Collaboratory Digital Libraries for Humanities in the Italian context

The study investigates the approach to collaboration in Humanities, within the Italian context, to test the possibility of collaborative digital library for scholars. The research hypothesis is that collaboration can foster innovation and scienti c development: therefore, within Humanities, digital libraries can be the collaborative laboratory for research. Thus, understanding perception of scholars towards collaboration, especially online, and comprehending if wiki systems could be the framework of collaboration were the objectives of the study. A qualitative approach has been adopted, using case study as research method: in-depth, semi-structured interviews to Digital Humanities scholars provide data integrated with interviews with two key informants (one of which is prof. Umberto Eco). The results of the study show that Humanities, within Italian context, do appreciate collaboration and the concept of a collaboratory digital library, though several issues need to be solved. In fact, Humanities are still tied with individual work and collaboration is not easy to pursue, for cultural, technical and political reasons. Great e ort needs to be done at many different levels to eliminate obstacles and facilitate online collaboration for scholars. The study provides a draft model for a collaborative digital library arisen from gathered data

L’ordine dei libri: divagazioni su Come ordinare una biblioteca di Roberto Calasso

The article expands, enriches and updates an earlier review by the author published in Il tascabile. In his booklet, Roberto Calasso does not explain how a library should be ordered, but instead tells how he has ordered his own, through the stories of the authors, the books, the fortuitous events that brought a certain book to a specific shelf. Calasso tells us how he embraced the ‘rule of the good neighbour’, previously elaborated by Aby Warburg for his own library, and how this principle facilitates serendipity, that is, the discovery of books one did not know one was looking for. Every reader builds his own library as a carapace: every library is a portrait of his own reader.On the basis of the ideas offered by Calasso, the author finally reflects on the applicability of Ranganathan’s Five Laws to a personal library, proposing a new reading.L’articolo espande, arricchisce e aggiorna una precedente recensione dell’autore pubblicata su Il tascabile. Nel suo volumetto Roberto Calasso non spiega come andrebbe ordinata una biblioteca, narrando invece come lui ha ordinato la sua, attraverso i racconti degli autori, dei libri, degli avvenimenti fortuiti che hanno portato un certo libro su uno specifico scaffale. Calasso racconta di come abbia fatto sua la ‘regola del buon vicino’, elaborata in precedenza da Aby Warburg per la propria biblioteca, e su come questo principio faciliti la serendipity, ovvero la scoperta di libri che non si sapeva di stare cercando. Ogni lettore costruisce la propria biblioteca come un carapace: ogni biblioteca è un ritratto del proprio lettore. Sulla base degli spunti offerti da Calasso, l’autore riflette infine sull’applicabilità delle Cinque leggi di Ranganathan a una biblioteca personale, proponendone una nuova lettura

Modelli matematici per l'ottimizzazione delle politiche di manutenzione preventiva su base statistica

“Prevenire è meglio che curare” recitava anni fa una nota pubblicità di dentifrici. Ma se l’uso del dentifricio non bastasse, varrebbe la pena visitare ogni tanto il dentista per un controllo? E con quale frequenza, tenuto conto del costo di una visita di controllo, di quello di una visita “non solo di controllo” ma in cui si richiede un intervento a fronte di un “guasto”, della propensione al rischio e delle abitudini igieniche del paziente? In passato sono stati a lungo studiati i problemi di manutenzione e sostituzione dei sistemi soggetti a deterioramento, descritti in numerosi modelli che possono essere classificati in diverse politiche. Ogni politica presenta differenti caratteristiche, vantaggi e svantaggi. In prima analisi si classificano le diverse politiche manutentive esistenti per sistemi a unità singola, per poi mostrare nel dettaglio alcuni modelli matematici di natura probabilistica di supporto alla programmazione della manutenzione nei sistemi di produzione, evidenziando le formule che permettono di confrontare i diversi modelli in termini numerici di costo atteso a lungo termine. Lo scopo della ricerca è dunque l’esposizione e l’analisi dei principali modelli matematici per l’ottimizzazione delle politiche preventive su base statistica; la metodologia impiegata include una revisione sistematica della letteratura esistente, comprensiva di articoli accademici, testi, manuali e report scientifici redatti a partire dai primi studi dei pionieri dell’approccio matematico alla manutenzione (Barlow, Hunter) per poi spingersi fino ai giorni nostri. Il materiale utilizzato deriva dalla ricerca di parole chiave su cataloghi online di articoli scientifici, portali specifici del mondo dell’ingegneria e dalla consultazione di testi universitari. La tesi vuole fornire un contributo alla letteratura esistente sulle politiche manutentive preventive offrendo un’ampia prospettiva sulla situazione attuale di studio ed applicabilità dei modelli teorici analizzati

