25,428 research outputs found
Constitutional Degradation in a Time of Coronavirus: Reflecting on Governmental Accountability in the United Kingdom and Italy
No full textThe pandemic acted as an accelerator of pre-existing trends that see an overall dominance of Governments over legislative bodies, which are increasingly struggling to oversee executive power. This was the case both in the UK and in Italy, where the governments adopted specific institutional arrangements to manage the health crisis which did not necessarily include a prior involvement of the legislative body. An overview of the legal framework and of the instruments that the two legal orders used to face the pandemic highlights a common trend, and that is the preference for executive law-making to manage emergencies. The way statutory instruments and statutory decrees are used respectively in the UK and in Italy are issues that pre-exist the pandemic, but an analysis of their use throughout the emergency particularly sheds light on specific structural weaknesses which are evident in both exceptional and normal times, and that relate to the two Parliaments' difficulties in keeping up with the executives' law-making activity. Considering that Parliament's inability to oversee Government gives rise to a series of problems which relate more generally to the institutional arrangement of a parliamentary democracy, it is necessary to reflect about Parliament's traditional functions and ask whether these are still adequate as the legal and political systems change. The oversight and steering functions still are one of the most fundamental and determining elements of a parliamentary form of government, but as the two experiences have showed, procedures need to be re-adapted as the Government has become the main legislative actor. For these reasons it is worth exploring post-legislative scrutiny as an instrument to hold the executive into account and to counterbalance its increasing monopoly of decision-making
Piezoresistive semi-transparent flexible sensors by bithiophene fulleropyrrolidine thin films
No full textPiezoresistive sensors are considered among the fundamental components of the future wearable electronic devices, given their potential applications in artificial skin, motion capture and personalized medicine.[1-5] Here, we present a cost-effective, viable fabrication approach to realize piezoresistive sensors using a novel polymeric biotiophene fulleropyrrolidine system (bis-C60Bi) synthesized on flexible ITO/PET supports by electrochemical chronoamperometry. By applying an anodic potential (1.5 V) to a solution containing the monomer, it is possible to obtain a homogeneous semi-transparent thin film on the ITO/PET surface (see Figure). AFM,
XPS, UV-vis have been employed to characterize the morphology and chemical composition of the new synthesized polymeric thin films, confirming the chemical structure and showing a nanoscale surface roughness of about 25 nm. The resulting polymer-based device shows good resistance variation on bending in the semi-static regime, outperforming current ITO/PET resistive sensors [6] and well matching commercial devices based on opaque amorphous carbon materials.[7] The durability of the sensor has been validated over almost one hundred cycles. This new class of polymeric piezoresistive sensors may open new applications in the field of kinematic acquisition or of sensor monitoring, with several potential applications as well as in medicine, robotics and physiotherapy.
Bibliography
1 M. Ricci, G. Di Lazzaro, A. Pisani, N. B. Mercuri, F. Giannini, G. Saggio, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 2019,
doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2019.2903627
2 G. Arrabito, V. Errico, Z. Zhang, W. Han, C. Falconi, Nano Energy, 2018, 46, 54. doi: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.01.029
3 G. Saggio, G. Orengo, A. Pallotti, V. Errico, M. Ricci, IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications
(MeMeA), 2018, doi: 10.1109/MeMeA.2018.8438767
4 N. Jasoon, M.D. Ho, W. Cheng, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2017, 5, 5845.
5 G. Saggio ; G. Orengo ; A. Pallotti ; V. Errico ; M. Ricci, International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications
(ISNCC) 2018 doi: 10.1109/ISNCC.2018.8531054
6 T. Lee, Y. W. Choi, G. Lee, P. V. Pikhita, D. Kang, S.M. Kim and M. Choi, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, 4, 9947.
