Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'DELL TECHNOLOGIES'

Throughout the twentieth century statistical methods have increasingly become part of experimental research. In particular, statistics has made quantification processes meaningful in the soft sciences, which had traditionally relied on activities such as collecting and describing diversity rather than timing variation. The thesis explores this change in relation to agriculture and biology, focusing on analysis of variance and experimental design, the statistical methods developed by the mathematician and geneticist Ronald Aylmer Fisher during the 1920s. The role that Fisher’s methods acquired as tools of scientific research, side by side with the laboratory equipment and the field practices adopted by research workers, is here investigated bottom-up, beginning with the computing instruments and the information technologies that were the tools of the trade for statisticians. Four case studies show under several perspectives the interaction of statistics, computing and information technologies, giving on the one hand an overview of the main tools – mechanical calculators, statistical tables, punched and index cards, standardised forms, digital computers – adopted in the period, and on the other pointing out how these tools complemented each other and were instrumental for the development and dissemination of analysis of variance and experimental design. The period considered is the half-century from the early 1920s to the late 1960s, the institutions investigated are Rothamsted Experimental Station and the Galton Laboratory, and the statisticians examined are Ronald Fisher and Frank Yates.

Throughout the twentieth century statistical methods have increasingly become part of experimental research. In particular, statistics has made quantification processes meaningful in the soft sciences, which had traditionally relied on activities such as collecting and describing diversity rather than timing variation. The thesis explores this change in relation to agriculture and biology, focusing on analysis of variance and experimental design, the statistical methods developed by the mathematician and geneticist Ronald Aylmer Fisher during the 1920s. The role that Fisher’s methods acquired as tools of scientific research, side by side with the laboratory equipment and the field practices adopted by research workers, is here investigated bottom-up, beginning with the computing instruments and the information technologies that were the tools of the trade for statisticians. Four case studies show under several perspectives the interaction of statistics, computing and information technologies, giving on the one hand an overview of the main tools – mechanical calculators, statistical tables, punched and index cards, standardised forms, digital computers – adopted in the period, and on the other pointing out how these tools complemented each other and were instrumental for the development and dissemination of analysis of variance and experimental design. The period considered is the half-century from the early 1920s to the late 1960s, the institutions investigated are Rothamsted Experimental Station and the Galton Laboratory, and the statisticians examined are Ronald Fisher and Frank Yates.

Se analizan los macroprocesos, procesos y subprocesos de negocio de una empresa de desarrollo de software, en especial el macroproceso de servicios profesionales. Luego, se realiza la planificación estratégica del área de tecnología de la información (TI) y, finalmente, se explica el proceso de mejora de restión de requerimientos de software.

E' possibile apprendere le funzioni della comunicazione attraverso i videogiochi anche in età adulta? Qual è il valore educativo del gioco? Può uno studente raggiungere gli obiettivi dell'educazione linguistica giocando? Quali sono i principi teorici a favore del gioco? Attraverso alcune riflessioni sull'insegnamento ludico, sulle caratteristiche dei discenti adulti e sui dati raccolti, questa tesi cerca di rispondere a queste domande. Ho creato un breve percorso didattico ipermediale che, sfruttando le tecnologie, cerca di rendere piacevole ed efficace l'apprendimento della lingua italiana. A questo scopo ho costruito un'unità didattica online basata sulla gamification. Utilizzando alcuni videogiochi che ho progettato e realizzato girando e montando video di Venezia, ho raccolto dati per verificare l'efficacia del materiale didattico proposto. Lo studente simula l'esplorazione della città in prima persona attraverso il ruolo di un turista appena arrivato a Venezia che deve raggiungere un certo albergo chiedendo indicazioni stradali. Lo studente deve guidare il turista nel videogioco ascoltando le indicazioni dei passanti e scegliendo dove andare ad ogni punto di diramazione. Questa attività offre allo studente l'opportunità di praticare la comprensione orale a differenza dell'attività successiva in cui lo studente pratica la conversazione nella lingua obiettivo, infatti lo studente assume ora il ruolo di un passante che dà indicazioni al turista.

Transmission welding tests on different eco-sustainable materials were performed using Thulium fiber laser radiation with 2 μm wavelength. All the samples were characterized via infra-red spectroscopy and DSC. The morphology of the materials and the relations between the laser process conditions and the quality of the seam were investigated by means of optical microscopy. Mechanical strength of the weld joints were measured via tensile tests, comparing some of them with different sealing methods and/or original tensile properties of the materials. The morphology of the non-woven material especially plays an important role, compared to the continuous films, as well as the chemical nature of the samples. The experiments demonstrate new application areas of mid-IR fiber laser sources for materials processing.

Heavy metals pollution has become a global problem in all industrialized countries. Since the industrial revolution, a continuous release of heavy metals has led to a severe contamination of the soil. There are many techniques available for the remediation of contaminated soils, that to date represent a constantly evolving field, absorbing a lot of resources for research and development. Phytoremediation is a technique that uses plants to clean up metals and other contaminants from the soil or to make them harmless or less dangerous. Cynara cardunculus L. (cardoon), a perennial species from Asteraceae family, native to Mediterranean countries, is a crop studied as a metal accumulator in several researches. In this work, two experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of Cadmium (Cd) and Arsenic (As) on growth of different cardoon subspecies and to determine if this crop can be used for the remediation of polluted soils, combining this application with energy production. Different As and Cd concentrations were tested in Cynara cardunculus L. var. altilis in Experiment 1, with the aim to study the biological response of cardoon to heavy metals stress. In cardoon, the biomass production and Cd and As concentrations were determined in 4 different stages of the biological cycle in different parts of plant. The results showed that the cardoon was a plant that could tolerate the presence of Cd and As, even in high doses. Under Cd treatment, the Cd concentration decreased in the roots while increased in the leaves over time. Under As treatment, the As concentration in cardoon tissues increased with increasing As concentration; in particular the plants showed a several reduction in the production of biomass and the highest dose of As caused the death of the plants. In the combined Cd and As treatments, the plants improved resistance to As and Cd and the presence of Cd increased the ability of cardoon to tolerate As up to 45 days after artificial contamination. In the second study (Experiment 2), three accessions belonging to var. altilis (Gen 1) and var. sylvestris (Gen 2 and Gen 3) were compared and different concentrations of As, Cd and As+Cd were used. The aim of this work was to assess the concentration and bioaccumulation of As and Cd in the soil and in different parts of the plant, to understand the effects of Cd and As comparing different varieties and genotypes of cardoon plants and to study the specific speciation of As and Cd into plants. The results showed that plants were considerable tolerant to Cd and As, suggesting that this species was able to tolerate low doses of these toxic elements. Moreover, as shown in the values of bioaccumulation factor, cardoon plants had the ability to accumulate large quantities of metal contaminants in its tissue. The results regarding the speciation of As and Cd suggested that exposure of plants to toxic metals appeared to induce the synthesis of sulfur-rich ligands such as phytochelatins, a cysteine-rich oligopeptide, that strongly bound metals. The presence of As upregulated the production of these specific proteins/ligands that bound and traslocated Cd into the plant tissue suggesting that the two metals interacted to magnify phytochelatin production, leading to sequestration of both metals and consequently increasing the tolerance to both. In conclusion cardoon was a plant that could tolerate the presence of heavy metals including Cd and As. The combination of As+Cd treatment, however, increased the resistance of plants allowing them to survive. Furthurmore, Cynara Cardunculus var. sylvestris was the best subspecies that could tolerate high levels of As and Cd in its tissues and bioaccumulate greater concentrations of both metals than var. altilis. It would be useful to continue the trials with the selected Genotype 3 in future works, with the aim to test for more years, its remediation efficiency in polluted soils and exploit its biomass for energy purposes.

The multi-faced evolution of network technologies ranges from big data centers to specialized network infrastructures and protocols for mission-critical operations. For instance, technologies such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) revolutionized the world of static configuration of the network - i.e., by removing the distributed and proprietary configuration of the switched networks - centralizing the control plane. While this disruptive approach is interesting from different points of view, it can introduce new unforeseen vulnerabilities classes. One topic of particular interest in the last years is industrial network security, an interest which started to rise in 2016 with the introduction of the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) movement. Networks that were basically isolated by design are now connected to the internet to collect, archive, and analyze data. While this approach got a lot of momentum due to the predictive maintenance capabilities, these network technologies can be exploited in various ways from a cybersecurity perspective. Some of these technologies lack security measures and can introduce new families of vulnerabilities. On the other side, these networks can be used to enable accurate monitoring, formal verification, or defenses that were not practical before. This thesis explores these two fields: by introducing monitoring, protections, and detection mechanisms where the new network technologies make it feasible; and by demonstrating attacks on practical scenarios related to emerging network infrastructures not protected sufficiently. The goal of this thesis is to highlight this lack of protection in terms of attacks on and possible defenses enabled by emerging technologies. We will pursue this goal by analyzing the aforementioned technologies and by presenting three years of contribution to this field. In conclusion, we will recapitulate the research questions and give answers to them.

A densely built environment is a complex system of infrastructure, nature, and people closely interconnected and interacting. Vehicles, public transport, weather action, and sports activities constitute a manifold set of excitation and degradation sources for civil structures. In this context, operators should consider different factors in a holistic approach for assessing the structural health state. Vibration-based structural health monitoring (SHM) has demonstrated great potential as a decision-supporting tool to schedule maintenance interventions. However, most excitation sources are considered an issue for practical SHM applications since traditional methods are typically based on strict assumptions on input stationarity. Last-generation low-cost sensors present limitations related to a modest sensitivity and high noise floor compared to traditional instrumentation. If these devices are used for SHM in urban scenarios, short vibration recordings collected during high-intensity events and vehicle passage may be the only available datasets with a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. While researchers have spent efforts to mitigate the effects of short-term phenomena in vibration-based SHM, the ultimate goal of this thesis is to exploit them and obtain valuable information on the structural health state. First, this thesis proposes strategies and algorithms for smart sensors operating individually or in a distributed computing framework to identify damage-sensitive features based on instantaneous modal parameters and influence lines. Ordinary traffic and people activities become essential sources of excitation, while human-powered vehicles, instrumented with smartphones, take the role of roving sensors in crowdsourced monitoring strategies. The technical and computational apparatus is optimized using in-memory computing technologies. Moreover, identifying additional local features can be particularly useful to support the damage assessment of complex structures. Thereby, smart coatings are studied to enable the self-sensing properties of ordinary structural elements. In this context, a machine-learning-aided tomography method is proposed to interpret the data provided by a nanocomposite paint interrogated electrically.

