La tesi presenta l’analisi relazionale di una Organizzazione di Terzo settore. La ricerca, di stampo qualitativo, si è posta nell’ottica di proseguire nell’approfondimento teorico-metodologico dell’approccio relazionale al Lavoro sociale di rete. Il caso studiato è rappresentato dai Centri di Ascolto di Caritas Ambrosiana, organizzazioni che si trovano in prima linea nel fronteggiamento dei problemi sociali e comunitari. Finalità della ricerca è stata comprendere in che modo le strategie organizzative possono promuovere, o meno, l’adozione di un approccio relazionale al lavoro sociale da parte dei propri operatori impegnati sul campo. Le Organizzazioni di Welfare esprimono relazionalità nella misura in cui i loro attori sono orientati reciprocamente e nei confronti dei destinatari dei loro interventi. L’analisi è stata condotta a tre livelli di definizione delle policy, management e fieldwork, a partire da alcune definizioni di organizzazione che ne mettono in luce i fattori costitutivi quali finalità, personale, strumenti e processi operativi. Per ciascuno di questi fattori organizzativi si sono verificate le dimensioni di relazionalità presenti sia nei contenuti, sia nei processi di definizione degli stessi. Gi studi teorico-metodologici sul lavoro sociale di rete (Folgheraiter 1998; 2007) hanno fornito i riferimenti scientifici per condurre tale analisi relazionale dell’organizzazione dei Centri di Ascolto. / The thesis is a relational analysis of a non-profit organization. The qualitative research has the aim to continue the study of the theoretical and methodological approach of the relational social work. The case study is represented by Counseling Centres of Caritas Ambrosiana (Milan), that are organizations in frontline to cope with the social and community problems. The purpose of the research was to understand how organizational strategies facilitate the practitioners to work in a relational way. The analysis was conducted at three levels: policy making, management and fieldwork. The analysis starts from some definitions of organization that highlight the elements constituting the organizations such as purpose, staff, tools and processes. For each of these organizational elements, the researcher has studied the characteristics of relationality in the content and in the processes for their definition. The theoretical and methodological studies of relational social work (Folgheraiter 1998, 2007) have provided the scientific references to conduct that relational analysis of these organizations.

Esta tesis consiste en la aplicación de la electroforesis capilar (CE) a la separación y cuantificación de especies cianuradas y al estudio del comportamiento de estas especies y de su destino final. Como material de estudio se han seleccionado distintos procesos industriales (lixiviación de minerales y arenas auriferas, disoluciones de proceso en industrias de recubrimientos electrolíticos, lixiviación intensiva en autoclave de convertidores de automóvil) donde los cianuros tienen aplicación. En la primera parte de la tesis se ha realizado un estudio detallado de las características de la técnica CE, y posteriormente se ha optimizado una metodología para aplicarla a los distintos problemas que se recogen en el resto de la memoria. La segunda parte de la tesis se ha dedicado a la aplicación de la ce al estudio de la lixiviación con NaCN de los metales preciosos y estratégicos presentes en minerales auriferos (Au, Ag) y en convertidores de automóviles (PT, PD, RH), obteniendo finalmente un método analítico capaz de ser utilizado para el seguimiento de este tipo de procesos. En la tercera parte de la tesis se ha realizado la determinación del cianuro libre, del débilmente ligado y del total en aguas procedentes de la industria de los recubrimientos electrolíticos y en disoluciones de cianuros oxidadas con hipoclorito, que es el método mas extendido para tratar las aguas industriales. Para analizar estas formas de cianuros, se han planteado dos soluciones, basadas en la detección indirecta y en la derivatización.La problemática de la detección del cianuro libre (CN- y HCN (aq)) y de especies relacionadas (CNO-, SCN-, NO3, CI-, SO42- y CIO-) resuelto con la utilización de la fluorescencia indirecta con un detector prototipo con fuente láser.La determinación de cianuros en muestras reales de disoluciones de recubrimientos electrolíticos se ha conseguido mediante su derivatizacion a NI(CN)42- utilizando una disolución de NI(II)-NH3.

