The Capability Approach and the Tools of Economic Policies for Smart City

Abstract The capability approach developed by the Nobel Prize Amartya Sen have influenced the theoretical approaches of the studies of well-being and quality of life in a multidimensional key focusing on people's freedom. As Sen points out that approach measures the individual advantage in the reason of the capability that the person has to do those things which assign a value. In fact, the advantage of an individual in terms of opportunities is considered lower than that of another one if that individual has lower capacities – i.e. lower effective opportunities - to realize what he attributes a value. The focus is than on the effective freedom of people to do or to be what he believes is worthwhile to do or to be (Sen A., 1999). Therefore, Sen proposes an idea of well-being as "what the individual can do or can be" (set of being and doing), in relation to the ability of people to transform the means and the resources available in results, achievements and goals. A proposal that aims to overcome the concept of material well-being, limited to the unique availability of resources. Furthermore, the capability approach allows a rereading of the issue of the quality of life associated with the condition of social segregation in urban areas, namely degradation of the peripheral neighbourhoods of the city. The urban environment, being a factor capable of affecting the ability to act of people, for the presence/absence of social structures in the broadest possible sense, can be evaluated for the opportunities given to individuals to convert their resources into daily life functioning. The capabilities of people can become, therefore, a measure of the quality of urban environment, depending on the wealth of the conversion factors of the resources into the set of capability. The different multidimensional perspective, introduced by the capability approach, can decisively influence the policy choices. The development of the smart cities strategies and, more generally, the "integrated" territorial policies should propose, then, as an expansion of the devices of people capabilities, in urban areas, which could become potentially segregating and narrowing the field of opportunities to convert resources into functioning

Emerging Role of the Spleen in the Pharmacokinetics of Monoclonal Antibodies, Nanoparticles and Exosomes

After being absorbed, drugs distribute in the body in part to reach target tissues, in part to be disposed in tissues where they do not exert clinically-relevant effects. Therapeutically-relevant effects are usually terminated by drug metabolism and/or elimination. The role that has been traditionally ascribed to the spleen in these fundamental pharmacokinetic processes was definitely marginal. However, due to its high blood flow and to the characteristics of its microcirculation, this organ would be expected to be significantly exposed to large, new generation drugs that can hardly penetrate in other tissues with tight endothelial barriers. In the present review, we examine the involvement of the spleen in the disposition of monoclonal antibodies, nanoparticles and exosomes and the possible implications for their therapeutic efficacy and toxicity. The data that we will review lead to the conclusion that a new role is emerging for the spleen in the pharmacokinetics of new generation drugs, hence suggesting that this small, neglected organ will certainly deserve stronger attention by pharmacologists in the future

The Endocannabinoid System in the Mediterranean Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis: Possible Mediators of the Immune Activity?

Anandamide (AEA) is one of the best characterized members of the endocannabinoid family and its involvement in many pathophysiological processes has been well documented in vertebrates and invertebrates. Here, we report the biochemical and functional characterization of key elements of the endocannabinoid system in hemocytes isolated from the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. We also show the effects of exogenous AEA, as well as of capsaicin, on the cell ability to migrate and to activate the respiratory burst, upon in vitro stimulation of phagocytosis. Interestingly, our findings show that both AEA and capsaicin suppress the hemocyte response and that the use of selective antagonists of CB2 and TRPV1 receptors revert their inhibitory effects. Overall, present data support previous evidence on the presence of endocannabinoid signaling in mollusks and advance our knowledge about the evolutionary origins of this endogenous system and its role in the innate response of mollusks

Simultaneous sampling of vapor and particle-phase carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on functionalized glass fiber filters

