Towards a framework for the evaluation of policies of cluster upgrading and innovation

In the current scenario, a large and growing number of policies for local development and cluster upgrading explicitly incorporate the idea of innovation as a systemic process, embedded in specific socio-cultural and institutional contexts and intermingled with international challenges, opportunities, and strategies. These policies bring new challenges to the activities of analysis and evaluation: despite the diffusion of a systemic approach both in innovation thinking and in innovation policies, a proper system-based framework for the analysis and evaluation of these policies is far from being achieved (Bellandi and Caloffi, 2010). Trying to advance our reflection on this field, we propose some exemplifications on a quite delimited set of contexts, i.e. those of industrial districts (Italian, in particular), characterized by SMEs clusters facing contemporary globalization challenges. Focusing on innovation policies aimed at supporting functional upgrading of districts and clusters soaked in changing international filières and value chains, the paper discusses the meaning of evaluation of industrial policies when a systemic perspective is considered. On such premises a couple of exemplifications are illustrate some features of appropriate evaluation methods. Finally, some methodological aspects concerning the design process of evaluation activities are discussed.Evaluation of policies; systemic approaches to evaluation; innovation and cluster policies; industrial districts

Forms of Industrial Development in Chinese Specialized Towns: An Italian Perspective

The fast rise of made in China in international markets has raised concern, among others, in the SME clusters of Italian industrial districts. The several cases of specialized towns (i.e. localities characterized by the presence of a specific cluster) in the China more dynamic regions exemplify a rich variety of factors supporting industrial growth, some of them based in cluster and local relations, other ones in international business strategies. This article presents two specific contributions. Firstly, it is proposed an advancement in the understanding of cluster forms of industrial development in China new industries, through a statistical analysis on a set of specialized towns of the Guangdong Province. The analysis is led by hypotheses generated and discussed on the basis of models of local and cluster development incorporating the experience of Italian industrial districts. Secondly, it is suggested the application of the empirical results to the reflection on business and policy reactions in Italian industrial districts to the international competitive challenge

Developing new tools for symbiotic calcium analysis: cloning and testing a new calcium sensor to study calcium spiking in Medicago truncatula root hair cells

Il calcio è un messaggero intracellulare responsabile del controllo di numerosi processi sia in cellule vegetali che in cellule animali e rappresenta un punto di convergenza di molti differenti pathways di segnalazione. Tra i modelli per lo studio del calcium signalling in cellule vegetali troviamo le oscillazioni nei livelli di calcio che si verificano a livello nucleare al momento dell’instaurarsi di simbiosi micorriziche o con batteri in grado di fissare l’azoto. Tali ripetuti e repentini innalzamenti della concentrazione di calcio sono stati chiamati calcium spiking. Si ritiene che, nell’ambito delle simbiosi piante-batteri, il calcium spiking nei nuclei dei tricoblasti sia un tratto comune condiviso da tutte le specie in grado di formare noduli radicali. Un primo approccio per lo studio delle variazioni dei livelli di calcio nel nucleo delle cellule vegetali è stato quello della microinienzione di calcium-responsive dyes. Uno dei maggiori svantaggi di questa tecnica risiede nel fatto che tali composti non sono confinati nel nucleo, ma una volta iniettati si diffondono nella cellula. Un altro metodo è quello di sfruttare particolari proteine, già esistenti in natura o di sintesi, come reporters. Il primo vantaggio in questo caso è quello di poter indirizzare la proteina nel compartimento cellulare di interesse. Possiamo distinguere due gruppi di reporters proteici di sintesi: quelli basati sulla FRET (Forster resonance energy transfer) e i cosi’ detti single wavelength calcium sensors. I Cameleons, i reporters al momento più utilizzati per lo studio del calcium spiking in cellule vegetali, fanno parte del primo gruppo. Questo comporta che essi siano disponibili in una sola variante di colore e che due diverse lunghezze d’onda debbano essere usate per lavorare con un singolo reporter. In conseguenza di ciò si ha una limitazione delle possibiltà di imaging sullo stesso campione. In questo lavoro di tesi ci si propone di valutare la possibilità di utilizzare i GECOs (genetically encoded calcium indicators for optical imaging), un nuovo tipo di single wavelength calcium sensors, per lo studio del calcium spiking nel nucleo delle cellule dei peli radicali di M. truncatula. I GECOs, esistendo in diverse varianti di colore ed essendo costituiti da una singola proteina fluorescente, potrebbero consentire di monitorare i livelli di calcio in diversi compartimenti della stessa cellula allo stesso momento. La costruzione dei vettori plasmidici contenenti i GECOs, che ha costituito la prima fase del lavoro, è stata portata avanti sfruttando il metodo del golden gate cloning. Tale metodo ha le caratteristiche di essere molto efficiente e di consentire l’assemblaggio di numerosi frammenti di DNA in maniera direzionale ed in una sola reazione. Grazie all’organizzazione modulare di questa tecnica di clonaggio è stato possibile costruire tutta una serie di vettori contenenti diverse combinazioni di promotori, GECOs e marker di selezione. Successivamente la correttezza dei vettori è stata verificata tramite PCR e sequenziamento. In una seconda fase si è poi proceduto alla trasformazione delle plantule di M. truncatula con alcuni dei suddetti vettori sfruttando Agrobacterium rhizogenes. L’osservazione, con la microscopia confocale, della risposta dei GECOs al calcium spiking indotto da Nod factors nelle cellule dei peli radicali di M. truncatula ha occupato la fase finale del progetto. L’analisi delle immagini e dei dati raccolti ha poi permesso di concludere che i GECOs sono una valida alternativa all’utilizzo dei Cameleons in questo campo

