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Timber composite solutions for high performance new diaphragms and structural rehabilitation of existing floors
Get PDFThe main aim of this research work was to deepen the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of timber-to-timber composite (TTC) floors with incomplete interaction in order to develop, design and test high performance solutions. Several types and arrangements of connections and different timber products, made from both softwood and hardwood species, were considered for the realisation of diaphragms suitable for a wide range of structural applications. An original assembly procedure, developed at the University of Trento, was adopted in the optimization process of these technical solutions. Such innovative procedure allows the designers to pre-stress and camber composite timber elements by simply relying on screw type connectors. The experimental tests presented in this thesis positively contributed to the calibration and validation of this assembly technique, confirming the method applicability. The test results were consistent with the numerical and analytical models, in terms of uplifts, stress levels and overall mechanical performance. The benefits from adopting the above-mentioned procedure appeared to be persistent over time, as the result of an experimental test where four composite specimens, 5.4 m long, were loaded out-of-plane and subjected to continuous monitoring under controlled environmental conditions for a period of two years. The research program was organized into two phases. The first phase was dedicated to the study of alternative strategies for retrofit interventions on timber diaphragms in historical heritage buildings. An extensive experimental campaign on the out-of-plane behaviour of the retrofitted diaphragms was performed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the different techniques analysed. Specifically, hybrid solutions that coupled the reduced weight of softwood elements with the strength of hardwood components by means of different types of fasteners, were compared with “more common” timber-to-timber strengthening techniques. A large number of tests, covering fourteen configurations obtained by changing fasteners type, fastener arrangement and timber products, were performed to maximize the performance (cost/effectiveness) of the retrofit techniques. Test outcomes included characterization of stiffness, strength, static ductility and residual strength of the connection systems as well. The second phase of the program was devoted to the development of solutions for newly constructed diaphragms, either for new building applications or replacement of damaged/inadequate existing floors. The second phase research work included the design and testing of prefabricated timber-to-timber composite floor modules to be assembled by using laminated veneer lumber (LVL) made of beech wood. Full scale tests were performed on 6 m long and 10 m long modules, respectively designed for residential areas and offices. In addition to the full-scale testing of the modules, the connection system optimization was performed by referring to different types of test protocols, including both push-out and pull-out testing
L'insuccesso negli studi universitari: un problema di strade o di bussole?
No full textIl presente lavoro, focalizzandosi in particolare sull’istruzione universitaria e superiore, indaga il fenomeno che in Italia prende spesso il nome generico di “dispersione”, un problema strutturale e complesso che
riguarda molti Paesi. A partire da una disamina complessiva della letteratura nazionale e internazionale sono stati analizzati dettagliatamente i termini utilizzati per denominare il fenomeno (in particolare drop-out, underachievement, dispersione e il corollario che a questi si accompagna) (primo capitolo). Successivamente l’analisi si è concentrata sui numerosi modelli teorici di analisi dei fenomeni di abbandono, elaborati soprattutto a partire dagli anni Settanta del
Novecento e in particolar modo negli Stati Uniti (secondo capitolo). Dopo aver delineato questo quadro teorico, si è passati ad una disamina storico–statistico–normativa dei documenti istituzionali riferiti al contesto
europeo (terzo capitolo) considerando le raccomandazioni relative all’educazione e all’istruzione definite a partire dalla European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Ne emerge un quadro frammentario e lasciato alla capacità/volontà delle singole istituzioni di recepire le raccomandazioni che arrivano dai documenti ufficiali. Infine, sono state considerate le strategie e le azioni (le strade) e gli strumenti (le bussole) messi in campo
per prevenire e contrastare il fenomeno (quarto capitolo). L’attenzione è stata posta in particolare sul Personal Development Plan, uno strumento “riflessivo” che ha consentito, soprattutto in ambito anglosassone, di
ottenere interessanti risultati.
