CON-TEMPORARY LIVING. UNEXPECTED HOUSING SOLUTIONS IN PUBLIC SPACES

In this book we will analyse the meaning of the word temporary in relation to the change between space and time, time and use, use and memory. Specifically, we will look at the value of the temporary nature of design as applied to the world, the city and its inhabitants, the temporary urban solutions (Fassi, 2012), and finally the key place designed to host people’s life: the home. Although it can be said that today the meaning of the term “living” is broader and indicates more than a place to sleep, and therefore to the small domestic space of a house. This is shown by the fact that today we live at work, we live on the go, we live in the movement, but, the house still plays a central role (Galluzzo, 2018). We will then draw up a categorization of the different types of temporary housing. Examples that in the world of design are multiple and, especially in recent years, have increased exponentially. Temporary design has become an excellent instrument to occupy peripheral, degraded and underutilized areas of the city, to give them a new personality and new value, and to then find a more permanent form of use for them. In this sense, the temporary city is one that takes its least used areas and aspects and transforms them to accommodate new uses, new identities and new inhabitants

Postcards from sustainable cities of the future

While we are experiencing the Covid-19 pandemic in the world, we ask ourselves about many aspects of our lives and above all we ask ourselves if some behaviors and habits will remain the same as in the past or will undergo transformations. In this panorama we try to imagine future scenarios for our cities, for a different use of public spaces, more inclusive, which responds to the needs and desires of different urban populations: children, elderly, animals, non-human agents, etc

Designing Design Education. An articulated programme of collective open design activities

Design Education is changing. Setting out from the awareness that “the profile of design professions need not – and should not – remain what it is today” (Findeli, 2001, p.17) and from insight suggesting that the “experimental approach will become the “normal” approach in our future” (Manzini, 2015, p.54), the authors worked on an articulated programme of collective open design activities reflecting these changes. The activities focus on concrete experimentation on the paradigm of distributed production, which modifies the articulation of known roles and the traditional design education approaches. Therefore, the initiative aims at involving important international design schools in a concrete design exploration of this key issue for society and the design discipline itself. Manzini (2015) urged to “look at the whole of society as a huge laboratory of sociotechnical experimentation”: this practice is a remarkable example which may be used as a model in the future on a larger scale

Hall of the Future: a Systemic Research Project for Public Interiors and Spaces using Co-Design Tools.

Systems theory and its guidelines - systems thinking - have been promoted as the most relevant practice for raising social awareness about interconnected complex systems. Systemic Design intends to develop methodologies and approaches that help to integrate systems thinking with design towards sustainability at the environmental, social and economic levels. Based on the Hall of the Future requalification project, designed with the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, this essay describes a Systemic Research project with a focus on the use of a Co-Design approach within the process. Moreover, it illustrates an established relationship between two different public institutions, highlighting how to share a fresh approach to designing new services aimed at the world of business, trade and tourism, and the consequent re-functionalization and enhancement of its given spaces

Design and Culture of the Territory: Ecomuseo del Grano e del Pane in the Salemi Museum System

The article deals with design experimentation in the complex and composite field of design for the culture of the territory, aimed at enhancing the particular resources common to the Mediterranean areas, through an incremental and collaborative design methodology. The town of Salemi (TP) inherited an extraordinary concentration of cultural heritage from its history; in particular the preparation and display of the decorated breads for the Festivity of San Giuseppe, occurring on March 19th, which expresses a profound religiosity and a complex rituality, shared, handed down and recognized as an intangible cultural asset to be protected. In this territorial context, a vision aimed at encouraging increasingly wider cultural and tourist growth and interested in the quality of experience has led to the design elaboration and realization of an Ecomuseo del Grano e del Pane. This is an experimentation articulated through meetings with the various territorial actors, gathering experiences and testimonies, and laboratory activities. Together with the description of the project outcome, the article intends to describe and analyze the intertwining of the many aspects that have structured the design process, based on a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary approach “necessary” for cultural elaboration and looking at design as a multidimensional and relational discipline

Hall of the Future: a Systemic Research Project for Public Interiors and Spaces using Co-Design Tools.

Systems theory and its guidelines - systems thinking - have been promoted as the most relevant practice for raising social awareness about interconnected complex systems. Systemic Design intends to develop methodologies and approaches that help to integrate systems thinking with design towards sustainability at the environmental, social and economic levels. Based on the Hall of the Future requalification project, designed with the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, this essay describes a Systemic Research project with a focus on the use of a Co-Design approach within the process. Moreover, it illustrates an established relationship between two different public institutions, highlighting how to share a fresh approach to designing new services aimed at the world of business, trade and tourism, and the consequent re-functionalization and enhancement of its given spaces

OpenMind Handbook. A System of Design Tools and Processes to Empower Democracy Culture in Primary Schools

In this historical moment, the controversial reorganisation of the Italian education system is raising the necessity to reflect on the responsibility of education in defining more resilient societies. Primary schools are the first place where children can actively experience the dynamics of democratic coexistence, developing their relationship with society through a process of long-term encounters. Nowadays, students not only need to acquire basic skills but, above all, to address emerging social issues through education in terms of democratic culture, equality, sharing and collaboration. The research investigated how Service Design can activate participatory processes that can foster the co-creation of educational experiences aimed at raising awareness of social coexistence and democratic participation. OpenMind Handbook is a project that facilitates the implementation of new educational experiences and increases social relationships, enabling the involvement of the educational community within a long-term action process

