This book explores how lighting systems based on LED sources have the ability to positively influence the human circadian system, with benefits for health and well-being. The opening chapters examine the functioning of the human circadian system, its response to artificial lighting, potential health impacts of different types of light exposure, and current researches in circadian photometry. A first case study analyzes the natural lighting available in an urban interior, concluding that it is unable to activate the human circadian system over the entire year. Important original research is then described in which systems suitable for artificial circadian lighting in residential interiors and offices were developed after testing of new design paradigms based on LED sources. Readers will also find a detailed analysis of the LED products available or under development globally that may contribute to optimal artificial circadian lighting, as well as the environmental sensors, control interfaces, and monitoring systems suitable for integration with new LED lighting systems. Finally, guidelines for circadian lighting design are proposed, with identification of key requirements.
This book offers a state-of-the-art overview of controlled drug delivery systems, covering the most important innovative applications. The principles of controlled drug release and the mechanisms involved in controlled release are clearly explained. The various existing polymeric drug delivery systems are reviewed, and new frontiers in material design are examined in detail, covering a wide range of polymer modification techniques. The concluding chapter is a case study focusing on use of a drug-eluting stent. The book is designed to provide the reader with a complete understanding of the mechanisms and design of controlled drug delivery systems, and to this end includes numerous step-by-step tutorials. It illustrates how chemical engineers can advance medical care by designing polymeric delivery systems that achieve either temporal or spatial control of drug delivery and thus ensure more effective therapy that eliminates the potential for both under- and overdosing.
Italy is a country of free political institutions, yet it has become a nation of servile courtesans, with Silvio Berlusconi as their prince. Drawing upon the republican conception of liberty, this title shows that a people can be unfree even though they are not oppressed.
Dopo aver toccato - quattro anni fa - uno dei suoi vertici in Vite pulviscolari, con la relativa frantumazione e dispersione del soggetto poetante, Maurizio Cucchi torna alla poesia in Malaspina (un "laghetto" ricco d'echi esistenziali e fonosimbolici) avvalendosi di una voce poetica ancor più profonda e originale. Se si pensa anche ai successivi approdi narrativi dell'autore, si può leggere questo libro nuovo e compatto - animato da un'affabilità istintiva e rara nella poesia d'oggi - come il romanzo di un Io ricongiunto e tuttavia estraneo a ogni gravame scopertamente autobiografico o psicologico. La sezione d'apertura, Berretto a sonagli, ci restituisce un personaggio pirandelliano per nulla algido e sentenzioso, bensì proiettato in una dimensione «senza infingimenti» e obbligato a retrocedere «verso strati / sempre più occulti, come / un archeologo, o un operaio / che manovra, nell'ignoranza / senza fine delle tenebre». Nelle due successive si assiste a un processo di sprofondamento fisico e temporale nel passato, senza nostalgia né rimpianto per un «buon tempo antico» del tutto inesistente. Piuttosto, Malaspina agisce entro una quotidianità sospesa tra sogno e realtà, memoria involontaria e ironia, liquido amniotico e metamorfosi dell'umano nel vegetale, nel geologico, nel meccanico. Cronotopo del libro è una traversata di Milano insieme storica, toponomastica e vertiginosamente aperta a processi di sedimentazione cosmica e biologica. Giunto al culmine della sua maturità, oltre che della sua libertà creativa, Cucchi consegue qui un'affabilità e una porosità non soltanto tematiche, ma più propriamente prosodiche e linguistiche: «Mi godo brevi soste felici / di sospensione e improvvisa / adesione. Mi oriento / verso un mondo più affabile / e poroso». Punto d'arrivo del libro è il capitolo finale, Console o capitano, dove l'io narrante si sovrappone e si trasforma nel Console di Lowry e in un ambiguo personaggio, il Capitano, che ha avuto contatti con Gadda e Guido Keller, un protofascista aviatore milanese, a Fiume insieme a d'Annunzio. E Malaspina si compie così in un processo allegorico che affianca nuove, appassionanti maschere d'identificazione e straniamento ai Glenn (Ford, l'attore cinematografico di fattezze simili - nella mente dell'autore - a quelle del Padre già protagonista del Disperso) o ai Rutebeuf consacrati in passato dalla lunga storia poetica dell'ultimo dei nostri classici. Alberto Bertoni
Religion and liberty are often thought to be mutual enemies: if religion has a natural ally, it is authoritarianism--not republicanism or democracy. But in this book, Maurizio Viroli, a leading historian of republican political thought, challenges this conventional wisdom. He argues that political emancipation and the defense of political liberty have always required the self-sacrifice of people with religious sentiments and a religious devotion to liberty. This is particularly the case when liberty is threatened by authoritarianism: the staunchest defenders of liberty are those who feel a deeply religious commitment to it. Viroli makes his case by reconstructing, for the first time, the history of the Italian "religion of liberty," covering its entire span but focusing on three key examples of political emancipation: the free republics of the late Middle Ages, the Risorgimento of the nineteenth century, and the antifascist Resistenza of the twentieth century. In each example, Viroli shows, a religious spirit that regarded moral and political liberty as the highest goods of human life was fundamental to establishing and preserving liberty. He also shows that when this religious sentiment has been corrupted or suffocated, Italians have lost their liberty. This book makes a powerful and provocative contribution to today's debates about the compatibility of religion and republicanism.