Alla fine del lavoro, viene presentata la ricerca sul campo condotta con riferimento alla realtà trentina, coinvolgendo alcune scuole secondarie di secondo grado e alcuni studenti del Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia
dell’Università di Trento (capitolo quinto). Nella ricerca è stata sperimentata una forma di peer orientation ed è stato utilizzato in parte lo strumento del PDP pur riveduto e adattato al contesto considerato. Da questo lavoro è emersa complessivamente una certa incapacità delle istituzioni di stimolare pratiche riflessive, di accompagnare, di creare “comunità”, di attivare il desiderio di conoscere e di apprendere per tutta la vita. Parallelamente è stata rilevata un’assenza di regia, circa eventuali azioni messe in essere per favorire il successo negli studi dalle istituzioni
educative e formative considerate. Solo strategie ragionate mirate e soprattutto coordinate possono implementare azioni efficaci ed individuare gli strumenti adatti per “allenare” giovani e adulti ad essere
soggetti attivi e riflessivi, in grado di divenire motore del proprio cambiamento e parte attiva e responsabile della società
Resource Abstraction and Virtualization Solutions for Wireless Networks
No full textTo cope up with the booming of data traffic and to accommodate new and emerging technologies such as machine-type communications, Internet-of-Things, the 5th Generation (5G) of mobile networks require multiple complex operations (i.e., allocating non-overlapping radio resources, monitoring interference, etc.). Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are the two emerging technologies that promise to provide programmability and flexibility in terms of managing, configuring and optimizing wireless networks such that a better performance is achieved. In this dissertation, we particularly focus on inter-cell-interference (ICI) mitigation techniques and efficient radio resource utilization schemes through the adoption of these two technologies in wireless environment. We exploit the SDN approach in order to expose the lower layers (i.e., physical and medium access control) parameters of the wireless protocol stack to a centralized control module such that it is possible to dynamically configure the network in a logically centralized manner, through specifically designed network functions (algorithms). In the first part of this work, we proposed two ICI mitigation solutions, one via an Interference Graph (IG) abstraction technique to control ICI in macro base stations and the second one is through dynamic strict fractional frequency reuse technique to overcome the limitations of ICI in dense small cell base station deployments where ICI arises from frequency reuse one in multi-tier networks. Then based on the fractional frequency reuse (FFR) technique, we propose a spatial scheduling schemes that aim to schedule users in the spatial domain through layered schedulers operating in different time scales, short and long. The cell coverage area is dynamically divided into multiple scheduling areas based on the antenna beamwidth and steerable signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) threshold values. Simulation results show our proposed approaches outperform the legacy static FFR schemes in terms of spectral efficiency, aggregate throughput and packet blocking probability. Moreover, we provided the detailed analysis of the computational complexity of our proposed algorithms in comparison to the once existing in the literature. The 5G networks will be built around people and things targeted to meet the requirements different groups of uses cases (i.e., massive broadband, massive machine-type communication and critical machine-type communication). In order to support these services it is very costly and impractical to make a separate dedicated network corresponding to each of the services. The most attractive solution in terms of reducing cost at the same time improving backward compatibility is through the implementation of service-dedicated virtual networks, network slicing. Thus we proposed a dynamic spectrum-level slicing algorithm to share radio resources across different virtual networks. Through virtualization, the physical radio resources of the heterogeneous mobile networks are first abstracted into a centralized pool of virtual radio resources. Then we investigated the performance gains of our proposed algorithm though dynamically sharing the abstracted radio resources across multiple virtual networks. Simulation results show that for representative user arrival statistics, dynamic allocation of radio resources significantly lowers the percentage of dropped packets. Moreover, this work is the preliminary step towards enabling an end-to-end network slicing for 5G mobile networking, which is the base for implementing service differentiated virtual networks over a single physical infrastructure. Finally, we presented a test-bed implementation of dynamic spectrum-level slicing algorithm using an open-source software/hardware platform called OpenAirInterface that emulates the long-term evolution (LTE) protocol stack
Mathematical modeling for epidemiological inference and public health support
No full textDuring the last decades public health policy makers have been increasingly turning to mathematical modeling to support their decisions. This trend has been calling for the introduction of a new class of models that not only are capable to explain qualitatively the dynamics of infectious diseases, but also have the capability to provide quantitatively reliable and accurate results. To this aim models are becoming more and more detailed and informed with data. However, there is still much to be done in order to capture the individual and population features that shape the spread of infectious diseases. This thesis addresses some issues in epidemiological modeling that warrant further investigation.
In Chapter 1 we introduce an age-structured individual-based stochastic model of Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) transmission, whose main novelty is the inclusion of realistic population dynamics over the last century. This chapter represents an attempt to answer the need pointed out by recent studies for a better understanding of the role of demographic processes in shaping the circulation of infectious diseases.
