1,741 research outputs found
Fundamentals of Material Design Culture
No full textThis essay is published in the book Ideas and the Matter, edited by Marinella Ferrara and Giulio Ceppi. The book presents the founding research undertaken by the Politecnico di Milano’s Material Design Culture Research Centre (Madec). Founded in 2014, Madec obtained the Design Department’s support during its first year by being granted the Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca di Base (FARB 2013) for “Fundamental/Foundational/ Exploratory Researches that are strategically assessed for scientific growth in a research department”. In the third section of the book, scientific discourse focuses on the Material Design Culture and changing approach in term of the evolution of research methods. In the chapter "Fundamental of Material Design Culture", the author traces the fundamentals of Material Design based on the Italian design history and its relationship with global design discourse
Shifting to Design-driven Material Innovation
No full textThis essay is published in the book Ideas and the Matter, edited by Marinella Ferrara and Giulio Ceppi. The book presents the founding research undertaken by the Politecnico di Milano’s Material Design Culture Research Centre (Madec). Founded in 2014, Madec obtained the Design Department’s support during its first year by being granted the Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca di Base (FARB 2013) for “Fundamental/Foundational/ Exploratory Researches that are strategically assessed for scientific growth in a research department”. In the third section of the book, scientific discourse focuses on the Material Design Culture and changing approach in term of the evolution of research methods. In this chapter, the author analyses several changes in the design discipline and in the approaches to Material design and explores the new dimension of the contemporary trend of material innovation driven by design competences
Why tackling late government payments to businesses should be a key priority
No full textEvery year, many businesses across Europe go bankrupt as a result of payment delays. For this reason, the EU established a Late Payment Directive in 2011. Maurizio Conti, Leandro Elia, Antonella Ferrara and Massimiliano Ferraresi assess the impact of the directive, finding it has had some notable positive effects for the financial position of firms. Given the strain many businesses are under as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, it is now more vital than ever for policymakers to address the problem
Ferrara città creativa
No full textIl saggio indaga il tema della creatività urbana a partire dall’illustrazione di tre pratiche locali sbocciate all’improvviso a Ferrara a partire dal 2012. Il recente fenomeno di creatività che si è manifestato a Ferrara viene messo in relazione con i risultati di trent’anni di politiche culturali e per il turismo promosse dalla città. In conclusione vengono sviluppate alcune considerazioni sia sulle pratiche illustrate, sia sulle condizioni generali per favorire questo tipo di sviluppiThe essay explores the theme of urban creativity from the illustration of three local practices suddenly blossomed in Ferrara from 2012. The recent phenomenon of creativity that is manifested in Ferrara is put in relation by the author with the results of thirty years of cultural and tourism policies promoted by the City. In conclusion, some considerations are developed both on the practices discussed, both on the general conditions to encourage this type of development
Amazonian plants from ethnomedicine to biotechnology through pharmaceutical biology approaches: a PhD experience in connecting forest with laboratory
No full textThe South american Natives, Shuar and Achuar people and their ethnomedical culture constitute the
background subject of the Phd research, performed both in Ecuador (Salesian Politechnic University,
Quito), and in Italy (Pharmaceutical biology labs, University of Ferrara). Based on ethnomedical
responses, Piper aduncum, Maytenus macrocarpa, Schinus molle, Tecoma stans and Eugenia hallii were
chosen as amazonian plant species subject of the research.
AIMS
The research has been focused on:
− checking the presence of endophytic fungi in plants;
− isolating and subculturing pure endophytic strains;
− checking the biotransformation capacity of the isolated endophytes on pure compounds; the most
performing endophytes were also tested on phytocomplexes and pure chemicals obtained by the
plant from which the fungi were isolated;
− phytochemical characterization and bioactivity assays of plant extracts: P. aduncum.
−
METHODS
Biotransformations. Fresh aerial plant parts were properly washed in sanitizing solutions and in vitro
cultured using adequate solid media to isolate endophytes. (+/-)-cis-bicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-en-6-one,
acetophenone, 1-indanone, 2-furyl methyl ketone, 2-methylcyclopentanone, 2-methylcyclohexanone, 2-
methoxycyclohexanone were chosen as substrate model for biotransformations. The cultures were
sampled after 1, 3, 7, 10 days of culturing, and ethyl acetate extracted to verify by GC-MS the presence of
possible biotransformation products. Biotransformations were also checked on P. aduncum whole
essential oil and on dillapiol, cis-ocimene, piperitone, (-)-terpinen-4-ol as most abundant chemicals.
