Positive Copyright and Open Content Licences: How to Make a Marriage Work by Empowering Authors to Disseminate Their Creations

Positive copyright appears to have been progressively turned away from its normative function of ensuring a fair and efficient transmission of human knowledge. The private sector is seeking to counterbalance this phenomenon by adopting legal tools that expand the public domain of knowledge, such as web-based licences modelled on the "open access" approach. The increasing world-wide preference for Creative Commons licences confirms their aptness to transform copyright law into a tool flexible enough to serve authors' several purposes. Such a spontaneous counterbalance experiences many difficulties though, because of the structure that positive copyright has adopted over the last few years. The current situation is an excellent point from which to look back at how authors used to disseminate their works before the advent of the Internet. From a historical view-point copyright has always accomplished the twin functions of economically rewarding authors and enabling communication of their creations to the public. The latter goal is achieved by means of statutory mechanisms limiting the freedom of contract between authors and their counterparts (intermediaries in a broad sense), in order to enforce the authors' capacity to spread their works. In the current digital environment, however, these mechanisms are not likely to accomplish their original functions. This paper seeks to explore an adjustment that will permit authors to take advantage of all the new means of commercial exploitation and non-commercial dissemination of their works offered by the Internet. Such an adjustment aims also at realigning positive and normative copyright by encompassing the use of open content licensing within the current copyright framework

Determinants in the on-line distribution of digital content: an exploratory analysis

This article shows the phases – and discusses the results – of an empirical analysis addressing the legal business models that are adopted online to distribute digital content

Analisi della sicurezza statica, della vulnerabilita e del rischio sismico del complesso monumentale della Certosa di Pisa presso Calci

La tesi si pone l'obiettivo di analizzare il comportamento statico e dinamico del complesso storico-artistico della Certosa di Pisa presso Calci. La metodologia di studio seguita prevede un analisi dello stato di fatto volta ad acquisire una conoscenza approfondita del manufatto: viene svolta un analisi storico-critica, accompagnata da un rilievo geometrico, strutturale e materico. La descrizione della condizione attuale viene completata con lo studio del quadro fessurativo ed un'analisi del degrado. Successivamente si procede alla valutazione della sicurezza statica e sismica, ricorrendo a studi globali effettuati con modelli tridimensionali complessivi ed a studi locali effettuati tramite modelli a macroelementi. I risultati ottenuti permettono di individuare le criticità della struttura. Infine si è proceduto alla valutazione del rischio sismico del fabbricato mediante il metodo delle perdite medie annuali attese

Convergence of Random Graphs

To trace back to the origin of the study of planar maps we have to go back to the ’60’s, when efforts to solve the 4-colour problem led to an increased interest in embedded planar graphs. Recently, being natural models for a random “discretised” surface, random pla- nar maps become relevant to theoretical physics, and in particular theories of quantum gravity. The question is how planar maps may in fact be interpreted as approximations of a “continuous” random surface. The aim of this work is to study the convergence of random graphs in local topology and scale limits, with a special look to planar maps. The major result we present, from papers of Le Galle and Miermont, is that scale limit of certain classes of planar maps is the Brownian Map. The work is divided in three chapters. In the first chapter we introduce the dis- crete objects and graph properties. We then introduce a metric in the space of pointed graph called the local topology and a notion of uniformly pointed graph through the mass transport principle. We show some examples of local limits in the topic of uniformly pointed graph with a particular attention to the local limit of Galton Watson trees. Then we briefly conclude with some connection to ergodic theory and percolation problems. In the second chapter we introduce the fundamental tools for the main result of the work. We start proving the Cori-Vanquelin-Shaeffer bijection between well labelled trees with n vertices and rooted quadrangulations with n faces. The proof of the CV S bijection follows the work of Shaeffer in his PhD thesis. We spend some efforts to study the metric properties preserved by the CV S bijection. After that we discuss the bijection with a well labelled embedded tree and his contour process. Inspired by the convergence of scaled random walks to the Brownian Motion (Donsker Theorem), we briefly introduce the theory of Brownian excursions and remarking the contour process method we connect large random plane trees and Brownian excursions. In the third chapter, we construct the Brownian Continuum Random Tree (CRT) and we see that with the help of contour process, CRT is the limit 1 of random planar tree. So, starting from the CRT we construct the Brownian Map. We conclude proving the result of Le Gall-Paulin, stating that the Brow- nian Map is homeomorphic to the 2-sphere and the result of Le Gall-Miermont, the Brownian Map is the limit of class of quadrangulations, in the Gromov- Hausdorff distance

