From Rusty Genetics to Octopussy’s Garden

Alaimo critiques the “rusty” understanding of genetics, gender, and sex in Middlesex, advocating instead for queer ecological futurism

Recognition of Trace Element Contamination Using Ficus macrophylla Leaves in Urban Environment

Urban areas are characterized by numerous pollutants emitted by anthropic sources both in the form of solid and gaseous particulates. Biomonitoring is an easy, economical, and accessible approach for the determination of atmospheric pollutants. In this study, we used the leaves of Ficusmacrophylla Desf. ex Pers., collected in the city of Palermo (Italy), to determine major and trace elements. Geogenic elements exhibited the highest concentrations, making up 99% of the weight of the analyzed elements (Ca, K, Mg, P, S, Na, Fe, and Al); they range 21,400 (Ca) to 122 µg g-1 (Al). The remaining elements showed median concentrations in the range 47.5-0.05 µg g-1 in the following order of abundance: Sr > Cu > Mn > Zn > Br > Rb > Ba > Pb > Cr > Sb > As > Mo = Sc. Cluster analysis, with Spearman's coefficient to measure sample similarity, identified five main groups, namely, three clusters related to the geogenic background and marine spray; one cluster linked to elements essential to plants, and a final group attributed to the influence of traffic emissions. Calculated enrichment factors (EF) showed that the enrichments found for P and K were linked to plant metabolism; Na and Mg confirmed the role of sea spray; Cu and Zn underlined the contribution linked to anthropic processes and the role of micronutrients in plants.. As, Cr, and Mo had EF values ranging from 10 and 20, and Sb had EF > 90. From geochemical distribution maps of As, Cr, Mo, and Sb it was observed that metal and metalloid concentrations were higher in urban areas and immediately decreased as one moved away from these areas. Local pollution sources play a great role in trace element concentrations in airborne particulate matter. The present study confirms that Ficusmacrophylla leaves are suitable for screening an urban environment to identify concentrations of inorganic chemicals, since they have high tolerance to pollution

Oil intensities and oil prices : evidence for Latin America

Crude oil prices have dramatically increased over the past years and are now at a historical maximum in nominal terms and very close to it in real terms. It is difficult to argue, at least for net oil importers, that higher oil prices have a positive impact on welfare. In fact, the negative relationship between oil prices and economic activity has been well documented in the literature. Yet, to the extent that higher oil prices lead to lower oil consumption, it would be possible to argue that not all the effects of a price increase are negative. Climate change concerns have been on the rise in recent years and fossil fuel consumption is generally viewed as one of the main causes behind it. Thus this paper explores whether higher oil prices contribute to lowering oil intensities (that is, oil consumption per unit of gross domestic product). The findings show that following an increase in oil prices, OECD countries tend to reduce oil intensity. However, the same result does not hold for Latin America (and more generally for middle-income countries) where oil intensities appear to be unaffected by oil prices. The paper also explores why this is so.Energy Production and Transportation,Oil Refining&Gas Industry,Markets and Market Access,Energy Demand,Environment and Energy Efficiency

Bedrock and soil geochemistry influence the content of chemical elements in wild edible mushrooms (Morchella group) from South Italy (Sicily)

Chemical elements in the samples of wild edible mushrooms of the Morchellagroup collected from different unpolluted Sicilian sites was analyzed by the ICP-MS (method) to detect the content of their minerals and determine whether soil geology and geochemistry can influence the chemical composition in fungi. Results showed that the mushroom samples mainly contained a high concentration of K and P and a wide variety of minor and trace elements (V, Mo, Pb, Ce, Cs, Zr), including heavy metals. Statistical analysis showed that the mushrooms differed in their content of minor and trace elements based on the geological/geographic site of origin. Comparison with other studies showed differences in the content detected in the Sicilian morels with those collected from other geographical sites. Conversely, dif-ferent fungal species collected from similar geological sites in Sicily showed different patterns of accumulation of the elements confirming that bioconcentration in fungi is species- and site-dependent

VAT tax gap prediction: a 2-steps Gradient Boosting approach

Tax evasion is the illegal evasion of taxes by individuals, corporations, and trusts. The revenue loss from tax avoidance can undermine the effectiveness and equity of the government policies. A standard measure of tax evasion is the tax gap, that can be estimated as the difference between the total amounts of tax theoretically collectable and the total amounts of tax actually collected in a given period. This paper presents an original contribution to bottom-up approach, based on results from fiscal audits, through the use of Machine Learning. The major disadvantage of bottom-up approaches is represented by selection bias when audited taxpayers are not randomly selected, as in the case of audits performed by the Italian Revenue Agency. Our proposal, based on a 2-steps Gradient Boosting model, produces a robust tax gap estimate and, embeds a solution to correct for the selection bias which do not require any assumptions on the underlying data distribution. The 2-steps Gradient Boosting approach is used to estimate the Italian Value-added tax (VAT) gap on individual firms on the basis of fiscal and administrative data income tax returns gathered from Tax Administration Data Base, for the fiscal year 2011. The proposed method significantly boost the performance in predicting with respect to the classical parametric approaches.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, 8 tables Presented at NTTS 2019 conference Under review at another peer-reviewed journa

