Cass. Sezioni Unite 18214/2015: i giudici di legittimit\ue0 sulla \uabinterpretazione assiologicamente orientata\ubb delle nullit\ue0 per vizio di forma

Confermando il trend ormai piuttosto nitido che vuole il tema del formalismo negoziale il pi\uf9 interessante laboratorio di nullit\ue0 speciali, la sentenza delle Sezioni Unite qui brevemente commentata aggiunge un tassello non trascurabile n\ue9 scontato ad un dibattito ancora vivace: non tanto o non solo per l\u2019esito cui perviene nella circoscritta materia della locazione abitativa, quanto piuttosto per la disinvoltura con cui maneggia un argomento decisamente \uabcaldo\ubb del diritto dei contratti. La prima questione su cui \ue8 chiamata a pronunciarsi la Corte \ue8 di facile soluzione ma di articolata argomentazione: se per le locazioni di immobili adibiti ad uso abitativo di cui alla legge n. 431/1998 la scrittura sia da intendersi a fini di validit\ue0 o a fini di prova. La risposta \ue8 gi\ue0 nelle norme: l\u2019art. 1 co., 4 disponendo che per la stipula di validi contratti di locazione \ue8 richiesta la forma scritta, lascia chiaramente intendere che la formalizzazione dell\u2019accordo \ue8 imposta ad substantiam. I giudici colgono per\uf2 l\u2019occasione per fermarsi sulle ragioni della scelta legislativa, evocando quella prospettiva funzionale che, riguardo alla forma, \ue8 conquista recente e non del tutto pacifica della riflessione scientifica. Quanto al secondo quesito, le Sezioni Unite della Corte di Cassazione hanno affermato che il contratto di locazione ad uso abitativo stipulato senza la forma scritta \ue8 affetto da nullit\ue0 assoluta, rilevabile d\u2019ufficio, attesa la ratio pubblicistica di contrasto all\u2019evasione fiscale, eccettuata l\u2019ipotesi in cui la forma verbale sia stata imposta dal locatore, in quanto in questo caso si tratterebbe di \uabnullit\ue0 di protezione\ubb a favore del conduttore, solo da lui denunciabile. In sostanza, il conduttore \ue8 tenuto a provare la \uabviolenza morale\ubb subita e dunque l\u2019abuso: in tal caso il contratto sar\ue0 nullo, ma la nullit\ue0 \ue8 da intendersi come \uabrelativa\ubb e cio\ue8 azionabile esclusivamente da parte del conduttore. Diversamente, ove la forma orale sia liberamente concordata, la nullit\ue0 deve ritenersi assoluta, rilevabile d\u2019ufficio e non sanabile. In ogni caso, l\u2019abuso non pu\uf2 ritenersi presunto ex lege, in ragione dello squilibrio di potere contrattuale sussistente tra locatore e conduttore, ma deve invece essere provato dal conduttore

A Path to Peace: Reconciling the Sunni-Shi’a Conflict in Iraq

The Iraqi state has a long history of division between Sunnis and Shiites. This conflict has often been violent and continues even today. Ultimately, this division dates back to the seventh century after the death of Muhammad. In order to better understand why there is a conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and not other countries, it is essential to understand the similarities and differences between their ideologies but also how they have been rooted against each other throughout history. Therefore, I begin with a description of the similarities and differences between Sunnis and Shiites to show the common beliefs of both Sunnis and Shiites regarding the Islamic religion and why it is important to respect their differences. Then, it is necessary to determine how the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq began and why it continues today. Lastly, using this knowledge, I will make recommendations to improve the current Iraqi government through a revised consociational democracy model in order to resolve conflict between Sunnis and Shiites

Tightness for a stochastic Allen--Cahn equation

We study an Allen-Cahn equation perturbed by a multiplicative stochastic noise which is white in time and correlated in space. Formally this equation approximates a stochastically forced mean curvature flow. We derive uniform energy bounds and prove tightness of of solutions in the sharp interface limit, and show convergence to phase-indicator functions.Comment: 27 pages, final Version to appear in "Stochastic Partial Differential Equations: Analysis and Computations". In Version 4, Proposition 6.3 is new. It replaces and simplifies the old propositions 6.4-6.

