Controllo Vettoriale generalizzato per Macchine Elettriche Trifase

Nell’ambito della presente tesi verrà descritto un approccio generalizzato per il controllo delle macchine elettriche trifasi; la prima parte è incentrata nello sviluppo di una metodologia di modellizzazione generale, ossia in grado di descrivere, da un punto di vista matematico, il comportamento di una generica macchina elettrica, che possa quindi includere in sé stessa tutte le caratteristiche salienti che possano caratterizzare ogni specifica tipologia di macchina elettrica. Il passo successivo è quello di realizzare un algoritmo di controllo per macchine elettriche che si poggi sulla teoria generalizzata e che utilizzi per il proprio funzionamento quelle grandezze offerte dal modello unico delle macchine elettriche. La tipologia di controllo che è stata utilizzata è quella che comunemente viene definita come controllo ad orientamento di campo (FOC), per la quale sono stati individuati degli accorgimenti atti a migliorarne le prestazioni dinamiche e di controllo della coppia erogata. Per concludere verrà presentata una serie di prove sperimentali con lo scopo di mettere in risalto alcuni aspetti cruciali nel controllo delle macchine elettriche mediante un algoritmo ad orientamento di campo e soprattutto di verificare l’attendibilità dell’approccio generalizzato alle macchine elettriche trifasi. I risultati sperimentali confermano quindi l’applicabilità del metodo a diverse tipologie di macchine (asincrone e sincrone) e sono stati verificate nelle condizioni operative più critiche: bassa velocità, alta velocità bassi carichi, dinamica lenta e dinamica veloce.

Architectures and design patterns for functional design of logic control and diagnostics in industrial automation

Recently in most of the industrial automation process an ever increasing degree of automation has been observed. This increasing is motivated by the higher requirement of systems with great performance in terms of quality of products/services generated, productivity, efficiency and low costs in the design, realization and maintenance. This trend in the growth of complex automation systems is rapidly spreading over automated manufacturing systems (AMS), where the integration of the mechanical and electronic technology, typical of the Mechatronics, is merging with other technologies such as Informatics and the communication networks. An AMS is a very complex system that can be thought constituted by a set of flexible working stations, one or more transportation systems. To understand how this machine are important in our society let considerate that every day most of us use bottles of water or soda, buy product in box like food or cigarets and so on. Another important consideration from its complexity derive from the fact that the the consortium of machine producers has estimated around 350 types of manufacturing machine. A large number of manufacturing machine industry are presented in Italy and notably packaging machine industry,in particular a great concentration of this kind of industry is located in Bologna area; for this reason the Bologna area is called “packaging valley”. Usually, the various parts of the AMS interact among them in a concurrent and asynchronous way, and coordinate the parts of the machine to obtain a desiderated overall behaviour is an hard task. Often, this is the case in large scale systems, organized in a modular and distributed manner. Even if the success of a modern AMS from a functional and behavioural point of view is still to attribute to the design choices operated in the definition of the mechanical structure and electrical electronic architecture, the system that governs the control of the plant is becoming crucial, because of the large number of duties associated to it. Apart from the activity inherent to the automation of themachine cycles, the supervisory system is called to perform other main functions such as: emulating the behaviour of traditional mechanical members thus allowing a drastic constructive simplification of the machine and a crucial functional flexibility; dynamically adapting the control strategies according to the different productive needs and to the different operational scenarios; obtaining a high quality of the final product through the verification of the correctness of the processing; addressing the operator devoted to themachine to promptly and carefully take the actions devoted to establish or restore the optimal operating conditions; managing in real time information on diagnostics, as a support of the maintenance operations of the machine. The kind of facilities that designers can directly find on themarket, in terms of software component libraries provides in fact an adequate support as regard the implementation of either top-level or bottom-level functionalities, typically pertaining to the domains of user-friendly HMIs, closed-loop regulation and motion control, fieldbus-based interconnection of remote smart devices. What is still lacking is a reference framework comprising a comprehensive set of highly reusable logic control components that, focussing on the cross-cutting functionalities characterizing the automation domain, may help the designers in the process of modelling and structuring their applications according to the specific needs. Historically, the design and verification process for complex automated industrial systems is performed in empirical way, without a clear distinction between functional and technological-implementation concepts and without a systematic method to organically deal with the complete system. Traditionally, in the field of analog and digital control design and verification through formal and simulation tools have been adopted since a long time ago, at least for multivariable and/or nonlinear controllers for complex time-driven dynamics as in the fields of vehicles, aircrafts, robots, electric drives and complex power electronics equipments. Moving to the field of logic control, typical for industrial manufacturing automation, the design and verification process is approached in a completely different way, usually very “unstructured”. No clear distinction between functions and implementations, between functional architectures and technological architectures and platforms is considered. Probably this difference is due to the different “dynamical framework”of logic control with respect to analog/digital control. As a matter of facts, in logic control discrete-events dynamics replace time-driven dynamics; hence most of the formal and mathematical tools of analog/digital control cannot be directly migrated to logic control to enlighten the distinction between functions and implementations. In addition, in the common view of application technicians, logic control design is strictly connected to the adopted implementation technology (relays in the past, software nowadays), leading again to a deep confusion among functional view and technological view. In Industrial automation software engineering, concepts as modularity, encapsulation, composability and reusability are strongly emphasized and profitably realized in the so-calledobject-oriented methodologies. Industrial automation is receiving lately this approach, as testified by some IEC standards IEC 611313, IEC 61499 which have been considered in commercial products only recently. On the other hand, in the scientific and technical literature many contributions have been already proposed to establish a suitable modelling framework for industrial automation. During last years it was possible to note a considerable growth in the exploitation of innovative concepts and technologies from ICT world in industrial automation systems. For what concerns the logic control design, Model Based Design (MBD) is being imported in industrial automation from software engineering field. Another key-point in industrial automated systems is the growth of requirements in terms of availability, reliability and safety for technological systems. In other words, the control system should not only deal with the nominal behaviour, but should also deal with other important duties, such as diagnosis and faults isolations, recovery and safety management. Indeed, together with high performance, in complex systems fault occurrences increase. This is a consequence of the fact that, as it typically occurs in reliable mechatronic systems, in complex systems such as AMS, together with reliable mechanical elements, an increasing number of electronic devices are also present, that are more vulnerable by their own nature. The diagnosis problem and the faults isolation in a generic dynamical system consists in the design of an elaboration unit that, appropriately processing the inputs and outputs of the dynamical system, is also capable of detecting incipient faults on the plant devices, reconfiguring the control system so as to guarantee satisfactory performance. The designer should be able to formally verify the product, certifying that, in its final implementation, it will perform itsrequired function guarantying the desired level of reliability and safety; the next step is that of preventing faults and eventually reconfiguring the control system so that faults are tolerated. On this topic an important improvement to formal verification of logic control, fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control results derive from Discrete Event Systems theory. The aimof this work is to define a design pattern and a control architecture to help the designer of control logic in industrial automated systems. The work starts with a brief discussion on main characteristics and description of industrial automated systems on Chapter 1. In Chapter 2 a survey on the state of the software engineering paradigm applied to industrial automation is discussed. Chapter 3 presentes a architecture for industrial automated systems based on the new concept of Generalized Actuator showing its benefits, while in Chapter 4 this architecture is refined using a novel entity, the Generalized Device in order to have a better reusability and modularity of the control logic. In Chapter 5 a new approach will be present based on Discrete Event Systems for the problemof software formal verification and an active fault tolerant control architecture using online diagnostic. Finally conclusive remarks and some ideas on new directions to explore are given. In Appendix A are briefly reported some concepts and results about Discrete Event Systems which should help the reader in understanding some crucial points in chapter 5; while in Appendix B an overview on the experimental testbed of the Laboratory of Automation of University of Bologna, is reported to validated the approach presented in chapter 3, chapter 4 and chapter 5. In Appendix C some components model used in chapter 5 for formal verification are reported.

