Analysis of term roles along taxonomy nodes by adopting discriminant and characteristic capabilities

Taxonomies are becoming essential to a growing number of application, particularly for specific domains. Taxonomies, originally built by hand, have been recently focused on their automatic generation. In particular, a main issue on automatic taxonomy building regards the choice of the most suitable features. In this paper, we propose an analy- sis on how each feature changes its role along taxonomy nodes in a text categorization scenario, in which the features are the terms in textual documents. We deem that, in a hierarchical structure, each node should intuitively be represented with proper meaningful and discriminant terms (i.e., performing a feature selection task for each node), instead of con- sidering a fixed feature space. To assess the discriminant power of a term, we adopt two novel metrics able to measure it. Our conjecture is that a term could significantly change its discriminant power (hence, its role) along the taxonomy levels. We perform experiments aimed at proving that a significant number of terms play different roles in each taxonomy node, giving emphasis to the usefulness of a distinct feature selection for each node. We assert that this analysis should support automatic taxonomy building approaches

L’audience development per il turismo culturale e la valorizzazione del territorio marchigiano: studio delle linee di sviluppo per piccoli teatri e realtà artistiche in periodo pandemico

Il presente contributo si colloca nel campo degli studi sulle audience della cultura, più nello specifico sui pubblici dello spettacolo dal vivo, e osserva l’evolversi delle forme della spettatorialità e della partecipazione culturale in risposta all’imporsi dei nuovi contesti socio-tecnologici. L’obiettivo di questa tesi è quello di tracciare delle nuove linee di ricerca negli studi sui pubblici dello spettacolo dal vivo a partire dalle nuove questioni che aprono gli studi sui processi di mediatizzazione (Krotz 2007; Hjarvard 2008; Boccia Artieri 2015; Hepp, Couldry 2017) e piattaformizzazione della cultura (van Dijck, Poell, De Waal 2019; Poell, Nieborg, Duffy 2022). La ricerca empirica si è mossa nel contesto del Consorzio Marche Spettacolo concentrandosi sull’analisi di tre casi di studio, quali: la ricerca sul pubblico dello spettacolo dal vivo marchigiano, le ricerche sull’impatto della pandemia sul settore delle performing arts e il caso Marche Palcoscenico Aperto e infine la ricerca sul progetto TOHC! Teatri Oggi Hub di Comunità. A partire dai tre casi, il presente contributo si colloca all’interno di tre prospettive teoriche e di ricerca che definiscono lo sfondo teorico di questa disamina. La prima riguarda gli studi sull’audience development ed engagement (Kawashima 2000; De Biase 2014; Bollo et al. 2017; Gemini, Paltrinieri 2018; Da Milano, Gariboldi 2019; Walmsley 2019; Reason et al. 2022) e sui pubblici della cultura (De Marinis, Altieri 1985; Gemini, Russo 1997; Tota 1997; Gemini, Brilli 2018; Bartoletti, Brilli, Gemini 2018). Il secondo blocco tematico riguarda gli studi sulla mediatizzazione delle arti performative (Gemini 2016b; Gemini 2018; Gemini, Brilli 2020; Gemini et al. 2020; Del Gaudio 2017, 2021; Gemini, Brilli 2022) e la questione della liveness (Auslander 1999, 2012; Reason 2004; Gemini 2016a). L’ultimo presupposto di ricerca intercetta la prospettiva del welfare culturale (Ghiglione 2017; Manzoli, Paltrinieri 2021; Paltrinieri 2022a; Cicerchia 2022) che offre l’occasione per ragionare sul valore della cultura e sull’impatto che la cultura e le arti hanno sia sulla partecipazione (Allegrini 2021, 2022; Carpentier 2011; Paltrinieri 2022a; Gemini, Paltrinieri 2018; Gemini et al. 2008) sia sul turismo culturale (Origet de Cluzeau 1998; Amirou 2000; Gemini 2008; Garibaldi 2013; Montaguti, Meneghello 2018). Le nuove dinamiche innescate dall’emergenza pandemica hanno profondamente scosso il settore culturale fin dalle fondamenta, complessificando anche il contesto delle ricerche. La pandemia ha colpito l’industria culturale in modi diseguali, con forti differenze tra settori culturali, tra paesi, tra le differenti categorie sociali dello spettacolo dal vivo (Salvador et al. 2021) nonché tra diverse fasi pandemiche, ognuna delle quali ha visto differenti approcci e aspettative verso il mondo digitale (Hylland 2022). In questo senso allora sarà allora sempre più importante collegare la prospettiva macro-analitica con uno sguardo approfondito ai vincoli e agli impatti specifici nel contesto che si sta osservando; e sarà, allora, interessante analizzare come la piattaformizzazione stia modificando le dinamiche che regolano i rapporti tra i diversi attori sociali che operano nel sistema dell’arte, dentro al quale risiede il settore delle performing arts, per osservare quali