L’elaborato tratta il rapporto di agenzia in un’ottica giuslavoristica. La prima parte dello scritto insiste sull’inquadramento normativo prendendo in considerazione lo sviluppo della normativa sia convenzionale che legale. In particolare si è valutato se vi fosse una possibile analogia tra l’efficacia degli AEC e quella dei CCNL rispetto al contratto individuale. Successivamente si sono analizzate figure simili all’agente come il procacciatore d’affari o il promoter finanziario per evidenziarne le differenze tale da non poter definire l’agente mero lavoratore autonomo. In seguito si sono rilevate le analogia con il rapporto di lavoro subordinato in particolare sull’applicazione delle clausole generali inerenti lo svolgimento del rapporto medesimo come la buona fede e la diligenza. Infine particolari analogie si sono riscontrate nell’aspetto conclusivo del rapporto. innegabili, se non nelle conseguenze almeno nelle cause. Da ultimo sono state trattate le analogie sia nell’aspetto previdenziale che processuale. L’elaborato ha voluto ricercare la voluntas regulandi del legislatore nel disciplinare il rapporto di agenzia il quale si presta ad essere utilizzato sia da imprese di capitali sia da singole persone fisiche. La ricerca effettuata ha fatto dedurre che il legislatore abbia voluto tutelare, nel caso dell’agente persona fisica, non solo interessi economici ma anche i diritti della persona mutuando, in quest’ultimo caso, la disciplina del diritti del lavoro. / The paper discusses the relationship of agency labor law perspective . The first part of the paper insists on the regulatory framework taking into account the development of both conventional and legal regulations . In particular, we examined whether there was a possible analogy between the effectiveness of the ERM and that of the national collective bargaining agreement with respect to the individual contract . Subsequently, we analyzed similar figures to the agent as the intermediary or financial promoter to highlight the differences that they can not define the agent merely self-employed. Then are recognized the analogy with the employment relationship , in particular, on the application of general clauses relating to the conduct of the relationship itself as the good faith and diligence . Finally the particular similarities were found in the appearance of the final report. undeniable , if not in the consequences at least in the cases . Finally, the similarities were treated both in social security that reason . The paper wanted to search the voluntas regulandi of the legislature in regulating the agency relationship which lends itself to be used by businesses of capital from both individual natural persons . The research did conclude that the legislature intended to protect, in the case of the agent individual, not only economic interests but also the rights of the person borrowing , in the last case , the regulation of labor rights.

Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects are becoming more complex in terms of client requirements, stakeholder issues, physical, budget and time constraints, and safety and environmental concerns. These constraints have spawned ad-hoc innovations in some AEC projects, without structured frameworks for their assessment, resulting in varying success for these innovations. The primary goal of the thesis is to test an existing framework for evaluating innovative design and construction technologies for high-rise buildings by way of a case-study. The case study is a48-story structure (with an 8-level sub-grade parkade) in a downtown setting with significant constraints and challenges. Unlike most other assessment frameworks which are single-issue based (financial, cost, time or risk), a holistic method that captures a broad range of critical issues at the micro and macro levels is used to screen a number of construction innovations. The process highlights the primary difficulty in balancing stakeholder issues, technical/engineering requirements and project goals in assessing the overall feasibility and net benefits of an innovation. As a useful tool, it facilitates the engineering/technical judgment of proposed innovations and provides evidence of a sufficient trade-off between incremental 'cost and benefits' to justify a detailed evaluation and possible subsequent use of a subset of the innovations that passed successfully through a tiered first stage evaluation process. A secondary objective is to propose appropriate quantitative models for a detailed evaluation of the screened technologies that not only seeks to quantify incremental cost and benefits (e.g. time, increased revenue, etc.) but also assess the level of certainty (in benefits and cost) of innovative construction technologies. An illustrative evaluation provides insights as to the level of modeling and analysis required to evaluate an innovative or novel strategy both at the 'activity/work package' and project levels. The quantum of data required at the pre-construction planning stage coupled with the lack of easy to apply evaluation models probably accounts for the non-prevalence of detailed quantitative evaluation of innovative construction technologies on AEC projects, especially in terms of impact at the project level and the degree of certainty with which net benefits are likely to be achieved.

