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Nowadays the efforts aimed at enhancing the Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) are mainly focused on the fuel consumption minimization to comply with binding CO2 emission legislation for vehicle homologation. Concerning the Spark-Ignition ICEs, the most widespread path to satisfy the pollutant emission limits is the adoption of a three-way catalyst (TWC) along the exhaust line. As known, this solution poses some issues, such as a low efficiency at cold start or an effectiveness degradation because of aging. In addition, it involves the impossibility to exploit the advantages of lean combustions, since a close to stoichiometric air/fuel mixture is mandatory for efficient TWC operation. For the above reasons, a growing interest towards solutions limiting engine raw emissions is emerging. So future legislation requires new technical measures to increase engine efficiency and reduce pollutant emissions. Here gasoline engines with high specific power have a huge development potential, since, on the one hand, knocking at high Brake Mean Effective Pressure (BMEP) limits thermal efficiency and, on the other hand, high power densities lead to increased thermal loads, which, for component protection reasons, need to be controlled by means of enrichment beyond the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. This operation leads to increased fuel consumption and to higher pollutant emissions; especially harmful soot particles, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide are emitted in a higher amount. In addition to known systems, such as exhaust manifolds integrated in the cylinder head for direct cooling of the exhaust gas, extended effective expansion by optimized valve timings (Miller, Atkinson) and external cooled exhaust gas recirculation, also new technologies are being developed for passenger cars. Those technologies primarily aim to widen the lambda one range of the engine in order to maintain the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio throughout the entire engine operating range, which is expected to be required for future Real Driving Emissions (RDE) legislation. The first chapter explains the current situation and future direction of internal combustion engines, with a particular focus on the gasoline engines with high specific power and covers broad regulatory changes in the last year related to tailpipe emissions of criteria pollutants and CO2/fuel economy. Throughout the chapter, a brief overview of internal combustion engines and their future development will be provided so to understand and appreciate why it is still relevant to conduct research in this field, while facilitating the improvement of green technologies in order to achieve a sustainable transportation system. The motivation behind this study and the research direction will also be clarified. Then, a Lamborghini 12-cylinder naturally aspirated spark ignition engine is investigated. The engine is experimentally tested under full and part load operation with two different Air-to-fuel ratio maps. Main performance parameters, in-cylinder pressure cycles and raw pollutant emissions are measured. The engine is schematized in a one-dimensional model (GT-Power™), where "user routines" are employed to simulate turbulence, combustion, knock and pollutant production. 1D model is validated against the experimental data, denoting a good accuracy. The innovative contribution of this section can be hence recognized in the development of a 1D model characterized by a single set of tuning constants allowing for an accurate reproduction of the combustion process in all the engine configurations. As better explained in the following, the combustion model is in fact coupled to a turbulence sub-model, preliminary tuned with reference to 3D-CFD results, in motored operation. This methodology is particularly helpful in the calibration of a VVT engine, where the turbulence levels substantially vary at part load according to the intake/exhaust valve strategies. Combustion and turbulence constants are hence selected through comparisons with few experimental data at full load and 3D results, and then employed at part load and in the optimization process, as well. The results about the raw emissions put into evidence that the numerical approach predicts the experimental data of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NO), but it is not enough advanced to reproduce the hydrocarbon (HC) level, although the variations with the engine operating parameters (speed, load, air/fuel ratio) are captured. The model is employed to study the water injection impact to draw the variation trend of the exhaust temperature, performance and the pollutant emissions changing the engine hardware, rather than to predict their absolute levels. The combustion speed takes into account the water presence with a refined correlation of laminar flame velocity and the knock model gives the possibility to set the best spark advance. The water evaporation reduces the in-cylinder temperature and, as a consequence the knock level, is lower. The computed HC, CO and NO maps have been embedded in a vehicle simulation to estimate the impact of the analysed technical solutions on a RDE cycle suggested by Lamborghini. In this way, with a fully numerical approach, a new hardware is analysed and its impact in term of pollutions level is verified on a realistic drive cycle that the new regulations seems to impose. In this way, a new approach to design the future high performance engines has been individuated and the impact of the new regulations can be seen before experimental tests, reducing the time to market and the economic effort. Then, the difference between the engine out emission level and the limit that the regulation imposes can help also to design the after-treatment system. Summarizing, the presented numerical approach showed the potential to predict, on a physical basis, the combined effects of various techniques on the engine performance. This methodology could represent an effective tool to identify the trade-off between engine complexity and expected improvements, contributing to support and drive the development process of new engine/vehicle.