Analysis of optimal control problems for the incompressible MHD equations and implementation in a finite element multiphysics code

This thesis deals with the study of optimal control problems for the incompressible Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations. Particular attention to these problems arises from several applications in science and engineering, such as fission nuclear reactors with liquid metal coolant and aluminum casting in metallurgy. In such applications it is of great interest to achieve the control on the fluid state variables through the action of the magnetic Lorentz force. In this thesis we investigate a class of boundary optimal control problems, in which the flow is controlled through the boundary conditions of the magnetic field. Due to their complexity, these problems present various challenges in the definition of an adequate solution approach, both from a theoretical and from a computational point of view. In this thesis we propose a new boundary control approach, based on lifting functions of the boundary conditions, which yields both theoretical and numerical advantages. With the introduction of lifting functions, boundary control problems can be formulated as extended distributed problems. We consider a systematic mathematical formulation of these problems in terms of the minimization of a cost functional constrained by the MHD equations. The existence of a solution to the flow equations and to the optimal control problem are shown. The Lagrange multiplier technique is used to derive an optimality system from which candidate solutions for the control problem can be obtained. In order to achieve the numerical solution of this system, a finite element approximation is considered for the discretization together with an appropriate gradient-type algorithm. A finite element object-oriented library has been developed to obtain a parallel and multigrid computational implementation of the optimality system based on a multiphysics approach. Numerical results of two- and three-dimensional computations show that a possible minimum for the control problem can be computed in a robust and accurate manner.

Development of control-oriented models of Dual Clutch Transmission systems

A control-oriented model of a Dual Clutch Transmission was developed for real-time Hardware In the Loop (HIL) applications, to support model-based development of the DCT controller. The model is an innovative attempt to reproduce the fast dynamics of the actuation system while maintaining a step size large enough for real-time applications. The model comprehends a detailed physical description of hydraulic circuit, clutches, synchronizers and gears, and simplified vehicle and internal combustion engine sub-models. As the oil circulating in the system has a large bulk modulus, the pressure dynamics are very fast, possibly causing instability in a real-time simulation; the same challenge involves the servo valves dynamics, due to the very small masses of the moving elements. Therefore, the hydraulic circuit model has been modified and simplified without losing physical validity, in order to adapt it to the real-time simulation requirements. The results of offline simulations have been compared to on-board measurements to verify the validity of the developed model, that was then implemented in a HIL system and connected to the TCU (Transmission Control Unit). Several tests have been performed: electrical failure tests on sensors and actuators, hydraulic and mechanical failure tests on hydraulic valves, clutches and synchronizers, and application tests comprehending all the main features of the control performed by the TCU. Being based on physical laws, in every condition the model simulates a plausible reaction of the system. The first intensive use of the HIL application led to the validation of the new safety strategies implemented inside the TCU software. A test automation procedure has been developed to permit the execution of a pattern of tests without the interaction of the user; fully repeatable tests can be performed for non-regression verification, allowing the testing of new software releases in fully automatic mode.

Development and testing of innovative methodologies for modelling and control of normal and knocking combustion and implementation of novel rapid prototyping solutions

The thesis work deals with topics that led to the development of innovative control-oriented models and control algorithms for modern gasoline engines. Knock in boosted spark ignition engines is the widest topic discussed in this document because it remains one of the most limiting factors for maximizing combustion efficiency in this kind of engine. First chapter is thus focused on knock and a wide literature review is proposed to summarize the preliminary knowledge that even represents the background and the reference for discussed activities. Most relevant results achieved during PhD course in the field of knock modelling and control are then presented, describing every control-oriented model that led to the development of an adaptive model-based combustion control system. The complete controller has been developed in the context of the collaboration with Ferrari GT and it allowed to completely redefine the knock intensity evaluation as well as the combustion phase control. The second chapter is focused on the activity related to a prototyping Port Water Injection system that has been developed and tested on a turbocharged spark ignition engine, within the collaboration with Magneti Marelli. Such system and the effects of injected water on the combustion process were then modeled in a 1-D simulation environment (GT Power). Third chapter shows the development and validation of a control-oriented model for the real-time calculation of exhaust gas temperature that represents another important limitation to the performance increase in modern boosted engines. Indeed, modelling of exhaust gas temperature and thermocouple behavior are themes that play a key role in the optimization of combustion and catalyst efficiency.

Active Control of the Acoustic Field in a Vehicle Cabin

In this thesis, a thorough investigation on acoustic noise control systems for realistic automotive scenarios is presented. The thesis is organized in two parts dealing with the main topics treated: Active Noise Control (ANC) systems and Virtual Microphone Technique (VMT), respectively. The technology of ANC allows to increase the driver's/passenger's comfort and safety exploiting the principle of mitigating the disturbing acoustic noise by the superposition of a secondary sound wave of equal amplitude but opposite phase. Performance analyses of both FeedForwrd (FF) and FeedBack (FB) ANC systems, in experimental scenarios, are presented. Since, environmental vibration noises within a car cabin are time-varying, most of the ANC solutions are adaptive. However, in this work, an effective fixed FB ANC system is proposed. Various ANC schemes are considered and compared with each other. In order to find the best possible ANC configuration which optimizes the performance in terms of disturbing noise attenuation, a thorough research of \gls{KPI}, system parameters and experimental setups design, is carried out. In the second part of this thesis, VMT, based on the estimation of specific acoustic channels, is investigated with the aim of generating a quiet acoustic zone around a confined area, e.g., the driver's ears. Performance analysis and comparison of various estimation approaches is presented. Several measurement campaigns were performed in order to acquire a sufficient duration and number of microphone signals in a significant variety of driving scenarios and employed cars. To do this, different experimental setups were designed and their performance compared. Design guidelines are given to obtain good trade-off between accuracy performance and equipment costs. Finally, a preliminary analysis with an innovative approach based on Neural Networks (NNs) to improve the current state of the art in microphone virtualization is proposed.

