www.polimetrica.com
CATALOG
OPEN ACCESS
PUBLICATIONS
International Scientific Publisher

Advances in vibration control and
diagnostics
(Nicolò Bachschmid, Paolo Pennacchi eds.)
This volume presents some up to date concepts and
results in the field of vibration control and diagnostics of
mechanical systems, obtained in research activities
performed in the Departments and laboratories of the
universities taking part in the VICONDIA network. The
VICONDIA project developed in the frame of the ALFA II
Program for the cooperation between European and Latin
American universities, funded by the European
Commission, has promoted tight cooperation in the
research activities in the field of dynamical behaviour of
rotating machinery including noise emission, vibration
control of mechanical structures, and related diagnostics.
A selection of the main results in form of papers,
originated by these research activities, is reported in the
ISBN 978-88-7699-036-6 (printed)
volume, which therefore contributes to describe the state
of art of the activities in the above defined field.
ISBN 978-88-7699-016-8 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

An Introduction to English Slang
A Description of its Morphology, Semantics
and Sociology
(Elisa Mattiello)
Slang is a widespread phenomenon in English, but, despite
its pervasiveness, it has been marginalized or neglected in
linguistics. Does it exhibit the same word-formation
mechanisms as the standard language? In other words, is
it the result of well-established grammatical rules? Or is it
outside regular grammar? Again, is slang internally
organized in terms of semantic relations and lexical fields,
or is it rather a disorganized, complex lexicon made up of
vague words and polysemous expressions?
In an attempt to describe slang, there is a general
tendency to treat it as a merely social concept reinforcing
cohesiveness within a group, or as a level of usage below
stylistically neutral language. Slang commonly overlaps
with other non-standard varieties such as cant, jargon,
ISBN 978-88-7699-113-4 (printed)
dialect, or even with bad language. This book explores
ISSN 1974-0603 (printed)
slang from a different angle...
ISBN 978-88-7699-114-1 (e-book)
ISSN 1974-0670 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Dialogue about Systems
(Shelia Guberman, Gianfranco Minati)
The word system is widely used in everyday language with
different meanings often making it difficult to understand
what a system is and what it is not. The concept is
apparently easy to understand and its usage is based on
general intuition rather than on solid theory. This Dialogue
is not for popularizing or introducing the concept. The
Dialogue is about some current, crucial issues related to
systems in science, such as emergence, self-organization,
theoretical role of the observer, cognitive science, pattern
recognition and image understanding. The general
framework of the Dialogue relates to epistemological
issues. The reader is invited to participate in the dialogue,
that is to identify and elaborate his/her questions and
answers in those of the authors. This Dialogue is a
scientific adventure open, as always, to be read as a more
general cultural one, by identifying, for instance, analogies,
ISBN 978-88-7699-061-8 (printed)
correspondences and metaphors...
ISBN 978-88-7699-062-5 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Distributed Agent-Based Retrieval Tools
Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop
(Alessandro Soro, Giuliano Armano, Gavino Paddeu eds.)
Search engines are still on the leading edge of Internet
technologies. The current arena in search engine
applications is dominated by large corporations that
provide search services based on traditional crawling /
indexing techniques, through powerful clusters of servers.
The main concern of such corporations are multimedia and
personalization, whereas the research in this field is
looking ahead; in particular to the distribution of
information and computational resources, which can be
obtained by adopting suitable technologies. In fact, many
researchers are concentrating their effort in the task of
supplanting the centralized model of the web by giving
priority to client-based, instead of server-based,
applications. In our opinion, this alternative approach may
take advantage of P2P information sharing and retrieval. In
ISBN 978-88-7699-043-4 (printed)
fact, nowadays, several P2P applications exist...
ISBN 978-88-7699-052-6 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Free and Open Source Software
for Development
(Victor van Reijswoud, Arjan de Jager)
Development organizations and International Non-
Governmental Organizations have been emphasizing the
high potential of Free and Open Source Software for the
Less Developed Countries. Cost reduction, less vendor
dependency and increased potential for local capacity
development have been their main arguments. In spite of
its advantages, Free and Open Source Software is not
widely adopted at the African continent. In this book the
authors will explore the grounds on with these
expectations are based. Where do they come from and is
there evidence to support these expectations? Over the
past years several projects have been initiated and some
good results have been achieved, but at the same time
many challenges were encountered. What lessons can be
ISBN 978-88-7699-131-8 (printed)
drawn from these experiences and do these experiences
ISSN 1973-6061 (printed)
contain enough evidence to support...
ISBN 978-88-7699-132-5 (e-book)
ISSN 1973-6053 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Grid-enabled Astrophysics
(Leopoldo Benacchio, Fabio Pasian eds.)
This volume collects the contributions to the
“Computational Grids for Italian Astrophysics: Status and
Perspectives” workshop, held at INAF headquarters, Rome,
in November 2005. The workshop aimed at taking a
snapshot of the status within the Italian astrophysical
community of the development and usage of
computational and data Grid(s), with particular reference
to the status of the Grid.it (especially work-package 10,
dedicated to astrophysical applications) and DRACO
projects. The results obtained by the scientists
participating in the two projects were summarised, to
evaluate the effectiveness of the porting of scientific
applications on the Grid, to recognise possible
improvements, to foster cross-fertilisation with other
sciences involved in Grid processing, to bring the
requirements of astronomers to the attention of
ISBN 978-88-7699-057-1 (printed)
middleware developers and, maybe most important...
ISBN 978-88-7699-058-8 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Immigrants Regularization
