Determinazione di un indice sintetico per la valutazione dell'effetto di laminazione

Working-Paper 2006-2, Dipartimento di Idraulica, Trasporti ed Infrastrutture Civili, Politecnico di Torino, 200

Molecular markers of systemic therapy response in urothelial carcinoma

Identification of reliable molecular biomarkers that can complement clinical practice represents a fascinating challenge in any cancer field. Urothelial carcinoma is a very heterogeneous disease and responses to systemic therapies, and outcomes after radical cystectomy are difficult to predict. Advances in molecular biology such as next generation sequencing and whole genome or transcriptomic analysis provide promising platforms to achieve a full understanding of the biology behind the disease and can identify emerging predictive biomarkers. Moreover, the ability to categorize patients' risk of recurrence after curative treatment, or even predict benefit from a conventional or targeted therapies, represents a compelling challenge that may reshape both selection for tailored treatment and disease monitoring. Progress has been made but currently no molecular biomarkers are used in the clinical setting to predict response to systemic agents in either neoadjuvant or adjuvant settings highlighting a relevant unmet need. Here, we aim to present the emerging role of molecular biomarkers in predicting response to systemic agents in urothelial carcinoma

Spatially-smooth regionalization of flow duration curves in non-pristine basins

The flow duration curve (FDC) is a fundamental signature of the hydrological cycle to support water management strategies. Despite many studies on this topic, its estimation in ungauged basins is still a relevant issue as the FDC is controlled by different types of processes at different time-space scales, thus resulting quite sensitive to the specific case study. In this work, a regional spatially-smooth procedure to evaluate the annual FDC in ungauged basins is proposed, based on the estimation of the L-moments (mean, L-CV and L-skewness) through regression models valid for the whole case study area. In this approach, homogeneous regions are no longer required and the L-moments are allowed to continuously vary along the river network, thus providing a final FDC smoothly evolving for different locations on the river. Regressions are based on a set of topographic, climatic, land use and vegetation descriptors at the basin scale. Moreover, the model ensures that the mean annual runoff is preserved at the river confluences, i.e. the sum of annual flows of the upstream reaches is equal to the predicted annual downstream flow. The proposed model is adapted to incorporate different “sub-models” to account for local information within the regional framework, where man-induced alterations are known, as common in non-pristine catchments. In particular, we propose a module to consider the impact of existing/designed water withdrawals on the L-moments of the FDC. The procedure has been applied to a dataset of daily observation of about 120 gauged basins on the upper Po river basin in North-Western Italy

Radar Estimation of Intense Rainfall Rates through Adaptive Calibration of the Z-R Relation

Rainfall intensity estimation from weather radar is still significantly uncertain, due to local anomalies, radar beam attenuation, inappropriate calibration of the radar reflectivity factor (Z) to rainfall rate (R) relationship, and sampling errors. The aim of this work is to revise the use of the power-law equation commonly adopted to relate radar reflectivity and rainfall rate to increase the estimation quality in the presence of intense rainfall rates. We introduce a quasi real-time procedure for an adaptive in space and time estimation of the Z-R relation. The procedure is applied in a comprehensive case study, which includes 16 severe rainfall events in the north-west of Italy. The study demonstrates that the technique outperforms the classical estimation methods for most of the analysed events. The determination coefficient improves by up to 30% and the bias values for stratiform events decreases by up to 80% of the values obtained with the classical, non-adaptive, Z-R relations. The proposed procedure therefore shows significant potential for operational uses

Valutazione delle risorse idriche utilizzabili per obiettivi multipli attraverso la realizzazione di alcuni grandi invasi artificiali in Piemonte

Relazione finale BANDO SULLA RICERCA SCIENTIFICA APPLICATA-CIPE 200

Investigation of SOI Raman Lasers for Mid-Infrared Gas Sensing

In this paper, the investigation and detailed modeling of a cascaded Raman laser, operating in the midwave infrared region, is described. The device is based on silicon-on-insulator optical waveguides and a coupled resonant microcavity. Theoretical results are compared with recent experiments, demonstrating a very good agreement. Design criteria are derived for cascaded Raman lasers working as continuous wave light sources to simultaneously sense two types of gases, namely C2H6 and CO2, at a moderate power level of 130 mW

ANALISI SPETTRALE E CICLI DI MILANKOVITCH IN SUCCESSIONI CRETACICHE DEL SUDALPINO ORIENTALE

Spectral analysis technique has been applied for the first time in the Southern Alps, to three pelagic and hemipelagic sections (Venetian Prealps and Dolomites) of Barremian-Cenomanian age, characrerized by a couplet alternation of carbonate rich and carbonate poor layers. This technique is used to detect these lithologic periodicities in the measured sections, in order to search for climatic Milankovitch-type cycles (short eccentricity, obliquity and precession cycles). We have applied two different processing routines: the FFT algorithm has been developed to process, for example, bed thickness, bed-joint position and calcimetric time series; for the other cases rhe FWT algorithm has been used to deal with a codified time series, such as lithotype signals or the presence/absence of some bioturbation signal. The results of the data processing are amplitude and power spectra, showing frequency peaks with maximum energy. They are computed first in terms of space measurements (cm) and later are converted into time (thousand of years) using the average sedimentation rate, inferred for each section by the duration of stratigraphic units (stages) and their thickness in the studied section. To prevent distortion related to the form of the input signal a smoothed triangular filter of different length was used, as a way of obtaining a sinusoidal-like wave. The stability of the most relevant peaks can be tested by dividing the original time series into two or more subsections. They are then processed by sample rates to generate spectra with different resolution levels