Abstract: Microscopy method and apparatus for determining the positions of emitter objects in a three-dimensional space that comprises focusing scattered light or fluorescent light emitted by an emitter object, separating the focused beam in a first and a second optical beam, directing the first and the second optical beam through a varifocal lens having an optical axis such that the first optical beam impinges on the lens along the optical axis and the second beam impinges decentralized with respect to the optical axis of the varifocal lens, simultaneously capturing a first image created by the first optical beam and a second image created by the second optical beam, and determining the relative displacement of the position of the object in the first and in the second image, wherein the relative displacement contains the information of the axial position of the object along a perpendicular direction to the image plane.

Abstract: An electronic measurement unit for a polymorphous device, comprising a number of lateral structures, each lateral structure including: a support structure; at least one sensor constrained to the support structure and generating an electrical signal indicative of a deformation of the support structure; and a coupling structure that constrains a corresponding external covering element to the support structure in a releasable manner, so that when the external covering element is constrained to the support structure and an external force acts on the external covering element, the electrical signal is indicative of the external force.

Abstract: Magnetic actuators are provided having a substrate, a membrane layer directly or indirectly applied on a surface of the substrate, in which the membrane layer consists of a matrix of elastic polymer material, in which nanoparticles of magnetic material, capable of undergoing a dynamic effect under the action of a magnetic field, are dispersed, and at least one magnetic field generator suitable to generate a magnetic field acting on the membrane layer, in which the magnetic field generator is directly or indirectly arranged on the surface of the substrate, or within the substrate.

Abstract: A method for the generation of a set of conflicts for model-based system diagnostics is described, with which system a plurality of sensors is associated for the observation of variables indicative of operation conditions. The method starts from generating a complete set of Analytical Redundancy Relations (ARRs) in implicit form and, for each diagnosis instance: it performs a system simulation, computing the expected values for a first subset of Analytical Redundancy Relations (D-ARRs) including the relations involving only one system observation variable; it compares the expected and observed values of the system observation variables to identify the inconsistent variables, i.e.