SDGs and Human Rights: how to measure States’ compliance?

In September 2015 UN General Assembly approved the SDGs and all over the world the expectations focused on the new UN Development Agenda. Apparently, issues concerning Human Rights and Human security, including absence of violence, promotion of sustainable peace and accountable institutions, have been strongly taken into account during negotiations. From this perspective, the SDGs go far beyond MDGs while acknowledging a deep connection with human development. Nonetheless, the references made to human rights law in the final document are weak and fragmented. Moreover, the SDG 16, focused on security andpromotion of the rule of law, is not time- bound and does not include clear indicators related to its targets. In the light of this, the main objective of this paper is to analyse the grade of real recognition of human rights and security issues in the Post- 2015 Agenda and to suggest possible indicators for SDG 16 targets based on juridical instruments. For this reason connections between SDGs and existing human rights binding norms will be assessed in order to demonstrate how the inclusion of explicit references to core treaties in the above- mentioned indicators could promote a more effective monitoring

A few words on the Italian translation of "Příliš hlučná samota"

The article shortly presents an overview of the two versions of the Italian translation of Bohumil Hrabal’s Příliš hlučná samota. Starting by taking into accout the complex philological questions of its genesis and editorial fortunes in its home country, I will then examine the Italian translation by Sergio Corduas for Einaudi (1987) and its revised version (by the same translator) for the Meridi- ani Mondadori edition (2003) in comparison with the text edited in Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (1994)

Vegetation and climate reconstruction during the Last Interglacial Complex: the pollen record of Lake Ohrid (Albania/Fyrom), the oldest European lake

This thesis is focussed on the palaeonvironmental and climatic changes occurred during the period between 130 and 70 ka (including the whole Last Interglacial Complex), with the aims to investigate the long-term climate variability on environment, on the basis of high resolution pollen data from Lake Ohrid sediments (Albania/F.Y.R.O.M. border), the oldest lake in Europe and one of most ancient in the world. The climate reconstruction obtained from pollen data is based on a wider interval, 160-70 ka. Lake Ohrid is located in a key region at the confluence of central European and Mediterranean climate influences and as already demonstrated by previous studies, has an important role for the study of the climatic and environmental changes occurred during the millennia in the Balkan and European areas. The investigated pollen material comes from the sediments retrieved in spring 2013 in the frame of the project SCOPSCO (Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid) whose drilling was financed by the ICDP (International Continental Scientific Drilling Program). During the drilling campaign 6 parallel cores have been collected from the depocenter of Lake Ohrid obtaining an extraordinary composite sequence 569 m long (DEEP). The upper 247.8 m of DEEP core have been dated using tephrostratigraphic information and tuning of biogeochemical proxy data to orbital parameters and covers the last 637 ka. In the framework of this careful temporal establishment, an even more precise chronology for the Last Interglacial Complex, and in particular for the transition between MIS6 and 5, was obtained by comparing pollen data from the same period with other DEEP and Mediterranean proxies. This make Lake Ohrid extremely important because for the other records from Mediterranean and European area such chronological constrains are not available and so the chronologies are less precise. The pollen analysis results come from the uppermost 200 m of the DEEP core (covering the last 500 ka) and revealed a succession of non-forested and forested periods clearly connected with glacial–interglacial cycles of the marine isotope stratigraphy. Among the different glacial-interglacial cycle, the new high-resolution pollen stratigraphy of the Last Interglacial Complex shows the classical alternation of periods characterized by forest (interstadials, warm and wet periods) and open vegetation (stadials, cold and dry periods), clearly resembling the well-known vegetational and climate succession of other European records. Concerning the Last Interglacial (or Eemian, 128-112 ka, roughly equivalent to MIS5e), pollen analysis and climate quantitative reconstructions identify three key phases with a slight different timing, with an initial phase characterized by a sudden warming (propagation of mesophilous forests), then a decrease of temperatures associated with wet conditions (expansion of Carpinus betulus) and at the end a progressive establishment towards cold and dry conditions until the termination of Eemian at 112 ka, confirming what other previous studies on European records said, namely Eemian was not a stable period. Several abrupt events are in also identified, during the successive stadials and interstadials (Early Last Glacial), probably correlated to the succession of cold events recorded in the Greenland ice core records, associated to a weakening of the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. This work provides a new pollen reference sequence for the Last Interglacial Complex in Europe and concerning climate reconstruction provides new information for a period (160-70 ka, from the last part of Riss Glaciation to the beginning of Würm Glaciation) still poorly investigated in Europe, mostly in the south (< 45° lat. N), where only one record has been studied for the whole interval, with high resolution time. According to my results, Lake Ohrid can be considered a key role site for the investigation of the climatic changes occurred in centennial and millennial scale in a region of mid-altitude between European and Mediterranean areas, providing furthermore new evidence for the connection between the Europe and Northern Hemisphere climate oscillations

