The improvvisatore tradition in Florence Italy during the second half of the quattrocento featured poet-musicians who sang poetry for music (poesia per musica) accompanied by the lira (da braccio). This thesis researches Florentine literati and threads of humanism in relation to poetry written for music. By doing so, philosophical and literary trends are analyzed in relation to the Florentine improvvisatore style: frottola versification forms and divinus furor. Marsilio Ficino’s (1433-1499) direction at the Platonic Academy (founded c. 1463) outside Florence in the hills of Carregi influenced some of the greatest artists and musicians of his time. This thesis focuses on lyric improvisation as a means of connecting mind and body with the universe. In doing so, Ficino’s music-spirit-theory and astrological program are looked at in light of the Platonic sources. The instrument of the improvvisatore, the lira, will be analyzed in relation to affect (ethos) and wellness for mind (soul) and body

On the surface, Sweden and Denmark are two similar countries, but behind the closed boardroom doors, things look different. These two countries have chosen different approaches to achieving their goals and the diversification within the boards differs markedly. As a result, the study tries to emphasize the differences, and see if it is possible to distinguish different gender effects. The purpose of the study is to investigate the possible effects of gender quotas in corporate governance and the impact women does have on reducing risk in a corporate governance context as well as their connection to R&D investments based on a performance measure of earnings per share. The study has chosen a deductive approach with regards to a cross-sectional design to make it possible to make various comparisons between the collected variables. The hypotheses of the study have been formulated with help of the theories: tokenism, institutional theory, social role theory, resource mobilization theory, resource-based theory, economic growth theory and the theory of the firm. The study finds gender effects for Denmark however cannot conclude if this is an effect of women on the board of directors or a tokenism problem arising due to males’ dominance causing women to be pushed away or men having a different risk appetite. For Sweden no gender effects can be concluded neither for the 3-year or the year-to-year results. This suggests that Swedish companies board of directors have achieved great synergy effects due to institutional and social pressures, however a tokenism problem cannot be ruled out. / Sverige och Danmark är till ytan två lika länder men bakom de stängda styrelsedörrarna så ser det annorlunda ut. Dessa två länder har valt olika tillvägagångssätt för att uppnå sina mål och diversifieringen inom styrelserna skiljer sig markant. Till följd detta försöker studien betona skillnaderna, samt se om det går att urskilja olika könseffekter. Syftet med studien är att undersöka de möjliga effekterna av könskvotering i bolagsstyrning och vilken inverkan kvinnor har på att minska risken i ett bolagsstyrningssammanhang, samt deras koppling till forskning och utvecklings investeringar baserat på prestationsmått på vinst per aktie. Studien har valt ett deduktivt tillvägagångssätt med avseende på en tvärsnittsdesign för att göra det möjligt att göra olika jämförelser mellan de insamlade variablerna. Studiens hypoteser har formulerats med hjälp av teorierna: tokenism, institutionell teori, social rollteori, resursmobiliseringsteori, resursbaserad teori, ekonomisk tillväxtteori och företagets teori. Studien finner könseffekter för Danmark men kan inte dra slutsatsen om detta är en effekt av kvinnor i styrelsen eller ett tokenismproblem som uppstår på grund av mäns dominans som gör att kvinnor trängs undan eller att män möjligen har en annan riskaptit. För Sverige kan inga könseffekter konstateras varken för 3-års- eller årsresultatet. Detta tyder på att den svenska styrelsen har uppnått stora synergieffekter på grund av institutionella och sociala påtryckningar, men ett tokenismproblem kan inte uteslutas.