pratiche quotidiane e quali nuovi regimi di valori, forme economiche (Van Dijck, Poell, de Waal 2019) e dispositivi di potere si stanno delineando anche nel sistema della cultura come già accade per i sistemi educativi, sanitari, economici, politici, informativi.This dissertation ranks in the field of studies on audiences of culture, more specifically on live performance audiences, and observes the evolving forms of spectatorship and cultural participation in response to the rise of new socio-technological contexts. The goal of this dissertation is to draw new lines of research in studies on live performance audiences from the new questions opened up by studies on the processes of mediatization (Krotz 2007; Hjarvard 2008; Boccia Artieri 2015; Hepp, Couldry 2017) and platformization of culture (van Dijck, Poell, De Waal 2019; Poell, Nieborg, Duffy 2022). The empirical research moved in the context of the Marche Spettacolo Consortium focusing on the analysis of three case studies, such as: research on the live performance audience in the Marche region, research on the impact of the pandemic on the performing arts sector and the case of Marche Palcoscenico Aperto, and finally research on the project TOHC! Teatri Oggi Hub di Comunità. Starting from the three cases, this paper is situated within three theoretical and research perspectives that define the theoretical background of this examination. The first relates to studies on audience development and engagement (Kawashima 2000; De Biase 2014; Bollo et al. 2017; Gemini, Paltrinieri 2018; Da Milano, Gariboldi 2019; Walmsley 2019; Reason et al. 2022) and culture audiences (De Marinis, Altieri 1985; Gemini, Russo 1997; Tota 1997; Gemini, Brilli 2018; Bartoletti, Brilli, Gemini 2018). The second thematic block concerns studies on the mediatization of the performing arts (Gemini 2016b; Gemini 2018; Gemini, Brilli 2020; Gemini et al. 2020; Del Gaudio 2017, 2021; Gemini, Brilli 2022) and the question of liveness (Auslander 1999, 2012; Reason 2004; Gemini 2016a). The last research assumption intercepts the cultural welfare perspective (Ghiglione 2017; Manzoli, Paltrinieri 2021; Paltrinieri 2022a; Cicerchia 2022), which provides an opportunity to reason about the value of culture and the impact that culture and the arts have both on participation (Allegrini 2021, 2022; Carpentier 2011; Paltrinieri 2022a; Gemini, Paltrinieri 2018; Gemini et al. 2008) and on cultural tourism (Origet de Cluzeau 1998; Amirou 2000; Gemini 2008; Garibaldi 2013; Montaguti, Meneghello 2018). The new dynamics triggered by the pandemic emergency have profoundly shaken the cultural sector from the ground up, also complexifying the research context. The pandemic has affected the cultural industry in uneven ways, with stark differences between cultural sectors, between countries, between different social categories of live performance (Salvador et al. 2021) as well as between different pandemic phases, each of which has seen different approaches and expectations towards the digital world (Hylland 2022). In this sense then it will then be increasingly important to link the macro-analytical perspective with an in-depth look at the specific constraints and impacts in the context being observed; and it will, then, be interesting to analyze how platformization is changing the dynamics governing the relationships between the different social actors operating in the art system, within which the performing arts sector resides, in order to observe what everyday practices and what new regimes of values, economic forms (Van Dijck, Poell, de Waal 2019) and power devices are also emerging in the culture system as is already the case with educational, health, economic, political, and information systems

Measuring greenwashing: A systematic methodological literature review

Greenwashing (GW) is a complex, dynamic, interdisciplinary, multidimensional, and multifaceted phenomenon. There are more theoretical than empirical studies on GW because of several difficulties in collecting accurate data and obtaining objective GW measures. After disentangling the multifaceted GW phenomenon by describing its main dimensions, this study provides a systematic methodological literature review on empirical research papers published from 1990 to 2022 in journals of Business, Management, and Accounting to understand how empirical researchers are operationalizing GW and how our methodological choices affect our understanding of this phenomenon. Our results show that the actual GW operationalization is challenging and that scholars are highly uncertain about how such operationalization should be designed and implemented to provide an effective GW measurement instrument. Further, a growing number of studies investigate hypothetical GW cases adopting perception-based measures, while limited research explores real GW cases

