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Acknowledgments
My thanks go my tutor, Prof. Luigi Landini, for the continuous guidance and for the enthusiasm in research he is always showing.
I wish to thank Prof. Pietro Pietrini for the possibility of working together on such a fascinating topic.
Thanks to Prof. Antonio Bicchi for his availability and support.
Thanks to all the crew at Centro Piaggio, in particular to Eng. Enzo Pasquale Scilingo for his attention and skill, and to Eng. Davide Dente, that has helped us at the beginning of this work. Special thanks to Eng. Nicola Sgambelluri, a colleague and a friend.
Many thanks to people at Institute of Clinical Physiology, Dr. Massimo Lombardi that “gave us the keys of the scanner” and Dr. Antonio Benassi that is always supporting us.
The work at IFC is based on the cooperation of a lot of people: I’d like to thank all physicians, technicians and engineers. Thanks to Raffaello Francesconi for “hard”
support.
Thanks to Dr. Domenico Montanaro, for his availability and involvement, and to Eng. Francesca Frijia
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Thanks to all the people at Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Eng. Lorenzo Sani, Dr.
Claudio Gentili and Dr. Daniela Bonino. Working with you is hard but fun.
Thanks to Eng. Silvia Casarotto that has gently brought us from “block to random”.
Special thanks to Dr. Emiliano Ricciardi for the enthralling friendship and his professional support.
Thanks to Eng. Giulio Giovannetti, Eng. Valentina Hartwig, Eng. Matteo Milanesi for being always “there” (in the Lab…..with me), for their friendship and their unrivalled professionality.
Many thanks to Dr. Filomena Santarelli for her suggestions and involving passion about MRI.
Special thanks to Eng. Vincenzo Positano for keeping me on track and for his precious help during the development of this work.
Thanks to my parents, Mario and Rita, and to my brother Fabio, for encouraging me and believing in me all the time.
Thanks to Elisa for her continuous support and understanding.
This work was Supported by IST-2002-6.1.1 FET Presence and Interdepartmental Research Center, "E.
Piaggio", University of Pisa
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