Caratterizzazione dinamica sperimentale del rinforzo di pavimentazioni stradali con geogriglie tramite box test

Nella presente tesi viene affrontato il comportamento di materiali granulari sotto carico dinamico. In particolare, viene presentata la sperimentazione di laboratorio seguita presso il Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre dell'Università di Nottingham, la costruzione del box test e le prove dinamiche eseguite sul materiale granulare rinforzato e non.

Strategy as a matter of beliefs: the recorded music industry reinventing itself by rethinking itself

Managerial and organizational cognition studies the ways cognitions of managers in groups, organizations and industries shape their strategies and actions. Cognitions refer to simplified representations of managers’ internal and external environments, necessary to cope with the rich, ambiguous information requirements that characterize strategy making. Despite the important achievements in the field, many unresolved puzzles remain as to this process, particular as to the cognitive factors that condition actors in framing a response to a discontinuity, how actors can change their models in the face of a discontinuity, and the reciprocal relation between cognition and action. I leverage on the recent case of the recorded music industry in the face of the digital technology to study these issues, through a strategy-oriented study of the way early response to the discontinuity was constructed and of the subsequent evolution of this response. Through a longitudinal historical and cognitive analysis of actions and cognitions at both the industry and firm-level during the period in which the response took place (1999-2010), I gain important insights on the way historical beliefs in the industry shaped early response to the digital disruption, on the role of outsiders in promoting change through renewed vision about important issues, and on the reciprocal relationship between cognitive and strategic change.

A Phase Space Box-counting based Method for Arrhythmia Prediction from Electrocardiogram Time Series

Arrhythmia is one kind of cardiovascular diseases that give rise to the number of deaths and potentially yields immedicable danger. Arrhythmia is a life threatening condition originating from disorganized propagation of electrical signals in heart resulting in desynchronization among different chambers of the heart. Fundamentally, the synchronization process means that the phase relationship of electrical activities between the chambers remains coherent, maintaining a constant phase difference over time. If desynchronization occurs due to arrhythmia, the coherent phase relationship breaks down resulting in chaotic rhythm affecting the regular pumping mechanism of heart. This phenomenon was explored by using the phase space reconstruction technique which is a standard analysis technique of time series data generated from nonlinear dynamical system. In this project a novel index is presented for predicting the onset of ventricular arrhythmias. Analysis of continuously captured long-term ECG data recordings was conducted up to the onset of arrhythmia by the phase space reconstruction method, obtaining 2-dimensional images, analysed by the box counting method. The method was tested using the ECG data set of three different kinds including normal (NR), Ventricular Tachycardia (VT), Ventricular Fibrillation (VF), extracted from the Physionet ECG database. Statistical measures like mean (μ), standard deviation (σ) and coefficient of variation (σ/μ) for the box-counting in phase space diagrams are derived for a sliding window of 10 beats of ECG signal. From the results of these statistical analyses, a threshold was derived as an upper bound of Coefficient of Variation (CV) for box-counting of ECG phase portraits which is capable of reliably predicting the impeding arrhythmia long before its actual occurrence. As future work of research, it was planned to validate this prediction tool over a wider population of patients affected by different kind of arrhythmia, like atrial fibrillation, bundle and brunch block, and set different thresholds for them, in order to confirm its clinical applicability.

Detection of small buried objects: asymptotic factorization and MUSIC

In this work, we consider a simple model problem for the electromagnetic exploration of small perfectly conducting objects buried within the lower halfspace of an unbounded two–layered background medium. In possible applications, such as, e.g., humanitarian demining, the two layers would correspond to air and soil. Moving a set of electric devices parallel to the surface of ground to generate a time–harmonic field, the induced field is measured within the same devices. The goal is to retrieve information about buried scatterers from these data. In mathematical terms, we are concerned with the analysis and numerical solution of the inverse scattering problem to reconstruct the number and the positions of a collection of finitely many small perfectly conducting scatterers buried within the lower halfspace of an unbounded two–layered background medium from near field measurements of time–harmonic electromagnetic waves. For this purpose, we first study the corresponding direct scattering problem in detail and derive an asymptotic expansion of the scattered field as the size of the scatterers tends to zero. Then, we use this expansion to justify a noniterative MUSIC–type reconstruction method for the solution of the inverse scattering problem. We propose a numerical implementation of this reconstruction method and provide a series of numerical experiments.

