Cache-aware development of high integrity real-time systems

Cost, performance and availability considerations are forcing even the most conservative high-integrity embedded real-time systems industry to migrate from simple hardware processors to ones equipped with caches and other acceleration features. This migration disrupts the practices and solutions that industry had developed and consolidated over the years to perform timing analysis. Industry that are confident with the efficiency/effectiveness of their verification and validation processes for old-generation processors, do not have sufficient insight on the effects of the migration to cache-equipped processors. Caches are perceived as an additional source of complexity, which has potential for shattering the guarantees of cost- and schedule-constrained qualification of their systems. The current industrial approach to timing analysis is ill-equipped to cope with the variability incurred by caches. Conversely, the application of advanced WCET analysis techniques on real-world industrial software, developed without analysability in mind, is hardly feasible. We propose a development approach aimed at minimising the cache jitters, as well as at enabling the application of advanced WCET analysis techniques to industrial systems. Our approach builds on:(i) identification of those software constructs that may impede or complicate timing analysis in industrial-scale systems; (ii) elaboration of practical means, under the model-driven engineering (MDE) paradigm, to enforce the automated generation of software that is analyzable by construction; (iii) implementation of a layout optimisation method to remove cache jitters stemming from the software layout in memory, with the intent of facilitating incremental software development, which is of high strategic interest to industry. The integration of those constituents in a structured approach to timing analysis achieves two interesting properties: the resulting software is analysable from the earliest releases onwards - as opposed to becoming so only when the system is final - and more easily amenable to advanced timing analysis by construction, regardless of the system scale and complexity.

A take on complexity: bio-molecules and human metabolism interaction modelling for health and nutrition with machine learning

The advent of omic data production has opened many new perspectives in the quest for modelling complexity in biophysical systems. With the capability of characterizing a complex organism through the patterns of its molecular states, observed at different levels through various omics, a new paradigm of investigation is arising. In this thesis, we investigate the links between perturbations of the human organism, described as the ensemble of crosstalk of its molecular states, and health. Machine learning plays a key role within this picture, both in omic data analysis and model building. We propose and discuss different frameworks developed by the author using machine learning for data reduction, integration, projection on latent features, pattern analysis, classification and clustering of omic data, with a focus on 1H NMR metabolomic spectral data. The aim is to link different levels of omic observations of molecular states, from nanoscale to macroscale, to study perturbations such as diseases and diet interpreted as changes in molecular patterns. The first part of this work focuses on the fingerprinting of diseases, linking cellular and systemic metabolomics with genomic to asses and predict the downstream of perturbations all the way down to the enzymatic network. The second part is a set of frameworks and models, developed with 1H NMR metabolomic at its core, to study the exposure of the human organism to diet and food intake in its full complexity, from epidemiological data analysis to molecular characterization of food structure.

Each one teaches one: characterizing active forms of proteins by single molecule force spectroscopy

This Ph.D. candidate thesis collects the research work I conducted under the supervision of Prof.Bruno Samor´ı in 2005,2006 and 2007. Some parts of this work included in the Part III have been begun by myself during my undergraduate thesis in the same laboratory and then completed during the initial part of my Ph.D. thesis: the whole results have been included for the sake of understanding and completeness. During my graduate studies I worked on two very different protein systems. The theorical trait d’union between these studies, at the biological level, is the acknowledgement that protein biophysical and structural studies must, in many cases, take into account the dynamical states of protein conformational equilibria and of local physico-chemical conditions where the system studied actually performs its function. This is introducted in the introductory part in Chapter 2. Two different examples of this are presented: the structural significance deriving from the action of mechanical forces in vivo (Chapter 3) and the complexity of conformational equilibria in intrinsically unstructured proteins and amyloid formation (Chapter 4). My experimental work investigated both these examples by using in both cases the single molecule force spectroscopy technique (described in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6). The work conducted on angiostatin focused on the characterization of the relationships between the mechanochemical properties and the mechanism of action of the angiostatin protein, and most importantly their intertwining with the further layer of complexity due to disulfide redox equilibria (Part III). These studies were accompanied concurrently by the elaboration of a theorical model for a novel signalling pathway that may be relevant in the extracellular space, detailed in Chapter 7.2. The work conducted on -synuclein (Part IV) instead brought a whole new twist to the single molecule force spectroscopy methodology, applying it as a structural technique to elucidate the conformational equilibria present in intrinsically unstructured proteins. These equilibria are of utmost interest from a biophysical point of view, but most importantly because of their direct relationship with amyloid aggregation and, consequently, the aetiology of relevant pathologies like Parkinson’s disease. The work characterized, for the first time, conformational equilibria in an intrinsically unstructured protein at the single molecule level and, again for the first time, identified a monomeric folded conformation that is correlated with conditions leading to -synuclein and, ultimately, Parkinson’s disease. Also, during the research work, I found myself in the need of a generalpurpose data analysis application for single molecule force spectroscopy data analysis that could solve some common logistic and data analysis problems that are common in this technique. I developed an application that addresses some of these problems, herein presented (Part V), and that aims to be publicly released soon.

