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In the next few years, the new Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission (CHIME) is foreseen to be launched by the European Space Agency (ESA). This mission will provide an unprecedented amount of hyperspectral data, enabling new research possibilities within several fields of natural resources, including the “agriculture and food security” domain. In order to efficiently exploit this upcoming hyperspectral data stream, new processing methods and techniques need to be studied and implemented. In this work, the hybrid approach (HYB) and its variant, featuring sampling dimensionality reduction through active learning heuristics (HAL), were applied to CHIME-like data to evaluate the retrieval of crop traits, such as chlorophyll and nitrogen content at both leaf (LCC and LNC) and canopy level (CCC and CNC). The results showed that HYB was able to provide reliable estimations at canopy level (R2 = 0.79, RMSE = 0.38 g m−2 for CCC and R2 = 0.84, RMSE = 1.10 g m−2 for CNC) but failed at leaf level. The HAL approach improved retrieval accuracy at canopy level (best metric: R2 = 0.88 and RMSE = 0.21 g m−2 for CCC; R2 = 0.93 and RMSE = 0.71 g m−2 for CNC), providing good results also at leaf level (best metrics: R2 = 0.72 and RMSE = 3.31 μg cm−2 for LCC; R2 = 0.56 and RMSE = 0.02 mg cm−2 for LNC). The promising results obtained through the hybrid approach support the feasibility of an operational retrieval of chlorophyll and nitrogen content, e.g., in the framework of the future CHIME mission. However, further efforts are required to investigate the approach across different years, sites and crop types in order to improve its transferability to other contexts.

The Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment (CHIME) is in preparation to carry a unique visible to shortwave infrared spectrometer. CHIME will globally provide routine hyperspectral observations to support new and enhanced services for, among others, sustainable agricultural and biodiversity management. The mission shall provide Level 1B, 1C and 2A products, as well a set of downstream products related to the different environmental applications, such as the quantification of vegetation traits. In this context, this work presents the first hybrid retrieval models for the operational delivery of vegetation properties products. Within ESA’s CHIME end-to-end (E2E) simulator study, 13 leaf and canopy trait models were developed as part of the L2B vegetation (L2BV) module. The E2E framework functions as a simulated reality that enabled to test and improve the algorithms. The models were further tuned and validated against campaign data using active learning methods. As a proof of concept, the prototype retrieval models were applied to both hyperspectral airborne (HyPlant) and spaceborne (PRISMA) imagery that were first resampled to CHIME band settings. Among the provided vegetation products, it led to a first space-based canopy nitrogen content map over a heterogeneous landscape. The obtained CHIME-like L2BV traits maps demonstrate the feasibility to routinely deliver a collection of next-generation vegetation products across the globe.

