Indirect Optimization Method for Low-Thrust Interplanetary Trajectories

Abstract: The indirect optimization method, which has been used at the Politecnico di Torino to compute the trajectories for the 1st and 2nd editions of the Global Trajectory Optimisation Competition, is presented. In particular, the general features of the optimization method, the numerical technique for the solution of the boundary value problem, and the procedure for finding suitable tentative solutions are described; details of the solutions presented at the competitions are also given

ISME activity on the use of autonomous surface and underwater vehicles for acoustic surveys at sea

The paper presents an overview of the recent and ongoing research activities of the Italian Interuniversity Center on Integrated Systems for the Marine Environment (ISME) in the field of geotechnical seismic surveying. Such activities, performed in the framework of the H2020 European project WiMUST, include the development of technologies and algorithms for Autonomous Surface Crafts and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles to perform geotechnical seismic surveying by means of a team of robots towing streamers equipped with acoustic sensors

A New Approach to Enhance the Strategic Impact of Digital Education in Universities and to Foster the Development of a High Performing Common EU Smart Education Ecosystem

In response to the negative COVID-19 impacts, it is urgent to support digital transformation plans at all levels of educational online activities. Fundamental it is also to support new inclusive digital pedagogical methods and skills for a resilient free adoption of digital tools for academic teachers (digital integrated learning, advanced multimedia, but also hybrid and interactive new methodologies, 3D, VR, holographic tools, etc.) and allow effective use for students, including participants with fewer opportunities: physically impaired (deaf, blind, paralytic), cognitive impaired and low-income students. This to create the condition of a more EU integrated strategy to consent the proposal for a Council Recommendation on the enabling factors for successful digital education by 2022–2025. We are following and improving the recommendations of OECD and UN, of EU Future Government 2030+, of EU’s strategy for e-Skills in the 21st Century, of KES international network and of FOME - Future of Management Education international scientific alliance. Also, some new EU Directives will imply a real digital revolution in educational processes and learning skills. So digital technologies have made this transition possible: surely, there have been a number of e-learning platforms for some years now, but their role has only in the last months gained massive relevance concurrently with the pandemic global situation. Only a few EU Universities are already ready for good quality distance learning, with tools for course management, including live sessions, interactive teaching and collaborative activities. Most EU Universities had to cope with the emergency situation that called for a quick organizational and cultural rearrangement and a change of learning strategies, which perhaps represented the most difficult step for teachers and students. Digital technologies are becoming very relevant at the EU level for teachers and students. However, the current limitations on the movement of people and teaching hours may restrict this type of delivery. For this reason, the described EDU-GATE initiative is providing a detailed European multi-sectoral analysis indicating the comparison of current situations of teaching digitalization (As-Is and To-Be analysis), together with a transversal needs’ analysis. Also, a smart innovative curriculum, including the most advanced educational design and delivering techniques, has been created for the improvement of teachers’ skills. Almost 12 innovative multimedia e-modules have been prepared, permitting effective learning activities and to share best practices in the EU

Detecting the gravito-magnetic field of the dark halo of the Milky Way - the LaDaHaD mission concept

We propose to locate transponders and atomic clocks in at least three of the Lagrange points of the Sun-Earth pair, with the aim of exploiting the time of flight asymme- try between electromagnetic signals travelling in opposite directions along polygonal loops having the Lagrange points at their vertices. The asymmetry is due to the pres- ence of a gravito-magnetic field partly caused by the angular momentum of the Sun, partly originating from the angular momentum of the galactic dark halo in which the Milky Way is embedded. We list also various opportunities which could be associated with the main objective of this Lagrange Dark Halo Detector (LaDaHaD)

Improvement of ALT decay kinetics by all-oral HCV treatment: Role of NS5A inhibitors and differences with IFN-based regimens

