International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / A small PCM telemetry system designed for the flight test telemetry task of a new rotorcraft is introduced in this paper. It can provide a flexible frame format which is completely set up by user in advance, to meet the requirements needed in different flight testing phases. In this telemetry system, the data are low in rate and volume but very valuable with stringent quality and transmission accuracy. Data encrypting and channel encoding techniques are employed to guarantee the quality and security of the data. The system architecture based on microprocessors is adopted in order to process the data flexibly. Real-time data processing, monitoring and post-flight analysis are performed by PC type computers. All key components of the system may be programmed. The cost of the total system integration is relatively reduced.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / PC based instrumentation and telemetry processing systems are attractive because of their ease of use, familiarity, and affordability. The evolution of PC computing power has resulted in a telemetry processing system easily up to most tasks, even for control of and processing of data from a very complex system such as the Common Airborne Instrumentation System (CAIS) used on the new Lockheed-Martin F-22. A complete system including decommutators, bit synchronizers, IRIG time code readers, simulators, DACs, live video, and tape units for logging can be installed in a rackmount, desktop, or even portable enclosure. The PC/104 standard represents another step forward in the PC industry evolution towards the goals of lower power consumption, smaller size, and greater capacity. The advent of this standard and the availability of processors and peripherals in this form factor has made possible the development of a new generation of portable low cost test equipment. This paper will outline the advantages and applications offered by a full-function, standalone, rugged, and portable instrumentation controller. Applications of this small (5.25"H x 8.0"W x 9.5"L) unit could include: flight line instrumentation check-out, onboard aircraft data monitoring, automotive testing, small craft testing, helicopter testing, and just about any other application where small-size, affordability, and capability are required.

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This study reviews a series of theoretical models and educational experiences, in order to examine how some of the claims made in the existing literature regarding the role of IT - mainly computer technologies - in writing instruction play out in the case of Italian as a Foreign Language (IFL). With this purpose in mind, this study examines a specific context - three IFL modules taught at the University of Warwick - and uses relevant teaching and learning experiences as a case-study and data sample. By using qualitative analysis supported by some quantitative methodologies, this study triangulates data from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, focus-groups, field notes, classroom observation rubrics, as well as classroom artefacts, including online resources and educational software used over the course of the academic years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. The data collected is filtered through a tripartite framework - learning/instructional environment, IFL tutors, and IFL students - designed to address the need expressed in the literature for analysis of multiple dimensions in complex interactions (Abbott, 1997; Athanases and Heath, 1995; Ramanathan and Atkinson, 1999; Snyder, 1997). The salient themes which emerge from the study are the critical roles of IFL tutors' and IFL students' expectations as well as the framework of values underlying these, along with particular features of information technologies themselves, in shaping participants' experiences and practices with respect to IT and writing, sometimes in unanticipated ways. Finally, the study considers the ways in which the results of the present research support, contradict, or expand existing literature, especially in relation to a number of specific factors, such as: the type of IT used in writing instruction; the physical configurations of IT-enhanced classrooms; and students' as well as tutors' approaches to learning and teaching IFL writing with and without technology. While the present work, like many other studies in the field of SLA and L2 writing, does not provide complete answer to the complex questions of language learning, it highlights the importance of both the instructional environment as well as the participants' framework of values. Only then, IT will be able to potentially enhance language instruction and become an integral component of learning. This research raises new questions, providing the basis for further research in the area of SLA theory and pedagogy.

A near-IR absorbing phthalocyanine containing alkylthio and alyklamino substituents along the periphery was determined to have optical properties that vary depending on surrounding solvent environment. Solvatochromic behavior of this novel chromophore has been characterized through UV-Vis absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy. Conformational analysis using the B3LYP/6-31G* model indicates the lowest energy conformer with hydrogen bond like interactions between the sulfur lone pair and the hydrogen on the alkylamino substituent. TD-DFT analysis of the solvatochromic phthalocyanine and its parent molecule confirms the derivative exhibits tunable optical properties based on various solvent parameters. Chapter 1 reviews the energy crisis and the potential biological implications of near-IR absorbing phthalocyanines. In addition, a brief introduction of TD-DFT is given to further describe the computational analysis utilized herein. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis, spectroscopic studies, and computational analysis of a near-IR absorbing solvatochromic phthalocyanine derivative. Chapter 3 provides a summary of the work described in this thesis and provides future directions based on the completed research.