Nowadays the development of real-time ionizing radiation detection system operating over large areas is crucial. Increasing quest for flexible, portable, low cost and low power consumption sensors pushed the scientific community to look for alternative materials and technologies able to fulfill these new requirements. In this thesis the potentiality of organic semiconductors and metal oxides as material platforms for novel ionizing radiation sensors is demonstrated. In particular, organic semiconductors are human tissue-equivalent and this represents a unique and desirable property for the development of dosimeters to be employed in the medical field. The ionizing radiation sensors described in this thesis have been designed, fabricated and characterized during my PhD research and are realized onto polymeric foils leading to flexible devices operating at low voltages, in ambient condition and able to directly detect X-rays, gamma-rays and protons. Following the study of the properties and of the mechanisms of interaction between the radiation and the active layers of the sensors, several strategies have been adopted to enhance the efficiency of these detectors. X-rays dosimeters based on organic semiconductors have been realized presenting record sensitivity values compared with the state of the art for large area radiation detection. The unprecedentedly reported performance led to the possibility to testing these devices in actual medical environments. Moreover, the proof-of-principle demonstration of a dosimetric detection of proton beams by organic-based sensors is reported. Finally, a new sensing platform based on metal oxides is introduced. Combining the advantages of amorphous high mobility oxide semiconductors with a multilayer dielectric, novel devices have been designed, capable of providing a sensitivity one order of magnitude higher than the one shown by the standard RADFETs. Thanks to their unique properties, these sensors have been integrated with a wireless readout system based on a commercial RFID tag and its assessment is presented.

Computing is moving towards pervasive, ubiquitous environments in which devices, software agents and services are all expected to seamlessly integrate and cooperate in support of human objectives. An important next step for pervasive computing is the integration of intelligent agents that employ knowledge and reasoning to understand the local context and share this information in support of intelligent applications and interfaces. Such scenarios, characterised by "computation everywhere around us", require on the one hand software components with intelligent behaviour in terms of objectives and context, and on the other their integration so as to produce social intelligence. Logic Programming (LP) has been recognised as a natural paradigm for addressing the needs of distributed intelligence. Yet, the development of novel architectures, in particular in the context Internet of Things (IoT), and the emergence of new domains and potential applications, are creating new research opportunities where LP could be exploited, when suitably coupled with agent technologies and methods so that it can fully develop its potential in the new context. In particular, the LP and its extensions can act as micro-intelligence sources for the IoT world, both at the individual and the social level, provided that they are reconsidered in a renewed architectural vision. Such micro-intelligence sources could deal with the local knowledge of the devices taking into account the domain specificity of each environment. The goal of this thesis is to re-contextualise LP and its extensions in these new domains as a source of micro-intelligence for the IoT world, envisioning a large number of small computational units distributed and situated in the environment, thus promoting the local exploitation of symbolic languages with inference capabilities. The topic is explored in depth and the effectiveness of novel LP models and architectures -and of the corresponding technology- expressing the concept of micro-intelligence is tested.

Nowadays, the relationship among food, health, and economy is an emerging topic that engages the modern global society from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Food Risk assessment has been formalized and incorporated into the specific discipline addressed to everyone involved with food from production to consumption, including growers, processors, regulators, distributors, retailers and consumers. However, both intentional and unintentional actions committed for economic gains could make an attempt on people’s health. In recent years, many tools have been developed to help the authorities involved in controls and consumers too. The integration of multidisciplinary techniques has favorably supported the study and the development of tools related to the field of the Systems Biology as well as the application of state-of-the-art techniques deriving from other application fields such as the Computer Science. To counteract and operate with reaction and prevention in my Ph.D. I investigate the use of original Computer-Aided technologies in two particular instances. The first one refers to a Food Traceability issue related to dairy product control. I studied and implemented a heuristic procedure that allows food inspectors to highlight possible adulterations in cheese production into the small farm environment. The procedure is mainly based on Short Tandem Repeat investigation to compare the DNA fingerprint among cows, milk, and cheese. The second one regards the Food Fraud discipline. I developed a mobile application to counteract the problem of fish species substitution and mislabelling. The infrastructure implemented is composed of a cloud remote server where both image analysis and machine learning algorithm take part. The main breakthrough on this topic has been reached with a deep learning classification system which allowed to obtain an improvement in the global accuracy to correctly identify the fish species. Eventually, in the last topic, I deal with the problem of fish fillets identification. The main outcome of this preliminary study is the application of a portable Near Infra-Res molecular sensor that was specifically trained to discriminate the fish fillets available in a sample database.

Microfluidic devices can process and manipulate small amounts of fluids (nanoliters), using channels with a diameter of tens to hundreds of micrometers. One can effectively scale down chemical and analytical reactions to a microscopic size, reduce the quantities of reagents involved, increase the selectivity, efficiency and speed of the process, and minimize the involved costs. Therefore microfluidics represents an emerging technology in many areas of chemistry and biotechnology. Microelectronics provided the technologies suitable for the fabrication of the first microfluidic devices made of silicon and glass, but these materials have soon been displaced by polymers. However, some problems still exist regarding fabrication process, integration of microcomponents, and compatibility toward the reaction media. Consequently, the development of new materials or modification of existing polymers is still a key issue to guarantee the full success of microfluidic devices and their spreading on the market. Moreover an important aspect for the widespread availability of microfluidics is the optimization of new technologies for manufacturing devices. Only fabrication methods that guarantee a mass production of chips at low cost and that can be easily applied to different materials allow microfluidic devices to become versatile tools. It is therefore essential to explore new polymeric materials with properties suitable for specific applications in microfluidics and to develop rapid and low cost microfabrication technologies that do not limit the achievable features. Testing new polymeric materials and developing innovative fabrication technologies can certainly widen the application field of microfluidics. The research work carried out concerns the development of novel polymers suitable for the fabrication of microfluidic devices via innovative methodologies based on photopolymerization. First we prepared different UV cured polymers by photopolymerization of radical reactive systems, and some of them were selected (depending on their physico-chemical properties) for manufacturing microfluidic devices. For the fabrication of microfluidic devices, photopolymerization was coupled with lithographic techniques in order to develop direct or replicating methods. The different technologies based on UV curing we optimized allowed the fabrication of microfluidic devices in short times, without using solvents, and at room temperature. The obtained devices were then tested for chemical and biological microfluidic applications.

Cultural heritage represents an enormous amount of information and knowledge. Accessing this treasure chest allows not only to discover the legacy of physical and intangible attributes of the past but also to provide a better understanding of the present. Museums and cultural institutions have to face the problem of providing access to and communicating these cultural contents to a wide and assorted audience, meeting the expectations and interests of the reference end-users and relying on the most appropriate tools available. Given the large amount of existing tangible and intangible heritage, artistic, historical and cultural contents, what can be done to preserve and properly disseminate their heritage significance? How can these items be disseminated in the proper way to the public, taking into account their enormous heterogeneity? Answering this question requires to deal as well with another aspect of the problem: the evolution of culture, literacy and society during the last decades of 20th century. To reflect such transformations, this period witnessed a shift in the museum’s focus from the aesthetic value of museum artifacts to the historical and artistic information they encompass, and a change into the museums’ role from a mere "container" of cultural objects to a "narrative space" able to explain, describe, and revive the historical material in order to attract and entertain visitors. These developments require creating novel exhibits, able to tell stories about the objects and enabling visitors to construct semantic meanings around them. The objective that museums presently pursue is reflected by the concept of Edutainment, Education + Entertainment. Nowadays, visitors are not satisfied with ‘learning something’, but would rather engage in an ‘experience of learning’, or ‘learning for fun’, being active actors and players in their own cultural experience. As a result, institutions are faced with several new problems, like the need to communicate with people from different age groups and different cultural backgrounds, the change in people attitude due to the massive and unexpected diffusion of technology into everyday life, the need to design the visit by a personal point of view, leading to a high level of customization that allows visitors to shape their path according to their characteristics and interests. In order to cope with these issues, I investigated several approaches. In particular, I focused on Virtual Learning Environments (VLE): real-time interactive virtual environments where visitors can experience a journey through time and space, being immersed into the original historical, cultural and artistic context of the work of arts on display. VLE can strongly help archivists and exhibit designers, allowing to create new interesting and captivating ways to present cultural materials. In this dissertation I will tackle many of the different dimensions related to the creation of a cultural virtual experience. During my research project, the entire pipeline involved into the development and deployment of VLE has been investigated. The approach followed was to analyze in details the main sub-problems to face, in order to better focus on specific issues. Therefore, I first analyzed different approaches to an effective recreation of the historical and cultural context of heritage contents, which is ultimately aimed at an effective transfer of knowledge to the end-users. In particular, I identified the enhancement of the users’ sense of presence in VLE as one of the main tools to reach this objective. Presence is generally expressed as the perception of 'being there', i.e. the subjective belief of users that they are in a certain place, even if they know that the experience is mediated by the computer. Presence is related to the number of senses involved by the VLE and to the quality of the sensorial stimuli. But in a cultural scenario, this is not sufficient as the cultural presence plays a relevant role. Cultural presence is not just a feeling of 'being there' but of being - not only physically, but also socially, culturally - 'there and then'. In other words, the VLE must be able to transfer not only the appearance, but also all the significance and characteristics of the context that makes it a place and both the environment and the context become tools capable of transferring the cultural significance of a historic place. The attention that users pay to the mediated environment is another aspect that contributes to presence. Attention is related to users’ focalization and concentration and to their interests. Thus, in order to improve the involvement and capture the attention of users, I investigated in my work the adoption of narratives and storytelling experiences, which can help people making sense of history and culture, and of gamification approaches, which explore the use of game thinking and game mechanics in cultural contexts, thus engaging users while disseminating cultural contents and, why not?, letting them have fun during this process. Another dimension related to the effectiveness of any VLE is also the quality of the user experience (UX). User interaction, with both the virtual environment and its digital contents, is one of the main elements affecting UX. With respect to this I focused on one of the most recent and promising approaches: the natural interaction, which is based on the idea that persons need to interact with technology in the same way they are used to interact with the real world in everyday life. Then, I focused on the problem of presenting, displaying and communicating contents. VLE represent an ideal presentation layer, being multiplatform hypermedia applications where users are free to interact with the virtual reconstructions by choosing their own visiting path. Cultural items, embedded into the environment, can be accessed by users according to their own curiosity and interests, with the support of narrative structures, which can guide them through the exploration of the virtual spaces, and conceptual maps, which help building meaningful connections between cultural items. Thus, VLE environments can even be seen as visual interfaces to DBs of cultural contents. Users can navigate the VE as if they were browsing the DB contents, exploiting both text-based queries and visual-based queries, provided by the re-contextualization of the objects into their original spaces, whose virtual exploration can provide new insights on specific elements and improve the awareness of relationships between objects in the database. Finally, I have explored the mobile dimension, which became absolutely relevant in the last period. Nowadays, off-the-shelf consumer devices as smartphones and tablets guarantees amazing computing capabilities, support for rich multimedia contents, geo-localization and high network bandwidth. Thus, mobile devices can support users in mobility and detect the user context, thus allowing to develop a plethora of location-based services, from way-finding to the contextualized communication of cultural contents, aimed at providing a meaningful exploration of exhibits and cultural or tourist sites according to visitors’ personal interest and curiosity.

