1,721,090 research outputs found
Alessandro Balducci — Italy
Full text linkdisP – The Planning Review, 51, 2015In this brief national commentary, Alessandro Balducci reflects on the state of urban planning in Italy. He contrasts the post-WWII period of optimistic rational planning with today's more complex landscape marked by public scepticism and increased environmental awareness. He discusses pressing issues such as land consumption, unregulated building in high-risk zones, and the marginal role of urban planning in infrastructure and smart city development. Balducci argues that the gap between theory and practice in Italy has remained limited due to planners’ involvement in both academia and administration. He also revisits debates on spatial inequality and planning education, calling for stronger institutional pathways and EU support for urban regeneration and local capacity building.publishedVersio
25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and bone histomorphometry in hemodialysis renal osteodystrophy
No full textBackground. The importance of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) serum levels in hemodialysis chronic renal failure has not been so far histologically evaluated. Information still lacking relate to the effect of 25-OHD deficiency on serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels and on bone and its relationship with calcitriol levels. Methods. This retrospective study has been performed on a cohort of 104 patients on hemodialysis from more than 12 months, subjected to transiliac bone biopsy for histologic, histomorphometric, and histodynamic evaluation. The patients, 61 males and 43 females, mean age 52.9 +/- 11.7 years, hemodialysis length 97.4 +/- 61.4 months, were treated with standard hemodialysis and did not receive any vitamin D supplementation. Treatment with calcitriol was not underway at the time of the biopsy. Transiliac bone biopsies were performed after double tetracycline labels. In addition, serum intact PTH (iPTH), alkaline phosphatase, and 25-OHD were measured. Calcitriol serum levels was also measured in a subset of patients (N= 53). The patients were divided according to serum 25-OHD levels in three groups: (1) 0 to 15 (15 patients), (2) 15 to 30 (38 patients), and (3) > 30 ng/mL (51 patients). Results. There was no significant difference in average age, hemodialysis age, serum PTH [490 +/- 494, 670 +/- 627, and 489 +/- 436 pg/mL, respectively (mean +/- SD)], alkaline phosphatase, and calcitriol between the three groups. The parameters double-labeled surface, trabecular mineralizing surface, and bone formation rate were significantly lower in group 1 than in the other groups (P < 0.03, < 0.03, and < 0.02, respectively). Osteoblast surface and adjusted apposition rate were borderline significantly lower in group 1 (P < 0.06 and < 0.10). There was no statistical difference in the biochemical and bone parameters between groups 2 and 3. A positive significant correlation was found between several bone static and dynamic parameters and 25-OHD levels in the range 0 to 30 ng/mL, showing a vitamin D dependence of bone turnover at these serum levels. However, actual evidence of an effect on bone of 25-OHD deficiency was found at serum levels below 20 ng/mL. With increasing 25-OHD levels beyond 40 ng/mL, a downslope of parameters of bone turnover was also observed. Conclusion. Since PTH serum levels are equally elevated in low and high 25-OHD patients, while calcitriol levels are constantly low, an effect of 25-OHD deficiency (group 1) on bone, consisting of a mineralization and bone formation defect, can be hypothesized. The effect of vitamin D deficiency or bone turnover is found below 20 ng/mL. The optimal level of 25-OHD appears to be in the order of 20 to 40 ng/mL. Levels of the D metabolite higher than 40 ng/mL are accompanied by a reduction of bone turnover
Competenza e rappresentanza
No full textRecensione al libro "Competenza e rappresentanza" di Alessandro Pizzorno, Pier Luigi Crosta, Bernardo Secchi, curato da Cristina Bianchetti e Alessandro Balducci, Donzelli Editore, 201
What future for European cities after COVID-19? An international survey
No full textCan cities as collective actors prepare, react against, and actively monitor unprecedented shifts like a worldwide pandemic? The evidence is scattered and still unclear; however, signs of collective action through a wide range of new practices in work, leisure, travel, tourism and culture activities are witnessed by the international survey conducted in 2020 in world cities in Europe, Africa, North and Latin America and Asia. Results are interesting as some common features emerge, notwithstanding the huge variety of cities involved
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Urbanistica di governo
No full textI quattro articoli che seguono restituiscono, con le parole degli stessi protagonisti, i caratteri peculiari dell’esperienza amministrativa svolta, in qualità di assessori all’urbanistica, in quattro importanti città del nostro Paese: Trieste, Milano, Bologna e Roma. Quattro docenti universitari coinvolti in prima persona nel governo dell’urbanistica. I testi restituiscono al lettore il profilo particolare di ogni singola esperienza ma sviluppano anche una trama di temi e questioni in comune emersa anche come esito di un dialogo tra gli stessi autori. Il lettore avrà la possibilità di conoscere la singola esperienza, attraverso il testo principale e le schede di dettaglio che approfondiscono questioni, progetti e azioni. Una lettura trasversale è proposta nel testo conclusivo di Cristina Bianchetti che ha voluto focalizzare i possibili o impossibili legami con la ricerca urbanistica
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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