7 G. Saggio, G. Orengo, Sensors and Actuators A, 2018, 273, 221
BEHIND THE ATKINSON INDEX: MEASURING EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY IN HEALTH
No full textThis paper proposes a new approach to the measurement of equality of opportunity in health, based on the path independent Atkinson index of equality. The proposed decomposition is applied both to the ex-ante and the ex-post methodologies recently adopted by the literature. The approach is applied to the measurement of equality of opportunity in health using ten waves of the British Household Panel Survey. Results confirm that socioeconomic background is an important factor determining individual health in adulthood while the incidence of equality of opportunity is around one third of the overall equality according to a substantial stable pattern over years. Our findings also depict that differences in education, in social conditions and in the life style are crucial determinants of the shape of the observed health equalities in adulthood, explaining how potential differences can be derived by the combination of different circumstances
Measuring equity in health: a normative decomposition
No full textThis paper proposes a new approach to the measurement of equality of opportunity in health, based on the path independent Atkinson index of equality. The proposed decomposition is applied both to the ex-ante and
the ex-post methodologies recently adopted by the literature. The approach is applied to the measurement of equality of opportunity in health using ten waves of the British Household Panel Survey. Results confirm that socioeconomic background is an important factor determining individual health in adulthood while the incidence of equality of opportunity is around one third of the overall equality according to a substantial stable pattern over years. Our findings also depict that differences in education, in social conditions and in the life style are crucial determinants of the shape of the observed health equalities in adulthood, explaining how potential differences can be derived by the combination of different circumstance
Ex-ante and ex-post measurement of equality of opportunity in health: a normative decomposition
No full textThis paper proposes and discusses two different approaches to the definition of inequality in health: the ex-ante and the ex-post approach. It proposes strategies for measuring inequality of opportunity in health based on the path-independent Atkinson equality index. The proposed methodology is illustrated using data from the British Household Panel Survey; the results suggest that in the period 2000–2005, at least one-third of the observed health equalities in the UK were equalities of opportunity
Oil-in-Water fL Droplets by Interfacial Spontaneous Fragmentation and Their Electrical Characterization
No full textInkjet printing is here employed for the first time as a method to produce femtoliter-scale oil droplets dispersed in water. In particular, picoliter-scale fluorinated oil (FC40) droplets are printed in the presence of perfluoro-1-octanol surfactant at a velocity higher than 5 m/s. Femtoliter-scale oil droplets in water are spontaneously formed through a fragmentation process at the water/air interface using minute amounts of nonionic surfactant (down to 0.003% v/v of Tween 80). This fragmentation occurs by a Plateau-Rayleigh mechanism at a moderately high Weber number (10(1)). A microfluidic chip with integrated microelectrodes allows droplets characterization in terms of number and diameter distribution (peaked at about 3 mu m) by means of electrical impedance measurements. These results show an unprecedented possibility to scale oil droplets down to the femtoliter scale, which opens up several perspectives for a tailored oil-in-water emulsion preparations, and cellular biology. fabrication for drug encapsulation, pharmaceutic preparations, and cellular biology
Oxidation effects in antiaggregogenic properties of Epigallocatechingallate
No full textEpigallocatechin-gallate (EGCG), the most abundant flavonoid in green tea, has been extensively studied for its potential in the treatment of amyloid related disorders. This molecule was found to modulate abnormal protein self-assembly, reducing resulting cellular toxicity. EGCG is known to suppress or to slow down the aggregation processes of several proteins, thus supporting the idea that general mechanisms regulate its anti-aggregogenic effects and, interestingly, in the oxidised form it demonstrated an higher efficiency in reducing protein aggregation with respect to intact molecule.
We here investigate the effects of intact and oxidized EGCG the thermal aggregation pathway of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA), a well-known model protein whose aggregation processes are known in details.
By means of different spectroscopic methods, we evaluate similarities and differences of the two molecules during protein aggregation. Different solution conditions are investigated, close and away from the isoelectric point of the protein, with the aim of eliciting the role of electrostatics in the observed EGCG-Protein interaction and in the supramolecular assembly which are dramatically dependent on solution conditions
THE EFFECTS OF WARPING CONSTRAINTS ON THE BUCKLING OF THIN-WALLED STRUCTURES RID C-9350-2009
No full textWe present two applications of a direct one-dimensional beam model suitable for describing the buckling of thin-walled structures. The first application considers the buckling of a compressed beam with an intermediate stiffener under various warping constraints. The second describes the buckling of a two-bar frame, known as a Roorda frame, loaded by a dead force at the joint. Various warping constraints at the bar ends are considered and the relevant buckling modes and loads are numerically evaluated. Numerical results are presented for both cases; some of these appear to be new
Effects of warping constraints and lateral restraint on the buckling of thin-walled frames
No full textWe present the effect of warping constraints on the buckling of a thin-walled two-bar ('Roorda') plane frame subjected to a 'dead' load at the joint. The hinges with the 'ground' allow rotation with axis perpendicular to the frame plane; the joint is constrained in the same direction to simulate a 3D-frame. Warping constraints are considered; the restraint at the joint is first supposed rigid and fixed, then is supposed linear elastic to account for different lateral restraint. Critical loads are evaluated numerically; an analysis of the post-buckling behaviour will be part of future investigations
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