Riflessioni sul senso dell’inattualità dell’Intero

The article deals initially with the essential structure of Franco Totaro’s book, L’assoluto e il relativo. L’essere e il suo accadere per noi. Totaro’s discourse begins with experience, i.e., with immediately present being, and indicates its tendency towards an ontological fulfillment, and, at the same time, a distance from the full manifestation of being. The intertwining of these two aspects allows, on the one hand, to show the original place of the ethical dimension; and on the other hand, to clearly see the limits of the latter in terms of a manifestation of the Whole of being. For Totaro, in order to avoid falling into the senselessness of the negative, we must consider that not every being is “worthy of being” beyond its happening. The expectation of a fulfilled manifestation of being, according to this “qualitative” dimension, seeks a salvific project of a religious type, which, however, remains philosophically indemonstrable. After having presented Totaro’s theoretical path, and having shown some of its merits, I offer some critical considerations and I suggest the author to rethink more analytically the contradiction which is implied in the “out-datedness of being” and which is at the core of the development of his “qualitative metaphysics”. In such a context, the doctrine of creation in the thought of Gustavo Bontadini is also taken into consideration

Essays on predictive and non-predictive strategies: real and simulated experiments

The dissertation studies how adopting a more systematic approach to decision-making impacts decision's outcomes and compares it with the adoption of non-predictive strategies. Coherently with previous literature (Camuffo et al. 2020), I call the systematic approach "scientific" since managers and entrepreneurs are asked to act as scientist would do in a business context. Indeed, this approach consists in developing theories and logic connections about the mechanism underlying future outcomes and test them with tailored experiments. "Scientific" managers and entrepreneurs are then called to analyse test results and make decisions accordingly. As mentioned, this approach helps decision-makers to improve their predictive power by probing the future with theory-based experiments but remains explorative. Managers and entrepreneurs explore other alternative ideas on which they can theorize on. On the non-predictive side, research on effectuation (Sarasvathy 2001; Dew et al. 2009; Chandler et Al. 2011) has shown how managers and entrepreneurs can deal with uncertainty by adopting a decision-making approach aimed to control the future instead of predicting it. Effectual decision-makers select alternative ideas based on loss affordability experimentation, and flexibility. But, in this case, experiments are not guided by well-framed theories and are not part of a systematic process. Sarasvathy (2008) uses the metaphor of a patchwork quilt: managers and entrepreneurs see the business context as a table where all the pieces are there but must be assembled or even created as the future is unpredictable. With the aim to unfold the mechanism driving diferent termination rates of ideas from the adoption of these two approaches, I propose a model with the aim to predict empirical results. The model proposes a Bayesian framework, where decision-makers acquire costly information to improve the precision of signals. Based on these informative signals, they act accordingly. I expect scientic decision-makers to react promptly to very informative bad signals. While I expect effectual decision-makers to react less to bad signals since they weight less predictive information. This translates into higher rates of termination for scientic decision-makers than effectual decision-makers. Moreover, scientic decision-makers terminate earlier than effectual decision-makers. In the second chapter, I focus on the scientific approach solely. I provide evidence of the implications of a scientific approach to decision-making through four Randomized Control Trials, involving start-ups and small-medium firms (SMEs) across two countries, Italy and UK. The three main findings are that scientic decision-makers are more likely to terminate their idea in early stages, corfiming findings of the previous chapter. They pivot fewer times before committing to one or terminate the idea. They also perform better in terms of revenues. A model has been developed to explain empirical results. In the third chapter, I study a way to scale research findings by using a simulation game to replicate, to some extent, results of the previous two chapters about the scientic approach

Andamenti del contenuto in azoto in diversi organi di tre specie arbustive della Macchia Mediterranea condividenti lo stesso areale

Nel presente lavoro si è determinato l'andamento della concentrazione in N nelle foglie, radici e fusto di tre specie arbustive tipiche della vegetazione mediterranea quali: Phyllirea latifolia, Cistus monspeliensis e Pistacia lentiscus. Lo studio è stato effettuato per un biennio, nel Parco Naturale della Maremma (42 ° 39’ 30’’N, 11° 04’ 29’’ E). Per ogni specie, sono state selezionate 5 piante rappresentative,il contenuto di azoto da giugno a luglio del primo anno, presente anche a distanza di un anno per lentisco (media del 0,27 %), mentre per il cisto (media del 0,22 %) da gennaio a marzo. Le radici di fillirea si mantengono successivamente su valori medi intorno al 0,27 % per tutto il resto dell’anno. In conclusione, la concentrazione media di azoto nei tre organi di C. monspeliensis risulta più variabile rispetto alle altre due specie. Questa variabilità, può essere messa in relazione alla sensibilità alle variazioni di umidità degli strati superficiali del suolo ove il cisto concentra il suo apparato radicale, e alla probabile traslocazione dell'N dalle foglie nel periodo estivo verso organi permanenti quali fusto e radici

