Grounding Urban Governance on Housing Affordability: A Conceptual Framework for Policy Analysis. Insights from Vienna

Growing and attractive cities, such as Vienna, globally face housing crises. Urban land rent (inflated by the huge housing demand in attractive areas and the consequent housing shortage) is transferred to housing prices and results in increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible cities. Housing affordability is a critical factor for enjoying the use value of housing and the broader set of values associated with cities. To assure urban agglomerations' inclusiveness and spatial justice, urban governance should be "grounded" on affordability by redistributing land rent and keeping housing prices hooked on income levels. However, the relation between urban land rent and housing affordability is rarely connected in Housing studies. Furthermore, it is often neglected by urban governors, generally competing to increase housing prices and attract investments. This article contributes to fill this policy/research gap and offers new conceptual avenues for the analysis of urban housing affordability governance. A theoretical basis and a coherent analytical framework for policy analysis are empirically applied in a case study of the city of Vienna, focusing on affordable rental housing. Based on peculiarities—of history, political stability, and a solid welfare system—the Viennese case offers relevant insights for disentangling the complex network of policies and institutions that ground urban growth on affordability

Is there a role for cooperative actors in the management of public housing? Hybrid partnerships as trojan horses for profit extraction or vehicle of housing commons: reflections on a pioneering project in Milan

After its expansionist phase in the XX Century, in most countries public housing has incurred in a state of long-term crisis that still lasts until today. With long-lasting disinvestment in the Italian public housing, many dwellings and buildings are vacant or in decay. Public housing companies yet rely heavily on dismissal and sales to cover high overheads and low rents. In this context, there has been sporadic experimentation of partnerships between public authorities and cooperative actors in enacting hybrid forms of management as an alternative to the sale of public assets. The article uses the case study of the Quattro Corti project in Milan and experts’ panels in four Italian cities to explore potential innovation pathways for public housing in different contexts and to identify opportunities and challenges of the involvement of cooperatives through partnerships for hybrid management. A main question is whether such partnerships may be trojan horses for profit-actors or vehicles of housing commons. The article contributes to the emerging literature on the role of cooperative actors in public and social housing policies

Real-Life Analysis with Erenumab: First Target Therapy in the Episodic and Chronic Migraine’s Prophylaxis

open7noBackground: to research retrospectively the efficacy of Erenumab’s treatment, thus allowing to describe a summary more in line with the reality observed every day in clinical practice, relative to a sample of patients widely heterogeneous. The study aims to confirm the efficacy of Erenumab, in terms of reduction of migraine days per month, from baseline to month 12 of treatment. Additional objectives included a reduction in the number of days of symptomatic drug use and change from baseline in the Migraine Disability Assessment Score Questionnaire (MIDAS); Methods: the analysis included all patients treated for 12 months with Erenumab during the year 2019–2020. The population analyzed consists of twenty-six patients from the Neurology outpatient clinic in Fossombrone. Several quantitative and qualitative variables were recorded by reading the medical records of the patients. The MIDAS was administered to patients to assess the disability related to migraine; Results: at the end of treatment, a statistically significant reduction in the mean number of monthly migraine days, acute medication use per month, and MIDAS questionnaire score was observed; Conclusions: as a preventive treatment of episodic and chronic migraine, our analysis data confirm the efficacy of Erenumab for the prevention of the migraine. The success is achieved in 96% of casesopenMaraia, Zaira; Ricci, Diletta; Rocchi, Marco Bruno Luigi; Moretti, Alessandro; Bufarini, Celestino; Cavaliere, Arturo; Peverini, ManolaMaraia, Zaira; Ricci, Diletta; Rocchi, Marco Bruno Luigi; Moretti, Alessandro; Bufarini, Celestino; Cavaliere, Arturo; Peverini, Manol

Large Horizontal Near-field Scanner based on a Non-tethered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

A horizontal planar scanner with an approximate size of 40 m x 40 m has been implemented using the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology. The UAV is not wired to the ground to maintain the flexibility and short setup time of a non-tethered flight. In this configuration, the UAV-mounted continuous-wave source is not phase-locked to the on-the-ground receiver. A dual-polarized reference antenna placed on the ground is hence used to retrieve the relevant phase information. The presented approach has been applied on the Pre - Aperture Array Verification System (Pre -AAVS1) of the Square Kilometre Array, which is a digital beamformed array with 16 active elements. An inverse source technique has been applied on measured Near-Field (NF) data acquired on two different sets of points (one for each electric field component) from all the receiver channels. In this way, Embedded Element Patterns (EEPs), array calibration coefficients and pattern have been determined from NF data only. The achieved results have been validated using a complementary set of Far-Field (FF) measurements and simulations