In Chapter 2 we use the model for VZV transmission developed in Chapter 1 to evaluate the effectiveness of varicella and HZ vaccination programs in Italy. With a view to the support of public health decisions, the epidemiological model is coupled with a cost-effectiveness analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this work represents the first attempt to evaluate the post-vaccination trends in varicella and HZ, both from an epidemiological and economic perspective, in light of the underlying effect of demographic processes. Another novelty of this study is that we take into account the uncertainty regarding the mechanism of VZV reactivation, by comparing results obtained using two different modeling assumptions on exogenous boosting.
In Chapter 3 we retrospectively analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in England, by using a spatially-explicit model of influenza transmission, accounting for socio-demographic and disease natural history data. The aim of this work is to investigate whether the observed spatiotemporal dynamics of the epidemic was shaped by a spontaneous behavioral response to the pandemic threat. This chapter, represents an attempt to contribute to the challenge of understanding and quantifying the effect of human behavioral changes on the spread of epidemics.
In Chapter 4 we investigate the current epidemiology of measles in Italy, by using a detailed computational model for measles transmission, informed with regional heterogeneities in the age-specific seroprevalence profiles. The analysis performed in this chapter tries to fill some of the existing gaps in the knowledge of the epidemiological features of vaccine preventable diseases in frameworks characterized by a low circulation of the virus
The recognition of emotional biological movement in individuals with typical development and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
No full textPeople with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties in dealing with social interaction (DSM V, 2013). From long time, it has been reported deficit in recognizing gaze, face and intentions of others. Besides that, in the last decade numerous finds have showed an impairment in coding the human body movements. During my PhD I have explored the ability in recognizing the emotional valence of human movements in people with ASD and with typical development. In order to understand developmental changes, I have initially compared this ability between children and adults. In order to understand the role of intelligence, I have included people with high and low functioning ASD, either in children and adults samples. In the first study, we compared TD children and children with ASD with different level of functioning to investigate i) whether the difficulties in ASD population were associated to emotion comprehension or related to a more basic visual processing of biological motion, and ii) to explore whether this ability improves according to the age and to the non-verbal IQ. To this purposes, we presented point-light (PLDs) and full-light (FLDs) version of human movements with three different emotional valence (Happy, Fearful, Neutral). Our main findings showed that:
-TD children were more accurate in recognizing the emotional content of body movements when the shape of the body was visible (i.e. FLDs), compared to the view of pure motion information (i.e. PLDs), but there were no differences in RT across display conditions. This result suggests that school-aged children are able to correctly identify the emotional valence of dynamic bodily expression, also when the form information is minimized by presenting PLDs.
-According to the emotional content, we found that the valence had an effect on the performance of TD children. In particular, TD children recognized happy bodily expressions with lower accuracy than fearful and neutral movements. Besides, fearful movements were identified more rapidly. We hypothesized that, from an evolutionary point of view, it is more important to recognize fearful signals when they are far from us. Body movements are particularly relevant to convey other people’s state and intentions from a distance, hence bodies are preferential channels to convey fearful signals.
-Comparing typical and atypical children, we found that TD were more accurate and more rapid than children with ASD in recognizing the emotional valence of body movements. Moreover, children with HF ASD outperformed children with LF ASD and their performance was significantly predicted from age and nonverbal IQ. This results suggest that the nonverbal abilities have a role in body movement comprehension, probably underpinning the development of compensatory mechanisms which improve with age.
-Compared to TD children, children with ASD were impaired not only in understanding the emotional expressions, but also in recognizing the neutral actions. Irrespectively to their IQ level, children with ASD did not benefit from the richness of visual information, and their ability to recognize BM did not change according to the emotional valence. This finding suggests that the difficulty encountered by individuals with ASD in social interaction could be more generally related to biological motion elaboration, rather than being specific for the emotions comprehension. Hence, the lack in emotion recognition in ASD seems to be attributable to a deficit in elaborating motion cues rather than emotional information.