Motion control and real-time systems: an approach to trajectory rebuilding in non-deterministic networks

Motion control is a sub-field of automation, in which the position and/or velocity of machines are controlled using some type of device. In motion control the position, velocity, force, pressure, etc., profiles are designed in such a way that the different mechanical parts work as an harmonious whole in which a perfect synchronization must be achieved. The real-time exchange of information in the distributed system that is nowadays an industrial plant plays an important role in order to achieve always better performance, better effectiveness and better safety. The network for connecting field devices such as sensors, actuators, field controllers such as PLCs, regulators, drive controller etc., and man-machine interfaces is commonly called fieldbus. Since the motion transmission is now task of the communication system, and not more of kinematic chains as in the past, the communication protocol must assure that the desired profiles, and their properties, are correctly transmitted to the axes then reproduced or else the synchronization among the different parts is lost with all the resulting consequences. In this thesis, the problem of trajectory reconstruction in the case of an event-triggered communication system is faced. The most important feature that a real-time communication system must have is the preservation of the following temporal and spatial properties: absolute temporal consistency, relative temporal consistency, spatial consistency. Starting from the basic system composed by one master and one slave and passing through systems made up by many slaves and one master or many masters and one slave, the problems in the profile reconstruction and temporal properties preservation, and subsequently the synchronization of different profiles in network adopting an event-triggered communication system, have been shown. These networks are characterized by the fact that a common knowledge of the global time is not available. Therefore they are non-deterministic networks. Each topology is analyzed and the proposed solution based on phase-locked loops adopted for the basic master-slave case has been improved to face with the other configurations.

Nutritional strategies to control mycotoxin damages in swine

Mycotoxins are contaminants of agricultural products both in the field and during storage and can enter the food chain through contaminated cereals and foods (milk, meat, and eggs) obtained from animals fed mycotoxin contaminated feeds. Mycotoxins are genotoxic carcinogens that cause health and economic problems. Ochratoxin A and fumonisin B1 have been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1993, as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (class 2B). To control mycotoxins induced damages, different strategies have been developed to reduce the growth of mycotoxigenic fungi as well as to decontaminate and/or detoxify mycotoxin contaminated foods and animal feeds. Critical points, target for these strategies, are: prevention of mycotoxin contamination, detoxification of mycotoxins already present in food and feed, inhibition of mycotoxin absorption in the gastrointestinal tract, reduce mycotoxin induced damages when absorption occurs. Decontamination processes, as indicate by FAO, needs the following requisites to reduce toxic and economic impact of mycotoxins: it must destroy, inactivate, or remove mycotoxins; it must not produce or leave toxic and/or carcinogenic/mutagenic residues in the final products or in food products obtained from animals fed decontaminated feed; it must be capable of destroying fungal spores and mycelium in order to avoiding mycotoxin formation under favorable conditions; it should not adversely affect desirable physical and sensory properties of the feedstuff; it has to be technically and economically feasible. One important approach to the prevention of mycotoxicosis in livestock is the addition in the diets of the non-nutritionally adsorbents that bind mycotoxins preventing the absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. Activated carbons, hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate (HSCAS), zeolites, bentonites, and certain clays, are the most studied adsorbent and they possess a high affinity for mycotoxins. In recent years, there has been increasing interest on the hypothesis that the absorption in consumed food can be inhibited by microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract. Numerous investigators showed that some dairy strains of LAB and bifidobacteria were able to bind aflatoxins effectively. There is a strong need for prevention of the mycotoxin-induced damages once the toxin is ingested. Nutritional approaches, such as supplementation of nutrients, food components, or additives with protective effects against mycotoxin toxicity are assuming increasing interest. Since mycotoxins have been known to produce damages by increasing oxidative stress, the protective properties of antioxidant substances have been extensively investigated. Purpose of the present study was to investigate in vitro and in vivo, strategies to counteract mycotoxin threat particularly in swine husbandry. The Ussing chambers technique was applied in the present study that for the first time to investigate in vitro the permeability of OTA and FB1 through rat intestinal mucosa. Results showed that OTA and FB1 were not absorbed from rat small intestine mucosa. Since in vivo absorption of both mycotoxins normally occurs, it is evident that in these experimental conditions Ussing diffusion chambers were not able to assess the intestinal permeability of OTA and FB1. A large number of LAB strains isolated from feces and different gastrointestinal tract regions of pigs and poultry were screened for their ability to remove OTA, FB1, and DON from bacterial medium. Results of this in vitro study showed low efficacy of isolated LAB strains to reduce OTA, FB1, and DON from bacterial medium. An in vivo trial in rats was performed to evaluate the effects of in-feed supplementation of a LAB strain, Pediococcus pentosaceus FBB61, to counteract the toxic effects induced by exposure to OTA contaminated diets. The study allows to conclude that feed supplementation with P. pentosaceus FBB61 ameliorates the oxidative status in liver, and lowers OTA induced oxidative damage in liver and kidney if diet was contaminated by OTA. This P. pentosaceus FBB61 feature joined to its bactericidal activity against Gram positive bacteria and its ability to modulate gut microflora balance in pigs, encourage additional in vivo experiments in order to better understand the potential role of P. pentosaceus FBB61 as probiotic for farm animals and humans. In the present study, in vivo trial on weaned piglets fed FB1 allow to conclude that feeding of 7.32 ppm of FB1 for 6 weeks did not impair growth performance. Deoxynivalenol contamination of feeds was evaluated in an in vivo trial on weaned piglets. The comparison between growth parameters of piglets fed DON contaminated diet and contaminated diet supplemented with the commercial product did not reach the significance level but piglet growth performances were numerically improved when the commercial product was added to DON contaminated diet. Further studies are needed to improve knowledge on mycotoxins intestinal absorption, mechanism for their detoxification in feeds and foods, and nutritional strategies to reduce mycotoxins induced damages in animals and humans. The multifactorial approach acting on each of the various steps could be a promising strategy to counteract mycotoxins damages.

