Technologies and Solutions for Collaborative Processes in Mutating Cities

The city, a place of contemporary living par excellence, challenges the planner by making it necessary to adapt progressively quicker to changes and to overcome the traditional design approach linked to the modern idea of the industrial city. Indeed, living in non-stationary contexts, the complexity of problems nowadays requires a new planning endeavor capable of testing future solutions ‘in the field’ rather than ‘on paper,’ involving citizens, but also continuously adapting processes to achieve the expected results. The proposed contribution aims to document possible ways to trigger virtuous urban renewal processes, sustainably activating tangible and intangible resources. The topic will be investigated from the point of view of the triad: ‘project, technology, and digital solutions,’ adopting a social perspective. The latter ensures the active involvement of citizens in strategic decisions, increasing their awareness and civic sense, but also supporting the proposition of evolving plan-ning scenarios in order to develop solutions that will be concrete, achievable, and resilient. The core element concerns the way in which it is possible to promote the creation of an extended social mind through which collective behavioral change can be fostered. In some cases, digital technologies prove to be the effective ‘expert instru-ment,’ also for understanding the planned intervention, opening the design process for different stakeholders not necessarily familiar with technical conventions. According to Floridi, digital transformation ‘disconnects and reconnects specific processes,’ and the project represents the most powerful innovation element to promote the ecological transition. These dynamics will be explored through the analysis of some research and project activities that directly involved the authors of this article

Origin and stability of the dipolar response in a family of tetragonal tungsten bronze relaxors

A new family of relaxor dielectrics with the tetragonal tungsten bronze structure (nominal composition Ba6M3+Nb9O30, M3+ = Ga, Sc or In) were studied using dielectric spectroscopy to probe the dynamic dipole response and correlate this with the crystal structure as determined from powder neutron diffraction. Independent analyses of real and imaginary parts of the complex dielectric function were used to determine characteristic temperature parameters, TVF, and TUDR, respectively. In each composition both these temperatures correlated with the temperature of maximum crystallographic strain, Tc/a determined from diffraction data. The overall behaviour is consistent with dipole freezing and the data indicate that the dipole stability increases with increasing M3+ cation size as a result of increased tetragonality of the unit cell. Crystallographic data suggests that these materials are uniaxial relaxors with the dipole moment predominantly restricted to the B1 cation site in the structure. Possible origins of the relaxor behaviour are discussed.Comment: Main article 32 pages, 8 figures; Supplementary data 24 pages, 4 figure

Towards novel multiferroic and magnetoelectric materials: dipole stability in tetragonal tungsten bronzes

authors thank the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council for funding (grant no. EP/F004133/1).We discuss the strategy for development of novel functional materials with the tetragonal tungsten bronze structure. From the starting composition Ba6GaNb9O30, the effect of A- and B-site substitutions on the dielectric properties is used to develop an understanding of the origin and stability of the dipolar response in these compounds. Both tetragonal strain induced by large B-site cations and local strain variations created by isovalent A-site substitutions enhance dipole stability but result in a dilute, weakly correlated dipolar response and canonical relaxor behaviour. Decreasing cation size at the perovskite A2-site increases the dipolar displacements in the surrounding octahedra, but insufficiently to result in dipole ordering. Mechanisms introducing small A-site lanthanide cations and incorporation of A-site vacancies to induce ferroelectricity and magnetism are presented.PostprintPeer reviewe

