3,337 research outputs found
Ethical Dilemmas in Urban Studies
No full textThis chapter discusses research into urban studies, and specifically how we might best frame the ethical issues which arise in, and through, such research. One of its central contentions is that ethical sensitivity is developed by researchers as part of a social practice, i.e. through communal activity of a particular kind. Therefore, important as it is to ensure that researchers are aware of their personal ethical responsibilities, understanding what the moral point of view requires—i.e. being sensitive to ethical issues, especially in new circumstances—is something which researchers acquire through involvement in appropriately conducted social practices. The chapter’s suggestion is that the notion of a social practice, as used by MacIntyre and others, is helpful in framing our thinking about research ethics in planning, because it places the individual’s acquisition and development of a moral perception, and judgements, within a social context. The chapter also explores whether the notion of a social practice can be usefully employed to distinguish between the ethical issues which arise in scholarly research in urban studies as opposed to those which arise in policy-related research in that field
Città informali, città dell'esclusione: responsabilità disciplinari nella ricerca e nella pratica
No full textIl contributo affronta il tema della città informale cercando di comprendere in che modo sia possibile affrontare le nuove sfide poste dalla città dei PVS e, più in generale dalla città contemporanea, che manifesta un sempre più accentuato divario fra gli have e gli have nots
Chlorophyll fluorescence, photoinhibition and abiotic stress: does it make any difference the fact to be a C3 or C4 species?
No full textChlorophyll fluorescence analysis is one of the most powerful and widely used techniques to study the effect of stresses on the photosynthetic process. From the first utilization, the Fv/Fm ratio has been largely used as a sensitive indicator of plant photosynthetic performance. Decreases of this index are indicative of the reduction of photosystem II (PSII) efficiency, namely photoinhibition. In the last 20 years, application of chlorophyll fluorescence has been largely improved, and many other informative parameters have been established to detect PSII photochemical efficiency and the partitioning of light energy to alternative dissipative mechanisms (qE, energy-dependent quenching; qZ, zeaxanthin-dependent quenching and qI, photoinhibitory quenching; qH, sustained photoprotective antenna quenching; qM, quenching dependent to chloroplast movement; qT, light harvesting complexes II–I state-transition) such as the recently developed “photoprotective power” of non-photochemical quenching (pNPQ). This review reports a brief description of the main chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and a wide analysis of the current bibliography on the use of different parameters which are useful to detect events of PSII photoinhibition. In addition, in view of the inherent differences in morpho-anatomical, physiological and biochemical features between C3 and C4 metabolism, possible differences in terms of photoinhibition between C3 and C4 plant species under stress conditions are proposed. The attempt is to highlight the limits of their comparison in terms of susceptibility to photoinhibition and to propose direction of future research which, assisted by chlorophyll fluorescence, should improve the knowledge of the different sensitivity of C3 and C4 to abiotic stressors
Emerging roles of hnRNP's in postranscriptional regulation: what can we learn from flies ?
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To make the dominoes fall: A relational-processual approach to societal accountability in the Italian and Spanish anti-corruption arenas
No full textIn che modo le organizzazioni della società civile (OSC) contribuiscono alla lotta contro la corruzione? Come possono responsabilizzare i rappresentanti politici? La presente tesi si propone di rispondere a queste a queste domande di ricerca, unendo gli studi sulla lotta alla corruzione a quelli sui movimenti sociali e concentrandosi sul concetto di societal accountability, cioè sui meccanismi di controllo e di sanzione dei rappresentanti pubblici. Negli ultimi anni, gli studiosi della corruzione hanno enfatizzato sempre più il ruolo della società civile come antidoto contro la corruzione, a complemento dei meccanismi di accountability statali ed elettorali. Tuttavia, gli studi empirici sugli effetti anticorruzione degli interventi civici non hanno ancora prodotto risultati coerenti. Questo non dovrebbe sorprendere. Se misurare la corruzione è un compito arduo, valutare se e quanto gli scambi corruttivi vengano impediti grazie alle iniziative della società civile sembra virtualmente impossibile. Per questo motivo, il presente lavoro fa un passo indietro e problematizza lo studio della societal accountability, affrontandola non come un insieme predefinito di meccanismi o pratiche messe in atto da attori civici anticorruzione, ma come il risultato di interazioni sostenute e conflittuali tra