This study focuses on the role of the blue-haired Fairy in Carlo Collodi's "Le Avventure di Pinocchio" compared to the feminine role in Italian Children's literature and the European genre Bildungsroman during the late 18th century. It also explores Italy's educational and ideological agenda during this period and the role of children's literature as a pedagogical contribution towards the formation of a new Italian nation after 1861.  Having thoroughly considered Carlo Colloid’s criticism towards traditional family, school organization, and children's literature, the conclusion demonstrates that the blue-haired Fairy can be interpreted as an anti-conformist figure in comparison to the educational values of 18th century Italy and that she is in contrast to the stereotypical descriptions of women in literature during this period, both as an educator and as an independent woman. / Questo studio si concentra sul ruolo della Fata Turchina nel "Le Avventure di Pinocchio" di Carlo Collodi rispetto al ruolo femminile nella letteratura per l'infanzia italiana e nel genere Bildungsroman europeo durante il fine Ottocento. La tesina esplora anche l'agenda educativa e ideologica dell'Italia durante questo periodo e il ruolo della letteratura per l'infanzia come contributo pedagogico alla formazione di una nuova cultura unitaria italiana dopo il 1861. Considerata a fondo la critica di Carlo Collodi nei confronti della famiglia tradizionale, dell'organizzazione scolastica e della letteratura per l'infanzia, la conclusione dimostra che la Fata Turchina può essere interpretata come una figura anticonformista rispetto ai valori educativi dell’Italia di fine Ottocento ed in contrasto con le descrizioni stereotipate della donna nella letteratura di questo periodo, sia come educatrice che come donna indipendente.

OpenStack is currently the most popular open source platform for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. OpenStack lets users deploy virtual machines and other instances, which handle different tasks for managing a cloud environment on the fly. A lot of cloud platform offerings, including the Ericsson Cloud System, are based on OpenStack. Despite the popularity of OpenStack, there is currently a limited understanding of how much resource is consumed/needed by components of OpenStack under different operating conditions such as number of compute nodes, number of running VMs, the number of users and the rate of requests to the various services. The master thesis attempts to model the resource demand of the various components of OpenStack in function of different operating condition, identify correlations and evaluate how accurate the predictions are. For this purpose, a physical OpenStack is setup with one strong controller node and eight compute nodes. All the experiments and measurements were on virtual OpenStack components on top of the main physical one. In conclusion, a simple model is generated for idle behavior of OpenStack, starting and stopping a Virtual Machine (VM) API calls which predicts the total CPU utilization based on the number of Compute Nodes and VMs.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between political stability, inflation, unemployment, GDP per capita, and vice versa. Previously this question has been studied in the relationship between political stability and each of these economic variables individually. With this research we can analyse if the poor economic performance in some countries is caused by unstable political institutions, that is why we find it important. Here we are analysing and comparing all of the economical variables at the same time and analysing which ones show the strongest relationships, or if the relationships are significant or not significant. In previous studies, the measurements that were used for political stability were: government changes, cabinet changes, index of economic freedom, or polity state. However, in this paper, the political stability measurement used is the Political stability index and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, which measures the likelihood that the government will be destabilised. Additionally, differently, from previous studies, Granger causality is used to understand causality between political stability and economic development variables.

Uppsatsen är en analys av den svenska politiska aktivisten Per Engdahl och hans rörelsers ideologiska innehåll. Engdahl som föddes 1909 och avled 1994 var under hela sitt liv verksam i olika svenska fascistiska och högerextrema organisationer såsom Sveriges Fascistiska Kamporganisation, Riksförbundet det Nya Sverige, Sveriges Nationella Förbund, Riksföreningen Sverige-Tyskland, Svensk Opposition, Europäische Soziale Bewegung samt Nysvenska Rörelsen. Dessutom utgav han under nästan 50 år tidningen Vägen Framåt. Studien omfattar perioden 1931 till 1950. Fyra olika politiska program samt fyra ledarartiklar ur Vägen Framåt, från 1942 alla författade av Engdahl, har analyserats. Metoden har varit ideologianalys speciellt med hjälp av textanalys.Studiens syfte är att utifrån teorin om generisk fascism undersöka Per Engdahl och hans organisationers ideologiska grund. En sådan analys har inte tidigare genomförts utan Engdahl har betecknats som fascist eller nazist utifrån empiriska studier av organisationerna och inte på grundligare studier av hans idéer.Till idéhistorikern Lena Bergrens minimidefinition av generisk fascism har jag i min definition lagt till begreppet auktoritär och ersatt holistisk till metafysisk. Den lyder sålunda: Fascismen är en ultranationalistisk revolutionär och auktoritär ideologi