1,721,037 research outputs found
Politiche di localizzazione industriale in Italia ed Israele: un'analisi comparativa
Get PDFAppropriate national and regional localization support industrial and entrepreneurial development and their relationship with economic development are the central issue of this contribution. Comparing the cases of Italy and Israel since the war, the study traces the changing role of the public policies of industrialization and their impact on economic development, linking them to national and international contingencies. The different trajectories of growth appear to be due to the different role that planning has had in the two countries as well as different approaches to the public and private sectors to support the education system, research and development, and its possible industrial applications, such as the spin-offs, and finally the existence of different social and economic in some Italian regions have facilitated the formation of entrepreneurial economies in Israel and the growth of high-tech sector. On this last point, the study explores the case of Israeli technology incubators in the nineties have been an important model for the promotion of entrepreneurship in high technology sectors
Trade Intermediaries and the Tariff Pass-Through
No full textThis paper aims at improving our understanding of the price effects of trade policies following two perspectives. First, we wish to study how the role of intermediaries in international trade affects the transmission of tariff changes to domestic prices. Second, we explore how our results are influenced by the degree of competition in the distribution-service market. In a Cournot oligopoly-oligopsony model, we show how the pass-through of tariff cuts to domestic prices is limited by the market power of intermediaries producing distribution services. Our long-run equilibrium is characterized by a larger number of firms selling at a higher mark-up. Market access barriers in distribution services determine to what extent tariff cuts are transferred to domestic consumers and foreign producers, affecting the size of their welfare effects. The benefits of trade liberalization policies can be better achieved if they are complemented by competition enhancing measures in the intermediation sector
Physical vulnerability and exposure assessment in Historic City Centers: Development of methodologies and tools for risk reduction measures
Get PDFI centri storici rappresentano importantissime testimonianze culturali e architettoniche, nonché il cuore pulsante della nostra società grazie al forte valore identitario che li caratterizza. Il loro significato intrinseco, infatti, va oltre la mera bellezza architettonica, e rappresenta la pietra angolare della vita sociale, culturale ed economica a cui si ispirano città e comunità. Il dibattito accademico e professionale è ancora ampiamente aperto per la ricerca di strumenti per la valutazione e riduzione di rischi legati a disastri annosi e di più recente comparsa che ogni giorno mettono a repentaglio la sicurezza dei centri storici e dei loro abitanti. Si pensi ad esempio ai disastri legati a fattori naturali (terremoti, alluvioni), attività umane (inquinamento, terrorismo), nonché la loro combinazione in ottica multirischio. Inoltre, fattori quali l’elevata densità abitativa, layout urbani angusti, normative e piani di emergenza spesso non aggiornati a causa di vincoli di natura logistica, esecutiva ed economica, contribuiscono ad aumentare il rischio. A tal proposito, soluzioni efficaci dovrebbero sfruttare approcci olistici, tenendo conto in maniera sistematica dei fattori di vulnerabilità, esposizione e pericolosità che determinano il rischio, nonché speditivi, per velocizzare e facilitarne al tempo stesso l’applicazione da parte degli addetti ai lavori. Di conseguenza, la collaborazione interdisciplinare degli addetti ai lavori è fondamentale per promuovere la resilienza, la preparazione e la sicurezza dell’ambiente costruito e dei suoi abitanti. In questo contesto, questa tesi affronta lo sviluppo di metodologie e strumenti per la riduzione del rischio nei centri storici attraverso approcci sostenibili e olistici, con particolare attenzione ad analisi integrate della vulnerabilità fisica e dell'esposizione. In particolare, vengono esplorate dinamiche relative a contesti generali e/o specifici attraverso diverse scale di rappresentazione e modellazione, che includono analisi: - dell'ambiente costruito dalla microscala alla mesoscala (ovvero dal singolo edificio/strada a complessi di edifici/strade/piazze); - comportamentali dalla microscala alla macroscala (ovvero dall’analisi del singolo pedone a gruppi di essi); - in condizioni sia di normale utilizzo, sia di rischio specifico (in questo caso le alluvioni); - sul contesto di applicazione attraverso casi studio reali e tipologici/idealizzati. Per supportare queste azioni vengono quindi sviluppati strumenti e metodologie tali da accelerare i processi di valutazione, ridurre la complessità applicativa, e migliorare la replicabilità anche per le autorità locali. La raccolta dei dati necessari in tal senso ha comportato principalmente l’utilizzo di strumenti speditivi come questionari e analisi video per la creazione di database (ad esempio, per la raccolta indicizzata di parametri meccanici delle murature, delle condizioni di utilizzo degli spazi pubblici, o dei comportamenti ricorrenti durante emergenze). La quantificazione del rischio viene effettuata attraverso metriche e rappresentazioni sintetiche di facile utilizzo come indicatori e mappe di rischio. I risultati forniti rispondono in maniera organica ad un’ampia gamma di problematiche secondo diverse prospettive attraverso metodologie e strumenti personalizzabili anche per analisi di contesti urbani e rischi differenti. Si tratta quindi di una tesi caratterizzata, oltre che da una indubbia innovatività in ambito accademico grazie alla sua trasversalità sia nella concezione che nel campo di applicazione, anche da uno spiccata praticità per fornire riscontro immediato alle problematiche che interessano i centri storici e i suoi abitanti. Pertanto, i prossimi passi della ricerca appaiono chiari, e riguarderanno sicuramente l’affinamento degli strumenti proposti per fornire analisi ancora più esaustive in vista delle sfide future che la nostra società dovrà affrontare.Historic City Centers stand as the most tangible evidence of human history for their cultural significance and architectural heritage, as well as the beating heart of our society thanks to the strong identity value that characterizes them. Their intrinsic significance, indeed, goes beyond mere architectural beauty, and instead represents the cornerstone of the social, cultural, and economic life that shape cities and communities. Consider, for instance, their role in driving tourism, hosting gathering spaces that act as the main stage of social interaction, cultural events, and everyday human activities (including residential, business, and institutional).
