1359 research outputs found
Sort by
T3-induced hepatocyte proliferation requires β-catenin and is protein kinase A dependent
Get PDFThyroid hormone (T3), like many other ligands of the steroid/thyroid hormone nuclear receptor superfamily is a strong inducer of liver cell proliferation in rats and mice. However, the molecular basis of its mitogenic
activity, which is currently unknown, must be elucidated if its use in hepatic regenerative medicine is to be considered. F-344 rats or C57BL/6 mice were fed a diet containing T3 for 2-7 days. In rats, administration of T3 led to an increased cytoplasmic stabilization and nuclear translocation of β-catenin in pericentral hepatocytes with concomitant increase in cyclin-D1 expression.
T3 administration to wild-type (WT) mice resulted in increased hepatocyte proliferation, however no mitogenic response in hepatocytes to T3 was evident in the hepatocyte-specific β-catenin knockout mice (KO). In fact, T3
induced β-catenin-TCF4 reporter activity both in vitro and in vivo. Livers from T3-treated mice demonstrated no changes in Ctnnb1 expression, activity of
Glycogen synthase kinase-3β known to phosphorylate and eventually promote β-catenin degradation, or E-cadherin-β-catenin association. However, T3 treatment increased β-catenin phosphorylation at Ser675, an event downstream of protein kinase A (PKA). Administration of PKA inhibitor
during T3 treatment of mice and rats as well as in cell culture abrogated Ser675-β-catenin and simultaneously decreased cyclin-D1 expression to block hepatocyte proliferation. Conclusion: We have identified T3-mediated
hepatocyte mitogenic response to be mediated by PKA-dependent β-catenin activation. Thus, T3 may be of therapeutic relevance to stimulate β-catenin
signaling to in turn induce regeneration in selected cases of hepatic insufficiency
Progettazione di un device di imaging tomografico, basato su principio impedenziometrico, per la valutazione di cicli cardio-respiratori in atleti
Get PDFElectrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an imaging modality wherein the spatial map of conductivity and permittivity inside a medium is obtained from a
set of surface electrical measurements. Electrodes are brought into contact with the surface of the object being imaged and a set of currents are applied and the
corresponding voltages are measured. These voltages and currents are then used to estimate the electrical properties of the object using an image reconstruction
algorithm which relies on an accurate model of the electrical interaction.
The process of property estimation, called inverse problem, is highly nonlinear, ill-conditioned, and ill-posed. Reconstruction of the electrical properties
distribution is an under-determined problem requiring a regularization method.
The objective of this thesis was to develop a device for EIT imaging, which could be convenient, portable, inexpensive, noninvasive and easily programmable.
A simple EIT system and its hardware parts has been developed.
A belt with 32 electrodes in circular and planar geometry was built for two dimensional samples.
The developed device provides current less than 1mA with frequencies higher than 60KHz. This are safe value for human body.
The data processing was accomplished by utilizing a web site for the solution of EIT inverse-problem reconstruction.
A series of images has been produced to evaluate the performance of the hardware developed.
The difficulties in EIT image reconstruction, mainly due to the fact that the illposedness of the EIT reconstruction problem renders the solution sensitive to measurement errors and noise. Experiments have indicated that the EIT system can reconstruct resistive images of good contrast, with adequate robustness towards experimental fluctuations
Technical and legal perspectives on forensics scenario
Get PDFThe dissertation concerns digital forensic. The expression digital forensic (sometimes called digital forensic science)
is the science that studies the identification, storage, protection, retrieval, documentation, use, and every
other form of computer data processing in order to be evaluated in a legal trial. Digital forensic is a branch of
forensic science. First of all, digital forensic represents the extension of theories, principles and procedures that
are typical and important elements of the forensic science, computer science and new technologies. From this
conceptual viewpoint, the logical consideration concerns the fact that the forensic science studies the legal value
of specific events in order to contrive possible sources of evidence. The branches of forensic science are: physiological
sciences, social sciences, forensic criminalistics and digital forensics. Moreover, digital forensic includes
few categories relating to the investigation of various types of devices, media or artefacts. These categories are:
- computer forensic: the aim is to explain the current state of a digital artefact; such as a computer system,
storage medium or electronic document;
- mobile device forensic: the aim is to recover digital evidence or data from mobile device, such as image, log
call, log sms and so on;
- network forensic: the aim is related to the monitoring and analysis of network traffic (local, WAN/Internet,
UMTS, etc.) to detect intrusion more in general to find network evidence;
- forensic data analysis: the aim is examine structured data to discover evidence usually related to financial
crime;
- database forensic: the aim is related to databases and their metadata.
