Ca' Foscari University of Venice

Optoelectronic devices that emit into the near infrared (NIR) region are appealing technologies with applications in optical communication and as disposable, lightweight and cheaper photodynamic biomedical devices. The development of efficient devices is currently hampered by the lack of suitable NIR‐emissive materials. Achieving this goal is even more challenging when the use of non‐toxic, earth‐abundant metal complexes as electroactive materials is targeted. Herein, an enlarge family of binuclear Cu(I) emitters (D1–D4) bearing the bridging thiazolo[5,4‐d]thiazole scaffold is described along with their mononuclear counterparts (M3–M4), which are synthetized and characterized comprehensively by a combination of chemical, spectroscopical, electrochemical and computational techniques. By means of an efficient dinuclearisation strategy in combination with the selective tuning of the π‐accepting feature of the lateral N‐heterocyclic rings enabled modulation of photo‐ and electro‐luminescence spectra into the NIR‐I region. Light‐emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) fabricated by employing the binuclear copper complexes displayed electroluminescence into the deep‐red to NIR‐I region. Remarkably, derivative D2 shows the combination of λEL,max up to 782 with a spectral profile squarely falling into the NIR region, excellent carrier balance and good EL performances among all types of emissive materials used for NIR LECs.

This article reconsiders the Taiwan Strait conflict by encouraging a deeper exploration of the construction of sociopolitical imaginaries of enmity through editorial political cartoons. It does so, moreover, by emphasizing the need to attend to the triadic China–Taiwan–US relations, rather than just focusing on cross-Strait developments. Through this study, we focus on editorial political cartoons as visual schematic elements that aid in describing and explaining overarching discursive practices. We show how the political cartoons of China’s Global Times and Taiwan’s Taipei Times analysed in this article reflect the evolving dynamics and contemporary tensions in China–Taiwan–US relations. Furthermore, these cartoons underscore the importance of visual media in co-constructing conceptions of ‘friends’ and ‘foes’ that ultimately influence those very dynamics and, at least partially, aid in explaining those tensions. We reveal the existence of several parallels between the political imaginaries represented by the cartoons of both outlets, especially concerning the construction of an ‘external enemy’: the United States in Global Times and China in Taipei Times. However, notable differences also emerge, including the contrasting representation of the US role, as well as the predominant portrayal of ‘internal enemies’ and a higher degree of dehumanization in the Taiwanese outlet.

Permafrost thaw poses diverse risks to Arctic environments and livelihoods. Understanding the effects of permafrost thaw is vital for informed policymaking and adaptation efforts. Here, we present the consolidated findings of a risk analysis spanning four study regions: Longyearbyen (Svalbard, Norway), the Avannaata municipality (Greenland), the Beaufort Sea region and the Mackenzie River Delta (Canada) and the Bulunskiy District of the Sakha Republic (Russia). Local stakeholders’ and scientists’ perceptions shaped our understanding of the risks as dynamic, socionatural phenomena involving physical processes, key hazards, and societal consequences. Through an inter- and transdisciplinary risk analysis based on multidirectional knowledge exchanges and thematic network analysis, we identified five key hazards of permafrost thaw. These include infrastructure failure, disruption of mobility and supplies, decreased water quality, challenges for food security, and exposure to diseases and contaminants. The study’s novelty resides in the comparative approach spanning different disciplines, environmental and societal contexts, and the transdisciplinary synthesis considering various risk perceptions.

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked renewed attention to the risks of online misinformation, emphasizing its impact on individuals’ quality of life through the spread of health-related myths and misconceptions. In this study, we analyze 6 years (2016–2021) of Italian vaccine debate across diverse social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube), encompassing all major news sources–both questionable and reliable. We first use the symbolic transfer entropy analysis of news production time-series to dynamically determine which category of sources, questionable or reliable, causally drives the agenda on vaccines. Then, leveraging deep learning models capable to accurately classify vaccine-related content based on the conveyed stance and discussed topic, respectively, we evaluate the focus on various topics by news sources promoting opposing views and compare the resulting user engagement. Our study uncovers misinformation not as a parasite of the news ecosystem that merely opposes the perspectives offered by mainstream media, but as an autonomous force capable of even overwhelming the production of vaccine-related content from the latter. While the pervasiveness of misinformation is evident in the significantly higher engagement of questionable sources compared to reliable ones (up to 11 times higher in median value), our findings underscore the need for consistent and thorough pro-vax coverage to counter this imbalance. This is especially important for sensitive topics, where the risk of misinformation spreading and potentially exacerbating negative attitudes toward vaccines is higher. While reliable sources have successfully promoted vaccine efficacy, reducing anti-vax impact, gaps in pro-vax coverage on vaccine safety led to the highest engagement with anti-vax content.

