Sustainability and Urban Planning Processes. An Integrated Tool for Sustainable Urban Management.

In the last decades in Italy the debate on the urban planning crisis (Balducci, 1991; Urbani, 2000) had showed a shift from practices informed by politics and negotiation to new positions where planning methods are characterized by a communicative adaptive evaluation of a set of options about land uses and transformations. Within this framework the need emerged of new approaches to planning able to fulfil community expectations. In the light of recent developments in the economic sector and his branches, and primarily in business management, various tools for urban policy making have been recently adopted and implemented in many Italian local authorities: - Implementation of certificated systems for environmental management (Varese Ligure was first Italian municipality to obtain an ISO 14001 certification in 1999); - Use of control and evaluation systems like environmental and strategic plan design aiming at the integration of these practices in a single comprehensive tool, articulated within three phases (organizational, social accounting (18 municipalities have already test these tools and a bill is discussed for their insert in public authorities management); - Employment of participatory practices in the government of environmental problems (Local Agenda 21 processes is hitting an advanced level of implementation both in the municipal and in the provincial level especially in regions like the Emily and Romagna, the Marches, Tuscany, Liguria); - Use of means of communication addressed both to internal members of public authorities and to stakeholders and local community (for example environmental and social statements drawing up by local authorities or sustainability reports like that compiled within 21st Olympic Games organization). However, the analysis of many case-studies showed often the use of these tools it is not directly coordinated with urban planning instruments. In this paper the authors propose a tentative framework for a sustainable decisional and operative) cyclicly. The objective is, as far as these practices are promoted by main international and European agendas and declarations, to connect by this tool local government choices to most important policies on sustainable development.

Coordination of multi-agent systems: stability via nonlinear Perron-Frobenius theory and consensus for desynchronization and dynamic estimation.

This thesis addresses a variety of problems that arise in the study of complex networks composed by multiple interacting agents, usually called multi-agent systems (MASs). Each agent is modeled as a dynamical system whose dynamics is fully described by a state-space representation. In the first part the focus is on the application to MASs of recent results that deal with the extensions of Perron-Frobenius theory to nonlinear maps. In the shift from the linear to the nonlinear framework, Perron-Frobenius theory considers maps being order-preserving instead of matrices being nonnegative. The main contribution is threefold. First of all, a convergence analysis of the iterative behavior of two novel classes of order-preserving nonlinear maps is carried out, thus establishing sufficient conditions which guarantee convergence toward a fixed point of the map: nonnegative row-stochastic matrices turns out to be a special case. Secondly, these results are applied to MASs, both in discrete and continuous-time: local properties of the agents' dynamics have been identified so that the global interconnected system falls into one of the above mentioned classes, thus guaranteeing its global stability. Lastly, a sufficient condition on the connectivity of the communication network is provided to restrict the set of equilibrium points of the system to the consensus points, thus ensuring the agents to achieve consensus. These results do not rely on standard tools (e.g., Lyapunov theory) and thus they constitute a novel approach to the analysis and control of multi-agent dynamical systems. In the second part the focus is on the design of dynamic estimation algorithms in large networks which enable to solve specific problems. The first problem consists in breaking synchronization in networks of diffusively coupled harmonic oscillators. The design of a local state feedback that achieves desynchronization in connected networks with arbitrary undirected interactions is provided. The proposed control law is obtained via a novel protocol for the distributed estimation of the Fiedler vector of the Laplacian matrix. The second problem consists in the estimation of the number of active agents in networks wherein agents are allowed to join or leave. The adopted strategy consists in the distributed and dynamic estimation of the maximum among numbers locally generated by the active agents and the subsequent inference of the number of the agents that took part in the experiment. Two protocols are proposed and characterized to solve the consensus problem on the time-varying max value. The third problem consists in the average state estimation of a large network of agents where only a few agents' states are accessible to a centralized observer. The proposed strategy projects the dynamics of the original system into a lower dimensional state space, which is useful when dealing with large-scale systems. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a linear and a sliding mode observers are derived, along with a characterization of their design and convergence properties

RUOLO DELL'A.F.A. PER IL SUPERAMENTO DELL'ISOLAMENTO SOCIALE DELL'ANZIANO

Il soggetto anziano all'interno della nostra società viene spesso emarginato, in quanto non più in grado di svolgere i carichi di lavoro che un tempo era in grado di sostenere e proprio per questo ritenuto un "peso". E', invece, opportuno entrare in un'ottica diversa pensando che la vecchiaia è un processo fisiologico e naturale conseguente al trascorrere del tempo a cui tutti siamo destinati. Proprio per questo bisogna porre maggior attenzione su cosa il soggetto anziano è ancora in grado di fare e non concentrarsi solo sugli aspetti negativi. L'Attività Fisica Adattata, che tiene conto delle problematiche e prevede esercizi mirati e adattati, è un ausilio per il superamento dell'isolamento sociale di cui il soggetto anziano é spesso è succube, in quanto contribuisce a garantire il mantenimento di un buono stato di salute con conseguente aumento dell'autonomia e inoltre, dato che viene svolte in gruppo, favorisce una maggior interazione sociale

From fluid and structure dynamical behaviors to vascular pathologies

International audienceIntroduction: The aim of my work is to develop biomechanical models to broaden the current knowledge of fluid and structure dynamics which are associated with the function and dysfunction of some vascular systems. This research enables to identify the potential correlations between fluid and structure behaviors and dysfunctions to bring insights on some pathologies. Over the last ten years three complementary approaches have been considered at the macroscopic level: the fluid, the structure and the tissue, allowing to describe their couplings. The works carried out at this scale have highlighted the necessity of assessing the microscopic scale to better understand some mechanisms involved in the genesis and development of pathologies. Numerous works on fluid dynamics have not only been achieved in pathological geometrical models such as arterial or valvular stenoses, arterial grafts, abdominal aortic aneurysms, aortic dissections but also in stents, endovascular and mechanical valvular prostheses. Besides, studies at the microscopic scale related to the behavior of red blood cell concentrated suspensions under flow as well as those linked with the influence of mechanical solicitations on the cellular response that acts on tissue remodeling have also been conducted. Others works on the mechanical behavior of the aortic wall have been carried out at different scales. They investigated the arterial wall microstructure at the fibers level to better understand the mechanisms that drive the macroscopic mechanical response and also to design biomimetic analog materials

Fragmentation and constitutionalisation of international law: a teleological inquiry

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityThis dissertation examines the idea of constitutionalisation of international law in light of concerns of fragmentation. It focuses on the dynamic of fragmentation in the international legal system. It shows that arguments about constitutionalism do not represent a remedy to the phenomenon of fragmentation. Consequently, the dissertation advances arguments of integrity of international law. Further, the dissertation examines new developments in constitutionalisation practices that support a normative, teleological approach to constitutionalisation in the international legal system. The dissertation offers insights on both the autonomy of the concept of international constitutionalism and the idea of fragmentation as a universally recognised characteristic of modern international law. It offers recommendations on how to address charges of fragmentation in international law in light of the dominant conception of modern international law

Senza distinzione di razza. Razzismo in controluce nel discorso pubblico italiano tra gli anni Cinquanta e Settanta

ABSTRACT No race discrimination? Racism in Italian public discourse, 1950s-1960s The hegemonic narrative developed during the post-war period described Italy as an inclusive country, where ‘racism’ concerned only the relationships between people from the North and the South of Italy. Anti-black racism seemed to (re)emerge at the end of the 20th century, when Italy was reached by an increasing number of migrants, perceived as a danger by the national community. On the contrary, this article conceives racism as a cultural, deep-rooted construction that does not follow the timing of institutional history. For this reason it states the importance for historians to focus their attention on ‘race’ in order to discuss the representation of Italians as anti-racist people since 1945. The article reads against the grain some journalistic sources from the 50s to the 70s (sources that contributed to shape and spread the hegemonic discourse), showing the discursive devices used to describe African people, and highlighting how they perpetuated the racialization processes inherited from the colonial period, enforcing social differences and hierarchies of power which forced migrants into a subaltern position. It shows also how the historical narration changes if we include previously ignored events and people, for example African people in post-war Italy, whose stories reached the public opinion only on specific occasions

Role of P2X7-Mediated inflammasome activation in glomerulonephritis

Glomerulonephritis is a major cause of kidney failure and current treatment is based on nonspecific immunosuppressive therapies. The purinergic P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) is usually not detectable in renal tissue. However, previous studies have demonstrated an increased glomerular P2X7R expression in animal models of glomerulonephritis. Furthermore, P2X7R knock-out mice have been shown to be significantly protected from antibody-mediated glomerulonephritis. P2X7R activation represents a fundamental step for the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome which leads to the processing and release of IL-1β and IL-18. The role of the inflammasome activation in glomerulonephritis is not clear yet. The work presented in this thesis describes three aspects of P2X7R activation: cytokine production, signalling cascade following ATP stimulation and inflammasome activation. My data show that macrophages from wild type mice produce higher levels of IL-1β and IL-18 compared to macrophages from P2X7 deficient mice. ATP stimulation activates several signalling pathways in macrophages. Among them, the ribosomal pathway appears to be strictly regulated by P2X7R. To investigate the role of the inflammasome activation in glomerulonephritis I have compared macrophages from the susceptible rat strain Wistar-Kyoto with macrophages from the resistant strain Lewis. WKY macrophages express higher P2X7 mRNA and protein levels, release higher levels of IL-1β and IL-18 and exhibit a greater caspase-1 activity. Similarly, WKY nephritic glomeruli show higher P2X7, IL-1β, IL-18 and caspase-1 levels compared to Lewis glomeruli. Finally, in the attempt to identify genes responsible for the inflammasome regulation, I have examined macrophages and nephritic glomeruli from congenic rats. My data seem to indicate that the susceptibility locus Crgn2 contains one or more genes that control IL-1β and IL-18 release in macrophages. Further studies are certainly required to verify the relevance of these data. The results are important in understanding the pathogenesis of glomerulonephritis and identification of new potential therapeutic targets