Computational methods for the analysis of protein structure and function

The vast majority of known proteins have not yet been experimentally characterized and little is known about their function. The design and implementation of computational tools can provide insight into the function of proteins based on their sequence, their structure, their evolutionary history and their association with other proteins. Knowledge of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein can lead to a deep understanding of its mode of action and interaction, but currently the structures of <1% of sequences have been experimentally solved. For this reason, it became urgent to develop new methods that are able to computationally extract relevant information from protein sequence and structure. The starting point of my work has been the study of the properties of contacts between protein residues, since they constrain protein folding and characterize different protein structures. Prediction of residue contacts in proteins is an interesting problem whose solution may be useful in protein folding recognition and de novo design. The prediction of these contacts requires the study of the protein inter-residue distances related to the specific type of amino acid pair that are encoded in the so-called contact map. An interesting new way of analyzing those structures came out when network studies were introduced, with pivotal papers demonstrating that protein contact networks also exhibit small-world behavior. In order to highlight constraints for the prediction of protein contact maps and for applications in the field of protein structure prediction and/or reconstruction from experimentally determined contact maps, I studied to which extent the characteristic path length and clustering coefficient of the protein contacts network are values that reveal characteristic features of protein contact maps. Provided that residue contacts are known for a protein sequence, the major features of its 3D structure could be deduced by combining this knowledge with correctly predicted motifs of secondary structure. In the second part of my work I focused on a particular protein structural motif, the coiled-coil, known to mediate a variety of fundamental biological interactions. Coiled-coils are found in a variety of structural forms and in a wide range of proteins including, for example, small units such as leucine zippers that drive the dimerization of many transcription factors or more complex structures such as the family of viral proteins responsible for virus-host membrane fusion. The coiled-coil structural motif is estimated to account for 5-10% of the protein sequences in the various genomes. Given their biological importance, in my work I introduced a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) that exploits the evolutionary information derived from multiple sequence alignments, to predict coiled-coil regions and to discriminate coiled-coil sequences. The results indicate that the new HMM outperforms all the existing programs and can be adopted for the coiled-coil prediction and for large-scale genome annotation. Genome annotation is a key issue in modern computational biology, being the starting point towards the understanding of the complex processes involved in biological networks. The rapid growth in the number of protein sequences and structures available poses new fundamental problems that still deserve an interpretation. Nevertheless, these data are at the basis of the design of new strategies for tackling problems such as the prediction of protein structure and function. Experimental determination of the functions of all these proteins would be a hugely time-consuming and costly task and, in most instances, has not been carried out. As an example, currently, approximately only 20% of annotated proteins in the Homo sapiens genome have been experimentally characterized. A commonly adopted procedure for annotating protein sequences relies on the "inheritance through homology" based on the notion that similar sequences share similar functions and structures. This procedure consists in the assignment of sequences to a specific group of functionally related sequences which had been grouped through clustering techniques. The clustering procedure is based on suitable similarity rules, since predicting protein structure and function from sequence largely depends on the value of sequence identity. However, additional levels of complexity are due to multi-domain proteins, to proteins that share common domains but that do not necessarily share the same function, to the finding that different combinations of shared domains can lead to different biological roles. In the last part of this study I developed and validate a system that contributes to sequence annotation by taking advantage of a validated transfer through inheritance procedure of the molecular functions and of the structural templates. After a cross-genome comparison with the BLAST program, clusters were built on the basis of two stringent constraints on sequence identity and coverage of the alignment. The adopted measure explicity answers to the problem of multi-domain proteins annotation and allows a fine grain division of the whole set of proteomes used, that ensures cluster homogeneity in terms of sequence length. A high level of coverage of structure templates on the length of protein sequences within clusters ensures that multi-domain proteins when present can be templates for sequences of similar length. This annotation procedure includes the possibility of reliably transferring statistically validated functions and structures to sequences considering information available in the present data bases of molecular functions and structures.

