Salento Atmosphere and the Role of Movies

In this paper we show how cinema, due to the inherent strength of the images it produces, interacts or even interferes with the processes of place image building. The topic under discussion is then absolutely crucial to geography, being it the science of place. The author, starting by explaining the reciprocity (cycling) relation existing between cinema and place, analyzes by means of a qualitative approach the case of Salento and the creation of its “atmosphere” through cinematic images, taking into account those movies that most have contributed to it. Concerning film-induced tourism the author found that, from the supply side, the local tourism system did not still fully adapted itself to the new needs of this segment. However, there is a great potential for its development, since a latent demand seems to exist and the activities of Apulia Film Commission are greatly contributing to it.Nel presente lavoro si evidenzia come il cinema, grazie alla forza intrinseca delle immagini che produce, interagisce quando non interferisce con i processi di costruzione dell’immagine del luogo. L’argomento in discussione è quindi assolutamente cruciale per la disciplina geografica che si qualifica come scienza dei luoghi. L’autrice, partendo dall’illustrare la relazione circolare di reciprocità che lega cinema e territorio, analizza, attraverso un approccio qualitativo, il caso del Salento e della creazione della “atmosfera” del luogo a partire dalle immagini cinematografiche, prendendo in esame i film che più hanno contribuito alla formazione della stessa. Volgendo poi l’attenzione ad una delle più immediate implicazioni territoriali di tale processo, il cineturismo, l’autrice sottolinea come, dal lato dell’offerta, il sistema turistico locale non si sia ancora pienamente adattato alle esigenze di questo nuovo segmento. Emerge, tuttavia, un grande potenziale per lo sviluppo del settore: esiste, infatti, una domanda ancora in parte inespressa, destinata ad aumentare grazie all’attività dell’Apulia Film Commission, che moltiplica le immagini del territorio, attirando un grande interesse, anche mediatico, sul Salento

Local development strategies for inner areas in Italy. A comparative analysis based on plan documents

Within the huge literature on local development policies produced across different disciplines, comparatively little attention has been paid to an important element as relevant as economic, financial and social capital: the cognitive element, needed in strategic thinking and complexity management, the “collective brain” guiding the decision-making process. In this paper, we investigate what we consider a direct “proxy” for this variable, which is supposed to incorporate that “usable knowledge” assisting those making policy choices: language. Language shapes the way problems are conceived, fixes priorities and delimits the range of strategic options. More specifically, our research question inquires which contextual factors are at stake in local development strategy design. The case studies were chosen among the pilot areas included in the Italian “National Strategy for Inner Areas”. Through a multidimensional content analysis of the plan documents available online, we explored the ways in which development strategies are locally interpreted. The techniques we used allowed us to make a comparative analysis, testing three effects that could have influenced local policy design: a geographical effect, a concept/policy transfer effect, and a framing effect. Broader, interesting reflections were drawn from research findings on the local embedded ability to designing consistent and effective development strategies

Subjectualité territoriale et planification stratégique

Tanto i comportamenti individuali quanto quelli collettivi risultano influenzati dal contesto territoriale di riferimento; influenzati, non determinati, in quanto il territorio costituisce il sostrato entro il quale nasce e si evolve la soggettualità. L’ethos della scoperta di sé, ove si voglia superare la trappola individualista dell’ipostasi psicologica del soggetto, non può essere letto e interpretato prescindendo dalla relazione forte è immanente che lega, in un rapporto di reciprocità ed interazione per sua natura asimmetrico, individuo e collettività. Si parla a riguardo di “condizioni sociali della soggettività”, includendo in esse fattori diversi e tuttavia interdipendenti che possono essere categorizzati nelle condizioni culturali, economiche, politiche e geografiche; queste ultime, in particolare, sono quelle che sottendono il processo di costruzione dell’identità territoriale e rivestono un’importanza fondamentale nei meccanismi d’interazione tra l’individuo, la comunità e il territorio. Il contributo partendo dal concetto di soggettualità territoriale, propone un’analisi del ruolo che questa svolge nei processi di pianificazione strategica del territorio e, più nello specifico, in quel particolare momento della pianificazione che è l’elaborazione della vision; intesa, quest’ultima, come proiezione strategica dell’io territoriale, capace di orientare e giustificare l’agire individuale e collettivo. La stessa efficacia dei modelli di governance che sottendono la pianificazione strategica viene in larga misura a dipendere dal livello di soggettualità che il territorio è in grado di esprimere, posto che è questa qualità territoriale – mai sufficientemente indagata – a favorire il coinvolgimento attivo degli attori locali e il processo di convergenza strategica che precede l’individuazione degli obiettivi, prima, e la definizione delle linee d’azione, poi. Tra esperienze di governance e soggettualità territoriale si insatura peraltro un relazione di reciprocità, giacché il successo di meccanismi partenariali, come quelli appena richiamati, sedimentandosi nella memoria collettiva e concretizzandosi in azioni di territorializzazione dello spazio fisico, rafforzano la soggettualità territoriale e la sua capacità di plasmare lo spazio e di orientare l’agire collettivo. Questa forma di soggettualità ha inoltre una funzione fondamentale nei processi di ispessimento del tessuto relazionale che sono propri di talune configurazioni economico-territoriali, come i distretti produttivi o i sistemi locali territoriali a questi assimilabili. In generale qualsiasi forma di aggregazione sociale su base territoriale – abbia essa una connotazione economica, culturale o politica – sembra essere favorita dalla presenza di una soggettualità territoriale, in quanto questa, fondandosi sulla condivisione di un medesimo sistema valoriale e di una comune matrice identitaria, è alla base dei processi di accumulazione del capitale sociale. Di conseguenza la soggettualità territoriale si impone come elemento costitutivo della stessa competitività territoriale che nel capitale sociale ha una delle sue determinanti immateriali. La conclusione a cui perviene il contributo è che a livello locale la pianificazione strategica risulta efficace se può contare su una forte soggettualità territoriale capace di sostenere il processo di convergenza strategica tra gli attori locali e il coinvolgimento attivo della comunità locale nella fase di attuazione del piano. La costruzione di una soggettualità territoriale diviene dunque un obiettivo imprescindibile perché si possano promuovere e sostenere a scala locale processi di sviluppo endogeno ed autocentrato e perché la vision attorno alla quale viene costruito il piano strategico possa effettivamente acquisire una funzione performativa nei confronti della realtà territoriale