Il ruolo delle idee e del loro cambiamento nei processi di policy making universitario nel mondo anglosassone dagli anni ottanta ad oggi. I casi di Inghilterra e Nuova Zelanda in prospettiva comparata

THE TITLE OF MY THESIS IS THE ROLE OF THE IDEAS AND THEIR CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY-MAKING PROCESSES FROM THE EIGHTIES TO PRESENT-DAY: THE CASES OF ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE UNDER A THEORETICAL POINT OF VIEW, THE AIM OF MY WORK IS TO CARRY OUT A RESEARCH MODELLED ON THE CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY. IT FOCUSES ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF IDEAS ON THE PROCESSES OF POLICY MAKING BY MEANS OF EPISTEMIC COMMUNITIES, THINK TANKS AND VARIOUS SOCIOECONOMIC CONTEXTS THAT MAY HAVE PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DIFFERENT PATHS. FROM MY POINT OF VIEW IDEAS CONSTITUTE A PRIORITY RESEARCH FIELD WHICH IS WORTH ANALYSING SINCE THEIR ROLE IN POLICY MAKING PROCESSES HAS BEEN TRADITIONALLY RATHER UNEXPLORED. IN THIS CONTEXT AND WITH THE AIM OF DEVELOPING A RESEARCH STRAND BASED ON THE ROLE OF IDEAS, I INTEND TO CARRY ON MY STUDY UNDER THE PERSPECTIVE OF CHANGE. DEPENDING ON THE DATA AND INFORMATION THAT I COLLECTED I EVALUATED THE WEIGHT OF EACH OF THESE VARIABLES AND MAYBE OTHERS SUCH AS THE INSTITUTIONS AND THE INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS, WHICH MAY HAVE INFLUENCED THE FORMATION OF THE POLICY MAKING PROCESSES. UNDER THIS LIGHT, I PLANNED TO ADOPT THE QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH WHICH I BELIEVE TO BE VERY EFFECTIVE AGAINST THE MORE DIFFICULT AND POSSIBLY REDUCTIVE APPLICATION OF QUANTITIVE DATA SETS. I RECKON THEREFORE THAT THE MOST APPROPRIATE TOOLS FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING INCLUDE CONTENT ANALYSIS, AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS TO PERSONALITIES OF THE POLITICAL PANORAMA (ÉLITE OR NOT) WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THE PROCESS OF HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM FROM THE EIGHTIES TO PRESENT-DAY. THE TWO CASES TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION SURELY SET AN EXAMPLE OF RADICAL REFORM PROCESSES WHICH HAVE OCCURRED IN QUITE DIFFERENT CONTEXTS DETERMINED BY THE SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS AND THE TRAITS OF THE ÉLITE. IN NEW ZEALAND THE DESCRIBED PROCESS HAS TAKEN PLACE WITH A STEADY PACE AND A GOOD GRADE OF CONSEQUANTIALITY, IN LINE WTH THE REFORMS IN OTHER STATE DIVISIONS DRIVEN BY THE IDEAS OF THE NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT. CONTRARILY IN ENGLAND THE REFORMATIVE ACTION OF MARGARET THATCHER HAS ACQUIRED A VERY RADICAL CONNOTATION AS IT HAS BROUGHT INTO THE AMBIT OF HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY CONCEPTS LIKE EFFICIENCY, EXCELLENCE, RATIONALIZATION THAT WOULD CONTRAST WITH THE GENERALISTIC AND MASS-ORIENTED IDEAS THAT WERE FASHIONABLE DURING THE SEVENTIES. THE MISSION I INTEND TO ACCOMPLISH THORUGHOUT MY RESEARCH IS TO INVESTIGATE AND ANALYSE INTO MORE DEPTH THE DIFFERENCES THAT SEEM TO EMERGE FROM TWO CONTEXTS WHICH MOST OF THE LITERATURE REGARDS AS A SINGLE MODEL: THE ANGLO-SAXON MODEL. UNDER THIS LIGHT, THE DENSE ANALYSIS OF POLICY PROCESSES ALLOWED TO BRING OUT BOTH THE CONTROVERSIAL AND CONTRASTING ASPECTS OF THE TWO REALITIES COMPARED, AND THE ROLE AND WEIGHT OF VARIABLES SUCH AS IDEAS (MAIN VARIABLE), INSTITUTIONAL SETTINGS AND INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS ACTING IN EACH CONTEXT. THE CASES I MEAN TO ATTEND PRESENT PECULIAR ASPECTS WORTH DEVELOPING AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS, AN OUTLINE OF WHICH WILL BE PROVIDED IN THIS ABSTRACT. ENGLAND THE CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, SINCE 1981, INTRODUCED RADICAL CHANGES IN THE SECTOR OF HIGHER EDUCATION: FIRST CUTTING DOWN ON STATE FUNDINGS AND THEN WITH THE CREATION OF AN INSTITUTION FOR THE PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP OF THE POLYTECHNICS (NON-UNIVERSITY SECTOR). AFTERWARDS THE SCHOOL REFORM BY MARGARET THATCHER IN 1988 RAISED TO A GREAT STIR ALL OVER EUROPE DUE TO BOTH ITS CONSIDERABLE INNOVATIVE IMPRINT AND THE STRONG ATTACK AGAINST THE PEDAGOGY OF THE ‘ACTIVE’ SCHOOLING AND PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION, UNTIL THEN RECOGNIZED AS A MERIT OF THE BRITISH PUBLIC SCHOOL. IN THE AMBIT OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION THIS REFORM, TOGETHER WITH SIMILAR MEASURES BROUGHT IN DURING 1992, PUT INTO PRACTICE THE CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES THROUGH A SERIES OF ACTIONS THAT INCLUDED: THE SUPPRESSION OF THE IRREMOVABILITY PRINCIPLE FOR UNIVERSITY TEACHERS; THE INTRODUCTION OF STUDENT LOANS FOR LOW-INCOME STUDENTS AND THE CANCELLATION OF THE CLEAR DISTINCTION BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND POLYTECHNICS. THE POLICIES OF THE LABOUR MAJORITY OF MR BLAIR DID NOT QUITE DIVERGE FROM THE CONSERVATIVES’ POSITION. IN 2003 BLAIR’S CABINET RISKED TO BECOME A MINORITY RIGHT