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Secolarizzazione e ricomposizione del sacro in Italia: il caso delle comunità parrocchiali della Garfagnana
No full textInserito all’interno del più ampio dibattito relativo al processo di secolarizzazione, questo studio si focalizza principalmente sulle modalità con cui oggi secolarizzazione e de-secolarizzazione possono riuscire a convivere in un determinato contesto, incontrandosi, talvolta sommandosi, e generando, quindi, attraverso un processo di scomposizione e ricomposizione del sacro conseguenze inevitabili sull’azione degli individui e sulle dinamiche della collettività. Attraverso un approccio etnografico, basato sul principio dell’inter-conoscenza, sulla tecnica dell’osservazione partecipante e su una serie cospicua di interviste in profondità, l’indagine indaga sui mutamenti in atto all’interno di un universo rurale in transizione che sta rimodellando spazi e forme del suo sistema di credenze religiose. Il terreno di studio in cui è stata portata avanti la ricerca è una piccola valle dell’Italia centro-settentrionale (la Garfagnana) e il ruolo di principale oggetto di osservazione è stato affidato alla parrocchia. Nel contesto considerato, infatti, questa istituzione è stata nei secoli un importante punto di riferimento, non solo per l’universo religioso ma anche per quello civile e tutt’oggi rappresenta ancora il mezzo privilegiato che la chiesa utilizza per creare e/o mantenere il reticolo di legami con i suoi fedeli. L’analisi delle dinamiche con cui, all’interno delle comunità parrocchiali, questi legami vengono conservati, ricreati ed alimentati ci ha indirizzato verso la comprensione dell’identità cattolica di questa particolare regione mettendo in evidenza le modalità, le motivazioni e le conseguenze del credere, sul piano individuale e collettivo, delle diverse categorie di attori.
S’insérant dans l’ample débat sur la sécularisation, cette étude se focalise sur les modalités actuelles de coexistence, dans un contexte donné, de la sécularisation et de la dé-sécularisation qui se rencontrent et s’agencent parfois sur un mode insolite, générant nécessairement, à travers un processus de décomposition et de recomposition du religieux, des conséquences sur l’action des individus et sur les dynamiques collectives. À travers une approche ethnographique basée sur le principe de l’interconnaissance, sur la technique de l’observation participante et sur de nombreux entretiens en profondeur, l’enquête sonde les changements en acte à l’intérieur d’un univers rural qui remodèle actuellement les espaces et les formes de son système de croyances religieuses. Le terrain d’étude qui fait l’objet de notre enquête est une petite vallée de l’Italie centro-septentrionale (la Garfagnane) et la paroisse revêt le rôle de principal centre d’observation. Effectivement, dans le contexte considéré, cette institution apparait, au cours des siècles, comme un point de repère essentiel non seulement pour la communauté religieuse mais aussi pour la société civile, et demeure l’instrument privilégié qu’utilise l’Église afin de maintenir et/ou de recréer le réseau de liens avec ses fidèles. L’analyse des dynamiques à travers lesquelles ces rapports sont conservés, créés et alimentés à l’intérieur de la communauté paroissiale nous mène à la compréhension de l’identité catholique de cette région singulière en mettant en évidence les modalités et les conséquences du croire – sur le plan tant individuel que collectif − ainsi que les motivations des différentes catégories d’acteurs.
