Smart Urban Planning : Evaluating Urban Logistics Performance of Innovative Solutions and Sustainable Policies in the Venice Lagoon : the Results of a Case Study

Currently, remarkable gaps of operational, social and environmental efficiency and overall sub-optimization of the logistics and mobility systems exist in urban areas. There is then the need to promote and assess innovative transport solutions and policy-making within SUMPs (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans) to deal with such critical issues in order to improve urban sustainability. The paper focuses on the case study of the Venice Lagoon, where islands—despite representing a relevant feature of urban planning—face a tremendous lack of accessibility, depopulation, social cohesion and they turn out to be poorly connected. By developing an original scenario-building methodological framework and performing data collection activities, the purpose of the paper consists of assessing the feasibility of a mixed passenger and freight transport system —sometimes called cargo hitching. Mixed passenger and freight systems/cargo hitching are considered as an innovative framework based on the integration of freight and passenger urban systems and resources to optimize the existing transport capacity, and thus, urban sustainability. Results show that the overall existing urban transport capacity can accommodate urban freight flows on main connections in the Lagoon. The reduction in spare public transport capacity, as well as in the number (and type) of circulating freight boats show—in various scenarios—the degree of optimization of the resulting urban network configuration and the positive impacts on urban sustainability. This paves the way for the regulatory framework to adopt proposed solutions

governance and the stakeholders engagement in city logistics the sulpiter methodology and the bologna application

Abstract Many actors are involved in the urban freight delivery system. They hold different visions, perceptions, goals. However, city logistics affects a well-defined set of subjects: their acceptance of (and even positive contribution to) policy can be enhanced by continuing consultation. This evidence stresses the need for the stakeholders' engagement as a strategic factor of any decision-making process. The paper presents the guidelines of the EU-funded project SULPiTER (Interreg Central Europe Programme) for the stakeholders' involvement (both public and private) in the definition of city logistics policies. In particular, the FQP (Freight Quality Partnership) tool is analyzed and discussed. After an overview of the institutional references and the implemented experiences, a methodological approach is presented, describing the steps for an effective FQP implementation. The case of the Metropolitan city of Bologna is presented as the local application of the SULPiTER methodology, considering two aspects: the way of defining the governance for combining horizontally different public authorities, and the tool for e ngaging the private stakeholders in the definition of Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans (SULPs)

Heterogeneous effects of spinoff foundations on the means of technology transfer: the role of past academic-industry collaborations

Focusing on the Italian population of academic entrepreneurs, we analyze the effect of establishing a spinoff firm on researchers' attitudes towards carrying out other activities in collaboration with firms, namely, co-publishing and co-patenting. We investigate the heterogeneity in this effect in terms of existing collaborations with firms in the pre-spinoff period. Using a counterfactual analysis on subgroups, we verify that academic entrepreneurs with previous publications with firms diminish their co-publishing and increase their co-patenting after founding a spinoff. Conversely, academic entrepreneurs who had no previous publications with firms increase their co-publishing and decrease their co-patenting. We maintain that such results are related to academics' learning processes connected with their previous technology transfer activities. The policy implications are related to technology transfer aims and contradict the idea that promoting spinoffs is an appropriate "one-size-fits-all" initiative

Oral lichen planus in children: An Italian case series

Oral lichen planus usually occurs in adults; there are no clear data regarding the incidence and the clinical features of oral lichen planus in children. This paper reports clinical findings, treatments, and outcomes of 13 Italian patients with oral lichen planus in childhood diagnosed between 2001 and 2021. The most common finding was keratotic lesions with reticular or papular/plaque-like patterns, confined to the tongue in seven patients. Although oral lichen planus in childhood is rare and the malignant transformation index is unknown, specialists must be aware of its characteristics and oral mucosal lesions must be correctly diagnosed and managed