Cultural investment, local development and instantaneous social capital: A case study of a gathering festival in the South of Italy

In this paper we show how the investment in cultural events may encourage the building of social capital and foster the development of local communities. We rely on a casestudy that we conducted about the socio-economic impact of the Festival “La Notte della Taranta”, the most important European music festival dedicated to traditional music (about 170.000 participants per year), on the sub-region of southern Italy where it is held. Our evidence is based on a large survey, consisting of nearly 10.000 interviews to Festival participants over a span of five editions (2007-2011). A primary result is that the initial economic investment in the Festival has brought a short-term return in terms of touristic attraction worth more than two times as much. More importantly, our results indicate that a cultural festival, despite being a mass gathering, is able to create strong bonds among its participants and between them and the area where the event takes place. Although these bonds are “instantaneous”, i.e. temporally restricted to the duration of the event, they are positively correlated with the economic impact of the event on the territory

Optical transients in the WASP survey

This thesis describes a search for transient phenomena using data from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) observatories. With images taken of the same region of sky every 15 minutes and a field-of-view of 974 degrees squared, the WASP survey is ideal for identifying both short and long duration transients to a limiting magnitude of 16 in V. A high cadence wide-field survey of this type has not been carried out before so provides a different method of sampling variable populations and has the potential to identify previously unknown phenomena. An algorithm to carry out a full untargeted search of the database was developed, tested and run on data from 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008. False positives were rejected based on their proximity to similar magnitude stars, the tightness of the clustering of detections in sky coordinates, the focus of the images and the number of corroborating detections. Overall, 44 cataclysmic variable candidates, 144 extreme flare candidates, 63 variable star candidates and 57 transients of unknown type were identified. The cataclysmic variable candidates showed similarities to the currently known population although some selection effects were uncovered. Of particular note were two new WZ Sge systems, an eclipsing system with a period of 540 minutes and an object with an M-star spectrum and broad Balmer lines but no visible white dwarf. The flares are some of the largest ever observed on M-type stars. The largest of these released ~1035erg in the V-band alone. A candidate flare was also identified on a G-type star releasing 1.6×1037erg in the V-band. Alternatively, it may be unrelated to the G-star and could be a gamma ray burst or similar transient without a persistent counterpart. A known supernova and two known novae were also identified.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Cultural investment, local development and instantaneous social capital: A case study of a gathering festival in the South of Italy

In this paper we show how the investment in cultural events may encourage the building of social capital and foster the development of local communities. We rely on a casestudy that we conducted about the socio-economic impact of the Festival “La Notte della Taranta”, the most important European music festival dedicated to traditional music (about 170.000 participants per year), on the sub-region of southern Italy where it is held. Our evidence is based on a large survey, consisting of nearly 10.000 interviews to Festival participants over a span of five editions (2007-2011). A primary result is that the initial economic investment in the Festival has brought a short-term return in terms of touristic attraction worth more than two times as much. More importantly, our results indicate that a cultural festival, despite being a mass gathering, is able to create strong bonds among its participants and between them and the area where the event takes place. Although these bonds are “instantaneous”, i.e. temporally restricted to the duration of the event, they are positively correlated with the economic impact of the event on the territory

Cultural investment, local development and instantaneous social capital: A case study of a gathering festival in the South of Italy

In this paper we show how the investment in cultural events may encourage the building of social capital and foster the development of local communities. We rely on a casestudy that we conducted about the socio-economic impact of the Festival “La Notte della Taranta”, the most important European music festival dedicated to traditional music (about 170.000 participants per year), on the sub-region of southern Italy where it is held. Our evidence is based on a large survey, consisting of nearly 10.000 interviews to Festival participants over a span of five editions (2007-2011). A primary result is that the initial economic investment in the Festival has brought a short-term return in terms of touristic attraction worth more than two times as much. More importantly, our results\ud indicate that a cultural festival, despite being a mass gathering, is able to create strong bonds among its participants and between them and the area where the event takes place. Although these bonds are “instantaneous”, i.e. temporally restricted to the duration of the event, they are positively correlated with the economic impact of the event on the territory

