Assessing poverty with survey data. Uni-dimensional, multidimensional and resilience poverty analysis in Kenya

Traditionally Poverty has been measured by a unique indicator, income, assuming this was the most relevant dimension of poverty. Sen’s approach has dramatically changed this idea shedding light over the existence of many more dimensions and over the multifaceted nature of poverty; poverty cannot be represented by a unique indicator that only can evaluate a specific aspect of poverty. This thesis tracks an ideal path along with the evolution of the poverty analysis. Starting from the unidimensional analysis based on income and consumptions, this research enter the world of multidimensional analysis. After reviewing the principal approaches, the Foster and Alkire method is critically analyzed and implemented over data from Kenya. A step further is moved in the third part of the thesis, introducing a new approach to multidimensional poverty assessment: the resilience analysis.

Envy: A Psychometric Refinement of the Construct

The noticeable differences in the theoretical and operative definitions of envy across studies and approaches have produced a fragmentary representation and understanding of the envious emotion. The present dissertation aimed to clarify the inherent nature of the construct of envy through the integration of findings from three independent studies. We focused on malicious envy, and investigated it from both a dispositional and an episodic perspective. Studies 1 and 2 investigated the dimensionality of envy as a stable individual characteristic and an episodic emotional state, respectively. In order to elicit episodic envy, a scenario-based experiment was conducted. Results indicated that, in both its dispositional and episodic facets, envy is a bidimensional construct composed by an inner-directed dimension of inferiority and helplessness, and an outer-directed dimension of feelings of anger and ill will. Moreover, findings from Study 1 allowed to establish boundaries between envy and competing constructs that have often been included in conceptualizations of envy. The psychometrically validated definition of envy provided by Studies 1 and 2 represents a valuable contribution to empirical research. Implications for envy research concern the promotion of a shared operationalization of envy in future studies, which will arguably facilitate the comparison of findings between studies and between approaches. Study 3 examined the mechanisms through which dispositional envy affects individuals’ social adjustment and psychological wellbeing. Findings revealed that the detrimental effects of envy on perceived social support and subjective well-being are mostly mediated by other personal characteristics, such as neuroticism and self-esteem. By reducing global self-esteem, the envious disposition may damage supportive social networks via antisocial direct and indirect behaviors that may arise from envy and that are likely to drive others away. On the other hand, by damaging both emotional stability and self-worth, dispositional envy leads to reduced subjective well-being. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

How to cope with air transport disruptions: airport airside resilience and vulnerability

The efficiency of airport airside operations is often compromised by unplanned disruptive events of different kinds, such as bad weather, strikes or technical failures, which negatively influence the punctuality and regularity of operations, causing serious delays and unexpected congestion. They may provoke important impacts and economic losses on passengers, airlines and airport operators, and consequences may propagate in the air network throughout different airports. In order to identify strategies to cope with such events and minimize their impacts, it is crucial to understand how disruptive events affect airports’ performance. The research field related with the risk of severe air transport network disruptions and their impact on society is related to the concepts of vulnerability and resilience. The main objective of this project is to provide a framework that allows to evaluate performance losses and consequences due to unexpected disruptions affecting airport airside operations, supporting the development of a methodology for estimating vulnerability and resilience indicators for airport airside operations. The methodology proposed comprises three phases. In the first phase, airside operations are modelled in both the baseline and disrupted scenarios. The model includes all main airside processes and takes into consideration the uncertainties and dynamics of the system. In the second phase, the model is implemented by using a generic simulation software, AnyLogic. Vulnerability is evaluated by taking into consideration the costs related to flight delays, cancellations and diversions; resilience is determined as a function of the loss of capacity during the entire period of disruption. In the third phase, a Bayesian Network is built in which uncertain variables refer to airport characteristics and disruption type. The Bayesian Network expresses the conditional dependence among these variables and allows to predict the impacts of disruptions on an airside system, determining the elements which influence the system resilience the most.

Greening the city: an ecosystem-based framework to support planning towards urban sustainability and resilience

Cities are small-scale complex socio-ecological systems, that host around 60% of world population. Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by urban ecosystems offer multiple benefits necessary to cope with present and future urban challenges. These ES include microclimate regulation, runoff control, as well as opportunities for mental and physical recreation, affecting citizen’s health and wellbeing. Creating a balance between urban development, land take containment, climate adaptation and availability of Urban Green Areas and their related benefits, can improve the quality of the lives of the inhabitants, the economic performance of the city and the social justice and cohesion aspects. This work starts analysing current literature around the topic of Ecosystem Services (ES), Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) and Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and their integration within current European and International sustainability policies. Then, the thesis focuses on the role of ES, GBI and NBS towards urban sustainability and resilience setting the basis to build the core methodological and conceptual approach of this work. The developed ES-based conceptual approach provides guidance on how to map and assess ES, to better inform policy making and to give the proper value to ES within urban context. The proposed interdisciplinary approach navigates the topic of mapping and assessing ES benefits in terms of regulatory services, with a focus on climate mitigation and adaptation, and cultural services, to enhance wellbeing and justice in urban areas. Last, this thesis proposes a trans-disciplinary and participatory approach to build resilience over time around all relevant urban ES. The two case studies that will be presented in this dissertation, the city of Bologna and the city of Barcelona, have been used to implement, tailor and test the proposed conceptual framework, raising valuable inputs for planning, policies and science.

Repertory of best practices to mitigate the effects of climate change and expand the resilience of the Built Environment.

