Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna
Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di BolognaNot a member yet
336958 research outputs found
Sort by
Integrated Sensor for Distributed Monitoring of Wheel Rim Temperature in Gran Turismo Cars
No full textThis paper introduces the design, characterization, and integration of an innovative temperature sensor prototype aimed at continuously monitoring the wheel rims made of composite materials used in Gran Turismo cars. The system monitors real-time temperature across multiple points on the wheel rim's surface, triggering alarms when critical thresholds are reached, which could compromise the material's chemical and physical properties. Unlike existing commercial solutions that use externally mounted infrared sensors or those integrated into tire pressure sensors, this prototype is fully integrated into the wheel without the need for external devices and directly measures the wheel rim's temperature. Operating conditions posed significant design challenges, including temperatures up to 250°C, high accelerations, and tight spatial constraints. The prototype is made of a flexible circuit adapting to the wheel rim's circular shape, and it consists of a back-end for data processing and wireless communication, temperature probes, and a signalconditioning front-end. Communication is achieved via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ensuring low power consumption. The prototype underwent three testing phases: laboratory functional testing, performance analysis, and on-track tests with the sensor integrated into a wheel rim installed on a Gran Turismo car. Laboratory results demonstrated high measurement accuracy and quick response to temperature changes, and on-track tests proved the robustness of the sensor while revealing limitations in wireless communication due to electromagnetic shielding from the tire's metal parts and vehicle structure
First Report of Colletotrichum graminicola Causing Maize Anthracnose in Austria
No full textIn October 2024, maize (Zea mays) plants showing black, irregular stem lesions were observed in a field in Lipsch, southern Austria, with approximately 1% incidence and 10–80% severity. Fungi isolated from symptomatic tissues produced dark gray aerial mycelium with orange spore masses on PDA. Conidia were falcate and slightly curved (29.85 ± 2.62 × 6.13 ± 0.66 μm), consistent with Colletotrichum graminicola. The ITS and Sod2 gene sequences of isolates AU-8423-4 and AU-8423-15 (GenBank accession nos. PV200080–PV200083) showed 100% identity with reference C. graminicola strain M1.001. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed their placement within the C. graminicola clade. Pathogenicity tests on maize cv. Mo940 reproduced characteristic anthracnose symptoms, and the pathogen was reisolated, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. This is the first report of C. graminicola causing maize anthracnose in Austria. Its recent detection across multiple European countries underscores the pathogen’s rapid spread and potential economic significance
Playing and Daring in Childhood: Benefits, Limitations and Ethical Challenges in the Practice of Risky Play
Get PDFPlay is crucial for child development, serving as an essential activity that promotes
exploration and learning. The pedagogy of risk emphasizes spontaneous play in natural environments, where the educator acts as a guide and companion, with children and the environment as the real protagonists of the experience.
Advocates of play highlight its autotelic value - an activity pursued for its own sake
- free from moral and social constraints. Play is viewed as an innate biological need,
vital for the development of children’s psychophysical, social, and cognitive skills.
The concept of risky play links play with the aspect of physical risk, which is an indispensable element that offers children unique opportunities to develop motor, social, emotional and cognitive skills. However, diminishing opportunities for outdoor play and increasing safety concerns have limited these experiences. It is essential to differentiate between risk and danger, enabling children to engage in controlled challenges to foster their self-esteem and cultivate resilience over the long term.
The Norwegian educational context exemplifies a positive approach by acknowledging children’s right to actively participate in decisions that affect them, thus giving them a voice and encouraging risky play in early childhood settings.
Ethical considerations surrounding risky play underscore the need to balance the promotion of enriching educational experiences with the prevention of harm. An inclusive approach is crucial to ensure that all children have equal access to play opportunities which are both stimulating and safe. Recognizing play as a fundamental right is the first step in providing a childhood which is rich in meaningful and formative experiences
Agreeing Language in Veterinary Endocrinology (ALIVE): Cushing's Syndrome and Hypoadrenocorticism-A Modified Delphi-Method-Based System to Create Consensus Definitions
No full textProgress in clinical practice, research, and teaching needs a common language. Agreement among veterinary endocrinologists on definitions of concepts related to Cushing's syndrome (CS) and hypoadrenocorticism is lacking. After a successful inaugural cycle on diabetes mellitus terminology, project Agreeing Language in Veterinary Endocrinology (ALIVE) held a second cycle, with simplified methodology, and brought together 10 experts of the European Society of Veterinary Endocrinology (ESVE) and the Society of Comparative Endocrinology (SCE). It employed a four-round modified Delphi Method to generate draft definitions and try and achieve consensus. A final round used an endorsement survey of the expert-generated definitions distributed to the ESVE and SCE memberships, seeking a simple majority endorsement. A minimum of 20% membership participation was sought. The 10 experts achieved 100% consensus on the definition of 35 adrenal disease-associated concepts, including disease definitions, diagnostic criteria, and test definitions, a disease classification system for CS and hypoadrenocorticism, and a clinical scoring system for CS. Definitions were subsequently assessed by 78 ESVE and SCE members (26% of combined memberships). All definitions achieved a simple majority, ranging from 83.1 to 100%. ALIVE proved effective in creating a body of terminology for adrenal disease in companion animals, which met the overall approval of a majority of those participating in the endorsement phase. The prospective use of these definitions could help improve comparability and standards for adrenal disease research, education, and clinics
Sandra Puccini: dalla storia dell’antropologia alle memorie familiari
No full textGli studi di Puccini sono stati antesignani in Italia per la Storia della disciplina, certo, ma anche per le metodologie con cui tali ricerche sono state condotte: Puccini ha sempre lavorato tra storia e storiografia, ricerca di archivio, storia delle donne, letteratura di viaggio e storia della scienza. Un lavoro tra discipline che questa studiosa ha portato avanti prima di qualsiasi moda accademica. Puccini è stata senza dubbio la più interessante storica dell’antropologia italiana, ha rivolto il suo sguardo alla fine del Settecento e inizio Ottocento quando in Italia nasceva “una cultura laica e scientista” (Puccini 1991: 7-8) e ha risposto alla necessità di una riflessione “sulle origini, la storia, i caratteri (fisici, linguistici, psichici ed intellettuali) dei popoli italiani” (Dimpflmeier 2020: 32). Particolare attenzione ha rivolto alla storia delle donne.