Processes in Italy
Analysis of an Emblematic Case
(Vincenzo Cesareo)
This volume contains a synthesis of the results of an
inquiry, carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Labour and
Social Policies, within the actions promoted by the
Ministry of the Interior through the 2000-2006 National
Operational Program “Sicurezza per lo sviluppo del
Mezzogiorno d’Italia” (Safety for the Development of
Italy’s Mezzogiorno), a survey on foreign immigrants’ work
paths after the regularization enforced in 2002. Because of
its complexity and aims, it can be considered the most
extensive and systematic inquiry ever carried out on
migration processes in Italy and, in particular, in the
southern regions (Italy’s Mezzogiorno) belonging to
Objective 1, which is part of the structural interventions of
the European Union: Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia,
ISBN 978-88-7699-086-1 (printed)
Sardinia and Sicily...
ISBN 978-88-7699-087-8 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Information Societies and Digital
Divides
(Bernardo Sorj)
The book argues ICT are part of the set of goods and
services that determine quality of life, social inequality and
the chances for economic development. Therefore
understanding the digital divide demands a broader
discussion of the place of ICT within each society and in
the international system. The author argues against the
perspectives that either isolates ICT from other basic social
goods (in particular education and employment) as well as
those that argue that new technologies are luxury of a
consumer society. Though the author accepts that new
technologies are not a panacea for the problems of
inequality, access to them become a condition of full
integration of social life. Using examples mainly from Latin
America, the work presents some general policy proposals
on the fight against the digital divide which take in
ISBN 978-88-7699-127-1 (printed)
ISSN 1973-6061 (printed)
consideration other dimensions of social inequality and
ISBN 978-88-7699-128-8 (e-book)
access to public goods...
ISSN 1973-6053 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Investigating English with Corpora
Studies in Honour of Maria Teresa Prat
(Aurelia Martelli, Virginia Pulcini eds)
This volume is a tribute to Maria Teresa Prat and to her
long and outstanding career at the University of Turin. In
the course of her intense activity as a scholar of English
language and linguistics in Italy, she has participated in the
birth and development of the discipline – Lingua Inglese –
both in terms of scientific production and institutional
debate. Her remarkable contribution to some major
research areas of English language and linguistics –
education and curriculum design, English grammar, lexis
and corpus linguistics – are worthy of recognition and
appreciation by Italian academia. The unifying theme of
this Festschrift in honour of Maria Teresa Prat is the study
of English with the aid of corpora. The articles included in
this volume focus on ‘corpus data’ of different types, from
collections of language samples, smaller ad hoc specialized
ISBN 978-88-7699-103-5 (printed)
corpora, to already existing large corpora such as the
ISSN 1974-0603 (printed)
British National Corpus...
ISBN 978-88-7699-104-2 (e-book)
ISSN 1974-0670 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Knowledge Technologies
(Nick Milton)
Several technologies are emerging that provide new ways
to capture, store, present and use knowledge. This book is
the first to provide a comprehensive introduction to five of
the most important of these technologies: Knowledge
Engineering, Knowledge Based Engineering, Knowledge
Webs, Ontologies and Semantic Webs. For each of these,
answers are given to a number of key questions (What is
it? How does it operate? How is a system developed?
What can it be used for? What tools are available? What
are the main issues?). The book is aimed at students,
researchers and practitioners interested in Knowledge
Management, Artificial Intelligence, Design Engineering
and Web Technologies. During the 1990s, Nick worked at
the University of Nottingham on the application of AI
techniques to knowledge management and on various
ISBN 978-88-7699-099-1 (printed) knowledge acquisition projects to develop expert systems
ISSN 1973-6061 (printed)
for military applications...
ISBN 978-88-7699-100-4 (e-book)
ISSN 1973-6053 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Knowware
The third star after Hardware and Software
(Ruqian Lu)
This book proposes to separate knowledge from software
and to make it a commodity that is called knowware. The
architecture, representation and function of Knowware are
discussed. The principles of knowware engineering and its
three life cycle models: furnace model, crystallization
model and spiral model are proposed and analyzed.
Techniques of software/knowware co-engineering are
introduced. A software component whose knowledge is
replaced by knowware is called mixware. An object and
component oriented development schema of mixware is
introduced. In particular, the tower model and ladder
model for mixware development are proposed and
discussed. Finally, knowledge service and knowware based
Web service are introduced and compared with Web
service. In summary, knowware, software and hardware
ISBN 978-88-7699-095-3 (printed)
ISSN 1973-6061 (printed) should be considered as three equally important
ISBN 978-88-7699-096-0 (e-book) underpinnings of IT industry...
ISSN 1973-6053 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Migration Management and Ethics
Envisioning a Different Approach
(Fabio Baggio, Laura Zanfrini eds.)
In the face of more restrictive migration policies, quota
systems, increased border controls and tighter security
measures imposed on “aliens”, an ethical question arises
spontaneously: is the welfare of migrants and their
families included in the concept of better “management”
of migration flows? In this book, a group of scholars from
different parts of the world try to answer this question,
through a shared analysis on specific migration issues
which have a global impact. The volume compiles the
papers presented at the 10th Metropolis International
Conference held in Toronto, Canada (17-21 October 2005)
in the workshop “Migration Management and Ethics:
Envisioning a Different Approach” planned by the two
editors. The various presentations try to offer a “ethical”
assessment of some migration policies in South America,
ISBN 978-88-7699-045-8 (printed)
North America, Europe and Asia, highlighting the role of
each stakeholder...
ISBN 978-88-7699-046-5 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

