Academic literature on the topic 'Analysi'

We offer a new method for analyzing the electromagnetic field scattered from the objects. The method is based on calculating the field gradients in the incidence and scattering space in a bistatic radar scheme. The analysis of the differences between the real target and artificial jam-producing object showed the high sensitivity and efficiency of the method used, because the topology of the two-dimensional field scattering gradients pattern varies significantly for these two objects. We detected substantial polarization dependence of the scattered field gradients, which together with the topological portraits of the scattered field itself make it possible to find a new approach to the target discrimination. The analysis we did allows us to develop a target detection strategy for an artificial object by the controlled change of the incident and scattered angles (viewing angles) in accordance with the laws obtained in topological portraits of the gradients of electromagnetic fields scattered over a wide angular range from the objects. Findings of the research could be helpful in developing specific strategies of polarization bistatic radiolocation based on the gradient analysis method.

The purpose of this research is to find out the besic sector that has fast growth in region Kabupaten Agam. This research is descriptive quantitative research with the method is location quotient analysi, shift share analysi. This research is using sekunder data from PDRB Kabupaten Agam and PDRB Sumatera Barat Province with the permanen price in year 2010 from 2012-2016. Based on the location quotient analysis. The risult showed that there were four sector basic. Sector agrikultural, forestry, fishery, industrial processing, large trade, retail, car and bike repaired, education service. Based on the Shift Share analysis, sectors that have a fast growth rate are forestry and fisheries agriculture, mining and quarrying, construction, large trade, retail, car and bike repaired, transportation and warehousing, information and communication, government administration, mandatory defense and social security , education services, health services and social activities. Keyword: Base Sector, Location Quotient (LQ) analysis, Shift Share analysis

Ukraine and India share a majority of differences whether it is in traditions or the lifestyle. Both countries offer a wide range of comparisons and dissimilarities. India's culture is among the world’s oldest; civilization in India began about 4,500 years ago. Many sources describe it as "Sa Prathama Sanskrati Vishvavara" − the first and the supreme culture in the world [1]. Indians made significant advances in architecture (Taj Mahal), mathematics (the invention of zero) and medicine (Ayurveda). Today, India is a very diverse country, with more than 1.2 billion people, making it the second most populous nation after China [1]. Art, religion, architecture, language, food and fashion are just some of the various aspects of Indian culture. India is also well known for its film industry, which is often referred to as Bollywood. The country's movie history began in 1896 when the Lumière brothers demonstrated the art of cinema in Mumbai [2]. Today, the films are known for their elaborate singing and dancing. Indian dance, music and theater traditions span back more than 2,000 years. The major classical dance traditions − Bharata Natyam, Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam and Kathakali − draw on themes from mythology and literature and have rigid presentation rules [2].

