AGENT-BASED MODEL AND SIMULATIONS OF THE MANAGEMENT OF PORTS: THE IMPORT PROCESSES AT THE PORT OF GENOVA

This thesis addressed to use of Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) for the development and implementation of the import process of goods in a port that is suitably applied to help, plan, structure the development of the port model. The main goal of the modelling and implementation was to reach to fruition as more organized, fast and efficient complex logistics network, through development policies. To this purpose, I developed an agent-based model (ABM) of a port that is populated by the real main actors (stakeholders) whose are involved in the port activities such as maritime, customs, financial police etc. The model of the port simulates the actual port processes, i.e. acceptance of the goods, sending them, controlling of the legality, or not to import goods, the transportation planning etc. Agent-based models (ABMs) are being used in modelling in economies as complex systems that is a relatively recent approach in economies [62]. It has increasingly been attracting many scholars belonging to several sub-fields, becoming both a complement and a substitute for more traditional economic-modeling methodologies [62]. We can mention that ABMs are considered as a valid and effective competitor of standard Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models in macroeconomics [26]. The main advantages of using ABMs arrive two main additional values if we compare it with its equivalent systems. ABM provides more descriptive richness, as they characterize ecologies of agents, locally interacting through non-obvious network structures, learning using incomplete information, and competing within imperfect markets. Second, the modeler developing an ABM has typically more flexibility in both input and output validation of its model [34]. Ports have an integral role of our economy, they are strategic places of exchange, and especially over the last few decades and with the phenomenon of globalization, the ports are a reality in continuous movement and growth. Therefore, they are operating places of extreme complexity, especially in their logistics functions of transport management. The thesis discusses the business process is implemented for developing a computer supported management tool to handle the port activities flow. The tool is designed for the integration in a virtual infrastructure that allows an advanced operational management of port traffics. By modelling the time documentation according to the specification of the Genoa case, the business case of the port of Genoa is tested. Results show that the mechanism implemented simulates the actual process. Moreover some bottleneck are discovered, such as delays to the handling of the containers and queues formation due to missing documentation or documentation with errors or not ready

Endovascular Treatment of Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformations

Arteriovenous malformations (AVM) are vascular malformations composed of a network of abnormal vessels connecting directly between the artery and vein without an intervening capillary bed. Cerebral arteriovenous malformations have an incidence of 0.8–1.3 per 100.000 person years. Clinical symptoms include intracranial hemorrhage, seizure, headache, and focal neurological deficit. Annual mortality rate associated with hemorrhage is 1–5%, and 10–30% of survivors will have disability. Treatment options for cerebral AVMs include open surgery, embolization, and radiosurgery. Depending on the grade and angioarchitectural characteristics, a combination of these modalities can be used. Endovascular treatment can be performed for size and grade reduction, presurgical devascularization, size reduction before radiosurgery, targeted embolization, and as stand-alone treatment for cure. Targeted embolization can address intranidal or flow-related aneurysms and high flow arteriovenous shunts. Complications of the endovascular treatment include hemorrhage related to vessel perforation or normal pressure breakthrough phenomenon, ischemia, microcatheter retention, and other general complications associated with angiographic procedures. Mortality associated with endovascular treatment is less than 2% and permanent neurological deficit can be seen up to 2–8.9% of cases. New endovascular techniques include balloon-assisted embolization, transvenous embolization, and double microcatheter techniques like pressure cooker technique

Performance Evaluation of Hyperbolic Position Location Technique in Cellular Wireless Networks

This study addresses the wireless geolocation problem that has been an attractive subject for the last few years after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate for wireless service providers to locate emergency 911 users with a high degree of accuracy -within a radius of 125 meters, 67 percent of the time by October 2001. There are a number of different geolocation technologies that have been proposed. These include, Assisted GPS (A-GPS), network-based technologies such as Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), Angle of Arrival (AOA), and Cell of Origin (COO). This research focuses on network based techniques, namely the more prominent TDOA which is also called hyperbolic position location technique. The main problem in time-based positioning systems is solving nonlinear hyperbolic equations derived from set of TDOA estimates. Two algorithms are implemented as a solution to this problem: A closed form solution and a Least Squares (LS) algorithm. Accuracy and computational efficiency performances are compared in a wireless system established using DGPS measurements in Dayton, OH area

Computational modeling of improvisation in Turkish folk music using Variable-Length Markov Models

