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Revisiting lesbians' and gay men's lives in Italy: generation, relationships, and gender
Get PDF‘Revisiting lesbians' and gay men's lives’ is a study on same-sex desiring individuals' changing life course in Italy from the mid 1990s to the early 2010s. Focused on sexual developmental trajectories, same-sex cohabiting couples, and parental desires, its main argument is that, even in a relatively short time period, Italian lesbians' and gay men's lives changed in ways that further sexual and relational pluralism and provide empowering narratives and resources to communities of sexually diverse individuals. Throughout the thesis, I adopt the framework of generational sexualities to observe transformations at the intersection of theorisations in the sociology of personal relationships, feminist research, and interactionism. Declining homophobia and unchanging gender sexual inequality result in lesbians and gay men reinventing the gendered aspects of sexual development and contesting homonegativity in familial, religious, and public milieux. In couple formation, sexual agreements, and emotional styles, lesbian and gay relationships are gendered, but the advancement of the relevance of prosaic and mythic love in the institution of coupledom helps same-sex partners negotiate interdependent lives and relational ties that are similar to contemporary Italian heterosexuals'. Despite facing the limits posed by gendered bodies and procreative and parental norms, lesbians, gay men, and same-sex couples see bio-social ties to the child as dependent on care-taking ties, and visualize and negotiate their procreative potentials and relationships aiming at securing familial happiness that is central in contemporary cultures of children's well-being. In the different aspects of lesbians' and gay men's life course, generational sexualities engage directly with contemporary Italian sexual citizenship, an exception in the Euro-American process of recognition of sexual diversity, and advance the pluralization of relational and gender norms. Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the research. Chapter 2 presents the methodology and methods of the study, a qualitatively-driven mixed-methods research comprising gathering and analysis of biographical interviews with same-sex cohabiting partners in 2012-13, gathering and analysis of survey data on lesbian and gay lives in 2012-2013, and secondary analysis of survey data on lesbian and gay lives gathered in 1995-96. In Chapter 3, I analyse change in sexual developmental trajectories and strategies of resilience against homonegativity. Chapter 4 traces the emergence and institutionalisation of relational commitment in same-sex cohabiting couples. In Chapter 5, I look at lesbians' and gay men's parental desires as expressions of the changing social meaning of the child. Chapter 6 presents my concluding remarks, linking the generational agency and narratives emerging from new lesbians' and gay men's life courses to the prospects of Italian sexual citizenship and sexual minority communities
La «Passio XII fratrum qui e Syria venerunt». Studio, esame della tradizione manoscritta, edizione critica
No full textThis paper has sought to establish the critical edition of the so called «Acta XII sociorum» (BHL 1620-1621, 1622b, 1622d e 6955),better known as «Passio XII fratrum qui e Syria venerunt», through the philological, palaeographical, historical and hagiological analysis of the available manuscript tradition. This research was intended, therefore, to retrace and re-discuss all historiographical literature on the subject so far published, with the aim to deliver a brief but detailed status quaestionis. He then proceeded to the collation of the text of all witnesses in the manuscript tradition, to the recensio and to the scrutiny of the variants, and to the identification of errors. This has allowed for the creation of a stemma modicum, thus leading to the identification of two families (α e β). With special appendix is provided the critical edition of the texts corresponding to BHL 1621 and 1622f, hitherto unpublished
Infrastructuring Knowledge as Participatory Intervention Technologically Enhanced Environment
No full textOver the last twenty years, Digital Interactive Technology (DIT) has been extensively introduced in museum contexts. Providing guidelines for aware introduction of DIT in museum, this thesis aims to encourage a participatory experience regarding the creation of knowledge in museum.
Believing that creating knowledge is a complex process that simultaneously involves multiple actions, actors, actants, and situations, I adopt the concept of Infrastructuring Knowledge for describing the participatory dynamics among human and technology for creating knowledge and for museum to be places for memories, amusing and sharing experience.