This study, included in the wider debate regarding the secularisation process, mainly focuses on the ways in which nowadays secularisation and de-secularisation can coexist in a specific context, convening, at times adding to each other, and thus generating, through a process of decomposition and recomposition of the sacred, unavoidable consequences on individual actions and collective dynamics. Through an ethnographic approach, based on inter-knowledge, on participant observation techniques and on numerous in-depth interviews, the research examines the ongoing changes within a transitioning rural universe, which is remodelling spaces and structures of its religious belief system. The research was carried out in a small valley in Northern Italy (Garfagnana) and the main focus of the study was the parish. In this context, this institution has been over the centuries an important reference point, not only for the religious universe but also for the civil community and still today represents the privileged means by which the church creates and maintains the network of bonds with its worshippers. The analysis of the dynamics by which , within a parish community, these bonds are preserved, recreated and nurtured has led us towards understanding the catholic identity of this particular region, highlighting the modalities, the motivations and the consequences of religious beliefs, on both an individual and collective level, of the many categories of participants
Extracting Temporal and Causal Relations between Events
No full textStructured information resulting from temporal information processing is crucial for a variety of natural language processing tasks, for instance to generate timeline summarization of events from news documents, or to answer temporal/causal-related questions about some events. In this thesis we present a framework for an integrated temporal and causal relation extraction system. We first develop a robust extraction component for each type of relations, i.e. temporal order and causality. We then combine the two extraction components into an integrated relation extraction system, CATENA---CAusal and Temporal relation Extraction from NAtural language texts---, by utilizing the presumption about event precedence in causality, that causing events must happened BEFORE resulting events. Several resources and techniques to improve our relation extraction systems are also discussed, including word embeddings and training data expansion. Finally, we report our adaptation efforts of temporal information processing for languages other than English, namely Italian and Indonesian
More Qualifications and Less Dropout? From Compulsory Schooling to Vocational Education in Italy
No full textEducation continues to define social positions and reproduce social inequalities. Deficiencies in education may lead to disadvantages at both the individual and societal levels, and lower qualifications are usually obtained by already disadvantaged youths. One of the biggest problems in this regard is dropping out (also named early school-leaving)—i.e. young people who leave the education system before completing upper secondary school.
Many interventions have attempted to prevent or discourage students from dropping out of school. Among them there are two straightforward systemic policies: raising the age of compulsory schooling and creating alternative tracks for completing education. They aimed to achieve the same goal—reducing dropping out—but using different strategies. Despite the diffusion of these reforms, it is not clear to what extent one or both may succeed in their goal.
Both of these policies were actively pursued in Italy in a less than five-year period—from 1999 to 2003. In 1999, the so-called Berlinguer reform extended compulsory schooling from age 14 to 15, and in 2003 the State-Regions Congress introduced experimental vocational and training programmes (IFP). These intensive changes allow for the comparison of these two interventions in a single context one after the other, but no extensive studies have been made so far. The dissertation seeks to address this lacuna by making the best use of the available data.
The broad question of the thesis is whether the extension of compulsory schooling and/or the creation of new vocational and training programmes have modified students’ (and families’) dropping-out decisions. To answer, propensity score matching, counterfactual time series, segmented regression, region fixed effect and individual multilevel cross-classified logistic analyses are used. The results are framed in the theoretical debates about education: its roles, its expansion, its contribute to (in)equality and its policies
Musica e Arti Visive nell'Educazione: qualità dell'apprendimento in una esperienza realizzata secondo un approccio interdisciplinare = Música y Artes Visuales en la Educación:calidad del aprendizaje en una experiencia realizada desde un enfoque interdisciplinario
Get PDFA partire da un percorso didattico appositamente predisposto, la ricerca indaga la produzione di artefatti musicali e/o visivi elaborati (individualmente o in piccolo
gruppo) da studenti preadolescenti di scuola secondaria di primo grado del sistema scolastico italiano.
Lo sviluppo dello studio si è articolato sull'idea che tali produzioni, condotte nel solco di un'azione interdisciplinare, possano essere rivelatrici di una peculiare qualità di pensiero di natura metacognitiva.
Il metodo di ricerca ha adottato alcune strategie tipiche della Ricerca-Azione, e si è basato su un approccio di tipo ermeneutico-interpretativo, le cui prassi analitiche sono
state desunte dall'ambito critico/estetico e semiologico. La complessità a livello sistemico dell'indagine ha suggerito l'adozione di un approccio definito ecologico.