Acquisto di concerto ed offerta pubblica obbligatoria. I casi Antonveneta e Fondiaria-Sai

La tesi tratta l'acquisto di concerto nella disciplina dell'offerta pubblica obbligatoria, facendo riferimento al contesto in cui è inserita tale norma, alle fattispecie di "concerto" previste dalla legislazione italiana, ed al profilo sanzionatorio correlato, prendendo in considerazione gli unici due casi ove l'art. 109 del Tuf si sia reso effettivo: il caso Fondiaria-Sai ed il caso Antonveneta

STUDIO (GEOLOGICO E)LITOLOGICO - TECNICO DELL'AREA TRA RONTANO E SAN ANTONIO (GARFAGNANA, LUCCA) E REALIZZAZIONE DI UNA CARTA DELL'INSTABILITA' DEI VERSANTI CON ANALISI STATISTICA E TECNICHE GIS

Lo scopo di questa tesi è quello di valutare la pericolosità geologica connessa con i fenomeni di instabilità dei versanti attraverso l’analisi spaziale dei fattori predisponenti al dissesto, tramite l’utilizzo di tecniche statistiche quali analisi statistica condizionale e analisi statistica multivariata. La pericolosità è stata intesa come pericolosità relativa, valutata in aree caratterizzate da diversa propensione al dissesto, senza fare riferimento al tempo di ritorno e all’intensità del fenomeno atteso. Le forme principali e i processi legati al dissesto sono stati osservati mediante l’utilizzo di foto aeree e il rilevamento in campagna; sono stati inoltre identificati i fattori maggiormente responsabili dell’instabilità dei versanti. Il rilevamento in campagna ha permesso di definire le caratteristiche litologico – tecniche degli ammassi rocciosi e delle coperture, e di campionare rocce e coperture detritiche per le analisi in laboratorio. Questa serie di indagini ha portato alla realizzazione di una carta litologico – tecnica, dove rocce e coperture sono suddivise in Unità Litologico - Tecniche (U.L.T.), e alla redazione di una carta geologico – geomorfologica rappresentante le unità stratigrafiche presenti e le forme del rilievo generate dall’azione delle acque correnti, della gravità e dall’azione glaciale. Entrambe le carte sono state riportate, in scala 1 : 5 000, su basi topografiche della Carta Tecnica Regionale della Regione Toscana. Nel territorio oggetto di studio sono presenti formazioni appartenenti alla Successione Toscana non metamorfica e al complesso Metamorfico Apuano. Si tratta prevalentemente di rocce stratificate differenziate principalmente in funzione della loro competenza, da resistenti a mediamente resistenti, intensamente fratturate e variamente alterate. I depositi alluvionali sono caratterizzati da una predominante presenza di ciottoli e ghiaie con matrice sabbiosa da moderatamente addensati a sciolti, così come i depositi morenici caratterizzati anch’essi da ciottoli e detrito grossolano in una matrice sabbiosa ma con maggior grado di addensamento. Le coperture detritiche risultano invece prevalentemente sabbiose con presenza di elementi di dimensione maggiore, generalmente poco addensate. Inoltre abbiamo la presenza di detrito costituito prevalentemente da elementi lapidei con matrice sabbiosa da moderatamente addensato a sciolto, corrispondente ai coni detritici e alle falde detritiche. L’ instabilità dei versanti è data in modo principale da movimenti franosi classificati come scorrimenti traslativi impostati nel detrito. Nella seconda parte di questa tesi, i dati raccolti in fase di rilevamento sono stati elaborati al computer con l’utilizzo di un software GIS. Utilizzando il programma ArcView 3.2a, sono stati creati dei livelli, o layer, sovrapponibili relativi a ciascun fattore dell’instabilità preso in considerazione. I fattori predisponenti scelti sono stati : uso del suolo, caratteristiche litologico – tecniche, acclività e curvatura dei versanti. Le analisi, statistica condizionale e multivariata, valutano le relazioni statistiche tra i fattori di instabilità considerati nei confronti dell’occorrenza al dissesto. Nell’analisi statistica condizionale i singoli fattori predisponenti vengono valutati singolarmente attraverso il confronto con la distribuzione spaziale al dissesto, mentre, nell’analisi multivariata, i fattori predisponenti vengono considerati simultaneamente e confrontati fra loro. L’utilizzo di entrambe le tecniche di calcolo statistico ha portato alla realizzazione di due carte (una ottenuta con l’analisi statistica condizionale e l’altra con l’analisi statistica multivariata), dove il territorio è stato suddiviso in aree a diversa propensione al dissesto