In this dissertation will be discussed the impact of the new technologies and latest innovation on the global automotive value chain. The first part will be dedicated to the theoretic analysis of the value chain's industry, focusing on the impact that digital revolution and, consequently, globalization had on the international fragmentation of production that led to the global value chains' rise. The particular correlation between clusters and global sourcing, the logics behind the GVC's governance, the main innovations that shaped the GVC itself and the concept of digital management will be discussed in depth. The second part of the dissertation will have a more actual imprint: it will start from the analysis of those technologies that will revolutionize the car's concept as well as the consumers' preferences that will directly affect on the car itself. After having discussed the features of these new technologies and innovations, the analysis will focus on the impact of the former on the car manufactures' strategies and business models, on the suppliers' role and, in particular, on the new forms of cooperation that will shape up among OEMS, suppliers and new players.

[EN] SRAM technology has traditionally been used to implement processor caches since it is the fastest existing RAM technology.However,one of the major drawbacks of this technology is its high energy consumption.To reduce this energy consumption modern processors mainly use two complementary techniques: i)low-power operating modes and ii)low-power memory technologies.The first technique allows the processor working at low clock frequencies and supply voltages.The main limitation of this technique is that manufacturing defects can significantly affect the reliability of SRAM cells when working these modes.The second technique brings alternative technologies such as eDRAM, which provides minimum area and power consumption.The main drawback of this memory technology is that reads are destructive and eDRAM cells work slower than SRAM ones. This thesis presents three main contributions regarding low-power caches and heterogeneous technologies: i)an study that identifies the optimal capacitance of eDRAM cells, ii)a novel cache design that tolerates the faults produced by SRAM cells in low-power modes, iii)a methodology that allows obtain the optimal operating frequency/voltage level when working with low-power modes. Regarding the first contribution,in this work SRAM and eDRAM technologies are combined to achieve a low-power fast cache that requires smaller area than conventional designs and that tolerates SRAM failures.First,this dissertation focuses on one of the main critical aspects of the design of heterogeneous caches:eDRAM cell capacitance.In this dissertation the optimal capacitance for an heterogeneous L1 data cache is identified by analyzing the compromise between performance and energy consumption.Experimental results show that an heterogeneous cache implemented with 10fF capacitors offers similar performance as a conventional SRAM cache while providing 55% energy savings and reducing by 29% the cache area. Regarding the second contribution,this thesis proposes a novel organization for a fault-tolerant heterogeneous cache.Currently,reducing the supply voltage is a mechanism widely used to reduce consumption and applies when the system workload activity decreases.However,SRAM cells cause different types of failures when the supply voltage is reduced and thus they limit the minimum operating voltage of the microprocessor. In the proposal,memory cells implemented with eDRAM technology serve as backup in case of failure of SRAM cells, because the correct operation of eDRAM cells is not affected by reduced voltages. The proposed architecture has two working modes: high-performance mode for supply voltages that do not induce SRAM cell failures, and low-power mode for those voltages that cause SRAM cell failures. In high-performance mode, the cache provides full capacity, which enables the processor to achieve its maximum performance. In low-power mode, the effective capacity of the cache is reduced because some of the eDRAM cells are dedicated to recover from SRAM failures. Experimental results show that the performance is scarcely reduced (e.g. less than 2.7% across all the studied benchmarks) with respect to an ideal SRAM cache without failures. Finally,this thesis proposes a methodology to find the optimal frequency/voltage level regarding energy consumption for the designed heterogeneous cache. For this purpose, first SRAM failure types and their probabilities are characterized.Then,the energy consumption of different frequency/voltage levels is evaluated when the system works in low-power mode.The study shows that, mainly due to the impact of SRAM failures on performance,the optimal combination of voltage and frequency from the energy point of view does not always correspond to the minimum voltage.
[ES] La tecnología SRAM se ha utilizado tradicionalmente para implementar las memorias cache debido a que es la tecnología de memoria RAM más rápida existente.Por contra,uno de los principales inconvenientes de esta tecnología es su elevado consumo energético.Para reducirlo los procesadores modernos suelen emplear dos técnicas complementarias:i) modos de funcionamiento de bajo consumo y ii)tecnologías de bajo consumo.La primeras técnica consiste en utilizar bajas frecuencias y voltajes de funcionamiento.La principal limitación de esta técnica es que los defectos de fabricación pueden afectar notablemente a la fiabilidad de las celdas SRAM en estos modos.La segunda técnica agrupa tecnologías alternativas como la eDRAM,que ofrece área y consumo mínimos.El inconveniente de esta tecnología es que las lecturas son destructivas y es más lenta que la SRAM. Esta tesis presenta tres contribuciones principales centradas en caches de bajo consumo y tecnologías heterogéneas: i)estudio de la capacitancia óptima de las celdas eDRAM, ii)diseño de una cache tolerante a fallos producidos en las celdas SRAM en modos de bajo consumo, iii)metodología para obtener la relación óptima entre voltaje y frecuencia en procesadores con modos de bajo consumo. Respecto a la primera contribución,en este trabajo se combinan las tecnologías SRAM y eDRAM para conseguir una memoria cache rápida, de bajo consumo, área reducida, y tolerante a los fallos inherentes a la tecnología SRAM.En primer lugar,esta disertación se centra en uno de los aspectos críticos de diseño de caches heterogéneas SRAM/eDRAM: la capacitancia de los condensadores implementados con tecnología eDRAM.En esta tesis se identifica la capacitancia óptima de una cache de datos L1 heterogénea mediante el estudio del compromiso entre prestaciones y consumo energético.Los resultados experimentales muestran que condensadores de 10fF ofrecen prestaciones similares a las de una cache SRAM convencional ahorrando un 55% de consumo y reduciendo un 29% el área ocupada por la cache. Respecto a la segunda contribución,esta tesis propone una organización de cache heterogénea tolerante a fallos.Actualmente,reducir el voltaje de alimentación es un mecanismo muy utilizado para reducir el consumo en condiciones de baja carga.Sin embargo,las celdas SRAM producen distintos tipos de fallos cuando se reduce el voltaje de alimentación y por tanto limitan el voltaje mínimo de funcionamiento del microprocesador. En la cache heterogénea propuesta,las celdas de memoria implementadas con tecnología eDRAM sirven de copia de seguridad en caso de fallo de las celdas SRAM, ya que el correcto funcionamiento de las celdas eDRAM no se ve afectado por tensiones reducidas.La arquitectura propuesta consta de dos modos de funcionamiento: high-performance mode para voltajes de alimentación que no inducen fallos en celdas implementadas en tecnología SRAM, y low-power mode para aquellos que sí lo hacen. En el modo high-performance mode,el procesador dispone de toda la capacidad de la cache.En el modo low-power mode se reduce la capacidad efectiva de la cache puesto que algunas de las celdas eDRAM se dedican a la recuperación de fallos de celdas SRAM.El estudio de prestaciones realizado muestra que éstas bajan hasta un máximo de 2.7% con respecto a una cache perfecta sin fallos. Finalmente, en esta tesis se propone una metodología para encontrar la relación óptima de voltaje/frecuencia con respecto al consumo energético sobre la cache heterogénea previamente diseñada. Para ello,primero se caracterizan los tipos de fallos SRAM y las probabilidades de fallo de los mismos.Después,se evalúa el consumo energético de diferentes combinaciones de voltaje/frecuencia cuando el sistema se encuentra en un modo de bajo consumo.El estudio muestra que la combinación óptima de voltaje y frecuencia desde el punto de vista energético no siempre corresponde al mínimo voltaje debido al imp
[CAT] La tecnologia SRAM s'ha utilitzat tradicionalment per a implementar les memòries cau degut a que és la tecnologia de memòria RAM més ràpida existent.Per contra, un dels principals inconvenients d'aquesta tecnologia és el seu elevat consum energètic.Per a reduir el consum els processadors moderns solen emprar dues tècniques complementàries: i)modes de funcionament de baix consum i ii)tecnologies de baix consum.La primera tècnica consisteix en utilitzar baixes freqüències i voltatges de funcionament.La principal limitació d'aquesta tècnica és que els defectes de fabricació poden afectar notablement a la fiabilitat de les cel·les SRAM en aquests modes.La segona tècnica agrupa tecnologies alternatives com la eDRAM, que ofereix àrea i consum mínims.L'inconvenient d'aquesta tecnologia és que les lectures són destructives i és més lenta que la SRAM. Aquesta tesi presenta tres contribucions principals centrades en caus de baix consum i tecnologies heterogènies: i)estudi de la capacitancia òptima de les cel·les eDRAM, ii)disseny d'una cau tolerant a fallades produïdes en les cel·les SRAM en modes de baix consum, iii)metodologia per a obtenir la relació òptima entre voltatge i freqüència en processadors amb modes de baix consum. Respecte a la primera contribució, en aquest treball es combinen les tecnologies SRAM i eDRAM per a aconseguir una memòria cau ràpida, de baix consum, àrea reduïda, i tolerant a les fallades inherents a la tecnologia SRAM.En primer lloc, aquesta dissertació se centra en un dels aspectes crítics de disseny de caus heterogènies: la capacitancia dels condensadors implementats amb tecnologia eDRAM.En aquesta dissertació s'identifica la capacitancia òptima d'una cache de dades L1 heterogènia mitjançant l'estudi del compromís entre prestacions i consum energètic.Els resultats experimentals mostren que condensadors de 10fF ofereixen prestacions similars a les d'una cau SRAM convencional estalviant un 55% de consum i reduint un 29% l'àrea ocupada per la cau. Respecte a la segona contribució, aquesta tesi proposa una organització de cau heterogènia tolerant a fallades.Actualment,reduir el voltatge d'alimentació és un mecanisme molt utilitzat per a reduir el consum en condicions de baixa càrrega.Per contra, les cel·les SRAM produeixen diferents tipus de fallades quan es redueix el voltatge d'alimentació i per tant limiten el voltatge mínim de funcionament del microprocessador. En la cau heterogènia proposta, les cel·les de memòria implementades amb tecnologia eDRAM serveixen de còpia de seguretat en cas de fallada de les cel·les SRAM, ja que el correcte funcionament de les cel·les eDRAM no es veu afectat per tensions reduïdes.L'arquitectura proposada consta de dues maneres de funcionament: high-performance mode per a voltatges d'alimentació que no indueixen fallades en cel·les implementades en tecnologia SRAM,i low-power mode per a aquells que sí ho fan.En el mode high-performance,el processador disposa de tota la capacitat de la cau.En el mode low-power es redueix la capacitat efectiva de la cau posat que algunes de les cel·les eDRAM es dediquen a la recuperació de fallades de cel·les SRAM.L'estudi de prestacions realitzat mostra que aquestes baixen fins a un màxim de 2.7% pel que fa a una cache perfecta sense fallades. Finalment,en aquesta tesi es proposa una metodologia per a trobar la relació òptima de voltatge/freqüència pel que fa al consum energètic sobre la cau heterogènia prèviament dissenyada.Per a açò,primer es caracteritzen els tipus de fallades SRAM i les probabilitats de fallada de les mateixes.Després,s'avalua el consum energètic de diferents combinacions de voltatge/freqüència quan el sistema es troba en un mode de baix consum.L'estudi mostra que la combinació òptima de voltatge i freqüència des del punt de vista energètic no sempre correspon al mínim voltatge degut a l'impacte de les fallades de SRAM en les pres
Lorente Garcés, VJ. (2015). Cache architectures based on heterogeneous technologies to deal with manufacturing errors [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/58428
TESIS