Polimorfismi a Singolo Nucleotide e Cellule Progenitrici Endoteliali

Uno dei più interessanti target della ricerca clinica in campo cardiovascolare degli ultimi anni è rappresentato dalle Cellule Progenitrici Endoteliali (EPC). Queste cellule, che derivano dal midollo osseo, sono in grado di differenziarsi in cellule endoteliali mature e hanno il compito di mantenere l’omeostasi vascolare partecipando ai processi di rinnovamento e riparazione della parete endoteliale. E’ stato ipotizzato che l’attivazione delle EPC avvenga ad opera di vari fattori molecolari secreti direttamente dal tessuto danneggiato quali VEGF e SDF-1α. Recenti studi hanno dimostrato che il numero e l’attività migratoria delle EPC circolanti è inversamente correlato ai fattori di rischio per CAD (coronary artery disease) ed in particolar modo all’iperglicemia che colpisce in maniera importante le EPC, riducendone la sopravvivenza e alterandone il funzionamento probabilmente a causa dello stress ossidativo e dello stato infiammatorio cronico. Scopo di questo lavoro di tesi è studiare varianti polimorfiche nei geni implicati nei processi di infiammazione e di attivazione delle EPC, al fine di individuare marcatori che correlino col numero di cellule endoteliali circolanti. Tramite l’analisi al citofluorimetro (FACS) sono state quantificate le EPC in una coorte di soggetti costituita da 18 diabetici di tipo II di nuova diagnosi, 34 pre-diabetici e 26 normoglicemici. Per validare la significatività di alcuni dati è stato possibile ampliare la popolazione studiata con ulteriori 62 soggetti. La tecnica della Real-Time PCR con metodo Taqman ha permesso di genotipizzare 12 SNP in 12 geni ottenendo come risultato associazioni significative tra i livelli delle EPC e i polimorfismi rs2070874 dell’IL-4, rs1800629 del TNF-α e rs5498 di ICAM-1. I livelli di EPC circolanti tra soggetti con genotipo C/C vs T/T per il polimorfismo rs2070875 dell’IL-4 sono risultati significativamente diversi (p-value=0,0388), mentre è al limite della significatività la differenza tra eterozigoti C/T vs T/T (p-value=0,0625). Tuttavia, questo dato potrebbe dipendere dal fatto che il genotipo T/T è presente in un unico soggetto. Il polimorfismo rs1800629 del TNF-α è risultato significativamente associato ai livelli di EPC. Soggetti con genotipo G/G presentano livelli di EPC minori di soggetti con genotipo A/A (p-value=0,0022). A causa della presenza di un solo soggetto con genotipo A/A, abbiamo accorpato i soggetti G/A e A/A per valutare l’associazione del cluster G/A+A/A vs G/G ed EPC circolanti. L’associazione rimane statisticamente significativa (p-value=0,0039). La significatività dei risultati è stata confermata anche a seguito dell’ampliamento della popolazione iniziale con l’aggiunta di 62 soggetti. Anche il polimorfismo rs5498 di ICAM-1 ha mostrato un trend di associazione positivo con i livelli di EPC. In particolare, il genotipo A/A vs G/G presenta un valore significativamente minore di cellule (p-value=0,02924), mentre è ai limiti della significatività la differenza tra G/A e G/G (p-value=0,0678). Anche in questo caso abbiamo raggruppato i soggetti A/A e G/A, per verificare l’associazione del cluster A/A+G/A vs G/G ed EPC circolanti ottenendo un p-value pari a 0,0302. A seguito dell’aggiunta nello studio degli ulteriori 62 soggetti, l’associazione risulta meno evidente e tra i genotipi A/A+G/A rispetto ai G/G perde la significatività statistica

