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Nematicidal, antimicrobial and acaricidal activity of plant secondary metabolites
Get PDFNumerous research studies are focused on the isolation and identification of new active compounds derived from plants. In this PhD thesis we report for the first time about the use of Ailanthus altissima, Capparis spinosa, Melia azedarach and Armoracia rusticana and their secondary metabolites such as α, β- and α, β, γ, δ- unsaturated aldehydes, isothiocyanates and polyphenols as potential nematicidal against the root knot nematode Meloidogyne spp. We deal also about the possible mode of action of aromatic aldehydes by the inhibition of V-ATPase of the nematode.
Second, we demostrate the antimicrobial activity of carob (Ceratonia siliqua) against Listeria monocytogenes. Leaves of the carob tree contain high levels of polyphenolic compounds with antilisterial activity that may act by inhibiting the proline dehydrogenase.
Finally, we report the acaricidal activity of Lavandula luisieri essential oil and hydrolates and its fractions containing necrodane-type monoterpenes against larval stage of Hyalomma lusitanicum and Rhipicephalus sanguineus
Sviluppo di tecnologie alternative per il trattamento biologico di reflui ad elevato contenuto di azoto
Get PDFThe research project concerned the study of the feasibility of the double stage SHARON (Single reactor for High activity Ammonium Removal Over Nitrite) -ANAMMOX (Anaerobic AMMonium Oxidation) process for the biological treatment of nitrogen-rich refinery wastewater (sour water) produced at Saras SpA facilities located near Sarroch, on the southwestern coast of Sardinia (Italy). The Sarroch refinery's operating capacity is approximately 15 million tons per year (or 300,000 barrels per day), accounting for approximately 15% of Italy's total refining capacity. The wastewater of concern was characterized by a high content of ammonium (up to 4,000 mgN/L), as well as by the simultaneous presence of toxic compounds like cyanides, phenols and sulfides. The wastewater is currently treated at full scale by steam stripping up to a final NH4-N concentration of 25 mg/L: if NH4-N level in the effluent from the stripping unit can be set at 2,000 mg/L and treated by the SHARON-ANAMMOX process, it will imply a considerable reduction in energy requirements and operating costs. The SHARON process was applied successfully and proved to be reliable enough to tolerate the inhibitory substances contained in the wastewater. Depending on influent inorganic carbon to nitrogen molar ratio (Ci/N), it was able to provide an effluent suitable for the subsequent treatment by ANAMMOX or heterotrophic denitrification via nitrite. The ANAMMOX process was shown to be more sensitive to the inhibitory compounds contained in the real wastewater. In particular, the research activity has shown that the extreme variability of industrial refinery wastewaters, combined with and the high sensitivity of ANAMMOX biomass may actually hinder the full-scale application of the SHARON-ANAMMOX process for the treatment of such wastewater: nevertheless, the alternative represented by the SHARON-heterotrophic denitrification via nitrite combined system is worthy of being investigated. During the research abroad at the Technical University of Delft (The Netherlands), the influence of temperature on the ANAMMOX process was investigated: batch tests were carried out in order to determine the maximum specific activities and energies of activation of ANAMMOX bacteria at different temperatures. Moreover, a reactor was started up for the study of the single stage CANON (Completely Autotrophic Nitrogen removal Over Nitrite) process at 15 °C, in order to evaluate its feasibilty for the treatment of municipal wastewater, even in Countries with a cold climate, or during the winter time. The results have shown the considerable dependence of the ANAMMOX process on temperature: in particular, the specific activities measured at low temperature (10÷15 °C) were much lower than those observed at high temperatures (30 °C). The difficult CANON reactor start-up at 15 °C, due to lower growth rates and specific activities of the microorganisms involved in the process, demonstrated the need for a start-up at elevated temperatures (30 °C), before the gradual decrease of the operating temperature to the target value, in order to acclimate the bacteria involved at lower temperatures
Progetti contemporanei nei paesaggi consolidati del Mediterraneo. La modulazione della luce come strumento di analisi compositiva
Get PDFThe research opens a new chapter about the studies conducted until now on the traditional architecture of the smaller towns in Sardinia, which I have been part from 2007 to 2010 and has been completed with the editing of Manuals Retrieval of the historical centers of Sardinia.