Nevertheless, academic and professional debates are still widely open to the research of solutions to evaluate and reduce the risks linked to old and new disasters which every day jeopardize the safety of historic city centers and their inhabitants. It’s the case, for instance, of disasters related to natural factors (i.e., seismic areas, floodplains, landslides), human activities (i.e., climate change, pollution, heatwaves, terrorist acts), as well as their combination from a multi-risk perspective. In addition to this, multiple factors such as high population density, narrow streets and layout together with non-updated regulations, preservation constraints to assure historical authenticity, lack of emergency plans, retrofit buildings and infrastructures due to logistic, executive, and economic reasons, further increase the risk in such scenarios.
In this regard, effective solutions should take advantage of holistic approaches, to systematically take into account vulnerabilities, exposures, and hazards that determine the risk, as well as expeditious ones, to speed up the development of methodologies and tools for assessing and reducing the risk itself, and facilitate their application by professionals. Accordingly, interdisciplinary collaboration between urban planners, emergency planners, policymakers, and community stakeholders are paramount in fostering resilience, preparedness and safety of the built environment.
Whitin this context, this thesis addresses the development of methodologies and tools for risk reduction measures in Historic City Centers through sustainable and holistic approaches, with particular attention to integrated analyses of physical vulnerability and exposure. In particular, several dynamics relating to specific or general circumstances are explored according to multiple scales of representation and modeling, ranging:
- from microscale to mesoscale analyses of the built environment (that is from single building and/or street level to neighborhood level);
- from microscale to macroscale behavioral analyses of the hosted users (that is from single pedestrian to groups of them);
- from normal fruition conditions to specific risky conditions (that is from pre-emergency to emergency conditions, and in particular considering floods);
- from real-world to typological case studies application.
To support such actions, quick- and easy-to-apply tools and methodologies are developed to speed up evaluation processes, reduce application complexity and economic efforts, and improve replicability also for policymakers and local authorities. Data collection mainly involved rapid surveys and video analyses for databases creation (e.g., mechanical parameters of local masonry typologies, frequencies and conditions of usage of public spaces by users, recurrent human behaviors in specific risk conditions). Risk quantification analyses are performed through the introduction of synthetic metrics and user-friendly representations (e.g., Risk Indexes, Key Performance Indicators, Risk Maps, specific parameter confidence ranges).
Outcomes, thus, not only jointly answer to a wide range of issues according to several perspectives, but also provide customized methodologies and tools to be used for customizable risk reduction analyses, even outside the contexts strictly linked to those herein investigated (e.g., different urban scenarios, different types of risk). It is therefore a thesis which, in addition to its innovation in the academic field due to its transversality both in conception and in the field of application, is also characterized by a clear practical character to provide immediate feedback on issues that evolve and affect historic city centers and its users. As a result, the next research steps are clear, and will certainly concern the refinement of the proposed tools to provide even more comprehensive and complete analyses also in view of the future challenges that our society will have to face
Multimodal, intermodal and terminals
Get PDFThe chapter looks at rail freight terminals, rail—sea interfaces, in particular, as part of a multimodal, or integrated transportation network. Terminals are key infrastructure for linking individual transport modes and governing and managing their interchange in a manner that creates a seamless and sustainable transportation system. Therefore, their performance is critical for maximising transport efficiency and modes integration. This chapter analyses rail terminals’ performance from two dimensions, one related to the operational performance and the other related to the critical security challenges, and the constraints imposed by security management
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
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