Anglo-Cornish in The Siege of Trencher's Farm and Straw Dogs

This essay aims to focus firstly on the typical features of Cornish dialect, also called Anglo-Cornish, Cornish English or Cornu-English (the variety of English spoken in Cornwall) and then on how those typicalities are rendered in Gordon William's novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm (1969). One of the two film versions, Straw Dogs (1971) by Sam Peckinpah, will be later analysed in order to see if and to what extent these regional characteristics are preserved

Thomas Wolfe’s Passage to England: A Ghostly Account of a Real Voyage

A series of sketches written in 1924 during an ocean crossing from New York to Tilbury, "Passage to England" was published only in 1998 by the Thomas Wolfe Society and is hardly Wolfe’s most popular or most accomplished work. Nonetheless I always felt that Passage to England had something unique and idiosyncratic and that despite a certain amount of editing it was arguably more genuinely Wolfean than his later and more renowned works. As a matter of fact, while the text possesses such characteristic traits as a fragmented narrative form, an interweave of reality and fiction, and the lack of a definite plot, it also tackles and anticipates a whole series of ideas and issues that Wolfe would deal with, albeit to a lesser extent, in subsequent books

concepts and new perspectives for long span bridges

AbstractA discussion of the dominant factors affecting the behaviour of long span cable supported bridges is the subject of this paper. The main issue is the evolution of properties and response of the bridge with the size of the structure, represented by the critical parameter of span length, showing how this affects the conceptual design. After a review of the present state of the art, perspectives for future developments are discussed

Thomas Wolfe’s Passage to England: A Ghostly Account of a Real Voyage [Excerpt]

A series of sketches written in 1924 during an ocean crossing from New York to Tilbury, "Passage to England" was published only in 1998 by the Thomas Wolfe Society and is hardly Wolfe’s most popular or most accomplished work. Nonetheless I always felt that Passage to England had something unique and idiosyncratic and that despite a certain amount of editing it was arguably more genuinely Wolfean than his later and more renowned works. As a matter of fact, while the text possesses such characteristic traits as a fragmented narrative form, an interweave of reality and fiction, and the lack of a definite plot, it also tackles and anticipates a whole series of ideas and issues that Wolfe would deal with, albeit to a lesser extent, in subsequent books

Thomas Wolfe - Un estratto da 'Passage to England: A Selection' (Traduzione di Maurizio Brancaleoni)

Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) nasce ad Asheville, North Carolina. Mentre studia drammaturgia ad Harvard scrive per il teatro, ma il successo arriva con il romanzo autobiografico 'Look Homeward, Angel' (1929), seguito da 'Of Time and the River' (1935) e dai postumi 'The Web and the Rock' (1939) e 'You Can’t Go Home Again' (1940). 'Passage to England: A Selection', pubblicato solo nel 1998 senza modifiche significative, è forse l’esempio più autentico di una scrittura genuinamente wolfiana. La cronaca vera ma soprattutto fantastica di un viaggio per mare da New York a Tilbury fa da cornice a frammenti saggistici e inserti autobiografici. Proprio uno degli inserti secondari, la “storia dell’uomo troppo alto”, palesemente ispirata alle proprie vicissitudini, è il resoconto onesto e poetico delle difficoltà che Wolfe poteva incontrare nella vita di tutti i giorni per via della sua altezza spropositata (6 piedi e 6 pollici, ossia 1,98 m) e di come quelle problematiche dovevano riflettersi in un senso di lontananza ed estraneità dal mondo

Bizzarrie fantascientifiche nelle Note di Carlo Dossi

The Note Azzurre (Blue Notes), arguably the most representative work of the Scapigliato Carlo Dossi, have always been the focus of attention of scholars and enthusiasts. A few notes, however, have been studied little or not at all: these fragments revolve around extremely modern matters and obsessions, such as the impact of technology on society, and sound futuristic, almost science-fictional, even today. The purpose of this essay is to identify and investigate these neglected notes in order to provide an unprecedented overview of Dossi as a pioneer of social trends and issues which are pivotal today. ************************************************************************************************************** Le Note Azzurre, forse l’opera più rappresentativa dello scapigliato Carlo Dossi, sono da sempre al centro dell’attenzione di studiosi e appassionati. Alcuni appunti, tuttavia, sono stati studiati poco o nulla: si tratta di frammenti che si concentrano su questioni e ossessioni estremamente moderne, come per esempio l’impatto della tecnologia sulla società e appaiono ancora oggi futuristici, quasi fantascientifici. In questa sede si vuole individuare ed esaminare queste note neglette nel tentativo di offrire una panoramica inedita di un Dossi anticipatore di tendenze e fenomeni sociali oggi decisivi