Curses, Tradeoffs, and Scalable Management:Advancing Evolutionary Multiobjective Direct Policy Search to Improve Water Reservoir Operations

Optimal management policies for water reservoir operation are generally designed via stochastic dynamic programming (SDP). Yet, the adoption of SDP in complex real-world problems is challenged by the three curses of dimensionality, modeling, and multiple objectives. These three curses considerably limit SDP’s practical application. Alternatively, this study focuses on the use of evolutionary multiobjective direct policy search (EMODPS), a simulation-based optimization approach that combines direct policy search, nonlinear approximating networks, and multiobjective evolutionary algorithms to design Pareto-approximate closed-loop operating policies for multipurpose water reservoirs. This analysis explores the technical and practical implications of using EMODPS through a careful diagnostic assessment of the effectiveness and reliability of the overall EMODPS solution design as well as of the resulting Pareto-approximate operating policies. The EMODPS approach is evaluated using the multipurpose Hoa Binh water reservoir in Vietnam, where water operators are seeking to balance the conflicting objectives of maximizing hydropower production and minimizing flood risks. A key choice in the EMODPS approach is the selection of alternative formulations for flexibly representing reservoir operating policies. This study distinguishes between the relative performance of two widely-used nonlinear approximating networks, namely artificial neural networks (ANNs) and radial basis functions (RBFs). The results show that RBF solutions are more effective than ANN ones in designing Pareto approximate policies for the Hoa Binh reservoir. Given the approximate nature of EMODPS, the diagnostic benchmarking uses SDP to evaluate the overall quality of the attained Pareto-approximate results. Although the Hoa Binh test case’s relative simplicity should maximize the potential value of SDP, the results demonstrate that EMODPS successfully dominates the solutions derived via SDP

Universal Approximators for Direct Policy Search in Multi-Purpose Water Reservoir Management: A Comparative Analysis

open5This study presents a novel approach which combines direct policy search and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms to solve high-dimensional state and control space water resources problems involving multiple, conflicting, and non-commensurable objectives. In such a multi-objective context, the use of universal function approximators is generally suggested to provide flexibility to the shape of the control policy. In this paper, we comparatively analyze Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Radial Basis Functions (RBF) under different sets of input to estimate their scalability to high-dimensional state space problems. The multi-purpose HoaBinh water reservoir in Vietnam, accounting for hydropower production and flood control, is used as a case study. Results show that the RBF policy parametrization is more effective than the ANN one. In particular, the approximated Pareto front obtained with RBF control policies successfully explores the full tradeoff space between the two conflicting objectives, while the ANN solutions are often Pareto-dominated by the RBF ones.Matteo Giuliani; Emanuele Mason; Andrea Castelletti; Francesca Pianosi; Rodolfo Soncini SessaGiuliani, Matteo; Mason, Emanuele; Castelletti, ANDREA FRANCESCO; Pianosi, Francesca; SONCINI SESSA, Rodolf

The satisfactory growth and development at 2 years of age of the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards cohort support its appropriateness for constructing international standards.

Background: The World Health Organization recommends that human growth should be monitored with the use of international standards. However, in obstetric practice, we continue to monitor fetal growth using numerous local charts or equations that are based on different populations for each body structure. Consistent with World Health Organization recommendations, the INTERGROWTH-21st Project has produced the first set of international standards to date pregnancies; to monitor fetal growth, estimated fetal weight, Doppler measures, and brain structures; to measure uterine growth, maternal nutrition, newborn infant size, and body composition; and to assess the postnatal growth of preterm babies. All these standards are based on the same healthy pregnancy cohort. Recognizing the importance of demonstrating that, postnatally, this cohort still adhered to the World Health Organization prescriptive approach, we followed their growth and development to the key milestone of 2 years of age. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the babies in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project maintained optimal growth and development in childhood. Study Design: In the Infant Follow-up Study of the INTERGROWTH-21st Project, we evaluated postnatal growth, nutrition, morbidity, and motor development up to 2 years of age in the children who contributed data to the construction of the international fetal growth, newborn infant size and body composition at birth, and preterm postnatal growth standards. Clinical care, feeding practices, anthropometric measures, and assessment of morbidity were standardized across study sites and documented at 1 and 2 years of age. Weight, length, and head circumference age- and sex-specific z-scores and percentiles and motor development milestones were estimated with the use of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards and World Health Organization milestone distributions, respectively. For the preterm infants, corrected age was used. Variance components analysis was used to estimate the percentage variability among individuals within a study site compared with that among study sites. Results: There were 3711 eligible singleton live births; 3042 children (82%) were evaluated at 2 years of age. There were no substantive differences between the included group and the lost-to-follow up group. Infant mortality rate was 3 per 1000; neonatal mortality rate was 1.6 per 1000. At the 2-year visit, the children included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards were at the 49th percentile for length, 50th percentile for head circumference, and 58th percentile for weight of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards. Similar results were seen for the preterm subgroup that was included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Preterm Postnatal Growth Standards. The cohort overlapped between the 3rd and 97th percentiles of the World Health Organization motor development milestones. We estimated that the variance among study sites explains only 5.5% of the total variability in the length of the children between birth and 2 years of age, although the variance among individuals within a study site explains 42.9% (ie, 8 times the amount explained by the variation among sites). An increase of 8.9 cm in adult height over mean parental height is estimated to occur in the cohort from low-middle income countries, provided that children continue to have adequate health, environmental, and nutritional conditions. Conclusion: The cohort enrolled in the INTERGROWTH-21st standards remained healthy with adequate growth and motor development up to 2 years of age, which supports its appropriateness for the construction of international fetal and preterm postnatal growth standards