A Comprehensive Investigation on the Effects of Surface Finishing on the Resistance of Stainless Steel to Localized Corrosion

The present research investigates the influence of surface roughness imparted by cold surface finishing processes on the localized corrosion resistance of stainless steel. Five different alloys were studied: ferritic AISI 430, martensitic AISI 430F, austenitic AISI 303, AISI 304L, and AISI 316L. It was demonstrated that the grinding process, executed on previously cold drawn bars, leads to an improvement in corrosion resistance according to the results obtained with electrochemical tests, namely, potentiostatic and potentiodynamic tests in chloride-rich environments, the salt spray test, and long-term exposure in urban and marine atmospheres. This allowed us to establish a trend among the different alloys regarding the resistance to pitting corrosion, which was assessed according to pitting potentials, critical chloride contents, and pitting initiation time. All the tests confirmed that surface finishing, as well as alloy chemical composition, is an important factor in controlling the corrosion resistance of stainless steel

Arthroscopic treatment of an unusual distal clavicle ostheochondroma causing rotator cuff impingement: Case report and literature review

Chronic shoulder impingement is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain. Intrinsic, extrinsic and secondary factors play a role in this syndrome; however the etiology of the pathology is still under debate. In rare cases, it can be caused by tumors, such as an osteochondroma. In the present study, a 49-year-old patient presented with shoulder pain for 6 months. Initially he underwent conservative treatment, without relief of symptoms. X-rays and MRI were then performed and showed the presence of an exostotic formation on the undersurface of the lateral third of the clavicle. The formation was arthroscopically removed. Histologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of osteochondroma. After surgery, the patient resumed fully activities with no symptoms within 3 months. At 1 year follow up, there are still no clinical or radiological signs of recurrence. This is, to our knowledge, the first case where an arthroscopic approach was used to remove an ostochondroma of the distal third of the clavicle

Multiple sclerosis treatment and melanoma development

Therapy of multiple sclerosis (MS) with disease-modifying agents such as natalizumab or fingolimod has been associated with the development of cutaneous melanoma. Here we briefly revise literature data and report of a case of a 48-year old woman who developed a melanoma and several atypical naevi after sub sequential treatment with natalizumab (1 year) and fingolimod (7 years). By immunohistochemistry we observed the presence of T cells and leukocyte infiltration as well as of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A expression in the patient melanoma biopsy. Then, we analyzed proliferation, migration and VEGF-A expression in three melanoma cell lines and found out that both natalizumab and fingolimod inhibited tumor cell proliferation but promoted or blocked cell migration depending on the cell line examined. VEGF-A secretion was augmented in one melanoma cell line only after fingolimod treatment. In conclusion, our in vitro data do not support the hypothesis of a direct action of natalizumab or fingolimod on melanoma progression but acting on the tumor microenvironment these treatments could indirectly favor melanoma evolution

Recent Advances in the Use of Green Corrosion Inhibitors to Prevent Chloride-Induced Corrosion in Reinforced Concrete

Inhibitors for the prevention of corrosion in reinforced concrete are chemical substances able to reduce carbon steel reinforcements corrosion without altering the overall properties of concrete. Today, many commercially available substances have a negative impact on human safety during either the inhibitor synthesis, their handling or application in field. Green corrosion inhibitors are nontoxic, biodegradable and environmentally biocompatible substances. They are generally made of extracts from natural plants or waste, which are abundantly available in several countries. The majority of green inhibitor molecules usually contain multiple bonds, aromatic rings, polar functional groups and electronegative atoms as P, N, S or O; the latter are able to coordinate with metal cations to form protective layers on the metallic surface of the reinforcements, so as to inhibit the development (initiation and/or propagation) of the corrosion process. In this review, the most recent achievements on the study and investigation of green corrosion inhibitors for concrete structures are presented and discussed. Inhibitors are classified based on their nature and inhibition mechanism. The inhibition effectiveness of the substances is compared with the well-established effective nitrite-based inhibitor, distinguishing between accelerated and long-term tests. Based on the available data, a summary of corrosion inhibitors efficiency is reported

The role of adipose derived stem cells in the treatment of rotator cuff tears: From basic science to clinical application

Over the last decade, regenerative medicine has become increasingly popular throughout the scientific community. The poor healing capacity at the tendon-bone interface makes the rotator cuff an appealing target for biologic agents. Adipose derived stem cells are mesenchymalcells with the capacity for self-renewal and mul-tipotential differentiation. They have been recently proposed, both in isolation and as adjuvants to existing surgical therapies, for the treatment of rotator cuff tears. Several studies have been carried out in this research field, starting from the biological characteristics of adipose derived stem cells, their preparation and culture, up to the application in the experimental field on animal models and on humans. The purpose of this study was to provide a state of the art about the current basic science and clinical literature for the effectiveness of adipose derived stem cells in the treatment of rotator cuff tears