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The allocation of risk in the public-private partnership (PPP) between public contracts and concessions.
No full textNell’elaborato sono delineati i passaggi che hanno portato all’emersione del PPP a livello europeo in veste di strumento politico di gestione della complessità (v. TEN) e, di riflesso, nell’ordinamento nazionale (seppur con qualche perplessità).
L’intento è quello di far chiarezza sull’annosa distinzione fra appalti e concessioni (tradizionalmente considerati agli antipodi del public procurement), distinzione che si fonda sulla diversa allocazione del rischio.
Così come non esiste una definizione precisa di cosa sia il rischio, non esiste neppure una metodologia unica e risolutiva per farvi fronte: la golden rule vuole solamente che il rischio sia posto in capo alla parte che meglio sappia gestirlo in virtù della propria competenza ed esperienza, nonché della propria attitudine verso il rischio.
Il public procurement in generale ed il PPP in particolare dovrebbero perseguire le cd. “3E” (economicità, efficienza, efficacia) avendo sempre ben presente l’interesse collettivo.
In this study are highlighted the steps which have lead to the emersion of the PPPs as a political tool to manage complexity at European level and, as a result, into national law (even though some perplexities remain).
The intent is to shed light on the distinction between public contracts and concessions (traditionally considered as the antipodes of the public procurement), a distinction that is based on the different risk allocation.
Likewise there is no precise definition of what constitutes risk, there is not a unique and resolving methodology for dealing with it: the golden rule just wishes that the risk is placed in the hands of the parties who know how to handle it better by virtue of their expertise and experience, as well as of their own attitude toward the risk.
The public procurement, in general, and the PPPs, in particular, should pursue the “3Es” (economy, efficiency, effectiveness) always bearing in mind the public interest.
Since the risks depend on the performances included in the contract and on the interests, even superindividual, to be pursued, they both do enrich the content of operating risk.
To reach solutions cd. “triple win”, that is to say shared by public administration, businesses and communities, it is necessary to adopt a method of public procurement which does ensure the highest social welfare.
I rischi dipendono infatti dalle prestazioni incluse nel contratto e dagli interessi, anche superindividuali, tutelati, talché entrambi arricchiscono di contenuto il rischio operativo.
Per addivenire a soluzioni cd. “triple win”, vale a dire condivise da p.a., imprese e collettività, è necessario adottare una metodologia di approvvigionamento pubblico che garantisca il maggior benessere sociale
Low temperature theoretical and numerical study of structural glasses.
No full textLe proprietà termiche e dielettriche dei vetri alle basse temperature (1K) sono generalmente attribuite all’esistenza dei sistemi di tunneling in potenziali a doppia buca asimmetrica del landscape di energia potenziale. Attraverso un’estensione del modello teorico che descrive la fenomenologia dei vetri alle basse temperature e assumendo un nuovo tipo di sistema di tunneling, costituito da un potenziale a tre buche, abbiamo spiegato dei recenti dati sperimentali in presenza di campo magnetico. I fit ottenuti con il modello teorico per la magnetizzazione sono in accordo con i dati sperimentali.
Inoltre i calcoli effettuati con un modello esteso sino a quattro buche di potenziale hanno mostrato che il modello più semplice in grado di spiegare le anomalie dei dati sperimentali nei vetri reali è proprio quello a tre buche.
Le estensive simulazioni numeriche condotte presso il Laboratorio dell’Università di Montpellier hanno permesso di far luce sulla natura dei sistemi di tunneling. Il nuovo metodo EIS che abbiamo implementato è stato preliminarmente validato at-
traverso simulazioni di un cristallo FCC di tipo Lennard-Jones. Nel seguito la stessa procedura è stata applicata ad un modello di vetro, la miscela binaria Lennard-Jones. Le configurazioni analizzate, a bassissime temperature (ottenute con la tecnica del parallel tempering) mostrano l’esistenza di “valli” interne nel bacino dei minimi del landscape di energia potenziale. Le geometrie trovate sembrerebbero essere legate ai sistemi di tunneling, dunque tale risultato può essere considerato in linea di principio come una prima evidenza di tali sistemi nelle simulazioni numeriche
Integrità nella ricerca: il dibattito etico sulla pubblicazione dei dati.
No full textQuesto lavoro è il risultato di una ricerca, svolta seguendo il Progetto di Dottorato da me presentato, riguardo il tema della pubblicazione dei risultati delle sperimentazioni cliniche.