Una vasca da bagno risale lentamente, come sospinta dal soffio di Madre Terra, dalle viscere di una collina metallifera nei pressi di Zenica, nella Bosnia centrale. Un carico di carbone fumante appena estratto è pronto per essere setacciato e caricato su un vecchio camion dell’esercito jugoslavo dalla squadra di minatori che opera in superficie. È così che, dalle profondità della terra dove trovano lavoro centinaia di minatori illegali bosniaci, nasce un florido commercio parallelo di carbone che andrà ad alimentare caldaie e cucine di migliaia di famiglie in tutto il Paese. Ciò avviene in totale assenza di contratti, norme di sicurezza, tutele assicurative o garanzie di alcun tipo per i lavoratori. Nella città considerata una «Jugoslavia in miniatura», modello del socialismo reale, trainata dalla sua acciaieria (Željezara Zenica) e dall’indotto metallurgico-minerario (più di 50.000 operai), fino agli inizi degli anni Novanta a inebriare l’ambiente economico e socio-culturale era il senso di sigurnost (sicurezza) e di fiducia nel futuro, sprigionate da un paradigma lavorativo fondato sulla Samoupravljanje (Autogestione). Questo metteva al centro la figura dell’uomo-operaio, autentico simbolo del progresso e del miglioramento delle condizioni di vita e lavoro avvenuto nel secondo Dopoguerra. La dissoluzione della Jugoslavia e la Guerra che ne è seguita, ha portato al collasso del sistema-vita in cui gli abitanti di Zenica hanno vissuto per 50 anni. I lavoratori dell’acciaieria e delle miniere statali sono stati espulsi in massa dal mercato del lavoro senza alternative valide a livello occupazionale, sfavoriti da un contesto economico che orbitava intorno a una sola cometa: l’industria pesante. Alla luce dei profondi mutamenti occorsi in Bosnia ed Erzegovina nelle ultime decadi, come sono andati riconfigurandosi dal punto di vista lavorativo e sociale, le traiettorie esistenziali degli abitanti di Zenica? Ho cercato di avvicinarmi a questo interrogativo analizzando il prisma dell’economia sommersa che, negli anni dell’ultimo Dopoguerra e dei piani di aggiustamento strutturali in chiave neoliberista (apertura al libero mercato, privatizzazione delle proprietà sociali, deregolamentazione finanziaria, de-sindacalizzazione delle imprese), ha guadagnato un ruolo di primo piano nell’intero panorama economico-produttivo bosniaco (Divjak & Pugh, 2013). Attraverso l’etnografia e l’esperienza di lavoro con i minatori illegali di Zenica, ho cercato di indagare la situazione inerente al mercato del lavoro (in particolare l’estrazione abusiva del carbone) e i temi ad esso correlati quali disoccupazione, emigrazione, diritti dei lavoratori, corruzione, sfruttamento, genere e processi di produzione di illegalità in questo particolare contesto post-industriale, post-bellico e post-socialista. L’estrazione illegale dell’oro nero bosniaco, unitamente all’interesse per le questioni che riguardano il complesso e sfaccettato quadro economico-sociale e politico-culturale del Paese, mi ha portato ad intercettare il filone di studi delle Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM), da cui la presente tesi ha attinto parte dell’impalcatura teorica. Come primo progetto di studi in ambito europeo sulle ASM il lavoro non gode di una letteratura d’area cui appoggiarsi, pertanto l’impianto teorico prenderà spunto da più fonti, rinunciando ad ogni pretesa di esaustività. La speranza è semmai quella di contribuire al dibattito accademico cercando di rendere, attraverso l’etnografia, da un lato la complessità delle nuove relazioni sociali ed economiche legate ad un mutato universo di significati in cui agiscono gli attori del panorama estrattivo artigianale zeničano, dall’altro di presentare le prospettive future di un vasto mondo del lavoro illegale, connesso a scelte politiche ed economiche non solo di carattere locale ma soprattutto federale, nazionale e globale. A bathtub rises slowly, as pushed by the Mother Earth’s breath, from the bowels of a metallic hill near Zenica, in central Bosnia. A cargo of freshly extracted steaming coal is ready to be sieved, stowed in 50 kg bags, and loaded into an old Yugoslav army truck by the miners working outside. Here, from the depths of the earth where hundreds of Bosnian illegal miners find work, a thriving parallel coal trade is born, in order to feed stoves, boilers and kitchens for thousands of families across the country. This occurs in the total absence of contracts, any kind of safety regulations, insurance protections or guarantees for the workers. During the Tito period, this city was considered a «miniature Yugoslavia», a true model of real socialism, driven by both its steel mill (Željezara Zenica) and the metallurgical-mining industries (which employed more than 50,000 workers). Until the beginning of the nineties, the economic and socio-cultural environment was enhanced by the pervasive sense of sigurnost (security) and the confidence in the future, released by a work paradigm based on Samoupravljanje (Self-management). This was focused on the man-worker, an authentic symbol of progress and improvement of living and working conditions, which took place in the second post-war period. The dissolution of Yugoslavia and the consequent war led to the collapse of this life-system, known by the inhabitants of Zenica for 50 years. The steel mill and State mines workers were all expelled from the labor market without valid alternatives in terms of employment. They were also penalized by an economic context based on a single, great and bright direction: the “heavy” industry, fundamental and everlasting point of reference for thousands of workers and citizens. Considering the deep changes occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last few decades: how the lives of the Zenica (the "Incandescent City") inhabitants have been set up again from a working and social point of views? I tried to approach this question by analyzing the condition of the underground economy. During the last postwar period and throughout the structural adjustment plans in a neoliberal view (for example, the opening to the free market, privatization of social property, financial deregulation, de-unionization of companies), this hidden economy has gained a leading role in the entire Bosnian economic-productive landscape (Divjak & Pugh, 2013). Considering the ethnography and my experience working with the illegal miners in Zenica, I wanted to investigate the situation of the labor market (in particular illegal coal mining) and the related issues, such as unemployment, emigration, rights of workers, corruption, exploitation, gender, conflicts, cooperative methods and illegal production processes in this particular post-industrial, post-war and post-socialist context. The illegal "private" extraction of Bosnian black gold, together with my interest in issues like the complex and diverse economic-social and political-cultural framework of the Country, led me to the specific studies of the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM), from which the theoretical framework of this thesis is based. As the first European study project on ASM, this work does not have a literature background to rely on, therefore the theoretical framework will be inspired by different sources, without claiming to be exhaustive. My aim (and hope) is to contribute to the academic debate. Through ethnography, I am trying to explain the complexity of the new social and economic relationships connected to the changed life meanings in which the artisanal miners of Zenica are working now. Also, I want to present the future possibilities for the large world of illegal work, deeply linked to political and economic choices, not only local but especially the federal, national and global ones.