This thesis is concerned with the study of nonstandard models in measure theory and in functional analysis. In measure theory, we define elementary numerosities, that are additive measures that take on values in a non-archimedean field and for which the measure of every singleton is 1. We have shown that, by taking the ratio with a suitable unit of measurement, from a numerosity it can be defined a non-atomic real-valued measure, and that every non-atomic measure can be obtained from a numerosity by this procedure. We then used numerosities to develop a model for the probability of infinite sequences of coin tosses coherent with the original ideas of Laplace. In functional analysis, we introduce a space of functions of nonstandard analysis with a formally finite domain, that extends both the space of distributions and the space of Young measures. Among the applications of this space of functions, we develop a continuous-in-time, discrete-in-space nonstandard formulation for a class of ill-posed forward-backward parabolic equations, and on the study of the regularity and asymptotic behaviour of its nonstandard solutions. This approach proved to be a viable alternative to the study of the vanishing viscosity limit of the solution of a pseudoparabolic regularization of the original problem.

This thesis summarizes my work in systems biology as a PhD student at The Microsoft Research - University of Trento Centre for Computational and Systems Biology (COSBI) and at the University of Trento, department of Mathematics. Systems biology is an interdisciplinary field that aims at integrating biology with computational and mathematical methods to gain a better understanding of biological phenomena [5, 6]. Among these methods, mathematical and dy- namical modeling have driven the discovery of mechanistic insights from the static representations of phenomena, that is, data. As a result, mathematical and dynamical models have now become standard tools to support new discoveries in biology and in public health issues. For example, models assist governments in determining the policies to contain the spreading of the diseases and in decisions such as vaccine purchases [7]. Similarly, complex and accurate models of the cardio-vascular systems guide surgeons during many procedures on pa- tients [8]. Furthermore, dynamical models of signaling cascades help researchers in identifying new potential drug targets and therapies for many diseases [9]. We used these modeling techniques to address biological questions related to diabetes and insulin resistance. Within this framework, this thesis contains two articles I contributed to, that focus on diabetes. These works are published in the journal of Nature Scientific Reports and are included in Chapters 3 and 4. A significant contribution to the development of these models, and models in general, is given by optimization. Optimization is often used in modeling to determine certain unknown values or factors in a way that allow the model to optimally reproduce the experimental data. Moreover, the parameters of a model that correctly describe the undergoing dynamics may be used as diagnostic tools [10–13]. To this end, this thesis contains a methodological appendix that includes a review of optimization algorithms that has been submitted to the journal of Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, special topic Optimization. The content of this article is reported in Appendix A.

The last decade has seen an increasing interest in bio-mathematical modelling and scientific computing, resulting in new applications to relevant physiological phenomena and to a better understanding of the origin of various diseases. A topic of great interest to several degenerative diseases is filtration across microvessel walls. The role of the microvessel wall is to let oxygen and nutrients contained in the blood stream to reach the interstitium, and ultimately the surrounding cells, while blocking macromolecules. An understanding of these processes is important in preventing and curing neuro-degenerative diseases, as well as for exploring possible mechanisms to make drug delivery more efficient. This work presents a one-dimensional, time dependent mathematical model describing transport of blood plasma and macromolecules across blood vessel walls. The model takes into account the heterogeneous microvessel wall composition, in order to accurately describe trans-vascular flow. This results in a multi-layered domain, accounting for variable physical properties across the layers forming the micro-vascular wall. In particular, the glycocalyx and endothelium, accounted for in many biological studies, are represented in our model. This micro-structural, yet simplified description of the vascular wall, allows us to simulate the effect of glycocalyx damage and of other pathologies, such as hypertension, hemorrhage and hypovolemia, both in steady and time-dependent states. Due to the simplicity, and thus efficiency of the proposed model, simulations are fast and provide results which are in line with published experimental studies. Furthermore, the simulation tool may be useful for practical applications in physiological and medical studies, by evaluating the possible consequences of pathological conditions.

This thesis addresses two problems from the theory of periodic homogenization and the related notion of two-scale convergence. Its main focus rests on the derivation of equivalent transmission conditions for the interaction of two adjacent bodies which are connected by a thin layer of interface material being perforated by identically shaped voids. Herein, the voids recur periodically in interface direction and shall in size be of the same order as the interface thickness. Moreover, the constitutive properties of the material occupying the bodies adjacent to the interface are assumed to be described by some convex energy densities of quadratic growth. In contrast, the interface material is supposed to show extremal" constitutive behavior. More precisely

This thesis is about the development and testing of a novel two-dimensional numerical model (the GIAMT2D model) able to address the hydro-morphodynamic evolution of gravel-bed rivers. The model solves the two-dimensional hyperbolic system of partial differential equations (PDEs) arising from the shallow water-Exner model, describing free surface shallow flows over erodible bed, with suitable closure relations for bedload transport. A coupled formulation of the mathematical problem, which is needed in order to correctly handle sediment transport in Froude trans-critical flow conditions, is implemented, resulting in a non-conservative hyperbolic problem, which requires the adoption of a path-conservative scheme. A drawback of the fully-coupled shallow water-Exner model is that in general the solution of the Riemann problem is not easily available, at least if complex empirical sediment transport formulae are applied, which makes the upwind approach inadequate for designing numerical approximations to the solutions. Adoption of the more general, Riemann solver-free centred approach is thus required, the drawback being that centred schemes are significantly less accurate than upwind schemes in some specific cases, namely for intermediate waves and computations at low CFL number. In GIAMT2D an original centred upwind-biased scheme (UPRICE2-C delta) is applied, recovering accuracy typical of upwind methods, still being able to include any bedload transport formula. The proposed scheme results from original studies in applied mathematics, presented in the first part of the thesis, concerning the development of upwind-biased variations of the centred FORCE scheme for the solution of hyperbolic systems of PDEs, in conservative and non-conservative form. The performance of these schemes is thoroughly assessed in a suite of tests for the shallow water equations. The GIAMT2D model embeds the UPRICE2-Cd scheme extended to second-order accuracy in the ADER framework, inserted in a robust second-order preserving splitting technique for the treatment of frictional source terms, and includes an original wetting-and-drying procedure. The model performance is checked in well-established classical test cases with fixed and movable bed. These applications highlight the capability of the model in correctly and accurately solving the equations in various cases, e.g. in computations at low local CFL number, in the solution of wet-dry fronts with fixed and movable bed and in the prediction of sediment transport in Froude trans-critical conditions. The concept of "morphodynamic benchmark" is introduced for the purpose of assessing the model performance in reproducing basic river morphodynamic processes for which established theoretical and experimental knowledge is available. Unit processes with utmost importance for gravel-bed river morphodynamics, like free and forced bar instability and the stability of channel bifurcations, are chosen for this aim. In this novel approach for assessing the model capabilities, the numerical solutions satisfactorily compare with approximate analytical morphodynamic solution and laboratory data. Having proved that the model is able to reproduce the salient features of these classical morphodynamic solutions, an original morphodynamic study is finally carried out, concerning the non-linear interaction of free and forced bars in straight channels, for which a mature analytical theory is not available at present. The numerical runs of GIAMT2D are used to validate the research hypotheses developed on the basis of existing analytical theories and satisfactorily compare with field observations.

The aim of this thesis is to propose a systematic exposition of some analytic and geometric problems arising from the study of sub-Riemannian geometry, Carnot-Carathéodory spaces and, more broadly, anisotropic metric and differential structures. We deal with four main topics. 1 Calculus of variations for local functionals depending on vector fields 2 PDEs over Carnot-Carathéodory structures. 3 Regularity theory for almost perimeter minimizers in Carnot groups. 4 Geometry of hypersurfaces in Heisenberg groups.

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My intentions with this work are to clarify the author's the main characters' and the reader's role in and outside a poem and also to explain what a semiotic analysis consists in. Furthermore, I will perform such an anylis on the chapter Vedremo domenica in Milo De Angelis poetry collection Tema dell'addio. I will also discuss difficulties I have met in the course of translating the poems. Finally, I want to stress the importance of translating.