Effect of the UAV orientation in antenna pattern measurements

A novel radiation pattern measurement system for VHF and UHF antennas has been recently developed using the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology. This paper discusses the effect of the UAV orientation and the applicable corrections on the pattern extraction procedure, in order to increase the accuracy and repeatability of the measurements

The STRIP instrument of the Large Scale Polarization Explorer: microwave eyes to map the Galactic polarized foregrounds

In this paper we discuss the latest developments of the STRIP instrument of the "Large Scale Polarization Explorer" (LSPE) experiment. LSPE is a novel project that combines ground-based (STRIP) and balloon-borne (SWIPE) polarization measurements of the microwave sky on large angular scales to attempt a detection of the "B-modes" of the Cosmic Microwave Background polarization. STRIP will observe approximately 25% of the Northern sky from the "Observatorio del Teide" in Tenerife, using an array of forty-nine coherent polarimeters at 43 GHz, coupled to a 1.5 m fully rotating crossed-Dragone telescope. A second frequency channel with six-elements at 95 GHz will be exploited as an atmospheric monitor. At present, most of the hardware of the STRIP instrument has been developed and tested at sub-system level. System-level characterization, starting in July 2018, will lead STRIP to be shipped and installed at the observation site within the end of the year. The on-site verification and calibration of the whole instrument will prepare STRIP for a 2-years campaign for the observation of the CMB polarization.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference "Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IX", on June 15th, 2018, Austin (TX

The Large-Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE)

The LSPE is a balloon-borne mission aimed at measuring the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at large angular scales, and in particular to constrain the curl component of CMB polarization (B-modes) produced by tensor perturbations generated during cosmic inflation, in the very early universe. Its primary target is to improve the limit on the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbations amplitudes down to r = 0.03, at 99.7% confidence. A second target is to produce wide maps of foreground polarization generated in our Galaxy by synchrotron emission and interstellar dust emission. These will be important to map Galactic magnetic fields and to study the properties of ionized gas and of diffuse interstellar dust in our Galaxy. The mission is optimized for large angular scales, with coarse angular resolution (around 1.5 degrees FWHM), and wide sky coverage (25% of the sky). The payload will fly in a circumpolar long duration balloon mission during the polar night. Using the Earth as a giant solar shield, the instrument will spin in azimuth, observing a large fraction of the northern sky. The payload will host two instruments. An array of coherent polarimeters using cryogenic HEMT amplifiers will survey the sky at 43 and 90 GHz. An array of bolometric polarimeters, using large throughput multi-mode bolometers and rotating Half Wave Plates (HWP), will survey the same sky region in three bands at 95, 145 and 245 GHz. The wide frequency coverage will allow optimal control of the polarized foregrounds, with comparable angular resolution at all frequencies.Comment: In press. Copyright 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibite

The UAV-based test source as an end-to-end verification tool for aperture arrays

A UAV-mounted radio-frequency transmitter is proposed as a known reference field source to perform a set of functional tests on aperture arrays. The experimental results obtained on complete prototypes (end-to-end) and sub-assemblies provide good confidence on both amplitude and timing verification

A Hydrogenated amorphous silicon detector for Space Weather Applications

The characteristics of a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) detector are presented here for monitoring in space solar flares and the evolution of large energetic proton events up to hundreds of MeV. The a-Si:H presents an excellent radiation hardness and finds application in harsh radiation environments for medical purposes, for particle beam characterization and in space weather science and applications. The critical flux detection threshold for solar X rays, soft gamma rays, electrons and protons is discussed in detail.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Experimental Astronom

Grounding urban governance on housing affordability: a conceptual framework for policy analysis. Insights from Vienna

Growing and attractive cities, such as Vienna, globally face housing crises. Urban land rent (inflated by the huge housing demand in attractive areas and the consequent housing shortage) is transferred to housing prices and results in increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible cities. Housing affordability is a critical factor for enjoying the use value of housing and the broader set of values associated with cities. To assure urban agglomerations' inclusiveness and spatial justice, urban governance should be "grounded" on affordability by redistributing land rent and keeping housing prices hooked on income levels. However, the relation between urban land rent and housing affordability is rarely connected in Housing studies. Furthermore, it is often neglected by urban governors, generally competing to increase housing prices and attract investments. This article contributes to fill this policy/research gap and offers new conceptual avenues for the analysis of urban housing affordability governance. A theoretical basis and a coherent analytical framework for policy analysis are empirically applied in a case study of the city of Vienna, focusing on affordable rental housing. Based on peculiarities-of history, political stability, and a solid welfare system-the Viennese case offers relevant insights for disentangling the complex network of policies and institutions that ground urban growth on affordability