The Application of European Competition Law in Arbitration Proceedings

This work provides several policy proposals capable to strengthen the private enforcement of EU competition law in arbitration. It focuses on the procedural law aspects that are permeated by legal uncertainty and that have not yet fallen under the scrutiny of the law and economics debate. The policy proposals described herein are based on the functional approach to law and economics and aim to promote a more qualified decision making process by: adjudicators, private parties and lawmakers. The resulting framework of procedural rules would be a cost-effective policy tool that could sustain the European Commission’s effort to guarantee a workable level of competition in the EU internal market. This project aims to answer the following broad research question: which procedural rules can improve the efficiency of antitrust arbitration by decreasing litigation costs for private parties on the one hand, and by increasing private parties’ compliance with competition law on the other hand?Throughout this research project, such broad question has been developed into research sub-questions revolving around several key legal issues. The chosen sub-research questions result from a vacuum in the European enforcement system that leaves several key legal issues in antitrust arbitration unresolved. The legal framework proposed in this research project could prevent such a blurry scenario from impairing the EU private enforcement of competition law in arbitration. Therefore, our attention was triggered by those legal issues whose proposed solutions lead to relevant uncertainties and that are most suitable for a law and economics analysis.

Victorian letter writing and its representation in literature and painting: the case study of love letters

One of the main features of nineteenth-century fiction is the quasi-total disappearance of the epistolary novel that had had its heydays in the previous century. For this reason, some scholars have declared the “death” of the letter in literature after the transitional romantic period. However, Victorian novels overflow with letters that are embedded, quoted in part or described and commented on by narrators or characters. Even when its content is not revealed to the reader, the letter becomes a signifier loaded with meanings, also and particularly so, when it is burnt, torn, hidden, found or buried. The Postal Reform of 1839-40 caused the number of letters sent every year in Britain to grow from 75 to 410 million in only 14 years, and the mediatic campaign that supported it drew the attention of the population to the material aspects concerning this means of communication. Newspapers became more affordable too and they promoted a taste for sensationalism that often involved the “spectacularization” of private correspondence. Starting from an excursus on the history of the letter aimed at identifying the key aspects of the genre, this work deals with some real love correspondences from people belonging to different classes in the period from 1840 to the 1870s, to then analyse their fictional and pictorial counterparts. The general picture that emerges from this analysis is that of a Victorian society where letters were able to break down the boundaries between high and low forms of cultural expressions and where, more than ever, letters were present in people’s everyday lives as well as in the art and literature they enjoyed.

L'evoluzione della tutela cautelare nel processo amministrativo

L’effettività della tutela cautelare, intesa come tutela tempestiva, adeguata e piena, è stata la linea cardine dell’evoluzione della giustizia amministrativa, che, nel corso di un periodo durato più di un secolo, grazie all’opera della giurisprudenza e della dottrina, si è strutturata oggi su un vero processo. Approdo recente, e allo stesso tempo, simbolo di questa evoluzione, è sicuramente il Codice del processo amministrativo emanato con il d. lgs. 2 luglio 2010, n. 104. La ricerca, di cui questo contributo costituisce un resoconto, è iniziata contestualmente all’entrata in vigore del nuovo testo, e quindi è stata anche l’occasione per vederne le prime applicazioni giurisprudenziali. In particolare la lettura del Codice, prescindendo da una mera ricognizione di tutto il suo lungo articolato, è stata fatta alla luce di una ponderazione, nell’attualità, non solo del principio di effettività, ma anche del principio di strumentalità che lega tradizionalmente la fase cautelare con la fase di merito. I risultati della ricerca manifestano la volontà del legislatore di confermare questo rapporto strumentale, per fronteggiare una deriva incontrollata verso una cautela dagli effetti alle volte irreversibili, quale verificatasi nell’applicazione giurisprudenziale, ma contestualmente evidenziano la volontà di estendere la portata della tutela cautelare. Guardando a cosa sia diventata oggi la tutela cautelare, si è assistito ad un rafforzamento degli effetti conformativi, tipici delle sentenze di merito ma che si sono estesi alla fase cautelare. I giudici, pur consapevoli che la tutela cautelare non sia una risposta a cognizione piena, bensì sommaria, intendono comunque garantire una tutela tempestiva ed effettiva, anche per il tramite di tecniche processuali particolari, come quella del remand, cui, all’interno della ricerca, viene dedicato ampio spazio. Nella sua ultima parte la ricerca si è focalizzata, sempre volendo guardare in maniera globale agli effetti della tutela cautelare, sul momento dell’esecuzione e quindi sul giudizio di ottemperanza.