Background: Intracellular HCV-RNA reduction is a proposed mechanism of action of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), alternative to hepatocytes elimination by pegylated-interferon plus ribavirin (PR). We modeled ALT and HCV-RNA kinetics in cirrhotic patients treated with currently-used all-DAA combinations to evaluate their mode of action and cytotoxicity compared with telaprevir (TVR)+PR. Study design: Mathematical modeling of ALT and HCV-RNA kinetics was performed in 111 HCV-1 cirrhotic patients, 81 treated with all-DAA regimens and 30 with TVR+PR. Kinetic-models and Cox-analysis were used to assess determinants of ALT-decay and normalization. Results: HCV-RNA kinetics was biphasic, reflecting a mean effectiveness in blocking viral production >99.8%. The first-phase of viral-decline was faster in patients receiving NS5A-inhibitors compared to TVR+PR or sofosbuvir+simeprevir (p<0.001), reflecting higher efficacy in blocking assembly/secretion. The second-phase, noted \u3b4 and attributed to infected-cell loss, was faster in patients receiving TVR+PR or sofosbuvir+simeprevir compared to NS5A-inhibitors (0.27 vs 0.21 d-1, respectively, p = 0.0012). In contrast the rate of ALT-normalization, noted \u3bb, was slower in patients receiving TVR+PR or sofosbuvir+simeprevir compared to NS5A-inhibitors (0.17 vs 0.27 d-1, respectively, p<0.001). There was no significant association between the second-phase of viral-decline and ALT normalization rate and, for a given level of viral reduction, ALT-normalization was more profound in patients receiving DAA, and NS5A in particular, than TVR+PR. Conclusions: Our data support a process of HCV-clearance by all-DAA regimens potentiated by NS5A-inhibitor, and less relying upon hepatocyte death than IFN-containing regimens. This may underline a process of "cell-cure" by DAAs, leading to a fast improvement of liver homeostasis

Insight from an Italian Delphi Consensus on EVAR feasibility outside the instruction for use: the SAFE EVAR Study

BACKGROUND: The SAfety and FEasibility of standard EVAR outside the instruction for use (SAFE-EVAR) Study was designed to define the attitude of Italian vascular surgeons towards the use of standard endovascular repair (EVAR) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) outside the instruction for use (IFU) through a Delphi consensus endorsed by the Italian Society of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery (Societa Italiana di Chirurgia Vascolare ed Endovascolare - SICVE). METHODS: A questionnaire consisting of 26 statements was developed, validated by an 18 -member Advisory Board, and then sent to 600 Italian vascular surgeons. The Delphi process was structured in three subsequent rounds which took place between April and June 2023. In the first two rounds, respondents could indicate one of the following five degrees of agreement: 1) strongly agree; 2) partially agree; 3) neither agree nor disagree; 4) partially disagree; 5) strongly disagree; while in the third round only three different choices were proposed: 1) agree; 2) neither agree nor disagree; 3) disagree. We considered the consensus reached when >70% of respondents agreed on one of the options. After the conclusion of each round, a report describing the percentage distribution of the answers was sent to all the participants. RESULTS: Two -hundred -forty-four (40.6%) Italian Vascular Surgeons agreed to participate the first round of the Delphi Consensus; the second and the third rounds of the Delphi collected 230 responders (94.3% of the first -round responders). Four statements (15.4%) reached a consensus in the first rounds. Among the 22 remaining statements, one more consensus (3.8%) was achieved in the second round. Finally, seven more statements (26.9%) reached a consensus in the simplified last round. Globally, a consensus was reached for almost half of the proposed statements (46.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The relatively low consensus rate obtained in this Delphi seems to confirm the discrepancy between Guideline recommendations and daily clinical practice. The data collected could represent the source for a possible guidelines' revision and the proposal of specific Good Practice Points in all those aspects with only little evidence available

Approches pour la gestion de configurations de sécurité dans les systèmes d'information distribués