New Approaches for Modelling
Emergence of Collective Phenomena
(Gianfranco Minati)
Models and simulations of collective behaviours are often
based on considering them as interactive particle systems.
The focus is then on behavioural and interaction rules of
particles by using approaches based on artificial agents
designed to reproduce swarm-like behaviours in a virtual
world by using symbolic, sub-symbolic and agent-based
models. New approaches have been considered in the
literature based, for instance, on a) topological rather than
metric distances and b) fuzzy systems. We propose a new
research approach allowing generalisation possibly
suitable for a general theory of emergence. We consider
the coherence of collective behaviours, i.e., their identity
detected by the observer, as given by meta-structures,
properties of meta-elements, i.e., sets of values adopted
by mesoscopic state variables describing collective,
ISBN 978-88-7699-143-1 (printed)
structural aspects of the collective phenomenon under...
ISBN 978-88-7699-144-8 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Open Problems in Linguistics and
Lexicography
(Giandomenico Sica ed.)
\"Open Problems in Linguistics and Lexicography\" collects
contribution written by some of the most representative
working scientists in this field of research: Jan Blommaert,
Robert G. Clark, Theodorus du Plessis, Helmut Gruber,
Angela Ralli, Reinhard R.K. Hartmann, Georgeta Ciobanu,
Kyo Kageura, Asanee Kawtrakul, Igor Mel'cuk, Eloina
Miyares Bermudez, Leonel Ruiz Miyares, Kwesi Kwaa
Prah.This publication aims to propose new trends and
perspectives through which to analyse the past, the
present and the future of Linguistics (with particular focus
on Lexicography).
ISBN 978-88-7699-051-9 (printed)
ISBN 978-88-7699-056-4 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Proof-Net Categories
(Kosta Došen, Zoran Petrić)
Star-autonomous categories are a brand of symmetric
monoidal closed categories of particular interest for
classical linear logic. This work formulates equationally a
precise notion of star-autonomous category without unit
objects, which is called proof-net category. A coherence
theorem analogous to the coherence theorem for
symmetric monoidal closed categories with respect to
graphs is proved for proof-net categories. It is also proved
that the free proof-net category generated by a set of
objects is isomorphic to a full subcategory of the free star-
autonomous category generated by the same set of
objects. This yields a very useful coherence theorem for
star-autonomous categories involving the unit objects,
exactly analogous to the coherence theorem for symmetric
monoidal closed categories. An analogous coherence
result is proved also for proof-net categories with the mix
ISBN 978-88-7699-080-9 (printed)
principle of linear logic...
ISBN 978-88-7699-081-6 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Psychological, pedagogical and
sociological models for learning and
assessment in virtual communities
(Bianca Maria Varisco ed.)
The keywords in this collective work include community of
learning, inquiry or work, virtual environments and
identity. This volume presents the results of a biennial
Italian research project (PRIN 2005-07) which was
coordinated nationally from the University of Padova, with
Bianca M. Varisco as principal investigator. The research
involved five units with local coordinators (Padova – B.M.
Varisco, Bari – M.B. Ligorio, Roma Sapienza – D. Cesareni,
Milano Cattolica Sacro Cuore – C. Galimberti, Macerata –
P.G. Rossi) and also the Universities of Trieste, Milano
Bicocca, Valle d’Aosta, Bologna, Udine, and Cassino.
The interdisciplinary nature of the research meant close
collaboration between pedagogists, educational-,
communicational- and social-psychologists, and ICT
ISBN 978-88-7699-105-9 (printed)
technologists and scientists. The aim was to analyse,
ISBN 978-88-7699-106-6 (e-book) develop and verify online environments...
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Science in Radio Broadcasting
The role of the radio in science communication
(Marzia Mazzonetto, Matteo Merzagora, Elisabetta Tola)
Radio is a wonderful media for science communication.
We share this opinion with key researchers in early radio
studies who back in the '30s praised the importance of a
dialogic model within science communication. This
conviction is also shared by most science radio
practitioners, scientists and researchers involved in the
dialogue between science and society and supported by
the many programmes taking place everyday all around
Europe on radio frequencies. This book aims at exploring
and proposing new challenges in science communication
in radio broadcasting by introducing an element of
reflexivity in the profession of science radio journalism and
in the publica communication activity of scientists. We
hope this work will be of reference to all those facing the
ISBN 978-88-7699-018-2 (printed) actual scarcity of literature on science in radio
broadcasting.
ISBN 978-88-7699-019-9 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Sharing ExperienceS on Agile
Methodologies in Open Source
Software development (SESAMOSS)
(Gabriele Gianini, Alberto Sillitti eds.)
Agile Methodologies (AMs) and Open Source Software
present many commonalities such as less formal
organization of the development and focus on the human
being. Such approach results in (a) focusing on the code
that provides value to the final user and (b) eliminating
activities that are not directly connected to the final
product. These are the main considerations that inspired
this workshop and the related call for papers. The
workshop included two main activities: the presentation of
5 papers and a final discussion inspired by the papers. The
presented papers belong to three categories: distributed
development, measurements, experiences in agile and OS
development and tools. The distributed development is
ISBN 978-88-7699-034-2 (printed)
one of the key strength of the OS development...
ISBN 978-88-7699-033-5 (e-book)
ENGLISH

The De-Mathematisation of Logic
(Barry Hartley Slater)
This book collects together several articles by the author,
to which a certain recent RATIO paper of his relates, with
that paper as an introduction to the whole. It displays a
major failure in the disposition of the logicians who have
followed on from Frege, principally through their
attachment to mathematics, and their subsequent neglect
of natural language, and its basic grammar. Thus these
logicians as a whole have confused, in substantial ways,
categories like use with mention, identity with
equivalence, predicates with functions, predicates with
their nominalisations, sentences with nominals, sentences
with propositions, propositions with functions,
propositions with sets, properties with states of affairs,
direct speech with indirect speech, reference with
description, objects with facts, pronouns with nouns,
mereological sums with (mathematical) sets, numbers with
ISBN 978-88-7699-071-7 (printed)
sets, count terms with mass terms...
ISBN 978-88-7699-072-4 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

The Eleventh Italian Report on
Migrations 2005
(Vincenzo Cesareo ed.)
2005: over three million foreigners present on the Italian
territory at the beginning of the year, about five-hundred-
thousand, that is, ten times as many in comparison with
thirteen years ago, the minors registered by the Registry
records, an increase by eighty-thousand students
attending Italian schools in the past year. These are only
some of the data providing an overall picture of an ever-
growing and structured presence within our country. This
eleventh annual Report on Migrations edited by Ismu
presents an exhaustive and detailed cross-section of
migration reality in Italy. The 2005 Report represents a
useful reference tool for all those who, for different
reasons, increasingly deal with immigration issues.
ISBN 978-88-7699-040-3 (printed)
ISBN 978-88-7699-041-0 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