Panic Disorder during pregnancy: Prevalence, Clinical Features and Predictive Role on Post-Partum Depression. Results of PND-ReScu Study.

Background. Anxiety symptoms are frequently reported by pregnant women and are often considered as part of the normal psychic experiences of pregnancy, especially if they are focused on the baby's health or on maternal competencies. Among all anxiety disorders, Panic Disorder (PD) needs to be carefully noted. It has been estimated that 3% to 12% of women experience symptoms related to PD at some time during their childbearing years, including during pregnancy and the postpartum period (Wenzel et al., 2001; Smith et al., 2004). Although panic symptoms during the perinatal period are typical symptoms reported in the general population, they are often interpreted in the context of the perinatal state and the concerns about the pregnancy and fetus may represent the predominant features (Ross et al., 2006). As others have noted (Austin, 2003; Austin et al; 2005; Glover and O’Connor, 2002), it may be just as important to focus on the detection and treatment of perinatal anxiety, given its significant association with the development of subsequent Post-partum Depression (PPD). Although the role of anxiety disorders on the development of PPD has already been studied in literature, that of individual anxiety disorders has not received specific attention. Aims. The aims of this thesis were: 1) to describe prevalence and clinical features of PD of a large non-clinical sample of women recruited at the 3rd month of pregnancy and to compare them with clinical features in a group of non-pregnant women of equivalent age 2) to investigate the role of PD (as family history, previous diagnosis or the occurrence of PD during pregnancy) on the development of PPD 3) to assess the specific role of PD in predicting probable depression(EPDS>12), minor or major depression (mMD) and false positives (EPDS>12 without mMD) at first month/year after delivery, compared to other anxiety diagnoses. Methods. Participants: for the first aim, two samples of women with a diagnosis of PD were recruited; the first sample was composed of 43 pregnant women diagnosed with PD at 3th month of pregnancy, as part of a larger sample (N=1066) of a study conducted at Pisa by the Perinatal Depression-Research and Screening Unit (PND-ReScU). The second, the control group, was composed of 57 non-pregnant female outpatients diagnosed with PD, who presented to the psychiatric outpatient clinics of the same research center. For the second aim, the sample was composed of 600 pregnant women, as part of a larger sample (N=1066) of a study conducted at Pisa by the Perinatal Depression-Research and Screening Unit (PND-ReScU), who completed the assessment at 6th month after delivery; for the third aim, the sample was composed of 500 pregnant women who completed the assessment at the 12th month after delivery. Instruments. A diagnosis of Axis I Panic Disorder was carried out with a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) (First et al., 1995) in the group of pregnant women, and with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) (Sheehan et al., 1998) in the control group of non-gravid women respectively. The clinical features of Panic Disorder were also evaluated with Panic-Agoraphobic Spectrum–Self-Report (PAS-SR) administered respectively at 6th month post-partum in the sample of pregnant women and at baseline in the control group. Symptoms of maternal depression were assessed using the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Cox et al., 1987). The Post-partum Depression Predictors Inventory-Revised (PDPI-R) (Beck, 2002) was used to identify the risk factors for PPD. The family history of psychiatric disorders was assessed using the Family History Screen (FHS) (Weissman et al., 2000). Statistical analysis. The Chi-square test was used to compare percentages and independent t-tests to compare mean scores. To assess the association between symptoms in the two groups Odds Ratios (Ors) with 95% confidence intervals were performed. Stepwise logistic regression models were performed to determine which panic symptoms were associated with PD in pregnancy. The alpha level was set at 0.05. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between PD, family history for PD and PPD. In order to establish the relationship between a specific anxiety disorder and the occurrence of probable depression, mMD and false positives in the postpartum, logistic regression models were performed. Odds Ratios and 95% of confidence intervals were reported. In order to clarify the magnitude of effect size we rescaled the OR in Cohen’s d using the γ coefficient (γ= (OR-1)/(OR+1)) (Kraemer and Kupfer, 2006). An effect size of 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 are “small,” “medium,” and “large” (Cohen, 1988). Analyses were conducted using SPSS, version 15. Results. First research: One hundred and eighty four (17.3%) women had lifetime PD (life-PD), of whom 144 (13.3%) had a previous