This study explores compounding impacts of climate change on power system’s load and generation, emphasising the need to integrate adaptation and mitigation strategies into investment planning. We combine existing and novel empirical evidence to model impacts on: (i) air-conditioning demand; (ii) thermal power outages; (iii) hydro-power generation shortages. Using a power dispatch and capacity expansion model, we analyse the Italian power system’s response to these climate impacts in 2030, integrating mitigation targets and optimising for cost-efficiency at an hourly resolution. We outline different meteorological scenarios to explore the impacts of both average climatic changes and the intensification of extreme weather events. We find that addressing extreme weather in power system planning will require an extra 5–8 GW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity, on top of the 50 GW of the additional solar PV capacity required by the mitigation target alone. Despite the higher initial investments, we find that the adoption of renewable technologies, especially PV, alleviates the power system’s vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather events. In fact, renewable energy sources are generally less vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns, compared to thermal power and hydropower generation. Furthermore, enhancing short-term storage with lithium-ion batteries is crucial to counterbalance the reduced availability of dispatchable hydro generation.

This study will investigate how children acquire the option to drop the subject of a sentence, or null subjects (e.g., “Tickles me” instead of “He tickles me”). In languages that do not permit null subjects, children produce sentences with null subjects from 1 to 3 years of age. This non-adultlike production has been explained by two main accounts: first, the null subject sentences may accurately reflect the children’s linguistic knowledge, that is, a competence account. Alternatively, they may result from immature processing resources, therefore underestimating children’s competence, that is, a performance account. We will test the predictions of these accounts by using a central fixation preference procedure and elicited imitation to measure children’s comprehension and production, respectively, in monolingual 19- to 28-month-olds acquiring English (a non-null subject language) and Italian (a null subject language). The results will shed light on acquisition across languages, and the features that provide evidence to a learner.

This chapter explores the multifaceted nature of the application of national law by the ECB and the legal ramifications derived therefrom. The study aims, in particular, to briefly illustrate the wide-ranging set of issues—both actual and potential—arising from the complexity of Article 4(3) SSMR, involving not only the sphere of banking supervision, or EU financial law more broadly, but the entire EU judicial system. The effects of such a manifold relationship indeed touch upon the very structures of the EU’s institutional architecture. While the vast array of issues identified are far from having a concrete or definitive solution in the current state of affairs, the progressive evolution of legislation, judicial dialogue and case law, accompanying the exercise of regulatory and supervisory powers by the ECB—and, eventually, other EU agencies as well—, shall help clarifying at least part of this fascinating legal conundrum.

On 12 October 2022, the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) rendered its judgment in Case T-502/19 on an action under Article 263 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) seeking the annulment of European Central Bank (‘ECB’) decisions placing Banca Carige SpA (‘Carige’) under temporary administration and extending it subsequently over time. The case, now under appeal, raises several issues on different topics: from locus standi to judicial review and to the scope and application of Article 4(3) of the SSM Regulation. We analyse how the General Court has addressed each of such topics and how they dialogue with previous rulings by EU Courts on similar matters. We conclude that despite the innovative answers provided by the judgment, fundamental questions concerning the interpretation and application of national law by EU Institutions and Courts are far from settled or consolidated. In this sense, while the Corneli case may stand as an important precedent in the rich and evolving landscape of jurisprudence developed by EU Courts, many challenges still lie ahead.

In recent years, blockchain technology has emerged as a pivotal tool for implementing distributed ledgers. This thesis provides an in-depth exploration of blockchains that rely on one of the most widely adopted consensus mechanisms: Proof-of-Work (PoW). In PoW-based systems, a fundamental tension exists between the operating costs borne by users - such as transaction fees - and the quality of service they receive, measured by transaction confirmation time and the likelihood of confirmation success.

In today's rapidly advancing computing and telecommunications landscape, analysing the performance of distributed systems is more critical than ever. As systems grow in complexity, the demand for robust analytical tools to evaluate efficiency and performance is always more pressing. Among these tools, queueing theory remains a foundational and versatile approach for system analysis.

The supramolecular resorcinarene hexameric capsule efficiently promotes the unprecedented reaction between isocyanides and electron‐deficient aromatic aldehydes leading to the formation of imines and carbon monoxide. The mechanism of the reaction was investigated via isotope labelling, kinetic analysis of the reaction, computational studies and the independent synthesis of a proposed intermediate. Control experiments indicate that the formation of the key aziridinone intermediate is limited to the cavity of the capsule.

Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) is the de-facto standard framework for developing distributed robotic applications. However, ensuring the correctness and security of these applications remains a significant challenge. This paper presents a novel approach to statically analyze ROS 2 applications using abstract interpretation. By extracting the architecture graph of the application, our method derives minimal access control policies that can be used to leverage security. We implemented our approach using the Library for Static Analysis (LiSA), providing a toolset that facilitates the development of sound static analyzers for ROS 2. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in enhancing the security of ROS 2 applications.

