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.

Nature and relevance of inherited blueprints on business models choices and innovation: an assessment

One important metaphor, referred to biological theories, used to investigate on organizational and business strategy issues is the metaphor about heredity; an area requiring further investigation is the extent to which the characteristics of blueprints inherited from the parent, helps in explaining subsequent development of the spawned ventures. In order to shed a light on the tension between inherited patterns and the new trajectory that may characterize spawned ventures’ development we propose a model aimed at investigating which blueprints elements might exert an effect on business model design choices and to which extent their persistence (or abandonment) determines subsequent business model innovation. Under the assumption that academic and corporate institutions transmit different genes to their spin-offs, we hence expect to have heterogeneity in elements that affect business model design choices and its subsequent evolution. This is the reason why we carry on a twofold analysis in the biotech (meta)industry: under a multiple-case research design, business model and especially its fundamental design elements and themes scholars individuated to decompose the construct, have been thoroughly analysed. Our purpose is to isolate the dimensions of business model that may have been the object of legacy and the ones along which an experimentation and learning process is more likely to happen, bearing in mind that differences between academic and corporate might not be that evident as expected, especially considering that business model innovation may occur.

The firm. Techno-organizational changes, industrial relations and performances. An enquiry on Reggio Emilia local industrial system

It is not unknown that the evolution of firm theories has been developed along a path paved by an increasing awareness of the organizational structure importance. From the early “neoclassical” conceptualizations that intended the firm as a rational actor whose aim is to produce that amount of output, given the inputs at its disposal and in accordance to technological or environmental constraints, which maximizes the revenue (see Boulding, 1942 for a past mid century state of the art discussion) to the knowledge based theory of the firm (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka & Toyama, 2005), which recognizes in the firm a knnowledge creating entity, with specific organizational capabilities (Teece, 1996; Teece & Pisano, 1998) that allow to sustaine competitive advantages. Tracing back a map of the theory of the firm evolution, taking into account the several perspectives adopted in the history of thought, would take the length of many books. Because of that a more fruitful strategy is circumscribing the focus of the description of the literature evolution to one flow connected to a crucial question about the nature of firm’s behaviour and about the determinants of competitive advantages. In so doing I adopt a perspective that allows me to consider the organizational structure of the firm as an element according to which the different theories can be discriminated. The approach adopted starts by considering the drawbacks of the standard neoclassical theory of the firm. Discussing the most influential theoretical approaches I end up with a close examination of the knowledge based perspective of the firm. Within this perspective the firm is considered as a knowledge creating entity that produce and mange knowledge (Nonaka, Toyama, & Nagata, 2000; Nonaka & Toyama, 2005). In a knowledge intensive organization, knowledge is clearly embedded for the most part in the human capital of the individuals that compose such an organization. In a knowledge based organization, the management, in order to cope with knowledge intensive productions, ought to develop and accumulate capabilities that shape the organizational forms in a way that relies on “cross-functional processes, extensive delayering and empowerment” (Foss 2005, p.12). This mechanism contributes to determine the absorptive capacity of the firm towards specific technologies and, in so doing, it also shape the technological trajectories along which the firm moves. After having recognized the growing importance of the firm’s organizational structure in the theoretical literature concerning the firm theory, the subsequent point of the analysis is that of providing an overview of the changes that have been occurred at micro level to the firm’s organization of production. The economic actors have to deal with challenges posed by processes of internationalisation and globalization, increased and increasing competitive pressure of less developed countries on low value added production activities, changes in technologies and increased environmental turbulence and volatility. As a consequence, it has been widely recognized that the main organizational models of production that fitted well in the 20th century are now partially inadequate and processes aiming to reorganize production activities have been widespread across several economies in recent years. Recently, the emergence of a “new” form of production organization has been proposed both by scholars, practitioners and institutions: the most prominent characteristic of such a model is its recognition of the importance of employees commitment and involvement. As a consequence it is characterized by a strong accent on the human resource management and on those practices that aim to widen the autonomy and responsibility of the workers as well as increasing their commitment to the organization (Osterman, 1994; 2000; Lynch, 2007). This “model” of production organization is by many defined as High Performance Work System (HPWS). Despite the increasing diffusion of workplace practices that may be inscribed within the concept of HPWS in western countries’ companies, it is an hazard, to some extent, to speak about the emergence of a “new organizational paradigm”. The discussion about organizational changes and the diffusion of HPWP the focus cannot abstract from a discussion about the industrial relations systems, with a particular accent on the employment relationships, because of their relevance, in the same way as production organization, in determining two major outcomes of the firm: innovation and economic performances. The argument is treated starting from the issue of the Social Dialogue at macro level, both in an European perspective and Italian perspective. The model of interaction between the social parties has repercussions, at micro level, on the employment relationships, that is to say on the relations between union delegates and management or workers and management. Finding economic and social policies capable of sustaining growth and employment within a knowledge based scenario is likely to constitute the major challenge for the next generation of social pacts, which are the main social dialogue outcomes. As Acocella and Leoni (2007) put forward the social pacts may constitute an instrument to trade wage moderation for high intensity in ICT, organizational and human capital investments. Empirical evidence, especially focused on the micro level, about the positive relation between economic growth and new organizational designs coupled with ICT adoption and non adversarial industrial relations is growing. Partnership among social