The security of nowadays IT services significantly depends on the correct configuration of increasingly distributed information systems. At the same time, the management of security configurations is still heavily centered on human activities, which are costly and prone to error. Over the last decade it has been repeatedly reported that a significant share of security incidents and data breaches are caused by inaccurate systems configuration. To tackle this problem, several techniques have been proposed to increase the automation in configuration management tasks. Many of them focus on planning and implementation, i.e., the phases where abstract security requirements and policies are elicited, harmonized, de-conflicted and transformed into concrete configurations. As such, these techniques often require formal or highly structured input policies amenable to automated reasoning, which are rarely available in practice. In contrast, less attention has been dedicated to the monitoring and change management phases, which complement the above steps by detecting and remediating configuration errors and by ensuring that configuration changes do not expose the system to security threats. The objectives and contributions of this thesis take the latter perspective and, as such, they pragmatically work on the basis of concrete security configurations. In particular, we propose three contributions that move from more concrete syntax-based configuration analysis towards increasingly abstract semantic reasoningLa sécurité des services informatiques d'aujourd'hui dépend significativement de la bonne configuration des systèmes qui sont de plus en plus distribués. Au même temps, la gestion des configurations de sécurité est encore fortement basée sur des activités humaines, qui sont coûteuses et sujettes à erreurs. Au cours de la dernière décennie, il a été reporté à plusieurs reprises qu'une partie significative des incidents de sécurité et des pertes de données a été causée par des configurations incorrectes des systèmes. Pour résoudre ce problème, plusieurs techniques ont été proposées pour automatiser les tâches de gestion des configurations. Beaucoup d'entre elles mettent l'accent sur les phases de planification et de mise en œuvre, où les exigences et les politiques de sécurité abstraites sont conçues, harmonisées et transformées dans des configurations concrètes. Ces techniques nécessitent souvent d'opérer sur des politiques formelles ou très structurées qui se prêtent à un raisonnement automatisé, mais qui sont rarement disponibles dans la pratique. Cependant, moins d'attention a été consacrée aux phases de gestion de suivi et de changement des configurations, qui complètent les étapes précédentes en détectant et en corrigeant les erreurs afin d'assurer que les changements de configuration n'exposent pas le système à des menaces de sécurité. Les objectifs et les contributions de cette thèse se concentrent sur ce deuxième point de vue, de façon pragmatique sur la base des configurations de sécurité concrètes. En particulier, nous proposons trois contributions visant à analyser et à vérifier des configurations de sécurit

Techniques for security configuration management in distributed information systems

La sécurité des services informatiques d'aujourd'hui dépend significativement de la bonne configuration des systèmes qui sont de plus en plus distribués. Au même temps, la gestion des configurations de sécurité est encore fortement basée sur des activités humaines, qui sont coûteuses et sujettes à erreurs. Au cours de la dernière décennie, il a été reporté à plusieurs reprises qu'une partie significative des incidents de sécurité et des pertes de données a été causée par des configurations incorrectes des systèmes. Pour résoudre ce problème, plusieurs techniques ont été proposées pour automatiser les tâches de gestion des configurations. Beaucoup d'entre elles mettent l'accent sur les phases de planification et de mise en œuvre, où les exigences et les politiques de sécurité abstraites sont conçues, harmonisées et transformées dans des configurations concrètes. Ces techniques nécessitent souvent d'opérer sur des politiques formelles ou très structurées qui se prêtent à un raisonnement automatisé, mais qui sont rarement disponibles dans la pratique. Cependant, moins d'attention a été consacrée aux phases de gestion de suivi et de changement des configurations, qui complètent les étapes précédentes en détectant et en corrigeant les erreurs afin d'assurer que les changements de configuration n'exposent pas le système à des menaces de sécurité. Les objectifs et les contributions de cette thèse se concentrent sur ce deuxième point de vue, de façon pragmatique sur la base des configurations de sécurité concrètes. En particulier, nous proposons trois contributions visant à analyser et à vérifier des configurations de sécuritéThe security of nowadays IT services significantly depends on the correct configuration of increasingly distributed information systems. At the same time, the management of security configurations is still heavily centered on human activities, which are costly and prone to error. Over the last decade it has been repeatedly reported that a significant share of security incidents and data breaches are caused by inaccurate systems configuration. To tackle this problem, several techniques have been proposed to increase the automation in configuration management tasks. Many of them focus on planning and implementation, i.e., the phases where abstract security requirements and policies are elicited, harmonized, de-conflicted and transformed into concrete configurations. As such, these techniques often require formal or highly structured input policies amenable to automated reasoning, which are rarely available in practice. In contrast, less attention has been dedicated to the monitoring and change management phases, which complement the above steps by detecting and remediating configuration errors and by ensuring that configuration changes do not expose the system to security threats. The objectives and contributions of this thesis take the latter perspective and, as such, they pragmatically work on the basis of concrete security configurations. In particular, we propose three contributions that move from more concrete syntax-based configuration analysis towards increasingly abstract semantic reasonin