Learning to Collaborate: Lessons Learned from Governance Processes Addressing the Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Transportation Corridors Across California

This study was designed to identify lessons learned from experiences of multi-stakeholder collaboration in governance processes focused on adaptation to sea level rise for specific transportation corridors/assets across different areas of California. Four transportation assets in California were selected as case studies: State Route 37 in the Bay Area; the Cardiff Beach Living Shorelines Project and the LOSSAN railroad at Del Mar in San Diego County; and the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles County. The study methods included attendance of policy meetings; document analysis; and interviews of staff at (local, regional, and state) government bodies, transportation agencies, climate collaboratives, etc. The study identified three major governance challenges shared among these cases: (1) stakeholder involvement or collaboration with ‘unusual’ partners; (2) jurisdictional fragmentation; and (3) lack of funding. The lessons learned to address these challenges were: (a) include a wide range of stakeholders early on in the project; (b) identify an intermediary or facilitator with relevant knowledge and social capital with the stakeholders; (c) establish a forum for negotiations and information exchange; (d) draft a memorandum of understanding with the rules of collaboration; (e) appoint a project manager to tie all the project parts and stakeholders together and sustain engagement; (f) structure the collaboration in tiers from technical/operational to executive/political; (g) explore options to make any given project a multi-benefit project; (h) advocate for a multi-year stream of funding rather than a lump sum; (i) leverage collaboration for funding and highlight, to potential funders, the collaborative element as a means to increase the efficiency of their investment. Issues to consider when deriving lessons from other jurisdictions were: differences in capacity, or available resources and staff; the numbers of actors involved; pre-existing positive collaborative relationships between the actors; exposure of transportation assets to sea-level rise; existing vulnerabilities of the corridor/asset; and the economic relevance of the corridor/asset

Intra-cycle depolarization of ultraintense laser pulses focused by off-axis parabolic mirrors

A study of the structure of the electric and magnetic fields of ultraintense laser pulses focused by an off-axis parabolic mirror is reported. At first, a theoretical model is laid out, whose final equations integration allows the space and time structure of the fields to be retrieved. The model is then employed to investigate the field patterns at different times within the optical cycle, for off-axis parabola parameters normally employed in the context of ultraintense laser–plasma interaction experiments. The results show that nontrivial, complex electromagnetic field patterns are observed at the time at which the electric and magnetic fields are supposed to vanish. The importance of this effect is then studied for different laser polarizations, $f$ numbers and off-axis angles

Network effects: how the European competition network structures the opportunities of regulators

European administrative networks are networks of national authorities that help facilitate the implementation of EU policies, as well as providing general opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of information. Drawing on a new study of the European Competition Network, Francesca Pia Vantaggiato, Hussein Kassim and Kathryn Wright highlight the importance of the internal structure of networks in shaping their impact on regulatory authorities

«Un libro traumatico». L’ultima stagione poetica di Vittorio Bodini

By publishing Metamorin 1967, Vittorio Bodinistarted his second poetic season. However, it was destined to have a limited sequel due to the death which suddenly happened in 1970. The essay aims to examine the fundamental charac-teristics of this second moment of Bodini’s poetry, with a particular attention to Zetaand La civiltà industriale o Poesie ovali, two unpublished poetic collections. After some short information abou the philological questions, thepaper offersa general vision about the main themes and stylistic devices of the second pe-riod.Thinking about the legitimacy of poetry, Bodini verified the failure of the traditional po-etic code, adopting themes and styles of indus-trial society and combining metaliterature and metalinguistic reflection

NETWORKS AS LEVERS: EMERGENCE, FUNCTIONING AND EXPORT OF TRANSNATIONAL NETWORK OF ENERGY REGULATORS.

This thesis investigates the emergence, functioning and evolution of voluntary, informal networks of regulators. Via a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning, qualitative and quantitative methods, this research sheds light on thus far unexplored mechanisms of networked regulatory collaboration. These are: the conditions leading to spontaneous network emergence and consolidation into an institutional structure; the factors determining network members’ ties to each other; the strategies that network members deploy to ensure network survival; the conditions facilitating network entrepreneurship; and the role of informal networks in the implementation of foreign policy agendas. Through six empirical chapters, divided in three parts, this thesis explains why regulators network. The core argument is that regulators use networks as levers: they leverage their collective collaboration in order to obtain goals that are both individually and collectively desirable. The first part shows that they network for control: regulators form networks whenever they face concrete threats to the scope of their authority and the extent of their autonomy. The second part shows that regulators network for resources: similarity in the political economy and expertise explain the structure of regulators’ relationships together with resources, as regulators rely on their peers to compensate for their scarce staff numbers. The third part shows that regulators network for survival, and that the institutional integration of networks facilitates regulators’ network entrepreneurship. Further, it shows that international organisations and regulators deem informal networks capable of fostering policy change; hence, they export regulatory networks to target jurisdictions in the explicit attempt of replicating their success formula. The thesis accomplishes this ambitious research agenda by focusing on four empirical cases of transnational/trans-jurisdictional networks of energy regulators: the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER), the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) of the USA, and their respective progeny, i.e. the Association of Mediterranean Energy Regulators (MedReg) and the Energy Regional Regulatory Association (ERRA) of Central and Eastern Europe

Possibile ruolo di contaminanti ambientali nella patogenesi del diabete mellito:studio degli effetti dell'esposizione di isole pancreatiche alla 2,3,7,8-tetraclorodibenzo-p-diossina.

