L'aggressività nelle prime relazioni sentimentali

Un fenomeno poco indagato in Italia, ma che ha catturato l’attenzione e anche la preoccupazione delle ricerche in diverse parti del mondo, sono i comportamenti aggressivi che possono avvenire nelle prime relazioni sentimentali, tra adolescenti. La ricerca si è concentrata principalmente sulla violenza nelle coppie adulte, sulla violenza domestica, trascurando quelle condotte aggressive che avvengono nelle prime relazioni intime, in quanto ritenute poco stabili e fugaci. Diverse ricerche dimostrano che non è così e che anzi, spesso gli adolescenti “investono” molto in queste prime esperienze. Tra i principali motivi che spingono gli studiosi ad indagare questo fenomeno, vi è la considerazione della gravità delle stime di prevalenza, le conseguenze per il benessere psico-fisico, ed il valore predittivo che tali comportamenti potrebbero assumere rispetto al fenomeno della violenza nelle coppie adulte.

DNA prime-protein boost based vaccination with a conserved region of leptospiral immunoglobulin-like A and B proteins enhances protection against leptospirosis

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic spirochetes of the Leptospira genus. Vaccination with bacterins has severe limitations. Here, we evaluated the N-terminal region of the leptospiral immunoglobulin-like B protein (LigBrep) as a vaccine candidate against leptospirosis using immunisation strategies based on DNA primeprotein boost, DNA vaccine, and subunit vaccine. Upon challenge with a virulent strain of Leptospira interrogans , the prime-boost and DNA vaccine approaches induced significant protection in hamsters, as well as a specific IgG antibody response and sterilising immunity. Although vaccination with recombinant fragment of LigBrep also produced a strong antibody response, it was not immunoprotective. These results highlight the potential of LigBrep as a candidate antigen for an effective vaccine against leptospirosis and emphasise the use of the DNA prime-protein boost as an important strategy for vaccine development.

Performance and Robustness Analysis of Co-Prime and Nested Sampling

Coprime and nested sampling are well known deterministic sampling techniques that operate at rates significantly lower than the Nyquist rate, and yet allow perfect reconstruction of the spectra of wide sense stationary signals. However, theoretical guarantees for these samplers assume ideal conditions such as synchronous sampling, and ability to perfectly compute statistical expectations. This thesis studies the performance of coprime and nested samplers in spatial and temporal domains, when these assumptions are violated. In spatial domain, the robustness of these samplers is studied by considering arrays with perturbed sensor locations (with unknown perturbations). Simplified expressions for the Fisher Information matrix for perturbed coprime and nested arrays are derived, which explicitly highlight the role of co-array. It is shown that even in presence of perturbations, it is possible to resolve $O(M^2)$ under appropriate conditions on the size of the grid. The assumption of small perturbations leads to a novel ``bi-affine" model in terms of source powers and perturbations. The redundancies in the co-array are then exploited to eliminate the nuisance perturbation variable, and reduce the bi-affine problem to a linear underdetermined (sparse) problem in source powers. This thesis also studies the robustness of coprime sampling to finite number of samples and sampling jitter, by analyzing their effects on the quality of the estimated autocorrelation sequence. A variety of bounds on the error introduced by such non ideal sampling schemes are computed by considering a statistical model for the perturbation. They indicate that coprime sampling leads to stable estimation of the autocorrelation sequence, in presence of small perturbations. Under appropriate assumptions on the distribution of WSS signals, sharp bounds on the estimation error are established which indicate that the error decays exponentially with the number of samples. The theoretical claims are supported by extensive numerical experiments.

The implication of a term of good faith in commercial leases

Much has been written in the past decade on the subject of the implication of a term of good faith in contracts in Australia, particularly since the judgment Priestley JA in Renard Constructions (ME) Pty Ltd v Minister for Public Works (1992) 26 NSWLR 234. Except for an early article by Rachael Mulheron, 'Good Faith and Commercial Leases: New Opportunities for the Tenant' (1996) 4 APLJ 223, very little else has been written with respect to the possible application of the doctrine to the commercial leases.With the advent of two later New South Wales Supreme Court decisions Alcatel Australia Ltd v Scarcella (1998) 44 NSWLR 349 and, more recently, Advance Fitness v Bondi Diggers [1999] NSWSC 264, the question of the application of the doctrine in the commercial leasing context has been examined. This article briefly considers the nature and substance of the doctrine against the background of the relationship of lessor and lessee and examines in some depth the Australian decisions on commercial leases where it has been sought, unsuccessfully, to apply the doctrine. The article concludes by suggesting that as a standard commercial lease usually covers the field of agreement between lessor and lessee and as a lessee has a high degree of statutory protection derived from equitable principles, there may be little room for the operation of the doctrine in this legal environment.

