English

This course describes food production and preservation technologies that are relevant to the food industry. The course includes food production methods, traditional preservation processes, fluid flow, thermal preservation kinetics and methods (heating, cooling, freezing) as well as novel preservation technologies. Important processing principles (such as residence time, and heat transfer) and the consequences for products (shelf life and product quality) are discussed and quantified for various processes and products.

This skills training course familiarizes students with skills and knowledge concerning human anatomy and histology. The histology part entails a practical introduction to virtual microscopy, followed by microscopic studies of the histology of blood vessels, individual cell types, and structures in diverse tissues of the circulatory, urinary, respiratory, and digestive tract where the computer serves as the microscope. All “virtual microscopy” and anatomy sessions have to be prepared at home using either a digital histology atlas (provided) and a PowerPoint manual with internet links to the sections and tasks, or an interactive online manual, also provided. Preparation takes between 2 to 4 hours per session. The histology sessions take place online. The macroscopy/anatomy sessions take place on campus and entail an introduction to the autopsy room. Students perform observatory studies on corpses, models, and human plastinates guided by a list of tasks and questions, part of which needs to be studied in advance at home. Preparation of each anatomy manual takes at least 2 hours. This course is designed to be taken in combination with SCI2009 Human Physiology.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. At the end of the course the student is able to evaluate the scientific basis of Earth’s past climate system, identify past states of the climate system that offer the closest analogs to the climates of the coming decades, and appreciate the scientific context for the long view on a warming world, based on the recognition of natural, past climate variability rather than mathematical models of future potential scenarios. The course consists of two modules. Module I focuses on pre-Quaternary examples of global climate changes, including quantitative methods for the study of past global changes, examples of rapid climate changes in the geological past, and the relationships between geodynamics, paleogeography, and climate. Module II focuses on climate variability during the Quaternary (glacial and post-glacial), with emphasis on the high-resolution signature of climate change in the stratigraphic record on millennial to centennial timescales, from quantitative dating methods to climate proxies.

Economic history is a branch of economics. This course focuses on the transformation of modern China, combines classical studies and cutting-edge literature, and examines Chinese history from the perspective of economics. The course consists of two parts. Firstly, it introduces the economic facts and systems of Chinese history, including per capita income level, productivity, technological progress, fiscal system, market, monetary and financial system, etc. Secondly, it discusses the response and economic performance of modern China under the impact of western countries.

This course introduces concepts from psychology (e.g. beliefs, emotions, or personality) to better understand politics (e.g. elite decision-making, voting behavior, or popular uprisings). Topics are structured around three types of methods that are frequently applied in psychology: experiments, surveys, and interviews. Students gain first-hand research experience by working in small teams to evaluate primary data on a topic of their choice (e.g. right-wing voting, state decisions to go to war, or emotional effects of terror attacks). 

This course presents financial statement analysis from the point of view of the primary users of financial statements: company managers, creditors, and investors. The course provides students with tools to enable them to analyze financial statements and draw inferences about the performance and the value of a firm. The course is structured in two broad parts. Financial analysis forms the first part, focusing on past and present performance evaluation to generate expectations about future performance (prospective analysis), credit rating and distress prediction. The second part, security valuation, focuses on market- and accounting-based models to derive the value of a firm. All analyses are conducted within the context of a firm’s industry and strategy. This is an applied and practical course. 

A decision support system (DSS) is a model-based or knowledge-based system intended to support managerial decision-making in semi-structured or unstructured situations. A DSS is not meant to replace a decision-maker, but to extend his/her decision-making capabilities. It uses data, provides a clear user interface, and can incorporate the decision-maker’s own insights. This course reviews decision support systems, their use, and important components which leads to a group designed and developed DSS that facilitates decision-making through specific selection criteria and constraints.  Students learn how to code in the programming language Excel VBA, develop and improve skills in algorithmic thinking, create userforms, and use tools provided by the toolbox. Essential programming techniques and constructs such as loops, subs, functions and macros are taught. Prerequisites for the course include a basic mastery of Excel, or an alternative spreadsheet application: cell referencing, building formulas, and use of logical functions. This does not require mastery of VBA for Excel, training in VBA programming is part of the course.