Seminari e convegni

Prof.ssa Federica Cena
02 Marzo 2023, ore 10.30 AULA C192

Thesuggestion of Points of Interest to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)challenges recommender systems research because these users’ perception ofplaces is influenced by idiosyncratic sensory aversions which can mine theirexperience by causing stress and anxiety. Therefore, managing individualpreferences is not enough to provide these people with suitablerecommendations. In order to address this issue, we propose a Top-Nrecommendation model that combines the user’s idiosyncratic aversions withher/his preferences in a personalized way to suggest the most compatible and likablePoints of Interest for her/him. We are interested in finding a user-specificbalance of compatibility and interest within a recommendation model thatintegrates heterogeneous evaluation criteria to appropriately take theseaspects into account. In this seminar, I’ll talk about the PIUMA (PersonalisedInteractive Urban Maps for Autism) project, from the different points of viewwe adopted, both crucial for creating a valuable experience: user modelling andrecommender systems (for the provision of a service tailored to user’spreferences, needs and aversions), and human-computer interaction (for thedesign and evaluation of the inclusive solution).

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT 02-03-2023

Prof. Marcello Baricco (Dipartimento di Chimica e NIS-INSTM - Università di Torino)
Prof. Leonardo Marchese (Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica - UPO)
Ing. Alberto Tancini (SOL Group, ricerca e commercializzazione gas tecnici​​​​​)
Dott.ssa Patrizia Maccone e Ing. Daniele Facchi (Centro Ricerche e Sviluppo, Solvay Specialty Polymers Italy S.p.A - Bollate, MI)
Dott. Alberto Ruffino (Team Alternative Propulsion Business Development - IVECO Group)
Dott. Fulvio Canonico (BUZZI UNICEM Innovazione Laboratori e Tecnologia - BUILT)
14-21 Marzo 2023, ore 14.30 AULA MAGNA

Il service promosso dal Rotary Club di Alessandria in partnership con il Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica (DiSIT) dell’Università del Piemonte Orientale – sede di Alessandria, ha l’obiettivo di promuovere ed incentivare la ricerca sul tema dell’idrogeno ed in particolare dell’idrogeno verde per la produzione di energia pulita e per la mobilità. L’idrogeno si sta affermando come uno degli elementi chiave per la transizione energetica ed è al centro delle agende politiche e delle strategie energetiche di numerosi paesi del mondo e della Commissione Europea, che nel testo del Recovery Plan ha previsto 3 miliardi per il suo sviluppo. Il service in quest’ottica si propone di incentivare la ricerca e lo studio in materia, approfondendo attraverso seminari tecnici con relatori d’eccezione e presentazione di case history i vantaggi e gli svantaggi delle tecnologie attualmente in via di sviluppo, dalla teoria alle applicazioni, passando attraverso i materiali attualmente sviluppati. Il service è rivolto agli studenti della Laurea Magistrale di Scienze Chimiche e ai dottorandi del corso di Chemistry & Biology.

LOCANDINA SEMINARI TECNICI 14 e 21-03-2023

Prof. Enrico Bini (Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi di Torino - UniTO)
29 Marzo 2023, ore 14.30 AULA C192

Multicore architectures provide the increased performance required by modern embedded real-time systems. Most platforms exhibit a non-uniform memory access (NUMA). In NUMA, memory banks with different access time can be explicitly addressed. Such an architecture, however, is challenging predictability given the significant impact of the allocation of variables on the execution times. At software level, real-world embedded applications (e.g. automotive) are composed by thousands of functions often communicating through shared variables stored in memory, with a variable access time because of NUMA.  This paper addresses the mapping of complex embedded applications onto NUMA multicore architectures. The developed problem formulation offers a solution to the following problems: (i) allocating variables (called labels in the automotive context) over memories of different characteristics, (ii) mapping functionalities (called runnables) onto CPUs, (iii) creating OS tasks from runnables, and (iv) assigning priorities to tasks. Our developed implementation is capable to handle an application composed by 1K+ runnables, all sharing 10K+ labels and finds a solution in at most 3 minutes on a standard laptop, enabling interactive design space exploration.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT 29-03-2023

Dr. Enrico Moiso (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA)
03 Aprile 2023, ore 15.00 AULA 102

Cancer is partly a developmental disease, with malignancies named based on cell or tissue of origin. However, a systematic atlas of tumor origins is lacking. Here we map the single-cell organogenesis of 56 developmental trajectories to the transcriptomes of over 10,000 tumors across 33 cancer types. We deconvolute tumor transcriptomes into signals for individual developmental trajectories. Using these signals as inputs, we construct a developmental multilayer perceptron (D-MLP) classifier that outputs cancer origin. D-MLP (ROC-AUC: 0.974 for top prediction) outperforms benchmark classifiers. We analyze tumors from patients with cancer of unknown primary (CUP), selecting the most difficult cases in which extensive multimodal workup yielded no definitive tumor type. Interestingly, CUPs form groups distinguished by developmental trajectories, and classification reveals diagnosis for patient tumors. Our results provide an atlas of tumor developmental origins, provide a tool for diagnostic pathology, and suggest developmental classification may be a useful approach for patient tumors.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT 03-04-2023

Dr. Fiorenzo Pastoni (Università degli Studi di Milano Statale)
29 Marzo 2023, ore 13.30 AULA 102 con trasmissione dal vivo sul canale Youtube UPO Dottorato di Ricerca in Chemistry and Biology

Quella del biologo può non a torto essere definita una professione ‘giovane’ se confrontata con altre professioni ‘storiche’ di cui si riscontrano tracce già nella storia antica: è infatti nata ‘solo’ negli anni Sessanta del secolo scorso a seguito della emanazione della Legge n. 396/1967.
Quanto sopra ha comportato conseguenze non facili da superare, quali l’inserimento in scenari del mondo del lavoro nei quali altre figure professionali erano ormai consolidate nelle proprie prerogative e competenze, oltre che in una conseguente e adeguato riconoscimento da parte della opinione pubblica.
I biologi hanno però sempre potuto avvalersi del supporto di una legislazione ‘strutturale’ molto precisa, che trova il proprio fondamento nell’articolo 3 della stessa legge istitutiva in cui è delineato un ampio ‘oggetto della professione’, integrato ed aggiornato negli anni successivi e più vicini a noi da svariate disposizioni, le quali hanno progressivamente tracciato il continuo divenire del mondo del lavoro.
Di questa evoluzione, che ha interessato e continua ad interessare sia la legislazione sia la normazione tecnica, tutti i biologi (ma soprattutto i più giovani alle prese con la fase iniziale di inserimento nel mondo del lavoro) devono avere piena coscienza e conoscenza, per potersi proporre al medesimo nel modo più appropriato, sostenuto da specifiche competenze riconosciute dallo Stato italiano.
Uno sviluppo legislativo molto recente, vale a dire la pubblicazione sulla Gazzetta Ufficiale del Decreto Legislativo 23 febbraio 2023, n. 18, avvenuta il 6 marzo u.s., dimostra quanto sia attuale ed appropriata la figura del biologo nell’incedere della realtà socio-economica in cui ci è dato di vivere. Il decreto rappresenta infatti la attuazione nel nostro Paese della Direttiva UE 2020/2184, riguardante un problema di primaria rilevanza quale la qualità delle acque destinate al consumo umano. La Direttiva introduce il concetto del rischio connesso al consumo dell'acqua ed associa opportunamente a tale rischio il genere batterico Legionella, il cui già considerevole impatto sulla salute è stato, di fatto, ulteriormente accentuato dalle vicende connesse alla pandemia che ha condizionato (e per certi versi tuttora condiziona) lo scenario internazionale.
E chi se non un biologo ha la competenza istituzionale, oltre che le conoscenze specifiche, per occuparsi di quel problema antico ma sempre attuale che è il rischio biologico e che proprio la pandemia ha drammaticamente riportato all'attenzione di tutti?