Gli esiti dello studio hanno portato a individuare una particolare qualità di pensiero espressa a livello fabrile e sensoriale, per questo denominata metacognizione sensibile.
La ricerca ha inteso con ciò avvalorare la relazione esistente tra il creare e il comprendere-conoscere, facendo emergere la processualità ambivalente che si esplica
con reciprocità nel "dar forma al pensiero" e "dar pensiero alla forma".
I risultati della ricerca costituiscono strumenti utili alla comprensione della valenza educativa dei processi di costruzione di una identità artistica, profilo necessario a
definire i tratti di una completa personalità in uscita dalla scuola dell'obbligo.
[ENG: Starting from the arrangement of a teaching activity especially arranged, the research investigates the production of musical and / or visual artifacts developed (individually or in small groups) by 13- and 14-year-old students who attend the first level of the secondary Italian school (Scuola Secondaria di Primo Grado).
The development of the study has been based on the idea that these productions, carried out through an interdisciplinary action, can reveal a peculiar metacognitive quality of thought.
The research method has adopted some Research-Action strategies, and is based on a hermeneutic-interpretative approach, whose analytical practices have been derived from
the critical, aesthetic and semiological field. The systemic complexity of the survey suggested the adoption of an approach that can be defined as ecological.
The results of the study led to identify a particular quality of thought, expressed at an operational and sensory level and therefore called sensitive metacognition. In this way the research intended to strengthen the existing relationship between creating and understanding-knowing, highlighting the ambivalent processuality that is reciprocally expressed by "give form to thought" and "give thought to form".
The findings can be useful to understand the educational value of the building processes of an artistic identity, which is a necessary profile to identify the traits of a complete personality for students at the end of compulsory education.
Reassessing North-South Relations: An Examination of North-South Preferential Trade Agreements for Developing and Emerging Economies
No full textThe rapid proliferation of North-South preferential trade agreements (PTAs) during the last quarter century has had broad implications for developing and emerging economies. As a result of North-South power asymmetries and the aggressive trade policy that has been characterized as ‘competitive liberalization,’ it has been argued that these agreements have produced asymmetric results in favor of Northern countries. This thesis advances a novel approach in the assessment of North-South preferential trade relations that goes beyond the simplistic interpretation of North-South trade politics as a phenomenon largely dominated by North-South power asymmetries. By acknowledging that not all North-South PTAs have the same characteristics, this thesis divides North-South PTAs into two sequential categories: first-order, i.e., Southern countries’ first North-South PTAs and second-order, i.e., Southern countries’ subsequent North-South PTAs. The thesis argues that, while first-order North-South PTA negotiations can produce asymmetric outcomes in favor of Northern countries because they have the ability to exert discriminative pressure on Southern countries, second-order North-South PTA negotiations follow a different logic. Having secured preferential access to Northern markets through first-order PTAs, Southern countries become immune to competitive pressures and can themselves exert discriminative pressure on Northern countries during second-order negotiations. The thesis examines the North-South PTA negotiations of Mexico, Chile, Korea, Colombia, and Peru, five countries of the Global South that have been especially active in North-South preferential trade. Based on the author’s personal interviews with EU and US trade officials and primary and secondary sources, this thesis conducts process tracing to account for the process of the five Southern countries’ first-order and second-order North-South PTA negotiations and reveal the impact of first-order North-South PTAs on the bargaining powers of Southern countries in second-order negotiations and hence the outcomes of second-order agreements. The thesis concludes that, albeit to varying extents, first-order agreements improve the bargaining powers of Southern countries in second-order North-South trade negotiations
I profughi trentini nella Grande Guerra. Identità multiple, fedeltà percepita, welfare statale
No full textLa tesi ricostruisce l'esperienza bellica di circa 115.000 civili trentini che furono evacuati o fuggirono dalla regione trentino tirolese durante il primo conflitto mondiale. 77.000 trentini vennero evacuati nelle regioni interne dell'Impero asburgico. Altri 35.800 fuggirono o vennero evacuati nelle regioni interne del Regno d'Italia, essendosi venuti a trovare a sud della linea del fronte.
