Documenting work through videos. A project by Officina Emilia with nine engineering firms in the province of Modena (2008-2010)

In order to meet the need of representing labour in the workshop, Officina Emilia has concentrated on work in the small mechanical factories. The aim is to spread - among teachers, young persons and their families, local administrators and people who work at various levels in the local institutions - a knowledge of what the world of engineering production entails and of the people employed in it, and to investigate in depth the nexus between innovation and production, knowledge and learning places. Research, analysis and transmission of knowledge would need to be mobilized on a very large scale to find answers to the questions as to the current nature of jobs and what workers do in mechanical factories. Through the OE_Imprese project, Officina Emilia has set a preliminary aim: to contribute to opening the discussion, to signal the need to find answers, to better formulate the questions, to articulate the knowledge of the variety of cases, situations and contexts in which workers operate today. A multidisciplinary working group has set up instruments to facilitate the preliminary stages of collection and analysis of the documentation of the firms, and has selected the video as a suitable tool for gathering documentation for the research and the construction effective teaching instruments. In this paper (in a bilingual version Italian/English) we present two video productions made in the OE_Imprese project: a series of videointerviews with 35 workers (in Italian with subtitles in English), and a videoinstallation to narrate firms and workers in the Modena engineering district. The videos were made in the period November 2008-January 2009, by Filippo Tantillo and Sara Pozzoli. The collaboration between Officina Emilia and the firms of the territory emerges from the need to investigate and make visible the intermesh between production and innovation that formerly characterized the district, and that still today represents an aspect peculiar to engineering production in the Modena area, projecting it into the future, mapping out the paths of transformation

Integrated Analysis and Tools for Land Subsidence Surveying and Monitoring: a Semi-Quantitative Approach

This paper presents an integrated approach for land subsidence monitoring using measures coming from different sensors. Eni S.p.A., the main Italian oil and gas company, constantly surveys the land with all the state of the art and innovative techniques, and a method able to integrate the results is an important and actual topic. Nowadays the world is a multi-sensor platform, and measure integration is strictly necessary. Combining the different data sources should be done in a clever way, taking advantages from the best performances of each technique. An integrated analysis allows the interpretation of simultaneous temporal series of data, coming from different sources, and try to separate subsidence contributions. With this purpose Exelis VIS in collaboration with Eni S.p.A. customize PISAV (Permanent Interferometric Scatterometer Analysis and Visualization), an ENVI extension able to capitalize on and combine all the different data collected in the surveys. In this article are presented some significant examples to show the potential of this tool in oil and gas activity: a hydrocarbon storage field where the comparison between SAR and production volumes emphasise a correlation between the two measures in few steps; and a hydrocarbon production field with the Satellite Survey Unit (S.S.U.), where SAR, CGPS, piezometers and assestimeters measure in the same area at the same time, giving the opportunity to analyse data contextually. In the integrated analysis performed with PISAV not always a mathematical rigorous study is possible, and a semi-quantitative approach is the only method for results interpretation. As a result, in the first test case strong correlation between injected hydrocarbon volume and vertical displacement were highlighted; in the second one the integrated analysis has different advantages in monitoring the land subsidence: permits a first qualitative "differentiation" of the natural and anthropic component of subsidence, and also gives more reliability and coverage to each measurement, taking advantages from the strong points of each technique

Emotional Intelligence and risk taking in investment decision-making

Previous work on investment decision-making suggested that emotions prevent investors from taking risks and from investing in a rational way, whereas other work found that there is great variability in people’s ability to manage and use emotional feedbacks. We hypothesized that people with high trait emotional intelligence should be more willing, than people with low trait emotional intelligence, to accept risks when making an investment. Data supported a model in which trait emotional intelligence predicted willingness to invest both when the expected value is positive and when it is negative. The effect of trait emotional intelligence was significant even controlling for other variables, like attitude toward economic risk and money attitude. We believe that these results help improving the understanding of how emotions influence investors’ behavior and show that their role is not always detrimental but depends on the interplay between individual differences and situational factors

