects on minor components of the Polar atmosphere

Abstract. Solar activity can influence the Earth's environment, and in particular the ozone layer, by direct modulation of the e.m. radiation or through variability of the incoming cosmic ray flux (solar and galactic particles). In particular, solar energetic particles (SEPs) provide additional external energy to the terrestrial environment; they are able to interact with the minor constituents of the atmospheric layer and produce ionizations, dissociations, dissociative ionizations and excitations. This paper highlights the SEP effects on the chemistry of the upper atmosphere by analysing some SEP events recorded during 2005 in the descending phase of the current solar cycle. It is shown that these events can lead to short- (hours) and medium- (days) term ozone variations through catalytic cycles (e.g. HOx and NOx increases). We focus attention on the relationship between ozone and OH data (retrieved from MLS EOS AURA) for four SEP events: 17 and 20 January, 15 May and 8 September. We confirm that SEP effects are different on the night and day hemispheres at high latitudes.</p

Analisis Abnormal Return Saham pada Peristiwa Merger dan Akuisisi di Indonesia

This study aims to obtain empirical evidence related to market reactions indicated by abnormal returns around the time of the 2016-2019 merger and acquisition announcement. The population in this study are companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange that have conducted mergers and acquisitions. The sampling technique uses purposive sampling, the data obtained by 12 companies, namely 3 companies do mergers and 9 companies make acquisitions. Data analysis techniques in this study were one sample test method Kolmogorv-Smirnov test, paired sample t-test test, and one sample t-test using SPSS application version 25. The results of this study showed: During the 11 days study period, there were average abnormal return negative that insignificant for 7 days and average abnormal return positive that also insignificant for 4 days around the announcement time of the company’s mergers and acquisitions. These insignificant test results prove that the market was not approved during the period before and after mergers and acquisitions

Valorization of cigarette butts for synthesis of levulinic acid as top value-added chemicals

Unprecedented in the literature, levulinic acid (LA), one of the top value-added intermediates of chemical industry, is obtained from cigarette butts as cellulose feedstock by means of a one-pot hydrothermal process carried out at 200&nbsp;°C for 2&nbsp;h and catalysed by phosphoric acid. The protocol avoids the use of more aggressive and toxic H2SO4 and HCl, that are generally employed on several cellulose sources (e.g. sludge paper), thus minimizing corrosion phenomena of plants. Neither chemical pre-treatment of butts nor specific purification procedure of LA are required. Notably, by simply modifying acid catalyst (e.g. using CH3COOH), another top value-added fine chemical such as 5-hydroxymethylfuraldehyde (HMF) is obtained, thus widening the scope of the method. Being cigarette filters a waste available in quantities of megatonnes per year, they represent an unlimited at no cost source of cellulose, thus enabling the up-scale to an industrial level of LA production

Forecasting solar proton events by using the ESPERTA model

The ESPERTA (Empirical model for Solar Proton Event Real Time Alert) forecast tool has a Probability of Detection (POD) of 63% for all >10 MeV events with proton peak intensity ≥10 pfu (i.e., ≥S1 events, S1 referring to minor storms on the NOAA Solar Radiation Storms scale), from 1995 to 2014 with a false alarm rate (FAR) of 38% and a median (minimum) warning time (WT) of ∼4.8 (∼0.4) hr. The ESPERTA model modified to predict ≥S2 (i.e., ≥100 pfu) has a POD of 75% and a FAR of 24% for the 1995 - 2014 interval with a median (minimum) WT of ∼1.7 (∼0.2) hr based on predictions made at the time of the S1 threshold crossing. Here, both versions of the ESPERTA model have been applied to forecast recent solar proton events from 2015 to 2017, yielding results consistent with model performance for the 1995 to 2014 interval

the weibull functional form for the energetic particle spectrum at interplanetary shock waves

Transient interplanetary shock waves are often associated with high energy particle enhancements, which are called energetic storm particle (ESP) events. Here we present a case study of an ESP event, recorded by the SEPT, LET and HET instruments onboard the STEREO B spacecraft, on 3 October 2011, in a wide energy range from 0.1 MeV to ~ 30 MeV. The obtained particle spectrum is found to be reproduced by a Weibull like shape. Moreover, we show that the Weibull spectrum can be theoretically derived as the asymptotic steady state solution of the diffusion loss equation by assuming anomalous diffusion for particle velocity. The evaluation of Weibull's parameters obtained from particle observations and the power spectral density of the turbulent fluctations in the shock region, support this scenario and suggest that stochastic acceleration can contribute significantly to the acceleration of high energetic particles at collisioness shock waves

Il progetto “ceraNEApolis”: un sistema informativo cartografico delle produzioni ceramiche a Neapolis (IV a.C.-VII d.C.)

In the last few decades, urban archaeology in Naples has contributed to outline the history of the city. The discovery of a great amount of pottery gave information about the daily life of ancient Naples. It was therefore decided to draw up a thematic archaeological map of the ceramics finds to reconstruct their production and distribution from the 4th century B.C. to the 7th century A.D. The project ceraNEApolis consists of a pottery map linked to a bibliographic database, which will be made available online: a working tool for experts, useful to outline the cultural city stratification and to understand the Neapolitan archaeological sites through the material. It is useful in defining the topography of production (workshop, raw materials, and resources), distribution (communication routes, harbour, market), uses and consumption patterns (house, habitat, sacred areas, burials) in the city, even if lacking monumental evidence. It contributes to the reconstruction and analysis of the cultural and urban landscape, taking into account the geomorphological elements and the data contexts even in diachronic and transversal multi-disciplinary perspective. The analysis of some significant cases shows its validity also for potential alternative fruition. The integration of virtual reality systems is a possible extension also for the knowledge, enhancement, communication and use of cultural heritage