IL PATRIMONIO IMMOBILIARE PUBBLICO IN ITALIA: DALLA DISMISSIONE ALLA VALORIZZAZIONE. EVOLUZIONE DELLA NORMATIVA E PROSPETTIVE FUTURE

The management of the public real estate has represented a relevant issue for the legislator since the unification of Italy. It has been for several years the core of political debates having a direct impact on national economy. This paper intends to collect the legislative proceedings and political guidelines adopted regarding the decommissioning and valorisation of public real estate assets revealing the prevailing characters that guided legislative interventions. Over time, a significant regulatory layering has taken place overloading the bureaucratic procedures leading to a slowdown in the valorisation processes. The paper suggests the adoption of unified and structured protocols capable of rapidly implementing the most suitable valorisation strategies

UNA PRIMA RIFLESSIONE SUGLI ESITI DELLA RICOSTRUZIONE POST-SISMICA ABRUZZESE

The dilapidation of building stock that has come to characterise the hillside and mountainous settlements of the region of Abruzzo in recent decades is a sign of forms of economic decline and negative demographic trends. In this situation, it is difficult to imagine occasions for a turn in events triggered by endogenous forces; instead, there is a sense of the need for public intervention and targeted economic-social policies. Indeed, in settlements lacking important resources for tourism and/or infrastructures for winter sports, it is very difficult to imagine their recovery through interventions entrusted solely to the market: often negligible property values suggest the inconvenience of any building requalification project in relation to asset or income-based objectives of valorisation. The reconstruction process put into place after the 2009 earthquake could have been interpreted and implemented within a vaster programme of interventions based on clear and defined strategic capable of guaranteeing prospects for the long-term relaunching and development of damaged areas. The initial idea behind the Reconstruction Plans appeared to confirm a similar approach. In reality, reconstruction is proceeding as a simple programme of building recovery. The paper develops this thesis by attempting to demonstrate how after a decade later the 2009 earthquake, the funding provided to date has not produced particularly relevant effects on local economics and demographics

Dechlorination of iron artefacts: a novel approach

The dechlorination process on iron artefacts of archaeological interest has been performed by using alkaline medium. We demonstrated that the use of mild ultrasonic bath fastens the dechlorination process. An analytical procedure based on Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy was developed to detect the amount of residual chlorine. The results highlight the potentiality of the proposed method

Genetic Analysis of the Functions and Interactions of Components of the LevQRST Signal Transduction Complex of Streptococcus mutans

Transcription of the genes for a fructan hydrolase (fruA) and a fructose/mannose sugar:phosphotransferase permease (levDEFG) in Streptococcus mutans is activated by a four-component regulatory system consisting of a histidine kinase (LevS), a response regulator (LevR) and two carbohydrate-binding proteins (LevQT). The expression of the fruA and levD operons was at baseline in a levQ mutant and substantially decreased in a levT null mutant, with lower expression with the cognate inducers fructose or mannose, but slightly higher expression in glucose or galactose. A strain expressing levQ with two point mutations (E170A/F292S) did not require inducers to activate gene expression and displayed altered levD expression when growing on various carbohydrates, including cellobiose. Linker-scanning (LS) mutagenesis was used to generate three libraries of mutants of levQ, levS and levT that displayed various levels of altered substrate specificity and of fruA/levD gene expression. The data support that LevQ and LevT are intimately involved in the sensing of carbohydrate signals, and that LevQ appears to be required for the integrity of the signal transduction complex, apparently by interacting with the sensor kinase LevS

Prima dei Sanniti. Le necropoli dell’Abruzzo meridionale

L’esame della morfologia del territorio, integrato con i dati forniti da documenti d’archivio e da recenti ricognizioni, permette di delineare gli ambiti culturali dell’Abruzzo meridionale pertinenti ai popoli italici noti rispettivamente come Frentani, Lucani settentrionali e Sanniti (Pentri). La conseguente proposta di ripartizione in zone è quindi supportata da uno studio dei materiali archeologici, provenienti da scavi estensivi e scoperte fortuite, in base al quale sembra possibile far risalire già al primo arcaismo quelle differenziazoni nell’ambito dell’ethnos safino che hanno condotto alla formazione dei vari gruppi tribale noti dalle fonti.Faustoferri Amalia. Prima dei Sanniti. Le necropoli dell’Abruzzo meridionale. In: Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Antiquité, tome 115, n°1. 2003. Antiquité. pp. 85-107

