Alienation and Recognition - The Δ Phenomenology of the Human–Social Robot Interaction (HSRI)

A crucial philosophical problem of social robots is how much they perform a kind of sociality in interacting with humans. Scholarship diverges between those who sustain that humans and social robots cannot by default have social interactions and those who argue for the possibility of an asymmetric sociality. Against this dichotomy, we argue in this paper for a holistic approach called “Δ phenomenology” of HSRI (Human–Social Robot Interaction). In the first part of the paper, we will analyse the semantics of an HSRI. This is what leads a human being (x) to assign or receive a meaning of sociality (z) by interacting with a social robot (y). Hence, we will question the ontological structure underlying HSRIs, suggesting that HSRIs may lead to a peculiar kind of user alienation. By combining all these variables, we will formulate some final recommendations for an ethics of social robots

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of DNA nanopore unzipping

Using theory and simulations, we carried out a first systematic characterization of DNA unzipping via nanopore translocation. Starting from partially unzipped states, we found three dynamical regimes depending on the applied force, f: (i) heterogeneous DNA retraction and rezipping (f < 17pN), (ii) normal (17pN 60pN) drift-diffusive behavior. We show that the normal drift-diffusion regime can be effectively modelled as a one-dimensional stochastic process in a tilted periodic potential. We use the theory of stochastic processes to recover the potential from nonequilibrium unzipping trajectories and show that it corresponds to the free-energy landscape for single base-pairs unzipping. Applying this general approach to other single-molecule systems with periodic potentials ought to yield detailed free-energy landscapes from out-of-equilibrium trajectories.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

La frontiera orientale dell'impero ittita

Una ricostruzione geografica dei territori orientali dell'impero ittita relativa alle moderne province di Tokat, Sivas e Malatya

Una ricostruzione «fenomenologica» del dibattito americano su Hegel

Abstract not availabl

Investigation on the feasibility of integration of high temperature solar energy in a textile factory

Thermal energy production from fossil fuels is very common in many applications, especially in industrial processes. In a global context where great attention is being focused on reducing pollution and greenhouse gas production, the integration of renewable energy in industrial applications is very interesting. This is even more important considering that greenhouse gas emission for industrial processes is a great portion of their total emission. Considering the above, it appears that the integration of high temperature solar panels in industrial processes is quite an attractive prospect. The working temperatures of parabolic solar collectors are, for example, generally close to those of the thermal fluids used in many industrial processes, and parabolic solar collectors are a well known technology with several applications primarily used in electric production systems. Nonetheless, only a few examples of industrial integration have been studied or built. In this study, the integration of a concentrating solar thermal plant in a textile factory has been examined both from the thermodynamic and economic point of view. An existing textile factory was chosen as a case study and its annual consumption of thermal energy characterized. A model of the plant with solar energy integration was developed and simulated with TRNSYS over a one year time period. The plant was simulated considering the panel characteristics provided by the manufacturer and the local irradiation data. The influence of several plant parameters has been investigated in order to estimate their importance on performance and plant suitability

La frontiera orientale dell'impero ittita

Una ricostruzione geografica dei territori orientali dell'impero ittita relativa alle moderne province di Tokat, Sivas e Malatya

A política monetária no Brasil: uma análise do canal das expectativas entre 2011 e 2016

Descreve a trajetória dos principais indicadores econômicos da economia brasileira no intervalo de 2011 e 2016, para traçar a trajetória da política monetária promovida pelo Banco Central do Brasil. O foco da análise é o canal das expectativas da política monetária. Por esse motivo, apresentamos dados que destacam esse mecanismo no período considerado

Experimental investigation on industrial drying process of cotton yarn bobbins: energy consumption and drying time

Abstract In the textile industry, the drying process is a time consuming and energy expensive operation that influences strongly the cost of the textile finishing operations. For this reason, the study of innovative techniques plays a key role to decrease the energy consumption, the costs and the environmental impact. After a first mechanical process, the moisture is removed from yarn fibers by a thermal convection dryer that delivers hot air through the material. In this study, the drying process of cotton yarn bobbins is experimentally analyzed. With this aim, an experimental test rig was developed based on the geometry of industrial dryers. The influence of the drying air path and the air working conditions was assessed by performing tests with different configurations, temperatures and pressures. The results were analyzed in terms of drying time and energy consumption as the optimum drying condition is a trade-off between these parameters

One special question to start with: can HIF/NFkB be a target in inflammation?

Hypoxia and Inflammation are strictly interconnected with important consequences at clinical and therapeutic level. While cell and tissue damage due to acute hypoxia mostly leads to cell necrosis, in chronic hypoxia, cells that are located closer to vessels are able to survive adapting their phenotype through the expression of a number of genes, including proinflammatory receptors for alarmins. These receptors are activated by alarmins released by necrotic cells and generate signals for master transcription factors such as NFkB, AP1, etc. which control hundreds of genes for innate immunity and damage repair. Clinical consequences of chronic inflammatory reparative response activation include cell and tissue remodeling, damage in the primary site and, the systemic involvement of distant organs and tissues. Thus every time a tissue environment becomes stably hypoxic, inflammation can be activated followed by chronic damage and cell death or repair with vessel proliferation and fibrosis. This pathway can occur in cancer, myocardial infarction and stroke, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic and autoimmune diseases and age-related diseases. Interestingly, proinflammatory gene expression can be observed earlier in hypoxic tissue cells and, in addition, in activated resident or recruited leukocytes. Herewith, the reciprocal relationships between hypoxia and inflammation will be shortly reviewed to underline the possible therapeutic targets to control hypoxia-related inflammation in a number of epidemiologically important human diseases and conditions