parties may become an instrument to enhance firm competitiveness. The outcome of the discussion is the integration of organizational changes and industrial relations elements within a unified framework: the HPWS. Such a choice may help in disentangling the potential existence of complementarities between these two aspects of the firm internal structure on economic and innovative performance. With the third chapter starts the more original part of the thesis. The data utilized in order to disentangle the relations between HPWS practices, innovation and economic performance refer to the manufacturing firms of the Reggio Emilia province with more than 50 employees. The data have been collected through face to face interviews both to management (199 respondents) and to union representatives (181 respondents). Coupled with the cross section datasets a further data source is constituted by longitudinal balance sheets (1994-2004). Collecting reliable data that in turn provide reliable results needs always a great effort to which are connected uncertain results. Data at micro level are often subjected to a trade off: the wider is the geographical context to which the population surveyed belong the lesser is the amount of information usually collected (low level of resolution); the narrower is the focus on specific geographical context, the higher is the amount of information usually collected (high level of resolution). For the Italian case the evidence about the diffusion of HPWP and their effects on firm performances is still scanty and usually limited to local level studies (Cristini, et al., 2003). The thesis is also devoted to the deepening of an argument of particular interest: the existence of complementarities between the HPWS practices. It has been widely shown by empirical evidence that when HPWP are adopted in bundles they are more likely to impact on firm’s performances than when adopted in isolation (Ichniowski, Prennushi, Shaw, 1997). Is it true also for the local production system of Reggio Emilia? The empirical analysis has the precise aim of providing evidence on the relations between the HPWS dimensions and the innovative and economic performances of the firm. As far as the first line of analysis is concerned it must to be stressed the fundamental role that innovation plays in the economy (Geroski & Machin, 1993; Stoneman & Kwoon 1994, 1996; OECD, 2005; EC, 2002). On this point the evidence goes from the traditional innovations, usually approximated by R&D investment expenditure or number of patents, to the introduction and adoption of ICT, in the recent years (Brynjolfsson & Hitt, 2000). If innovation is important then it is critical to analyse its determinants. In this work it is hypothesised that organizational changes and firm level industrial relations/employment relations aspects that can be put under the heading of HPWS, influence the propensity to innovate in product, process and quality of the firm. The general argument may goes as follow: changes in production management and work organization reconfigure the absorptive capacity of the firm towards specific technologies and, in so doing, they shape the technological trajectories along which the firm moves; cooperative industrial relations may lead to smother adoption of innovations, because not contrasted by unions. From the first empirical chapter emerges that the different types of innovations seem to respond in different ways to the HPWS variables. The underlying processes of product, process and quality innovations are likely to answer to different firm’s strategies and needs. Nevertheless, it is possible to extract some general results in terms of the most influencing HPWS factors on innovative performance. The main three aspects are training coverage, employees involvement and the diffusion of bonuses. These variables show persistent and significant relations with all the three innovation types. The same do the components having such variables at their inside. In sum the aspects of the HPWS influence the propensity to innovate of the firm. At the same time, emerges a quite neat (although not always strong) evidence of complementarities presence between HPWS practices. In terns of the complementarity issue it can be said that some specific complementarities exist. Training activities, when adopted and managed in bundles, are related to the propensity to innovate. Having a sound skill base may be an element that enhances the firm’s capacity to innovate. It may enhance both the capacity to absorbe exogenous innovation and the capacity to endogenously develop innovations. The presence and diffusion of bonuses and the employees involvement also spur innovative propensity. The former because of their incentive nature and the latter because direct workers participation may increase workers commitment to the organizationa and thus their willingness to support and suggest inovations. The other line of analysis provides results on the relation between HPWS and economic performances of the firm. There have been a bulk of international empirical studies on the relation between organizational changes and economic performance (Black & Lynch 2001; Zwick 2004; Janod & Saint-Martin 2004; Huselid 1995; Huselid & Becker 1996; Cappelli & Neumark 2001), while the works aiming to capture the relations between economic performance and unions or industrial relations aspects are quite scant (Addison & Belfield, 2001; Pencavel, 2003; Machin & Stewart, 1990; Addison, 2005). In the empirical analysis the integration of the two main areas of the HPWS represent a scarcely exploited approach in the panorama of both national and international empirical studies. As remarked by Addison “although most analysis of workers representation and employee involvement/high performance work practices have been conducted in isolation – while sometimes including the other as controls – research is beginning to consider their interactions” (Addison, 2005, p.407). The analysis conducted exploiting temporal lags between dependent and covariates, possibility given by the merger of cross section and panel data, provides evidence in favour of the existence of HPWS practices impact on firm’s economic performance, differently measured. Although it does not seem to emerge robust evidence on the existence of complementarities among HPWS aspects on performances there is evidence of a general positive influence of the single practices. The results are quite sensible to the time lags, inducing to hypothesize that time varying heterogeneity is an important factor in determining the impact of organizational changes on economic performance. The implications of the analysis can be of help both to management and local level policy makers. Although the results are not simply extendible to other local production systems it may be argued that for contexts similar to the Reggio Emilia province, characterized by the presence of small and medium enterprises organized in districts and by a deep rooted unionism, with strong supporting institutions, the results and the implications here obtained can also fit well. However, a hope for future researches on the subject treated in the present work is that of collecting good quality information over wider geographical areas, possibly at national level, and repeated in time. Only in this way it is possible to solve the Gordian knot about the linkages between innovation, performance, high performance work practices and industrial relations.