In the last fifty years, scholars have widely studied Deliberative Democracy and Deliberative Systems and proposed them as an alternative or integration to Rep- resentative and Participatory Democracy. The latter can on one side deal with communication challenges of diverse and pluralist modern Societies by opening Democratic procedures to Citizens and engaging them in Democratic decision- making procedures. On the other side, as like as Representative Democracies, Participatory Democracies do not promote deliberations to foster Citizens to reach a consensus on Societal issues. Indeed, Participatory Democracies are based on intrinsic mechanisms of aggregation of votes, not optimized to fulfil the diverse cog- nitive characteristics of Citizens, and are usually stand-alone processes that can not be interconnected. Gamified Online Deliberative Systems can fill these gaps. The first research goal of this work is to analyze Democracies, expose different models of them, and investigate from different perspectives the causes of the current crisis of Representative Democracies and the lack of Participatory Democracies models. The second research goal is to analyze the literature on Deliberative Democracies and Deliberative Systems in order to delineate a framework of requirements to im- plement the features needed for legitimated Deliberative Systems. The framework is then used to analyze a set of online tools for deliberation and cover the third research question: understand if these tools implement legitimacy features of on- line deliberation and can be connected to Deliberative Systems. The last research goal of this work is to investigate the cognitive characteristics of Citizens involved in deliberations and the motivations that may keep them continuously engaged in Deliberative Systems. After having exposed Gamification theories, this work proposes a fully gamified model for Online Deliberative Systems and describes a practical implementation of the model.

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze how the implementation of Business Process Reengineering, along with the introduction of an advanced Information System, have caused a structural shift within the Electrolux plant in Porcia (PN), leading to the redefinition of the way in which work is both conceived and performed at different levels.

With the aim to provide people with sustainable options, engineers are ethically required to hold the safety, health and welfare of the public paramount and to satisfy society's need for sustainable development. The global crisis and related sustainability challenges are calling for a fundamental change in culture, structures and practices. Sustainability Transitions (ST) have been recognized as promising frameworks for radical system innovation towards sustainability. In order to enhance the effectiveness of transformative processes, both the adoption of a transdisciplinary approach and the experimentation of practices are crucial. The evolution of approaches towards ST provides a series of inspiring cases which allow to identify advances in making sustainability transitions happen. In this framework, the thesis has emphasized the role of Transition Engineering (TE). TE adopts a transdisciplinary approach for engineering to face the sustainability challenges and address the risks of un-sustainability. With this purpose, a definition of Transition Technologies is provided as a valid instruments to contribute to ST. In the empirical section, several transition initiatives have been analysed especially at the urban level. As a consequence, the model of living-lab of sustainability has crucially emerged. Living-labs are environments in which innovative technologies and services are co-created with users active participation. In this framework, university can play a key role as learning organization. The core of the thesis has concerned the experimental application of transition approach within the School of Engineering and Architecture of University of Bologna at Terracini Campus. The final vision is to realize a living-lab of sustainability. Particularly, a Transition Team has been established and several transition experiments have been conducted. The final result is not only the improvement of sustainability and resilience of the Terracini Campus, but the demonstration that university can generate solutions and strategies that tackle the complex, dynamic factors fuelling the global crisis.

With the aim to provide people with sustainable options, engineers are ethically required to hold the safety, health and welfare of the public paramount and to satisfy society's need for sustainable development. The global crisis and related sustainability challenges are calling for a fundamental change in culture, structures and practices. Sustainability Transitions (ST) have been recognized as promising frameworks for radical system innovation towards sustainability. In order to enhance the effectiveness of transformative processes, both the adoption of a transdisciplinary approach and the experimentation of practices are crucial. The evolution of approaches towards ST provides a series of inspiring cases which allow to identify advances in making sustainability transitions happen. In this framework, the thesis has emphasized the role of Transition Engineering (TE). TE adopts a transdisciplinary approach for engineering to face the sustainability challenges and address the risks of un-sustainability. With this purpose, a definition of Transition Technologies is provided as a valid instruments to contribute to ST. In the empirical section, several transition initiatives have been analysed especially at the urban level. As a consequence, the model of living-lab of sustainability has crucially emerged. Living-labs are environments in which innovative technologies and services are co-created with users active participation. In this framework, university can play a key role as learning organization. The core of the thesis has concerned the experimental application of transition approach within the School of Engineering and Architecture of University of Bologna at Terracini Campus. The final vision is to realize a living-lab of sustainability. Particularly, a Transition Team has been established and several transition experiments have been conducted. The final result is not only the improvement of sustainability and resilience of the Terracini Campus, but the demonstration that university can generate solutions and strategies that tackle the complex, dynamic factors fuelling the global crisis.

Mainstream hardware is becoming parallel, heterogeneous, and distributed on every desk, every home and in every pocket. As a consequence, in the last years software is having an epochal turn toward concurrency, distribution, interaction which is pushed by the evolution of hardware architectures and the growing of network availability. This calls for introducing further abstraction layers on top of those provided by classical mainstream programming paradigms, to tackle more effectively the new complexities that developers have to face in everyday programming. A convergence it is recognizable in the mainstream toward the adoption of the actor paradigm as a mean to unite object-oriented programming and concurrency. Nevertheless, we argue that the actor paradigm can only be considered a good starting point to provide a more comprehensive response to such a fundamental and radical change in software development. Accordingly, the main objective of this thesis is to propose Agent-Oriented Programming (AOP) as a high-level general purpose programming paradigm, natural evolution of actors and objects, introducing a further level of human-inspired concepts for programming software systems, meant to simplify the design and programming of concurrent, distributed, reactive/interactive programs. To this end, in the dissertation first we construct the required background by studying the state-of-the-art of both actor-oriented and agent-oriented programming, and then we focus on the engineering of integrated programming technologies for developing agent-based systems in their classical application domains: artificial intelligence and distributed artificial intelligence. Then, we shift the perspective moving from the development of intelligent software systems, toward general purpose software development. Using the expertise maturated during the phase of background construction, we introduce a general-purpose programming language named simpAL, which founds its roots on general principles and practices of software development, and at the same time provides an agent-oriented level of abstraction for the engineering of general purpose software systems.

Mainstream hardware is becoming parallel, heterogeneous, and distributed on every desk, every home and in every pocket. As a consequence, in the last years software is having an epochal turn toward concurrency, distribution, interaction which is pushed by the evolution of hardware architectures and the growing of network availability. This calls for introducing further abstraction layers on top of those provided by classical mainstream programming paradigms, to tackle more effectively the new complexities that developers have to face in everyday programming. A convergence it is recognizable in the mainstream toward the adoption of the actor paradigm as a mean to unite object-oriented programming and concurrency. Nevertheless, we argue that the actor paradigm can only be considered a good starting point to provide a more comprehensive response to such a fundamental and radical change in software development. Accordingly, the main objective of this thesis is to propose Agent-Oriented Programming (AOP) as a high-level general purpose programming paradigm, natural evolution of actors and objects, introducing a further level of human-inspired concepts for programming software systems, meant to simplify the design and programming of concurrent, distributed, reactive/interactive programs. To this end, in the dissertation first we construct the required background by studying the state-of-the-art of both actor-oriented and agent-oriented programming, and then we focus on the engineering of integrated programming technologies for developing agent-based systems in their classical application domains: artificial intelligence and distributed artificial intelligence. Then, we shift the perspective moving from the development of intelligent software systems, toward general purpose software development. Using the expertise maturated during the phase of background construction, we introduce a general-purpose programming language named simpAL, which founds its roots on general principles and practices of software development, and at the same time provides an agent-oriented level of abstraction for the engineering of general purpose software systems.

La tesi si propone di individuare, nell’ambito dell’industria 4.0, quali sono i trend, le nuove figure professionali emergenti e le competenze trasversali necessarie e di rilevanza per soddisfare le future necessità del mercato. Nel primo capitolo viene descritta l’industria 4.0, spiegando cosa è realmente e quali sono state le principali tecnologie che ne hanno permesso l’avvio. In particolare verranno analizzate: Advanced Human Machine Interface, Additive Manufacturing, Cyber Physical System, Internet of Things, Cloud, Big Data, Machine Learning, Robotic, Augmented reality and Virtual reality. Successivamente verranno elencati gli effetti positivi (novità/migliorie introdotte), e gli effetti negativi (perdita del lavoro/privacy/security). Nel secondo capitolo si descriveranno le varie competenze trasversali(soft skills), dando risalto a quelle che si prospettano essere le più richieste nel prossimo futuro. Nel terzo capitolo si procederà ad individuare le nuove figure professionali che stanno emergendo all’interno del mercato del lavoro, analizzando le principali caratteristiche che le contraddistinguono. Infine, tramite un’analisi empirica, si procederà ad interrogare figure di rilievo che operano all’interno di settori nei quali vi è una forte spinta verso tale rivoluzione industriale, sia in ambito nazionale che internazionale, indagando sulla la capacità di comprensione ed adattamento ad un radicale mutamento produttivo e culturale che porta con sé un cambio di paradigma, a livello di organizzazione, rapporto macchina-uomo, nuove competenze.

This thesis investigates language and culture learning through technologies with special attention to the global and local dimensions of this process. Building upon three case studies experienced at the University of Bologna, the examination of the usage and the effectiveness of technological tools for language and culture learning is conducted in relation with the phenomena of student mobility and internationalisation of higher education. The primary focus is upon Italian language and culture, but other languages and cultures are also taken into account. Similarly, some specific technologies – i.e. the Moodle platform, the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and the context of mobile Apps – are spotlighted while dealing with technology for learning purposes in more general terms. The initial chapter is dedicated to providing a thorough methodological overview and raises the relevant critical issues which will be discussed in the following chapters. The second chapter is devoted to the E-LOCAL (Electronically Learning Other Cultures And Languages) experience, which resulted in the creation of the E-LOCAL Moodle courses for six languages and cultures and their institutional systematisation. The third chapter analyses the transition from the E-LOCAL Moodle course to the E-LOCAL MOOC course of Italian language and culture. The fourth chapter discusses the ILOCALAPP (Incidentally Learning Other Cultures And Languages through an APP) the experience and the usage of the UniOn! App for the incidental learning of languages and cultures, whose contents are geo-localised in the reference cities. To conclude, the final chapter provides a systematic reflection upon the results collected in the attempt to identify a possible theoretical framework for learning languages and cultures through technologies. In fact, the conclusions of this work summarise the current and future usages of the tools described, while also opening the path to new possible research perspectives.

