1,488 research outputs found
Business model adaptation in the Apulian agro-food industry: a preliminary study
No full textAntonio Dottore, Pasquale Pazienza and Vincenzo Vecchion
A proposed pilot study into attitudinal, situational and personal characteristics as predictors of future entrepreneurs in Australian public research organisations
No full textAntonio Dottore and Sulemain Kassiciehhttp://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/ir/onlineconferences/agse2010
FINITE ELEMENT FATIGUE ASSESSMENT OF STEEL TUBULAR JOINTS IN OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
No full textBackground: Fatigue analysis is a very complex process, which is still today not fully under-stood. This thesis numerically investigates the advantages and limitations of the employment of the Finite Element (FE) method in actual standard fatigue design procedure. Two studies are conducted to validate the SCF calculation and the application of Hot-Spot Stress (HSS) method to fatigue design.
Study I: The Stress Concentration Factor is a magnification factor introduced to account for geometrical or material discontinuities in structural joints. In these locations the stress may reach values several times higher than the nominal stress and may lead to the premature collapse of the structure when subjected to fatigue loading. However, current methodologies to compute the SCF cover only a limited number of joint types and configurations. The aim of this study is to investigate the SCFs in tubular joints through the application of empirical formulas and an extensive numerical analysis campaign. SCFs are assessed for several types of tubular joints and loading conditions according to current standards and literature. Obtained results are compared together to highlights the weaknesses and strengths of each approach and to investigate their implications for the design of tubular joints.
Study II: Fatigue is one of the most frequent causes of steel structures failures, particularly in offshore platforms. Thus, the fatigue life assessment is one of the most relevant procedures for the comprehensive evaluation of both the load-carrying capacity and service life of the structure. The standard fatigue procedure consists of the method of local stress, the so-called Hot-Spot Stress (HSS) applied on a global analysis model. HSS method consists in calculating the stress occurring in the cross sections of the whole elements and applying them a multiplying factor to account for the geometry of the detail. At present, the use of Finite Element makes possible looking for more accurate fatigue stress ranges calculation. This study presents fatigue assessment of representative types of tubular joints in welded offshore platform. Joint fatigue damages are calculated performing global and local FE analyses. The obtained results are com-pared together to evaluate the limits and advantages of the different approaches and model types
Understanding demand for innovation in the food industry
No full textPurpose – This paper aims to focus on understanding how demand for innovation is articulated in low-tech industries, dominated by SMEs, where innovation is often based on informal processes and uncodified knowledge, relying on intangible assets. Design/methodology/approach – The authors hypothesize that the problems found in the innovation area are exacerbated in a traditional industry. SMEs might have difficulty understanding what their requirements might be, let alone finding the optimal provider of technologies. The authors therefore expect to find three main forms of demand: real, latent, and potential. The specific case is the food industry in Apulia, Italy. First, focus groups identified general business and technology needs. Then in-depth interviews were conducted with 87 firms, stratified in order to be representative of food firms in Apulia. Findings – The authors detected 285 different needs requiring an innovative solution. In most cases, firms understand the areas to be improved, but do not have a technological solution in mind. Demand for innovation is mostly latent. Research limitations/implications – The study is narrow in geographic and industry scope. This limits generalizability, but the methodology is transferable and the results comparable. The authors studied the demand side, whereas interaction between supply and demand needs to be understood. Future studies into regional public research organizations (PROs) and intermediaries can therefore be useful. Practical implications – The findings can be used to understand how PROs can engage with SMEs and what policymakers can do to facilitate the interaction. Originality/value – This study applies thinking typically used in high-tech sectors to a traditional sector, hence testing and extending the theoretical boundaries.Alessandro Muscio, Gianluca Nardone and Antonio Dottor
Viaggio, esplorazione, guerra nella fotografia e nei documenti di una casata borghese tra Ottocento e Novecento: catalogazione e studio del fondo fotografico Camperio
No full textQuesto lavoro desidera presentare la catalogazione e lo studio del Fondo Fotografico Camperio, oggi conservato presso la Biblioteca Civica di Villasanta (MI) e parte del fondo archivistico familiare denominato Fondo Camperio.