The Thirteenth Italian Report on
Migrations 2007
(Vincenzo Cesareo ed.)
To January 1st, 2007, the foreigners originating from heavy
migration countries who were living in Italy had almost
reached the threshold of four million persons. A
continuous and massive growth, which has led migrants to
represent today 5% of the whole Italian population. To
mention only the most outstanding phenomena in this
connection, established migrants and Italian citizenship
acquisitions are continuously increasing, as well as the
volume of money transfers to their countries of origin.
As usual, this Report consists of four parts – A general
outline, Focus areas, Specific studies and inquiries, The
international scenario – in which, basing on the latest
statistical data made available, we examined in detail
some particular thematic areas, such as Labour, Education,
and Health. We also dealt with some particularly relevant
ISBN 978-88-7699-123-3 (printed)
issues concerning unaccompanied foreign minors, the
ISBN 978-88-7699-124-0 (e-book) Paper of Values, religions in Europe...
Amazon.com ENGLISH

The Twelfth Italian Report on
Migrations 2006
(Vincenzo Cesareo ed.)
2006: the constant growth of the foreign population in
Italy is by now a fact we must reckon with. As from the
1990s up to now, increasingly higher immigrants’ rates
have been reported. An evidence that our country, like
other in Europe, has become an important place of
destination within global migration processes. This ever-
growing presence of foreigners is an element that gives
rise to processes of change, which continuously issue new
challenges to our interethnic and intercultural coexistence
patterns, and require the development of a necessary
balance between the right to diversity and the duty of
integration.
ISBN 978-88-7699-088-5 (printed)
ISBN 978-88-7699-089-2 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Thou sittest at another boke...
English Studies in Honour of Domenico Pezzini
(Giovanni Iamartino, Maria Luisa Maggioni,
Roberta Facchinetti eds)
This volume is a tribute to Domenico Pezzini and to his
long and outstanding career as a Professor of English at
the Catholic University of Milan, then at the University of
Sassari and finally at the University of Verona. Professor
Pezzini’s research has focused on such diverse authors as
Aelred of Rievaulx, Julian of Norwich, R.S. Thomas and
Elizabeth Jennings, and his favourite areas of study include
spiritual friendship in mediaeval Latin and vernacular
literatures, the relationship between religion and poetry,
and mystic writings in Italy and Europe. The articles
included in this volume reflect the range of Pezzini’s
scholarly interests, dealing as they do with translations
from and into English, Middle English literature, the
History of the English Language, and other linguistic and
ISBN 978-88-7699-139-4 (printed)
ISSN 1974-0603 (printed)
literary topics. Written by a group of colleagues, former
ISBN 978-88-7699-140-0 (e-book)
students and friends...
ISSN 1974-0670 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Topics on General and Formal
Ontology
(Paolo Valore ed.)
The essays collected in this book deal with a) general
ontology basically in two meanings: as a philosophical
discipline that studies “being”, that is as a part of
metaphysics, and as a theory that deals with types of
entities, specifically those types of abstract entities that
are allowed in a language (ontology as specification of a
conceptualization), and b) formal ontology both as a
“categorial ontology” and as a formalized discipline that
represents an “ontological” part of the varied world of
formal disciplines. This collection introduces the work of
researchers from Europe, Middle-East, United States,
Canada and Australia. Papers ranges across many topics of
contemporary inquiry in ontology: foundations of
ontology, primary relations (identity and identification),
mereology, ontology of physical entities, trope ontology,
ISBN 978-88-7699-028-1 (printed)
modality and ontological imports of logic and theory of
ISBN 978-88-7699-029-8 (e-book) truth.
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Unorthodox Geology and Geophysics
Oil, Ores and Earthquakes
(Shelia Guberman)
Over the past 50 years geology and geophysics have been
transformed through the use of mathematical methods
and computer technology. This has led to much greater
speed in the execution of already formalised procedures,
together with the enormous advantage of the visualization
of underground structures and geometry. However,
despite the use of supercomputers and integral and
differential equations, the accuracy of geological
predictions has not substantially changed. In order to find
a giant oil-field about 400 wells still have to be drilled, and
earthquakes occur in areas which are still mapped as
seismically inactive, including the 1994 Los Angeles quake.
This book is directed towards changing important aspects
of geological practice. It presents ways of verifying
procedures, moving from the use of a number of examples
ISBN 978-88-7699-135-6 (printed)
supporting a given hypothesis to the rigorous procedures
of experimental physics...
ISBN 978-88-7699-136-3 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

What is Community Informatics
(and Why Does It Matter)?
(Michael Gurstein)
Community Informatics (CI) is the application of
information and communications technologies (ICTs) to
enable community processes and the achievement of
community objectives. CI goes beyond the “Digital Divide”
to making ICT access usable and useful to excluded
populations and communities for local economic
development, social justice, and political empowerment.
CI approaches ICTs from a “community” perspective and
develops strategies and techniques for managing their use
by communities both virtual and physical including the
variety of Community Networking applications. CI assumes
that both communities have characteristics, requirements,
and opportunities that require different strategies for ICT
intervention and development from individual access and
use. Also, CI addresses ICT use in Developing Countries as
ISBN 978-88-7699-097-7 (printed)
ISSN 1973-6061 (printed)
well as among the poor, the marginalized, the elderly, or
ISBN 978-88-7699-098-4 (e-book)
those living in remote locations in Developed Countries...
ISSN 1973-6053 (e-book)
Amazon.com ENGLISH

Crise de la démocratie et
gouvernement de la vie
(Giuseppe Duso, Jean-François Kervégan eds.)
C’est justement parce que la démocratie est devenue la
marque unique pour concevoir la politique et le
présupposé unanimement revendiqué par des forces
politiques qui sont par ailleurs en conflit entre elles, que
devient à la fois plus ardu et plus nécessaire d’interroger
ses concepts pour vérifier s’ils ne contiennent pas des
difficultés structurelles et des apories. Sur le thème “Crise
de la démocratie et gouvernement de la vie”, un colloque a
eu lieu à Paris les 25-26 février 2006; il réunissait le groupe
de Padue du “Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur le
Lexique Politique et Juridique Européen” (CIRLPGE) et le
groupe français de recherche “Normes, Sociétés,
Philosophies” (NoSoPhi) de l’Université Paris 1 / Panthéon-
Sorbonne.
ISBN 978-88-7699-092-2 (printed)
ISBN 978-88-7699-093-9 (e-book)
Amazon.com FRENCH

