Marc Bloch’s Rois Thaumaturges and Consensus Building in the Middle Ages: at the Roots of the Legitimacy of Power

In his work written in 1924 Les rois thaumaturges, Marc Bloch highlighted an important issue that contributes to our understanding of power and royalty in the Middle Ages. Scholars have been deepening research in the field since then, looking for the reasons behind the “royal touch” and for an eventual quest for legitimacy for those kings who strive to see their authority recognized. Should we reduce the touch to a mere strategy to gain consensus? Or should we look for deeper reasons by “questioning” the kings and their hypothetical belief in touch, along with the trust in their healing powers? It must be acknowledged that subjects were loyal to the body of the king first, and the body was the very center of the political realm throughout the Middle Ages. In this paper we are going to try to look for a different path analyzing Bloch’s findings and proposing research questions that should be taken into consideration in both studies on royalty in the Middle Ages, and on the origins of the legitimization of power

Investigating Discretionary Environmental Enforcement: a pilot experiment

In this work, we conducted a laboratory experiment in order to test the findings of a theoretical environmental enforcement model played as a strategic game where the firm’s behavior is influenced by the course of actions discretionally undertaken by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Our experimental findings suggest that the presence of the DOJ can be counterproductive in increasing social welfare, since it implies solely additional enforcement costs, which, in turn, might reduce the probability of conducting inspections by the EPA without affecting the probability of firm’s compliance.classroom experiments, environmental enforcement, environmental economics

Discretionary Enforcement and Strategic Interactions Between Firms, Regulatory Agency and Justice Department: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

This paper presents a game theoretic morphological analysis of the U.S. environmental authorities’ (i.e., EPA and DOJ) behavioural mechanisms, based on strategic interactions among the players. The models explore the role of discretion that such authorities enjoy, either in deciding how to pursue environmental violations (investigative and prosecutorial discretion) or in judging them (judicial discretion). The purpose is to identify both the optimal firms’ behaviour in terms of compliance, and the DOJ’s and EPA’s optimal strategies in terms of enforcement actions to undertake. Consistent with the setting of the game theory models, the role of EPA and DOJ in deterring firms from polluting is, then, empirically tested, by means of a laboratory experiment. Laboratory evidence on compliance behaviour of firms when faced with enforcement conditions predicted by the theoretical models set up is discussed for the different experimental treatments performed

Kelsen e Kantorowicz lettori del Monarchia: due studi su Stato e Sovranit\ue0 nel pensiero di Dante a confronto

Both Hans Kelsen and Ernst Kantorowicz investigated Dante\u2019s political thought at a particular moment of their lives, as they offered an interpretation of the Monarchia. While Kelsen approached Dante at the very beginning of his studies, Kanto- rowicz dedicated to the Italian poet a significant amount of his career as a historian: their research on State and sovereignty in Dante is still a landmark for scholars. Once given a brief retrospective of Dante\u2019s life and his treatise, I will expose the cornerstones of Kel- sen\u2019s and Kantorowicz\u2019s readings, along with some relevant details of their biographies. Eventually, I will suggest that their respective stances might be influenced by their perso- nal experiences, as well as the historical period they were living in

analysis of the requirements of an early life cycle cost estimation tool an industrial survey

Abstract Cost estimation is a critical issue for many companies concerning both offers generation and company strategic evaluations. In this paper, a framework for early cost estimation has been proposed to some firms for an assessment of its main features. The aim of the industrial survey is to promote a discussion on the needs and the expectations regarding cost estimation in order to obtain feedbacks to be addresses in the implementation of a software tool. Gather data has led to a ranking of the main characteristics the tool should have

A Smart Home Information Management Model for Device Interoperability Simulation

Abstract Numerous smart home systems have been created in the recent years, but they still lack of high interoperability and research has been focused on single smart technologies instead of the system interoperability as a whole. Furthermore, available systems are usually strongly technology-oriented and they neglect the user's satisfaction and the benefits' analysis. In addition to this, modern systems impose the intelligent management of a huger amount of data, which needs to be properly coordinated to achieve higher performances and offer new energy-control services. This paper defines an information management model to improve device interoperability in smart homes. It allows selecting and classifying the devices, visualizing their data model, aggregating the necessary data according to the desired service functions, and finally defining a set of rules to coordinate device operations according to user preferences and external events. A case study focused on washing machines is presented to demonstrate the methodology implementation; it allows designing and developing an energy-control service for the selected device and optimizing its functions according to the users' needs and preferences as well as the constraints of the use scenario. Finally, the benefits achieved with such a new service are evaluated in terms of energy consumption, costs reduction and user satisfaction in a simulated home environment that represents practical scenarios of use

Geosynchronous SAR for Terrain & atmosphere with short revisit (GeoSTARe)

Geo STA Re would be a mission combining the continuous view capabilities from geostationary orbits of super-continental areas with the all-day, all-weather imaging capabilities of Synthetic Aperture Radar. It would complement Copernicus Sentinel-1 bringing the repeat time from days down to hours. In that, it would provide novel and unique observations. The well proven potentials of Radar in sensing roughness, deformations, and moisture, combined with the short time to get any image, from minutes to an hour, and the immediate data download and exploitation (thanks to the geostationary orbit) makes GeoSTARe a game changer in those fields where hourly-to-daily monitoring is a must

Consumers vs Internet of Things: A Systematic Evaluation Process to Drive Users in the Smart World☆

Abstract Smart Objects (SOs) market offers a wide variety of products apparently similar but characterized by different features that the average users fail to perceive. Consequently, their purchasing is often based on price and brand affection. In this context, users need a tool able to guide them in choosing the most suitable object to satisfy their expectations. To this purpose, this paper proposes a new systematic method to assess SOs in a comprehensive way: it allows to objectively assess and compare products and provides evaluation results tailored on users' needs. A first validation is carried out on three different SO typologies

Acute lobar nephritis in children: Not so easy to recognize and manage

Acute lobar nephritis (ALN) is a localized non-liquefactive inflammatory renal bacterial infection, which typically involves one or more lobes. ALN is considered to be a midpoint in the spectrum of upper urinary tract infection, a spectrum ranging from uncomplicated pyelonephritis to intrarenal abscess. This condition may be difficult to recognize due to the lack of specific symptoms and laboratory findings. Therefore the disease is probably underdiagnosed. Computed tomography scanning represents the diagnostic gold standard for ALN, but magnetic resonance imagine could be considered in order to limit irradiation. The diagnosis is relevant since initial intravenous antibiotic therapy and overall length of treatment should not be shorter than 3 wk. We review the literature and analyze the ALN clinical presentation starting from four cases with the aim to give to the clinicians the elements to suspect and recognize the ALN in children