1,721,058 research outputs found

    Seismic resilience assessment of Small Modular Reactors by a Three-loop Monte Carlo Simulation

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    We develop a three-loop Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) framework for the seismic resilience assessment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), embedding Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA), seismic fragility evaluation and multiple SMR units accident sequence analysis. A set of metrics are computed to capture different aspects of SMR resilience to earthquakes, specifically the ability to withstand seismic disruption, mitigate consequences and restore normal operation. The MCS framework allows accounting for the aleatory and epistemic uncertainties of the PSHA and fragility parameters. An application is given with regards to an advanced Nuclear Power Plant (aNPP) consisting of four reactor units of NuScale SMR design. A comparison is made to a conventional NPP (cNPP), i.e., a typical large reactor of equivalent generation capacity. Both plants are fictitiously located on the Garigliano nuclear site (southern Italy). The results show that resilient features of SMRs overcome cNPPs in terms of post-accident scenario mitigation and restoration capabilities

    Factors affecting the crop damage by wild boar (Sus scrofa) and effects of population control in the Ticino and Lake Maggiore Park (North-western Italy)

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    Wild boar foraging impacts the crops, pastures, and meadows causing remarkable losses to agricultural income. Protected areas located in plains, such as the Ticino Valley Natural Park, are characterized by the coexistence of important natural habitats and intensive agricultural areas. In the Park, from 2010 to 2017, 49% of the complaints report an event of damage to maize and 43% to meadows. The total expense for reimbursements of the maize amounted to € 439,341.52, with damages concentrated in May, after sowing period and between August and September, during the milky stage of maize. For meadows reimbursements amounted to € 324,768.66, with damage events concentrated in February and March. To reduce damage to crops, the Park administration carried out lethal control of the wild boar population. From 2006 to 2017, the most used control method was culling from hunting hides. In our analysis, we did not find significant relationships between the number of shot boars and the damage amount. The factors that determine the decrease of damage probability to crops are mainly related to human disturbance and the characteristics of the fields. The predictive model of damage risk built comparing damaged and undamaged fields showed a good predictive ability. The population viability analyses showed that it is impossible to obtain a drastic reduction of population with the current harvest rate. By tripling it and focusing on the females and sub-adult a numerical reduction of 50% of the population would be achievable in 7 years and the probability of population survival would be halved in 3 years

    Catalogo della mostra "Bergamo per Cesare Cantù"

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    La sezione raccoglie l'elenco e le immagini degli oltre quaranta documenti inseriti nella mostra "Bergamo per Cesare Cantù", allestita presso la Civica Biblioteca Angelo Mai di Bergamo in contemporanea al Convegno "Cesare Cantù e dintorni" e di cui questa pubblicazione raccoglie gli Atti

    Uno 'scherzo' di Edmondo De Amicis a Cesare Cantù (con tre lettere inedite)

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    Il saggio raccoglie e propone le lettere del breve scambio epistolare tra Edmondo De Amicis e Cesare Cantù: un piccolo carteggio curioso e intrigante nella misura in cui coinvolge Emile Zola, lettore della "Storia universale", ma soprattutto perché mostra un De Amicis irriverente e allo stesso tempo timoroso proprio delle sue irriverenze

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Anisandrus maiche Kurentzov (Curculionidae: Scolytinae), an Asian species recently introduced and now widely established in Northern Italy

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    The present contribution reports the current distribution of the Asian scolytine beetle Anisandrus maiche Kurentzov (Curculionidae: Scolytinae, Xyleborini) in Italy. Previously, in the entire European Union, this species was known only from a single specimen collected in the Treviso province of Northeast Italy in 2021. The data presented here considerably increase the distributional range of A. maiche in Italy, and clearly show that this ambrosia beetle species is established and widespread in at least two northern Italian regions, namely Lombardy and Veneto

    Practical insights to select focal species and design priority areas for conservation

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    The focal species approach claims that a landscape managed for the conservation of a set of focal species, each of which identified as the most threatened by specific processes, also protects all the other species. We investigated the effects of two practical issues of this approach: the problems with identifying the species most affected by threatening processes, which often only target the most area-limited species, and the disregard for the different spatial scales at which processes affect different species. We focused on a fragmented landscape in Northern Italy and selected the most area-limited (Capreolus capreolus) and dispersal-limited (Muscardinus avellanarius) mammal species. We mapped and overlapped the suitable areas for the two species considering 2 suitability scenarios. We then evaluated whether the area-limited species was more effective as a surrogate for the dispersal-limited species, or the opposite held true (a surrogate is a species able to cover at least 50% of the area and the number of patches suitable for another species). Moreover, we evaluated if buffering the suitable areas for the two species with 4 buffer sizes affected their ability as surrogates. Neither the area-limited, nor the dispersal-limited species was found to be an effective surrogate for the other species because of the very different distribution patterns of their suitable areas. Conversely, when buffers around suitable areas were designed, the dispersal-limited species acted as a surrogate for the area-limited species in 7 out of 8 cases (2 suitability scenarios per 4 buffer sizes), while the area-limited species was a surrogate in only one case. Using area-limited species as focal species may thus be detrimental and lead to conservation plans unable to protect species for which the area is not the key factor affecting the distribution pattern. Conversely, when the suitable areas are buffered, dispersal-limited species could become effective focal species
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