Pfaffian representations of cubic threefolds

Given a cubic hypersurface $X\subset \mathbb{P}^4$, we study the existence of Pfaffian representations of $X$, namely of $6\times 6$ skew-symmetric matrices of linear forms $M$ such that $X$ is defined by the equation $Pf(M)=0$. It was known that such a matrix always exists whenever $X$ is smooth. Here we prove that the same holds whenever $X$ is singular, hence that every cubic threefold is Pfaffian

Refugees and “Missing” Arms Trade

Millions of people are killed or wounded by small arms each year. The aim of this study is to enhance our understanding of “missing” arms trade across countries. We proceed in two steps. First, we measure the extent of missing arms trade on the basis of official trade statistics. We construct a measure of the gap in arms trade based on the discrepancy between the value of arms exports reported by the exporting country and the value of arms imports recorded by the importing country. Second, we uncover the link between refugee movements and missing arms trade. Refugee flows, by reducing the ability of the receiving country to patrol its borders and its customs, are found to be correlated with arms smuggling across the border into the importing country. A series of robustness checks confirm the above findings.international trade, refugees, arms, customs.

Arbitrages and Arrow-Debreu Prices

The goal of this work is to check that there are no arbitrage opportunities in the CBOE market for S&P500 options and to extract from these options’ quotes the state-price density consistent with the Merton model. The structure of the article is as follows: in Section 2 we examine the relations between arbitrages and Arrow-Debreu prices; in Section 3 we consider two models which seem to be consistent with the market prices of index options: the CEV model and the Merton model; finally, in Section 4 we estimate the state-price density consistent with the Merton-Geske model. Some conclusions follow.state-price density, index options, Merton-Geske model

Education, Cultural Change, Territory. The Third Sector's Innovation. An Italian Case Study

This contribution proposes a theoretical-empirical reflection on the relationship among the three sociological concepts identified by the authors as essential dimensions of the innovation: cultural change, education, and territory. The aim is to illustrate the complex relationship among these dimensions and the implications involved in terms of s oci ologi cal perspectives and research tools, on the basis of the analysis of an emblematic case study: “FQTS”, Italian acronym of the project of Education of Executives and Leaders of the Third Sector in the Southern Italy. In particular, this investigation will be aimed at: (re)defining sociological concepts considered fundamental for the study of innovation; reconstructing the main empirical evidence emerging from the analysis of the case study; and summarizing the relevance of the research results, in terms of new themes and sociological perspectives, as well as of methodological questions

SECY APP: self configuration and easy management for software defined smart homes

In this paper we address configuration and management issues of smart homes. Current platforms requires the user to deal with several management inconvenience problems, such as increasing devices, operating between devices, and using new devices. From a user perspective, system configuration and management are major issues: ordinary consumers want to use systems performing minimal configuration. To address this issue, we propose a platform, composed of a web application and Software Defined Network (SDN). While the user interacts with an easy-to-use interface on a smart device, the app automatically generates and installs SDN rules. Our platform, besides facilitating configuration and management, results more efficient --- up to 4 times faster --- and reliable --- able to operate even in case of no connection with the cloud --- than current solutions

The effect of mafia on public transfers

Organized crime is a worldwide, widespread phenomenon, which affects developing as well as developed countries, and entails deep economic and social consequences. The purpose of this study is to enhance our understanding of organized crime activities. By using an innovative data set on Sicilian mafia activity available at municipality level, we test whether firms located in municipalities with mafia-related crimes obtain more public subsidies. In order to deal with the endogeneity of the relationship, we explore the origins of mafia. We instrument current mafia activity with exogenous historical and geographical shifters of land productivity, i.e. rainfall in the XIX century and geographical features at municipality level. We provide evidence that the presence of mafia affects the allocation of public transfers: municipalities with mafia activity receive larger public funding. The estimated impact of mafia is also economically relevant and equals one standard deviation of the dependent variable. According to our estimates the presence of mafia increases the total amounts of funds by about 35% on average. A series of robustness checks confirms the above findings.organized crime, public transfers