The Future Direction of New Computing Environment for Exabyte Data in the Business World

With the rapid spread of the Internet and the computerization of trading a huge amount of data on the Internet and of transaction database in enterprises has been accumulated. The purpose of this paper is to explain the significance of the technology to process of exabyte-scale data and presents the business application, CODIRO, which will make it possible to integrate various types of large scale data. CODIRO is a consumer research system which discovers new knowledge by integrating the huge amount of different types of data both on the Internet and within companies. This paper will demonstrate the business implications for exabyte-scale information technology research, by explaining an example of the analysis of the sales effectiveness of television commercials using CODIRO.2005 IEEE/IPSJ International Symposium on Applications and the Internet Workshops (SAINT 2005 Workshops), 31 January - 4 February 2005, Trento, Italy

Scintillating fiber devices for particle therapy applications

Particle Therapy (PT) is a radiation therapy technique in which solid tumors are treated with charged ions and exploits the achievable highly localized dose delivery, allowing to spare healthy tissues and organs at risk. The development of a range monitoring technique to be used on-line, during the treatment, capable to reach millimetric precision is considered one of the important steps towards an optimization of the PT efficacy and of the treatment quality. To this aim, charged secondary particles produced in the nuclear interactions between the beam particles and the patient tissues can be exploited. Besides charged secondaries, also neutrons are produced in nuclear interactions. The secondary neutron component might cause an undesired and not negligible dose deposition far away from the tumor region, enhancing the risk of secondary malignant neoplasms that can develop even years after the treatment. An accurate neutron characterization (flux, energy and emission profile) is hence needed for a better evaluation of long-term complications. In this contribution two tracker detectors, both based on scintillating fibers, are presented. The first one, named Dose Profiler (DP), is planned to be used as a beam range monitor in PT treatments with heavy ion beams, exploiting the charged secondary fragments production. The DP is currently under development within the INSIDE (Innovative Solutions for In-beam DosimEtry in hadrontherapy) project. The second one is dedicated to the measurement of the fast and ultrafast neutron component produced in PT treatments, in the framework of the MONDO (MOnitor for Neutron Dose in hadrOntherapy) project. Results of the first calibration tests performed at the Trento Protontherapy center and at CNAO (Italy) are reported, as well as simulation studies

Current exposure of Italian women of reproductive age to PFOS and PFOA: a human biomonitoring study

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) concentrations were determined in serum samples collected in 2011-2012 from 549 nulliparous Italian women of reproductive age who resided in six different Italian Regions. Assessment of exposure to perfluorinated compounds was part of a large human biomonitoring study (Project Life Plus "Womenbiopop") that aimed at examining the exposure of women of reproductive age to priority organic pollutants. The median concentrations of PFOS and PFOA were 2.43, and 1.55ngg-1, respectively. Significant differences in the concentrations of both compounds were observed among the six Regions. Women from central Italy had the highest levels of both compounds, followed by women from northern Italy, and southern Italy. No differences in the PFOS concentrations were found between women from urban/industrial areas and women from rural areas, whereas the levels of PFOA were significantly higher in women residing in urban/industrial areas than in women residing in rural areas. Taken together, the observed concentrations confirm that the overall exposure of the Italian population is among the lowest observed in industrialized countries. A downward temporal trend in exposure was observed for both compounds when comparing the results from the present study with those assessed in a study conducted in 2008

Diachronic Development in Isolation: The Loss of V2 Phenomena in Cimbrian

This paper deals with the syntactic development of Cimbrian, a German dialect, which was spoken for centuries in some enclaves in northern Italy. In particular, we argue that the ‘dismantlement’ of the V2 phenomenon is connected with a change concerning the ‘nature’ of specific word order patterns: from ‘allowed’ V2 exceptions to ‘unmarked’ and frequent constructions, i.e., from hanging topic (freies Thema) in WH clause to ‘new’ left dislocation modalities, which finally bring to generalized V3 in the declarative clause

Landscape Maintenance and Farming in the Alps: From Family Firms Up-Keeping to Inter-Institutional Arrangements

This contribution discusses assets and limits of the local/territorial level as a core level to improve the sustainability of agriculture. The focus is on the issue of rural landscape maintenance through farming. Some possible institutional solutions to overcome the difficulties of family farms are examined. New institutional settings such as the "local group", constituting an interface for the negotiation among different local stakeholders, seem to effectively facilitate the stipulation of local contracts for landscape management. The participation to these contracts requires a change in farmers' identity and a more general re-conceptualization of agricultural and environmental problems as community problems.Land use, Participatory approach, Rural development, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Land Economics/Use,