La cooperazione amministrativa tra stati membri in materia fiscale: verso una amministrazione finanziaria "europea"

L’armonizzazione fiscale è una importante sfida che l’Unione Europea si trova ad affrontare per la completa realizzazione del mercato interno. Le istituzioni comunitarie, tuttavia, non dispongono delle competenze legislative per intervenire direttamente negli ordinamenti tributari degli Stati membri. Svolgendo una analisi del contesto legislativo vigente, ed esaminando le prospettive de iure condendo della materia fiscale dell’Unione, il presente lavoro cerca di comprendere le prospettive di evoluzione del sistema, sia dal punto di vista della normativa fiscale sostanziale, che procedimentale. Mediante la disciplina elaborata a livello comunitario che regola la cooperazione amministrativa in materia fiscale, con particolare riferimento alle direttive relative allo scambio di informazioni e all’assistenza alla riscossione (dir. 2011/16/UE e dir. 2010/24/UE) si permette alle Amministrazioni degli Stati membri di avere accesso ai reciproci ordinamenti giuridici, e conoscerne i meccanismi. L’attuazione di tali norme fa sì che ciascun ordinamento abbia l’opportunità di importare le best practices implementate dagli altri Stati. L’obiettivo sarà quello di migliorare il proprio procedimento amministrativo tributario, da un lato, e di rendere più immediati gli scambi di informazione e la cooperazione alla riscossione, dall’altro. L’armonizzazione fiscale all’interno dell’Unione verrebbe perseguita, anziché mediante un intervento a livello europeo, attraverso un coordinamento “dal basso” degli ordinamenti fiscali, realizzato attraverso l’attività di cooperazione delle amministrazioni che opereranno su un substrato di regole condivise. La maggiore apertura delle amministrazioni fiscali dei Paesi membri e la maggiore spontaneità degli scambi di informazioni, ha una efficacia deterrente di fenomeni di evasione e di sottrazione di imposta posti in essere al fine di avvantaggiarsi delle differenze dei sistemi impositivi dei vari paesi. Nel lungo periodo ciò porterà verosimilmente, gli Stati membri a livellare i sistemi impositivi, dal momento che i medesimi non avranno più interesse ad utilizzare la leva fiscale per generare una concorrenza tra gli ordinamenti.

Aspetti processuali del Regolamento n. 1/2003/Ce

The recent reform in European antitrust enforcement is embodied in Regolation n. 1/2003/ Ce and related Communications. Since 2004 when it came into force, some crytical assessments can already be made. The work starts from some technical analysis of the reform, under a procedural perspective, to assess the proceedings’ real impact on parties’ rights and to criticize its limits. Decentralisation has brought about more complicacies, since community procedural systems are not harmonized, neither in their administrative rules, nor in their civil proceedings, which are all involved in the European antitrust network. Therefore, antitrust proceedings end un as being more jurisdictional in their effects than in their guarentees, which is a flaw to be mended by legislators. National laws shoud be harmonized, community law should be clarified and the system should turn more honestly towards a rationalized jurisdiction-cented mechanism. Otherwise, parties defense rights and the overall efficiency are put into doubt. Italy is a good exemple of how many colmlicacies can outburst from national procedures and national decentralised application. An uncertain pattern of judicial control, together with unclear relationships among the institutions to cooperate in the antitrust network can produce more problems than they aim to solve. As to the private enforcement, Regulation n.1 does not even attempt to give precise regulation to this underdeveloped sector. A continual comparison with U.S. system has brought the Commission to become aware both of the risks and of the advanteges of an increased civil antitrust litigation in fronto of national judges. In order to substain a larger development of this parallel and, presently, difficult way of judicial compensation, it is presently ongoing a consultation among states to find suitable incentives to make private enforcement more appealing and effective. The solution to this lack of private litigation is not to be sought in Regulation n. 1 which calls into action national legislators and proceedures to implement further improvements. As a conclusion, Regulation n. 1 is the outpost of an ambitious community design to create an efficient control mechanism over antitrust violations. It focuses on Commission proceedings, powers and sanctions in order to establish deterrence, then it highlights civil litigation perspectives and it involves directly states into antitrust application. It seems that more could be done to technically shape administrative proceedings in a more jurisdictionally oriented form, then to clarify respective roles and coordination mecanisms in order to prevent difficulties easy to forsee. Some of jurisprudential suggestions have been accepted, but much more is left to be done in the future to improve european antitrust enforcement system.

