Tracing Sources and Pathways of Trace Elements in Polar Regions by Isotopic Analysis

This PhD thesis focuses on the development, optimization and validation of robust analytical methods for accurate and precise isotopic analysis of Pb, Sr, Hg and Cd and their subsequent environmental application in extreme environments such as Antarctica and the Arctic. This work has been carried out in the contex of the National Antarctic Research Programme (PNRA). The primary objective is to trace the sources of heavy metals and assess their environmental impact using advanced inductively c...

Manipulation of the emission of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals employing photonic structures

MODELING AND CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES AND TRUCK PLATOONS IN MIXED TRAFFIC SCENARIOS

Since the dawn of civilization, people started to move around and transport goods. The more in time we move forward, the more we find bigger cities and therefore bigger economies, and that is thanks to human creativity and inventions, all the way from the wheel to the transportation industry nowadays. Technology advanced and a person's well-being and comfort became more and more important. Unfortunately, the infrastructure and the environment could not keep up with all these advancements; pro...

Modulating Light-Matter Interactions by Quantum Engineering of 2D Materials for Optoelectronics Devices

Fragmentation and Jet Substructure in Heavy Flavour Processes

Heavy flavours, i.e. quarks with masses larger than the mass of the proton, play a fundamental role in advancing our understanding of the Standard Model as they provide unique insights on electroweak symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism. This PhD thesis focuses on the bottom and charm quarks, considering two key aspects of heavy flavour physics. In the first part, we analyze the energy spectrum of heavy flavours in the regime where the emitted colour radiation becomes soft and collinear....

Comparing Nanozymes Catalytic Activity and Applications

Nanozymes (NZs), nanomaterials with intrinsic catalytic properties able to mimic natural enzymes, are gaining increasing interest among the scientific community in virtue of their properties that make them valuable alternative to natural enzymes in several fields from biosensing to nanomedicine. The field is rapidly evolving, with ongoing discoveries of new nanomaterials able to mimic more and more diverse enzymatic activities. However, most of the articles focus on specific application, ofte...

Gram Scale Production of Anisotropic Magnetic Nanoparticles for Magnetic Hyperthermia Treatment and Magnetic Particle Imaging

This dissertation presents my doctoral research conducted over the past three years at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Genoa (UniGE). The work focuses on the development of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in gram-scale production to enhance their magnetic properties for their use as heaters in magnetic hyperthermia treatment (MHT) and tracers in magnetic particle imaging (MPI) for cancer therapy. The use of the MNPs has been important in overcoming some of the l...

Modelling and Simulation support to Concept Development and Experimentation: Cognitive Warfare concept validation use case

Cognitive warfare is an emerging, novel domain of war, specifically targeting the human mind rather than physical assets or infrastructure. It denotes a sophisticated strategy in influencing, disrupting, or manipulating cognition, which in turn changes perception and belief and finally alters the decision-making process of individuals, military personnel, and whole populations. This shift from traditional to cognitive domains has drawn considerable attention from NATO itself, whic...

Architectural requirements and innovative monitoring tools for cybersecurity of industrial process networks

Industrial organisations are facing significant challenges in the area of cyber security. From one perspective, there has been an alarming increase in cyberattacks against the industrial sector in recent years. Concurrently, a growing number of regulatory frameworks require critical infrastructure providers to adhere to a set of minimum requirements based on the main industrial cyber security standards, which have reached a sufficient level of maturity. The proposed research is focused on tw...