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Sul problema dell'astratto. La Meditatio Mortis nella filosofia di G. Gentile
No full textThis research is focused on the analysis and commentary of the main textual places where Giovanni Gentile dealt with the concept of death and his twin: the concept of immortality. The dissertation is based on mainly four Gentile's works, corresponding to the four chapters: General Theory of the Spirit as Pure Act – Teoria generale dello spirito come atto puro (1916) –; System of Logic as Theory of Knowing – Sistema di logica come teoria del conoscere (1917-22) –; The Philosophy of Art – La filosofia dell’arte (1931) –; Genesis and Structure of Society – Genesi e struttura della società (1946).
The philosopher's study of meditatio mortis is one of the most prominent and paradigmatic point in which it is possible to illuminate both the fundamental terms, disconnected from its further consideration, both the radical questions of the actualism.
As regards the conceptual elements of Gentile argument, they may be schematically listed as follows: the "concrete" (ie the thinking act which constitutes the transcendental horizon of reality); the "abstract concretely conceived" (determination meant by the concrete); the "abstract abstractly conceived"(the nothingness beyond the eternal circle of the concrete). Precisely the relationship between these terms and the attempt to understand their primary ontological status leads to the deepest aporia in actualism: if the concrete is defined from the outset as "eternal", and if the abstract abstractly conceived, being nothing, is designed as what is "always dead", the question becomes more complex as regards the existence of the abstract concretely conceived, namely the thought of that object which, while realizing the life of the concrete (eternal), it seems to swing between existence and non-existence.
Through the analysis of some of the most complex and intricate speculative places spring from the philosopher's "meditatio mortis", this study is committed to register the many conceptual oscillations contained in the reflection of Gentile and to show the most implicit and obscure aspects of actualism
Granite By-Products for inverted pavement technique
Full text linkAs mentioned by Sardinia Region: ''Sustainable Development is what satisfies present's needs
without shattering those of future generations, thanks to smart use of environmental resources
and without waists''. This research aims to use a current resource available in high quantities
in Sardinia to optimize the uses of the extracted materials and not to take just advantage of the
Region. The mining activity in Sardinia, which is very important since ‘60s, during these
years, has produced huge amounts of granite by-products. The ornamental use of granite is an
important money source for Sardinia. Unfortunately, as the virgin material extracted must
have high aesthetic qualities, many rock blocks are rejected. This research has the aim of
making the most of the material stored in a quarry sites and of optimizing the uses of resource
stone examined.
The target is the use of granite by-products as material with high mechanical featured to be
used for road pavements, from the foundation to surface. This research gives you the
opportunity to make the most of regional resources, to minimize the thickness of asphalt,
reducing the maintenance and realization costs. This is a good start for the Island to make
money of something easy to export.
Granite by-products will be used for the construction of innovative road pavement design.
The Inverted Pavement Technique, studied and developed in South Africa since 1950, is
going to be used for road infrastructure. In particular, I have focused the attention on the
behavior of granular base layer. Thanks to this technique is actually possible to take
advantage of mechanical features of base layer, creating base layers that assure high and long
lasting performances with almost zero environmental costs. The Project is finalized to a
sustainable design by using resources, considered as waste so far, present in the Sardinian
Land and the minimal use of exhaustible and expensive row materials as asphalt layers.
The increasing costs of petrol products and their limited availability leaded to find alternative
solutions to flexible infrastructure everywhere in the world.
Another target was to make sure that European and South African Regulation matched
regarding granular aggregates. Through laboratory testing physical, chemical, and mechanical
features of granite by-products were analyzed comparing to Dolerite, used in South Africa in
the Inverted Pavement Technique
L'iconografia apocalittica nei Beatos IX-XIII secolo
Full text linkThe Beatus manuscripts are copies of Commentary on the Apocalypse, a book which was written in the eighth century by Beatus of Liébana.
These codes are famous because they have many illuminations of Apocalypse and book of Daniel that accompany the text.
This thesis aims to understand if these written sources may have been the transmission medium of iconographic models between the different cultures that lived in the Iberian Peninsula after 711.
In order to achieve this goal it was created a catalogue with all the manuscripts preserved until today.
On the one hand, the catalogue makes available a part dedicated to a codicological description. On the other hand, it provides a comprehensive iconographic analysis.