The experience of exiles was fundamental for shaping Italian national identity. Risorgimento in Exile investigates the contribution to Italian nationalism made by the numerous patriots who were forced to live in exile following failed revolutions in the Italian states.
Superb. . . . In its careful handling of the biographical and the autobiographical, the factual and the speculative, this book will become a model for how studies of individual directors should be done in the future."—Peter Brunette, author of Roberto Rossellini
From time immemorial, humans have been making deals, consuming goods, cultivating interests, thereby manifesting specific forms of life. Now, these forms of life solidify automatically by transforming into data. Webfare, a form of digital welfare, seeks to initiate a Copernican revolution that places need instead of merit at the center of society. In 21st-century welfare, consumption and production will be considered as the two faces of the same reality. The possibility to create new value is precisely what sets Webfare apart from traditional welfare: it recognizes the new value created by the Web, and aims to use it for everyone's well-being.
Architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909-1969) was a towering figure in 20th-century Italian architecture, with a significant impact at the international level. Through the work of his collaborative firm (Banfi Belgiojoso Peressutti Rogers, or BBPR), the editorship of publications such as Domus and Casabella, and his teaching at the Politecnico in Milan, Rogers ensured a lasting influence on the field as a practitioner, theorist and educator. However his contributions have been largely neglected by scholarship outside of Italy. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book re-assesses Ernesto Nathan Rogers' cultural legacy. It is the first comprehensive, critical work on Rogers in English, and emphasizes Rogers' vision for the role of the architect as a public intellectual, as well as his commitment to pursue a renewed path of professional and cultural research within the “Modern Project.” The book also discusses Roger's willingness to challenge academic classicized monumentality as well as modernist stereotypes, to emerge as a leader of Italian design in the aftermath of World War II; his interest in all scales of design and planning, with a cross-disciplinary mentality; tradition in modernity; and criticality as a mode of practice, to bring a detailed account of the work and thought of Ernesto Nathan Rogers to an English-speaking audience for the first time. With a foreword by Kenneth Frampton.
The book provides theoretical and phenomenological insights on the structure of matter, presenting concepts and features of elementary particle physics and fundamental aspects of nuclear physics. Starting with the basics (nomenclature, classification, acceleration techniques, detection of elementary particles), the properties of fundamental interactions (electromagnetic, weak and strong) are introduced with a mathematical formalism suited to undergraduate students. Some experimental results (the discovery of neutral currents and of the W± and Z0 bosons; the quark structure observed using deep inelastic scattering experiments) show the necessity of an evolution of the formalism. This motivates a more detailed description of the weak and strong interactions, of the Standard Model of the microcosm with its experimental tests, and of the Higgs mechanism. The open problems in the Standard Model of the microcosm and macrocosm are presented at the end of the book.
Annotation Elizabeth A. Kaye specializes in communications as part of her coaching and consulting practice. She has edited Requirements for Certification since the 2000-01 edition.
This book, based on authoritative sources and reports, links environmental communication to different fields of competence: environment, sustainability, journalism, mass media, architecture, design, art, green and circular economy, public administration, big event management and legal language. The manual offers a new, scientifically based perspective, and adopts a theoretical-practical approach, providing readers with qualified best practices, case studies and 22 exclusive interviews with professionals. A fluent style of writing leads the readers through specific details, enriching their knowledge without being boring. As such it is an excellent preparatory and interdisciplinary academic tool intended for university students, scholars, professionals, and anyone who would like to know more on the matter.