The origin and historical development of the discipline of study and research of digital forensic are closely
related to progress in information and communication technology in the modern era. In parallel with the changes
in society due to new technologies and, in particular, the advent of the computer and electronic networks, there
has been a change in the mode of collection, management and analysis of evidence. Indeed, in addition to
the more traditional, natural and physical elements, the procedures have included further evidence that although
equally capable of identifying an occurrence, they are inextricably related to a computer or a computer network
or electronic means. The birth of computer forensics can be traced back to 1984, when the FBI and other
American investigative agencies have began to use software for the extraction and analysis of data on a personal
computer. At the beginning of the 80s, the CART(Computer Analysis and Response Team) was created within
the FBI, with the express purpose of seeking the so-called digital evidence. This term is used to denote all the
information stored or transmitted in digital form that may have some probative value. While the term evidence,
more precisely, constitutes the judicial nature of digital data, the term forensic emphasizes the procedural nature
of matter, literally, "to be presented to the Court". Digital forensic have a huge variety of applications. The
most common applications are related to crime or cybercrime. Cybercrime is a growing problem for government,
business and private.
- Government: security of the country (terrorism, espionage, etc.) or social problems (child pornography,
child trafficking and so on).
- Business: purely economic problems, for example industrial espionage.
- Private: personal safety and possessions, for example phishing, identity theft.
Often many techniques, used in digital forensics, are not formally defined and the relation between the technical
procedure and the law is not frequently taken into consideration. From this conceptual perspective, the research
work intends to define and optimize the procedures and methodologies of digital forensic in relation to Italian
regulation, testing, analysing and defining the best practice, if they are not defined, concerning common software.
The research questions are:
1. The problem of cybercrime is becoming increasingly significant for governments, businesses and citizens.
- In relation to governments, cybercrime involves problems concerning national security, such as terrorism
and espionage, and social questions, such as trafficking in children and child pornography.
- In relation to businesses, cybercrime entails problems concerning mainly economic issues, such as
industrial espionage.
- In relation to citizens, cybercrime involves problems concerning personal security, such as identity
thefts and fraud.
2. Many techniques, used within the digital forensic, are not formally defined.
3. The relation between procedures and legislation are not always applied and taken into consideratio
Analisi del differenziamento genetico tra popolazioni di Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797 mediante marcatori nucleari e mitocondriali
Get PDFThe common octopus, Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797, represents an important commercial fishery marine resource all over the world, characterized by increasing requests from the markets. In the Mediterranean Sea, especially for the Italian fishery, this species constitutes an important portion of trawling and artisanal landings. In Italy, despite the great socio-economic interest, specific management measures do not exist at the national level for this resource.
The common octopus is a very interesting topic both for applied studies and for the basic research, especially at the taxonomic level, because of the uncertainties regarding the occurrence of a single species, with cosmopolitan distribution, or the existence of multiple species forming a ‘species complex’.
The principal aim of this work is the genetic characterization of seven populations of O. vulgaris along the coasts of Sardinia in order to obtain useful indications for the selection of correct management units. The genetic analyses have been realized using three different genetic markers, two mitochondrial (the Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) and III (COIII) genes), and one nuclear marker (five microsatellites loci). All markers proved to be useful in investigating the genetic structure of the populations. In particular, the mitochondrial sequences were useful in comparisons with homologous ones from the GenBank database to evaluate the species’ taxonomy.
The results of AMOVA show a substantial homogeneity in Sardinian populations that display low levels of differentiation, both with the nuclear marker (FST=0.004 ns), and the mitochondrial ones (ΦSTCOI=0.003 ns; ΦSTCOIII=0.0002 ns). The pairwise analyses show low levels of differentiation and not significant values for all the genetic markers. The lack of significant genetic differentiation in the Sardinian samples is further confirmed by DAPC, PCA analyses and the Bayesian clustering of the software STRUCTURE.