In particolare, la collezione fotografica della famiglia Camperio è analizzata evidenziando la specifica rilevanza della fotografia di viaggio in essa contenuta, in quanto chiave interpretativa della raccolta, ma anche manifesta espressione del gusto, dell’etica della visione, e della immediata continuità della trasmissione di valori ed idee da una generazione all’altra di questa famiglia dell’alta borghesia italo-francese, in un periodo che va dalla seconda metà dell’Ottocento alle soglie della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Negli album fotografici dedicati al viaggio, che costituiscono il nucleo più consistente e rilevante del Fondo Fotografico Camperio, si riverbera l’andamento di un processo di trasmissione di valori culturali e princìpi ideologici che si riversano con formidabile coerenza, e senza soluzione di continuità, da una generazione all’altra, costruendo una solida tradizione familiare che trova proprio nella pratica del viaggio, e nella sua condivisione diretta o traslata grazie alla raccolta di documentazione fotografica e produzione diaristica, uno dei suoi elementi portanti. L’analisi degli atti dell’Archivio familiare coadiuva l’individuazione di questo percorso, arricchendo e confermando le ipotesi formulate con lo studio diretto dei fototipi.
I materiali fotografici sono analizzati dai punti di vista formale, storico e stilistico, tenendo conto dell’insieme dei rapporti che accompagnano l’oggetto; dell’influenza della tradizione occidentale delle arti figurative sulle scelte degli autori; delle istanze del pubblico, di quelle della committenza, e dei condizionamenti imposti dalle aspettative di questi fruitori; del significato ideologico e simbolico, alla fine del XIX secolo, dell’uso di un medium moderno quale la fotografia, e del suo accoglimento da parte del pubblico; delle specifiche circostanze che condussero alla produzione e raccolta delle fotografie da parte dei Camperio.
Sono infine illustrati metodo e strategie adottati per la catalogazione (realizzata per la Regione Lombardia ed il Comune di Villasanta) e la valorizzazione del Fondo Fotografico Camperio, con particolare riguardo alla pubblicazione online delle Schede F ed ai percorsi di navigazione da queste ultime alle schede descrittive dei documenti d’archivio ad esse correlati.
Il catalogo completo del Fondo Fotografico Camperio è consultabile online, in quanto pubblicato nel portale internet della Regione Lombardia dedicato ai Beni Culturali www.lombardiabeniculturali.it .This study is intended to present the Camperio Family Photographic Collection and to highlight the specific relevance of the travel photography it contains as a key both to the interpretation of the whole Collection and to the ethics of vision of the members of this 19-20th century upper middle class French-Italian family. To the members of this family, travel and travel photography had been primary tools both to frame the world and to relate themselves to their own time. The photographic eye, focusing on natural resources as well as on natural, technological and artistic wonders and on wartime, unveils the ethics of vision of the collectors, and paradigmately reflects the cultural climate of their age. The ideological transmission from parents to sons that emerges from the analysis of both photographic and related archival materials is also a fil rouge that goes through the collection, and gives it a coherence seldom met in other family funds.The Camperio Photographic Collection is housed in the Biblioteca Civica di Villasanta (Villasanta (MI), Italy). It has been catalogued by the author for the Cultural Heritage Information System of Cultural Department of Lombardy, and can be found online (Beta version): http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/percorsi/camperio/1/
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The Camperio Family Photographic Collection (Fondo Fotografico Camperio) is part of the Camperio Family Fund (Fondo Camperio), a 19-20th century family fund housed in the Biblioteca Civica di Villasanta (Villasanta Civic Library) that holds together the Family Archive, the Family Library, and the Photographic Collection itself. The Photographic Collection was gathered over one century by the members of the family who took, bought and ordered photographs to document their enterprises. The collection contains pictures made by renowned photographers, scholars, explorers and by the Camperios themselves. It hosts several photographic genres, but it is expecially devoted to travel photography as the greatest part of the pictures was made or acquired during the many journeys undertaken by the family members in Africa, Egypt, Far East, Australia, Russia.
This relevant historical photographic collection came to us in exceptionally good conditions, as it is integrated in the undivided, original archival context which is in almost intact state and provides useful material to determine the collection’s stratigraphy. The family Archive holds a wide range of documents (travel diaries, letters, essays…) that give account of the interests and activities in which the Camperios were involved, among which travel held a front-rank position. Also, it often provides straightforward reference to picture taking and collecting. The family Library is mainly composed by geographical and military literature, thus reflecting the great interest of the family members in geographical exploration and travel, and giving further evidence (in the many illustrated magazines and books) to the importance of photographic image as a tool to classificate, reduce and take possession of the world.
During the second half of the 19th century and until World war 2, travelling had been a fundamental activity for to the members of this family. They interpreted journey in all its nuances, from exploration to tourism to war campaigning, and travelled extensively all around the world with a sense of essential necessity and an effortless attitude, in times when such an activity was no ordinary matter.