history of PD and 43 (4%) had current PD (curr-PD). Of the 43 women with current PD (28 (65.1%) with agoraphobia and 15 (34.9%) without agoraphobia), 5 (11.0%) had their first episode during the index pregnancy. As regards comorbidity, pregnant women with curr-PD (25.6%) were about six-fold more likely to have a major depressive episode (OR=5.844; 95% CI:1.513-22.563) than non-gravid women (5.6%). In the group of pregnant women, the symptoms most represented were: palpitations (90.7%), and shortness of breath (88.4%), choking (79.1%), sweating (74.4%). In the control group of non-pregnant women the symptoms most represented were: palpitations (87.7%), shortness of breath (63.2%), trembling (59.6%), sweating (57.9%). In a stepwise logistic regression a positive association was found between the presence of “fear of going crazy” (OR=4.020; 95% CI: 1.188-13.602), “shortness of breath” (OR= 9.970; 95% CI: 3.782-26.282) and panic disorder at the 3rd month of pregnancy. The presence of Agoraphobia was significantly higher in gravid women (OR 3.630; 95% CI: 1.557-8.462) than in non-gravid women. Pregnant women reported higher mean scores in the following manic factors of mood spectrum: psychomotor activation (3.923 vs. 2.563; t=2.705; p=0.008), creativity (3.461 vs. 1.618; t= 3.752; p= 0.000) euphoria (2.128 vs. 0.963; t=4.215; p<0.001). No significant differences were found in depressive factors scores in the two groups. Second research: PD during pregnancy (RR=4.25; 95% CI: 1.48–12.19), a history of PD (RR 2.47; 95% CI: 1.11–5.49) and family history for PD (RR=2.1; 95% CI: 1.06–4.4) predicted PPD after adjusting for lifetime depression and risk factors for PPD.Third research: After adjustment for risk factors assessed with PDPI-R (RR=3.83; 95% CI: 1.84-7.97), a significant association was found between panic disorder (Adjusted RR=5.27; 95% CI: 2.0-13.91) and social phobia (Adjusted RR=3.80; 95% CI: 1.34-10.46) at the 3rd month of pregnancy and the likelihood of having probable depression at the first month postpartum. After the adjustment for risk factors assessed with PDPI-R (RR=2.74; 95% CI: 1.06-7.07), the predictive role of panic disorder (RR=7.23; 95% CI: 2.31-22.66) and social phobia (RR=6.63; 95% CI: 2.11-20.85) at the 3rd month of pregnancy remained significant in predicting 1st month postpartum mMD. With regard to the one-year period prevalence, our results show that after adjustment for the established risk factors assessed with PDPI-R (RR=4.66; 95% CI: 2.41-9.02), the only anxiety disorder associated with postpartum depression was panic disorder (Adjusted RR=3.10; 95% CI: 1.16-8.22). OCD (Adjusted RR=8.66; 95% CI: 1.59-47.03) was associated with false positive cases assessed at the 1st month postpartum, while no anxiety disorders were further associated with false positives assessed during the 1st year after childbirth. Limitations:First, the response rate is moderately low (49.9%), however it is comparable to that of similar studies that used self-report and structured clinical interviews, in which the observation period spanned from pregnancy to post-partum (Grant et al., 2008; Kitamura et al., 2006). The socio-demographic characteristics of women who refused to participate in the study are not available because data collection was possible only after the informed consent form was signed, as prescribed by the Italian law on privacy; thus we were unable to ascertain if non-responders were mostly of lower socio-economic class and had lower levels of education. Finally demographic characteristics of the two sample (pregnant women and control group) were not homogeneous: pregnant women had higher education levels compared to the control group and were more frequently married or living with the partner. Conclusions. Symptoms of panic during pregnancy are typical of panic symptoms of the general population. But symptoms such as “being afraid of going crazy” and “shortness of breath” are significantly higher in pregnant women with PD compared to the control group, suggesting that these symptoms, particularly “fear of going crazy”, may be discriminating for discerning panic during pregnancy from panic manifestation of other periods of life. Furthermore, PD (family history, current PD, history PD) represents an important risk factor for the development of PPD and should be routinely screened in order to develop specific preventive interventions. It is important to underline that the role of a specific anxiety diagnosis in predicting depressive symptoms is related both to outcome definitions and to time of assessment. PD predicted both 1st month PPD than probable depressions. In relation to the 12th month postpartum, the results of this study confirmed the role of Panic Disorder in predicting a diagnoses of minor or major depression even if with a decrease in effect size. Carrying out antenatal screening of established risk factors and accurate diagnoses of Panic Disorder during pregnancy may help to plan adequate treatment in order to prevent possible postpartum distress outcomes