The research started from a socio-anthropological knowledge of the characters, urban and technological centers and from the study of the traditional Sardinian architecture.
Furthermore, having the opportunity to meet the Mediterranean architecture on the same viewpoints, the research investigates the archetypal elements of traditional architecture under the aspect of composition.
It looks at the ways in which the contemporary design strategies, released by ideological references, take them over elaborating them, comparing with the memory of places, beyond of every stylistic affiliation. Belonging to minimalist positions, regionalist or post-modern resuming solutions, contextualizing and reinterpreting them in a practical and empirical way, even trying to see which characters and modes could be identified as typical and recurrent.
This kind of research, which specifically aims to verify the composition and some elements of the experience of this project, needs to be based on the knowledge of the culture and the debate which marked the activity of designers in the near past, from the first modernity trying to recognize which characters were conditioners, which continue to influence the present and which are typical and original in the actuality.
For this reason, the research has an introductory part which incorporates some emblematic moments of the debate on the architecture of the twentieth century, referring to reality and figures of the Mediterranean.
One is the myth of modernity celebrated from the first rationalism, especially in Italy and Spain, the other one is the debate about the historical centers of the late twentieth century, still typical of our country: in the first season the traditional Mediterranean architecture is transformed into a progressive ideal used to specify shapes and intentions of the new architecture, especially in its character of anonymity and puristic reduction.
The first part of the research, introduces the relationship between modern architecture and Mediterranean inspiration and deepens in a critical manner, the weakness of the concept of Mediterranean, founded on one hand in a sham and on the other on how rationalism looks at the historical landscape searching for a radical overhaul of the style of architecture.
The Mediterranean myth in the Italian architecture is mainly influenced by the idea of the correspondence of the formal themes of modernity and is used for political reasons in order to find a place of modern Italian positions within the regime. The Mediterranean architecture is not, therefore, re-interpreted conservatively, but revised into a new paradigm, a new way of imagining the architecture.
In the second part, by the pre-war myth, still literary and idealized, we move to a more critical and accurate knowledge to the empirical verification and philological sort order, losing the progressive tension of the first season and building a system of strict preservation rules, revealed, too deterministic and inhibitory.
The weakness of the rationalist positions, reveals the architecture of the Second World War, who looked to the Mediterranean, devoid by now, of the ideal tension during the rationalism: it is less parallelism between cutting-edge research and charm of the Mediterranean landscape and the question begins to focus more on the relationship with the towns, with the existing environment, and for a certain range of the debate, with the preservation of historic centers, up to produce more and become part of the theories of critical regionalism, political manifesto, as Frampton says, of resistance towards globalization.
The enhancement of local realities is no longer specific to the Mediterranean, but is extended: it is as if the great architecture of Mediterranean figures lost part of the universal value, which instead is recognized during rationalism.
In the present, after the crisis of the great paradigms interpretive, the debate about relationship between new and old loses strength and becomes eccentric compared to issues considered preeminent. Some great works receive media attention representing particular methodologies, these are exceptional circumstances, related to charismatic personalities who avoid to define a strong theory.
This research select a field of attentive investigation to the works of medium size on which you can recognize an empirical approach (not programmatic), which could be recognized as typical of this period. An approach that addresses issues that in the past were strongly ideological - the relation between modernity and tradition and continuity and rupture with the figures of history - out of those programmatic intentions and norms: in this way many architects of the younger generation, active in the Mediterranean territories, they built a sensitive and imaginative dialogue between the elements inherited from the context and strategies - even radical - of contemporary design, defining a fertile scene and interesting to build new methodologies and practices of intervention.
Currently there is no attention to the great paradigm, but an open and practical approach.
I will approach the scope of this study as part of the Mediterranean, in order to understand the outcome of discussions which are the current approaches and isolating a specific subject of the tradition, one of the most characteristic, trying to figure out how the projects chosen take up and rework the issue.
The modulation of the light, treated according to the manner in which you relate to some elements of tradition: the dematerialization of the building mass, the dimming systems, gaps in the patio and courtyard and places of shade.
Each of the examples treated, shows that there is a traditional way to control the light that has characterized the Mediterranean architecture of the past and that has been expressed by the categories identified.
