Markov Constraints for Generating Texts with Style

This thesis addresses the issue of generating texts in the style of an existing author, that also satisfy structural constraints imposed by the genre of the text. Although Markov processes are known to be suitable for representing style, they are difficult to control in order to satisfy non-local properties, such as structural constraints, that require long distance modeling. The framework of Constrained Markov Processes allows to precisely generate texts that are consistent with a corpus, while being controllable in terms of rhymes and meter. Controlled Markov processes consist in reformulating Markov processes in the context of constraint satisfaction. The thesis describes how to represent stylistic and structural properties in terms of constraints in this framework and how this approach can be used for the generation of lyrics in the style of 60 differents authors An evaluation of the desctibed method is provided by comparing it to both pure Markov and pure constraint-based approaches. Finally the thesis describes the implementation of an augmented text editor, called Perec. Perec is intended to improve creativity, by helping the user to write lyrics and poetry, exploiting the techniques presented so far.

Reputation, VC funding, and innovation: Evidence from the UK Micro and Nanotechnology sector

Startups’ contributions on economic growth have been widely realized. However, the funding gap is often a problem limiting startups’ development. To some extent, VC can be a means to solve this problem. VC is one of the optimal financial intermediaries for startups. Two streams of VC studies are focused in this dissertation: the criteria used by venture capitalists to evaluate startups and the effect of VC on innovation. First, although many criteria have been analyzed, the empirical assessment of the effect of startup reputation on VC funding has not been investigated. However, reputation is usually positively related with firm performance, which may affect VC funding. By analyzing reputation from the generalized visibility dimension and the generalized favorability dimension using a sample of 200 startups founded from 1995 operating in the UK MNT sector, we show that both the two dimensions of reputation have positive influence on the likelihood of receiving VC funding. We also find that management team heterogeneity positively influence the likelihood of receiving VC funding. Second, studies investigating the effect of venture capital on innovation have frequently resorted to patent data. However, innovation is a process leading from invention to successful commercialization, and while patents capture the upstream side of innovative performance, they poorly describe its downstream one. By reflecting the introduction of new products or services trademarks can complete the picture, but empirical studies on trademarking in startups are rare. Analyzing a sample of 192 startups founded from 1996 operating in the UK MNT sector, we find that VC funding has positive effect on the propensity to register trademarks, as well as on the number and breadth of trademarks.

Innovative techniques for sport turf managing: Agronomic and phyisiological implications

The growing substrate of the putting greens is considered a key factor for a healthy turf ecosystem. Actually detailed study on the effects of growth promoting bacteria and biostimulants on a professional sport turf are very limited. This thesis aimed to study the effectiveness of different microorganisms and biostimulants in order to improve the knowledge relative to the relationship between the beneficial microflora and root apparatus of sport turfs. The research project was divided in three principal steps: Initially, commercial products based on biostimulants and microorganisms were tested on a Lolium perenne L. essence grown in a controlled-environment. The principal evaluations were the study of the habitus of plants, biomass production and length of leaves and roots. Were studied the capacity of colonization of microorganisms within root tissues and rhizosphere. In the second step were developed two different biostimulant solutions based on effective microorganisms, mycorrhizae and humic acids. This test was conducted both on an Agrostis stolonifera putting green (Modena Golf & Country Club) in a semi-field condition and within a growth chamber on a Lolium perenne L. essence. Fungicide and chemicals applications were suspended in order to assess the effectiveness of the inoculants for nutrition and control of pests. In the last step, different microorganism mixes and biostimulants were tested on an experimental putting green in the Turf Research Center (TRC) (Virginia Tech, United States) in a real managing situation. The effects of different treatments were studied maintaining all chemicals and mechanicals managements scheduled during a sport season. Both growth-chamber and field results confirmed the capacity of microorganisms based biostimulants to promote the physiologic conditions of the plants, improve the growth of the roots and enhance the aesthetic performance of the turf. Molecular analysis confirmed the capacity of microorganisms to colonize the root tissues.

NMR Based Foodomics to Investigate the Digestibility of Protein-Rich Food Products

Nowadays, in developed countries, the excessive food intake, in conjunction with a decreased physical activity, has led to an increase in lifestyle-related diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type -2 diabetes, a range of cancer types and arthritis. The socio-economic importance of such lifestyle-related diseases has encouraged countries to increase their efforts in research, and many projects have been initiated recently in research that focuses on the relationship between food and health. Thanks to these efforts and to the growing availability of technologies, the food companies are beginning to develop healthier food. The necessity of rapid and affordable methods, helping the food industries in the ingredient selection has stimulated the development of in vitro systems that simulate the physiological functions to which the food components are submitted when administrated in vivo. One of the most promising tool now available appears the in vitro digestion, which aims at predicting, in a comparative way among analogue food products, the bioaccessibility of the nutrients of interest.. The adoption of the foodomics approach has been chosen in this work to evaluate the modifications occurring during the in vitro digestion of selected protein-rich food products. The measure of the proteins breakdown was performed via NMR spectroscopy, the only techniques capable of observing, directly in the simulated gastric and duodenal fluids, the soluble oligo- and polypeptides released during the in vitro digestion process. The overall approach pioneered along this PhD work, has been discussed and promoted in a large scientific community, with specialists networked under the INFOGEST COST Action, which recently released a harmonized protocol for the in vitro digestion. NMR spectroscopy, when used in tandem with the in vitro digestion, generates a new concept, which provides an additional attribute to describe the food quality: the comparative digestibility, which measures the improvement of the nutrients bioaccessibility.