Atmospheric CO2 source and sink patterns over the Indian region

In this paper we examine CO2 emission hot spots and sink regions over India as identified from global model simulations during the period 2000–2009. CO2 emission hot spots overlap with locations of densely clustered thermal power plants, coal mines and other industrial and urban centres; CO2 sink regions coincide with the locations of dense forest. Fossil fuel CO2 emissions are compared with two bottom-up inventories: the Regional Emission inventories in ASia (REAS v1.11; 2000–2009) and the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR v4.2) (2000–2009). Estimated fossil fuel emissions over the hot spot region are  ∼  500–950 gC m−2 yr−1 as obtained from the global model simulation, EDGAR v4.2 and REAS v1.11 emission inventory. Simulated total fluxes show increasing trends, from 1.39 ± 1.01 % yr−1 (19.8 ± 1.9 TgC yr−1) to 6.7 ± 0.54 % yr−1 (97 ± 12 TgC yr−1) over the hot spot regions and decreasing trends of −0.95 ± 1.51 % yr−1 (−1 ± 2 TgC yr−1) to −5.7 ± 2.89 % yr−1 (−2.3 ± 2 TgC yr−1) over the sink regions. Model-simulated terrestrial ecosystem fluxes show decreasing trends (increasing CO2 uptake) over the sink regions. Decreasing trends in terrestrial ecosystem fluxes imply that forest cover is increasing, which is consistent with India State of Forest Report (2009). Fossil fuel emissions show statistically significant increasing trends in all the data sets considered in this study. Estimated trend in simulated total fluxes over the Indian region is  ∼  4.72 ± 2.25 % yr−1 (25.6 TgC yr−1) which is slightly higher than global growth rate  ∼  3.1 % yr−1 during 2000–2010

Aerosol effect on climate extremes in Europe under different future scenarios

This study investigates changes in extreme temperature and precipitation events under different future scenarios of anthropogenic aerosol emissions (i.e., SO2 and black and organic carbon) simulated with an aerosol-climate model (ECHAM5-HAM) with focus on Europe. The simulations include a maximum feasible aerosol reduction (MFR) scenario and a current legislation emission (CLEmod) scenario where Europe implements the MFR scenario, but the rest of the world follows the current legislation scenario and a greenhouse gas scenario. The strongest changes relative to the year 2000 are projected for the MFR scenario, in which the global aerosol reduction greatly enforces the general warming effect due to greenhouse gases and results in significant increases of temperature and precipitation extremes in Europe. Regional warming effects can also be identified from aerosol reductions under the CLEmodscenario. This becomes most obvious in the increase of the hottest summer daytime temperatures in Northern Europe. © 2013 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved

Impact of Cooking on Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Pigmented Rice Cultivars

Pigmented rice cultivars, namely Venere and Artemide, are a source of bioactive molecules, in particular phenolics, including anthocyanins, exerting a positive effect on cardiovascular systems thanks also to their antioxidant capacity. This study aimed to determine the total phenol index (TPI), total flavonoids (TF), total anthocyanins (TA) and in vitro antioxidant capacity in 12 batches of Venere cultivar and two batches of Artemide cultivar. The rice was cooked using different methods (boiling, microwave, pressure cooker, water bath, rice cooker) with the purpose to individuate the procedure limiting the loss of bioactive compounds. TPI, TF and TA were spectrophotometrically determined in both raw and cooked rice samples. Rice samples of Artemide cultivars were richer in TPI (17.7-18.8 vs. 8.2-11.9 g gallic acid/kg in Venere rice), TF (13.1 vs. 5.0-7.1 g catechin/kg rice for Venere rice) and TA (3.2-3.4 vs. 1.8-2.9 g Cy-3glc/kg for Venere rice) in comparison to those of Venere cultivar; as well, they showed higher antioxidant capacity (46.6-47.8 vs. 14.4-31.9 mM Trolox/kg for Venere rice). Among the investigated cooking methods, the rice cooker and the water bath led to lower and comparable losses of phenolics. Interestingly, the cooking water remaining after cooking with the rice cooker was rich in phenolics. The consumption of a portion of rice (100 g) cooked with the rice cooker with its own cooking water can supply 240 mg catechin and 711 mg cyanidin 3-O-glucoside for Venere rice and 545 mg catechin and 614 mg cyanidin 3-O-glucoside for Artemide rice, with a potential positive effect on health

Transport pathways of peroxyacetyl nitrate in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere from different monsoon systems during the summer monsoon season