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT 29-03-2023

Architetto Roberto Scabiosi (Volontario e Formatore della Protezione Civile)
27 Marzo e 03 Aprile 2023, ore 10.00 AULA 204

Il volontario della protezione civile presenterà le buone pratiche di protezione civile in caso di eventi catastrofici. In particolare verranno affrontati i seguenti argomenti: 1) descrizione delle caratteristiche, delle funzioni e della struttura del Servizio Nazionale della Protezione Civile; 2) le alluvioni, sistema previsionale, sistema di allertamento, fenomeno fisico, danni causati, pianificazione territoriale; 3) i terremoti, fenomeno fisico, sistema di emergenza, danni causati, 4) i maremoti, fenomeno fisico, sistema di allertamento, danni. La trattazione degli argomenti sarà accompagnata da numerosi esempi di interventi di assistenza alla popolazione attraverso immagini e documenti vari. Sarà data importanza anche e soprattutto alla fase di pianificazione territoriale, previsione dell'emergenza e norme di autoprotezione attraverso l'elencazione delle buone pratiche di Protezione Civile. 

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT 27-03 e 03-04-2023

Dott.ssa Simona Losio e Dott.ssa Laura Boggioni (SCITEC CNR, Milano)
17 Gennaio 2022, ore 11.00 AULA 204

Polycarbonates can be prepared by the copolymerization of epoxides with carbon dioxide (CO2) as an inexpensive, abundant, nontoxic, and renewable feedstock. Since the discovery of Inoue in 1969, the copolymerization of epoxides and CO2 has become an important and useful technology for the large-scale utilization of CO2 in chemical synthesis, employing mainly propylene oxide and cyclohexene oxide. In recent years, the use of functional epoxide monomers has become an emerging topic with a broad scope of potential applications This presentation will cover the synthesis, the physico-chemical properties, and the growing applications of this class of green polymers.

Dott. Giovanni Pagano (Department of Mathematics, University of Salerno)
02 Febbraio 2022, ore 16.00 AULA 203

We show techniques that allow to improve the accuracy and/or stability properties of classical explicit numerical schemes solving ordinary differential equations systems.
These techniques foresee, with different motivations, the modification of the classical methods coefficients, which become matrices dependent on the Jacobian of the problem. Obviously, the new Jacobian-dependent schemes thus derived can also be used for the solution of partial differential equations systems through the method of lines, then solving the semi-discretized in space problem.
In detail, we analyze the application of the mentioned methodologies on explicit Runge-Kutta methods and peer methods, proving that it is possible to make them A-stable, while preserving their explicit structure. Since the inversion of Jacobian-dependent matrices is required at each step, it is not possible to classify the new schemes as totally explicit methods. However, for some problems these methods are actually explicit, as the Jacobian is either constant, or it can be approximated with a constant matrix. Numerical tests highlight the advantages of the new methods.

Prof.ssa Margherita Benzi (UNIUPO-DiGSPES)
07 Febbraio 2022, ore 16.00 AULA 102

Come suggerisce il titolo, "prestato" da uno dei padri dell'IA, la filosofia ha svolto un ruolo importante in intelligenza artificiale. Altrettanto importante, anche se fino a tempi recenti meno riconosciuta, è stato il contributo dell’IA alla riflessione su alcune tematiche centrali della filosofia come la causalità e il rapporto mente-cervello. La relazione tra filosofia e IA è però anche complicata, con intersezioni, illusioni reciproche e malintesi. Questo seminario intende ripercorre la storia di alcuni aspetti di tale relazione, e mostrerà come alcuni degli attuali problemi filosofici dell’IA possano avere conseguenze molto pratiche nella nostra vita.

Prof. Peter Liljedahl (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada)
15 Marzo 2022, ore 15.00 Diretta Zoom

Much of how classrooms look and much of what happens in them today is guided by institutional norms laid down at the inception of an industrial-age model of public education. These norms have enabled a culture of teaching and learning that is often devoid of student thinking. In this session I present some of the results of over 15 years of research into how teachers can transform their classrooms from a space where students mimic to where students think. The practices discussed will intertwine with, and make extensive references to, the recently published book, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics (Grades K-12): 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning.

Prof. Mauro Rebelo (Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
16 Maggio 2022, ore 14.00 AULA 207
17 Maggio 2022, ore 11.00 AULA 303
31 Maggio 2022, ore 11.00 AULA 206
07 Giugno 2022, ore 11.00 AULA 206
09 Giugno 2022, ore 09.00 AULA 103
13 Giugno 2022, ore 10.00 AULA 206
13 Giugno 2022, ore 14.00 AULA 204
​​​​​​14 Giugno 2022, ore 11.00 AULA 206

Prof. Mauro Rebelo is a Graduate at Marine Biology from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (1994), master's at Biological Oceanography from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (1996) and Ph.D. at Byophysics from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2001). Did 1 year of post-doc in Environmental Molecular Biology at Fiocruz (2002) and 2 years at Università del Piemonte Orientale in Itália (2004). He is Adjunct Professor at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro since 2004 and head of the Environmental Molecular Biology Laboratory (BioMA). Has experience in Biochemistry and Ecology, with emphasis in Molecular Biology, studying gene-environment relationships in aquatic organisms. His main research lines are toxicity mechanism of environmental contaminants, invertebrate genomics, metagenomics of aquatic environments and the use of non-traditional models in biomedical research. Is an entrepreneur in biotechnology developing innovation with the biotech company Bio Bureau. He is deeply involved with Distance Learning and Science Communication. His blog at the Brazilian brach of ScienceBlogs (http://scienceblogs.com.br/vqeb) has hundreds of posts and thousands of visits.
The Synthetic Conservation Biology program will include the following topics:
1. What is natural?
2. How many species are there? What is a species? Can we know how many species there are?
3. Are we losing species? Mass extinctions Estimation of species in the environment. Estimation of species extinction
4. Should we save endangered species? Estimation of endangered species. Charismatic fauna
5. Should we rescue extinct species? Neanderthal and mammoth
6. Is it time for synthetic conservation biology? About synthetic biology projects: The golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei); Sun corals; Aedes sp and Anopheles sp

Dott.ssa Alice Boarino (Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland)
23 Maggio 2022, ore 14.00 AULA 203

Lignin is one of the main components of biomass, discarded a by-product of the paper industry in huge quantities every year. The complex structure of lignin, composed of aromatic rings with hydroxy and methoxy functional groups, provides interesting properties such as antioxidant, UV-barrier and antimicrobial activity. Due to the high availability, biodegradability and biocompatibility of this plant-derived polymer, significant attention has been given to a wide-scale use of lignin-derived products in various applications. In this seminar, the valorisation of this under-exploited material into high added-value applications will be discussed.

Prof. Anatoly Nikitin (National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv and visiting professor DiSIT, UPO)
06 Giugno 2022, ore 14.00 AULA 303

This is an introduction to the symmetries of the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. After considering symmetries with respect to continuous groups of transformation, supersymmetries are discussed.
Finally, time permitting, we discuss integrals of motion belonging to second order differential operators; these are important constituents of superintegrable systems.

Prof. Anatoly Nikitin (National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv and visiting professor DiSIT, UPO)
20 Giugno 2022, ore 14.00 AULA 203

This is an introduction to the symmetries of the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. After considering symmetries with respect to continuous groups of transformation, supersymmetries are discussed.
Finally, time permitting, we discuss integrals of motion belonging to second order differential operators; these are important constituents of superintegrable systems.

Prof. Anatoly Nikitin (National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv and visiting professor DiSIT, UPO)
22 Giugno 2022, ore 10.00 AULA 204

This is an introduction to the symmetries of the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. After considering symmetries with respect to continuous groups of transformation, supersymmetries are discussed.
Finally, time permitting, we discuss integrals of motion belonging to second order differential operators; these are important constituents of superintegrable systems.

Prof. Anatoly Nikitin (National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv and visiting professor DiSIT, UPO)
13 Luglio 2022, ore 14.00 SALA SEMINARI INFORMATICA (C192)

This is an introduction to the symmetries of the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. After considering symmetries with respect to continuous groups of transformation, supersymmetries are discussed.
Finally, time permitting, we discuss integrals of motion belonging to second order differential operators; these are important constituents of superintegrable systems.

Prof. Anatoly Nikitin (National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv and visiting professor DiSIT, UPO)
20 Luglio 2022, ore 11.00 SALA SEMINARI INFORMATICA (C192)

This is an introduction to the symmetries of the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. After considering symmetries with respect to continuous groups of transformation, supersymmetries are discussed.
Finally, time permitting, we discuss integrals of motion belonging to second order differential operators; these are important constituents of superintegrable systems.