I prove that there are contemporary projects which reflect those solutions contextualizing and reinterpreting them in an empirical and practical way: this is very interesting because it demonstrates the vitality of the relationship between contemporary architecture and history and how certain paradigms of the Mediterranean tradition have survived as a cultural and architectural legacy, in the attempt to offer a possible answer to the complexity of the problems posed by the existing historic and how have been reinterpreted.
Beyond each "nuovismo", as well as the obsession of memory, which often gave rise to an analytical mummification that carries with it the nostalgic for the unachievable quality of the ancient city and the assurance of the absence of quality of the city modern-contemporary, can be an alternative based on the careful study of places to go back to the essential qualities that the architectures are realized in it
Understanding the Structure of 3D Shapes
Get PDFCompact representations of three dimensional objects are very often used
in computer graphics to create effective ways to analyse, manipulate and
transmit 3D models. Their ability to abstract from the concrete shapes and
expose their structure is important in a number of applications, spanning
from computer animation, to medicine, to physical simulations. This thesis
will investigate new methods for the generation of compact shape representations.
In the first part, the problem of computing optimal PolyCube base
complexes will be considered. PolyCubes are orthogonal polyhedra used
in computer graphics to map both surfaces and volumes. Their ability to
resemble the original models and at the same time expose a very simple and
regular structure is important in a number of applications, such as texture
mapping, spline fitting and hex-meshing. The second part will focus on
medial descriptors. In particular, two new algorithms for the generation
of curve-skeletons will be presented. These methods are completely based
on the visual appearance of the input, therefore they are independent from
the type, number and quality of the primitives used to describe a shape,
determining, thus, an advancement to the state of the art in the field
Mining User Behavior in Social Environments
Get PDFThe growth of the Web 2.0 has brought to a widespread use of social media
systems and to an increasing number of active users. This phenomenon
implies that each user interacts with too many users and is overwhelmed
by a huge amount of content, leading to the well know “social interaction
overload” problem. In order to address this problem several research
communities study Social Recommender Systems, which are information
filtering systems that operate in the social media domain and aim at suggesting
to the users items that are supposed to be interesting for them.
Social Recommender Systems usually filter content by exploiting the social
graph or by mining the user content. Since the social domain is characterized
by a continuous and quick growth of the the amount of content and
users, both these approaches face some problems to produce accurate and
up-to-date recommendations.
This PhD thesis proposes some social recommendation approaches
based on the mining of the user behavior, i.e., on the exploitation of the activity of the users in social environments, in order to produce accurate
and up-to-date recommendations
Cultura e circolazione libraria in Sardegna tra tardo medioevo e prima età moderna
Get PDFThe aim of this thesis is that of contributing to improve the knowledge of the cultural history of Sardinia, with a particular focus on book circulation during a time of great intellectual, political and social change, such as the end of the XV and VI Century. Through the analysis of notary deeds, and particularly post mortem inventories, the first part of the study has reconstructed the structure and content of sixty-two private libraries, ten belonging to Church representatives, seven to lawyers, four to doctors or other categories related to public health, ten to women, seven to aricstocratic families and seven to other categories. The total number of volumes in this census exceeds 5000 units, while the different authors come up to almost 1260. In a number of cases the analysis conducted has allowed the investigator to outline brief biographical profiles, reconstructing family and professional relations as well as to bring to light the cultural context whereby Sardinian society evolved in those years. The second part of the dissertation has been devoted to the editorial production of the city of Cagliari between 1566 and 1600, with an emphasis on technical aspects of the typographic processes as well as on the circulation of the editions produced. Starting from 190 items and from archival sources, 86 editions have been described, 68 of which of secure identification and 18 for which ownership is probable or possible, two loose papers, which still today represents the only prove of draft printing
FBS0701: un nuovo chelante orale nel trattamento del paziente con sovraccarico trasfusionale di ferro
Get PDFBackground There is still a clinical need for a well-tolerated and safe iron chelator for the treatment of transfusional iron overload. The objective of this study was to assess the safety, tolerability and dose response of FBS0701, a novel oral iron chelator.
Design and Methods This phase 2 study to assess the safety, tolerability, dose response of FBS0701, was conducted in 14 adult patients with iron overload consequent to transfusions.Two once-daily doses of 16 or 32 mg/Kg per day were randomly assigned to the study partecipants for 24 weeks. After then, higher doses up to 60 mg/Kg per day, were experimented in an extension phase for 72 weeks.