Educazione alla cittadinanza per cittadini immigrati adulti. Il contributo della formazione linguistico-giuridica all'acquisizione di competenze di cittadinanza in lingua seconda

The research examines which cultural and linguistic instruments can be offered to provide adult migrants with formative access to citizenship competences. Starting from the questions: How can individuals of all community groups present in a nation-state acquire high standards of linguistic, sociolinguistic and discourse competences in order to be fully integrated, that is to participate and be included in social activities in the public domain such as work and institutional environments? How are these competencies developed in an educational context? How do adult migrants behave linguistically in this context, according to their needs and motivations? The research hypothesis aimed at outlining a formative project of citizenship education targeted at adult foreign citizens, where a central role is assigned both to law education and linguistic education. Acoordingly, as the study considered if the introduction of a law programme in a second language course could be conceived as an opportunity to further the access to active citizenship and social participation, a corpus of audiodata was collected in law classes of an Italian adult professional course attended by a 50% of foreign students. The observation was conducted on teacher and learner talk and learner participation in classroom interaction when curriculum legal topics were introduced and discussed. In the classroom law discourse two dimensions were analyzed: the legal knowledge construction and the participants’ interpersonal and identity construction. From the analysis, the understanding is that drawn that law classes seem to represent an educational setting where foreign citizens have an opportunity to learn and practise citizenship. The social and pragmatic approach to legal contents plays a relevant role, in a subject which, in non-academic contexts, loses its technical specificity and refers to law as a product of social representation. In the observed educational environment, where students are adults who bring into the classroom multiple personal and social identities, legal topics have the advantage of increasing adult migrants’ motivation to ‘go back to school’ as they are likely to give hints, if not provide solutions, to problems relating to participation in socio-institutional activities. At the same time, these contents offer an ideal context where individuals can acquire high discourse competences and citizenship skills, such as agency and critical reflection. Besides, the analysis reveals that providing adult learners with materials that focus on rights, politics and the law, i.e. with materials which stimulate discussion on concerns affecting their daily lives, is welcomed by learners themselves, who might appreciate the integration of these same topics in a second language course.

The future in action: neurophysiological and behavioral evidence of anticipatory motor simulation.

The motor system can no longer be considered as a mere passive executive system of motor commands generated elsewhere in the brain. On the contrary, it is deeply involved in perceptual and cognitive functions and acts as an “anticipation device”. The present thesis investigates the anticipatory motor mechanisms occurring in two particular instances: i) when processing sensory events occurring within the peripersonal space (PPS); and ii) when perceiving and predicting others’actions. The first study provides evidence that PPS representation in humans modulates neural activity within the motor system, while the second demonstrates that the motor mapping of sensory events occurring within the PPS critically relies on the activity of the premotor cortex. The third study provides direct evidence that the anticipatory motor simulation of others’ actions critically relies on the activity of the anterior node of the action observation network (AON), namely the inferior frontal cortex (IFC). The fourth study, sheds light on the pivotal role of the left IFC in predicting the future end state of observed right-hand actions. Finally, the fifth study examines how the ability to predict others’ actions could be influenced by a reduction of sensorimotor experience due to the traumatic or congenital loss of a limb. Overall, the present work provides new insights on: i) the anticipatory mechanisms of the basic reactivity of the motor system when processing sensory events occurring within the PPS, and the same anticipatory motor mechanisms when perceiving others’ implied actions; ii) the functional connectivity and plasticity of premotor-motor circuits both during the motor mapping of sensory events occurring within the PPS and when perceiving others’ actions; and iii) the anticipatory mechanisms related to others’ actions prediction.

Sparse Signal Representation of Ultrasonic Signals for Structural Health Monitoring Applications

Assessment of the integrity of structural components is of great importance for aerospace systems, land and marine transportation, civil infrastructures and other biological and mechanical applications. Guided waves (GWs) based inspections are an attractive mean for structural health monitoring. In this thesis, the study and development of techniques for GW ultrasound signal analysis and compression in the context of non-destructive testing of structures will be presented. In guided wave inspections, it is necessary to address the problem of the dispersion compensation. A signal processing approach based on frequency warping was adopted. Such operator maps the frequencies axis through a function derived by the group velocity of the test material and it is used to remove the dependence on the travelled distance from the acquired signals. Such processing strategy was fruitfully applied for impact location and damage localization tasks in composite and aluminum panels. It has been shown that, basing on this processing tool, low power embedded system for GW structural monitoring can be implemented. Finally, a new procedure based on Compressive Sensing has been developed and applied for data reduction. Such procedure has also a beneficial effect in enhancing the accuracy of structural defects localization. This algorithm uses the convolutive model of the propagation of ultrasonic guided waves which takes advantage of a sparse signal representation in the warped frequency domain. The recovery from the compressed samples is based on an alternating minimization procedure which achieves both an accurate reconstruction of the ultrasonic signal and a precise estimation of waves time of flight. Such information is used to feed hyperbolic or elliptic localization procedures, for accurate impact or damage localization.