Le deformazioni lente di versante in roccia (DGPV e grandi frane) sono fenomeni diffusi che interessano interi versanti e mobilizzano volumi di roccia anche di miliardi di metri cubi. La loro evoluzione è legata a processi di rottura progressiva sotto forzanti esterne e di accoppiamento idromeccanico, rispecchiate da un complesso processo di creep. Sebbene caratterizzate da bassi tassi di spostamento (fino a pochi cm / anno), queste instabilità di versante danneggiano infrastrutture e ospitano settori potenzialmente soggetti a differenziazione e collasso catastrofico. È quindi necessaria una robusta caratterizzazione del loro stile di attività per determinare il potenziale impatto sugli elementi a rischio e anticipare un eventuale collasso. Tuttavia una metodologia di analisi finalizzata a questo scopo è ancora mancante. In questa prospettiva, abbiamo sviluppato un approccio multiscala che integra dati morfostrutturali, di terreno e tecniche DInSAR, applicandoli allo studio di un inventario di 208 deformazioni lente di versanti mappate in Lombardia. Su questo dataset abbiamo eseguito una mappatura geomorfologica e morfostrutturale di semi dettaglio tramite immagini aeree e DEM. Abbiamo quindi sviluppato un pacchetto di procedure oggettive per lo screening su scala di inventario delle deformazioni lente di versante integrando dati di velocità di spostamento, cinematica e di danneggiamento dell’ammasso roccioso per ogni frana. Utilizzando dataset PS-InSAR e SqueeSAR, abbiamo sviluppato una procedura mirata a identificare in maniera semiautomatica la velocità InSAR rappresentativa, il grado di segmentazione e l'eterogeneità interna di ogni frana mappata identificando la presenza di possibili fenomeni secondari. Utilizzando la tecnica 2DInSAR e tecniche di machine learning, abbiamo inoltre sviluppato un approccio automatico caratterizzare la cinematica di ciascuna frana. I dati così ottenuti sono stati integrati tramite analisi di PCA e K-medoid per identificare gruppi di frane caratterizzati da stili di attività simili. Partendo dai risultati della classificazione su scala regionale, ci siamo poi concentrati su 3 casi di studio emblematici, le DGPV di Corna Rossa, Mt. Mater e Saline, rappresentativi di problematiche tipiche delle grandi frane (segmentazione spaziale, attività eterogenea, sensibilità alle forzanti idrologiche). Applicando un approccio DInSAR mirato abbiamo indagato la risposta del versante a diverse baseline temporali per evidenziare le eterogeneità spaziali e, tramite un nuovo approccio di stacking su basline temporali lunghe abbiamo estrattoi segnali di spostamento permanenti ed evidenziato i settori e le strutture con evoluzione differenziale. Lo stesso approccio DInSAR è stato utilizzato per studiare la sensibilità delle deformazioni lente di versante alle forzanti idrologiche. Il confronto tra i tassi di spostamento stagionale e le serie temporali di precipitazioni e scioglimento neve per il monte. Mater e Saline hanno delineato complessi trend di spostamento stagionale. Queste tendenze, più evidenti per i settori più superficiali, evidenziano una risposta maggiore a periodi prolungati di precipitazione modulati dagli effetti dello scioglimento della neve. Ciò suggerisce che le DGPV, spesso considerate non influenzate dalla forzante climatica a breve termine (pluriennale), sono sensibili a input idrologici, con implicazioni chiave nell'interpretazione del loro fallimento progressivo. I nostri risultati hanno dimostrato l'efficacia della metodologia multi-scala proposta, che sfrutta i prodotti DInSAR e l'analisi mirata per identificare, classificare e caratterizzare l'attività delle deformazioni lente di versante includendo dati geologici in tutte le fasi dell'analisi. Il nostro approccio, è applicabile a diversi contesti e dataset e fornisce gli strumenti per indagare processi chiave in uno studio finalizzato alla definizione del rischio connesso alle deformazioni lente di versante.
Slow rock slope deformations (DSGSDs and large landslides) are widespread, affect entire hillslopes and displace volumes up to billions of cubic meters. They evolve over long time by progressive failure processes, under variable climatic and hydro-mechanical coupling conditions mirrored by a complex creep behaviour. Although characterized by low displacement rates (up to few cm/yr), these slope instabilities damage sensitive structures and host nested sectors potentially undergoing rockslide differentiation and collapse. A robust characterization of the style of activity of slow rock slope deformations is required to predict their interaction with elements at risk and anticipate possible failure, yet a comprehensive methodology to this aim is still lacking. In this perspective, we developed a multi-scale methodology integrating geomorphological mapping, field data and different DInSAR techniques, using an inventory of 208 slow rock slope deformations in Lombardia (Italian Central Alps), for which we performed a geomorphological and morpho-structural mapping on aerial images and DEMs. On the regional scale, we developed an objective workflow for the inventory-scale screening of slow-moving landslides. The approach is based on a refined definition of activity that integrates the displacement rate, kinematics and degree of internal damage for each landslide. Using PS-InSAR and SqueeSAR datasets, we developed an original peak analysis of InSAR displacement rates to characterize the degree of segmentation and heterogeneity of mapped phenomena, highlight the occurrence of sectors with differential activity and derive their characteristic displacement rates. Using 2DInSAR velocity decomposition and machine learning classification, we set up an original automatic approach to characterize the kinematics of each landslides. Then, we sequentially combine PCA and K-medoid cluster analysis to identify groups of landslides characterized by consistent styles of activity, accounting for all the relevant aspects including velocity, kinematics, segmentation, and internal damage. Starting from the results of regional-scale classification, we focused on the Corna Rossa, Mt. Mater and Saline DSGSDs, that are emblematic case studies on which apply DInSAR analysis to investigate typical issues in large landslide studies (spatial segmentation, heterogenous activity, sensitivity to hydrological triggers). We applied a targeted DInSAR technique on multiple temporal baselines to unravel the spatial heterogeneities of complex DSGSDs and through a novel stacking approach on raw long temporal baseline interferograms, we outlined the permanent displacement signals and sectors with differential evolution as well as individual active structures. We then used DInSAR to investigate the possible sensitivity of slow rock slope deformations to hydrological triggers. Comparison between seasonal displacement rates, derived by interferograms with targeted temporal baselines, and time series of precipitation and snowmelt at the Mt. Mater and Saline ridge outlined complex temporally shifted seasonal displacement trends. These trends, more evident for shallower nested sectors, outline dominant controls by prolonged precipitation periods modulated by the effects of snowmelt. This suggests that DSGSDs, often considered insensitive to short-term (pluri-annual) climatic forcing, may respond to hydrological triggering, with key implication in the interpretation of their progressive failure. Our results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed multi-scale methodology that exploits DInSAR products and targeted processing to identify, classify and characterize the activity of slow rock slope deformation at different levels of details by including geological data in all the analysis stages. Our approach, readily applicable to different settings and datasets, provides the tools to solve key scientific issues in a geohazard-oriented study of slow rock slope deformations.