Cis- und trans-Regulation bei Drosophila-T-Box-Genen

Die räumliche und zeitliche Organisation von Genexpression ist für die Entwicklung und das Funktionieren eines jeden Lebewesens von immenser Bedeutung. Dazu laufen eine Vielzahl von Regulationsprozessen auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen ab. In dieser Arbeit wurden im ersten Teil Untersuchungen zur Genregulation des Drosophila optomotor-blind Genes und zur Funktion des Omb Proteins durchgeführt. Eine Mutante, der ein großer Teil der upstream regulatory region (URR) fehlt wurde erzeugt, aus einer Vielzahl von Linien isoliert und molekular charakterisiert. Die biologischen Auswirkungen dieser Deletion werden in Shen et al. (2008) beschrieben. Plasmide zur Erzeugung transgener Fliegen, mit deren Hilfe eine bereits von Sivasankaran et al. (2000) durchgeführte Enhancer-reporter-Analyse vervollständigt werden sollte, wurden hergestellt. Die bereits bekannte Inversion In(1)ombH31 wurde molekular kartiert. Eine Reihe von Konstrukten mit Punktmutationen in der Omb T-Domäne wurden generiert, die unter anderem über deren Funktion hinsichtlich DNA-Protein Interaktion und einer potentiellen Metallionenbindefähigkeit (ATCUN) hin Aufschluss geben sollen. Des Weiteren wurde eine Reihe von P-Element-Deletionslinien auf den Verlust eines alternativen omb Transkriptionsstartpunktes hin untersucht, mit dem Ziel eine vollständige Protein-Nullmutante zur Verfügung zu haben. Der zweite Abschnitt dieser Arbeit befasste sich mit der Erzeugung von Dpp-GFP-Fusionskonstrukten, mit deren Hilfe weitere Erkenntnisse über den Dpp-Langstreckentransport erhofft werden. Es wurde außerdem damit begonnen bei einem weitern Drosophila T-Box Transkriptionsfaktor, Optomotor-blind related gene-1 (Org-1), eine Reihe von Varianten mit homopolymeren polyAlanin und polyGlutamin Expansionen unterschiedlicher Länge herzustellen. Durch Experimente mit diesen Konstrukten soll Aufschluss darüber gewonnen werden, ob Glutamin-Expansionen, wie in der Literatur vorgeschlagen, aktivierend und Alanin-Expansionen in Transkriptionsfaktoren vielleicht reprimierend auf Genaktivität wirken. Letztlich wurden in dieser Arbeit im Rahmen des DROSDEL Projektes (Ryder et al., 2004, 2007) Deletionen in der distalen Hälfte des Chromosomenarms 3R hergestellt. Der DROSDEL Deletionskit, der durch eine Kooperation europäischer Labore entstand stellt der Drosophila Forschung einen umfassenden Satz molekular basengenau definierter Defizienzen zur Verfügung.

Suche nach Zielgenen des T-Box-Transkriptionsfaktors Optomotor-blind aus Drosophila melanogaster

Zusammenfassung:rnrnDas Ziel der Arbeit bestand darin mehr über die Funktion des T-Box Transkriptionsfaktors Omb zu erfahren. Dm omb ist der nächste Verwandte zu Hs Tbx2/3, die wegen ihrer Rolle bei verschiedenen Krebsarten für die Entwicklung neuer Therapien bedeutsam sind. rnIn drei, von Herrn Pflugfelder hergestellten, omb Allelen l(1)omb282, l(1)omb12, l(1)omb15 wurden neue Mutationen kartiert. Dabei handelt es sich um zwei missense-Mutationen und eine Stopmutation. Sie betreffen Aminosäurereste, die in allen T-Box Proteinen konserviert sind und daher vermutlich lebenswichtige Proteinabschnitte betreffen. In EMSA Versuchen konnte gezeigt werden, dass die missense-Mutationen die DNA-Bindung des Omb-T Proteins verhindern.rnFür die Suche nach Omb Zielgenen wurden Gene und phylogenetisch konservierte TBE-Genabschnitte auf ihre Regulation durch Omb getestet. Dabei wurde das Expressionsmuster von Genen mitels in situ und das Muster von enhancer getriebener β-Gal Expression histochemisch oder durch Immunfärbung von wildtypischen und l(1)omb15 Larven des dritten Stadiums verglichen. rnUpstream der mirr Transkriptionseinheit wurde ein cis-regulatorisches TBE-Fragment identifiziert, das ein Aktivitätsmuster in Flügelimaginalscheiben zeigte, welches dem von Mirr nahe kommt. Sowohl ein Omb Verlust als auch die Mutation der TBE Sequenz führten zu einer ähnlichen ektopischen Aktivierung des Fragments, was auf eine Abhängigkeit von Omb hinweist. rnIn der intronischen Sequenz von inv wurde ebenfalls ein TBE-Fragment entdeckt, das eine β-Gal-Aktivität in Flügelscheiben des späten L3 Stadiums anterior der A/P Grenze zeigte. Diese Expression könnte sich mit der späten für en/inv beschriebenen Expression (Blair, 1992) decken. Immunfärbungen bestätigten, dass der Verlust dieser Aktivität in omb0 tatsächlich durch den Verlust von Omb hervorgerufen wird und nicht durch eine Entwicklungsverzögerung der Larven verursacht wird.rnSchließlich wurde durch die Reparatur von TBX Expressionsvektoren eine Konstruktreihe (Legler, 2010) fertiggestellt, mit deren Hilfe die Auswirkungen einer Überexpression auf die Zellmotilität in Drosophila untersucht werden kann. Das soll helfen den Einfluss von TBX Proteinen auf die Invasivität von Krebszellen zu verstehen.rn