med metafysiska och synkretistiska pretentioner som syftar till att skapa ett radikalt nytt samhälle och en ny typ av människa.Utifrån denna definition och andra centrala begrepp i fascismen betraktar jag Per Engdals ideologi som fascistisk under den undersökta perioden 1931 till 1950. Jag anser även att Engdahl var antisemit under perioden 1931 till 1942 och att han regelbundet spred rasideologiska idéer i sina texter fram till och med 1950. / This work is an ideological analyse of the Swedish political activist Per Engdahl and his different organizations. Engdahl was born 1909 and died 1994. He was active his whole life in different Swedish fascist an extreme right-wing organizations as Sweden’s Fascist Combat Organization, The National Federation the New Sweden, The National Swedish Association, The National Association Sweden-Germany, Swedish Opposition, The European Social Movement and The New Swedish Movement. He was also the publisher, for almost 50 years, of the political paper The Way Forwards. This study extends from 1931 to 1950. I have analysed four different political manifests and four editorials dated 1942 from his paper The Way Forwards. My method is primarily an ideology analysis including text analysis.The purpose of the study is to use the theory of generic fascism on Per Engdahls texts to find out the ideology can be defined as fascism. An analysis like this has not been done before but Engdahl has primarily been labelled as a Fascist or Nazi from empirical studies of his organizations and not by more thoroughly studies of his ideas.From the historian of ideas Lena Berggren I have borrowed her mini definition of generic fascism. But I have added the term authoritarian and substitute holistic with metaphysical. My definition reads: Fascism is an extreme nationalistic revolutionary and authoritarian ideology with metaphysical and syncretistic pretension which aims at a radical new society and an new type of individual.From this definition and other central concepts of Fascism I will define Per Engdahls ideology as fascism during the examined period from 1931 to 1950. I also see Engdahl as an anti-Semite during 1931 to 1942 and that he also constantly spread racism within texts and programmes until the end of the examination 1950.

The urban climate of the city of Trento, adopted as a representative case study of urban weather and climate phenomena in a mid-sized city lying in a mountain valley, is investigated using different methods and on different spatial scales. First the intensity of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) is analyzed evaluating the differences between air temperatures measured at an urban automated weather station on a tower, over mean rooftop level, and at five suburban/rural weather stations, located few kilometers around the city boundaries. It is found that the extra-urban weather stations, being affected by different local-scale climatic conditions, display different temperature contrasts compared to the urban site. However the diurnal cycle of the UHI is characterized by similar behaviors at all the extra-urban weather stations: the UHI intensity is stronger at night, while during the central hours of the day an “urban cool island†is likely to occur. The diurnal maximum UHI intensity turns out to be typically of order 3°C, but under particularly favorable conditions it may be higher than 6°C. Wind speed and cloud cover are the weather factors which most affect UHI intensity, making it weaker with stronger winds and cloudier skies. The investigation of the urban climate of Trento focuses then on a smaller spatial scale, analyzing in detail the thermal field inside an urban canyon located in the city center, by means of two experimental campaigns and the use of a simple model. This simple model simulates the energy balance of the different surfaces composing the urban canyon, calculating both surface and air temperatures inside the canopy. During the two field measurements, carried out in the summer 2007 and in the winter 2008- 2009, temperature sensors were placed at various levels near the walls flanking the canyon and on a traffic light in the center of the street. It is found that the air temperature near the walls, both in summer and in winter, is strongly influenced by direct solar radiation, thus inducing a quite strong imbalance within the canyon: during sunny days an overheating of the east-facing sensors is found in the morning, while in the afternoon west-facing sensors are the warmest. On the other hand, when solar radiation is weak or absent, the temperature field inside the canyon is homogeneous. Moreover air temperature inside the canyon is generally higher than above roof level, the differences being larger during summertime, when solar radiation is stronger and can penetrate for longer inside the street. The measurements performed during the field campaigns, along with observations of wall surface temperatures taken from the literature, allow to validate the results of the urban canyon model. A good agreement between experimental measurements and numerical results is found for both surface and air temperatures, in different seasons and under different weather conditions. The urban area of Trento, being located in the Alpine Adige Valley, interacts with the atmospheric phenomena typical of these contexts, in particular thermally driven local circulation systems. Moreover the city is located at a point where various narrow tributary valleys or gullies join the Adige Valley, and, as a consequence, complex interactions of local circulation systems are present in the area of