ReLambro. Il fiume nuova infrastruttura ecologica della metropoli milanese

Lo studio raccoglie gli esiti di tre anni di progetto per la rete ecologica del Lambro Milanese cofinanziato da Fondazione Cariplo, con partner Politecnico di Milano, Ersaf (capofila), Legambiente Lombardia, PLIS Media Valle Lambro. Sviluppato in forma multidisciplinare come un documento di ricerca e azione, si propone con un vero e proprio documento di riferimento per tutti i soggetti che vogliono operare sul Lambro, o più in generale in ambiti fluviali in contesti urbani, fornendo uno strumento pratico da utilizzare per le azioni di riqualificazione fluviale e ambientale, nell’ottica di migliorare la funzionalità eco-sistemica del territorio e costruire e rafforzare la connessione ecologica a tutela della biodiversità

Theory and Application of Roscoe Pound\u27s Sociological Jurisprudence: Crime Prevention or Control?

The current interest in reforming the administration of justice has been triggered by a number of factors including the 1967 report of the President\u27s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice and the treatment afforded arrestees during the civil disorders of the past few years. The nation is alarmed at the reported annual increases in crime, and this alarm was manifested in the 1968 presidential election when law and order became a major issue. Superficially the answer may seem clear: more effective enforcement of the law and, when necessary, more stringent laws. The critical issue, however, is a jurisprudential-philosophical one: ought the proper approach to crime essentially be its prevention through methods such as the rehabilitation of criminal offenders, or its control through efficient administrative procedures? This is not a new question in jurisprudence, but it remains an important and unresolved one. This article will examine an analytical approach to this problem which was developed and applied by Roscoe Pound, one of America\u27s most eminent jurists. After describing and interpreting Pound\u27s concept of sociological jurisprudence, we will relate it generally to the reform of criminal justice administration and analyze Pound\u27s attempt to apply his theory as -Director of the Cleveland Crime Survey of 1921. Finally, we will compare the recommendations of that Cleveland study and the recent report of the President\u27s Commission in a modest effort to assess their impact on the administration of criminal justice and to draw some lessons for future reform endeavors

Focusing RF-on demand by logarithmic frequency-diverse arrays

The radiating systems exploiting the frequency diversity of the antennas are powerful architectures, that can have a big impact on wireless power transmission applications, but their characterization is merely theoretical. This paper offers a deep and critical numerical analysis of frequency- diverse arrays and shows the advantages of the family with logarithmic distribution of the frequency for radio-frequency energy focusing goals. For the first time, these systems are analyzed through a Harmonic Balance-based simulation combined with the full-wave description of the array made of eight planar monopoles: the rigorous results confirm the potentialities of these complex radiating systems, in particular show how the time-dependency of the radiating mechanism can be favorably deployed

An all-in-one dual band blade antenna for ads-b and 5g communications in uav assisted wireless networks

This paper is aimed at the characterization and manufacturing of an SMA coaxial fed com-pact blade antenna with dual frequency characteristics for broadband applications on board of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). This antenna is linearly polarized, and it combines the benefits of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and 5th Generation (5G) communications in one single element, covering both the 1.030–1.090 GHz and the 3.4–3.8 GHz bands thanks to a bent side and a ‘C’ shaped slot within the radiation element. Starting from the simulation outcomes on an ideal ground plane, the results are here extended to a bent ground plane and on two UAV com-mercial CAD models. Details of manufacturing of the antenna in both aluminium and FR-4 substrate materials are presented. The comparison between measurements and simulations is discussed in terms of return loss, bandwidth, gain, and radiation pattern. Results show an antenna with a low profile and a simple structure that can be employed in various wideband communication systems, suiting future UAV assisted 5G networks while being perfectly compliant with forthcoming ADS-B based Detect-And-Avoid (DAA) technologies in Unmanned Aerial Traffic Management (UTM)