The catalogue shows that in these codes are used recurring iconographic elements.
Especially, the illuminations reproduce the real architecture; thus, the reader can find references to what he/she knows.
In addition to architecture, these references concern the use of Kufic script as decoration in the same style of Muslim. Moreover, the illuminations depict the people sitting in the Muslim manner. This sheds light on how actually there was a mutual exchange between the cultures that lived in the Iberian Peninsula.
Therefore, these written sources should have really been the transmission medium of iconographic models
Il programma ENPI dell’Unione Europea e le azioni di sostegno alla sponda Sud del Mediterraneo. Il caso dell’Egitto
Full text linkThe Mediterranean region has always been a strategic area for Europe. Over the years the European Union has found itself having to respond to growing demands from the Mediterranean region that could seriously jeopardize even its own safety. In a highly sensitive context, subject to sudden changes caused by political and economic factors, as the Mediterranean is, European Union has had to repeatedly rethink its neighborhood policy to adapt it to the needs and strategic priorities in the meantime definitely changed, and to strengthen the socio - economic integration with the euro - Mediterranean territories. Through the Euro - Mediterranean cooperation, stable and lasting relations have been built in areas of common interest for both shores of the Mediterranean Basin, thanks to a mechanism that gives the Mediterranean countries, unlike in the past, the capacity to self - determine their own choices of regional development. The aim of this work is to analyze how Euro - Mediterranean relations evolved thanks to multilateral and multi-sector cross-border cooperation instruments (specifically the ENPI CBC MED 2007-2013 are deepened through interviews with stakeholders) which allowed a structuring of long-term relationships. The first part of the thesis is a historical introduction to political events leading to the construction of deeper Euro - Mediterranean relations and in particular the historical and political ties between Egypt and Europe. In the second part the Euro - Mediterranean relations are analyzed under the financial cooperation point of view, with particular attention on institutional tools put in place over the years, focusing on their role in the socio-economic development of Egypt since 1996 to 2013. The third part of the thesis is a focus on ENPI CBC MED 2007-2013 Program and the projects involving Egypt, with the interviews carried during the doctoral period highlighting the views of the Egyptian partner’s actors. Finally, the thesis deals with some perspectives and recommendations for the future of the Euro - Mediterranean cooperation, based on the collected interviews
Dataflow based design suite for the development and management of multi-functional reconfigurable systems
Full text linkEmbedded systems development constitutes an extremely challenging scenario for the designers since several constraints have to be meet at the same time. Flexibil- ity, performance and power efficiency are typically colliding requirements that are hardly addressed together. Reconfigurable systems provide a valuable alternative to common architectures to challenge contemporarily all those issues. Such a kind of systems, and in particular the coarse grained ones, exhibit a certain level of flexi- bility while guaranteeing strong performance. However they suffer of an increased design and management complexity. In this thesis it is discussed a fully automated methodology for the development of coarse grained reconfigurable platforms, by exploiting dataflow models for the de- scription of the desired functionalities. The thesis describes, actually, a whole design suite that offers, besides the reconfigurable substrate composition, also structural optimisation, dynamic power management and co-processing support. All the pro- vided features have been validated on different signal, image and video processing scenarios, targeting either FPGA and ASIC
Relazione tra contribuzione pubblica e performance economico-sociali nel settore turistico-ricettivo
No full textPurpose: This study investigates how government grants influence the economic and
social performance of companies benefiting from them. Literature in this topic indicates
various results: according to some studies subsidies seem to improve company
performance and profitability, while, according to others, they have a negative impact
on long term productivity and growth. Government grants impact have been not extensively
investigated in the tourism sector, especially regarding the economic and social
performance of the hotels. This study aims to fill this research gap by analyzing tourism
grants’ impact on different small and medium enterprises - SMEs located in the
metropolitan area of Cagliari (Sardinia) and furthermore to provide an evaluation of
grants policies’ outcome.
Design/methodology/approach: The research questions are:
Q1: Do tourism government grants improve the economic and social SMEs performance
in the hospitality industry?
Q2: Have tourism government grants proved to be effective and appropriate to the
hospitality sector?