Enterprise and innovation policy in Italy: an overview of the recent facts

1. Introduction The Italian enterprise and innovation policy over the past 20 years has undergone some major changes. The most important one is related to the institutional change that has witnessed the strengthening of the EU and the regional governments (Regions), and has required the central state to reinvent its role (Bellandi and Caloffi, 2012, 2016). Indeed, after the constitutional reform of 2001, Italy is a quasi-federal system in which a number of competencies, including a large part..

Towards a framework for the evaluation of policies of cluster upgrading and innovation

In the current scenario, a large and growing number of policies for local development and cluster upgrading explicitly incorporate the idea of innovation as a systemic process, embedded in specific socio-cultural and institutional contexts and intermingled with international challenges, opportunities, and strategies. These policies bring new challenges to the activities of analysis and evaluation: despite the diffusion of a systemic approach both in innovation thinking and in innovation policies, a proper system-based framework for the analysis and evaluation of these policies is far from being achieved (Bellandi and Caloffi, 2010). Trying to advance our reflection on this field, we propose some exemplifications on a quite delimited set of contexts, i.e. those of industrial districts (Italian, in particular), characterized by SMEs clusters facing contemporary globalization challenges. Focusing on innovation policies aimed at supporting functional upgrading of districts and clusters soaked in changing international filières and value chains, the paper discusses the meaning of evaluation of industrial policies when a systemic perspective is considered. On such premises a couple of exemplifications are illustrated some features of appropriate evaluation methods. Finally, some methodological aspects concerning the design process of evaluation activities are discussed.Aujourd’hui, un nombre important et croissant de politiques de développement local et de modernisation incorporent directement l’idée d’innovation comme un processus systémique, encastré dans des contextes socioculturels et institutionnels spécifiques, et entremêlé à des challenges, opportunités et stratégies internationales. Ces politiques conduisent à de nouveaux challenges pour les activités d’analyse et d’évaluation : en dépit de la diffusion d’une approche systémique à la fois pour la théorie et les politiques d’innovation, un cadre d’analyse adéquat pour l’analyse et l’évaluation de ces politiques est loin d’être réalisé (Bellandi and Caloffi, 2010). Pour avancer dans cette perspective, on propose différents exemples dans le cadre de contextes précis, ceux des districts industriels (italiens en particulier), caractérisés par des clusters composés de PMEs confrontés à la globalisation contemporaine. Centré sur les politiques d’innovation visant à promouvoir la modernisation de districts et clusters confrontés à des filières et chaînes de valeurs internationales en mutation, cet article discute la signification des politiques industrielles quand une perspective systémique est considérée. Sur ces bases, des exemples aident à comprendre les caractéristiques des méthodes d’évaluation adéquates. Les aspects méthodologiques relatifs aux évaluations sont finalement discutés

