Factors and mechanisms affecting University-Industry interactions: evidence from Southern Italy

This paper aims to identify and analyze factors, motivations and mechanisms affecting collaborative forms of university-industry interactions in the context of the metropolitan area of Naples (Southern Italy). This work presents the results of a study designed and implemented through a partnership between University of Naples Federico II (UNF) and the Industrial Association of Naples (UIN). We used data retrieved from 88 firms that had interacted at least once with at least one Department of the University of Naples Federico II in the last 3 years. Firms belonged to different sectors and to different size categories, thus results will cover interactions activities based on those two elements. Results obtained during the field research were used to understand mechanisms and motives adopted by firms to collaborate with universities

education as a resource of social innovation

1. Fiorenzo Parziale[1][1] 2. Ivano Scotti[2][2][⇑][3] 1. 1Sapienza University of Rome, Italy 2. 2University of Naples Federico II, Italy 1. Ivano Scotti, Department of Social Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Vico Monte di Pieta 1, Naples 80138, Italy. Email: ivano.scotti{at}unina.it Focusing on the Italian context, this research aims to analyze the relationship between investment in education and economic development through a critical exam of the human capital theory. This paradigm is compared with the social investment paradigm, particularly the Esping-Andersen's thesis, which seems more useful to unfold the link between social stratification and education level as a resource of social innovation. From this standpoint, our hypothesis is that educational policies have positive effects on the economic system if they are oriented to reduce socio-economic inequalities increasing the rate of social inclusion, which can promote a wider social innovation. [1]: #aff-1 [2]: #aff-2 [3]: #corresp-

Introduction to the Proceedings of WGTTG2021

We describe the Italy-South Africa Research Program 2018–2020, focusing on the mobility scheme “Algebraic Graph Theory and Complex Networks” which supported a series of scientific initiatives between the University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa) and the University of Naples Federico II (Naples, Italy) during the years 2018–2021. We sketch the relevant steps of the collaboration, focusing on the creation of a network of researchers between Italy and South Africa in the fields of Graph Theory and Combinatorics. In this context it becomes more relevant the role of the “Workshop on Graphs, Topology and Topological Groups 2021” and of the corresponding proceedings

Smart High-Throughput Experimentation

This PhD project aimed to improve the effectiveness of a trial-and-error approach to olefin polymerization catalysis, one of the most important chemical technologies, by means of High Throughput Experimentation (HTE) methodologies. The project was hosted at the Laboratory of Stereoselective Polymerizations (LSP) of the Federico II University, which is world-leading in HTE catalyst screenings with optimization purposes, and sponsored by HTExplore srl, an academic spin-off of LSP delivering HTE services to polyolefin producers. The general objective was to introduce protocols for ‘smart’ applications of the existing HTE workflow of LSP to complex chemical problems in polyolefin catalysis. In particular, methods for the rapid and accurate determination of the Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) of representative molecular or heterogeneous catalyst formulations were implemented as the basis for statistical modeling with predictive ability

Taurisolo®, a novel nutraceutical formulation based on grape pomace polyphenols, as a tool for the management of oxidative stress- and atherosclerosis-related diseases

The present PhD thesis summarises evidence from all the studies performed during the three-year PhD Course in Pharmaceutical Science, at the NutraPharmaLabs of the Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, having as mail goal the evaluation of the nutraceutical potential of Taurisolo®, a novel nutraceutical formulation based on grape pomace polyphenolic extract. In particular, the present PhD project has been conducted in cooperation with both industrial (MBMed Company, Turin, Italy) and foreign University (University of Balearic Islands, Palma del Mallorca, Spain) partners. The entire project was planned with a dual view: design and formulate a novel nutraceutical product starting from re-use of agri-food by-products, following all the steps required by the nutraceutical industry, including preventive characterisation of the chemical profile, evaluation of bioaccessibility and bioavailability of bioactive compounds, optimisation of the productive processes and their translation in large-scale, marketing techniques evaluation of the biological activities, following a pharmacological approach including pre-clinical and clinical studies. More specifically, results herein presented refer to all the studies performed in our Labs and in collaboration with other Departments and Research Institutes. They include in vitro studies, animal-based studies and randomised clinical trials conducted on both healthy and pathological subjects. Further studies are still ongoing with the aim to clarify the main putative mechanisms of action for the cardioprotective role played by Taurisolo® or to provide novel insight regarding the observed clinical results. In summary, data so far collected allow concluding that Taurisolo® is a useful and valid polyphenol-based formulation with promising nutraceutical properties in reduction of risk factors related to both development and progression of cardiovascular diseases, in particular atherosclerosis

