485 research outputs found
Il Carcer nella produzione di Cardano
No full textAlongside a larger analysis of Cardano's moral philosophy since the De consolatione (1542), the essay focuses on the dialogue Carcer, and suggests a relationship between the difficulties encountered by the author in the Duchy of Milan in 1560-61, and the trial of 1570 in Bologna. Special attention is devoted to the philosophical reasons that support in the Carcer the Plutarchean sera numinis vindicta, one of Cardano's favorites topics
L’Istruzione rurale come risorsa nella scuola italiana del Novecento: le maestre Emma D’Ambra e Maria Maltoni
No full textRural education has always been a fundamental pillar for the development of farming communities, contributing to literacy and combating school drop-out. My research study aims to investigate the importance that teaching in rural areas has had in the history of the Italian school, focusing on two schoolteachers: Maria Maltoni (1890-1964), who lived in the early 20th century, and Emma D'Ambra (1935-), who lived in the second half of the 20th century and
who is still alive. In particular, interest is focused on the educational practices that the former undertook in the Tuscan hills of San Gersolè, the latter in the inland villages of Caltanissetta. Although the times and geographical and socio-cultural contexts were different, there are striking similarities between the two experiences. Through a comparative analysis, it emerged how both teachers had played a crucial role in literacy processes and in combating school drop-out in their respective communities, exploiting local resources and cultural traditions to enhance and enrich their children's educational experience. In fact, if Emma D'Ambra, a teacher who taught in the Sicilian hinterland, found herself operating in a community characterised by a strong rural identity and a deep-rooted agricultural history, Maria Maltoni too, despite having found herself operating in a different geographic and socio-cultural context, among the picturesque Tuscan hills, had to face similar challenges; both were therefore able to adapt their pedagogical strategies to the reality of the communities. Rural schools, similar to those attended by Emma and Maria, often operated with limited resources and relied on multi-talented teachers dedicated to their mission. Although the lack of modern infrastructure and the distance from urban centres could make access to education more difficult, especially for families with limited resources, these teachers were able to compensate for the shortcomings with creativity and dedication, actively involving the local communities and exploiting available resources to ensure quality education
Comparing three possible hypoelliptic Laplacians on the 5-dimensional Cartan group via div-curl type estimates
No full textOn general Carnot groups, the definition of a possible hypoelliptic Hodge-Laplacian on forms using
the Rumin complex has been considered in (M. Rumin, “Differential geometry on C-C spaces and application
to the Novikov-Shubin numbers of nilpotent Lie groups,” C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris Sér. I Math., vol. 329, no. 11, pp.
985–990, 1999, M. Rumin, “Sub-Riemannian limit of the differential form spectrum of contactmanifolds,” Geom.
Funct. Anal., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 407–452, 2000), where the author introduced a 0-order pseudodifferential operator
on forms. However, for questions regarding regularity for example, where one needs sharp estimates, this
0-order operator is not suitable. Up to now, there have only been very few attempts to define hypoelliptic Hodge-
Laplacians on forms that would allow for such sharp estimates. Indeed, this question is rather difficult to address
in full generality, the main issue being that the Rumin exterior differential dc is not homogeneous on arbitrary
Carnot groups. In this note, we consider the specific example of the free Carnot group of step 3 with 2 generators,
and we introduce three possible definitions of hypoelliptic Hodge-Laplacians.We compare how these three possible
Laplacians can be used to obtain sharp div-curl type inequalities akin to those considered by Bourgain &
Brezis and Lanzani & Stein for the de Rham complex, or their subelliptic counterparts obtained by Baldi, Franchi
& Pansu for the Rumin complex on Heisenberg groups
Possession
No full textThis chapter of the Historical Latin Syntax traces the evolution and use of predicative possessive constructions from Archaic to Late Latin. We demonstrate that, far from being merely a so-called “be-language”, Latin is a language where the major possessive type is based on a transitive verb (habeo) since the archaic stage. A textual, contrastive analysis of the habeo x and mihi est x types proves that between these two constructions there is a functional differentiation (i.e. syntactic and pragmatic, while the semantic level is relevant only to a minor extent). This, thus, explains: their different occurrence in the Latin corpus; their division-of-labour and, therefore, their coexistence through the history of Latin; and, finally, the diahronic evolution towards the transitive type. A comparison between the mihi est x and the genitive predicative type, which are fully differentiated on a functional plane, completes the picture of the whole architecture of predicative possession in Latin. Consequences can be drawn on the general plane, as “mixted” types (i.e. languages that are both have- and be-), such as Latin, must be taken into consideration when we approach the typology of predicative possession.
An analysis of attributive constructions is then offered, at the light of parameters such as: the order of the elements in the sequence, the definite status of the possessor/possessum constituents of the phrase, the semantic profile of the relation expressed, and the different morphological markers, etc.. Conclusions partly confirm previous hypotheses about the relation between the Latin stage and the Indoeuropean stage, while several generalizations from the typological point of view have to be adjusted (e.g. external possessor constructions).