La prima casa editrice femminista per l'infanzia in Italia: gli albi illustrati di "Dalla parte delle bambine" di Adela Turin

La presente tesi di dottorato propone uno studio sulla casa editrice “Dalla parte delle bambine” di Adela Turin. Attiva dal 1975 al 1982 a Milano, si tratta della prima impresa editoriale femminista per l’infanzia in Italia. Nonostante l’originalità e il successo internazionale dei suoi libri, è stata riscontrata una sorprendente scarsità di studi sull’argomento. Questa ricerca interdisciplinare si propone quindi di colmare questa lacuna, inserendosi nel vivace ambito dello studio della letteratura per l’infanzia in prospettiva di genere. La dissertazione è divisa in cinque capitoli, a cui si aggiunge un’appendice iconografica che raccoglie le copertine dell’intero catalogo di DPDB. Nel primo capitolo viene introdotto il quadro teorico della ricerca, dalla complessità della letteratura per il giovane pubblico all’indagine in ottica di genere. Il secondo capitolo si concentra sulle pubblicazioni per bambine e bambini negli anni Settanta, passando in rassegna innovative esperienze editoriali nonché l’opera di scrittori e scrittrici sensibili alle questioni di genere. La terza sezione si occupa di ricostruire il profilo biografico di Turin e il suo decennale impegno contro il sessismo veicolato dai libri per l’infanzia, per poi concentrarsi sulla storia, il catalogo, la diffusione e la ricezione di DPDB. Il quarto capitolo propone un’analisi qualitativa e quantitativa di un corpus di 20 albi illustrati scritti da Turin, oltre a un confronto fra questi libri e diverse ricerche sulla rappresentazione di genere, allo scopo di evidenziare la peculiarità delle proposte di DPDB. La quinta sezione, infine, si occupa del rapporto con la contemporaneità. Dopo aver tracciato un quadro della complessa situazione dell’educazione di genere in Italia e aver proposto una panoramica di esperienze editoriali per il giovane pubblico attente alle questioni di genere, quest’ultima parte indagherà i contesti in cui gli albi di Turin vengono oggi letti e consigliati, offrendosi come narrazione alternativa e tutt’ora attuale.

Advanced representation of the ocean/sea ice dynamics at high latitudes

Sea ice is a fundamental element of global climate system, with numerous impacts on the polar environment. The ongoing drastic changes in the Earth’s sea ice cover highlight the necessity of monitoring the polar regions and systematically evaluating the quality of different numerical products. The main objective of this thesis is to improve our knowledge of the representation of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice using comprehensive global ocean reanalyses and coupled climate models. The dissertation will explore (i) the Antarctic marginal ice zone (MIZ) and pack ice area in the ensemble mean of four global ocean reanalyses called GREP; (ii) historical representation of the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice state in HighResMIP models; (iii) the future evolution of Arctic sea ice in HighResMIP models. Global ocean reanalyses and GREP are found to adequately capture interannual and seasonal variability in both pack ice and MIZ areas at hemispheric and regional scales. The advantage of the ensemble-mean approach is proved as GREP smooths the strengths and weaknesses of single systems and provides the most consistent and reliable estimates. This work is intended to encourage the use of GREP in a wide range of applications. The analysis of sea ice representation in the coupled climate models shows no systematic impact of the increased horizontal resolution. We argue that a few minor improvements in sea ice representation with the enhanced horizontal resolution are presumably not worth the major effort of costly computations. The thesis highlights the critical importance to distinguish the MIZ from consolidated pack ice both for investigating changes in sea ice distribution and evaluating the product’s performance. Considering that the MIZ is predicted to dominate the Arctic sea ice cover, the model physics parameterizations and sea ice rheology might require modifications. The results of the work can be useful for modelling community.

Supporting requirement elicitation and ontology testing in knowledge graph engineering

Knowledge graphs and ontologies are closely related concepts in the field of knowledge representation. In recent years, knowledge graphs have gained increasing popularity and are serving as essential components in many knowledge engineering projects that view them as crucial to their success. The conceptual foundation of the knowledge graph is provided by ontologies. Ontology modeling is an iterative engineering process that consists of steps such as the elicitation and formalization of requirements, the development, testing, refactoring, and release of the ontology. The testing of the ontology is a crucial and occasionally overlooked step of the process due to the lack of integrated tools to support it. As a result of this gap in the state-of-the-art, the testing of the ontology is completed manually, which requires a considerable amount of time and effort from the ontology engineers. The lack of tool support is noticed in the requirement elicitation process as well. In this aspect, the rise in the adoption and accessibility of knowledge graphs allows for the development and use of automated tools to assist with the elicitation of requirements from such a complementary source of data. Therefore, this doctoral research is focused on developing methods and tools that support the requirement elicitation and testing steps of an ontology engineering process. To support the testing of the ontology, we have developed XDTesting, a web application that is integrated with the GitHub platform that serves as an ontology testing manager. Concurrently, to support the elicitation and documentation of competency questions, we have defined and implemented RevOnt, a method to extract competency questions from knowledge graphs. Both methods are evaluated through their implementation and the results are promising.