Ethnography in museum environment provides first hand information for understanding the museum visiting experience. Such understanding provides three key stimulus for DIT to Infrastructuring Knowledge: firstly, stimulating people’s dialogue; secondly, supporting people’s cooperation and participation by providing occasions for sharing information and creating knowledge; thirdly, people re-frame the use of DIT when needed. Designing DIT for museum may follow some specific lines and principles for addressing challenges related to overwhelming and overstimulating spaces, and for promoting a sustainable future in respect of the production (or not) of new technology. Following lines and principles for reacting to the overwhelming and overstimulating adoption of technology in public space, I propose an -ing approach to design. This approach aims to stimulate a design for people to adopt a subjective and participatory interpretation of Digital Interactive Technology
The State as Social Practice: Sources, Resources, and Forces in Central Asia
Get PDFThis thesis is about state and society relations in Central Asia. It examines statehood comparatively in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Despite having made different political, economic, and institutional choices at independence in 1991, these countries arrived at the same outcome today: an incomplete state. In framing the problem as the incomplete state, this thesis shifts the conventional emphasis away from symptoms of state weakness toward those processes that contribute to it. It highlights the fact that the state can simultaneously be both strong and weak, omnipresent and absent. It is the blurring of the line between state and non-state, public and private, legal and illegal, formal and informal which matters for a better understanding of the state. Drawing from Charles Tilly and Michael Mann, this thesis suggests that these shadow areas generate processes of interstitial emergence that may either undermine or strengthen the state. The outcome generated by such processes is dependent on the balance between state autonomy and state embeddedness. The thesis argues that the incomplete state is a result of three sets of factors—historical, external, and local—that directly or indirectly produce processes that are counter-productive to the current state-building process. Specifically, it focuses on the societal legacy of the Soviet statehood, the strategies of state-building provided by external actors, and the balance of power between rival local elites. It demonstrates how each of these sets of factors contribute to the creation or development of sites of social resistance and the chasm between the state and society in each of the three given cases. Further, it identifies three important processes. Firstly, structural changes taken for granted following the dissolution of the Soviet Union have not necessarily altered cross-border societal interdependence at the grassroots. Secondly, the strategies pursued by external actors have indirectly created isolated pockets of land, empowered community-based civil activism and facilitated informal trade. Finally, while state elites strengthened the institution of the state, they turned it into a tool for legitimizing illicit revenues rather than a means to increase its infrastructural power. States and societies in the region have become isolated from one another. These states, empowered only in the institutional sense, have become empty shells. The societies, empowered without the state, have become captives within a game of survival. It seems that the state cannot be complete without becoming social
Nanostructure formation on Germanium by ion irradiation
No full textThis thesis work is focused on the investigation of a peculiar phenomenon observed in germanium: the formation of a regular network of columnar nanovoids induced by heavy ion and high fluence irradiation at room temperature. This phenomenon can represent a possible way to produce wide nanostructured areas on semiconductor surfaces by a well-established semiconductor technology process such as ion implantation. However, the formation mechanism of this regular network of Ge columnar nanovoids is still under debate. Therefore, the work has been focused on the investigation of the formation mechanisms and on the possible strategies to control the geometry and the composition of these structures, in order to exploit the results for possible technological applications. In particular, ion implantation was carried out using Sn+ ions with the double aim of creating Ge1-xSnx nanostructures and following the depth distribution of the impinging ions. Furthermore, ion implantation through ultra-thin (10-20 nm) films of silicon nitride (SiNx) was investigated as a possible way to impact on nanovoid formation kinetics, prevent ambient contaminations and prevent Sn out-diffusion upon thermal treatments. Firstly, low temperature Sn+ implants were carried out in order to define a recipe to prepare Ge1-xSnx alloy: Ge1-xSnx alloy films with thickness of 15-30 nm were obtained by implanting Sn+ in Ge at liquid nitrogen temperature and subsequent thermal annealing (600 °C for 10 s). High Sn substitutionality, no relevant diffusion, limited surface segregation and excellent crystallinity were achieved, a tin concentration of x=6-7 at.% was reached. Secondly, Ge nanostructures were prepared by high fluence ion implantation at room temperature and then morphologically and chemically characterized, determining that the obtained nanostructures are constituted by Sn-rich Ge. Nanovoids developed under the SiNx film, with reduced oxygen contamination. The first stages of nanovoid formation were observed for samples with and without the SiNx layer. The SiNx layer seems to induce a retarded nanovoid nucleation in terms of threshold fluence, without hindering nanovoid growth. The experimental data were interpreted on the basis of the vacancy clustering theory. SRIM simulations were performed to compare the distributions of point defects and implanted ions at different conditions in the SiNx/Ge stack. These helped to show that the depth distribution of energy deposition is the relevant parameter. Moreover, it was highlighted that both the redistribution in depth of the SiNx atoms and the implanted Sn+ contribute to a lowering of the Ge concentration causing the formation of a layer where nanovoid nucleation does not occur. Taking into account the ion mixing effect including the introduction of Sn, threshold value of the deposited energy was found. The thermal treatments investigated for the Ge1-xSnx alloy thin films were applied on nanostructured samples, causing a dramatic deformation of the nanovoids probably due to a melting temperature decreased by the presence of tin. The investigation of possible technological applications of Ge nanostructures was carried out, in particular in thermoelectric applications, in lithium ion batteries and gas sensors. Several samples were designed and ad-hoc substrates were produced
Development of criteria for the minimization of the impacts of underestimated pathways of human exposure to atmospheric pollutants
Get PDFAir pollution is still the cause of several diseases, among which cancer is often associated to excessive or anomalous exposure to air pollutants. In addition to well-known sources of emission of air pollutants, several activities are still unregulated or not adequately controlled by conventional removal technologies; furthermore, the presence of local criticalities may elude the conventional monitoring approach. This thesis aims at providing new options to detect anomalous situations of exposure and to minimize the impacts of air pollutants by acting on two different levels: the prevention of excessive intakes and the prevention of emissions into the atmosphere. Carcinogenic organic air pollutants will receive special attention in this thesis.