POLARIX: a pathfinder mission of X-ray polarimetry

Since the birth of X-ray astronomy, spectral, spatial and timing observation improved dramatically, procuring a wealth of information on the majority of the classes of the celestial sources. Polarimetry, instead, remained basically unprobed. X-ray polarimetry promises to provide additional information procuring two new observable quantities, the degree and the angle of polarization. POLARIX is a mission dedicated to X-ray polarimetry. It exploits the polarimetric response of a Gas Pixel Detector, combined with position sensitivity, that, at the focus of a telescope, results in a huge increase of sensitivity. Three Gas Pixel Detectors are coupled with three X-ray optics which are the heritage of JET-X mission. POLARIX will measure time resolved X-ray polarization with an angular resolution of about 20 arcsec in a field of view of 15 arcmin $\times$ 15 arcmin and with an energy resolution of 20 % at 6 keV. The Minimum Detectable Polarization is 12 % for a source having a flux of 1 mCrab and 10^5 s of observing time. The satellite will be placed in an equatorial orbit of 505 km of altitude by a Vega launcher.The telemetry down-link station will be Malindi. The pointing of POLARIX satellite will be gyroless and it will perform a double pointing during the earth occultation of one source, so maximizing the scientific return. POLARIX data are for 75 % open to the community while 25 % + SVP (Science Verification Phase, 1 month of operation) is dedicated to a core program activity open to the contribution of associated scientists. The planned duration of the mission is one year plus three months of commissioning and SVP, suitable to perform most of the basic science within the reach of this instrument.Comment: 42 pages, 28 figure

An X-ray burst from a magnetar enlightening the mechanism of fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond radio pulses originating from powerful enigmatic sources at extragalactic distances. Neutron stars with large magnetic fields (magnetars) have been considered as the sources powering the FRBs, but the connection requires further substantiation. Here we report the detection by the AGILE satellite on 28 April 2020 of an X-ray burst in temporal coincidence with a bright FRB-like radio burst from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154. The burst observed in the hard X-ray band (18-60 keV) lasted about 0.5 s, it is spectrally cut off above 80 keV and implies an isotropically emitted energy of about 1040 erg. This event demonstrates that a magnetar can produce X-ray bursts in coincidence with FRB-like radio bursts. It also suggests that FRBs associated with magnetars can emit X-ray bursts. We discuss SGR 1935+2154 in the context of FRBs with low-intermediate radio energies in the range 1038-1040 erg. Magnetars with magnetic fields B ≈ 1015 G may power these FRBs, and new data on the search for X-ray emission from FRBs are presented. We constrain the bursting X-ray energy of the nearby FRB 180916 to be less than 1046 erg, smaller than that observed in giant flares from Galactic magnetars

AGILE detection of extreme γ -ray activity from the blazar PKS 1510-089 during March 2009: Multifrequency analysis

We report on the extreme gamma-ray activity from the FSRQ PKS 1510-089 observed by AGILE in March 2009. In the same period a radio-to-optical monitoring of the source was provided by the GASP-WEBT and REM. Moreover, several Swift ToO observations were triggered, adding important information on the source behaviour from optical/UV to hard X-rays. We paid particular attention to the calibration of the Swift/UVOT data to make it suitable to the blazars spectra. Simultaneous observations from radio to gamma rays allowed us to study in detail the correlation among the emission variability at different frequencies and to investigate the mechanisms at work. In the period 9-30 March 2009, AGILE detected an average gamma-ray flux of (311+/-21)x10^-8 ph cm^-2 s^-1 for E>100 MeV, and a peak level of (702+/-131)x10^-8 ph cm^-2 s^-1 on daily integration. The gamma-ray activity occurred during a period of increasing activity from near-IR to UV, with a flaring episode detected on 26-27 March 2009, suggesting that a single mechanism is responsible for the flux enhancement observed from near-IR to UV. By contrast, Swift/XRT observations seem to show no clear correlation of the X-ray fluxes with the optical and gamma-ray ones. However, the X-ray observations show a harder photon index (1.3-1.6) with respect to most FSRQs and a hint of harder-when-brighter behaviour, indicating the possible presence of a second emission component at soft X-ray energies. Moreover, the broad band spectrum from radio-to-UV confirmed the evidence of thermal features in the optical/UV spectrum of PKS 1510-089 also during high gamma-ray state. On the other hand, during 25-26 March 2009 a flat spectrum in the optical/UV energy band was observed, suggesting an important contribution of the synchrotron emission in this part of the spectrum during the brightest gamma-ray flare, therefore a significant shift of the synchrotron peak