The demography was investigated using all the genetic markers, which pointed out the lack of demographic changes in recent time. The multimodal mismatch distributions
reaffirm the occurrence of populations demographically stable. The stability of the populations was confirmed by the haplotype network analyses with the two mitochondrial markers, highlighting a common situation in stationary populations: several principal haplotypes, shared by all the locations, and an increasing number of new secondary haplotypes arising from mutational events.
The COI and COIII sequences permitted the comparison of the Sardinian haplotypes with the O. vulgaris sequences available in GenBank. Both markers highlight a genetic affinity among Sardinian specimens and the sequences from the Mediterranean Sea (France, Spain, Central Mediterranean and Turkey), the Eastern Atlantic Ocean (Morocco, Senegal and Galicia), the Southern Atlantic Ocean (South Africa and Tristan da Cunha) and the Southern Indian Ocean (Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands). This substantial genetic homogeneity contrasts with some sequences (from specimens collected in Turkey, Japan, China, Brazil and Venezuela) that resulted to be highly divergent from all the others. This finding reaffirms the potential existence of several O. vulgaris populations, just partially interconnected, or the even occurrence of distinct species, and emphasizes the need for more detailed phylogeographic and taxonomic studies of the Octopus genus to confirm or exclude the presence of cryptic species within the taxon, as suggested by several authors
L’Istituto di Fisica di Cagliari tra fine Ottocento e primi decenni del Novecento
Get PDFThe project, started some time ago, aimed at conduct a more accurate
and systematic investigation on the situation of Physics in Italy between the
XIX and XX centuries, led to the discovery of many peripheral situations
and to the role of different physicists not considered of primary importance.
It is in this context that the Institute of physics of Cagliari and the figure of
Giovanni Guglielmo are examined. Giovanni Guglielmo was a physicist who
worked in Torino, Cagliari and Sassari, director of the Physics Laboratory
of Cagliari for 37 years, Dean of the Faculty of Science and author of two
handwritten notes of his lectures and over one hundred articles published in
the most prestigious magazines of his time. Following a bitter controversy
with a colleague, Professor of Applied Physics and director of the School
of Electrotechniques of Torino, Guglielmo became isolated by the scientific
community, giving an early end to his intense scientific career. In the thesis I
examine also the role played in Physics Institute of Cagliari by Rita Brunetti,
successor of Guglielmo and director of the Institute from 1928 to 1936
Identificazione e analisi funzionale di fattori regolatori dei geni globinici
Get PDFGenome wide association studies have identified two quantitative trait loci outside of the β-globin cluster associated with fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels, number of F cell and β-thalassemia severity: the HBS1L-MYB intergenic region and the BCL11A gene. In order to understand the functional role of the associated variants at these loci we applied “Genome Wide Chromosome Conformation Capture” (Hi-C), followed by a novel technique for a selective enrichment at these target regions, to characterize whether they are involved in long range physical interactions able to modulate HBS1L-MYB and BCL11A expression. As a first step we optimized a Hi-C protocol in the K562 fetal erythroid cell line and we set up the conditions for the new method based on the selective enrichment of target regions. We were able to validate the new capture system analyzing the β-globin locus, as a control model, detecting all the interactions found by other “3C-like” technologies with a higher resolution. We then analyzed the data at the HBS1L-MYB and BCL11A loci; the most significant detected interactions involved four HBS1L-MYB intergenic regions, three of which contain the GWAS SNPs, the HBS1L and MYB genes. We hypothesized a contact model where the associated variants could exert their regulatory role likely altering transcription factors binding sites and thus DNA long-range interactions resulting in different levels of MYB expression. Indeed, although we can not exclude the implication of HBS1L gene in this mechanism, MYB represents the best candidate in modulating HbF levels given its role in the erythropoiesis kinetics. Our results highlighted the power of the new capture system, able to identify chromatin interactions with very high resolution simultaneously at different loci. Finally, we discovered new chromatin interactions that support the transcription factor MYB as a potential good candidate to develop new targeted therapeutic strategies to treat β-thalassemia patients
Next Generation Sequencing nell'analisi del DNA fetale da plasma materno per la diagnosi prenatale non invasiva di malattie genetiche
Get PDFRisk for monogenic disease and aneuploidies are the most common reasons that prompt couples to
opt for prenatal diagnosis (PD). Unfortunately, current procedures of prenatal diagnosis are
invasive and carry a 0.5-1% risk of fetal mortality. The discovery of fetal DNA in maternal plasma
had opened new opportunities for non invasive diagnosis and to date, cffDNA( cell-free fetal
DNA) is considered the ideal target to conduct a noninvasive diagnosis (NIPD). Simultaneously,
the large develop of next generation technologies (NGS) has provided a robust method to detect
