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Development of a Computer-Based methodology for tolerance selection and optimization applied to the automotive sector
Get PDFThe design optimization of industrial products has always been an essential activity to improve product quality while reducing time-to-market and production costs. Although cost management is very complex and comprises all phases of the product life cycle, the control of geometrical and dimensional variations, known as Dimensional Management (DM), allows compliance with product and process requirements. Hence, the tolerance-cost optimization becomes the main practice to provide an effective application of Design for Tolerancing (DfT) and Design to Cost (DtC) approaches by enabling a connection between product tolerances and associated manufacturing costs. However, despite the growing interest in this topic, a profitable application in the industry of these techniques is hampered by their complexity: the definition of a systematic framework is the key element to improving design optimization, enhancing the concurrent use of Computer-Aided tools and Model-Based Definition (MBD) practices.
The present doctorate research aims to define and develop an integrated methodology for product/process design optimization, to better exploit the new capabilities of advanced simulations and tools. By implementing predictive models and multi-disciplinary optimization, a Computer-Aided Integrated framework for tolerance-cost optimization has been proposed to allow the integration of DfT and DtC approaches and their direct application for the design of automotive components.
Several case studies have been considered, with the final application of the integrated framework on a high-performance V12 engine assembly, to achieve both functional targets and cost reduction.
From a scientific point of view, the proposed methodology provides an improvement for the tolerance-cost optimization of industrial components. The integration of theoretical approaches and Computer-Aided tools allows to analyse the influence of tolerances on both product performance and manufacturing costs. The case studies proved the suitability of the methodology for its application in the industrial field, providing the identification of further areas for improvement and refinement
Inequality of income and poverty persistence in the Municipality of Bologna: a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis through administrative data
Get PDFThis work is part of a project promoted by Emilia-Romagna that aims at encouraging research activities in order to support the innovation strategies of the regional economic system through the exploitation of new data sources. To gain this scope, a database containing administrative data is provided by the Municipality of Bologna. This is achieved by linking data from the Register Office of the Municipality and fiscal data coming from the tax returns submitted to the Revenue Agency and released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the period 2002-2017. The main purpose of the project is the analysis of the medium term financial and
distributional trends of income of the citizens residing in the Municipality of Bologna. Exploiting this innovative source of data allow us to analyse the dynamics of income at municipal level, overcoming the lack of information in official survey-based statistic. We investigate these trends by building inequality indicators and by examining the persistence of in-work poverty. Our results represent an important informative element to improve the effectiveness and equity of welfare policies at the local level, and to guide the distribution of economic and social support and urban redevelopment interventions in different areas of the Municipality
Cultural heritage and special collections in university libraries. Assessment and impact of University
Get PDFQuali benefici possono apportare alla società le biblioteche degli atenei che conservano patrimoni storici e fondi speciali? Per rispondere a questa domanda occorre indagare l’impatto delle loro attività, cioè il cambiamento che il contatto coi servizi della biblioteca determina in un individuo o in un gruppo, secondo la definizione della ISO 16439:2014. Scopo della ricerca è proporre una metodologia per valutare l’impatto delle iniziative di valorizzazione di tali patrimoni attuate dalle biblioteche degli atenei. Il campo d’indagine coincide con il contesto universitario pubblico italiano, osservato criticamente in una prospettiva internazionale grazie all’analisi di esperienze non italiane. Dopo un inquadramento storico della biblioteca di università e della sua apertura alla società, il lavoro si sofferma sull’interpretazione del concetto angloamericano di «special collections» ed esamina le più diffuse modalità di valorizzazione adottate dalle biblioteche di ateneo. Per disporre di un quadro sulla gestione dei patrimoni storici e dei fondi speciali nelle biblioteche degli atenei italiani, il lavoro ha previsto una ricerca sui sistemi bibliotecari degli atenei pubblici del nostro Paese.
Le attività di valorizzazione svolte dalle biblioteche di ateneo possono contribuire allo sviluppo culturale del contesto in cui sono radicate, nell’ottica della Terza Missione dell’Università. Alle sollecitazioni della Terza Missione si aggiunge che i benefici della valorizzazione possono legarsi al concetto di «cultural welfare» e promuovere altresì il valore della biodiversità culturale, fattore concorrente alla realizzazione della società auspicata dall’Agenda 2030 delle Nazioni Unite.