‘Beijing bling’: creative details and consumer choices in contemporary China : an interview with Hung Huang

This edited interview with Hung Huang, CEO of China Interactive Media Group (CIMG), was conducted by Lucy Montgomery in Beijing on 12 August 2005. It was done as part of the ARC Discovery research project, Internationalising Creative Industries: China, the WTO and the Knowledge Economy, led by John Hartley. That project is investigating the development of creative industries in China by focusing on a number of creative services including fashion magazines. Huang’s group publishes five fashion magazines in China, including i-Look, Youth International (Qingnian Yizu), which is the Chinese edition of Seventeen (originally founded by TV-Guide mogul Walter Annenberg), and the Beijing and Shanghai versions of London’s Time Out. It also produces TV programs under the same media brands. The company is based in the stylish Bauhaus-designed former factory 798-Space in the district of Dashanzi, Beijing (see www.798space.com). Huang went to school in Greenwich Village and graduated from Vassar College in New York. She is the daughter of Zhang Hanzhi, who was Mao Zedong’s personal English teacher, and stepdaughter of Qiao Guanhua, Foreign Minister of China during the 1970s at the time of the Nixon visit. Her book My Abnormal Life sold 200,000 copies in China.

Application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in multi-criteria analysis of the selection of intelligent building systems

The availability of innumerable intelligent building (IB) products, and the current dearth of inclusive building component selection methods suggest that decision makers might be confronted with the quandary of forming a particular combination of components to suit the needs of a specific IB project. Despite this problem, few empirical studies have so far been undertaken to analyse the selection of the IB systems, and to identify key selection criteria for major IB systems. This study is designed to fill these research gaps. Two surveys: a general survey and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) survey are proposed to achieve these objectives. The first general survey aims to collect general views from IB experts and practitioners to identify the perceived critical selection criteria, while the AHP survey was conducted to prioritize and assign the important weightings for the perceived criteria in the general survey. Results generally suggest that each IB system was determined by a disparate set of selection criteria with different weightings. ‘Work efficiency’ is perceived to be most important core selection criterion for various IB systems, while ‘user comfort’, ‘safety’ and ‘cost effectiveness’ are also considered to be significant. Two sub-criteria, ‘reliability’ and ‘operating and maintenance costs’, are regarded as prime factors to be considered in selecting IB systems. The current study contributes to the industry and IB research in at least two aspects. First, it widens the understanding of the selection criteria, as well as their degree of importance, of the IB systems. It also adopts a multi-criteria AHP approach which is a new method to analyse and select the building systems in IB. Further research would investigate the inter-relationship amongst the selection criteria.

A review of LCADesign

Objective The review addresses two distinct sets of issues: 1. specific functionality, interface, and calculation problems that presumably can be fixed or improved; and 2. the more fundamental question of whether the system is close to being ready for ‘commercial prime time’ in the North American market. Findings Many of our comments relate to the first set of issues, especially sections B and C. Sections D and E deal with the second set. Overall, we feel that LCADesign represents a very impressive step forward in the ongoing quest to link CAD with LCA tools and, more importantly, to link the world of architectural practice and that of environmental research. From that perspective, it deserves continued financial support as a research project. However, if the decision is whether or not to continue the development program from a purely commercial perspective, we are less bullish. In terms of the North American market, there are no regulatory or other drivers to press design teams to use a tool of this nature. There is certainly interest in this area, but the tools must be very easy to use with little or no training. Understanding the results is as important in this regard as knowing how to apply the tool. Our comments are fairly negative when it comes to that aspect. Our opinion might change to some degree when the ‘fixes’ are made and the functionality improved. However, as discussed in more detail in the following sections, we feel that the multi-step process — CAD to IFC to LCADesign — could pose a serious problem in terms of market acceptance. The CAD to IFC part is impossible for us to judge with the information provided, and we can’t even begin to answer the question about the ease of using the software to import designs, but it appears cumbersome from what we do know. There does appear to be a developing North American market for 3D CAD, with a recent survey indicating that about 50% of the firms use some form of 3D modeling for about 75% of their projects. However, this does not mean that full 3D CAD is always being used. Our information suggests that AutoDesk accounts for about 75 to 80% of the 3D CAD market, and they are very cautious about any links that do not serve a latent demand. Finally, other system that link CAD to energy simulation are using XML data transfer protocols rather than IFC files, and it is our understanding that the market served by AutoDesk tends in that direction right now. This is a subject that is outside our area of expertise, so please take these comments as suggestions for more intensive market research rather than as definitive findings.