and analyze cfDNA (cell free DNA) from maternal plasma. Our intent is develop new protocols
able to carry forward a noninvasive diagnosis starting from cffDNA. In this work, we propose a
protocol that allow fetal genotype detection from ccfDNA through a target amplification of several
SNP and mutation sites, through analysis by Ion Torrent PGM platform technology and supported
by statistical approaches useful to discriminate fetal DNA contribution into mixture of
fetal/maternal DNA (RHDO/SPRT). In order to define haplotypes we propose a long-range PCR
method based that can support the detection of the parental haplotypes in association to normal
and mutated alleles. Using these approaches, we have analyzed 18 cfDNA samples with these
results: 9 samples correctly defined; 7 samples defined at 50%; 1 sample not correctly defined; 1
sample not analyzed. To date, obtained data show that this method is effective and reliable,
though will required additional data to confirm these results. Data collected suggest that this
method could be inserted, in the near future, in clinical diagnostic practices removing risks of fetal
loss, facilitating the diagnostic process and providing significant economic advantage in clinical
procedures
La nuova dimensione dei servizi pubblici locali tra efficienza e informatizzazione. Riflessioni comparate tra Italia e Inghilterra
Get PDFThe high quality of local public services represents a far off goal, despite the efforts towards modernisation that for over two decades have involved the entire public apparatus.
Administrative modernisation in Italy has been driven mainly by the legislator, that has introduced numerous and contradictory laws and regulations over the past twenty-five years, thus creating confusion that still undermines the efficiency of this branch of law.
Moreover, as legislation is external to organisations (in this case public administrations), it cannot be deemed in its specificity as a determining factor with a view to continuous improvement.
Indeed, considering that the Public Administration was created in order to exercise functions of public interest as well as to satisfy the basic needs of citizens, the real process of change aimed at finding the connection between public services and fundamental interests, between local government bodies and citizens, between the state organisation and general well-being must take into consideration that regulatory intervention does not in itself guarantee the commencement of innovation and modernisation processes.
The general crisis regarding efficiency that, today more than ever, affects the sector of public utilities shows, among other things, that the logical law-making process in the field has often disregarded broader boundaries and new policy areas, to the detriment of the general interest that should be sought when exercising and organising any public service.
Indeed, notwithstanding the apparent goal of efficiency, the main issue determining the various regulatory interventions in this field has almost exclusively been concerned with the question of whether public intervention in the management and modalities of appointment of the same public utilities was appropriate or not.
Said sector, in Italy as in England, has thus become a battlefield between supporters of the supremacy of market and competition on the one hand, and supporters of control and of the indispensable role of the public power on the other hand; between those who believe public law tools and institutions should be applied and those who believe that private law tools should be applied; between instances to open up to global markets and barriers for the protection of municipal traditions; between the need for uniform rules and instances of decentralisation.
The analysis on the complex framework concerning local public services shows that the paradoxical dilemma of our country, even today, is managing to combine the principles of legality and efficiency, since the excessive formalism and exasperation of procedures of administrative activities have led to a substantial lack of interest in the results of the management thereof.
On the contrary, quality can become a key factor within an organisation only if all the persons concerned at different levels are willing and actually involved and, most importantly, provided that greater attention is given to the needs expressed by the community. The point of view of the private user of the service is, indeed, the resource on which the public entity in charge of the provision of services can actually base the improvement of the service provided.
In this field, citizen satisfaction should be the guiding star for good administration and it should also be instrumental for the improvement of the public service representing a supporting factor in the organisation and provision of the services entrusted to the public administration.
Computerization could represent a valuable aid in said field: it offers an opportunity for a change of perspective within the organisation of the public sector by providing a relocation of the central needs of the "machine" from which public services originate, and through which they are provided.
It is well known that e-government is the result of the application of Information and Communication Technologies to the processes of change within the Government and it enables a transparent digitisation of the same: it is not only a matter of technology, but also a matter of service, a new way of providing old services and an opportunity to provide new ones with the aim of attaining a higher degree of efficiency by improving performance standards.