Real Estate Values and Urban Quality: A Multiple Linear Regression Model for Defining an Urban Quality Index

Urban quality, real estate values and property taxation are different factors that participate in defining how a city is governed. Real estate values are largely determined by the characteristics of urban environments in which properties are located and, thus, by quality of the location. Beginning with these considerations, this paper explores the theme of urban quality through a study of property values that seeks to define all physical (and thus measurable) characteristics that participate in defining urban quality. For this purpose, a multiple linear regression model was developed for reading the residential real estate market in the city of Pescara (Italy). In addition to the intrinsic characteristics of a property (floor area, period of construction/renovation, level, building typology and presence of a garage), input also included extrinsic data represented by the Urban Quality Index. Scientific literature on this theme tells us that many independent variables influence real estate prices, although all are linked to a set of intrinsic characteristics (property-specific) and to a set of extrinsic characteristics (specific to the urban context in which the property is located) and, thus, to the quality of urban environments. The index developed was produced by the analytical and simultaneous reading of four macrosystems with the greatest impact on urban quality: environment, infrastructure, settlement and services (each with its own subsystems). The results obtained made it possible to redefine proportional ratios between various parts of the city of Pescara, based on a specific Urban Quality Index, and to recalculate market property values used to calculate taxes in an attempt to resolve the inequality that persists in this field

Real Estate Values and Urban Quality: A Multiple Linear Regression Model for Defining an Urban Quality Index

Urban quality, real estate values and property taxation are different factors that participate in defining how a city is governed. Real estate values are largely determined by the characteristics of urban environments in which properties are located and, thus, by quality of the location. Beginning with these considerations, this paper explores the theme of urban quality through a study of property values that seeks to define all physical (and thus measurable) characteristics that participate in defining urban quality. For this purpose, a multiple linear regression model was developed for reading the residential real estate market in the city of Pescara (Italy). In addition to the intrinsic characteristics of a property (floor area, period of construction/renovation, level, building typology and presence of a garage), input also included extrinsic data represented by the Urban Quality Index. Scientific literature on this theme tells us that many independent variables influence real estate prices, although all are linked to a set of intrinsic characteristics (property-specific) and to a set of extrinsic characteristics (specific to the urban context in which the property is located) and, thus, to the quality of urban environments. The index developed was produced by the analytical and simultaneous reading of four macrosystems with the greatest impact on urban quality: environment, infrastructure, settlement and services (each with its own subsystems). The results obtained made it possible to redefine proportional ratios between various parts of the city of Pescara, based on a specific Urban Quality Index, and to recalculate market property values used to calculate taxes in an attempt to resolve the inequality that persists in this field

Smx Nuclease Is the Major, Low-pH-Inducible Apurinic/Apyrimidinic Endonuclease in Streptococcus mutans

The causative agent of dental caries in humans, Streptococcus mutans, outcompetes other bacterial species in the oral cavity and causes disease by surviving acidic conditions in dental plaque. We have previously reported that the low-pH survival strategy of S. mutans includes the ability to induce a DNA repair system that appears to involve an enzyme with exonuclease functions (K. Hahn, R. C. Faustoferri, and R. G. Quivey, Jr., Mol. Microbiol 31:1489-1498, 1999). Here, we report overexpression of the S. mutans apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonuclease, Smx, in Escherichia coli; initial characterization of its enzymatic activity; and analysis of an smx mutant strain of S. mutans. Insertional inactivation of the smx gene eliminates the low-pH-inducible exonuclease activity previously reported. In addition, loss of Smx activity renders the mutant strain sensitive to hydrogen peroxide treatment but relatively unaffected by acid-mediated damage or near-UV irradiation. The smx strain of S. mutans was highly sensitive to the combination of iron and hydrogen peroxide, indicating the likely production of hydroxyl radical by Fenton chemistry with concomitant formation of AP sites that are normally processed by the wild-type allele. Smx activity was sufficiently expressed in E. coli to protect an xth mutant strain from the effects of hydrogen peroxide treatment. The data indicate that S. mutans expresses an inducible, class II-like AP endonuclease, encoded by the smx gene, that exhibits exonucleolytic activity and is regulated as part of the acid-adaptive response of the organism. Smx is likely the primary, if not the sole, AP endonuclease induced during growth at low pH values