Policy constellations as ecosystems of design actions: Exploring three cases of social innovation policies in Italy

The article considers social innovation in an eco-systemic perspective, focusing on policies able to foster it and discussing design’s role within them in terms of professional skills and a widespread capability among all social actors involved. To be expressions of an innovative governance, social innovation policies must themselves be innovative and form policy constellations: clusters of initiatives able to interact positively with the socio-technical system on which they seek to impact. The article is specifically devoted to illustrating the notion of policy constellation, discussing three social innovation policies in Italy: ‘Bologna Regulation’, ‘Milan Smart City’ and ‘Bollenti Spiriti’ in Apulia. All three case studies refer to project strategies that lead to the creation of ecosystems of independent (but mutually synergic) initiatives. Until now, expert design has had a sometimes significant, but generally marginal, presence in this field (mostly as strategic design and, to a lesser extent, as service and communication design). This article suggests that this could and should increase in the future. The authors conclude by posing a new question: what holds together the constituent projects in a social innovation policy? A possible hypothesis is that this something is a cultural frame: a vision of the world shared by all the actors involved

Electronic structure and bonding properties of cobalt oxide in the spinel structure

The spinel cobalt oxide Co3O4 is a magnetic semiconductor containing cobalt ions in Co2+ and Co3+ oxidation states. We have studied the electronic, magnetic and bonding properties of Co3O4 using density functional theory (DFT) at the Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA), GGA+U, and PBE0 hybrid functional levels. The GGA correctly predicts Co3O4 to be a semiconductor, but severely underestimates the band gap. The GGA+U band gap (1.96 eV) agrees well with the available experimental value (~ 1.6 eV), whereas the band gap obtained using the PBE0 hybrid functional (3.42 eV) is strongly overestimated. All the employed exchange-correlation functionals predict 3 unpaired d electrons on the Co2+ ions, in agreement with crystal field theory, but the values of the magnetic moments given by GGA+U and PBE0 are in closer agreement with the experiment than the GGA value, indicating a better description of the cobalt localized d states. Bonding properties are studied by means of Maximally Localized Wannier Functions (MLWFs). We find d-type MLWFs on the cobalt ions, as well as Wannier functions with the character of sp3d bonds between cobalt and oxygen ions. Such hybridized bonding states indicate the presence of a small covalent component in the primarily ionic bonding mechanism of this compound.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure

[Changing] Communities

Designing with and for communities is a broad and multifaceted topic. In this introductory paper to the track Changing Communities, we discuss a series of studies that employed collaborative processes to tackle urgent public interest issues while empowering communities at the same time. A variety of themes emerged: one main transversal area is about cocreation and co-design methodologies that have demonstrated to have a transformative potential in addressing complex societal challenges. Another theme is about social innovation, considered both as the process of change of social practices and as the outcomes in terms of new products, services and policies. In particular healthcare arose as one of the main application fields of numerous papers, being discussed in different contexts such as medical device design, healthcare service design, health information systems and others. In addition, there was an area addressed by some papers that was about how to take care of the commons, tackling issues related to public space, placemaking and collective heritage, to mention a few. The studies of this track have illuminated the way forward, emphasising collaboration, empathy, and community empowerment as cornerstones of design practices that shape a more inclusive, sustainable, and innovative future

TiO2/Ferroelectric Heterostructures as Dynamic Polarization-Promoted Catalysts for Photochemical and Electrochemical Oxidation of Water

Using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we explore the chemical activity of epitaxial heterostructures of TiO2 anatase on strained polar SrTiO3 films focusing on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the bottleneck of water splitting. Our results show that the reactivity of the TiO2 surface is tuned by electric dipoles dynamically induced by the adsorbed species during the intermediate steps of the reaction while the initial and final steps remain unaffected. Compared to the OER on unsupported TiO2, the combined effects of the dynamically induced dipoles and epitaxial strain strongly reduce rate-limiting thermodynamic barriers and significantly improve the efficiency of the reaction.open5

Effect of Structural Fluctuations on Elastic Lifetimes of Adsorbate States: Isonicotinic Acid on Rutile(110)

We sample ab initio molecular dynamics trajectories to address the impact of structural fluctuations on elastic lifetimes of adsorbate states at room temperature focusing on heterogeneous charge injection from isonicotinic acid as a key anchoring unit in dye-sensitized energy devices. Complementing related theoretical studies, we employ a Green\u2019s function technique based on density functional theory to account for a fully semi-infinite substrate of rutile TiO2(110). We address the effect of a core-excitation enabling direct comparison with soft X-ray experiments. We find that room temperature fluctuations drastically improve the agreement with experimental lifetime measurements while the core\u2013hole plays an important role shifting the spectra and reducing the electron vibrational coupling of the adsorbate states. Ultimately, the emerging resonance spectra highlight the role of the continuum of acceptor states in temperature broadened Voigt-type profiles

The Quantum-Mechanical Position Operator in Extended Systems

The position operator (defined within the Schroedinger representation in the standard way) becomes meaningless when periodic boundary conditions are adopted for the wavefunction, as usual in condensed matter physics. We show how to define the position expectation value by means of a simple many-body operator acting on the wavefunction of the extended system. The relationships of the present findings to the Berry-phase theory of polarization are discussed.Comment: Four pages in RevTe

Electronic and optical properties of doped TiO2 by many-body perturbation theory

Doping is one of the most common strategies for improving the photocatalytic and solar energy conversion properties of TiO2, hence an accurate theoretical description of the electronic and optical properties of doped TiO2 is of both scientific and practical interest. In this work we use many-body perturbation theory techniques to investigate two typical n-type dopants, niobium and hydrogen, in TiO2 rutile. Using the GW approximation to determine band edges and defect energy levels, and the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the calculation of the absorption spectra, we find that the defect energy levels form nondispersive bands lying 3c2.2 eV above the top of the corresponding valence bands ( 3c0.9 eV below the conduction bands of the pristine material). The defect states are also responsible for the appearance of low-energy absorption peaks that enhance the solar spectrum absorption of rutile. The spatial distributions of the excitonic wave functions associated with these low-energy excitations are very different for the two dopants, suggesting a larger mobility of photoexcited electrons in Nb-TiO2

Electron Localization in the Insulating State

The insulating state of matter is characterized by the excitation spectrum, but also by qualitative features of the electronic ground state. The insulating ground wavefunction in fact: (i) sustains macroscopic polarization, and (ii) is localized. We give a sharp definition of the latter concept, and we show how the two basic features stem from essentially the same formalism. Our approach to localization is exemplified by means of a two--band Hubbard model in one dimension. In the noninteracting limit the wavefunction localization is measured by the spread of the Wannier orbitals.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures, submitted to PR

Anisotropic optical response of the diamond (111)-2x1 surface

The optical properties of the 2$\times$1 reconstruction of the diamond (111) surface are investigated. The electronic structure and optical properties of the surface are studied using a microscopic tight-binding approach. We calculate the dielectric response describing the surface region and investigate the origin of the electronic transitions involving surface and bulk states. A large anisotropy in the surface dielectric response appears as a consequence of the asymmetric reconstruction on the surface plane, which gives rise to the zigzag Pandey chains. The results are presented in terms of the reflectance anisotropy and electron energy loss spectra. While our results are in good agreement with available experimental data, additional experiments are proposed in order to unambiguously determine the surface electronic structure of this interesting surface.Comment: REVTEX manuscript with 6 postscript figures, all included in uu file. Also available at http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~ulloa/ulloa.html Submitted to Phys. Rev.