Flooding in Northern Italy during the Early Middle Ages: resilience and adaptation

open1Alluvial phenomena are well documented by archaeologists all over Northern Italy, and have been often linked to events reported by literary sources (e.g. the flooding of 589 described by Paul the Deacon). This paper will discuss, on the basis of the archaeological documentation of several case studies, flooding in the Middle Ages, considering it both as a periodical threat in certain regions and as resilience, or rather as the capacity of the local people to bring the land back to its original appearance. The paper also discusses the economic and social impact of alluvial phenomena. They were a hazard for populations forced to change settlement distribution, but also offered new economic opportunities, through the exploitation of wetlands and forests.openBrogiolo, GIAN PIETROBrogiolo, GIAN PIETR

Principles of wide bandwidth acoustic detectors and the single-mass DUAL detector

We apply the standard theory of the elastic body to obtain a set of equations describing the behavior of an acoustic Gravitational Wave detector, fully taking into account the 3-dimensional properties of the mass, the readout and the signal. We show that the advantages given by a Dual detector made by two nested oscillators can also be obtained by monitoring two different acoustic modes of the same oscillator, thus easing the detector realization. We apply these concepts and by means of an optimization process we derive the main figures of such a single-mass Dual detector designed specifically for the frequency interval 2-5kHz. Finally we calculate the SQL sensitivity of this detector.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Biogeographische, morphologische und molekularbiologische Untersuchungen zum Artstatus von Acalles temperei Péricart, 1987 und Kyklioacalles navieresi (Boheman, 1837)

Neben biogeographischen werden morphologische Argumente zusammengetragen, die für eine Synonymisierung der Arten Acalles parvulus Boheman, 1837 = Acalles temperei Péricart, 1987 sprechen. Entlang eines Transekts zwischen dem Mont Pilat (Dep. Loire) und dem Mont Saint-Martin nördlich von Grenoble (Dep. Isère) wird über den Vergleich der Aedoeagi eine Cline sichtbar, die am Artstatus von Acalles temperei zweifeln lässt. Bestätigung finden diese vergleichenden, phänotypischen Untersuchungen durch erste molekulargenetische Untersuchungen. Danach scheint entweder eine Hybridisierungszone wahrscheinlich oder der Verdacht liegt nahe, dass Acalles parvulus und Acalles temperei eine einzige, geographisch strukturierte Art darstellen. Völlig anders liegen die molekularbiologischen Ergebnisse bei Kyklioacalles roboris (Curtis, 1834) und der erst kürzlich resynonymisierten Art Kyklioacalles navieresi (Boheman, 1837): Die DNA-Sequenzanalysen der mitochondrialen CO1- und 16S-Gene sowie des nukleären 28S-Gens zeigen, dass Kyklioacalles navieresi und Kyklioacalles roboris zwei eigenständige, wenn auch eng verwandte Arten darstellen.New insights from biogeography, morphology and molecular biology: the species status of Acalles temperei Péricart, 1987 and Kyklioacalles navieresi (Boheman, 1837) (Curculionidae: Cryptorhynchinae); including 14 colored photographies, 2 plates, 1 diagram and 8 distribution maps. Biogeographical and morphological arguments are presented that suggest the following synonymization: Acalles parvulus Boheman, 1837 = Acalles temperei Péricart, 1987. Comparing the aedeagi along a transect from Mont Pilat (Dep. Loire) to Mont Saint-Martin North of Grenoble (Dep. Isère), a cline becomes apparent that raises doubts about the species status of Acalles temperei. These results, obtained by comparative phenotypic examination, are corroborated in a preliminary set of molecular genetic analyses. The latter either hint the existence of a hybrid zone or indicate that Acalles parvulus and Acalles temperei constitute a single, geographically structured species. The molecular results for Kyklioacalles roboris (Curtis, 1834) and the recently resynonymized species Kyklioacalles navieresi (Boheman, 1837) are very different. DNA sequence analysis of the mitochondrial CO1 and 16S genes and of the nuclear 28S gene showed that Kyklioacalles navieresi and Kyklioacalles roboris likely represent two individual, but closely related species

Single-particle vs. pair superfluidity in a bilayer system of dipolar bosons

We consider the ground state of a bilayer system of dipolar bosons, where dipoles are oriented by an external field in the direction perpendicular to the parallel planes. Quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to calculate the ground-state energy, the one-body and two-body density matrix, and the superfluid response as a function of the separation between layers. We find that by decreasing the interlayer distance for fixed value of the strength of the dipolar interaction, the system undergoes a quantum phase transition from a single-particle to a pair superfluid. The single-particle superfluid is characterized by a finite value of both the atomic condensate and the super-counterfluid density. The pair superfluid phase is found to be stable against formation of many-body cluster states and features a gap in the spectrum of elementary excitations.Comment: 4 figure