This thesis deals with the strategic management in a particular Italian industry: the mining sector. It is proposed an integrated methodology to implement a competitive analysis to explore trends in the mining sector in terms of business strategies adopted and strategic groups existent. The methodology uses secondary sources to make an environmental analysis and an accounting one. This second type makes use of key performance indicators of the sector as well as highlights the distribution of firms throughout the country. The research provides also information from a questionnaire about production, management, competitiveness, internationalization, innovation, recycling and environmental sustainability of enterprises behavior. Through PCA - Principal Component Analysis some positioning maps were created to identify strategic groups on the basis of four latent variables: competitive advantages, goals, tools and future investments. The design of research aims to bring out not only the Italian mining industry profile, but also to delineate its lineages and possible developments.

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Dissertacao (Mestrado)
IPEN/D
Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

According to the fundamental Stone-Weierstrass theorem, if X is a finite dimensional real Banach space, then every continuous function on the unit ball B_X can be uniformly approximated by polynomials. For infinite dimensional Banach spaces the statement of the Stone-Weierstrass Theorem is false, even if we replace continuous functions by the uniformly continuous ones (which is a natural condition that coincides with continuity in the finite dimensional setting): in fact, on every infinite-dimensional Banach space X there exists a uniformly continuous real function not approximable by continuous polynomials. The natural problem of the proper generalization of the result for infinite dimensional spaces was posed by Shilov (in the case of a Hilbert space). Aron observed that the uniform closure on B_X of the space of all polynomials of the finite type is precisely the space of all functions which are weakly uniformly continuous on B_X. Since there exist infinite dimensional Banach spaces such that all bounded polynomials are weakly uniformly continuous on B_X (e.g. C_0 or more generally all Banach spaces not containing a copy of l_1 and such that all bounded polynomials are weakly sequentially continuous on B_X), this result gives a very satisfactory solution to the problem. Unfortunately, most Banach spaces, including L_p, do not have this special property. In this case, no characterization of the uniform limits of polynomials is known. But the problem has a more subtle formulation as well. Let us consider the algebras consisting of all polynomials which can be generated by finitely many algebraic operations of addition and multiplication, starting from polynomials on X of degree not exceeding n. Of course, such polynomials can have arbitrarily high degree. It is clear that, if n is the lowest degree such that there exists a polynomial P which is not weakly uniformly continuous, then the we have equalities among the algebras up to n-1 and then we have a strict inclusion. The problem of what happens from n on has been studied in several papers. The natural conjecture appears to be that once the chain of eualities has been broken, it is going to be broken at each subsequent step. The proof of this latter statement given by Hajek in 1996, for all classical Banach spaces, based on the theory of algebraic bases, is unfortunately not entirely correct, as was pointed out by our colleague Michal Johanis. It is not clear to us if the theory of algebraic bases developed therein can be salvaged. Fortunately, the main statement of this theory can be proved using another approach. The complete proof can be found in this thesis. Most of the results in this area are therefore safe. The main result of this thesis implies all previously known results in this area (all confirming the above conjecture) as special cases. We also give solutions to three other problems posed in the literature, which are concerning smooth functions rather than polynomials, but which belong to the same field of study of smooth mappings on a Banach space. The first result is a construction of a non-equivalent C^k-smooth norm on every Banach space admitting a C^k-smooth norm, answering a problem posed in several places in the literature. We solve a another question by proving that a real Banach space admitting a separating real analytic function whose holomorphic extension is Lipschitz in some strip around X admits a separating polynomial. Eventually, we solve a problem posed by Benyamini and Lindenstrauss, concerning the extensions of uniformly differentiable functions from the unit ball into a larger set, preserving the values in some neighbourhood of the origin. More precisely, we construct an example of a uniformly differentiable real-valued function f on the unit ball of a certain Banach space X, such that there exists no uniformly differentiable function g on cB_X for any c>1 which coincides with f in some neighbourhood of the origin. To do so, we construct suitable renormings of c_0, based on the theory of W-spaces.

The use of models to study the behavior of systems is common to all fields. A behavioral model formalizes and abstracts the view of a system and gives insight about the behavior of the system being developed. In the software field, behavioral models can support software engineering tasks. In particular, relevant uses of behavioral models are included in all the main analysis and testing activities: models are used in program comprehension to complement the information available in specifications, are used in testing to ease test case generation, used as oracles to verify the correctness of the executions, and are used as failure detection to automatically identify anomalous behaviors. When behavioral models are not part of specifications, automated approaches can automatically derive behavioral models from programs. The degree of completeness and soundness of the generated models depends from the kind of inferred model and the quality of the data available for the inference. When model inference techniques do not work well or the data available for the inference are poor, the many testing and analysis techniques based on these models will necessarily provide poor results. This PhD thesis concentrates on the problem of inferring Finite State Automata (the model that is likely most used to describe the behavior of software systems) that describe the behavior of programs and components and can be useful as support for testing and analysis activities. The thesis contributes to the state of the art by: (1) Empirically studying the effectiveness of techniques for the inference of FSAs when a variable amount of information (from scarce to good) is available for the inference; (2) Empirically comparing the effectiveness of techniques for the inference of FSAs and Extended FSAs; (3) Proposing a white-box technique that infers FSAs from service-based applications by starting from a complete model and then refining the model by incrementally removing inconsistencies; (4) Proposing a black-box technique that infers FSAs by starting from a partial model and then incrementally producing additional information to increase the completeness of the model.