Prof. Filip Jacub Tereszkiewicz (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
08 Settembre 2022, ore 11.00 Diretta Meet

The rules and principles that exist in food law are shaped not only at the level of states, but also of
international organizations. A specific situation exists in the case of Europe, due to the fact that many areas of
food law belong to the competence of the European Union. Consequently, the Union is a full member of many
of the aforementioned international organizations or represents its member states within them. Therefore, the
area of food law can serve as an interesting example of how the EU and its member states interact within
international organizations. The seminar will present the following international organizations and forms of
cooperation: World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, as well as the Agricultural Market Information System, Codex Alimentarius and the Food
Security Cluster.

Prof. Bernhard M.J. van der Meulen (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
08 Settembre 2022, ore 12.00 Diretta Meet

Food law studies the rules and regulations that address or directly affect food and the food sector. Every person on the planet is a consumer of food and every country has rules regarding its production and distribution. All legislators deal with similar problems regarding food safety and consumer information. Such problems can be addressed in different ways. When we look at other legal systems, we realize that it is not only hypothetically true that choices could have been made differently than our legislature did, but that actually choices are being made in different ways. By comparing legal systems, we learn much not only about other systems, but also about our own. In this seminar this will be illustrated with examples from the EU, the USA and China.

Prof. Francisco Prosdocimi (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
08 Settembre 2022, ore 14.00 Diretta Meet

Ayahuasca is an entheogenic tea or brew used by amerindian shamans as medicine to cure physical, mental and spiritual disorders. The tea is made by the decoction of two main plant components: an herb named chacrona (Psychotria viridis: Rubiaceae) and a liana named mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi: Malpighiaceae). Biochemically speaking, the psycho-active effects provided by the brew are caused by the presence of DMT in the leaves of chacrona, and the presence of alkaloids in the mariri that are capable of inhibiting the action of the enzyme mono-amina oxidase. This effect allows DMT to keep exciting the postsynaptic cleft of neurons for longer periods, providing nootropic effects that affect and higher the cognition of users. The medical use of ayahuasca is still controversial but it has been proven to help in psychiatric disorders and is currently being recommended by lead researchers in neurobiology. In the current project, we collaborate with União do Vegetal and other ayahuasca communities to collect specimens and sequence the genomes of both plants. Using a strategy based in Pacific Biosciences Inc. technologies, we sequenced the whole genome of chacrona using long sequencing reads. We are currently analyzing the biochemical pathways to find enzymes related to the production of DMT and a manuscript describing the genomes of chacrona's organelles has been submitted. We are now preparing a bigger project to travel to the Amazon and collect specimens at their edges of distribution. This will allow a better understanding about phylogeographic aspects and will provide populational-based environmental strategies to conserve both species. Mariri is also being sequenced and analyzed using similar strategies. Ethical principles guiding this research consist in respecting and reverencing the native amerindian knowledge and exchanging ideas with native people to help in understanding the effects and medicinal properties of the tea.

Dr. Philip Schaefer (UNIUPO-DiSIT / DiSSTE)
Sales Application Engineer, Attocube Systems AG, ALX: nanoscale analytics Eglfinger Weg 2, 85540 Haar (Munich), Germany
16 Settembre 2022, ore 11.00 AULA 203

Scattering-type Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (s-SNOM) is a scanning probe approach to optical microscopy and spectroscopy bypassing the ubiquitous diffraction limit of light to achieve a spatial resolution of about 10 nanometers. s-SNOM employs the strong confinement of light at the apex of a sharp metallic AFM tip to create a nanoscale optical hot-spot. This defines the high resolution that can be achieved independent from the used wavelength from the UV, visible, IR, even up to the THz spectral region. Interferometric detection of the scattered light from the hotspot gives access to local optical properties like absorption and reflection, allowing FTIR spectroscopy on the 10 nm length scale for nano- chemical identification and compositional mapping of various organic and inorganic materials. The optical near-field hotspot can also be employed to excite and detect plasmon polaritons which enables the quantification of local free carrier properties in doped semiconductors.
Using broad-band sources in the mid-IR spectral range, nanoscale Fourier-transform spectroscopy (nano-FTIR) can now be used for chemical identification and mapping on polymer nanostructures, metal-organic frameworks, composite- and bio-materials. Fast nano-FTIR spectroscopy based hyperspectral imaging (HSI) can yield chemical compositional maps on a few tens of nanometer scale. nano-FTIR has a proven unprecedented sensitivity for the non-invasive detection of single proteins and lipid monolayers.
s-SNOM and nano-FTIR are now established and essential techniques for modern nanoscopy and have routinely been used in applications such as chemical identification, free-carrier profiling, or the real-space mapping of propagating plasmons and other polaritons. Impactful examples will be shown and discussed in my talk.

Il seminario è promosso dal Prof. Michele Laus.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT - Venerdì 16.09.2022 ore 11.00

Prof. Roberto Simonutti (Department of Materials Science - University of Milan-Bicocca)
23 Settembre 2022, ore 11.00 AULA 203

Polymer networks, including rubbers and hydrogels, are ubiquitous materials. The determination of their structure-property relationship is fundamental for their rational improvement.
Low Field (LF) Time Domain (TD) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a powerful technique to probe molecular-level dynamics, through 1H relaxation times T1 e T2. and the measure of residual dipolar couplings (Dres), which are linearly proportional to crosslinks density (CLD).1
This technique has been exploited to measure the evolution of crosslinking in conventional rubbers and their blends,2 and to prove the formation of polar crosslinks clusters in more innovative modified EPDM rubbers crosslinked via reversible Diels-Alder chemistry3. Figure 1 (right) highlights the bimodal distribution of Dres in a heterogeneous system as compared to a more homogeneous one. Access to CLD distribution is the most outstanding advantage of TD-NMR compared to traditional method for the determination of CLD, such as equilibrium swelling measurements.
Important variations in chain dynamics, such as phase transitions, can be easily monitored with the study of T2 at varying temperatures. In Figure 1, a methylated cellulose thermogelating material4 shows increased T2 upon temperature increase, followed by a sudden drop at the gelation point. The reversibility of the process, the formation of a metastable phase and the associated hysteresis phenomena can be monitored, obtaining results in line with rheological testing.
These examples highlight that LF TD-NMR is a comprehensive tool to characterize in details polymeric networks, making it suitable for both academic and industrial applications.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT - Venerdì 23.09.2022 ore 11.00

Dott.ssa Marta Betti e Dott.ssa Carolina Pelazza (DAIRI Ospedale di Alessandria)
10 Ottobre 2022, ore 11.30 AULA 205

Seminario sulla Ricerca Clinica, con una presentazione del modello del Clinical Trial Center sviluppato attraverso il Dipartimento Attività Integrate Ricerca Innovazione (DAIRI), diretto dal Dott. Antonio Maconi e del Master “Data management e coordinamento delle sperimentazioni cliniche”, di cui è avviata la seconda edizione, per approfondire il percorso di studi ed esperienza delle figure dello Study Coordinator e del Data Manager.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT - Lunedì 10.10.2022 ore 11.30

Dott.ssa Anna Sapienza (Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science - SODAS)
20 Ottobre 2022, ore 10.00 AULA 203

Recent years have seen an explosive growth in the use of mobile apps on smartphones and tablets. With over 2.7 billion smartphone users across the world checking their phones over 80 times a day, smartphone data offer a unique opportunity to understand main aspects of human behaviors, e.g., mobility, sleep patterns, and mobile app usage. Despite the impact that smartphones have in shaping our society, there is surprisingly little general knowledge about what has changed and what goes on when people stare at their screen. In this talk, I will present the differences in smartphone use across users, based on the study of an unprecedented dataset, including mobile app traces of thousands of users in time. I will show how users interact with smartphones with the aim of characterizing users with high/low levels of engagement, the type of apps underlying this engagement, and the effects of external factors, such as user demographics and the environment.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT - Giovedì 20.10.2022 ore 10.00

Dr. Leo Ferres (Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago de Chile)
27 Ottobre 2022, ore 10.00 Diretta Meet

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile phone data sets have been used all over the world to measure the effectiveness of mobility restrictions and to inform epidemiological models of disease dynamics. However, there are several issues with mobile phone datasets that have not been thoroughly investigated, and which can cause serious impacts in the conclusions drawn from the studies using these data, and their implementation or impact in public policy, for example. Here we discuss three of these issues: Modifiable area units (MEAP) and the politics of administrative boundaries, common evaluation techniques of trip/mobility algorithms, and the ethics/responsibility of data sharing. Some of these issues have straightforward methodologies (even if not solutions per se, such as the MEAP), others have straightforward solutions, but haven’t been discussed yet (trip evaluations), and others are downright difficult to reach a common ground, such as the sharing of private, sensitive, commercial data. In this work, we discuss a few solutions to each of these issues, and open the door for a more open scientific discussion.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT - Giovedì 27.10.2022 ore 10.00

Marco Invernizzi, Massimo Canonico, Lia Rimondini e Andrea Cochis, Daniela Lalli e Fabio Carniato, Chiara Bisio e Leonardo Marchese (UNIUPO-DiSIT / DiSS)
11 Novembre 2022, ore 9.00 AULA MAGNA e Diretta YouTube (Canale di Ateneo)

Si discuterà sulle nuove frontie­re tecnologiche che hanno portato a un notevole sviluppo della tele­ medicina e tele riabilitazione, così come nella prevenzione di incidenti sul lavoro, nella pratica biomedica (ricostruzione tissutale, diagnosti­ca e altro) e nella cattura e rimozio­ne di inquinanti. Tutti temi con forti ricadute per l'ambiente, la salute e quindi per la vita dei cittadini.

