Urban air quality: new high-resolution modeling approaches and forecasting tools for citizens

Air pollution is one of the greatest health risks in the world. At the same time, the strong correlation with climate change, as well as with Urban Heat Island and Heat Waves, make more intense the effects of all these phenomena. A good air quality and high levels of thermal comfort are the big goals to be reached in urban areas in coming years. Air quality forecast help decision makers to improve air quality and public health strategies, mitigating the occurrence of acute air pollution episodes. Air quality forecasting approaches combine an ensemble of models to provide forecasts from global to regional air pollution and downscaling for selected countries and regions. The development of models dedicated to urban air quality issues requires a good set of data regarding the urban morphology and building material characteristics. Only few examples of air quality forecast system at urban scale exist in the literature and often they are limited to selected cities. This thesis develops by setting up a methodology for the development of a forecasting tool. The forecasting tool can be adapted to all cities and uses a new parametrization for vegetated areas. The parametrization method, based on aerodynamic parameters, produce the urban spatially varying roughness. At the core of the forecasting tool there is a dispersion model (urban scale) used in forecasting mode, and the meteorological and background concentration forecasts provided by two regional numerical weather forecasting models. The tool produces the 1-day spatial forecast of NO2, PM10, O3 concentration, the air temperature, the air humidity and BLQ-Air index values. The tool is automatized to run every day, the maps produced are displayed on the e-Globus platform, updated every day. The results obtained indicate that the forecasting output were in good agreement with the observed measurements.

Middleware for quality-based context distribution in mobile systems

The continuous advancements and enhancements of wireless systems are enabling new compelling scenarios where mobile services can adapt according to the current execution context, represented by the computational resources available at the local device, current physical location, people in physical proximity, and so forth. Such services called context-aware require the timely delivery of all relevant information describing the current context, and that introduces several unsolved complexities, spanning from low-level context data transmission up to context data storage and replication into the mobile system. In addition, to ensure correct and scalable context provisioning, it is crucial to integrate and interoperate with different wireless technologies (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) and modes (infrastructure-based and ad-hoc), and to use decentralized solutions to store and replicate context data on mobile devices. These challenges call for novel middleware solutions, here called Context Data Distribution Infrastructures (CDDIs), capable of delivering relevant context data to mobile devices, while hiding all the issues introduced by data distribution in heterogeneous and large-scale mobile settings. This dissertation thoroughly analyzes CDDIs for mobile systems, with the main goal of achieving a holistic approach to the design of such type of middleware solutions. We discuss the main functions needed by context data distribution in large mobile systems, and we claim the precise definition and clean respect of quality-based contracts between context consumers and CDDI to reconfigure main middleware components at runtime. We present the design and the implementation of our proposals, both in simulation-based and in real-world scenarios, along with an extensive evaluation that confirms the technical soundness of proposed CDDI solutions. Finally, we consider three highly heterogeneous scenarios, namely disaster areas, smart campuses, and smart cities, to better remark the wide technical validity of our analysis and solutions under different network deployments and quality constraints.

Effects of Resources Exploitation on Water Quality: case studies in Salt Water Intrusion and Acid Mine Drainage

Throughout the world, pressures on water resources are increasing, mainly as a result of human activity. Because of their accessibility, groundwater and surface water are the most used reservoirs. The evaluation of the water quality requires the identification of the interconnections among the water reservoirs, natural landscape features, human activities and aquatic health. This study focuses on the estimation of the water pollution linked to two different environmental issues: salt water intrusion and acid mine drainage related to the exploitation of natural resources. Effects of salt water intrusion occurring in the shallow aquifer north of Ravenna (Italy) was analysed through the study of ion- exchange occurring in the area and its variance throughout the year, applying a depth-specific sampling method. In the study area were identified ion exchange, calcite and dolomite precipitation, and gypsum dissolution and sulphate reduction as the main processes controlling the groundwater composition. High concentrations of arsenic detected only at specific depth indicate its connexion with the organic matter. Acid mine drainage effects related to the tin extraction in the Bolivian Altiplano was studied, on water and sediment matrix. Water contamination results strictly dependent on the seasonal variation, on pH and redox conditions. During the dry season the strong evaporation and scarce water flow lead to low pH values, high concentrations of heavy metals in surface waters and precipitation of secondary minerals along the river, which could be released in oxidizing conditions as demonstrated through the sequential extraction analysis. The increase of the water flow during the wet season lead to an increase of pH values and a decrease in heavy metal concentrations, due to dilution effect and, as e.g. for the iron, to precipitation.