To interpret the body movements, children with ASD may adopt compensatory mechanisms, which acquisition seems to be mediated by the nonverbal IQ and improving with age. If this was the case, we should expect an improvement in the ability of recognizing the BM in adults with ASD, with respect to children with ASD, and this improvement should have been correlated with the non-verbal IQ level. To explore this hypothesis, we run a second experiment, were we asked to a group of TD adults, a group of adults with high functioning Autism matched for age and non-verbal IQ, and a group of adults with low functioning Autism matched for age, to performed the same BM recognition task that children did in our first experiment. Results with adults confirmed what we found in children: the emotional valence and the richness of visual information did not modulate the Accuracy and the velocity in recognizing the BM stimuli in ASD, suggesting that the whole body movement is elaborated differently in ASD than in TD adults and that the impairment in ASD is more related to the processing of body movement, rather than being specific for the emotion comprehension.
In a third study, we explored the developmental changes in the ability of recognizing the emotional meaning of human whole-body movements from childhood to adulthood. To this aim, we compared the performance between children and adults in each group of Functioning. Results showed that TD adults were more accurate and faster than TD children; FLDs were recognized with higher accuracy and quicker than PLDs; and fearful and neutral movements were recognized significantly better than happy ones. In participants with ASD, adults were significantly more accurate than children, but not faster. Also, we did not find any difference between displays or emotional categories. This results suggest that the understanding of body movements in individuals with ASD improve with age but the mechanism underpinning this ability works differently.
In a fourth experiment we investigate whether the impairment in understanding social relevant signals in individuals with high functioning autism (HF ASD) was restricted to body movements or widespread to other social cues, such as facial expressions. Also, we investigated the role of movement in perceiving bodily expressions. To this aim, we explored whether there was a difference in recognizing the body expressions represented by dynamic or static stimuli. Finally, we investigated whether the vision of the body form, compared to the sight of pure motion information, could influence the identification of the emotional content of body movements. We did not found any group differences in accuracy, but there was a group difference in RTs specific for dynamic stimuli (TD were significantly faster than ASD in recognizing PLDs, and marginally in FLDs). These results suggest that HF ASD adopt compensatory mechanism to understand the meaning of facial and bodily expression that allow them to correctly recognize the emotional valence conveyed by face and body movements. However, this mechanism has a cost in terms of rapidity. In particular, ASD seems to need more time to identify dynamic body stimuli but not images of body expressions, suggesting a deficit in processing the actual body motion. In particular, the comprehension of happy body movements result difficult and time consuming. Indeed, happiness was better recognized from facial expressions and was harder to be identified when expressed by body movements.
In the fifth experiment we used TMS-adaptation paradigm to explore the existence of a neural system specialized for the elaboration of emotional body movements. We first behaviourally investigated the existence of an adaptation for emotional PLDs. TD adult participant were adapted with point-light video clips depicting fearful, happy or neutral actions and then asked to recognize point-light with same/different emotional content. Results showed an adaptation after-effect only for incongruent stimuli, suggesting the existence of a neural mechanism for perceiving the body emotion specifically. Subsequently, in a TMS experiment we explore the possible brain location of this mechanism. The sites we stimulated are nodes of the neural network responsible for the human motion understanding, and they are reported to be abnormally activated in ASD. We found a reversed after-effect following TMS over aIPS, while the adaptation was still present after stimulation over pSTS and the control site. These results demonstrate that aIPS contains neurons that specifically code for the emotional body expressions, suggesting that the difficulties encountered by individuals with ASD in understanding the emotional signal during social interaction might rely to deficit in this mirror area
Behavioral Biometrics for Smartphone User Authentication
No full textPervasive in nature and extensively used for a wide range of features, smartphone provides functionality such as social networking, online shopping, mobile gaming, private/group communication, etc. While using these services, a user has to provide private information such as account credentials, credit card details, etc., which are then stored on the device. This information, if lost, can result in a user's privacy leakage and monetary loss. Therefore, significance of securing a smartphone from adversarial access becomes paramount. Despite being security and privacy critical, smartphones are still protected by traditional authentication mechanisms such as PINs and passwords, whose limitations and drawbacks are well known and well documented in the security community. The recent introduction of physical biometrics like facial, fingerprint and iris recognition, in smartphone authentication, has mitigated the problems with user input, however, they still suffer from other usability and security