This paper offers an analysis of the Italian legislation about the transition from printed school-books to digital ones and, in turn, it presents an overview of the digital publishing offer of major media groups, by taking as case study the Latin textbooks for high-schools. The concept of digital book has been declined nowadays in two main forms: the first one is the so-called "on-line book", which are digital books (typically in PDF or ePub format) equivalent in structure and in the mode of use to classical printed books; the latter form integrates printed or digital books with a set of varied, and often incoherent, supplementary digital materials. The conclusion is that the current offer of digital publishing about school-books is a narrow interpretation of the Italian legislation, and thus it foresees the design of new paradigms that efficaciously merge the authoritativeness and cultural value of school-books with the advanced features and the new way of uses of digital media. ; Il saggio presenta un'analisi del quadro legislativo italiano sulla transizione dei libri di testo dal formato cartaceo a quello digitale, oltre a una panoramica sull'offerta dei maggiori editori a riguardo, prendendo come esempio i libri di testo di Latino per le scuole superiori. Il concetto di libro digitale viene declinato oggi principalmente in due forme: il libro "on-line", digitale (generalmente in PDF o Epub), equivalente ai testi tradizionali a stampa per struttura e tipo di utilizzo; il libro che integra le caratteristiche del libro sia digitale che a stampa con una serie di materiali digitali supplementari. L'opinione dell'autrice è che l'offerta di pubblicazioni scolastiche in formato digitale si attiene a un'interpretazione limitata della legge italiana, e che dunque si prospettano nuove ipotesi che possano unire in modo efficace l'autorevolezza e il valore culturale dei libri di testo con le soluzioni più avanzate del digitale.

Il saggio analizza la problematica del ruolo dello Stato nel Regno Unito con riguardo alla tutela della salute e della sicurezza nei luoghi di lavoro nella contingente situazione di emergenza sanitaria. L'A. mette in evidenza, in particolare, il fallimento delle politiche governative nella protezione dei lavoratori dai rischi legati al Covid 19, ritenendo che ciò non abbia carattere episodico ma sia sintomatico di un processo di deregolazione in materia. Come rimarcato, infatti, gradualmente il sistema di protezione, fondato su interventi normativi molto incisivi che avevano costituito un modello anche per altri paesi, è stato sostituito da un diverso approccio basato sul metodo partecipativo, con il coinvolgimento soprattutto del livello individuale di partecipazione e senza il concorso delle organizzazioni sindacali. L'attenzione è rivolta anche alla riduzione delle risorse destinate a finanziare le ispezioni del lavoro per il rispetto delle misure di sicurezza. The essay analyzes the problem of the role of the State in the UK with regard to the protection of health and safety in the workplace in the contingent health emergency situation. The Author specifies the failure of government policies to protect workers from the risks associated with Covid 19 and argues that this is not episodic but symptomatic of a process of deregulation in the matter. As noted, in fact, gradually the protection system, based on very incisive regulatory interventions which had also constituted a model for other countries, was replaced by a different approach based on the participatory method, with the involvement above all the individual level of participation and without the cooperation of trade union organizations. Attention is also paid to reducing the resources intended to finance labor inspections for compliance with safety measures.

The administration of the first COVID-19 vaccines to the EU citizens has fueled the debate about the possibility that the European Union might introduce a vaccination obligation.In this regard, the principle of conferral represents a key point. It requires on one side that an explicit competence is conferred to the European Union; and on the other, any act must have a legal basis, specifically an article of Treaty that gives the EU the legal right to the exercise of competences from European Institutions.This contribution aims to analyse if the European Union could adopt a legal act to impose a mandatory vaccination in the Member States, according to the legal basis. ; La somministrazione delle prime dosi di vaccino ai cittadini degli Stati membri dell'Unione europea ha alimentato il dibattito in merito all'eventualità di un obbligo di vaccinazione di derivazione europea.A tale proposito, la centralità del principio di attribuzione delle competenze impone che all'Unione, non solo sia attribuita una competenza in merito, ma che ogni iniziativa sia puntualmente fondata su una base giuridica, cioè su una norma del Trattato che legittima l'esercizio della competenza da parte delle Istituzioni sovranazionali.Il presente contributo ha lo scopo di condurre un'analisi sulle basi giuridiche in virtù delle quali l'Unione europea potrebbe adottare un atto normativo impositivo di un obbligo di vaccinazione negli Stati membri.