The main purpose of this book is to provide an overview of all phenomena which can be categorized under the general label of “electron scattering”, and to give a comprehensive description of all spectroscopical techniques related to electron scattering phenomena. Various classes of events are examined (electron in-electron out, photon in-electron out, electron in-two electron out, electron diffraction), together with the corresponding experimental techniques. A description of the underlying physics of various electron scattering phenomena is provided. For each spectroscopy, the general principles, the main fields of application, and some selected representative cases are discussed. The use of relatively low-cost electron sources is emphasized with respect to photon sources. The book is directed to PhD students and researchers not necessarily yet expert in the field.
Exile represented a fundamental experience in shaping Italian national identity. This book investigates the contribution of the Italian exile community in Europe and Latin America in the post Napoleonic era to imagining a new Italian political and economic community. By looking at the writings of such exiles, the book challenges recent historiography regarding the lack of genuine liberal culture in the Risorgimento. It argues that these émigrés' involvement in debates with British, continental, and American intellectuals, points to the emergence of liberalism and Romanticism as international ideologies shared by a community of patriots from Southern Europe as well as Latin America, and demonstrates that the Risorgimento first developed as a variation upon such global trends.
Containing four parts such as Analytic Geometry, Algebraic Geometry, Variations of Hodge Structures, and Differential Systems that are organized according to the subject matter, this title provides the reader with a panoramic view of important and exciting mathematics during the second half of the 20th century.
This book is an introduction to “multi-messenger” astrophysics. It covers the many different aspects connecting particle physics with astrophysics and cosmology and introduces astrophysics using numerous experimental findings recently obtained through the study of high-energy particles. Taking a systematic approach, it comprehensively presents experimental aspects from the most advanced laboratories and detectors, as well as the theoretical background. The book is aimed at graduate students and post-graduate researchers with a basic understanding of particle and nuclear physics. It will also be of interest to particle physicists working in accelerator/collider physics who are keen to understand the mechanisms of the largest accelerators in the Universe. The book draws on the extensive lecturing experience of Professor Maurizio Spurio from the University of Bologna.
This book discusses the history of invertebrate fossil understanding and classification by exploring fossil studies between the 15th and 18th centuries. Before the modern age, the understanding of fossil findings went through several phases. The treatment by philologists, philosophers and historians of natural sciences involved religious, sometimes folkloristic, aspects before scientific ones. This work showcases and assesses these original findings by carrying out a bibliographical, and above all iconographical research, aimed at finding the first printed images of the objects that we now know as fossils. From here, the authors provide an understanding of the true nature of fossils by analyzing them through modern academic viewpoints, and describing each fossil group from a paleontological and taxonomic point of view, retracing their treatment in the course of the centuries. As a point of reference for each fossil group treated, the authors have considered indispensable the use of ancient prints as evidence of the first iconographic sources dedicated to fossils, starting from those in the late fifteenth century, dedicated to the most common groups of invertebrates without neglecting a necessary exception, the ichthyodontolites, fundamental in the discussion in Italy on the interpretation of the organic origin of fossils, and from the end of the sixteenth century to about half of the eighteenth century. The abundant iconographic apparatus used, often unpublished or specially reworked, is essential and functional to the understanding of the various aspects addressed, a visual complement to the text and vice versa, designed and used taking its cue from the need imposed on early scholars to document their discoveries visually. Among the chosen images there is no shortage of original attributions to fossil finds that have been poorly understood or misidentified until now. The English translation of this book from its Italian original manuscript was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service provider DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision of the content was done by the authors.
English summary: In this volume Alexander Cambitoglou, a world famous specialist in the field of italicized painted vases, publishes a small but interesting collection of red figure vases in the collection of Vercelli's Camillo Leone Museum. The Leone Collection was established between 1870-1907 by the Piemontese jurist who was profoundly interested in ancient art, and even today consists of twenty-nine Apulian vases and six from Campania. Among these, one might highlight a notable columned crater of the Berlin Dancer Painter. The historic profile outlined by Maurizio Harari aims at illustrating the cultural situation in Vercelli at the end of the XIX century. Italian description: In questo volume Alexander Cambitoglou, specialista di fama mondiale nel campo della pittura vascolare italiota, pubblica una piccola ma interessante collezione di vasi a figure rosse raccolti nel Museo Camillo Leone di Vercelli. La collezione Leone, formatasi tra il 1870 e il 1907 ad opera del giurista piemontese profondamente interessato all'arte antica, comprende a tutt'oggi ventinove vasi apuli e sei vasi campani, tra i quali spicca un notevolissimo cratere a colonna del Pittore della Danzatrice di Berlino. Il profilo storico tracciato da Maurizio Harari mira ad illustrare la situazione culturale di Vercelli alla fine del XIX secolo.