Identification of target genes of the T-box proteins in Drosophila melanogaster

In a prior bioinformatic analysis by Hüyseyin Binbas, potential Tbx targets sequences in wing-related genes have been identified. Guided by this information, enhancer trap/reporter lacZ insertions were characterized by X-gal staining first in wildtype and then in l(1)omb imaginal discs.rnIn several lines I observed an increase in reporter expression in a l(1)omb mutant background. Since Omb is assumed to function predominantly as a transcriptional repressor, this may indicate direct regulation. Repression by Omb was observed e.g. for brk and tkv. These genes are negatively regulated by Dpp, while omb is induced by Dpp. Omb which mediates the effects of Dpp on proliferation could, thus, also mediate the Dpp effect on patterning of the wing disc. However, brk and tkv were not completely derepressed in l(1)omb indicating that Dpp represses these genes also by an Omb-independent mechanism.rnMore frequently I observed loss of reporter expression in an l(1)omb mutant background. In these cases, regulation by Omb presumably is indirect. For example, STAT92E-lacZ expression in the wildtype eye was symmetrically expressed at the dorsal and ventral margins. In l(1)omb, ventral expression was selectively lost. Loss of omb is known to cause ventral overproliferation of the eye by activation of the Jak/STAT pathway. STAT92E expression is negatively regulated by Jak/STAT signaling suggesting that loss of omb activates Jak/STAT further upstream in the pathway.rnRegional overproliferation of eye and wing in the l(1)omb mutant background proved a complicating issue in the search for Omb targets. This effect made it difficult to decide whether an expanded reporter expression pattern was due to tissue expansion or reporter gene derepression. For instance hth-lacZ appeared to expand along the ventral eye disc margin in l(1)omb. Without addtional experiments it cannot be concluded whether this is due to de-repression or to activation in association with the proliferative state. Parallel to my experiments, evidence accumulated in our laboratory that loss of omb may attenuate Wg and Hegehog signaling. Since these diffusible proteins are the main patterning molecules in the wing imaginal disc, with dpp being downstream of Hh, many of the observed effects could be secondary to reduced Wg and Hh activity. Examples are ab-lacZ, Dll-lacZ and vgBE-lacZ (reduced expression on the dorso-ventral boundary) and inv-lacZ (late larval expression in the anterior wing disc compartment is lost) or sal-lacZ. Epistasis experiment will be required to clarifiy these issues.rnFurthermore, loss of omb appeared to induce cell fate changes. It was reported previously that in an omb null mutant, the dorsal determinant apterous (ap) is ectopically expressed in the ventral compartment (an effect I did not observe with the strongly hypomorphic l(1)omb15, indicating strong dose dependence). Ventral repression of ap is maintained by epigenetic mechanisms. The patchy and variable nature of ectopic expression of ap or grn-1.1-lacZ points to an effect of omb on epigenetic stability.rnIn the second part of my thesis, an analysis of Omb expression in the Drosophila embryonic ventral nervous system was performed. Omb was found co-expressed with Eve in the medial aCC and RP2 motorneurons as well as the fpCC interneuron and the mediolateral CQ neurons. Additionally, Omb was detected in the Eg positive NB7-3 GW serotonergic motoneuron and the N2-4 neurons. Omb was not found in Repo positive glial cells. During embryonic stage 14, Omb showed some coepression with Dpn or Pros. At the embryonic stage 16, Omb was expressed in minor subset of Mid and Wg positive cells.

Il concetto del "ma" e la musica di Tōru Takemitsu: traduzione di "The concept of 'ma' and the music of Takemitsu" di Jonathan L. Chenette

Lo scopo di questa tesi è di esplorare l'importanza del concetto giapponese del "ma" nella musica tradizionale, in particolare in quella del compositore Tōru Takemitsu, tramite la traduzione del saggio "The concept of 'ma' and the music of Tōru Takemitsu" (Jonathan L. Chenette, 1982) dall'inglese all'italiano. L'elaborato partirà da un'introduzione generale sul concetto del "ma" nella mentalità giapponese, per proseguire con la biografia di Tōru Takemitsu e una panoramica dei motivi che hanno portato a scegliere la traduzione del saggio di Chenette. Dopo la traduzione in sé e per sé e il commento della stessa, sarà anche fornito in appendice un glossario inglese-italiano della terminologia musicale utilizzata dall'autore all'interno del saggio.