This thesis aimed to investigate the role of alveolar epithelial cells (AEC) on immune responses against mycobacterial infections, specifically, the role of AEC in modulating macrophage functions through the secretion of broad variety of factors. In paper I, we compared murine AEC with interstitial macrophages (PuM) in their ability to take up and control mycobacterial growth and their capacity as antigen-presenting cells. We found that AEC were able to internalize and control bacterial growth and present antigens to T cells from immunized mice. In addition, both AEC and PuM exhibited distinct patterns of secreted factors, and a more comprehensive profile of AEC responses revealed that AEC were able to secrete different factors important to generate various effects in other cells. Paper II: Since AEC secrete a broad variety of factors, we hypothesized that being in the interface; AEC may play an important role in transmitting signals from the external to the internal compartment and in modulating the activity of PuM. Thus, we prepared AEC-derived media and tested their effect on bacteria and a number of macrophage functions a) migration, b) phagocytosis and control of intracellular bacterial growth, and c) alteration in cell morphology and expression of surface markers. We found that AEC-secreted factors had a dual effect, in one hand controlling bacterial growth and on the other hand increasing macrophage activity. In paper III, we first investigated the responsible mechanisms of intracellular bacterial growth control mediated by AEC-derived media. We found that infected macrophages upon AEC-secreted factors increased the control of intracellular bacterial growth by iNOS-independent pathways. Compared with other macrophage types, PuM, did not control the intracellular bacterial growth upon the well-known potent macrophage activator, IFN-γ. We found that SOCS1 was involved in the un-responsiveness to IFN-γ by PuM to control the intracellular bacterial growth. We suggested that PuM are restricted in their inflammatory responses perhaps for avoiding tissue damage. Overall, the current findings highlight the importance of AEC in the defense against bacterial infection in the lungs by secreting factors involved in activation and differentiation of immune cells such as macrophages. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

The construction industry is not performing as desired by the stakeholders that compose it. Several authors and practitioners have claimed that moving the industry towards a more integrated approach to project delivery could notoriously improve the overall performance of the industry. The main purpose of this dissertation was to obtain a unified framework for project integration, by identifying the critical success attributes for achieving project integration, the different levels of importance of attributes other than the critical success attributes to improve the integration process, and by determining if there are major differences among the perceptions of respondents depending on their role in the industry. In addition, this study also sought to identify potential associations between the integration attributes and the different project performance or project success criteria. In order to develop this framework and to identify the potential associations between integration attributes and project performance, a survey was conducted. The sample of the survey was composed of construction industry practitioners; it included owners, facility managers, engineers, specialty consultants, general contractors, subcontractors, among other professionals. The sample size was 264 respondents. The main method used for developing the framework was the Thurstone Scaling Method of Successive Interval Procedure; in addition, this method was complemented and validated using correlation analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis and analysis of the means. According to the perception of respondents, 19 attributes out of the 45 attributes under study, were identified as critical for successfully achieving project integration. In addition, four other categories of importance were identified and the other integration attributes were categorized accordingly. No major differences were found between the perceptions that different project participants had in regard to the importance of the different attributes to achieve project integration, leading to the conclusion that the perception of respondents in regard to this matter is very homogeneous. The potential impact of the 45 attributes on 12 performance criteria was analyzed. According to the perception of respondents, most of the integration attributes have different levels of impact on the different performance criteria; however there is not a clear relationship between the level of importance for achieving project integration and the level of potential impact on the different performance criteria. Most of the integration attributes are divided in two groups depending on their behavior across all integration criteria; in addition there are three groups that have one attribute each. The potential impact of each of these groups differs from one performance criterion to the other; however there are some performance criteria where the behavior of the groups is similar. The groups have a similar behavior on cost, time, and productivity; they also behave similarly on quality and owner satisfaction; on functionality and user satisfaction; and on health and safety and environmental impact and sustainability.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 66 pages. / Thesis (M.S.E.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The rapid growth of technology in recent decades has changed the whole dimension of communications. Today people are more interested in hands-free communication. In such a situation, the use a regular loudspeaker and a high-gain microphone, in place of a telephone receiver, might seem more appropriate. This would allow more than one person to participate in a conversation at the same time such as a teleconference environment. Another advantage is that it would allow the person to have both hands free and to move freely in the room. However, the presence of a large acoustic coupling between the loudspeaker and microphone would produce a loud echo that would make conversation difficult. Furthermore, the acoustic system could become instable, which would produce a loud howling noise to occur. The solution to these problems is the elimination of the echo with an echo suppression or echo cancellation algorithm. / ABSTRACT: The echo suppressor offers a simple but effective method to counter the echo problem. However, the echo suppressor possesses a main disadvantage since it supports only half-duplex communication. Half-duplex communication permits only one speaker to talk at a time. This drawback led to the