La tesi propone una metodologia per valutare la risposta delle biblioteche di ateneo che svolgono attività di valorizzazione dei patrimoni storici e dei fondi speciali rispetto alle cornici strategiche di Terza Missione e di Agenda 2030. A completamento della parte teorica, si presentano due casi studio posti a confronto, l’uno riferito alla Biblioteca Històrica della Universitat de València (Spagna) e l’altro alla Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna.What benefits can the historical university libraries, or the university libraries holding special collections, bring to society? To answer this question, it is necessary to investigate the impact of their activities, that is the «difference or change in an individual or group resulting from the contact with library services», according to the definition accepted by ISO 16439:2014. This doctoral thesis tries to suggest a methodology for assessing the impact of the initiatives provided by university libraries in order to enhance such cultural heritage. The study is focused especially on the libraries of Italian universities, also observed from an international perspective thanks to the analysis of non-Italian experiences. After a brief historical outline about university libraries and their commitment to society, the work reflects on the Anglo-American concept of «special collections» and examines the most used methods of enhancement adopted by university libraries. For an overview on the management of heritage in Italian university libraries, the study included a survey addressed to the library systems of Italian public universities.
The activities carried out by university libraries may contribute to the cultural development of society, in the perspective of University's Third Mission. In addition to this, the benefits of enhancement can be linked to the concept of «cultural welfare», as well as may promote the value of cultural biodiversity, helping this way to build the peaceful society advocated by the UN 2030 Agenda.
The thesis suggests a methodology for evaluating the activities carried out by university libraries to enhance their heritage within the strategic frameworks of Third Mission and 2030 Agenda. To complete the theoretical part of the work, two case studies are presented: one referred to the Biblioteca Històrica de la Universitat de València (Spain) and the other to the University Library of Bologna (Italy)
Nanostructured piezoelectric materials for the design and development of self-sensing composite materials and energy harvesting devices
Get PDFThe work activities reported in this PhD thesis regard the functionalization of composite materials and the realization of energy harvesting devices by using nanostructured piezoelectric materials, which can be integrated in the composite without affecting its mechanical properties.
The self-sensing composite materials were fabricated by interleaving between the plies of the laminate the piezoelectric elements. The problem of negatively impacting on the mechanical properties of the hosting structure was addressed by shaping the piezoelectric materials in appropriate ways. In the case of polymeric piezoelectric materials, the electrospinning technique allowed to produce highly-porous nanofibrous membranes which can be immerged in the hosting matrix without inducing delamination risk. The flexibility of the polymers was exploited also for the production of flexible tactile sensors. The sensing performances of the specimens were evaluated also in terms of lifetime with fatigue tests. In the case of ceramic piezo-materials, the production and the interleaving of nanometric piezoelectric powder limitedly affected the impact resistance of the laminate, which showed enhanced sensing properties.
In addition to this, a model was proposed to predict the piezoelectric response of the self-sensing composite materials as function of the amount of the piezo-phase within the laminate and to adapt its sensing functionalities also for quasi-static loads. Indeed, one final application of the work was to integrate the piezoelectric nanofibers in the sole of a prosthetic foot in order to detect the walking cycle, which has a period in the order of 1 second.
In the end, the energy harvesting capabilities of the piezoelectric materials were investigated, with the aim to design wearable devices able to collect energy from the environment and from the body movements. The research activities focused both on the power transfer capability to an external load and the charging of an energy storage unit, like, e.g., a supercapacitor
Non perturbative aspects of non equilibrium physics in two dimensional models
Get PDFThe present manuscript focuses on out of equilibrium physics in two dimensional models. It has the purpose of presenting some results obtained as part of out of equilibrium dynamics in its non perturbative aspects.
This can be understood in two different ways: the former is related to integrability, which is non perturbative by nature; the latter is related to emergence of phenomena in the out of equilibirum dynamics of non integrable models that are not accessible by standard perturbative techniques.
In the study of out of equilibirum dynamics, two different protocols are used througout this work: the bipartitioning protocol, within the Generalised Hydrodynamics (GHD) framework, and the quantum quench protocol. With GHD machinery we study the Staircase Model, highlighting how the hydrodynamic picture sheds new light into the physics of Integrable Quantum Field Theories; with quench protocols we analyse different setups where a non-perturbative description is needed and various dynamical phenomena emerge, such as the manifistation of a dynamical Gibbs effect, confinement and the emergence of Bloch oscillations preventing thermalisation
1945-1973. Museum monumeny to the deported in Carpi. BBPR The political and cultural fields to an architecture in commemoration of political and racial deportations.
