Innovation Labs for Digital Transformation Strategies and Business Model Innovation in the Digital Age: a Focus on Tourism and Cultural Sector

The research proposes the Innovation Labs as a valuable management initiative to support tourism and cultural organisations in developing Digital Innovation Capacity, fostering Digital Transformation (DT) and Business Model Innovation (BMI). Innovation Labs are innovation management models aimed at fostering creative and critical thinking, driving the organisation in finding the best ways to generate knowledge and digital culture, introduce technologies, digitise operations, and implement digital strategies for continuous and sustainable innovation paths (Santarsiero et al., 2019; 2020). The need for investigating and identifying possible solutions, and governance models, in terms of management initiatives that follow emergent innovation trends, and support tourism and cultural organisations in embracing digital innovation journeys, is having a growing interest, both in scholars and practitioners, especially after the pandemic Covid-19. Tourism and cultural organisations, pursuant their attitude to be a labour-intensive production sector, in which the competitive advantage depends on the differentiation of the tourism product and the humanisation of the offered experiences, resulted as one of the sectors that most repudiate DT, conceiving it as a process that would lead to standardisation and loss of appeal to the end customer. However, nowadays, due to the emerging challenges in the Digital Age that are also affecting the tourism and cultural sector, the need for embracing digital journeys favouring DT and BMI should be considered mandatory to guarantee competitiveness and the gain of a sustainable competitive advantage. The rapid development of digital technologies and solutions, and their democratisation, induced changes in consumers’ and users’ habits and behaviours, resulting in the need for developing new products, services and methods of use based on emerging market needs. In the same way, organisations are asked to become resilient, proactive and able to evolve in the same way the competitive landscape does. After Covid-19, besides, the needs for digital innovation journeys and digital revolutions are even more accentuated, confirming that the pandemic has acted as an accelerator of DT dynamics. The competitiveness and attractiveness of organisations and destinations will therefore depend on the digital innovative capacity and ability of operators and destination managers to rethink the tourist offer according to the new emerging trends and context dynamics. Although the need for embracing digital innovation journeys is crucial, it is not an easy process to manage and exploit. Organisations, indeed, experience several difficulties and innovation barriers. In SMEs, in particular, which represent a typical configuration of tourism and cultural organisations, resistance to innovation, and insufficient skills, finance, culture, attitudes, and often also the time to devote to innovation due to overburden of bureaucratic aspects and various routines, are particularly accentuated. It follows these organisations require forms of support to face these needs and develop an innovative capacity, fostering DT and BMI to improve offers, competitiveness, efficiency, as well as customisation and customer relationships. Despite the relevance of these topics, however, the search for solutions and ways to support tourism and cultural organisations in embracing digital innovation journeys has not structurally explored yet. On this vein, the research aims to explore and investigate, in the field of innovation management, models and approaches to face DT and BMI challenges and opportunities, and thus to investigate the emerging phenomenon of Innovation Labs to understand their management model and assess their suitability for tourism and cultural organisations. In the theoretical section, the study presents a systematic literature review of Innovation Labs to provide a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon and identify critical patterns according to two main dimensions of analysis: space & infrastructure, and strategy & management. Furthermore, the study utilises a multiple-case study approach to better enrich the insights gathered from the literature, and to propose an Innovation Lab’s working definition and a management framework. The working definition takes into account all the emerging aspects, the new principles and paradigms that are governing the field of innovation management and that become essential for the organisations competing in this scenario. The framework describes key phases and relevant issues for effective management of Innovation Labs as catalysts of DT and BMI. Then, the research applies the proposed framework through an Action Research (AR) project involving an organisation operating in the tourism sector, to assess its efficacy in fostering tourism and cultural organisations’ digital innovation journeys. The research contributes to enrich knowledge and build theory in the field of Innovation Labs and tourism innovation management. In particular, the study led to developing theories on the contributions of Innovation Labs in fostering DT and BMI in tourism organisations. A further framework explaining the business model’s dimensions on which DT processes impact thanks to these initiatives has been proposed. Lastly, the analysis of the AR project compared Innovation Labs’ management framework with change management frameworks to detect alignments and to highlight insights to support researchers in considering the model as a tool to support innovation dynamics in times of crisis. This research also has relevant practical implications since it provides managers and practitioners with an overview of the dimensions to be considered while designing and managing an Innovation Lab to develop digital innovation capacity and foster DT and BMI. Expressly, managers and practitioners are provided with a framework supporting them designing and exploiting management initiatives aimed at embracing digital innovation journeys to generate marketable digital solutions, improve performance and develop a mindset continuous learning and innovation. The study also reveals some limitations that may address future research. Further empirical, also quantitative, investigations could be developed to extend the sample and to allow a comprehensive validation of the Innovation Lab’s management framework, focusing the research also on the evaluation of Innovation Labs’ activities

