Unibo Edition 2022
Sara Morselli - 1st Finalist
Sara Morselli is a PhD fellow in Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences. The title of her thesis is: "Pre-Pregnancy Diet and Vaginal Environment in Caucasian Pregnant Women.” Her project studies how vaginal microflora plays a key role in the health of both pregnant women and newborns. In a “normal” pregnancy, women have a high number of “good” vaginal bacteria called lactobacilli. Some bacteria are associated with a pathological status called “vaginosis”, that can lead to pregnancy complications, like miscarriages or preterm births. The composition of the vaginal ecosystem can vary in response to several factors. In this study, she analysed 24 women at the first trimester of pregnancy, assessing whether pre-pregnancy diet can affect the vaginal bacteria composition and metabolites concentration. The study sheds light on the role of pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index and diet on the vaginal microflora during pregnancy.
Serena Moscato - 2nd Finalist
Serena Moscato is a PhD student in Health and Technologies. The title of her thesis is “Wearable Sensors and AI To Automatically Assess Pain.” Those who cannot use their voice are forced to suffer in silence, and their pain may not be treated adequately. Nevertheless, the human body produces evident signs of pain: the heart changes its pace, sweat increases, the way we move is altered. Today wearable sensors can continuously record our physiological state, and artificial intelligence algorithms allow the analysis of patterns that are "invisible" to the human eye. With her PhD project, she aims to create automatic systems that can "give voice" to pain.
Adam Jon Andrews - 3rd Finalist
Adam Jon Andrews is a PhD student in Cultural and Environmental Heritage. The title of his thesis is “Unlocking Ocean History with Ancient Tuna Bones.” In the last 50 years, scientific studies have documented how pollution and overfishing have resulted in dramatic losses of abundance and diversity in our marine ecosystems. His thesis addresses the issue of the lack of data or how abundant and complex populations and habitats were in historical periods for one key species, the Atlantic bluefin tuna. He aims to reveal how abundant tuna were throughout the past 2000 years, where they used to migrate and spawn, what they used to feed on, how fast they used to grow; and how this has been impacted by anthropogenic and climatic events. It is hoped this information can guide recovery targets and plans for a more sustainable future.
Antonio Fiorentino
Antonio Fiorentino is a PhD student in Chemistry. His thesis title is “Next Generation Drug-delivery: Liposomes Responsive to Light.” This thesis is focused on designing new liposomal formulations incorporating in the membrane of the vesicles a molecule of recent discovery called DASA. Liposomes are artificial vesicles that have emerged across the pharmaceutical industry as vehicles to deliver a variety of therapeutical drugs to cells. DASA is a light-responsive molecule that can drastically change its shape when it is hit by green light. By including DASA in the membrane of liposomes, the vesicles become in turn light-responsive and the possibility to release a cargo upon a light signal is under study. If a pharmaceutical agent is also contained in the liposomes together with DASA, the disruption of the membrane caused by light should allow the release of the drug. The development and implementation of this formulation would represent a step towards the design of the next generation of liposomes responsive to light for drug delivery on command and other innovative therapies in nanomedicine.
Bethany McDonagh
Bethany McDonagh is a PhD student in Future Earth, Climate Change, and Societal Challenge. The title of the thesis is “The Effects of Tides on Vertical Mixing in the Mediterranean Sea.” Her project focuses on how modelling tides was historically challenging due to the small-scale effects of the waves they create, but the newest high-resolution ocean models are able to include tidal forcing. This creates an opportunity to improve understanding of how tides affect the Mediterranean Sea, both by interpreting model results and developing theoretical explanations for their effects. It also allows for separation of the effects of tides from other small-scale features in the Mediterranean such as wind-waves and other types of vertical mixing.
Bruno Sartini
Bruno Sartini is a PhD student in Literary and Philological Cultures. The title of his thesis is: “Automatic Study of Symbols in Cultural Heritage.” This PhD project aims to use artificial intelligence to automatically study symbolic relationships between cultural heritage objects. The combination between the entities that are found in cultural heritage objects and the symbolic meaning of those entities is used to automatically interpret those objects according to different cultural contexts. Because of the automatic matching, a huge size of cultural heritage objects can be analysed swiftly. After this matching, in the final stage of the PhD, a comparative, automatic, symbolic analysis of cultural heritage objects will be performed, and conclusions will be drawn on it.
Chiara Capolungo
Chiara Capolungo is a PhD student in Nanoscience for Medicine and the Environment. The title of her thesis is: “New Luminescent Probes for Micro- and Nanoplastics Detection.” Her project focuses on the detection of the most dangerous forms of plastic pollution, micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs), that are fragments below 5 mm. Their elimination is extremely difficult, but the first challenge is their detection since existing protocols are inadequate for microplastics and mostly absent for nanoplastics. Luminescence could represent a possible solution for these problems, since it allows the detection of MNPs through fast, easy, cheap, and precise methods.
Dhrubojyoti Sengupta
Dhrubojyoti Sengupta is a PhD student in Astrophysics. The title of his thesis is: “Discovering the Mysterious Sources of Cosmic X-Rays.” His PhD project examines Cosmic X-Ray Background (CXB) Radiation. From deep surveys using X-Ray telescopes astrophysics estimated that about 80% of these X-Rays might come from a very special type of galaxy, called Active Galaxy because of the presence of bright central regions associated with producing radiations, especially strong X-Rays. A lot of studies predict that there should be a largely hidden population of these active galaxies. He studies why these active galaxies are hidden through a multi-wavelength approach from infrared to X-Ray radiation, and how they contribute to the CXB radiation.