The relevance of travel as an experience by means of which the Camperios related themselves to the world and to their own time is highlighted not only by the prominence that this activity had in the education of all the family members, but also in the importance that it had in the pursuing of their goals and in the developement of their professional careers. Italian Unification patriots, explorers, colonial entrepreneurs, philanthropists, professional soldiers, amateur photographers, the Camperios, both men and women, were extremely active personalities permeated with positivist tought and committed to international promotion, modernization and progress of Italy. Following their father’s steps, the young Camperios travelled extensively, collected slices of world through photography, and pursued the accomplishment of projects in line with their parent’s ideals.
Taken as a whole, the Camperio Fund goes beyond the boundaries of the local or strictly personal experience, providing visions of the social, economical and political international history of the times. It also shows how ideological transmission from generation to generation worked as a leitmotiv declined in various ways in the personal choiches and cultural orientation of the members of the family. This ideolgical continuum is mirrored in the Photographic Collection and represents its strongest unifying element, its coherence being not merely provided by the thematic element (the travel) or by the collectors family membership
Towards a theory of business model adaptation
No full textResearch in the field of Business Models is a recent and rapidly growing phenomenon. It brings to bear strands from a variety of disciplines, including Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Commercialisation. One aspect that is especially lacking in the research is that of Business Model adaptation among firms commercialising new technology. This study is part of a broader process research program investigating Business Model change. In particular, it is attempting to fill the lack of theory on Business Model adaptation, by seeking direction from the theory of strategic decision-making in entrepreneurial environments (including corporate entrepreneurship) where innovation is a strong feature. Strands of theory surveyed in this study include: high speed desicion-making; emergent stragegy; open innovation; effectuation. Tentative hypotheses are developed for further elaboration and incorporation into the broader research program.Antonio Dottore, David Corkindal
Large-scale submarine landslide drives long-lasting regime shift in slope sediment deposition
No full textSubmarine landslides and associated mass-transport deposits (MTDs) modify the physiography of continental margins and influence the evolution of submarine sediment routing systems. Previous studies highlighted the control of landslides and MTDs on subsequent sedimentary processes and deposits at spatial scales ranging from tens of centimeters to few kilometers, leaving a knowledge gap on how and for how long large-scale submarine landslides (i.e., headscarps wider than 50–100 km) may affect the stratigraphic evolution of continental margins. To fill this gap, we used three-dimensional seismic reflection data tied to an exploration well to investigate the impact of one of the largest submarine landslides discovered on Earth, the Mafia mega-slide (Mms) offshore Tanzania, on slope sediment deposition. Seismic data interpretation indicates that turbidite lobes/lobe complexes and coalescent mixed turbidite-contourite systems formed the pre-Mms stratigraphy between 38 and ca. 21 Ma (age of the Mms), whereas coarser-grained sheet turbidites and debrites accumulated after the Mms for ∼15 m.y., primarily on the topographic lows generated by the emplacement of the landslide. We interpret this drastic and long-lasting regime shift in sediment deposition to be driven by the increase in seafloor gradient and the capture and focus of feeding systems within the broad failed area. We propose that the extensive evacuation zones associated with such giant landslides can generate major “conveyor belts”, trapping land-derived material or sediments transported by along-slope processes such as bottom currents. During the progressive healing of the landslide escarpments, which may last for several million years, sand-prone facies are deposited primarily in the upper slope, filling up the accommodation space generated by the landslide, while deeper-water environments likely remain sediment starved or experience accumulation of finer-grained deposits. Our study provides new insights into the long-term response of slope depositional systems to large-scale submarine landslides, with implications for the transfer of coarse-grained sediments that can be applied to continental margins worldwide
IL GIUDICE, IL DOTTORE, IL COMPARATISTA NELLA COMUNICAZIONE UNIVERSALE
