Cluster dynamics and innovation in SMEs: the role of culture

The territorial agglomeration of interdependent enterprises has a positive influence on the competitiveness, the performance and the development of national economies. This is a widely accepted intuition in economie theory, and it dates back to the works of Alfred Marshall. In particular, these phenomena have been depicted through the theoretical framework of the "IndustriaI Districts". Another signifieant impulse to the debate was provided by the GREMI (Groupe de Recherche Européen sur les Milieux Innovateurs), through the concepì of milieu innovateur. Later, Michael Porter's studies and dissemination works granted great visibility to the dynamics of agglomeration of industries, which since then afe better known among policy makers as "clusters". At any rate, the importance of the cultural element in the concepts of "cluster", milieu, and "district" is undeniable. This is evident also when observing the phenomenon from a historieal perspective. Evidence shows that the strength of a loeal economie system, and its eapacity to grow and 10 innovate, afe closely related 10 the pattern of knowledge (thus cultural) stratifieation, to the territory itself and to learning eapacity. Moreover, one can observe that cultural socio­economie elements afe embedded in technology, thus they play a key role when considering the dynamics of innovation process and growth opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). With this respect, the paper wìll present some relevant case studies of technical assistance earried out by in the field of industriai cooperation with several non-ED Mediterranean countries. In particular, the paper will present those case studies where initiatives were sei up with a view 10 encourage cluster dynamics in regions (i.e. Aleppo, Syria or Yazd, Iran), where the main sector of activity (textile and clothing industry) is his1orically and culturally based. In particular, several factors were involved, such as the cohesion of stakeholders for the creation of innovation, the development of new products, and the competìtive advantages for the loeal productìve system. The project approach and its conclusions confirm the fundamental role of culture and culture-based activities in the process of economie development, especially when considering SMEs, where culture represents both an embedded strategie foundatìon for the creation of cluster dynamics, and a signifieant potential for their future development affecting innovation trajectories.

In ricordo di Alfredo De Paz

Nel corso di una lunga attività critica orientata allo studio e alla comprensione dell’arte contemporanea e delle sue dinamiche, lo studioso Alfredo De Paz ha saputo adoperare e coniugare metodologie che vanno dalla sociologia alla culturologia, dal purovisibilismo alla massmediologia, applicandole a un raggio di argomenti amplissimo che va dal Romanticismo alle Avanguardie storiche. Si è quindi avvertita la necessità di ricordare, sintetizzare e rimeditare le sue riflessioni e i suoi contributi, senza trascurare tuttavia la qualità umana della sua persona. Negli interventi dei suoi ex-colleghi, qui riuniti, riaffiorano grandi figure della cultura del nostro tempo: il Loos di Ornamento e delitto, il Wölfflin dei Concetti fondamentali della storia dell’arte, l’Hauser della Storia sociale dell’arte, il McLuhan de Gli strumenti del comunicare. Si tratta solo di alcuni tra i principali autori assorbiti e sapientemente rielaborati da Alfredo De Paz lungo oltre quarant’anni di studi e ricerche, per cogliere al meglio la natura profonda e molteplice dell’arte del nostro tempo

Outer Membrane Vesicles From The Gut Microbiome Contribute to Tumor Immunity by Eliciting Cross-Reactive T Cells

A growing body of evidence supports the notion that the gut microbiome plays an important role in cancer immunity. However, the underpinning mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. One attractive hypothesis envisages that among the T cells elicited by the plethora of microbiome proteins a few exist that incidentally recognize neo-epitopes arising from cancer mutations ("molecular mimicry (MM)" hypothesis). To support MM, the human probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle was engineered with the SIINFEKL epitope (OVA-E.coli Nissle) and orally administered to C57BL/6 mice. The treatment with OVA-E.coli Nissle, but not with wild type E. coli Nissle, induced OVA-specific CD8(+) T cells and inhibited the growth of tumors in mice challenged with B16F10 melanoma cells expressing OVA. The microbiome shotgun sequencing and the sequencing of TCRs from T cells recovered from both lamina propria and tumors provide evidence that the main mechanism of tumor inhibition is mediated by the elicitation at the intestinal site of cross-reacting T cells, which subsequently reach the tumor environment. Importantly, the administration of Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs) from engineered E. coli Nissle, as well as from E. coli BL21(DE3)Delta ompA, carrying cancer-specific T cell epitopes also elicited epitope-specific T cells in the intestine and inhibited tumor growth. Overall, our data strengthen the important role of MM in tumor immunity and assign a novel function of OMVs in host-pathogen interaction. Moreover, our results pave the way to the exploitation of probiotics and OMVs engineered with tumor specific-antigens as personalized mucosal cancer vaccines

