2,536 research outputs found
Environmental impact assessment of R-152a as a drop-in replacement of R-134a in a domestic refrigerator
No full textIn the European Union F-gas Regulation limited the use of some refrigerants in several applications. Regarding the domestic refrigeration sector, the F-gas Regulation banned the use of refrigerants with GWP values higher than 150. This fact led the scientific community to search for a replacement of R-134a, that is the most common refrigerant used in domestic refrigerators in USA. In this work, a comprehensive environmental analysis of the drop-in substitution of R-134 with a low GWP refrigerant (R-152a) in a no-frost domestic refrigerator was performed. The comparison, based on experimental data, between the environmental performance of the refrigeration system with the two refrigerants was carried out developing two different evaluation methods, which led to the evaluation of TEWI and LCCP, respectively. Both these metrics consider both direct and indirect contributions to global warming. Historical data of different countries were used to forecast the carbon intensity values for the next 15 years, which were then used to evaluate indirect emissions of the system during its lifetime. Considering the Italian case study, the results showed that the refrigerator working with an optimal charge of R-152a, identified as the mass charge that minimises TEWI and/or LCCP index, has better environmental performance than the system working with R-134a, with a reduction of TEWI and LCCP values of 10.3% and 9.4%, respectively. The same comparison, in terms of LCCP, was also performed for other European countries, showing a strong dependence of the LCCP index on carbon intensity values
Would the addition of bond or equity funds make M2 a better indicator of nominal GDP?
No full textJohn Duca assesses the possibility that adding bond mutual funds, equity mutual funds, or both to M2 would improve this monetary aggregate's ability to forecast nominal GDP growth. He finds that M2B (M2 plus bond funds) and M2+ (M2 plus bond and stock funds) are statistically significant in explaining past nominal GDP growth. Duca further shows that M2B and M2+ each yield better forecasts of nominal GDP growth since 1990 than does M2, but to a lesser extent when the federal funds rate and the ten-year Treasury note yield are included in his forecasting model. Because bond and equity mutual funds are less directly influenced by the Federal Reserve than M2, Duca cautions that, relative to M2, M2B and M2+ are likely to be less controllable by the Federal Reserve. ; Given these findings, Duca argues that M2B and M2+ show promise as information variables that the Federal Reserve may use along with other economic indicators in setting monetary policy. Recent forecast results and anecdotal information suggest that if equity funds continue to become more substitutable for nontransactions deposits, M2+ may prove to be increasingly helpful in this capacity.Gross domestic product ; Money supply
The dark side of European immigration policy
No full textMore than ten years after the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force and after the programmes of Tampere and Aia, the Stockholm Programme , adopted last December 2009 for the period 2010-2014, has settled for the third time the area of "justice, freedom and security" with which EU presents itself.
In relation to the Immigration policy the Stockholm Programme seals the term of security.
Now Europe considers its area as a territory that withdraws into itself, through a security logic that caused the disappearance of the traces of the "freedom area". In fact, as it was affirmed in Tampere, this area can't be considered as a mere prerogative of the European citizens.
In the name of security, protection and control are fixed points of the European migration policy that nowadays can be defined as "restrictive", where it seems that among the three words “iustitia, libertas, securitas”, the first and the second words are sacrificed in the name of the third one. As well as this minimal but restrictive harmonization of the European immigration policy, there are also the national policies of the single Member States. These still have competence on this subject even if they are even more restrictive and prohibitionist compared to the common European trend.
This article will try to highlight the dark side of the restrictive immigration policies, undertaken both at european and national level, paying special attention to the negative effects that these policies can cause.