Essa si è svolta presso le strutture di pertinenza dell’Azienda Ospedaliera S. Antonio Abate di Gallarate, ossia l’Ospedale “S. Antonio Abate” di Gallarate, l’Ospedale “Carlo Ondoli” di Angera e l’Ospedale “Angelo Bellini” di Somma Lombardo, ed è stata ideata, elaborata e periodicamente verificata in collaborazione con il Prof. Mario Picozzi ed il Prof. Marco Cosentino dell’Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, e con le Dott. sse Giovanna Monina, Maristella Ghiringhelli e Raissa Mariani dell’Unità Operativa di Farmacia dell’Azienda Ospedaliera.
Lo studio, svolto grazie ai dati forniti dal Comitato Etico di Gallarate, vuole rappresentare uno spunto per valutare e successivamente discutere alcuni aspetti fondamentali dell’argomento scelto, quali l’authorship e l’accesso ai risultati da parte degli sperimentatori, partendo dalle interviste che sono state loro proposte, e di individuare ed analizzare altri lavori recentemente pubblicati.
L’indagine rappresenta però anche uno spunto per affrontare gli elementi di un dibattito etico molto acceso sorto intorno ad alcune pratiche di pubblicazione, fiorite negli ultimi decenni, che sono ricomprese nella misconduct, e delle quali varie iniziative, specialmente di carattere normativo, cercano di arginare la diffusione, tramite la produzione di nuove regolamentazioni, che finora hanno prodotto risultati incerti
Angular resolution improvement of slumped thin glass optics for x-ray telescopes.
No full textCurrent X-ray telescopes such as Chandra and XMM were designed and built to privilege the angular resolution or the collecting area respectively, but using two different manufacturing techniques, and these two key aspects could not be optimised at the same time. The result is that the high-redshift X-ray Universe is still too unresolved to provide us with the understanding of the time evolution of the universe as we see it nowadays. Now the ATHENA mission, approved for the L2 slot in the Cosmic Vision program, is required to have an effective area of 2 m2 at 1 keV and an angular resolution better than 5 arcsec Half-Energy Width (HEW). At this regard, in addition to the baseline solution based on Silicon Pore Optics (SPO), thin glass foils are considered a viable alternative. Slumped glass foils are also considered as substrates for X-ray optics being developed in other projects; for example, the X-ray Surveyor mission being developed at SAO/CfA in USA, and the AXYOM project being developed in Italy. They both foresee the use of piezo-electric actuators to correct the shape errors of the mirrors.
The Brera Astronomical Observatory (INAF-OAB, Merate - Italy) has been working, from 2009 till 2013, under ESA contract aimed to develop in Europe a Slumped Glass Optics (SGO) technology, alternative to the one based on silicon pores, and based on the slumping of thin glass foils, in parallel to the work being carried out at NASA/GSFC and other institutes. The INAFOAB innovation is the use of pressure in the hot slumping process to replicate the mould figure.
This technology is coupled with an integration process able to damp low frequency errors. My Ph.D. activity, carried out at the INAF-OAB, is devoted to the advancement in the hot slumping technology assisted by pressure, for the production of glass mirrors for future X-ray telescopes. As a preliminary work, I have developed a new method to precisely characterise the mid frequency errors of the glass foils. An existing model, developed by Jimenez-Garate in 2003 to account for the relaxation of ripples in the slumped glass foil when in contact with the slumping mould, was modified to include the application of pressure, and the model was compared to the experimental results. The pressure was found to be essential, also from the the theory viewpoint, to reduce mid-frequency errors in the profile of slumped glass foils, which crucially degrade the performances of the optics. As for the slumping process, I have introduced a new glass material (Corning Eagle XG) combined with the Schott Zerodur K20, already chosen at earlier times as slumping mould material for its anti-sticking properties. I have developed cleaning protocols, used different thermal cycles and different pressures conditions, and reconditioned the pressure control system. I have also optimised the mould height with experiments based on Finite Element Analysis, and reduced the thermal gradients inside the mould and the glass foils.
The final result obtained in this research are slumped glass foils with angular resolution improved from the initial 7 arcsec to 2.2±0.3 arcsec in single reflection, as expected from metrology at 1 keV X-ray energy and 0.7 incidence angle, and computed by simulating a perfect integration.
This result has to be compared with 2 arcsec defined as the error budget allocated for the slumped glass foils. About 1 arcsec is due to replication of the mid-frequency errors in the slumping mould which, owing to the improved result in the slumping, are now a limiting factor in the quality of the slumped glass foils. From the roughness point of view, the contribution to the HEW is guaranteed to be less then 1 arcsec at 1 keV, with an rms improvement from 21 to 11 Å throughout my Ph.D.
Moreover, the last tests carried out proved that the roughness of the slumped glass foils can be further reduced to _ 7 Å, making the technology attractive also for higher X-ray energies and higher incidence angles.