The research shows an exploratory multiple case study conducted on five subsidized
hotels, selected with a purposeful sampling process, which started from the three Sardinian
major tourism public subsidies of the past decade. Economic grants impact has
been measured by typical revenue management operating indicators in the hotel indus7
try such as occupancy rate, average revenue per room and revenue per available room,
while subsidies’ social impact has been evaluated with social indicators such as the
human employment company level. The analysis compares the 3-year period which
precedes and follows the grants. The use of a mixed methods research, both qualitative
and quantitative, with tools such as questionnaires and interviews, also allowed a deep
comprehension of subsidies’ main characteristics and shortcomings.
Findings: The study shows that positive economic performance seems not to depend
exclusively on additional investment programs stimulated by subsidies. Nevertheless it
is shown that, contrary to the conventional intertemporal substitution argument, taking
advantage of grants provisions by anticipating investments, may not always have a
negative impact on company performance. The study reveals that the more investment
programs are sustainable and well-structured, the greater are the chances of the grants
having a positive long term impact on companies’ economic and social performance.
Grants’ negative impact on both economic and social performance seems to be linked
to the lack of government supervision on the subsidized investment programs.
Research limitation/implication: The study, which is only exploratory at this point,
needs to be extended to more significant samples in the hospitality industry. The study
shows that more of grants quality and more attention to the sector’s real needs evaluation
should be employed in order to provide more research evidence to detail both the
exact impact of subsidies on corporate performance and the quality of public resources
use.
Practical implication: The research shows that financial assistance to tourism SMEs
seems in part to be incoherent with the real regional needs. Subsidies have an impact
on companies’ economic and social performance and thus their provision should be the
result of careful design from the point of view of both the sector’s actors and the policy
authorities.
Originality/value: In this study a set of economic and social indicators of firm performance
are employed and linked to qualitative information to better comprehend the
perceived benefits and problems of regional tourism subsidies. The study provides the
first empirical evidence of the impact of subsidies on hospitality businesses
The healthcare goods logistics innovation evaluation: theoretical foundations and practical applications
No full textThe research presented in this thesis is focused on innovation in
the health goods logistics process managed by hospital companies, with
particular reference to the systems for the evaluation of its performance.
It can be seen as an initial observation of the current knowledge in the
context of healthcare goods logistics innovation within hospital
companies (chapter 1); an initial deduction, from the literature, and
explanation of a model for the healthcare goods logistics innovation
performance measurement (chapter 2); an initial testing of the validity of
this model and comparison with other systems of evaluation that
emerge from the analysis of a case study (chapter 3). The thesis has the
objective to offer a managerial support for the innovation performance
evaluation of the healthcare goods logistics process managed by
hospital companies.
In particular, the purpose of the first article is to present a theoretical
framework of the healthcare goods logistics process and its innovation
within hospitals, that is, the process which includes all the activities
from receiving healthcare goods until their delivery to patients. In
contrast to other contexts, in healthcare the strategic importance of this
process has only recently been recognised: it is essential for service
differentiation and quality improvements, playing a central role in
supporting the efficient operational functioning of hospitals. Although
this is an important issue both theoretically and in practice, there has so
far and to the best of our knowledge been no attempt to systematically
review the literature examining hospital logistics process and its
innovation. Therefore, in order to address this deficit, a Systematic
Review of selected peer-reviewed articles is presented, providing a
more complete understanding of the theme and focusing on concepts and definitions, process organisation, models, types of innovations and
their conditions.
The second paper aims to define a measurement system for the
evaluation of innovations in the logistics process within hospitals.
Driven by the need to contain costs and improve the quality of services
provided to patients, hospitals are dealing with the complexities of
business process reengineering of their critical processes, among which
are the logistics of health goods. However, against the growing
diffusion of these initiatives, there are still very limited attempts to
propose and apply models to assess the performance of these
innovations. The work differs from previous examinations of logistics
performance measurement in that it uses a broader scope, following a
Systematic Review of the literature, and its suggestion that a logistics
innovation evaluation system must consider different performance
dimensions, including costs, benefits, quality and safety. From a
practical point of view, the work provides an important tool for the
management of hospitals involved in logistics innovation evaluation,
which are currently supported with inadequate systems of analysis.
