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Design and characterization of automated agricultural vehicle systems
No full textNowadays, technological advancements have brought industry and research towards the automation of various processes. Automation brings a reduction in costs and an improvement in product quality. For this reason, companies are pushing research to investigate new technologies. The agriculture industry has always looked towards automating various processes, from product processing to storage. In the last years, the automation of harvest and cultivation phases also has become attractive, pushed by the advancement of autonomous driving. Nevertheless, ADAS systems are not enough. Merging different technologies will be the solution to obtain total automation of agriculture processes. For example, sensors that estimate products' physical and chemical properties can be used to evaluate the maturation level of fruit. Therefore, the fusion of these technologies has a key role in industrial process automation.
In this dissertation, ADAS systems and sensors for precision agriculture will be both treated. Several measurement procedures for characterizing commercial 3D LiDARs will be proposed and tested to cope with the growing need for comparison tools. Axial errors and transversal errors have been investigated. Moreover, a measurement method and setup for evaluating the fog effect on 3D LiDARs will be proposed. Each presented measurement procedure has been tested. The obtained results highlight the versatility and the goodness of the proposed approaches. Regarding the precision agriculture sensors, a measurement approach for the Moisture Content and density estimation of crop directly on the field is presented. The approach regards the employment of a Near Infrared spectrometer jointly with Partial Least Square statistical analysis. The approach and the model will be described together with a first laboratory prototype used to evaluate the NIRS approach. Finally, a prototype for on the field analysis is realized and tested. The test results are promising, evidencing that the proposed approach is suitable for Moisture Content and density estimation
Novel asymmetric geopolymer membranes for oil/water emulsions separation
No full textIn this study, it was investigated the possibility of using a geopolymeric membrane as an alternative to the expensive ceramic ones. The goal was to synthesise a low-cost membrane made entirely of geopolymer that can perform equally to commercial membranes. This study initially investigated the feasibility of preparing a microporous support suitable for microfiltration through casting and pressing techniques. Subsequently, a selective geopolymeric layer was developed and deposited on the support, with the capability to operate within the microfiltration range and to effectively separate oil from oil-water emulsions. In order to evaluate the performance, the properties of the geopolymeric supports obtained through pressing were carefully evaluated during the experimentation phase investigating the effect of varying parameters such as sodium silicate content, water content, and applied pressure. The results obtained from these evaluations showed that it is possible to produce supports with excellent porosity and highly controlled narrow pore size distributions. The most promising geopolymeric pressed support was then used for the deposition of a selective layer on its surface. Following physical characterization, it was confirmed that the resulting geopolymer membrane was suitable for use in the microfiltration range. Subsequently, the membrane was tested for its ability to separate oil from water using various emulsions prepared with different surfactants at different concentrations and pH. The results revealed that the fluxes were highly dependent on the electrostatic interaction between the membrane and the emulsion, with best results being obtained with emulsions prepared using anionic surfactants. The rejection rate of the membrane was also found to be extremely high, with values over 95%, comparable to a commercial ceramic membrane. This suggests that geopolymer membranes are suitable alternatives to ceramic membranes, offering the added benefits of lower cost and reduced environmental impact during production
Collaborative governance of smart cities: addressing multiple relations of actors involved
No full textThis dissertation aims to contribute to the discourse on the governance of smart cities (SC) by examining the collaborative relationships between various actors involved in developing and implementing SC initiatives. Poorly organized collaboration can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings, resulting in failures in realizing such complex technological initiatives. Hence, capturing the main elements of SC collaboration becomes essential for understanding how they should be developed and managed. However, the topic has been limitedly explored in prior research, with fragmented studies on narrow aspects related to the SC governance.
Using Russia as an empirical setting, the study focuses on the interplay of both government and non-governmental stakeholders in constructing collaborative relationships within SC, covering both vertical and horizontal dimensions of their interaction. The overarching goal of this research is to understand how collaborative governance unfolds in the SC context by stating two guiding research questions: 1) who are the dominant actors in SC and what are their roles? 2) what are the relationships forged among them?
The dissertation investigates the SC initiatives across three different cities – Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Perm – in a format of empirical illustration as well as an in-depth case study.
The dissertation provides three main contributions. First, it strengthens the link between the SC domain, public governance, and literature on cross-sectoral collaboration by highlighting ‘urban smartness’ as a source for generating multiple values. Second, the thesis offers novel view on the strategic development paths which conceptually shape the SC framework. It connects the techno-centric and human-centric perspectives of SC by showing that they are naturally linked, rather than mutually exclusive. Third, the study illustrates that SC initiatives are contextually dependent, and this dependence covers specificities of public governance, including underlying informal mechanisms, which influence the inception, development, and management of SC in the organizational realms
Pedagogy of healthcare interactions. A study on pediatric well-child visits as culture-oriented and culture-making sites
No full textThis study investigates interactions between parents and pediatricians during pediatric well-child visits. Despite constituting a pivotal moment for monitoring and evaluating children’s development during the critical ‘first thousand days of life’ and for family support, no study has so far empirically investigated the in vivo realization of pediatrician-parent interactions in the Italian context, especially not from a pedagogical perspective.