Wastewater management is an environmental and social burden that primarily affects populations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries and the global environment. Wastewater collection, treatment, and reuse have become urgent, especially considering that 80% of the world's wastewater is untreated or improperly treated and discharged directly into water bodies. In recent years, the role of wastewater treatment plants in a sustainable water cycle has become even more critical, as they are the final destination of the collected wastewater. Indeed, the management of wastewater treatment plants should play an essential role in achieving SDG target 6.3 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for SD. In this context, water reuse, especially wastewater reuse, plays a key role. This research focuses on investigating the valorization of wastewater resources applying Appropriate Technologies and Natural Systems for wastewater treatment in two different Low- and Middle-Income Countries, the Palestinian Territories and Sub-Saharan Africa. The research objectives are: (1) Determine the characteristics and quality of wastewater in the two case studies analysed. (2) Identify Appropriate Technology to be used in the Palestinian Territories to treat wastewater for reuse in agriculture. (3) Assess the environmental, economic, and social impacts of this project. (4) Assess the feasibility of using natural wetlands for household wastewater treatment in Sub-Saharan region. The first study, conducted in Rafah, Gaza Strip, showed that implementing existing primary treatment plant with a natural secondary treatment plant properly optimized the wastewater quality for reuse in agriculture and was suitable for the study area. The second case study was conducted in Cape Coast, Ghana. It shows that the natural wetland studied is currently overly polluted and threatened by various anthropogenic factors that cannot remove pollutants from the incoming domestic wastewater. Therefore, some recommendations were made in order to improve the efficiency of this natural wetland.

This PhD thesis contains results about two different main topics. The first part deals with the application of continuously monitored quantum systems to high precision quantum metrology. A continuous in time measurement on a quantum system is a kind indirect measurement, which only weakly perturbs the system and leaves room for it to evolve under its dynamics. This time-continuous measurement allows one to collect information about some interesting parameter characterizing the dynamics. In this thesis we show how to apply the theory of quantum parameter estimation to continuously monitored quantum systems. In particular, we study the estimation of a magnetic field applied to an ensemble of two level atoms; we show that by continuously monitoring the system we can obtain a quadratic scaling of the precision with the number of atoms, in two different physical settings (dynamically generated entanglement or initial entanglement). In the second part we study different aspects of nonclassicality of continuous variable quantum systems (bosonic degree of freedoms). They can be described by distributions (in particular, the Wigner function) on a classical phase space, which however can take negative values, the hallmark of nonclassicality. In this context, states with a Gaussian distribution are very useful and very well studied; however, on a fundamental level they must be considered classical. We present several studies connected to the vast topic of non-Gaussian states, starting from an application to parameter estimation, as a link to the first part. We study the relationships between anharmonic Hamiltonians and the nonclassicality of their ground states; we also explore the connection between a quantum effect called `backflow of probability' and the negativity of the Wigner function. We end by showing that quantum operations made out of Gaussian building blocks give rise to a well-defined resource theory of Wigner negativity and non-Gaussianity.

Questo studio si propone di analizzare il complesso delle novità introdotte al sistema dei pagamenti e al trasferimento di diritti da Distributed Ledger e Blockchain, in una prospettiva che tenga conto delle applicazioni di mercato di queste innovazioni tecnologiche e della tutela giuridica degli interessi economici e delle posizioni soggettive che ne derivano. In particolar modo, l’opera vuole stimolare la discussione volta alla definizione di un quadro normativo socialmente adeguato che sostenga l’efficienza di questi strumenti in un’ottica di scambio economico globalizzato.
This essay aims at analyzing the ensemble of innovation introduced by Distributed Ledger and Blockchain to the payment system and the transfer of rights, in a perspective considering the market applications of these new technologies and the legal protection of deriving economics interests and individual rights. Purposely, our dissertation aspires to encourage the discussion for the definition of a socially adequate legal framework sustaining the efficiency of these instruments in a global exchange perspective.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the impact of automation and of the industry 4.0 in the Food and Beverage industry. Nowadays, the food industries find an indispensable support for automation technologies flexibly modify production and improve process management. The industry trends, the best strategies, get in touch with the most advanced technologies for data collection and application solutions related to the issues of traceability in the food sector and beyond, offer updates and develop new opportunities of business. Moreover, in a market that is in a profound and rapid transformation, the suppliers of automation technologies are called to respond to increasingly precise requests, especially in the food sector, where legislation is particularly stringent and often different from country to country.

The main objective of this dissertation is to deeply analyze the relationship between the adoption of new technologies and the consequent organizational implications. The discussion is made of three main parts, with an increasing defined focus. The first part regards a detailed analysis of all the aspects, features, dynamics and risks which may arise during the implementation of an innovative process and, in particular, during the adoption of a new technology. This initial evaluation entails developments and decisional processes which characterize companies, no matter their dimensions or the industry to which they belong. More in general, the investigation is mainly on the adoption of new technologies and consequences that might emerge, with focus on human resources, organizations and individuals. In the second part of this discussion, the focus narrows on e-commerce platforms’ analysis. More in detail, CRM systems have been described, this because these types of software were chosen during the re-platform project of Slam Jam Srl. The latter is the company evaluation as case study, in the third part of this work. The e-commerce theme becomes central today more than ever, because of the difficult situation the entire World is experiencing. E-commerce is the key in order to survive. Starting from companies to small shops, no matter the industry, they all see through the e-commerce the only instrument capable of making them able to reach their customers. Those who already possess this technology want to implement it and, for those who did not have, either they have disappeared or are working in order to implement it. Data show with evidence that, during the last few years, the e-commerce industry has increasingly developed. This has led to a change regarding consumers’ behaviors, lifestyles and habits. For obvious reasons, the pandemic has been the catalyst in charge of this increasing process and has boosted it. The third and last part of this elaborate analyses a case study; a medium dimension distribution company that, in order to gain competitiveness and efficiency decided to adopt a new technology for its e-commerce website. In this specific context, central aspects concern the reasons why the company decided to innovate, the different analyses which have been conducted, the decisional processes and the software selection procedure. Finally, the different dynamics and consequences following the adoption are investigated, through interviews of the principal actors involved during the project.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the internationalization and differentiation strategies applied by SME's in Italy, the current level of adoption of business digitalization and technological innovation and how the Italian startup ecosystem could help SME's to speed up the adoption of these technologies to improve internationalization, with particular attention to the food industry. As a result of the digital revolution of the last decades, multiple startup districts flourished across Italy. The digital districts require a well-balance variety of actors and functions to connect the historical know-how that comes from well-establish industries in Italy and the increasing need of internationalization tools that those industries are not able to integrate by themselves. The aim of this thesis is to try to understand which could be the right methods to connect well-established industry with decades of experience in their field with new startups that try to create channels for them to help the growth of internationalization, creating a favorable condition for the development of new business culture that’s incline towards innovation.

Over the last decades, innovation rhythm and globalization have generated a dynamic market where competitive advantage is temporary and companies must continually adapt. In this highly competitive panorama, the effect of Industry 4.0 is twofold: at the one hand, it proposes modular, self-configuring systems that can be easily rearranged, and thus provide a good response to the shortening of product life cycle and time-to-market. On the other, digitalization has posed further challenges to organizations and stressed the importance of an open innovation approach. This thesis considers the impact of Industry 4.0 on the global automotive sector, with particular regard to the effects on OEMs’ knowledge base. Digitalisation is shaping customers’ preferences and market dynamics, thus redefining performance attributes and the basis of competition. Confronted with constantly evolving production modes, automakers have several strategical options to maintain their competitive position: internal knowledge development, and a wide array of external knowledge sourcing strategies, including alliances and acquisitions. 4IR technologies have created a new innovation momentum in the industry, and obliged OEMs to rethought traditional forms of cooperation and set up cross trades and sectors relationships. The work draws on patent information to assess how industry’s traditional players are reacting to the changes brought about by the advent of the Industry 4.0. To define knowledge sourcing processes employed, the analysis will consider co-owned patents and patent citations.