LOCANDINA SEMINARIO DiSIT - Venerdì 18.11.2022 ore 14.00

Prof.ssa Silvia Vicini (Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Genoa)
18 Novembre 2022, ore 14.00 AULA 205

Over the last years electrospinning technique has emerged as an easy, fast and affordable approach to prepare nanofibrous membranes with a micro-structure which strongly resemble the extra-cellular matrix.
Electrospinning is based on the application of a strong potential difference to create an electrically charged polymer solution jet which leads to the formation of nano and/or microfibres subsequently collected on a proper surface; thus, highly porous mats with a high specific surface area can be easily obtained and, above all, they were found able to promote human cell viability.
Alginate and chitosan-based membranes are prepared via electrospinning using solution and poly(ethylene oxide) as co-spinning agent. Different solutions are rheologically characterized in order to assess the viscosity values suitable to proceed with the electrospinning process.
The membranes are coagulated to stabilize them using different baths. Moreover, a crosslinking approach are optimized to obtain insoluble mats whose composition is investigated, proving the elimination of the co- spinning agent. Mechanical characterization is performed to test the stress/strain behaviour.

Prof. Nikolas Thomaidis
University of Athens, Greece
Prof. Bruno Hagenbuch
University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, USA
Prof. Marco Parolini
University of Milan, Italy
Dott.ssa Sara Valsecchi
National Council of Research (IRSA-CNR), Milan, Italy
12 Dicembre 2022, ore 14.00 AULA MAGNA

As part of the annual meeting of the H2020-project SCENARIOS, the "First International Workshop on PFAS Transport and PFAS Toxicology" will feature high-level speakers and experts PFAS is the acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and represents a group of emerging contaminants known for their persistence and mobility in the environment. This is a hotly debated topic these days. Chemicals such as PFOA and PFOS are ubiquitous pollutants found in all environmental matrices and in biota where they readily accumulate. The Po River basin, Italy's largest river, has been subject to constant and continuous contamination with such chemicals. Even though these Legacy PFAS have been restricted since 2014 under the Stockholm Convention, their traces are still present today. The Trissino disaster in the province of Vicenza, Italy, resulted in the contamination of one of the largest underground aquifers in Europe. A large number of citizens of all ages were exposed to PFAS and will therefore forever carry traces of these substances in their blood. These substances are also of concern to supranational organizations, which are called upon to regulate their use and release. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is due to rule in the next three months whether to ban short carbon chain PFAS, known as alternative PFAS, in firefighting foams. In addition, a public consultation for a full restriction of the entire class of compounds under the European regulation REACH will begin in January 2023 after five EU member states made the proposal. Today's workshop is the first in a series of workshops designed within the SCENARIOS project to contribute to a better understanding of the effects of PFASs on human health and the environment so that decision makers can make informed and fair decisions about the regulation of these substances.

Il seminario è promosso dal Prof. Francesco Dondero.

INFO SU MEDIACENTRE

Prof. Pier Luigi Ferrari (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
24 Maggio 2021, ore 17.00 Diretta Meet

La stretta correlazione tra competenza linguistica e competenza matematica, e dunque la rilevanza di lingue e linguaggi in educazione matematica, è ormai ampiamente riconosciuta sia dalla ricerca che dalla pratica scolastica, ed esplicitamente richiamata nelle Indicazioni Nazionali (e Linee Guida) per i diversi cicli scolastici. Anche se le Indicazioni Nazionali sono abbastanza chiare al proposito, rimane controverso il tema della competenza linguistica, che talvolta è vista come conoscenza separata della prestazione e spesso interpretata come aderenza a un modello grammaticale o stilistico. A questo tema è collegato quello, altrettanto controverso, della natura del linguaggio della matematica (nelle sue componenti verbale, figurale e simbolica), che tradizionalmente viene contrapposto a quello quotidiano. Per affrontare adeguatamente questi temi è necessario tener presente sia la specificità del linguaggio della matematica, sia la sostanziale continuità tra questo e il linguaggio quotidiano.
Diverse difficoltà in matematica sono correlate a scarsa competenza linguistica e a questo si aggiunge la crescente presenza nelle classi di alunni per cui l’italiano non è la prima lingua. L’esigenza, che si è manifestata a partire dal 2020, di svolgere attività didattiche a distanza ha poi mostrato la rilevanza dell’uso dei linguaggi come strumenti del pensiero, e quindi della mediazione semiotica, che spesso si è rivelata più critica rispetto all’uso dei linguaggi per comunicare informazioni.

Prof. Francisco Prosdocimi (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
30 Giugno 2021, ore 13.30 Diretta Zoom

Living beings appeared at the very moment when nucleic acids with coding properties became encapsulated. This led to the origin of viruses and, then, to the origin of cells. In this context, it is proposed that the single character that makes a clear distinction between the abiotic and the biotic world is the capacity to process organic codes.

Dott. Edmondo M. Benedetti (Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova)
24 Settembre 2021, ore 10.00 AULA 205

The application of cyclic polymers in surface functionalization enables an extremely broad modulation of interfacial physicochemical properties, surpassing the attractive characteristics provided by commonly applied, linear polymer “brushes”.
This is valid on macroscopic, inorganic surfaces, where chemically inert, cyclic polymer brushes provide an enhanced steric stabilization of the interface and a superlubricious behavior^1-4. Alternatively, when cyclic brushes form shells on inorganic nanoparticles (NPs), their highly compact and ultradense character make them impenetrable and long-lasting shields, which extend the stability of NP dispersions and hinder any interaction with serum proteins^5,6.
The steric and conformational constraints introduced during cyclization additionally affect the characteristics of polymer assemblies when these feature a functional character. This is the case for polymer interfaces that are chemically designed to actively interact with proteins present in the medium, or, alternatively, which respond to a chemical stimulus by a significant change in their properties.
The augmented effective intramolecular repulsion between polymer segments within cyclic macromolecules does not only determine a higher excluded-volume effect and enhanced solvation, but it additionally leads to an increment in electrostatic repulsive forces when the polymers are ionizable, and provides an increased exposure of functional groups enabling a more efficient binding of biological entities^7,8. On the one hand, the amplified responsiveness of cyclic polyelectrolyte brushes broadens the tuning potential for interfacial physicochemical on “smart” surfaces, providing a new molecular design for responsive materials. On the other hand, the increased availability of functions on cyclic brush-bearing surfaces indicates that an enhancement in reactivity towards biological entities can be generalized to different polymer chemistries. If this hypothesis was validated, cyclic polymers could not only be applied as extremely efficient bioinert supports, but they could also act as synthetic supports for biological recognition, improving the performance of nanomedical devices and biosensors.