Filling this gap, the present study draws on a corpus of 23 videorecorded well-child visits involving two pediatricians and twenty-two families with children aged between 0 and 18 months. Combining an ethnographic perspective and conversation analysis theoretical-analytical constructs, the micro-analysis of interactions reveals how well-child visits unfold as culture-oriented and culture-making sites. By zooming into what actually happens during these visits, the analysis shows that there is much more than the “mere” accomplishment of institutionally relevant activities like assessing children’s health or giving parents advice on baby care. Rather, through the interactional ways these institutional tasks are carried out, parents and pediatricians presuppose, ratify, and transmit culturally-informed models of “normal” growth, “healthy” development, “good” caring practices, and “competent” parenting, thereby enacting a pervasive yet unnoticed educational and moral work.
Inaugurating a new promising line of inquiry within Italian pedagogical research, this study illuminates how a) pediatricians work as a “social antenna”, bridging families’ private “small cultures” and broader socio-cultural models of children’s well-being and caregiving practices, and b) parents act as agentive, knowledgeable, (communicatively) competent, and caring parents, while also sensitive to the pediatrician’s ultimate epistemic and deontic authority. I argue that a video-based, micro-analysis of interactions represents a heuristically powerful instrument for raising pediatricians’ and parents’ awareness of the educational and moral density of well-child visits. Insights from this study can constitute a valuable empirical resource for underpinning medical and parental training programs aimed at fostering pediatricians’ and parents’ reflexivity
Cancer omics strategies for personalized treatments
No full textThe Consensus Molecular Subtypes (CMSs) classification stratifies colorectal cancer (CRC) into four well-defined molecular subgroups, providing incredible support to personalized medicine. Indeed, the huge inter-patient heterogeneity observed in CRC makes it difficult to define a therapeutic strategy from which every patient can benefit. Unfortunately, so far really few targetable biomarkers are known in the CRC setting, leading to an urgent need for new targeted therapies.
Here we performed a bioinformatic meta-analysis over a cohort of 1700 CMS-stratified CRC patients, identifying a negative correlation between high levels of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) expression and relapse-free survival, exclusively in the CMS1 subtype. No correlation with ALK expression was pointed out in the other three subgroups. The association of ALK with CMS1 led to generate the hypothesis that ALK pharmacological inhibition may elicit therapeutic potential in this subgroup. Thus, we tested ALK inhibitors and an ALK-directed ADC on several CRC in vitro models, stratified according to the CMS classification as well as on CRC patient-derived organoids and mice. ALK interception strongly inhibited CMS1-cells, organoids, and tumor proliferation and was responsible for the dampening of ALK activation along with the downstream. Mechanistically, we found that CMS1 cells display several mRNA copies of both ALK and ALKAL2 ligand, suggesting a role for ALK abundance in the differential response to its inhibition.
Collectively, these findings support the hypothesis that ALK may represent an attractive target for CMS1 colorectal cancer therapy
The continuum of life: semiosis as ecosystemic resonance
No full textQuesto lavoro propone una revisione critica della biosemiotica attraverso una prospettiva ecosistemica che integra vita e non vita, organico e inorganico, nei processi di significazione, ampliando i confini della disciplina. L’obiettivo è ridefinire la semiosi come fenomeno complesso e continuo, risultante dall’interazione tra organismi e ambiente in un sistema integrato. L’innovazione principale è l’introduzione della Biosemiotica Ecosistemica, che interpreta la comunicazione naturale non solo come esclusiva dei viventi, ma come processo relazionale che include entità inorganiche.
La ricerca critica la biosemiotica tradizionale, che separa rigidamente vivente e non vivente, proponendo invece una continuità tra tutte le forme naturali, evidenziata da casi studio su minerali e virus. Centrale è il concetto di ecosemiotica, che esplora le interazioni tra viventi e ambiente in una prospettiva materialista, e la nozione di “semiotic scaffolding” per descrivere strutture semiotiche generate da queste interazioni, come nelle città e negli spazi post-antropici.
L’innovazione teorica chiave è il concetto di risonanza ecosistemica, che descrive la semiosi come risultato dell’interazione tra elementi eterogenei: alcuni si integrano aumentando la complessità, altri rimangono indifferenti. Ispirato alla teoria della complessità, questo principio mostra come la semiosi coinvolga tanto elementi biologici quanto inorganici, come l’agency della plastica nel modificare le relazioni tra organismi e ambiente.