Chemical fingerprinting of P. aduncum essential oil. Steam distillation was adopted to obtain the essential
oil, then characterized by GC-MS, NMR analyses.
In vitro bioassays of P. aduncum essential oil. Antimicrobial activities were checked in vitro using proper
agarized media to reach MIC. Antioxidant capacities were checked through DPPH test, ABTS and
photochemiluminescence assays. Born's turbidimetric method and Writhing test were respectively
adopted to check platelet-aggregation and anti-nociceptive properties. Mutagenic, antimutagenic
properties and toxicity were assayed using classical and modified Ames test.
MAIN RESULTS
364 fungal strains were in vitro isolated. Among all, 5 strains performed biotransformations on
acetophenone to (S)-1-phenylethanol, with important yields (78-97%) and enantiomeric excess (78-
100%). Three strains gave also phenols probably by enzymatic reactions (Baeyer-Villiger oxidations). 15
fungal strains gave the lactones (-)-(1S,5R)-2-oxabicyclo[3.3.0]oct-6-en-3-one and (-)-(1R,5S)-3-
oxabicyclo[3.3.0]oct-6-en-2-one from (+/-)-cis-bicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-en-6-one, probably as result of
monooxygenase activation. Phytochemical characterization of P. aduncum essential oil has evidenced
dillapiol as the most abundant terpene, followed by cis-ocimene, piperitone and terpinen-4-ol. Only cisocimene
and piperitone gave several biotransformation products through dehydrogenation and
hydroxylation reactions. The essential oil has evidenced non-mutagenic properties and interesting
antifungal and antioxidant activities.
CONCLUSIONS
Several endophytic fungal strains from Amazonian plants were isolated and checked for
biotransformations on pure chemicals and on P. aduncum essential oil. Data obtained will be useful for
possible following patents about micro-organisms able to transform pharmaceutically interesting
chemicals. Taxonomical characterization of the most performing fungal strains is still in progress. P.
aduncum essential oil can be considered genotoxically safe and provides interesting antifungal and
antioxidant properties, supporting its ethnomedical use as cicatrising and disinfectant crude drug and
suggesting an extension of its employ as preservative ingredient
Design for emergencies. A set of guidelines developed at the University of Palermo.
No full textOver the last few years, the undergraduate course in Industrial Design at the University of Palermo has developed a research project on Design for Emergencies. This conversation started from an exchange of experiences/considerations/thoughts with institutions and associations on the importance of designing a visual communication that could transmit, in a clear and accessible way, information pertaining to the prevention of risks and the management of emergencies. The research has involved the students, who have developed this topic in their dissertations, starting from the study of those environmental crises that could lead to an emergency situation, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tsunamis, and landslides. The goal is to find effective solutions that might improve the positive outcome of emergency management strategies. The outcome of this research has been the definition of a design process and a set of guidelines that can be adapted to different backgrounds and applied to the design of strategies for risk prevention and emergency management
Diagnostics and prognostics of rotating machines through cyclostationary methods and machine learning
No full textIn the last decades, the vibration analysis has been exploited for monitoring many mechanical systems for industrial applications. Although several works demonstrated how the vibration based diagnostics may reach satisfactory results, the nowadays industrial scenario is deeply changing, driven by the fundamental need of time and cost reduction. In this direction, the academic research has to focus on the improvement of the computational efficiency for the signal processing techniques applied in the mechanical diagnostics field. In the same way, the industrial word requires an increasing attention to the predictive maintenance for estimating the system failure avoiding unnecessary machine downtimes for maintenance operations. In this contest, in the recent years the research activity has been moved to the development of prognostic models for the prediction of the remaining useful life. However, it is important to keep in mind how the two fields are strictly connected, being the diagnostics the base on which build the effectiveness of each prognostic model. On these grounds, this thesis has been focused on these two different but linked areas for the detection and prediction of possible failures inside rotating machines in the industrial framework.
The first part of the thesis focuses on the development of a blind deconvolution indicator based on the cyclostationary theory for the fault identification in rotating machines. The novel criterion aims to decrease the computational cost of the blind deconvolution through the exploitation of the Fourier-Bessel series expansion due to its modulated nature more comparable with the fault related vibration pattern. The proposed indicator is extensively compared to the other cyclostationary one based on the classic Fourier transform, taking into account both synthesized and real vibration signals. The comparison proves the improvement given by the proposed criterion in terms of number of operations required by the blind deconvolution algorithm as well as its diagnostic capability also for noisy measured signals. The originality of this part regards the combination of cyclostationarity and Fourier-Bessel transform that leads to the definition of a novel blind deconvolution criterion that keeps the diagnostic effectiveness of cyclostationarity reducing the computational cost in order to meet the industrial requirements.
