Il presente lavoro di ricerca analizza il fenomeno della dispersione scolastica come oggetto del policy making di stati e regioni: in particolare e in chiave comparata si analizzano le politiche di tre Stati membri, Italia, Francia e Spagna e di due regioni per ognuno di essi, la Regione Lombardia, la Regione Puglia; la Région Aquitaine, la Région Rhone-Alpes, la Comunidad de Andalucía e la Comunidad de Madrid. Pur condividendo i tratti fondamentali del sistema di istruzione europeo meridionale, esse sono caratterizzate da un diverso sistema di attribuzione delle competenze legislative e amministrative in materia di istruzione ed un differente grado di decentramento in relazione all’applicazione delle policy di contrasto alla dispersione scolastica, degli strumenti implementati e dei risultati raggiunti. A partire dall’analisi dei documenti europei Strategia di Lisbona ET2010 e Strategia Europa ET2020 , il presente lavoro si concentra sul secondo dei due documenti e su uno dei cinque obiettivi indicati, ovvero la riduzione al 10% del tasso di dispersione scolastica per i giovani di età compresa tra i 18 e i 24 anni. Si fa riferimento al periodo di tempo compreso tra l’anno scolastico 2008-2009 e il 2015-2016, ovvero tra la fine della Strategia di Lisbona, rilanciata a seguito della grave crisi del 2008 per il triennio 2008-2010, la nuova fase decennale delle politiche comunitarie avviata con la Strategia Europa 2020, gli ultimi due cicli di programmazione comunitaria, mediante i fondi strutturali 2007-2013 e 2014-2020 e il biennio 2013-2015, quando i tre Stati considerati avviano, sia pur in modo molto diverso delle riforme del sistema scolastico. / The present work analyses the phenomenon of school dropout and the policy making of states and regions: particularly and in a comparative key, the policies of three Member States, Italy, France and Spain, involved with different reforms of the school system, and two regions for each of them, Lombardy Region, Puglia Region; Aquitaine Region, Rhone-Alpes Region, Andalucia Region and Region of Madrid. Starting from the analysis of European documents ET2010 Lisbon Strategy and ET2020 Europe Strategy, this work focuses on the second of the two documents and one of the five objectives indicated, especially the 10% reduction in the school dropout rate for young people aged between 18 and 24 years. Reference is made to the time period between the academic year 2008-2009 and 2015-2016, between the end of the Lisbon Strategy, the new ten-year phase of the Community policies launched with the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Loss of vascular function associated with cardiovascular disease, such as arthrosclerosis, represents the leading medical epidemic in the United States and typically requires surgical intervention through synthetic or autologous vascular grafts. To overcome the limitations associated with adult cell sources, which are often restricted by supply or compromised by disease, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as potential candidates for vascular tissue engineering. While evidence suggests the roles of several factors influencing MSC differentiation into vascular phenotypes, including matrix rigidity, geometry and chemistry, the phenomena associated with these events are still largely unknown. Further, the development of mature vascular phenotypes, such as vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs), with functional behavior remains elusive to the research community. This thesis proposed to engineer and direct specific and mature vascular differentiation from MSCs by way of highly tailored matrices mimicking the vascular niche environment. Taking inspiration from natural organization, we contend that a biomimetic design approach to tissue scaffolds that display features of the natural cellular microenvironment whilst mimicking the bulk tissue properties may elicit highly specific differentiation of MSCs to vascular phenotypes. To validate our hypothesis, we employed a systemic approach incorporating physical and chemical microenvironmental cues, i.e. stiffness, biological ligands and chemical factors, with the aim to augment vascular phenotype expression, functionality, and final incorporation into a tailored biomaterial scaffolds. First, we present a novel technique for the preparation of silk hydrogels directly from high pressure CO2 environments without the need for crosslinking agents or additional additives such as surfactants or co-solvents. Through this novel method, we demonstrate the utility of CO2 as a volatile electrolyte, capable of sufficiently influencing the sol-gel transition of silk proteins, resulting in the formation of stable hydrogels with properties suitable for biomedical applications. Second, we hypothesized that suitable soluble factor regimen and matrix rigidity can instruct MSC differentiation towards more mature, functional vSMCs. To address this, we investigated cellular differentiation on tunable SF hydrogels prepared using a solvent-free