Integrating the age factor in designing industrial environments and workstations in the workforce ageing era

As people spend a third of their lives at work and, in most cases, indoors, the work environment assumes crucial importance. The continuous and dynamic interaction between people and the working environment surrounding them produces physiological and psychological effects on operators. Recognizing the substantial impact of comfort and well-being on employee satisfaction and job performance, the literature underscores the need for industries to implement indoor environment control strategies to ensure long-term success and profitability. However, managing physical risks (i.e., ergonomic and microclimate) in industrial environments is often constrained by production and energy requirements. In the food processing industry, for example, the safety of perishable products dictates storage temperatures that do not allow for operator comfort. Conversely, warehouses dedicated to non-perishable products often lack cooling systems to limit energy expenditure, reaching high temperatures in the summer period. Moreover, exceptional events, like the COVID-19 pandemic, introduce new constraints, with recommendations impacting thermal stress and respiratory health. Furthermore, the thesis highlights how workers' variables, particularly the aging process, reduce tolerance to environmental stresses. Consequently, prolonged exposure to environmental stress conditions at work results in cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders. In response to the global trend of an aging workforce, the thesis bridges a literature gap by proposing methods and models that integrate the age factor into comfort assessment. It aims to present technical and technological solutions to mitigate microclimate risks in industrial environments, ultimately seeking innovative ways to enhance the aging workforce's comfort, performance, experience, and skills. The research outlines a logical-conceptual scheme with three main areas of focus: analyzing factors influencing the work environment, recognizing constraints to worker comfort, and designing solutions. The results significantly contribute to science by laying the foundation for new research in worker health and safety in an ageing working population's extremely current industrial context.