Results There were no serious adverse events associated with FBS0701 and the drug was well tolerated at all dose levels. The difference in the mean LIC change at 24 weeks between treatment groups was statistically significant. Data concen the efficacy of higher doses experiemented in the second phase, cannot be well interpreted, because the different treatment duration and subjective patients response.
Conclusions FBS0701 was well tolerated for 96 weeks in iron overloaded patients.A clear dose-response was observed for the first 24 week. The efficacy and safety of the drug should be investigated with a more extensive study
L'edilizia residenziale privata a Cagliari nel Medioevo attraverso i documenti e le testimonianze archeologiche
Get PDFThanks to the contribution of written sources this survey describes the state of residential private housebuilding in Cagliari between the 11th and the 14th century.
We have collected lots of information about the houses of Castel di Castro and its suburbs. The historical and topographic context in which the building artefacts have been constructed has been defined.
The social structure of the people living in the city has been reconstructed as well.
Eventually we have tracked down the architectural models which have been a source of inspiration for the building choices and which are linked to the social levels of the time.
From the collected data we have proceded with the localization of some houses and the stratigraphic analysis of the building stages of the ancient masonries which are to be seen on site.
The application of the stratigraphic method has shown problems connected to fragmentariness of the sources
Le unioni di comuni e l'erogazione dei servizi in forma associata negli enti locali
Get PDFOver the last decades, the public sector has been involved in a series of reforms aimed at improving public services’ efficiency and effectiveness; the objective was to provide better services to meet public needs, in a context in which the available resources are even more scarce and insufficient.
Small municipalities have greater difficulties in guaranteeing suitable levels of efficiency in the use of the resources and effectiveness in providing services. To solve this problem different policies with the objective to provide services in a shared way have been designed and implemented.
The cooperation between municipalities becomes an effective strategy in searching for a greater efficiency of the administrative activity.
The research studies the case of the Unions of municipalities in Italy. The Italian legislation in the last few years obliged municipalities with a population less than 5.000 inhabitants to provide services jointly and the Union of Municipalities are one of the main ways to deliver shared services. However, they did not achieve the desired objectives and are still lagging behind.
This research aims at understanding how the Unions of Municipalities actually work, what are the main problems and what are the possibilities for their future development.
The research has been carried out through a qualitative and quantitative methodology. In the first phase a normative and documental analysis and two focus group, that have involved politicians and technicians of Sardinian Unions of municipalities, have been done. The analysis of the results of the first phase allowed to individualize the relevant variables that have been analyzed in the second phase through a structured questionnaire administered to the Presidents, the Secretaries and the General Managers of all the Unions of municipalities in Italy. The results of the descriptive analyses show what are the motivations that lead to the choice to set up a Union, what problems and benefits have been found and what are the principal causes of resistance. Moreover, the correlations between different variable have been analyzed.
The research tried to investigate whether the variables studied influence shared services management. The main problem seems to be the difficulty of the politicians in giving up
the control of the resources and their autonomy. Moreover, the law is not clear and it is continuously changing; it makes the providing of shared services even more difficul
Automatic Image Annotation using Image Clustering in Multi – Agent Society
Get PDFThe rapid growth of the internet provides tremendous resource for
information in different domains (text, image, voice, and many others). This
growth introduces new challenge to hit an exact match due to huge number
of document returned by search engines where millions of items can be
returned for certain subject. Images have been important resources for
information, and billions of images are searched to fulfill user demands,
which face the mentioned challenge. Automatic image annotation is a
promising methodology for image retrieval. However most current
annotation models are not yet sophisticated enough to produce high quality
annotations. This thesis presents online intelligent indexing for image
repositories based on their contents, although content based indexing and
retrieving systems have been introduced, this thesis is adding an intelligent
technique to re-index images upon better understanding for its composed
concepts. Collaborative Agent scheme has been developed to promote
objects of an image to concepts and re-index it according to domain
specifications. Also this thesis presents automatic annotation system based
on the interaction between intelligent agents. Agent interaction is synonym
to socialization behavior dominating Agent society. The presented system is
exploiting knowledge evolution revenue due to the socialization to charge up
the annotation process