The second part regards the definition of a novel prognostic model from the family of the hidden Markov models constructed on a generalized Gaussian distribution. The target of the proposed method is a better fitting quality of the data distribution in the last damaging phase. In fact, the fault appearance and evolution reflects on a modification of the observation distribution within the states and consequently a generalized density function allows the changes on the distribution form through the values of some model parameters. The proposed method is compared in terms of fitting quality and state sequence prediction to the classic Gaussian based hidden Markov model through the analysis of several run to failure tests performed on rolling element bearings and more complex systems. The novelty of this part regards the definition of a new iterative algorithm for the estimation of the generalized Gaussian model parameters starting from the observations on the physical system for both monovariate and multivariate distributions. Furthermore, the strictly connection between diagnostics and prognostics is demonstrated through the analysis of a not monotonically increasing damaging process proving how the selection of a suitable indicator enables the correct health state estimation.Negli ultimi decenni, l’analisi vibrazionale è stata sfruttata per il monitoraggio di molti sistemi meccanici per applicazioni industriali. Nonostante molte pubblicazioni abbiano dimostrato come la diagnostica vibrazionale possa raggiungere risultati soddisfacenti, lo scenario industriale odierno è in profondo cambiamento, guidato dalla necessità di ridurre tempi e costi produttivi. In questa direzione, la ricerca deve concentrarsi sul miglioramento dell’efficienza computazionale delle tecniche di analisi del segnale applicate a fini diagnostici. Allo stesso modo, il mondo industriale richiede una sempre maggior attenzione per la manutenzione predittiva, al fine di stimare l’effettivo danneggiamento del sistema evitando così inutili fermi macchina per operazioni manutentive. In tale ambito, negli ultimi anni l’attività di ricerca si sta spostando verso lo sviluppo di modelli prognostici finalizzati alla stima della vita utile residua dei componenti. Tuttavia, è importante ricordare come i due ambiti siano strettamente connessi, essendo la diagnostica la base su cui fondare l’efficacia di ciascun modello prognostico. Su questa base, questa tesi è stata incentrata su queste due diverse, ma tra loro connesse, aree al fine di identificare e predire possibile cause di cedimento su macchine rotanti per applicazioni industriali.
La prima parte della tesi è concentrata sullo sviluppo di un nuovo indicatore di blind deconvolution per l’identificazione di difetti su organi rotanti sulla base della teoria ciclostazionaria. Il criterio presentato vuole andare a ridurre il costo computazionale richiesto dalla blind deconvolution tramite l’utilizzo della serie di Fourier-Bessel grazie alla sua natura modulata, maggiormente affine alla tipica firma vibratoria del difetto. L’indicatore proposto viene accuratamente confrontato con il suo analogo basato sulla classica serie di Fourier considerando sia segnali simulati che segnali di vibrazione reali. Il confronto vuole dimostrare il miglioramento fornito dal nuovo criterio in termini sia di minor numero di operazioni richieste dall’algoritmo che di efficacia diagnostica anche in condizioni di segnale molto rumoroso. Il contributo innovativo di questa parte riguarda la combinazione di ciclostazionarietà e serie di Furier-Bessel che porta alla definizione di un nuovo criterio di blind deconvolution in grado di mantenere l’efficacia diagnostica della ciclostazionarietà ma con un minor tempo computazionale per venire incontro alle richieste del mondo industriale. La second parte riguarda la definizione di un nuovo modello prognostico, appartenente alla famiglia degli hidden Markov models, costruito partendo da una distribuzione Gaussiana generalizzata. L’obbiettivo del metodo proposto è una miglior riproduzione
della reale distribuzione dei dati, in particolar modo negli ultimi stadi del danneggiamento. Infatti, la comparsa e l’evoluzione del difetto comporta una modifica della distribuzione delle osservazioni fra i diversi stati. Di conseguenza, una densità di probabilità generalizzata permette la modificazione della forma della distribuzione tramite diversi valori dei parametri del modello. Il metodo proposto viene confrontato con il classico hidden Markov model di base Gaussiana in termini di qualità di riproduzione della distribuzione e predizione della sequenza di stati tramite l’analisi di alcuni test di rottura su cuscinetti volventi e sistemi complessi. L’innovatività di questa parte è data dalla definizione di un algoritmo iterativo per la stima dei parametri del modello nell’ipotesi di distribuzione Gaussiana generalizzata, sia nel caso monovariato che multivariato, partendo dalle osservazioni sul sistema fisico in esame
Probiotic Application in Oyster Larvae Farming: Integrating Archaeomalacology and Modern Aquaculture for the Restoration of Flat Oyster (Ostrea edulis Linnaeus, 1758) Stocks in the Po Delta Area
No full textL'acquacoltura è un settore in crescita, coprendo oltre il 50% della domanda globale di prodotti ittici. Tuttavia, non tutti i paesi e le specie allevate seguono lo stesso trend positivo, a causa di epidemie e mortalità di massa dovute a infezioni da batteri, protozoi e funghi. Un esempio è l'ostrica piatta europea (Ostrea edulis), il cui declino è iniziato negli anni '70 a causa dei parassiti Bonamia ostreae e Marteilia refrigens, senza mai riprendersi completamente. Cambiamenti climatici e fattori ambientali anomali favoriscono la diffusione di patogeni non indigeni.