Traces de terre, traces d'encre... La rappresentazione dello spazio nella letteratura caraibica. (Francofona e Anglofona)

This study concerns the representation of space in Caribbean literature, both francophone and Anglophone and, in particular, but not only, in the martinican literature, in the works of the authors born in the island. The analysis focus on the second half of the last century, a period in which the martinican production of novels and romances increased considerably, and where the representation and the rule of space had a relevant place. So, the thesis explores the literary modalities of this representation. The work is constituted of 5 chapters and the critical and methodological approaches are both of an analytical and comparative type. The first chapter “The caribbean space: geography, history and society” presents the geographic context, through an analysis of the historical and political major events occurred in the Caribbean archipelago, in particular of the French Antilles, from the first colonization until the départementalisation. The first paragraph “The colonized space: historical-political excursus” the explores the history of the European colonization that marked forever the theatre of the relationship between Europe, Africa and the New World. This social situation take a long and complex process of “Re-appropriation and renegotiation of the space”, (second paragraph) always the space of the Other, that interest both the Antillean society and the writers’ universe. So, a series of questions take place in the third paragraph “Landscape and identity”: what is the function of space in the process of identity construction? What are the literary forms and representations of space in the Caribbean context? Could the writing be a tool of cultural identity definition, both individual and collective? The second chapter “The literary representation of the Antillean space” is a methodological analysis of the notions of literary space and descriptive gender. The first paragraph “The literary space of and in the novel” is an excursus of the theory of such critics like Blanchot, Bachelard, Genette and Greimas, and in particular the recent innovation of the 20th century; the second one “Space of the Antilles, space of the writing” is an attempt to apply this theory to the Antillean literary space. Finally the last paragraph “Signs on the page: the symbolic places of the antillean novel landscape” presents an inventory of the most recurrent antillean places (mornes, ravines, traces, cachots, En-ville,…), symbols of the history and the past, described in literary works, but according to new modalities of representation. The third chapter, the core of the thesis, “Re-drawing the map of the French Antilles” focused the study of space representation on francophone literature, in particular on a selected works of four martinican writers, like Roland Brival, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant. Through this section, a spatial evolution comes out step by step, from the first to the second paragraph, whose titles are linked together “The novel space evolution: from the forest of the morne… to the jungle of the ville”. The virgin and uncontaminated space of the Antilles, prior to the colonisation, where the Indios lived in harmony with the nature, find a representation in both works of Brival (Le sang du roucou, Le dernier des Aloukous) and of Glissant (Le Quatrième siècle, Ormerod). The arrival of the European colonizer brings a violent and sudden metamorphosis of the originary space and landscape, together with the traditions and culture of the Caraïbes population. These radical changes are visible in the works of Chamoiseau (Chronique des sept misères, Texaco, L’esclave vieil homme et le molosse, Livret des villes du deuxième monde, Un dimanche au cachot) and Confiant (Le Nègre et l’Amiral, Eau de Café, Ravines du devant-jour, Nègre marron) that explore the urban space of the creole En-ville. The fourth chapter represents the “2nd step: the Anglophone novel space” in the exploration of literary representation of space, through an analytical study of the works of three Anglophone writers, the 19th century Lafcadio Hearn (A Midsummer Trip To the West Indies, Two Years in the French West Indies, Youma) and the contemporary authors Derek Walcott (Omeros, Map of the New World, What the Twilight says) and Edward Kamau Brathwaite (The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy). The Anglophone voice of the Caribbean archipelago brings a very interesting contribution to the critical idea of a spatial evolution in the literary representation of space, started with francophone production: “The spatial evolution goes on: from the Martiniques Sketches of Hearn… to the modern bards of Caribbean archipelago” is the new linked title of the two paragraphs. The fifth chapter “Extended look, space shared: the Caribbean archipelago” is a comparative analysis of the results achieved in the prior sections, through a dialogue between all the texts in the first paragraph “Francophone and Anglophone representation of space compared: differences and analogies”. The last paragraph instead is an attempt of re-negotiate the conventional notions of space and place, from a geographical and physical meaning, to the new concept of “commonplace”, not synonym of prejudice, but “common place” of sharing and dialogue. The question sets in the last paragraph “The “commonplaces” of the physical and mental map of the Caribbean archipelago: toward a non-place?” contains the critical idea of the entire thesis.