Crisi economiche, sostenibilità ambientale e politiche pubbliche: il ruolo del legislatore e della pubblica amministrazione

Il presente lavoro analizza il ruolo ricoperto dal legislatore e dalla pubblica amministrazione rispettivamente nel delineare e attuare politiche pubbliche volte alla promozione di modelli di sviluppo economico caratterizzati da un elevato tasso di sostenibilità ambientale. A tal fine, il lavoro è suddiviso in quattro capitoli. Nel primo capitolo vengono presi in considerazione i principali elementi della teoria generale che costituiscono i piani di lettura del tema trattato. Questa prima fase della ricerca è incentrata, da un lato, sull’analisi (storico-evolutiva) del concetto di ambiente alla luce della prevalente elaborazione giuridica e, dall’altro, sulla formazione del concetto di sviluppo sostenibile, con particolare riguardo alla sua declinazione in chiave ambientale. Nella parte centrale del lavoro, costituita dal secondo e dal terzo capitolo, l’analisi è rivolta a tre settori d’indagine determinanti per l’inquadramento sistematico delle politiche pubbliche del settore: il sistema di rapporti che esiste tra i molteplici soggetti (internazionali, nazionali e locali) coinvolti nella ricerca di soluzioni alla crisi sistemica ambientale; l’individuazione e la definizione dell’insieme dei principi sostanziali che governano il sistema di tutela ambientale e che indirizzano le scelte di policy nel settore; i principali strumenti (giuridici ed economici) di protezione attualmente in vigore. Il quarto ed ultimo capitolo prende in considerazione le politiche relative alle procedure di autorizzazione alla costruzione e all’esercizio degli impianti per la produzione di energia alimentati da fonti energetiche rinnovabili, analizzate quale caso specifico che può essere assunto a paradigma del ruolo ricoperto dal legislatore e dalla pubblica amministrazione nel settore delle politiche di sviluppo sostenibile. L’analisi condotta mostra un elevato tasso di complessità del sistema istituzionale e organizzativo, a cui si aggiungono evidenti limiti di efficienza per quanto riguarda il regime amministrativo delle autorizzazioni introdotto dal legislatore nazionale.

Da Laodice I a Laodice III: l'orizzonte politico delle regine seleucidi

Questo studio indaga la tradizione storiografica sulle regine seleucidi di III secolo a.C. - da Laodice I fino all’ascesa al trono di Laodice III - alla luce delle testimonianze documentarie. L’intento è stabilire l’orizzonte politico dell’azione delle regine nel momento meno conosciuto e più buio della storia del regno di Siria. Il III secolo seleucidico è infatti un periodo caratterizzato da incertezza nella ricostruzione evenemenziale e nell’analisi delle dinamiche sociopolitiche, soprattutto a causa dell’interesse relativo e limitato delle fonti storiografiche antiche a noi giunte relativamente alle vicende della monarchia seleucidica precedenti l’avvento di Antioco III il Grande. In questo panorama rappresenta un’eccezione il caso di Laodice I, che è al centro di un rilevante numero di testimonianze. Tenendo conto della differente natura delle fonti e della complessità del contesto evenemenziale, non sempre ricostruibile, è stata studiata la figura di Laodice I nell’intento di comprendere il paradigma di regalità femminile stabilito dalle azioni della regina, e quindi l’influenza di tale paradigma sulla generazione seleucide successiva. La ricerca si articola in tre sezioni, legate agli eventi principali del III secolo seleucide che vedono coinvolta la regina. La prima parte è dedicata all’attività di Laodice I dopo il secondo matrimonio di Antioco II con la tolemaica Berenice. La seconda parte riguarda il ruolo di Laodice nei complessi eventi che seguirono la morte del marito Antioco II nel 246 e nella Terza Guerra Siriaca, che vide la regina a fianco del figlio Seleuco II contrapporsi a Tolemeo III e Berenice Sira. La terza sezione si occupa dell’azione di Laodice I nella Guerra Fraterna al fianco di Antioco Ierace contro Seleuco II e Laodice II. Nella conclusione si riflette sull’influenza delle azioni politiche di Laodice I sulla scelta di Antioco III di sposare la cugina Laodice III, prima principessa del Ponto entrata nella dinastia regnante.