CO2 processing method. The focus of this portion of the thesis is on exploiting the combined use of substrate stiffness and growth factor (TGF- β1) on SF matrices, with the aim of correlating the effects on the vascular commitment of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Our data reveal that hMSC differentiation into mature SMCs can be achieved within modest culture periods (72 h) by combining appropriate SF hydrogel stiffness (33 kPa) with growth factor (TGF-β1). These findings advance our understanding of how complex multicomponent biomaterials, whereby mimicking the intricacy of natural tissue environments, can play a significant role in developing optimal stem cell differentiation protocols. Third, we postulated that the presentation of ECM proteins on 3D matrices with tunable stiffness will augment the differentiation of MSCs to vascular lineages. To address this, we established a high-throughput ECM platform based on soft, fibrous PEG hydrogels meanwhile highly-tunable in stiffness and 3-dimensional geometry. Using this technique, we identified several microenvironments supporting MSC adhesion, spreading and differentiation toward early vascular lineages. This portion of the thesis supports the hypothesis that a complex milieu exists coupling protein functional behavior with substrate rigidity and that this phenomenon may potentially be exploited through proper application of high-throughput screening methodologies. In the final work of this thesis, we explored the integration of ECM-derived small engineered peptides with 3D soft matrices to refine the differentiation of MSCs to vascular phenotypes, and further successfully recapitulate the complex vascular niche necessary for specific and efficient MSC differentiation into vascular lineages. In line with this, we report the development of a microarray platform based on electrospun nanofibrous hydrogels of photoclickable thiol-ene poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels. Here, we demonstrate the ability to control primary cell adhesion to soft, fibrous hydrogels functionalized with RGD peptide. However, future work will be focused on designing combinatorial peptide studies, whereby, the integration of several biological ligands of interest with tunable physical properties can instruct stem cell differentiation in a highly specific manner. This thesis has provided fundamental insights into the effects of physiological stimuli on vascular differentiation of MSC in terms of the specificity and maturity of the final differentiated cells. Better understanding of such mechanisms will prove paramount in the sequential stages of MSC differentiation to mature vascular cells. Additionally, the findings of this thesis will help to better define the process of regenerating functional healthy vascular tissue from MSCs. Altogether, a combinatorial approach investigating the effects of matrix elasticity, biological ligands and growth factors on MSC differentiation in a 3D nanofiber culture will be critical towards understanding and recapitulating MSC differentiation in the in vivo vascular environment.

The Mechanistic Theory of Human Cognition (MTHC) is currently one of the most influential fundamental theories in the field of cognitive science. The main idea is to provide an account of what human neuro-cognitive complex mechanisms are and how to explain them. The theory proposes an ambitious revolutionary unified view of human cognition that can provide foundations and theoretical unification within cognitive science and between cognitive science and relevant portions of neuroscience. However, this proposal faces many challenges. The central objective of this work is to make a theoretical critical appraisal of MTHC. I critically analyse and evaluate whether MTHC provides a unifying account of human cognition and its explanation for cognitive science. I argue that MTHC provides a significant theoretical contribution for the field; however, it cannot offer the ambitious revolutionary integration that some of its most influential advocates promise.

Scientific discourse, as the basic unit of dissemination and exploitation of research results, has steadily enhanced their accessibility and reusability in response to the advancement of web technologies. A highly semantic enriched publication always makes its information and data much easier to search, navigate, disseminate and reuse, whereas most online articles today are still electronic facsimiles of linear structured papers, with shallow metadata descriptions, lacking in semantic knowledge and interlinked relationships between elementary modules of content. In this dissertation, we propose a Scientific Knowledge Objects (SKO) framework in terms of a theory of structural knowledge- SKO Types, a methodology for scientific discourse representation- SKO Patterns, a tool for semantic authoring and annotation- SKO TeX, and an application of SKO management- the Conference of the Future, in the context of the emerging Social Web and Semantic Web.

Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are an important class of materials, currently employed in the design and realization of electrically-driven, highly deformable actuators and devices, which find application in several fields of technology and engineering, including aerospace, biomedical and mechanical engineering. Subject to a voltage, a membrane of a soft dielectric elastomer coated by compliant electrodes reduces its thickness and expands its area, possibly deforming in-plane well beyond 100%: this principle is exploited to conceive transducers for a broad range of applications, including soft robots, adaptive optics, Braille displays and energy harvesters. Soft dielectrics undergo finite strains, and their modelling requires a formulation based on the Mechanics of Solids at large deformations. A major problem that limits the widespread diffusion of such devices in everyday technology is the high voltage required to activate large strains, because of the low dielectric permittivity of typical materials (acrylic elastomers or silicones), in the order of few unities, which governs the electromechanical coupling. Composite materials (reinforcing a soft matrix with stiff and high-permittivity particles) provide a way to overcome these limitations, as suggested by some experiments. In addition, composites can display failure modes and instabilities not displayed by homogeneous specimens that must be thoroughly investigated. Commonly, instability phenomena are seen as a serious drawback, that should be predicted and avoided. However, in some cases they can be used to activate snap-through actuation, as in the case of buckling-like or highly-deformable balloon-like actuators. Soft dielectric elastomers display electrostrictive properties (permittivity depending on the deformation) and we show how to take into account such a phenomenon within the theory of electroelasticity. Original results regard the investigation of diffuse modes (buckling like instabilities etc.), surface mode instabilities and localized modes. New (analytical) solutions for band-localization instability are provided and then it has been investigated how such instabilities are related to electrostriction. Regarding DE composites, the goal is to evaluate in detail the behaviour of two-phase rank-1 laminates in terms of different types of actuation, geometric and mechanical properties of phases, applied boundary conditions, and instabilities phenomena, in order to establish precise ranges in which the performance enhancement is effective with respect to the homogeneous counterpart.

Establishment of the independent Republic of Armenia in 1991 has been a turning point in the Armenian history; except for the existence of an independent Armenian republic between 1918 and 1920, by the dissolution of the USSR, Armenians gained an independent state after more than six hundred years. The transition of the Soviet Armenia to an independent republic stimulated not only the radical dislocation of the established economic, political and socio-cultural structures in Armenia, but also transformed the routine in the Armenian diaspora communities. In this process, aiding the frail and infant independent Armenian republic became a paramount ethno-national cause among the diaspora communities and, by extension, one of the principal ethno-national binders, as well as a chief cause of controversies. Overall, the post-1991 era has witnessed the re-territorialization of the de-territorialized Armenian political imagination in the diaspora. This facilitated the post-1991 trans-state Armenian ethno-national re-construction along the Armenia-diaspora nexus. A parallel process to that has been the construction of the social reality of the post-1991 Armenia. This dissertation examines the construction of the Armenian ethno-national social reality of the post-1991 Armenia through the discursive social practices of the Armenian state, new generation diaspora organizations and the diasporic individuals within the communicative space formed along the Armenia-diaspora nexus. The examination demonstrates that concerns over the physical and cultural survival of the Armenian ethno-nation expressed in different ways are the main considerations that eventually result in the construction of the post-1991 Armenia as the guardian and the soil of the Armenianness. From an abstract point of view, the actual agent of discourses that speaks through the Armenian state, new generation diaspora organizations and the diasporic individuals is the “anxious Armenian” who searches stability and security, reclaims her ethno-national identity, and is concerned about the cultural survival of the Armenian ethno-nation. Besides all, she is the one who “remembers” the genocide. This “anxious Armenian”, instead, is the person that the social memory of the genocide speaks itself through. As such, genocide is not only the “defining and founding moment” of the contemporary Armenian identity, but also the “defining and founding moment” of the post-1991 Armenia.

