Firm, territory and local community: lessons learned from the Olivetti’s model

The paper discusses the relevance of the Olivetti model and the validity of that entrepreneurial experience based on values such as the concrete community, the territory and urban planning, and a source of virtuous learning to face the tensions of the current socio-economic systems. Through the methodology of the case study, the one developed by Adriano Olivetti is qualified as an arbor vitae business model: a model based on ethics and community, a culture of innovation and aesthetics in design. Thus, the Olivettian model of the arbor vitae is assumed as an ideal-typical model. It can assess the virtuosity or otherwise the possible corporate behavior in the current socio-economic contexts. The article ends by emphasizing the vast cultural heritage left by Olivetti to the city of Ivrea, the company’s headquarters. The Ivrea Olivetti factory became a virtuous model of work organization. It has made Ivrea as a smart land ante litteram conceived for man and not exclusively for the often dehumanizing efficiency of the assembly line. Olivetti factory in Ivrea became a model of a work organisation while the Ivrea community a smart land designed on the person and not on the dehumanized work of the assembly line: all these reasons have led Ivrea – the Industrial City of the 20th Century – to be recognized as the 54th Italian UNESCO Heritage. Il lavoro discute l’attualità del modello olivettiano e la validità di quell’esperienza imprenditoriale basata su valori quali la comunità concreta, il territorio e la pianificazione urbana e fonte di apprendimento virtuoso per affrontare le tensioni degli attuali sistemi socio-economici. Adottando la metodologia del caso di studio, quello sviluppato da Adriano Olivetti viene qualificato come modello di impresa arbor vitae: un modello fondato su etica e comunità, cultura dell’innovazione e dell’estetica nel design. Il modello olivettiano dell’arbor vitae viene così assunto a modello idealtipico sulla cui base valutare la virtuosità o meno dei possibili comportamenti d’impresa negli attuali contesti socio-economici. Il saggio si chiude sottolineando l’ingente eredità culturale lasciata da Olivetti alla città di Ivrea, sede dell’azienda. La fabbrica olivettiana di Ivrea divenne un modello virtuoso di organizzazione del lavoro e fece di Ivrea una smart land ante litteram concepita per l’uomo e non esclusivamente per l’efficienza, spesso disumanizzante, della linea di assemblaggio: proprio questa profondamente umana quanto illuminata concezione dello spazio lavorativo quale spazio innanzitutto di rapporto interumano è valsa ad Ivrea – Industrial City of the 20th Century – il prestigioso riconoscimento di 54° sito UNESCO italiano

USING HIGH RESOLUTION RAINGAUGE DATA FOR STORM TRACKING ANALYSIS IN THE URBAN AREA OF PALERMO, ITALY

This paper presents a comparative analysis between rain-gauge storm tracking techniques in order to achieve a better knowledge of the rainfall dynamics over an urbanized area. The temporal and spatial distribution and kinematics of short term rainfall are recognized as one of the most important reasons in error production in rainfall-runoff on urban catchments. The uncertainty due to rainfall variability can greatly affect urban drainage modeling performance and reliability thus reducing the confidence of operators in their results. Modeling representations of urban catchments and drainage systems are commonly adopted for surface flooding forecasting and management and an adequate knowledge of rainfall spatial and temporal variability should be considered as a fundamental step for a robust interpretation of the physical processes that take part in urban areas during intense rainfall events. The starting basis of such studies is usually given by a network of high resolution raingauges disseminated inside and around the examined urban area. One of the raingauge techniques used is based on simulating the storm motion by visualizing the sequence of the rainfall patterns obtained using rain-gauge data and on spatial correlation. The storm speed and direction are obtained using the rain-gauge method by tracking the advance of the maximum rainfall intensity in time and space. A second method is based on the identification, for each gauge, of the time of occurrence of some significant features such the time of onset of a storm or the time of peak. A third method is based on the classical idea of spacetime autocorrelation function; This function describes the way in which the correspondence between the rainfall patterns at two points in space-time reduces as the distance between two points is increased. The analysis has been carried out on the basis given by high resolution rainfall data collected over Palermo urban area (Italy). The urban area has a surface of around 30 km2 and it is mainly distributed on North West – South East direction. The monitoring network is made of 10 tipping bucket raingauges. Bucket volume is equivalent to 0.1 mm rainfall. Raingauges have been uniformly distributed over the urban areas allocating them mainly over public buildings and school in order to allow for easy access. The network has been put in place in January 2006 and it is still working. Data is monthly collected by the operator that also provide for clock synchronization and ordinary maintenance and cleaning. An accurate analysis of the results of this comparison between the techniques has been carried out and, since the city of Palermo is not covered by any meteorological radar, the analysis of storm dynamics will allow to create a system monitoring hydrometeorological conditions which operates on time basis using the information coming from the raingauge network as forecast triggers