Il Breeding Blanket (BB) del reattore DEMO rappresenta un sistema complesso in un ambiente pericoloso. Infatti, esso deve soddisfare diversi requisiti e vincoli ingegneristici sia di tipo nucleare, termo-strutturale che di sicurezza. Per questi motivi, è necessaria una progettazione omnicomprensiva che preveda l'applicazione di strumenti avanzati di simulazione basati su approcci multi-fisici. Questi strumenti devono eseguire simultaneamente diversi tipi di analisi. Tre di esse possono essere considerate prioritarie e propedeutiche per lo studio di tutti gli altri fenomeni riguardanti il BB, vale a dire l´analisi nucleare, termo-fluidodinamica e strutturale. In questa tesi, è proposto un innovativo approccio multi-fisico che copre i tre pilastri principali su cui è basato il progetto del BB (la neutronica, la termoidraulica e la termo-meccanica). Queste analisi devono essere condotte in maniera integrata, consentendo una valutazione olistica dei carichi volumetrici di potenza, delle prestazioni termiche sia del fluido di raffreddamento che delle strutture, nonché dei campi di tensione e deformazione. La strategia seguita per il conseguimento di questa sfida consiste nella creazione di una procedura “CAD-centric” e “loosely-coupled” (debolmente accoppiata) per la progettazione dei concetti di BB utilizzando una tecnica di analisi basata su sotto-modelli. Questa procedura prende il nome di Multi-physics Approach for Integrated Analysis (MAIA). Essa basa la sua architettura sull'uso di codici validati e sulla minimizzazione del loro numero. In particolare, MAIA è articolata in 10 fasi principali che vanno dalla creazione di un modello per le analisi nucleari generato dalla decomposizione in geometrie semplici di un generico CAD alla valutazione della potenza volumetrica, dal calcolo dei campi di temperatura e velocità nella struttura e nel refrigerante alla valutazione dei campi di spostamento, deformazione e stress, dalla stima dei tassi di produzione degli isotopi dell´azoto prodotti dall'attivazione dell'ossigeno presente nell'acqua al calcolo della loro distribuzione spaziale di concentrazione tenendo conto degli effetti del trasporto convettivo. Tutti i vari passaggi condividono gli stessi dettagli geometrici. In particolare, MAIA differisce dagli approcci convenzionali usati nell´accoppiamento multi-fisico su tre aspetti chiave. Innanzitutto, non introduce omogeneizzazioni dei modelli e dei carichi. In secondo luogo, MAIA permette di determinare, con un’alta risoluzione spaziale, i gradienti dei carichi per tutte le analisi coinvolte senza richiedere sforzi computazionali proibitivi. In terzo luogo, MAIA permette di mantenere la coerenza tra le tre analisi garantendo la congruenza tra gli input e gli output. Tuttavia, l´onere computazionale richiesto dall´approccio CAD-centric, su cui si basa la procedura MAIA, non permette di rappresentare il BB nel suo complesso ma solo alcune sue porzioni (una slice, per esempio). Ciò impone la definizione e, conseguentemente, la validazione di opportune condizioni al contorno per ogni sotto-modello utilizzato e per ogni analisi eseguita. A tal proposito, per quanto riguarda le analisi nucleari, le condizioni al contorno utilizzate nel modello locale della slice sono: definizione di una sorgente locale neutronica/fotonica per tener in conto l´effetto albedo dell´intero reattore, rappresentazione del Vacuum Vessel (VV) per simulare il back scattering verso il BB, e l´applicazione di condizioni di riflessione (“mirror”, specchio/simmetria, nella direzione poloidale e “white”, riflessione isotropica, in quella toroidale) per simulare la presenza delle slice adiacenti a quella analizzata. I risultati ottenuti mostrano una variazione della potenza depositata del -0.48 % tra il modello di riferimento DEMO e quello locale (slice). Inoltre, è stata eseguita un'analisi di sensibilità sulla distribuzione angolare della sorgente neutronica/fotonica locale determinando una discretizzazione ottimale in 10 suddivisioni poloidali. Questa suddivisione rappresenta un buon compromesso sia in termini di fedeltà dei risultati ottenuti, rispetto a quelli del modello di riferimento (DEMO), che di minimizzazione dell´onere computazionale. Per quanto riguarda l'analisi delle condizioni al contorno termo-idrauliche usate nel modello locale della slice, è stata applicata una condizione di simmetria termica poloidale. Assumendo una variazione delle portate comprese tra ~ -1.3% e ~ 0.6% e una fluttuazione della densità di potenza fino a ~ 6% tra slice vicine, è stata ottenuta una variazione della distribuzione delle temperature del ± 2.4% dimostrando, quindi, l'applicabilità di tali condizioni. Per quanto riguarda le analisi termo-meccaniche, le condizioni al contorno identificate per il modello locale della slice sono: simmetria sul piano inferiore della slice, Generalised Plane Strain su quello superiore e spostamenti radiali e toroidali impediti ai nodi che giacciono nella parte posteriore della back supporting structure lungo la direzione toroidale e poloidale. Queste condizioni, applicate al sotto-modello, producono una variazione compresa tra il -6% e il 4% tra gli spostamenti calcolati nella slice e quelli nel modello di riferimento DEMO, nonché una stima conservativa delle tensioni primarie e secondarie sia di membrana che di flessione. Inoltre, è stato anche studiato l'impatto della variazione (± 2.4%) di temperatura dimostrando che le fluttuazioni sulle deformazioni totale sono comprese tra il -0.3% e l’1.7%, fino a un massimo del 15% sulle tensioni equivalenti di membrana e tra il -7% e il 5% su quelle di flessione. Infine, la procedura MAIA è stata utilizzata per valutare l'impatto sul design del BB. La sua applicazione ha dimostrato la presenza di alcune criticità nel progetto. In particolare, i risultati fluidodinamici mostrano una violazione dei limiti di temperatura che non sono stati risolti introducendo soluzioni progettuali adeguate. Inoltre, queste violazioni producono, a loro volta, valori molto intensi delle tensioni equivalenti di Von Mises che potrebbero indicare un pericolo per l'integrità strutturale del BB. L´applicazione di MAIA al design del BB a permesso di dimostrare il valore aggiunto di questa procedura la quale potrebbe diventare uno strumento fondamentale e di riferimento per la progettazione del BB. Inoltre, la procedura MAIA ha permesso di mappare localmente variabili importanti come flussi neutronici e temperature, nonché le tensioni primarie e secondarie che sono utilizzate per la determinazione delle tensioni ammissibili applicate per la verifica dei criteri di progettazione. Al fine di dimostrare ulteriormente la versatilità e l'adattabilità della procedura MAIA, è stato studiato il problema di attivazione dell'acqua del sistema di trasferimento di calore primario (Primary Heat Transfer System, PHTS). Utilizzando la procedura MAIA, è stato possibile prendere in considerazione gli effetti dell´efflusso sulla concentrazione degli isotopi dell´azoto e fornire informazioni utili per lo sviluppo sia del design del BB che del suo PHTS.
