No description available.

La tesi si propone l’obbiettivo di analizzare la disciplina degli accordi di ristrutturazione dei debiti dell’impresa articolata in un gruppo, come prevista nel nuovo codice della crisi d’impresa e dell’insolvenza. Il lavoro è strutturato in quattro capitoli, il primo dei quali ha la funzione di breve introduzione all’argomento. Più precisamente, nell’ambito del primo capitolo si è voluto dare conto dello stato dell’arte nel contesto ante riforma e dei principi che hanno ispirato la riforma. Esaurita la parte introduttiva, il secondo capitolo è stato dedicato, invece, ad esporre i rilievi preliminari sui termini del problema, anche al fine di individuare le modalità interpretative per una ricostruzione dottrinale della disciplina, la quale appare, prima facie, piuttosto lacunosa. La seconda parte del capitolo è stata dedicata, invece, ad esaminare la nozione di gruppo, al fine di definire l’ambito applicativo della nuova disciplina. Nell’ambito del terzo capitolo si è proceduto, invece, a dare conto del ruolo riferibile alla holding nella gestione della crisi di gruppo. Si è, poi, dato luogo all’analisi della fattispecie normativa degli accordi di ristrutturazione dell’impresa articolata in un gruppo, trattando in modo più approfondito dei problemi applicativi che l’istituto pone. Il quarto capitolo, infine, è stato dedicato ad una disamina dei profili procedimentali, ovvero delle problematiche che vengono in considerazione nella fase processuale cui gli accordi di ristrutturazione sono soggetti al fine della loro omologazione. / The thesis aims to analyze the discipline of debt restructuring agreements of the corporate group enterprise, as provided for in the new code of business crisis and insolvency. The work is structured into four chapters, the first of which serves as a brief introduction to the topic. More precisely, in the context of the first chapter it is showed the state of the art in the pre-reform context and of the principles that inspired the reform. The second chapter is dedicated, instead, to exposing the preliminary remarks on the terms of the problem, also in order to identify the interpretative methods for a doctrinal reconstruction of the discipline which appears, prima facie, rather incomplete. The second part of the chapter is dedicated to examining the notion of group, in order to define the application scope of the new discipline. In the context of the third chapter, instead, it was considered the role attributable to the holding in managing the group crisis. Then there were analyzed the application problems of the discipline debt restructuring agreements of the group enterprise. The fourth chapter is dedicated to an examination of the procedural profiles, i.e. the problems that are taken into consideration with regard to the procedural phase to which the restructuring agreements are subject in order to be approved.

Cyclic di-GMP is a second messenger used by bacteria to regulate motility, extracellular polysaccharide production, and the cell cycle. Recent advances in the measurement of real time cyclic di-GMP levels in single cells have uncovered significant dynamic heterogeneity of second messenger concentrations within bacterial populations. This heterogeneity results in a wide range of phenotypic outcomes within a single population, providing the potential for population survival and adaptability in response to rapidly changing environments. In this chapter, we discuss some of the measurement technologies available for single-cell measurement of cyclic di-GMP concentrations, the resulting discovery of heterogeneous cyclic di-GMP populations, the mechanisms bacteria use to generate this heterogeneity, and the biochemical and functional consequences of heterogeneity on cyclic di-GMP effector binding and the bacterial population.

Instrumented indentation testing is now considered one of the most attractive tools for characterizing engineering materials. A large number of materials properties can be investigated. The present dissertation was aimed at developing a new methodology for inferring the material behaviour of metallic materials from their indentation response.

Quanti (e quali) sono i criteri risolutivi in tema di concorso apparente di norme? Questa è la domanda che più comunemente ci si pone nell’approcciare l’ostico terreno della convergenza di fattispecie. Il lavoro che si presenta muove invece da una differente, seppur intimamente connessa, prospettiva: quali sono, a monte, i principi regolatori del concorso apparente di norme e del concorso formale di reati? Solo in un secondo momento, dalla ricognizione di questi, si potrà procedere a fornire una risposta alla prima questione. Pertanto, si è posta attenzione al divieto sostanziale di bis in idem, nonché ai possibili riferimenti normativi, costituzionali e sovranazionali, idonei a legittimarne l’esistenza nell’ordinamento giuridico italiano. Il metodo d’indagine prescelto si sviluppa pertanto su due diverse direttive: da un lato, la comparazione con l’ordinamento tedesco, che presenta premesse dogmatiche ampiamente sovrapponibili a quelle poste dalla scienza penalistica italiana, seppur rimanendo caratterizzato da talune peculiarità che rendono estremamente proficua un’indagine sul tema (su tutte, la presenza di un generale divieto di doppia punizione, Doppelbestrafungsverbot, nella Carta costituzionale tedesca, in relazione al quale manca uno speculare referente in quella italiana). Dall’altro, una ricognizione della più recente giurisprudenza convenzionale ed eurounitaria in tema di ne bis in idem processuale, nonché dei rapporti fra questo ed il principio di proporzionalità fra fatto e sanzione. Su entrambi i versanti la tradizionale collocazione della preclusione sul piano processuale cede oggi parzialmente il passo a considerazioni di stampo valoriale, che portano ad interrogarsi sulla necessità di elaborare un autonomo divieto di ne bis in idem agente sul terreno del diritto penale sostanziale. Preclusione, questa, della quale si rende infine necessario analizzare i risvolti applicativi, tanto sul terreno del concorso apparente di norme, quanto su quello del concorso formale di reati. È in quest’ultimo senso, cioè in relazione ai rapporti fra i principi costituzionali ed i fenomeni di convergenza di fattispecie, che ci si muove nella presente indagine.

