Three-dimensional geometric morphometrics of Arvicanthis: implications for systematics and taxonomy

Arvicanthis is an African murid, found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan and Egypt. Although in the past 10 years several studies have been carried out to assess its systematics, there is still a need for a general revision of the genus. In this study the morphometric relationships between 71 populations throughout the range were investigated. A three-dimensional geometric morphometric approach was used to assess differences in the size and shape of the skull. These were related to the different biogeographical domains characterizing the range of the genus and to molecular and karyotypic phylogenies. Results agree only in part with phylogeny, and show a close relationship with the environmental backgrounds of each species. It is therefore suggested that the adaptation of Arvicanthis to local environment has played an important role in the phenotypic evolution of the skull. This leads to problems in taxonomic definitions based on morphometrics, which should not be used without comparison with other independently derived characters such as the DNA and the karyotype

Forest blocks and altitude as indicators of Myomys albipes (Rüppell 1842) (Mammalia Rodentia) distribution in Ethiopia

Myomys albipes (Ruppel 1842) is an endemie rodent of the Ethiopian plateau. It occurs most commonly at altitudes between 1500 and 3300 m a.s.l. Its habitat varies from forest to scrub and the high altitude heathland. Information on altitude, vegetation, trap nights, trapping success and proportion of M. albipes in the catch were available for 26 localities throughout its distribution area. These were used to estimate the chances of finding the species at a given site. The species prefers the dense forests that are progressively shrinking, so perhaps it can be used as a reliable indicator of forest block reduction on an historical basis

How many properties of spin does a particle have?

none2noA common assumption in non-relativistic quantum mechanics is that self-adjoint operators mathematically represent properties of quantum systems. Focusing on spin, we argue that a natural view considers observables as determinable properties and their eigenvalues as their corresponding determinates. We provide a taxonomy of the different views that one can hold, once it is accepted that spin can be modelled with the determinable-determinate relation. In particular, we present the two main families of views, dubbed Spin Monism and Pluralism, and we show that the current literature does not take a stance between the two. Then we put forward two arguments in favour of the former. Finally, we present a new account of Spin Monism, that is absent in current literature; such a view is worth discussing, or so we contend, because several compelling considerations support it, and it opens new ways of thinking about the ontology of quantum mechanics.openCorti Alberto; Marco SanchioniCorti, Alberto; Marco, Sanchion

Event Data Definition in LHCb

We present the approach used for defining the event object model for the LHCb experiment. This approach is based on a high level modelling language, which is independent of the programming language used in the current implementation of the event data processing software. The different possibilities of object modelling languages are evaluated, and the advantages of a dedicated model based on XML over other possible candidates are shown. After a description of the language itself, we explain the benefits obtained by applying this approach in the description of the event model of an experiment such as LHCb. Examples of these benefits are uniform and coherent mapping of the object model to the implementation language across the experiment software development teams, easy maintenance of the event model, conformance to experiment coding rules, etc. The description of the object model is parsed by means of a so called front-end which allows to feed several back-ends. We give an introduction to the model itself and to the currently implemented back-ends which produce information like programming language specific implementations of event objects or meta information about these objects. Meta information can be used for introspection of objects at run-time which is essential for functionalities like object persistency or interactive analysis. This object introspection package for C++ has been adopted by the LCG project as the starting point for the LCG object dictionary that is going to be developed in common for the LHC experiments. The current status of the event object modelling and its usage in LHCb are presented and the prospects of further developments are discussed.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 7 pages, LaTeX, 2 eps figures. PSN MOJT00

