Literacy Sponsorship and Official Paratexts: Promoting Character Literacy through the For the Strength of Youth Booklets (1965-2011)

Literacy sponsors continue to play a dynamic and integral role in acquiring and learning literacy knowledge and skills (fluency) within discourse communities. This thesis examines how a religious literacy sponsor, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, utilizes the For the Strength of Youth (FSOY) publications and official paratexts to actively promote religious literacy and character development in the lives of adolescents. This thesis focuses specifically on the 2011 edition of the FSOY to explore the impact that recent advancements in digital technology have had on the evolution of the main-body text and official paratexts. A textual and paratextual analysis serves to illustrate how the Church promotes literacy acquisition and learning within the religious discourse community

An investigation of vegetation and other earth resource/feature parameters using LANDSAT and other remote sensing data. A: LANDSAT. B: Remote sensing of volcanic emissions

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

L\u2019incertezza democratica. Ideologia e potere in Claude Lefort

La ricerca propone una duplice tesi interpretativa in rapporto al pensiero di Claude Lefort. In primo luogo, desume dall'opera di Lefort il concetto di "incertezza democratica", evidenziandone i tratti di originalit\ue0 in riferimento alle teorie della democrazia di stampo normativo e realista. L'obiettivo \ue8 collocare tale concetto all'interno di una peculiare genealogia del politico, centrata sulla funzione simbolica del potere es sul ruolo istituente dei conflitti. In secondo luogo, il lavoro individua nella rielaborazione del concetto di ideologia - cui Lefort dedica diversi scritti negli anni Settanta - uno snodo teorico ancora fecondo per l'analisi di alcuni fenomeni politici contemporanei. La ricerca intende restituire in tal modo un'immagine unitaria della filosofia politica lefortiana, pur analizzandone diffusamente i momenti di discontinuit\ue0 interna; al tempo stesso, prova a tematizzare le categorie-cardine del pensiero di Lefort in rapporto al dibattito attuale sulla crisi e sul futuro della democrazia

Micro X-ray fluorescence imaging coupled with chemometrics to detect and classify asbestos fibers in demolition waste

Asbestos was largely used in the past by several countries all over the world. From 1900 to 1990 asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) were produced in large amounts and mainly utilized to produce insulation, flame retardant materials, as well as to improve the mechanical and the chemical characteristics of construction materials. Its extensive use has therefore led to the presence of fibers in existing buildings and within the construction and demolition waste. A fast, reliable and accurate recognition of ACMs represents an important target to be reached. In this paper the use of micro X-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) technique coupled with a statistical multivariate approach was applied and discussed with reference to ACMs characterization. Different elemental maps of the ACMs were preliminary acquired in order to evaluate distribution and composition of asbestos fibers, then samples energy spectra where collected and processed using chemometric methods to perform an automatic classification of the different typologies of asbestos fibers. Spectral data were analyzed using PLS-Toolbox™ (Eigenvector Research, Inc.) running into Matlab® (The Mathworks, Inc.) environment. An automatic classification model was then built and applied. Results showed that asbestos fibers were correctly identified and classified according to their chemical composition. The proposed approach, based on micro-XRF analysis combined with an automatic classification of the elemental maps, is not only effective and non-destructive, it is fast, and it does not require the presence of a trained operator. The application of the developed methodology can help to correctly characterize and manage demolition waste where ACMs are present

Reward preferences of pathological gamblers under conditions of uncertainty: an experimental study

Among many personality traits, impulsivity represents one of the most important traits associated with pathological gambling. Empirical research has highlighted the multidimensional nature of impulsivity, which includes different heterogeneous traits and behavioral tendencies. The present study experimentally examined reward preferences of pathological gamblers under conditions of uncertainty using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. Furthermore it also examined the relationship between impulsivity, time perspective, inability to tolerate delay in gratification, and risktaking. The present study is the first to simultaneously examine all these variables simultaneously in a sample of pathological gamblers (n=54) and healthy controls (n=54) from Italy. All participants participated in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and were also administered Italian versions of the South Oaks Gambling Screen, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, the Consideration of Future Consequences, and the Monetary Choice Questionnaire. Analyses revealed that compared to HCs, PGs were more risk prone on the BART, and reported elevated levels of impulsivity, steeper discounting rates and a shorter time perspective. All the measures correlated with the gambling severity and strong correlations between the BIS, CFC-14 and BART were observed. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that impulsivity and risk-taking were strong predictors of pathological gambling

An investigation of vegetation and other earth resource/feature parameters using LANDSAT and other remote sensing data. A: LANDSAT. B: Remote sensing of volcanic emissions

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Chrysotile detection in soils with proximal hyperspectral sensing and chemometrics

In this work the authors present an innovative methodology, based on proximal hyperspectral sensing and chemometric techniques, aimed at detecting asbestos containing soils. Short Wave InfraRed (SWIR) reflectance spectra of reference samples containing known chrysotile fractions were collected in laboratory. Since the identification of asbestos containing soils depends on the contaminant mass percentage (weight/weight), two supervised multivariate data projection methods were evaluated for asbestos concentration prediction. The first results are reported here, together with advantages and limits of the analytical methods. Orthogonal Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression showed the lowest error in prediction and the highest coefficient of determination in prediction. This technique would support screening activities frequently conducted during environmental assessment and remediation projects

Improving the Process Ability of Poly (3-Hydroxybutyrate) by a Polyphenolic Natural Additive

The severe environmental issues generated by the non-biodegradability of most polymeric materials has fostered the search for more eco-friendly solutions. Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), produced by bacterial cells and easily hydrolyzed is one of appealing choice but its properties are still not competitive with those of standard polymers. Among others, one reason is related to the fact that the high processing temperature (due to the high crystallization point) is responsible for severe thermal degradation. In this paper, the effect of Tannic Acid (TA) as a thermal stabilizing processing agent for HPB is investigated by rheological as well as calorimetric techniques under conditions similar to those used in real processing applications. The results show that TA is effective in improving the thermal stability and processability of PHB, while keeping its biodegradable attitude. Compared to neat PHB, TA containing samples show a lower and delayed thermal degradation. FTIR measurements support the hypothesis that stabilization is determined by TA/PHB crosslinking