Definizione della mappatura acustica strategica del Comune di Pisa ai sensi della direttiva europea 49/2002/EC

Il presente lavoro riporta le fasi della definizione di una proposta per la mappatura acustica strategica di Pisa al fine di determinare in ogni punto del territorio, come previsto dalla direttiva europea 49/2002/EC recepita in Italia col D. Lgs. 194/2005, l'esposizione globale al rumore prodotto da tutte le sorgenti di rumore presenti. Il lavoro ha previsto una prima fase in cui sono stati calcolati i livelli sonori determinati da ogni specifica sorgente presente sul territorio (stradale, ferroviaria e aeroportuale), secondo il rispettivo modello suggerito dalla già citata direttiva europea. Per la calibrazione dei vari modelli e per la determinazione dell’incertezza dei valori globali sono stati eseguiti rilievi strumentali in punti strategici. In ambiente GIS, i risultati delle varie simulazioni sono stati riferiti alla medesima griglia e sommati insieme, punto per punto, al fine di ottenere il livello globale di rumore presente in ogni zona del territorio. Si è poi provveduto ad elaborare i risultati, in modo da attribuire ad ogni singolo edificio ricadente sul territorio comunale un livello di rumore di facciata globale, mantenendo anche la possibilità di discernere i singoli contributi delle sorgenti. In tal modo è stato possibile suddividere la popolazione residente in classi di esposizione al rumore. I descrittori acustici utilizzati sono stati il Leq(A) diurno, l’Lnight e l’Lden. Infine, mediante il confronto puntuale tra i risultati della mappatura acustica strategica e una “mappa dei limiti” per le infrastrutture appositamente costruita, si è proceduto all’individuazione delle cosiddette “aree critiche”, rappresentate in una mappa dei conflitti

Trypanocidal action of bisphosphonium salts through a mitochondrial target in bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei

Lipophilic bisphosphonium salts are among the most promising antiprotozoal leads currently under investigation. As part of their preclinical evaluation we here report on their mode of action against African trypanosomes, the etiological agents of sleeping sickness. The bisphosphonium compounds CD38 and AHI-9 exhibited rapid inhibition of T. brucei growth, apparently the result of cell cycle arrest that blocked the replication of mitochondrial DNA, contained in the kinetoplast, thereby preventing the initiation of S-phase. Incubation with either compound led to a rapid reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential, and ATP levels decreased by approximately 50% within 1 h. Between 4 and 8 h, cellular calcium levels increased, consistent with release from the depolarized mitochondria. Within the mitochondria, the Succinate Dehydrogenase complex (SDH) was investigated as a target for bisphosphonium salts, but while its subunit 1 (SDH1) was present at low levels in the bloodstream form trypanosomes, the assembled complex was hardly detectable. RNAi knockdown of the SDH1 subunit produced no growth phenotype, either in bloodstream or in the procyclic (insect) forms and we conclude that in trypanosomes SDH is not the target for bisphosphonium salts. Instead, the compounds inhibited ATP production in intact mitochondria, as well as the purified F1 ATPase, to a level that was similar to 1 mM azide. Co-incubation with azide and bisphosphonium compounds did not inhibit ATPase activity more than either product alone. The results show that, in Trypanosoma brucei, bisphosphonium compounds do not principally act on succinate dehydrogenase but on the mitochondrial FoF1 ATPase

Autonomous Vision-Based Algorithm for Interplanetary Navigation

The surge of deep-space probes makes it unsustainable to navigate them with standard radiometric tracking. Autonomous interplanetary satellites represent a solution to this problem. In this work, a vision-based navigation algorithm is built by combining an orbit determination method with an image processing pipeline suitable for interplanetary transfers of autonomous platforms. To increase the computational efficiency of the algorithm, an extended Kalman filter is selected as state estimator, fed by the positions of the planets extracted from deep-space images. An enhancement of the estimation accuracy is performed by applying an optimal strategy to select the best pair of planets to track. Moreover, a novel analytical measurement model for deep-space navigation is developed providing a first-order approximation of the light-aberration and light-time effects. Algorithm performance is tested on a high-fidelity, Earth–Mars interplanetary transfer, showing the algorithm applicability for deep-space navigation