Surfing the complex interaction between new technology and norms: A resistance or resilience issue? Insights by the Viable System Approach (VSA)

The paper investigates the complex interaction between technological innovation and norms: a crucial dynamic to facing the severe challenges of the Anthropocene.On the one hand, the sedimentation of norms acts as the genetic memory of a society. Allowing a reduction in the uncertainty of human condition and ensuring greater predictability of human interaction, the set of norms tend to activate a system of constraints that normalize and legitimate technological innovations.On the other hand, technological innovation is one of the most unpredictable and non-linear sources of change. It demands legitimization for what in the past were excluded or prohibited a priori (e.g. behaviors, ethics): this may trigger a “decoupling” process from the extant set of norms. Nevertheless, what decoupling should be legitimized? A wicked problem arises, and forking paths emerge in the socio-economic landscape.Leading the tension between new technology (source of unpredictability) and the taken-for-granted norms (source of predictability) is crucial if the aim is to linking effectiveness and efficiency to viable sustainability. While the (still dominant) cartesian approach considers norms and new technology as separate elements of the social system, system thinking enlightens the interaction between them. This helps to unveil hidden options/feedbacks in the decoupling-recoupling process between technological innovation and the evolution of norms enriching the information variety of the decision-makers (policy makers, citizens, urban planners, etc.).The dynamics that govern this dyad, however, are not linear: norms, in fact, do not have the same reactivity to absorb (recouple) the change triggered by new technologies (decoupling from the extant set of norms).Although the relevance of the issue, it has been often neglected, or at least not taken in the right consideration. Therefore, aiming to investigate this dyadic relationship, the paper focuses on the ambiguous role technology plays in enabling resilience: sometimes it acts as a resilience amplifier; sometimes it is a resilience inhibitor (and even a steel cage); sometimes it provokes an undesirable deviation from the taken-for-granted codified rules.In particular, aiming to contribute in filling this gap, and rooting in the Viable System Approach (VSA), the paper investigates why and how in some cases the interaction between technological innovation and norms leads to resistance towards change or acts as a resilience amplifier in other cases.The paper is structured as follows: after an Introduction underlying the need to understanding the increasing tension between new technology and norms, Section 2 deals with the contribution of the VSA in understanding the social systems; then, rooting in the VSA and moving from the concept of information variety, Section 3 frames the complex interplay between new technology and taken-for-granted norms as one of the most dramatic “resistance-resilience” issue of the Anthropocene era; Section 4 proposes a more comprehensive framework discussing the range “resilience-resistance-vulnerability” and presents final reflections

MicroRNA in Human Gliomas

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L’INFLUENZA DELLA MORFOLOGIA SULLA DISTRIBUZIONE DELLE PIOGGE INTENSE

Le precipitazioni intense costituiscono uno dei principali pericoli naturali perché sono all’origine di processi, come innesco di frane o piene improvvise, che possono rappresentare una grave minaccia per la vita umana. Il problema di determinare la variazione spaziale delle precipitazioni intense e in particolare, di indagare sulle relazioni che intercorrono tra queste e la morfologia del territorio, è molto importante soprattutto per gli studi connessi alla realizzazione di efficienti sistemi di allerta e di allarme. Tuttavia la variabilità delle piogge intense con la morfologia è scarsamente studiata in idrologia. In questo lavoro si intende affrontare l’argomento a scala regionale, assumendo che le precipitazioni intense siano rappresentate dalle curve di probabilità pluviometrica che forniscono il quantile Tennale di assegnata durata come prodotto di un coefficiente di crescita in frequenza per una relazione di potenza che serve a riscalare le medie orarie nelle durate maggiori tramite due parametri, a e n. In tal modo lo studio può essere ricondotto all’analisi della variazione di questi due parametri in funzione di alcuni caratteri morfologici e fisiografici. Lo studio è stato condotto sui dati provenienti da 276 stazioni pluviografiche funzionanti sul territorio siciliano. E’ stata utilizzata sia la regressione stepwise sia la Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) pervenendo a risultati interessanti

Indomethacin-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine Interaction. A Calorimetric Study of Drug Release from Poly(Lactide-co-glycolide) Microspheres into Multilamellar Vesicles.