ON THE OCCASION OF AN IMPORTANT UNIVERSITY REFORM PROPOSAL. THIS PROPOSAL WOULD FORESEE THE AUTONOMY FOR THE UNIVERSITIES TO RAISE UP TO 3.000 POUNDS THE ENROLMENT FEES FOR STUDENTS (WHILE FORMERLY THE CEILING WAS 1.125 POUNDS). BLAIR HAD TO FACE INTERNAL OPPOSITION WITHIN HIS OWN PARTY IN RELATION TO A MEASURE THAT, ACCORDING TO THE 150 MPS PROMOTERS OF AN ADVERSE MOTION, HAD NOT BEEN INCLUDED IN THE ELECTORAL PROGRAMME AND WOULD RISK CREATING INCOME-BASED DISCRIMINATION AMONG STUDENTS. AS A MATTER OF FACT THE BILL FOCUSED ON THE INTRODUCTION OF VERY LOW-INTEREST STUDENT LOANS TO BE SETTLED ONLY WHEN THE STUDENT WOULD HAVE FOUND A REMUNERATED OCCUPATION (A SYSTEM ALREADY PROVIDED FOR BY THE AUSTRALIAN LEGISLATION). NEW ZEALAND CONTRARILY TO MANY OTHER COUNTRIES, NEW ZEALAND HAS ADOPTED A VERY WIDE VISION OF THE TERTIARY EDUCATION. IT INCLUDES IN FACT THE FULL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME THAT IS INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED AS THE POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION. SHOULD WE SPOTLIGHT A PECULIARITY OF THE NEW ZEALAND TERTIARY EDUCATION POLICY THEN IT WOULD BE ‘CHANGE’. LOOKING AT THE REFORM HISTORY RELATED TO THE TERTIARY EDUCATION SYSTEM, WE CAN CLEARLY IDENTIFY FOUR ‘SUB-PERIODS’ FROM THE EIGHTIES TO PRESENT-DAY: 1. BEFORE THE 80S’: AN ELITARIAN SYSTEM CHARACTERIZED BY LOW PARTICIPATION RATES. 2. BETWEEN MID AND LATE 80S’: A TREND TOWARDS THE ENLARGEMENT OF PARTICIPATION ASSOCIATED TO A GREATER COMPETITION. 3. 1990-1999: A FUTHER STEP TOWARDS A COMPETITIVE MODEL BASED ON THE MARKET-ORIENTED SYSTEM. 4. FROM 2000 TO TODAY: A CONTINUOUS EVOLUTION TOWARDS A MORE COMPETITIVE MODEL BASED ON THE MARKET-ORIENTED SYSTEM TOGETHER WITH A GROWING ATTENTION TO STATE CONTROL FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION. AT PRESENT THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND OPERATES TO STRENGHTHEN THIS PROCESS, PRIMARILY IN RELATION TO THE ROLE OF TERTIARY EDUCATION AS A STEADY FACTOR OF NATIONAL WALFARE, WHERE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTRIBUTES ACTIVELY TO THE GROWTH OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM5. THE CASES OF ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND ARE THE FOCUS OF AN IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION THAT STARTS FROM AN ANALYSIS OF THE POLICIES OF EACH NATION AND DEVELOP INTO A COMPARATIVE STUDY. AT THIS POINT I ATTEMPT TO DRAW SOME PRELIMINARY IMPRESSIONS ON THE FACTS ESSENTIALLY DECRIBED ABOVE. THE UNIVERSITY POLICIES IN ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE BOTH UNDERGONE A SIGNIFICANT REFORMATORY PROCESS SINCE THE EARLY EIGHTIES; IN BOTH CONTEXTS THE IMPORTANCE OF IDEAS THAT CONSTITUTED THE BASE OF POLITICS UNTIL 1980 WAS QUITE RELEVANT. GENERALLY SPEAKING, IN BOTH CASES THE PRE-REFORM POLICIES WERE INSPIRED BY EGALITARIANISM AND EXPANSION OF THE STUDENT POPULATION WHILE THOSE BROUGHT IN BY THE REFORM WOULD PURSUE EFFICIENCY, QUALITY AND COMPETITIVENESS. UNDOUBTEDLY, IN LINE WITH THIS GENERAL TENDENCY THAT REFLECTS THE HYPOTHESIS PROPOSED, THE TWO UNIVERSITY SYSTEMS PRESENT SEVERAL DIFFERENCES. THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM IN NEW ZEALAND PROCEEDED STEADILY TOWARDS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A MANAGERIAL CONCEPTION OF TERTIARY EDUCATION, ESPECIALLY FROM 1996 ONWARDS, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REFORMATORY PROCESS OF THE WHOLE PUBLIC SECTOR. IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, AS IN THE REST OF EUROPE, THE NEW APPROACH TO UNIVERSITY POLICY-MAKING HAD TO CONFRONT A DEEP-ROOTED TRADITION OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION AND THE IDEA OF EDUCATION EXPANSION THAT IN FACT DOMINATED UNTIL THE EIGHTIES. FROM THIS VIEW POINT THE GOVERNING ACTION OF MARGARET THATCHER GAVE RISE TO A RADICAL CHANGE THAT REVOLUTIONIZED THE OBJECTIVES AND KEY VALUES OF THE WHOLE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, IN PARTICULAR IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR. IDEAS AS EFFICIENCY, EXCELLENCE AND CONTROL OF THE PERFORMANCE BECAME DECISIVE. THE LABOUR CABINETS OF BLAIR DEVELOPED IN THE WAKE OF CONSERVATIVE REFORMS. THIS APPEARS TO BE A FOCAL POINT OF THIS STUDY THAT OBSERVES HOW ALSO IN NEW ZEALAND THE REFORMING PROCESS OCCURRED TRANSVERSELY DURING PROGRESSIVE AND CONSERVATIVE ADMINISTRATIONS. THE PRELIMINARY IMPRESSION IS THEREFORE THAT IDEAS DEEPLY MARK THE REFORMATIVE PROCESSES: THE AIM OF MY RESEARCH IS TO VERIFY TO WHICH EXTENT THIS STATEMENT IS TRUE. IN ORDER TO BUILD A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYLIS, FURTHER SIGNIFICANT FACTORS WILL HAVE TO BE INVESTIGATED: THE WAY IDEAS ARE PERCEIVED AND IMPLEMENTED BY THE DIFFERENT POLITICAL ELITES; HOW THE VARIOUS SOCIOECONOMIC CONTEXTS INFLUENCE THE REFORMATIVE PROCESS; HOW THE INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES CONDITION THE POLICY-MAKING PROCESSES; WHETHER INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS PLAY A ROLE AND, IF YES, TO WHICH EXTENT.