The Effect of Metronome Pacing on Gait in Healthy Subjects

The complex process of gait is rendered partially automatic by central pattern generators (CPGs). To further our understanding of their role in gait control in healthy subjects, we applied a paradigm of anti-phase, or syncopated, movement to gait. To provide a context for our results, we reviewed the literature on in-phase, or synchronized, gait. The review results are as follows. Auditory cueing increased step/stride rate for older subjects, but not younger. Stride rate variability decreased for younger subjects, perhaps because the metronome’s cue acted as a temporal ‘anchor point’ for each step. Step width increased in half of the treadmill studies, but none of the overground ones, suggesting a cumulative effect of the attentional demands of synchronizing gait while on a treadmill. Time series analysis revealed that the α exponent was the most sensitive parameter reported, decreasing toward anti-persistence in almost all cued-gait studies. This project compares in-phase (IN) and anti-phase gait (ANTI) in young and old healthy subjects. We expected gait to be less disrupted during ANTI trials at preferred speed, when the facilitating effect of CPGs would be strongest. The measures step time variability, jerk index, and harmonic ratio quantified gait perturbation: none indicated that ANTI was easiest at preferred walking speed. Surprisingly, the gait of older subjects was no more perturbed than that of younger subjects. When they successfully matched the pace of the beat, they unwittingly synchronized to it. The temporal relationship of their steps to the beat was the same in the IN and ANTI conditions. Younger subjects, visibly struggling during ANTI trials, were able to walk in syncopation. This result suggests that cognitive resources available only to the younger group are required to resist synchronizing to the beat.

The Perception of American Adolescent Culture Through the Dubbing and Fansubbing of a Selection of US Teen Series from 1990 to 2013

The present dissertation aims at analyzing the construction of American adolescent culture through teen-targeted television series and the shift in perception that occurs as a consequence of the translation process. In light of the recent changes in television production and consumption modes, largely caused by new technologies, this project explores the evolution of Italian audiences, focusing on fansubbing (freely distributed amateur subtitles made by fans for fan consumption) and social viewing (the re-aggregation of television consumption based on social networks and dedicated platforms, rather than on physical presence). These phenomena are symptoms of a sort of ‘viewership 2.0’ and of a new type of active viewing, which calls for a revision of traditional AVT strategies. Using a framework that combines television studies, new media studies, and fandom studies with an approach to AVT based on Descriptive Translation Studies (Toury 1995), this dissertation analyzes the non-Anglophone audience’s growing need to participation in the global dialogue and appropriation process based on US scheduling and informed by the new paradigm of convergence culture, transmedia storytelling, and affective economics (Jenkins 2006 and 2007), as well as the constraints intrinsic to multimodal translation and the different types of linguistic and cultural adaptation performed through dubbing (which tends to be more domesticating; Venuti 1995) and fansubbing (typically more foreignizing). The study analyzes a selection of episodes from six of the most popular teen television series between 1990 and 2013, which has been divided into three ages based on the different modes of television consumption: top-down, pre-Internet consumption (Beverly Hills, 90210, 1990 – 2000), emergence of audience participation (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997 – 2003; Dawson’s Creek, 1998 – 2003), age of convergence and Viewership 2.0 (Gossip Girl, 2007 – 2012; Glee, 2009 – present; The Big Bang Theory, 2007 - present).

Identification of novel genetic alterations in pediatric cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia by next-generation sequencing

Pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a molecularly heterogeneous disease that arises from genetic alterations in pathways that regulate self-renewal and myeloid differentiation. While the majority of patients carry recurrent chromosomal translocations, almost 20% of childhood AML do not show any recognizable cytogenetic alteration and are defined as cytogenetically normal (CN)-AML. CN-AML patients have always showed a great variability in response to therapy and overall outcome, underlining the presence of unknown genetic changes, not detectable by conventional analyses, but relevant for pathogenesis, and outcome of AML. The development of novel genome-wide techniques such as next-generation sequencing, have tremendously improved our ability to interrogate the cancer genome. Based on this background, the aim of this research study was to investigate the mutational landscape of pediatric CN-AML patients negative for all the currently known somatic mutations reported in AML through whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq). RNA-seq performed on diagnostic leukemic blasts from 19 pediatric CN-AML cases revealed a considerable incidence of cryptic chromosomal rearrangements, with the identification of 21 putative fusion genes. Several of the fusion genes that were identified in this study are recurrent and might have a prognostic and/or therapeutic relevance. A paradigm of that is the CBFA2T3-GLIS2 fusion, which has been demonstrated to be a common alteration in pediatric CN-AML, predicting poor outcome. Important findings have been also obtained in the identification of novel therapeutic targets. On one side, the identification of NUP98-JARID1A fusion suggests the use of disulfiram; on the other, here we describe alteration-activating tyrosine kinases, providing functional data supporting the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors to specifically inhibit leukemia cells. This study provides new insights in the knowledge of genetic alterations underlying pediatric AML, defines novel prognostic markers and putative therapeutic targets, and prospectively ensures a correct risk stratification and risk-adapted therapy also for the “all-neg” AML subgroup.

