Study of innovative methods of control in the cereal productive chain for the production of beer and spirits

Researches performed during the PhD course intended to assess innovative applications of near-infrared spectroscopy in reflectance (NIR) in the production chain of beer. The purpose is to measure by NIR the "malting quality" (MQ) parameter of barley, to monitor the malting process and to know if a certain type of barley is suitable for the production of beer and spirits. Moreover, NIR will be applied to monitor the brewing process. First of all, it was possible to check the quality of the raw materials like barley, maize and barley malt using a rapid, non-destructive and reliable method, with a low error of prediction. The more interesting result obtained at this level was that the repeatability of the NIR calibration models developed was comparable with the one of the reference method. Moreover, about malt, new kinds of validation were used in order to estimate the real predictive power of the proposed calibration models and to understand the long-term effects. Furthermore, the precision of all the calibration models developed for malt evaluation was estimated and statistically compared with the reference methods, with good results. Then, new calibration models were developed for monitoring the malting process, measuring the moisture content and other malt quality parameters during germination. Moreover it was possible to obtain by NIR an estimate of the "malting quality" (MQ) of barley and to predict whether if its germination will be rapid and uniform and if a certain type of barley is suitable for the production of beer and spirits. Finally, the NIR technique was applied to monitor the brewing process, using correlations between NIR spectra of beer and analytical parameters, and to assess beer quality. These innovative results are potentially very useful for the actors involved in the beer production chain, especially the calibration models suitable for the control of the malting process and for the assessment of the “malting quality” of barley, which need to be deepened in future studies.

Development of control-oriented models of Dual Clutch Transmission systems

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

Max Abraham's and Tullio Levi-Civita's approach to Einstein Theory of Relativity

This work deals with the theory of Relativity and its diffusion in Italy in the first decades of the XX century. Not many scientists belonging to Italian universities were active in understanding Relativity, but two of them, Max Abraham and Tullio Levi-Civita left a deep mark. Max Abraham engaged a substantial debate against Einstein between 1912 and 1914 about electromagnetic and gravitation aspects of the theories. Levi-Civita played a fundamental role in giving Einstein the correct mathematical instruments for the General Relativity formulation since 1915. This work, which doesn't have the aim of a mere historical chronicle of the events, wants to highlight two particular perspectives: on one hand, the importance of Abraham-Einstein debate in order to clarify the basis of Special Relativity, to observe the rigorous logical structure resulting from a fragmentary reasoning sequence and to understand Einstein's thinking; on the other hand, the originality of Levi-Civita's approach, quite different from the Einstein's one, characterized by the introduction of a method typical of General Relativity even to Special Relativity and the attempt to hide the two Einstein Special Relativity postulates.

Essays on the Axiomatic Theory of Matching

This dissertation mimics the Turkish college admission procedure. It started with the purpose to reduce the inefficiencies in Turkish market. For this purpose, we propose a mechanism under a new market structure; as we prefer to call, semi-centralization. In chapter 1, we give a brief summary of Matching Theory. We present the first examples in Matching history with the most general papers and mechanisms. In chapter 2, we propose our mechanism. In real life application, that is in Turkish university placements, the mechanism reduces the inefficiencies of the current system. The success of the mechanism depends on the preference profile. It is easy to show that under complete information the mechanism implements the full set of stable matchings for a given profile. In chapter 3, we refine our basic mechanism. The modification on the mechanism has a crucial effect on the results. The new mechanism is, as we call, a middle mechanism. In one of the subdomain, this mechanism coincides with the original basic mechanism. But, in the other partition, it gives the same results with Gale and Shapley's algorithm. In chapter 4, we apply our basic mechanism to well known Roommate Problem. Since the roommate problem is in one-sided game patern, firstly we propose an auxiliary function to convert the game semi centralized two-sided game, because our basic mechanism is designed for this framework. We show that this process is succesful in finding a stable matching in the existence of stability. We also show that our mechanism easily and simply tells us if a profile lacks of stability by using purified orderings. Finally, we show a method to find all the stable matching in the existence of multi stability. The method is simply to run the mechanism for all of the top agents in the social preference.

Proof theory of quantified modal logics

We introduce labelled sequent calculi for indexed modal logics. We prove that the structural rules of weakening and contraction are height-preserving admissible, that all rules are invertible, and that cut is admissible. Then we prove that each calculus introduced is sound and complete with respect to the appropriate class of transition frames.