Rural landscape valuation in a cross-border region

The rural landscape is one of the most valuable agricultural externalities and it is often affected by modifications in the agricultural production process. Moreover, some rural areas are deteriorating due to the depopulation process while others are being transformed owing to socio-economic pressures. However, should agricultural policies concerning landscape preservation only be considered as cost items or should they be seen as sources of social benefits able to justify economic support? On this basis two surveys were carried out in order to study the economic value of the rural landscape, focusing in particular on viticulture. Both studies covered quality wine-producing areas on the Italian/Slovenian border: The Controlled Denomination of Origin zones of ‘Collio’ and ‘Colli Orientali del Friuli’ in Italy, and the municipality of Brda in Slovenia. Both surveys assessed the economic value of the rural landscape in order to estimate the social benefit that populations attach to landscape preservation measures. Despite the fact that similar methods were applied, results differed. The peculiar backgrounds affected our results in two ways. Firstly we found that there was a considerable difference in the way Italians and Slovenes valued the rural landscape. While Italians considered the development and extension of vineyards to be very important in counteracting the abandonment of rural areas, Slovenes preferred “traditional” landscapes (orchards, grasslands and vineyards). Secondly, in Slovenia it was difficult to apply the contingent valuation method, which is based on a hypothetical market scenario. More research should be carried out in order to study the methods that best fitthe preferences for rural landscape.rural landscape, contingent valuation method, Collio (Italy), Colli orientali del Friuli (Italy), Brda

Modelling of economic balances appliable to protected area management

Nel presente contributo vengono esposti i risultati della contabilità ambientale applicata alla Riserva Naturale Marina di Miramare (Ts). L’analisi si è arricchita di elementi frutto di riflessioni intorno ai modelli di contabilità ambientale. La prima riflessione attiene al fatto che esistono delle difficoltà a livello di scala nei modelli di contabilità ambientale nazionale. Questi strumenti manifestano limiti nelle realtà micro e soprattutto nel caso di applicazione alle aree protette. Questo primo ostacolo potrebbe essere superato implementando il sistema dei conti patrimoniali delle risorse naturali, il quale tuttavia introduce quello che è il secondo limite per alcuni dei modelli accettati dal Sistema statistico europeo, e cioè l’impiego di unità di misura fisiche e non monetarie. Infine il terzo limite, presente in tutti i modelli esaminati, è dato dalla rendicontazione delle sole spese e costi ambientali. In questo modo i modelli di contabilità ambientale danno conto del solo patrimonio consumato e mai della ricchezza e del patrimonio prodotto dagli ecosistemi. Alla luce dei tre limiti evidenziati (limite di scala, limite di unità di misura fisica, limite dei costi ambientali) è stato proposto un modello di rendicontazione che tenesse conto delle risorse che la Riserva non solo consuma ma anche produce. Il modello prende il nome di bilancio dei flussi e considera i flussi biosfera-tecnosfera (che stimano i benefici ambientali e i ricavieconomici) e i flussi tecnosfera-biosfera (che stimano i costi ambientali e economici). Dal processo illustrato è stato possibile pervenire alla stima della ricchezza prodotta e consumata dalla Riserva. Il bilancio monetizza il beneficio e dunque la ricchezza prodotta in circa 450 mila euro annui.This study presents the evironmental accountancies results applied to the Miramare Marine Natural Reserve (Ts). The analysis is completed by a series of considerations on the environmental accountancies models. The first consideration highlights some problems that the national environmental accountancies models show at the scale level. Such tools show their limits in the local realities and especially when they are applied to protected areas. The first difficulty could be solved by implementing the system of patrimonial account of natural resources. However, this leads to the second limit, that regards some of the models accepted by the European Statistic System, that is the use of physical units of measure, instead of measures related to money. Finally, the third limit, shown by all the examined models, is related to the accountancies of the mere environmental expenses and costs. This way, the environmental accountancies models consider only the money that is used and not the richness and patrimony that is produced by the ecosystems. Taking into account the three highlighted limits (scale, phisical units of measure, environmental costs), an accountancies model has been suggested, that considers the resources used by the Reserve as well as those that are produced. The model is known as ‘flow balance’ and considers both the biospheretechnosphere flows (estimating the environmental benefits and the economic gains) and the technosphere-biosphere flows (estimating the environmental and economic costs). The process described has lead to an estimation of the richness produced and consumed by the Reserve. The balance translates the benefits into money, indicating that the richness produced in a year is of about 450 thousand euros