L’archeomalacologia permette di analizzare resti fossili di molluschi per ottenere informazioni su abitudini socio-culturali e condizioni paleoambientali. Applicata a esemplari moderni, può rilevare anomalie ambientali e contribuire a strategie di intervento. In Italia, l’uso dei molluschi risale all’Età del Bronzo (2300-700 a.C.), con le prime tracce di allevamento organizzato in epoca romana, specialmente per le ostriche. Oggi, l'acquacoltura dei molluschi è un settore rilevante, con Ruditapes philippinarum tra le specie più allevate, mentre O. edulis rappresenta solo una piccola parte della produzione, nonostante una domanda superiore all’offerta.
Un metodo sostenibile per contrastare la mortalità da patogeni è l’uso di probiotici, definiti dalla FAO come “organismi viventi che, se somministrati nelle giuste dosi, apportano benefici all’ospite”, evitando i problemi di resistenza legati ad antibiotici e vaccini. Questo studio ha testato tre ceppi probiotici (Bacillus sp., Pseudoalteromonas sp., Pseudomonas sp.) su larve di O. edulis, contro un patogeno del genere Vibrio, analizzando il tasso di sopravvivenza delle larve.
I probiotici e il patogeno sono stati isolati dall’ambiente del vivaio Naturedulis srl, che ha fornito anche le larve. Il disegno sperimentale ha incluso: (1) un test preliminare per valutare l'eventuale tossicità dei probiotici su larve a diverse concentrazioni (104, 105 e 106 cfu/ml); (2) una prova di sfida in cui i probiotici, alle stesse concentrazioni, sono stati somministrati insieme al patogeno (104 cfu/ml).
I risultati preliminari non hanno mostrato effetti nocivi sulle larve. Tuttavia, la prova di sfida ha prodotto risultati variabili: la maggior parte dei trattamenti non è risultata efficace, ma la bassa sopravvivenza nei gruppi di controllo e in quelli trattati solo con probiotici suggerisce che la mortalità sia dovuta principalmente a fattori di stress. Gli unici risultati promettenti sono stati osservati con la concentrazione di 106 cfu/ml di probiotici.
Sebbene l’efficacia dei probiotici in acquacoltura sia ampiamente riconosciuta, i risultati di questo studio sono stati contrastanti. Tuttavia, i dati ottenuti rappresentano una base utile per studi futuri.Aquaculture is a growing sector, covering over 50% of global fish product demand. However, not all countries and farmed species follow the same positive trend due to outbreaks and mass mortality events caused by bacterial, protozoan, and fungal infections. A notable example is the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), which has been in decline since the 1970s due to the parasites Bonamia ostreae and Marteilia refrigens, from which it has never fully recovered. Climate change and anomalous environmental factors often promote the spread of non-native pathogens.
Archaeomalacology allows the study of mollusk fossil remains to gather information on both the socio-cultural habits of ancient populations and past environmental conditions. When applied to modern specimens, it can detect environmental anomalies and help develop appropriate intervention strategies. In Italy, mollusk exploitation dates back to the Bronze Age (2300–700 BC), with the first evidence of organized farming methods appearing during the Roman era, particularly for oysters. Today, mollusk aquaculture is a significant sector, especially for Ruditapes philippinarum, while O. edulis represents only a small fraction of production, despite demand exceeding supply.
