Una luce alla “Maniera” per la “Visitazione” del Pontormo

L’opera del Pontormo “L’Ultima Visitazione” è custodita nella chiesa di San Michele a Carmignano e posta dentro un complesso decorativo seicentesco, nel secondo altare sulla destra dopo l’ingresso della chiesa. In questo articolo viene presentato lo studio e la soluzione illuminotecnica ed espositiva proposta per questa opera emblematica del primo manierismo fiorentino. Soprintendenza e Diocesi hanno esplicitamente chiesto di trovare una soluzione che non necessitasse di alcun cambiamento per il sistema di illuminazione della Chiesa sia per contenere i costi, sia per seguire le indicazioni di normativa, specie le linee quadro definite dalla Commissione Episcopale per la liturgia della CEI (Conferenza Episcopale Italiana). Una serie di misure di illuminamento condotte in differenti condizioni di commistione di luce naturale ed artificiale, questa ultima sia di base che di accento, così come di simulazioni transitorie realizzate nelle stesse condizioni illuminotecniche, hanno permesso di analizzare l’ambiente luminoso in cui l’opera è collocata. La lettura filologica dell’opera e dello spazio storico-architettonico e luminoso in cui è inserita, ha consentito di definire una soluzione espositiva e di illuminazione, verificata per mezzo di simulazioni transienti, che restituisce valore storico e culturale al quadro, consentendone una corretta visione e percezione così come la sua tutela e conservazione

L'inventivité habitante : une opportunité pour réinventer les politiques publiques locales ?

International audienceBudgetary austerity is central to any discourses about public policies. Local communities cannot go on any longer as they did, they have to reinvent. In parallel, inhabitants develop ordinary forms of inventiveness with a view to increase their habitability by corresponding their ideals to their acts and facilitating their well-being. Country planning is challenged through simple solutions, similar to Do it Yourself (tactical urbanism, hacker-space, etc.). In order for territorial policies to become more efficient, they could get inspired by these inventions that directly respond to the needs of inhabitants, and even contribute to their development. Local communities stand at the threshold of a new era, having to move from a “do for” to a “do with” and “enable to do” position.L’austérité budgétaire est au centre des propos lorsque nous parlons de politiques publiques. Les collectivités territoriales ne peuvent plus continuer comme par le passé ; elles doivent se réinventer. En parallèle, les habitants développent des formes d’inventivité ordinaires pour accroître leur habitabilité, en faisant correspondre leurs idéaux et leurs actes, en facilitant leur bien-être, etc. Ce sont des solutions simples, proches du système D, qui questionnent l’action publique territoriale. Pour que les politiques territoriales deviennent plus efficientes, nous pensons que les collectivités ont intérêt à s’inspirer de ces inventions citoyennes qui répondent directement aux besoins des habitants, voire contribuer à leur développement. Les collectivités territoriales sont à l’aune d’une nouvelle étape : passer du « faire pour » au « faire avec » et au « permettre de faire »

Asymmetric information in programmatic advertising:Three studies on adverse selection, mechanism choices, and fee structures

The display advertising market has evolved dramatically in recent times. Firms can leverage sophisticated real-time supply chains that go under the umbrella term of emph{programmatic advertising} to deliver their promotional content to the right customer, at the right moment, and in the right place. Despite these premises and the ever increasing economic weight of the advertising industry, programmatic still suffers from a diffused lack of transparency that originates from the vast and often confusing competitive and technological landscape that advertisers (buyers), publishers (sellers) and Ad Exchanges (auction platforms) have to navigate. In this dissertation we present three studies that investigate the role of asymmetric information in shaping the relationship between advertisers, publishers and Ad Exchanges.In the first study (Chapter 3), we use a game-theoretical model and an empirical analysis to investigate the implications of asymmetric information in the relationship between advertisers and publishers. We study the welfare consequences of publishers' heterogeneous adoption of the quality signaling practice of allocating higher-quality impressions to premium contracts (PMP). Our analytical results show that premium contracts lead to adverse selection in the open market (RTB) while not increasing advertisers' utility. Our empirical findings support our analytical framework by providing strong evidence of adverse selection in RTB. Our findings challenge the current understanding of PMPs as an effective signaling device and highlight the threat they pose to the integrity of programmatic.In the second study (Chapter 4), we examine ad exchanges' (ADX) mechanism choices between the second-price to the first-price auction. We address the effect that mistrust towards the ADXs' commitment to the second-price rules, and the ADXs' fee-setting policies have on their mechanism choices. First, we present descriptive empirical evidence from a large proprietary dataset of bid requests. Then, we construct a game-theoretical model of the interactions between publishers, advertisers, and ADXs. We find that, while publishers generally prefer trading via the first-price auction, ADXs that offer second-price auctions may still conquer a significant market share depending on their competitors' equilibrium fees. Furthermore, we find that the prevalence of second-price auctions depends on the publishers' size and the likelihood that ADXs engage in shill bidding in second-price auctions. Our findings reconcile an ongoing debate on the mechanism switch by clarifying the seemingly problematic timeline of the ADXs' move to the first-price auction.In the third study (Chapter 5), we investigate the incentives for ADXs in deciding their business model by setting buy-side and sell-side fees. In this study, we use an analytical model to research the impact of recent changes in publishers' strategy for clearing unsold inventory on such incentives of ADXs. In recent years, efficiency concerns have pushed publishers towards abandoning the legacy sequential Waterfall mechanism in favor of the newer parallel Header Bidding mechanism to manage the competition between affiliated ADXs. Despite being commonly viewed as a revenue-increasing move, the publisher's mechanism change eliminates all incentives for ad exchanges to keep sell-side fees low, thereby hurting publishers' revenues. Our findings explain the recent surge in sell-side fees, commonly referred to as the Ad Tech-Tax.The three studies of this dissertation bring substantial theoretical and practical contributions to the digital advertising literature. From the theoretical perspective, our work brings new insight into how asymmetric information and conflicting incentives shape the relationships between advertisers, publishers, and ADX. From the managerial perspective, our work brings three surprising results that challenge the current understanding of the mechanisms and contractual tools in programmatic.<br/

Disclosing the role of IT Suppliers as Digital Innovation enablers for SMEs: a strategy analysis of the European IT Sales Channel

As Information Technologies (IT) play a growingly strategic role in several industries, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) adopt IT solutions to trigger Digital Innovation supporting their processes and improving their products and services. SMEs' scarce resources and inadequate IT competencies forces them to demand support from IT suppliers in the IT adoption and Digital Innovation journey, however, little attention was paid to the business models and strategies of IT suppliers in the academic and professional literature, and SMEs find it difficult to assess and select IT suppliers that best responds to their needs and aims. This study's goal is to provide a detailed picture of the IT Sales Channel and its players in the European market. A classification framework is proposed and eleven different business models are identified. The study leverages multiple case studies relying on semi-standardized interviews with Chief Executive Officers and Marketing Managers of leading European IT suppliers

Determination of thermal parameters of poor conductors by transient techniques

The authors compare the transient hot wire method and the parallel wire method of determining thermal conductivity, using the second to find the thermal diffusivity of two materials. The wires are sandwiched between two samples of the material to be investigated. The influence of pressure is also studied in order to identify the measurement conditions that can be easily achieved. A method is chosen to evaluate thermal parameters and to determine the field of data to be used in relation to sample dimensions