The part on predicative possession is mainly due to Andrea Nuti; the part on attributive possession mainly to Philip Baldi. However, as the whole chapter is the result of a deep, mutual work carried on in full cooperation, the authors have agreed not to state explicitly and neatly an author-to-pages correspondence
The Resurgence of the Forum Non Conveniens Doctrine in the English (post-Brexit) Jurisprudence with Respect to Transnational Litigation for Corporate Human Rights Violations: The Dyson Case
No full textThe forum non conveniens (FNC) doctrine has notoriously represented a major obstacle for victims of human rights abuses by multinational enterprises (MNEs) to bring their civil claims transnationally before home State courts where overseas rights-holders have more realistic prospects of obtaining substantial justice. The withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union, the ensuing inapplicability of the Brussels I Regulation as of 1 January 2021, and the non-accession of the UK to the Lugano Convention had the effect of reviving the application of English common law rules on jurisdiction and, with them, the relevance of the FNC doctrine as a ground for judges to prevent cases from moving forward before English courts when another more appropriate forum exists. The article critically analyses the recent decision in the Limbu and other v Dyson Technology case, with which the High Court of England and Wales – for the first time after Brexit – dismissed a transnational civil claim involving forced labour allegations on FNC grounds. The case represents a major setback in establishing accountability of MNEs for overseas human rights abuses in their corporate groups and supply chains, and the materialisation of the much-feared negative impact of the revival of FNC on transnational business and human rights claims in English courts
Forum Non Conveniens and Transnational Litigations on Business and Human Rights: The English Court of Appeal's Decision in Limbu v. Dyson
No full textThis article examines the recent decision by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, which rejected the application of the "forum non conveniens" doctrine in "Limbu v. Dyson". The case involves claims brought by Nepalese and Bangladeshi migrant workers alleging forced labour and abusive living conditions at Malaysian factories supplying products and components for Dyson-branded goods. Reversing a previous High Court’s ruling, the Court of Appeal determined that the claims could proceed in England, which was «clearly and distinctly the appropriate forum» to hear the case. In reaching this conclusion, the Court of Appeal gave crucial and overdue consideration to, "inter alia", the major imbalances of power affecting transnational litigation on business and human rights, as well as the role of decision-making (or the lack thereof) by anchor defendants in their place of domicile in establishing the jurisdiction of home state courts. The decision is significant as it appears to reinforce the position of overseas victims of business-related human rights abuses and potentially pave the way for important developments concerning corporate accountability for human rights harms in global supply chains
EMMA 2-A MAGE-compliant system for the collaborative analysis and integration of microarray data
No full textDondrup M, Albaum S, Griebel T, et al. EMMA 2-A MAGE-compliant system for the collaborative analysis and integration of microarray data. BMC Bioinformatics. 2009;10(1): 50.Background: Understanding transcriptional regulation by genome-wide microarray studies can contribute to unravel complex relationships between genes. Attempts to standardize the annotation of microarray data include the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) recommendations, the MAGE-ML format for data interchange, and the use of controlled vocabularies or ontologies. The existing software systems for microarray data analysis implement the mentioned standards only partially and are often hard to use and extend. Integration of genomic annotation data and other sources of external knowledge using open standards is therefore a key requirement for future integrated analysis systems. Results: The EMMA 2 software has been designed to resolve shortcomings with respect to full MAGE-ML and ontology support and makes use of modern data integration techniques. We present a software system that features comprehensive data analysis functions for spotted arrays, and for the most common synthesized oligo arrays such as Agilent, Affymetrix and NimbleGen. The system is based on the full MAGE object model. Analysis functionality is based on R and Bioconductor packages and can make use of a compute cluster for distributed services. Conclusion: Our model-driven approach for automatically implementing a full MAGE object model provides high flexibility and compatibility. Data integration via SOAP-based web-services is advantageous in a distributed client-server environment as the collaborative analysis of microarray data is gaining more and more relevance in international research consortia. The adequacy of the EMMA 2 software design and implementation has been proven by its application in many distributed functional genomics projects. Its scalability makes the current architecture suited for extensions towards future transcriptomics methods based on high-throughput sequencing approaches which have much higher computational requirements than microarrays
Adaptive synchronization in networks with heterogeneous uncertain Kuramoto-like units
No full textWe analyze adaptive synchronization capabilities in networks with Kuramoto-like units whose dynamical features are unknown and thus synchronization protocols must exhibit co-evolution capabilities. In the presence of heterogeneous and uncertain units, synchronization should be enabled by appropriate adaptive protocols that counteract the effect of heterogeneity. An interaction protocol is presented that is used by the units to communicate with each other: the protocol is based on a distributed disagreement measure. The aim of the protocol is to adapt feedback and coupling gains, so as to guarantee the emergence of a synchronous solution. The adaptive strategy is distributed, i.e. each unit self-determines the strength of its gains by using only neighboring measurements. Convergence of the synchronization error to zero is shown via Lyapunov analysis, and numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.Accepted Author ManuscriptTeam Bart De Schutte
Valuing a Leveraged Buyout: Expansion of the Adjusted Present Value by means of Real Options Analysis
No full textA major flaw in using the adjusted present value (APV) method to value the target firm of a leveraged buyout is that it results in systematic undervaluation of the firm in question. The author proposes to remedy the problem by employing real options analysis to expand the target firm's APV on its equity side. Two real options may be identified as being inherent in the leveraged buyout structuring process: a financial default call option and an operating default call option, both of American type. The resulting expanded equity value allows for the flexible management of firm value uncertainty while continuing to incorporate the extra value creation deriving from the exploitation of the tax shield
A distributed disagreement-based protocol for synchronization of uncertain heterogeneous agents
No full textIn networks with heterogeneous and uncertain agents, fixed-gain control can lead to synchronization only if the uncertainties are relatively small. If the uncertainties are larger, we need to develop adaptive-gain approaches to achieve synchronization. In this work we propose an adaptive synchronization protocol, in case of full-state measurement, for uncertain heterogeneous agents based on a distributed disagreement reasoning. Specifically, we first define unknown gains (feedback and coupling gains) that could lead all agents to a homogeneous behavior and thus synchronization: however, since these gains are unknown in view of the unknown dynamics, we design adaptive laws for these gains that lead the agents toward synchronization. The adaptive laws are driven by a disagreement error which is calculated among neighbors: a Lyapunov analysis is presented for showing convergence of the synchronization error to zero.Accepted Author ManuscriptTeam Bart De Schutte
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