Il presente lavoro si prefigge di indagare come la produzione normativa comunitaria abbia influenzato il diritto penale nazionale fino a delineare i tratti di un diritto penale di matrice europea. Ai fini dell'individuazione dei rapporti intercorrenti tra i due sistemi, è stata prescelta come chiave di lettura trasversale la materia ambientale: accanto al meccanismo di influenza riflessa, è da ravvisare come proprio in tale ambito si sia sviluppata l'evoluzione di un possibile diritto penale europeo e, dunque, di una esplicita influenza dell'ordinamento sovrannazionale nelle scelte di criminalizzazione nazionali. The present work aims at investigating how the Community legislation has influenced the national criminal law to the point of delineating the features of a criminal law of European origin. In order to identify the relationship between the two systems, the environmental has been chosen as the cross-reading key: in addition to the mechanism of reflected influence, it is precisely in this area that a European criminal law has been developed and, therefore, an explicit influence of the supranational legal order in the domestic choices of criminalization has been implemented. ; In Chapter I, after having briefly analyzed the concept of environment, the steps of the gradual recognition of a still limited punitive power of the European Union are retraced. More specifically we explore: firstly the various forms of influence that the supranational legislation exerts on the Italian criminal justice system, with particular regard to the so called "triadic conflicts"; secondly the ruling of the Court of Justice, 13 September 2005, Case C-176/03, where it is stated the Community legislative competence in criminal matters, including the possibility of an express request for criminal protection by means of directives; subsequently, the Directive 2008/99/EC of 19 November 2008 on the protection of the environment through criminal law, which, by requiring Member States to introduce into their national criminal systems some criminal offenses so to enforce more effectively the environmental protection, can been seen as the synthesis between the expansionist pressures from the European Commission and the conservative ones from the Council, as well as also a place of mediation among the different models of indictment in force in the various national systems, providing a minimum common denominator of protection of supranational source;then, the changes introduced by the Legislative Decree of 7 July 2011 n. 121, that transposes the Directive in question, and, lastly, the characteristics of the environmental crime and some issues related to the technique of indictment adopted.

Repeatedly amended, article 275 paragraph 3 of the Italian Criminal Procedure Code has changed several time the content and operational scope.Firstly, based on the principles of adequacy (paragraph 1) and proportionality (paragraph 2), article 275, paragraph 3 was strictly inspired by the criteria of strict necessity and excluded automatic applications, reserving the choice on the application of the measures to the judge.The genetic mutation, linked to emergency seasons, real or perceived, delivered, with reference to a floating crimes' catalogue, a dual presumption: relative, regarding the existence of the precautionary requirements, absolute, regarding the adequacy of the imprisonment measure. ; Più volte interpolato dal legislatore, il comma 3 dell'art. 275 c.p.p. ha mutato ripetutamente contenuto ed ambito operativo.Nella versione primigenia, alimentata dall'humus dei principi di adeguatezza (comma 1) e proporzionalità (comma 2), era rigorosamente ispirato al criterio di stretta necessità ed escludeva automatismi applicativi, riservando al giudice la dosimetria della risposta cautelare.La mutazione genetica, legata alle stagioni dell'emergenza, reale o presunta, ha consegnato, con riferimento a un catalogo fluttuante di reati, una duplice presunzione: relativa, quanto alla sussistenza delle esigenze cautelari, assoluta, quanto all'adeguatezza della sola misura carceraria.

The article deals with the problem of the legal nature of the d.P.C.M., the act enacted by the government after the declaration of the health emergency. In particular, the paper aims at investigating the debate around the technical re- quirements in the political decision and the judicial review on the administra- tive measure, in order to verify their compliance with the Constitution.

