Efficient management of road intersections for automated vehicles – The FRFP system applied to the various types of intersections and roundabouts.

In the last decade, automatic driving systems for vehicles circulating on public roads have become increasingly closer to reality. There is always a strong interest in this topic among research centers and car manufacturers. One of the most critical aspects is the management of intersections, i.e., who will have to go first and in what ways? This is the question we want to answer through this research. Clearly, the goal is to manage the intersection safely, making it possible to reduce road congestion, travel time, emissions, and fuel consumption as much as possible. The research is conducted by comparing a new management system with the systems already known in the state of the art for different types of intersections. The new system proposed by us is called FRFP (first to reach the end of the intersection first to pass). In particular, vehicles will increase or decrease their speed in collaboration with each other by making the right decision. The vehicle that can potentially reach the intersection exit first

Hungry women: sin and rebellion through food and music in the early modern era

Longing for food has always had different implications for men and women: associated with power and strength for men, it tends to have a worrying proximity to sexual pleasure for women. Showing an interesting parallelism throughout the Cinquecento, Italian humanists and teachers insisted on forbidding women music and gluttony. Food and music were both considered dangerous stimulants for the female senses, and every woman was encouraged to consider herself as a kind of food to be offered to the only human beings authorized to feel and satisfy desires: men and babies. Women could properly express themselves only inside monastic circles: the most prolific female composer of the seventeenth century was a nun, as was the first woman who wrote down recipes. Elaborate music and food became the means to maintain a lively relationship with the external world. Moreover, nuns also escaped male control by using the opposite system of affirming themselves through fasting and mortifying the flesh

In Vitro

Background. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of a white grape juice extract (WGJe) against a range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, yeasts, and the fungus Aspergillus niger. WGJe was also tested on the production of bacterial biofilms in vitro. Results. WGJe inhibited in vitro most Gram-positive bacteria tested, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538P being the most sensitive strain (MIC values of 3.9 μg/mL). The effect was bactericidal at the concentration of 500 μg/mL. Amongst the Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli was the only susceptible strain (MIC and MBC of 2000 μg/mL). No effect on the growth of Candida sp. and the fungus Aspergillus niger was detected (MIC values > 2000 μg/mL). WGJe inhibited the biofilms formation of E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa with a dose-dependent effect. Conclusions. WGJe exerted both bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity in vitro. The presented results could be used to develop novel strategies for the treatment of skin infections and against potential respiratory pathogens

Per un bilancio dell'unione monetaria latina = An assessment of the Latin monetary union

L’Autore analizza gli effetti conseguenti alla conclusione dell’Unione Monetaria Latina nell’Ottocento tra Belgio, Francia, Italia, Grecia e Svizzera, considerando obiettivi ufficiali e aspettative dei singoli Stati membri. L’uniformità monetaria raggiunta non si tradusse in una maggiore integrazione commerciale, né gli Stati membri riuscirono a ottenere i vantaggi che si attendevano, dovendo soprattutto preoccuparsi di limitare i danni legati al corso forzoso e al crollo del prezzo dell’argento. Solo l’Italia sembra essere riuscita, in parte, a ottenere qualche vantaggio dall’Unione. Gli studiosi hanno spesso evidenziato i problemi legati alla previsione di regole poco stringenti nel funzionamento dell’Unione. Qui si argomenta che una costruzione più rigida e centralizzata non sarebbe stata sufficiente ad evitarli

A general approach to the implementation of action theories

Much effort has been dedicated to provide a general model of agents working in complex environments. This research focuses on the high level cognition used in determining the behavior of the agent. The language of the Situation Calculus represents a very useful way of modeling an agent’s knowledge of its environment. One of its advantages is that there exist methods to derive an executable program from a basic set of axioms. This program can then be used to determine the actions that are necessary in order to accomplish certain goal states. The main objective of this line of work is to obtain an automatic way of deriving such an executable program.Eje: Inteligencia artificialRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

"Orationi al cepo overo a la scala": The Lauda Collection of the Bolognese Confraternity of S. Maria della Morte

La Confraternita bolognese di S. Maria della Morte, istituita nel 1336 sull’onda della predicazione del frate domenicano Venturino da Bergamo, è la più antica e meglio documentata compagnia italiana ‘di giustizia’. Possedeva un laudario conosciuto attraverso 12 manoscritti redatti tra XV e XVI secolo, dove le laude seguono il “confortatorio” che insegnava ai confratelli come relazionarsi col condannato e prepararlo a morire in perfetto spirito cristiano. Nelle laude l’identificazione poetica tra Cristo e il condannato era funzionale allo scopo di convertire il criminale in santo, convincendolo che la sua morte aveva una funzione redentrice per sé e la città stessa. L’assoluzione plenaria poteva essere ottenuta solo tramite una morte completamente accettata e un pentimento sincero. La dissertazione indaga le tematiche espresse dalle laude e le motivazioni forti che spingevano i confortatori a intraprendere questa peculiare attività assistenziale.During the fifteenth century a number of laude were destined for the spiritual edification of those condemned to death. The Bolognese confraternity of S. Maria della Morte, founded in 1336 and among the oldest and best-documented Italian Companies of Justice, had a laudario known now in some twelve sources, mostly dating from the second half of the fifteenth century. These laude are often connected to the ‘consolation manuals’ (confortatori) written in some Italian confraternities in order to instruct brethren who in the few hours before death prepared the prisoner to die in a Christian spirit. In the justice laude the poetic identification between the condemned and Christ or martyrs was functional to the main aim of the brethren who assisted prisoners destined to die: by turning the criminal into a saint he could be convinced that his death had a precise function. Indeed, plenary absolution in the afterlife could be obtained through a truly accepted death. The laude in the confortatori clearly had the function of reinforcing these feelings, but there is little evidence on just how this task was realized in practice. During the night preceding the execution of the prisoners, the brethren sought to turn every criminal into a saint: in the end he must have the conviction that his death had a precise function, and thus he would attain complete inner peace and total acceptance of his sentence. This serene attitude was the basis for a plenary absolution in the afterlife, obtained through a death that was fully accepted. This dissertation focuses on the strong motivation of the brethren who decided to enter this kind of confraternity