Solutions to common issues in widefield microscopy: vignetting, mosaicing and depth of focus

In this thesis we have developed solutions to common issues regarding widefield microscopes, facing the problem of the intensity inhomogeneity of an image and dealing with two strong limitations: the impossibility of acquiring either high detailed images representative of whole samples or deep 3D objects. First, we cope with the problem of the non-uniform distribution of the light signal inside a single image, named vignetting. In particular we proposed, for both light and fluorescent microscopy, non-parametric multi-image based methods, where the vignetting function is estimated directly from the sample without requiring any prior information. After getting flat-field corrected images, we studied how to fix the problem related to the limitation of the field of view of the camera, so to be able to acquire large areas at high magnification. To this purpose, we developed mosaicing techniques capable to work on-line. Starting from a set of overlapping images manually acquired, we validated a fast registration approach to accurately stitch together the images. Finally, we worked to virtually extend the field of view of the camera in the third dimension, with the purpose of reconstructing a single image completely in focus, stemming from objects having a relevant depth or being displaced in different focus planes. After studying the existing approaches for extending the depth of focus of the microscope, we proposed a general method that does not require any prior information. In order to compare the outcome of existing methods, different standard metrics are commonly used in literature. However, no metric is available to compare different methods in real cases. First, we validated a metric able to rank the methods as the Universal Quality Index does, but without needing any reference ground truth. Second, we proved that the approach we developed performs better in both synthetic and real cases.

Export Supply Chain Organization and Food Safety and Quality Standards: a case study of the Moroccan Fruit and Vegetable Sector

Agri-food supply chains extend beyond national boundaries, partially facilitated by a policy environment that encourages more liberal international trade. Rising concentration within the downstream sector has driven a shift towards “buyer-driven” global value chains (GVCs) extending internationally with global sourcing and the emergence of multinational key economic players that compete with increase emphasis on product quality attributes. Agri-food systems are thus increasingly governed by a range of inter-related public and private standards, both of which are becoming a priori mandatory, especially in supply chains for high-value and quality-differentiated agri-food products and tend to strongly affect upstream agricultural practices, firms’ internal organization and strategic behaviour and to shape the food chain organization. Notably, increasing attention has been given to the impact of SPS measures on agri-food trade and notably on developing countries’ export performance. Food and agricultural trade is the vital link in the mutual dependency of the global trade system and developing countries. Hence, developing countries derive a substantial portion of their income from food and agricultural trade. In Morocco, fruit and vegetable (especially fresh) are the primary agricultural export. Because of the labor intensity, this sector (especially citrus and tomato) is particularly important in terms of income and employment generation, especially for the female laborers hired in the farms and packing houses. Hence, the emergence of agricultural and agrifood product safety issues and the subsequent tightening of market requirements have challenged mutual gains due to the lack of technical and financial capacities of most developing countries.

Adulthood with Turner Syndrome: Quality of life, psychosocial adjustment and clinical management in 70 Italian women

