Ħtieġa ta' pjan strateġiku għall-Università

lli ftit anqas minn ħames snin fid-dipartiment tal-Fiżika tal-Fakultà tax-Xjenza; ftit anqas minn hekk fis-Senat, u ftit xhur fil-Kunsill. Nixtieq għalhekk insemmi xi problemi li laqtuni, l-iżjed biex jibda jinħoloq forum ta' diskussjoni bejn l-Università u d-dinja politika-soċjali ta' madwarna. Fil-Kunsill, li bażikament jiggverna l-Università, hemm maġġoranza ta' nies appuntati mill-Prim Ministru u minn ministri oħra (u issa anki fil-Fakultà tat-Teoloġija bil-ftehim Gvern-Vatikan). Dawn ikunu ġeneralment nies minn barra l-Università. Inħoss li wasal iż-żmien li din il-bixra tal-Kunsill tinbidel. Nies minn barra l-Università għandu jkun hemm, kemm biex il-Gvern ikollu ħjiel kif sejra l-Università kif ukoll biex dawn in-nies iwasslu fost il-poplu - li jħallas għall-Università - stampa ċara ta' kif taħdem. Madankollu, il-ħtieġa kbira li nara li għandu l-Kunsill hu li x-xogħol tiegħu jkun magħruf minn iżjed nies fl-Università stess, u li f'dan ix-xogħol ikollu element ta' oppożizzjoni kostruttiva, ħaġa li n-nies ta' barra l-Università ma jkollhomx żmien għaliha. Mingħajrha, tendenzi ta' nuqqas ta' trasparenza, ta' daqq ta' qanpiena waħda, ta' poteri fi ftit idejn ikunu diffiċli li trażżanhom.peer-reviewe

The renewable energy potential of the Maltese Islands

The potential of renewable energies is presented for the territory of the Republic of Malta. These are in the main sun, wind and biogas. Taking the base year 2003 for comparing the percentage contribution of electricity generated from renewables to that generated from fossil-fuelled power stations, it was found that rooftop solar photovoltaic systems could produce 9.1%, onshore wind farms could offset 5.4% and the offshore wind potential lies in the region of 3.4%. Energy from waste could contribute another 5.6%, while widespread solar water heating in domestic buildings could offset 4.8%. Economic analysis of applying renewable energy power systems under the present constraints is carried out. A range of barriers to the use of renewable energy devices is described. The currently available incentives are listed and a number of measures that could be implemented to allow widespread applications of renewable energies are suggestedpeer-reviewe

Runtime verification using Valour

In this paper we give an overview of Valour, a runtime verification tool which has been developed in the context of a project to act as a backend verification tool for financial transaction software. A Valour script is written by the user and is then compiled into a verification system. Although, developed as part of a project, the tool has been designed as a stand-alone general-purpose verification engine with a particular emphasis on event consumption. The strong points of Valour when compared to other runtime verification tools is its focus on scalability and robustness.peer-reviewe

An ultrahot Neptune in the Neptune desert

About 1 out of 200 Sun-like stars has a planet with an orbital period shorter than one day: an ultrashort-period planet. All of the previously known ultrashort-period planets are either hot Jupiters, with sizes above 10 Earth radii (R⊕), or apparently rocky planets smaller than 2 R⊕. Such lack of planets of intermediate size (the ‘hot Neptune desert’) has been interpreted as the inability of low-mass planets to retain any hydrogen/helium (H/He) envelope in the face of strong stellar irradiation. Here we report the discovery of an ultrashort-period planet with a radius of 4.6 R⊕ and a mass of 29 M⊕, firmly in the hot Neptune desert. Data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite revealed transits of the bright Sun-like star LTT 9779 every 0.79 days. The planet’s mean density is similar to that of Neptune, and according to thermal evolution models, it has a H/He-rich envelope constituting 9.0^(+2.7)_(−2.9)% of the total mass. With an equilibrium temperature around 2,000 K, it is unclear how this ‘ultrahot Neptune’ managed to retain such an envelope. Follow-up observations of the planet’s atmosphere to better understand its origin and physical nature will be facilitated by the star’s brightness (V_(mag) = 9.8)