La diossina è un noto contaminante ambientale appartenente alla classe dei cosidetti: ''persistent organic pollutants '' che si forma come prodotto secondario in processi industriali quali l'incenerimento dei rifiuti e la produzione di pesticidi. Essa, pertanto, può raggiungere tutti gli individui di una popolazione inducendo effetti tossici diffusi e persistenti. Numerosi studi epidemiologici hanno evidenziato una correlazione positiva fra esposizione alla diossina e insorgenza del diabete, malattia la cui incidenza è in continua crescita. Sulla base dei risultati ottenuti in precedenza su una linea cellulare β-pancreatica insulino-secernente, in questo lavoro di tesi, lo scopo è stato quello di studiare gli effetti tossici della diossina ed il relativo meccanismo di azione in un sistema sperimentale più vicino all'ambito fisiologico: le isole di Langerhans isolate dal pancreas del ratto. Le isole pancreatiche rappresentano, infatti, un vero e proprio organo endocrino in miniatura, al cui interno la funzione delle cellule β è regolata in modo più appropriato dagli stimoli fisiologici rispetto alla linea cellulare ed è anche influenzata dal continuo scambio di segnali chimici con gli altri tipi cellulari presenti all'interno dell'isola stessa. Inoltre, è stata studiata la possibilità di proteggere le isole dagli effetti della diossina (TCDD) utilizzando l' epigallocatechina-3-gallato che è capace di legarsi allo stesso recettore citoplasmatico (AhR) cui si lega la diossina. Le isole pancreatiche di ratto sono state isolate con il metodo della collagenasi, purificate su gradiente ed esposte per tempi diversi a diverse concentrazioni di 2,3,7,8-tetraclorodibenzo-p-diossina. Al termine del periodo di esposizione sono state valutate: la necrosi e l'apoptosi (mediante tecniche ELISA), le alterazioni ultrastrutturali (mediante microscopia elettronica) e le alterazioni della funzione secretoria stimolata da glucosio (mediante esperimenti di incubazione statica) e le alterazioni dell'espressione di geni funzionali e di geni pro- e anti-apoptotici (mediante tecniche di biologia molecolare). I risultati mostrano che quando le isole vengono incubate per 24h in presenza di varie concentrazioni di TCDD (1-50 nM), si ha un incremento dose-dipendente sia dell'apoptosi che della necrosi. Queste ultime vengono completamente prevenute in presenza dell' epigallocatechina-3-gallato. L'incubazione per 1 o 6 h con varie concentrazioni di TCDD determina una diminuzione significativa del rilascio di insulina stimolato da glucosio, mentre non risultano modificati il rilascio basale di insulina e il contenuto dell'ormone delle isole isolate. L'esposizione alla TCDD non influenza l'espressione del gene funzionale che codifica per l’insulina, mentre determina un aumento di geni pro-apoptotici quali PUMA, DP5, Bim. Concludendo, i risultati ottenuti mostrano che la diossina altera sia la funzione che la sopravvivenza delle isole di Langerhans isolate, fornendo un sostegno decisivo all'ipotesi, finora fondata solo su dati epidemiologici, che l'esposizione a contaminanti ambientali di tipo diossinico, anche a dosi molto basse, possa costituire un rilevante fattore di rischio nell'insorgenza del diabete di tipo 2

The drivers of regulatory networking: policy learning between homophily and convergence

The literature on transnational regulatory networks identified interdependence as their main rationale, downplaying domestic factors. Typically, relevant contributions use the word “network” only metaphorically. Yet, informal ties between regulators constitute networked structures of collaboration, which can be measured and explained. Regulators choose their frequent, regular network partners. What explains those choices? This article develops an Exponential Random Graph Model of the network of European national energy regulators to identify the drivers of informal regulatory networking. The results show that regulators tend to network with peers who regulate similarly organised market structures. Geography and European policy frameworks also play a role. Overall, the British regulator is significantly more active and influential than its peers, and a divide emerges between regulators from EU-15 and others. Therefore, formal frameworks of cooperation (i.e. a European Agency) were probably necessary to foster regulatory coordination across the EU