L'obbiettivo della tesi è quello di valutare come questa esperienza incida sulla percezione identitaria di gruppo di questa massa di sfollati, prevalentemente donne, anziani e bambini, che entrano in contatto per la prima volta con popolazioni di lingua e cultura diversa e, in molti casi, con le maglie della burocrazia statale (sia essa del proprio Stato o dello Stato in cui entreranno a far parte dopo il conflitto). Il secondo obbiettivo della tesi è quello di indagare le politiche di assistenza e controllo messe in atto dai due Stati nei confronti di popolazioni di confine dall'identità ibrida, confrontando queste disposizioni con casi nazionali già indagati nel dettaglio
A Formal Foundation of FDI Design via Temporal Epistemic Logic
No full textAutonomous systems must be able to detect and promptly react to faults. Fault Detection and Identification components (FDI) are in charge of detecting the occurrence of faults.
The FDI depends on the concrete design of the system, needs to take into account how faults might interact, and can only have a partial view of the run-time state through sensors. For these reasons, the development of the FDI and certification of its correctness and quality are difficult tasks. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that current approaches for verification of the FDI rely on manual inspection and testing. Motivated by industrial case-studies from the European Space Agency, this thesis proposes a formal foundation for FDI design that covers specification, validation, verification, and synthesis.
The Alarm Specification Language (ASLk) is introduced in order to formally capture a set of interesting and desirable properties of the FDI components. ASLk is equipped with a semantics based on Temporal Epistemic Logic, thus enabling reasoning about partially observable systems. Automated reasoning techniques can then be applied to perform validation, verification, and synthesis of the FDI. This formal process guarantees that the generated FDI satisfies the designer expectations. The problems deriving from this process were out of reach for existing model-checking techniques. Therefore, we develop novel and efficient techniques for model-checking temporal epistemic logic over infinite state systems
Mechanism of anisotropic shrinkage during sintering of metalli powders
No full textThe anisotropic dimensional change on sintering of a prior cold compacted iron was investigated by dilatometry. Shrinkage is larger along the compaction direction than in the compaction plane. This phenomenon is very pronounced during the heating ramp in alpha phase and in particular below the Curie temperature, while in austenitic field is quite poor. The results of dilatometry tests were elaborated
according to the shrinkage kinetics model of classical sintering theory, to calculate an effective diffusion coefficient along the two directions, which resulted higher for direction parallel to the compaction direction than perpendicular to it. In both directions, the effective diffusion coefficient is larger than that reported in the
literature for pure iron, corresponding to an equilibrium density of structural defects. It also varies during the isothermal holding time. This discrepancy is attributed to the defectiveness introduced by cold compaction, that increases diffusivity through the activation of dislocation pipe mechanism, which is particularly intense below the Curie. This interpretation may also justify anisotropy of shrinkage due to the inhomogeneous deformation of interparticle contact regions that was measured with ISE method and EBSD analysis. The anisotropic shrinkage was also described through a modified micromechanical model proposed by the continuum mechanics approach, where the porous body is composed by aligned, elongated particles and elliptic pores, whose geometrical parameters were obtained through image analysis of SEM microhgraphs. The dislocation density calculated for different sintering temperatures was comparable to that measured experimentally.
The effect of green density on anisotropy of shrinkage was investigated, too. Anisotropy tends to increase with green density, because of the larger plastic deformation introduced in the interparticle regions by the compaction pressure
Artificial gauge fields in photonics and mechanical systems
No full textRecent technological advances in quantum simulators have proven that synthetic materials are very well suited to study and realise many condensed matter models.