The purpose of the present research is to investigate the presence of Dante in four authors of the twentieth century and to discuss in what ways these authors contribute to our perception of Dante. This study begins with the analysis of Primo Levi’s reaction to Dante, and the first two chapters deal respectively with Levi’s troubled relationship with the monumentality of Dante in Levi’s personal culture and with the modern writer’s attempts at rejecting that very monumentality. In the third and fourth chapters, the focus is on the inclusion of Dante within Edoardo Sanguineti’s poetry, and on the issue of ideologically oriented exploitation of Dante both in Sanguineti’s novels and plays and in his critical analyses of the Comedy. The following chapters are about the presence of Dante in Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. In Beckett, a network of Dantean inclusions shows how Dante’s presence can be fertile, controversial, and yet apparently discarded. The last chapter discusses Seamus Heaney’s Dantisms and especially the question of translation as both a technical and a cultural issue. The result is the perception of a vital Dantean presence, which generates approaches and revalidations in spite of its apparent distance and of its cultural diversity.

This thesis examines reader responses to Catalan identity through the reception of two Catalan novels in translation: Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal and For a Sack of Bones by Lluís- Anton Baulenas. Drawing on theories from Descriptive Translation Studies and cultural and sociological approaches to translation, it examines how representations of Catalan culture and identity are subject to influence from different agents at each stage of the translation and reception process. The thesis explores three areas: the role of translation within Catalan culture in the promotion of Catalan identity; the way in which this role is relevant to the translation process itself within the target culture; and finally whether the objectives of this role are achieved within the target market. This study offers a new approach to the study of the reader within Translation Studies, using blogs, online reviews and reading groups in order to gain access to real reader responses to translated literature and offers a methodology by which the study of the representation of culture through translation may be explored. The results of this study have relevance not only to translation research and practice, but also to translation policy, particularly for minority cultures.

The study presented in this thesis focuses on teacher-student talk-in-interaction in three Italian classes for beginners taught by two teachers, one British and one Italian, in two British universities. The aims of the study are to: (1) investigate the views of language and of language teaching/learning that informed the teachers‟ practice; (2) identify the cultural worlds and images of Italian-ness constructed through the classroom talk; (3) examine the different identities the teachers assumed as they discussed language and culture. The research combines ethnographically-informed classroom observation, video-recording of classroom interaction with discourse analysis. It is guided by poststructuralist thinking and by Kramsch‟s (1993:9) vision of language teaching/learning as “social practice that is at the boundary of two or more cultures”. It reveals similarities in the composition of the classes. Both included international students and both teachers drew on the diverse funds of linguistic and cultural knowledge represented in their classes, creating „third places‟ for language teaching/learning. The research also reveals differences between the teachers – in their views of language, their representation of Italian „culture‟ and in the classroom identities they assumed. These differences are explained with reference to the teachers‟ linguistic and cultural backgrounds and their professional biographies.

This thesis focuses on the keyword sospiro (‘sigh’) in the poetry of Guido Cavalcanti. It reads this word in relation to the lyric poetry of Occitania and Italy, and medical literature related to lovesickness. It approaches Cavalcanti’s work in this way in order to avoid the distortion of a Dantean lens, as part of a trend since the anniverary of his death in 2000 towards considering Cavalcanti’s work on its own terms. Inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords, this thesis looks beyond the familiar presence of sospiro in lyric poetry, revealing a word acting as a locus of innovative expression. It finds that while the sigh is generally regarded as a literary commonplace, it can in fact tell us much about the society and culture in which it is used. Sospiro is then traced in medical literature, charting its evolution as a symptom of the disease of lovesickness. Against this backdrop, a reading of sospiro in Cavalcanti’s poetry is given which argues for the need to listen to both the lyric and medical contexts when interpreting the role of this word. As such, this thesis offers a consideration of these two contexts in parallel, through sospiro, for the first time.