HexR controls glucose-responsive genes and central carbon metabolism in Neisseria meningitidis

none6noNeisseria meningitidis, an exclusively human pathogen and the leading cause of bacterial meningitis, must adapt to different host niches during human infection. N. meningitidis can utilize a restricted range of carbon sources, including lactate, glucose and pyruvate, whose concentration varies in host niches. Microarray analysis of N. meningitidis grown in chemically defined medium in the presence or absence of glucose allowed us to identify genes regulated by carbon source availability. Most of these genes are implicated in energy metabolism and transport as well as some implicated in virulence. In particular, genes involved in glucose catabolism were up-regulated whereas genes involved in the TCA cycle were down-regulated. Several genes encoding surface exposed proteins were up-regulated in the presence of glucose, including the MafA adhesins and the Neisseria surface protein A. Our microarray analysis led to the identification of a glucose-responsive hexR-like transcriptional regulator that controls genes of the central carbon metabolism of N. meningitidis in response to glucose. We characterized the HexR regulon and showed the hexR gene is accountable for a subset of the glucose-responsive regulation, and in vitro assays with the purified protein showed that HexR binds to the promoters of the central metabolic operons of the bacterium. Based on DNA sequence alignment of the target sites we propose a 17-bp pseudo-palindromic HexR consensus binding motif. Furthermore, N. meningitidis strains lacking hexR expression are deficient in establishing successful bacteremia in an infant rat model of infection, indicating the importance of this regulator for the survival of this pathogen in vivo.openAntunes, Ana; Golfieri, Giacomo; Ferlicca, Francesca; Giuliani, Marzia M; Scarlato, Vincenzo; Delany, IsabelAntunes, Ana; Golfieri, Giacomo; Ferlicca, Francesca; Giuliani, Marzia M; Scarlato, Vincenzo; Delany, Isabe

The symmetric 3D organization of connective tissue around implant abutment: a key-issue to prevent bone resorption

Symmetric and well-organized connective tissues around the longitudinal implant axis were hypothesized to decrease early bone resorption by reducing inflammatory cell infiltration. Previous studies that referred to the connective tissue around implant and abutments were based on two-dimensional investigations; however, only advanced three-dimensional characterizations could evidence the organization of connective tissue microarchitecture in the attempt of finding new strategies to reduce inflammatory cell infiltration. We retrieved three implants with a cone morse implant–abutment connection from patients; they were investigated by high-resolution X-ray phase-contrast microtomography, cross-linking the obtained information with histologic results. We observed transverse and longitudinal orientated collagen bundles intertwining with each other. In the longitudinal planes, it was observed that the closer the fiber bundles were to the implant, the more symmetric and regular their course was. The transverse bundles of collagen fibers were observed as semicircular, intersecting in the lamina propria of the mucosa and ending in the oral epithelium. No collagen fibers were found radial to the implant surface. This intertwining three-dimensional pattern seems to favor the stabilization of the soft tissues around the implants, preventing inflammatory cell apical migration and, consequently, preventing bone resorption and implant failure. This fact, according to the authors’ best knowledge, has never been reported in the literature and might be due to the physical forces acting on fibroblasts and on the collagen produced by the fibroblasts themselves, in areas close to the implant and to the symmetric geometry of the implant itself