Cell-based therapies have a relatively long tradition in modern medicine. Since the 70s surgeons tried to treat malignant and non-malignant disease with direct injection of bone marrow cells. Other cell-based therapies have been proposed after these initial achievements, but it was only in the late eighties that a new concept of therapy, based on cells, has been organically developed. In that years, R. Langer, J. and C. Vacanti proposed the combined use of cells and materials (i.e., scaffolds) to repair tissues and organs, so overcoming the several problems associated with the use of transplants. They coined the term “tissue engineering” as “an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue function or a whole organ”. The practical application of these concepts started at the Howard Green & Associates with the researches on cultured sheets of autologous epidermis transplanted to patients suffering from different types of skin lesions1. Other remarkable examples followed this initial attempt. Autologous osteoblast cells, taken from the periosteum and seeded into coral scaffolds, have been used to reconstruct the traumatically lost thumb of a patient. Occluded pulmonary arteries, replaced with a polycaprolactone-polyglycolic acid copolymers scaffold, seeded with own patient peripheral blood vessels cells, gave positive results. Similarly, isolated vascular smooth muscles and endothelial cells were used to reconstruct arteries. Another example is the attempted substitution of surgical bladder augmentation in favour of tissue engineered bladders made by collagen in which urothelial and smooth muscle cells have been seeded. The therapeutic approaches on which tissue engineering has been initially based can be divided in two major techniques: i) the use of scaffold embedded with cells that adhered and proliferated in it and ii) direct seeding of isolated cells in the injured part to promote regeneration. In more recent time, however, an new approach has been developed by a Japanese research group coordinated by prof. Okano. This has been named by him “cell sheet engineering”. The technique is based on the possibility to harvest an undamaged sheet of cells that can be directly transplanted to the injured organ and promote its recovery. Cell sheet engineering possess some advantages over the other techniques as will be clear from the next chapter. Nevertheless, it needs to be improved and, in particular, further studies are necessary to better comprehend the mechanisms by which the cell layer is harvested. This process is based on the behaviour of a “smart polymer” called poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) that is capable to trigger cells adhesion simply varying temperature. At 37 °C, cells can adhere and proliferate on substrates grafted with this peculiar polymer, but, once temperature is decreased, it modifies its structure causing cell detachment. If the cells are confluent, then a cell sheet can be harvested and, consequently, used for tissue engineering applications. The focus of the present work has been the study and characterization of smart substrates employed for cell sheet engineering. A general overview on tissue engineering and “cell sheet engineering” applications are summarized in the background (Chapter 1). The state of the art on the different substrates employed and the behaviour of smart polymer are introduced. The general introduction is concluded with the basic concepts on the synthesis route adopted (Chapter 2). The experimental section is divided in two distinct parts: 1) the first part (Chapter 3) is focused on PNIPAM. A deeper description of the characteristics and the applications for this polymer are presented in a brief introduction. Then, the synthesis and general characterization of the polymer are discussed. The smart properties of tethered PNIPAM are tested by in vitro cell cultures and cell sheets, harvested from the obtained samples, characterized. The behaviour of the outermost region of the PNIPAM-coating are deeply investigated by means of Wilhelmy plate technique. A possible model for the evolution of the observed phenomena is given. In the end, an analysis related to the influence of PNIPAM thickness is presented. In particular, the correlation between the polymer chins length and the smart behaviour is investigated by cell culture test and dynamic contact angle. 2) The second part of the of the work (Chapter 4) is dedicated to a different approach to obtain a cell sheet. In the initial section of the chapter, a possible electroactive substrate is examined as an alternative to PNIPAM. The unexpected results, however, led to a different strategy that is presented. Despite limited to a specific cell line, this method allowed for a simple cell sheet harvesting that is described. A possible application is proposed and the characterization of the substrates used for this approach are exposed. Finally, the biological response and the cell sheets obtained by this method are studied.