Development of a microgrid with renewable energy sources and electrochemical storage system integration

Beside the traditional paradigm of "centralized" power generation, a new concept of "distributed" generation is emerging, in which the same user becomes pro-sumer. During this transition, the Energy Storage Systems (ESS) can provide multiple services and features, which are necessary for a higher quality of the electrical system and for the optimization of non-programmable Renewable Energy Source (RES) power plants. A ESS prototype was designed, developed and integrated into a renewable energy production system in order to create a smart microgrid and consequently manage in an efficient and intelligent way the energy flow as a function of the power demand. The produced energy can be introduced into the grid, supplied to the load directly or stored in batteries. The microgrid is composed by a 7 kW wind turbine (WT) and a 17 kW photovoltaic (PV) plant are part of. The load is given by electrical utilities of a cheese factory. The ESS is composed by the following two subsystems, a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and a Power Control System (PCS). With the aim of sizing the ESS, a Remote Grid Analyzer (RGA) was designed, realized and connected to the wind turbine, photovoltaic plant and the switchboard. Afterwards, different electrochemical storage technologies were studied, and taking into account the load requirements present in the cheese factory, the most suitable solution was identified in the high temperatures salt Na-NiCl2 battery technology. The data acquisition from all electrical utilities provided a detailed load analysis, indicating the optimal storage size equal to a 30 kW battery system. Moreover a container was designed and realized to locate the BESS and PCS, meeting all the requirements and safety conditions. Furthermore, a smart control system was implemented in order to handle the different applications of the ESS, such as peak shaving or load levelling.

Cognitive Assessment and Rehabilitation of subjects with Traumatic Brain Injury

This thesis regards the study and the development of new cognitive assessment and rehabilitation techniques of subjects with traumatic brain injury (TBI). In particular, this thesis i) provides an overview about the state of art of this new assessment and rehabilitation technologies, ii) suggests new methods for the assessment and rehabilitation and iii) contributes to the explanation of the neurophysiological mechanism that is involved in a rehabilitation treatment. Some chapters provide useful information to contextualize TBI and its outcome; they describe the methods used for its assessment/rehabilitation. The other chapters illustrate a series of experimental studies conducted in healthy subjects and TBI patients that suggest new approaches to assessment and rehabilitation. The new proposed approaches have in common the use of electroencefalografy (EEG). EEG was used in all the experimental studies with a different purpose, such as diagnostic tool, signal to command a BCI-system, outcome measure to evaluate the effects of a treatment, etc. The main achieved results are about: i) the study and the development of a system for the communication with patients with disorders of consciousness. It was possible to identify a paradigm of reliable activation during two imagery task using EEG signal or EEG and NIRS signal; ii) the study of the effects of a neuromodulation technique (tDCS) on EEG pattern. This topic is of great importance and interest. The emerged founding showed that the tDCS can manipulate the cortical network activity and through the research of optimal stimulation parameters, it is possible move the working point of a neural network and bring it in a condition of maximum learning. In this way could be possible improved the performance of a BCI system or to improve the efficacy of a rehabilitation treatment, like neurofeedback.

Design and Control of Robotic Hands

The application of dexterous robotic hands out of research laboratories has been limited by the intrinsic complexity that these devices present. This is directly reflected as an economically unreasonable cost and a low overall reliability. Within the research reported in this thesis it is shown how the problem of complexity in the design of robotic hands can be tackled, taking advantage of modern technologies (i.e. rapid prototyping), leading to innovative concepts for the design of the mechanical structure, the actuation and sensory systems. The solutions adopted drastically reduce the prototyping and production costs and increase the reliability, reducing the number of parts required and averaging their single reliability factors. In order to get guidelines for the design process, the problem of robotic grasp and manipulation by a dual arm/hand system has been reviewed. In this way, the requirements that should be fulfilled at hardware level to guarantee successful execution of the task has been highlighted. The contribution of this research from the manipulation planning side focuses on the redundancy resolution that arise in the execution of the task in a dexterous arm/hand system. In literature the problem of coordination of arm and hand during manipulation of an object has been widely analyzed in theory but often experimentally demonstrated in simplified robotic setup. Our aim is to cover the lack in the study of this topic and experimentally evaluate it in a complex system as a anthropomorphic arm hand system.