La Biosemiotica Ecosistemica propone un modello olistico che supera i confini tradizionali, ripensando la semiosi come fenomeno reticolare, dove significati e vita emergono dall’interazione dinamica e reciproca tra vivente e non vivente.This study presents a critical revision of biosemiotics through an ecosystemic perspective that integrates life and non-life, organic and inorganic, within processes of signification, thus expanding the traditional boundaries of the discipline. The aim is to redefine semiosis as a complex and continuous phenomenon, emerging from the interaction between organisms and their environment in an integrated system. The central innovation is the introduction of Ecosystemic Biosemiotics, which interprets natural communication not only as exclusive to living organisms but as a relational process involving inorganic entities as well.
The research challenges traditional biosemiotics, which rigidly separates the living from the non-living, proposing instead a continuity across all natural forms, as demonstrated by case studies on minerals and viruses. At the core of this perspective is the concept of ecosemiotics, which examines interactions between organisms and their environment from a materialist viewpoint. This includes the introduction of “semiotic scaffolding,” a framework describing semiotic structures arising from these interactions, such as in cities and post-anthropic spaces.
The key theoretical innovation is the concept of ecosystemic resonance, which describes semiosis as the outcome of interactions among heterogeneous elements: some integrate to increase complexity, while others remain unaffected. Inspired by complexity theory, this principle demonstrates how semiosis involves both biological and inorganic components, such as the agency of plastic in reshaping organism-environment interactions.
Ecosystemic Biosemiotics proposes a holistic model that transcends traditional boundaries, rethinking semiosis as a networked phenomenon where meaning and life emerge from the dynamic and reciprocal interaction between the living and the non-living
Innovative electrospun nanofibers for improving delamination resistance and damping of CFRP laminates
No full textCarbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) are well renowned for their excellent mechanical properties, superior strength-to-weight characteristics, low thermal expansion coefficient, and fatigue resistance over any conventional polymer or metal. Due to the high stiffness of carbon fibers and thermosetting matrix, CFRP laminates may display some drawbacks, limiting their use in specific applications. Indeed, the overall laminate stiffness may lead to structural problems arising from their laminar structure, which makes them susceptible to structural failure by delamination. Moreover, such stiffness given by the constituents makes them poor at damping vibration, making the component more sensitive to noise and leading, at times, to delamination triggering. Nanofibrous mat interleaving is a smart way to increase the interlaminar fracture toughness: the use of thermoplastic polymers, such as poly(ε- caprolactone) (PCL) and polyamides (Nylons), as nonwovens are common and well established.
Here, in this PhD thesis, a new method for the production of rubber-rich nanofibrous mats is presented. The use of rubbery nanofibers blended with PCL, widely reported in the literature, was used as matrix tougheners, processing DCB test results by evaluating Acoustic Emissions (AE).
Moreover, water-soluble electrospun polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofibers were proposed as an innovative method for reinforcing layers and hindering delamination in epoxy-based CFRP laminates. A nano-modified CFRP was then aged in water for 1 month and its delamination behaviour compared with the ones of the commercial laminate.
A comprehensive study on the use of nanofibers with high rubber content, blended with a crystalline counterpart, as enhancers of the interlaminar properties were then investigated.
Finally, PEO, PCL, and Nylon 66 nanofibers, plain or reinforced with Graphene (G), were integrated into epoxy-matrix CFRP to evaluate the effect of polymers and polymers + G on the laminate mechanical properties
Making community. For an anthropology of primary health care
No full textQuesto studio affronta il tema della partecipazione comunitaria e del suo ruolo nella riorganizzazione dei servizi socio-sanitari della Regione Emilia-Romagna in una prospettiva antropologica.
La partecipazione comunitaria è considerata ormai diffusamente un elemento importante per l’organizzazione dei servizi e in particolare nell’ambito delle cure primarie: si tratta infatti del comparto dell’assistenza più prossimo ai territori di vita delle persone, sebbene sia fortemente indebolito, a causa di un progressivo definanziamento e di una profonda svalutazione culturale.
Nel contesto italiano, il tema della partecipazione comunitaria in salute ha informato l’istituzione del Servizio Sanitario Nazionale. Tuttavia, numerosi contributi hanno messo in luce come la partecipazione delle comunità nell’ambito della sanità sia un proposito rimasto da allora irrealizzato; altri hanno evidenziato come, in un’epoca in cui i nostri sistemi di welfare sono in crisi, la partecipazione venga talvolta strumentalizzata per esternalizzare i costi del lavoro di cura sulle comunità, anziché per promuovere la salute delle persone.