Get PDFIl Museo Monumento al Deportato politico e razziale nel Castello dei Pio a Carpi (MO), a pochi passi dal Campo nazionale della deportazione razziale e politica di Fossoli, è il risultato di un concorso pubblico nazionale bandito nel 1963, frutto dell’impegno civile tra istituzioni, associazioni e intellettuali. Tra questi il gruppo BBPR il quale, in collaborazione con l’artista Renato Guttuso, si aggiudicheranno la vittoria del concorso. Il progetto vincitore, pur apportando alcune modifiche in fase di realizzazione, manterrà la sua impostazione antiretorica, utilizzando un linguaggio rigoroso e astratto.
Partendo dalle caratteristiche che rendono quest’opera una struttura unica nel suo genere, obiettivo principale di questa ricerca di Dottorato è quello di restituire una genealogia del Museo Monumento al Deportato politico e razziale dei BBPR, ricostruendo il quadro culturale e politico italiano nel lasso di tempo che intercorre dalla fine della Seconda Guerra Mondiale (1945) e l’anno della sua inaugurazione (1973). Tale approccio metodologico scelto costituisce l’aspetto di novità della ricerca: un punto di vista ancora inedito con cui guardare il Museo-Monumento, differenziandosi, così, dalle più recenti pubblicazioni sullo stesso, le quali si concentrano soprattutto sulle logiche progettuali del Museo.
In conclusione, lo scopo di questa tesi è quella di dare una nuova chiave interpretativa al Museo, che sia non solo un arricchimento alla sua conoscenza ma che, altresì, attesti l’esistenza di un’identità, altrettanto unica e irripetibile, della memoria della deportazione nella cultura architettonica italiana presa in esame, frutto di una “cultura condivisa” tra architetti, artisti, scrittori, politici e intellettuali, accumunati dalle tragiche vicende che in quest’opera si vogliono narrare.The Museum Monument to the political and ratial Deported in the Castello dei Pio in Carpi (province of Modena), near the national transit camp of Fossoli, is the result of a public national competition of 1963, and of the civil engagement of institutions, associations, and intellectuals. Among them the BBPR group, which won the competition in collaboration with the artist Renato Guttuso. The winner project, even if changed in some aspects during the realization phases, will maintain its antirethoric structure, using a rigorous and abstract language.
Starting from the features that characterize this work as one of the best of its kind, the main goal of this PhD research is to build a genealogy of the Museum Monument to the political and ratial Deported designed by the BBPR group, reconstructing the cultural and political Italian background in the period between the end of the Second World War (1945) and the year of its inauguration. In this chosen methodological approach lies the research novelty aspect: a quite unknown point of view used to look at the Museum-Monument, which differentiate from the most recent publications on the same architectural item that focus on the design process of the Museum.
In conclusion, the aim of the present work is to give a new interpretative key to read the Museum, not only to have an enrichment of its knowledge but also a witness of its identity, unique and irrepetible, of the memory of the deportation in the Italian architectural culture: result of a “shared culture” among architects, artists, writers, polititians and intellectuals sharing the same tragic histories this work is going to narrate
What does emancipation mean? Social organisation, legal norms and paternal power from the French Revolution to the 1840s
Get PDFLa tesi presenta un’analisi storico-concettuale del concetto di emancipazione in Francia tra la Rivoluzione francese e gli anni Quaranta dell’Ottocento a partire dalla centralità delle donne nel processo rivoluzionario e dal problema del potere paterno e dell’ordine della famiglia. Da questa prospettiva viene ricostruito il momento di affermazione del significato moderno del concetto: prima con l’Illuminismo e poi con la Rivoluzione francese si determina un progressivo allargamento semantico che farà posto a significati politico-sociali inediti e a una serie di soggetti imprevisti. La Rivoluzione presenta infatti sulla scena un soggetto collettivo, già maturo, che dà forma all’emancipazione rivoluzionaria. Quest’ultima richiede una specifica scienza in grado di arginare i suoi effetti politici più pericolosi senza tradirne le premesse formali. A questo risponde l’Idéologie come scienza sociale sul finire della Rivoluzione. Se le donne in questi anni si mobilitano a partire dall’emancipazione rivoluzionaria, esse rappresentano al tempo stesso un problema fondamentale per l’ordine rivoluzionario come mostra il dibattito sul potere paterno che fa luce sul passaggio, fondamentale per il concetto di emancipazione, dal potere di emancipare del padre a quello dello Stato emancipatore. Gli esiti di questo dibattito si trovano nel Codice civile e nella sua emancipazione codificata, che definisce i confini giuridici e formali dell’emancipazione rivoluzionaria e le sue gerarchie. In seguito, la tesi ricostruisce le trasformazioni del concetto all’indomani della Rivoluzione nella dottrina di Saint-Simon e dei suoi allievi. Questa sarà all’origine del discorso che si sviluppa in Francia tra gli anni Trenta e Quaranta sul problema dell’emancipazione della donna che trova espressione negli scritti delle donne saint-simoniane. La tesi si ferma alle porte degli anni Quaranta quando l’emancipazione nel suo significato moderno si stabilizza e diventa un vero e proprio concetto di movimento, espressione di processi di