Atti del V Convegno Nazionale sulla
Comunicazione della Scienza
Con una sessione speciale dedicata alla
comunicazione della salute
(Nico Pitrelli, Giancarlo Sturloni eds.)
Questo volume raccoglie gli interventi presentati al V
Convegno Nazionale sulla Comunicazione della Scienza
(Forlì, 30 novembre – 2 dicembre 2006) e comprende una
sessione speciale dedicata alla comunicazione della salute.
Sfogliando l’indice, o consultando i programmi delle
edizioni precedenti, non potrà tuttavia sfuggire come
nessuno dei temi più importanti nella letteratura
internazionale sulla comunicazione della scienza sia stato
trascurato nelle discussioni di Forlì. È un buon segno.
Anzitutto perché dimostra che anche in Italia esiste una
comunità vitale e attenta a questi temi. In secondo luogo
perché conferma che la comunicazione della scienza
merita una riflessione specifica, costituendo un’area del
ISBN 978-88-7699-090-8 (printed)
sapere dai bordi sfumati, che la rendono capace di
accogliere contributi interdisciplinari...
ISBN 978-88-7699-091-5 (e-book)
ITALIAN

Atti del VI Convegno Nazionale sulla
Comunicazione della Scienza
Con una sessione speciale dedicata alla Società
della Conoscenza
(Nico Pitrelli, Donato Ramani, Giancarlo Sturloni eds.)
Questo volume raccoglie gli interventi presentati al VI
Convegno Nazionale sulla Comunicazione della Scienza
(Forlì, 29 novembre – 1° dicembre 2007), con una sessione
speciale dedicata alla Società della Conoscenza. Gli
interventi spaziano dal teatro scientifico alle
nanotecnologie, dal blogging ai festival della scienza, dalla
robotica alle esperienze partecipative, dalla didattica alle
questioni di genere. Una messe di informazioni e stimoli
intellettuali ricca, anzi, ricchissima. Così abbondante da
dimostrare, una volta di più, come anche in Italia la
comunità di chi si dedica alla diffusione e alla condivisione
del sapere scientifico sia molto più grande – e le attività in
cui essa è coinvolta molto più numerose – di quanto
ISBN 978-88-7699-137-0 (printed)
spesso si immagini...
ISBN 978-88-7699-138-7 (e-book)
ITALIAN

Con gli occhi negli occhi di Brouwer
Filosofie della matematica a confronto con l'intuizionismo
(Miriam Franchella)
Nell’immagine degli occhi puntati sugli occhi di Brouwer
sono racchiusi propositi di serio confronto fra
l’intuizionismo originario – dunque non solo di Brouwer
ma anche del suo allievo Arend Heyting - e alcune
proposte innovative di filosofia della matematica
contemporanea: il cognitivismo di George Lakoff e di
Stanslas Dehaene, il platonismo di Alain Badiou, il
naturalismo di Penelope Maddy e la fenomenologia.
Il confronto avviene verificando che, nell’elaborazione
delle filosofie della matematica in questione, sia stata
tenuta presente l’esistenza dell’intuizionismo, con la sua
carica teoretica, e analizzando ciò che delle nuove filosofie
della matematica può essere accettato, magari previa
rielaborazione, dall’intuizionismo. Esso, infatti, come tutte
le correnti di pensiero rivoluzionarie, non è un tutto
ISBN 978-88-7699-101-1 (printed)
compiuto, perfettamente organico, ma contiene elementi
discutibili, dubbi o oscuri e...
ISBN 978-88-7699-102-8 (e-book)
ITALIAN

Dall'Artificiale al Vivente
Una storia naturale dei concetti
(Giuseppe Rotolo, Giuseppe Primiero)
Cosa distingue i sistemi viventi da quelli non viventi? Cos'è
l'intelligenza? Cos'è l'intelligenza meccanica e a che
condizioni un ente artificiale può manifestare intelligenza?
Perchè le previsioni circa lo sviluppo dell'intelligenza
artificiale sono state disattese? A differenza degli altri
sistemi, un sistema vivente riceve ed emette informazione
in quanto informazione: i dati in entrata e la risposta in
uscita diventano coscienti. Ogni struttura vivente è in
realtà una rete di relazioni fra viventi, che perciò stesso
riconosce il suo medium naturale nello scambio
comunicativo (non necessariamente linguistico). Questo
volume presenta una rilettura concettuale del noto
percorso dalla teoria della computabilità ai vari approcci
all'intelligenza artificiale, riconfigurando il concetto di
vivente, e intravedendo come risoluzione una nuova
ISBN 978-88-7699-025-0 (printed)
formulazione della nozione di informazione, processo
funzionale ai sistemi intesi nella loro intrinseca...
ISBN 978-88-7699-026-7 (e-book)
ITALIAN

Governare la scienza nella società
del rischio
Atti del IV Convegno Nazionale sulla
Comunicazione della Scienza
(Nico Pitrelli, Giancarlo Sturloni eds.)
Viviamo in una società segnata dalla diffusa
consapevolezza che lo sviluppo scientifico e tecnologico
alla base dell’industrializzazione è fonte di innegabili
benefici ma anche di rischi non sempre accettabili. Si tratti
di costruire un impianto di stoccaggio per rifiuti tossici o di
liberalizzare il commercio di alimenti transgenici, le
controversie che accendono il dibattito pubblico sempre
più spesso chiamano in causa la scienza e le sue
applicazioni perché esse, come mai era accaduto prima,
influenzano la nostra vita e permeano la nostra cultura. Il
dibattito sconfina in fori più ampi di quelli accademici e
deve adottare linguaggi adatti a pubblici eterogenei.
Cambiano priorità e percorsi di legittimazione della ricerca,
ISBN 978-88-7699-042-7 (printed)
chiamata a “giustificare” progetti e richieste di
finanziamento non solo in base all’importanza scientifica...
ISBN 978-88-7699-050-2 (e-book)
ITALIAN