Therefore, e-government is a tool for reforming the public sector, intended to confer a new role to the public administration different from the traditional role forged on the top-down structure that has led it to be superior and detached from local communities and citizens.
Through the use of ICTs, the administration can dismantle traditional barriers, which for decades have hindered the actual implementation of the principles of transparency, economy, efficiency, effectiveness and simplicity, as well as the implementation of programs apt to provide public services inspired by a result-driven logic
Il diritto di accesso agli atti interni
Get PDFWe study, within the framework of the Italian law system, the right to access internal
documents held by public authority. Our general aim is to investigate the limits of this right
in order to find the proper means to improve the existing system.
In Italian law an administrative procedure is composed by internal documents and by a
final decision document called provvedimento. Ordinarily the internal documents have no
effects on the citizens and for this reason are regarded as not accessible.
With the Administrative procedure law (law n. 241 of 1990) the rule has been introduced
that all internal documents are accessible. For the Italian law the object of the right to
access is not the information but the administrative documents in themselves. The
administrative documents include all the internal documents of the administrative
procedure. The information not included inside an administrative document is not
accessible.
A particular object of our investigation is to discover if there are any exemptions to the rule
that all internal documents are accessible. Besides, since even today some internal
documents are not accessible we want to check if the reasons are related to their nature of
internal documents.
We first checked that in the European law system there are some limits of the right to
access internal documents, but this fact does not affect Italian laws.
Secondly, we looked at the Italian constitution law to see if some principles of this law, like
the principles of efficiency and impartiality of the administration, the transparency principle
and the right to be informed, are related to the right to access documents held by public
authority. With the exception of the efficiency principle all of them clearly entail an
enlargement of the right to access.
Thirdly, we checked if the legislative powers of the Italian Regions and the regulatory
powers of the Municipalities can affect the right to access. We believe that Regions and
Municipalities can recognize even the right to access the information held by them.
Furthermore, we analyzed the formal definition of internal document and verified on this
basis the actual accessibility of various types of internal documents.
Some types of documents, like circulars, directives and all regulatory documents, are
published on the websites of the public authorities. Every citizen has the right of access to
these documents.
Other internal documents are accessible only to citizens that have specific interests to
know them. Documents classified as secret or confidential, or related to professional
privileges are not accessible. Public authorities have the right to not comply with a request
for documents if the request would produce a general inspection to them or oblige them to
re-elaborate the data contained in the documents.
It is concluded that all the exemptions to the right to access documents are not related to
their being, or not being, internal.
We checked the Spanish laws too, from the constitutional law to the Transparency law
(law n. 19 of 2013). In the Transparency law it is recognized the right to access information
held by public authorities, but there are also exemptions for some internal documents.
In conclusion, it is described the way to improve the current Italian laws on the right to
access. For instance a general right of access information held by public authorities could
be recognized with the exception of vexatious requests. Moreover, the access request
could be denied for documents related to confidential informations or to professional
privileges.
Finally, with the introduction of an electronic administrative procedure for data registering
and management all the data could be easily accessible by computers without
compromising the efficiency principle
Studies On Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors and Detector Performance for the Inner Tracking System Upgrade of ALICE
Get PDFALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general-purpose, heavy-ion detector
at the CERN LHC designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter, and in particular the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), using Pb-Pb collisions
at unprecedented energy densities. During the first three years of operation, it has demonstrated very good capabilities for measurements at high energy Pb-Pb collisions.
But there are certain measurements like high precision measurements of rare probes over a wide range of momenta, which would require high statistics and are not satisfactory
or even possible with the current experimental setup. These measurements would help to achieve the long term physics goals of ALICE and would go a long way forward
in understanding and characterizing the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). To enhance its physics capabilities, ALICE has formulated an upgrade of its detectors, motivated by
an upgrade of the LHC during the LHC Long Shutdown 2 (2018-2020).
