Study of the behavior of organic and organometallic crystalline materials

During my PhD I have studied the polymorphism of TPB and I have synthesized and characterized new metal organic framework (MOF)

Extruded linseed and linseed oil as alternative to soybean meal and soybean oil in diets for fattening lambs

The study evaluated the effects of replacing soybean meal and soybean oil respectively with extruded linseed and linseed oil on the productive performances and meat quality traits in lambs slaughtered at 90 days. Lambs weaned at 40 days were divided into 3 groups (N.=10) fed ad libitum for 6 weeks as follows: C (control, commercial feed containing soybean meal and soybean oil); LO (feed containing linseed oil instead of soybean oil); EL (feed containing extruded linseed). Meat quality traits were evaluated on the Longissimus lumborum (Ll) and Semimembranosus (Sm) muscles. The lambs' growth performances and the slaughtering and sectioning data did not differ between groups. The redness of meat was significantly higher (P<0.05) for the LO and EL groups compared to the control for both the muscles tested. Ll meat samples of the EL group showed a greater cooking loss compared to LO (P<0.01) and to the control (P<0.05). The amount of linoleic acid in raw Ll meat samples was significantly (P<0.01) lower in both LO and EL groups with respect to control. The concentration of α-linolenic acid was significantly (P<0.01) higher in the EL group and this positively affected the total content of ω3 as well as the ω6/ω3 ratio

Colorectal Cancer Stage at Diagnosis Before vs During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy

IMPORTANCE Delays in screening programs and the reluctance of patients to seek medical attention because of the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 could be associated with the risk of more advanced colorectal cancers at diagnosis. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was associated with more advanced oncologic stage and change in clinical presentation for patients with colorectal cancer. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This retrospective, multicenter cohort study included all 17 938 adult patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer from March 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021 (pandemic period), and from January 1, 2018, to February 29, 2020 (prepandemic period), in 81 participating centers in Italy, including tertiary centers and community hospitals. Follow-up was 30 days from surgery. EXPOSURES Any type of surgical procedure for colorectal cancer, including explorative surgery, palliative procedures, and atypical or segmental resections. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was advanced stage of colorectal cancer at diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were distant metastasis, T4 stage, aggressive biology (defined as cancer with at least 1 of the following characteristics: signet ring cells, mucinous tumor, budding, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, and lymphangitis), stenotic lesion, emergency surgery, and palliative surgery. The independent association between the pandemic period and the outcomes was assessed using multivariate random-effects logistic regression, with hospital as the cluster variable. RESULTS A total of 17 938 patients (10 007 men [55.8%]; mean [SD] age, 70.6 [12.2] years) underwent surgery for colorectal cancer: 7796 (43.5%) during the pandemic period and 10 142 (56.5%) during the prepandemic period. Logistic regression indicated that the pandemic period was significantly associated with an increased rate of advanced-stage colorectal cancer (odds ratio [OR], 1.07; 95%CI, 1.01-1.13; P = .03), aggressive biology (OR, 1.32; 95%CI, 1.15-1.53; P &lt; .001), and stenotic lesions (OR, 1.15; 95%CI, 1.01-1.31; P = .03). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This cohort study suggests a significant association between the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the risk of a more advanced oncologic stage at diagnosis among patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer and might indicate a potential reduction of survival for these patients

Smart road e guida autonoma. Il quadro delle responsabilità

Da oltre un anno, sulle strade di Parma e di Torino, circolano i veicoli a guida autonoma della società Vislab. I test, autorizzati dal Ministero Infrastrutture e Trasporti, procedono in perfetta regola, senza provocare incidenti o inconvenienti. Queste sperimentazioni aprono un orizzonte straordinario innanzitutto per la sicurezza. È stato infatti dimostrato (dati UE) che il 94% degli incidenti stradali dipendono da fattori legati al conducente: guida distratta o alterata da sostanze, eccesso di velocità, mancato rispetto della segnaletica stradale. Tutti fattori che la guida automatica del veicolo potrebbe neutralizzare, trasformando quindi in realtà quel tanto auspicato “futuro a vittime zero”

RESILIENCE APPROACH TO PUBLIC POLICIES: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK

Today more than ever there is the necessity to deal with the meaning of a word and, at the same time, a concept, “resilience”, which has gradually become the “key-concept of an era” due to its symbolic and evocative value, in a time when its most frequent interpretation has been connected to an other word: “crisis”. 2015 has been defined “the year of resilience” by the heads of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). Twenty years after the terrible Kobe earthquake, which led in 2005 (during the UN Conference at Hyogo in Japan) to the Definition of the Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters, the international community wonders what lessons can be drawn from the new crises and catastrophes, and identifies the resilience as the key-concept in order to face these challenges. In fact, the resilience implies elasticity and the ability to adapt by the corpora, the passions, the entire siystems and territories. These qualities today more than ever are valuable to get out of the trap represented by a crisis, an epochal crisis which arose from the financialisation of the economy and the globalization of markets. Globalization has betrayed, in fact, our expectations of prosperity and economic stability. It has produced innumerable positive effects, but has also brought much fragility and vulnerability, aggravating the problem of the struggle for resources and survival, rather than solving it, as Keynes foresaw and hoped for his grandchildren. Nowadays, “the grandchildren of Keynes” – or should we say his “great-grandchildren”, because since the first edition (1931) of the famous essay Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren have already elapsed more than eighty years – undoubtedly live in a bigger and more open world than the one in which their illustrious ancestor lived, but the only result which they have obtained is to make it much more dangerous, uncertain and unstable. It is enough to look around to realize it: the technological revolution overwhelms the economic and social systems; societies are increasingly complex and sophisticated, but also more unequal, more expulsive and more exposed to the meltdown; the economic crisis weakens the people and impoverishes countries; natural disasters, still rising, are often caused by the direct or indirect human action and produce devastating physical and economic damages; the progressive decrease in births and the aging population put a strain on the sustainability of welfare and health care systems in the rich and industrialized countries. The traditional political solutions, namely the creation of corporative and universalistic national welfare systems, have gradually become unsustainable because of the spending review. Moreover, the progressive evolution towards regional and liberal welfare systems undermines their redistributive and inclusive function, especially because of the progressive change in the composition of the population determined by migration. The government of these processes is entrusted to a public sector in continuous evolution because of the reorganization of local government, which in the name of subsidiarity and adequacy is taking shape in some big European countries. It is necessary therefore a change, a new approach to the problems of the world, leading to a reversal or, alternatively, to a recovery of the original push, which could eventually lead to safety the “Keynes’s grandchildren”, outside the trap in which they remained imprisoned. However, to achieve this goal it is necessary that contemporary societies become aware of the ongoing changes and adapt to them quickly and consistently. The key to everything, the path to salvation, is now more than ever the resilience, and the ability to respond to the uncertainty and changes by implementing adaptive strategies and constantly creating new forms of equilibrium, other than that of departure. This is the only method which can help us to “tame the beast” and persuade it to change the trajectory, forcing it to do what we want, that is, to increase the welfare and improve the living conditions of the people inhabiting the world, especially of the poorest, without prejudice to democracy and social justice. This paper focuses, in a socio-economic and multilevel perspective, on the applicability of a resilience approach to public policies

RESILIENCE APPROACH IN PUBLIC POLICIES. A multidisciplinary framework to study the reactive, adaptive and transformative capacities of individuals and of legal and socio-economic systems.

The book contains a broad collect of contributions on the different meanings and applications of the concept of resilience, trying to identify the techniques and the methodologies of analysis most adequate to measure the phenomenon and identify its determinants, the possible tools for prevention and public policy measures to strengthen elasticity and adaptability of individuals and social relations among them, as well as of urban systems, territorial and environmental to adversity created by the nature (catastrophic events caused by climate change, earthquakes, etc.), the economic environment (economic or financial crises, periods of recession, etc.) and social context (massive affluence of immigrants, urban and social changes determined by phenomena of shrinking populations and houses, etc.). The papers collected in the book show the first results of a research project on "Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability. Development, Assessment and Implementation of Public Policies for Adaptive Governance of Complexity", coordinated by Prof. Salvatore Villani from the University of Naples Federico II. The research project carried out with the collaboration of experts and teachers coming from Italian Universities (University of Naples Federico II, UPM – International University of Milan, University of Sannio and University of Teramo) and from the Universities of Exeter, Görlitz, Kobe and Miami

A management system of territorial planning and mobility: a case study

AbstractThis paper proposes the design of a management system of territorial planning and mobility, analyzing the relationships between the urban structure and mobility data from ISTAT statistics and field surveys.The preliminary step involves the calibration of a matrix of data mobility through an optimization model. The next step develops a system implemented in a GIS environment aimed to shape the spatial analysis of territorial features with determined mobility data. Using GIS, thematic maps can be prepared to display the mobility flows that take place in the area.The study is mainly aimed at identifying relationships between territorial and mobility variables.The expected results may help to define the strategies required for the planning of urban public transport and for location of suburban interchange nodes