This article assesses the legal status of the INCE by comparing its characteristics with determining factors set forth by other international agencies to see if it meets the proper requirements. The author then goes on to criticize these general requirements of all international organizations as being too ambiguous or difficult to apply. The article then describes the organization & decides if by its analysis, it should be subject to international rights & laws. E. Miller

Since 1997, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has expressed an interest in getting observer status in the WTO; this has been a step which paves the way to getting full membership in the organization. Here, the question which shall be addressed is "Does the PA possess a legal readiness which meets the accession requirements in terms of its control over Palestine's trade policy, on the one hand, and the existence of the regulations, laws and legislations which are compatible with the requirements of the accession to the WTO as well as its multilateral agreements held, on the other hand? The most important issues are outlined as follows: • The extent of the ability of the PA to enact economic laws, contributing to the creation of a legal environment that is able to respond to the rapid changes which distinguish the economic sector. • The extent of the ability of the PA to enact laws that are compatible with each other, as well as with international trade standards and the WTO's rules and requirements. • The extent of the ability of the PA to terminate or amend the Paris Economic Protocol, which limits Palestine's control over its foreign trade policy.

In the note, starting with the analysis of two sentences, one of the regional administrative Court and one of the Council of State, about an indirect tie on an historical and artistic square, it is treated a classic topic of the legislation on the cultural goods,namely the need of bringing conservation requirements with enjoyment requirements of the cultural heritage. ; Nella nota, a partire dall'analisi di due sentenze, una del Tribunale amministrativo regionale ed una del Consiglio di Stato, relative al vincolo indiretto posto su di una piazza di particolare interesse storico e artistico, viene affrontato uno dei temi classici in materia di legislazione dei beni culturali, ovvero la necessità di conciliare le esigenze di tutela con quelle di fruizione del bene culturale.

A review essay on books by (1) Andreas Auer & Michael Butzer (Eds), Direct Democracy: The Eastern and Central European Experience (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001); & (2) Alfonso di Giovine, Democrazia diretta e sistema politico ([Direct Democracy and the Political System] Padova: CEDAM, 2001). The author reviews two books on the referendum phenomenon, one on the experience in Central & Eastern European countries, & the other on the Italian experience. Auer & Butzer's edited collection offers essays written by scholars, constitutionalists, & political scientists, & has its origins in the conclusions of an international study congress held in Budapest in Feb 2000. The book is the result of intense study & research promoted by the Centre d'etudes et de documentation sur la democratie directe (c2d -- http://c2d.unige.ch) set up in 1993 in the Dept of Constitutional Law of the U of Geneva. The first part contains 12 contributions on referendum as such as well as on experiences in 12 Central & Eastern European countries, from the Baltic to the Balkans. The second part features 13 contributions commenting on a number of different institutional issues relating to normative theory & empirical analysis. Di Giovine, an Italian constitutionalist, presents a collection of articles on the Italian referendum experience. The Central-Eastern European & Italian experiences are different in many aspects, but they have two significant points in common: the importance of the role played by political parties, & the requirement of a quorum for the vote to be valid. Auer holds that "threshold requirements are a childhood disease of direct democracy" whereas Di Giovine believes that threshold requirements & abstentionism must be given due consideration in order to counteract referendum abuse. The reviewer's opinion is that the quorum ought to be disposed of.

This paper is focused on the position of the Spanish Constitutional Court on the control of the requirements that have to be met in order to open exceptional legislative procedures in accordance with the Spanish Parliamentary Regulations, in particular, regarding the abbreviated one single reading procedure. For this purpose, the requirements enabling the abbreviated procedure and the consequences stemming from its applicationfor ius in officium are subject to study in the first place, highlighting the limited, and sometimes misleading, statements of Spanish doctrine on the matter. Then, we will approach, on the one hand, the relevance of the legislative decisions adopted in this extraordinary way, and on the other, the parliamentary practice on this matter carried out to date. We also will expose the latest doctrine of the Spanish High Court about the nature and simplicity of formulation of the initiatives processed by this special channel, and finally will present a personal contribution about the constitutional limits of the requirements enabling this abbreviated procedure. ; In questo articolo si esamina la posizione della Corte Costituzionale Spagnola in merito alla supervisione dei presupposti abilitanti previsti dal Regolamento Parlamentare Spagnolo per l'avvio di procedimenti legislativi straordinari, in particolare, per il procedimento abbreviato mediante lettura unica. Per questo motivo, analizzeremo in primo luogo le circostanze che permettono l'avvio di detto iter procedurale abbreviato e le conseguenze derivanti dalla sua applicazione nel ius in officium, mettendo in evidenza le scarse occasioni in cui la dottrina spagnola si pronuncia in merito e i pareri, in alcune occasioni inaccurati, espressi a tal proposito. Di seguito verrà esaminata, da una parte, la rilevanza delle decisioni legislative adottate attraverso questo iter straordinario e, dall'altra, la prassi parlamentare finora adottata al riguardo. Successivamente, analizzeremo i pronunciamenti più recenti della Corte Costituzionale Spagnola sulla natura e la semplicità di formulazione delle iniziative sottoposte a questo iter speciale, per poi esporre una tesi personale in merito ai limiti costituzionali dei presupposti abilitanti di detto procedimento abbreviato.