Singular kernels, multiscale decomposition of microstructure, and dislocation models

We consider a model for dislocations in crystals introduced by Koslowski, Cuiti\~no and Ortiz, which includes elastic interactions via a singular kernel behaving as the $H^{1/2}$ norm of the slip. We obtain a sharp-interface limit of the model within the framework of $\Gamma$-convergence. From an analytical point of view, our functional is a vector-valued generalization of the one studied by Alberti, Bouchitt\'e and Seppecher to which their rearrangement argument no longer applies. Instead we show that the microstructure must be approximately one-dimensional on most length scales and exploit this property to derive a sharp lower bound

Sharp interface limit for a phase field model in structural optimization

We formulate a general shape and topology optimization problem in structural optimization by using a phase field approach. This problem is considered in view of well-posedness and we derive optimality conditions. We relate the diffuse interface problem to a perimeter penalized sharp interface shape optimization problem in the sense of $\Gamma$-convergence of the reduced objective functional. Additionally, convergence of the equations of the first variation can be shown. The limit equations can also be derived directly from the problem in the sharp interface setting. Numerical computations demonstrate that the approach can be applied for complex structural optimization problems

Application, validation and comparison in different geographical contexts of an integrated model for the design of ecological networks

The issue of the fragmentation of natural habitats is increasingly at the core of the scientific debate, yet it is not taken into account in planning tools, with particular reference to the dynamism and complexity of landscapes. As it has been recognised at a European level, in order to enable different species to remain in good functional status, a network of green infrastructures is required. The concept of “ecological island” is no longer sufficient to adequately protect the fauna and the ecosystem it lives in. As a consequence, ecological islands must turn into ecological networks. The Ecological connectivity refers to the way habitats are physically connected to each other and how easy it is for species to move in. Good ecological connectivity is fundamental to the effective conservation of biodiversity considering that most species and ecological functions provided by ecosystems (ecosystem services) require a much wider space than that available within the boundaries of a single protected area. The main objective of this paper is to critically compare the application of a model for the design of ecological networks to two very different environmental contexts. This model was first tested in a Mediterranean area (the Province of Reggio Calabria) in 2008; the goal was to integrate the traditional (physiographic and functional) approaches into the design of ecological networks by taking into account biological and orographic elements as well as the anthropic structure of the territory. In 2011, within the ECONNECT European project, the model was applied to the pilot region of South-Western Alps (including the French region of Provence-Alpes - Côte d’Azur and the Italian regions Piedmont and Liguria), which is one of the richest transnational districts in Europe in terms of biodiversity. In such a region, the issue of multidisciplinary ecological connectivity was tackled in order to provide a series of proposals aiming at the development of the ecological potential of the area. The two applications allowed to further investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the implemented model by integrating its validation with information on faunal presence, which obviated one of the major limitations occurred in the first application

Branching Structures in Elastic Shape Optimization

Fine scale elastic structures are widespread in nature, for instances in plants or bones, whenever stiffness and low weight are required. These patterns frequently refine towards a Dirichlet boundary to ensure an effective load transfer. The paper discusses the optimization of such supporting structures in a specific class of domain patterns in 2D, which composes of periodic and branching period transitions on subdomain facets. These investigations can be considered as a case study to display examples of optimal branching domain patterns. In explicit, a rectangular domain is decomposed into rectangular subdomains, which share facets with neighbouring subdomains or with facets which split on one side into equally sized facets of two different subdomains. On each subdomain one considers an elastic material phase with stiff elasticity coefficients and an approximate void phase with orders of magnitude softer material. For given load on the outer domain boundary, which is distributed on a prescribed fine scale pattern representing the contact area of the shape, the interior elastic phase is optimized with respect to the compliance cost. The elastic stress is supposed to be continuous on the domain and a stress based finite volume discretization is used for the optimization. If in one direction equally sized subdomains with equal adjacent subdomain topology line up, these subdomains are consider as equal copies including the enforced boundary conditions for the stress and form a locally periodic substructure. An alternating descent algorithm is employed for a discrete characteristic function describing the stiff elastic subset on the subdomains and the solution of the elastic state equation. Numerical experiments are shown for compression and shear load on the boundary of a quadratic domain.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Analysis of an Inverse Problem Arising in Photolithography

We consider the inverse problem of determining an optical mask that produces a desired circuit pattern in photolithography. We set the problem as a shape design problem in which the unknown is a two-dimensional domain. The relationship between the target shape and the unknown is modeled through diffractive optics. We develop a variational formulation that is well-posed and propose an approximation that can be shown to have convergence properties. The approximate problem can serve as a foundation to numerical methods.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figur

A phase-field approximation of the Willmore flow with volume and area constraints

The well-posedness of a phase-field approximation to the Willmore flow with area and volume constraints is established when the functional approximating the area has no critical point satisfying the two constraints. The existence proof relies on the underlying gradient flow structure of the problem: the time discrete approximation is solved by a variational minimization principle. The main difficulty stems from the nonlinearity of the area constraint

Relationships between absence of functional swimbladder, calculosis and larval mortality in hatcheryreared gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata L.

Abstract. The relationship between absence of functional swim-bladder, calculosis and larval mortality of hatchery-reared sea bream, Sparus aurata L., was observed. There was a temporal variation in the main causes of mortality, i.e. not inflated swim-bladder appears to be the main cause up to the 47th day, and the presence of calculi around the 55th day. Histological sections, semi-quantitative analysis and scanner electron microscope photographs were carried out