Time and Islands: the spatial politics of football’

This paper was originally delivered at the eass (European Association for Sociology of Sport) Conference in Münster, Germany (2007), and is the first to examine the territoriality of football clubs as an alternative way of understanding European political boundaries. Bottazzi focuses on European football’s ‘G14’, a group of clubs modelled on the G8 group of economies. An examination of G14’s rules for membership, together with bibliographical research and a series of interviews with the spatial sociologist and sports journalist Pippo Russo, helped in the development of a new kind of territorial analysis. This contrasts two spatial notions: the island, an almost primitive spatial figure, and on the other, the rhetoric of flows and connections which informs most contemporary theoretical discussion on territories. Bottazzi’s paper is a polemical comparison between a definition of the European territory as imagined by theoreticians versus an empirical analysis of what is really happening. The research fills a gap in the work of Bottazzi’s contemporaries: Stefano Boeri, who, through the architectural research group Multiplicity, explores issues of identity, politics, and geography in Europe; Giorgio Agamben, who has examined the concept of the paradigm in his book on method, The Signature of All Things (2009), and Professor Keller Easterling, who, in writings such as Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and Its Political Masquerades (2005), researches familiar spatial types in precarious political situations around the world. From Bottazzi’s original publication came an invitation to submit the paper to a website hosted by the Network Architecture Lab, Columbia University in a joint venture with Domus Web. It was published online in 2010 (http://testbed2.audc.org/projects/publish/islands_spatial_politics_soccer), and has formed the basis of subsequent research in a project called ‘Molecular City’ (2010–12)

Glimpses of an urbanism to come

First exhaustive research paper to provide a comprehensive spatial analysis of the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. The paper argues that the 2001 G8 Summit saw the emergence of spatial techniques to control public spaces that would become paradigmatic of the urbanism of the XXIst century. Through maps and diagrams the events that took place during the summit are analysed and then compared to planning techniques utilised in other political rallies (2007 APEC, Sydney) or new cities (Dubai). By highlighting what tools and concepts underpin this emergent urbanism, the paper calls for a kind of architect that understands his role beyond the mere invention of new forms

Cyphers: On the Historiography of Digital Architecture

This dissertation reflects on the methods and concepts employed in constructing a history of digital architecture. By focusing on the methodological issues, it complements and expands the research developed for the monographic study Digital Architecture Beyond Computers (DABC) and the book chapter “Crypto Architecture”. In both pieces digital architecture is understood to cover a period of time that stretches well beyond the appearance of the modern digital computer (after World War Two). The notion of computing numbers and symbols to apprehend and intervene in our reality is in fact a much older idea than the invention of the modern digital computer. This dissertation reflects on the approach suggested by both writings by analysing the conceptual basis of computation in order to devise an appropriate historiographic approach to digital architecture. The aim of the investigation is to move beyond a technologically‐driven, utilitarian view of computation in favour of a more conceptual position that foregrounds computation’s fundamental logic and the role of the disciplines that informed and continue to inform it. This broader perspective aims at establishing a relation between the artifacts and the processes of digital architecture; that is, between what digital architecture is (which DABC explores through case studies in which computation and design affected one another), and how it is generated (the techniques and methods deployed to design architecture). This dissertation introduces a specific conceptual figure to articulate the historiography of digital architecture: the cypher. Cyphers address the fundamental challenges emerging from constructing a history of digital architecture, they organise the vast collections of case studies forming the history of digital architecture, foreground the conceptual motivations behind computation, and acknowledge the role that different disciplines (philosophy, logic, semiotic) have played in shaping what we call digital architecture

Learning Algorithms, Design, and computed space

The paper analyses and speculates on what opportunities and challenges will arise from the introduction of learning algorithms (machine learning, neural networks, etc.) in architectural and urban design. The penetration of such class of algorithms in cities and design disciplines is rapid and profound increasing both the thirst for gathering ever larger and more accurate datasets and raising the prospect of automating tasks currently performed by humans. Whilst it is understood that learning algorithms are essential tools to analyse large datasets, design disciplines have paid far less attention to how such processes are carried out, how spatial data are reformatted by algorithms which largely operate on statistical bases and, most importantly, what image of the city emerges from such processes. To unravel the complexity of the issue, it is first necessary to retrace the ideas informing the emergence of numerical procedures at beginning of the twentieth century and Artificial Intelligence in the 1950's as they allow us to project a different paradigm of how space can be analysed, structured, and changed. Finally, the paper will offer some points for speculation and further reflection on how the methods put forward through learning algorithms compare to current approaches to digital design; this will foreground their disruptive potential for a radical transformation of urban design, one that could be deployed to tackle some of the most pressing urban issue.&nbsp

Dynamic corporate capital structure behavior: empirical assessment in the light of heterogeneity and non stationarity

Understanding the dynamics of the leverage ratio is at the heart of the empirical research about firms' capital structure, as they can be very different under alternative theoretical models. The pillars of almost all empirical applications are the maintained assumptions of poolability and stationarity, which are motivated by the need of model’s simplicity and treatability, rather than being based on an empirical ground. In this paper we provide robust evidence of non-stationarity for a significantly large share of US firms' debt ratios and of strong heterogeneity in the speeds at which firms adjust towards their targets. These results stimulate new directions of the empirical research on debt ratio dynamics by relying more on the concept of heterogeneous degree of leverage persistence