Modulation Techniques for Multi-Phase Converters and Control Strategies for Multi-Phase Electric Drives

The ever-increasing spread of automation in industry puts the electrical engineer in a central role as a promoter of technological development in a sector such as the use of electricity, which is the basis of all the machinery and productive processes. Moreover the spread of drives for motor control and static converters with structures ever more complex, places the electrical engineer to face new challenges whose solution has as critical elements in the implementation of digital control techniques with the requirements of inexpensiveness and efficiency of the final product. The successfully application of solutions using non-conventional static converters awake an increasing interest in science and industry due to the promising opportunities. However, in the same time, new problems emerge whose solution is still under study and debate in the scientific community During the Ph.D. course several themes have been developed that, while obtaining the recent and growing interest of scientific community, have much space for the development of research activity and for industrial applications. The first area of research is related to the control of three phase induction motors with high dynamic performance and the sensorless control in the high speed range. The management of the operation of induction machine without position or speed sensors awakes interest in the industrial world due to the increased reliability and robustness of this solution combined with a lower cost of production and purchase of this technology compared to the others available in the market. During this dissertation control techniques will be proposed which are able to exploit the total dc link voltage and at the same time capable to exploit the maximum torque capability in whole speed range with good dynamic performance. The proposed solution preserves the simplicity of tuning of the regulators. Furthermore, in order to validate the effectiveness of presented solution, it is assessed in terms of performance and complexity and compared to two other algorithm presented in literature. The feasibility of the proposed algorithm is also tested on induction motor drive fed by a matrix converter. Another important research area is connected to the development of technology for vehicular applications. In this field the dynamic performances and the low power consumption is one of most important goals for an effective algorithm. Towards this direction, a control scheme for induction motor that integrates within a coherent solution some of the features that are commonly required to an electric vehicle drive is presented. The main features of the proposed control scheme are the capability to exploit the maximum torque in the whole speed range, a weak dependence on the motor parameters, a good robustness against the variations of the dc-link voltage and, whenever possible, the maximum efficiency. The second part of this dissertation is dedicated to the multi-phase systems. This technology, in fact, is characterized by a number of issues worthy of investigation that make it competitive with other technologies already on the market. Multiphase systems, allow to redistribute power at a higher number of phases, thus making possible the construction of electronic converters which otherwise would be very difficult to achieve due to the limits of present power electronics. Multiphase drives have an intrinsic reliability given by the possibility that a fault of a phase, caused by the possible failure of a component of the converter, can be solved without inefficiency of the machine or application of a pulsating torque. The control of the magnetic field spatial harmonics in the air-gap with order higher than one allows to reduce torque noise and to obtain high torque density motor and multi-motor applications. In one of the next chapters a control scheme able to increase the motor torque by adding a third harmonic component to the air-gap magnetic field will be presented. Above the base speed the control system reduces the motor flux in such a way to ensure the maximum torque capability. The presented analysis considers the drive constrains and shows how these limits modify the motor performance. The multi-motor applications are described by a well-defined number of multiphase machines, having series connected stator windings, with an opportune permutation of the phases these machines can be independently controlled with a single multi-phase inverter. In this dissertation this solution will be presented and an electric drive consisting of two five-phase PM tubular actuators fed by a single five-phase inverter will be presented. Finally the modulation strategies for a multi-phase inverter will be illustrated. The problem of the space vector modulation of multiphase inverters with an odd number of phases is solved in different way. An algorithmic approach and a look-up table solution will be proposed. The inverter output voltage capability will be investigated, showing that the proposed modulation strategy is able to fully exploit the dc input voltage either in sinusoidal or non-sinusoidal operating conditions. All this aspects are considered in the next chapters. In particular, Chapter 1 summarizes the mathematical model of induction motor. The Chapter 2 is a brief state of art on three-phase inverter. Chapter 3 proposes a stator flux vector control for a three- phase induction machine and compares this solution with two other algorithms presented in literature. Furthermore, in the same chapter, a complete electric drive based on matrix converter is presented. In Chapter 4 a control strategy suitable for electric vehicles is illustrated. Chapter 5 describes the mathematical model of multi-phase induction machines whereas chapter 6 analyzes the multi-phase inverter and its modulation strategies. Chapter 7 discusses the minimization of the power losses in IGBT multi-phase inverters with carrier-based pulse width modulation. In Chapter 8 an extended stator flux vector control for a seven-phase induction motor is presented. Chapter 9 concerns the high torque density applications and in Chapter 10 different fault tolerant control strategies are analyzed. Finally, the last chapter presents a positioning multi-motor drive consisting of two PM tubular five-phase actuators fed by a single five-phase inverter.

Security control brought back to the user

The activity of the Ph.D. student Juri Luca De Coi involved the research field of policy languages and can be divided in three parts. The first part of the Ph.D. work investigated the state of the art in policy languages, ending up with: (i) identifying the requirements up-to-date policy languages have to fulfill; (ii) defining a policy language able to fulfill such requirements (namely, the Protune policy language); and (iii) implementing an infrastructure able to enforce policies expressed in the Protune policy language. The second part of the Ph.D. work focused on simplifying the activity of defining policies and ended up with: (i) identifying a subset of the controlled natural language ACE to express Protune policies; (ii) implementing a mapping between ACE policies and Protune policies; and (iii) adapting the ACE Editor to guide users step by step when defining ACE policies. The third part of the Ph.D. work tested the feasibility of the chosen approach by applying it to meaningful real-world problems, among which: (i) development of a security layer on top of RDF stores; and (ii) efficient policy-aware access to metadata stores. The research activity has been performed in tight collaboration with the Leibniz Universität Hannover and further European partners within the projects REWERSE, TENCompetence and OKKAM.

