The Calabrian-Peloritani arc represents key site to unravel evolution of surface processes on top of subducting lithosphere. During the Pleistocene, in fact the arc uplifted at rate of the order of about 1mm/yr, forming high-standing low-relief upland (figure 2). Our study is focused on the relationship between tectonic and land evolution in the Sila Massif, Messina strait and Peloritani Mts. Landforms reflect a competition between tectonic, climatic, and surficial processes. Many landscape evolution models that explore feedbacks between these competing processes, given steady forcing, predict a state of erosional equilibrium, where the rates of river incision and hillslope erosion balance rock uplift. It has been suggested that this may be the final constructive stage of orogenic systems. Assumptions of steady erosion and incision are used in the interpretation of exhumation and uplift rates from different geologic data, and in the formulation of fluvial incision and hillslope evolution models. In the Sila massif we carried out cosmogenic isotopes analysis on 24 samples of modern fluvial sediments to constrain long-term (~103 yr) erosion rate averaged on the catchment area. 35 longitudinal rivers profiles have been analyzed to study the tectonic signal on the landscape evolution. The rivers analyzed exhibit a wide variety of profile forms, diverging from equilibrium state form. Generally the river profiles show at least 2 and often 3 distinct concave-up knickpoint-bounded segments, characterized by different value of concavity and steepness indices. River profiles suggest three main stages of incision. The values of ks and θ in the lower segments evidence a decrease in river incision, due probably to increasing uplift rate. The cosmogenic erosion rates pointed out that old landscape upland is eroding slowly at ~0.1 mm/yr. In the contrary, the flanks of the massif is eroding faster with value from 0.4 to 0.5 mm/yr due to river incision and hillslope processes. Cosmogenic erosion rates mach linearly with steepness indices and with average hillslope gradient. In the Messina area the long term erosion rate from low-T thermochronometry are of the same order than millennium scale cosmogenic erosion rate (1-2 mm/yr). In this part of the chain the fast erosion is active since several million years, probably controlled by extensional tectonic regime. In the Peloritani Mts apatite fission-track and (U-Th)/He thermochronometry are applied to constraint the thermal history of the basement rock. Apatite fission-track ages range between 29.0±5.5 and 5.5±0.9 Ma while apatite (U-Th)/He ages vary from 19.4 to 1.0 Ma. Most of the AFT ages are younger than the overlying terrigenous sequence that in turn postdates the main orogenic phase. Through the coupling of the thermal modelling with the stratigraphic record, a Middle Miocene thermal event due to tectonic burial is unravel. This event affected a inner-intermediate portion of the Peloritani belt confined by young AFT data (<15 Ma) distribution. We interpret this thermal event as due to an out-of–sequence thrusting occurring in the inner portion of the belt. Young (U-Th)/He ages (c. 5 Ma) record a final exhumation stage with increasing rates of denudation since the Pliocene times due to postorogenic extensional tectonics and regional uplift. In the final chapter we change the spatial scale to insert digital topography analysis and field data within a geodynamic model that can explain surface evidence produced by subduction process.

In the whole of Europe the most important composer of concertos for two violins is indubitably Vivaldi (1678-1741), who produced almost thirty works of this type during almost the full length of his creative career. The dissertation examines this particular side of Vivaldi’s activity, starting with an examination of the concerto in Rome, Bologna, and Venice at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The aspects investigated include the ‘conceptual’ origins of the double concerto for two violins in Vivaldi, the nature, distribution and interrelationship of their sources (particular attention being given to compositional revisions in the autograph manuscripts) and an analysis of the works themselves that takes in form, tonal structure, technical-instrumental character and performance practice. The concertos that have come down in particularly problematic non-autograph sources are discussed in detail and presented in critical editions. A reconstruction is offered of the two works (RV 520 and 526) that have survived only in incomplete form, lacking the part of the first soloist. The concertos for two violins composed in Germany by Telemann and J. S. Bach, the contemporaries of Vivaldi who paid greatest attention to the double concerto genre, are then described and analysed. The thesis ends with a complete list of modern editions of Vivaldi’s concertos for two violins and a select discography.

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The aim of the present work is a historical survey on Gestalt trends in psychological research between late 19th and the first half of 20th century with privileged reference to sound and musical perception by means of a reconsideration of experimental and theoretical literature. Ernst Mach and Christian von Ehrenfels gave rise to the debate about Gestaltqualität which notably grew thanks to the ‘Graz School’ (Alexius Meinong, Stephan Witasek, Anton Faist, Vittorio Benussi), where the object theory and the production theory of perception were worked out. Stumpf’s research on Tonpsychologie and Franz Brentano’s tradition of ‘act psychology’ were directly involved in this debate, opposing to Wilhelm Wundt’s conception of the discipline; this clearly came to light in Stumpf’s controversy with Carl Lorenz and Wundt on Tondistanzen. Stumpf’s concept of Verschmelzung and his views about consonance and concordance led him to some disputes with Theodor Lipps and Felix Krueger, lasting more than two decades. Carl Stumpf was responsible for education of a new generation of scholars during his teaching at the Berlin University: his pupils Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Koffka and Max Wertheimer established the so-called ‘Berlin School’ and promoted the official Gestalt theory since the 1910s. After 1922 until 1938 they gave life and led together with other distinguished scientists the «Psychologische Forschung», a scientific journal in which ‘Gestalt laws’ and many other acoustical studies on different themes (such as sound localization, successive comparison, phonetic phenomena) were exposed. During the 1920s Erich Moritz von Hornbostel gave important contributions towards the definition of an organic Tonsystem in which sound phenomena could find adequate arrangement. Last section of the work contains descriptions of Albert Wellek’s studies, Kurt Huber’s vowel researches and aspects of melody perception, apparent movement and phi-phenomenon in acoustical field. The work contains also some considerations on the relationships among tone psychology, musical psychology, Gestalt psychology, musical aesthetics and musical theory. Finally, the way Gestalt psychology changed earlier interpretations is exemplified by the decisive renewal of perception theory, the abandon of Konstanzannahme, some repercussions on theory of meaning as organization and on feelings in musical experience.

