Exploring Italian Wine Companies: A Study of Supply Chain Dynamics, Quality, and Promotion Strategies through Semi-Structured Interviews.

In Italy, the wine supply chain is a cornerstone of the national agri-food system and a driving force for the entire economy. The aim of this study is to map the profile of Italian wine companies through the analysis of multiple case studies. The study focuses specifically on companies in the Marche region, investigating their features and supply chain, with a specific focus on product and system certification adopted, marketing policies implemented, and the businesses' relationship with institutions.

Organizational and Supply Chain Impacts of 3D Printers Implementation in the Medical Sector.

3D printing application extends to various sectors, such as aerospace, construction, art, domestic, up to healthcare. It is in this domain that its adoption could offer technological solutions aimed at improving the individual life and guaranteeing organizational effectiveness. The aim of this study is to understand the way in which the adoption of medical 3D printers has introduced economic-business changes at the supply chain, organizational and environmental level within business processes considering the point of view of 3D printer manufacturers.

Testing the Effectiveness of the Health Belief Model in Predicting Preventive Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Romania and Italy.

We use a cultural psychology approach to examine the relevance of the Health Belief Model (HBM) for predicting a variety of behaviors that had been recommended by health officials during the initial stages of the COVID-19 lockdown for containing the spread of the virus and not overburdening the health system in Europe. Our study is grounded in the assumption that health behavior is activated based on locally relevant perceptions of threats, susceptibility and benefits in engaging in protective behavior, which requires careful attention to how these perceptions might be structured and activated. We assess the validity of the HBM in two European countries that have been relatively understudied, using simultaneous measurements during acute periods of infection in Romania and Italy.

Quantifying patterns of endocranial heat distribution: brain geometry and thermoregulation.

Objectives: The mechanisms involved in brain thermoregulation are still poorly known, and many disagreements still exist concerning the selective cooling capacity of the brain volume. This issue has also been discussed in human evolution and paleoneurology, speculating on possible changes associated with hominid encephalization. Although the vascular system is supposed to be the main component responsible for thermoregulation, brain geometry also plays an important role in the pattern of heat distribution.

Mutation-selection dynamics and error threshold in an evolutionary model for Turing machines.

We investigate the mutation-selection dynamics for an evolutionary computation model based on Turing machines. The use of Turing machines allows for very simple mechanisms of code growth and code activation/inactivation through point mutations. To any value of the point mutation probability corresponds a maximum amount of active code that can be maintained by selection and the Turing machines that reach it are said to be at the error threshold.

On the relation between the Eigen model and the asexual Wright-Fisher model.

We show that the Eigen model and the asexual Wright-Fisher model can be obtained as two different limit cases of a single stochastic model. This result is used to enlighten the mathematical similarities and differences among these two models.The two key concepts introduced with the Eigen model, the error threshold and the quasispecies, are not invalidated by these differences, so that they are naturally present also in population genetics models.

The evolution of the meningeal vascular system in the human genus: From brain shape to thermoregulation.

Objectives: The imprints of the middle meningeal vessels make it possible to analyze vascularization in fossil specimens. The association between changes in the cortical anatomy and vascular organization raises questions about the actual physiological meaning of these features, most of all when dealing with the origin of the modern human brain. Metabolism and thermoregulation may be relevant factors in influencing morphological adaptations between brain and vessels.

A stochastic version of the Eigen model.

We exhibit a stochastic discrete time model that produces the Eigen model (Naturwissenschaften 58:465-523, 1971) in the deterministic and continuous time limits. The model is based on the competition among individuals differing in terms of fecundity but with the same viability. We explicitly write down the Markov matrix of the discrete time stochastic model in the two species case and compute the master sequence concentration numerically for various values of the total population.

Evolutionary model with Turing machines.

The development of a large noncoding fraction in eukaryotic DNA and the phenomenon of the code bloat in the field of evolutionary computations show a striking similarity. This seems to suggest that (in the presence of mechanisms of code growth) the evolution of a complex code cannot be attained without maintaining a large inactive fraction. To test this hypothesis we performed computer simulations of an evolutionary toy model for Turing machines, studying the relations among fitness and coding versus noncoding ratio while varying mutation and code growth rates.

Embedded model control: application to web winding.

Embedded Model Control (EMC) methodology is applied to web-winding control problems. These require time-varying Embedded Model and adaptive control law, because of a variable winder radius; disturbance estimation and rejection, because of friction and variable web speed and acceleration; sensorless reel radius estimation; and robust stability and performance in the presence of web and gear vibrations. The goal is to solve these key issues in the framework of EMC, which amounts to (i) designing a time-varying Control Law capable of disturbance rejection, (ii) designing Noise Estimators capable of keeping live and accurate disturbance and radius estimates, and (iii) tuning their eigenvalues to guarantee stability and performance.