After a short introduction to the topic, in the second chapter of this thesis, potential critical situations of exposure are presented, with a special focus on two of the most potent carcinogenic air pollutants: dioxin and benzene. Open issues regarding both the lack of regulations for some activities and the inadequacy of some conventional monitoring approaches are described. Proposals for integrative monitoring techniques and methodologies for exposure assessment are then briefly presented. Four of them were developed during this doctoral research and are described in more details in the third chapter of this thesis; the purpose of these methodologies is to offer additional tools to detect anomalous situations of exposure to air pollutants, in both rural and urban contexts, and to estimate the dominant source of exposure to specific compounds in an area. The fourth chapter is dedicated to presenting a proposal for a limit value of dioxin deposition to soil. Dioxin are able to accumulate in the food chain; therefore, this chapter presents the development of a reverse food-chain model, starting from the Tolerable Daily Intake proposed by the World Health Organization, running through the food chain backwards on the basis of the diet of a population and determining a safe value to preserve fields and pastures. Such method represents an attempt to overcome the current absence of a regulatory limit value for atmospheric deposition of dioxin to soil. This approach aims at reducing the potential exposure to dioxin by preventing excessive intake. In the fifth chapter, a critical analysis on biofilters is carried out. Biofilters are a specific kind of air pollution control technology, widely used to treat air streams with low concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Biofilters may be inefficient under unsteady conditions of inlet loading rate; in addition, when treating high flow rates, biofilters cannot guarantee a proper dilution of the plume in the atmosphere, due to intrinsic design reasons. Biotrickling filters (BTFs) are here presented in a review as a more efficient alternative; the improvements in air quality obtained when replacing a biofilter with BTFs are also highlighted through dispersion simulations. This chapter aims at proposing an alternative to reduce exposure directly at the emission level, rather than at the receptor level. The same aim is pursued in the final part of this thesis, in which an innovative VOC removal technology is studied: non-thermal plasma (NTP). Two laboratory activities are presented: initially, NTP is applied to treat two mixtures of air and VOCs, chosen to represent typical emissions from real industrial activities; the positive results in terms of VOC removal and the partial formation of more soluble byproducts led to a second exper-imental activity in which NTP was applied as a pre-treatment to a biofilter. NTP revealed to be a promising option to manage peaks of inlet loading rate, which biofilters are often subject to in real cases
Statistical and deterministic approaches for multimedia forensics
No full textThe increasing availability and pervasiveness of multimedia data in our society is before our very eyes.
As a result of globalization and worldwide connectivity, people from all over the planet are exchanging constantly increasing amounts of images, videos, audio recordings on a daily basis. Coupled with the easy access to user-friendly editing software, this poses a number of problems related to the reliability and trustworthiness of such content, as well as its potential malevolent use. For this reason, the research field of multimedia forensics focuses on the development of forensic tools for verifying the authenticity of multimedia data. The hypothesis of pristine status of images, videos or audio tracks is called into question and can be rejected if traces of manipulation are detected with a certain degree of confidence. In this framework, studying traces left by any operation that could have been employed to process the data, either for malicious purposes or simply to improve their content or presentation, turns out to be of interest for a comprehensive forensic analysis.
The goal of this doctoral study is to contribute to the field of multimedia forensics by exploiting intrinsic statistical and deterministic properties of multimedia data.
With this respect, much work has been devoted to the study of JPEG compression traces in digital images, resulting in the development of several innovative approaches. Indeed, some of the main related research problems have been addressed and solution based on statistical properties of digital images have been proposed. In particular, the problem of identifying traces of JPEG compressions in images that have been decompressed and saved in uncompressed formats has been extensively studied, resulting in the design of novel statistical detectors. Given the enormous practical relevance, digital images in JPEG formats have also been considered. A novel method aimed at discriminating images compressed only once and more than once has been developed, and tested on a variety of images and forensic scenarios. Being the potential presence of intelligent counterfeiters ever increasingly studied, innovative counterforensic techniques to JPEG compression based on smart reconstruction strategies are proposed.
