Ricerc@Sapienza

Low-cost and reliable methods for monitoring the size of the ablation zone during microwave thermal ablation (MTA) are crucial in the oncological clinical practice. The aim of this work is to test the performance of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) for the real-time monitoring of the ablation area where relevant temperature increases occur. In this work, two experimental studies were performed with a 16-electrode EIT system using a liver-mimicking agar phantom. First, an EIT system was tested to monitor the cooling of the phantom from an initial temperature of about 72°C.

Invasion of alien plant species (IAS) represents a serious environmental problem, particularly in Europe, where it mainly pertains to urban areas. Seed germination traits contribute to clarification of invasion dynamics. The objective of this research was to analyze how different light conditions (i.e., 12-hr light/12-hr darkness and continuous darkness) and temperature regimes (i.e., 15/6°C, 20/10°C and 30/20°C) trigger seed germination of Ailanthus altissima (AA), Phytolacca americana (PA) and Robinia pseudoacacia (RP).

The remarkable flexural properties of sandwich structures hinge on the selection of performing core materials with suitable out of plane mechanical properties, i.e. compressive ones. For this reason, this work compares the compressive behaviour of a synthetic foam (polyvinyl chloride) and an environmentally friendly agglomerated cork as a function of density, strain rate, temperature and anisotropy.