The study of causality has drawn the attention of researchers from many different fields for centuries. In particular, nowadays causal inference is a central question in neuroscience and an entire body of research, called brain effective connectivity, is devoted to detecting causal interactions between distinct brain areas. Brain effective connectivity is typically studied by the statistical analysis of direct measurements of the neural activity. The main purpose of this work is on methods for studying time series causality. More in details, we focus on a well-establish criterion of causality: the Granger criterion, which is based on the concepts of temporal precedence and predictability. Firstly, we consider the standard parametric implementation of the Granger criterion that is based on the multivariate autoregressive model, where we face the problem of model identification. For this purpose, we present a new Bayesian method for linear model identification and we explore its capability of modeling the sparsity structure of the signals. As a second contribution, we look at the causal inference through the lens of machine learning and we propose an approach based on the concept of learning from examples. Thus, given a set of signals, their causal interactions are estimated by a classifier that is trained on a synthetic dataset generated by a parametric model. This approach, that we call supervised parametric approach, is implemented by adopting the Granger criterion of causality and compared with the standard parametric measure of Granger causality. Moreover, the roles of the feature space and the generative model of the training set are investigated through a simulation study. Additionally, we show an example of application on rat neural recordings. Finally, we focus on the bias introduced by parametric methods when applied in a real context, i.e. the inability of having a fully realistic generative model. For this purpose, we analyze how the supervised parametric approach can help in making the inference more application-dependent, by exploiting a physiologically plausible generative model.

Finding new ways to produce renewable energy is among the most important and strategic challenges of technology nowadays. Biomass is one of the ideal candidates for reliable and abundant renewable energy production, since it is largely available, universally distributed and potentially CO2 neutral, if utilized in a sustainable way. There are several processes for energy exploitation of biomass, including combustion, pyrolysis and gasification. However, traditional thermochemical technologies can be only effective with dry biomass, owing to energy considerations. As a consequence, wet biomass (e.g. municipal or agro-industrial wastes), which represents the greatest part of the overall biomass, cannot be converted into energy. This strong limitation can be overcome by a novel technology: supercritical water gasification (SCWG). SCWG is based on reacting biomass with water above its critical point (T > 374.1°C; P > 22.1 MPa). Thanks to the unique properties of supercritical water, high gaseous yields can be achieved, as well as reduced (or even null) tar and char production. Moreover, a H2-rich gas can be obtained. Therefore, high moisture content is not a drawback anymore, being water part of the process itself. In this thesis, SCWG is analyzed under different aspects. First of all, a comprehensive state of the art is traced. The work is then divided into two main sections: mathematical modeling and experimental activities. The first section reports three different modeling approaches for SCWG. In thermodynamic equilibrium modeling, a two-phase thermodynamic equilibrium model was built, enabling to predict products composition as a function of process parameters, as well as solids formation at equilibrium. Energy balances were also performed by means of such tool. The kinetics modeling approach was applied to methanol SCWG, developing an elementary reactions model able to highlight the main reaction pathways. Process modeling was then used to calculate the energy needs of a possible industrial SCWG process scheme, enabling to prove its energetic feasibility. The second part of the thesis deals with experimental tests, which were executed with both real biomass and model compounds. A first campaign was performed with glucose and glucose/phenol mixtures in small metallic batch autoclaves. The catalytic effect of the reactor material (stainless steel and Inconel 625) on the gasification products composition was discussed, as well as the influence of subcritical (350°C) and supercritical (400°C) reaction conditions. Moreover, the effect of phenol addiction, inhibiting glucose gasification, was observed. In a subsequent campaign, real biomass was gasified, including beech sawdust, municipal wastes, malt spent grains and hydrothermal char. The effect of the reactor material was studied, as well as the system behavior after long time runs (16 h) and the addiction of K2CO3 as a catalyst. Finally, glucose/phenol mixtures, with increasing phenol contents, were gasified in a continuous tubular reactor at 400°C and 25 MPa, between 10 and 240 s of residence time. Results showed that phenol is hardly gasified and that methanol is a key intermediate product.