The Breeding Blanket (BB) of the DEMO reactor represents a harsh system in a dangerous environment. It has to satisfy engineering requirements and constraints that are of nuclear, thermo-structural, material and safety kind. For these reasons, the application of advanced simulation tools, based on a multi-physics approach, is required for its comprehensive design. These tools have to simultaneously perform different kind of analyses among which three, and namely nuclear, thermofluid-dynamic and thermo-mechanical, can be prioritized and considered as propaedeutic for the investigation of all the other issues related to the BB. In this dissertation, a multi-physic approach, covering the three pillars of the BB design (the neutronics, thermal-hydraulics and thermo-mechanics), is proposed. These analyses have to be conducted in a strongly integrated way, allowing a holistic assessment of volumetric heat loads, thermal performances of coolant and structures as well as their stress and deformation states. The strategy, followed for the achievement of this challenge, consists of creating a CAD-centric and loosely-coupled procedure for the BB concepts design adopting a sub-modelling technique, named Multi-physics Approach for Integrated Analysis (MAIA). The MAIA procedure bases its architecture on the use of validated codes and on the minimisation of their number. It is articulated in 10 main steps that go from the decomposition of generic CAD in a format suitable for neutron/photon transport analysis to the nuclear analysis for the assessment of volumetric heating, from the assessment of temperature and velocity fields within coolant and structure to the evaluation of their displacement, deformation and stress fields, from the evaluation of nitrogen isotopes production rates from water oxygen activation to the calculation of their concentration spatial distribution taking into account the effects of passive convective transport. All the steps share the same geometry details and the consistency between input and output parameters. The new MAIA procedure differs from the conventional coupling approach with respect to three key aspects. First, it does not introduce homogenisations of models and loads. Second, MAIA can capture load gradients at high resolution in the three directions for all the analysis involved without requiring prohibitive computational efforts. And third, MAIA keeps the consistency between the three analyses maintaining the congruence between inputs and outputs. However, the computational effort required by the CAD-centric feature of MAIA procedure imposes the representation of BB portions and, therefore, the definition and validation of boundary conditions for each performed calculation. Regarding the nuclear analysis, it has been found that the set of reflecting and white conditions in the poloidal and toroidal directions, respectively, together with the presence of Vacuum Vessel (VV) and the definition of local neutron and photon source, produces a mismatch of -0.48 % in terms of power deposition between the DEMO and the local (e.g. slice) models. It has been demonstrated that the neutronic symmetry conditions are valid in the entire module up to the last slices nearby the caps. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis on the angular distribution of local neutron and photon source has been performed indicating in 10 cosine bins the optimal discretisation choice in terms of compromise between the fidelity of the results obtained respect to those of the reference model and the relevant computational effort. Concerning the analysis of thermal-hydraulic boundary conditions, it has been found that the variation on mass flow rates (comprised between the ~-1.3 % and the ~0.6 %) as well as power density fluctuation (up to the ~6 % in the neighbouring domains) affect the temperature distribution for less than ±2.4 % demonstrating the applicability of poloidal symmetry conditions. As far as the thermo-mechanical analyses are concerned, it has been identified the set of boundary conditions (radial and toroidal displacements prevented to the nodes lying in the rear of the back supporting structure along the toroidal and poloidal direction, symmetry at the lower cut surface and Generalised Plane Strain to the top one) that produce a discrepancy in terms of displacement in the sub-model comprised between the -6 % and the 4 % as well as a conservative assessment of membrane and bending stresses both for primary and secondary stresses. The impact of the temperature variation has also been investigated showing that the fluctuations on total deformation are comprised between -0.3 % and the 1.7 %, on equivalent membrane stress up to 15 % while on equivalent bending stress between the -7 % and the 5 %. As a proof-of-concept, the MAIA procedure has been then used to evaluate the impact on the BB design, demonstrating that some criticalities are present in the design. In particular, the fluid-dynamic results show a violation of the temperature requirement limits that have not been solved introducing proper design solutions. Furthermore, these violations of thermal-hydraulic requirements produce very intense values of Von Mises equivalent stresses that could jeopardize the structural integrity of the segment box. This demonstrates that MAIA procedure can become the reference tool for the design of the BB. Moreover, the MAIA procedure has proven the possibility to locally map important variables such as the neutron flux and the temperature as well as the primary and secondary stress that are used for the determination of the allowable stress and applied for compering with design criteria. In order to further demonstrate the versatility and adaptability of the MAIA procedure, the water activation issue occurring within the blanket Primary Heat Transfer System (PHTS) has been studied. Using MAIA procedure, it has been possible to take into account the effects of the flow on the nitrogen concentration and to provide useful information for the development of both BB design and its PHTS.