References
1) Morgese G, & Benetti EM, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55, 15583 (2016)
2) Divandari M, & Benetti EM, Macromolecules 50, 7760 (2017)
3) Divandari M, & Benetti EM, ACS Macro Lett., 7, 1455 (2018)
4) Morgese G, & Benetti EM, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 57, 11667 (2018)
5) Morgese G, & Benetti EM, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 4507 (2017)
6) Morgese G, & Benetti EM, ACS Nano 11, 2794 (2017)
7) Morgese G, & Benetti EM, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 57, 1621 (2018)

Prof.ssa Annalisa Cusi (Dipartimento di Matematica dell’Università Sapienza di Roma)
02 Dicembre 2021, ore 17.00 Diretta Zoom

Durante il seminario saranno condivise alcune riflessioni sul ruolo che il docente svolge nell’implementare pratiche mirate a valorizzare i processi di argomentazione a supporto della valutazione formativa in matematica. Facendo riferimento alle lenti fornite da un costrutto teorico mirato a delineare i diversi ruoli che un docente può attivare durante le discussioni di classe, saranno analizzati alcuni stralci di discussione, tratti da una sperimentazione condotta in una classe seconda di una scuola secondaria di primo grado. L’analisi consentirà di mettere in luce gli interventi chiave che il docente può proporre per stimolare processi argomentativi in matematica e attivare, di conseguenza, specifiche strategie di valutazione formativa.

Prof. Bruno Hagenbuch (Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, KU Medical Center, Kansas City, USA)
09 Dicembre 2021, ore 16.30 AULA MAGNA

A class of relatively new chemicals poses great concern to human health. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that includes perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), GenX, and many other chemicals, sadly 4-5 thousands. PFAS have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the globe since the 1940s due to their water- and oil-repellent properties. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects. PFAS are, in fact, associated with cancer, hormone disruption, liver and kidney damage, developmental and reproductive harm, changes in serum lipid levels, and immune system alteration - some of which occur at extremely low levels of exposure. The length of the carbon chain greatly affects intrinsic properties of PFAS including their internal half-life and toxicity. PFOA and PFOS have been the most extensively produced and studied of these chemicals and their toxicity has been well characterized in humans and animal models. Both chemicals are extremely persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time.
On the occasion of the Kick Off Meeting of the European Green Deal project H2020-SCENARIOS, Prof. Hagenbuch will speak about the transport mechanisms in biological systems of Per and Poly Fluoro Alkylated Substances.
The conference will be open to students, UPO's staff and the public (up to the allowed capacity of the lecture hall).
Dr. Hagenbuch got his PhD in Biochemistry from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, did a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Physiology at UCLA before he returned to Zurich where he worked until 2005 in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University Hospital. He is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas since 2005. Dr. Hagenbuch has worked in the field of bile acid and drug transporters for more than 30 years and his group was among the first to characterize the role of bile acid and drug transporters in the disposition of perfluorinated compounds. He has been funded by NIH (USA) since 2006 and by the 3M company since 2008. His research resulted in over 130 peer reviewed publications with a current h-index of 70.

Prof. Jerzy Respondek (Silesian University of Technology, AEI (RAU2) Faculty, Computer Science Department, Poland)
10 Dicembre 2021, ore 10.00 AULA 203

The first topic of the lecture is to present how the matrix multiplication algorithms domain evolved, creating a separate branch of so-called Fast Matrix Multiplication (FMM).
We surveyed main methods of construction of FMM, including commutative and non‑commutative. We presented the Brent's Diophantine equation approach, duality of rectangular matrix multiplication, arbitrary precision algorithms (APA), methods construction of exact algorithm on the base of APA algorithm, and the partial matrix multiplication. Main methods of complexity analysis are presented in details.
Next we show the applications of the Fast Matrix Multiplication in other, both matrix and non‑matrix applications. Next we showed how to make next step in speeding up the matrix operation, by the example of so‑called special matrices. Finally, we show the exemplary applications of the operations on special matrices in control theory.

Prof. Michele Caselle (Università di Torino, Dipartimento di Fisica)
21 Dicembre 2021, ore 10.00 AULA MAGNA

Lo studio dei Sistemi Complessi sta vivendo in questi ultimi anni un periodo di notevole sviluppo, come dimostra il meritatissimo premio Nobel 2021 a Giorgio Parisi per i suoi fondamentali contributi in questo ambito. Nella Christmas Lecture saranno presentate alcune idee e strumenti utilizzati in questo contesto e illustrate alcune applicazioni in ambito biomedico, in particolare nel settore emergente della cosiddetta "medicina personalizzata”.

Prof. Donatello Materassi (University of Minnesota)
08 Gennaio 2020, ore 14.00 SALA SEMINARI INFORMATICA (C192)

Networks have become ubiquitous in science. The principal advantages provided by a networked system are a modular approach to design, the possibility of directly introducing redundancy and the realization of distributed and parallel algorithms. All these advantages have led to consider networked systems in the realization of many technological devices. At the same time, it is not surprising that natural and biological systems tend to exhibit strong modularity, as well. Interconnected systems are successfully exploited to perform novel modeling approaches in many fields, such as Economics, Biology, Cognitive Sciences, Ecology and Geology. While networks of dynamical systems have been deeply studied and analyzed in physics and engineering, there is a reduced number of results addressing the problem of recovering and identifying an unknown network of dynamic systems, since it poses formidable theoretical and practical challenges. One of the main challenges in the identification of networked system that are difficult to access or manipulate. Thus, the necessity for general tools for the identification of networks that are known only via non-invasive observations is rapidly emerging. The talk addresses this problem leveraging approaches from the theory of graphical models and showing under what conditions they can be extended to networks of dynamic systems.

Dott.ssa Valentina Toson (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
15 Gennaio 2020, ore 14.00 AULA 101

La protezione della Proprietà Intellettuale è un cardine fondamentale per la valorizzazione dei prodotti di ricerca. All’interno di UPO l’attività di protezione passa attraverso l’ufficio di Trasferimento Tecnologico (UTT), una sezione del Settore Ricerca. L’Ateneo ha adottato un regolamento Brevetti, che racchiude l’iter brevettuale interno, ed è presente una relativa Commissione che valuta le proposte e le linee di valorizzazione. Un’altra attività in capo all’UTT è la formazione, con l’obiettivo di diffondere tra i ricercatori la cultura della PI, sia per la ricerca di brevetti sia per il deposito. Il nostro UTT è inserito nel gruppo nazionale del NetVal, un network di uffici che si è posto come obiettivo: “essere un ponte tra la ricerca pubblica e le imprese interessate ad accrescere la propria competitività attraverso l’innovazione”. L’obiettivo del breve seminario è introdurre tutti gli aspetti sopracitati per incrementare la consapevolezza e la conoscenza della PI in Ateneo.

Marta Boschetto e Giorgia Passalacqua (3i Group Srl-Alessandria)
12 Febbraio 2020, ore 14.00 AULA 101

I ciclo di seminari che precedono i Consigli di Dipartimento accoglie gli esperti in sostenibilità energetica e ambientale di 3i Group di Alessandria, con cui il DiSIT collabora da tempo per iniziative di sensibilizzazione ed educazione al risparmio energetico, per approfondire e condividere il tema di grande importanza e attualità della consapevolezza sociale dei problemi ambientali. Marta Boschetto presenterà il video “Il nostro pianeta: la perdita di biodiversità” realizzato con Gianluca Gualco e già presentato con successo nell’edizione 2019 della Notte dei Ricreatori, che analizza l’attuale estinzione delle specie in relazione alle responsabilità dell’uomo e le conseguenze del suo intervento indiscriminato. Giorgia Passalacqua (Area Junior Marketing & Communication di 3i Group) presenterà i risultati ottenuti e le attività in corso della Gara di Scienze “Energia in Energia”. Il progetto è promosso da 3i Group e dal DiSIT con l’appoggio dell’Amministrazione Comunale di Alessandria, dell'Ufficio Scolastico Provinciale di Alessandria e di AMAG Reti Idriche e ha coinvolto, nell’ultima edizione, 12 istituti comprensivi con 19 scuole della provincia e 56 classi, per un totale di più di 1100 ragazzi.

Prof. Pietro Di Martino (Università di Pisa)
12 Marzo 2020, ore 15.00 AULA 205

Il seminario analizzerà le difficoltà in matematica degli studenti nel passaggio da un livello scolare al successivo, a partire dal passaggio infanzia - primaria per arrivare a quello tra scuola secondaria di secondo grado e università, in una prospettiva totalmente verticale e dunque di interesse per gli insegnanti di tutti i livelli scolari. Si cercherà di descrivere il fenomeno, mostrando con esempi dai vari livelli scolari gli aspetti ricorrenti a tutti i passaggi scolari e quelli specifici di ogni passaggio. L’analisi tenterà di individuare, discutendone, le possibili cause del fenomeno, così come possibili azioni didattiche per contrastarlo, sia in chiave di prevenzione, che di recupero.