Di prosa elegante e mai asettica, con una ricercata e paziente raffinatezza nel lessico, nella forma e nella punteggiatura, gli scritti di Puccini sono unici in un universo accademico che propone e richiede opere e saggi il cui linguaggio è diventato piuttosto standardizzato, a tratti grossolano. Nella scrittura di Puccini ricerca scientifica e vita si intrecciano: “cervello e frattaglie” aveva detto Clara Gallini (2003: 103-104) con cui Puccini, tra l’altro, lavorò a Napoli all’Istituto Orientale (2018: 38)
Marcello Oretti e le “Antichità di Ravenna”: la fortuna dei mosaici e dei monumenti paleocristiani ravennati nel Settecento
No full textLa ricerca prende avvio dal viaggio condotto a Ravenna da Marcello Oretti, amatore d’arte, collezionista e artista bolognese che ebbe a visitare la città romagnola agli esordi dell'ultimo quarto del XVIII secolo. In quell'occasione ebbe a compilare e redigere un manoscritto dedicato alle Antichità di Ravenna, ponendo una precipua attenzione ai monumenti tardo-antichi che ancora vi si mostravano, copiati dal vero e quindi descritti minuziosamente. Documenti utili per comprendere la tempra legata alla fortuna dei primitivi nel Secolo dei Lumi e alla loro documentazione attraverso le immagini. Un momento molto importante per la loro riscoperta, che però non andrà ad interessare i cicli musivi che, solo dopo Oretti, quindi nell'Ottocento, troveranno la loro collocazione critica sia in Italia che nel resto d'Europa
Cytochrome c oxidase inactivation in Physcomitrium patens reveals that respiration coordinates plant metabolism
No full textPhotosynthetic organisms use sunlight as an energy source but rely on respiration during the night and in nonphotosynthetic tissues. Respiration also occurs in photosynthetically active cells, where its role is still unclear due to the lack of viable mutants. Mutations abolishing cytochrome c oxidase (Complex IV) activity are generally lethal. In this study, we generated cytochrome c oxidase assembly protein 11 (cox11) knockout lines through vegetative propagation in the moss Physcomitrium patens. These mutants showed severely impaired growth, with an altered composition of the respiratory apparatus and increased electron transfer through alternative oxidase. The light phase of photosynthesis remained largely unaffected in cox11 plants, while the efficiency of carbon fixation was reduced. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses showed that disrupting the cytochrome pathway had broad consequences for carbon and nitrogen metabolism. A major alteration in nitrogen assimilation was observed, with a general reduction in amino acid abundance. Partial growth rescue was achieved by externally supplying plants with amino acids but not with sugars, demonstrating that respiration in photosynthetic plant cells plays an essential role at the interface between carbon and nitrogen metabolism and a key role in providing carbon skeletons for amino acid biosynthesis
Assessing the performance of sustainability practices in an Italian food supply chain
Get PDFPurpose – Managerial practices are essential for activating the potential sustainability transition of the food supply chain. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature on the assessment, reporting, and disclosure of value in the food supply chain through a multiple-case study.
Design/methodology/approach – The present study proposes an assessment tool that can disclose the real impact of managerial practices with an innovative application of the SAFA Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) framework within the context of the Italian meat production supply chain and, thus, enable producers to
orient the transition process.
Findings – The multiple-case study analyzes and discusses three years of data (2019–2021) for three medium and large Italian companies operating in the meat production supply chain. The discussion includes the comparison of results based on the set of 17 themes and 80 proposed sustainability indicators.
Practical implications – This paper has both theoretical and practical contributions to the current discussion. This work extends the literature on the propensity to measure and report sustainability’ performances.
Social implications – This paper fosters the promotion of sustainable managerial practices and expands the literature on managerial tools to disclose sustainability’ performance.
Originality/value – The supply chain due diligence theoretical background has been adopted to investigate the (outside-in) supply chain transparency. In addition, the institutional legitimacy theory has been applied as (inside-out) perspective on how companies address their contribution to the production systems transition
Initial-Pose Self-calibration for Deployable Overconstrained Cable-Driven Parallel Robots
No full textDeployable Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs) are often designed to be lightweight so that they can be easily transported and mounted in the field. They often rely on simplified cable transmission systems with non-constant and uncertain transmission ratios. These uncertainties complicate the kinematic model, making pose estimation and calibration challenging, as motor angles are not easily linked to cable lengths. This paper presents a comparative study of three self-calibration algorithms for deployable CDPRs, analyzing the impact of different sensor configurations on initial-pose estimation accuracy. Simulations evaluate each sensor set using position and orientation errors as metrics. Recommendations are proposed on optimal sensor configurations for deployable CDPRs, accounting for measurement and modeling errors and the practical limitations of simplified transmission systems