The glass foils slumped during this Ph.D. have been used for the production of two SGO Proof Of Concept prototypes (POC) for the ATHENA mission: the POC#3, (with 2 glass foils assembled) is characterised by HEW value of 5.5 arcsec at 0.27 keV in the best portion of the module, as tested at the PANTER facility; the POC#4 (with 8 glass foils) has expected HEW of about 15 arcsec from metrological data, but the result in X-ray was much higher because of accidental problems during the integration. The next prototype, the POC#5 (with the best eight glass foils produced during my Ph.D. activity), will soon be integrated and tested in X-rays, to assess the improvement already proven by metrology and simulations. Some of the produced slumped glass foils have also been used for studies of active profile corrections with piezoelectric elements, both for the AXYOM project and X-ray Surveyor mission.
Alternative materials and techniques have been used in this research to further improve the result. To reduce the surface micro-roughness of the slumped glass foils, I have proven that the slumping technique with pressure application can also be suited in the indirect slumping, in which the optical surface of the glass is not in contact with the mould, thus preserving its initial surface smoothness. Moreover, the dip coating technique was studied to fill the micro-pores present on the surface of the glass foils slumped with the direct technique. Alternative materials for the slumping mould were tested, defining Si3N4 as a very promising candidate, owing to its higher rigidity with respect to Zerodur K20 and therefore preferable to avoid mould deformations with the slumping, as experienced with K20. The Gorilla glass (normally used for smartphones and tablets), was proven to preserve the surface quality of the glass foils, once slumped and chemically tempered to increase the mirror endurance against the vibrations experienced at launch.
Finally, I have also studied the scattering and the reflectivity properties of multilayer coatings for X-ray optics. I have upgraded an IDL code to simulate the roughness growth in the multilayer deposition process, extending the computations from periodic to the more general case of graded multilayers. I have also contributed to the X-ray measurements at the BEAR beamline of the Elettra synchrotron in Trieste, on multilayers deposited on glass, silicon and electroformed nickel, for the polarimetric LAMP projec
Il simbolo in Pavel A. Florenskij. Genealogia di un sistema complesso.
No full textAccording to a hermeneutic way, the research plans to organize the most important philosophical, scientific and aesthetic essays written by Pavel A. Florenskij concerning the category of "symbol" in order to verify the requirements and identify the elements for an organic view about it, drawing its epistemic and regulative character. Through a deconstruction of leading theological comment, the work will deepen the philosophical and scientific foundation that build the layers of Florenskij’s thought. As Solov’ëv says: "before being translated in theological terms, thought is justified as a convergence of physical, magnetic and theurgic forces". Therefore the research follows the need to regulate a kind of a-theological (not atheistic) study that can decline the relationship between unity and variety, typical of the russian philosophy, through a dialectic that relates the genetic locations of the symbol (number transfinite, icon, word) in Florenskij with their respective fields of discontinuity (real numbers, space, language), establishing a constant figural type as a matrix for each one. The author's philosophical thought is discovered thus adhering to a generative complex system, whose interdisciplinary properties confirm its importance for contemporaneity
Immune response induced by multi-wall carbon nanotubes: in vivo and in vitro studies on the medicinal leech. Risposta immunitatia indotta da nanotubi di carbonio a parete multipla: studi in vivo e in vitro sulla sanguisuga medicinale.
No full textSince the production and use of engineered nanomaterials (NMs) is steadily increasing, the development of new reliable methods to analyze NMs effects are critical.
Here we propose the medicinal leech as alternative animal model to study multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) effects by means of in vivo (environmental dispersion and MWCNT supplemented Matrigel injection) and in vitro studies on leeches macrophages.
Our results show that water dispersed MWCNTs evoke a massive migration of CD45+/CD68+ monocyte-macrophages cells and the production of molecules involved in innate immune response, such as the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-18 and amyloid fibrils.
Ultrastructural analysis of MWCNTs-supplemented biomatrix revealed that in leech macrophages MWCNTs are internalized both actively (phagocytosis) and passively (membrane piercing).
Finally, MWCNT in vitro treatment cause the decrease of cell proliferation rate and the increase of both ROS production and apoptotic rate.
Moreover, in this study we identified and characterized in Hirudo two inflammatory markers striking similar to vertebrate’s MIF and GMFG, showing that these molecules are involved in macrophage response to MWCNTs.