Complexation of Secondary Amides to Chromium(III): the X-Ray Structure of a Molecule with Two Modes of Monodentate Organic Amide Co-ordination

The X-ray crystal structure of the dimer [Cr{H(chba-Et)}(py)_2]_(2)·2py [H_(4)(chba-Et)= 1,2-bis(3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxybenzamido) ethane, py = pyridine] establishes, for the first time, the existence of N-co-ordination of an organic amide to Cr^III, the N-atom and carbonyl O-atom of two separate amide groups being co-ordinated to each Cr^III centre [Cr–N 2.030(6) and Cr–O 1.976(5)Å]; the potentially tetra-anionic chelating ligand leads to a variety of co-ordination modes

Social Policies and nutritional needs. Some conceptual elements

En el trabajo se intentan articular diferentes miradas sobre las políticas sociales y las necesidades alimentarias a fin de rescatar el contexto en que fueron surgiendo en la matriz estatal la atención del problema alimentario tomando algunos casos de la región y centralmente de nuestro país. Para ello se caracterizarán las diferentes modalidades por las que fueron pasando los programas de asistencia alimentaria en la atención de poblaciones vulnerables y la respuesta del Estado a las garantías y derechos sociales con respecto al acceso al alimento.The aime of this article is describe differents perspectives on social policies and the food needs to rescue the context in which they were emerging in the the state matrix by taking some regional examples, centrally in Argentina. This will characterize the different modalities for which they were passing the food assistance programs in the care of vulnerable. populations and the state's response to security and social rights with respect to access to food.Fil: Santarsiero, Luis Hernán. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentin

Citrate pathway and NF-κB: role in immunometabolism and critical targets for modulation of macrophage function induced by Aglianico del Vulture red wine

Pro-inflammatory stimuli, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), induce a metabolic reprogramming in macrophages. Of note is the broken Krebs cycle which allows for the export of citrate from the mitochondria and its accumulation in the cytosol. The mitochondrial citrate carrier (CIC) transports citrate that, once in the cytosol, is broken by ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) into acetyl-CoA and oxaloacetate, precursors for the biosynthesis of chemical mediators of inflammation, namely reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitric oxide (NO•) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Citrate also acts as signaling molecule in the inflammatory cascade. The citrate pathway is one of the main players in immunometabolism, an emerging frontier at the interface between immunity and metabolism. We observed that ACLY, even if is downstream of CIC, is upregulated earlier than CIC and its protein and mRNA levels as well as activity fluctuate over time in the first moments of LPS stimulation. We demonstrated that the short-term activation of ACLY is necessary to sustain histone acetylation and transcription of IL-1β, IL6 and PTGS2 proinflammatory genes. We identified the citrate pathway as a target of Aglianico del Vulture red wine in carrying out its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities. In LPS-activated human macrophages, phenolic compounds of Aglianico del Vulture red wine powder (RWP) reduce the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α and increase the release of IL-10 anti-inflammatory cytokine. Noteworthy, RWP acts on NF-κB signaling pathway by lowering NF-κB protein levels, promoter activity, and p65 nuclear translocation. Because of NF-κB inhibition, reduced promoter activities of SLC25A1 – encoding CIC - and ACLY metabolic genes have been detected. RWP downregulates CIC and ACLY, decreases ACLY activity, the cytosolic citrate concentration, and in turn ROS, NO•, PGE2 and H3 histone acetylation levels. In addition, RWP restores Annexin A1 levels, involved in the resolution of inflammation. All the evidence suggest that the powder of Aglianico del Vulture potentially restores the homeostasis of LPS-triggerd macrophages by suppressing inflammatory pathways and activating pro-resolutive processes