L'importanza del microcredito per le attività del turismo

La ricettività romana soffre di scarso posizionamento, o meglio negli anni ha sviluppato un deposizionamento dovuto al deterioramento del prodotto e quindi dell’immagine che ha portato la capitale al 14° posto come città turistica mondiale, con circa la metà degli arrivi rispetto a Parigi e Londra (8 milioni circa a fronte di 16 milioni circa, con una media nel decennio 2006 – 2015 al ribasso). La principale causa nonché principale conseguenza dello scarso posizionamento risiede nella seconda grande carenza: la necessità di ristrutturazione delle strutture ricettive. Sappiamo tutti che un albergo necessita di opere di manutenzione ordinaria costanti e di un’attività straordinaria con cadenza decennale. In mancanza di tali interventi la struttura si incammina inevitabilmente verso una fase di decadenza che ne determinerà la perdita di immagine e di quota di mercato e quindi la crisi, che da microeconomico-finanziaria, in una prima fase, si trasformerà in breve in fenomeno macroeconomico strutturale, dal quale sarà sempre più difficile uscire. Se questo è vero allora le tradizionali strutture ricettive romane sono tagliate fuori dal mercato. Non hanno una redditività tale da permettere accantonamenti necessari per gli interventi di manutenzione straordinaria; hanno grandi difficoltà ad eseguire la manutenzione ordinaria; non possono investire in innovazione di prodotto, innovazione tecnologica e ricerca della qualità, e per restare in vita, ormai da un decennio, hanno optato per l’unica strategia da loro erroneamente ritenuta possibile: una politica di bassi prezzi. Politica che se in parte (ma solo in parte) giustificabile nel brevissimo periodo, nel medio lungo è stata la principale causa della perdita di competitività di Roma. In ogni caso tutte le caratteristiche necessarie elencate dall’art. 3 comma 1 e 2 dell’avviso pubblico escludono in modo pressoché categorico la presentazione di domanda di finanziamento da parte degli alberghi, ed inoltre l’ammontare massimo del finanziamento (25.000 euro) non risulterebbe sufficiente a risolvere i suddetti problemi degli albergatori romani. È tuttavia necessario fermarsi a riflettere sulla specifica volontà di dare fiducia a nuove forme imprenditoriali, ad idee giovani e innovative, e quindi superare definitivamente forme imprenditoriali obsolete, non più in grado di competere all’interno di uno scenario globale. L’iniziativa è quindi rivolta all’extralberghiero? Certo , ma non solo. L’offerta ricettiva extralberghiera romana è ormai una realtà consolidata e in continua crescita, in grado di rappresentare almeno il 50% dei posti letto totali, offrendo servizi di qualità a prezzi inferiori. Non si deve commettere l’errore di ritenere la ricettività extralberghiera un servizio povero. Roma offre numerose soluzioni anche di estremo lusso, ma assolutamente più competitive del corrispettivo alberghiero. Nell’ambito della programmazione delle risorse disponibili sono stati individuati alcuni target prioritari: 3 milioni per i soggetti che abbiano età inferiore ai 35 anni non compiuti; 5 milioni per i soggetti che abbiano partecipato alle iniziative regionali “Torno subito”, “In studio” e “Coworking”. 5 milioni per i soggetti che abbiano reddito ISEE non superiore a 21.265,87 Euro (seconda fascia ISEE deliberata dall’INPS). Perfetto per piccoli piccolissimi imprenditori turistici, esistenti o potenziali. Si potrebbe obiettare che invece di aiutare il settore alberghiero in crisi si offre sostegno al suo principale concorrente, l’extralberghiero, ritenuto concorrente sleale poiché di sovente caratterizzato dalla componente sommersa, dal nero, e quindi da costi di gestione di gran lunga inferiori. Affermazione condivisibile; ma è anche vero che la concessione di un microfinanziamento che prevede una serie di controlli nuovi e rigorosi potrebbe essere la strada per far emergere il sommerso e premiare, giustamente gli imprenditori virtuosi (alberghieri ed extralberghieri), ponendo i meno virtuosi difronte alla triste ma necessaria realtà: chiudere l’attività. Tuttavia ho grandi dubbi anche in merito alla possibilità da parte dell’extra alberghiero di accedere al finanziamento: Vedo utilità da parte di strutture molto piccole e gestite in ottica non imprenditoriale, possibilità che si riducono fino a svanire all’aumentare delle dimensioni. Questo perché su Roma i costi fissi di gestione (affitto di un appartamento in centro storico) sono talmente elevati da rendere purtroppo irrisoria l’entità del finanziamento erogabile. E lo stesso vale, forse ancor di più, per le attività di ristorazione, con costi di gestione e manutenzione altissimi. Quindi microfinanziamenti per microimprese. con, a parer mio, la persistenza di una grande problematica: l’incapacità di riposizionarsi sul mercato. Una microimpresa, da sola, non è certamente in grado di intraprendere iniziative efficienti di promozione aziendale e tantomeno di marketing territoriale. Se non ci riescono i singoli alberghi difficilmente ci riuscirà una casa vacanze o un B&B. Più imprese, in grado di fare sistema e disposte a mettere a disposizione parte del finanziamento, possono invece raggiungere obiettivi importanti, soprattutto all’interno di un progetto comune in grado di coinvolgere privato e pubblico verso la medesima direzione, di ricostruire un’immagine degna, affidabile e vincente di Roma, tornando a primeggiare sulle principali concorrenti, e soprattutto puntando alla conquista dei nuovi bacini di domanda turistica, ad esempio i nuovi mercati asiatici, all’interno dei quali risultiamo pressoché assenti