The way we live has revealed a lot about the choices made in the last decades. These choices are mostly based on a predatory socioeconomic structure, based on the pillars of anthropocentrism and inconsistent with the principles of global sustainability. This structure based on fossil fuels degrades the environment and directly and indirectly impacts the biomes. According to The International Energy Agency (2020), the sector was responsible for more than a third of global energy consumption and 40% of total GHG emissions into the atmosphere (directly and indirectly). This thesis presents the main effects of climate change observed in the built environment and at the urban territorial scale, through a review of the state of the art of the subject in the last decade (2010-2021). The thesis breaks down the projectual process seeking to identify how the architect and urban planner can mitigate the effects of climate change, adapting existing structures or in projects, and also promoting the expansion of the resilience of these building systems.

Characterization of an international tetraploid wheat germplasm including landraces and primitive wheat towards improved resilience to abiotic and biotic stresses and quality

This thesis aimed to characterise two large tetraploid germplasm collections. The Global Durum Panel, involving modern cultivars and landrances and the Tetraploid Global Collection which comprises all the tetraploid wheat subgroups. Two distinct parallel studies were carried out. The first is focused on the characterisation of both collection for yield and quality related traits. The panel were phenotyped for two consecutive years each. In this phase the following traits were collected: the number of fertile spikelets per spike, the number of fertile florets of central spikelet for the spike-related traits. The following grain related traits were also phenotyped: the thousand kernel weight, the average grain area, average grain length, average grain width, grain brightness, grain redness, grain yellowness. GWAS analysis were performed for each collected trait and major QTLs were subjected to candidate gene analysis. Major QTLs emerging from GWA study were located on chromosome 2A with a strong bibliographic evidence for grain number-related traits such as the fertile spikelet number, the number of fertile florets per central spikelet. On the other hand two evident peaks were detected on chromosomes 6A and 7B for grain size and weight related traits. The second work was focused on the characterisation of the Global Durum Panel for root system architecture components, namely the root growth angle. GWAS analysis was perfomed and three major QTLs were detected on chromosome 2A, 6A and 7A. These three QTLs all have a bibliographic evidence.

Nutritional strategies to modulate metabolism and heat stress resilience in dairy cattle

Physiological and environmental stressors can disrupt barrier integrity at epithelial interfaces (e.g., uterine, mammary, intestinal, and lung), which are constantly exposed to pathogens that can lead to the activation of the immune system. Unresolved inflammation can result in the emergence of metabolic and infectious diseases. Maintaining cow health and performance during periods of immune activation such as in the peripartum or under heat stress represents a significant obstacle to the dairy industry. Feeding microencapsulated organic acids and pure botanicals (OAPB) has shown to improve intestinal health in monogastric species and prevent systemic inflammation via the gut-liver axis. Feeding unsaturated fatty acids (FA) such as oleic acid (OA) and very-long-chain omega-3 (VLC n-3) FA are of interest in dairy cow nutrition because of their potential to improve health, fertility, and milk production. In the first study, we evaluated the effects of heat stress (HS) conditions and dietary OAPB supplementation on gut permeability and milk production. In parallel with an improved milk performance and N metabolism, cows supplemented with OAPB also had an enhanced hepatic methyl donor status and greater inflammatory and oxidative stress status compared to the HS control group. In a second study, we evaluated the relative bioavailability of VLC n-3 in cows fed a bolus of rumen-protected (RP) fish oil (FO). In a third study, we proved the interaction between RPFO and RP choline to promote the synthesis of phosphatydilcholines. Lipid forms that support hepatic triglyceride export and can prevent steatosis in dairy cows. The last study, demonstrated that algae oil outperforms against a toxin challenge compared to FO and that feeding RPOA modulates energy partitioning relative to n-3 FA-containing oils. Overall, this thesis confirms the need and the effectiveness of different strategies that aimed to improve dairy cows’ health and performance under heat stress, inflammation or metabolic disease.

Development of a hydrogel construct to prevent endoleaks occurrence following endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is the pathological dilation of the abdominal tract of the aorta and, if left untreated, could undergo rupture with a mortality rate of up to 90%. EVAR is the most common method for AAA treatment consisting in the internal coverage of the aorta with a metallic stent to isolate the aneurysmatic segment from the systemic circulation. Although EVAR technical success rate is high, reinterventions are common. Among the causes of reinterventions typeII endoleaks are the most frequent and consist in retrograde blood flow into the aneurysmal sac from collateral aortic branches. Continued perfusion of the aneurysm sac may lead to aneurysm rupture, therefore AAA sac embolization is performed using metallic coils. However, the presence of artifacts caused by the presence of metallic coils is a limitation because they are radiopaque and can hamper the endoleak during imaging follow-up. This study is aimed at developing a biocompatible hydrogel that could be injected into the aneurysmal sac and may allow a selective intraprocedural sac embolization to reduce post procedural typeII endoleak and eventual AAA rupture. P(BT75BSI25) was synthesized by polycondensation and its biocompatibility tested to assess whether the polymers had no toxic effects. HUVEC cell line was used to mimic the environment in which the polymer would be in contact with, PBS was used as a positive control and MTT assay was performed to evaluate cellular viability after being in contact with the hydrogel. MTT assay showed no significant difference between PBS and P(BT75BSI25), thus the polymer is biocompatible, as confirmed by the analysis of apoptosis by flow cytometry. An aromatic copolymer was obtained via polycondensation and was found to be biocompatible in contact with endothelial cells. This suggests that the hydrogel could be potentially used in the clinical setting for the treatment of type II endoleak after EVAR.