[en] In addition to United Nations papers delineating the Organization's convention on climate change and strategies concerning the protection of the earth's atmosphere, this booklet presents four papers expressing the views of Italian and American strategists. The central theme is the establishment of current global air pollution trends, the determination of suitable air pollution limits, and the preparation of feasible socio-economic strategies to allow industrialized and developing countries to work together effectively to achieve the proposed global air quality goals

[en] In addition to United Nations papers delineating the Organization's convention on climate change and strategies concerning the protection of the earth's atmosphere, this booklet presents four papers expressing the views of Italian and American strategists. The central theme is the establishment of current global air pollution trends, the determination of suitable air pollution limits, and the preparation of feasible socio-economic strategies to allow industrialized and developing countries to work together effectively to achieve the proposed global air quality goals

[en] Short communication

[en] The L3 simulation program, based on the GEANT3 package, has been intensively used to produce the events needed for the L3 analysis. After six years of operation of the L3 detector over 30 million events have been fully simulated in the L3 setup. The simulation having to match the precision reached in the experiment, a lot of effort has been put to reach the best agreement of the simulated data with the real detector response. In addition to the careful tuning of the GEANT tracking parameters many time dependent effects which affect the response of the detector, like dead channels and inefficiencies, have been taken into account. The design principles and the general organization of the program are described and comparisons of the simulation with the data recorded by the L3 experiment are shown. The current status of our experience in simulating a large number of events is also reviewed. (author)

[en] Silicon microstrip devices to be installed in Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tracking detectors will have to operate in a high radiation environment. We report on performance studies of silicon microstrip detectors irradiated with neutrons or protons, up to fluences comparable to the first ten years of running at LHC. Obtained results show that irradiated detectors can still be operated with satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio,and in the case of inhomogeneously type inverted detector a very good position resolution is achieved regardless of the zone crossed by the particle

[en] During the last few years a large number of silicon microstrip detectors has been especially designed and tested in order to study and optimize the performances of the tracking devices to be used in the forward-backward part of the CMS (technical proposal, CERN/LHCC 94-38 LHCC/Pl, 15 December 1994) experiment. Both single and double sided silicon detectors of a trapezoidal ('wedge') shape and with different strip configurations, including prototypes produced with double metal technology, were characterized in the laboratory and tested using high-energy beams. Furthermore, due to the high-radiation environment where the detectors should operate, particular care was devoted to the study of the characteristics of heavily irradiated detectors. The main results of detector performances (charge response, signal-to-noise ratio, spatial resolution etc.) will be reviewed and discussed. (author)

[en] Following initial work on the readout of the L3 silicon microvertex detector, the authors have developed a complete data acquisition system for silicon microstrip detectors for use both in their home institute and at the various test beam facilities at the CERN laboratory. The system uses extensive decoupling schemes allowing a fully floating connection to the detector. This feature has many advantages especially in the readout of the latest double-sided silicon microstrip detectors

No abstract available

[en] The agronomic use of charcoal from biomass pyrolysis (biochar) represents an interesting option for increasing soil fertility and sequestering atmospheric CO₂. However, before moving toward large-scale biochar applications, additional research must evaluate all possible land–atmosphere feedbacks. Despite the increasing number of studies investigating the effect of biochar on soil physical, chemical and biological properties, only a few have been done on surface albedo variations on agricultural lands. The present work had the aim of characterizing the annual albedo cycle for a durum wheat crop in Central Italy, by means of a spectroradiometer measurement campaign. Plots treated with biochar, at a rate of 30–60 t ha⁻¹, showed a surface albedo decrease of up to 80% (after the application) with respect to the control in bare soil conditions, while this difference tended to decrease during the crop growing season, because of the prevailing effect of canopy development on the radiometer response. After the post-harvesting tillage, the soil treated with biochar again showed a lower surface albedo value (<20–26% than the control), while the measurements taken in the second year after application suggested a clear decrease of biochar influence on soil color. The modeling of the surface energy balance highlighted changes in the partitioning of heat fluxes and in particular a substantial increase of ground heat fluxes on an annual basis. (letter)

[en] In this article we describe the outer part (Muon Filter) of the Hadron Calorimeter of the L3 detector. Construction and performance of the brass chambers, which form the sensitive part of the detector, are reviewed. We also report the results from data taken on two beam tests, at CERN. (orig.)