The objective of the third study is to identify any problems and
inefficiencies in the logistics innovation evaluation system adopted by a
hospital company and to define possible paths for improvement. The
study is undertaken through combining a review of the literature and
an empirical exploratory investigation, the latter conducted through
qualitative methodology based on a case study. The focus of the case
study is the Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Cagliari, a hospital
affected by the experimentation of new organisational and
technological solutions for the management of the healthcare goods
logistics process. The results of the analysis document how the
performance of the new method of management of healthcare goods
logistics can be defined in terms of benefits to the economic, organisational, quality and process safety aspects. From the research
conducted, and on the basis of a comparison with more complex
approaches and measurement systems, it is clear that a logistics
performance evaluation system which is based on only a limited set of
indicators has evident criticalities. This study provides suggestions and
guidelines for the design of a more articulated and complex tool to
monitor the performance of the healthcare goods logistics process in
order to improve the approach and the evaluation system currently
adopted by the hospital management. It also contributes to the
literature on hospital management through adopting a current research
perspective
Influence of different neuroprotective drugs on dopamine neurotoxicity induced by 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and MPTP in mice
Full text linkIntroduction: Parkinson‟s disease (PD) is characterized by a chronic progressive loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons that is associated with chronic neuroinflammation. Current treatments for PD can significantly improve symptoms but do not cure the disease or slow its progression. An approach used in existing therapies is based on the inhibition of monoamine oxidase (MAO), enzyme involved in the metabolic degradation of dopamine. Although, preclinical studies showed that MAO-B inhibitors have neuroprotective activity in cellular and animal models of PD, clinical trials did not completely confirm this result. Therefore a large number of new molecules, with more potent MAO-B inhibitory activity and a possible neuroprotective effect, have been proposed to replace the pre-existing MAO-B inhibitors. The profile of the recent MAO inhibitor, SZV558, appears to be particularly interesting because of its pharmacodynamic, favorable for disease-modifying properties and its irreversible MAO-B enzyme bind. The enhancement of adult neurogenesis could be of great clinical interest in the management of neurodegenerative disorders. In line with this, the metformin, a well-known antidiabetic drug, has recently been proposed to promote neurogenesis and to have a neuroprotective effect on the neurodegenerative processes induced by the dopaminergic neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) in a mice PD model. Although, PD has multiple origins, one hypothesis is that amphetamine-related drugs may be part of the wide array of factors leading to the dopaminergic neuron degeneration that causes the disease. These hypothesis are supported by different results that showed a persistent, long-term dopaminergic toxicity induced by 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in mice. Moreover, the MDMA, altering the dopaminergic transmission, may affect neurogenesis and synaptogenesis. On these basis, considering that the young brain is particularly sensitive to drug-induced neurotoxicity, the consumption of MDMA during the adolescence might increase the vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons. However, the use of amphetamine-related drugs by adolescent and young people is often combined with caffeinated energy drinks in order to amplify their stimulant actions. Although caffeine use is safe, the combined treatment of caffeine and MDMA increases not only the DA release but also the microglia and astroglia activation. Aims: During my Ph.D. I studied the influence of neuroprotective drugs, such as MAO inhibitors and metformin, or substances, such as caffeine, on the neurodegenerative effects of two dopaminergic toxins, MDMA and MPTP, in mice. 1. In the first phase of my study, I evaluated the neuroprotective activity of the new MAO-B inhibitor SZV558, compared with well-known rasagiline, in a chronic mouse model of MPTP
plus probenecid (MPTPp), which induces a progressive loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. 2. Previous results showed that when MDMA is associated with caffeine, a more pronounced degeneration in adolescent compared with adult mice was observed. To better clarify the molecular mechanism at the base of the different neurotoxic effect of this drug association at different ages, I evaluated the neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) expression, which plays a critical role in the integration of dopaminergic and glutamatergic transmissions, in the CPu of adolescent or adult mice treated with MDMA, alone or in combination with caffeine.
3. Finally, I investigated the neuroprotective effect of metformin against dopaminergic neurotoxicity induced by MDMA in the CPu and SNc of adult mice.