SPATIAL ANALYSES AND REMOTE SENSING FOR LAND COVER CHANGE DYNAMICS: ASSESSING IN A SPATIAL PLANNING

ABSTRACT (EN) Spatial planning is a crucial discipline for the identification and implementation of sustainable development strategies that take into account the environmental impacts on the soil. In recent years, the significant development of technology, like remote sensing and GIS software, has significantly increased the understanding of environmental components, highlighting their peculiarities and criticalities. Geographically referenced information on environmental and socio-economic components represents a fundamental database for identifying and monitoring vulnerable areas, also distinguishing different levels of vulnerability. This is even more relevant considering the increasingly significant impact of land transformation processes, consisting of rapid and frequent changes in land use patterns. In order to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, the role of environmental planning is crucial in addressing spatial problems, such as agricultural land abandonment and land take, which cause negative impacts on ecosystems. Remote sensing, and in general all Earth Observation techniques, play a key role in achieving SDG 11.3 and 15.3 of Agenda 2030. Through a series of applications and investigations in different areas of Basilicata, it has been demonstrated how the extensive use of remote sensing and spatial analysis in a GIS environment provide a substantial contribution to the results of the SDGs, enabling an informed decisionmaking process and enabling monitoring of the results expected, ensuring data reliability and directly contributing to the calculation of SDG objectives and indicators by facilitating local administrations approaches to work in different development and sustainability sectors. In this thesis have been analyse the dynamics of land transformation in terms of land take and soil erosion in sample areas of the Basilicata Region, which represents an interesting case example for the study of land use land cover change (LULCC). The socio-demographic evolutionary trends and the study of marginality and territorial fragility are fundamental aspects in the context of territorial planning, since they are important drivers of the LULCC and territorial transformation processes. In fact, in Basilicata, settlement dynamics over the years have occurred in an uncontrolled and unregulated manner, leading to a constant consumption of land not accompanied by adequate demographic and economic growth. To better understand the evolution and dynamics of the LULCCs and provide useful tools for formulating territorial planning policies and strategies aimed at a sustainable use of the territory, the socio-economic aspects of the Region were investigated. A first phase involved the creation of a database and the study and identification of essential services in the area as a fundamental parameter against which to evaluate the quality of life in a specific area. The supply of essential services can be understood as an assessment of the lack of minimum requirements with reference to the urban functions exercised by each territorial unit. From a territorial point of view, the level of peripherality of the territories with respect to the network of urban centres profoundly influences the quality of life of citizens and the level of social inclusion. In these, the presence of essential services can act as an attractor capable of generating discrete catchment areas. The purpose of this first part of the work was above all to create a dataset of data useful for the calculation of various socio-economic indicators, in order to frame the demographic evolution and the evolution of the stock of public and private services. The first methodological approach was to reconstruct the offer of essential services through the use of open data in a GIS environment and subsequently estimate the peripherality of each municipality by estimating the accessibility to essential services. The study envisaged the use of territorial analysis techniques aimed at describing the distribution of essential services on the regional territory. It is essential to understand the role of demographic dynamics as a driver of urban land use change such as, for example, the increase in demand for artificial surfaces that occurs locally. Social and economic analyses are important in the spatial planning process. Comparison of socio-economic analyses with land use and land cover change can highlight the need to modify existing policies or implement new ones. A particular land use can degrade and thereby destroy other land resources. If the economic analysis shows that the use is beneficial from the point of view of the land user, it is likely to continue, regardless of whether the process is environmentally friendly. It is important to understand and investigate which drivers have been and will be in the future the most decisive in these dynamics that intrinsically contribute to land take, agricultural abandonment and the consequent processes of land degradation and to define policies or thresholds to mitigate and monitor the effects of these processes. Subsequently, the issues of land take and abandonment of agricultural land were analysed by applying models and techniques of remote sensing, GIS and territorial analysis for the identification and monitoring of abandoned agricultural areas and sealed areas. The classic remote sensing methods have also been integrated by some geostatistical analyses which have provided more information on the investigated phenomenon. The aim was the creation of a quick methodology that would allow to describe the monitoring and analysis activities of the development trends of soil consumption and the monitoring and identification of degraded areas. The first methodology proposed allowed the automatic and rapid detection of detailed LULCC and Land Take maps with an overall accuracy of more than 90%, reducing costs and processing times. The identification of abandoned agricultural areas in degradation is among the most complicated LULCC and Land Degradation processes to identify and monitor as it is driven by a multiplicity of anthropic and natural factors. The model used to estimate soil erosion as a degradation phenomenon is the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). To identify potentially degraded areas, two factors of the RUSLE have been correlated: Factor C which describes the vegetation cover of the soil and Factor A which represents the amount of potential soil erosion. Through statistical correlation analysis with the RUSLE factors, on the basis of the deviations from the average RUSLE values and mapping of the areas of vegetation degradation, relating to arable land, through statistical correlation with the vegetation factor C, the areas were identified and mapped that are susceptible to soil degradation. The results obtained allowed the creation of a database and a map of the degraded areas to be paid attention to

Orthogonal Set of Basis Functions over the Binocular Pupil

Sets of orthogonal basis functions over two-dimensional circular areas--most often representing pupils in optical applications--are known in the literature for the full circle (Zernike or Jacobi polynomials) and the annulus. This work proposes an orthogonal set if the area is two non-overlapping circular pupils of same size. The major free parameter is the ratio of the pupil radii over the distance between both circles. Increasingly higher order aberrations--as defined for a virtual larger pupil in which both pupils are embedded--are fed into a Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization to implement one unique set of basis functions. The key element is to work out the overlap integrals between a full set of primitive basis functions (products of powers of the distance from the mid-point between both pupils by azimuthal functions of the Fourier type).Comment: Added chapters V and VI on interferometric signal and Fourier representatio

Progettazione Strutturale ed Architettonica di una Passerella Pedonale in Alluminio e Vetro sull'Arno a Pisa