Adottando i quadri teorici della Primary Health Care e della Salute Collettiva, il lavoro di ricerca si basa su un’etnografia multisituata e realizzata in tre diversi contesti: un progetto di cooperazione internazionale volto a sviluppare strumenti gestionali e organizzativi per la costruzione degli Ospedali di Comunità nella Regione Emilia-Romagna; un progetto inter-istituzionale che mira ad affrontare le disuguaglianze sociali nella città di Bologna; un progetto promosso da un ambulatorio di Medicina Generale di Ferrara che, sulla base di una proposta di riforma delle cure primarie avanzata da una gruppo di giovani professionisti/e della salute, ha avviato un percorso di partecipazione comunitaria.
Questo studio mette in luce come la partecipazione possa contribuire alla costruzione di una “comunità di cura”, capace di negoziare affettivamente i percorsi di assistenza, co-gestire le risorse per la produzione di beni comuni e rigenerare la fiducia nei confronti delle cure primarie.This thesis addresses the issue of community participation and its role in the reorganization of healthcare services in the Emilia-Romagna Region from an anthropological perspective. Despite the recognized importance of community participation in primary health care – the healthcare sector closest to people's living environments – it is severely weakened due to progressive defunding and cultural devaluation. Community participation in health was a key aspect of the establishment of the National Health Service in Italy. Nevertheless, several contributions have highlighted how community participation in health has remained an unfulfilled purpose. In a time of welfare systems in crisis, participation is sometimes exploited to externalize the costs of care work onto communities, rather than promoting people's health. Community participation is also challenged by the weakening of social ties: increasing inequalities and transformations of the labor market have produced forms of loneliness and isolation, which represent an ideal terrain for illness and seem likely to limit the possibility of people taking part in participatory processes. Adopting the theoretical frameworks of Primary Health Care and Collective Health, the research is based on a multi-sited ethnography carried out in three different contexts: an international cooperation project aimed at developing management and organizational tools for the construction of Community Hospitals in the Emilia-Romagna Region; an inter-institutional project that aims to address social inequalities in the city of Bologna; and a project promoted by a General Practitioners outpatient clinic in Ferrara, which, based on a primary health care reform proposal advanced by a group of young health professionals, has initiated a community participation process. This study highlights how participation can contribute to constructing a “community of care” capable of affectively negotiating care pathways, co-managing resources for the production of common goods, and regenerating trust in primary health care
Identification of alternative strategies in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) or with rare histologies
No full textImmune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as antibodies directed against PD-1/PD-L1, have led to a paradigm shift in the management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the effectiveness of these drugs appears to be limited only to a minority of NSCLC patients, particularly to those cancers with a strong PD-L1 expression. Many of the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of primary and acquired resistance, which may be related to the tumor or to the tumor or circulating microenvironment, during ICIs therapy come from studies conducted on other tumors; by contrast, few data are available in NSCLC. The PhD research project is part of a project that has received funding from the Ministry of Health’s Finalized Research 2018 (GR-2018-12368031, P.I: dr. Francesco Gelsomino) and entitled “Understanding molecular mechanisms of resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)”. The activity of the PhD project focused on two strands of research:
a. the role of PD-L1 and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) as regulators of tumor plasticity and ICIs resistance in cell models derived from patients with NSCLC and hyperprogressive disease (HPD) during ICIs;
b. EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) activity in cell models derived from patients with advanced NSCLC and Class 3 BRAF mutation progressed on ICIS treatment.
In addition, during the PhD program I have been engaged in two further lines of research regarding the ICIs use in the clinic in two specific settings:
c. patients with advanced NSCLC and PD-L1 ≥50% with early progression disease on ICIs as first line therapy: the role of salvage chemo-immunotherapy;
d. patients with advanced NSCLC and rare histology: atezolizumab activity
Bio-ecological studies on Penaeus kerathurus (Forskål, 1775) in North-Central Adriatic Sea toward an assessment of the status of the resource
No full textThe Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) aims to ensure sustainable fish stock exploitation and socio-economic balance. However, Mediterranean stocks often exceed CFP targets. In the North Adriatic Sea, the Caramote prawn has seen a significant increase in catches, yet information on this species is lacking. This PhD thesis addresses data gaps in the North Adriatic Sea, focusing on survey data, growth performance, and historical catches to develop a new stock assessment model. A statistical and machine learning-based model is developed to estimate species abundance trends by filling gaps in survey data. Additionally, the study distinguishes the Caramote prawn from a similar species, Penaeus aztecus. Growth analysis reveals sexual dimorphism, with females growing faster. Historical catch data are reconstructed to evaluate stock status, indicating potential overexploitation. Management measures are proposed using the DISPLACE model to assess their impact on fisheries. Integrating this data into the SS3 stock assessment model highlights potential overexploitation of the Caramote prawn. The study underscores the importance of using quantitative tools to predict the impact of management measures on fishing activities and fish stocks. Future research directions and potential improvements are discussed