Tradurre la popular music. Il caso di studio Ministri per il mercato estero

La presente tesi si concentra sulla traduzione musicale, focalizzandosi in particolare sulla traduzione di canzoni popular. L’obiettivo è creare dei testi di arrivo cantabili in lingua inglese a partire da originali del gruppo musicale italiano Ministri, così da rendere esportabile il loro prodotto oltre i confini del mercato discografico nazionale. La struttura della tesi è composta da quattro capitoli e due appendici. Nel primo capitolo si individua la cornice all’interno del quale si muove il caso di studio selezionato e si inserisce l’attività di traduzione. Si analizzano nello specifico alcune caratteristiche essenziali della popular music, i suoi testi, gli attori e gli intermediari coinvolti. Nel secondo capitolo si analizza il caso di studio, passando in rassegna rapidamente la biografia, l’estetica e la modalità di comunicazione del gruppo, per poi approfondirne in maniera particolare una parte della produzione, con speciale enfasi sui testi verbali che vanno a costituire il materiale oggetto di traduzione. Nel terzo capitolo si individua nella teoria dello scopo la base teorica per la metodologia specifica della traduzione di canzoni. Quest’ultima rientra nella traduzione musicale, appartenente alle categorie di traduzione vincolata e multimediale. Nel quarto capitolo viene esposto l’obiettivo della traduzione e la metodologia specifica utilizzata per portarlo a termine, passando poi a un esteso commento delle problematiche traduttive individuate e delle strategie utilizzate per risolverle, apportando alcuni esempi per ogni caso. Infine, nella prima appendice vengono riportati integralmente i testi originali con le relative proposte di traduzione, mentre la seconda contiene un piccolo contributo di Federico Dragogna, chitarrista e principale autore dei Ministri, sotto forma di breve intervista.

Integrare Search Engine Optimization e Website usability al processo di localizzazione di un sito Web. Proposta di localizzazione dal francese all’italiano del sito del Parc de loisirs du Lac de Maine.

Ce mémoire a comme objectif de montrer le processus de localisation en langue italienne d’un site Internet français, celui du Parc de loisir du Lac de Maine. En particulier, le but du mémoire est de démontrer que, lorsqu’on parle de localisation pour le Web, on doit tenir compte de deux facteurs essentiels, qui contribuent de manière exceptionnelle au succès du site sur le Réseau Internet. D’un côté, l’utilisabilité du site Web, dite également ergonomie du Web, qui a pour objectif de rendre les sites Web plus aisés d'utilisation pour l'utilisateur final, de manière que son rapprochement au site soit intuitif et simple. De l’autre côté, l’optimisation pour les moteurs de recherche, couramment appelée « SEO », acronyme de son appellation anglais, qui cherche à découvrir les meilleures techniques visant à optimiser la visibilité d'un site web dans les pages de résultats de recherche. En améliorant le positionnement d'une page web dans les pages de résultats de recherche des moteurs, le site a beaucoup plus de possibilités d’augmenter son trafic et, donc, son succès. Le premier chapitre de ce mémoire introduit la localisation, avec une approche théorique qui en illustre les caractéristiques principales ; il contient aussi des références à la naissance et l’origine de la localisation. On introduit aussi le domaine du site qu’on va localiser, c’est-à-dire le domaine du tourisme, en soulignant l’importance de la langue spéciale du tourisme. Le deuxième chapitre est dédié à l’optimisation pour les moteurs de recherche et à l’ergonomie Web. Enfin, le dernier chapitre est consacré au travail de localisation sur le site du Parc : on analyse le site, ses problèmes d’optimisation et d’ergonomie, et on montre toutes les phases du processus de localisation, y compris l’intégration de plusieurs techniques visant à améliorer la facilité d’emploi par les utilisateurs finaux, ainsi que le positionnement du site dans les pages de résultats des moteurs de recherche.

A Morphological Box for Handling Temporal Data in B2C Systems

User interfaces are key properties of Business-to-Consumer (B2C) systems, and Web-based reservation systems are an important class of B2C systems. In this paper we show that these systems use a surprisingly broad spectrum of different approaches to handling temporal data in their Web inter faces. Based on these observations and on a literature analysis we develop a Morphological Box to present the main options for handling temporal data and give examples. The results indicate that the present state of developing and maintaining B2C systems has not been much influenced by modern Web Engi neering concepts and that there is considerable potential for improvement.