The LHC upgrade features which primarily motivated the ALICE upgrade programme are, in particular, Pb-Pb collisions with a high interaction rate of up to 50 kHz
corresponding to an instantaneous luminosity, L = 6 × 1027cm−2s−1 and, the installation of a narrower beam pipe. Accordingly, ALICE would require detector upgrades
to cope with the upgrade scenario. These upgrades should help to improve tracking and vertexing capabilities, radiation hardness and allow readout of all interactions to
accumulate enough statistics for the upgrade physics programme. The objective is to accumulate 10 nb−1 of Pb–Pb collisions, recording about 1011 interactions.
Within this upgrade strategy, the Inner Tracking System (ITS) upgrade forms an important cornerstone, providing improved vertexing and readout capabilities. The
new ITS will have a barrel geometry consisting of seven layers of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) with high granularity which would cater to the material budget,
readout and radiation hardness requirements for the upgrade. The geometry is optimized
for high efficiency, both in standalone tracking and ITS-TPC combined tracking. TowerJazz 0.18 μm technology is selected for designing the pixels for ITS upgrade.
This technology provides attractive features like the option to implement a deep pwell
allowing the implementation of a full CMOS process in the pixel. The ongoing research and development on these pixels investigates different design strategies and
would converge towards the final design of the detector by the end of 2014. Several prototypes have been designed to investigate and validate the different design strategies
and the different components of the pixel detector using this technology.
The work presented in this thesis can be categorized in two parts. The first part concerns the results of characterization of some of the pixel prototype circuits developed for the ITS upgrade, in particular MIMOSA32, MIMOSA32Ter and Explorer-1. The second part discusses the detector performance studies of the upgraded ITS.
MIMOSA32 and MIMOSA32Ter were one of the first prototypes designed with the TowerJazz technology in the upgrade programme. The motivation was to validate
the technology. This thesis includes the results of tests and characterization of pixel structures of these prototypes and qualifies the technology in terms of charge collection and radiation tolerance and the usage of the deep p-well structure. This provides a
starting point for future prototypes where the deep p-well could be implemented in a
full CMOS process, thus allowing in-pixel sophisticated signal processing circuits.
The Explorer prototypes are developed at CERN with the main motivation towards developing a detector with low power density, lower than the maximum permissible limits
for the upgrade programme. This would provide a margin to reduce the material budget of the detection layers, improving the detector performance. The Explorer prototypes
are designed to study the ratio of the collected charge to the input capacitance (Q/C), in particular, its dependence on the size of the collection diode and its distance
to the adjacent p-well of the input transistors. The Explorer prototypes allows the application
of a back-bias voltage which has an effect on the signal collection properties.
In a pixel detector, improvement of the Q/C ratio enhances the signal amplitude
at the collection node of the pixel circuit which is connected to the analog frontend.
This would help in optimizing the analog frontend to improve the signal to noise ratio of the detector, which has a direct consequence in minimizing the power consumption
of the detector. This thesis includes the test and characterization of Explorer-1 prototype circuits
with different starting materials. The results show that Q/C improves with higher back bias voltage and increased spacing between the collection electrode and the adjacent
p-well.
With these results, the future prototypes of Explorer could concentrate on Optimizing the size of the input transistors to study its effects on the Random Telegraph
Signal noise. In parallel, optimization of the signal processing circuits would also be carried out in other prototypes.
The second part of the thesis studies the performance of a baseline configuration of the upgraded detector in terms of impact parameter resolution, momentum resolution
and tracking efficiency both in standalone tracking mode and ITS-TPC combined tracking. The performance is compared with the current ITS to study the improvements
in the upgraded ITS. The performance is affected by the radial position and material budget of the layers and the detector intrinsic resolution. The detector specifications
in this regard are still evolving specially for the Outer Barrel (the outermost four layers). The studies show the effects of variation of the specifications in terms
of material budget and intrinsic resolution on the detector performance. This would help to finalize the detector specifications for an optimized detector performance. The
thesis also concludes that a reduction in the beam pipe radius (lower than the baseline upgrade scenario) would not affect detector performance but may facilitate the installation of the Inner Barrel. Redundancy studies show that the presence of a dead layer can degrade the detector performance significantly. This defines a key requirement of
easy and rapid accessibility to the detector in the design of the upgraded ITS. The ITS upgrade timeline foresees the finalization of the final pixel architecture in
late 2014. Mass production of the final circuit is planned for 2015. The construction of the detector modules, tests, assembling and pre-commissioning will be carried out
throughout 2016-2017 followed by the installation of the detector in the ALICE cavern
in 2018