The thesis describes a new database of uzun havas, a non-metered structured improvisation form in Turkish folk music, and a system, which uses Variable-Length Markov Models (VLMMs) to predict the melody in the uzun hava form. The database consists of 77 songs, encompassing 10849 notes, and it is used to train multiple viewpoints, where each event in a musical sequence are represented by parallel descriptors such as Durations and Notes. The thesis also introduces pitch-related viewpoints that are specifically aimed to model the unique melodic properties of makam music. The predictability of the system is quantitatively evaluated by an entropy based scheme. In the experiments, the results from the pitch-related viewpoints mapping 12-tone-scale of Western classical theory and 17 tone-scale of Turkish folk music are compared. It is shown that VLMMs are highly predictive in the note progressions of the transcriptions of uzun havas. This suggests that VLMMs may be applied to makam-based and non-metered musical forms, in addition to Western musical styles. To the best of knowledge, the work presents the first symbolic, machine-readable database and the first application of computational modeling in Turkish folk music.MSCommittee Chair: Parag Chordia; Committee Member: Gil Weinberg; Committee Member: Jason Freema

Coleridge’s Revisionary Practice from 1814 to 1818

Die Dissertation untersucht Samuel Taylor Coleridges Praxis der Selbstredaktion in den Jahren von 1814 bis 1818 und beleuchtet dabei die zentrale Rolle, die William Wordsworths The Excursion, 1814 als Teil von The Recluse erschienen, in der Herausbildung von Coleridges Œuvre einnimmt. Die Arbeit entwickelt ihre zentrale These zu Coleridges Überarbeitungspraxis durch eine detaillierte Analyse der Verfahren, über die Coleridge aufhörte, durch Wordsworth zu sprechen. Ich beziehe mich dabei in erster Linie auf die Überarbeitungen von Biographia Literaria (1817), Sibylline Leaves (1817) und dem 1818 erschienenen rifacciamento zu dem Periodikum The Friend, das ursprünglich 1809–1810 publiziert worden war. Vor dem Hintergrund von Coleridges in den 1790er- und 1800er-Jahren neu aufgekommener und sich später weiterentwickelnder Rezeption von Immanuel Kants kritischer Philosophie werde ich argumentieren, dass sich die „radikale Differenz“ zwischen Coleridge und Wordsworth, die seit den Lyrical Ballads (1798) und dem „Preface“ (1800) bestand, weiter verstärkte, nachdem es Wordsworth nicht gelungen war, das groß angelegte Konzept eines „first genuine philosophical poem“ – The Recluse – zu vollenden. Insbesondere nachdem Coleridge 1807 The Prelude gehört hatte, enttäuschte The Excursion nach den Maßstäben seiner „vergleichenden Kritik“ seine lang gehegten Erwartungen. Während sein organisches Weltbild einen aktiven Geist kannte, der nach universaler „Wahrheit“ sowohl durch innere synthetisierende Kräfte als auch empirische Naturgesetze strebt, gründete sich Wordsworths Gedicht auf ein obskur-labiles Fundament zwischen Außenwelt und Selbst. Coleridges aus seinen eigenen Theorien zu Sprache und Einbildungskraft erwachsene Enttäuschung über The Excursion und die nachfolgende Loslösung von Wordsworth und ihrem gemeinsamen Werk verschafften ihm letztendlich die notwendige Autonomie, die einerseits einen nüchternen Blick auf die eigene Vergangenheit und andererseits eine dialogische Freundschaft zu Wordsworth ermöglichten, innerhalb derer Coleridge die Bedeutsamkeit erkannte, zu einem Freund zu sprechen.This thesis is an examination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s revisionary activity from 1814 to 1818, considering the integral role of William Wordsworth’s The Excursion, published as part of The Recluse in 1814, on Coleridge’s conception of his discrete oeuvre. It is via a detailed analysis of the way Coleridge ceased to speak “through” Wordsworth that this thesis unfolds its principal argument on Coleridge’s revisionary activity. I principally consider the revisions at work in the Biographia Literaria (1817), Sibylline Leaves (1817) and the 1818 rifacciamento to The Friend (the periodical originally issued in 1809-1810). Taking into account Coleridge’s newly-emerging and subsequently evolving responses to Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy in the 1790s and 1800s, I will argue that the already-existing “radical Difference” between Coleridge and Wordsworth ever since the Lyrical Ballads (1798) and the “Preface” (1800) further intensified following Wordsworth’s failure to bring their grand scheme for a “first genuine philosophical poem”, The Recluse, into completion. Especially after The Prelude Coleridge heard in 1807, The Excursion by means of his “comparative censure” fell short of meeting the long-cherished expectations. Whereas Coleridge’s organic view of the world involved the recognition of an active mind seeking universal “Truth” through the inner synthetic faculties as well as the empirical laws in nature, Wordsworth’s poem was founded upon an obscurely precarious ground between the phenomenal world and the inner self. Ultimately, Coleridge’s disappointment with The Excursion on the basis of his theories on language and imagination, and the ensuing detachment from Wordsworth and their joint oeuvre gave him the autonomy to revise his past works in a way that ensured formation of a more sober relationship with his own past and a dialogic friendship with Wordsworth in which Coleridge came to realise the importance of speaking to a friend