issues. Hence, new, accurate, and user-friendly authentication mechanisms are required. In this direction, behavior-based authentication solutions have recently attracted a significant amount of interest in both commercial and academic contexts. Most of the smartphone users prefer convenience over security and consider authentication mechanism more annoying as compared to other technological problems, such as lack of coverage, power consumption, etc. In this dissertation, we discuss limitations of existing authentication methods in terms of security and usability, and propose their replacements with behavioral biometric based authentication mechanisms. The underlying principle of our approach is to design solutions that authenticate users with either minimal or no cooperation from the users. We design, prototype and test the proposed authentication mechanisms based on our identified human behavior, such as how a person holds the phone, lifts the phone, types free-text PIN on the phone, signs her name on the touchscreen, etc. Moreover, we provide a comparative evaluation, based on accuracy, performance and usability, of our proposed mechanisms with the available state-of-the-art solutions. All of our solutions exploit the existing hardware (avoiding additional hardware requirement), and hence can be implemented on most of the smartphones available in the market today
Mechanisms of brain wiring by axonal miRNAs: miR-181 and miR-182
Get PDFThe highly complex nervous system is built upon an intricate network of neurons. In order to make a functional network, the establishment of precise connections is crucial. Neuronal networks are established early during development when neurons send out axons that navigate through complex environments to connect to their target. Chemotropic attractant or repellent cues, cell adhesion molecules, morphogens and a wide range of factors secreted or expressed by guidepost cells enable axon guidance. The leading tip of the axon, the GC is important to sense the environment and integrate extracellular signals to navigate precisely. The axonal GC has a large repertoire of mRNAs that are dynamic in nature. Local regulation of transcripts in navigating axons is suspected to ensure precise pathfinding. However, mechanisms involving regulation of expression of these transcripts within GCs are largely unknown.
This thesis investigates whether microRNAs, one of the quintessential posttranscriptional regulators, can regulate axon guidance by fine-tuning mRNA expression within subcellular compartments. To explore microRNA roles in axon guidance, Xenopus laevis visual system was used as a model. Profiling axons of retinal ganglion cells revealed the presence of miRNAs within axons. The most abundant axonal miRNAs, the miR-181 family and miR-182, exhibit distinct roles in regulating axon guidance in vivo. Loss of function analyses suggests that both miRNA families are required for accurate axonal targeting but involve different mechanisms. Thus, specific axonal microRNAs locally regulate mRNAs contributing to error-free pathfinding
Modeling and production of metal nanoparticles through laser ablation and applications to photocatalytic water oxidation
No full textThe contents of the present thesis can be divided into three parts. The first three chapters introduce the general context in which this work was developed: the social impact, the motivations and the key concepts of our research field. In particular, in Chapter 1 we discuss about the energy issue, focusing on the problem of sustainability of the energy sources. Through an analysis of updated energy and population statistics, we come to the conclusion that solar energy is the most environmentally, economically and socially sustainable energy source. Then, in Chapter 2 we present the basics of photoelectrochemical water splitting, as a possible strategy of solar hydrogen production. This discussion is inserted in the more general topic of artificial photosynthesis toward solar fuel generation. In view of the experimental work presented in this thesis, we put attention on semiconductor-based photoelectrochemical water splitting and on heterogeneous catalysis with inorganic catalytic materials. More specifically, we propose physical vapor deposition techniques as synthetic methods suitable for the industrial production of thin films for photoelectrochemical applications. In Chapter 3 we introduce the fundamentals of physical vapor deposition techniques (namely, radiofrequency magnetron sputtering, electron-beam deposition and pulsed laser deposition).
The second part highlights some fundamental mechanisms that are relevant in the pulsed laser ablation of metals. In particular, we review our recent results on the modeling of liquid nanodroplet formation in the nanosecond laser ablation of pure metals. Chapter 4 develops a simplified model of phase explosion, based on the theory of homogeneous boiling. Through a continuum approach, we describe the liquid nanoparticle formation in a metastable liquid metal, whose temperature is constant over time and space. The results of our computational simulations are presented here for a set of seven metals (Al, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ag and Au), commonly used in pulsed laser deposition. Our modeling was further improved, taking into account a more realistic spatial and temporal dependence of the temperature. In Chapter 5 we design a simulation of the nanosecond laser ablation of aluminum, which considers phase explosion and vaporization mechanisms. A nanosecond Gaussian-shaped laser pulse was assumed and the spatial gradient of the temperature was calculated according to the heat conduction equation. In this way, space–time resolved homogeneous boiling was studied and the size distribution of the produced liquid nanodroplets is presented.