Several educational models characterizing communities as environments that foster learning processes, have been formulated in recent years. In the literature we can find different constructs: the community of learning, the community of practice and the professional community. Most studies based on these constructs focus on the process of peer-education, on ways to participate, on the reification, and on the discursive processes allowing the participants to negotiate meanings or actions within the community. However, a better understanding of a community's salient features can be achieved by investigating it with a systemic approach. For this reason, we have adopted the Activity Theory perspective of Engeström, expanding the scope of the analysis from the community itself to a broader "activity system". From this perspective, communication technologies play an important role; their evolution allows to move some or all activities of these communities into online spaces. In such learning environments, members can share documents or descriptions of professional practices, discuss real-world issues related to their activities, seek various forms of consensus and alignment; and debate to better assess and determine how to act on the field. Therefore, we have conducted an ethnographic study of a blended professional community, which employs face-to-face and virtual tools and environments, in addition to communication technologies currently well established but completely new to the subjects under examination. The main goal of this investigation is to elucidate the role of educational technologies with the eventual goal of understanding the community’s professional and organizational culture. The project, viewed as an opportunity to provide change for participants (Engeström, 2008), strove also to gain insight concerning their activity system, the effects that learning in real work contexts can have, and into interactions among members. Consequently, the main goal of this investigation is to understand the community’s professional and organizational culture, in order to analyze the role of educational technologies towards the development of the community itself as well as in their real work context. The community was established and developed from a blended learning project involving 74 professionals working on animal health and food safety in the Veneto regional health system. Members includes physicians, veterinarians, safety technicians, biologists, chemists and nutritionists. Their educational objective is to improve the regional public health system ability to manage emergencies related to food risks. At the same time, the intervention was aimed to foster closer cooperation among practitioners and services involved in animal health and food hygiene, to ensure a better protection of public health. The project, viewed as an opportunity to provide change for participants (Engeström, 2008), strove also to gain insight concerning their activity system. To summarize, the aim of this investigation is to investigate the community from two point of views. Firstly, from inside, to reconstruct the community features. Secondly, from outside, through the extended perspective given by a complex network of actors and the system contradictions emerged in the description of the individuals' activity system. In addition to community analysis, we have elucidated how educational technologies can modify professionals's established practices and allow them to design new communicational structures to solve the major contradictions of the system. Finally, we proposed an innovative model of educational intervention historically and culturally based on the results of ethnographic study
Negli ultimi anni sono stati teorizzati molti modelli educativi legati ad una concezione di comunità intesa come ambiente capace di favorire processi di apprendimento. In letteratura si trovano diversi costrutti definiti come: comunità d’apprendimento o di discenti, comunità di pratica e comunità professionale. La maggior parte degli studi basati su di essi concentra l’attenzione sui processi di peer-education, sulle dinamiche di partecipazione, sul concetto di reificazione e sulle le pratiche discorsive che consentono di negoziare significati o azioni all’interno della comunità stessa. Una comprensione migliore delle caratteristiche di una comunità è però raggiungibile se la comunità viene indagata attraverso un approccio sistemico. Per tale motivo abbiamo adottato la prospettiva della Activity Theory di Engeström, ampliando l’unità d’analisi dalla comunità, al più ampio “sistema d’attività”. In questo senso ricoprono un ruolo particolare le tecnologie: l’evoluzione delle tecnologie della comunicazione ha permesso infatti di spostare in parte o totalmente l’attività di tali comunità in spazi online, a, nei quali i membri possono condividere documenti o singole descrizioni di pratiche professionali, confrontarsi sui problemi reali legati alle loro attività, cercare forme di consenso e di allineamento, confrontarsi collettivamente per meglio valutare e decidere sul campo. Da tale angolazione abbiamo perciò condotto uno studio etnografico di una comunità professionale blended, la quale si avvale di ambienti e strumenti sia face to face che virtuali, tecnologie della comunicazione ormai consolidate, ma del tutto nuove per i soggetti esaminati. L’obiettivo principale dell’ indagine è stato quindi quello di comprendere la cultura professionale e organizzativa della comunità, con il fine di analizzare il ruolo delle tecnologie della formazione nei processi di sviluppo della comunità stessa e nel loro reale contesto di lavoro. La comunità è nata e si è sviluppata a partire da un intervento formativo blended, coinvolgendo un gruppo di 74 professionisti della Regione del Veneto, che si occupano di sanità animale e igiene alimentare. Si tratta di medici, medici veterinari, tecnici della prevenzione, biologi, chimici e nutrizionisti per i quali l’intervento formativo ha avuto l’iniziale obiettivo di migliorare l'efficacia il sistema regionale di gestione delle emergenze legate al rischio alimentare. Allo stesso tempo l’intervento mirava a favorire una maggiore collaborazione tra i professionisti e tra i servizi che si occupano di sanità animale e igiene degli alimenti, per garantire una migliore tutela della salute del cittadino. L’intervento formativo ha rappresentato un’opportunità di cambiamento (Engeström, 2008), che ha fornito l’occasione per acquisire elementi utili per rappresentare il “sistema d’attività” della comunità in esame. In sintesi le finalità dello studio si sono perseguite investigando la comunità da due punti di vista: quello interno, che ha consentito di delinearne gli elementi strutturali e quello esterno, attraverso una prospettiva più estesa, data dalla rappresentazione della complessa rete di attori e di contraddizioni emerse nella descrizione del “sistema d’attività” in cui la comunità stessa agisce. A complemento dell’analisi della comunità abbiamo delineato le modalità con cui le tecnologie della formazione possano modificare le pratiche dei professionisti e consentano di progettare nuovi sistemi di comunicazione per risolvere le principali contraddizioni di sistema emerse. Infine, abbiamo proposto un innovativo modello di intervento formativo storicamente e culturalmente fondato sugli esiti dello studio etnografico

La tesi està escrita com un manuscrit de cinc publicacions científiques i presenta una de les primeres evidències de la relació entre les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació (TIC) i la productivitat en els països del centre i de l'est d'Europa (CEE). La part macroeconòmica de la tesi analitza el procés de transició cap a l'economia del coneixement en els països de l'àrea CEE. La part microeconòmica de la tesi es presenta en tres publicacions. El primer estudi aporta les evidències de les relacions directes i indirectes entre la productivitat i les TIC i confirma la importància de les fonts de productivitat de la coinnovació (complementarietat amb la inversió TIC) de les empreses fabricants de l'Europa de l'Est. El segon estudi analitza les diferències entre els principals impulsors de la productivitat (innovació, internacionalització i capital humà) entre empreses alemanyes i poloneses. La tercera publicació analitza la importància de les fonts de productivitat de la coinnovació utilitzant les dades recents de les empreses poloneses.
La tesis está escrita como un manuscrito de cinco publicaciones científicas y presenta una de las primeras evidencias de la relación entre las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) y la productividad en los países del centro y del este de Europa (CEE). La parte macroeconómica de la tesis analiza el proceso de transición hacia la economía del conocimiento en los países del área CEE. La parte microeconómica de la tesis se presenta en tres publicaciones. El primer estudio aporta las evidencias de las relaciones directas e indirectas entre la productividad y las TIC y confirma la importancia de las fuentes de productividad de la coinnovación (complementariedad con la inversión TIC) de las empresas manufactureras de la Europa del Este. El segundo estudio analiza las diferencias entre los principales impulsores de la productividad (innovación, internacionalización y capital humano) entre empresas alemanas y polacas. La tercera publicación analiza la importancia de las fuentes de productividad de la coinnovación utilizando los datos recientes de las empresas polacas.
This thesis is written in the form of a manuscript of five scientific journal papers and presents one of the first pieces of evidence of the relation between information and communication technologies (ICT) and productivity in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (hereinafter CEE). The macroeconomic part of the thesis analyses the process of transition towards the knowledge economy in CEE countries and reveals a considerable gap between CEE and Western European countries, especially in terms of human capital, infrastructure, innovation capacity and quality of institutions. The microeconomic part of the thesis is presented in three papers. The first paper presents the evidence of the direct and indirect relationships between productivity and ICT, and confirms the importance of the co-innovation productivity sources (complementarities with ICT investment) from Eastern European manufacturing companies. The second paper analyses the differences in main productivity drivers (innovation, internationalization and human capital) between German and Polish companies. The third paper analyses the importance of the co-innovation productivity sources using recent data from Polish companies.

This study aim at the valorization of wine industry by products; particularly on the extraction and characterization of grape seeds oil using supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) and polyphenols from grape skins and defatted grape seeds using subcritical water (SW) and then, modeling of the kinetics of extractions and process economic analysis. The overall objective of the work is to develop recovery strategies for wine-making wastes in order to reduce their environmental impact and to valorize them in order to provide wine-makers with the possibility of selling by-products at a profitable price. To address the objectives, the work is divided into seven Chapters. In Chapter 1, some general overview and the fundamental of SC-CO2 and SW technologies along with emerging areas of applications are presented. Special emphasis is given to the work in the field of valorization of agro-industrial by-products. Then, the Chapter ends by stating the general and specific objectives of the thesis. The second Chapter is devoted to the characterization of grape seeds oil. To make the result more holistic, grape seeds from six grape cultivars were extracted using SC-CO2 in two subsequent harvesting years and the resulting oils were characterized. Comparative extractions were also performed by utilizing conventional solvent extraction using n-hexane and by mechanical press. The results testify the potentiality of grape seed oil as a source of unsaturated fatty acids and tocols. Moreover, they offers a clear picture of the similarities and differences among oils from different grape cultivars and obtained through different extraction techniques. The third Chapter is dedicated to compare the effectiveness of the models used to evaluate the kinetic of SC-CO2 extraction curves. Particularly, three models, the broken and intact cells (BIC), the shrinking core (SC), and the bridge (combined BIC-SC) models are critically analyzed. The objective of the Chapter is to objectively choose the best model that can be used in the subsequent Chapters. In order to model the kinetics of SC-CO2 extraction, one of the very important parameter is the solute solubility. But solubility data (especially of grape seed oil) is very scares in the literature. The bulk majority of the scientific works estimate the value of solubility of solute in SC-CO2 from theoretical models. So, the fourth Chapter is devoted to experimental determination of solubility of grape seed oil in SC-CO2 over a range of pressure and temperature of practical importance and the data were modeled by different models to compare their effectiveness. The fifth Chapter is aimed to study the effect of the main process variables affecting the SC-CO2 extraction of oil from grape seeds, both experimentally and through modeling. The dependency of the extraction kinetics on the variables more tested in the literature (pressure, temperature, particle size and solvent flow rate) was confirmed, and original trends were obtained for the less investigated variables, such as the bed porosity (ε), the extractor diameter to length ratio (D/L), the extractor free volume and the type of cultivars. In the sixth Chapter the attention is moved to the valorization of grape skins and defatted grape seeds by using SW. The results show that, both skins and defatted seeds contain significant concentration of polyphenols and SW is a potential green solvent for extracting valuable polyphenols from wine-making by-products. The extraction kinetics was also simulated by a simple model available in the literature. In the seventh and last Chapter, a preliminary economic feasibility study was investigated for the establishment of SC-CO2 extraction plant for the extraction of grape seeds oil. The result shows that, a SC-CO2 extraction plant is technically viable and economically feasible for the extraction of grape seed oil with estimated rate of return on investment at 8.5% and payback period of 5 year at current minimum retail selling price of grape seed oil in the market. The project has an attractive socio-economic and environmental benefit and generates substantial revenue for the local government in the form of tax and will allow wine-makers to sell wet grape marc at a price of up to US$ 10/ton.

This study aim at the valorization of wine industry by products; particularly on the extraction and characterization of grape seeds oil using supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) and polyphenols from grape skins and defatted grape seeds using subcritical water (SW) and then, modeling of the kinetics of extractions and process economic analysis. The overall objective of the work is to develop recovery strategies for wine-making wastes in order to reduce their environmental impact and to valorize them in order to provide wine-makers with the possibility of selling by-products at a profitable price. To address the objectives, the work is divided into seven Chapters. In Chapter 1, some general overview and the fundamental of SC-CO2 and SW technologies along with emerging areas of applications are presented. Special emphasis is given to the work in the field of valorization of agro-industrial by-products. Then, the Chapter ends by stating the general and specific objectives of the thesis. The second Chapter is devoted to the characterization of grape seeds oil. To make the result more holistic, grape seeds from six grape cultivars were extracted using SC-CO2 in two subsequent harvesting years and the resulting oils were characterized. Comparative extractions were also performed by utilizing conventional solvent extraction using n-hexane and by mechanical press. The results testify the potentiality of grape seed oil as a source of unsaturated fatty acids and tocols. Moreover, they offers a clear picture of the similarities and differences among oils from different grape cultivars and obtained through different extraction techniques. The third Chapter is dedicated to compare the effectiveness of the models used to evaluate the kinetic of SC-CO2 extraction curves. Particularly, three models, the broken and intact cells (BIC), the shrinking core (SC), and the bridge (combined BIC-SC) models are critically analyzed. The objective of the Chapter is to objectively choose the best model that can be used in the subsequent Chapters. In order to model the kinetics of SC-CO2 extraction, one of the very important parameter is the solute solubility. But solubility data (especially of grape seed oil) is very scares in the literature. The bulk majority of the scientific works estimate the value of solubility of solute in SC-CO2 from theoretical models. So, the fourth Chapter is devoted to experimental determination of solubility of grape seed oil in SC-CO2 over a range of pressure and temperature of practical importance and the data were modeled by different models to compare their effectiveness. The fifth Chapter is aimed to study the effect of the main process variables affecting the SC-CO2 extraction of oil from grape seeds, both experimentally and through modeling. The dependency of the extraction kinetics on the variables more tested in the literature (pressure, temperature, particle size and solvent flow rate) was confirmed, and original trends were obtained for the less investigated variables, such as the bed porosity (ε), the extractor diameter to length ratio (D/L), the extractor free volume and the type of cultivars. In the sixth Chapter the attention is moved to the valorization of grape skins and defatted grape seeds by using SW. The results show that, both skins and defatted seeds contain significant concentration of polyphenols and SW is a potential green solvent for extracting valuable polyphenols from wine-making by-products. The extraction kinetics was also simulated by a simple model available in the literature. In the seventh and last Chapter, a preliminary economic feasibility study was investigated for the establishment of SC-CO2 extraction plant for the extraction of grape seeds oil. The result shows that, a SC-CO2 extraction plant is technically viable and economically feasible for the extraction of grape seed oil with estimated rate of return on investment at 8.5% and payback period of 5 year at current minimum retail selling price of grape seed oil in the market. The project has an attractive socio-economic and environmental benefit and generates substantial revenue for the local government in the form of tax and will allow wine-makers to sell wet grape marc at a price of up to US$ 10/ton.