The Magellan-TESS Survey I: Survey Description and Mid-Survey Results

One of the most significant revelations from Kepler is that roughly one-third of Sun-like stars host planets which orbit their stars within 100 days and are between the size of Earth and Neptune. How do these super-Earth and sub-Neptune planets form, what are they made of, and do they represent a continuous population or naturally divide into separate groups? Measuring their masses and thus bulk densities can help address these questions of their origin and composition. To that end, we began the Magellan-TESS Survey (MTS), which uses Magellan II/PFS to obtain radial velocity (RV) masses of 30 transiting exoplanets discovered by TESS and develops an analysis framework that connects observed planet distributions to underlying populations. In the past, RV measurements of small planets have been challenging to obtain due to the faintness and low RV semi-amplitudes of most Kepler systems, and challenging to interpret due to the potential biases in the existing ensemble of small planet masses from non-algorithmic decisions for target selection and observation plans. The MTS attempts to minimize these biases by focusing on bright TESS targets and employing a quantitative selection function and multi-year observing strategy. In this paper, we (1) describe the motivation and survey strategy behind the MTS, (2) present our first catalog of planet mass and density constraints for 25 TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs; 20 in our population analysis sample, five that are members of the same systems), and (3) employ a hierarchical Bayesian model to produce preliminary constraints on the mass-radius (M-R) relation. We find qualitative agreement with prior mass-radius relations but some quantitative differences (abridged). The the results of this work can inform more detailed studies of individual systems and offer a framework that can be applied to future RV surveys with the goal of population inferences.Comment: 101 pages (39 of main text and references, the rest an appendix of figures and tables). Submitted to AAS Journal

State of the Environment Report for Malta 1998

All activities of Man have an impact on the local and global environment. It has become increasingly important to gauge these impacts, both because these impacts are becoming more and more significant and also because Man’s expectations have increased more than ever before in the last ten years. Moreover, the aspect of sustainability, that is whether what we are doing today to satisfy our needs will have an impact on future generations, has become an overriding concern. It is therefore important that all decisions are taken with an informed mind. For this to be possible, there must be accurate and accessible information about the state of our environment. Indeed, in signing the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in December 1998, Malta has pledged amongst other things to keep the public informed about the state of the environment. This is precisely the scope of this report, which intends to be one of a series of regular snap-shots of the state of the local environment. Such reports will facilitate a co-ordinated response to be made and eventually will enable trends to be discerned. While the report shows that there is considerable work still to be done in the environmental field, it is nevertheless a milestone towards achieving sustainable development. [preface]peer-reviewe

State of the Environment Report for Malta 2002

One of the very first paragraphs of the final chapter of the report, which I am commending to everyone’s attention, says that the “institutional development” by which the Environment has been brought under my tutelage “has led to various reactions from the public”. Not a whiff of justificatory comment on the move follows. That is the ideally objective and scientific spirit in which the environmental balance sheet of our country has been correctly couched. A reader of the WWF report on the Planet (written in preparation for the UN World Summit to open in Johannesburg on the 26th August) cannot help being struck by its contrastingly apocalyptic tone: it calculates that in just 50 years time, humankind may be forced to emigrate to some other planet, if it wants to survive. Two observations suggest themselves. On the one hand, a comparison of the figures and facts in the two reports indeed show that environmentally Malta is doing much better than the world as a whole – although that is a very relative judgment. On the other hand, because the environment is just one for the whole planet, it is in our interest, as well as our duty, to do our utmost to ensure an optimal outcome at Johannesburg. It is striking that the key concept emerging as central to the earth Summit is an unfortunately somewhat debased derivative of the Maltese concept of the “common heritage of mankind” and that the absolutely vital importance for the environmental future, especially in the context of climate change, of the Oceans (to which the Maltese concept was first applied) is being universally acknowledged. The reader of the Report will also be struck by the rare occurrence of such sentences as this: “Malta is currently transposing several items of EU legislation dealing with solid waste management into national legislation” (p575). Nobody will be unhappy at that – since solid waste disposal has been perhaps our most intractable environmental problem for years. In our negotiations with the EU, we have been striving hard, on the one hand, to get the proof that, even in the environmental area, the EU respects the great ecological value of diversity and individual, historically, geographically and culturally conditioned identity. However, there can be no doubt, that membership of the European Union will be a great boon for the Maltese environment both in its individuality and in the global context. The Report is written in the language of experts who speak of the situation with independent and non-political eyes. Other authorities may not agree completely with all their statements. But the Government as a whole will certainly use it as a management tool. So too, I am sure, will all the relevant, competent authorities. [preface]peer-reviewe