Finally, we explore the possibility of defining and exploiting deterministic properties related to a certain processing operation in the forensic analysis. With this respect, we present a first approach targeted to the detection in one-dimensional data of a common data smoothing operation, the median filter. A peculiarity of this method is the ability of providing a deterministic response on the presence of median filtering traces in the data under investigation
Fabrication and characterization of Phosphate-based planar waveguides activated by Er3+ ions
No full textThis work shows that it is possible to fabricate phosphate-based planar wave-guides activated by rare earth ions both by sol-gel and RF-sputtering techniques. The objective of this thesis has been to evaluate various methodologies for fab-rication Phosphorous-based planar waveguides. In this context sol-gel and RF-sputtering techniques for planar waveguides fabrication has been investigated. RF-process has been optimized. In case of sol-gel technique a further thermo-dynamical study is required. Each of technique has drawbacks, in sol-gel method the principal question is related to the kinetics of the reaction, since it is too fast, to better control of the reaction rates, and better adjustment of the technological films fabrication, which effects on spectroscopic properties of the waveguiding systems: losses, refractive index. In case of RF-sputtering is no-ticeable that the refractive index is low, and the losses are less than 0.2 dB/cm, however the multicomponent target material increase the complexity of the structure
Cyber-Physical Systems: two case studies in design methodologies
No full textTo analyze embedded systems, engineers use tools that can simulate the performance of software components executed on hardware architectures. When the embedded system functionality is strongly correlated to physical quantities, as in the case of Cyber-Physical System (CPS), we need to model physical processes to determine the overall behavior of the system. Unfortunately, embedded systems simulators are not generally suitable to evaluate physical processes, and in the same way physical model simulators hardly capture the functionality of computing systems. In this work, we present a methodology to concurrently explore these aspects using the metroII design framework. The methodology provides guidelines for the implementation of these models in the design environment. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we applied the methodology to two case studies. A case study regards a binaural guidance system developed to be included into a smart rollator for older adults. The second case consists of an energy recovery device which gets energy from the heat dissipated by a high performance processor and power a smart sink able to provide cooling or to serve as a wireless sensing node
Labor Market Effects of Migration: Evidence from EU Enlargement and Application of Search-and-Matching Framework
No full textThe existence and the direction of labor market effects of migration has been subject to long and extensive debates among both economists and policy makers. This study provides a theoretical rationale as well as empirical evidence for the existence of welfare-improving migration outcomes.
The first paper examines how emigration affects labor markets in migrant-sending countries. Following EU enlargement in 2004, Central and Eastern Europe experienced large waves of emigration. Given the magnitude and the speed of migration flows, I explore to what extend the migration waves had an impact on the distribution of wages, employment opportunities and the structure of production in migrant-sending countries. The second paper contributes to the debate about economic determinants of international migration flows and the consequential effects of migration on wages and unemployment rates. The analysis is carried out within a two-country model that belongs to a general family of search-and-matching models (e.g., Diamond, 1982 and Mortensen and Pissarides, 1994). The central idea of this setting is that both firms (labor demand side) and workers (labor supply side) have to spend resources before job creation and production can take place. A larger number of unemployed workers searching for a job makes it relatively cheaper for a firm to create a new vacancy. An increase in the number of vacancies, in turn, strengthens the bargaining position of unemployed workers. Therefore, immigration does not necessarily lead to a dramatic reduction of wages and increased unemployment, as in a Walrasian paradigm. I show that under the search and matching framework a broad range of possible migration effects can be generated. This is in line with the mixed evidence provided by the empirical literature, which documents that the impact of migration on labor markets varies with time and location, and that it can be either positive or negative. In order to provide a theoretical rationale for the existence of diverse effects of migration on wages and unemployment, I develop two models with fully integrated migration decisions and non-linear costs of migration. This last paper presents an application of the theoretical framework developed above to the migration between Switzerland and the EU. Migration effects on the Swiss labor market are derived. In order to obtain structural parameters characterising the Swiss labor market, I first calibrate the standard one-country search model to generate the observed fluctuations in unemployment and job vacancies in Switzerland. I then use the parameters obtained from calibration for simulating the steady state versions of two two-country models for Switzerland and the EU. The results show, that the models can adequately predict observed percentage changes in unemployment rates in response to the immigration wave and resulting wage differences between immigrants and native workers