In recent years there has been enormous activity in the theory of algebraic curves. Many long-standing problems have been solved using the general techniques developed in algebraic geometry during the 1950's and 1960's. Additionally, unexpected and deep connections between algebraic curves and differential equations have been uncovered, and these in turn shed light on other classical problems in curve theory. It seems fair to say that the theory of algebraic curves looks completely different now from how it appeared 15 years ago; in particular, our current state of knowledge repre sents a significant advance beyond the legacy left by the classical geometers such as Noether, Castelnuovo, Enriques, and Severi. These books give a presentation of one of the central areas of this recent activity; namely, the study of linear series on both a fixed curve (Volume I) and on a variable curve (Volume II). Our goal is to give a comprehensive and self-contained account of the extrinsic geometry of algebraic curves, which in our opinion constitutes the main geometric core of the recent advances in curve theory. Along the way we shall, of course, discuss appli cations of the theory of linear series to a number of classical topics (e.g., the geometry of the Riemann theta divisor) as well as to some of the current research (e.g., the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space of curves).
I have taught from and enjoyed the first edition of the book. The selection of topics is the best I've seen. Maurizio Spurio gives very clear presentations using a generous amount of observational data. " James Matthews (Louisiana State University) This is the second edition of an introduction to “multi-messenger” astrophysics. It covers the many different aspects connecting particle physics with astrophysics and cosmology and introduces high-energy astrophysics using different probes: the electromagnetic radiation, with techniques developed by traditional astronomy; charged cosmic rays, gamma-rays and neutrinos, with methods developed in high-energy laboratories; and gravitational waves, recently observed using laser interferometers. The book offers a comprehensive and systematic approach to the theoretical background and the experimental aspects of the study of the high-energy universe. The breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves motivated this new edition of the book, to offer a more global and multimessenger vision of high-energy astrophysics. This second edition is updated and enriched with substantial new materials also deriving from the results obtained at the LIGO/Virgo observatories. For the first time it is now possible to draw the connection between gravitational waves, traditional astronomical observations and other probes (in particular, gamma-rays and neutrinos). The book draws on the extensive courses of Professor Maurizio Spurio at the University of Bologna and it is aimed at graduate students and post-graduate researchers with a basic understanding of particle and nuclear physics. It will also be of interest to particle physicists working in accelerator/collider physics who are keen to understand the mechanisms of the largest accelerators in the Universe.
Future robots are expected to work closely and interact safely with real-world objects and humans alike. Sense of touch is important in this context, as it helps estimate properties such as shape, texture, hardness, material type and many more; provides action related information, such as slip detection; and helps carrying out actions such as rolling an object between fingers without dropping it. This book presents an in-depth description of the solutions available for gathering tactile data, obtaining aforementioned tactile information from the data and effectively using the same in various robotic tasks. The efforts during last four decades or so have yielded a wide spectrum of tactile sensing technologies and engineered solutions for both intrinsic and extrinsic touch sensors. Nowadays, new materials and structures are being explored for obtaining robotic skin with physical features like bendable, conformable, and stretchable. Such features are important for covering various body parts of robots or 3D surfaces. Nonetheless, there exist many more hardware, software and application related issues that must be considered to make tactile sensing an effective component of future robotic platforms. This book presents an in-depth analysis of various system related issues and presents the trade-offs one may face while developing an effective tactile sensing system. For this purpose, human touch sensing has also been explored. The design hints coming out of the investigations into human sense of touch can be useful in improving the effectiveness of tactile sensory modality in robotics and other machines. Better integration of tactile sensors on a robot’s body is prerequisite for the effective utilization of tactile data. The concept of semiconductor devices based sensors is an interesting one, as it allows compact and fast tactile sensing systems with capabilities such as human-like spatio-temporal resolution. This book presents a comprehensive description of semiconductor devices based tactile sensing. In particular, novel Piezo Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (POSFET) based approach for high resolution tactile sensing has been discussed in detail. Finally, the extension of semiconductors devices based sensors concept to large and flexile areas has been discussed for obtaining robotic or electronic skin. With its multidisciplinary scope, this book is suitable for graduate students and researchers coming from diverse areas such robotics (bio-robots, humanoids, rehabilitation etc.), applied materials, humans touch sensing, electronics, microsystems, and instrumentation. To better explain the concepts the text is supported by large number of figures.
