Art. 127

Il lavoro analizza il tema dell'esercizio del voto a distanza nei diversi modelli societari. Vengono presi in considerazione in particolare gli aspetti funzionali del voto a distanza e le modalit\ue0 di realizzazione dell'interesse all'informazione dei soci e delle tecniche di esercizio e di registrazione del voto extraassembleare. Infine, si concentra l'attenzione, in raffronto con l'esperienza tedesca, sulle modalit\ue0 elettroniche di partecipazione all'assemblea, quali modalit\ue0 di recupero della collegialit\ue0 piena dell'organo

Shifting the SME Corporate Model Towards Sustainability: Suggestions from Italian Company Law

Corporate Social Responsibility is now at the center of the debate on Company Law all over the world, but the prominent discourse on this topic remains focused on large enterprises operating at a multinational level. The purpose of this paper is to introduce some reflections on the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and minor companies. It examines what organizational solutions can be found in the regulatory framework of Italian Company Law to lead small and medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) to transition towards sustainability. Firms of this dimension represent 99% of European businesses and account for more than 90% of the world\u2019s business enterprises that need to make this transition. Despite the fact that SMEs are defined \uabthe backbone of Europe\u2019s economy\ubb, organizational models of sustainability in small- and medium- sized enterprises have not yet been studied in depth, and the usefulness of company models that consent to combine altruistic and lucrative purposes, and above all impose a sustainable manner of action, is still to be analyzed comprehensively regarding enterprises of this dimension. The main contribution of the work is to identify the effects of the introduction of the \u2018Societ\ue0 Benefit\u2019 model into Italian company law and of the first empirical evidence from its application. Useful operational tools are drawn from it, especially for smaller companies, which, inspired by this business model, can develop their own sustainability strategies by relying on an organizational model that highlights a complete and analytical communication of non-financial performance

Blockchain acceptance and adoption in the tourism industry

Tourism has always been characterized by extensive innovativeness (from theme parks and cultural&gourmet tours till a deeper service integration). Today, digital solutions represent an opportunity to expand and innovate the range of services offered. Focusing on blockchain as an emerging technological solution, the paper investigates how expert and practitioners perceive the potentialities and limitations of its adoption in tourism.To capture the attitudes expressed in the field, we analyze the ongoing discussions on a major social network: Twitter.Through a social network analysis of the flow of tweetsconducted overthree months, we map the current perceptions towards blockchain. Specifically, we contribute to the literature on technology acceptance and adoption by intercepting the current perceptions in the tourism industry.This paper shows how experts and practitioners are envisioning the possibilities that blockchain shape future services in the tourism sector. Our study is based on an extensive literature review and a social network analysis of a Twitter-database. This allows us to investigate the current sentiment towards blockchain, and also to envision future directions of a promising and yet under analyzed technology

On the DM interpretation of the origin of non-thermal phenomena in galaxy clusters

(Abridged) We study the predictions of various annihilating Dark Matter (DM) models in order to interpret the origin of non-thermal phenomena in galaxy clusters. We consider three neutralino DM models with light (9 GeV), intermediate (60 GeV) and high (500 GeV) mass. The secondary particles created by neutralino annihilation produce a multi-frequency Spectral Energy Distribution (SED), as well as heating of the intracluster gas, that are tested against the observations available for the Coma cluster. The DM produced SEDs are normalized to the Coma radio halo spectrum. We find that it is not possible to interpret all non-thermal phenomena observed in Coma in terms of DM annihilation. The DM model with 9 GeV mass produces too small power at all frequencies, while the DM model with 500 GeV produces a large excess power at all frequencies. The DM model with 60 GeV and $\tau^{\pm}$ composition is consistent with the HXR and gamma-ray data but fails to reproduce the EUV and soft X-ray data. The DM model with 60 GeV and $b{\bar b}$ composition is always below the observed fluxes. The radio halo spectrum of Coma is well fitted only in the $b{\bar b}$ or light and intermediate mass DM models. The heating produced by DM annihilation in the center of Coma is always larger than the intracluster gas cooling rate for an NFW DM density profile and it is substantially smaller than the cooling rate only for a cored DM density profile in DM model with 9 GeV. We conclude that the possibility of interpreting the origin of non-thermal phenomena in galaxy clusters with DM annihilation models requires a low neutralino mass and a cored DM density profile. If we then consider the multimessenger constraints to the neutralino annihilation cross-section, it turns out that such scenario would also be excluded unless we introduce a substantial boost factor due to the presence of DM substructures.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 2 Tables. Submitted to A&