Efficacy and Safety of Dupilumab in the Treatment of Hand Eczema: A Retrospective Study

Background: Hand eczema (HE) is a prevalent chronic condition that exerts a substantial and enduring adverse effect on quality of life (QoL) and imposes an economic burden on society. Managing HE poses challenges due to the limited effectiveness and potential adverse effects associated with many currently available topical and systemic treatments. Methods: This article examines twenty-one patients affected by HE treated with dupilumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin IL-4 and IL-13 signaling. This involves a retrospective descriptive statistical analysis. Results: At week 6, HECSI-75 was achieved by 12 patients (57.9%). The proportion of patients meeting the HECSI-75 criteria steadily increased over the observation weeks, reaching 90% at week 16 and 100% at week 104. Furthermore, HECSI-90 and HECSI-100 were achieved by 75% and 60% of patients at week 16 and by 100% and 85% of patients at week 68, respectively. All patients who reached week 104 maintained complete disease remission according to HECSI 100. Conclusions: In all patients, dupilumab was shown to be an effective drug in achieving disease clearance, as indicated by all the parameters considered at each evaluation point (Week 6, Week 16, Week 32, Week 52, Week 68, Week 84, and Week 104), in comparison to the initial baseline

SIRM-SIN-AIOM: appropriateness criteria for evaluation and prevention of renal damage in the patient undergoing contrast medium examinations-consensus statements from Italian College of Radiology (SIRM), Italian College of Nephrology (SIN) and Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM)

The increasing number of examinations and interventional radiological procedures that require the administration of contrast medium (CM) in patients at risk for advanced age and/or comorbidities highlights the problem of CM-induced renal toxicity. A multidisciplinary group consisting of specialists of different disciplines-radiologists, nephrologists and oncologists, members of the respective Italian Scientific Societies-agreed to draw up this position paper, to assist clinicians increasingly facing the challenges posed by CM-related renal dysfunction in their daily clinical practice.The major risk factor for acute renal failure following CM administration (post-CM AKI) is the preexistence of renal failure, particularly when associated with diabetes, heart failure or cancer.In accordance with the recent guidelines ESUR, the present document reaffirms the importance of renal risk assessment through the evaluation of the renal function (eGFR) measured on serum creatinine and defines the renal risk cutoff when the eGFR is < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2 for procedures with intravenous (i.v.) or intra-arterial (i.a.) administration of CM with renal contact at the second passage (i.e., after CM dilution with the passage into the pulmonary circulation).The cutoff of renal risk is considered an eGFR < 45 ml/min/1.73 m2 in patients undergoing i.a. administration with first-pass renal contact (CM injected directly into the renal arteries or in the arterial district upstream of the renal circulation) or in particularly unstable patients such as those admitted to the ICU.Intravenous hydration using either saline or Na bicarbonate solution before and after CM administration represents the most effective preventive measure in patients at risk of post-CM AKI. In the case of urgency, the infusion of 1.4% sodium bicarbonate pre- and post-CM may be more appropriate than the administration of saline.In cancer patients undergoing computed tomography, pre- and post-CM hydration should be performed when the eGFR is < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2 and it is also advisable to maintain a 5 to 7 days interval with respect to the administration of cisplatin and to wait 14 days before administering zoledronic acid.In patients with more severe renal risk (i.e., with eGFR < 20 ml/min/1.73 m2), particularly if undergoing cardiological interventional procedures, the prevention of post-CM AKI should be implemented through an internal protocol shared between the specialists who treat the patient.In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using gadolinium CM, there is a lower risk of AKI than with iodinated CM, particularly if doses < 0.1 mmol/kg body weight are used and in patients with eGFR > 30 ml/min/1.73 m2. Dialysis after MRI is indicated only in patients already undergoing chronic dialysis treatment to reduce the potential risk of systemic nephrogenic fibrosis

Detection of N-Glycolyl GM3 Ganglioside in Neuroectodermal Tumors by Immunohistochemistry: An Attractive Vaccine Target for Aggressive Pediatric Cancer

The N-glycolylated ganglioside NeuGc-GM3 has been described in solid tumors such as breast carcinoma, nonsmall cell lung cancer, and melanoma, but is usually not detected in normal human cells. Our aim was to evaluate the presence of NeuGc-GM3 in pediatric neuroectodermal tumors by immunohistochemistry. Twenty-seven archival cases of neuroblastoma and Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) were analyzed. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor samples were cut into 5 μm sections. The monoclonal antibody 14F7, a mouse IgG1 that specifically recognizes NeuGc-GM3, and a peroxidase-labeled polymer conjugated to secondary antibodies were used. Presence of NeuGc-GM3 was evident in 23 of 27 cases (85%), with an average of about 70% of positive tumors cells. Immunoreactivity was moderate to intense in most tumors, showing a diffuse cytoplasmic and membranous staining, although cases of ESFT demonstrated a fine granular cytoplasmic pattern. No significant differences were observed between neuroblastoma with and without NMYC oncogene amplification, suggesting that expression of NeuGc-GM3 is preserved in more aggressive cancers. Until now, the expression of N-glycolylated gangliosides in pediatric neuroectodermal tumors has not been investigated. The present study evidenced the expression of NeuGc-GM3 in a high proportion of neuroectodermal tumors, suggesting its potential utility as a specific target of immunotherapy