Networks of smart interconnected objects have allowed the integration of the artificial world into the physical one. The interaction over a wireless medium is simultaneously the technology enabler and the primary hindering factor. The complexity and variability of the behavior of low power wireless communication is one of the challenges making the design and deployment of a system based on this technology a unique and demanding experience. In this thesis, we describe the deployment of two operational systems for structural health monitoring and adaptive lighting, undertaken by our research group. Our major contribution, among others, covers the definition and implementation of the system services enabling the monitoring infrastructure to guarantee the required quality. The resulting unique design and reliability provide concrete support to the vision of wireless sensor networks as dependable monitoring infrastructure. Despite the success in meeting the user needs, the simple yet effective solutions exploited in the aforementioned deployments make apparent the limitations of the widely used approaches to coordinate access to the communication medium. This thesis also argues that the currently employed solutions at the MAC layer are insufficient to provide guarantees to the resource user. Therefore, we introduce Reins-MAC, a Time-Division Multiple-Access (TDMA) communication scheduler that coordinates access to the medium in a fully decentralized fashion. Limited flexibility, scalability, robustness, as well as increased overhead and complexity are commonly recognized shortcomings of TDMA approaches. Reins-MAC overcomes these limitations by adapting the scheduling to match local availability and natural connectivity variations. Moreover, each node is empowered with full control over its own communication resources. The ability to anarchically apply changes to the communication schedule allows the steering of the resource allocation towards individual needs, dictated by the higher layers in the network stack. The resulting quality and anarchy in accessing the communication resource affect the design and implementation of WSNs, opening new horizons where the application regains control of the primary resource: communication.

Acoustic source separation is a relatively recent topic of signal processing which aims to simultaneously separate many acoustic sources recorded through one or more microphones. Such a problem was formulated to emulate the natural capability of the human auditory system which is able to recognize and enhance the sound coming from a particular source. Addressing this problem is of high interest in the automatic speech recognition (ASR) community since it would improve the effectiveness of a natural human-machine interaction. Among numerous methods of multichannel blind source separation techniques, those based on the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) applied in the frequency-domain [81] are the most investigated, due to their straightforward physical interpretation and computational efficiency. In spite of recent developments many issues still need to be address to make such techniques robust in adverse conditions, such as high reverberation, ill-conditioning and occurrence of permutations. Furthermore, most of the proposed BSS methods are computationally expensive and not feasible for a real-time implementation. This PhD thesis describes a research activity in the robust separation of acoustic sources in adverse environment. A new framework of blind and semi-blind techniques is proposed which allows source localization and separation even in highly reverberant environment and with realtime constraint. For each proposed technique, theoretical and practical issues are discussed and a comparison with alternative state-of-art methods is provided. Furthermore, the robustness of the proposed framework is validated implementing two real-time blind and semi-blind systems which are tested in challenging real-world scenarios.

People belong to different communities: business communities, Web 2.0 communities, religious communities, scientific communities, just to name a few. Everyone can belong to and acquire experience in more than one community. This experience is related to the community activity and comes in the form of best practices, behavior, implicit (tacit) knowledge, ways of using artifacts, etc. All these accumulates and evolves over time and slowly becomes a part of the culture of the community. If community activity is very specific, it can be reflected also in the specificity of the community culture. Newcomers in such community might suffer from what is called “culture shock†, i.e. a feeling of confusion when not able to grasp what is common for old-timers. This occurs because part of the community culture is not explicit, i.e. not readily available, and it is very hard to extract valuable information from it. Such information can be used for increasing economic and social benefits of the community members (e.g., for performing recurring tasks, easier integration of newcomers, better quality of life). Moreover, the awareness of the community culture could help the community to handle the turnover of members and structural changes, while preserving the culture. All these introduce the need for transfer of culture between or within communities. Currently, there is no domain-independent approach for discovering, representing, transferring, and preserving community culture. Moreover, taking into account the amount of information accumulated by communities, computer aided tools for such representation and transfer are of utmost importance. A key property of such tools should be their non-intrusiveness, i.e. they must be as much integrated in the community practices as possible. Research challenges in solving these problems include, but are not limited to: 1) providing a generic approach for dealing with community culture; 2) designing a framework and computer aided supporting tools for transferring culture; 3) implementing the framework, applying and evaluating it in different domains. This thesis addresses the problem of culture transfer. First, we formalize the notion of culture, which includes behavior, knowledge, artifacts, best practices, etc., and provide a classification of problems that involve culture. Second, using this formalism, we propose the Implicit Culture Framework, which is an agent-based framework for transferring behavior among community members or among communities. Then we describe three applications developed using the IC-Service in the domain of recommendation systems: a system for web search, a system for software pattern selection, and a system for web service discovery. Finally, we present the results of the evaluation of the applications with real users and with ad-hoc user models.