invention of echo cancellers. An important aspect of echo cancellers is that full-duplex communication can be maintained, which allows both speakers to talk at the same time. This objective of this research was to produce an improved echo cancellation algorithm, which is capable of providing convincing results. The three basic components of an echo canceller are an adaptive filter, a doubletalk detector and a nonlinear processor. The adaptive filter creates a replica of the echo and subtracts it from the combination of the actual echo and the near-end signal. The doubletalk detector senses the doubletalk. / ABSTRACT: Doubletalk occurs when both ends are talking, which stops the adaptive filter in order to avoid divergence. Finally, the nonlinear processor removes the residual echo from the error signal. Usually, a certain amount of speech is clipped in the final stage of nonlinear processing. In order to avoid clipping, a noise gate was used as a nonlinear processor in this research. The noise gate allowed a threshold value to be set and all signals below the threshold were removed. This action ensured that only residual echoes were removed in the final stage. To date, the real time implementation of echo an cancellation algorithm was performed by utilizing both a VLSI processor and a DSP processor. Since there has been a revolution in the field of personal computers, in recent years, this research attempted to implement the acoustic echo canceller algorithm on a natively running PC with the help of the MATLAB software. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis work is to explore how the fully implemented AEC affects cross-border trade in the ASEAN, and based on the findings determine how multinational companies should adapt their logistics strategy to the change. To achieve this purpose the following research questions will be answered: How will the AEC affect the distribution of goods in the ASEAN? How should a multinational company adapt their logistics strategy to the new conditions? Methodology - To explore the opportunities and threats regarding the fully implementation of AEC, the authors had to complete 4 phases including a pre-study, literature study, case study, and data analysis. The pre-study was about the basics of ASEAN. The Literature study was mainly about Logistics Management, Strategic Management, Contingency Theory, and AEC, and its aim was to find out the key factors affecting logistics strategy and how the AEC affects them. In order to locate what opportunities and threats that arise along the affected factors, a case study was conducted by studying a real-life example on a case company, through interviews and tariff tables. Additionally, data analysis was done throughout the thesis work by structured methods and a PEST analysis. Findings - Literature study showed that the affected factors where tariffs, NTBs, ROO, trade facilitation, customs integration, standards, and TBTs. After analysing how the affected factors will change the business environment by a PEST analysis, the authors found that the most crucial threat is increased competition and the greatest opportunity is in the ease of moving goods and the size of the market. Hence, for a multinational company, the best strategy in this case is a Strategic choice strategy, which is both proactive to the change and somewhat able to influence the business environment. The case study showed that in the current situation, the best economic logistics strategy is through Malaysia, no matter end destination. After the fully implemented AEC, the Free Trade Agreements for each country will be the deciding factor. Implications - This thesis is made in ASEAN for multinational companies who is considering in which ASEAN member country to use as an assembly point for the ASEAN market after the implementation of AEC. For these companies, this study can be a fundamental part of their decision. Research limitations - In this thesis, the affected factors known by literature has been considered when evaluating the consequences of a fully implemented AEC. The case study is including half of the ASEAN members and in a given order. In addition only the external business environment, and more specific the general environment, was taken into consideration. In further studies, a benchmark could be performed in order to find literature unknown factors, all ASEAN members should be included in various combinations of orders, and considering the whole business environment.

Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects are becoming more complex in terms of client requirements, stakeholder issues, physical, budget and time constraints, and safety and environmental concerns. These constraints have spawned ad-hoc innovations in some AEC projects, without structured frameworks for their assessment, resulting in varying success for these innovations. The primary goal of the thesis is to test an existing framework for evaluating innovative design and construction technologies for high-rise buildings by way of a case-study. The case study is a48-story structure (with an 8-level sub-grade parkade) in a downtown setting with significant constraints and challenges. Unlike most other assessment frameworks which are single-issue based (financial, cost, time or risk), a holistic method that captures a broad range of critical issues at the micro and macro levels is used to screen a number of construction innovations. The process highlights the primary difficulty in balancing stakeholder issues, technical/engineering requirements and project goals in assessing the overall feasibility and net benefits of an innovation. As a useful tool, it facilitates the engineering/technical judgment of proposed innovations and provides evidence of a sufficient trade-off between incremental 'cost and benefits' to justify a detailed evaluation and possible subsequent use of a subset of the innovations that passed successfully through a tiered first stage evaluation process. A secondary objective is to propose appropriate quantitative models for a detailed evaluation of the screened technologies that not only seeks to quantify incremental cost and benefits (e.g. time, increased revenue, etc.) but also assess the level of certainty (in benefits and cost) of innovative construction technologies. An illustrative evaluation provides insights as to the level of modeling and analysis required to evaluate an innovative or novel strategy both at the 'activity/work package' and project levels. The quantum of data required at the pre-construction planning stage coupled with the lack of easy to apply evaluation models probably accounts for the non-prevalence of detailed quantitative evaluation of innovative construction technologies on AEC projects, especially in terms of impact at the project level and the degree of certainty with which net benefits are likely to be achieved.

