1869 research outputs found
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A NFR-based Framework for User-Centered Adaptation
No full textPervasive environments support users’ daily routines in an invisible and unobtrusive way. To do so, they include a technical pervasive infrastructure, which is aware of and adaptive to both the operational context and the users at hand. Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) have been effectively used to inform decision-making in software engineering: functional alternatives are compared in terms of their contribution to NFRs satisfaction. In this work, we consider user preferences over NFRs as a key driver for the adaptation of a pervasive infrastructure. We devise a model-driven framework for building pervasive systems that maximize fitness with the context and the user. Our contributions are: (i) adaptive task models, a conceptual model to describe user routines that accounts for user preferences over NFRs; and (ii) an adaptation framework, which uses our models at runtime to guide a pervasive infrastructure in adapting its behaviour to user preferences and context
Trentino government linked open geo-data: a case study
No full textOur work is settled in the context of the public administration domain, where data can come from different entities, can be produced, stored and delivered in different formats and can have different levels of quality. Hence, such a heterogeneity has to be addressed, while performing various data integration tasks. We report our experimental work on publishing some government linked open geo-metadata and geo-data of the Italian Trentino region. Specifically, we illustrate how 161 core geographic datasets were released by leveraging on the geo-catalogue application within the existing geo-portal. We discuss the lessons we learned from deploying and using the application as well as from the released datasets
Identifying Conflicts in Security Requirements with STS-ml
No full textRequirements are conflicting when there exist no system that satisfies them all. Conflicts often originate from clashing needs of different stakeholders. Security requirements are no exception to the rule; moreover, their violation leads to severe consequences, such as privacy infringement, which, in many countries, implies burdensome monetary sanctions. In large (security) requirements models, conflicts are hard or impossible to identify manually. In these cases, automated reasoning is necessary. In this paper, we propose a reasoning framework to detect conflicting security requirements as well as conflicts between security requirements and business policies. Our framework formalises the STS-ml requirements modelling language for socio-technical systems. These systems consist of mutually interdependent humans, organisations, and software. In addition to presenting the framework, we apply the it to a case study about e-Government, and we report on promising scalability results of our implementation
Evidence of the Most Stretchable Egg Sac Silk Stalk, of the European Spider of the Year Meta menardi
No full textSpider silks display generally strong mechanical properties, even if differences between species and within the same species can be observed. While many different types of silks have been tested, the mechanical properties of stalks of silk taken from the egg sac of the cave spider Meta menardi have not yet been analyzed. Meta menardihas recently been chosen as the "European spider of the year 2012", from the European Society of Arachnology. Here we report a study where silk stalks were collected directly from several caves in the north-west of Italy. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images showed that stalks are made up of a large number of threads, each of them with diameter of 6.0360.58mm. The stalks were strained at the constant rate of 2 mm/min, using a tensile testing machine. The observed maximum stress, strain and toughness modulus, defined as the area under the stress-strain curve, are 0.64 GPa, 751% and 130.7 MJ/m3, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, such an observed huge elongation has never been reported for egg sac silk stalks and suggests a huge unrolling microscopic mechanism of the macroscopic stalk that, as a continuation of the protective egg sac, is expected to be composed by fibres very densely and randomly packed. The Weibull statistics was used to analyze the results from mechanical testing, and an average value of Weibull modulus (m) is deduced to be in the range of 1.5–1.8 with a Weibull scale parameter (s0) in the range of 0.33–0.41 GPa, showing a high coefficient of correlation(R2= 0.97)
Nonlinear material behaviour of spider silk yields robust webs
No full textAlthough spider silk is used by spiders for many purposes, from wrapping prey to lining retreats22, 23, here we focus on silk’s structural role in aerial webs and on how silk’s material properties relate to web function. The mechanical behaviour of silk, like that of other biological materials, is determined by the nature of its constituent molecules and their hierarchical assembly into fibres13, 16, 17, 24, 25, 26 (Supplementary Fig. 1). Spider webs themselves are characterized by a highly organized geometry that optimizes their function7, 8, 18, 19, 20. To explore the contribution of the material characteristics to web function, we developed a web model with spiral and radial threads based on the geometry commonly found in orb webs1. The silk material behaviour was parameterized from atomistic simulations of dragline silk from the species Nephila clavipes (model A)16, 17 (Fig. 1a, b) and validated against experiments10 (Methods Summary). Properties of silk can vary across evolutionary lineages by over 100% (refs 9, 27 and 28; Supplementary Information section 1), so we avoided species-specific silk properties and instead used a representative model to reflect the characteristic nonlinear stress–strain (σ–ε) behaviour of silk found in a web. The mechanical performance of individual silk threads has been previously investigated10, 12, 13, and is in agreement with our model in terms of tensile deformation behaviour
Zu einer neuen Verb-Zweit-Typologie in den germanischen Sprachen: der Fall des Zimbrischen und des Fersentalerischen
No full textThe aim of the present contribution is to provide evidence for a new classification of Germanic languages that takes them into account from a V2-typological viewpoint. In addition to the West Germanic languages that display the canonical V2-phenomenon and Modern English that manifests it only in restricted contexts, there are Germanic varieties like Cimbrian and Mòcheno – spoken in some enclaves in northern Italy (Lusérna and the Fersina Valley in Trentino) – that still show V-to-C-movement, although they do not display the well-known linear word order restriction of the V2-phenomenon. In order to classify this category we propose to refer to these languages as “relaxed V2-languages”, arguing that Germanic languages should be grouped into ‘strong’, ‘relaxed’ and ‘residual V2-languages’
Distributed Name-based Entity Search
No full textInternet can be seen as a network of peers that store digital representations of entities from the real world (e.g., person, locations, events). Different peers locally represent different “versions” (i.e., different points of view) of the same real world entity. In these different versions, entities are normally identified by multiple (possibly different) names. We propose a distributed entity search based on names that aims to (i) find all the different versions of an entity starting from any name used somewhere in the network to identify such entity; and (ii) allow peers to have full control over the privacy of their local representations. We evaluate our approach by setting up a network of 150 peers on Plan- etLab. The results show that the performance of our algorithms is stable with the network growth, which is promising in terms of scalability
Per un’archeologia del diritto alimentare: 54 anni di repertori giurisprudenziali sulla sicurezza e qualità del cibo (1876-1930) = For an Archeology of Food Law: 54 Years of Case Law Collections Concerning the Safety and Quality of Food (1876-1930)
No full textQuesta ricerca si propone di portare alla luce e descrivere gli esordi del di-ritto alimentare italiano. Mediante un’accurata analisi di quanto principalmente raccolto nel Repertorio del Foro Italiano, dall’anno della sua prima pubblicazione (1876) al 1930, abbinata alla consultazione del Digesto e della Rivista di Diritto Agrario, si intende mettere in luce in che modo il tema del diritto alimentare, nelle sue componenti sottotematiche dell’igiene e della salute pubblica, della sicurezza e qualità degli alimenti e delle bevande, si è affacciato sul palcoscenico del diritto italiano moderno. La ricerca si articola in tre capitoli.