Research Event - Walking Cities: London

This event took place at the Royal Academy of Music and involved readings and performances related to the music section of Walking Cities: London, a book which considers how urban walking informs and triggers new processes of making, thinking, researching and communicating. It will focus on the correlation between walking and the discipline of learning to observe the small details of one’s life, surroundings and artistic practice. This was followed by a panel discussion with all the editors of Walking Cities: London: Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Simon King, Amy Blier-Carruthers and Roberto Bottazzi, and chaired by James Edgar, Director of Camberwell Press

Elevations of inflammatory markers PTX3 and sST2 after resuscitation from cardiac arrest are associated with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and early death

BACKGROUND: A systemic inflammatory response is observed after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. We investigated two novel inflammatory markers, pentraxin 3 (PTX3) and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2), in comparison with the classic high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), for prediction of early multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), early death, and long-term outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS: PTX3, sST2, and hsCRP were assayed at ICU admission and 48 h later in 278 patients. MODS was defined as the 24 h non-neurological Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score 6512. Intensive care unit (ICU) death and 12-month Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) were evaluated. RESULTS: In total, 82% of patients survived to ICU discharge and 48% had favorable neurological outcome at 1 year (CPC 1 or 2). At ICU admission, median plasma levels of hsCRP (2.8 mg/L) were normal, while levels of PTX3 (19.1 ng/mL) and sST2 (117 ng/mL) were markedly elevated. PTX3 and sST2 were higher in patients who developed MODS (p<0.0001). Admission levels of PTX3 and sST2 were also higher in patients who died in ICU and in those with an unfavorable 12-month neurological outcome (p<0.01). Admission levels of PTX3 and sST2 were independently associated with subsequent MODS [OR: 1.717 (1.221-2.414) and 1.340, (1.001-1.792), respectively] and with ICU death [OR: 1.536 (1.078-2.187) and 1.452 (1.064-1.981), respectively]. At 48 h, only sST2 and hsCRP were independently associated with ICU death. CONCLUSIONS: Higher plasma levels of PTX3 and sST2, but not of hsCRP, at ICU admission were associated with higher risk of MODS and early death

The crossroad between autoimmune disorder, tissue remodeling and cancer of the thyroid: The long pentraxin 3 (PTX3)

Thyroid is at the crossroads of immune dysregulation, tissue remodeling and oncogenesis. Autoimmune disorders, nodular disease and cancer of the thyroid affect a large amount of general population, mainly women. We wondered if there could be a common factor behind three processes (immune dysregulation, tissue remodeling and oncogenesis) that frequently affect, sometimes coexisting, the thyroid gland. The long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an essential component of the humoral arm of the innate immune system acting as soluble pattern recognition molecule. The protein is found expressed in a variety of cell types during tissue injury and stress. In addition, PTX3 is produced by neutrophils during maturation in the bone-marrow and is stored in lactoferrin-granules. PTX3 is a regulator of the complement cascade and orchestrates tissue remodeling and repair. Preclinical data and studies in human tumors indicate that PTX3 can act both as an extrinsic oncosuppressor by modulating complement-dependent tumor-promoting inflammation, or as a tumor-promoter molecule, regulating cell invasion and proliferation and epithelial to mesenchymal transition, thus suggesting that this molecule may have different functions on carcinogenesis. The involvement of PTX3 in the regulation of immune responses, tissue remodeling and oncosuppressive processes led us to explore its potential role in the development of thyroid disorders. In this review, we aimed to highlight what is known, at the state of the art, regarding the connection between the long pentraxin 3 and the main thyroid diseases i.e., nodular thyroid disease, thyroid cancer and autoimmune thyroid disorders

Soluble interleukin-1 receptor type 2 plasma levels in Parkinson’s disease: relationship with cardiac autonomic profile before and after peripheral mechanical somatosensory stimulation

Introduction: Systemic inflammation promotes neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Interleukin-1 receptor type 2 (sIL-1R2) plasma levels increase during inflammation. Data on sIL-1R2 in PD patients and its relationship with PD cardiac autonomic profile are limited, given the possible anti-inflammatory effect of vagal activation. Previously, automated mechanical peripheral somatosensory stimulation (AMPSS) enhanced cardiac vagal modulation. Objectives were to 1) evaluate sIL-1R2 plasma concentrations in PD patients and healthy controls and 2) investigate the correlations between sIL-1R2 and cardiac autonomic indices obtained by spectrum analysis of heart rate variability before and after AMPSS.Methods: sIL-1R2 plasma levels were assessed in 48 PD patients and 50 healthy controls. Electrocardiogram and beat-by-beat arterial pressure were recorded at baseline and after 5 AMPSS sessions in 16 PD patients.Results: PD patients had higher sIL-1R2 levels than controls. In the PD subgroup, an inverse correlation between sIL-1R2 and HFnu was found. There was a negative correlation between changes induced by AMPSS on HFnu and sIL-1R2.Discussion: Higher sIL-1R2 levels in PD patients reflect the inflammatory dysregulation associated with the disease. In PD patients, higher sIL-1R2 was associated with reduced cardiovagal tone. Increased cardiovagal modulation following AMPSS was associated with lower sIL-1R2 levels in Parkinson’s disease patients, suggesting inflammatory state improvement