http://elea.unisa.it/xmlui/handle/10556/1423 2026-04-20T11:31:54Z 2026-04-20T11:31:54Z Romanelli, Antonio Massimiliano http://elea.unisa.it/xmlui/handle/10556/7327 2025-04-30T17:43:30Z 2023-06-06T00:00:00Z

Biological effects of synthetic compounds and bioactive molecules in human cell models Romanelli, Antonio Massimiliano During the course of my Ph.D., I focused my studies on two main topics: the cytotoxic effects induced by 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) and 4-octylphenol (4-OP) and the anti-cancer properties of natural cardenolides extracted from the aerial parts of the plant Pergularia tomentosa. For both topics, human cell cultures were used as a suitable study model. 4-NP and 4-OP are widely distributed environmental pollutants in different compartments such as water, soils and sediments. They are mainly derived from the degradation of polyethoxylated alkylphenols, which due to their chemical characteristics are widely used in many industrial applications. Humans are continuously exposed to these substances mainly through ingestion of contaminated water and food, but also through inhalation and dermal absorption. After their introduction into the human body, they accumulate in various organs and biological fluids, particularly in the liver and intestine. They can act as endocrine disrupting chemicals and exert toxic and harmful effects on many organs and tissues. Therefore, my aim was to understand the molecular and biochemical mechanisms by which they induce cytotoxicity in human cell lines. The results of my research revealed that alkylphenols (APs) profoundly alter human cell physiology by inducing viability reduction linked to a cell cycle arrest and to the triggering of apoptosis. Moreover, they are responsible for inducing organelles stress conditions and damage, such as ER-stress, altered calcium homeostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and induction of autophagic flux. The natural compounds, investigated in my research, have been extracted, from the first time, from the leaves of P. tomentosa, a member of the Asclepiadaceae family. They belong to the group of cardiac glycosides. Structurally, they have a steroid nucleus, a glycosidic portion and a lactone ring. However, cardenolides extracted from P. tomentosa have peculiar structural features, i.e. transfused A/B rings and sugar moiety linked by a double bond, generating the dioxanoid attachment. Precisely, the compounds under investigation are calactin, calotropin and their derivatives. Over time, it has been shown that cardiac glycosides, in addition to their classic cardiotonic action, are able to exert effects that counteract cancer cells. Therefore, my aim, here, was to understand the molecular mechanisms by which these compounds exerted their anti-cancer action. I realized, firstly, that the compounds are not selective for tumour cells, however, calactin strongly reduces the viability of HepG2 tumour cells on which, consequently, I decided to focus my attention. I showed that P. tomentosa compounds reduced the viability, proliferation and migration of cancer cells. Furthermore, they were able to trigger autophagy and apoptosis in the same cell line. In light of these results, they represent good candidates for developing anti-cancer drugs or adjuvants to current therapies. In conclusion, by using the same in vitro models represented by human cell cultures, and similar methodological approaches, I obtained findings useful to elucidate the biochemical and molecular mechanisms by which APs induced cytotoxicity and those underlying the anti-tumour properties of P. tomentosa compounds. [edited by Author] 2021 - 2022

2023-06-06T00:00:00Z Landi, Alba http://elea.unisa.it/xmlui/handle/10556/2175 2025-04-30T14:58:06Z 2016-04-15T00:00:00Z

Candlestick Analysis e Sistemi di Decision. Making in Behavioural Financial Computing Landi, Alba This work was created and developed to formulating a complementary methodology to Homo Oeconomicus, infact we to a rational economic operator who founded His work on concepts such as optimization, strategy and technical analysis, we propose an operator psychologically involved that is conditioned by emotions and affections such as: fear, stress, anxiety, greed etc. It is undisputed that in the financial markets some euphoria phenomena, mass psychosis, explosions of exaltation and collective hysteria generate high volatility in the system. In order to analyze the emotional aspects that typically characterize the economic operator is established and developed the Behavioural Financeas as a methodological approach which is opposed to the theories that recognize in the technical analysis the most important method for the pricing evaluation market. The intent is to formulate a descriptive model that takes into account the emotional and affective component and the impact that they exercise for a correct interpretation of the currency markets (Forex) and of the decision making process. This work forms part of the methodologies and mathematical and computer technologies in the trading support, proposing a method to make the Candlestick Analysis automatically thanks to an engine or a computational engine specially developed for the pattern recognition and it defines a methodology for the identification and quantification of emotions and affectivity in a trader. The ultimate goal of the work is to provide a possible decision support system in trading activity. [edited by Author] 2013 - 2014

2016-04-15T00:00:00Z Amorosia, Antonino http://elea.unisa.it/xmlui/handle/10556/2135 2025-04-30T14:53:41Z 2016-04-08T00:00:00Z

Metodi della complessità e algoritmi per il decision making nel contesto del trading finanziario Amorosia, Antonino This work is related to decision support systems research field, specifically to their evolution in Auto-mated Decision Systems for financial computing. This choice is the result of the many environmental variables that the solution must evaluate in order to allow the decision maker to implement its trading strategies. Furthermore, in order to remove the human component and to automate specific high frequency tra-ding techniques, has been created automated solutions that are able to acquire data from environment, identify and analyze all possible trading strategies based on the system state and finally execute them according to the decision maker constraints... [edited by Author] 2013 - 2014

2016-04-08T00:00:00Z Narducci, Fabio http://elea.unisa.it/xmlui/handle/10556/1948 2025-04-30T14:30:27Z 2015-04-22T00:00:00Z

Computer vision methods applied to person tracking and identification Narducci, Fabio Computer vision methods for tracking and identification of people in constrained and unconstrained environments have been widely explored in the last decades. De- spite of the active research on these topics, they are still open problems for which standards and/or common guidelines have not been defined yet. Application fields of computer vision-based tracking systems are almost infinite. Nowadays, the Aug- mented Reality is a very active field of the research that can benefit from vision-based user’s tracking to work. Being defined as the fusion of real with virtual worlds, the success of an augmented reality application is completely dependant on the efficiency of the exploited tracking method. This work of thesis covers the issues related to tracking systems in augmented reality applications proposing a comprehensive and adaptable framework for marker-based tracking and a deep formal analysis. The provided analysis makes possible to objectively assess and quantify the advantages of using augmented reality principles in heterogeneous operative contexts. Two case studies have been considered, that are the support to maintenance in an industrial environment and to electrocardiography in a typical telemedicine scenario. Advan- tages and drawback are provided as well as future directions of the proposed study. The second topic covered in this thesis relates to the vision-based tracking solution for unconstrained outdoor environments. In video surveillance domain, a tracker is asked to handle variations in illumination, cope with appearance changes of the tracked objects and, possibly, predict motion to better anticipate future positions. ... [edited by Author] 2013 - 2014

2015-04-22T00:00:00Z