In particular, this article will focus on two of the main aims stated by these migration policies: the organization of legal immigration and the control of the illegal immigration. It will try to demonstrate how the repressive instruments, today put into practice, not only have not been a solution, but they have produced destructive effects, such as: the increasing of illegal immigration and the consequential increasing of the exploitation of immigrants - making the borders between smuggling and trafficking more and more transitory - the strengthening of the more and more professionalized criminal organization and finally the enlargement of the black market's borders, of which the European Single Market feeds itself.PurposeThis article aims to highlight the dark side of the restrictive immigration policies, undertaken both at European and national level, paying special attention to the negative effects that these policies can cause. Design/methodology/approachIn particular, the article focuses on two of the main aims stated by these migration policies: the organization of legal immigration and the control of the illegal immigration. FindingsThe paper demonstrates how the repressive instruments, today put into practice, not only have not been a solution, but they have produced destructive effects, such as: the increasing of illegal immigration and the consequential increasing of the exploitation of immigrants – making the borders between smuggling and trafficking more and more transitory – the strengthening of the more and more professionalized criminal organization and finally the enlargement of the black market's borders, of which the European single market feeds itself. Originality/valueThe paper offers insights into the dark side of European immigration policy
What credit market indicators tell us
No full textJohn Duca shows that interest rate spreads and loan surveys should be interpreted carefully when assessing the availability of credit and its impact on the economy. This is especially true of interest rate spread indicators, some of which reflect prepayment, liquidity, or default risk premiums that have different economic implications. It can be helpful to decompose spreads before drawing economic inferences from the structure of interest rates. Spreads between yields on non-top-grade private-sector bonds and Treasury bonds, in particular, have a large prepayment premium in addition to a time-varying default risk premium. It is also important to recognize that even some decomposed spreads include more than one type of risk premium. In this regard, a widening of some yield spreads that contain a small default risk component, such as the Aaa-Treasury spread, could reflect a rise in prepayment or liquidity risk premiums, whose magnitudes may be hard to identify separately.Interest rates ; Credit
Lenore : Oper in drei Aufzügen (Aria di Conrad, Recitativ und Arie N° 6)
No full text[Musik von Anselm Hüttenbrenner. Gedichtet v. Carl R. v. Leitner und F. Kollmann. - Herausgegeben von Tiziano Duca. - Partitur. - Graz : Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, 2022
Comunicare la Scienza
No full textComunicare, non è una banalità. Non lo è se i contenuti sono codificati in linguaggi diversi tra Sender e Receiver e viceversa. Manca un denominatore comune che non può che essere attinto da una conoscenza di natura storica, filosofica e sociologica. Storia, filosofia e sociologia della scienza sono la risposta ai problemi comunicativi, tra scienza e società ed all’interno della scienza stessa. La Comunicazione della ricerca scientifica infatti riguarderebbe solo una parte della più vasta Comunicazione della scienza ed interesserebbe specifici settori con scopi e fini diversi, tra cui lo stesso progresso e innovazione scientifici
Family reunification: the case of the Muslim migrant children in Europe
No full textAdopting a child is not a legal concept recognized in Islamic law, which, while giving great importance to orphans and children’s rights, has introduced the legal institution of the Kafala.
This institution can be defined as a commitment by the kafil to ensure maintenance, education and protection of a minor makfoul until his legal majority, in the same way as would a father to his son, but without creating any family relationship.
For these reasons the Kafala cannot be compared to an international adoption, which, contrariwise, entails the creation of a parent-child relationship.
On one side the Kafala is a legal concept recognized by International Law, in particular by the United Nations Convention of 20 November 1989 on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes the Muslim institution of the Kafala in the article 20 as a means of protection of the children. On the other hand, the Kafala is excluded by the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption.
The aim of this paper is to understand how, in a society increasingly multicultural, the Kafala could be reconciled in Europe, in particular analyzing the EU directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the right to family reunification, which ignored this Muslim institution.
In the second part, the paper will analyze the most important judgments in the Italian, French and English legal systems in order to highlight how in these three European countries the solutions adopted in relation to the Kafala have been completely different
Conferma della presenza di Aphanius fasciatus (Valenciennes, 1821) (Cyprinodontiformes Cyprinodontidae) nel bacino idrografico del Fiume Imera Meridionale (Sicilia)
No full textUn’abbondante popolazione del Ciprinodontide autoctono Aphanius fasciatus è stata rinvenuta
nel Fiume ImeraMeridionale ed in alcuni suoi affluenti. É così confermata la persistenza della specie
nel sito, nonostante le pesanti alterazioni ambientali che hanno interessato il fiume e che avevano
fatto ritenere A. fasciatus localmente estinto. Trattandosi di una delle poche popolazioni di
Aphanius fasciatus sopravvissute nei corsi d’acqua siciliani e alla luce della notevole diversità genetica
e morfologica riscontrata tra le differenti popolazioni siciliane di questo Ciprinodontide, la
sopravvivenza di questa popolazione assume un’importante valenza conservazionistica
Lenore : Oper in drei Aufzügen (Nr. 2, 3 und 4): Musik von Anselm Hüttenbrenner. Gedichtet v. Carl R. v. Leitner und I. Kollmann
No full textHerausgegeben von Tiziano Duca. - Partitur. - Graz : Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, [2021
Feature reduction of hyperspectral data using autoassociative neural networks algorithms
No full textIn this paper Autoassociative Neural Networks (AANN) are used to implement Nonlinear Principal Component Analysis (NLPCA) for dimension reduction of hyperspectral data. The nonlinear components are then considered as inputs for a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) network to perform pixel-based classification. The methodology has been applied considering the test area of Tor Vergata - Frascati, Italy, and the hyperspectral data provided by the CHRIS-PROBA mission. Comparative analysis with a similar procedure considering a more standard dimensionality reduction technique such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been carried ou
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