A mechanistic approach to design smart scaffolds for tissue engineering

This thesis describes a library of novel 3D scaffolds designed and optimized for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Tissue engineering aims at restoring or regenerating a deamaged tissue by combining cells, derived from a patient biopsy, with a 3D porous matrix, functioning as a scaffold. After isolation\ud and eventual in vitro expansion, cells are seeded on the 3D scaffolds and, depending on the strategy, implanted directly or at a later stage in the patient¿s body

Contractual Community in the Self-Organising City. Freedom, Creativity, Subsidiarity

In our cities, both "land-use regulation" and "territorial collective services" have traditionally been guaranteed through the efforts of public administrations. In more recent times, greater space has been taken by different forms of private land-use regulation and collective service provision, that is, by "contractual communities". These contractual communities are territory-based organisational forms (prevalently - but not only - residential ones) by which members join on the basis of a contract unanimously accepted, and in light of the benefits it will guarantee them. The contract establishes a set of commitments (e.g., rules of cohabitation) and rights (e.g., the availability of a package of services) for the members. The literature on contractual communities (particularly on that specific form of contractual community that is represented by homeowners associations) so far consists largely of profoundly critical writings that raise numerous concerns about the phenomenon. Some other writers, on the contrary, have taken a wholly positive, acritical approach toward contractual communities. In this book a middle path is explored, one that aims to take a serious look at the phenomenon of contractual communities, and avoids taking an overly alarmist view while steering clear of equally unwarranted apologies. In the case of contractual communities there are both problems and opportunities. There is a genuine need for honest questioning and realistic responses. In this perspective the book propose a revised idea of the state role (and of the law role) that permits ample leeway for all possible forms of contractual community. The idea is that cases in which coercive action by a public agency was deemed indispensable have been unjustly overstated; whereas the potential of voluntary self-organising processes has been seriously understate

Itinerant-electron magnetism: the importance of many-body correlations

Do electrons become ferromagnetic just because of their repulisve Coulomb interaction? Our calculations on the three-dimensional electron gas imply that itinerant ferromagnetim of delocalized electrons without lattice and band structure, the most basic model considered by Stoner, is suppressed due to many-body correlations as speculated already by Wigner, and a possible ferromagnetic transition lowering the density is precluded by the formation of the Wigner crystal.Comment: published version including supplementary materia

Laboratory simulations of local winds in the atmospheric boundary layer via image analysis

In the atmospheric boundary layer, under high pressure conditions and negligible geostrophic winds, problems associated with pollution are the most critical. In this situation local winds play a major role in the evaluation of the atmospheric dynamics at small scales and in dispersion processes. These winds originate as a result of nonuniform heating of the soil, either when it is homogeneous or in discontinuous terrain in the presence of sea and/or slopes. Depending on the source of the thermal gradient, local winds are classified into convective boundary layer, sea and land breezes, urban heat islands, and slope currents. Local winds have been analyzed by (i) simple analytical models; (ii) numerical models; (iii) field measurements; (iv) laboratory measurements through which it is impossible to completely create the necessary similarities, but the parameters that determine the phenomenon can be controlled and each single wind can be separately analyzed. The present paper presents a summary of laboratory simulations of local winds neglecting synoptic winds and the effects of Coriolis force. Image analysis techniques appear suitable to fully describe both the individual phenomenon and the superposition of more than one local wind. Results do agree with other laboratory studies and numerical experiments