Ce projet de thèse est centré sur l’étude des thermes implantés dans le quartier périurbain d’Ostie, et alignés le long de la façade maritime. Cette vocation thermale s’amplifie au cours de la période tardive quand sont construits des petits balnea le long de la route côtière.Les thermes de la Porta Marina et les thermes Maritimes, après leur découverte à la fin du XVIIIe et au milieu du XIXe s., ont été fouillés entre 1960 et 1970. Il n’existe pas d’études complètes sur ces monuments pour la majorité inédits.La recherche sur le terrain a été articulée en 4 phases : relevé, stratigraphie du bâti et analyse technique ; mise en relation des bâtiments du point de vue diachronique et synchronique ; étude de leur insertion dans l’environnement côtier ; comparaison avec des contextes similaires. Ce projet présente un caractère innovant en ce qui concerne les méthodes d’analyse : prospections géophysiques, photogrammétrie par drone, photos thermiques, grâce à la mise en place d’un projet pluridisciplinaire avec le CNRS. Un travail de recherche a été effectué sur la documentation des archives d’Ostie, des Archives Nationales et de l’Aérophotothèque. Une enquête a aussi été menée sur des inscriptions d’Ostie, conservées aux Musées du Vatican et du Capitole, et sur les manuscrits de la fin du XVIIIe.L’objectif principal était d’évaluer, sur la longue durée, l’évolution du paysage balnéaire côtier d’Ostie en prenant en considération principalement l’analyse architecturale, fonctionnelle et urbanistique, ainsi que celle du décor. Le projet interroge le statut juridique de ces établissements, leur propriété, commanditaires, sources de financements et usagers
The coastal area of the city of Ostia is characterized by a concentration of bath facilities built between the end of the 1st c. AD and the Late Antiquity period. The aim of this work is on the two main baths complexes discovered in the late 18 and mid 19 centuries, and extensively excavated in the first half of the 1970s: the Porta Marina Baths and the Terme Marittime. Their results were left unpublished, except for few specific studies on mosaic floors, architectonical elements and statuary.On these premises, the field research was organized in four steps: surveying, stratigraphic and technical studies; diachronic/synchronic analysis; interaction between maritime and coastal environments; and parallels with comparable contexts. Furthermore, new technologies have been involved for 3D surveying (UAV-photogrammetry, thermography, geophysical survey) thanks to the multidisciplinary project set up between CCJ, MAP and CEREGE, which turned into an innovative work in terms of methods of analysis.Concurrently, the investigation was extended on written sources based on the documentation of Ostia archives, Archivio Centrale di Stato, and Aerofototeca Nazionale. Ostia inscriptions preserved in the Vatican and Capitoline Museums, and recorded on the manuscripts of the late 18th century by G. Marini (Biblioteca Apostolica) and E.Q. Visconti (BNF Paris), were also included. The main objective was to understand the long-term evolution of these baths in the coastal townscape of Ostia, mainly based on architectural, functional, urbanistic and decor analyses.The project also inquires the legal status of these complexes, their commissioners and property, funding sources, and users

In the last decades technological advances had a strong impact on the mechanisms that used to drive the society and companies structures. In fact, at the beginning of the new Millennium, the industry faced the third wave of globalization powered by the spread of internet allowing a global integration of value chains: a company was able to have different activities in different countries. During this period many companies started to outsource the manufacturing especially in low-cost countries such as Far-East countries, in order to exploit the competitive advantage of this strategy aiming to create a new knowledge that could not be replicated by competitors. More recently, industrial technological advances led to the fourth industrial revolution that saw the digitalization of the processes and the introduction of intelligent products. This phenomenon forced companies to re-think about their role in the industry and Western countries started to reshore the production process to the home country where they could exploit the tools provided by the new era of automation. The thesis starts giving an overview of the fourth industrial revolution underling its impact on globalization, as it is changing the production process concept: economies of scale are being replaced by smart factories that produce smart products and smart services embedded in an Internet of Things (IoT): companies are becoming digital conglomerates. The first chapter is divided into the analysis of the two phenomenon of outsourcing and reshoring underlying reasons and risks of both of them. The second chapter focused on the sector analysis that I have decided to take into consideration: the hosiery sector, which involves a complex supply chain and its main players are Europe, Middle East and Far East. The analysis shows that the choice of most companies of this industry to outsource the production process is the Far-East countries, especially China which has a strong power in the market; and according to data, the most attractive country to reshore the manufacturing production is Europe, more specific Italy that is the third biggest exporter at worldwide level in the hosiery sector. The chapter then continues with the analysis of the Chinese and Italian hosiery industrial cluster: Datang district in China and Castel Goffredo’s district in Italy. The comparison aims to focus on the similarities and differences of the two clusters in order to understand the competitive advantage they have in the market. The third chapter focuses on a case study about company ALFA A/S which is a Danish family-owned fashion firm with a strong presence in the international scenario. Between its suppliers, the analysis considers the company Trademark Textiles A/S, located in Denmark. Its business model is based on the outsourcing of all the production processes related to socks and tights to China, in Datang district. After a description of the factory selection and the requirements needed in order to be considered suitable by Trademark Textiles A/S, the study will focus on the manufacturing process outsourced to the Chinese factories, taking into consideration their strengths and weaknesses, the order processes, the MOQ, prices, capacity, lead time which are the key driver in the choice of a factory. The study continues with an analysis of a possible reshoring to Italy, in Castel Goffredo’s district. Through interviews I have made to employees of Trademark Textiles and to Italian factories in the district, collecting data concerning the actual Chinese socks suppliers and the potential Italian ones, the thesis aims to understand if the reshoring strategy can be effective to be adopted by Trademark Textiles A/S: the study takes into considerations some Italian factories and through the analysis of key drivers and strength and weaknesses, it will be possible to establish the success or unsuccess of reshoring applied to the hosiery sector.

Actualmente, con el aumento y avance de las nuevas tecnologías, se está creando y promoviendo una simbiosis entre humanos y máquinas a través de la inteligencia colectiva y la fuerza de trabajo colaborativa. Esto está dando lugar a la nueva era de los ecosistemas digitales, donde la comunicación y la interacción hombre-máquina tiene que ser tan precisa y natural como sea posible. Dada la necesidad existente para facilitar este tipo de interacciones, queda patente que las tecnologías de lenguaje humano, encargadas de procesar el lenguaje humano de forma automática, tienen un papel clave. De entre las diversas subdisciplinas de las tecnologías de lenguaje humano, el área de la generación del lenguaje natural es capaz de producir lenguaje natural a partir de una entrada no lingüística y gracias a las características que ofrece, puede emplearse en diversos ámbitos como la meteorología, medicina etc. La tarea de la generación del lenguaje natural se divide en varias etapas, entre ellas las fases de macro planificación, micro planificación y realización. En la fase de macro planificación el objetivo es determinar qué queremos decir, para luego decidir cómo queremos decirlo en la fase de realización. Tradicionalmente una de las limitaciones de los sistemas de generación del lenguaje natural es que se han diseñado para dominios muy concretos y para un fin determinado, siendo el desarrollo de enfoques de dominio abierto y flexibles todavía un reto para la comunidad investigadora. En base a esto, esta tesis doctoral plantea una aproximación híbrida para la generación del lenguaje natural, la cual permitirá mejorar la calidad del texto producido, favoreciendo la independencia del dominio, del género textual y de la aplicación final donde se utilice. Con el fin de lograr este objetivo, se ha implementado HanaNLG, un enfoque flexible de generación centrado en la fase de realización, el cual, apoyándose en conocimientos estadísticos e información semántica, permite generar textos para diferentes dominios, géneros e idiomas guiados por la entrada.

The dissertation will focus on the figure of the European Craftsman analysing his main features, weaknesses and strengthens passing through the definition of crafts and all its implications. Widening the focus, I will talk about the sector in general taking a tour throughout history and talk about the industrial revolutions and how they affect the sector in order to better understand its evolution and its current state of affair, the forces driving its development, the reason of its survival after all the centuries. Finally, regarding the first chapter, I will deal with the potentialities of the Internet more specifically with E-Services, E-Learning, E-Business or E-Shops that offer endless technical opportunities and chances for individuals as well as companies today. Indeed, these new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) may simplify and professionalize processes and improve the competitiveness craft companies. Concerning the second chapter, it will deal with the technologies of the Industry 4.0 and the pros and cons of their adoption. Moreover, the chapter will explore the generic drivers and obstacles of Manufacturing 4.0 and the principles that characterize the artisanal and industrial production systems. Furthermore, I will dispute the problem of the skill gap among craftsmen and different generations of workers and the process of reskilling for the fourth industrial revolution in order to exploit at the maximum capacity all the benefits that technological development could bring to the sector. How European national policies are shaping the sector in order to foster digitalization? Last part of the chapter will response to this dilemma. Most of the EU governments have made I4.0 a priority adopting large-scale I4.0 policies to increase productivity and competitiveness and improve the high-tech skills of their workforce. I will explore the essential components of the national flagship I4.0 policies of Spain, UK, France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Netherlands. Moving on we arrive at the pillar chapter of the thesis. The aim of this chapter is to outline the state of adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in the European Craftsmanship sector, the technologies adopted, in which phase of the value chain are exploited, the results obtained by the users, and, finally, the effect on the labour force. The study focused on the firms of the European craftsmanship sector located all around Europe, more specifically in 20 European countries. The universe consisted of manufacturing and service providing firms drawn from Mad’in Europe scrl database. Based on a structured questionnaire submitted through CAWI methodology, firms have been contacted and 128 firms answered to the survey. Finally, I will highlighting the most important results and advantages that the craftsmen have derived from the adoption of such technologies. In the last chapter, I will present as a case study: the company Mad’in Euorpe, it’s mission and vision and the way it is helping craftsmen all around Europe to survive and transmit their know-how to future generations through it’s digital portal, marketing strategies and network that can count members among the most important European institutions regarding cultural heritage preservation.