Abstract Background: Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal abnormality (total or partial absence of one of the sexual chromosomes in some or all cells of the body), which affects approximately 1:2000 female. Principal characteristics are short stature and gonadal disgenesis. Clinical management consist of Growth Hormone (GH) treatment and oestrogen replacement therapy (HRT), to induce development of secondary characteristics and to avoid the sequelae of oestrogen deficiency. Aim of the study: To assess clinical management, quality of life (QoL) and general psychosocial adjustment of women with TS. Population: 70 adult Caucasian females with TS (mean age: 27.8, ± 7.6; range 18-48 y.). Setting: Specialist service for Rare Disease care, University Hospital. Methods: Subjects were required to fill in questionnaires collecting ASR, WHOQOL, and 8 open questions. Data were compared with those of the Italian population or to those collected in a comparison group (70 healthy females, mean age: 27.9, ±7.3, range 21-48 y.). Results: Women with TS are educated as well as the Italian Population, but they have a less successful professional life. They show good QoL in general, but they appeared less satisfied in social area. They had statistically higher scores than the comparison group for depression, anxiety and withdrawal. Are less involved in a love relationship. Diagnosis communication was mostly performed by doctors or parents, satisfaction was higher when information was given by parents. Main preoccupation about TS are infertility, feeling of being different and future health problem. Conclusions: Italian people with TS were generally well adapted and have a good QoL, but lived more often with parents and show impaired sentimental and sexual life. They have higher degree of psychological distress compared to a comparison group. Psychological intervention should firstly address parents in order to encourage an open communication on diagnosis issues and on sexual education.

Experiments on Pro-Sociality and Environmental Issues

The thesis comprises three essays that use experimental methods, one about other-regarding motivations in economic behavior and the others on pro-social behavior in two environmental economics problems. The first chapter studies how the expectations of the others and the concern to maintain a balance between effort exerted and rewards obtained interact in shaping the behavior in a modified dictator game. We find that dictators condition their choices on recipients' expectations only when there is a high probability that the the recipient will not be compensated for her effort. Otherwise, dictators tend to balance the efforts and rewards of the recipients, irrespective of the recipients' expectations. In the second chapter, I investigate the problem of local opposition to large public projects (e.g. landfills, incinerators, etc.). In particular, the experiment shows how the uncertainty about the project's quality makes the community living in the host site skeptical about the project. I also test whether side-transfers and costly information disclosure can help to increase the efficiency. Both tools succesfully make the host more willing to accept the project, but they lead to the realization of different types of projects. The last chapter is an experiment on climate negotiations. To avoid the global warming, countries are called to cooperate in the abatement of their emissions. We study whether the dynamic aspect of the climate change makes cooperation across countries behaviorally more difficult. We also consider inequality across countries as a possible factor that hinders international cooperation.

Advanced solutions for authenticity and quality of virgin olive oils

This Ph.D. project aimed to the development and improvement of analytical solutions for control of quality and authenticity of virgin olive oils. According to this main objective, different research activities were carried out: concerning the quality control of olive oil, two of the official parameters defined by regulations (free acidity and fatty acid ethyl esters) were taken into account, and more sustainable and easier analytical solutions were developed and validated in-house. Regarding authenticity, two different issues were faced: verification of the geographical origin of extra virgin (EVOOs) and virgin olive oils (VOOs), and assessment of soft-deodorized oils illegally mixed with EVOOs. About fatty acid ethyl esters, a revised method based on the application of off-line HPLC-GC-FID (with PTV injector), revising both the preparative phase and the GC injector required in the official method, was developed. Next, the method was in-house validated evaluating several parameters. Concerning free acidity, a portable system suitable for in-situ measurements of VOO free acidity was developed and in-house validated. Its working principle is based on the estimation of the olive oil free acidity by measuring the conductance of an emulsion between a hydro-alcoholic solution and the sample to be tested. The procedure is very quick and easy and, therefore, suitable for people without specific training. Another study developed during the Ph.D. was about the application of flash gas chromatography for volatile compounds analysis, combined with untargeted chemometric data elaborations, for discrimination of EVOOs and VOOs of different geographical origin. A set of 210 samples coming from different EU member states and extra-EU countries were collected and analyzed. Data were elaborated applying two different classification techniques, one linear (PLS-DA) and one non-linear (ANN). Finally, a preliminary study about the application of GC-IMS (Gas Chromatograph - Ion Mobility Spectrometer) for assessment of soft-deodorized olive oils was carried out.