"Experimental and computational approaches to historical masonry structures: A study in the direction of filling the gap"

The assessment of historical structures is a significant need for the next generations, as historical monuments represent the community’s identity and have an important cultural value to society. Most of historical structures built by using masonry which is one of the oldest and most common construction materials used in the building sector since the ancient time. Also it is considered a complex material, as it is a composition of brick units and mortar, which affects the structural performance of the building by having different mechanical behaviour with respect to different geometry and qualities given by the components.

Le Pay TV in Italia: sviluppo tecnologico e strategie aziendali

Con questa tesi si è voluto evidenziare lo stretto rapporto di dipendenza delle aziende televisive con gli eventi sportivi al fine di poter guadagnare fette di mercato e quindi posizione strategiche rispetto ai concorrenti. Tra le aziende televisive e il settore sportivo c'è quindi un rapporto mezzo/contenuto decisamente complementare. Nessuno dei due può fare a meno dell'altro. Da una parte, come evidenziato, le emittenti televisive, durante la messa in onda di eventi sportivi, registrano elevati livelli di audience e ciò costituisce la "cassa di risonanza" preferita dagli sponsor. Dall'altra parte lo sport, che anno dopo anno ha visto aumentare la propria dipendenza dai network dal momento che la cessione dei diritti televisivi è diventata una delle maggiori fonti di reddito per le società sportive.

Consumer Perception and Willingness to Pay for Local Food

A growing number of empirical studies recently investigated consumers' valuation for local food products. However, different aspects related to the local food consumption still remain vague or unexplored. As such, the objective of the present research is to fulfill the existing literature using a mixed methodological approach for the investigation of consumers' preferences and Willingness to Pay (WTP) for local food products. First of all, local food is still a blurred concept and this factor might be source of individuals' misperception for the local origin meaning. Therefore, a qualitative research has been performed in order to investigate the meaning and the perception of the local food in the Italian food market. Results from this analysis have been used as inputs for the building of a non-hypothetical Real Choice Experiment (RCE) to estimate consumers' WTP for locally and organically produced apple sauce. The contribution of this study is three-fold: (1) consumers' valuation for the local origin is interpreted in terms of regional borders, over the organic food claim in case of an unusual food product in the area of interest, (2) the interaction between individuals' personality traits and consumers’ preferences for local and organic foods is analyzed, (3) the role of Commitment Cost creation in consumers' choice making in case of uncertainty due to the use of a novel food product and of an unconventional food claim is investigated. Results suggest that consumers are willing to pay a higher price premium for organic over locally produced apple sauce, possibly because of the presence of a regulated certification. In accordance with Commitment Cost theory, the organic label might thus decrease consumers' uncertainty for the features of the product in question. Results also indicate that individuals' personality can be source of heterogeneity in consumers' preferences.