Microwave Devices for Wearable Sensors and IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm is currently highly demanded in multiple scenarios and in particular plays an important role in solving medical-related challenges. RF and microwave technologies, coupled with wireless energy transfer, are interesting candidates because of their inherent contactless spectrometric capabilities and for the wireless transmission of sensing data. This article reviews some recent achievements in the field of wearable sensors, highlighting the benefits that these solutions introduce in operative contexts, such as indoor localization and microwave sensing. Wireless power transfer is an essential requirement to be fulfilled to allow these sensors to be not only wearable but also compact and lightweight while avoiding bulky batteries. Flexible materials and 3D printing polymers, as well as daily garments, are widely exploited within the presented solutions, allowing comfort and wearability without renouncing the robustness and reliability of the built-in wearable sensor

Large-scale shifts in phytoplankton groups in the Equatorial Pacific during ENSO cycles

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) drives important changes in the marine productivity of the Equatorial Pacific, in particular during major El Niño/La Niña transitions. Changes in environmental conditions associated with these climatic events also likely impact phytoplankton composition. In this work, the distribution of four major phytoplankton groups (nanoeucaryotes, Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and diatoms) was examined between 1996 and 2007 by applying the PHYSAT algorithm to the ocean color data archive from the Ocean Color and Temperature Sensor (OCTS) and Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS). Coincident with the decrease in chlorophyll concentrations, a large-scale shift in the phytoplankton composition of the Equatorial Pacific, that was characterized by a decrease in Synechococcus and an increase in nanoeucaryote dominance, was observed during the early stages of both the strong El Niño of 1997 and the moderate El Niño of 2006. A significant increase in diatoms dominance was observed in the Equatorial Pacific during the 1998 La Niña and was associated with elevated marine productivity. An analysis of the environmental variables using a coupled physical-biogeochemical model (NEMO-PISCES) suggests that the Synechococcus dominance decrease during the two El Niño events was associated with an abrupt decline in nutrient availability (−0.9 to −2.5 μM NO3 month−1). Alternatively, increased nutrient availability (3 μM NO3 month−1) during the 1998 La Niña resulted in Equatorial Pacific dominance diatom increase. Despite these phytoplankton community shifts, the mean composition is restored after a few months, which suggests resilience in community structure

Comparison between BNP values measured in capillary blood samples with a POCT method and those measured in plasma venous samples with an automated platform

Letter to the Editor. Our data suggest that it is possible to measure BNP in fresh finger-stick samples of capillary whole blood with an acceptable reproducibility, and within 10 – 20 min to obtain results close correlated to those measured by the automated platform in plasma blood samples collected from a vein. The measurement of BNP in fresh finger-stick samples of capillary whole blood with this POCT method is in particular indicated for the management of HF patients at home and for the BNP assay in neonates and children

A perturbed MicroRNA expression pattern characterizes embryonic neural stem cells derived from a severe mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an inherited neuromuscular disorder and the leading genetic cause of death in infants. Despite the disease-causing gene, survival motor neuron (SMN1), encodes a ubiquitous protein, SMN1 deficiency preferentially affects spinal motor neurons (MNs), leaving the basis of this selective cell damage still unexplained. As neural stem cells (NSCs) are multipotent self-renewing cells that can differentiate into neurons, they represent an in vitro model for elucidating the pathogenetic mechanism of neurodegenerative diseases such as SMA. Here we characterize for the first time neural stem cells (NSCs) derived from embryonic spinal cords of a severe SMNΔ7 SMA mouse model. SMNΔ7 NSCs behave as their wild type (WT) counterparts, when we consider neurosphere formation ability and the expression levels of specific regional and self-renewal markers. However, they show a perturbed cell cycle phase distribution and an increased proliferation rate compared to wild type cells. Moreover, SMNΔ7 NSCs are characterized by the differential expression of a limited number of miRNAs, among which miR-335-5p and miR-100-5p, reduced in SMNΔ7 NSCs compared to WT cells. We suggest that such miRNAs may be related to the proliferation differences characterizing SMNΔ7 NSCs, and may be potentially involved in the molecular mechanisms of SMA