Personal experiences as a determining factor in choosing souvenir

Η μελέτη αφορά περισσότερο στην έννοια που προσδίδεται στα αναμνηστικά κι΄ όχι τόσο στην τυπολογία τους, που άλλωστε έχει αναλυθεί εκτενώς σε προηγούμενες έρευνες (Lunyai και De Run, 2008). Τα ερωτήματα που προκύπτουν, είναι το «πώς» και το «γιατί» θεμελιώνεται η σχέση ταυτοποίησης μεταξύ των αιτιών αγοράς των αναμνηστικών από έναν εγχώριο ή αλλοδαπό περιηγητή,  με τους  παράγοντες που καθορίζουν την αγορά τους. Η κατανόηση του «Εαυτού και του Άλλου» βοηθά προς την επίλυση του θέματος γιατί  ερευνά διεξοδικά και σε βάθος ένα σύμπλεγμα σύνθετων εννοιών  που αποδίδονται στα αναμνηστικά. Με αυτόν τον τρόπο αποκτάται η γνώση που προκαλεί την επιφανειακή αντίληψη του λόγου της ύπαρξής τους. Επομένως ο σκοπός της εργασίας είναι διερευνηθεί σε βάθος το αίτιο που προκαλεί την αγορά και να μελετηθούν τα μηνύματα που αποδίδονται σ΄ αυτά από τους τουρίστες.This study deals with the meaning travellers attach to souvenirs, rather than the typology of souvenirs which has been analysed more thoroughly in existing research studies. When identifying the reasons why the domestic and foreign tourists decide to buy souvenirs and the factors that determine their purchase decision, the question raised is how and why this connection between the tourist and the souvenir is established. The conceptual construction of the Self and the Other assists in this quest to delve deeper into the complex meanings assigned to souvenirs and gain an understanding that will challenge the common superficial conception of the purpose of souvenirs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore in depth the reasons why people acquire souvenirs and to investigate the meanings tourists assign to them

Computer modeling of neuromodulation in the management of chronic pain

Neuromodulation is an important and frequent therapy applied, among others, in the management of chronic pain. Neuromodulation is defined as ¿a therapeutic alteration of activity in the central, peripheral or autonomic nervous systems, electrically or pharmacologically, by means of implanted devices¿. It encompasses a focal, minimal invasive and reversible approach. Due to its\ud invasive character with some more risks than other modalities of pain treatment, neuromodulation is generally applied as the last option when all other therapies have failed. The overall success rate of this treatment modality is about 50%. It is often the only modality that may help a particular patient. However, there are\ud still many chronic pain patients in whom neuromodulation was attempted with suboptimal or even less than satisfactory results. For the sake of this pool of patients it is an imperative to understand the effects occurring during a neuromodulation therapy and to design stimulation in such a way that a larger number of patients can be treated, while giving them an improved satisfaction\ud with the therapy

I controlli sulla finanza locale:dalla regolarità sugli atti alla razionalizzazione delle partecipate.

In questo mio lavoro cerco di analizzare il sistema dei controlli sugli enti locali, che da controllo statico di mera regolarità formale sugli atti, diviene un controllo dinamico teso alla valutazione dell'efficacia, efficienza ed economicità dell'attività amministrativa. L'evoluzione normativa significativa partita negli anni '90 ha infatti seguito questo percorso: una forte attenzione ai controlli di governance, ovvero alla valutazione del processo di programmazione e dei relativi risultati conseguiti, ridimensionando addirittura alcune fattispecie di controllo e il loro assetto; assegnando al controllo un ruolo di parte integrante dell'amministrare. Un controllo che sì, si basa sempre sulla regolarità dell'azione aministrativa e sui suoi atti, ma che deve tendere all'efficacacia e all'efficienza della gestione delle risorse – mediante valutazioni, verifiche, comparazione dei risultati conseguiti – all'interno di un processo che, appunto, deve tendere al massimo con il minimo sforzo, attuando un sistema di controllo «interno ed integrato» all'amministrazione stessa. Tutto ciò alla luce della necessità di raggiungere gli obiettivi derivanti da vincoli comunitari in tema di finanza pubblica, di cui al Patto di stabilità e di crescita, sottoscritto nel 1997, che ha esteso agli enti locali l'applicazione degli impegni presi dal nostro Paese nei confronti dell'Unione Europea. L'evoluzione normativa porta alla riforma del 2012, in cui l'elenco dei controlli interni si annovera e si amplia. Tra questi, il controllo sulle società partecipate che, in quanto tali e gestendo servizi pubblici, si ritiene debba appartenere allo stesso ente locale. Al termine di un estenuante iter procedimentale, è stato cosi pubblicato il decreto legislativo 19 agosto 2016, n. 175, recante “Testo unico in materia di società a partecipazione pubblica”, disciplina organica in materia di società partecipate. Sarà, come sempre, la pratica applicativa ed interpretativa a dimostrare se il legislatore delegato abbia saputo cogliere le esigenze della collettività dettando disposizioni suscettibili di condurre alla realizzazione di quegli intenti di semplificazione, razionalizzazione, incentivazione della concorrenza e risparmio per la spesa pubblica che avevano guidato l'emanazione della legge delega