Prof.ssa Elisabetta Robotti (Dipartimento di Matematica dell'Università di Genova)
29 Ottobre 2020, ore 15.00 Diretta Zoom

Il seminario avrà come tema portante la didattica della matematica inclusiva con particolare riferimento ai soggetti con DSA in matematica. L’approccio didattico che sarà illustrato è frutto di attività di ricerca che vede la collaborazione sinergica fra insegnanti e ricercatore e parte dall’ipotesi che si ha a che fare con differenze cognitive e non con deficit cognitivi. Quest’orientamento apre una prospettiva completamente nuova alla “logica d’azione”, al perché e come si fanno le cose in didattica perché vuole rispondere a esigenze cognitive diverse tramite un approccio percettivo-motorio e multimodale. Si tratta di mostrare come l'accesso a risorse di mediazione diverse influisca sull’apprendimento. Per questo, si cercherà di presentare un possibile modello che permetta di progettare didattica inclusiva e ne saranno mostrati esempi in un’ottica di verticalità: dalla scuola primaria alla secondaria di primo e secondo grado. A questo scopo, saranno presentate attività per lo sviluppo del calcolo mentale e per la costruzione di senso di concetti algebrici come “variabile” o “incognita”.

Prof. Giampiero Valè (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
16 Gennaio 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Nel corso dell’addomesticamento e del miglioramento genetico delle piante coltivate l’uomo ha utilizzato diverse procedure per generare biodiversità. Molte di queste procedure hanno effetti casuali sul genoma ed eventi favorevoli sono ottenuti con frequenze molto basse. Le recenti scoperte ed applicazioni degli approcci di genome editing stanno consentendo di ottenere modificazioni mirate nel genoma delle piante, inserendo caratteri favorevoli in tempi brevi ed in assenza di effetti casuali indesiderati. La applicazione di queste tecnologie ha la potenzialità di migliorare l’adattamento delle piante all’ambiente, la qualità dei prodotti e la sostenibilità delle produzioni.

Prof. Leonardo Castellani (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
13 Febbraio 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Si discutono brevemente le applicazioni dei quantum bits, che includono calcolatori esponenzialmente più potenti di quelli attuali, sistemi crittografici intrinsecamente sicuri, teletrasporto, e numerose altre tecnologie. Alcune di queste sono già disponibili commercialmente e ingenti finanziamenti pubblici e privati stanno accelerando lo sviluppo dei calcolatori quantistici. I prototipi D-Wave e IBM sono accessibili (e programmabili) in rete.

Dott. Dario Longo (Istituto di Biostrutture e Bioimmaging - CNR di Torino)
20 Febbraio 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 201

Up-regulated glucose metabolism, upon hypoxia-induced shift toward glycolysis, leads to enhanced acidification of the extracellular pH (pHe), which is a salient feature of the tumor microenvironment. Imaging based methods are already been established, at a clinical level, to assess glucose metabolism (by FDG-PET imaging), conversely, we still do not have an effective imaging protocol that allow to quantify extracellular tumor pH and to assess pHe related changes following therapeutic treatment.
We have developed innovative MRI-based approaches for assessing in vivo tumor acidosis by exploiting already clinically-used x-ray contrast agents that are translatable to the clinical scenario. Our results reveal a marked tumor acidosis in several tumor murine models and provided a first demonstration of the relationship between tumor acidosis and cancer metabolism. We have also investigated tumor pH 
imaging for assessing treatment response to drugs targeting cancer metabolism. Based on these data, tumor pH imaging may be a potential innovative diagnostic tool for characterizing tumor metabolism and to evaluate treatment response to novel anticancer therapies.

Prof. Antreas Afantitis (NovaMechanics Ltd, Nicosia, Cyprus)
20 Marzo 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 201

The success of drug discovery as well as chemoinformatics-aided material designsignificantly depends on the success of in silico methods and tools to process,integrate, analyze and interpret chemical and biological data and properties. Theneed for efficient data mining and analysis has become very intense especiallyafter the increasing volume of data produced from High Throughput Screening (HTS) experiments. This is a demanding procedure for which various tools mustbe combined with different input and output formats. To automate the dataanalysis required we have developed the necessary tools to facilitate a variety ofimportant tasks to construct workflows that will simplify the handling, processingand modeling of chem/nano informatics data and will provide time and costefficient solutions, reproducible and easier to maintain. To address this emergingneed NovaMechanics Ltd has developed and integrated within Enalos informaticsplatform a wide range of Chem/Nano tools, functional within Cloud, KNIME andstandalone platform, dedicated to the informatics analysis of chemical and nanodata and their corresponding activity/properties. The application of these state ofthe art chem/ nano informatics tools for the development of nanoinformaticsmodels and an in silico drug discovery pipeline for the identification, virtualscreening, lead identification and optimization of novel inhibitors as well as thenovelty, patent and commercial availability search will be presented.

Prof. Francisco Prosdocimi (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
02 Aprile 2019, ore 12.45 AULA 207

In this lecture it will be presented a molecular view about the origins of life. The Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) has been considered as the ancestral between Bacteria, Archaea and Eucaryotes. However, the last attempted to discover the molecular constitution of LUCA identified the presence of at least 355 genes in this ancestor and a complex metabolism. These observations lead us to propose the existence of a Fisrt Universal Common Ancestor (FUCA) that started a chemical symbiosis between nucleic acids and proteins. The maturation of FUCA was achieved with the formation of the genetic code. Further, we try to propose a stepwise model to explain the evolution from FUCA to LUCA. In the meantime we will criticize gene nomenclature and propose new models to study the evolution of gene families and ortholog genes.

Prof. Marco Milanesio (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
04 Aprile 2019, ore 10.30 AULA 204

Il workshop intende approfondire la tematica dei controlli non distruttivi su materiali, vista sia dal punto di vista accademico sia da quello industriale. Verranno trattati i metodi basati sui raggi X come la tomografia, la diffrazione e la radiografia che metodi basati su altre sonde come gli ultrasuoni. Il campo di applicazione è quello dei materiali sia metallici che polimerici, con qualche accenno agli ultimi sviluppi della tomografia in ambito medicale.

Prof. Stefano Brandani (University of Edinburgh)
04 Aprile 2019, ore 11.00 AULA 207

Following on the previous discussion on macroscopic measurements of diffusion in nanoporous materials, examples of interesting systems are considered. These will include evidence of structural changes upon adsorption; adsorption kinetics in hierarchical zeolites; carbon molecular sieves; and water adsorption in SBA-15. These are all examples where careful analysis of the kinetics of adsorption provides useful information that can be used to understand the structure of nanoporous materials. The second part of the talk will develop a simple theory that allows to determine the limits of the deliverable capacity when nanoporous materials are used for gas storage. Starting from a Langmuir model it is possible to show that the ideal material should be uniform and have most molecules in direct contact with the solid. These considerations lead to a simple picture of the close-packing state of adsorbed molecules in nanoporous solids for slit-pores and spherical cages that allows to obtain a very simple expression for the maximum deliverable capacity. The theory is applied to the case of methane storage for vehicular applications and comparisons are made with a molecular simulations based study that considered over 650,000 possible structures. All main limiting trends are reproduced showing that current US Department of Energy targets are physically impossible to achieve in rigid adsorbents.

Prof. Nathalie Sinclair (Simon Fraser University - Vancouver, Canada)
10 Aprile 2019, ore 15.00 AULA 101

Multiplication is often taught as repeated addition, especially in the early years of school, which leads to challenges for students when they encounter situations in which they have to think multiplicatively. In this talk, I will present TouchTimes, which is a new multitouch App that builds on the insights of prior work (especially with TouchCounts) that has been designed to offer a gesture-based approach to learning arithmetic. It has been designed to offer a more Davydovian approach to multiplication that enables haptic, symbolic and visual modes of engagement. I will show videos of grades 2 and 3 children interacting with TouchTimes and highlight some of the embodied, affective aspects of their emergent multiplicative thinking.