A comparative study of indomethacin controlled release from poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (50:50, molecular weight 3000) (PLGA) microspheres loaded with two different amounts of drug (10.9 ± 1%, and 34.1 ± 1% w/w) and pure free indomethacin, considering the effects exerted by the drug on the thermotropic behavior of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine multilamellar vesicles, was carried out by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The release was monitored by comparing the effect exerted by the free indomethacin on lipid thermotropic behavior with that of the drug released by the microspheres and relating these effects to a lipid aqueous dispersion containing the molar ratio of drug able to cause it. By DSC measurements, the pure free indomethacin was found to be able to have a fluidifying effect on the model membrane, causing a shift toward lower values of the transitional temperature (Tm), characteristic of phospholipid liposomes, without variations in the enthalpic changes (ΔH). This shift was found to be modulated by the drug molar fraction with respect to the lipid concentration in the aqueous dispersion. Successively, calorimetric measurements were performed on suspensions of blank liposomes added to weighed amounts of unloaded and indometha-cin-loaded microspheres as well as free powdered indomethacin, and the Tm shifts of the lipid bilayer caused by the drug released from the polymeric system, as well as by the free drug, were compared with that caused by free drug increasing molar fractions dispersed directly on the membrane, employed as a calibration curve to obtain the fraction of drug released. This drug release model could be employed to determine the different kinetics involved in the drug transfer from the microspheres to a membrane. This in vitro study suggests that the kinetic process involved in drug release is influenced by the amount of drug loaded in the microspheres. This calorimetric study shows that the PLGA microspheres are a good delivery system able to sustain drug release. Moreover, the DSC technique applied to the drug interaction with biomembranes constitutes a good tool for determining the drug release representing an innovative alternative in vitro model

Efecto de los manejos sobre la actividad de la ß - glucosidasa, fosfatasa ácida y dehidrogenasa en un suelo vertisólico

p.63-67El uso continuo del suelo produce cambios que se manifiestan de diversas formas y conducen a modificaciones sobre algunas propiedades edáficas. El objetivo de este trabajo es relacionar la actividad de las enzimas B-glucosidasa y fosfatasa ácida con el C del suelo y con un índice de la población microbiana viable evaluado mediante la actividad de la dehidrogenasa. Este ensayo se realizó sobres suelos vertisólicos en el departamento de La Paz (Prov. de Entre Ríos). Se seleccionaron cuatro situaciones con distinto grado de degradación. Sobre las muestras extraídas a 10 cm de profundidad se realizaron las siguientes determinaciones: actividad de la B-glucosidasa, fosfatasa ácida, dehidrogenasa y C oxidable. La actividad de la B-glucosidasa fue significativam ente más alta en las situaciones m enos degradadas (p menor a 0,05). La fosfatasa ácida resultó ser la variable más sensible para detectar diferencias significativas (p menor a 0,05) entre todas las situaciones. Ambas exoenzimas correlacionaron significativamente (p menor a 0,05) con el contenido de C del suelo. La dehidrogenasa presentó un comportamiento similar a la B-glucosidasa. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que las exoenzimas B-glucosidasa y fosfatasa ácida así como el sistema dehidrogenasa presentan distinta sensibilidad para discriminar los cambios causados por los diferentes manejos aplicados al suelo, siendo la fosfatasa ácida la más sensible en detectar dichos cambios

A weather monitoring system for the study of precipitation fields, weather, and climate in an urban area

The possibility to study the precipitation dynamics with advanced and specific tools is an important task of the research activity addressing the understanding, the modeling, and the managing of rainfall events. Over the last years, the hydrology laboratory of the Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace Engineering, and Materials (DICAM) at the University of Palermo, has installed several instruments for the monitoring and the study of precipitation within the urban area of Palermo (Italy). The main instrument of this system is the X-band weather radar, which allows monitoring the precipitation fields with high resolution in space and time. This instrument is supported by a rain gauges network of 18 tipping bucket gauges spread over the observed area, a weight rain gauge, an optical disdrometer, and a weather station. The information provided by different devices can be combined in order to integrate different data and correct errors. In particular, the disdrometer is able to provide the drop size distribution (DSD) that is directly linked to the parameters used to transform radar reflectivity to precipitation estimates. Moreover, disdrometer observations can be used to classify the precipitation events. The rain gauges network data is used to apply a ground correction to the radar precipitation maps. Such an operation is useful to constrain the radar estimate to the observed ground precipitation value. Results obtained from a prototypal version of the system, that considers only the main applications designed, are discussed for a study event. Finally, all of the above instruments are embedded in an integrated early warning system able to provide warnings related to possible flood in the urban area of Palermo