Progettazione ed analisi di prove sperimentali di interazione tra metallo liquido ed acqua mediante il codice SIMMER

Nel presente lavoro di tesi, svolto presso il Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Nucleare e della Produzione (DIMNP) dell’Università di Pisa, sono stati analizzati i fenomeni relativi all’interazione fra metallo liquido ed acqua di interesse per un ipotetico scenario incidentale nei reattori XT-ADS ed ELSY di futura realizzazione. Nella prima parte del lavoro, è stato condotto uno studio, mediante le versioni bidimensionale e tridimensionale del codice SIMMER, di quattro prove sperimentali effettuate sull’apparecchiatura LIFUS 5, installata presso il Centro di Ricerca ENEA del Brasimone. I risultati ottenuti hanno messo in evidenza un buon accordo tra i valori calcolati e sperimentali degli andamenti temporali della pressione all’interno del recipiente in cui avviene l’interazione. Delle discrepanze invece sono state rilevate fra gli andamenti temporali di temperatura e quelli rilevati sperimentalmente. Nella seconda parte sono state proposte alcune modifiche da apportare all’apparecchiatura per ridurre le asimmetrie presenti e quindi le incertezze di calcolo. Successivamente, è stata effettuata una serie di simulazioni per valutare l’influenza di alcuni parametri operativi sul fenomeno dell’interazione, in modo da dare supporto alla scelta delle condizioni al contorno per le future prove sperimentali. Infine, è stata applicata l’utility di post-processing BFCAL ai risultati dei calcoli eseguiti dal SIMMER per ricavare alcune grandezze di interesse energetico relative al fenomeno dell’interazione metallo liquido-acqua