emancipazione che si erano preparati negli anni precedenti.This thesis presents a historical-conceptual analysis of the concept of emancipation in France between the French Revolution and the 1840s. It begins by considering the centrality of women in the revolutionary process and the problem of paternal power. From this perspective, the dissertation reconstructs the modern meaning of the concept of emancipation: beginning with the Enlightenment, and then with the French Revolution, it tracks a progressive semantic enlargement that made way for new political-social meanings and a series of unforeseen subjects. Indeed, the Revolution created a mature collective subject which gave shape to revolutionary emancipation. The latter required a specific science capable of taming its most dangerous political effects without betraying its formal premises. The social science of Idéologie responded to this. If women in these years were mobilised on the basis of revolutionary emancipation, they were at the same time a fundamental problem for the revolutionary order as shown by the debate on paternal power. This debate shed light on the transition from the emancipating power of the father to that of the emancipating state. The outcomes of this debate are found in the Civil Code and its codification of emancipation, which defines the legal and formal boundaries of revolutionary emancipation. Next, the thesis reconstructs the transformations of the concept in the aftermath of the Revolution in the doctrine of Saint-Simon and his students. This doctrine was the origin of the discourse that developed in France between the 1830s and 1840s on the problem of the emancipation of women, which found expression in the writings of Saint-Simonian women. The thesis stops at the gates of the 1840s when emancipation in its modern meaning stabilised and became a real concept of movement, an expression of emancipation processes that had been prepared in the preceding years
Methods and tools for analysis and management of risks and regulatory compliance in the healthcare sector: the hospital at home – HaH
Get PDFChanging or creating an organisation means creating a new process. Each process involves many risks that need to be identified and managed. The main risks considered here are procedural and legal risks. The former are related to the risks of errors that may occur during processes, while the latter are related to the compliance of processes with regulations. Managing the risks implies proposing changes to the processes that allow the desired result: an optimised process.
In order to manage a company and optimise it in the best possible way, not only should the organisational aspect, risk management and legal compliance be taken into account, but it is important that they are all analysed simultaneously with the aim of finding the right balance that satisfies them all. This is the aim of this thesis, to provide methods and tools to balance these three characteristics, and to enable this type of optimisation, ICT support is used.
This work isn’t a thesis in computer science or law, but rather an interdisciplinary thesis. Most of the work done so far is vertical and in a specific domain. The particularity and aim of this thesis is not to carry out an in-depth analysis of a particular aspect, but rather to combine several important aspects, normally analysed separately, which however have an impact and influence each other. In order to carry out this kind of interdisciplinary analysis, the knowledge base of both areas was involved and the combination and collaboration of different experts in the various fields was necessary.
Although the methodology described is generic and can be applied to all sectors, the case study considered is a new type of healthcare service that allows patients in acute disease to be hospitalised to their home. This provide the possibility to perform experiments using real hospital database
From the East to Northern Europe, from the marketplace to the table: The trading registers as Food History sources. The case of the “vacchette” of the city of Bologna between XIV and XV centuries
Get PDFQuesto progetto di ricerca si pone l'obiettivo di gettare luce sul commercio delle spezie nel Medioevo, a partire dai preziosi dati contenuti nei registri del dazio di Bologna (1388-1448), nei quali venivano raccolti tutti i prodotti afferenti al cosiddetto "dazio della mercanzia" che transitavano in città per poi proseguire il viaggio verso altre destinazioni. Nel Medioevo, Bologna rappresentava un importante snodo per collegare i principali empori del mare Adriatico (prima fra tutti Venezia) con i mercati della Toscana, come Firenze, Pisa e il suo sbocco marittimo, Porto Pisano, da cui le spezie salpavano in direzione di altre regioni europee, come la Francia, l'Inghilterra, la penisola iberica e le Fiandre. I quantitativi di spezie giornalieri, mensili, annuali e totali costituiscono un dato inedito ed inaspettato: infatti, un prodotto tradizionalmente descritto dalla storiografia come raro, prezioso e difficile da reperire, affluiva in realtà con sorprendente costanza e raggiungendo volumi molto elevati. Considerando che Bologna, nonostante la sua importanza nel panorama italiano, rappresentava pur sempre uno snodo "minore" nella complessa rete di circuiti commerciali su cui erano solite viaggiare le spezie (come le grandi rotte marittime, per esempio), questi quantitativi tanto elevati di spezie ci obbligano a riflettere su quanto detto sino ad ora sul commercio di questi prodotti nel Medioevo e a mettere i dati bolognesi a confronto con quelli provenienti da altre fonti.
