Institutional Processes and Discursive Strategies: Rhetoric and Vocabulary Analysis of CSR and Sustainability

The candidate tackled an important issue in contemporary management: the role of CSR and Sustainability. The research proposal focused on a longitudinal and inductive research, directed to specify the evolution of CSR and contribute to the new institutional theory, in particular institutional work framework, and to the relation between institutions and discourse analysis. The documental analysis covers all the evolution of CSR, focusing also on a number of important networks and associations. Some of the methodologies employed in the thesis have been employed as a consequence of data analysis, in a truly inductive research process. The thesis is composed by two section. The first section mainly describes the research process and the analyses results. The candidates employed several research methods: a longitudinal content analysis of documents, a vocabulary research with statistical metrics as cluster analysis and factor analysis, a rhetorical analysis of justifications. The second section puts in relation the analysis results with theoretical frameworks and contributions. The candidate confronted with several frameworks: Actor-Network-Theory, Institutional work and Boundary Work, Institutional Logic. Chapters are focused on different issues: a historical reconstruction of CSR; a reflection about symbolic adoption of recurrent labels; two case studies of Italian networks, in order to confront institutional and boundary works; a theoretical model of institutional change based on contradiction and institutional complexity; the application of the model to CSR and Sustainability, proposing Sustainability as a possible institutional logic.

Measurement of low pT D0 meson production cross section at CDF II

In this thesis we present a study of the D0 meson (through one of its two-body decay channel, D0 → Kπ) collected by the CDF II experiment at the Tevatron pp ̄ collider at Fermilab. In particular we measured the differential production cross section as a function of the transverse momentum down to pT = 1.5 GeV/c.

Measurements of ttbar Differential Cross Section at the ATLAS Experiment in pp Collisions at sqrt(s)=7TeV and sqrt(s)=8TeV

This PhD thesis presents two measurements of differential production cross section of top and anti-top pairs tt ̅ decaying in a lepton+jets final state. The normalize cross section is measured as a function of the top transverse momentum and the tt ̅ mass, transverse momentum and rapidity using the full 2011 proton-proton (pp) ATLAS data taking at a center of mass energy of √s=7 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of L=4.6 〖fb〗^(-1). The cross section is also measured at the particle level as a function of the hadronic top transverse momentum for highly energetic events using the full 2012 data taking at √s=8 TeV and with L=20 〖fb〗^(-1). The measured spectra are fully corrected for detector efficiency and resolution effects and are compared to several theoretical predictions showing a quite good agreement, depending on different spectra.

Radiative neutron capture cross section on 238U at the n_TOF CERN facility: a high precision measurement

The aim of this work is to provide a precise and accurate measurement of the 238U(n,gamma) reaction cross-section. This reaction is of fundamental importance for the design calculations of nuclear reactors, governing the behaviour of the reactor core. In particular, fast neutron reactors, which are experiencing a growing interest for their ability to burn radioactive waste, operate in the high energy region of the neutron spectrum. In this energy region inconsistencies between the existing measurements are present up to 15%, and the most recent evaluations disagree each other. In addition, the assessment of nuclear data uncertainty performed for innovative reactor systems shows that the uncertainty in the radiative capture cross-section of 238U should be further reduced to 1-3% in the energy region from 20 eV to 25 keV. To this purpose, addressed by the Nuclear Energy Agency as a priority nuclear data need, complementary experiments, one at the GELINA and two at the n_TOF facility, were scheduled within the ANDES project within the 7th Framework Project of the European Commission. The results of one of the 238U(n,gamma) measurement performed at the n_TOF CERN facility are presented in this work, carried out with a detection system constituted of two liquid scintillators. The very accurate cross section from this work is compared with the results obtained from the other measurement performed at the n_TOF facility, which exploit a different and complementary detection technique. The excellent agreement between the two data-sets points out that they can contribute to the reduction of the cross section uncertainty down to the required 1-3%.