Mathematical models of cognitive processes

The research activity carried out during the PhD course was focused on the development of mathematical models of some cognitive processes and their validation by means of data present in literature, with a double aim: i) to achieve a better interpretation and explanation of the great amount of data obtained on these processes from different methodologies (electrophysiological recordings on animals, neuropsychological, psychophysical and neuroimaging studies in humans), ii) to exploit model predictions and results to guide future research and experiments. In particular, the research activity has been focused on two different projects: 1) the first one concerns the development of neural oscillators networks, in order to investigate the mechanisms of synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity during cognitive processes, such as object recognition, memory, language, attention; 2) the second one concerns the mathematical modelling of multisensory integration processes (e.g. visual-acoustic), which occur in several cortical and subcortical regions (in particular in a subcortical structure named Superior Colliculus (SC)), and which are fundamental for orienting motor and attentive responses to external world stimuli. This activity has been realized in collaboration with the Center for Studies and Researches in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna (in Cesena) and the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA). PART 1. Objects representation in a number of cognitive functions, like perception and recognition, foresees distribute processes in different cortical areas. One of the main neurophysiological question concerns how the correlation between these disparate areas is realized, in order to succeed in grouping together the characteristics of the same object (binding problem) and in maintaining segregated the properties belonging to different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). Different theories have been proposed to address these questions (Barlow, 1972). One of the most influential theory is the so called “assembly coding”, postulated by Singer (2003), according to which 1) an object is well described by a few fundamental properties, processing in different and distributed cortical areas; 2) the recognition of the object would be realized by means of the simultaneously activation of the cortical areas representing its different features; 3) groups of properties belonging to different objects would be kept separated in the time domain. In Chapter 1.1 and in Chapter 1.2 we present two neural network models for object recognition, based on the “assembly coding” hypothesis. These models are networks of Wilson-Cowan oscillators which exploit: i) two high-level “Gestalt Rules” (the similarity and previous knowledge rules), to realize the functional link between elements of different cortical areas representing properties of the same object (binding problem); 2) the synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity in the γ-band (30-100Hz), to segregate in time the representations of different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). These models are able to recognize and reconstruct multiple simultaneous external objects, even in difficult case (some wrong or lacking features, shared features, superimposed noise). In Chapter 1.3 the previous models are extended to realize a semantic memory, in which sensory-motor representations of objects are linked with words. To this aim, the network, previously developed, devoted to the representation of objects as a collection of sensory-motor features, is reciprocally linked with a second network devoted to the representation of words (lexical network) Synapses linking the two networks are trained via a time-dependent Hebbian rule, during a training period in which individual objects are presented together with the corresponding words. Simulation results demonstrate that, during the retrieval phase, the network can deal with the simultaneous presence of objects (from sensory-motor inputs) and words (from linguistic inputs), can correctly associate objects with words and segment objects even in the presence of incomplete information. Moreover, the network can realize some semantic links among words representing objects with some shared features. These results support the idea that semantic memory can be described as an integrated process, whose content is retrieved by the co-activation of different multimodal regions. In perspective, extended versions of this model may be used to test conceptual theories, and to provide a quantitative assessment of existing data (for instance concerning patients with neural deficits). PART 2. The ability of the brain to integrate information from different sensory channels is fundamental to perception of the external world (Stein et al, 1993). It is well documented that a number of extraprimary areas have neurons capable of such a task; one of the best known of these is the superior colliculus (SC). This midbrain structure receives auditory, visual and somatosensory inputs from different subcortical and cortical areas, and is involved in the control of orientation to external events (Wallace et al, 1993). SC neurons respond to each of these sensory inputs separately, but is also capable of integrating them (Stein et al, 1993) so that the response to the combined multisensory stimuli is greater than that to the individual component stimuli (enhancement). This enhancement is proportionately greater if the modality-specific paired stimuli are weaker (the principle of inverse effectiveness). Several studies have shown that the capability of SC neurons to engage in multisensory integration requires inputs from cortex; primarily the anterior ectosylvian sulcus (AES), but also the rostral lateral suprasylvian sulcus (rLS). If these cortical inputs are deactivated the response of SC neurons to cross-modal stimulation is no different from that evoked by the most effective of its individual component stimuli (Jiang et al 2001). This phenomenon can be better understood through mathematical models. The use of mathematical models and neural networks can place the mass of data that has been accumulated about this phenomenon and its underlying circuitry into a coherent theoretical structure. In Chapter 2.1 a simple neural network model of this structure is presented; this model is able to reproduce a large number of SC behaviours like multisensory enhancement, multisensory and unisensory depression, inverse effectiveness. In Chapter 2.2 this model was improved by incorporating more neurophysiological knowledge about the neural circuitry underlying SC multisensory integration, in order to suggest possible physiological mechanisms through which it is effected. This endeavour was realized in collaboration with Professor B.E. Stein and Doctor B. Rowland during the 6 months-period spent at the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA), within the Marco Polo Project. The model includes four distinct unisensory areas that are devoted to a topological representation of external stimuli. Two of them represent subregions of the AES (i.e., FAES, an auditory area, and AEV, a visual area) and send descending inputs to the ipsilateral SC; the other two represent subcortical areas (one auditory and one visual) projecting ascending inputs to the same SC. Different competitive mechanisms, realized by means of population of interneurons, are used in the model to reproduce the different behaviour of SC neurons in conditions of cortical activation and deactivation. The model, with a single set of parameters, is able to mimic the behaviour of SC multisensory neurons in response to very different stimulus conditions (multisensory enhancement, inverse effectiveness, within- and cross-modal suppression of spatially disparate stimuli), with cortex functional and cortex deactivated, and with a particular type of membrane receptors (NMDA receptors) active or inhibited. All these results agree with the data reported in Jiang et al. (2001) and in Binns and Salt (1996). The model suggests that non-linearities in neural responses and synaptic (excitatory and inhibitory) connections can explain the fundamental aspects of multisensory integration, and provides a biologically plausible hypothesis about the underlying circuitry.

