The primary objective of this thesis is to design and develop systems for switching, transmission and sensing applications exploiting the use of orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light. Different designs of OAM-based subsystems are investigated to support short-reach high-data density application e.g. data-centres. OAM multiplexed fibre transmission, OAM-based switching and OAM-based conversion system effectiveness is demonstrated to facilitate the communication and networking in data-centre ...
Vital parameters can be recorded from the skin, by means of electrodes that transduce the biological signal, for the monitoring of personal health conditions. This is the objective of surface electrophysiology (sEP).
Aim of this study was to develop and test novel skin-contact “temporary tattoo” sensors for broad application in sEP. Temporary tattoo paper based sensors are the avant-garde in skin contact applications. In this study the use of appropriate fabrication techniques and materials a...
Abstract
This PhD dissertation analyses the process of the recruitment of foreign fighters from the Western Balkans, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, to Syria and Iraq from 2012 to 2015. In studying this phenomena, the core research questions that this thesis address are: What were the processes and circumstances leading up to the departure of foreign fighters from Bosnia and Kosovo? What were the key mechanisms and who were the key actors that enabled, mobilized, facilitated, ...
This article-based thesis comprises a collection of six articles, each of which constitutes
a chapter written and formatted in pre-print manuscript form.
The thesis deals with new concepts and technologies employed in the field of the
electro-mechanical transducers, devices that are able to convert mechanical energy
into direct current electricity and vice-versa. They can be employed as sensors (to
measure strains and vibrations), actuators (i.e. artificial muscles and volumetric
pumps) or ge...
This work presents the development and analysis of three information systems used to obtain insights about human behaviour in three different contexts.
The first one is applied in school context, as a system designed to acquire multimodal data from students performing practical tasks related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects. System architecture is reported as long as multimodal data analysis and a specific analysis based on body poses used to estimate the level...
Major interest of this research was to study Aft mutation, primarily responsible for the anthocyanin accumulation in tomato fruit peel. Candidates for the Aft locus are SlANT1, SlAN2 and SlANT1-like genes, all encoding MYB transcription factors regulating transcription of the late anthocyanin biosynthetic genes.
To investigate the possible different role of these three genes, diverse experimental approaches were used. amiRNA- and CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene silencing of SlAN2, SlANT1 and SlANT1...
Plants metabolism is considered as a complex of events like photosynthesis, respiration, synthesis and degradation of organic compounds. Together, these reactions are involved in the growth and development of the plant. Through the glycolysis, glucose derived from sucrose cleavage or degradation of starch, is converted into pyruvate. Normally, in aerobic conditions, pyruvate is completely oxidized to carbon dioxide and water with the production of a large amount of high-energy compounds. In n...
Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) are increasingly pervasive and are used not only in the entertainment industry, but also in many fields of the domestic and public everyday life, such as medical studies and treatments, training, learning techniques, and cultural heritage. The work presented aims to improve Virtual Humans naturalness in IVEs, taking a step forward into the Uncanny Valley. To reach this objective, research is developed in two main areas.
The first relies on well-establishe...
Optical Wireless Communications (OWCs) are a family of technologies for wireless communications which exploit optical signals for data transmission. More generally the term OWC is used to describe an optical communication in the near-Infrared (IR) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, while transmissions in the visible range (380-780 nm) are usually referred to as Visible Light Communications (VLCs).
The first papers about OWC can be traced back to the '70s, and to 2001 for VLC. InfraRed D...
Railway pantograph is a suspension mechanism mounted on electrical trains to collect current from the high-voltage overhead-line equipment. Effective verification of such a critical component requires separate tests for inspecting suspension performance and structural integrity. This, in turn, implies that the pantograph is driven by i) a high amplitude low-frequency load, during the suspension test; ii) a fast low-amplitude excitation, to assess structural health. Still, outdoor maintenance ...