più attori, civici e non. Per fare ciò, lo studio si ispira alle teorie dei movimenti sociali e concettualizza la societal accountability come un insieme di conseguenze dell’azione collettiva. Pertanto, questo lavoro mira a capire come e in quali condizioni le iniziative anticorruzione dal basso raggiungano risultati di accountability, quali il passaggio di nuove norme, il miglioramento dell’answerability istituzionale e potenziale sanzionatorio. Con questo obiettivo, la tesi si basa sulle evidenze esistenti negli studi sulla corruzione e sull'accountability e contribuisce ai dibattiti in corso sulle conseguenze dell'azione collettiva. Il quadro teorico si concentra sul concetto di influenza, aderendo a un approccio processuale-relazionale. L'influenza è intesa come un'istanza di causalità relazionale, una forma di potere posizionale che consente a più attori di esercitare un controllo sulle conseguenze dell’azione collettiva. Facendo da ponte tra l'approccio strategico-interazionale e i modelli di mediazione, l'analisi chiarisce le strategie seguite dalle OSC nella ricerca di posizioni di influenza, così come i meccanismi attraverso i quali i modelli relazionali producono cambiamento sociale. Il quadro analitico è applicato alle arene anticorruzione in Italia e in Spagna e si restringe a tre specifiche aree di intervento: l'introduzione di leggi sulla trasparenza, l'approvazione di leggi per la protezione dei whistleblower e lo sviluppo di progetti di monitoraggio civico. Il materiale empirico comprende 37 interviste qualitative semi-strutturate, documenti e dati network. Nel complesso, le evidenze raccolte contribuiscono alla letteratura sulla lotta alla corruzione, dimostrando che le OSC contribuiscono, direttamente e indirettamente, alla lotta contro la corruzione ottenendo cambiamenti nelle politiche, aumentando l’answerability del sistema e innescando sanzioni formali e informali quando necessario. Tuttavia, l’analisi comparata dei casi italiano e spagnolo evidenziano differenze rilevanti. In particolare, l'indagine empirica contribuisce agli attuali dibattiti sullo studio della società della social accountability, dimostrando che l'integrazione con le élite politiche può aumentare la probabilità di ottenere di ottenere un cambiamento delle politiche, mentre l'integrazione orizzontale tra gli attori civici può aumentare il loro potenziale sanzionatorio. In definitiva, questo lavoro dimostra come gli approcci processuali-relazionali possano integrare modelli strategici e di mediazione per comprendere meglio il modo in cui gli attori collettivi influenzano il cambiamento politico e sociale. Le osservazioni conclusive sostengono che le interazioni e le relazioni costruite dagli attori nel corso del tempo e in diverse arene fungono da canali di mediazione a livello micro, meso e macro. Complessivamente, ciò dimostra che i singoli attori, i modelli di relazione nelle e tra le arene e le idee sulle relazioni mediano tra le strategie dei attori collettivi, aumentando o limitando così la loro influenza sulla lotta alla corruzione.How do civil society organizations (CSOs) contribute to the struggle against public corruption? How can they hold their political representatives accountable? This thesis aims to answer these wide-ranging research questions, bridging anti-corruption and social movement studies by focusing on societal accountability, i.e., grassroots mechanisms for controlling and sanctioning powerholders. Over the last few years, corruption scholars have increasingly emphasized the role of civil society as an antidote against corruption, complementing state and electoral accountability mechanisms. However, empirical studies on the anti-corruption effects of civic interventions have yet to yield consistent results. This should hardly come as a surprise. If measuring corruption is a challenging task, assessing the extent to which corrupt deals are prevented due to civil society initiatives appears virtually impossible. Hence, this work takes a step back and problematizes the study of societal accountability, approaching it not as a pre-given set of mechanisms or practices deployed by anti-corruption civic actors but as the result of sustained and contentious interactions between multiple players. To do so, the study draws on social movement theories and conceptualizes societal accountability as a set of consequences of collective action efforts. Therefore, this work aims to understand how and under what conditions bottom-up anti-corruption initiatives achieve accountability results such as legal claim attainments, answerability, and sanctioning potential. With this goal in mind, the thesis builds upon existing evidence from corruption and accountability studies and contributes to ongoing debates on the consequences of collective action. The theoretical framework focuses on the concept of influence, subscribing to a processual-relational approach. It understands influence as a relationally emergent instance of causality, a form of positional power that enables multiple players to exert control over the consequences of collective struggles. By bridging the strategic-interaction approach and mediation models; the analysis