Rich media content adaptation in e-learning systems

The wide use of e-technologies represents a great opportunity for underserved segments of the population, especially with the aim of reintegrating excluded individuals back into society through education. This is particularly true for people with different types of disabilities who may have difficulties while attending traditional on-site learning programs that are typically based on printed learning resources. The creation and provision of accessible e-learning contents may therefore become a key factor in enabling people with different access needs to enjoy quality learning experiences and services. Another e-learning challenge is represented by m-learning (which stands for mobile learning), which is emerging as a consequence of mobile terminals diffusion and provides the opportunity to browse didactical materials everywhere, outside places that are traditionally devoted to education. Both such situations share the need to access materials in limited conditions and collide with the growing use of rich media in didactical contents, which are designed to be enjoyed without any restriction. Nowadays, Web-based teaching makes great use of multimedia technologies, ranging from Flash animations to prerecorded video-lectures. Rich media in e-learning can offer significant potential in enhancing the learning environment, through helping to increase access to education, enhance the learning experience and support multiple learning styles. Moreover, they can often be used to improve the structure of Web-based courses. These highly variegated and structured contents may significantly improve the quality and the effectiveness of educational activities for learners. For example, rich media contents allow us to describe complex concepts and process flows. Audio and video elements may be utilized to add a “human touch” to distance-learning courses. Finally, real lectures may be recorded and distributed to integrate or enrich on line materials. A confirmation of the advantages of these approaches can be seen in the exponential growth of video-lecture availability on the net, due to the ease of recording and delivering activities which take place in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, the wide use of assistive technologies for learners with disabilities injects new life into e-learning systems. E-learning allows distance and flexible educational activities, thus helping disabled learners to access resources which would otherwise present significant barriers for them. For instance, students with visual impairments have difficulties in reading traditional visual materials, deaf learners have trouble in following traditional (spoken) lectures, people with motion disabilities have problems in attending on-site programs. As already mentioned, the use of wireless technologies and pervasive computing may really enhance the educational learner experience by offering mobile e-learning services that can be accessed by handheld devices. This new paradigm of educational content distribution maximizes the benefits for learners since it enables users to overcome constraints imposed by the surrounding environment. While certainly helpful for users without disabilities, we believe that the use of newmobile technologies may also become a fundamental tool for impaired learners, since it frees them from sitting in front of a PC. In this way, educational activities can be enjoyed by all the users, without hindrance, thus increasing the social inclusion of non-typical learners. While the provision of fully accessible and portable video-lectures may be extremely useful for students, it is widely recognized that structuring and managing rich media contents for mobile learning services are complex and expensive tasks. Indeed, major difficulties originate from the basic need to provide a textual equivalent for each media resource composing a rich media Learning Object (LO). Moreover, tests need to be carried out to establish whether a given LO is fully accessible to all kinds of learners. Unfortunately, both these tasks are truly time-consuming processes, depending on the type of contents the teacher is writing and on the authoring tool he/she is using. Due to these difficulties, online LOs are often distributed as partially accessible or totally inaccessible content. Bearing this in mind, this thesis aims to discuss the key issues of a system we have developed to deliver accessible, customized or nomadic learning experiences to learners with different access needs and skills. To reduce the risk of excluding users with particular access capabilities, our system exploits Learning Objects (LOs) which are dynamically adapted and transcoded based on the specific needs of non-typical users and on the barriers that they can encounter in the environment. The basic idea is to dynamically adapt contents, by selecting them from a set of media resources packaged in SCORM-compliant LOs and stored in a self-adapting format. The system schedules and orchestrates a set of transcoding processes based on specific learner needs, so as to produce a customized LO that can be fully enjoyed by any (impaired or mobile) student.

Dalla città alla casa, dalla casa alla città: la mutevole ricerca di un Piano per il ben-essere urbano

