Simultaneous beam steering of multiple signals based on optical wavelength-selective switch

A novel, photonics-based scheme for the independent and simultaneous beam steering of multiple radio frequency signals at a wideband phased-array antenna is presented. As a proof of concept, a wavelength-selective switch (WSS) is employed both as a wavelength router to feed multiple antenna elements and as a tunable phase shifter to independently control the phase of each signal at any antenna element. In the experiment, two signals at 12.5 and 37.5 GHz are simultaneously fed to the four output ports of the WSS with independent and tunable phase shifts, emulating the independent steering of two signals in a four-element phased-array antenna. The results confirm the precision and flexibility of the proposed scheme, which can be realized both with bulk components or resorting to photonic integrated circuits, especially for wide-band applications. The architecture for a possible integrated implementation of the proposed solution is presented, employing a structure based on micro-ring resonator. Starting from these results, the feasibility of an integrated version of the presented architecture is also considered. The proposed photonic integrated circuit realizing the beam-forming network might be based on tunable true-time delay, as well as on phase shift through micro-ring resonators, and could be conveniently implemented with CMOS-compatible silicon technology.</jats:p

The Impact of the Method of Taxation of Immovable Property on the Improvement of the Public Services Quality

Albania as a country that is already in the market economy, feels the need to raise the level of income, to stabilize the economic problems of equilibrium and balance of payments, leading ultimately to the growth of the country's economic development. Tax on real estate assets, especially the one on residential buildings, is politically sensitive depending on the size and value with which they grow. The transition from the tax base in the area of the Real Estate to the market value of immovable property requires time and proper preparation for this qualitative change to the law of taxation of real estate. The purpose of this article is: Determining the efficiency of the method of taxation of the Immovable Property in improving the qualitative service of public services. The composition of tax revenue according to the type of tax in the OECD countries, revenues from taxation of real estate averaged about 5% of tax revenues. Thus, there is room for governments to increase their support on the recurring taxes on real estate. The diversity of methods used for measuring the tax base of real estate is great. What is important and should be understood by policy-makers is the fact that management of the system of taxation of real estate today and in the future should be better evaluated than to date by expanding further basis of taxation of real estate, including in them property which has been neglected so far

Chapter Between Kafka and Gogol’. ‘De-territorialising’ National Narrative(s) in Post-Soviet Ukrainian Literature in Russian

Between Kafka and Gogol’. This suggestive title reflects the path that will be undertaken in this paper, approaching the two authors as privileged interlocutors in order to analyze the specific artistic dimension of the newest category of writers that has emerged in Ukraine following the post-Soviet historical fracture. Through the lenses of the peculiar features characterizing Franz Kafka’s and Nikolaj Gogol’s literary experiences, we will be able to highlight the nuances characterizing the specific cultural positioning of contemporary Ukrainian literary production in Russian

Beyond War: Russia, Ukraine and the State of the Field

The dramatic developments devastating Ukraine since February 2022 represent a true watershed not only for social and political dynamics in both countries, but also for Russian and Ukrainian studies. In this article, the authors aim to contribute to a preliminary review of the most relevant issues touched upon by the academic debate emerging in the months following the start of the war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation in Ukraine

Beyond War: Russia, Ukraine and the State of the Field

The dramatic developments devastating Ukraine since February 2022 represent a true watershed not only for social and political dynamics in both countries, but also for Russian and Ukrainian studies. In this article, the authors aim to contribute to a preliminary review of the most relevant issues touched upon by the academic debate emerging in the months following the start of the war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation in Ukraine

The 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine as an Identity Project. Disentangling the Roots and Dynamics of Russia’s Long War over Post-Soviet Identity

In this paper we will devote our attention to the evolution of the narratives promoted by the Russian Federation around the Russian identity in post-Soviet times, focusing on their impact on the other former Soviet republics. Here we will move from an ideational dimension to concrete policy-making: in particular, our attention will go to the legal dimension of Russian identity-building. By reviewing legal acts and programmatic documents adopted by the Russian state over the last decades, we will identify the unfolding “normativization” of the identity project in post-Soviet Russia and its implications for Russian foreign policy in the post-Soviet space. As we will see in the final section of the paper, the case of 2022 Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine shows how the initial ideational dimension can evolve into concrete policies, such as the process of “passportization,” which unfolded in 2014-2022, making ethnic Russians and/or Russian speakers abroad again part of a legally-binding community of Russian citizens under the control of the Russian state

“C’era una volta un paese, ed era… la mia Patria”. Voci dai “margini”: Diari di guerra da Donec’k

The recent escalation of the Ukrainian crisis revealed the need for redefining the national cultural borders of the region. The literary community plays an important role in processing the ongoing historical “catastrophe”, in an attempt to understand heterogeneous and polyphonic Ukrainian voices, and in order to comprehend the reasons which lay behind the current ideological polarizations. The “hybrid” position of the Russophone literary community in Ukraine reveals interesting features in order to analyse the composite pattern of the region. This article investigates the role and strategies adopted by these “in-between” cultural actors in face of recent events. Their fluid identities cross the rigid borders marked by political and historical narratives. Questioning the fixed constructs of national and cultural identity, they aim to give way to a new kind of “negotiation” between Ukrainian and Russian cultural systems. These “voices from the edges” have a collective value in order to convey a new sense of belonging to a coherent political and cultural community. The reading of Elena Stjažkina’s Diaries, translated into Italian by Valentina Rossi, give us the chance to interpret this Russian speaking writer’s path towards the birth of an alternative model of “national identity”

Ripensare il post-sovietico. Un’introduzione

In this introduction to the special issue Beyond the Post-: (Post-)Soviet Experience Through (Post-)Colonial Lenses, the author aims to reflect upon the contribution of postcolonial theory to the study of post-Soviet political and cultural dynamics on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union: which postcolonial tools can help us understand and enrich the search for a definition of the post-Soviet as an analytic category? In which ways are the post-Soviet cultures postcolonial? What, on the contrary, makes the geographical area born after the collapse of the Soviet Union different from the so-called `Third World' and its dynamics

“Incontri possibili e impossibili tra culture”. Un dialogo con Silvia Albertazzi e Gabriella Imposti sulla storia degli studi postcoloniali in Italia

Silvia Albertazzi e Gabriella Imposti sono professoresse ordinarie presso il Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne dell'Università di Bologna. Albertazzi è responsabile del CLOPEx (Centro Studi sulle Letterature Omeoglotte dei Paesi Extraeuropei), e svolge le sue ricerche nell'ambito della letteratura moderna e contemporanea di lingua inglese, degli studi postcoloniali, e dei rapporti tra letteratura e altre arti, con particolare riguardo alla relazione tra fotografia e letteratura e agli studi culturali. È autrice di numerosi volumi di saggistica letteraria, tra cui il primo testo italiano di teoria postcoloniale (Lo sguardo dell'Altro. Le letterature postcoloniali, Roma 2000). Imposti si è occupata nei suoi studi di futurismo e di romanticismo russo e del loro rapporto, rispettivamente, con il futurismo italiano e il romanticismo inglese, oltre a svolgere le sue ricerche nell'ambito dei gender studies nella Federazione Russa. Ha contribuito attivamente alla promozione dell'applicazione degli studi postcoloniali all'area post-sovietica, e insieme a Silvia Albertazzi e Donatella Possamai ha curato la pubblicazione del volume Post-scripta: Incontri possibili e impossibili tra culture (Padova 2005). In questa intervista discuteremo della loro esperienza di ricerca dedicata agli studi postcoloniali in Italia, un movimento di cui entrambe le ricercatrici sono state importanti protagoniste