Building infrastructure asset management : Australian practices

Generally, major public funding is invested in civil infrastructure assets. The efficiency and comfort level of expected and actual living standards is largely dependant on the management strategies of these assets. Buildings are one of the major & vital assets, which need to be maintained primarily to ensure their functionality by effective & efficient delivery of services and to optimise economic benefits. In Australia, billions of dollars are spent annually managing and maintaining built assets. These assets make up the social and economic infrastructure, which facilitate the essential services to public and business. Buildings are one of the prime & fundamental assets, which need to be managed effectively and efficiently to ensure that related services are delivered economically and sustainably

Jacobi quartic curves revisited

This paper provides new results about efficient arithmetic on Jacobi quartic form elliptic curves, y 2 = d x 4 + 2 a x 2 + 1. With recent bandwidth-efficient proposals, the arithmetic on Jacobi quartic curves became solidly faster than that of Weierstrass curves. These proposals use up to 7 coordinates to represent a single point. However, fast scalar multiplication algorithms based on windowing techniques, precompute and store several points which require more space than what it takes with 3 coordinates. Also note that some of these proposals require d = 1 for full speed. Unfortunately, elliptic curves having 2-times-a-prime number of points, cannot be written in Jacobi quartic form if d = 1. Even worse the contemporary formulae may fail to output correct coordinates for some inputs. This paper provides improved speeds using fewer coordinates without causing the above mentioned problems. For instance, our proposed point doubling algorithm takes only 2 multiplications, 5 squarings, and no multiplication with curve constants when d is arbitrary and a = ±1/2.

Gardens le grande

The gardens of Versailles are a prime example of the beauty that can be attained where art and horticulture meld on a truly grand scale. Carrying on that tradition in the former veggie garden of the French palace is one of the world's most prestigious landscape architecture schools. Julian Raxworthy, a senior lecturer in landscape architecture at Queensland University of Technology recently taught a workshop at the Versailles school. As he explains, the concepts that underlie the school's teaching and the formal grandeur of the gardens of Versailles continue to be as innovative and relevant today as they were in the 17th century.

Bike park in Groningen, The Netherlands

Groningen is a city that collects contemporary projects. A trip around town reveals something like a zoo, with examples of all design languages of the last twenty years, many of them now aging and distinctly past their prime. Even though some of these projects are outdated, this collection not only demonstrates a commitment to design (even occasionally lacking judgement) but also serves an archival function: we can consult the Groningen Zoo of Design to determine the design to determine the design preoccupations of the past and how those often theoretical interests (since most of the work by these designers was not built) manifested themselves in material form on the ground.

Corona discharges on the surfaces of high voltage composite insulators

The degradation of high voltage electrical insulation is a prime factor that can significantly influence the reliability performance and the costs of maintaining high voltage electricity networks. Little information is known about the system of localized degradation from corona discharges on the relatively new silicone rubber sheathed composite insulators that are now being widely used in high voltage applications. This current work focuses on the fundamental principles of electrical corona discharge phenomena to provide further insights to where damaging surface discharges may localize and examines how these discharges may degrade the silicone rubber material. Although water drop corona has been identified by many authors as a major cause of deterioration of silicone rubber high voltage insulation until now no thorough studies have been made of this phenomenon. Results from systematic measurements taken using modern digital instrumentation to simultaneously record the discharge current pulses and visible images associated with corona discharges from between metal electrodes, metal electrodes and water drops, and between waters drops on the surface of silicone rubber insulation, using a range of 50 Hz voltages are inter compared. Visual images of wet electrodes show how water drops can play a part in encouraging flashover, and the first reproducible visual images of water drop corona at the triple junction of water air and silicone rubber insulation are presented. A study of the atomic emission spectra of the corona produced by the discharge from its onset up to and including spark-over, using a high resolution digital spectrometer with a fiber optic probe, provides further understanding of the roles of the active species of atoms and molecules produced by the discharge that may be responsible for not only for chemical changes of insulator surfaces, but may also contribute to the degradation of the metal fittings that support the high voltage insulators. Examples of real insulators and further work specific to the electrical power industry are discussed. A new design concept to prevent/reduce the damaging effects of water drop corona is also presented.

Designing the Future

While there have been improvements in Australian engineering education since the 1990s, there are still strong concerns that more progress needs to be made, particularly in the areas of developing graduate competencies and in outcomes-based curricula. This paper reports on the findings from a two-day ALTC-funded forum that sought to establish a shared understanding with the 3 stakeholders (students, academics and industry) about how to achieve a design-based engineering curriculum. This paper reports on the findings from the first day’s activities and reveals that there is a shared desire for design and project-based curricula that would encourage the development of the ‘three-dimensional’ graduate: one who has technical, personal and professional and systems-thinking/design-based competence.

Graduate Attribute Mapping With the Extended CDIO Framework

The CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) Initiative has been globally recognised as an enabler for engineering education reform. With the CDIO process, the CDIO Standards and the CDIO Syllabus, many scholarly contributions have been made around cultural change, curriculum reform and learning environments. In the Australasian region, reform is gaining significant momentum within the engineering education community, the profession, and higher education institutions. This paper presents the CDIO Syllabus cast into the Australian context by mapping it to the Engineers Australia Graduate Attributes, the Washington Accord Graduate Attributes and the Queensland University of Technology Graduate Capabilities. Furthermore, in recognition that many secondary schools and technical training institutions offer introductory engineering technology subjects, this paper presents an extended self-rating framework suited for recognising developing levels of proficiency at a preparatory level. A demonstrator mapping tool has been created to demonstrate the application of this extended graduate attribute mapping framework as a precursor to an integrated curriculum information model.