Human Computer Interaction
Fondamenti e Prospettive
(Alessandro Soro ed.)
Quest'opera accompagna il lettore alla scoperta della
disciplina dell'interazione uomo-macchina grazie ai
contributi di alcuni fra i più affermati docenti, ricercatori
e professionisti del settore. Partendo dalle necessarie
basi di ergonomia, psicologia, e scienza
dell'informazione, attraverso le più attuali
problematiche legate all'accessibilità universale,
all'ingegneria dell'usabilità, alla valutazione analitica e
empirica della qualità dell'interazione, arriva a
esaminare concretamente le sfide e le opportunità delle
nuove tecnologie nei campi del mobile computing, delle
interfacce utente multi-dispositivi, della realtà virtuale e
dell'interazione tangibile...
ISBN 978-88-7699-145-5 (printed)
ISBN 978-88-7699-146-2 (e-book)
ITALIAN

La legge e la coscienza
Il problema della libertà nella filosofia politica di
John Locke
(Maurizio Merlo)
L’esigenza di tenere insieme universalità della legge e
particolarità del soggetto sta al centro della filosofia
politica di John Locke (1632-1704). Tornare al problema
della libertà nel suo rapporto alla legge in uno dei suoi
versanti più significativi, è quanto questo lavoro si
propone. La ricerca di Locke sta al cuore della sfida che
alimenta il liberalismo etico e politico nell’impossibilità
costitutiva che lo segna. La libertà si mostra cifra di una
fondamentale ambivalenza: condizione della proprietà di
sé del soggetto individuale e al contempo della sua
sottomissione alla potenza immaginaria dell’ordine
sociale. Ed è qui, nell’impossibile trasparenza a se stessa
della società, che il sensore lockeano delle tensioni che
attraversano la modernità riapre punti chiave del
ISBN 978-88-7699-032-8 (printed)
pensiero della politica.
ISBN 978-88-7699-063-2 (e-book)
ITALIAN

La logica del potere
Storia concettuale come filosofia politica
(Giuseppe Duso)
Spesso nel lavoro storiografico e nelle proposte teoriche
si usano i concetti politici quasi fossero ovvii e
universalmente validi: in questo modo uguaglianza,
libertà, sovranità, popolo, rappresentanza, costituzione,
democrazia vengono a intrecciarsi nel dispositivo logico
con cui nel Moderno si è soliti pensare la politica. La
coscienza critica della loro genesi e delle aporie che li
connotano configura una pratica della filosofia politica
che permette di avere un più corretto rapporto con i
classici e insieme di affrontare il tema attuale della
democrazia, al di là dell’ipoteca costituita da concetti
divenuti opinione comune. Il passaggio dalle concezioni
incentrate sul problema del governo alle teorie moderne
del potere politico è illuminato dal riferimento ad autori
quali Aristotele, Althusius, Hobbes, Pufendorf, Rousseau,
ISBN 978-88-7699-067-0 (printed)
Kant e Schmitt.
ISBN 978-88-7699-068-7 (e-book)
ITALIAN

La necropoli protostorica di
Montagna di Caltagirone
(Davide Tanasi)
Il sito della Montagna di Caltagirone (CT), indagato per la
prima volta in modo sistematico da Paolo Orsi nel 1903,
rappresenta un importante caso studio per la pre e
protostoria siciliana e costituisce un osservatorio
privilegiato per un’analisi delle problematiche legate
all’interrelazione tra popolazioni autoctone e straniere.
Dalla metà del II millennio a.C. fino alla colonizzazione
greca, infatti, la Montagna ha svolto un ruolo
fondamentale nei fenomeni d’aggregazione della
popolazione del territorio calatino. Nell’età del Bronzo
Tardo (XIII-XI secolo a.C.), il suo insediamento ha raggiunto
il momento di maggiore splendore, con l’impianto della
grande necropoli, ponendosi, insieme a Pantalica, come
principale centro produttore di cultura della Sicilia
ISBN 978-88-7699-115-8 (printed)
Orientale.
ISSN 1974-6040 (printed)
ISBN 978-88-7699-116-5 (e-book)
ISSN 1974-6121 (e-book)
ITALIAN

La stella nova
Atti del III Convegno Annuale sulla
Comunicazione della Scienza
(Nico Pitrelli, Giancarlo Sturloni eds.)
Gli atti del III Convegno Annuale sulla Comunicazione della
Scienza, organizzato dalla SISSA (Scuola Internazionale
Superiore di Studi Avanzati) di Trieste e dall’Associazione
Nuova Civilità delle Macchine di Forlì, costituiscono
un’altra tappa nel tentativo di costruire un’identità per
coloro che, nel nostro paese, si occupano di temi legati al
rapporto tra scienza e società con particolare attenzione
agli aspetti comunicativi. Se è vero che sono ormai in tanti
in Italia che, per scelta professionale, dovere istituzionale,
opportunità politica o necessità lavorativa, comunicano la
scienza, è vero anche che non si è definita chiaramente su
questi temi una comunità di studiosi riconoscibile e
visibile, al contrario di quanto è accaduto ormai da diversi
anni soprattutto nei paesi anglossassoni. A fronte di una
ISBN 978-88-7699-022-9 (printed)
valente schiera di storici, filosofi, studiosi della
comunicazione, psicologi, fisici, biologi...
ISBN 978-88-7699-024-3 (e-book)
ITALIAN