La ricerca si propone di definire le linee guida per la stesura di un Piano che si occupi di qualità della vita e di benessere. Il richiamo alla qualità e al benessere è positivamente innovativo, in quanto impone agli organi decisionali di sintonizzarsi con la soggettività attiva dei cittadini e, contemporaneamente, rende evidente la necessità di un approccio più ampio e trasversale al tema della città e di una più stretta relazione dei tecnici/esperti con i responsabili degli organismi politicoamministrativi. La ricerca vuole indagare i limiti dell’urbanistica moderna di fronte alla complessità di bisogni e di nuove necessità espresse dalle popolazioni urbane contemporanee. La domanda dei servizi è notevolmente cambiata rispetto a quella degli anni Sessanta, oltre che sul piano quantitativo anche e soprattutto sul piano qualitativo, a causa degli intervenuti cambiamenti sociali che hanno trasformato la città moderna non solo dal punto di vista strutturale ma anche dal punto di vista culturale: l’intermittenza della cittadinanza, per cui le città sono sempre più vissute e godute da cittadini del mondo (turisti e/o visitatori, temporaneamente presenti) e da cittadini diffusi (suburbani, provinciali, metropolitani); la radicale trasformazione della struttura familiare, per cui la famiglia-tipo costituita da una coppia con figli, solido riferimento per l’economia e la politica, è oggi minoritaria; l’irregolarità e flessibilità dei calendari, delle agende e dei ritmi di vita della popolazione attiva; la mobilità sociale, per cui gli individui hanno traiettorie di vita e pratiche quotidiane meno determinate dalle loro origini sociali di quanto avveniva nel passato; l’elevazione del livello di istruzione e quindi l’incremento della domanda di cultura; la crescita della popolazione anziana e la forte individualizzazione sociale hanno generato una domanda di città espressa dalla gente estremamente variegata ed eterogenea, frammentata e volatile, e per alcuni aspetti assolutamente nuova. Accanto a vecchie e consolidate richieste – la città efficiente, funzionale, produttiva, accessibile a tutti – sorgono nuove domande, ideali e bisogni che hanno come oggetto la bellezza, la varietà, la fruibilità, la sicurezza, la capacità di stupire e divertire, la sostenibilità, la ricerca di nuove identità, domande che esprimono il desiderio di vivere e di godere la città, di stare bene in città, domande che non possono essere più soddisfatte attraverso un’idea di welfare semplicemente basata sull’istruzione, la sanità, il sistema pensionistico e l’assistenza sociale. La città moderna ovvero l’idea moderna della città, organizzata solo sui concetti di ordine, regolarità, pulizia, uguaglianza e buon governo, è stata consegnata alla storia passata trasformandosi ora in qualcosa di assai diverso che facciamo fatica a rappresentare, a descrivere, a raccontare. La città contemporanea può essere rappresentata in molteplici modi, sia dal punto di vista urbanistico che dal punto di vista sociale: nella letteratura recente è evidente la difficoltà di definire e di racchiudere entro limiti certi l’oggetto “città” e la mancanza di un convincimento forte nell’interpretazione delle trasformazioni politiche, economiche e sociali che hanno investito la società e il mondo nel secolo scorso. La città contemporanea, al di là degli ambiti amministrativi, delle espansioni territoriali e degli assetti urbanistici, delle infrastrutture, della tecnologia, del funzionalismo e dei mercati globali, è anche luogo delle relazioni umane, rappresentazione dei rapporti tra gli individui e dello spazio urbano in cui queste relazioni si muovono. La città è sia concentrazione fisica di persone e di edifici, ma anche varietà di usi e di gruppi, densità di rapporti sociali; è il luogo in cui avvengono i processi di coesione o di esclusione sociale, luogo delle norme culturali che regolano i comportamenti, dell’identità che si esprime materialmente e simbolicamente nello spazio pubblico della vita cittadina. Per studiare la città contemporanea è necessario utilizzare un approccio nuovo, fatto di contaminazioni e saperi trasversali forniti da altre discipline, come la sociologia e le scienze umane, che pure contribuiscono a costruire l’immagine comunemente percepita della città e del territorio, del paesaggio e dell’ambiente. La rappresentazione del sociale urbano varia in base all’idea di cosa è, in un dato momento storico e in un dato contesto, una situazione di benessere delle persone. L’urbanistica moderna mirava al massimo benessere del singolo e della collettività e a modellarsi sulle “effettive necessità delle persone”: nei vecchi manuali di urbanistica compare come appendice al piano regolatore il “Piano dei servizi”, che comprende i servizi distribuiti sul territorio circostante, una sorta di “piano regolatore sociale”, per evitare quartieri separati per fasce di popolazione o per classi. Nella città contemporanea la globalizzazione, le nuove forme di marginalizzazione e di esclusione, l’avvento della cosiddetta “new economy”, la ridefinizione della base produttiva e del mercato del lavoro urbani sono espressione di una complessità sociale che può essere definita sulla base delle transazioni e gli scambi simbolici piuttosto che sui processi di industrializzazione e di modernizzazione verso cui era orientata la città storica, definita moderna. Tutto ciò costituisce quel complesso di questioni che attualmente viene definito “nuovo welfare”, in contrapposizione a quello essenzialmente basato sull’istruzione, sulla sanità, sul sistema pensionistico e sull’assistenza sociale. La ricerca ha quindi analizzato gli strumenti tradizionali della pianificazione e programmazione territoriale, nella loro dimensione operativa e istituzionale: la destinazione principale di tali strumenti consiste nella classificazione e nella sistemazione dei servizi e dei contenitori urbanistici. E’ chiaro, tuttavia, che per poter rispondere alla molteplice complessità di domande, bisogni e desideri espressi dalla società contemporanea le dotazioni effettive per “fare città” devono necessariamente superare i concetti di “standard” e di “zonizzazione”, che risultano essere troppo rigidi e quindi incapaci di adattarsi all’evoluzione di una domanda crescente di qualità e di servizi e allo stesso tempo inadeguati nella gestione del rapporto tra lo spazio domestico e lo spazio collettivo. In questo senso è rilevante il rapporto tra le tipologie abitative e la morfologia urbana e quindi anche l’ambiente intorno alla casa, che stabilisce il rapporto “dalla casa alla città”, perché è in questa dualità che si definisce il rapporto tra spazi privati e spazi pubblici e si contestualizzano i temi della strada, dei negozi, dei luoghi di incontro, degli accessi. Dopo la convergenza dalla scala urbana alla scala edilizia si passa quindi dalla scala edilizia a quella urbana, dal momento che il criterio del benessere attraversa le diverse scale dello spazio abitabile. Non solo, nei sistemi territoriali in cui si è raggiunto un benessere diffuso ed un alto livello di sviluppo economico è emersa la consapevolezza che il concetto stesso di benessere sia non più legato esclusivamente alla capacità di reddito collettiva e/o individuale: oggi la qualità della vita si misura in termini di qualità ambientale e sociale. Ecco dunque la necessità di uno strumento di conoscenza della città contemporanea, da allegare al Piano, in cui vengano definiti i criteri da osservare nella progettazione dello spazio urbano al fine di determinare la qualità e il benessere dell’ambiente costruito, inteso come benessere generalizzato, nel suo significato di “qualità dello star bene”. E’ evidente che per raggiungere tale livello di qualità e benessere è necessario provvedere al soddisfacimento da una parte degli aspetti macroscopici del funzionamento sociale e del tenore di vita attraverso gli indicatori di reddito, occupazione, povertà, criminalità, abitazione, istruzione, etc.; dall’altra dei bisogni primari, elementari e di base, e di quelli secondari, culturali e quindi mutevoli, trapassando dal welfare state allo star bene o well being personale, alla wellness in senso olistico, tutte espressioni di un desiderio di bellezza mentale e fisica e di un nuovo rapporto del corpo con l’ambiente, quindi manifestazione concreta di un’esigenza di ben-essere individuale e collettivo. Ed è questa esigenza, nuova e difficile, che crea la diffusa sensazione dell’inizio di una nuova stagione urbana, molto più di quanto facciano pensare le stesse modifiche fisiche della città.