A descent method for nonsmooth variational inequalities via regularization

In this paper we propose a descent method for solving variational inequality problems where the underlying operator is nonsmooth, locally Lipschitz, and monotone over a closed, convex feasible set. The idea is to combine a descent method for variational inequality problems whose operators are nonsmooth, locally Lipschitz, and strongly monotone, with the Tikonov-Browder regularization technique. Finally, numerical results are presented and discussed

An Image Processing Pipeline for Autonomous Deep-Space Optical Navigation

A new era of space exploration and exploitation is fast approaching. A multitude of spacecraft will flow in the future decades under the propulsive momentum of the new space economy. Yet, the flourishing proliferation of deep-space assets will make it unsustainable to pilot them from ground with standard radiometric tracking. The adoption of autonomous navigation alternatives is crucial to overcoming these limitations. Among these, optical navigation is an affordable and fully ground-independent approach. Probes can triangulate their position by observing visible beacons, e.g., planets or asteroids, by acquiring their line-of-sight in deep space. To do so, developing efficient and robust image processing algorithms providing information to navigation filters is a necessary action. This paper proposes an innovative pipeline for unresolved beacon recognition and line-of-sight extraction from images for autonomous interplanetary navigation. The developed algorithm exploits the k-vector method for the non-stellar object identification and statistical likelihood to detect whether any beacon projection is visible in the image. Statistical results show that the accuracy in detecting the planet position projection is independent of the spacecraft position uncertainty. Whereas, the planet detection success rate is higher than 95% when the spacecraft position is known with a 3sigma accuracy up to 10^5 km.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure

Controllo degli accessi basato su attributi gestiti tramite estensioni x.509 v3

Il modulo realizzato implementa un sistema di controllo degli accessi basato su attributi che si poggia sull'architettura XACML Nel progetto l'aspetto fondamentale riguarda l'autenticazione degli utenti tramite certificato digitale x.509 v3 nelle cui estensioni sono contenuti gli attributi forniti dal sistema ad ogni cliente. Quando un utente intende richiedere una risorsa, invia il certificato digitale insieme alla richiesta ed in questo modo permette al sistema di riconoscerlo e di decidere se egli può o meno accedere alla risorsa

Anti-inflammatory activity of chondroitin sulfate

SummaryThe pharmacokinetics of chondroitin sulfate (CS, Condrosulf®, IBSA, Lugano, Switzerland) were investigated in rats and in healthy volunteers using CS tritiated at the reducing end and CS labeled with 131I or 99mTc respectively. A rapid absorption of orally administered CS is observed in rats and in humans when the drug is dissolved in water. Lower and delayed absorption is observed when CS is administered in gastroresistant capsules. The absolute bio-availability is 15 and 12% for rats and humans respectively. The CS shows a tropism for cartilagineous tissues in rats and for knee tissues in humans as demonstrated by scintigraphic analysis with 99mTc-CS. Monomers, oligo and polysaccharides produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of CS appear in the blood and tissues together with native CS. The effects of partially depolymerized (m.m. 3 to 15 kD) and desulfated fractions on human leukocytes were investigated. CS and its fractions inhibit the directional chemotaxis induced by zymosan-activated serum, are able to decrease the phagocytosis and the release of lysozyme induced by zymosan and to protect the plasma membrane from oxygen reactive species. In rats the oral administration of CS significantly decreases granuloma formation due to sponge implants and cell migration and lysosomal enzyme release in carrageenan pleurisy. Compared with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (indomethacin ibuprofen), CS appears to be more effective on cellular events of inflammation than on edema formation. It is noteworthy that CS is devoid of dangerous effects on the stomach, platelets and kidneys. In synovial fluid of patients requiring joint aspiration, treated orally for 10 days with CS (800 mg/day) the hyaluronate concentration and the intrinsic viscosity significantly increased, while collagenolytic activity, phospholipase A2 and N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) decreased.These results give an insight into the mechanism of the anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective actions demonstrated by this drug in a number of clinical trials in, patients with osteoarthritis

Sviluppo di un sistema per l'integrazione di applicazioni come plugin di Firefox

Questa tesi ha lo scopo di sviluppare un plugin per il browser Firefox in grado di eseguire applicazioni arbitrarie all'interno di una pagina web. E' spiegato il funzionamento di un plugin generico attraverso vari esempi fino ad arrivare allo sviluppo completo del plugin "app-wrapper". Il plugin è sviluppato per sistemi operativi Unix (Linux/FreeBSD); una versione per Microsoft Windows è attualmente in sviluppo