Support infrastructures for multimedia services with guaranteed continuity and QoS

Advances in wireless networking and content delivery systems are enabling new challenging provisioning scenarios where a growing number of users access multimedia services, e.g., audio/video streaming, while moving among different points of attachment to the Internet, possibly with different connectivity technologies, e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular 3G. That calls for novel middlewares capable of dynamically personalizing service provisioning to the characteristics of client environments, in particular to discontinuities in wireless resource availability due to handoffs. This dissertation proposes a novel middleware solution, called MUM, that performs effective and context-aware handoff management to transparently avoid service interruptions during both horizontal and vertical handoffs. To achieve the goal, MUM exploits the full visibility of wireless connections available in client localities and their handoff implementations (handoff awareness), of service quality requirements and handoff-related quality degradations (QoS awareness), and of network topology and resources available in current/future localities (location awareness). The design and implementation of the all main MUM components along with extensive on the field trials of the realized middleware architecture confirmed the validity of the proposed full context-aware handoff management approach. In particular, the reported experimental results demonstrate that MUM can effectively maintain service continuity for a wide range of different multimedia services by exploiting handoff prediction mechanisms, adaptive buffering and pre-fetching techniques, and proactive re-addressing/re-binding.

The school environment as a teacher. The role of space and place in enhancing ecological literacy and social competence development in children and young people

Can space and place foster child development, and in particular social competence and ecological literacy? If yes, how can space and place do that? This study shows that the answer to the first question is positive and then tries to explain the way space and place can make a difference. The thesis begins with the review of literature from different disciplines – child development and child psychology, education, environmental psychology, architecture and landscape architecture. Some bridges among such disciplines are created and in some cases the ideas from the different areas of research merge: thus, this is an interdisciplinary study. The interdisciplinary knowledge from these disciplines is translated into a range of design suggestions that can foster the development of social competence and ecological literacy. Using scientific knowledge from different disciplines is a way of introducing forms of evidence into the development of design criteria. However, the definition of design criteria also has to pass through the study of a series of school buildings and un-built projects: case studies can give a positive contribution to the criteria because examples and good practices can help “translating” the theoretical knowledge into design ideas and illustrations. To do that, the different case studies have to be assessed in relation to the various themes that emerged in the literature review. Finally, research by design can be used to help define the illustrated design criteria: based on all the background knowledge that has been built, the role of the architect is to provide a series of different design solutions that can give answers to the different “questions” emerged in the literature review.

Evidence-based polytherapies and long-term mortality after acute myocardial infarction in very old subjects compared with elderly and adults: a nested case-control study

Background: Clinical trials have demonstrated that selected secondary prevention medications for patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) reduce mortality. Yet, these medications are generally underprescribed in daily practice, and older people are often absent from drug trials. Objectives: To examine the relationship between adherence to evidence-based (EB) drugs and post-AMI mortality, focusing on the effects of single therapy and polytherapy in very old patients (≥80 years) compared with elderly and adults (<80 years). Methods: Patients hospitalised for AMI between 01/01/2008 and 30/06/2011 and resident in the Local Health Authority of Bologna were followed up until 31/12/2011. Medication adherence was calculated as the proportion of days covered for filled prescriptions of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), β-blockers, antiplatelet drugs, and statins. We adopted a risk set sampling method, and the adjusted relationship between medication adherence (PDC≥75%) and mortality was investigated using conditional multiple logistic regression. Results: The study population comprised 4861 patients. During a median follow-up of 2.8 years, 1116 deaths (23.0%) were observed. Adherence to the 4 EB drugs was 7.1%, while nonadherence to any of the drugs was 19.7%. For both patients aged ≥80 years and those aged <80 years, rate ratios of death linearly decreased as the number of EB drugs taken increased. There was a significant inverse relationship between adherence to each of 4 medications and mortality, although its magnitude was higher for ACEIs/ARBs (adj. rate ratio=0.60, 95%CI=0.52–0.69) and statins (0.60, 0.50–0.72), and lower for β-blockers (0.75, 0.61–0.92) and antiplatelet drugs (0.73, 0.63–0.84). Conclusions: The beneficial effect of EB polytherapy on long-term mortality following AMI is evident also in nontrial older populations. Given that adherence to combination therapies is largely suboptimal, the implementation of strategies and initiatives to increase the use of post-AMI secondary preventive medications in old patients is crucial.

Trait emotional intelligence: Evidence from italian adolescents and adults

Emotional intelligence (EI) represents an attribute of contemporary attractiveness for the scientific psychology community. Of particular interest for the present thesis are the conundrum related to the representation of this construct conceptualized as a trait (i.e., trait EI), which are in turn reflected in the current lack of agreement upon its constituent elements, posing significant challenges to research and clinical progress. Trait EI is defined as an umbrella personality-alike construct reflecting emotion-related dispositions and self-perceptions. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) was chosen as main measure, given its strong theoretical and psychometrical basis, including superior predictive validity when compared to other trait EI measures. Studies 1 and 2 aimed at validating the Italian 153-items forms of the TEIQue devoted to adolescents and adults. Analyses were done to investigate the structure of the questionnaire, its internal consistencies and gender differences at the facets, factor, and global level of both versions. Despite some low reliabilities, results from Studies 1 and 2 confirm the four-factor structure of the TEIQue. Study 3 investigated the utility of trait EI in a sample of adolescents over internalizing conditions (i.e., symptoms of anxiety and depression) and academic performance (grades at math and Italian language/literacy). Beyond trait EI, concurrent effects of demographic variables, higher order personality dimensions and non-verbal cognitive ability were controlled for. Study 4a and Study 4b addressed analogue research questions, through a meta-analysis and new data in on adults. In the latter case, effects of demographics, emotion regulation strategies, and the Big Five were controlled. Overall, these studies showed the incremental utility of the TEIQue in different domains beyond relevant predictors. Analyses performed at the level of the four-TEIQue factors consistently indicated that its predictive effects were mainly due to the factor Well-Being. Findings are discussed with reference to potential implication for theory and practice.