Dott.ssa Chiara Andrà (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
14 Maggio 2019, ore 15.00 AULA 202

É un dato di fatto che gli studenti, a tutte le età, sono esposti a forme di apprendimento online: dai forum di matematica a esercizi proposti per il rafforzo delle competenze, dai tutorial a video di divulgazione. I materiali messi a disposizione, tuttavia, non sono sempre di qualità e per lo studente diventa difficile scegliere come orientarsi a fronte di una proposta in continua crescita. É importante, quindi, imparare a interpretare criticamente i contenuti matematici online a scuola, sotto la guida dell’insegnante. Parallelamente, l’insegnante necessita di materiali e attività che sostengano il percorso di apprendimento dello studente in questi nuovi “ambienti”. Nel corso del seminario, si presentano e si discutono alcune strategie didattiche per introdurre l’utilizzo di video e di risorse digitali nell’apprendimento della matematica curricolare. L’attenzione viene soprattutto posta sulla Flipped Classroom e sulle sue implicazioni didattiche.

Prof. Rita Fioresi (Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Bologna)
29 Maggio 2019, ore 12.00 AULA 303

During 1955-56 Harish-Chandra published three papers in the American Journal of Mathematics devoted to understand the theory of representations of a real semisimple Lie group, which are also (infinitesimally) highest weight modules.
These modules were constructed both infinitesimally and globally, the global modules realized as spaces of sections of certain holomorphic vector bundles on the associated symmetric space, which is hermitian symmetric.
The purpose of this talk is to show how this construction can be replicated in supergeometry to obtain infinite dimensional representations of a real Lie supergroup and their connections to the theory of supersymmetric spaces.
In the end we will also present the explicit example of the Siegel superspace.
[Joint work: Carmeli, F., Varadarajan]

Dott. Roberto Meda (Senior Professional Services consultant, HPC Global Practice)
29 Maggio 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 104

Amazon Web Services (AWS) è la piattaforma cloud più utilizzata al mondo. Offre più di 165 servizi tramite i suoi data center distribuiti globalmente. Milioni di clienti, incluse le più innovative startup e le imprese più importanti, scelgono di affittare le risorse di calcolo e di storage di AWS per la potenza della sua infrastruttura, per i suoi servizi, per la sua elasticità e per i suoi costi ridotti.
L'incontro sarà diviso in due parti: la prima introduttiva in cui si presenterà i più importanti servizi per categoria, i benefici in termini di costi e sicurezza per i clienti, mentre la seconda andrà più in dettaglio sui servizi managed e serverless, elasticità dell'infrastruttura e High Performance Computing.

Dott.ssa Francesca Orso (Molecular Biotecnology Center, Dept. Molecular Biotecnology and Health Sciences - Università di Torino)
05 Giugno 2019, ore 10.00 AULA 202

MicroRNAs (miRs) are small non-coding RNAs that act as negative regulators of gene expression and control tumor progression. We demonstrated that miR-214 is upregulated in malignant melanomas and triple negative breast tumors and promotes metastatic dissemination by affecting a complex pathway including transcription factors and adhesion molecules as well as the anti-metastatic miR-148b. Importantly, tumor dissemination can be reduced by blocking miR-214 function or increasing miR-148b expression and further impaired by simultaneous interventions, thus suggesting that the miR-214/miR-148b axis can be exploited for RNA-based (miR-based) therapeutic approaches. Interestingly, we evidenced that miR-214 is highly expressed in various stroma cells and it correlates with a stroma signature in human tumors. Moreover, we found miR-214 in stroma cells and observed that miR-214 expression in tumor cells is strongly influenced by stroma cells. In order to explore the function of miR-214 in the crosstalk between tumor and stroma cells, we evaluated tumor formation and progression in immunocompetent mice carrying a total-body miR-214 deletion (miR-214KO mice) or overexpression (miR-214OVER mice) crossed with MMTV-PyMT mice or used as recipients for tumor transplants. While growth of endogenous or transplanted tumors was similar for all animals, metastasis formation in distant organs was diminished in miR-214KO mice while increased in miR-214OVER mice. We are now investigating the mechanism leading to altered aggressiveness. We have evidence showing increased epithelial-mesenchymal transition and inflammation in the primary tumor and increased macrophage recruitment in distant organs (before metastasis formation) when enhanced dissemination is observed, therefore suggesting the relevance of stromal miR-214 in tumor progression.

Prof. Richard Szabo (Heriot-Watt University, Ediburgh)
26 Giugno 2019, ore 16.00 AULA 303

We briefly review the arguments that T-duality leads to doubled geometry and non-geometry in string theory, and how these notions are partially captured by generalized geometry and double field theory, We then describe how the latter two descriptions can be unified into a global and rigorous formulation of doubled target spaces as para-Hermitian manifolds. We will work through the main ideas and definitions of para-Hermitian geometry, together with many examples, and how they reduce to generalized geometry and double field theory on flat space as special instances.

Prof. Richard Szabo (Heriot-Watt University, Ediburgh)
09 Luglio 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Theoretical approaches to quantum gravity suggest that the conventional notions of space and time require drastic modifications at ultra-short distance scales. One such approach is string theory, which predicts a host of deformations of spacetime geometry that has led to a beautiful interaction between physics and mathematics. In some instances, dynamics in such settings can be captured by certain deformations of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. In this lecture I will provide a (mostly pictorial) introduction to string geometry, explaining the progress that has been achieved in understanding it mathematically. I will then advocate the point of view that understanding some deformed quantumtheories may ultimately teach us something about quantum gravity, andexplain a simple deformation of quantum mechanics which may be realisedin a table-top experiment.

Prof. Richard Szabo (Heriot-Watt University, Ediburgh)
24 Luglio 2019, ore 10.00 AULA 156

This is the fifth part of a series of lectures that Prof. Szabo is giving as visiting scientist at U. Piemonte Orientale. The topics of the colloquium "Deformations of geometry and quantum theory” held on 9.7.’19 will be explored in greater detail. A simple deformation of quantum mechanics which may be realised in a table-top experiment will be presented and related to the nonassociative algebras of observables proposed in the beginnings of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory by Jordan, von Neumann, Wigner and others to study the mathematical and conceptual foundations of quantum theory.

Prof. Richard Szabo (Heriot-Watt University, Ediburgh)
24 Luglio 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 156

This is the sixth part of a series of lectures that Prof. Szabo is giving as visiting scientist at U. Piemonte Orientale.
Among the different approaches to the physical and mathematical studies of T-duality there is topological Tduality.
It is shown how it is very well adapted to the study of noncommutative strings backgrounds on twisted tori. Recent advances on the subject will be presented and put into context.

Dott.ssa Chiara Andrà (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
15 Maggio 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 101
12 Giugno 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Negli ultimi anni, nel campo della Didattica della Matematica, si sta diffondendo la tendenza a realizzare percorsi didattici con un forte impatto sociale. Un esempio è il progetto BetOnMath, che ha creato un percorso didattico rivolto agli studenti di scuola secondaria di secondo grado per prevenire l’abuso di gioco d’azzardo. Nel colloquio, si illustra la situazione italiana relativa al dilagare del gioco d’azzardo in Italia, si delineano le caratteristiche del percorso didattico e si discutono i risultati di ricerca.

Prof. Alberto Cattaneo (Zurich University)
26 Giugno 2019, ore 14.30 AULA 303

The BV-BFV formalism unifies the BV formalism (which deals with the problem of fixing the gauge of field theories on closed manifolds) with the BFV formalism (which yealds a cohomological resolution of the reduced phase space of a classical field theory). I will explain how this formalism arises and how it can be quantized.

Prof. Leonardo Castellani (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
09 Luglio 2019, ore 11.30 AULA 303

We review the covariant canonical formalism initiated by D’Adda, Nelson and Regge in 1985, and extend it to include a definition of form-Poisson brackets (FPB) for geometric theories coupled to p-forms, gauging free differential algebras. The form-Legendre transformation and the form-Hamilton equations are derived from a d-form Lagrangian with p-form dynamical fields φ. Momenta are defined as derivatives of the Lagrangian with respect to the “velocities” dφ and no preferred time direction is used. Action invariance under infinitesimal form-canonical transformations can be studied in this framework, and a generalized Noether theorem is derived, both for global and local symmetries.
We apply the formalism to vielbein gravity in d = 3 and d = 4. In the d = 3 theory we can define form-Dirac brackets, and use an algorithmic procedure to construct the canonical generators for local Lorentz rotations and diffeomorphisms. In d = 4 the canonical analysis is carried out using FPB, since the definition of form-Dirac brackets is problematic. Lorentz generators are constructed, while diffeomorphisms are generated by the Lie derivative.A “doubly covariant” hamiltonian formalism is presented, allowing to maintain manifest Lorentz covariance at every stage of the Legendre trans- formation. The idea is to take curvatures as “velocities” in the definition of momenta.