elucidates the strategies followed by CSOs in seeking positions of influence, as well as the mechanisms through which relational patterns produce social change. The analytical framework is applied to the anti-corruption arenas in Italy and Spain and is narrowed down by focusing on three specific campaigns in each country: introducing transparency laws, passing whistleblowers' protection acts, and developing civic monitoring projects. The empirical material comprises 37 semi-structured qualitative interviews, documents, and network data retrieved through Action Organization Analysis. The corpus of data is analyzed by combining thematic analysis, frame analysis, and a theory-building process tracing through a qualitative network approach. Overall, the evidence collected contributes to the literature on anti-corruption, demonstrating that CSOs, directly and indirectly, contribute to the anti-corruption struggle by achieving policy change, increasing the system's answerability, and triggering formal and informal sanctions when necessary. However, the Italian and Spanish cases' comparative accounts highlight relevant differences. In particular, the empirical investigation contributes to current debates on the study of societal accountability, showing that integration with political elites may increase the likelihood of obtaining policy change, whereas horizontal integration among civic actors may enhance their sanctioning potential. Ultimately, this work shows how processual-relational approaches can help integrate strategic and mediation models to understand better how change-oriented collective actors influence political and social change. The concluding remarks maintain that the interactions and relations built by players over time and across different arenas serve as mediation channels at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Overall, this demonstrates that individual players, patterns of relations in and across arenas, and ideas about relationships mediate between players' strategies, resources, or frames and their contextual conditions, thereby increasing or constraining their influence over the anti-corruption struggl
Necrosi apicale del mango (Mangifera indica L.) causata da Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae van Hall in Sicilia
No full textIn "semi-vivo" antagonism of Acremonium byssoides towards Plasmopara viticola.
No full textIn previous laboratory tests the culture filtrates and the crude extracts obtained from
Acremonium byssoides were shown to completely inhibit Plasmopara viticola sporangia germination.
A study was thus undertaken in order to investigate on the possible inhibiting activity of the
hyphomycete towards pathogenesis of the oomycete in grapevine.
A. byssoides was cultivated on malt-extract agar (MEA) to obtain pure colonies and on maltextract
broth (MEB) to obtain culture filtrate and crude extract.
Healthy leaves of grapevine were put in Petri dishes containing sporangia suspended in: deionized
sterile water, malt-extract broth, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), culture filtrate, crude extract and a
suspension of A. byssoides germinated conidia.
After 6 days from inoculations, the bioactivity of A. byssoides was evaluated on the basis of P.
viticola evasion percentage.
The results show that the higher percentage of pathogen evasion occurred in leaves inoculated
with sporangia suspended in distilled water, in MEB and in DMSO; lower values of pathogen evasion
were noted when leaves were treated with culture filtrate and crude extract; no evasion occurred in
presence of A. byssoides germinated conidia, showing either antibiotic or hyperparasitic activity
Physiological indicators to assess water status in potted grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.)
No full textMany physiological parameters were compared to identify the most sensitive and reliable indicator of grapevine water status. One-year-old potted grapevines (Vitis vinifera L., cvs. ‘Sangiovese’ and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’) were studied under two irrigation treatments: 100% and 0% of daily water consumption. Measurements of pre-dawn (PD) and midday (MD) leaf water potential (Ψ w ), MD stem water potential (Ψ S ), leaf temperature (T° L ) and stomatal conductance (g S ) were taken throughout twenty days and analyzed in conjunction with climatic data, relative cumulative sap flow (RCSF) and the maximum daily shrinkage (MDS) of the vine stock. Physiological indicators showed substantial differences in sensitivity. The first indication of changes in vine water status was the increase of MDS and the decrease of g S . MDS and RCSF revealed significant differences between the two irrigation treatments even when PDΨ w , up to now widely accepted as the benchmark of water status indicators, did not show any significant variation. Measurements of water potential showed Ψ S to be a better indicator of vine water status than Ψ w and T° L . In conclusion, we classified the tested indicators according to a descending order of their early detection capability: g S = MDS > RCSF > PDΨ w = MDΨ S > T° L > MDΨ w
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