This article examines two recent rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (cases Egenberger and IR). These are the first rulings on art. 4, par. 2, Directive 2000/78/EC on "occupational activities within churches and other public or private organisations the ethos of which is based on religion or belief". On the one hand the author focuses on the passages concerning religious autonomy and jurisdictional protection of rights; on the other hand she highlights the links between the jurisprudence of the two European courts (CJEU and ECHR) and tries to reconcile the statements of the Court of Justice and those of the German constitutional Court on the limits to the autonomy of churches. However, the article highlights how the Court of Justice has not adequately addressed neither the art. 10 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights EU, nor the art. 17 of the TFEU. As regards the ideological requirement set by art. 4, par. 2 of the European Directive, the study focuses on the additions made by the Court of Justice and recalls the reinterpretations of the ideological requirement recently adopted by the Catholic and Evangelical Churches in Germany.

Basel III rules have been under a review process in the last years and the recent international crises has further slowed down the implementation of the new banking regulation. In this paper, we first present the reasons that have brought to the Basel III framework – development of the previous Basel I and Basel II Accords – and the possible operational and strategic consequences for the banks. The new rules derive from critical issues arisen within the previous regulation, namely:  Most of the banks that faced losses during the crises, or that received State aid, had an equity ratio highly above the minimum Basel II threshold. It follows that not only a minimum capital ratio matters, but also its quality does.  Many international banking groups that were in line with the minimum capital ratio requirements usually exhibited a high leverage ratio.  The need to comply to the capital adequacy requirements could potentially be able to intensify both positive and negative phases of the economic cycle (procyclicality).  A large number of big banks, that usually relied upon interbank liquidity, have been able to face the crises only thanks to the long term refinancing operations put in place by the Central Banks.  During the last financial crises, various systemically important banks have been saved by national Governments in order to avoid bankruptcies and systemic crises (too big to fail). Given this, the main changes introduced by the Basel Committee to face the above mentioned weaknesses are:  Quantitative and qualitative redefinition of the regulatory capital.  Introduction of the capital buffers in order to shrink the procyclicality issue.  Supervision concerning the national implementation of the new rules and the related implications, also pertaining the local banks.  Constant check concerning the amplitude of the improved conditions in terms of lending supply, as a consequence of the tougher regulation.  Tools to control for the size of the risks in case of global crises. The second part of this paper (chapter 3) empirically analyses the implications, to Italian banks, of the new rules with a main focus to the basic regulatory capital requirements

This paper aims to analyze the state of the art of the application of new technologies in the healthcare industry and its use in the activity of appropriateness and cost control monitoring. All the reforms that have recently affected the health demonstrated the orientation of the legislator towards a rationalization of costs through more efficient use of available resources. This reorganization of the sector has been inevitably influenced by several factors such as the evolution of the concept of the right to health accepted nowadays as a financially affected right, the polycentric and multilevel nature of the health sector and the requirements to control the public spending that have strongly conditioned by obligations of supranational origin. In this context, the ICT (Information Communications technologies) could have played a central role in enabling both a better management of the sector (through the ESF) and the creation of appropriate means of cost trend (using the NSIS). However up to now, despite the current regulations, suitable systems have not been put in place to take advantage of all the opportunities provided by ICT tools in this area, as the outlined system is fragmented and inadequate to allow an effective and efficient check of the choices undertaken by the health system's actors. Throughout the report we will analyze some of the current ICT tools used in the health sector, highlighting the critical issues and identifying any remedial actions in order to get a greater functional use in accordance with the new requirements of control and monitoring.