Il primo capitolo svolge un excursus introduttivo, di taglio storico e cultu-rale, sull’alimentazione e sul suo ruolo nelle società e culture dall’antichità all’era moderna. Il secondo capitolo presenta per esteso un’elaborata e consistente rac-colta di materiale ottenuta consultando il Repertorio del Foro Italiano e la Rivista di Diritto Agrario, per portare alla luce tutte le massime giurisprudenziali e i con-tributi dottrinali che hanno avuto ad oggetto temi legati all’alimentazione con ri-guardo a differenti casistiche. Il terzo capitolo analizza e discute i dati raccolti nel secondo capitolo, offrendo uno sguardo d’insieme, che si sofferma dapprima su un’analisi critica delle fattispecie penali più richiamate dalla giurisprudenza, quali la frode commerciale e alimentare, l’adulterazione, la contraffazione, l’alterazione e sofisticazione; e, in un secondo momento, ne traccia i risvolti evolutivi, per veri-ficare i fattori che diedero impulso alla nascita del diritto agrario (prima) e (solo molto tempo dopo) alimentare.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
This paper digs into the beginnings of food law in the Italian case law. A careful and systematic analysis of the case law reported in the Repertorio de Il Fo-ro Italiano, from the year of its first publication (1876) throughout 1930, is con-ducted. The results are combined with an analysis of the first edition of the Italian Digest and the Italian Journal of Agrarian Law. The maxims are digitalized and presented in this paper, showing how the theme of food law, with its core concep-tual components of hygiene and public health, safety and quality of food and bev-erages, made its first moves in the fabric of Italian modern law.
The paper is divided into three chapters. The first one is an historical over-view on the cultural meanings of food through the ages, from ancient to modern times. The second chapter presents the results of the search, listed in chronological order, with the original maxims as they were found in the Repertorio del Foro Italiano from 1876 throughout 1930. As showed in the discussion of these data presented in the third chapter, this material shows how in the beginning of the pe-riod taken in consideration food was considered especially from the criminal law perspective, with a growing body of precedents concerning food adulteration, counterfeiting, alteration and sophistication. Only later one witnesses the doctrinal emersion of what will be acknowledged as agrarian law, as an autonomous disci-pline, in the 1930s
Linearizations, normalizations and isochrones of planar differential systems
No full textIn the first section we collect some unpublished results presented in [17], related to linearizations and normalizations of planar centers. In the second section we consider both the problem of finding isochrones of isochronous systems (centers or not) and its inverse, i. e. given a family of curves filling an open set, how to construct a system having such curves as isochrones. In particular, we show that for every family of curves y = mx + d(x), m ∈ IR there exists a Lienard system having such curves as isochrones
Social Innovation: a Novel Policy Stream or a Policy Compromise? An EU Perspective
No full textSpurred by the recent global economic crisis, Social Innovation (SI) has gained increasing attention in the European Commission (EC) agenda. However it remains a heterogeneous and ill-defined concept, whose boundaries are unclear. Presently within EC discussions, it encapsulates a variety of concepts from social enterprises to societal change. Adopting an ethnographic methodology, this analysis provides insight into the contrasting official “front-stage” and the “back-stage” views, constraints and practices by which SI has been adopted and promoted by the EC. While the “front-stage” perspective is more intentionally based on the official situations, documents, and statements, the “back-stage” is informed by both the ethnographic analysis and its relationship with the “front-stage” perspective. The main finding of the analysis is that SI might be presumably seen as the only way to align the Commission’s conservative-liberal policy, which is rooted in the Lisbon Agenda, with the pressing social demands which stem from the 2008 financial crisis. However, this analysis also indicates that, rather than a novel policy stream, SI can also be seen as a policy compromise that can be used to detract from debates around the need to develop a full-fledged EU Social Policy; more deeply, detract the policy debate from facing a thorough reflection on our society and development model. The analysis will also provide an overview of the risks associated with current thinking viewed from the perspective of EU players operating in the socio-political domain