La presente Tesi di Laurea raccoglie tutte quelle cosiderazioni, confronti, disegni, calcoli, verifiche e discussioni sviluppate in merito alla progettazione Strutturale ed Architettonica di una Passerella Pedonale in Alluminio e Vetro sul Fiume Arno a Pisa. Il lavoro ha avuto come principali obbiettivi la ricerca sia del minimo impatto architettonico che del soddisfaciento di requisiti dei sicurezza e confort strutturale. La fase di form-finding architettonica è stata svolta ricercando una soluzione che riduca il più possibile l'impatto urbano, architettonico ed idraulico della passerella nei confronti del delicato contesto circostante. Dopo lo studio di alcune soluzioni preliminari si è giunti ad una forma finale caratterizzata da un'apprezzabile leggerezza e trasparenza, salvaguardando la visuale dei passanti verso i limitrofi "Lungarni" e verso l'antistante "Chiesa della Spina". Il comportamento strutturale dell'intera costruzione è stato studiato, sia localmente che globalmente, mediante analisi non-lineari di modelli numerici agli elementi finiti dotati di appropriate imperfezioni tecnologiche iniziali. Le simulazioni sono state eseguite sia in campo statico (mediante analisi incrementaleinon-lineari quasi-statiche) che in campo dinamico (mediante analisi incrementali time-history) rispettivamente con lo scopo di determinare il grado di sicurezza nei confronti dell'instabilità globale e di monitorare le vibrazioni indotte dal traffico pedonale. Le azioni trasmesse al sistema fondazione-terreno, la dipendenza della struttura dai cedimenti del terreno e le conseguenti cadute di spinta risultano sensibilmente ridotte grazie all'inserimento di un sistema di pre-sollecitazione innovativo. Esso prevede la tesatura dei cavi "a scomparsa" mediante accorciamento verticale-radiale, dando luogo ad una quasi totale riduzione delle reazioni orizzontali del terreno indotte dai carichi permanenti. L'adozione di pannelli verticali in vetro come elementi irrigidenti a taglio - in ausilio alla struttura principale in alluminio - ha permesso di ottenere una struttura caratterizzata da elevate performance nei confronti delle critiche vibrazioni indotte dal passaggio dei pedoni, pur mantenendo un ridotto ingombro visivo. L'utilizzo di tali elementi ha rivestito tuttavia un ruolo non indispensabile nei confronti della sicurezza della passerella in esame. Infatti, anche in caso di una catastrofica rottura vandalica-accidentale di alcuni o tutti gli elementi in vetro, la passerella non giunge a collasso ma conserva un'apprezzabile sicurezza strutturale a seguito della ridistribuzione delle sollecitazioni interne della struttura principale in alluminio, grazie al notevole grado di ridondanza che la caratterizza. Se ne conlude che, per questa applicazione, l'utilizzo del vetro come materiale strutturale risulta essere confinato al soddisfacimento dei requisiti prestazionali nel campo degli Stati Limite di Esercizio, in particolare nei confronti delle vibrazioni indotte dal passaggio dei pedoni, che neli ultimi anni hanno influenzato in modo dominante la fattibilità e la progettazione strutturale di moderne passerelle pedonali

Energy-based Approach for Dissipative Structural Glass System in Seismic Regions

Current design codes and standards provide limited indications for advanced analysis and earthquake engineering of structural glass applications in seismic regions. This work provides an energy-based approach for efficient design and structural performance evaluation of structural glass systems in seismic regions. The analytical formulation of the energy-based approach for dissipative non-linear structural glass systems is firstly presented. A practical application is then described by means of analytical and numerical studies. The results show that the combination of appropriate structural design with advanced non-linear analysis allows the achievement of highly efficient design and satisfactory performances comparable to the ones of other common structural systems

Durability enhancement of half-joints in RC bridges through external prestressed tendons: The Musmeci Bridge's case study

This paper numerically investigates the effect of post-tension interventions to strengthen the deteriorated half-joints of the Musmeci Bridge in Potenza (Italy), with the primary objective of increasing the ultimate load-bearing capacity and monitoring the secondary effects in terms of preventing or limiting cracking patterns. Bearing this in mind, the study aims to investigate the role of the reinforcement detailing, of the post-tension stress and of the corroding time in the presence of chlorides, outlining the intervention ability to improve the structure's durability. To this end, nonlinear finite element models are provided with chloride ions diffusion analysis to investigate corrosion initiation and progress in reinforced concrete elements and account for deterioration due to two scenarios (45 and 95 years). Results show the significant impact of reinforcement layout as the presence of inclined bars increases the ultimate load by about 86 %. The ultimate load improvement is in the range 50–55 % when the intervention is carried out after 45 years while it is equal to about 30–35 % if a period of 95 years is last since the construction. This latter highlights the significant influence of the intervention timeliness on structural durability