Creep and damage models for the service behaviour of structural members

Deformability is often a crucial to the conception of many civil-engineering structural elements. Also, design is all the more burdensome if both long- and short-term deformability has to be considered. In this thesis, long- and short-term deformability has been studied from the material and the structural modelling point of view. Moreover, two materials have been handled: pultruded composites and concrete. A new finite element model for thin-walled beams has been introduced. As a main assumption, cross-sections rigid are considered rigid in their plane; this hypothesis replaces that of the classical beam theory of plane cross-sections in the deformed state. That also allows reducing the total number of degrees of freedom, and therefore making analysis faster compared with twodimensional finite elements. Longitudinal direction warping is left free, allowing describing phenomena such as the shear lag. The new finite-element model has been first applied to concrete thin-walled beams (such as roof high span girders or bridge girders) subject to instantaneous service loadings. Concrete in his cracked state has been considered through a smeared crack model for beams under bending. At a second stage, the FE-model has been extended to the viscoelastic field and applied to pultruded composite beams under sustained loadings. The generalized Maxwell model has been adopted. As far as materials are concerned, long-term creep tests have been carried out on pultruded specimens. Both tension and shear tests have been executed. Some specimen has been strengthened with carbon fibre plies to reduce short- and long- term deformability. Tests have been done in a climate room and specimens kept 2 years under constant load in time. As for concrete, a model for tertiary creep has been proposed. The basic idea is to couple the UMLV linear creep model with a damage model in order to describe nonlinearity. An effective strain tensor, weighting the total and the elasto-damaged strain tensors, controls damage evolution through the damage loading function. Creep strains are related to the effective stresses (defined by damage models) and so associated to the intact material.

Interpreting Judgements using Knowledge Representation Methods and Computational Models of Argument

The goal of the present research is to define a Semantic Web framework for precedent modelling, by using knowledge extracted from text, metadata, and rules, while maintaining a strong text-to-knowledge morphism between legal text and legal concepts, in order to fill the gap between legal document and its semantics. The framework is composed of four different models that make use of standard languages from the Semantic Web stack of technologies: a document metadata structure, modelling the main parts of a judgement, and creating a bridge between a text and its semantic annotations of legal concepts; a legal core ontology, modelling abstract legal concepts and institutions contained in a rule of law; a legal domain ontology, modelling the main legal concepts in a specific domain concerned by case-law; an argumentation system, modelling the structure of argumentation. The input to the framework includes metadata associated with judicial concepts, and an ontology library representing the structure of case-law. The research relies on the previous efforts of the community in the field of legal knowledge representation and rule interchange for applications in the legal domain, in order to apply the theory to a set of real legal documents, stressing the OWL axioms definitions as much as possible in order to enable them to provide a semantically powerful representation of the legal document and a solid ground for an argumentation system using a defeasible subset of predicate logics. It appears that some new features of OWL2 unlock useful reasoning features for legal knowledge, especially if combined with defeasible rules and argumentation schemes. The main task is thus to formalize legal concepts and argumentation patterns contained in a judgement, with the following requirement: to check, validate and reuse the discourse of a judge - and the argumentation he produces - as expressed by the judicial text.