The Enhanced Single-dish Control System and wide surveys of compact sources

The Italian radio telescopes currently undergo a major upgrade period in response to the growing demand for deep radio observations, such as surveys on large sky areas or observations of vast samples of compact radio sources. The optimised employment of the Italian antennas, at first constructed mainly for VLBI activities and provided with a control system (FS – Field System) not tailored to single-dish observations, required important modifications in particular of the guiding software and data acquisition system. The production of a completely new control system called ESCS (Enhanced Single-dish Control System) for the Medicina dish started in 2007, in synergy with the software development for the forthcoming Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). The aim is to produce a system optimised for single-dish observations in continuum, spectrometry and polarimetry. ESCS is also planned to be installed at the Noto site. A substantial part of this thesis work consisted in designing and developing subsystems within ESCS, in order to provide this software with tools to carry out large maps, spanning from the implementation of On-The-Fly fast scans (following both conventional and innovative observing strategies) to the production of single-dish standard output files and the realisation of tools for the quick-look of the acquired data. The test period coincided with the commissioning phase for two devices temporarily installed – while waiting for the SRT to be completed – on the Medicina antenna: a 18-26 GHz 7-feed receiver and the 14-channel analogue backend developed for its use. It is worth stressing that it is the only K-band multi-feed receiver at present available worldwide. The commissioning of the overall hardware/software system constituted a considerable section of the thesis work. Tests were led in order to verify the system stability and its capabilities, down to sensitivity levels which had never been reached in Medicina using the previous observing techniques and hardware devices. The aim was also to assess the scientific potential of the multi-feed receiver for the production of wide maps, exploiting its temporary availability on a mid-sized antenna. Dishes like the 32-m antennas at Medicina and Noto, in fact, offer the best conditions for large-area surveys, especially at high frequencies, as they provide a suited compromise between sufficiently large beam sizes to cover quickly large areas of the sky (typical of small-sized telescopes) and sensitivity (typical of large-sized telescopes). The KNoWS (K-band Northern Wide Survey) project is aimed at the realisation of a full-northern-sky survey at 21 GHz; its pilot observations, performed using the new ESCS tools and a peculiar observing strategy, constituted an ideal test-bed for ESCS itself and for the multi-feed/backend system. The KNoWS group, which I am part of, supported the commissioning activities also providing map-making and source-extraction tools, in order to complete the necessary data reduction pipeline and assess the general system scientific capabilities. The K-band observations, which were carried out in several sessions along the December 2008-March 2010 period, were accompanied by the realisation of a 5 GHz test survey during the summertime, which is not suitable for high-frequency observations. This activity was conceived in order to check the new analogue backend separately from the multi-feed receiver, and to simultaneously produce original scientific data (the 6-cm Medicina Survey, 6MS, a polar cap survey to complete PMN-GB6 and provide an all-sky coverage at 5 GHz).

Technical innovations for the diagnosis and the rehabilitation of motor and perceptive impairments of the child with Cerebral Palsy