After this long digression on the fundamentals of laser ablation mechanisms, we return to focus on the application of physical vapor deposition techniques to the synthesis of solid-state thin layers for photoelectrochemical water splitting. This third part is composed of three chapters, each one dealing with a different physical vapor deposition technique. Chapter 6 presents the synthesis and characterization of tin-doped hematite through radiofrequency magnetron sputtering. That study allowed us to shed some light on the effect of tin doping on the structural, optical and electrochemical properties of hematite. Indeed, tin-doped hematite was studied as a photoanodic material in some considerable experimental works, but the employed techniques made difficult to decouple the effect of the dopant from other structural and morphological features. Chapters 7 and 8 present the results of our work on the pulsed laser deposition and electron-beam deposition of water oxidation catalysts, respectively. In particular, Chapter 7 proposes the synthesis of a porous amorphous iron oxide catalyst employed to functionalize hematite photoanodes. The small-scale nanostructuring obtained through pulsed laser deposition allowed minimizing some issues such as the parasitic light absorption. In Chapter 8 we characterize pure and binary metal oxide thin films based on Fe, Co and Ni, deposited through electron-beam deposition. In our investigation of the electrocatalytic performance of these water oxidation catalysts, NiFe2Ox results as the most active material, in agreement with recent literature
Novel methods and models to validate H2 storage in solid state materials
No full textIn this work an improved methodology for the study of hydrogen storage material (HSM) is presented, for the characterization of smaller samples of HSM at increased
accuracy. It includes: the realization of innovative differential instrument; a novel approach to the detailed micro kinetic modelling; increase the comprehension of
absorption and desorption mechanisms; support research efforts in this topic. As side results, a macro and lumped model for the design of generic hydrogen storage tank
are developed and validated. The study of a novel IDA (Isochoric Differential apparatus) is presented, describing all the steps from the initial theoretical approach, to the detailed design and the definition of an experimental proceeding. It includes the necessary technical improvements
to increase the measure uncertainty compared to the classical SIevert. Novel microkinetic modelling for HSM is explained as variation of classic nucleation and growth
model (JMAK model). The nuclei’s growth is assumed to be limited by surface or even by radius of powder’s particles. Micro modelling is applied on Mg-based material,
introducing high accurate kinetic measures obtained by IDA. This leads to extrapolate information about kinetic parameters and kinetic mechanisms of hydrogen sorption.
The obtained micro modelling is used as core for the development of a model at a higher scale (macro) which keeps in consideration also heat and hydrogen diffusion in porous materials typical in hydrogen storage tank. Experimental data collected by a prototipal realization of hydrogen storage tank are used to validate macro modelling.
Moreover, a lumped model is developed with the scope to built a numerical tool able to give preliminary indications on proper design/layout of hydrogen storage tank, based on hydrogen flow, temperature or pressure requirements. Lumped modelling is finally compared with results by the numerical simulation of validated macro model. Finally, micro kinetic model is applied on high accuracy sorption data (by IDA) on innovative catalysed Mg-material. Material is produced by a novel approach, where catalyst, Nb2O5, is deposited by PVD techniques at extremely low concentration on the surface of powder to exploit its higher catalyst proprieties
Automatic Population of Structured Knowledge Bases via Natural Language Processing
No full textThe Web has evolved into a huge mine of knowledge carved in different forms, the predominant one still being the free-text document. This motivates the need for Intelligent Web-reading Agents: hypothetically, they would skim through disparate Web sources corpora and generate meaningful structured assertions to fuel Knowledge Bases (KBs).
Ultimately, comprehensive KBs, like Wikidata and DBpedia, play a fundamental role to cope with the issue of information overload. On account of such vision, this thesis depicts a set of systems based on Natural Language Processing (NLP), which take as input unstructured or semi-structured information sources and produce machine-readable statements for a target KB. We implement four main research contributions: (1) a one-step methodology for crowdsourcing the Frame Semantics annotation; (2) a NLP technique implementing the above contribution to perform N-ary Relation Extraction from Wikipedia, thus enriching the target KB with properties; (3) a taxonomy learning strategy to produce an intuitive and exhaustive class hierarchy from the Wikipedia category graph, thus augmenting the target KB with classes; (4) a recommender system that leverages a KB network to yield atypical suggestions with detailed explanations, serving as a proof of work for real-world end users. The outcomes are incorporated into the Italian DBpedia chapter, can be queried through its public endpoint, and/or downloaded as standalone data dumps