BACKGROUND: Approximately, five million children have been born as a result of using assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Although the majority of ART children are born healthy; there are several reports of increased rate of pregnancy complications and worse perinatal outcomes in this population that may contribute to long-term health consequences according to the fetal programming hypothesis. Due to these techniques are relatively new, the effect of ART on later stages of development and adult susceptibility are uncertain. The main hypothesis of this thesis is that fetuses conceived by ART present worse perinatal outcomes together with primary cardiovascular remodeling and dysfunction as compared to those spontaneously conceived (SC), changes that persist postnatally and leads to increased cardiovascular risk in adulthood. METHODS: Cardiovascular morphology and functional assessment was performed in singleton and twin fetuses conceived by ART and spontaneously conceived; together with the presence of adverse perinatal outcomes. Finally, follow-up of these cohorts was made and cardiac and vascular function was assessed in childhood. RESULTS: ART fetuses showed: larger atria, shorter ventricles with lower sphericity index together with thicker myocardial walls. Systolic motion was decreased as measured by M-Mode and tissue Doppler; there were also sings of impaired relaxation, as demonstrated by a longer IRT and decreased deceleration time of E wave. All these changes were independent of the presence of been small for gestational age (SGA) due to these groups showed different cardiac phenotypes. ART children showed persistence of changes in cardiac morphology and function together with vascular remodeling (increased blood pressure and thicker carotid intima media). CONCLUSIONS: Adverse pregnancy outcomes seem to be present in infertile women, regardless of the use of ART. Singleton and twin ART fetuses present cardiovascular remodeling and subclinical dysfunction that persist postnatally in childhood. These changes are independent of the presence of SGA. These findings need to be take into account for further studies regarding higher cardiovascular risks in adulthood in this population.
INTRODUCCION: Aproximadamente, 5 millones de niños han nacido en el mundo gracias al uso de las tecnicas de reproduccion asistida (TRA). La mayoría de éstos niños son sanos al nacer; pero diversos estudios mencionan la presencia de peores resultados perinatales en esta población; los cuáles podrían tener consecuencias a largo plazo de acuerdo con la teoría de la programación fetal. Estas técnicas son relativamente nuevas, por lo que sus efectos en la vida adulta aún son desconocidos. La hipótesis principal de ésta tesis es que los fetos concebidos mediante TRA, presentan peores resultados perinatales que aquellos concebidos de manera espontánea (CE), junto con la presencia de cambios cardíacos morfológicos y funcionales que persisten de manera postnatal y que condicionaría un incremento del riesgo cardiovascular en la vida adulta. METODOS: Se llevó a cabo la evaluación cardiovascular morfológica y funcional de fetos únicos y gemelares concebidos por TRA comparados con fetos CE; junto con la presencia de resultados perinatales adversos. Se realiza un seguimiento y evaluación cardiovascular de dichas cohortes hasta la infancia. RESULTADOS: Los fetos TRA presentaron cambios al comparlos con los CE: aurículas más grandes, ventrículos más cortos junto con un menor índice de esfericidad así como paredes engrosadas. presentaron función sistólica disminuída de acuerdo con las mediciones de Doppler tisular y modo-M; también signos de disfunción diastólica demostrado por IRT alargados y disminución del tiempo de deceleración de la onda E. Todos estos cambios fueron independientes de la presencia de fetos pequeños para la edad gestacional (PEG), ya que dichos grupos presentaron fenotipos cardiacos diferentes. En la infancia, los niños TRA mostraron persistencia de dichos cambios cardíacos morfológicos y funcionales subclínicos, junto con remodelado vascular (presion arterial más alta y paredes engrosadas de la intima media de las carótidas). CONCLUSIONES: Las mujeres infértiles presentan resultados perinatales adversos independiente de el método de TRA usado. Los fetos concebidos mediante TRA presentan remodelado cardiovascular el cuál persiste postnatalmente en la infancia. Dichos cambios fueron independientes de la presencia de PEG. Estos hallazgos deben ser tomados en cuentra en futuros estudios del incremento de riesgo cardiovascular en la vida adulta de ésta población.

In Francia, tra la fine del XIX e l’inizio del XX secolo, sorge una nuova forma esperienziale, quella del cinema. Nello stesso contesto, il movimento corporeo diventa oggetto di studio da parte di una serie di discipline, in particolar modo l’estetica e la psicofisiologia, che si ridefiniscono reciprocamente in un costante dialogo con le nuove tecnologie visive. Esiste una relazione tra questi due eventi? Il presente lavoro mira a costruire un’archeologia dell’esperienza cinematografica attraverso l’analisi dei testi di estetica sperimentale, psicologia della percezione e neurologia che emergono nell’orizzonte culturale francese tra il 1875 e il 1905. Il primo capitolo si concentra sulle teorie estetiche di Guyau, Séailles e Souriau, in cui la bellezza del movimento è concettualizzata seguendo un processo di progressiva meccanizzazione del corpo. Nel secondo capitolo viene analizzato il dibattito psicologico interno alla «Revue Philosophique» (1876), dove il corpo diviene medium capace di rendere visibile e registrabile il mondo soggettivo. Infine, nel terzo capitolo vengono studiate le ricerche estetiche e iconografiche che hanno luogo presso la clinica della Salpêtrière diretta da Charcot, pubblicate nella «Nouvelle Iconographie» (1888). Da queste, nasce una nuova morfologia del corpo in movimento, sostenuta dal progresso dei metodi grafici fino all’avvento del cinema.
In France, between the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, a new experience rises, that of cinema. In the same context, the bodily movement becomes the object of study of a huge range of disciplines, especially aesthetics and psychophysiology, which redefine each other in a constant dialogue with new visual technologies. Is there a relationship between these two events? This work aims to build an archaeology of the cinematic experience through the analysis of texts of experimental aesthetics, psychology of perception and neurology that emerge in the French cultural context between 1875 and 1905. The first chapter focuses on the aesthetic theories of Guyau, Séailles and Souriau, where the beauty of movement is conceptualized following a process of gradual mechanization of the body. The second chapter analyzes the psychological debate inside the «Revue Philosophique» (1876), where the body becomes a medium capable of making the subjective world visible and adjustable. Finally, in the third chapter we investigate the aesthetic and iconographic researches that took place in Charcot’s clinic at the Salpêtrière, published in the «Nouvelle Iconographie» (1888). From these arises a new morphology of the body in motion, supported by the progress of graphical methods until the advent of cinema.

In Francia, tra la fine del XIX e l’inizio del XX secolo, sorge una nuova forma esperienziale, quella del cinema. Nello stesso contesto, il movimento corporeo diventa oggetto di studio da parte di una serie di discipline, in particolar modo l’estetica e la psicofisiologia, che si ridefiniscono reciprocamente in un costante dialogo con le nuove tecnologie visive. Esiste una relazione tra questi due eventi? Il presente lavoro mira a costruire un’archeologia dell’esperienza cinematografica attraverso l’analisi dei testi di estetica sperimentale, psicologia della percezione e neurologia che emergono nell’orizzonte culturale francese tra il 1875 e il 1905. Il primo capitolo si concentra sulle teorie estetiche di Guyau, Séailles e Souriau, in cui la bellezza del movimento è concettualizzata seguendo un processo di progressiva meccanizzazione del corpo. Nel secondo capitolo viene analizzato il dibattito psicologico interno alla «Revue Philosophique» (1876), dove il corpo diviene medium capace di rendere visibile e registrabile il mondo soggettivo. Infine, nel terzo capitolo vengono studiate le ricerche estetiche e iconografiche che hanno luogo presso la clinica della Salpêtrière diretta da Charcot, pubblicate nella «Nouvelle Iconographie» (1888). Da queste, nasce una nuova morfologia del corpo in movimento, sostenuta dal progresso dei metodi grafici fino all’avvento del cinema.
In France, between the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, a new experience rises, that of cinema. In the same context, the bodily movement becomes the object of study of a huge range of disciplines, especially aesthetics and psychophysiology, which redefine each other in a constant dialogue with new visual technologies. Is there a relationship between these two events? This work aims to build an archaeology of the cinematic experience through the analysis of texts of experimental aesthetics, psychology of perception and neurology that emerge in the French cultural context between 1875 and 1905. The first chapter focuses on the aesthetic theories of Guyau, Séailles and Souriau, where the beauty of movement is conceptualized following a process of gradual mechanization of the body. The second chapter analyzes the psychological debate inside the «Revue Philosophique» (1876), where the body becomes a medium capable of making the subjective world visible and adjustable. Finally, in the third chapter we investigate the aesthetic and iconographic researches that took place in Charcot’s clinic at the Salpêtrière, published in the «Nouvelle Iconographie» (1888). From these arises a new morphology of the body in motion, supported by the progress of graphical methods until the advent of cinema.

Ce travail a eu pour but d’approfondir la compréhension des mécanismes de contrôle de la transition G1/S de Saccharomyces cerevisiae, en étudiant par une approche protéomique la croissance exponentielle des mutants du FAR1 (impliqué dans le contrôle du point Start du cycle cellulaire) et la variation nutritionnelle d’une source pauvre en carbone à une source riche dans la souche sauvage. En observant la corrélation entre les phénotypes des mutants et les valeurs du mARN et d’expression protéique, nous avons recherché possibles nouveaux acteurs du contrôle entre la croissance et la progression cellulaire par les nutriments. Nos données suggèrent l'existence d'une interaction entre FAR1 et le contrôle de la synthèse protéique, d’une part, et de la machinerie métabolique d'autre part. En autre, on a identifié une protéine ayant rôle inconnu, Gvp36, qui pourrait être impliquée dans le contrôle de la transition G1/S, en faisant partie d’une voie qui associe Far1 au bourgeonnement
The aim of this study was to better understand G1 to S transition control in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, studying by a proteomic approach the exponential growth of mutants in FAR1 (involved in cell size control of Start) and nutritional shift-up from poor to rich carbon source of wild type strain. Observing correlation between cell cycle mutant phenotypes and mRNA and protein expression, we looked for possible new actors of the control of growth and cell cycle progression by nutrients in budding yeast. We found that FAR1 gene dosage affects ribosome biosynthesis and the main pathway of carbohydrate metabolism, suggesting a possible feedback control of cell size threshold on these two pathways. Moreover, we identified an unknown function protein, Gvp36, that may be involved in G1 to S transition control, taking part in a pathway which link Far1 to budding