No full textNel saggio si esamina il ruolo assunto dal Giudice, dal Dottore e dal Comparatista nella comunicazione universale, sulla base del contributo scientifico che in questi ultimi decenni è stato offerto alla scienza comparatistica da Antonio Gambaro. Se, da un lato, il divieto apparente e formale delle Corti di citare esplicitamente la dottrina – anacronistica eredità della tradizione post-illuministica – appare essere un crittotipo, del tutto disatteso nella sostanza, che è osservato soltanto in alcuni paesi euro-continentali (Francia e Italia, ad es.) e che, oltre a rivelarsi del tutto marginale nel panorama planetario, rischia di limitare ingiustificatamente il diritto di difesa. Dall’altro, la circolazione, oramai universale, che involge l’opera del Giudice, del Dottore e del Comparatista non può prescindere da una molteplicità di fattori che caratterizzano ciascuna tradizione giuridica. Così, l’impatto della dottrina sulle Corti di vertice può essere misurato sulla base non soltanto della prioritaria ed evidente distinzione tra le Corti che citano o che non citano esplicitamente la letteratura giuridica (e della conseguente partizione tra “dialoghi espressi” e “dialoghi muti”), o di una serie di varianti che riguardano le fonti, la loro gerarchia e i metodi interpretativi, ma anche dello stile che le sentenze e le varie forme letterarie assumono, reciprocamente, nelle diverse esperienze giuridiche. In questo contesto sempre più trans-nazionale l’opera del Comparatista assolve quanto meno a due diverse funzioni. La prima, non esclusiva, anche perché concorrente con quella del Dottore che ha esaminato dati giuridici appartenenti ad un diritto straniero, è assolta allorché diviene, inconsapevolmente, la fonte mediata del trapianto effettuato dal Giudice, attraverso i contributi che, negli anni, ha dedicato ad un determinato tema. Però, le opere comparative dovrebbero interagire con la giurisprudenza «non già rifornendola di regole di decisione», ma «suggerendo paradigmi di ragionamento giuridico mediante i quali affrontare i problemi che l’evoluzione umana sempre rinnova». Da qui una «funzione propulsiva» e un «uso dialettico o problematico» della comparazione che, più che assurgere a fonte diretta di diritto, svolge il compito di offrire alla giurisprudenza modelli di ragionamento giuridico, di arricchire la prospettiva ermeneutica dell’interprete con argomenti e idee da utilizzare nella ricerca della soluzione giuridica. La seconda funzione, più essenziale ed esclusiva, cui deve assolvere il comparatista è quella del controllo e della verifica dell’argomento “comparativo” il quale, anche se correttamente utilizzato dal Giudice nel suo aspetto formale, deve essere sempre “contestualizzato” mediante un raffronto che involge, sul piano storico e sistematico, l’ordinamento d’origine e quello recipiente. Proprio il crescente ricorso, da parte della giurisprudenza delle Corti Supreme, all’informazione comparativa, più che alla comparazione sistematica, induce l’Autore ad esaminare partitamente quelle ipotesi maggiormente significative che la nostra giurisprudenza ha recepito da dottrine giuridiche straniere (per il tramite di un Dottore o di un Comparatista indigeno), anche allo scopo di verificare la correttezza sintattica del trapianto, sulla base dalle caratteristiche storiche e morfologiche che caratterizzano, fisionomicamente, ciascuna esperienza giuridica
HyLength: a semi-automated digital image analysis tool for measuring the length of roots and fungal hyphae of dense mycelia
No full textIn plant-fungus phenotyping, determining fungal hyphal and plant root lengths by digital image analysis can reduce labour and increase data reproducibility. However, the degree of software sophistication is often prohibitive and manual measuring is still used, despite being very time-consuming. We developed the HyLength tool for measuring the lengths of hyphae and roots in in vivo and in vitro systems. The HyLength was successfully validated against manual measures of roots and fungal hyphae obtained from all systems. Compared with manual methods, the HyLength underestimated Medicago sativa roots in the in vivo system and Rhizophagus irregularis hyphae in the in vitro system by about 12 cm per m and allowed to save about 1 h for a single experimental unit. As regards hyphae of R. irregularis in the in vivo system, the HyLength overestimated the length by about 21 cm per m compared with manual measures, but time saving was up to 20.5 h per single experimental unit. Finally, with hyphae of Aspergillus oryzae, the underestimation was about 8 cm per m with a time saving of about 10 min for a single germinating spore. By benchmarking the HyLength against the AnaMorf plugin of the ImageJ/Fiji, we found that the HyLength performed better for dense fungal hyphae, also strongly reducing the measuring time. The HyLength can allow measuring the length over a whole experimental unit, eliminating the error due to sub-area selection by the user and allowing processing a high number of samples. Therefore, we propose the HyLength as a useful freeware tool for measuring fungal hyphae of dense mycelia
Le personnage du Dottore
No full textA man dressed in costume as a theatrical caricature of a doctor. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Le personnage du faux savant renvoie à celui du Dottore de la commedia dell’arte, qu’on trouve dans La Jalousie du Barbouillé (attribuée à Molière), dans Le Dépit amoureux, ou dans Le Bourgeois gentilhomme [Claudine Nédelec]
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