Sotto mentite spoglie. Gender studies in Italia

Questo saggio riassume alcune delle principali caratteristiche e contraddizioni degli studi di genere in Italia: il grande ritardo nella legittimazione istituzionale, l’ambivalenza delle accademiche femministe, la fragile struttura delle pratiche didattiche universitarie (rigidità delle divisioni disciplinari e dei curricoli, eccessiva variabilità dei syllabus, scarsa partecipazione attiva degli studenti ai processi di apprendimento). Ottimi programmi specialistici coesistono con la scarsità di corsi introduttivi presso alcune delle principali università italiane. È questa l’eredità di una lunga tradizione italiana: l’insegnamento degli studi di genere travestiti da altro, presentati — dagli anni ’70 fino al 2000 — ‘sotto mentite spoglie’.Key issues and contradictions of Italian gender studies are put under scrutiny in this essay: the big delay of their institutional legitimacy, the ambivalence of feminist academics, the weaknesses of college didactic practices (rigidity of disciplinary boundaries and curricula, extreme variability of syllabuses, poor students’ engagement in learning processes). Wonderful specialist programs coexist with shortage of introductory courses among the main universities. This is the heritage of a long Italian tradition: the teaching of gender studies en travesti; from the 1970’s until 2000 they have been presented ‘under disguise’

Slittamenti di Hegel oltre la filosofia. Brevi considerazioni su antidiscipline in lingua inglese

Abstract not availabl

Integrability of graph combinatorics via random walks and heaps of dimers

We investigate the integrability of the discrete non-linear equation governing the dependence on geodesic distance of planar graphs with inner vertices of even valences. This equation follows from a bijection between graphs and blossom trees and is expressed in terms of generating functions for random walks. We construct explicitly an infinite set of conserved quantities for this equation, also involving suitable combinations of random walk generating functions. The proof of their conservation, i.e. their eventual independence on the geodesic distance, relies on the connection between random walks and heaps of dimers. The values of the conserved quantities are identified with generating functions for graphs with fixed numbers of external legs. Alternative equivalent choices for the set of conserved quantities are also discussed and some applications are presented.Comment: 38 pages, 15 figures, uses epsf, lanlmac and hyperbasic

An Analytical Analysis of CDT Coupled to Dimer-like Matter

We consider a model of restricted dimers coupled to two-dimensional causal dynamical triangulations (CDT), where the dimer configurations are restricted in the sense that they do not include dimers in regions of high curvature. It is shown how the model can be solved analytically using bijections with decorated trees. At a negative critical value for the dimer fugacity the model undergoes a phase transition at which the critical exponent associated to the geometry changes. This represents the first account of an analytical study of a matter model with two-dimensional interactions coupled to CDT.Comment: 12 pages, many figures, shortened, as publishe

Understanding the economic impact of BXW and its management practices in East and Central Africa

Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is a widespread banana disease in East and Central Africa (ECA). It has the ability to cause up to 100% yield loss, severely compromising food security and livelihoods for banana-based farming households. There are no BXW-resistant varieties, and cultural management practices offer the only means of control. However, adoption of these practices by farmers has been lower than expected, mainly because of their high cost and labour-intensiveness. There are also other actors, both in public and private sectors, playing an important role in the disease management and facing different costs related to it. Our literature review reveals that a cost analysis of the banana value chain as a whole is missing. By this we mean consideration of not only farmers, who have to sustain the cost of management practices, but also other stakeholders involved, as national and local governments, research institutions and agricultural extensionists. In this study we identify economic actors involved in the banana value chain together with their costs related to the disease management and propose a cost analysis conceptual framework. Further, we review determinants of adoption of the BXW management practices and finally relate them to the estimates of costs of inaction (losses due to BXW spread). In this way, we present a comprehensive picture of costs of BXW spread vis-a-vis the costs of management practices and indicate possible ways to tip the balance in favour of the disease eradication. Ongoing research needs to carry out ex-post analyses on different costs sustained by the stakeholders of banana value chain, and ex ante analyses to predict future scenarios which represent possible alternatives, depending on whether and how the disease will be managed in the coming years. Those results will better inform decision-makers at national, regional, and international levels and provide support in designing strategies to cope with the BXW spread across the ECA region

Distance statistics in large toroidal maps

We compute a number of distance-dependent universal scaling functions characterizing the distance statistics of large maps of genus one. In particular, we obtain explicitly the probability distribution for the length of the shortest non-contractible loop passing via a random point in the map, and that for the distance between two random points. Our results are derived in the context of bipartite toroidal quadrangulations, using their coding by well-labeled 1-trees, which are maps of genus one with a single face and appropriate integer vertex labels. Within this framework, the distributions above are simply obtained as scaling limits of appropriate generating functions for well-labeled 1-trees, all expressible in terms of a small number of basic scaling functions for well-labeled plane trees.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, minor corrections, new added reference

Dibattito su Storie di imprese

Storie di imprese (TAO Digital Library, 2010), dedicated to the organizational transformations of five enterprises (Fiat Auto, Finmeccanica, Ciba Specialty chemicals, Zurich, Poste Italiane) during the 2000-2010 decade, stimulated a wide debate. This publication, which collects the commentaries and discussions of three seminar that took place in different Universities with the participation of scholars from different disciplines, continues the reflection about the crucial question: How do enterprises change

Combinatorics of bicubic maps with hard particles

We present a purely combinatorial solution of the problem of enumerating planar bicubic maps with hard particles. This is done by use of a bijection with a particular class of blossom trees with particles, obtained by an appropriate cutting of the maps. Although these trees have no simple local characterization, we prove that their enumeration may be performed upon introducing a larger class of "admissible" trees with possibly doubly-occupied edges and summing them with appropriate signed weights. The proof relies on an extension of the cutting procedure allowing for the presence on the maps of special non-sectile edges. The admissible trees are characterized by simple local rules, allowing eventually for an exact enumeration of planar bicubic maps with hard particles. We also discuss generalizations for maps with particles subject to more general exclusion rules and show how to re-derive the enumeration of quartic maps with Ising spins in the present framework of admissible trees. We finally comment on a possible interpretation in terms of branching processes.Comment: 41 pages, 19 figures, tex, lanlmac, hyperbasics, epsf. Introduction and discussion/conclusion extended, minor corrections, references adde