Le biblioteche e la filiera dell’open

Negli ultimi anni, le collaborazioni fra mondo bibliotecario e mondo wikipediano sono sempre più frequenti e interessanti. L'articolo ripercorre le ragioni teoriche e deontologiche di questi progetti, all'interno della cornice concettuale dei "beni comuni digitali"

Collaboratory Digital Libraries for Humanities in the Italian context

The study investigates the approach to collaboration in Humanities, within the Italian context, to test the possibility of collaborative digital library for scholars. The research hypothesis is that collaboration can foster innovation and scienti c development: therefore, within Humanities, digital libraries can be the collaborative laboratory for research. Thus, understanding perception of scholars towards collaboration, especially online, and comprehending if wiki systems could be the framework of collaboration were the objectives of the study. A qualitative approach has been adopted, using case study as research method: in-depth, semi-structured interviews to Digital Humanities scholars provide data integrated with interviews with two key informants (one of which is prof. Umberto Eco). The results of the study show that Humanities, within Italian context, do appreciate collaboration and the concept of a collaboratory digital library, though several issues need to be solved. In fact, Humanities are still tied with individual work and collaboration is not easy to pursue, for cultural, technical and political reasons. Great e ort needs to be done at many different levels to eliminate obstacles and facilitate online collaboration for scholars. The study provides a draft model for a collaborative digital library arisen from gathered data

At scale, at large: Wikipedia & libraries

The number of partnerships between Wikipedia and libraries is constantly increasing in quantity and quality, both at the national and global level. Phoebe Ayers, long-time wikipedian and librarian at MIT, reflects upon the encounter of these different and diverse communities, on the obstacles they face and the opportunities they have yet to take.I progetti di collaborazione fra Wikipedia e il mondo delle biblioteche sono in continua crescita per quantità e qualità, sia in Italia che nel mondo. Phoebe Ayers, storica wikipediana e bibliotecaria del MIT, riflette su questo incontro fra comunità differenti, sulle difficoltà che esso comporta e sulle opportunità ancora da cogliere

Outflows and mass accretion in collapsing dense cores with misaligned rotation axis and magnetic field

Outflows and jets are intimately related to the formation of stars, and play an important role in redistributing mass, energy and angular momentum within the dense core and parent cloud. The interplay between magnetic field and rotation is responsible for launching these outflows, whose formation has been generally carried out for idealized systems where the angle $\alpha$ between the rotation axis and large-scale magnetic field is zero. Here we explore, through three-dimensional ideal magneto-hydrodynamic simulations, the effects of a non-zero $\alpha$ on the formation of outflows during the collapse of dense pre-stellar cores. We find that mass ejection is less efficient for increasing angle $\alpha$, and that outflows are essentially suppressed for $\alpha\sim90^{\circ}$. An important consequence is a corresponding increase of the mass accreted onto the adiabatic (first) core. In addition, mean flow velocities tend to increase with $\alpha$, and misaligned configurations produce clumpy, heterogeneous outflows that undergo precession, and are more prone to instabilities.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS letters, 6 pages 4 figure

Targeting the JAK/STAT Pathway: A Combined Ligand- And Target-Based Approach

Janus kinases (JAKs) are a family of proinflammatory enzymes able to mediate the immune responses and the inflammatory cascade by modulating multiple cytokine expressions as well as various growth factors. In the present study, the inhibition of the JAK-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signaling pathway is explored as a potential strategy for treating autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. A computationally driven approach aimed at identifying novel JAK inhibitors based on molecular topology, docking, and molecular dynamics simulations was carried out. For the best candidates selected, the inhibitory activity against JAK2 was evaluated in vitro. Two hit compounds with a novel chemical scaffold, 4 (IC50 = 0.81 μM) and 7 (IC50 = 0.64 μM), showed promising results when compared with the reference drug Tofacitinib (IC50 = 0.031 μM).This study was funded by the University of Valencia and Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) through postdoctoral grants no. UVINV_POSTDOC18-785681 and APOSTD/2019/055 (M.G-L.) and by the University of Bologna through research grant no. RFO2019 (P.R., S.C., and M.R.)