The Ideal City: Space and Time (from the Renaissance to Smart Cities)

The phenomenon of Smart Cities finds an important conceptual parallel with the idea of the “perfec city” that characterized the imagination, art and philosophy of the European Renaissance. This similarity can help to identify some key points that are essential to understand the Smart Cities from a legal point of view. In particular, it allows us to highlight the need to put the “space” and “time” factors at the center of the discourse, in order to “give them back to citizens” as privileged objects of the city government

I dati aperti come strumento di partecipazione al procedimento amministrativo

Il contributo propone un’indagine del fenomeno dei dati aperti nel contesto procedimentale. Come è noto, la pratica del c.d. Open data, è stata enucleata inizialmente nel Memorandum Obama sull’Open Government del 2009, e successivamente è stata assimilata negli ordinamenti di altri Paesi, fra cui l’Italia; essa in origine corrisponde ad un’idea di trasparenza “totale” attraverso la messa a disposizione libera dei contenuti delle banche dati pubbliche. L’espressione “open data” ha sostanzialmente tre accezioni, che corrispondono a tre angolature del medesimo fenomeno: un’accezione tecnica (che indica il formato aperto dei files atto a favorirne il riutilizzo in tutte le piattaforme); un’accezione giuridica (che indica l’assenza di copyright e l’assoggettamento ad una licenza di uso libero); un’accezione politica, più ampia (che indica la pratica spontanea di condivisione totale delle banche dati, anche al di là degli obblighi di pubblicazione previsti dalla legge). Il concetto di “dati aperti” come sintesi di queste tre letture è oggi contenuto nel Codice dell’Amministrazione digitale (d. lgs. 7 marzo 2005, n. 82), in particolare all’articolo 52, e sul piano operativo trova approdo nel sito web www.dati.gov.it. Nel contesto amministrativo italiano, l’uso dei dati aperti ha una valenza anzitutto extraprocedimentale. Tuttavia, esso può in potenza assumere un valore anche strettamente interprocedimentale. L’analisi qui proposta si concentrerà su quest’ultimo profilo di analisi. L’uso dei dati aperti in ambito procedimentale deve essere trattato distintamente su due versanti: in primo luogo, la consultazione da parte del cittadino, ai fini della conoscenza di informazioni utili da “spendere” in sede di partecipazione; in secondo luogo, l’uso da parte dell’amministrazione procedente per fini istruttori. Ne primo caso il fenomeno dell’open data va a sovrapporsi all’accesso interprocedimentale (art. 10 della legge n. 241 del 1990); nel secondo caso può diventare strumento alternativo all’acquisizione d’ufficio (art. 18 della legge). Certamente in nessuna delle due ipotesi il ricorso alle banche dati aperte sostituisce il corrispondente istituto procedimentale, ma piuttosto si affianca ad esso in ipotesi differenti. Dal punto di vista normativo, a fronte dell’assimilazione del concetto di open data nel Codice dell’amministrazione digitale, viceversa, la legge n. 241 del 1990 invece rimane pienamente in vigore nel disciplinare nelle forme preesistenti tanto il diritto d’accesso quanto l’acquisizione d’ufficio. La logica dei dati aperti può però condurre ad una sensibile ridefinizione dell’ambito d’azione degli istituti procedimentali in questione, laddove la presenza di banche dati libere e aperte permetta di attingere ad informazioni che in passato si sarebbero potute ottenere solo attraverso l’accesso del cittadino o l’accesso interamministrativo. Si pensi, solo a titolo di esempio, ai dati di tipo cartografico o a informazioni ambientali, che ogg i sono oggetto privilegiato dell’open data. Si è venuto così a creare nel nostri sistema un doppio regime, fra accesso ex legge 241 e uso dei dati aperti, i cui confini tuttavia non sono delineati in modo preciso dalle leggi, e la cui definizione è quindi rimessa all’interprete. Occorre osservare peraltro che solo in parte l’uso dei dati aperti è disciplinato attraverso l’istituto dell’accesso civico (art. 5 del d.lgs. 14 marzo 2013, n. 33), in quanto quest’ultimo attiene alle informazioni la cui pubblicazione nel web è obbligatoria, mentre il fenomeno dell’open data può estendersi a banche dati messe a disposizione - come si osservava inizialmente - al di là degli obblighi di legge. Da qui la necessità di comprendere a pieno quanto, come e in relazione a quali ambiti la presenza di data base pubblici e aperti circoscrive l’applicazione degli istituti del diritto di accesso e dell’acquisizione d’ufficio, e quali ripercussioni giuridiche ha ciò in ambito procedimentale. Su questi profili si incentrerà il nucleo dell’analisi qui proposta