The treatment of the Cerebral Palsy (CP) is considered as the “core problem” for the whole field of the pediatric rehabilitation. The reason why this pathology has such a primary role, can be ascribed to two main aspects. First of all CP is the form of disability most frequent in childhood (one new case per 500 birth alive, (1)), secondarily the functional recovery of the “spastic” child is, historically, the clinical field in which the majority of the therapeutic methods and techniques (physiotherapy, orthotic, pharmacologic, orthopedic-surgical, neurosurgical) were first applied and tested. The currently accepted definition of CP – Group of disorders of the development of movement and posture causing activity limitation (2) – is the result of a recent update by the World Health Organization to the language of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health, from the original proposal of Ingram – A persistent but not unchangeable disorder of posture and movement – dated 1955 (3). This definition considers CP as a permanent ailment, i.e. a “fixed” condition, that however can be modified both functionally and structurally by means of child spontaneous evolution and treatments carried out during childhood. The lesion that causes the palsy, happens in a structurally immature brain in the pre-, peri- or post-birth period (but only during the firsts months of life). The most frequent causes of CP are: prematurity, insufficient cerebral perfusion, arterial haemorrhage, venous infarction, hypoxia caused by various origin (for example from the ingestion of amniotic liquid), malnutrition, infection and maternal or fetal poisoning. In addition to these causes, traumas and malformations have to be included. The lesion, whether focused or spread over the nervous system, impairs the whole functioning of the Central Nervous System (CNS). As a consequence, they affect the construction of the adaptive functions (4), first of all posture control, locomotion and manipulation. The palsy itself does not vary over time, however it assumes an unavoidable “evolutionary” feature when during growth the child is requested to meet new and different needs through the construction of new and different functions. It is essential to consider that clinically CP is not only a direct expression of structural impairment, that is of etiology, pathogenesis and lesion timing, but it is mainly the manifestation of the path followed by the CNS to “re”-construct the adaptive functions “despite” the presence of the damage. “Palsy” is “the form of the function that is implemented by an individual whose CNS has been damaged in order to satisfy the demands coming from the environment” (4). Therefore it is only possible to establish general relations between lesion site, nature and size, and palsy and recovery processes. It is quite common to observe that children with very similar neuroimaging can have very different clinical manifestations of CP and, on the other hand, children with very similar motor behaviors can have completely different lesion histories. A very clear example of this is represented by hemiplegic forms, which show bilateral hemispheric lesions in a high percentage of cases. The first section of this thesis is aimed at guiding the interpretation of CP. First of all the issue of the detection of the palsy is treated from historical viewpoint. Consequently, an extended analysis of the current definition of CP, as internationally accepted, is provided. The definition is then outlined in terms of a space dimension and then of a time dimension, hence it is highlighted where this definition is unacceptably lacking. The last part of the first section further stresses the importance of shifting from the traditional concept of CP as a palsy of development (defect analysis) towards the notion of development of palsy, i.e., as the product of the relationship that the individual however tries to dynamically build with the surrounding environment (resource semeiotics) starting and growing from a different availability of resources, needs, dreams, rights and duties (4). In the scientific and clinic community no common classification system of CP has so far been universally accepted. Besides, no standard operative method or technique have been acknowledged to effectively assess the different disabilities and impairments exhibited by children with CP. CP is still “an artificial concept, comprising several causes and clinical syndromes that have been grouped together for a convenience of management” (5). The lack of standard and common protocols able to effectively diagnose the palsy, and as a consequence to establish specific treatments and prognosis, is mainly because of the difficulty to elevate this field to a level based on scientific evidence. A solution aimed at overcoming the current incomplete treatment of CP children is represented by the clinical systematic adoption of objective tools able to measure motor defects and movement impairments. A widespread application of reliable instruments and techniques able to objectively evaluate both the form of the palsy (diagnosis) and the efficacy of the treatments provided (prognosis), constitutes a valuable method able to validate care protocols, establish the efficacy of classification systems and assess the validity of definitions. Since the ‘80s, instruments specifically oriented to the analysis of the human movement have been advantageously designed and applied in the context of CP with the aim of measuring motor deficits and, especially, gait deviations. The gait analysis (GA) technique has been increasingly used over the years to assess, analyze, classify, and support the process of clinical decisions making, allowing for a complete investigation of gait with an increased temporal and spatial resolution. GA has provided a basis for improving the outcome of surgical and nonsurgical treatments and for introducing a new modus operandi in the identification of defects and functional adaptations to the musculoskeletal disorders. Historically, the first laboratories set up for gait analysis developed their own protocol (set of procedures for data collection and for data reduction) independently, according to performances of the technologies available at that time. In particular, the stereophotogrammetric systems mainly based on optoelectronic technology, soon became a gold-standard for motion analysis. They have been successfully applied especially for scientific purposes. Nowadays the optoelectronic systems have significantly improved their performances in term of spatial and temporal resolution, however many laboratories continue to use the protocols designed on the technology available in the ‘70s and now out-of-date. Furthermore, these protocols are not coherent both for the biomechanical models and for the adopted collection procedures. In spite of these differences, GA data are shared, exchanged and interpreted irrespectively to the adopted protocol without a full awareness to what extent these protocols are compatible and comparable with each other. Following the extraordinary advances in computer science and electronics, new systems for GA no longer based on optoelectronic technology, are now becoming available. They are the Inertial and Magnetic Measurement Systems (IMMSs), based on miniature MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) inertial sensor technology. These systems are cost effective, wearable and fully portable motion analysis systems, these features gives IMMSs the potential to be used both outside specialized laboratories and to consecutive collect series of tens of gait cycles. The recognition and selection of the most representative gait cycle is then easier and more reliable especially in CP children, considering their relevant gait cycle variability. The second section of this thesis is focused on GA. In particular, it is firstly aimed at examining the differences among five most representative GA protocols in order to assess the state of the art with respect to the inter-protocol variability. The design of a new protocol is then proposed and presented with the aim of achieving gait analysis on CP children by means of IMMS. The protocol, named ‘Outwalk’, contains original and innovative solutions oriented at obtaining joint kinematic with calibration procedures extremely comfortable for the patients. The results of a first in-vivo validation of Outwalk on healthy subjects are then provided. In particular, this study was carried out by comparing Outwalk used in combination with an IMMS with respect to a reference protocol and an optoelectronic system. In order to set a more accurate and precise comparison of the systems and the protocols, ad hoc methods were designed and an original formulation of the statistical parameter coefficient of multiple correlation was developed and effectively applied. On the basis of the experimental design proposed for the validation on healthy subjects, a first assessment of Outwalk, together with an IMMS, was also carried out on CP children. The third section of this thesis is dedicated to the treatment of walking in CP children. Commonly prescribed treatments in addressing gait abnormalities in CP children include physical therapy, surgery (orthopedic and rhizotomy), and orthoses. The orthotic approach is conservative, being reversible, and widespread in many therapeutic regimes. Orthoses are used to improve the gait of children with CP, by preventing deformities, controlling joint position, and offering an effective lever for the ankle joint. Orthoses are prescribed for the additional aims of increasing walking speed, improving stability, preventing stumbling, and decreasing muscular fatigue. The ankle-foot orthosis (AFO), with a rigid ankle, are primarily designed to prevent equinus and other foot deformities with a positive effect also on more proximal joints. However, AFOs prevent the natural excursion of the tibio-tarsic joint during the second rocker, hence hampering the natural leaning progression of the whole body under the effect of the inertia (6). A new modular (submalleolar) astragalus-calcanear orthosis, named OMAC, has recently been proposed with the intention of substituting the prescription of AFOs in those CP children exhibiting a flat and valgus-pronated foot. The aim of this section is thus to present the mechanical and technical features of the OMAC by means of an accurate description of the device. In particular, the integral document of the deposited Italian patent, is provided. A preliminary validation of OMAC with respect to AFO is also reported as resulted from an experimental campaign on diplegic CP children, during a three month period, aimed at quantitatively assessing the benefit provided by the two orthoses on walking and at qualitatively evaluating the changes in the quality of life and motor abilities. As already stated, CP is universally considered as a persistent but not unchangeable disorder of posture and movement. Conversely to this definition, some clinicians (4) have recently pointed out that movement disorders may be primarily caused by the presence of perceptive disorders, where perception is not merely the acquisition of sensory information, but an active process aimed at guiding the execution of movements through the integration of sensory information properly representing the state of one’s body and of the environment. Children with perceptive impairments show an overall fear of moving and the onset of strongly unnatural walking schemes directly caused by the presence of perceptive system disorders. The fourth section of the thesis thus deals with accurately defining the perceptive impairment exhibited by diplegic CP children. A detailed description of the clinical signs revealing the presence of the perceptive impairment, and a classification scheme of the clinical aspects of perceptual disorders is provided. In the end, a functional reaching test is proposed as an instrumental test able to disclosure the perceptive impairment. References 1. Prevalence and characteristics of children with cerebral palsy in Europe. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2002 Set;44(9):633-640. 2. Bax M, Goldstein M, Rosenbaum P, Leviton A, Paneth N, Dan B, et al. Proposed definition and classification of cerebral palsy, April 2005. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2005 Ago;47(8):571-576. 3. Ingram TT. A study of cerebral palsy in the childhood population of Edinburgh. Arch. Dis. Child. 1955 Apr;30(150):85-98. 4. Ferrari A, Cioni G. The spastic forms of cerebral palsy : a guide to the assessment of adaptive functions. Milan: Springer; 2009. 5. Olney SJ, Wright MJ. Cerebral Palsy. Campbell S et al. Physical Therapy for Children. 2nd Ed. Philadelphia: Saunders. 2000;:533-570. 6. Desloovere K, Molenaers G, Van Gestel L, Huenaerts C, Van Campenhout A, Callewaert B, et al. How can push-off be preserved during use of an ankle foot orthosis in children with hemiplegia? A prospective controlled study. Gait Posture. 2006 Ott;24(2):142-151.

Development of synthetic molecular circuits for the control of cell systems

Synthetic biology is a young field of applicative research aiming to design and build up artificial biological devices, useful for human applications. How synthetic biology emerged in past years and how the development of the Registry of Standard Biological Parts aimed to introduce one practical starting solution to apply the basics of engineering to molecular biology is presented in chapter 1 in the thesis The same chapter recalls how biological parts can make up a genetic program, the molecular cloning tecnique useful for this purpose, and an overview of the mathematical modeling adopted to describe gene circuit behavior. Although the design of gene circuits has become feasible the increasing complexity of gene networks asks for a rational approach to design gene circuits. A bottom-up approach was proposed, suggesting that the behavior of a complicated system can be predicted from the features of its parts. The option to use modular parts in large-scale networks will be facilitated by a detailed and shared characterization of their functional properties. Such a prediction, requires well-characterized mathematical models of the parts and of how they behave when assembled together. In chapter 2, the feasibility of the bottom-up approach in the design of a synthetic program in Escherichia coli bacterial cells is described. The rational design of gene networks is however far from being established. The synthetic biology approach can used the mathematical formalism to identify biological information not assessable with experimental measurements. In this context, chapter 3 describes the design of a synthetic sensor for identifying molecules of interest inside eukaryotic cells. The Registry of Standard parts collects standard and modular biological parts. To spread the use of BioBricks the iGEM competition was started. The ICM Laboratory, where Francesca Ceroni completed her Ph.D, partecipated with teams of students and Chapter 4 summarizes the projects developed.