Il concetto di sezione nel metodo compositivo di Aldo Rossi.

Purpose of this research is to deepen the study on the section in architecture. The survey aims as important elements in the project Teatro Domestico by Aldo Rossi built for the XVII Triennale di Milano in 1986 and, through the implementation on several topics of architecture, verify the timeliness and fertility in the new compositional exercises. Through the study of certain areas of the Rossi’s theory we tried to find a common thread for the reading of the theater project. The theater is the place of the ephemeral and the artificial, which is why his destiny is the end and the fatal loss. The design and construction of theater setting has always had a double meaning between the value of civil architecture and testing of new technologies available. Rossi's experience in this area are clear examples of the inseparable relationship between the representation of architecture as art and design of architecture as a model of reality. In the Teatro Domestico, the distinction between representation and the real world is constantly canceled and returned through the reversal of the meaning and through the skip of scale. At present, studies conducted on the work of Rossi concern the report that the architectural composition is the theory of form, focusing compositional development of a manufacturing process between the typological analysis and form invention. The research, through the analysis of some projects few designs, will try to analyze this issue through the rules of composition both graphical and concrete construction, hoping to decipher the mechanism underlying the invention. The almost total lack of published material on the project Teatro Domestico and the opportunity to visit the archives that preserve the drawings, has allowed the author of this study to deepen the internal issues in the project, thus placing this search as a first step toward possible further analysis on the works of Rossi linked to performance world. The final aim is therefore to produce material that can best describe the work of Rossi. Through the reading of the material published by the same author and the vision of unpublished material preserved in the archives, it was possible to develop new material and increasing knowledge about the work, otherwise difficult to analyze. The research is divided into two groups. The first, taking into account the close relationship most frequently mentioned by Rossi himself between archeology and architectural composition, stresses the importance of tipo such as urban composition reading system as well as open tool of invention. Resuming Ezio Bonfanti’s essay on the work of the architect we wanted to investigate how the paratactic method is applied to the early work conceived and, subsequently as the process reaches a complexity accentuated, while keeping stable the basic terms. Following a brief introduction related to the concept of the section and the different interpretations that over time the term had, we tried to identify with this facility a methodology for reading Rossi’s projects. The result is a constant typological interpretation of the term, not only related to the composition in plant but also through the elevation plans. The section is therefore intended as the overturning of such elevation is marked on the same plane of the terms used, there is a different approach, but a similarity of characters. The identification of architectural phonemes allows comparison with other arts. The research goes in the direction of language trying to identify the relationship between representation and construction, between the ephemeral and the real world. In this sense it will highlight the similarities between the graphic material produced by Ross and some important examples of contemporary author. The comparison between the composition system with the surrealist world of painting and literature will facilitate the understanding and identification of possible rules applied by Rossi. The second part of the research is characterized by a focus on the intent of the project chosen. Teatro Domestico embodies a number of elements that seem to conclude (assuming an end point but also to start) a curriculum author. With it, the experiments carried out on the theater started with the project for the Teatrino Scientifico (1978) through the project for the Teatro del Mondo (1979), into a Laic Tabernacle representative collective and private memory of the city. Starting from a reading of the draft, through the collection of published material, we’ve made an analysis on the explicit themes of the work, finding the conceptual references. Following the taking view of the original materials not published kept at Aldo Rossi's Archive Collection of the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montréal, will be implemented through the existing techniques for digital representation, a virtual reconstruction of the project, adding little to the material, a new element for future studies. The reconstruction is part of a larger research studies where the current technologies of composition and representation in architecture stand side by side with research on the method of composition of this architect. The results achieved are in addition to experiences in the past dealt with the reconstruction of some of the lost works of Aldo Rossi. A partial objective is to reactivate a discourse around this work is considered non-principal, among others born in the prolific activities. Reassessment of development projects which would bring the level of ephemeral works most frequented by giving them the value earned. In conclusion, the research aims to open a new field of interest on the part not only as a technical instrument of representation of an idea but as an actual mechanism through which composition is formed and the idea is developed.