Scaling collaborative policymaking: how to leverage on digital co-creation to engage citizens

n recent years, new methods to engage citizens in deliberative processes of governments and institutions have been studied. Such methodologies have become a necessity to assure the efficacy and sustainability of policies. Several tools and solutions have been proposed while trying to achieve such a goal. The dual problem to citizen engagement is how to provide policymakers with useful and actionable insights and data stemming from those processes. The following paper has the aim to share with the audience of the Data for Policy Conference 2021 an innovative tool based on the concept of participatory policymaking with the scope of collecting feedback and comments to enhance the consistency and the usefulness of the tool. We propose research featuring a method and implementation of a crowdsourcing and co-creation technique that can provide value to both citizens and policymakers engaged in the policy-making process. Thanks to our methodology, policymakers can design challenges for citizens to take part, cooperate and provide their input to policymakers. We also propose a web-based tool that allows citizens to participate and produce content to support the policymaking processes through a gamified interface that focuses on emotional and vision-oriented content

Čovjek i lacertidni gušteri na sredozemnim otocima: perspektive zaštite

The aim of the present study is to synthesise the available data on the occurrence of lacertid lizards on Mediterranean islands better to understand how far human influence is involved in the present distributional patterns of insular lacertid lizard fauna. At present, the Mediterranean islands are inhabited by several lacertid genera, including endemic species of the genera Algyroides (viz. fitzingeri), »Lacerta« Archaeolacerta (viz. bedriagae) and Podarcis (atratus, filfolensis, gaigae, lilfordi, milensis, pityusensis, raffonei, tiliguerta, waglerianus). Recently reported data shed new light on the relationships between these endemics and some continental species that have recently colonised the islands. The arrival of the latter might be directly related to the progressive human colonisation of these islands. The arising conservation problems are also considered.Cilj ovog rada bio je sakupiti sve dostupne podatke o pojavljivanju lacertidnih guštera na otocima Sredozemlja da bi se bolje razumjelo koliko je čovjek utjecao na sadašnje uzorke rasprostranjenosti otočne faune lacertidnih guštera. Danas sredozemne otoke naseljuje nekoliko rodova lacertida, uključujući endemične vrste rodova Algyroides (viz. fitzingeri), »Lacerta« Archaeolacerta (viz. bedriagae) i Podarcis (atratus, filfolensis, gaigae, lilfordi, milensis, pityusensis, raffonei, tiliguerta, waglerianus). Nedavno objavljeni podaci bacili su novo svjetlo na odnose tih endemičnih i nekih kontinentalnih vrsta koje su nedavno naselile otoke. Dolazak potonjih mogao bi biti u direktnoj vezi s uznapredovalim naseljavanjem čovjeka na te otoke. Razmatraju se nastali problemi zaštite

Control-Oriented Engine Thermal Model

Abstract The optimization of modern internal combustion engines and vehicles led several researchers to investigate the effects of the coolant system on overall efficiency losses. Electric water pumps have been proposed as a solution to decrease the high power consumption that typically affects mechanically-driven water pumps at high engine speed. Furthermore, decoupling the coolant flow from engine speed allows achieving a better warm-up behavior. The coolant system components, however, also impact vehicle efficiency: the radiator area affects the overall aerodynamic drag coefficient, especially for race vehicles and motorcycles. A thermal model can be used to assess the effects of the components characteristics (pump size, efficiency, speed; radiator surface, fan size, etc.) both on the coolant system capability to reach and maintain the target temperature, and the power it requires. The same model-based approach can be used for optimal thermal management, to control the coolant system actuators (electric pump and valves, fan). The paper shows how the thermal behavior of the engine can be represented by means of a concentrated parameters model, taking into account the main coolant system components features. The model has been calibrated on a set of data referring to a high-performance motorcycle engine, including both idling and high vehicle speed conditions. The good agreement of the model output with experimental data both in static and dynamic conditions confirms that the model is able to catch a large part of the phenomena influencing the coolant temperature

Evaluation of the effects of a Twin Spark ignition system on combustion stability of a high performance PFI engine

The continuous demand for high performances and low emissions engines leads the engine manufactures to set the operating range of combustion devices near to their stability limit. Combustion stability is closely related to the formation of the first ignition kernel: an effective way of lowering Cycle-by-Cycle Variation (CCV) is to enhance the start of combustion by means of multiple sparks. A Ducati engine was equipped with a Twin Spark ignition system and a consistent improvement in combustion stability arised for both part load and full load conditions. At part load a sensible reduction of cycle-by-cycle variability of indicated mean effective pressure was found, while at full load condition the twin spark configuration showed an increase of power, but with higher knocking tendency. The aim of this work is to better understand the root causes of the increased level of knock and to make a critical evaluation of most used knock indexes, by means of an accurate analysis of the experimental and simulated pressure signals. The numerical methodology based on a perturbation of the initial kernel by a statistical evaluation of mixture condition at ignition location. A lagrangian ignition model developed at University of Bologna was used, here modified to take into account the statistical distribution of mixture around the spark plugs. The RANS simulations proved to be accurate in representing all the main information related to combustion efficiency and knocking events. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd