172 research outputs found

    Spaces for the co-governance of the urban commons. Urban public policies and community spaces: Italian Cities and more

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    The development of collaborative practices in the field of urban commons might represents an observation point for the study of democratic innovations. This issue shall be considered particularly interesting because it arises from the intersection of different fields of study: in addition to studies on democracy, the theory of the commons (Ostrom 1990) and the urban commons, studies on local co- governance, active citizenship (Morlino & Gelli 2010; Bang 2005;). Research efforts on the open government framework, of which collaboration is one of the constitutive dimensions (Lathrop & Ruma 2010; de Blasio & Sorice 2016) also shows how the creation of public-private-civic/commons partnership (Foster & Iaione 2016) as a component of this variable. Finally, the body of scientific knowledge focused on cities is extensive and rapidly expanding, stressing the role and power that cities will exercise in the 21st century, and the challenges that the urban context pose for democracy (UN Habitat 2016; Sassen 2014). The analysis of policies and projects addressing urban commons, involving different actors that aim at building forms of public-private-civic partnerships and ultimately achieving forms of urban co-governance might shed lights on the emersion of a different analytical framework for studying and practicing urban democracy. This topic is also taken into account because it implies the government's action to be directed to the development of a culture of collaboration with citizens, aimed at enhancing their contribution to the general interest, which is not uniformly spread across and within cities. The study of democratic innovations and the quality of democracy has highlighted the role of equality concerns in the institutional design (Font 2014) and the impact of institutional design itself on the dimensions of the quality of democracy, such as responsiveness and equality (Pogrebinsci 2013)

    City Science for Urban Challenges

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    Between January 2019 and July 2020, over 35 European cities formed the City Science Initiative (CSI) to explore how the science-policy interface operates in light of the emergent urban challenges and crises. It seems that the impact of current national and EU funded research funded programs needs to be enhanced for tackling cities urban challenges. This report aims to inspire people in municipalities, universities, networks, different layers of government and the European Commission to develop a variety of science-policy interfaces for handling of urban challenges in the near future. The CSI pilot collaboration has brought together European small, medium and large sized cities, different services of the European Commission, different networks of cities and funding programmes. The gathered City Science Officers reflected on what they need and exchanged current practice and insight. To bridge the existing gap between science and policy, new methodologies need to be developed in all phases of the research process. The report argues that design as a discipline can help to build bridges, solutions and communication strategies for such science-policy interfaces. The CSI concludes that the science-policy interface needs to improve significantly and soon. Cities are not rich and need to be efficient in how they develop policy for making people’s living environment healthy and safe. Collaboration between cities, facilitated by European institutions and networks, is crucial for handling urban challenges and unanticipated crises as also the COVID 19 pandemic indicates

    Molecular and Clinicopathologic Characterization of Intravenous Leiomyomatosis

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    Intravenous leiomyomatosis (IVL) is an unusual uterine smooth muscle proliferation that can be associated with aggressive clinical behavior despite a histologically benign appearance. It has some overlapping molecular characteristics with both uterine leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma based on limited genetic data. In this study, we assessed the clinical and morphological characteristics of 28 IVL and their correlation with molecular features and protein expression, using array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and Cyclin D1, p16, phosphorylated-Rb, SMARCB1, SOX10, CAIX, SDHB and FH immunohistochemistry. The most common morphologies were cellular (n=15), usual (n=11) and vascular (n=5; including 3 cellular IVL showing both vascular and cellular features). Among the immunohistochemical findings, the most striking was that all IVL showed differential expression of either p16 or Cyclin D1 in comparison to surrounding non-neoplastic tissue. Cytoplasmic phosphorylated-Rb was present in all but one IVL with hyalinization. SMARCB1, FH and SDHB were retained; S0X10 and CAIX were not expressed. The most common genetic alterations involved 1p (39%), 22q (36%), 2q (29%), 1q (25%), 13q (21%) and 14q (21%). Hierarchical clustering analysis of recurrent aberrations revealed 3 molecular groups: Group 1 (29%) and 2 (18%) with associated del(22q) and group 3 (18%) with del(10q). The remaining IVL had non-specific or no alterations by aCGH. Genomic index scores were calculated for all cases and showed no significant difference between the 14 IVL associated with aggressive clinical behavior (extrauterine extension or recurrence) and those without (median scores 5.15 vs 3.5). Among the 5 IVL associated with recurrence, 4 had a vascular morphology and 3 had alterations of 8q. Recurrent chromosome alterations detected herein overlap with those observed in the spectrum of uterine smooth muscle tumors and involve genes implicated in mesenchymal tumors at different sites with distinct morphological features
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