Contents of: VI/111/./abstract/RCHINI_GALAXI01.abs

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 During most of their life galaxies are quiescent.
 Sometimes, however, they experience short and violent
 phases of star formation, usually in their nucleus.
 To study the transition from quiescence to activity,
 we propose to obtain detailed spectral FIR energy
 distributions for two complete samples of active and
 inactive spirals. This will allow us to determine the
 total gas mass which serves as the fuel for the
 star bursts.
 Our ground based observations from 450 to 1300 microns
 together with IRAS data show that a precise knowledge
 of the spectral shape around 100 microns is needed
 for a unique decomposition of the dust emission spectra
 and for a reliable determination of the dust and gas
 mass.
 The efficiency of star formation, expressed by the ratio
 of IR luminosity over gas mass, will be determined for
 these samples. We will probe the radiation field in the
 nucleus of the galaxies with CAM. The PAH bands
 will be used as a descriminator of the activity type
 of the galaxies. We will use state-of-the-art radiative
 transfer models to explain the spectral energy distribution
 of the galaxies and compare the observations with
 predictions from our dynamical models.