The huge amount of textual data on theWeb has grown in the last few years rapidly creating unique contents of massive dimensions that constitutes fertile ground for Sentiment Analysis. In particular, social networks represents an emerging challenging sector where the natural language expressions of people can be easily reported through short but meaningful text messages. This unprecedented contents of huge dimensions need to be efficiently and effectively analyzed to create actionable knowledge for decision making processes. A key information that can be grasped from social environments relates to the polarity of text messages, i. e. the sentiment (positive, negative or neutral) that the messages convey. However, most of the works regarding polarity classification usually consider text as unique information to infer sentiment, do not taking into account that social networks are actually networked environments. A representation of real world data where instances are considered as homogeneous, independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) leads us to a substantial loss of information and to the introduction of a statistical bias. For this reason, the combination of content and relationships is a core task of the recent literature on Sentiment Analysis, where friendships are usually investigated to model the principle of homophily (a contact among similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people). However, paired with the assumption of homophily, constructuralism explains how social relationships evolve via dynamic and continuous interactions as the knowledge and behavior that two actors share increase. Considering the similarity among users on the basis of constructuralism appears to be a much more powerful force than interpersonal influence within the friendship network. As first contribution, this Ph.D. thesis proposes Approval Network as a novel graph representation to jointly model homophily and constructuralism, which is intended to better represent the contagion on social networks. Starting from the classical state-of-the-art methodologies where only text is used to infer the polarity of social networks messages, this thesis presents novel Probabilistic Relational Models on user, document and aspect-level which integrate the structural information to improve classification performance. The integration is particularly useful when textual features do not provide sufficient or explicit information to infer sentiment (e. g., I agree!). The experimental investigations reveal that incorporating network information through approval relations can lead to statistically significant improvements over the performance of complex learning approaches based only on textual features.