Place-renewing leadership:trajectories of change for mature manufacturing regions in Europe

The forces of globalisation now impacting on local economies pose threats to the existing paradigm of competences and routines, yet simultaneously offer opportunities to integrate new knowledge and learning. This is particularly pertinent with respect to Europe’s ‘mature regions’, which are undergoing a major economic restructuring by trying to shift from traditional manufacturing activities to hybrid activities that comprise a combination of manufacturing and a higher component of intangible inputs and related knowledge service activities. The objective of the article is to discuss the concept of ‘place leadership’ by looking at how the embedded skills, knowledge and cumulated learning of a place can be used by its institutional infrastructure to identify sustainable growth trajectories. In other words, its aim is to explore how the economic, social, institutional and cultural aspects of places shape the opportunities for upgrading and renovation drawing upon their historical specialisation. The conceptual contribution of the article draws on two case studies, in the West Midlands, UK and in Prato, Tuscany, where we study the processes of decision-making, forms of leadership and ultimately the nature of local leadership

Chitin perception in plasmodesmata characterizes submembrane immune-signaling specificity in plants

The plasma membrane (PM) is composed of heterogeneous subdomains, characterized by differences in protein and lipid composition. PM receptors can be dynamically sorted into membrane domains to underpin signaling in response to extracellular stimuli. In plants, the plasmodesmal PM is a discrete microdomain that hosts specific receptors and responses. We exploited the independence of this PM domain to investigate how membrane domains can independently integrate a signal that triggers responses across the cell. Focusing on chitin signaling, we found that responses in the plasmodesmal PM require the LysM receptor kinases LYK4 and LYK5 in addition to LYM2. Chitin induces dynamic changes in the localization, association, or mobility of these receptors, but only LYM2 and LYK4 are detected in the plasmodesmal PM. We further uncovered that chitin-induced production of reactive oxygen species and callose depends on specific signaling events that lead to plasmodesmata closure. Our results demonstrate that distinct membrane domains can integrate a common signal with specific machinery that initiates discrete signaling cascades to produce a localized response

Dynamics and cell-to-cell transmission of wound-induced calcium waves in plants

Plants can perceive a variety of external stimuli and respond to these with local and systemic signals that coordinate the response across tissues, organs and the whole plant body. When wounded, plant cells respond with an increase in cytoplasmic calcium levels that can propagate cell-to-cell locally and systemically in a wave-like manner. Plant bodies are multicellular networks of cells embedded in the common environment of the cell wall and symplastically connected via plasmodesmata. Previous works have observed that plasmodesmata play a key role in cell-to-cell transmission of calcium waves upon wounding. However, the mechanism by which this occurs have not been studied yet. Here, I developed new experimental and computational methods that allow the study of the dynamics of cell-to-cell signal propagation with high spatial-temporal resolution. This revealed that the local calcium response to wounding has at least three temporally distinct phases (a local burst, a propagating wave and a late diffuse calcium increase) differing in their dynamics and underlying mechanisms. Further, the cell-to-cell propagation of local and systemic wound-induced calcium waves is independent from TPC1, RBOHD, RBOHF and symplastic connectivity. In addition, the local and systemic non-vascular calcium waves are dependent on GLR3.3 and display propagation dynamics typical of a diffusion-driven process, while the systemic vascular waves display velocity and dynamics compatible with xylem bulk flow. Together, the data presented in this work provide new insights on the mechanisms of generation and cell-to-cell transmission of calcium waves upon-wounding and create new leads and opportunities for further investigations

System-based policies in Italy: From industrial districts to technological clusters

Despite the presence of some antecedents, system-based policies enter very slowly the framework of Italian industrial policies. However, they spread rapidly under the impulse coming from the EU as enterprise and innovation policies. The article briefly reviews this diffusion process, illustrating that the latter generates policies having different labels and goals. Their future depends on many factors, including the beliefs and confidence in these instruments by policy makers and policy analysts. Before developing new policies in this field or adapting existing ones, effective tools are needed, which allow for a proper evaluation of past experiences