Supramolecular hybrid organic-inorganic multicomponent architectures in solution and on surface

Supramolecular architectures can be built-up from a single molecular component (building block) to obtain a complex of organic or inorganic interactions creating a new emergent condensed phase of matter, such as gels, liquid crystals and solid crystal. Further the generation of multicomponent supramolecular hybrid architecture, a mix of organic and inorganic components, increases the complexity of the condensed aggregate with functional properties useful for important areas of research, like material science, medicine and nanotechnology. One may design a molecule storing a recognition pattern and programming a informed self-organization process enables to grow-up into a hierarchical architecture. From a molecular level to a supramolecular level, in a bottom-up fashion, it is possible to create a new emergent structure-function, where the system, as a whole, is open to its own environment to exchange energy, matter and information. “The emergent property of the whole assembly is superior to the sum of a singles parts”. In this thesis I present new architectures and functional materials built through the selfassembly of guanosine, in the absence or in the presence of a cation, in solution and on the surface. By appropriate manipulation of intermolecular non-covalent interactions the spatial (structural) and temporal (dynamic) features of these supramolecular architectures are controlled. Guanosine G7 (5',3'-di-decanoil-deoxi-guanosine) is able to interconvert reversibly between a supramolecular polymer and a discrete octameric species by dynamic cation binding and release. Guanosine G16 (2',3'-O-Isopropylidene-5'-O-decylguanosine) shows selectivity binding from a mix of different cation's nature. Remarkably, reversibility, selectivity, adaptability and serendipity are mutual features to appreciate the creativity of a molecular self-organization complex system into a multilevelscale hierarchical growth. The creativity - in general sense, the creation of a new thing, a new thinking, a new functionality or a new structure - emerges from a contamination process of different disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, architecture, design, philosophy and science of complexity.