Trento. In order to study these phenomena, first the main features of local circulation systems developing in the Adige, Sarca and Lakes valleys, which directly influence the climate of the city, are investigated by means of the analysis of a dataset from surface weather stations covering the period 2004-2011. After that, high-resolution (500 m) numerical simulations with the mesoscale meteorological WRF model, coupled with the multilayer Building Environment Parameterization (BEP) scheme, are utilized to study the urban climate of Trento in the Adige Valley context. Suitable datasets of land use, urban morphology and anthropogenic heat flux have been specifically prepared for these numerical simulations. Both methods highlight the substantial differences occurring between the local circulation system developing in the Adige Valley, and that blowing in the Sarca and Lakes valleys. The former is a typical valley wind, while the latter is a combination of a lake breeze and a valley wind. The along-valley wind developing in the Adige Valley is mainly determined by the local geometry of the valley, which controls the penetration of solar radiation and the heating of the valley slopes. The lake breeze, the so-called Ora del Garda, starts to blow from the shores of Lake Garda in the morning and then propagates with its cooler air towards north in the Sarca and Lakes valleys, outbreaking into the Adige Valley north of Trento in the first part of the afternoon. In some days the lake breeze is even able to reach the central part of the urban area of Trento, thus lowering the temperature in the city in hot summer afternoons. Focusing on the urban effects, the model is able to simulate correctly the daily cycle of the UHI, with high intensities during the night and negligible values in the central part of the day. Numerical results suggest that at night the temperature sharply increases at the city boundaries, while the thermal field is quite homogeneous inside the urban area, with only slightly higher temperatures where the urban morphology is more compact. Finally it is found that the presence of the city influences considerably also the wind field, due to the high roughness of the urban area.

The present Ph.D. research has made important contributions towards the optimization of light packaging waste to energy alternative processes such as pyrolysis and gasification. Over more the development of an original integrated municipal solid waste scenario model that integrates the experimental results obtained in the thesis have a practical meaning suitable for large scale application. The experimental study of light packaging waste pyrolysis has brought some valuable information on: mass variation and balance (the results can be applied on a kinetic model development), activation energy, energy potential of solid and liquid by-products and chemical composition of solid and liquid pyrolysis products. The optimal temperature for light packaging waste pyrolysis (paper, cardboard and plastics) was established to be more than 500°C. The present Ph.D. research has made important contributions towards the optimization of light packaging waste to energy alternative processes such as pyrolysis and gasification. Over more the development of an original integrated municipal solid waste scenario model that integrates the experimental results obtained in the thesis have a practical meaning suitable for large scale application. The experimental study of light packaging waste pyrolysis has brought some valuable information on: mass variation and balance (the results can be applied on a kinetic model development), activation energy, energy potential of solid and liquid by-products and chemical composition of solid and liquid pyrolysis products. The optimal temperature for light packaging waste pyrolysis (paper, cardboard and plastics) was established to be more than 500°C. This experimental study leads to the optimisation of air gasification process parameters at industrial scale in a rotary reactor lab-pilot installation using light packaging waste mixtures. It was concluded that hhigher equivalent ration lowers the gas quality because of oxidization reactions at occurs at the being of the process. Without taking into account the CnHm hydrocarbons except CH4, in the present experiments the syngas low heating value will reach to its maximum at 5600 Nm3/kgpackaging waste at 900°C with an equivalent rate(ER) of 0.2. The solid residue is composed by char and ash and reaches to its maxim of 17 % from the initial feed input at 800°C and 0.2 ER. At 800 °C the gas flow rate and ER ranging between 0.2 -0.3 is 1.5-1.99 Nm3/kg . As it was expected, the gas yield increases with the increasing of temperature and gasifying agent. At 900 °C and 0.2-0.3 ER the gas flow rate registered varies between 1.58-2.1 Nm3/kg packaging waste. The novelty of the research in given by the development of a flexible and environmental friendly integrated municipal solid waste scenario model. The system model combines the selective collection rate, recycling processes, advanced mechanical sorting, solid recovered fuel production and proposes two waste to energy recovery facilities (combustion or gasification). The analyzed system complies with the EU principle of biodegradable materials minimization and is in agreement with the principle of adopting energy recovery after the implementation of material recycling options. In all cases studied, the analyzed integrated municipal solid waste system (IMSWS) minimizes the landfilling of materials and increases the energetic potential of the waste sent to energy recovery.