In this research, the author would explore how the young citizens of Prijedor feel about their own identity in the light of the processes of globalization, migration flows, economic and political changes that occurred in this two decades. Will ethnic anchored identity developed in ’90 incompatible with a global, cosmopolitan identity or this sort of miscellaneous between local and global contribute to create a new, creative form of membership? The project tends to bring out the citizens’ subjectivity and, through the ethnographical method, trying to understand if there are a young critical mass that doesn’t refuse a tradition but at the same time believes in a peaceful and proactive co-existence. According with the theorist of globalization and the academic of nationalism the author’s thesis wants to investigate not only the outline of civil society but also the ruling class, to highlight the differences of values that accompanied each other. The main question of this work is simple and critical at the same time: are the young fixed to old ethno-nationalist based archetype? Or they can really change their own society?

As mentioned in previous chapters, the benefits provided by innovation in the paper and board business are connected with the possible chemical modification of fibres, with coupling with other materials (composites), as well as with special surface treatments. Today paper and board can substitute polymers by virtue of their enhanced ability to act as barriers to gases, while displaying an active, antimicrobial, photocatalytic, etc. behaviour. The desired barrier effect is primarily against oxygen. Considerable interest was aroused in the past by substances like artificial or natural antioxidant additives, capable to act as a barrier to oxygen by preventing its action, as well as by solutions that prevent oxygen contact with food, such as vacuum and modified atmosphere. One interesting option today is nanocellulose, a strong barrier to oxygen and other gases that can truly compete with resins currently in use to produce composite materials. A water barrier is also required for paper and board. Surface treatments are therefore available for paper, enhancing its resistance to water contact without affecting its recyclability and biodegradability properties. Also important is the grease barrier. Greaseproof paper can be obtained through the enhanced disaggregation of the fibre mesh, which can be achieved either chemically or mechanically. Alongside mass treatment, surface coatings are also available. These act as a physical barrier to grease by means of paraffin, fluorinated emulsions, or silicone-based composites. Coatings based on polymer solutions have a severe drawback – they prevent paper recyclability. Therefore latest research in the paper and board packaging pipeline is aimed at producing new grease-barrier coating options, to be used without jeopardizing the medium’s recyclability. In these natural coatings, the “active” part, i.e. the fraction responsible for the desired barrier properties, is made up of biodegradable substances, including polysaccharides, proteins, and fatty acids. Microbial proliferation is another important cause for food decay. Bacterial contamination occurs, in particular, on the product’s surface, and incorporating antimicrobial agents in packaging allows to reduce the amount of preservatives added to food and to modulate their release. At present, research is carried out based on a variety of approaches: these range from a release mechanism, where the antimicrobial agent is incorporated in the material and migration to food occurs through diffusion and distribution with a decreasing effect in time, to a contact-based mechanism, where the antimicrobial agent is immobilized on the material and the antimicrobial action is displayed at the interface, thus ensuring a long-lasting effect. Abundant research is carried out on chitosan, another natural substance and a structural component of the shell of certain crustaceans. It is a biodegradable material with excellent antimicrobial properties. Lastly, several studies focus on titanium dioxide, which displays both an antibacterial and a photocatalytic action and is therefore applied in the paper and board sector on food packaging, as well as on other products, such as air purification devices.

Background.Titanium and its alloy represent the commonly used material in orthopedic joint prosthetics and dental implantology fields due to their excellent mechanical properties and biocompatibility. Among the different causes of orthopaedic and dental implants failure, the event of infections still represents the most serious and devastating complication that may involve biomaterial devices. Purpose. The aim of the present work is to develop an innovative osteointegrative and antibacterial biomimetic coating and to perform the chemical-physical and in vitro biological characterization of the coating using SAOS-2 cell line. Among the objects we intend to study the antibacterial properties of the coating against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria strains. The treatment is developed using the Anodic Spark Deposition (ASD) electrochemical technique. Methods. The proposed antibacterial ASD treatment was obtained in an electrochemical solution containing silicon, calcium, phosphorous, sodium and silver nanoparticles. Surface morphology was characterized using SEM and laser profilometry. A qualitative analysis of the chemical composition of the coating was assessed by EDS. The adhesion properties of the coating to the titanium bulk were performed with a 3 points bending test. SAOS-2 osteoblastic cell line spreading and morphology were investigated using SEM and Phalloidin staining after 24h, 48h and 72h of cell culture on the different coating, while the viability was assessed using Alamar Blue assay after 1, 4 and 7 day of cell culture. The bacterial adhesion and the antibacterial properties were investigated after 3h and 24h of incubation with Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus epidermidis and Escherichia Coli bacterial strains. Results. The proposed anodization treatment was capable to provide a chemical and morphological modified titanium oxide layer, adherent and characterized by micropourous morphology resulted enriched by calcium, silicon, phosphorous and silver. The preliminary biological characterization showed an optimal SAOS-2 cell adhesion and proliferation. A strong antibacterial effect against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative strain has been shown. Conclusions. Considering the results obtained in the present study, we believe that the novel biomimetic antibacterial treatment represents a promising treatment capable to enhance the osteointegration and contemporaneously confer antibacterial properties to titanium for dental and orthopaedic fields.