A sustainable method to counteract pathogen-induced mortality in mollusk hatcheries is the use of probiotics, defined by FAO as “living organisms that, when administered in the correct amount, provide beneficial effects to the host,” avoiding issues of resistance associated with antibiotics and vaccines. This study tested three probiotic strains (Bacillus sp., Pseudoalteromonas sp., Pseudomonas sp.) on O. edulis larvae against a Vibrio genus pathogen, evaluating larval survival rates.
Both the probiotics and the pathogen were isolated from the Naturedulis srl hatchery environment, which also provided the oyster larvae. The experimental design included: (1) a preliminary trial to assess whether different probiotic concentrations (104, 105, and 106 cfu/ml) had harmful effects on the larvae; (2) a challenge trial where probiotics, at the same concentrations, were administered along with the pathogen (104 cfu/ml).
Preliminary results showed no harmful effects on the larvae. However, the challenge trial produced variable results: most treatments appeared ineffective, but the low survival rates in both control groups and those treated only with probiotics suggest that mortality was primarily stress-related. The only promising results were observed when probiotics were administered at a concentration of 106 cfu/ml.
Although probiotic effectiveness in aquaculture is widely recognized, this study yielded inconsistent results. Nevertheless, the data collected provide a valuable foundation for future research
GENETICA E FARMACOGENETICA DELL’ARTRITE REUMATOIDE: RICERCA DI VARIANTI ASSOCIATE ALL’OCCORRENZA DI MALATTIA O ALLA RISPOSTA FARMACOLOGICA
No full textRheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is considered the most common autoimmune disease, affecting the 0.5-1% of the population. It consists in a chronic widespread inflammation that affects mainly synovial tissues, leading to a slow and progressive joint destruction and consequent loss of functionality. This pathology may involve also other tissues and it is often related to reduction in life quality and, in the most serious cases, to increased mortality. The etiological causes are still unknown. RA mainly affects women, with a females:males ratio of 3:1.
There are various (genetic and environmental) risk factors that, through alteration of immune and inflammation mechanisms, lead to disease development, thus defining RA a multifactorial condition.
Recent 'Genome-wide' association studies (GWAS) led to the identification of several genetic variations associated to susceptibility for RA development or to response to the main drugs used for treatment, underling important differences between populations.
On the basis of this scientific evidence, we conducted an experimental study aimed to recognise genetic polymorphisms associated to RA development risk in the Italian population, and to identify variants predicting the response to pharmacological treatments with conventional and new generation drugs.
We evaluated a panel of polymorphic variants in genes involved in folates transport and metabolism, as folates are direct targets of methotrexate, the most used drug in RA treatment that acts as folate antagonist. The analysis carried out showed that some of these polymorphisms significantly influence RA occurrence risk and treatment response, both in terms of efficacy and toxicity. Using 'data mining' applications, eventual genetic synergies or redundancies were investigated in order to detect functional interactions between folates metabolism and transport components.
Moreover, we investigated genetic variants in HLA region, which is considered responsible for the major genetic contribute in terms of disease susceptibility. In this field, we studied the function of several polymorphic variants associated to the gene HLA-DRB1 and their influence in determine RA treatments response.
The variants associated to this locus indicated a trend of susceptibility to RA; in particular, one of these variants seemed to influence the efficacy response to the biological drugs.
Studies related to functional variants within HLA-G gene, a regulator of immunosuppression response and related to immune-mediated disease, confirmed the association between the rs16375 variant and RA occurrence risks in Italian population, showing that the association is specific for only females.
Results from this study provide important genetic information on RA pathogenesis, which could eventually be applied for personalization of medical treatments. Such approaches could be applied both at early-diagnostic level, for identification of pre-clinical cases, and for choosing of most efficient therapy according to RA patients genetic profiles, therefore reducing the risks of adverse events and with important implications also in terms of health economy
Governments’ late payments and firms’ survival: Evidence from the european union
No full textOutstanding payments in commercial transactions, if delayed beyond the agreed period of time, can engender a range of negative externalities and expose firms to severe liquidity risks. In this study we examine to what extent stricter regulations addressing payment backlogs, brought about by the EU directive on late payments, have affected firms’ performance. We focus on government-to-business activities and on the firms’ responses to the introduction of these regulations. Our evidence suggests that firms’ exit rates fall relatively more in sectors that sell a larger fraction of their output to the government. We document more pronounced effects in sectors with a large share of small firms, for countries characterized by longer payment delays, and for countries with high levels of perceived corruption. Taken together, our findings indicate that more discipline in gov-ernments’ payment terms can have considerable effects on economic activity
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