A configurational analysis of the antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation

Entrepreneurial orientation is widely acknowledged as a strong predictor of firm performance. It is therefore critical to understand the factors and conditions that nurture it. In this paper, we investigate what configurations of motivations and personality traits trigger entrepreneurial orientation in three strategic leadership situations: successor of a family business, family-oriented founder, non-family founder. Strategic leaders in these situations are differently exposed to the opportunities and constraints to pursue entrepreneurial posture, because of the influence of family embeddedness and organizational resistance. We apply Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to a sample of 257 Italian SME owner/managers. We identify 12 coherent configurations of internal and external motivations, and personality traits that are all conducive to entrepreneurial orientation. These configurations are consistent with features of the family and organization environments in which the entrepreneurial action takes place; furthermore, in each strategic leadership situation, different configurations of attributes lead to entrepreneurial orientation

Corporate governance and product innovation in the machine-tool sector in Italy

In this thesis we study the influence of corporate governance on product innovation in the machine-tool sector in Italy. The theoretical framework employed in the analysis is part of the Systems of Innovation literature. It can be defined as a "national-technological system of innovation" type of approach as it distinguishes between countries with different systems of corporate governance and between sectors that employ different technologies. The main hypothesis is that variations in national systems of corporate governance can help to explain national patterns of sectoral specialisation. The thesis focuses on the Italian National System of Innovation from the point of view of its corporate governance. The main characteristics of the system are analysed in the first part of the thesis where it is also shown how they can help to explain the Italian industrial specialisation. The study proceeds with an application of the theoretical framework to the analysis of the machine-tool sector, its technology and its historical evolution. A particular focus is put on the decline of the US in the sector during the 1970s and 1980s and the corresponding upsurge of Japan. The final part of the thesis studies the Italian System of Innovation in the machine-tool sector. It highlights that firms are not the only actors in the System and that other stakeholders, such as customers and suppliers, play an important part in the innovation process. It shows also that the system presents some weaknesses, consisting mainly of the lack of financial resources, that need to be resolved. Our final argument, supported by an econometric analysis, is that one of the solutions suggested by the machine-tool builders association, namely a wave of mergers and acquisitions, is not necessarily the best answer. A stronger coordination and cooperation among competing and non-competing firms appears to be the most incisive solution from the point of view of innovation for this sector

Satisfaction of entrepreneurs: a comparison between founders and family business successors

Although a substantial body of literature compares the job satisfaction of employees to that of the self-employed, scholars rarely take into account the heterogeneity of the latter population. We compare the level and the drivers of job satisfaction of founders and successors in family businesses. Building on the notion of procedural utility, which entails the gratification that individuals experience in the process of performing a task, we find that job satisfaction and perceived discretion in decision making is lower for successors. We also find that perceived discretion fully mediates the relationship between mode of entry into entrepreneurship and job satisfaction