Our combined experimental approaches, not only attest the ability of MWCNTs in inducing a potent inflammatory response, but also confirm the medicinal leech as a good alternative model that can be successfully used to study, both in vivo and in vitro, the possible harmful effects of any nanomaterial
Characterization of Natural Killer cells from patients affected by pleural effusions. Caratterizzazione di cellule Natural Killer in pazienti affetti da versamento pleurico.
No full textNatural killer (NK) cells are large innate lymphocytes involved in tumor recognition and eradication. NK cell activity is impaired in cancer patients and in NSCLC these cells showed a pro-angiogenic phenotype and function. We investigated whether NK cells infiltrating inflammatory or malignant pleural effusions caused by primary or metastatic tumors of different origins (iPE, ptPE and tmPE, respectively) are able to acquire pro-tumor and pro-angiogenic features.
PE-NK cells are enriched in CD56bright CD16- NK cells expressing the decidual NK marker CD49a and the activation marker CD69, in addition to a lower expression of the CD57 maturation marker. Furthermore, NK cells derived from tmPE display pro-angiogenic properties: they are predominantly VEGF+ and they are able to induce capillary-like structures in vitro on human endothelial cells.
Moreover, NK cells from all patient samples showed lower cytotoxicity against K562 tumor target cells and lower positivity for perforin in comparison to peripheral blood of healthy donors (hPB) NK cells. After 3-day of NK culture with IL-2, PE-NK cells restored their cytotoxicity, whereas in PB-NK cells from patients did not reach a high level of killing capacity. 3-day culture using IL-2 plus TGFβ or IL-2 added with enriched pleural effusion milieu, only partially restored the cytotoxic potential. Purified hPB NK cells treated for 7 days with IL-15 and pleural effusions acquired a pro-angiogenic phenotype, showing cell polarization towards the CD56bright CD16dim IFNγlow NK cell subset, suggesting that in the PE milieu, diverse soluble factors are able to skew cytotoxic NK cells into pro-tumor, pro-angiogenic NK cells
Effects of dopaminergic pathways on human neutrophil
No full textThe existence of a bidirectional communication between the immune system and the central nervous system was postulated some years ago by different researchers. More recently some evidence supports the notion that immune system can be affected by dopamine (DA).
DA is a neurotransmitter of the central nervous system that exerts its effects through the activation of the five dopaminergic receptors (DR). DA can affect some functions of the cells of the immune system and this topic was widely investigated on the cells of adaptive immunity.
Therefore, we decided to focus our attention on the different cell populations of the innate immunity and to explore the data present in literature about the evidence of the existence of a dopaminergic regulation of these cells.
The first part of the thesis is a description of dopamine and of the dopaminergic system, with reference to interactions with the immune system, in particular the innate immunity. Moreover, in the last part of this first chapter are mentioned some diseases involving the innate immunity in which the role of dopaminergic pathway was postulated and in some case demonstrated.
The second chapter is devoted to the characterization from the physiological point of view of the other major actors of the work, neutrophils (PMN). Also in this case, at the end of the chapter there is a section dedicated to the relevance of PMN in diseases in which the immune component is relevant.
The third chapter represents the main results of my PhD project, based on the investigation of the role and relevance of the dopaminergic system in human neutrophils. The aim of this PhD research program was in fact, to characterize the presence of DR and if dopaminergic agent can affect some pivotal function of neutrophil in a receptor-dependent manner.
Finally, a last chapter resumed the other projects that I have followed during the three year of my PhD course. The two attached files represent the results of some of them, that were conclude and published
Single- and multi-population kinetic models for vehicular traffic reproducing fundamental diagrams and with low computational complexity.
No full textIn this work, we focus on kinetic theory of vehicular traffic. We introduce (Boltzmann and Fokker-Planck) models having the following properties: they are amenable for computations and analytical investigations, but at the same time they are able to characterize and to explain the features of experimental diagrams.
The scattering observed in experimental data is reproduced by a multi-population model. We propose a new interpretation of the dispersion of data since it can be attributed to the heterogeneous composition of the flow. In fact, the scattering is obtained by treating traffic as a mixture of vehicles with different physical and kinematic characteristics.
The multi-population model is built as generalization of a new single-population model for which the analytical expression of the steady state can be computed explicitly. This is possible thanks to the particular choice of the microscopic interactions. These models are able to catch the macroscopic properties of the flow at equilibrium, as the phase transition, the capacity drop and the scattering of data.
The proposed models are endowed with a robust mathematical structure. We study the mathematical properties which induce the structure of diagrams, the well posedness with the existence and uniqueness proof of the solution of the kinetic equations.
A further result of this thesis is the analysis of the effects of the microscopic interactions on the macroscopic dynamics. This purely multiscale issue which is tackled by an asymptotic study of the model in the Fokker-Planck limit
