System design of the Pioneer Venus spacecraft. Volume 14: Test planning trades

Pioneer Venus system test plans and trade studies which were first published as Study Tasks (References 1 through 5) are reviewed. The plan and trade studies are presented in a condensed form. Greater detail may be found in the referenced study tasks if desired. All significant conclusions and plan outlines of the original studies are, presented

The power of controversy: an experimental study involving brands market share and consumers personal power

This research aims at investigating the potential relationship between controversy, market share and consumers’ perceptions of brand trust, power, and influence.Specifically, I examined whether controversial activities sponsored by brands with higher market share (vs.lower market share) may affect consumers’ perception of these brands’power, influence,and trustworthiness. Furthermore, this research contributes to traditional compensatory consumption theories. Specifically, this research investigates the potential relationship existing between individuals with feelings of low personal power and low personal control and the purchase and referral intentions of controversial brands with higher(vs. lower) market share

Detection of point mutations in the dystrophin gene

The dystrophin gene has been localised to Xp 21.1. Mutations of this gene can lead to the clinical manifestations of Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies (DMD/BMD). In the majority of DMD and BMD patients the disease-causing mutation is a deletion detectable by southern analysis or multiplex PCR, however in 30% of patients no deletion is observed using these conventional tests. Using PCR amplification of cDNA it was possible to detect a deletion in the product of the dystrophin gene of one such individual affected with BMD. It was then necessary to characterise the mutation in order to determine whether this was the disease-causing mutation. The mutation was found to be a point mutation by genomic sequencing at the donor splice site consensus sequence of intron 19. This resulted in alternate splicing of exon 19, two mANA transcripts being produced one with exon 19 and the other without. This was determined sufficient to cause BMD in the family. It was then necessary to provide an easy and efficient diagnostic test in order to determine the carrier status of females and also to provide those females determined to be carriers with an accurate prenatal diagnostic test. A new technique, single strand conformation polymorphism, performed on genomic DNA provided evidence of conformational difference between the affected allele and the normal allele. Allele specific primers were also designed and optimised. These primers, 19FA and 19FC, only varied at one base, one being the normal allele primer and the other the affected allele primer. The amplified product using primers for the normal and the affected allele were then run on agarose gels and stained with ethidium bromide providing a quick and easy method of determining the carrier, affected or normal status of all family members. The localisation and characterisation of this splice site mutation involved many molecular techniques including, RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, nested amplification, sequencing, single strand conformation polymorphism and the amplification refractory mutation system. All of these techniques can be used to isolate and characterise point or minor mutations in the 30% of Western Australian dystrophic families, who currently lack an accurate diagnostic test for their dystrophic condition

Crisi. Quale crisi? Stabilizzazione e caos

This essay aims to reflect on the concept of crisis by focusing on the centrality this term has assumed in the context of contemporary public and political debate, and on the ambiguities that accompany its use in an attempt to normalise its ideological function and role. The ambiguity and conceptual density of the word “crisis” and the multiplicity of meanings that make it versatile and adaptable to the most diverse contexts contribute to fuelling a mechanism of naturalisation, even though its deployment is normally associated with conditions of extraordinariness, exceptionality, and unpredictability. In this perspective, the crisis, a constant and pervasive presence invading every area of social space and life, is unveiled as being the product of specific ideological and political practices, and social conflicts, representing multiple interests coagulated around the needs and objectives of global capitalism. The naturalisation and normalisation of the crisis do not seem to completely close off, however, the possibility of producing the conditions to imagine incisive forms of resistance and opposition. To achieve this aim, it seems imperative to recover the reasons and motivations for a cultural battle that looks at knowledge, in its manifold meanings, as a primary tool for emancipation and liberation

LE INFEZIONI NOSOCOMIALI: CONSIDERAZIONI MEDICO LEGALI E CASISTICA DELL'AZIENDA OSPEDALIERO UNIVERSITARIA PISANA

La tesi è articolata in quattro capitoli. Il primo verte sui cenni storici e lo sviluppo delle attività di prevenzione. Nel secondo vengono descritte le caratteristiche generali delle infezioni nosocomiali, con particolare riferimento agli aspetti epidemiologici. Nel terzo vengono affrontati gli aspetti medico legali e l’evoluzione giurisprudenziale sul tema. Nel quarto viene riportata la casistica dell’Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Pisana del periodo 2010-2014

PRENDILA CON FILOSOFIA. Sul concetto di luogo comune.