Arcangela Tarabotti (1604–1652) was a literary nun and a proto-feminist. During her lifetime and soon after her death she published five books, which were all rather controversial. Although it is well-known that she was an active participant in the Respublica Literarum of the time, what is less well known is how Tarabotti managed to become a writer and gained enough education to write her political pamphlets, which required her to quote the relevant auctoritates and the ability to argue in accordance with the rules of rhetoric. In this chapter I shall demonstrate, providing some palaeographical evidence, how Tarabotti learnt to write (reading was an independent skill from writing, at the time, and the first requirement for any would-be nun). Contrary to her own claims, she did so at home and under her mother’s supervision, before entering Sant’Anna convent in 1617. I shall also demonstrate that, thanks to the families and connections of her fellow sisters in Sant’Anna nunnery, even within the cloister and despite the law of strict enclosure, she enlarged her circle of acquaintances and possibly had covert friendships with eminent cultivated men, who owned large private libraries, from which she could borrow the books she needed. Finally, I shall demonstrate how her decision to publish was supported by the patronage of individuals that were not the ones she openly declared. All this took place in the period, after entering Sant’Anna in 1617, between her vestition in 1620 and the publication of her first book in 1643: there is very little documentation concerning this period of her life, but this chapter makes use of what little has survived to present a picture of her activities and achievements at this time.

Background PFAS contamination is a global issue, affecting various food sources, especially animal-based products like eggs and dairy. Objective Collect scientific evidence of the presence of PFAS in diverse food and edible resources along with the related risks to human health, pursuing the following objectives: determination of the level of terrestrial food chain contamination; determination of the related human health risk. Data source Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. 4952 papers published from January 2013 to August 2024 were retrieved and at the end of the selection process, 40 studies were included. Inclusion criteria Clear description of the methodology used for PFAS detection; relevance to food or species, or their parts, intended for human consumption; assessment of human health risk. Results Higher number of studies were from China, 17, and Italy with 6 studies. The most detected PFAS were PFOA and PFOS. PFOS was detected at a maximum concentration of about 6 ng/g and 2.5 ng/g, in the edible muscles of cow and pork, respectively. Among animal products, eggs were the most contaminated with PFOA concentration higher than 100 ng/g. For PFBS and PFOS the maximum detected concentration ranged from about 35 ng/g up to about 45 ng/g. In vegetables, the highest number of per- and polyfluoroalkyl were detected in root, fruit, and leaf vegetables with maximum concentration up to about 60 ng/g as for PFBA. The highest Daily Intake (DI) values were detected in toddlers, whereas the lowest in the adult population. Concerning total diet, DI related to total PFAS ranged from about 30 (ng/kg bw/day) up to about 90 (ng/kg bw/day). Conclusions The widespread presence and health risks of PFAS, along with the need for new strategies to reduce contamination in food chains, were emphasized. Gaps in legislation and limits of PFAS detection methods were also noted.

Building on Walter Isard's location and gravity theories in economics, we extend his trade model to better understand its core principles, including commercial attraction, center of gravity in markets, and favorable location for exporting firms. This extended model highlights the importance of trade agreements, free trade zones, and markets for national development. Additionally, we incorporate concepts of peace and conflicts in economics, applying these to trade and integrating them with the idea of gravitational fields in economics. Regarding this, we develop an analysis based on NUTS2. Our refined theory of conflict for markets suggests that competing states can develop either military or political strategies to counteract the positive effects of their adversaries' markets and international trade.

Software verification aims to prove that a program satisfies some given properties for all its possible executions. Software evolved incredibly fast during the last century, exposing several challenges to this scientific discipline. The goal of the “Challenges of Software Verification Symposium” is to monitor the state-of-the-art in this field. This special issue of Software Tools for Technology Transfer presents novel theoretical directions and practical applications of these techniques. The papers in this special issue are extended versions of selected symposium papers from the proceedings of the 3rd Challenges of Software Verification Symposium (CSV), which took place at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy, June 6–7, 2024.

Selective oxidation of amines to imines through electrocatalysis is an attractive and efficient way for the chemical industry to produce nitrile compounds, but it is limited by the difficulty of designing efficient catalysts and lack of understanding the mechanism of catalysis. Herein, we demonstrate a novel strategy by generation of oxyhydroxide layers on two‐dimensional iron‐doped layered nickel phosphorus trisulfides (Ni1−xFexPS3) during the oxidation of benzylamine (BA). In‐depth structural and surface chemical characterizations during the electrocatalytic process combined with theoretical calculations reveal that Ni(1−x)FexPS3 undergoes surface reconstruction under alkaline conditions to form the metal oxyhydroxide/phosphorus trichalcogenide (NiFeOOH/Ni1−xFexPS3) heterostructure. Interestingly, the generated heterointerface facilitates BA oxidation with a low onset potential of 1.39 V and Faradaic efficiency of 53% for benzonitrile (BN) synthesis. Theoretical calculations further indicate that the as‐formed NiFeOOH/Ni1−xFexPS3 heterostructure could offer optimum free energy for BA adsorption and BN desorption, resulting in promising BN synthesis.