La Ricerca (Industriale) della Produzione Edilizia: risultati ed orizzonti

Il contributo fa il punto sul patrimonio di conoscenze acquisite nel Settore della Produzione Edilizia sui temi fondamentali per l'attività dei soci ISTeA (Italian Society of Science, Technology, Engineering of Architecture), in linea con le road map dei programmi di finanziamento nazionali e comunitari e gli obiettivi strategici di Ricerca (Industriale) che vanno: dalle prestazioni energetico-ambientali degli edifici e dei distretti, all'automazione nelle costruzioni nel contesto delle Smart City e della Social Innovation. Da quell’esperienza sono derivati i position paper, pubblicati nel 2012, che costituiscono una rappresentazione, per frammenti, dell’attività di ricerca del Raggruppamento ICAR11. L’Associazione è andata avanti nel percorso avviato, raccogliendo contributi di studiosi di diversa provenienza su quelle tematiche che si preannunciano come dominanti nel prossimo futuro, presentandoli al Convegno ISTeA ed al MADE Expo di Milano del 2012. Nell’ottica di una riorganizzazione delle Politiche nazionale e comunitaria per la Ricerca Industriale, sono stati individuati i temi fondativi del Settore: 1 - Dal progetto al prodotto di qualità per l'industria delle costruzioni (Imperadori, Dell’Osso, Esposito, Masera, Pierucci and Ruta, 2012) 2 - La gestione del ciclo di vita nelle costruzioni (Daniotti and Nicolella, 2012) 3 - L'automation in construction (Naticchia, Novembri and Carbonari, 2012) 4 - Le attivita' sperimentali e il knowledge reuse (Morra and Alaimo, 2012)The contribution focuses, on the basis of the wealth of knowledge acquired in the Building Production sector, on the specific topics for the activities of ISTeA (Italian Society of Science, Technology, Engineering of Architecture) members, in line with the road maps of national and Community funding programmes and with the strategic objectives of (Industrial) Research which range from the energy-environmental performance of buildings and districts to automation in construction within the context of Smart Cities and Social Innovation. This experience led to the release of the position papers, published in 2012, representing fragments of the ICAR11 Group's research activity. The Society pressed forward along the path it had started out on, gathering contributions from scholars from different backgrounds on the topics which look likely to dominate in the near future and presenting them at the 2012 ISTeA Conference and MADE Expo in Milan. With a view to reorganizing national and Community policies on industrial research, the following key issues for our sector were identified: (Alaimo et al., 2012): 1 - Dal progetto al prodotto di qualità per l'industria delle costruzioni (Imperadori, Dell'Osso, Esposito, Masera, Pierucci and Ruta, 2012) 2 - La gestione del ciclo di vita nelle costruzioni (Daniotti and Nicolella, 2012) 3 – L'automation in construction (Naticchia, Novembri and Carbonari, 2012) 4 – Le attivita' sperimentali e il knowledge reuse (Morra and Alaimo, 2012

El impacto de la globalización sobre el derecho del trabajo en Italia: la mediación de la Unión Europea

[Resumen] Este artículo describe el rol de la Unión Europea como un medium entre el fenómeno de la globalización, de un lado, y las estructuras de las relaciones laborales en Italia, de otro lado. Considera este rol de la Unión Europea como un proceso positivo (“virtuoso”) de intermediación. Esto último, porque contribuye a atenuar (como un “escudo”) las consecuencias negativas de la globalización en Italia.[Abstract] This article describes the role of the European Union as a medium between the phaenomenon of the globalisation, on one side, and the structures of the labor relations in Italy, on the other one. It considers this role of the European Union like a positive (“virtuous”) process of intermediation. This last, since it contributes (like a “shield”) to mild the negative consequences of the globalisation in Italy

Material Engagements: Science Studies and the Environmental Humanities

Key words: materiality, natural world, humanities, ethical ecocriticism, agency In the twentieth century the principle tendency has been to denigrate the value of non-human nature.  In this sense, scientific studies can help recover the materiality of the natural world for research in the humanities, especially when dealing with ecocriticism. Our current image of the environment has been deprived of its living beings and turned into an empty space at the disposal of humans. Natural sciences can provide theoretical and methodological models which can advance ethical and political projects of ecocriticism and encourage research that would consider the materiality of the non-human world, thereby restoring entity to the natural world. Twenty-first century environmental movements need to view the material and natural world as subjects with agency and not take for granted that these exist “somewhere out there.” Palabras clave: materia, naturaleza no humana, humanidades, ética ecocrítica,  agencia  En el siglo XX la tendencia fundamental hacia el medioambiente fue la de menospreciar el valor de la naturaleza no humana. En este sentido, los estudios científicos pueden ayudar a recuperar la materialidad del mundo natural para la investigación de las humanidades, especialmente en lo que concierne a la ecocrítica. El medioambiente actual ha sido privado de sus seres vivos y convertido en un espacio vacío a disposición del ser humano. Las ciencias naturales pueden aportar modelos teóricos y metodológicos que hagan avanzar los proyectos éticos y políticos de la ecocrítica, en definitiva, crear una investigación que considere la materialidad del mundo no humano: que devuelva entidad al mundo natural. Los movimientos medioambientalistas del siglo XXI deben contemplar el mundo material y natural como  sujeto agente, pues no se puede dar por sentado que éstos existen “por ahí, en alguna parte.”&nbsp