Conclusions: These results demonstrated that the dopaminergic neurodegenerative process may be induced or conditioned by environment stressors or substances which influence, through different ways, the development of neurodegenerative mechanisms. In the present study I evaluated the effects of 3 substances, known as potentially neuroprotective, in combination with two different neurotoxins that affect the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. The SZV558 MAO-B inhibitor and the metformin protected the nigrostriatal pathway, usually affected in PD, by MPTP- and MDMA- induced neurotoxicity, respectively. On the other hand, caffeine, administrated with MDMA, showed a neurotoxic potential depending on the age of consumers, confirming the vulnerability of adolescent brain to consumption of drug and substances that affected the dopaminergic system. In conclusion, the study of neurodegenerative processes may be relevant to understand the human pharmacology, the origin and development of neurodegenerative disease and to predict the neurotoxic effect of drug abuse
Modificazioni neuronali nella via abenulo-mesencefalica durante l’astinenza da Δ9-tetraidrocannabinolo
Full text linkThe mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, which originates in the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA), shows a reduction in its spontaneous activity after chronic cannabinoid exposure and withdrawal, the critical phases of the drug addiction cycle. These adaptive changes, which result from imbalances between excitatory and inhibitory afferents onto DA cells, are thought to play a critical role into withdrawal-induced negative affective states that eventually lead to relapse into drug taking. The lateral habenula (LHb) exerts a negative control over the VTA via a γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) structure, the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg), encoding aversion-related stimuli. In fact, both RMTg and LHb neurons are excited by aversive/unpleasant events and inhibited by rewarding/positive stimuli. Moreover, RMTg GABA neurons express CB1 receptors on their axon terminals impinging upon VTA DA neurons and are a target for cannabinoid action on DA cells. Indeed, acute administration of these drugs reduces RMTg neuron discharge activity and strongly suppresses the inhibition exerted by RMTg afferents, thus contributing to cannabinoid-induced DA neuronal excitation. Therefore, these nuclei represent a potential convergence point for drug-evoked reward and aversive opponent processes.
On these bases, in this thesis we tested the possibility that LHb-RMTg pathway is causally involved in the hypodopaminergic state, which is one hallmark of cannabinoid withdrawal.
To this aim, we used single unit extracellular recordings from either VTA, RMTg and LHb neurons in anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats.
In order to induce Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) dependence, rats were chronically treated with Δ9-THC (15 mg/kg, i.p.), or its vehicle, twice daily for 6.5 days. Administration of the cannabinoid antagonist SR141716A (5 mg/kg, i.p.) precipitated an intense behavioral withdrawal syndrome, whereas abrupt Δ9-THC suspension caused only milder signs of abstinence. Electrophysiological experiments confirmed that Δ9-THC withdrawal produced a marked decrease in the firing rate and burst firing of VTA DA neurons. We then investigated the inhibitory contribution from RMTg afferents to VTA DA neurons. As expected, RMTg electrical stimulation elicited a complete suppression of spontaneous activity in approximately half of the DA neurons examined. Notably, we found that the duration of RMTg-evoked inhibition was prolonged in Δ9-THC withdrawn rats when compared with controls, suggesting an augmented GABA inhibitory input onto DA cells.
By contrast, the spontaneous activity of RMTg GABA neurons was reduced in cannabinoid-withdrawn rats. Consistent with results, we also found that firing rate of RMTg-projecting LHb neurons was markedly suppressed after cannabinoid withdrawal.
While further highlighting the role of the RMTg as a new master brake for DA neurons, our data support the hypothesis that enhanced GABA inputs from this nucleus might contribute to the hypodopaminergia induced by cannabinoid withdrawal. They also confirm that the LHb-RMTg pathway takes part in the neuronal circuits underlying drug dependence and addiction
Libano sud: l’evoluzione della frontiera e lo strano caso delle fattorie di Shebaa
Full text linkThis study constitutes a first step of an investigation undertaken to provide a historical account of
the Lebanese Southern border area. The aim of the research is twofold: firstly it seeks to point out
the major factors determining the long-term economic and demographic changes that affected the
region throughout the last century; secondly it examines the unsolved Shebaa Farms border dispute,
which flared up between Israel and Lebanon in May 2000. In spite of the prevailing opinion that the
disagreement is but a specious pretext used by the Shii militia lead by Hezbollah to legitimate its
armed struggle, the analysis brings to the fore the historical, political and strategic implications of
the issue, providing evidence that the contested area is juridically and administratively part of the
Lebanese territory