Examines the latest applications of photochemistry to generate important intermediates Presenting the latest breakthroughs in the field of organic photochemistry, this book offers tested and proven photochemical approaches to synthesis, creating promising new possibilities and applications for photochemical reactions. It focuses on photoreactions involving an intermediate where mechanistic aspects control the course of the reaction and its synthetic value. Readers will discover new insights into the mechanisms and nature of photo-produced reactive intermediates for organic synthesis as well as the methods to generate them. Moreover, by focusing on highly efficient techniques for producing such species, the authors enable researchers to design and perform photoreactions within the framework of green, sustainable chemistry. Photochemically-Generated Intermediates in Synthesis begins with a discussion of the principles and practice of photo-generated intermediates. Next, the book explores: Photogeneration of carbon-centered radicals Photogeneration of heteroatom-centered radicals Photogeneration of biradicals and radical pairs Photochemical generation of radical ions Photogeneration of carbocations and carbanions Photogeneration of carbenes and nitrenes The book's final chapter is dedicated to the photochemical manipulation of intermediates. Each chapter includes key kinetic data for typical intermediates as well as detailed case examples, giving readers all the tools needed to perform their own photochemical reactions. Comparisons to non-photochemical methods are offered whenever possible. Photochemically-Generated Intermediates in Synthesis sets the stage for greater collaboration among photochemists and synthetic organic chemists, enabling these two research communities to fully leverage photochemistry in order to generate key intermediates needed for a broad range of synthetic reactions in organic chemistry.
Reducing environmental hazard and human impact on different ecosystems, with special emphasis on rural landscapes is the main topic of different environmental policies designed in developed countries and needed in most developing countries. This book covers the bioindication approach of rural landscapes and man managed ecosystems including both urbanised and industrialised ones. The main techniques and taxa used for bioindication are considered in detail. Remediation and contamination is faced with diversity, abundance and dominance of biota, mostly invertebrates. Invertebrate Biodiversity as Bioindicators of Sustainable Landscapes provides a basic tool for students and scientists involved in landscape ecology and planning, environmental sciences, landscape remediation and pollution.
This book provides examples of climate change characterization and decision-making tools for subtropical and tropical adaptation planning. It is intended for local operators, physical planners, besides researchers and students of these subjects. The first chapter describes the status of climate planning in large subtropical and tropical cities. The following six chapters discuss hazards (drought, intense precipitations, sea level rise, sea water intrusion) and early warning systems. Nine chapters enlarge on flood risk analysis and preliminary mapping, climate change vulnerability, comparing contingency plans in various scales and presenting experiences centred on adaptation planning. The last three chapters introduce some best practices of weather and climate change monitoring and flood risk mapping and assessment.
Motivated by a variational model concerning the depth of the objects in a picture and the problem of hidden and illusory contours, this book investigates one of the central problems of computer vision: the topological and algorithmic reconstruction of a smooth three dimensional scene starting from the visible part of an apparent contour. The authors focus their attention on the manipulation of apparent contours using a finite set of elementary moves, which correspond to diffeomorphic deformations of three dimensional scenes. A large part of the book is devoted to the algorithmic part, with implementations, experiments, and computed examples. The book is intended also as a user's guide to the software code appcontour, written for the manipulation of apparent contours and their invariants. This book is addressed to theoretical and applied scientists working in the field of mathematical models of image segmentation.
A best seller in Italy, Maurizio Ferraris's Goodbye, Kant! delivers a nontechnical, entertaining, and occasionally irreverent overview of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. He borrows his title from Wolfgang Becker's Goodbye Lenin!, the 2003 film about East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which depicts both relief at the passing of the Soviet era and affection for the ideals it embodied. Ferraris approaches Kant in similar spirits, demonstrating how the structure that Kant elaborates for the understanding of human knowledge can generate nostalgia for lost aspirations, while still leaving room for constructive criticism. Isolating key themes and concerns in the work, Ferraris evaluates Kant's claims relative to what science and philosophy have come to regard as the conditions for knowledge and experience in the intervening two centuries. He remains attentive to the historical context and ideals from which Kant's Critique emerged but also resolute in identifying what he sees as the limits and blind spots in the work. The result is an accessible account of a notoriously difficult book that will both provoke experts and introduce students to the work and to these important philosophical debates about the relations of experience to science.
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