Affiancando al tradizionale metodo storiografico un approccio "empirico", che tenga conto delle caratteristiche materiali ed organolettiche delle spezie, nonché delle informazioni provenienti da un ampio numero di fonti – non necessariamente legate al periodo preso in esame – è possibile riaprire il dibattito attorno a questo tema, che ha ancora molto da offrire alla ricerca storico alimentare.This research project aims to shed light on the spice trade in the Middle Ages, starting from the precious data contained in the custom registers of Bologna (1388-1448). These documents were used to report any goods (related to the so-called "dazio della mercanzia") that crossed Bologna, and then continued to other destinations, especially Florence. As for spices, Bologna was an important hub in order to connect the main emporiums of the Adriatic Sea (first of all Venice) with the markets of Tuscany, such as Florence or Pisa, from where the spices sailed – thanks to the port of Porto Pisano – to other European regions, such as France, England, the Iberian Peninsula and Flanders. The daily, monthly, annual and total quantities of spices found in these registers are undoubtedly unexpected: a product traditionally described by historians as rare, precious and difficult to distribute in Europe, passed through Bologna with surprising constancy and reaching very high volumes. The daily, monthly, annual and total quantities of spices are undoubtedly unexpected: a product traditionally described by historians as rare, precious and hard to get to Europe, passed through Bologna with surprising constancy and reaching very high volumes. Considering that Bologna, despite its importance on the Italian scene, was still a "minor" crossroads in the complex commercial networks on which spices used to circulate (such as the great maritime routes, for example), these high quantities of spices lead us to reflect on what has been said so far about the spice trade in the Middle Ages. By combining the traditional historiographical method with an "empirical" approach, which takes into account the material and organoleptic characteristics of spices, it is possible to reopen the debate around this topic, which still has much to offer to food history research
CO2-EVAR: An innovative approach to Automated Carbon Dioxide Angiography during Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm repair
Get PDFObjectives
CO2-EVAR was proposed for treatment of AAA especially in patients with CKD. Issues regarding standardization, such as visualization of lowest renal artery (LoRA) and quality image in angiographies performed from pigtail or introducer-sheath, are still unsolved.
Aim of the study was to analyze different steps of CO2-EVAR to create an operative protocol to standardize the procedure.
Methods
Patients undergoing CO2-EVAR were prospectively enrolled in 5 European centers (2018-2021). CO2-EVAR was performed using an automated injector. LoRA visualization and image quality (1-4) were analyzed and compared at different procedure steps: preoperative CO2-angiography from Pigtail/Introducer-sheath (1st Step), angiographies from Pigtail at 0%,50%,100% main body (MB) deployment (2nd Step), contralateral hypogastric artery (CHA) visualization with CO2 injection from femoral Introducer-sheath (3rd Step) and completion angiogram from Pigtail/Introducer-sheath (4th Step). Intra-/postoperative adverse events were evaluated.
Results
Sixty-five patients undergoing CO2-EVAR were enrolled, 55/65(84.5%) male, median age 75(11.5) years. Median ICM was 20(54)cc; 19/65(29.2%) procedures were performed with 0-iodine. 1st Step: median image quality was significantly higher with CO2 injected from femoral introducer [Pigtail2(3)vs.3(3)Introducer,p=.008]. 2nd Step: LoRA was more frequently detected at 50% (93%vs.73.2%, p=.002) and 100% (94.1%vs.78.4%, p=.01) of MB deployment compared with first angiography from Pigtail; image quality was significantly higher at 50% [3(3)vs.2(3),p=<.001] and 100% [4(3) vs.2(3),p=.001] of MB deployment. CHA was detected in 93% cases (3rd Step). Mean image quality was significantly higher when final angiogram (4th Step) was performed from introducer (Pigtail2.6±1.1vs.3.1±0.9Introducer,p=<.001). Rates of intra-/postoperative adverse events (pain,vomit,diarrhea) were 7.7% and 12.5%.
Conclusions
Preimplant CO2-angiography should be performed from Introducer-sheath. MB steric bulk during its deployment should be used to improve image quality and LoRA visualization with CO2. CHA can be satisfactorily visualized with CO2. Completion CO2-angiogram should be performed from femoral Introducer-sheath. This operative protocol allows to perform CO2-EVAR with minimal ICM and low rate of mild complications