Type I Collagen Suspension Induces Neocollagenesis and Myodifferentiation in Fibroblasts In Vitro

The ability of a collagen-based matrix to support cell proliferation, migration, and infiltration has been reported; however, the direct effect of an aqueous collagen suspension on cell cultures has not been studied yet. In this work, the effects of a high-concentration aqueous suspension of a micronized type I equine collagen (EC-I) have been evaluated on a normal mouse fibroblast cell line. Immunofluorescence analysis showed the ability of EC-I to induce a significant increase of type I and III collagen levels, parallel with overexpression of crucial proteins in collagen biosynthesis, maturation, and secretion, prolyl 4-hydroxylase (P4H) and heat shock protein 47 (HSP47), as demonstrated by western blot experiments. The treatment led, also, to an increase of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression, evaluated through western blot analysis, and cytoskeletal reorganization, as assessed by phalloidin staining. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy analysis highlighted the appearance of plasma membrane extensions and blebbing of extracellular vesicles. Altogether, these results strongly suggest that an aqueous collagen type I suspension is able to induce fibroblast myodifferentiation. Moreover, our findings also support in vitro models as a useful tool to evaluate the effects of a collagen suspension and understand the molecular signaling pathways possibly involved in the effects observed following collagen treatment in vivo

Managing the commons in the knowledge economy

The work leading to this publication has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007- 2013) under grant agreement n° 610349.This report presents an in-depth analysis of the concept of common goods and of possible political and management variation in the context of a knowledge-based economy. The research presents an initial critical review of the literature together with a concrete analysis of the development of the commons and common goods.The report will be organised in three sections. In the first, entitled "From the theory of public goods to the new political economy of the commons" we will see how, for Ostrom's new theory of the commons, what remains as a central element defining common goods is the particular nature of certain goods, in continuity with the ahistorical and static approach to classification of goods (private, public, common, belonging to a club) driven by neo-classical inspired economic theory.In the second section we will develop the approach of Common in the singular drawn up with the contribution of numerous studies in the theoretical framework of cognitive capitalism.The third will deal with the historic and empirical analysis of the origin, sense and principal stakes at play in the dynamics of the common, starting from the key role of the transformations of labour at the foundation of a knowledge-based economy.Throughout this journey, in the three sections different crucial aspects relating to the forms of regulation open to guarantee the sustainability of the commons and promote its development as a new central form of economic and social organisation will be faced systematically.This research offers an exhaustive theoretical framework, tackling all the conceptual and historical issues on the evolution of the theory of common goods. At the same time however, it offers practical and regulative examples of models of self-governance of commons, in the context of the knowledge-based economy. This analysis offers the D-CENT project possible models of democratic management of resources and common infrastructures that are at the base of the experience of shared democracy in Spain, Iceland and Finland, with the aim of achieving middle and long-term sustainability. Specifically speaking, the analysis submitted here reports: (1) research into the market of identity and the opposing claim of social data as digital common goods and the need for public and common infrastructures of information and communication not based on the logic of the market and surveillance (D3.3); (2) models to implement a commons currency of the common that can support the activities of social movements and productive communities (D3.5); (3) the final report (D1.3) on models of sustainability and the general impact of this project.Many of the examples proposed here, from the re-municipalisation of water, the self-management of cultural spaces to the free software and makers’ movement, illustrate collective practices that establish new spaces, institutions or norms of participative and democratic sharing. These examples represent practices of re-appropriation and management of the common, new practices of labour, creation and production based on collaboration and sharing.Moreover, from the concrete experiences analysed here, the idea emerges that the concept of common goods can constitute a concrete alternative, and that includes on a legal footing (Rodotà, 2011). Therefore the common is the product of a social and institutional structure that demonstrates forms of governing and social co-operation that guarantee its production, reproduction and spread. The new institutions of the common that emerge from these constituent practices constitute a general principle of self-governance of society and self-organisation of socialproduction, proposing a new division between common, public and private.Obviously, the success of these new practices is a complex process that must rely on institutions which accord and guarantee reproduction over time and space of the commons and common goods: ways of management based on self-governance and collaborative economics; relationships of exchange based on reciprocity and gratuitousness; legal regimes that, like the invention of copyleft for free software, guarantee the accumulation of a stock of common-pool resources (CPR); distribution norms that permit the active involvement of the commoners in the development of the commons, guaranteeing a basic income, for example.In this context, it becomes more and more essential and urgent to define the terms of an alternative model of regulating a knowledge-based society and economy at the centre of which the logic of the commons would perform an essential role