Purpose Despite improvements in operative environment and surgical techniques, post-operative infections remain one of the most devastating complications in total joint replacement prostheses. Several efforts have been made to modify the surface of materials in order to prevent bacterial adhesion and colonization. Here, we show a one-pot electrochemical surface modification process for co-deposition of calcium phosphate and gentamicin, with the aim of triggering specific biological responses and imparting antibacterial properties on titanium alloy prostheses. Methods Gentamicin-loaded calcium phosphate coatings were deposited on Ti specimens via cathodic polarization in an electrochemical bath containing different amounts of the antibiotic salt (1–10 mg mL–1). Coatings were evaluated in terms of chemico-physical properties, via SEM/EDX, XRD, and ICP analysis, and antibacterial activity, via agar disc diffusion test on Staphylococcus aureus 8325–4 and Staphylococcus aureus SA113. Results An effective incorporation of gentamicin was achieved without any major effect on the morphology and structure. Morphology resulted in a typical plate-like brushite structure, confirmed by chemical composition and crystallographic structure. Gentamicin-loaded coatings showed an antibacterial efficacy on both staphlococcal strains, with a dose-dependent activity. Conclusions Electrochemical technology can be advantageously exploited in order to obtain coatings for bone-contact prostheses with tailored antibacterial properties.

Summary We have mapped the cap site of the human plasminogen mRNA by primer extension and PCR techniques and found that it is located at position −161 relative to the first ATG, 97 bases upstream to the 5′ end of the previously isolated cDNA clone. Seven human hepatic and non hepatic cell lines and fresh liver cells were tested for human plasminogen mRNA expression: the liver and the liver derived HepG2 cell line represent the major site of plaminogen RNA synthesis while the other cell lines (Hep3B, HeLa, IMR, 293 Caco and SW626) show much lower levels.

The recently launched and upcoming hyperspectral satellite missions, featuring contiguous visible-to-shortwave infrared spectral information, are opening unprecedented opportunities for the retrieval of a broad set of vegetation traits with enhanced accuracy through novel retrieval schemes. In this framework, we exploited hyperspectral data cubes collected by the new-generation PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa (PRISMA) satellite of the Italian Space Agency to develop and test a hybrid retrieval workflow for crop trait mapping. Crop traits were mapped over an agricultural area in north-east Italy (Jolanda di Savoia, FE) using PRISMA images collected during the 2020 and 2021 vegetative seasons. Leaf chlorophyll content, leaf nitrogen content, leaf water content and the corresponding canopy level traits scaled through leaf area index were estimated using a hybrid retrieval scheme based on PROSAIL-PRO radiative transfer simulations coupled with a Gaussian processes regression algorithm. Active learning algorithms were used to optimise the initial set of simulated data by extracting only the most informative samples. The accuracy of the proposed retrieval scheme was evaluated against a broad ground dataset collected in 2020 in correspondence of three PRISMA overpasses. The results obtained were positive for all the investigated variables. At the leaf level, the highest accuracy was obtained for leaf nitrogen content (LNC: r(2)=0.87, nRMSE=7.5%), while slightly worse results were achieved for leaf chlorophyll content (LCC: r(2)=0.67, nRMSE=11.7%) and leaf water content (LWC: r(2)=0.63, nRMSE=17.1%). At the canopy level, a significantly higher accuracy was observed for nitrogen content (CNC: r(2)=0.92, nRMSE=5.5%) and chlorophyll content (CCC: r(2)=0.82, nRMSE=10.2%), whereas comparable results were obtained for water content (CWC: r(2)=0.61, nRMSE=16%). The developed models were additionally tested against an independent dataset collected in 2021 to evaluate their robustness and exportability. The results obtained (i. e., LCC: r(2)=0.62, nRMSE=27.9%; LNC: r(2)=0.35, nRMSE=28.4%; LWC: r(2)=0.74, nRMSE=20.4%; LAI: r(2)=0.84, nRMSE=14.5%; CCC: r(2)=0.79, nRMSE=18.5%; CNC: r(2)=0.62, nRMSE=23.7%; CWC: r(2)=0.92, nRMSE=16.6%) evidence the transferability of the hybrid approach optimised through active learning for most of the investigated traits. The developed models were then used to map the spatial and temporal variability of the crop traits from the PRISMA images. The high accuracy and consistency of the results demonstrates the potential of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy for crop monitoring, paving the path towards routine retrievals of multiple crop traits over large areas that could drive more effective and sustainable agricultural practices worldwide.