Essays in Industrial Organization and Information Technology

Chapter 1 studies how consumers’ switching costs affect the pricing and profits of firms competing in two-sided markets such as Apple and Google in the smartphone market. When two-sided markets are dynamic – rather than merely static – I show that switching costs lower the first-period price if network externalities are strong, which is in contrast to what has been found in one-sided markets. By contrast, switching costs soften price competition in the initial period if network externalities are weak and consumers are more patient than the platforms. Moreover, an increase in switching costs on one side decreases the first-period price on the other side. Chapter 2 examines firms’ incentives to invest in local and flexible resources when demand is uncertain and correlated. I find that market power of the monopolist providing flexible resources distorts investment incentives, while competition mitigates them. The extent of improvement depends critically on demand correlation and the cost of capacity: under social optimum and monopoly, if the flexible resource is cheap, the relationship between investment and correlation is positive, and if it is costly, the relationship becomes negative; under duopoly, the relationship is positive. The analysis also sheds light on some policy discussions in markets such as cloud computing. Chapter 3 develops a theory of sequential investments in cybersecurity. The regulator can use safety standards and liability rules to increase security. I show that the joint use of an optimal standard and a full liability rule leads to underinvestment ex ante and overinvestment ex post. Instead, switching to a partial liability rule can correct the inefficiencies. This suggests that to improve security, the regulator should encourage not only firms, but also consumers to invest in security.

Environmental assessment of industrial chemical and primary sector processes from a life cycle perspective

During the PhD program in chemistry at the University of Bologna, the environmental sustainability of some industrial processes was studied through the application of the LCA methodology. The efforts were focused on the study of processes under development, in order to assess their environmental impacts to guide their transfer on an industrial scale. Processes that could meet the principles of Green Chemistry have been selected and their environmental benefits have been evaluated through a holistic approach. The use of renewable sources was assessed through the study of terephthalic acid production from biomass (which showed that only the use of waste can provide an environmental benefit) and a new process for biogas upgrading (whose potential is to act as a carbon capture technology). Furthermore, the basis for the development of a new methodology for the prediction of the environmental impact of ionic liquids has been laid. It has already shown good qualities in identifying impact trends, but further research on it is needed to obtain a more reliable and usable model. In the context of sustainable development that will not only be sector-specific, the environmental performance of some processes linked to the primary production sector has also been evaluated. The impacts of some organic farming practices in the wine production were analysed, the use of the Cereal Unit parameter was proposed as a functional unit for the comparison of different crop rotations, and the carbon footprint of school canteen meals was calculated. The results of the analyses confirm that sustainability in the industrial production sector should be assessed from a life cycle perspective, in order to consider all the flows involved during the different phases. In particular, it is necessary that environmental assessments adopt a cradle-to-gate approach, to avoid shifting the environmental burden from one phase to another.

The mesophotic zone of the Mediterranean Sea: spatial definition, biodiversity, and predictive models

The mesophotic zone is frequently defined as ranging between 30-40 and 150 m depth. However, these borders are necessarily imprecise due to variations in the penetration of light along the water column related to local factors. Moreover, density of data on mesophotic ecosystems vary along geographical distance, with temperate latitudes largely less explored than tropical situations. This is the case of the Mediterranean Sea, where information on mesophotic ecosystems is largely lower with respect to tropical situations. The lack of a clear definition of the borders of the mesophotic zone may represent a problem when information must be transferred to the policy that requires a coherent spatial definition to plan proper management and conservation measures. The present thesis aims at providing information on the spatial definition of the mesophotic zone in the Mediterranean Sea, its biodiversity and distribution of its ecosystems. The first chapter analyzes information on mesophotic ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea to identify gaps in the literature and map the mesophotic zone in the Mediterranean Sea using light penetration estimated from satellite data. In the second chapter, different visual techniques to study mesophotic ecosystems are compared to identify the best analytical method to estimate diversity and habitat extension. In the third chapter, a set of Remotely Operated vehicles (ROV) surveys performed on mesophotic assemblages in the Mediterranean Sea are analyzed to describe their taxonomic and functional diversity and environmental factors influencing their structure. A Habitat Suitability Model is run in the fourth chapter to map the distribution of areas suitable for the presence of deep-water oyster reefs in the Adriatic-Ionian area. The fifth chapter explores the mesophotic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico providing its spatial and vertical extension of the mesophotic zone and information on the diversity associated with mesophotic ecosystems.