Introduction: Vasectomy is considered a safe and effective contraceptive method with fewcomplications. Complications are most often hematomas, pain or infection. Previous studiessuggest that the surgeon’s experience level is associated with potential complications. Aim: To evaluate complications after vasectomy and to investigate if specific patientcharacteristics and/or surgical experience can predict complications related to vasectomysurgeries. Methods: Five hundred consecutive journals of vasectomy patients at the Department of Urologyin Örebro University Hospital during 2019 and 2020 were investigated. Patient characteristics andinformation about the surgery were collected. Comparison was made between patient groups toinvestigate if complications were more common in patients with diabetes, cardiovascular diseaseor previous surgery in the scrotal/groin area, as well as in patients operated on by one versus twosurgeons, and residents versus specialized surgeons. Results: No statistically significant association could be found between patient characteristics(diabetes, cardiovascular disease, previous surgery) and complications. Furthermore, the numberof operating surgeons and the surgeons’ experience levels did not have any statistically significantassociation to complication rates. Conclusion: No patient factors could be used to predict vasectomy outcome. Complication ratesare the same in patients operated by surgical residents and specialized surgeons.

Greenhouse Gas emission increase is largely attributed to carbon dioxide emissions as the major gas causing climate change and atmospheric warming. According to Environmental Kuznets Curve Theory (EKC), the increase in economic growth is expected to reduce the environmental pollution from carbon dioxide emission caused at the beginning stages of economic growth. In this thesis, I examined the impact of economic growth on carbon dioxide emission. The key hypothesis tested in this study is the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. Data from 1967 to 2016 from over 15 countries in North and South America, published by the World Bank were used. Since EKC posits a non-linear relationship between economic growth (GDP/capita) and Carbon dioxide emission, I used a quadratic component in the regression model. I analyzed the data using the OLS regression as my baseline model. Each country is unique in many respects that are hard to capture by a set of variables in econometrics model. This poses a challenge to estimating an unbiased estimate. Using panel data model allowed controlling for time invariant unobserved country-specific factors that could bias the estimates. I estimated a fixed effect panel regression to examine the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth is primarily measured with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. The results of the fixed effect panel regression showed that all variables are significant, except export and inflation which were not significant. OLS could not solve the issue of heterogeneity among the variables. Estimating country-specific fixed effects model eliminates unobserved heterogeneity across countries and, therefore provides relatively unbiased estimates compared to OLS estimates. The positive correlation between Total CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas and GDP per capita suggests that carbon dioxide emissions increase as GDP/ capita increases before the turning point. The negative correlation between Total CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas and GDP per capita squared suggests that there is a polynomial (quadratic) form which is like that of inverted U-shape of the EKC curve. The coefficient, although it is very small, suggests the impact of the negative relationship after the turning point at the vertex of EKC curve is fractional. As expected, the result indicates a higher population causes an increase in total CO2 emissions. The result from CO2 emissions from liquid shows a negative relationship between the dependent variable CO2 emissions from liquid and the independent variable GDP per capita at the highest level of significance. This result is different from that of total carbon dioxide emissions, CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas. Carbon emission from liquid looks different from carbon emissions from solid and gas. There are high and constant emission throughout all the years and in all countries used in the analysis. EKC hypothesis is proven to be true for total carbon dioxide emissions, carbon dioxide emission from solid and gas. The hypothesized correlation between GDPs per capita square and CO2 emissions is statistically supported for Total CO2 emission, CO2 emission from solid and CO2 emission from gas. CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas and GDP per capita squared suggest that there is a polynomial (quadratic) form which is like that of inverted U-shape of the EKC curve. This proves that EKC model is proven to be true for my data. Policies like population policies can help in increasing growth in GDP per capita and reducing growth in the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Population policies could play a significant role aimed at mitigating and reducing climate change.