Smartphone biosensor for point-of-need chemiluminescence detection of ochratoxin A in wine and coffee

Exposure to mycotoxins, which may contaminate food and feed commodities, represents a serious health risk for consumers. Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most abundant and toxic mycotoxins, thus specific regulations for fixing its maximum admissible levels in foodstuff have been established. Lateral Flow ImmunoAssay (LFIA)-based devices have been proposed as screening tools to avoid OTA contamination along the whole food chain. We report a portable, user-friendly smartphone-based biosensor for the detection and quantification of OTA in wine and instant coffee, which combines the LFIA approach with chemiluminescence (CL) detection. The device employs the smartphone camera as a light detector and uses low-cost, disposable analytical cartridges containing the LFIA strip and all the necessary reagents. The analysis can be carried out at the point of need by non-specialized operators through simple manual operations. The biosensor allows OTA quantitative detection in wine and coffee samples up to 25 μg L−1 and with limits of detection of 0.3 and 0.1 μg L−1, respectively, which are below the European law-fixed limits. These results demonstrate that the developed device can be used for routine monitoring of OTA contamination, enabling rapid and reliable identification of positive samples requiring confirmatory analysis

Low-resolution spectroscopy of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and estimates of cluster parameters

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect is a powerful tool for studying clusters of galaxies and cosmology. Large mm-wave telescopes are now routinely detecting and mapping the SZ effect in a number of clusters, measure their comptonisation parameter and use them as probes of the large-scale structure and evolution of the universe. We show that estimates of the physical parameters of clusters (optical depth, plasma temperature, peculiar velocity, non-thermal components etc.) obtained from ground-based multi-band SZ photometry can be significantly biased, owing to the reduced frequency coverage, to the degeneracy between the parameters and to the presence of a number of independent components larger than the number of frequencies measured. We demonstrate that low-resolution spectroscopic measurements of the SZ effect that also cover frequencies $> 270$ GHz are effective in removing the degeneracy. We used accurate simulations of observations with lines-of-sight through clusters of galaxies with different experimental configurations (4-band photometers, 6-band photometer, multi-range differential spectrometer, full coverage spectrometers) and different intracluster plasma stratifications. We find that measurements carried out with ground-based few-band photometers are biased towards high electron temperatures and low optical depths, and require coverage of high frequency and/or independent complementary observations to produce unbiased information; a differential spectrometer that covers 4 bands with a resolution of $\sim 6 \ GHz$ eliminates most if not all bias; full-range differential spectrometers are the ultimate resource that allows a full recovery of all parameters.Comment: in pres

COrE (Cosmic Origins Explorer) A White Paper

COrE (Cosmic Origins Explorer) is a fourth-generation full-sky, microwave-band satellite recently proposed to ESA within Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. COrE will provide maps of the microwave sky in polarization and temperature in 15 frequency bands, ranging from 45 GHz to 795 GHz, with an angular resolution ranging from 23 arcmin (45 GHz) and 1.3 arcmin (795 GHz) and sensitivities roughly 10 to 30 times better than PLANCK (depending on the frequency channel). The COrE mission will lead to breakthrough science in a wide range of areas, ranging from primordial cosmology to galactic and extragalactic science. COrE is designed to detect the primordial gravitational waves generated during the epoch of cosmic inflation at more than $3\sigma$ for $r=(T/S)>=10^{-3}$. It will also measure the CMB gravitational lensing deflection power spectrum to the cosmic variance limit on all linear scales, allowing us to probe absolute neutrino masses better than laboratory experiments and down to plausible values suggested by the neutrino oscillation data. COrE will also search for primordial non-Gaussianity with significant improvements over Planck in its ability to constrain the shape (and amplitude) of non-Gaussianity. In the areas of galactic and extragalactic science, in its highest frequency channels COrE will provide maps of the galactic polarized dust emission allowing us to map the galactic magnetic field in areas of diffuse emission not otherwise accessible to probe the initial conditions for star formation. COrE will also map the galactic synchrotron emission thirty times better than PLANCK. This White Paper reviews the COrE science program, our simulations on foreground subtraction, and the proposed instrumental configuration.Comment: 90 pages Latex 15 figures (revised 28 April 2011, references added, minor errors corrected