The Asian summer monsoon involves complex transport patterns with large-scale redistribution of trace gases in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). We employ the global chemistry–climate model ECHAM5–HAMMOZ in order to evaluate the transport pathways and the contributions of nitrogen oxide species peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), NO$_{χ}$ and HNO$_{3}$ from various monsoon regions, to the UTLS over southern Asia and vice versa. Simulated long-term seasonal mean mixing ratios are compared with trace gas retrievals from the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding aboard ENVISAT(MIPAS-E) and aircraft campaigns during the monsoon season (June–September) in order to evaluate the model’s ability to reproduce these transport patterns. The model simulations show that there are three regions which contribute substantial pollution to the South Asian UTLS: the Asian summer monsoon (ASM), the North American monsoon (NAM) and the West African monsoon (WAM). However, penetration due to ASM convection reaches deeper into the UTLS compared to NAM and WAM outflow. The circulation in all three monsoon regions distributes PAN into the tropical latitude belt in the upper troposphere (UT). Remote transport also occurs in the extratropical UT where westerly winds drive North American and European pollutants eastward where they can become part of the ASM convection and lifted into the lower stratosphere. In the lower stratosphere the injected pollutants are transported westward by easterly winds. Sensitivity experiments with ECHAM5–HAMMOZ for simultaneous NO$_{χ}$ and nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) emission change (-10 %) over ASM, NAM and WAM confirm similar transport. Our analysis shows that a 10% change in Asian emissions transports ~5–30 ppt of PAN in the UTLS over Asia, ~1–10 ppt of PAN in the UTLS of northern subtropics and mid-latitudes, ~7–10 ppt of HNO$_{3}$ and ~1–2 ppb of ozone in UT over Asia. Comparison of emission change over Asia, North America and Africa shows that the highest transport of HNO$_{3}$ and ozone occurs in the UT over Asia and least over Africa. The intense convective activity in the monsoon regions is associated with lightning and thereby the formation of additional NO$_{χ}$ . This also affects the distribution of PAN in the UTLS. Simulations with and without lightning show an increase in the concentrations of PAN (~40 %), HNO$_{3}$ (75%), NO$_{χ}$ (70 %) and ozone (30 %) over the regions of convective transport. Lightning-induced production of these species is higher over equatorial Africa and America compared to the ASM region. This indicates that the contribution of anthropogenic emissions to PAN in the UTLS over the ASM is higher than that of lightning

In vitro characterization of physico-chemical properties, cytotoxicity, bioactivity of urea-crosslinked hyaluronic acid and sodium ascorbyl phosphate nasal powder formulation

An innovative lyophilized dry powder formulation consisting of urea-crosslinked hyaluronic acid (HA-CL) and sodium ascorbyl phosphate (SAP) – LYO HA-CL – SAP- was prepared and characterized in vitro for physico-chemical and biological properties. The aim was to understand if LYO HA-CL – SAP could be used as adjuvant treatment for nasal inflammatory diseases. LYO HA-CL – SAP was suitable for nasal delivery and showed to be not toxic on human nasal septum carcinoma-derived cells (RPMI 2650 cells) at the investigated concentrations. It displayed porous, polygonal particles with unimodal, narrow size distribution, mean geometric diameter of 328.3 ± 27.5 µm, that is appropriate for nasal deposition with no respirable fraction and 88.7% of particles with aerodynamic diameter >14.1 µm. Additionally, the formulation showed wound healing ability on RPMI 2650 cells, and reduced interleukin-8 (IL-8) level in primary nasal epithelial cells pre-induced with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Transport study across RPMI 2650 cells showed that HA-CL could act not only as carrier for SAP and active ingredient itself, but potentially also as mucoadhesive agent. In conclusion, these results suggest that HA-CL and SAP had anti-inflammatory activity and acted in combination to accelerate wound healing. Therefore, LYO HA-CL – SAP could be a potential adjuvant in nasal anti-inflammatory formulations

La valutazione del Personale e il processo di incentivazione

Opera Omnia sulla Gestione contabile e finanziaria degli EE. LL

Mapping physicochemical surface modifications of flame-treated polypropylene

The aim of this work was to investigate how the surface morphology of polypropylene (PP) is influenced by the surface activation mediated by a flame obtained using a mixture of air and propane under fuel-lean (equivalence ratio φ = 0.98) conditions. Morphological changes observed on flamed samples with smooth (S), medium (M), and high (H) degree of surface roughness were attributed to the combined effect of a chemical mechanism (agglomeration and ordering of partially oxidized intermediate-molecular-weight material) with a physical mechanism (flattening of the original roughness by the flame’s high temperature). After two treatments, the different behavior of the samples in terms of wettability was totally reset, which made an impressive surface energy of ~43 mJ•m–2 possible, which is typical of more hydrophilic polymers (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate – PET). In particular, the polar component was increased from 1.21, 0.08, and 0.32 mJ•m–2 (untreated samples) to 10.95, 11.20, and 11.17 mJ•m–2 for the flamed samples S, M, and H, respectively, an increase attributed to the insertion of polar functional groups (hydroxyl and carbonyl) on the C–C backbone, as demonstrated by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results