Long-Term Modelling of Composite Pavement Performance

The rehabilitation of rigid (concrete) pavements with the placement of an asphalt overlay is a common maintenance technique, which results in a structure known as a composite pavement. The most common form of distress in this type of pavement is reflection cracking which can be due to traffic and/or climatic loading. This thesis is focused on the prediction of reflective cracking as a composite pavement response due to traffic and thermal loading. The model is the first of its kind to include factors such as dynamic vehicle loading in modelling the long-term performance of flexible composite pavement structures. The mechanisms of traffic driven reflective cracking are investigated, as well as a thermal driven cracking model. The above models are combined with a dynamic vehicle model into a whole-life model and its framework is presented. A parametric analysis investigates the sensitivity of the predictions to the variation of parameters: asphalt elastic modulus and thickness, concrete elastic modulus and thickness, subbase elastic modulus and thickness and subgrade elastic modulus. Finally, the main validation analysis is presented, with application of the whole model for representative pavement sections from 6 states in the USA. The input data is found in the Long-Term Pavement Performance Infopave database, which contains performance and traffic data from monitored in-service road sections in North America. A comparison is made between the outcome predictions and actual field measurements of transverse cracks on the relevant pavement sections. The selected pavement sections belong to two climatic regions: wet/freeze zone, wet/non-freeze. Predictions for certain states show matching results approximately to the actual development of reflective cracking at different periods after the placement of the asphalt overlay. It was found that the asphalt material properties have a big influence on the final outcome making critical its estimation. Temperature variations have also been taken in account and it has been seen that they can influence the result showing that thermal reflective cracking can be dominant. It was also discovered that knowledge of the state (crack spacing, severity of cracks) is highly important to the identification and prediction of reflective cracks. It was important to also investigate the process of both directions of cracking, bottom to up and top to down, identifying their dominance in each case. In the final chapter conclusions and recommendations for future work are presented

New tools for volatility models

In the first part of this work, we propose a new estimation method of the spot volatility, based on a semi-nonparametric model, which employs the information content of a complete panel of European options, daily quoted in the market, under no arbitrage assumptions. The technique we propose is based on the idea of model-free implied volatility and exploits the observed VIX term structure to make inference on the unobserved spot volatility. We show that this new estimation method can be applied to a very general class of stochastic volatility models, such as one-factor or two-factor models. Moreover, the presence of jumps both in return and volatility processes does not affect our spot volatility estimates. In the second part of the study, we propose a simple and flexible extension of the Heston (1993) model and its multifactor affine versions: the addition of a deterministic volatility factor meant to automatically fit the term structure of model-free implied volatilities. When calibrated on daily panels of FX EURUSD options for 5 strikes (ATM, 25Δ and 10Δ) and 10 maturities (from one week to two years) in the period 2005-2012, we can obtain a pricing error (in terms of RMSE on implied volatility) of 0,167%, and never above 1,72%. The proposed class of models is then a suitable stochastic volatility candidate for fast and arbitrage-free interpolation of the volatility surface

KRISTOFORIDHI’S CONCEPT IN CLASSIFYING GHEG VOWELS

Kristoforidhi, is a linguist and scholar who has contributed to Albanian linguistics. His work has been focus of various linguists and scholars. His interests’ studies, among others, have also included the phenomena of phonetic nature. In this study, we are focused on introducing Kristoforidhi’s concept about Gheg vowel system based in the respective classifications according to their features. Another aim of this study is Kristoforidhi’s treatment of some phonetic phenomena as elision, aphaeresis, rounded, diphthongs and consonants exchanges. Foreign researchers, who also presented their concepts about Albanian phoneme inventory, also treated Albanian phoneme vowel system. From this perspective, another aim of the study is to compare the Kristoforidhi’s concept with Albanian and foreign linguists, as A. Dodd, Jorgji Gjinari Rexhep Ismaili, M. Halimi, G.S.Louman, N.S Trubeckoi, V. Polak, in order to evaluate Kristoforidhi’s ideas and concepts. Based on these ideas, Kristoforidhi’s concept about Gheg vowel system is very close to the concepts of different albanologists, but also Albanian scholars as well. We may admit that Kristoforidhi’s concept is very close to the contemporary concepts of this nature, therefore, the classification of Gheg vowel system

Filosofía de la historia rusa de Nicolai Berdiaev

En la cultura espiritual de Rusia de los siglos XIX y XX, las reflexiones acerca de su identidad ocupan un lugar central. Sin ninguna exageración se puede afirmar que el discurso sobre la peculiaridad de la cultura nacional se convirtió en una temática específica en los campos literario, histórico y filosófico. Ya la simple enumeración de algunos títulos escritos en este periodo permite mostrar la importancia de este tema en la tradición espiritual del país: Las noches rusas de Odoievsky; Rusia y Europa de Danilevsky; El oriente, Rusia y el eslavismo de Leontiev; La tragedia rusa de Bulgakov; La gran Rusia de Struve; Alrededor de la idea rusa de Rózanov; La Rusia enferma de Merezkovsky; El oriente, el occidente y la idea rusa de Karsavin; Las tareas de Rusia de Veidle; El rostro de Rusia de Fedotov; Lo eterno en la filosofía rusa de Visheslavtzev