Quantifying the Economics of Medical Malpractice - A View from a Civil Law Perspective

Life is full of uncertainties. Legal rules should have a clear intention, motivation and purpose in order to diminish daily uncertainties. However, practice shows that their consequences are complex and hard to predict. For instance, tort law has the general objectives of deterring future negligent behavior and compensating the victims of someone else's negligence. Achieving these goals are particularly difficult in medical malpractice cases. To start with, when patients search for medical care they are typically sick in the first place. In case harm materializes during the treatment, it might be very hard to assess if it was due to substandard medical care or to the patient's poor health conditions. Moreover, the practice of medicine has a positive externality on the society, meaning that the design of legal rules is crucial: for instance, it should not result in physicians avoiding practicing their activity just because they are afraid of being sued even when they acted according to the standard level of care. The empirical literature on medical malpractice has been developing substantially in the past two decades, with the American case being the most studied one. Evidence from civil law tradition countries is more difficult to find. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the empirical literature on medical malpractice, using two civil law countries as a case-study: Spain and Italy. The goal of this thesis is to investigate, in the first place, some of the consequences of having two separate sub-systems (administrative and civil) coexisting within the same legal system, which is common in civil law tradition countries with a public national health system (such as Spain, France and Portugal). When this holds, different procedures might apply depending on the type of hospital where the injury took place (essentially whether it is a public hospital or a private hospital). Therefore, a patient injured in a public hospital should file a claim in administrative courts while a patient suffering an identical medical accident should file a claim in civil courts. A natural question that the reader might pose is why should both administrative and civil courts decide medical malpractice cases? Moreover, can this specialization of courts influence how judges decide medical malpractice cases? In the past few years, there was a general concern with patient safety, which is currently on the agenda of several national governments. Some initiatives have been taken at the international level, with the aim of preventing harm to patients during treatment and care. A negligently injured patient might present a claim against the health care provider with the aim of being compensated for the economic loss and for pain and suffering. In several European countries, health care is mainly provided by a public national health system, which means that if a patient harmed in a public hospital succeeds in a claim against the hospital, public expenditures increase because the State takes part in the litigation process. This poses a problem in a context of increasing national health expenditures and public debt. In Italy, with the aim of increasing patient safety, some regions implemented a monitoring system on medical malpractice claims. However, if properly implemented, this reform shall also allow for a reduction in medical malpractice insurance costs. This thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 1 provides a review of the empirical literature on medical malpractice, where studies on outcomes and merit of claims, costs and defensive medicine are presented. Chapter 2 presents an empirical analysis of medical malpractice claims arriving to the Spanish Supreme Court. The focus is on reversal rates for civil and administrative decisions. Administrative decisions appealed by the plaintiff have the highest reversal rates. The results show a bias in lower administrative courts, which tend to focus on the State side. We provide a detailed explanation for these results, which can rely on the organization of administrative judges career. Chapter 3 assesses predictors of compensation in medical malpractice cases appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court and investigates the amount of damages attributed to patients. The results show horizontal equity between administrative and civil decisions (controlling for observable case characteristics) and vertical inequity (patients suffering more severe injuries tend to receive higher payouts). In order to execute these analyses, a database of medical malpractice decisions appealed to the Administrative and Civil Chambers of the Spanish Supreme Court from 2006 until 2009 (designated by the Spanish Supreme Court Medical Malpractice Dataset (SSCMMD)) has been created. A description of how the SSCMMD was built and of the Spanish legal system is presented as well. Chapter 4 includes an empirical investigation of the effect of a monitoring system for medical malpractice claims on insurance premiums. In Italy, some regions adopted this policy in different years, while others did not. The study uses data on insurance premiums from Italian public hospitals for the years 2001-2008. This is a significant difference as most of the studies use the insurance company as unit of analysis. Although insurance premiums have risen from 2001 to 2008, the increase was lower for regions adopting a monitoring system for medical claims. Possible implications of this system are also provided. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the main findings, describes possible future research and concludes.