Una Knowledge Building Community
nella formazione universitaria on line
(Stefano Cacciamani, Mariella Luciani, Gruppo KF)
Il testo presenta il modello di formazione on line
sperimentato presso l’Università della Valle d’Aosta negli
ultimi anni, ispirato all’idea di implementare nel contesto
formativo una Knowledge Building Community, secondo la
prospettiva di Bereiter e Scardamalia. Tale modello, che
punta a costituire tra gli studenti una comunità di indagine
sulle tematiche oggetto di studio di un corso universitario,
viene presentato attraverso l’esperienza del corso on line
di Psicologia dello Sviluppo, analizzata con il contributo
delle studentesse ad esso iscritte. Si è realizzata così
un’esperienza di ricerca che ha fatto sì che le stesse
partecipanti assumessero il ruolo di ricercatori rispetto
all’esperienza formativa a cui hanno preso parte.
Il primo capitolo presenta gli assunti della Knowledge
Building Community che, nel secondo capitolo, viene
ISBN 978-88-7699-079-3 (printed)
implementata attraverso specifiche modalità di
progettazione del corso on line...
ISBN 978-88-7699-078-6 (e-book)
ITALIAN

Limes. Lexicografía y lexicología de las
lenguas de especialidad
(Hugo E. Lombardini, Maria Carreras i Goicoechea eds.)
Limes. Lexicografía y lexicología de las lenguas de
especialidad surge en medio de un fertilísimo debate sobre
la lexicografía, especialmente bilingüe y sectorial, en acto
hoy día en Italia en ámbito lingüístico. Nace de trabajos
realizados para el proyecto nacional «Glossari, dizionari,
corpora: lessicologia e lessicografia delle lingue europee»
coordinado por G. Iamartino y, en lo referido a la lexicografía
bilingüe ítalo-española en el marco del congreso organizado
por J. Lillo en Palermo (21-23/07/2007), por F. San Vicente.
Manteniendo como rasgo común a todos sus artículos la
observación de lo lexicográfico y lo interlingüístico e
intercultural y centrando sus esfuerzos en el estudio del
catalán, español, francés, gallego, inglés e italiano, se
afrontan principalmente cuestiones relativas a la historia de
la lexicografía así como a la comunicación de las lenguas de
ISBN 978-88-7699-147-9 (printed)
especialidad, las marcas en general y la fraseología en los
diccionarios bilingües...
ISBN 978-88-7699-148-6 (e-book)
Amazon.com SPANISH

Perfiles para la historia y crítica de la
lexicografía bilingüe del español
(Félix San Vicente ed.)
El volumen \"Perfiles para la historia y crítica de la
lexicografía bilingüe del español\" recoge una serie de
estudios realizados por investigadores españoles e italianos
en los que se abordan tanto textos clásicos de la historia de
la lexicografía como recientes e importantes novedades en
el desarrollo de la lexicografía bilingüe ítalo-española. Entre
los primeros, el Diccionario castellano de Terreros en su
dimensión de obra multilingüe y el Diccionario de Sánchez
de la Ballesta, obra de corte ciceroniano y erasmista con la
que los españoles del quinientos traducían del español al
latín. El denominador común de las intervenciones es pues
la lexicografía bilingüe en cuanto buena parte se hallan
destinadas a la crítica del diccionario bilingüe ítalo-español
en sus fundamentos clásicos de mediados del pasado siglo,
con una dimensión historiográfica sobre fuentes y
ISBN 978-88-7699-075-5 (printed)
planteamientos...
ISBN 978-88-7699-076-2 (e-book)
Amazon.com SPANISH

Textos fundamentales de la lexicografía
italoespañola (1917-2007)
(Félix San Vicente ed.)
La situación de la lengua española en Italia ha originado,
durante los últimos años, una importante oferta en lo que
a recursos para el aprendizaje del español se refiere. Y en
lexicografía, el panorama es extraordinariamente variado
y sorprendente. Muchas e importantes novedades se
exponen hoy día en las librerías, fruto de interesantes
apuestas comerciales emprendidas tanto por editoriales
que tradicionalmente se ocuparon del sector (Hoepli,
Zanichelli y Paravia) como por casas que con particular
ímpetu se han sumado (y se siguen sumando) al grupo
(Mondadori, Garzanti, Collins-Boroli, etc.). La continuidad
entre las obras, sus ediciones como satélites y la
publicación de sus reducciones destinadas a una clientela
definida, ha dado lugar a un abigarrado entramado
textual que ha estimulado a un grupo de estudiosos,
ISBN 978-88-7699-111-0 (printed)
hispanistas e italianistas, que coordinados por F. San
Vicente emprendió la tarea de investigación con objetivos
ISBN 978-88-7699-112-7 (e-book)
comunes y prioritarios...
Amazon.com SPANISH

Atti del IV Congresso Nazionale
dell'Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica
(AA.VV.)
Con molto piacere nella veste di Presidente del IV
Congresso Nazionale della Associazione Italiana di Fisica
Medica (AIFM) presento il volume degli atti di Verona 2005
all'area fisico medica ed a quella clinica di diagnostica
radiologica, nucleare e di terapia radiante. Il Comitato
Scientifico ha inteso, sin dal suo insediamento, indirizzare i
lavori congressuali verso definiti e specifici argomenti oggi
di attualità e di grande interesse per la loro continua
evoluzione tecnologica e per le implicite ricadute nella
routine quotidiana. Ne è derivato, di conseguenza, un
importante sviluppo di momenti scientifici monotematici,
opportunamente modulati, i cui contributi offerti dalle
relazioni ad invito e da quelle dei singoli cultori della
materia, hanno permesso di approntare questi due volumi
nei quali il Congressista, come pure ogni successivo
ISBN 978-88-7699-013-7 (printed)
Lettore, potrà consultare facilmente ed in modo organico
per conoscere ed approfondire tematiche oggi...
ISBN 978-88-7699-073-1 (e-book)
ITALIAN/
ENGLISH