Emiliana Piscitiello
Emiliana Piscitiello is a PhD student in Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences. The title of her thesis is “Closer to the Future: Learning how to Hibernate for Space Travel.” Her project studies how hibernation would increase a passenger's lifespan, making interplanetary spaceflights like those in Star Trek possible. To cope with harsh environmental conditions, several species put their body in stand-by and reduce fuel consumption through a decrease of metabolic rate and body temperature. They naturally enter in torpor or hibernation. Trying to emulate that, she has been successfully carrying out research to induce rats, non-hibernators like humans, into a Synthetic Torpor (ST) by pharmacologically blocking a specific brain area responsible for the maintenance of a constant body temperature.
Federico Antoniciello
Federico Antoniciello is a PhD student in Cellular and Molecular Biology. The title of his thesis is: “A New Therapeutic Approach Against Helicobacter Pylori Infection.” His project studies the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which is one of the most widespread human pathogens and class 1 carcinogen present in half of the world’s population. By infecting the stomach, H. pylori is responsible for the development of chronic gastritis that can result in peptic ulceration and gastric cancer. In his study, he investigates a new approach by targeting a specific mRNA that codes for a bacterial protein. Due to its crucial role in regulating essential processes for H. pylori, it should be possible to kill the bacterium by blocking the synthesis of this protein. This innovative approach, called antisense antimicrobial activity, has recently shown promising results with other pathogens and it may represent a great leap in the battle against the antibiotic resistance threat.
Giampaolo Cuozzo
Giampaolo Cuozzo is a PhD student in Electronics, Telecommunications, and Information Technologies Engineering. The title of his thesis is: “The Next-Generation Wireless Technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” His project studies how information and communication technologies are used to boost the efficiency, security, and revenues of industrial processes. His research activity aims to study, develop, and validate wireless solutions that allow reliable and fast communication within the factory of the future. The use of electromagnetic waves working at Terahertz frequencies can satisfy the most challenging demands by allowing ultra-fast and low-latency communication. Moreover, artificial intelligence algorithms will enrich these systems to enable unexplored applications such as predictive maintenance.
Giulia Congiu
Giulia Congiu is a PhD student in Cultural and Environmental Heritage. The title of her thesis is: “Punic Metrology Studies: Templar Architecture in the Central Mediterranean.” The objective of her work is to attempt to reconstruct the Phoenician-Punic measurement system starting from data extrapolated from the preserved architectural emergencies. The research involves the Templar buildings located overall in the central Mediterranean. While covering all the main settlements affected by Phoenician and Punic colonial flows in this geographical area, the study provides a particular focus on Sardinia. A GIS (Geographic Information System) will also be created to support a holistic reading of the data. Finally, considering the selected sites and the Romanization processes that these have undergone in different phases, a second aim is to analyse the ways of interaction between different metric systems, such as the Punic cubit and the Roman foot.
Melissa Venturi
Melissa Venturi is a PhD fellow in Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science and Technology. The title of her thesis is: “The Positive Aspects of Climate Change: Water Savings and Higher Fruit Quality.” Her study focuses on the effects of climate change such as increase of evapotranspiration requirements and the prolonged periods of water scarcity which are challenging the agricultural sector. The purpose of this PhD study is to investigate the relations among water supply and apple fruit quality, to determine the adequate water amount allowing to increase plant water use efficiency and potentially decrease fruit waste after storage. The results suggest how a sustainable irrigation approach is feasible for growers, with a decreased water use and high-quality fruit produce.
Ruben Veronesi
Ruben Veronesi is a PhD fellow in Chemistry. The title of his thesis is: “Let There be Light! – Exploiting Light to Prepare New Molecules.” In his research he investigates molecules such as anticancer drugs, antibiotics, and other fundamental drugs. Instead of relying on the use of metallic oxidants and/or heat sources which are generally environmentally unfriendly, he tries to develop new reactions that do not require these elements. He is using visible light to activate tiny amounts of selected catalyst that can absorb it and let the reaction proceed. The result is a cleaner reaction without the need to dispose of great amounts of wastes to reduce the footprint of the chemical industry, while still obtaining the molecules and drugs we need. And we can reach this goal simply employing something we are very used to: light.
Giulia Congiu
Giulia Congiu is a PhD student in Cultural and Environmental Heritage. The title of her thesis is: “Punic Metrology Studies: Templar Architecture in the Central Mediterranean.” The objective of her work is to attempt to reconstruct the Phoenician-Punic measurement system starting from data extrapolated from the preserved architectural emergencies. The research involves the Templar buildings located overall in the central Mediterranean. While covering all the main settlements affected by Phoenician and Punic colonial flows in this geographical area, the study provides a particular focus on Sardinia. A GIS (Geographic Information System) will also be created to support a holistic reading of the data. Finally, considering the selected sites and the Romanization processes that these have undergone in different phases, a second aim is to analyse the ways of interaction between different metric systems, such as the Punic cubit and the Roman foot.