Dott. Andrea Maffia (Università di Pavia)
01 Agosto 2019, ore 10.00 AULA 101

We try to model how the mathematical learning process triggered by the use of an artifact in the classroom can be affected by the use, even in different moments and for different purposes, of another artifact by the same students. Taking a Peircean framework, we define semiotic interference as an enchaining of signs emerging from the contexts of use of different artifacts, referring one to the other. We test our tentative definition on two examples; one is taken from the literature while the other one taken by original data. Finally, we discuss the potential operativeness of this definition in the data analysis and its generative potential in terms of new research problems and questions.

Prof. Igor Kontorovich (University of Auckland)
01 Agosto 2019, ore 10.00 AULA 101

In teaching and curriculum, we often highlight the structure and connectedness of mathematics. This talk is concerned with the opposite instances to some extent - with concepts that appear multiple times in the mathematics education landscape, when their definitions and properties may radically change from one domain to another (e.g., divisibility of integers and polynomials, multiplication of numbers and vectors, roots of real and complex numbers). In the talk, I will introduce a theoretical approach for making sense of students' struggles with such cross-curricular concepts. Post-exchanges from an online forum will be used for illustrating the potential of the approach for indicating possible sources of students' misconceptions and meta-ways of thinking that might make students aware of their mistakes.

Dott.ssa Chiara Andrà (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
27 Novembre 2019, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Negli ultimi anni, nel campo della Didattica della Matematica, si sta diffondendo la tendenza a realizzare percorsi didattici con un forte impatto sociale. Un esempio è il progetto BetOnMath, che ha creato un percorso didattico rivolto agli studenti di scuola secondaria di secondo grado per prevenire l'abuso di gioco d'azzardo. Nel colloquio, si illustra la situazione italiana relativa al dilagare del gioco d'azzardo in Italia, si delineano le caratteristiche del percorso didattico e si discutono i risultati di ricerca.

Dott. Matteo Guidotti (CNR - Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari, Milano - Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna)
24 Settembre 2019, ore 10.00 AULA MAGNA

Come una simbolica cassetta degli attrezzi a disposizione del chimico, la tavola periodica ci ricorda quali elementi siano stati forniti dalla natura per la sintesi di sostanze sempre nuove, per affrontare le principali sfide, in termini di sviluppo tecnologico, salute e benessere. Vi è però una serie di casi in cui molecole fluorescenti per la produzione industriale e per la manifattura di prodotti d'uso quotidiano hanno svolto un ruolo chiave per il progetto dell'umanità, ma hanno anche dato origine a nuovi rischi e minacce per la salute umana e per l'ambiente.

Prof. Pier Luigi Ferrari (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
24 Ottobre 2019, ore 15.00 AULA 103

In questo contributo si discutono gli intrecci fra la costruzione di argomentazioni e la competenza linguistica. Si mette in luce che una buona argomentazione è qualcosa di più di un testo linguisticamente adeguato che esprime idee matematiche corrette. Con questi propositi si esaminano vari esempi di argomentazioni prodotte da studenti della primaria e del primo anno dell'università.

Prof. Carlos F. Geraldes (University of Coimbra)
17 Ottobre 2019, ore 14.30 AULA 202

Due to their potential for providing a better characterization and diagnosis of major pathologies, redox-activated MRI probes have attracted much interest from chemists due to their capacity to repor on specific biomarkers of tissue redox potential disruption or hypoxia. We will discuss recent progress on the design of innovative redox-responsive metal complexes and nanoparticles. We will illustrate these developments with examples demonstrating the different molecular mechanisms that can generate a redox modulated MRI response.

Prof. Carlos F. Geraldes (University of Coimbra)
24 Ottobre 2019, ore 14.30 AULA 202

Nanoparticles can play a pivotal role in the design of new multimodal theranostic tools for cancer treatment. This is due to their appealing properties for medical applications such as, biocompatibility, easy functionalization with molecular vectors and good biological half-life. We will present some examples of our work using targeted iron oxide NPs, quantum dots and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for MRI combined with fluorescence or SPECT imaging.

Dott. Marco Salerno (IIT Genova)
19 Novembre 2019, ore 9.30 AULA 6B (Polo di Vercelli)

In this talk, I will present the research activity carried out in IIT-Genoa during the past ten years, in the field of fabrication, characterization and applications of anodic nanoporous alumina, and - to a minor extent - anodic porous titania.  These materials are of interest because they represent an inexpensive mean of surface nanopatterning, a kind of natural lithography based on self-organization, with resulting structure that can be used in turn as a template for other materials.  The size and spacing of the pores is controlled by the voltage applied during anodization, in a typical range of 10-400 nm, whereas the thickness depends - within some limitation (typically, <30 micrometers) - on the process time duration.  The pores represent a kind of controlled roughness pattern, with several potential applications especially in biomedicine, where no exact pore order is required, such as it would be the case instead for photonics. The oxide surfaces are inert, and can be made biocompatible by proper coating and/or filling with bioactive agents.  Actually, a role can be envisaged for the pores as the reservoirs for drug delivery or as localized microreactors.  The porous oxide layers can also be set free, to change from surface coatings to membranes and – after milling – to nanoporous microparticles, useful as the fillers of composites based on dual-only formulation, without the need of chemical bonding agent.  Nowadays, it has been demonstrated that several other metals (Nb, Hf, Zr, and probably Ta and more) can be made similarly nanoporous, which makes investigation in this area attractive.

Prof. Mario Enrico Pé (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna - Pisa)
20 Novembre 2019, ore 11.00 AULA MAGNA (Polo di Vercelli)

The major findings of a decennial research activity conducted on the characterization of Ethiopian durum wheat genetic resources are presented. We have demonstrated that Ethiopian durum wheat is quite unique, is characterized by a huge variation and represents a rich reservoir of useful alleles, untapped by modern breeding. By involving several smallholder farmers, we argue that farmers’ traditional knowledge has clear quantitative bases and might be exploited to produce wheat addressing the local needs of smallholder farming.

Prof.ssa Chiara Bisio (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
11 Luglio 2018, ore 14.00 AULA 101

La preparazione di nuovi materiali ha un ruolo cruciale per lo sviluppo sostenibile di nuove tecnologie e processi per la salvaguardia dell’ambiente, con particolare riferimento alla rimozione di specie tossiche e/o inquinanti. A questo scopo, le proprietà chimico-fisiche di diversi solidi porosi e lamellari possono essere modificate per ottimizzarne le performance, incrementare la stabilità nelle condizioni di lavoro e per aumentare l’affinità con le molecole da rimuovere e/o trasformare. Nel seminario verranno descritti esempi relativi alla determinazione della capacità di adsorbimento di diversi sistemi porosi nei confronti di inquinanti che si possono ritrovare nelle acque di falda o in atmosfera e alla modificazione e funzionalizzazione di superficie di tali solidi per aumentarne le performance di adsorbimento. Particolare attenzione sarà inoltre rivolta alla descrizione di nuovi solidi che possono essere utilizzati per l’abbattimento e degradazione molecole ad alta pericolosità, inquinanti tossici e aggressivi chimici.

Prof. Flavio Mignone (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
19 Settembre 2018, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Durante la presentazione verrà fatta una panoramica sulle nuove tecnologie di sequenziamento (NGS) facendo riferimento alle applicazioni e alle problematiche di analisi del dato. In particolare verranno illustrate le innovazioni in ambito clinico/diagnostico offerte dall''NGS.

Prof. Maurizio Sabbatini (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
17 Ottobre 2018, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Prof. Enrico Ferrero (UNIUPO-DiSIT)
21 Novembre 2018, ore 14.00 AULA 101

Il clima sta cambiando, questo ci dicono i dati delle serie storiche. La comunità scientifica osserva fenomeni meteorologici che in precedenza non si verificavano o si verificavanoraramente o con meno intensità. Si rendequindi necessario utilizzare metodologienon solo diagnostiche, che verifichino questocambiamento, ma anche prognostiche,che permettano di prevedere i fenomeniatmosferici su varie scale, da quelle climatichea quelle meteorologiche. Nel corso delseminario verranno presentate e discussequeste metodologie e la loro affidabilitàintroducendo il tema della predicibilità. Infinesi accennerà brevemente alle ricerche svolte nelDipartimento in questo ambito.