MetaSystem (Italy)

This paper proposes an adaptive network fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based decision support system that can provide European policy makers with systematic guidance in allocating and prioritizing scant public resources, whilst accomplishing the best growth performance at a regional level. We do so by taking the stance of the Smart Specialization Strategies, which aim at consolidating the regional strengths and make effective and efficient use of public investment in R&D. By applying the ANFIS method, we were able to understand how - and to what extent - the competitiveness drivers promoted technological development and how the latter contributes to the economic growth of European regions. We used socio-economic, spatial, and patent-based data to train, test, and validate the models. What emerges is that an increase of R&D investments enhances the regional employment rate and the number of patents per capita; in turn, by taking into account the several combinations of specialization and diversification indicators, this leads to an increase of the regional gross domestic product (GDP).

In this paper the issue of dynamic equalization of the dc bus voltages unbalance is considered in the case of single-phase split-capacitor three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) half-bridge inverters for photovoltaic (PV) inverters. The lack of a proper equalization strategy would lead to a rapid drift of dc bus voltages, causing stability problems to the inverter output current control loop and eventually to failure of the power stage. One common solution is based on the injection of a variable dc component superimposed to reference current during each half-cycle of the grid voltage. Unfortunately even a small dc component in the output current is not tolerable and is often limited by standards. The novel proposal presented in this paper considers the injection of a 2nd harmonic current component (patent pending). The presence of a 2nd harmonic component on the grid current is tolerable as far as EMC standards limitations are satisfied, being relatively high when compared to the dc current injection constraints. The proposed equalization strategy has been implemented and tested on a commercial PV inverter. Analytical developments as well as a complete simulation and experimental investigation are presented to prove the effectiveness of the proposal.

In order to identify genomic changes associated with a resistant phenotype acquisition, we used comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) to compare a human ovarian cell line, Igrov1, and four derived subcell lines, resistant to vincristine and presenting a reversion of malignant properties. Multicolor FISH (Multiplex‐FISH and Spectral Karyotype) and conventional FISH are also used to elucidate the karyotype of parental cell line. The drug‐resistant subcell lines displayed many chromosomal abnormalities suggesting the implication of different pathways leading to a multidrug resistance phenotype. However, these cell lines shared two common rearrangements: an unbalanced translocation der(8)t(8;13)(p22;q?) and a deletion of the 11p. These chromosomal imbalances could reflected the acquisition of the chemoresistance (der(8)) or the loss of tumorigenicity properties (del(11p)). Colour figure can be viewed on http://www.esacp.org/acp/2003/25‐3/struski.htm.

Today, conventional cytogenetics (CC) is the main technique in routine genetic diagnostics for the analysis of genotype/phenotype correlations. Additionally, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has proven to be useful for the characterization of structural chromosome aberrations found in conventional cytogenetics. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) is a molecular cytogenetic FISH approach developed for the detection of genomic imbalances with cytogenetic resolution. CGH allows the genome-wide assessment of relative DNA copy number changes using extracted specimen DNA as a probe. We investigated the capacity of CGH in cases referred for conventional cytogenetic diagnostics for the detection of chromosome imbalances. Three different groups of conspicuous karyotypes after CC (intrachromosomal rearrangements, interchromosomal rearrangements, and additional marker chromosomes) in pre- and postnatal diagnostic cases were surveyed by CGH to characterize the underlying imbalances of chromosome segments. All together, we investigated more than 100 cases by CGH and validated the results with other molecular cytogenetic methods. Here we present eight of these cases in order to demonstrate our CGH based strategy to analyze chromosomal de novo rearrangements. CGH provided additional cytogenetic information to complement conventional cytogenetic investigations. Additionally, CGH refined the description of the aberrant chromosome segments allowing us to further characterize the underlying mechanisms involved.

The paper deals with research activity conducted in order to determine the impact of regenerative braking techniques adopted on-board trains operating in electrified subway systems. Even though systems adopting this technique are very diffuse worldwide, experimental results demonstrating the impact on energy consumption are rarely made available for the scientific community. The paper reports the results of an extensive experimental activity conducted on an electrified subway line in Rome, in order to estimate the energy saving due to the techniques mentioned above. Since the monitoring activity of the system demand in the absence of regenerative braking had to be limited to the traffic peak hours of only two subsequent days, an available model being able to simulate the instantaneous demand profile of DC electrified subway power systems has been used in order to extend the numerical evaluations based on the experimental activity to a whole day of operation.