Cos’è un luogo comune? Che cosa significa chiederselo? È solo un’espressione verbale che trova quotidiano spazio nei discorsi degli uomini? No. È molto di più. Nel luogo comune sono condensati aspetti dell’uomo e del suo pensiero che attraversano la storia. Dietro alla sua apparentemente innocua natura, si intravedono paure, timori, pigrizia, certezze, educazione, non-domande. Il luogo comune riempie l’abisso che sussiste tra la limitatezza dell’uomo e la complessità del reale, fatta di migliaia di esperienze e migliaia di punti di vista. Ma quali sono le conseguenze? In un circolo ambiguo che avvicina gli esseri umani ma allontana dalla verità, in cui rappresentazioni e cose si confondono, i luoghi comuni fanno riflettere sulle relazioni tra l’io e l’altro, sull’influenza che il pensiero collettivo ha su quello individuale, su un modo di guardare al passato e al mondo, sul perchè chiunque, per una ragione o per l’altra, ne venga coinvolto. Può l’uomo vivere consapevolmente i luoghi comuni? Basta com-prenderli con filosofia. English Version TAKE IT PHILOSOPHICALLY. ON THE CONCEPT OF CLICHE' What is a cliché? Why do we question ourselves about it? Is it just a verbal expression that finds room in human beings’ daily life discourses? No. It’s much more than that. In the cliché are condensed aspects of mankind and its thoughts throughout history. Behind its deceivingly innocuous nature, we can see fears, dreads, laziness, confidence, education, non-questions. The cliché fills the abyss existing between human powerlessness and reality’s complexity, made out of thousands of experiences and thousands of points of view. But what are the consequences? Put into an ambiguous circle that links human beings but takes apart the truth, in which representations and things mix together, the clichés let us think about the relationship between the I and the Alter, about the influence that collective thought has on individual thought, about a way to look at the past and at the world, about why anyone, for a reason or another, is involved. Can man live aware of clichés? They can be grasped philosophically

The cybernetics of language

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.As a complement to the philosophy of language, the cybernetics of language-is to synthesise a picture of language as a whole; and runs into-(descriptive) difficulties where (at any one time) we can only speak about bounded portions of the world (Wittgenstein). This same difficulty permeates the short history of cybernetics in the concern for wholistic representation, and thus the concern of the cybernetics of language leads to (or arises in) the concern for the language of cybernetics. It becomes resolvable in the context of Second order cybernetics (i.e. the cybernetics of' describing as well as described systems (von Foerster)). The difficulty and the possibility of its resolution are introduced in terms of differences between Russell and Wittgenstein; in terms of the second order cybernetic discussions of the black box (seen as capturing Wittgenstein's silence and, in general, interpretation) and distinctions (G. S. Brown); and in terms of the distinction between natural and artificial languages and the problem of describing description (self-reference). Here the cybernetics of language concerns the nature of inquiry into our descriptive abilities and activities, and determines what we can and what we cannot (objectively) speak about. The notions of 'the function of language' and 'the existence of language' (presupposed in a first order description) are shown to be mutually interdependent, giving rise to a paradox of means (and giving rise to the question of the 'origin of language'). This paradox is resolved where a language is seen as constructed (for a particular purpose), and thus the circularity is unfolded, considering that (i) in terms of a constructive function of language, there is no language (something is in the process of being constructed); (ii) in terms of a communicative function of language, such a construction is in the process of being accepted (something is being negotiated); (iii) in terms of an argumentative-function of language, a language (accepted, eg. having, been negotiated) is used to negotiate things distinct from-this language. Language is seen as comprising the interaction between these activities. The cybernetics of language is developed in terms of the requirements for an observer to construct, communicate and argue: a language is constructed for the description of these processes in terms of the; complementarity between description and interpretation (underlying the process of construction) and the complementarity between saying and doing (enabling an observer to explore, eg. question, test and explain his construction and distinguish another observer; and enabling two or more observers to negotiate and accept relations and argue by distinguishing both a language and the things this is used to describe)