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms are in need to modify their business models to exploit available opportunities by the increasing role of knowledge management and information technology in the global economy. This thesis will propose business models for AEC firms to sell consulting knowledge on-line. The three proposed business models are: business and management intelligence, design optimization and innovation and; software customization and real time data analytics. The business models are based on selling online consulting knowledge services customized to the customers' business needs through enabling emerging information technologies like cloud computing. The models were developed through benchmarking cases in other industries, previous classifications in the area of business models and, experts insights. The suitability of these models to different clients will be assessed in addition to the most suitable revenue streams. Finally, the validated final business models will be presented in the framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms are in need to modify their business models to exploit available opportunities by the increasing role of knowledge management and information technology in the global economy. This thesis will propose business models for AEC firms to sell consulting knowledge on-line. The three proposed business models are: business and management intelligence, design optimization and innovation and; software customization and real time data analytics. The business models are based on selling online consulting knowledge services customized to the customers' business needs through enabling emerging information technologies like cloud computing. The models were developed through benchmarking cases in other industries, previous classifications in the area of business models and, experts insights. The suitability of these models to different clients will be assessed in addition to the most suitable revenue streams. Finally, the validated final business models will be presented in the framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).

Ce mémoire de thèse de doctorat présente l'évaluation d'un système de réalité mixte dans le cadre d'une utilisation sur le site d'opération de construction. Il s'agit notamment de déterminer la pertinence d'un tel outil mobile pour des opérateurs pour les assister dans leurs tâches quotidiennes, et notamment dans la préparation et le suivi des opérations de construction ou rénovation. Cet outil se voudrait être un outil d'aide à la décision pour les maîtres d'ouvrages et maîtres d'œuvre. Le cas d'étude porte sur la rénovation virtuelle des baies anciennes (datées du XVIIIème siècle) dans une cellule des bâtiments conventuels de Cluny (Saône et Loire, France). L'approche consiste à comparer l'efficacité, la précision et la rapidité d'opérateurs dans la réalisation de tâches identiques. Trois méthodes liées à l'utilisation des nouvelles technologies dans le domaine de l'AIC (Architecture Ingénierie et Construction) sont comparées, elles ont guidé la définition du protocole expérimental. La première méthode traditionnelle fournit à l'opérateur de la documentation papier. La seconde met en œuvre la dématérialisation des données constructives, accessibles depuis un ordinateur de bureau. La troisième méthode plus innovante ajoute à la précédente l'accès colocalisé à la base de données grâce à un terminal mobile. Une étude qui a suivi a porté sur la visualisation et l'interprétation de résultats de simulation thermique, en réalité virtuelle. La comparaison des trois premières méthodes a donné lieu à une première expérimentation dont les résultats ont montré la légère prédominance du second scénario (travail sur ordinateur de bureau). Cependant, au-delà des aspects d'ergonomie et d'interface utilisateur, des investigations complémentaires doivent être menées pour étudier l'opportunité du développement du BIM in situ, c'est-à-dire l'utilisation du modèle de données du bâtiment (BIM- Building Information Model) sur le chantier. / This dissertation presents the evaluation of an onsite augmented reality tool and its relevance for helping construction agents to prepare and monitor the progress of a building's construction or renovation through a mobile device. The case study focuses on virtual renovation works regarding an ancient window –dated eighteenth century- in a room of the Cluny (Saone et Loire, France) abbey buildings. The study aims at comparing the efficiency and the precision of users' behavior in four situations while performing identical sets of tasks. Three methods related to the ICT uses of onsite AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) guided the experiment: the first method focuses on paper-based content; the second method provides a digital model of the project on a workstation. The third method consists in using a full digital model with colocation access to the database on a mobile device. The fourth method considers working in an immersive room to interpret thermal simulation data. The result of this work is dedicated mainly as a decision-aid tool for project owners and constructors. The comparison between these methods led to a first experiment whose results favor the second method, which implies working on a desktop workstation. However, beyond the aspect of ergonomics and user interface, further investigations are necessary to study the propriety of using the Building Information Model (BIM) on the construction site.