Polytechnic University of Milan

About: Polytechnic University of Milan is a education organization based out in Milan, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Finite element method. The organization has 18231 authors who have published 58416 publications receiving 1229711 citations. The organization is also known as: PoliMi & L-NESS.

Trends and missing parts in the study of movement ecology

Abstract: Movement is important to all organisms, and accordingly it is addressed in a huge number of papers in the literature. Of nearly 26,000 papers referring to movement, an estimated 34% focused on movement by measuring it or testing hypotheses about it. This enormous amount of information is difficult to review and highlights the need to assess the collective completeness of movement studies and identify gaps. We surveyed 1,000 randomly selected papers from 496 journals and compared the facets of movement studied with a suggested framework for movement ecology, consisting of internal state (motivation, physiology), motion and navigation capacities, and external factors (both the physical environment and living organisms), and links among these components. Most studies simply measured and described the movement of organisms without reference to ecological or internal factors, and the most frequently studied part of the framework was the link between external factors and motion capacity. Few studies looked at the effects on movement of navigation capacity, or internal state, and those were mainly from vertebrates. For invertebrates and plants most studies were at the population level, whereas more vertebrate studies were conducted at the individual level. Consideration of only population-level averages promulgates neglect of between-individual variation in movement, potentially hindering the study of factors controlling movement. Terminology was found to be inconsistent among taxa and subdisciplines. The gaps identified in coverage of movement studies highlight research areas that should be addressed to fully understand the ecology of movement.

Residual fossil CO2 emissions in 1.5–2 °C pathways

Abstract: The Paris Agreement—which is aimed at holding global warming well below 2 °C while pursuing efforts to limit it below 1.5 °C—has initiated a bottom-up process of iteratively updating nationally determined contributions to reach these long-term goals. Achieving these goals implies a tight limit on cumulative net CO2 emissions, of which residual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are the greatest impediment. Here, using an ensemble of seven integrated assessment models (IAMs), we explore the determinants of these residual emissions, focusing on sector-level contributions. Even when strengthened pre-2030 mitigation action is combined with very stringent long-term policies, cumulative residual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels remain at 850–1,150 GtCO2 during 2016–2100, despite carbon prices of US$130–420 per tCO2 by 2030. Thus, 640–950 GtCO2 removal is required for a likely chance of limiting end-of-century warming to 1.5 °C. In the absence of strengthened pre-2030 pledges, long-term CO2 commitments are increased by 160–330 GtCO2, further jeopardizing achievement of the 1.5 °C goal and increasing dependence on CO2 removal.

Experimental validation of photonic boson sampling

Abstract: To address the controversy regarding the validation of an experiment that is hard to simulate, boson-sampling experiments are implemented with three photons in randomly designed integrated chips with up to 13 modes. It is experimentally demonstrated that the Aaronson–Arkhipov test allows boson-sampling experiments to be distinguished from uniformly drawn samples.

Constrained receding-horizon predictive control

Abstract: Constrained receding-horizon predictive control (CRHPC) is intended for demanding control applications where conventional predictive control designs can fail. The idea behind CRHPC is to optimise a quadratic function over a 'costing horizon' subject to the condition that the output matches the reference value over a further constraint range. Theorems show that the method stabilises general linear plants (e.g. unstable, nonminimum-phase, dead-time). Simulation studies demonstrate good behaviour with even nearly unobservable systems (where generalised predictive control is ineffective) and that control-costing is a particularly effective tuning parameter. >

Electric Control of the Giant Rashba Effect in Bulk GeTe

Abstract: Relativistic effects, including the Rashba effect, are increasingly seen as key ingredients in spintronics. A link between Rashba physics and the field of ferroelectrics is established by predicting giant Rashba spin-splitting in bulk GeTe (see the Figure showing the band-structure as well as in-plane and out- of-plane spin polarization for a constant energy cut).