Comprehensive characterization of SDH-deficient GIST using NGS data and iPSC models

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are the most common di tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, arising from the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) or their precursors. The vast majority of GISTs (75–85% of GIST) harbor KIT or PDGFRA mutations. A small percentage of GIST (about 10‐15%) do not harbor any of these driver mutations and have historically been called wild-type (WT). Among them, from 20% to 40% show loss of function of the succinate dehydrogenase complex (SDH), also defined as SDH‐deficient GIST. SDH-deficient GISTs display distinctive clinical and pathological features, and can be sporadic or associated with Carney triad or Carney-Stratakis syndrome. These tumors arise most frequently in the stomach with predilection to distal stomach and antrum, have a multi-nodular growth, display a histological epithelioid phenotype, and present frequent lympho-vascular invasion. Occurrence of lymph node metastases and indolent course are representative features of SDH-deficient GISTs. This subset of GIST is known for the immunohistochemical loss of succinate dehydrogenase subunit B (SDHB), which signals the loss of function of the entire SDH-complex. The overall aim of my PhD project consists of the comprehensive characterization of SDH deficient GIST. Throughout the project, clinical, molecular and cellular characterizations were performed using next-generation sequencing technologies (NGS), that has the potential to allow the identification of molecular patterns useful for the diagnosis and development of novel treatments. Moreover, while there are many different cell lines and preclinical models of KIT/PDGFRA mutant GIST, no reliable cell model of SDH-deficient GIST has currently been developed, which could be used for studies on tumor evolution and in vitro assessments of drug response. Therefore, another aim of this project was to develop a pre-clinical model of SDH deficient GIST using the novel technology of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).

Variational and learning models for image and time series inverse problems

Inverse problems are at the core of many challenging applications. Variational and learning models provide estimated solutions of inverse problems as the outcome of specific reconstruction maps. In the variational approach, the result of the reconstruction map is the solution of a regularized minimization problem encoding information on the acquisition process and prior knowledge on the solution. In the learning approach, the reconstruction map is a parametric function whose parameters are identified by solving a minimization problem depending on a large set of data. In this thesis, we go beyond this apparent dichotomy between variational and learning models and we show they can be harmoniously merged in unified hybrid frameworks preserving their main advantages. We develop several highly efficient methods based on both these model-driven and data-driven strategies, for which we provide a detailed convergence analysis. The arising algorithms are applied to solve inverse problems involving images and time series. For each task, we show the proposed schemes improve the performances of many other existing methods in terms of both computational burden and quality of the solution. In the first part, we focus on gradient-based regularized variational models which are shown to be effective for segmentation purposes and thermal and medical image enhancement. We consider gradient sparsity-promoting regularized models for which we develop different strategies to estimate the regularization strength. Furthermore, we introduce a novel gradient-based Plug-and-Play convergent scheme considering a deep learning based denoiser trained on the gradient domain. In the second part, we address the tasks of natural image deblurring, image and video super resolution microscopy and positioning time series prediction, through deep learning based methods. We boost the performances of supervised, such as trained convolutional and recurrent networks, and unsupervised deep learning strategies, such as Deep Image Prior, by penalizing the losses with handcrafted regularization terms.

Waste prevention: policy instruments and business model innovation

Waste prevention (WP) is a strategy which helps societies and individuals to strive for sufficiency in resource consumption within planetary boundaries alongside sustainable and equitable well-being and to decouple the concepts of well-being and life satisfaction from materialism. Within this dissertation, some instruments to promote WP are analysed, by adopting two perspectives: firstly, the one of policymakers, at different governance levels, and secondly, the one of business in the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) sector. At a national level, the role of WP programmes and market-based instruments (extended producer responsibility, pay-as-you-throw schemes, deposit-refund systems, environmental taxes) in boosting prevention of municipal solid waste is investigated. Then, focusing on the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy), the performances of the waste management system are assessed over a long period, including some years before and after an institutional reform of the waste management governance regime. The impact of a centralisation (at a regional level) of both planning and economic regulation of the waste services on waste generation and WP is analysed. Finally, to support the regional decision-makers in the prioritisation of publicly funded projects for WP, a framework for the sustainability assessment, the evaluation of success, and the prioritisation of WP measures was applied to some projects implemented by Municipalities in the Region. Trying to close the research gap between engineering and business, WP strategies are discussed as drivers for business model (BM) innovation in EEE sector. Firstly, an innovative approach to a digital tracking solution for professional EEE management is analysed. New BMs which facilitate repair, reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling are created and discussed. Secondly, the impact of BMs based on servitisation and on producer ownership on the extension of equipment lifetime is analysed, by performing a review of real cases of organizations in the EEE sector applying result- and use-oriented BMs.