Unleashing Fine-Grained Parallelism on Embedded Many-Core Accelerators with Lightweight OpenMP Tasking

In recent years, programmable many-core accelerators (PMCAs) have been introduced in embedded systems to satisfy stringent performance/Watt requirements. This has increased the urge for programming models capable of effectively leveraging hundreds to thousands of processors. Task-based parallelism has the potential to provide such capabilities, offering high-level abstractions to outline abundant and irregular parallelism in embedded applications. However, efficiently supporting this programming paradigm on embedded PMCAs is challenging, due to the large time and space overheads it introduces. In this paper we describe a lightweight OpenMP tasking runtime environment (RTE) design for a state-of-the-art embedded PMCA, the Kalray MPPA 256. We provide an exhaustive characterization of the costs of our RTE, considering both synthetic workload and real programs, and we compare to several other tasking RTEs. Experimental results confirm that our solution achieves near-ideal parallelization speedups for tasks as small as 5K cycles, and an average speedup of 12 × for real benchmarks, which is 60% higher than what we observe with the original Kalray OpenMP implementation

L’intelligenza artificiale “istituzionale”: limiti (attuali) e potenzialità

Artificial intelligence in this historical period is becoming something concrete and present in commonly used electronic devices, although in an embryonal form. However, despite an extensive use of neural network systems and machine learning in the commercial Internet, these technologies are not currently used by public administrations in its authoritative activity. This can be explained due to the particular nature of the decisions issued by the administrative authority, but also due to some weaknesses and immaturity of the current artificial intelligence systems, which could be overcome in the near future

Longitudinal and Transverse Wakefields Simulations and Studies in Dielectric-Coated Circular Waveguides

In recent years, there has been a growing interest and rapid experimental progress on the use of e.m. fields produced by electron beams passing through dielectric-lined structures and on the effects they might have on the drive and witness bunches. Short ultra-relativistic electron bunches can excite very intense wakefields, which provide an efficient acceleration through the dielectric wakefield accelerators (DWA) scheme with higher gradient than that in the conventional RF LINAC. These beams can also generate high power narrow band THz coherent Cherenkov radiation. These high gradient fields may create strong instabilities on the beam itself causing issues in plasma acceleration experiments (PWFA), plasma lensing experiments and in recent beam diagnostic applications. In this work we report the results of the simulations and studies of the wakefields generated by electron beams at different lengths and charges passing on and off axis in dielectric-coated circular waveguides. We also propose a semi-analytical method to calculate these high gradient fields without resorting to time consuming simulations

Short stem total hip arthroplasty for osteonecrosis of the femoral head in patients 60 years or younger: A 3- to 10-year follow-up study

Background: In young patients with osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH), short-stem total hip arthroplasty (THA) could allow a potential advantage in preserving metaphyseal bone-stock, when revision surgery might become necessary. However, only a few studies have evaluated the outcome of short-stem THAs in ONFH. We reviewed the prospectively collected data of a cementless partial neck-retaining short-stem with ceramic-on-ceramic bearings in ONFH patients. Methods: Thirty patients (37 hips) younger than 60 years (mean age at surgery, 51.5 years) underwent THA with the NANOS (R) stem (Smith and Nephew, Marl, Germany) from January 2006 to December 2012. All patients received a 32-mm or 36 mm ceramic femoral head. Harris hip score, WOMAC and UCLA activity score were recorded. Postoperative radiographs were evaluated for bone-implant fixation and osteolysis. Further analysis correlated clinical findings with implants characteristics and patient demographics at mean 5.6 years' follow-up (range, 3-10 years). Results: The clinical and functional results improved significantly (p < 0.001). At latest follow-up, mean HHS, WOMAC, and UCLA activity scores were 90 (range, 71-100), 94 (range, 76-100), and 6.3 (range, 4-10) points, respectively. The diameter of the femoral head did not influence the clinical outcome (p = 0.661). All hips showed bone ingrowth fixation of the acetabular and femoral components. No patients showed osteolysis. No revision for any reason was performed during the study period. Conclusions: The excellent clinical results and fixation pattern at mean 5.6 years' follow-up reveal this implant as a reliable option in advanced stage of ONFH either. Further investigations are crucial to determine the long-term durability and to assess whether the association of ceramic-on-ceramic bearings, can be useful to achieve longer survivorship and lower complications rates

Optical issues for the diagnostic stations for the ELI-NP compton gamma source

A high brightness electron Linac is being built in the Compton Gamma Source at the ELI Nuclear Physics facility in Romania. To achieve the design luminosity, a train of 32 bunches, 16 ns spaced, with a nominal charge of 250 pC will collide with the laser beam in the interaction point. Electron beam spot size is measured with optical transition radiation (OTR) profile monitors. In order to measure the beam properties, the optical radiation detecting system must have the necessary accuracy and resolution. This paper deals with the studies of different optic configurations to achieve the magnification, resolution and accuracy in order to measure very small beam (below 30 μm) or to study the angular distribution of the OTR and therefore the energy of the beam. Several configurations of the optical detection line will be studied both with simulation tools (e.g. Zemax) and experimentally. The paper will deal also with the sensibility of optic system (in terms of depth of field, magnification and resolution) to systematic error

Task-oriented exercises improve disability of working patients with surgically-treated proximal humeral fractures. A randomized controlled trial with one-year follow-up

Background: General physiotherapy is a common means of rehabilitation after surgery for proximal humeral fracture (PHF). Better-targeted exercises seem worthy of investigation and the aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a rehabilitation program including task-oriented exercises in improving disability, pain, and quality of life in patients after a PHF. Methods: By means of a randomized controlled trial with one-year follow-up, 70 working patients (mean age of 49 ± 11 years; 41 females), who were selected for open reduction and internal fixation with plates caused by PHF, were randomized to be included in an experimental (n = 35) or control group (n = 35). There was a permuted-block randomization plan, and a list of program codes was previously created; subsequently, an automatic assignment system was used to conceal the allocation. The first group underwent a supervised rehabilitation program of task-oriented exercises based on patients’ specific job activities, and occupational therapy. The second group underwent general physiotherapy, including supervised mobility, strengthening and stretching exercises. Both groups individually followed programs of 60-min session three times per week for 12 weeks in the outpatient setting. The Disability Arm Shoulder Hand questionnaire (DASH; scores range from 0 to 100; primary outcome), a Pain intensity Numerical Rating Scale (scores range 0 to 10; secondary outcomes), and the Short-Form Health Survey (scores range from 0 to 100; secondary outcomes) assessed the interventions. Participants were evaluated before surgery, before and after rehabilitation (primary endpoint), and at the one-year follow-up (secondary endpoint). A linear mixed model analysis for repeated measures was carried out for each outcome measure (p &lt; 0.05). Results: Time, group and time by group showed significant effects for all outcome measures in favour of the experimental group. The DASH and the DASH work achieved clinically important between-group differences of 16.0 points (95% confidence interval [C.I.] 7.3 to 24.7) and 19.7 (95% C.I. 9.0 to 30.5) at follow-up, respectively. The NRS achieved a between-group difference of 2.9 (95% C.I. 1.0 to 3.9) at follow-up. As for SF-36, there were between-group differences ranging from 17.9 to 37.0 at follow-up. Conclusions: A rehabilitation program based on task-oriented exercises was useful in improving disability, pain, and quality of life in working patients after PHFs. Improvements lasted for at least 12 months. Trial registration: On 16/12/2019, the trial was retrospectively registered in the ISRCTN registry with the ID number 17996552