Reentry vehicles: evaluation of plasma effects on RF propagation

In the frame of communication technology relevant to the re-entry vehicles, the communication black-out occurring in the presence of plasma is one of the main challenging issues. The re-entry plasma is a complex physical system, where the ionization derives from a shock-wave and non-equilibrium phenomena. As discussed elsewhere, the time scales of plasma dynamics (including its evolution along mission trajectory) and radio wave propagation are well separated so that radio wave propagation is solved at an appropriate number of time "snapshots" in which plasma dynamics is held unchanged and considered as known. In this activity, a consistent effort has been devoted to model the electromagnetic problem. For the involved range of oprative frequencies and expected densities, the plasma can be considered as an inhomogeneous dielectric. The associated electromagnetic problem is solved in two steps, via use of the field equivalence principle. The vehicle-plasma system is substituted by equivalent (Love's) currents on its boundary, radiating in free space; the fields at the boundary are obtained by solving the propagation problem from the antenna, installed on the spacecraft, up to the plasma boundary, through the Eikonal approximation. Radiation is then obtained without further approximations. Unlike other well-known numerical methods (e.g. FEM), this technique is not intrinsecally limited by the electrical dimension of the vehicle-plasma system. This enables to analyze high frequency problems. Since the formation of the re-entry plasma critically depends on the re-entry vehicle shape and kinematics, the related model has been directly derived from the output data of the Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations. All the results of the above mentioned activities have been collected in a new software, the AIPT (Antenna In Plasma Tool, integrated into ADF-EMS Antenna Design Framework Electromagnetic Satellite) able to predict the electromagnetic propagation in the presence of plasm

Oscillations in Cdc14 release and sequestration reveal a circuit underlying mitotic exit

The phosphatase Cdc14 exerts negative feedback on its upstream regulators to limit its release from the nucleolus to once per cell cycle

Assessing the Benefit Produced by Marine Protected Areas: The Case of Porto Cesareo Marine Protected Area (Italy)

The article focuses on the integrated environmental accounting model called ‘eValue’, developed for protected areas and applied in the research programme coordinated by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and aimed at implementing an environmental accounting system for Italian Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). eValue adopts a cost-benefit analysis approach. Financial accounting based on costs and revenues is integrated with environmental accounting, which reflects environmental costs and environmental revenues, i.e., environmental benefits. The environ-mental costs assess the impacts related to human activities in the MPA expressed by calculating the carbon footprint and the environmental benefits of the marine ecosystem services calculated by applying monetary valuation techniques. The values thus estimated flow into the annual flow account, where the value produced (or consumed) by the MPA is estimated by difference. The eValue model was applied to the Porto Cesareo MPA (Italy). eValue showed that the annual benefit-cost ratio reaches a value of 3.4. Furthermore, the ratio of net benefit to public funding is 3.7, completely covering the number of public transfers and thus summarizing the MPA overall value for money

Transcriptomic analysis of the temporal host response to skin infestation with the ectoparasitic mite Psoroptes ovis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Infestation of ovine skin with the ectoparasitic mite <it>Psoroptes ovis </it>results in a rapid cutaneous immune response, leading to the crusted skin lesions characteristic of sheep scab. Little is known regarding the mechanisms by which such a profound inflammatory response is instigated and to identify novel vaccine and drug targets a better understanding of the host-parasite relationship is essential. The main objective of this study was to perform a combined network and pathway analysis of the <it>in vivo </it>skin response to infestation with <it>P. ovis </it>to gain a clearer understanding of the mechanisms and signalling pathways involved.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Infestation with <it>P. </it>ovis resulted in differential expression of 1,552 genes over a 24 hour time course. Clustering by peak gene expression enabled classification of genes into temporally related groupings. Network and pathway analysis of clusters identified key signalling pathways involved in the host response to infestation. The analysis implicated a number of genes with roles in allergy and inflammation, including pro-inflammatory cytokines (<it>IL1A, IL1B, IL6, IL8 </it>and <it>TNF</it>) and factors involved in immune cell activation and recruitment (<it>SELE, SELL, SELP, ICAM1, CSF2, CSF3, CCL2 </it>and <it>CXCL2</it>). The analysis also highlighted the influence of the transcription factors NF-kB and AP-1 in the early pro-inflammatory response, and demonstrated a bias towards a Th2 type immune response.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study has provided novel insights into the signalling mechanisms leading to the development of a pro-inflammatory response in sheep scab, whilst providing crucial information regarding the nature of mite factors that may trigger this response. It has enabled the elucidation of the temporal patterns by which the immune system is regulated following exposure to <it>P. ovis</it>, providing novel insights into the mechanisms underlying lesion development. This study has improved our existing knowledge of the host response to <it>P. ovis</it>, including the identification of key parallels between sheep scab and other inflammatory skin disorders and the identification of potential targets for disease control.</p