Graphene-based bioelectronic interfaces and devices and interpretative models targeting glial cells

Bioelectronic interfaces have significantly advanced in recent years, offering potential treatments for vision impairments, spinal cord injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases. However, the classical neurocentric vision drives the technological development toward neurons. Emerging evidence highlights the critical role of glial cells in the nervous system. Among them, astrocytes significantly influence neuronal networks throughout life and are implicated in several neuropathological states. Although they are incapable to fire action potentials, astrocytes communicate through diverse calcium (Ca2+) signalling pathways, crucial for cognitive functions and brain blood flow regulation. Current bioelectronic devices are primarily designed to interface neurons and are unsuitable for studying astrocytes. Graphene, with its unique electrical, mechanical and biocompatibility properties, has emerged as a promising neural interface material. However, its use as electrode interface to modulate astrocyte functionality remains unexplored. The aim of this PhD work was to exploit Graphene-oxide (GO) and reduced GO (rGO)-coated electrodes to control Ca2+ signalling in astrocytes by electrical stimulation. We discovered that distinct Ca2+dynamics in astrocytes can be evoked, in vitro and in brain slices, depending on the conductive/insulating properties of rGO/GO electrodes. Stimulation by rGO electrodes induces intracellular Ca2+ response with sharp peaks of oscillations (“P-type”), exclusively due to Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. Conversely, astrocytes stimulated by GO electrodes show slower and sustained Ca2+ response (“S-type”), largely mediated by external Ca2+ influx through specific ion channels. Astrocytes respond faster than neurons and activate distinct G-Protein Coupled Receptor intracellular signalling pathways. We propose a resistive/insulating model, hypothesizing that the different conductivity of the substrate influences the electric field at the cell/electrolyte or cell/material interfaces, favouring, respectively, the Ca2+ release from intracellular stores or the extracellular Ca2+ influx. This research provides a simple tool to selectively control distinct Ca2+ signals in brain astrocytes in neuroscience and bioelectronic medicine.

Evaluation of seismic losses of RC buildings: the case of the industrial areas after the 2012 Emilia Earthquake

The topic of seismic loss assessment not only incorporates many aspects of the earthquake engineering, but also entails social factors, public policies and business interests. Because of its multidisciplinary character, this process may be complex to challenge, and sound discouraging to neophytes. In this context, there is an increasing need of deriving simplified methodologies to streamline the process and provide tools for decision-makers and practitioners. This dissertation investigates different possible applications both in the area of modelling of seismic losses, both in the analysis of observational seismic data. Regarding the first topic, the PRESSAFE-disp method is proposed for the fast evaluation of the fragility curves of precast reinforced-concrete (RC) structures. Hence, a direct application of the method to the productive area of San Felice is studied to assess the number of collapses under a specific seismic scenario. In particular, with reference to the 2012 events, two large-scale stochastic models are outlined. The outcomes of the framework are promising, in good agreement with the observed damage scenario. Furthermore, a simplified displacement-based methodology is outlined to estimate different loss performance metrics for the decision-making phase of the seismic retrofit of a single RC building. The aim is to evaluate the seismic performance of different retrofit options, for a comparative analysis of their effectiveness and the convenience. Finally, a contribution to the analysis of the observational data is presented in the last part of the dissertation. A specific database of losses of precast RC buildings damaged by the 2012 Earthquake is created. A statistical analysis is performed, allowing deriving several consequence functions. The outcomes presented may be implemented in probabilistic seismic risk assessments to forecast the losses at the large scale. Furthermore, these may be adopted to establish retrofit policies to prevent and reduce the consequences of future earthquakes in industrial areas.