Gli estrogeni, legandosi ai propri recettori estrogenici (ERs), influenzano un’enorme varietà di cellule tra cui quelle del sistema immunitario. Quando la produzione di estrogeni cessa, alcune donne possono manifestare patologie come l’osteoporosi, l’aterosclerosi e le malattie neurodegenerative, tutte caratterizzate da una forte e incontrollata risposta infiammatoria. L’infiammazione è per lo più guidata dai macrofagi, che sono in grado di captare ogni segnale dal microambiente in cui risiedono e di andare in contro a modificazioni fenotipiche e metaboliche che gli permettono di rimuovere gli insulti e di riparare e risolvere il danno tissutale. Esistono diverse evidenze che dimostrano come il 17β-estradiolo sia in grado di regolare la risposta infiammatoria e di ripristinare l’omeostasi tissutale attraverso la modulazione diretta dei macrofagi. Tuttavia, attualmente la conoscenza del meccanismo di azione dell’estrogeno sui macrofagi e la precisa identità dei geni target degli estrogeni appare limitata, dal momento che gli studi a riguardo si basano su modelli sperimentali di condizioni infiammatorie. Con l’obiettivo di identificare tutti i geni e i pathways cellulari coinvolti nella regolazione dell’omeostasi del macrofago in risposta all’estrogeno senza nessun altro stimolo, è stato condotto uno studio dell’espressione genica estesa a tutto il genoma (genome wide-gene expression study) su cellule macrofagiche peritoneali isolate da topi trattati in vivo con estrogeno. Inizialmente abbiamo identificato nel macrofago isolato dal peritoneo di topi femmina trattati con estrogeno in vivo, il modello cellulare macrofagico più fedele alle condizioni fisiologiche. Successivamente abbiamo condotto l’analisi di espressione genica della risposta macrofagica all’estrogeno. Con l’obiettivo di mantenere il più possibile le condizioni fisiologiche, abbiamo trattato i topi con concentrazioni fisiologiche di 17β-estradiolo (5μg/kg) in vivo per 3 o 24 ore e sui loro macrofagi peritoneali è stata condotta l’analisi di espressione genica. I gruppi sperimentali sono stati scelti in relazione al contenuto estrogenico endogeno. In particolare, abbiamo utilizzato: Gruppo 1- femmine in Metaestro (ME), con i più bassi livelli di estrogeni nel sangue; Gruppo 2- femmine in Estro (E), che rappresenta la fase del ciclo estrale temporalmente più prossima all’incremento fisiologico di estrogeni endogeni che si verifica durante la fase di Proestro immediatmente precedente; Gruppo 3- femmine in Metaestro trattate per 3 ore con un’iniezione sottocutanea di 17β-estradiolo (ME+3hE2); Gruppo 4- femmine in Metaestro trattate per 24 ore con un’iniezione sottocutanea di 17β-estradiolo (ME+24hE2). Allo scopo di isolare i macrofagi peritoneali, sono state utilizzate biglie magnetiche pre-caricate con anticorpi contro la proteina CD11b. Successivamente, abbiamo ottenuto una lista di geni target dell’estrogeno, i quali appaiono differenzialmente regolati nelle quattro diverse condizioni ormonali analizzate. Attraverso analisi bioinformatiche e bibliometriche, abbiamo ottenuto delle indicazioni sui possibili pathways funzionali regolati dall’estrogeno nei macrofagi peritoneali. I risultati di queste analisi hanno portato all’identificazione di possibili geni target dell’estrogeno nei macrofagi, che possono essere suddivisi in geni precocemente, tardivamente e persistentemente regolati, e che possono essere considerati come target diretti dell’azione degli estrogeni nei macrofagi. Ulteriori studi sui dettagli molecolari dell’azione degli estrogeni nei macrofagi potranno far luce sul ruolo biologico di questi ormoni in vivo e potranno portare all’identificazione di nuove terapie e target terapeutici. La conoscenza di nuovi meccanismi attraverso i quali l’estrogeno regola l’attività dei macrofagi è utile per iniziare a capire il ruolo fisiologico del legame tra estrogeno e macrofagi, possibilmente espandendo queste informazioni alle condizioni patologiche infiammatorie in cui è noto il coinvolgimento dell’estrogeno, come l’endometriosi, i tumori dell’utero, l’infertilità e le patologie del tratto riproduttivo.
Estrogen hormones, binding to estrogen receptors (ERs), influence a wide variety of cell types including those of the immune system. When estrogen production ceases, women may suffer of pathologies that are all associated with a strong and disregulated inflammatory response, such as osteoporosis, atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases. Inflammation is mainly driven by macrophages that are able to sense any microenvironment signals and undergo a metabolic and phenotypic adaptations that allow them to remove the insult, repair and resolve tissue damage. Several reports have showed that 17b-estradiol regulates the inflammatory response and restoration the tissue homeostasis through a direct modulation of macrophages. Neverthless, current knowledge on E2 action in macrophages and the identity of estrogen target genes appears limitated since is based on experimental models of inflammatory condition. With the aim to identify the identity of all genes and cellular pathways that are involved in the homeostatic regulation of macrophages in response to estrogen alone, a genome wide-gene expression study of peritoneal macrophages of mice treated in vivo with E2 was performed. In particular, we first identified the most faithful macrophage model to perform such study, represented by macrophages isolated from the peritoneum of female mice treated with estrogen in vivo. Successively, we performed a gene expression analysis of the response macrophages to estrogen stimulus alone. In order to maintain physiological conditions, we treated mice with physiological concentration of 17b-estradiol (5μg/kg) in vivo for 3 or 24 hours and their peritoneal macrophages were then analyzed by gene expression. The experimental groups were chosen according to the endogenous estrogen content. We used: Groups 1-Metaestrous (ME) with lowest levels of estrogen; 2- Estrous (E), that represents the closest phase in proximity to endogenous increase of estrogen that occurs in Proestrous; 3-Metaestrous treated with a SC injection for 3h with 17β-estradiol (ME+3hE2); and 4- Metaestrous treated with a SC injection for 24h with 17β-estradiol (ME+24hE2);. Magnetic beads pre-loaded with antibodies against CD11b were used to isolated peritoneal macrophages. Successively, we obtained a list of estrogen target genes, which appear differential regulated among the four hormonal conditions analyzed. In addition, by performing bioinformatic and bibliometric analyses, we obtained indications of functional pathways regulated by estrogen in peritoneal macrophages. Results lead to the identification of possible estrogen target genes in macrophages, that can be grouped in early, late and persistently regulated genes, and can be considered as direct targets of estrogen action in macrophages. More studies on the molecular details of estrogen action in macrophages will shed more light on the biological role of these hormones in vivo and the identification of novel therapies and therapeutics targets. The knowledge of new mechanisms by which estrogen regulates the activity of macrophages will be useful to start understanding the physiologic role of this interplay, possibly expanding these information to pathologic inflammatory conditions in which estrogen is also involved, such as in endometriosis, uterine tumors, infertility and reproductive pathologies.