Materiali ed Approcci Innovativi per il
Progetto in Zona Sismica e la Mitigazione
della Vulnerabilità delle Strutture
(C. Faella, G. Manfredi, V. Piluso, R. Realfonzo eds.)
Il workshop “Materiali ed Approcci Innovativi per il
Progetto in Zona Sismica e la Mitigazione della
Vulnerabilità delle Strutture” si è svolto presso il Campus
di Fisciano dell’Università degli Studi di Salerno nel
febbraio 2007 ed è stato organizzato nell’ambito delle
iniziative culturali patrocinate dall’Ateneo. Il convegno ha
offerto l’opportunità di esaminare l’attuale stato dell’arte
in alcuni settori di punta dell’Ingegneria Sismica, a poco
più di un anno dall’inizio del Progetto di Ricerca che vede
coinvolti il Consorzio ReLUIS (Rete dei Laboratori
Universitari di Ingegneria Sismica), il Dipartimento della
Protezione Civile e numerosi ricercatori delle Università
italiane. Tale progetto si articola in dieci linee afferenti
ISBN 978-88-7699-065-6 (printed)
alle seguenti tematiche principali, tutte di interesse della
Protezione Civile...
ISBN 978-88-7699-064-9 (e-book)
ITALIAN/
ENGLISH

Open Access: Open Problems
(Giandomenico Sica ed.)
Polimetrica is a company which aims to develop open
access products. In 2005/2006 we've published the
following open access works: • Valore, Paolo, ed. (2006)
Topics on General and Formal Ontology. • Bachschmid,
Nicolò and Pennacchi, Paolo, ed. (2006) Advances in
vibration control and diagnostics. • Gianini, Gabriele and
Sillitti, Alberto, ed. (2006) Sharing ExperienceS on Agile
Methodologies in Open Source Software development
(SESAMOSS). • Pitrelli, Nico and Sturloni, Giancarlo, ed.
(2005) La stella nova. Atti del III Convegno Annuale sulla
Comunicazione della Scienza. • Mazzonetto, Marzia and
Merzagora, Matteo and Tola, Elisabetta (2005) Science in
Radio Broadcasting. The role of the radio in science
communication. • Rotolo, Giuseppe and Primiero,
Giuseppe (2005) Dall'Artificiale al Vivente. Una storia
naturale dei concetti. • Cesareo, Vincenzo, ed. (2006) The
Eleventh Italian Report on Migrations 2005...
ISBN 978-88-7699-053-3 (e-book)
ITALIAN/
ENGLISH

Lessicografia bilingue e traduzione
Metodi, strumenti, approcci attuali
(Félix San Vicente ed.)
I dizionari e, in particolare, quelli bilingue sono opere
didattiche ad ampio raggio destinate col tempo a essere
superate, almeno per quanto riguarda il loro utilizzo
operativo. La attuale serie di dizionari bilingue si è
sviluppata fortemente negli ultimi decenni in relazione sia
ai contenuti (tecnicismi, grammaticali, neologismi, slang,
ecc.), che alle loro finalità e destinatari, nonché al
supporto con cui vengono presentati. Il volume che
raccoglie gli Atti del convegno Lessicografia bilingue e
traduzione: metodi, strumenti e approcci attuali tenutosi
a Forlì (Università di Bologna, SITLEC-CLIRO, 17-18
novembre 2005), affronta il rapporto fra dizionario
bilingue e traduzione e ne derivano sia riflessioni teoriche
sul rapporto fra lessicografia, lessicologia e semantica –
anisomorfismo, fissità, lexical gap, produzione, segnali
ISBN 978-88-7699-048-9 (printed)
discorsivi, corpora, sono le parole chiave – che un’analisi
dettagliata dell’efficacia di questo strumento...
ISBN 978-88-7699-054-0 (e-book)
IT/EN/DE/
SP/FR

Lexicographie et lexicologie historiques du
français. Bilan et perspectives
(Maria Colombo, Monica Barsi eds.)
Ce volume réunit une série d’études de chercheurs
italiens et français portant sur le lexique français tant
dans une perspective lexicologique que dans une
dimension lexicographique. Les contributions centrées
sur des phénomènes de variation lexicale (diachronique
et diatopique surtout) forment un noyau important, à
côté des enquêtes sur les possibilité ouvertes par les
nouvelles technologies informatiques (Cdroms, Internet,
dictionnaires en ligne, moteurs de recherche). La
lexicographie bilingue italien-français est aussi mise à
l’honneur, avec des articles sur le plus ancien dictionnaire
connu (1583) et sur les ouvrages à plus grand succès des
XVIIe (Veneroni) et XVIIIe siècles (Alberti de Villeneuve).
ISBN 978-88-7699-084-7 (printed)
ISBN 978-88-7699-085-4 (e-book)
ITALIAN/
Amazon.com FRENCH

Fichte et la politique
(Jean-Christophe Goddard, Jacinto Rivera de Rosales eds.)
Libéraux et socialistes, nationalistes et cosmopolites,
réactionnaires et révolutionnaires, anarchistes et
républicains, bellicistes et pacifistes, se sont également
disputés l’héritage de Fichte, et l’ont également
condamné, attribuant au philosophe la responsabilité du
meilleur comme du pire. Le colloque international
organisé à Madrid en mai 2007, dont les communications
sont publiées ici, a saisi l’occasion du bicentenaire des
Discours à la nation allemande (1807-1808) et de la
parution de la traduction française de la Doctrine de l’Etat
(1813), qui contient le dernier mot de Fichte en matière
de philosophie politique, pour mettre en valeur la
position originale de Fichte au-delà des clivages
idéologiques qui ont dominé la réception de son oeuvre.
Fichte assume le premier l’affirmation de l’essence
ISBN 978-88-7699-133-2 (printed)
proprement politique de la philosophie et...
ISBN 978-88-7699-134-9 (e-book)
FR/IT/SP

Where is Polimetrica?
Address:
Polimetrica s.a.s.
Corso Milano, 26
20052 Monza (MB) - ITALY
Phone: ++39. 039.2301829
web: www.polimetrica.com
E-mail: editorial_office@polimetrica.com