Analisi della catena di ricezione in banda S di una stazione di terra satellitare nell’ambito della missione ESEO

La tesi qui presentata riassume le procedure messe in atto per rendere operativa, dal punto di vista della banda S, la ground station di Forlì. L'attività, svolta nell'ambito della missione ESEO, si incentra sulla risoluzione di problematiche hardware e software per rendere possibile il downlink dal satellite. Al fine di dotare la ground station di un manuale di utilizzo, l'intera tesi presenta una struttura manualistica, trattando nel dettaglio ogni procedura da mettere in atto. Tutta l'attività hardware si concentra sulla movimentazione del rotore della parabola, calibrazione, analisi e progettazione di soluzioni per rendere operativa la catena di downlink. Per quanto riguarda i software, tramite Orbitron vengono inviati i parametri orbitali del satellite al control software del rotore per poter effettuare il tracking orbitale. La tesi si completa con appendici riassuntive delle procedure di configurazione dei singoli componenti della catena

Refugial peatlands in the Northern Apennines. Vegetation-environment relationships and future perspectives

Aims: We aimed to detect the environmental drivers conditioning plant diversity and to predict how modifications in habitat conditions and ongoing global warming could lead to vegetation changes or biodiversity losses in a region especially rich in peatlands despite its relatively low latitude. Study area: The study area was located in the Northern Apennines, Northern Italy (about 44 degrees 45' N; 10 degrees 20' E). The vegetation study was carried out at 12 peatland sites where 206 plots were set up. Species composition in the 206 plots were recorded in the field and classified with cluster analysis. Data on hydrology, water chemistry and peat chemistry were collected at a subset of 127 plots and statistically analysed by a multivariate ordination method. Species richness and evenness were calculated for all plots. Relationships between species composition and environmental variables were analysed by stepwise multiple regression. Results: The cluster analysis defined 17 vegetation units. Water table depth represented the major environmental factors accounting for vegetation patterns, with the vegetation units being grouped in four main blocks based on vegetation physiognomy and species composition: Sphagnum hummocks, Sphagnum lawns, fens and pools. Water chemistry and peat chemistry both presented moderate variations among the vegetation units with mean water pH ranging from 4.9 to 6.3. Concentrations of major cations in the pore water showed that all of the habitats investigated were influenced by telluric water, with no evidence of ombrotrophic conditions. Species richness and evenness both presented poor relations with the environment while responses of individual species to environmental factors were more informative on vegetation changes triggered by climate change. Conclusions: Prolonged drought events associated with high temperature in summer months are expected to exert a strong impact on peatland vegetation. The main effect of climate change on the vegetation of the peatlands investigated consists in the spreading of vascular plants at the expense of Sphagnum mosses

Per una mappatura storica delle scuole Montessori : percorso di ricerca sulle fonti

Il contributo si propone di rendere visibile il percorso di ricerca archivistica retrostante una delle azioni centrali in cui sono state coinvolte tutte le Unità di ricerca del PRIN Maria Montessori: tra storia e attualità. Ricezione e diffusione della sua pedagogia in Italia a 150 anni dalla nascita: la Mappatura storica delle scuole montessoriane in Italia dal 1907 ad oggi. L'articolo mira quindi ad esplicitare i passaggi salienti del percorso intrapreso, le scelte metodologiche, l’individuazione e selezione delle possibili fonti e le difficoltà riscontrate nelle fasi di raccolta. A seguire viene presentata ed approfondita la fase di classificazione ed elaborazione dei dati, nonché la definizione di uno strumento di catalogazione. I vari passaggi di ricerca e analisi delle fonti danno così la possibilità di comprendere più nitidamente il disegno d'insieme e le azioni diversificate confluenti e concorrenti alla realizzazione della mappa storica interattiva, elaborata dall'Unità dell'Università Bicocca di Milano