XIPE: the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer

X-ray polarimetry, sometimes alone, and sometimes coupled to spectral and temporal variability measurements and to imaging, allows a wealth of physical phenomena in astrophysics to be studied. X-ray polarimetry investigates the acceleration process, for example, including those typical of magnetic reconnection in solar flares, but also emission in the strong magnetic fields of neutron stars and white dwarfs. It detects scattering in asymmetric structures such as accretion disks and columns, and in the so-called molecular torus and ionization cones. In addition, it allows fundamental physics in regimes of gravity and of magnetic field intensity not accessible to experiments on the Earth to be probed. Finally, models that describe fundamental interactions (e.g. quantum gravity and the extension of the Standard Model) can be tested. We describe in this paper the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE), proposed in June 2012 to the first ESA call for a small mission with a launch in 2017 but not selected. XIPE is composed of two out of the three existing JET-X telescopes with two Gas Pixel Detectors (GPD) filled with a He-DME mixture at their focus and two additional GPDs filled with pressurized Ar-DME facing the sun. The Minimum Detectable Polarization is 14 % at 1 mCrab in 10E5 s (2-10 keV) and 0.6 % for an X10 class flare. The Half Energy Width, measured at PANTER X-ray test facility (MPE, Germany) with JET-X optics is 24 arcsec. XIPE takes advantage of a low-earth equatorial orbit with Malindi as down-link station and of a Mission Operation Center (MOC) at INPE (Brazil).Comment: 49 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables. Paper published in Experimental Astronomy http://link.springer.com/journal/1068

Cluster di Calcolo di OAS-Bologna e Software Scientifico disponibile

All’interno dell’ Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna (OAS), da sempre abbiamo avuto la necessità di strumenti di calcolo potenti e condivisi su cui gli scienziati possano svolgere le elaborazioni sui dati scientifici di Progetti e Missioni. Il Cluster OAS nasce proprio per soddisfare questa esigenza ed è ospitato nel Centro di Calcolo del plesso OAS presso il CNR di Bologna. Tutti gli afferenti a OAS possono chiedere di essere registrati nel sistema di autenticazione LDAP del Cluster e in questo modo accedere via Internet ai nodi di login da dove possono sottomettere le loro elaborazioni. Ci sono due modalità di usare il cluster: quella interattiva e quella batch più classica per un Cluster. L’accesso interattivo consente di lanciare in tempo reale le elaborazioni anche in maniera grafica tramite opportuni programmi si console virtuale, questo tipo di elaborazione viene svolta direttamente nei nodi di login. La modalità batch sfrutta il meccanismo a code, slurm, per sottomettere i lavori in maniera organizzata ai più potenti nodi di calcolo che non sono direttamente utilizzabili dagli utenti. Il cluster inoltre fornisce spazio di archiviazione condiviso organizzato in HOME per i dati personali degli utenti, DATA per i risultati delle elaborazioni PROGRAMMI per la memorizzazione dei moduli di elaborazione e LUSTRE per il calcolo parallelo. I vantaggi di avere un Cluster sono che gli utenti trovano i programmi e compilatori di cui necessitano già installati nelle principali versioni e hanno a disposizione una buona potenza di calcolo e spazio di storage per poter lavorare molto più agevolmente rispetto ai propri computer personali. Il Cluster OAS non ha una potenza paragonabile ai grandi Cluster Commerciali e di Ricerca, ma essendo ritagliato sulle esigenze degli afferenti a OAS risponde bene alle esigenze dell'istituto e può servire come Nave Scuola per poter poi accedere a strutture più grandi qualora fosse necessario. Nel documento saranno illustrate nel dettaglio le caratteristiche Hardware e Software del Cluster, compresi tutti i principali Software scientifici installati di cui si spiega brevemente l’utilizzo

Acute Delta Hepatitis in Italy spanning three decades (1991–2019): Evidence for the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccination campaign

Updated incidence data of acute Delta virus hepatitis (HDV) are lacking worldwide. Our aim was to evaluate incidence of and risk factors for acute HDV in Italy after the introduction of the compulsory vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) in 1991. Data were obtained from the National Surveillance System of acute viral hepatitis (SEIEVA). Independent predictors of HDV were assessed by logistic-regression analysis. The incidence of acute HDV per 1-million population declined from 3.2 cases in 1987 to 0.04 in 2019, parallel to that of acute HBV per 100,000 from 10.0 to 0.39 cases during the same period. The median age of cases increased from 27 years in the decade 1991-1999 to 44 years in the decade 2010-2019 (p < .001). Over the same period, the male/female ratio decreased from 3.8 to 2.1, the proportion of coinfections increased from 55% to 75% (p = .003) and that of HBsAg positive acute hepatitis tested for by IgM anti-HDV linearly decreased from 50.1% to 34.1% (p < .001). People born abroad accounted for 24.6% of cases in 2004-2010 and 32.1% in 2011-2019. In the period 2010-2019, risky sexual behaviour (O.R. 4.2; 95%CI: 1.4-12.8) was the sole independent predictor of acute HDV; conversely intravenous drug use was no longer associated (O.R. 1.25; 95%CI: 0.15-10.22) with this. In conclusion, HBV vaccination was an effective measure to control acute HDV. Intravenous drug use is no longer an efficient mode of HDV spread. Testing for IgM-anti HDV is a grey area requiring alert. Acute HDV in foreigners should be monitored in the years to come

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI