The possible role of nuclear energy in Italy

Italy, after the vote of the referendum in 1987, stopped producing electricity from nuclear fuel for the energy demand. This paper analyses the current Italian energy outlook and clarifies how the choice to abandon the nuclear option damaged our economy. Nowadays, the possible reintroduction of civil nuclear option is hindered by groups claiming that nuclear energy is not convenient and is incredibly dangerous. In this paper it is clarified with international references how this is not correct and why Italy should start thinking seriously and without prejudices at future energy options.     

Ionic liquids as diathermic fluids for solar trough collectors’ technology: A corrosion study

The AISI 304 and AISI 1018 steels (frequently used in solar collectors’ plants) in contact with four different ionic liquids (ILs) suitable as diathermic fluids, were studied. Immersion tests were performed at 220 °C (the working temperature in such plants) for 10 days. The corrosion morphologies of the steels were investigated by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) microanalysis and the content of metals in the solution were detected via ICP-OES. The tests showed that the most performing IL is the ethyl-dimethyl-propyl-ammonium-bis(trifluoromethylsulphonyl)imide. The corrosion properties of the two alloys in contact with such IL were investigated by means of Tafel plots and resistance polarization at room temperature in open-to-air vessels.     

A model of a trust-based recommendation system on a social network

In this paper, we present a model of a trust-based recommendation system on a social network. The idea of the model is that agents use their social network to reach information and their trust relationships to filter it. We investigate how the dynamics of trust among agents affect the performance of the system by comparing it to a frequency-based recommendation system. Furthermore, we identify the impact of network density, preference heterogeneity among agents, and knowledge sparseness to be crucial factors for the performance of the system. The system self-organises in a state with performance near to the optimum; the performance on the global level is an emergent property of the system, achieved without explicit coordination from the local interactions of agents.     

Robust modeling of RC structures with an “event-by-event” strategy

The sequentially linear analysis is a robust alternative to nonlinear finite element analysis of structures when bifurcation, snap-back or divergence problems arise. The load–displacement response is captured by a series of linear analyses as a sequence of ‘events’. Every ‘event’ is a scaled critical state corresponding to the reaching of some peak of some saw-tooth for some softening element. Now, the approach is extended with a rippled saw-tooth curve which applies to any stress–strain diagram, including compression nonlinearity and yielding of reinforcement. Several RC structural examples demonstrate that both sharp snap-backs as well as ductile failures can be handled correctly.     

Establishment of Ad-Hoc Communities through Policy-Based Cryptography

A policy-based encryption scheme allows to encrypt a message according to a credential-based policy formalized as monotone Boolean expression written in standard normal form. The encryption is so that only the users having access to a qualified set of credentials for the policy are able to decrypt the message. In this paper, we first revisit the formal definition of policy-based encryption and describe a policy-based encryption scheme from bilinear pairings. Our scheme improves the one proposed in [W. Bagga and R. Molva. Policy-based cryptography and applications. In Proceedings of Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC'05), volume 3570 of LNCS, pages 72–87. Springer-Verlag, 2005] in terms of ciphertext size, while at the same time preserving the computational efficiency. Then, we describe an application of policy-based encryption in the context of ad-hoc networks. More precisely, we show how the policy-based encryption primitive can be used to achieve a privacy-enhanced secure establishment of ad-hoc communities.     

The impact of indoor thermal conditions,system controls and building types on the building energy demand

It is possible to evaluate the energy demand as well as the parameters related to indoor thermal comfort through building energy simulation tools. Since energy demand for heating and cooling is directly affected by the required level of thermal comfort, the investigation of the mutual relationship between thermal comfort and energy demand (and therefore operating costs) is of the foremost importance both to define the benchmarks for energy service contracts and to calibrate the energy labelling according to European Directive 2002/92/CE. The connection between indoor thermal comfort conditions and energy demand for both heating and cooling has been analyzed in this work with reference to a set of validation tests (office buildings) derived from a European draft standard. Once a range of required acceptable indoor operative temperatures had been fixed in accordance with Fanger's theory (e.g. −0.5 < PMV < −0.5), the effective hourly comfort conditions and the energy consumptions were estimated through dynamic simulations. The same approach was then used to quantify the energy demand when the range of acceptable indoor operative temperatures was fixed in accordance with de Dear's adaptive comfort theory.     

Characterization of pink diamonds of different origin: Natural (Argyle,non-Argyle), irradiated and annealed,treated with multi-process,coated and synthetic

One of the commercial challenges today in the gem industry is to quickly identify the origin of color in pink diamonds — natural, treated and synthetic by use of standard and advanced gemological instruments.An analytical technique that is used by many gem labs involves UV fluorescence. The principle factors in the technique are the excitation wavelengths and the emission spectra. No systematic study of fluorescence of pink natural diamonds, pink treated and pink synthetic diamonds has been undertaken. This study is mainly focused on using fluorescence techniques to characterize pink diamonds and to compile a reference library of emission spectra. Longwave (LW) and shortwave (SW) fluorescence of 365, 254 and 220 nm illumination were used in a custom built microscope with a fluorescence camera to record images and a spectrometer to record spectral data with which to establish a correlation with the cause of color.Other advanced instruments (CL imaging, UV–VIS–NIR, FTIR, PL spectroscopy and electrical conductance) were used to establish additional criteria for distinguishing natural, treated and synthetic pink diamonds and to find a correlation with the “EGL USA CIS (Cross-reference Identification System) fluorescence method”.     

The SciCryo Project and Cryogenic Scintillation of Al2O3 for Dark Matter

We discuss cryogenic scintillation of Al₂O₃. Room-temperature measurements with α particles are first carried out to study effect of Ti concentration on response. Measurements under X-rays between room temperature and 10 K confirm a doubling of light output. The integration of a scintillation-phonon detector into an ionization-phonon dark matter search is underway, and the quenching factor for neutrons has been verified.