The topic of this thesis lies in the intersection between proof theory and algebraic logic. The main object of discussion, constructive reasoning, was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by Brouwer, who followed Kant’s explanation of human intuition of spacial forms and time points: these are constructed step by step in a finite process by certain rules, mimicking constructions with straightedge and compass and the construction of natural numbers, respectively. The aim of the present thesis is to show how classical reasoning, which admits some forms of indirect reasoning, can be made more constructive. The central tool that we are using are induction principles, methods that capture infinite collections of objects by considering their process of generation instead of the whole class. We start by studying the interplay between certain structures that satisfy induction and the calculi for some non-classical logics. We then use inductive methods to prove a few conservation theorems, which contribute to answering the question of which parts of classical logic and mathematics can be made constructive.

Understanding how political parties and social movements interact and what are the results of these interactions is important for both scholars of Political Science and Sociology. This is particularly true for far-right actors since they are characterised by diverse ideological and organisational features. Understanding how parties and movements interact can help shed light on how these features develop and, ultimately, explain their success. In the dissertation a novel conceptualisation of party-movement interactions is presented, as well as a theory that aims to explain when parties and movements are more likely to develop stronger interactions on three different dimensions, frames, actions and organisations. This theory is tested by looking at two sets of far-right parties and movements, Lega Nord and CasaPound Italia in Italy and the United Kingdom Independence Party and the English Defence League in the United Kingdom. The analysis is carried out through a Political Claim Analysis and a document analysis of parties and movements documents for the period 2009-2019. The analysis finds that parties and movements have closer interactions on the frame dimension when issues they own gain prominence in the public debate and when political parties are weak electorally. In the actions dimension, interactions tend to be closer when parties are weak electorally and movement organisations moderate their repertoire of actions. Finally, in the organisational dimension, relations are closer when parties are weak electorally and in proximity of electoral campaigns. This research makes two contributions to the study of far-right parties and movements. The first is theoretical, for the paper advances a new theory of party-movement interactions that could be tested in different scenarios. The second is empirical, for the paper provides indications on when parties and movements are more likely to have closer interactions and how through these interactions they change and develop their features.

Recent experimental results have suggested important direct implications of viscoelasticity of human cells and cell cytoskeleton dynamics on some relevant collective and at single-cell behaviors such as migration, adhesion, and morphogenesis. Other experimental studies have been performed on individual cancer and healthy cells of different types, demonstrating that the former were about 70% softer than the latter. In this thesis with the aim of characterizing — and gaining insights into — the frequency response of single-cell systems to mechanical stimuli (typically LITUS), a generalized viscoelastic paradigm which combines classical and spring-pot based (fractional derivative) models is presented. Than the modelling has been enriched considering the non-linear effect of the prestress, induced in protein filaments during cell adhesion and in the cell membrane (with a simple multiscale scheme that incorporates finite elasticity and a 3-D circus tent-like model), on the overall cell stiffness and finally determining its influence on the in-frequency response of the cell. The theoretical results have shown that the differences in stiffness — at least in principle — allow us to mechanically discriminate between tumor and normal cells: the critical frequencies associated with oscillation magnitude peaks (from tens to hundreds of kilohertz) could be helpfully utilized for targeting or ad hoc altering the functions of cancer cells. An experimental validation of the theoretical results is an ongoing work and the preparation of the experimental setup is also presented. In this thesis some first models have been presented to replicate in-vivo collective behavior of cells. Coherent angular rotation of epithelial cells has been reproduced by a cell-centered based mechanical model in which units are polarized, motile, and interact with the neighboring cells via harmonic forces. Starting from this model a continuum non-linear viscoelastic model incorporating the dynamics of liquid crystals has been studied and some preliminary numerical simulations have been performed.