The following paper presents a global methodology to analyze the set of results generated by a probabilistic analysis. The approach regroups traditional analyses such as Sensitivity Analysis (SA), Uncertainty Analysis (UA), and stability analysis as well as sensitivity studies (both deterministic and probabilistic) with enhanced sampling techniques (double loop to separate aleatory from epistemic uncertainty, importance sampling, adaptive sampling) in an incremental set of steps, with the goal to give the analyst and decision maker the most comprehensive and defensible collection of results. An example using the xLPR code and a selected scenario is used to illustrate each step of the approach.

Review question / Objective: Is gastric helicobacter pylori infection related to periodontal diseases? Condition being studied: Therefore, the aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to identify and analyze clinical studies to determine the direct correlation between Helicobacter Pylori gastric infection andPeriodontal Disease. Study designs to be included: Clinical studies that provided data on Helicobacter Pylori infection in both the stomach and oral cavity, confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), rapid urease test (RUT) or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Clinical studies that associated PD with Helicobacter Pylori. The diagnosis of PD was confirmed ac-cording to the diagnostic criteria in periodontology.

In recent years, Indonesia has introduced reforms to its bureaucracy in response to critiques of the quality of government policy design and delivery. The Grand Design of Bureaucratic Reform strategy seeks to reduce the number of civil servants employed in administrative or managerial positions (structural appointments) in favour of skills-based recruitment into ‘functional’ positions. Specifically, the introduction of the ‘policy analyst’ position as a functional position in the civil service has sought to improve evidence-based policy making and the quality of policy outcomes, by incorporating merit-based recruitment, appointment and promotion. The role of functional policy analysts (Jabatan Fungsional Analis Kebijakan or JFAKs) is to assist policy makers in identifying policy issues, analyse evidence available on these issues, and ultimately make policy recommendations. This report overviews the recent experiences of different policy analyst cohorts since the role’s creation in 2015. It investigates these experiences to better understand the extent to which policy analysts are playing the role intended for them, and the factors enabling or inhibiting this.

Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) has a participatory and child-centred approach that supports children to gather evidence, analyse it themselves and generate solutions to the problems they identify. The life story collection and collective analysis processes supported children and young people involved in the worst forms of child labour in Kathmandu to share and analyse their life stories. Four hundred life stories were collected and then analysed by children and young people engaged in and affected by the worst forms of child labour, including those who had previously been life storytellers and/or life story collectors. The data was collectively analysed using causal mapping, resulting in children’s life stories becoming the evidence base for revealing the macro-level system dynamics that drive the worst forms of child labour. This paper is a record of the children and young people’s analysis of the life stories and the key themes they identified, which formed the basis of a series of eight child-led Participatory Action Research groups based in Kathmandu.

This study uses an exploratory research methodology to analyse the efficiency of carbon pricing policies in driving sustainable development by effectively reducing carbon emissions, encouraging research and development of alternative energy sources and innovations. The study also attempts to assess the impact of carbon pricing as a driver for inclusive growth. This is through the analysis of relevant indicators to evaluate the distributive policies used by the governments to mitigate the disproportionate effect of lower income households is analysed