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The research for this PhD project consisted in the application of the RFs analysis technique to different data-sets of teleseismic events recorded at temporary and permanent stations located in three distinct study regions: Colli Albani area, Northern Apennines and Southern Apennines. We found some velocity models to interpret the structures in these regions, which possess very different geologic and tectonics characteristics and therefore offer interesting case study to face. In the Colli Albani some of the features evidenced in the RFs are shared by all the analyzed stations: the Moho is almost flat and is located at about 23 km depth, and the presence of a relatively shallow limestone layer is a stable feature; contrariwise there are features which vary from station to station, indicating local complexities. Three seismic stations, close to the central part of the former volcanic edifice, display relevant anisotropic signatures­­­ with symmetry axes consistent with the emplacement of the magmatic chamber. Two further anisotropic layers are present at greater depth, in the lower crust and the upper mantle, respectively, with symmetry axes directions related to the evolution of the volcano complex. In Northern Apennines we defined the isotropic structure of the area, finding the depth of the Tyrrhenian (almost 25 km and flat) and Adriatic (40 km and dipping underneath the Apennines crests) Mohos. We determined a zone in which the two Mohos overlap, and identified an anisotropic body in between, involved in the subduction and going down with the Adiratic Moho. We interpreted the downgoing anisotropic layer as generated by post-subduction delamination of the top-slab layer, probably made of metamorphosed crustal rocks caught in the subduction channel and buoyantly rising toward the surface. In the Southern Apennines, we found the Moho depth for 16 seismic stations, and highlighted the presence of an anisotropic layer underneath each station, at about 15-20 km below the whole study area. The moho displays a dome-like geometry, as it is shallow (29 km) in the central part of the study area, whereas it deepens peripherally (down to 45 km); the symmetry axes of anisotropic layer, interpreted as a layer separating the upper and the lower crust, show a moho-related pattern, indicated by the foliation of the layer which is parallel to the Moho trend. Moreover, due to the exceptional seismic event occurred on April 6th next to L’Aquila town, we determined the Vs model for two station located next to the epicenter. An extremely high velocity body is found underneath AQU station at 4-10 km depth, reaching Vs of about 4 km/s, while this body is lacking underneath FAGN station. We compared the presence of this body with other recent works and found an anti-correlation between the high Vs body, the max slip patches and earthquakes distribution. The nature of this body is speculative since such high velocities are consistent with deep crust or upper mantle, but can be interpreted as a as high strength barrier of which the high Vs is a typical connotation.

Forecasting the time, location, nature, and scale of volcanic eruptions is one of the most urgent aspects of modern applied volcanology. The reliability of probabilistic forecasting procedures is strongly related to the reliability of the input information provided, implying objective criteria for interpreting the historical and monitoring data. For this reason both, detailed analysis of past data and more basic research into the processes of volcanism, are fundamental tasks of a continuous information-gain process; in this way the precursor events of eruptions can be better interpreted in terms of their physical meanings with correlated uncertainties. This should lead to better predictions of the nature of eruptive events. In this work we have studied different problems associated with the long- and short-term eruption forecasting assessment. First, we discuss different approaches for the analysis of the eruptive history of a volcano, most of them generally applied for long-term eruption forecasting purposes; furthermore, we present a model based on the characteristics of a Brownian passage-time process to describe recurrent eruptive activity, and apply it for long-term, time-dependent, eruption forecasting (Chapter 1). Conversely, in an effort to define further monitoring parameters as input data for short-term eruption forecasting in probabilistic models (as for example, the Bayesian Event Tree for eruption forecasting -BET_EF-), we analyze some characteristics of typical seismic activity recorded in active volcanoes; in particular, we use some methodologies that may be applied to analyze long-period (LP) events (Chapter 2) and volcano-tectonic (VT) seismic swarms (Chapter 3); our analysis in general are oriented toward the tracking of phenomena that can provide information about magmatic processes. Finally, we discuss some possible ways to integrate the results presented in Chapters 1 (for long-term EF), 2 and 3 (for short-term EF) in the BET_EF model (Chapter 4).

The research work concerns the analysis of the foundations of Quantum Field Theory carried out from an educational perspective. The whole research has been driven by two questions: • How the concept of object changes when moving from classical to contemporary physics? • How are the concepts of field and interaction shaped and conceptualized within contemporary physics? What makes quantum field and interaction similar to and what makes them different from the classical ones? The whole work has been developed through several studies: 1. A study aimed to analyze the formal and conceptual structures characterizing the description of the continuous systems that remain invariant in the transition from classical to contemporary physics. 2. A study aimed to analyze the changes in the meanings of the concepts of field and interaction in the transition to quantum field theory. 3. A detailed study of the Klein-Gordon equation aimed at analyzing, in a case considered emblematic, some interpretative (conceptual and didactical) problems in the concept of field that the university textbooks do not address explicitly. 4. A study concerning the application of the “Discipline-Culture” Model elaborated by I. Galili to the analysis of the Klein-Gordon equation, in order to reconstruct the meanings of the equation from a cultural perspective. 5. A critical analysis, in the light of the results of the studies mentioned above, of the existing proposals for teaching basic concepts of Quantum Field Theory and particle physics at the secondary school level or in introductory physics university courses.

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