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Peer learning in higher education: An example of practices
Get PDFNowadays, academic institutions face the challenges of an increasing number of student enrolments as well as dropouts. An important factor which allows predicting learner dropout is the number of university educational credits gained across the first term in the first academic year. Since active methods enhance students’ learning more than traditional lectures, a possible effect of their
implementation in an academic course might be an increase in the pass rate in final examinations, thus contributing to moderate the learners’ dropouts. In this perspective, a case study was implemented to examine whether integrating peer learning into traditional physics lectures through the use of technology may have positive effects on student learning in large size classes. This study aimed at 1) outlining how this educational method was implemented in the context of an academic physics course at Politecnico di Milano, and 2) illustrating some preliminary results regarding the final achievement of the students involved in this teaching methodology
Introduction
Get PDFThis volume of Il Nuovo Cimento is the first published “White Book” for the Technology Park to be realized in the next years by Sogin together with the National Italian Repository for Radioactive Waste. The papers here collected are based on presentations delivered at the “Research plans for the Technology Park annexed to the Italian National near-surface Repository for radioactive waste” held in Rome on 20-21 January 2023
Tracing nuclear fuel: Monitoring and characterization of low-level radiocontaminations by laser mass spectrometry in bulk materials and environmental nanoparticles
Get PDFFor the determination of lowest level radiocontaminations from anthropogenic sources, the use of mass spectrometric methods often is a favourable approach. For many long-lived α- and β-emitters, mass spectrometry can significantly outperform conventional radiometric detection technology with respect to sensitivity, selectivity and significance. In these cases, the quantification of atom numbers of individual radioisotopes in a sample not only excels decay counting and prevents potential interferences, but can deliver robust additional information on elemental composition, spatial distribution on a microscopic or macroscopic scale and on the origin of a contamination. These data are highly relevant for counteractions, control and forensics. Elemental selective laser mass spectrometry, applied either on bulk material or for depth profiling, surface layer mapping or non-destructive hot particle inspection, today has achieved maturity to serve as routine technique for numerous applications in the fields of radioecology and radiation protection
Overview of the methods used in RATEN ICN for radioactive waste characterisation
Get PDFThe manuscript presents the results of the research and development activities carried out in the Institute for Nuclear Research Pitesti (RATEN ICN) in the field of radioactive waste characterisation. After breafly describing the Romanian context in the field of radioactive waste management, the manuscript gives details on the methods developed/optimized and applied for specific radioactive waste fluxes generated in RATEN ICN but also on RW generated by Cernavoda NPP
Isotopic techniques for environmental monitoring and nuclear waste management at CIRCE
Get PDFCIRCE (Center for Isotopic Research on Environmental and Cultural heritage) was founded in 2005 as a research center dedicated to the application of isotopic methodologies in environmental and cultural heritage research. Later the
spectrum of activities expanded and CIRCE became part of the laboratory hub of the Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Campania L. Vanvitelli (formerly Second University of Naples), Caserta, Italy. In this context, an environmental monitoring program of the areas surrounding the Garigliano nuclear power plant (NPP) and of the building materials of the NPP was developed. The activities were carried out by involving undergraduate and doctoral students and taking care of communication with local administrations. In this framework, a survey among high school students was conducted to provide an insight into the public’s perception of risk connected to NPP. Alongside environmental radioactivity monitoring and material characterization techniques available at CIRCE are discussed. The activities presented here could find interesting applications in the framework of the Italian National Repository for Radioactive Waste and the annexed Technopark
Integrated waste management and R&D at the National Nuclear Laboratory
Get PDFIntegrated waste management is a strategy adopted in the UK to minimise the waste arising from nuclear operations. The application of the waste hierarchy, that prioritises waste prevention, minimisation, reuse and recycle in preference to waste disposal is central to the minimisation of waste and ultimately the development of a circular economy. This paper describes the waste hierarchy approach and illustrates through examples, how R&D at NNL is supporting this
approach and developing and demonstrating new technology to underpin its application to environmental restoration and clean energy programme
Airborne EM in northern Italy for sustainable and resilient management of groundwater resources
Get PDFClimate change and anthropogenic pollution pose a significant challenge to the management of groundwater resources in northern Italy, where in 2022 alone rainfall decreased by 40% compared to the average of the previous 30 years and 67% of the utilized agricultural area is vulnerable to nitrate pollution. To face these challenges, starting in the spring of 2021, A2A Ciclo Idrico initiated a large-scale Airborne electromagnetics (AEM) campaign for mapping the groundwater resources in the Brescia province, Italy, consisting of more than 2000 linear kilometers of AEM
data flown over an area of approximately 200 km2. This mapping campaign is the largest AEM campaign carried out in Italy for groundwater management, both in terms of extension and data density. Despite of the large anthropization of Brescia province, with the related problems of inductive couplings that disturb AEM data in the vicinity of buildings and infrastructures, excellent resistivity models have been
retrieved in the flown areas, in a range of depths between 300 meters to 400 meters, thanks to careful data processing. This has allowed to map the groundwater resources with unprecedented coverage and resolution, both discovering new aquifers and highlighting their vulnerability. In particular, pathways for nitrate contamination in existing wells have been imaged, and the location for a new well for public water supply has been identified within an extended aquifer overlain by a clay layer that protects against pollution percolating from shallower aquifers. Moreover, 3D
geological and hydrogeological models informed by AEM have been constructed in the valley of the Chiese river, and incorporated in a groundwater flow model of the area. These results triggered an even larger AEM campaign currently ongoing over all the plain and a mountainous sector of Brescia province, which we believe are the beginning of a paradigm shift in groundwater management in Italy towards resilient and sustainable exploitation of geo resources
Picosecond timing resolution with 3D trench silicon sensors
Get PDFIn the high luminosity LHC phase, the collider will operate at a luminosity of 1.5 × 1034/cm/s and strict requirements will be posed on subdetectors capabilities. Concerning the LHCb Upgrade2 VELO, to guarantee a good detector performance, the additional information of the hit time stamping with an accuracy of at least 50ps is needed. A very promising option today to achieve this level of timing precision is the 3D trench silicon pixel, developed by the INFN TimeSPOT collaboration. This kind of sensor would allow to build a 4D tracker, capable of excellent resolution in both space and time measurements. The latest beam test with the 3D trench sensors has been performed at the CERN SPS/H8 in 2021. By means of low-noise custom electronics boards featuring a two-stage transimpedance amplifier, it was possible to test silicon pixels and strips made with the 3D trench technology. To extrapolate the sensor time resolution, the crossing time of a particle was estimated using two MCP-PMTs as time tag, with an accuracy of approximately 7 ps. The beam-characterization was performed for both non-irradiated and irradi- ated (2.5·1016 1MeV neq/cm2) devices. Preliminary results show that the standard deviation of the core of the pixels time distribution is about 10 ps and the tilted sensor has shown an efficiency close to 100%
Rapporto sul SISTEMA di GESTIONE ai sensi della UNI/PdR 125:2022 quale possibile proposta di Certificazione alla PARITA’ di GENERE per un Ente di Ricerca come il CNR
Get PDFDiscovering the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs with Deep Learning
Get PDFThis book explores the application of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to the field of ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs transliteration. Such tools belong to the broader field known as Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is probably today the most impacting and disruptive technology we are working on. In the field of ancient languages transliteration and translation, AI applications are just at the beginning, despite they are spreading faster day after day. So, who knows which will be the impact of such technology in the years comin