Modificazione del colore del legno invecchiato naturalmente all'aperto

L\u2019esposizione del legno agli agenti atmosferici produce nel tempo modificazioni di diversa natura che portano al degrado del materiale, in relazione alla specie legnosa e all\u2019eventuale trattamento superficiale di protezione. Se il manufatto \ue8 all\u2019aperto, come nel caso dei serramenti esterni, l\u2019azione di degrado \ue8 pi\uf9 marcata e rapida. Il primo carattere del legno che si altera \ue8 il colore, aspetto di importanza estetica qualora il legno sia in vista nel manufatto. Nel presente lavoro, concentrato sulle variazioni colorimetriche, sono stati selezionate alcune specie legnose utilizzate comunemente in Italia per la costruzione di serramenti. Da queste sono state ricavate tre tavolette radiali, una delle quali \ue8 stata lasciata al naturale, una trattata con resine acriliche all\u2019acqua e una con vernici naturali I campioni sono stati collocati all\u2019interno del Campus di Agripolis (Legnaro, Padova) all\u2019aperto senza riparo, in posizione verticale su un supporto metallico, con esposizione nord-sud, a partire da gennaio 2014. Le osservazioni eseguite periodicamente hanno riguardato la modificazione del colore della superficie, la variazione di massa volumica, lo stato della superficie e del trattamento protettivo. La misura del colore \ue8 stata fatta con colorimetro, utilizzando il sistema colorimetrico CIE L*a*b* 1976. In generale, i parametri colorimetrici tendono a diminuire nel tempo, con differenze in base al tipo di trattamento o alla sua mancanza. In generale, le latifoglie mostrano un colore pi\uf9 stabile rispetto alle conifere. In tutte le specie esaminate le resine acriliche hanno avuto un\u2019efficacia maggiore nella riduzione del cambiamento di colore rispetto alle vernici naturali

Toward a better definition of EPCAM deletions in Lynch Syndrome: Report of new variants in Italy and the associated molecular phenotype

BackgroundInherited epimutations of Mismatch Repair (MMR) genes are responsible for Lynch Syndrome (LS) in a small, but well defined, subset of patients. Methylation of the MSH2 promoter consequent to the deletion of the upstream EPCAM gene is found in about 1%-3% of the LS patients and represents a classical secondary, constitutional and tissue-specific epimutation. Several different EPCAM deletions have been reported worldwide, for the most part representing private variants caused by an Alu-mediated recombination.Methods712 patients with suspected LS were tested for MMR mutation in our Institute. EPCAM deletions were detected by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) and then defined by Long-Range polymerase chain reaction (PCR)/Sanger sequencing. A comprehensive molecular characterization of colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues was carried out by immunohistochemistry of MMR proteins, Microsatellite Instability (MSI) assay, methylation specific MLPA and transcript analyses. In addition, somatic deletions and/or variants were investigated by MLPA and next generation sequencing (NGS).ResultsAn EPCAM deletion was found in five unrelated probands in Italy: variants c.556-490_*8438del and c.858+1193_*5826del are novel; c.859-1430_*2033del and c.859-670_*530del were previously reported. All probands were affected by CRC at young age; tumors showed MSI and abnormal MSH2/MSH6 proteins expression. MSH2 promoter methylation, as well as aberrant in-frame or out-of-frame EPCAM/MSH2 fusion transcripts, were detected in CRCs and normal mucosae.ConclusionAn EPCAM deletion was the causative variant in about 2% of our institutional series of 224 LS patients, consistent with previously estimated frequencies. Early age and multiple CRCs was the main clinical feature of this subset of patients

Detection of circulating immunosuppressive cytokines in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients for prognostic stratification.

Abstract Background No data on circulating biomarkers for the prognostic stratification of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) patients are available. We prospectively explored the prognostic role of circulating monocyte and cytokine levels and their dynamic change during chemotherapy. Patients and Methods MPM patients receiving a first line treatment based on a platinum compound plus pemetrexed were eligible. Blood samples were collected at the baseline and at the end of induction chemotherapy. CCL-2, IL-10 and TGF-β levels in plasma were quantified by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA); white blood cells, monocytes and platelets were evaluated by blood count test. Results Thirty-one patients were included in the study. Median overall survival (OS) was 12.13 months versus 9.6 months in patients with lower and higher monocytes count, respectively (p value = 0.02). We further stratified patients according to a combined score based on the association of IL-10, TGF-β levels and monocytes count. High combined score was associated with shorter OS and PFS in univariate and multivariate analysis. Chemotherapy induced an increase in monocytes, IL-10, but not TGF-β levels. Conclusion The prognostic value of circulating levels of multiple immunosuppressive cytokines and inflammatory cells should be confirmed in a wider validation set of MPM patients