Tools and analysis of spatio-temporal dynamics in heterogeneous aquifers: applications to artificial recharge and forced-gradient solute transport

This thesis deals with the development of tools and analysis to characterize and predict artificial recharge and radial convergent solute transport processes in heterogeneous media. The goal is to provide new insights to understand how heterogeneity, which is the main natural source of uncertainty in decision-making processes related with groundwater applications, can be controlled and its effects predicted for practical purposes in these topics. For hydrogeological applications, accurate modeling of phenomena is needed, but it is uncertain. Uncertainty is derived from the spatio-temporal random distribution of hydrodynamic (physical, chemical and biological) variables affecting groundwater processes, which is translated into random distribution of modeling parameters and equations. Such randomness is of two types: epistemic, when it can be reduced increasing the sample frequency of an experiment; aleatory, when it cannot be reduced when more information is analyzed. Sometimes hydrodynamic processes occur at so small scales that they become impossible to characterize with traditional methods, and from a practical perspective, this is analogous to deal with aleatoric model parameters. However, if some constitutive relationship (either empirically, theoretically or physically based) can be built between processes across different scales, then small-scale processes can be reproduced by equivalent large-scale model parameters. Uncertainty becomes amenable to be treated as epistemic randomness, and large-scale characterization techniques can be used to improve the description, interpretation or prediction of these processes. This thesis deals with these topics. The manuscript is composed by two main parts (the first on artificial recharge and the second on solute transport), each of them divided into three chapters. In chapter 1 of each part, a tool is developed to obtain quantitative information to model a selected variable at coarse grid resolutions. In the case of artificial recharge, satellite images are used to model the spatial variability of the infiltration capacity on top soils with a metric-scale detail. In the case of solute transport, a new method to estimate density from particle distribution is shown. In chapters 2, it is explored what processes occurring at the fine scales can affect the interpretation of artificial recharge and solute transport processes at larger scales. In the first part, a combined method that joins satellite images and field data along with a simple clogging model is used to display the equally-possible spatio-temporal mapping of the infiltration capacity of topsoil during artificial pond flooding activities. In the second part, numerical three-dimensional models are used to simulate transport in heterogeneous media under convergent radial flow to a well at fine scale. It is shown that an appropriate model framework can reproduce similar observations on contaminant temporal distribution at controlling section similar to those obtained in the field tracer tests. It is also provided a physical explanation to describe the so-called anomalous late-time behavior on breakthrough curves which is sometimes observed in the reality at larger scales. In the chapters 3, models are used to define the uncertainty around operating parameters in the optic of prediction and management on artificial recharge and solute transport. In the first case, a probability framework is built to define the engineering risk of management of artificial recharge ponds due to random variability of the initial distribution of infiltration, which controls several important clogging factors based on theoretical approaches. In the case of solute transport, it is discussed how equivalent parameters based on mass-transfer models can be related with the geometrical distribution of hydraulic parameters in anisotropic formation, when convergent flow tracer tests are used

Incorporating Hydrologic Uncertainty in Industrial Economic Models: Implications of Extreme Rainfall Variability on Metal Mining Investments

Water balance uncertainties have long been known to lead to potential environmental hazards, but their effect on economic profitability of mines is an under-studied field of research. Historical rainfall data are analyzed using the extreme value theory (EVT) and the peak over threshold method (POT). The resulting distributions are used as inputs into a system dynamics techno-economic metal mining investment profitability model, and simulation analysis is performed. The proposed methodology incorporates rainfall extremes and uncertainty into techno-economic modeling of metal mining operations. A case study with real-life historical rainfall data was used to illustrate the relationship between hydrologic uncertainty and the economic value of a metal mining investment