TELLING TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCES TO BE PROFESSIONALLY PROMOTED

This article introduces experimental reflection on the experiences at an ‘Employability Skills’ laboratory1 of a group of young volunteers from the National Civilian Service under the ‘Support and Inclusion’ project of the Employment Promotion Section (SPO in Italian) of the University of Naples Federico II SInAPSi Centre. Young volunteers were included as unstructured support figures in activities that sought mainly to assist and serve students with disabilities. More specifically, these activities included: accompaniment and support during lessons; digitization of teaching material; providing support for the assorted services offered by the University Centre; general training implemented by AMESCI staff; specific training implemented by SInAPSi operatives. The experiences, which were accomplished in cooperation with the Europe 2020 programme, included the creation of an integrated system to recognize and validate formal, non-formal, and informal skills, as a tool to promote youth employment (Striano, Capobianco 2016)

Chapter Telling Transversal Competences… to be Professionally Promoted

This article introduces experimental reflection on the experiences at an ‘Employability Skills’ laboratory of a group of young volunteers from the National Civilian Service under the ‘Support and Inclusion’ project of the Employment Promotion Section (SPO in Italian) of the University of Naples Federico II SInAPSi Centre. Young volunteers were included as unstructured support figures in activities that sought mainly to assist and serve students with disabilities. More specifically, these activities included: accompaniment and support during lessons; digitization of teaching material; providing support for the assorted services offered by the University Centre; general training implemented by AMESCI staff; specific training implemented by SInAPSi operatives. The experiences, which were accomplished in cooperation with the Europe 2020 programme, included the creation of an integrated system to recognize and validate formal, non-formal, and informal skills, as a tool to promote youth employment (Striano, Capobianco 2016

Young in University-Work Transition: The Views of Undergraduates in Southern Italy

In the last few years, economic and social changes have made the path from university to work long and twisted, in particular in Southern Italy, an area with the highest rate of unemployment. This contribution aims to exploring the experiences of university-work transition of undergraduates. Using an open-ended interview, the authors obtained narrative data from 150 undergraduates from Southern Italy. Textual Analysis and Text Network Analysis were carried out to identify the thematic clusters and obtain the network pattern of lemmas in order to understand process of meaning construction of students. The analysis shows four clusters: “Awareness of one’s own image in the past,” “Change perception,” “Experimentation and planning of objectives,” “Prospects towards work.” In the uncertainty of contemporary society where each individual is called upon to build one’s own working career, university may represent for students a protective factor allowing them to define and re-define themselves in view of the acquisition of future roles and the preparation for the world of work

THE COMPLEX POINT CLOUD FOR THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE. SOME EXPERIENCES

The present paper aims to present a series of experiences and experimentations that a group of PhD from the University of Naples Federico II conducted over the past decade. This work has concerned the survey and the graphic restitution of monuments and works of art, finalized to their conservation. The targeted query of complex point cloud acquired by 3D scanners, integrated with photo sensors and thermal imaging, has allowed to explore new possibilities of investigation. In particular, we will present the scientific results of the experiments carried out on some important historical artifacts with distinct morphological and typological characteristics. According to aims and needs that emerged during the connotative process, with the support of archival and iconographic historical research, the laser scanner technology has been used in many different ways. New forms of representation, obtained directly from the point cloud, have been tested for the elaboration of thematic studies for documenting the pathologies and the decay of materials, for correlating visible aspects with invisible aspects of the artifact

Plato's Phaedo: Selected Papers From the Eleventh Symposium Platonicum

The paper deals with the "deuteros plous", literally ‘the second voyage’, proverbially ‘the next best way’, discussed in Plato’s "Phaedo", the key passage being Phd. 99e4–100a3. The second voyage refers to what Plato’s Socrates calls his “flight into the logoi”. Elaborating on the subject, the author first (I) provides a non-standard interpretation of the passage in question, and then (II) outlines the philosophical problem that it seems to imply, and, finally, (III) tries to apply this philosophical problem to the "ultimate final proof" of immortality and to draw an analogy with the ontological argument for the existence of God, as proposed by Descartes in his 5th "Meditation". The main points are as follows: (a) the “flight into the logoi” can have two different interpretations, a common one and an astonishing one, and (b) there is a structural analogy between Descartes’s ontological argument for the existence of God in his 5th "Meditation" and the "ultimate final proof" for the immortality of the soul in the "Phaedo"