However, many of these synthetic systems are characterized by neutral particles that do not couple to real gauge fields. In order to simulate interesting electromagnetic phenomena, such as the topological insulators, or the Landau levels, there is the need for the implementation of artificial gauge fields. In particular, the topological insulators are very interesting both from the point of view of fundamental physics and concrete applications. They are bulk insulating materials that carry a certain number of edge states which are topologically protected against small perturbations of the system. An example of a topological insulator is the integer quantum Hall effect.
While there have been many works studying topological physics with quantum artificial systems, little attention was dedicated to the interplay of topology and the purely classical world. Only in the last couple of years, pioneering efforts to encode a non-trivial topology in the dynamical matrix or into the Hamiltonian of a system have proven that the hallmarks of a topological insulator are not the prerogative of quantum mechanics, but can be also observed with a classical system governed by Newton’s equations. The first part of this thesis is therefore based on our studies dedicated to the implementation of a classical analogue of the integer quantum Hall system, by realizing the Harper-Hofstadter model for classical frequency-modulated coupled harmonic oscillators.
The achievement of an artificial gauge field allows also for the deeper study of magnetic effects such as Landau levels.
In graphene, an inhomogeneous strain of the lattice is equivalent to an artificial pseudo-magnetic field, and the low-energy spectrum shows the formation of relativistic pseudo-Landau levels. The second part of the thesis is therefore focussed on the photonics honeycomb lattice geometry and our theoretical proposal for a configuration based on an intrinsically driven-dissipative system in which to probe the physics of the Landau levels, and especially the spatial structure of their wavefunctions.
Finally, we have also studied spin-orbit coupling in a mechanical system of masses and springs induced by pre-tensioned springs that split the longitudinal and transverse couplings in the honeycomb geometry. We have presented the experimental results of a simple mechanical benzene composed of six pendula connected with pre-tensioned springs, to verify that the eigenmodes of this system are well described by our theory in the presence of spin-orbit coupling
Fatigue Vulnerability Analysis for existing metallic Structures
Get PDFThis thesis focuses on fatigue problem on riveted structures and the correlated experimental tests. The term “fatigue” denotes the cracking of metals under repeated loading. The technique of riveting structures is obsolete due to the low
level of standardization in the construction process. Knowledge concerning riveted structure’s ability to withstand fatigue has not been investigated to the same extent as for modern structures assembled by welding. Nevertheless, many riveted structures are still in service after over 100 years. Clamping force originates when
the hot rivet is placed into the hole of the plates and the rivet shorten in length due to cooling. In Europe, a large number of railway bridges are riveted. Moreover, all
over the world, the rivet assembly technique has been largely used for different types of buildings. The riveted structures are subjected, evidently, to fatigue degradation as all the other steel structures. The riveted joint complexity and the non-uniform realization lead to a structure-specific consideration. In Europe, current
regulations recognise only one fatigue class for riveted structures neglecting the clamping force effect. This approach is characterized by an elevated standard
deviation for the assessed results. This research aims to improve the riveted structures fatigue comprehension and to propose appropriate tests. Some elements have been extracted from a dismantled railway bridge located near San Stino di
Livenza (Venice). An innovative clamping test (TCT) has been conceived: applying a torsional moment to the rivets and evaluating the sliding friction, the clamping force has been estimated. Contrary to traditional clamping tests, this setup, at an affordable price, provides good precision. Moreover, the test is in-site and does not provoke damages to the examined structure. Fem models of rail bearer have been realized taking into account rivets, holes and multilayer plates section inertia. A specific laboratory set up has been designed with the intention to calibrate the fem
models. Frictions and clamping force have been taken into account in the rail bearer models. There is a close correspondence between the non-linear models and the
experimental tests. The clamping assumptions, derived from the TCT, have been verified. A full scale fatigue test has been prepared and the first cycles have been monitored. Full scale fatigue tests are sophisticated and involve many parameters. For this test, a specific metallic frame has been designed and realized using advanced fatigue models. An advanced analysis (hot spot method) has been carried out, for the frame, in order to evaluate the stress into the welds. This frame will be used by the DICEA laboratory to test, principally, specimens extracted from bridges