Public perception as an alternative method for estimating health status

Nicolae Testemitsanu Department of Social Medicine and Sanitary Management, Nicolae Testemitsanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chisinau, the Republic of MoldovaBackground: A great number of indicators and quality of life indices in terms of health are reported in the current statistical statements of general morbidity, although having plenty of information; they also have low reliability and poor analytical capabilities. Therefore, the above indices currently lose their relevance, being based only on data of population visits to health care providers for medical advice. Material and methods: Questioning, as the basic method of sociological research, makes it possible to obtain information quickly and cost-effectively, being recognized as a method with full right to monitor public health. Results: Subjective information during the accumulation process becomes objective public characteristic and it can be integrated into the actions for planning and evaluation of activities in the field of health care. Insured persons (in comparison with uninsured persons) are more sensitive to their health status also caring about being health insured in any possible demand; insured persons care more about their health, accounting for a higher percentage in the follow-up group of persons with both chronic and acute diseases. This contributed to the fact that the cases of incapacity for work due to illness amongst insured persons were met a third less frequently comparing to uninsured persons. Conclusions: There were problems identified, which deserve special attention of decision makers in the field of health care. These are: people avoid addressing to the family doctor in case of health concerns, whereas insured persons prefer to appeal mainly to hospital in-patient services, and uninsured persons prefer to appeal for services to private medical centers. In the case of illness almost every third uninsured person (34.8%) does not seek medical attention, and only every fourth uninsured person (25,6%) addresses to the family doctor

Considerations about the influence of medico-social factors on the health of uninsured persons

Nicolae Testemitsanu Department of Social Medicine and Sanitary Management, Nicolae Testemitsanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chisinau, the Republic of MoldovaBackground: The article offers the results of study on the impact of some medico-social factors on the uninsured person’s health. Material and methods: Data collection was carried out using questioning of 1067 insured/uninsured persons. Results: Uninsured persons in proportion of 37.1% originating from rural areas were compared with 20.5% of uninsured persons originating from urban areas. Uneducated respondents (30.8%) and respondents with secondary-level education (29.7%) represent the segment least covered by medical insurance. The largest percentage (58.1%) of uninsured persons consists of persons with the lowest incomes, ranging from 45.2% in urban areas to 62.8% in rural areas. From urban areas, 76.4% of insured persons and 87.2% of uninsured persons and respectively 66.0% and 76.3% in rural areas appreciate their health status within ”satisfactory – very good”. While 10.1% of uninsured persons, compared with 17.6% of insured persons from urban areas, respectively 7.3% and 14.9% and from rural areas 11.6% and 20.9%, respectively, appreciate their health status as ”poor” and ”very poor”. In case of health concerns, insured persons mainly appeal for hospital in-patient medical services (90.0% of cases), while uninsured persons in the same situations mainly appeal for medical assistance to private medical centers (47.1% cases). It was found that in the case of illness almost every third uninsured person (34.8%) does not seek medical attention, and only every fourth uninsured person (25.6%) addresses to the family doctor

Microstructural and high-temperature impedance spectroscopy study of Ba6MNb9O30 (M=Ga, Sc, In) relaxor dielectric ceramics with tetragonal tungsten bronze structure

The authors would like to thank to the following funding organisations: the Royal Society for providing a research fellowship (F.D.M.), EPSRC for providing the PhD student grant (A.R.) and Roberto Rocca Education Program for providing an additional fellowship (A.R.).This work reports on the microstructural and high-temperature impedance spectroscopy study of a family of dielectric ceramics Ba6MNb9O30 (M=Ga, Sc, In) of tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) structure with relaxor properties. For Ba6GaNb9O30 and Ba6InNb9O30 pellets, the SEM images have revealed good, dense internal microstructures, with well-bonded grains and only discrete porosity; in contrast Ba6ScNb9O30 pellets had a poorer microstructure, with many small and poorly-bonded grains gathered in agglomerates, resulting in significant continuous porosity and poorly defined grain boundary regions. The electroactive regions were characterised by the bulk and grain boundaries capacitances and resistances, while their contribution to the electrical conduction process was estimated by determining activation energies from the temperature (Arrhenius) dependence of both electric conductivities and time constants. For Ga and In analogues the electronic conductivity are dominated by the bulk response, while for Sc analogue, the poorly defined grain boundaries give a bulk-like response, mixing with the main bulk contribution.PostprintPeer reviewe