The sampling of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the atmosphere is often performed on filters, which retain only aerosol particles, disregarding the vapor fraction; after the filter, an adsorbent (e.g., polyurethane foam, PUF, or styrene/divinylbenzene, XAD) is sometimes used for sampling vapors not retained from the filter. However, the use of an adsorbent may lead to many disadvantages: contaminations, analysis time and costs, and size problems when developing automated or personal samplers. In this work, a functionalized glass fiber filter for the simultaneous sampling of aerosol particles and vapor fraction is presented for the sampling of PAHs in air. A low sampling efficiency was observed for 3 ring PAHs, but all carcinogenic PAHs (according to IARC) were totally retained on functionalized filters. On the other hand, a comparison with normal filter sampling was performed, and results obtained confirm that > 10% of benzo(a)pyrene can be lost from normal filters. Together with size reduction, another advantage of the functionalized filter is an enhancement in the extraction and purification recovery. © Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research

Optimal quantum circuits for general phase estimation

We address the problem of estimating the phase phi given N copies of the phase rotation gate u(phi). We consider, for the first time, the optimization of the general case where the circuit consists of an arbitrary input state, followed by any arrangement of the N phase rotations interspersed with arbitrary quantum operations, and ending with a POVM. Using the polynomial method, we show that, in all cases where the measure of quality of the estimate phi' for phi depends only on the difference phi'-phi, the optimal scheme has a very simple fixed form. This implies that an optimal general phase estimation procedure can be found by just optimizing the amplitudes of the initial state.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A virtuous combination of structural and skill analysis to defeat organized crime

The paper proposes the implementation of new and more effective policies to contrast organized crime. In particular, it develops a simple algorithm to estimate the resilience of criminal networks and to compare the effects of different attack strategies used by police forces. Obtained results show the high resilience ability of criminal organizations, suggesting a virtuous combination of structural and skill analysis. Moreover, the paper suggests public policies and legal instruments to discourage and fight all kinds of mafia contiguity currently pursued with toothless weapons

Stability improvement of PMMA and Lumogen® coatings for hybrid white LEDs

Hybrid white LEDs employing perylene-based dyes for the frequency down-conversion of blue light, generated by a standard inorganic source, suffer from colour rendering variations due to the degradation of the organic molecule under prolonged irradiation. To avoid such inconvenient, proper encapsulation of the dyes in resins or other polymer matrices can prevent their accelerated ageing; nevertheless, embedding polymers can also exhibit significant bleaching caused by chemico-physical agents. Among all, polymethyl methacrilate (PMMA) is one of the most used materials for the fabrication of hybrid LEDs' colour conversion coatings, therefore its stability needs to be investigated

Progress in Violet Light-Emitting Diodes Based on ZnO/GaN Heterojunction

Progress in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on ZnO/GaN heterojunctions has run into several obstacles during the last twenty years. While both the energy bandgap and lattice parameter of the two semiconductors are favorable to the development of such devices, other features related to the electrical and structural properties of the GaN layer prevent an efficient radiative recombination. This work illustrates some advances made on ZnO/GaN-based LEDs, by using high-thickness GaN layers for the p-region of the device and an ad hoc device topology. Heterojunction LEDs consist of a quasicoalesced non-intentionally doped ZnO nanorod layer deposited by chemical bath deposition onto a metal–organic vapor-phase epitaxy -grown epitaxial layer of p-doped GaN. Circular 200 μm-sized violet-emitting LEDs with a p-n contact distance as low as 3 μm exhibit a turn-on voltage of 3 V, and an emitting optical power at 395 nm of a few microwatts. Electroluminescence spectrum investigation shows that the emissive process can be ascribed to four different recombination transitions, dominated by the electron-hole recombinations on the ZnO side

Velocity time integral for right upper pulmonary vein in VLBW infants with patent ductus arteriosus

OBJECTIVE: Early diagnosis of significant patent ductus arteriosus reduces the risk of clinical worsening in very low birth weight infants. Echocardiographic patent ductus arteriosus shunt flow pattern can be used to predict significant patent ductus arteriosus. Pulmonary venous flow, expressed as vein velocity time integral, is correlated to ductus arteriosus closure. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between significant reductions in vein velocity time integral and non-significant patent ductus arteriosus in the first week of life. METHODS: A multicenter, prospective, observational study was conducted to evaluate very low birth weight infants