Le elezioni regionali del 2015 in Liguria

Analisi delle elezioni regionali in Liguria tenutesi lo scorso maggio 2015. L'articolo presenta un'analisi dei candidati alla presidenza e dei candidati al Consiglio, un'analisi dei risultati e primi commenti politic

Uso delle gallerie per la stabilizzione di versanti in frana

L'uso del sottosuolo per la gestione idrogeologica del territorio e per la bonifica delle frane è una so-luzione efficace ed ampiamente utilizzata nel mondo. Nel lavoro dopo un inquadramento generale dell'argomento vengono illustrati alcuni casi studio di particolare interesse

Capturing editorial gatekeeping through the analysis of argumentation in editorial conference discussions

Il presente articolo analizza le riunioni di redazione come attività argomentative, attraverso le quali si realizza la funzione di gatekeeping entro le organizzazioni mediatiche. Particolare attenzione viene devoluta alle diverse norme che regolano le decisioni editoriali, e al rapporto tra queste norme e il dispiegarsi delle argomentazioni nelle discussioni. Ci si ricollega qui a una svolta nella ricerca sul gatekeeping: lo studio di Clayman & Reisner (1998) che considera le riunioni di redazione come luogo in cui il gatekeeping viene esercitato nell'interazione verbale. Questo approccio apre un campo di intervento promettente per l'applicazione della teoria dell'argomentazione allo studio delle norme e dei processi di decisione delle organizzazioni mediatiche. L'analisi mostra che emergono tre tipi distinti di discussione argomentativa entro l'activity type della riunione. Accanto a discussioni deliberative legate a singole decisioni editoriali, troviamo infatti discussioni concernenti la valutazione di decisioni passate e delle norme vigenti in redazione

Historical climates and conservation environments. Historical perspectives on climate control strategies within museums and heritage buildings

Il tema della ricerca è lo sviluppo di strategie di controllo del clima negli ambienti di conservazione, con particolare attenzione alle questioni inerenti l'analisi del clima interno negli edifici storici. Il controllo del clima in ambienti di conservazione posti all'interno di edifici storici, è un problema complesso che ha rilevanti conseguenze sulla conservazione del patrimonio culturale e che è generalmente caratterizzato da contrapposte necessità. Innanzitutto devono essere fornite delle condizioni termoigrometriche adatte alla conservazione delle opere d'arte: la questione su quali siano queste condizioni è stata dibattuta per secoli. D'altra parte l'introduzione di moderni apparati per il controllo del clima nei beni architettonici può portare a serie conseguenze per la loro conservazione. Tale questione divenne evidente con il progressivo restringersi degli intervalli consigliati di temperatura e umidità relativa, che ha favorito la diffusione del condizionamento dell'aria nei musei. Altri problemi sono legati al conflitto tra i requisiti termoigrometrici delle opere e quelli delle persone, che non sempre corrispondono, e, in tempi più recenti, al crescente bisogno di edifici sostenibili, sia nel senso di una maggiore efficienza energetica, sia nel senso di una riduzione dei costi di gestione. Tutte queste questioni sono riviste criticamente nella tesi tramite l'uso di una metodologia storica sviluppata a partire da una riflessione sul concetto di clima storico. Questo è inteso in un doppio significato: non solo come le condizioni climatiche a cui oggi un oggetto risulta acclimatato, come indicato dallo standard EN 15757:2010, ma anche come lo studio delle strategie di controllo del clima adottate in passato negli ambienti di conservazione. Ciò significa analizzare come i sistemi di controllo del clima e gli standard termoigrometrici per la conservazione si siano sviluppati nel passato e, allo stesso tempo, accrescere la nostra conoscenza degli ambienti interni negli edifici storici attraverso l'unione tra ricerca storica sui sistemi di controllo del clima e analisi del clima interno. Il doppio uso del concetto di clima storico si riflette nella divisione in due parti della tesi. Nella prima viene esaminato lo sviluppo storico delle strategie di controllo del clima per la conservazione., con particolare attenzione all'ambiente museale poiché è in tale contesto che l'influenza dei parametri termoigrometrici sulla conservazione delle opere cominciò ad essere osservata ed è stata particolarmente studiata fino ai giorni nostri. La seconda parte della tesi riguarderà l'applicazione di un approccio storico alle attività di analisi e monitoraggio del clima in due casi studio: Villa Reale a Milano e il castello di Skokloster in Svezia. A chiusura del lavoro, sono discussi e presentati i risultati positivi ottenuti dall'applicazione del concetto di clima storico agli edifici storici.The subject of the research is the development of climate control strategies in conservation environments, focusing on the issues involved in indoor climate analysis within historic buildings. Climate control in conservation environments within historic buildings is a complicate task which has relevant consequences on the preservation of cultural heritage and is generally characterised by conflicting needs. First of all, suitable hygrothermal conditions should be provided for the preservation of artworkss: the question on which are the best conditions for the artworks has been discussed for centuries. On the other hand, the introduction of modern climate control devices in heritage buildings can lead to serious consequences on building preservation. This issue became evident with the progressive tightening of suggested ranges of temperature and relative humidity, which has favoured the spread of modern air conditioning in museums. Other questions are related to the conflict between the hygrothermal needs of artworks and those of people, which do not always coincide, and, recently, to the growing need for sustainable buildings, both in the sense of an higher energy efficiency and in the sense of a reduction of operating costs. These issues are critically reviewed in the thesis through the adoption of a historical methodology, developed from a reflection on the concept of historical climate. This is intended in a double meaning: not only as the climatic conditions to which today an object has become acclimatised, as indicated in the EN 15757:2010 standard, but also as the study of the climate control strategies adopted in the past in conservation environments. That means to analyse how climate control systems and hygrothermal standards for conservation developed in the past and, at the same time, to improve our knowledge on indoor environments within historic buildings by coupling historical research on climate control systems with indoor climate analyses. The double use of the concept of historical climate is reflected in the division of the thesis into two parts. In the first one, the historical development of climate control strategies for conservation is examined. The focus is on the museum environment, since in this context the influence of hygrothermal parameters on artwork preservation started to be observed and was extensively studied until our days. The second part of the thesis will deal with the application of a historical approach to the climate analysis and monitoring of two case studies: Villa Reale, in Milan, and Skokloster Castle, in Sweden. Positive results obtained by the application of the concept of historic climate to historic buildings are finally discussed and presented.DIPARTIMENTO DI ARCHITETTURA E STUDI URBANI24DI BIASE, CAROLIN

The Bartonian-Priabonian transition at the Varignano Section (Trento Province, Northern Italy): correlation between shallow benthic and calcareous plankton zones

Correlation between biotic events from shallow-water environments and deep-water setting is one of the main challenges in biostratigraphy. The Bartonian/Priabonian transition has attracted great attention by biostratigraphers in the last decade in searching for a boundary stratotype section. The current candidate for the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the base of Priabonian is the Alano di Piave section (Agnini et al. 2011, 2014). Unfortunately, at Alano coarse bioclastic levels containing larger foraminifera are limited to an interval well below any of the biotic and magnetostratigraphic criteria proposed to correlate the base of the Priabonian, (Agnini et al. 2011, 2014). The Varignano section (Trentino region, northern Italy), cropping out ca. 80 km west of the Alano section, provides a unique opportunity for attaining a direct correlation between Shallow Benthic Zones (SBZ; Serra-Kiel et al., 1998) and standard calcareous plankton zones at the Bartonian–Priabonian transition because it preserves several coarse bioclastic levels rich in larger foraminifera. These levels are quite evenly distributed from base to top, and are intercalated with basinal marls, crystal tuff layers, and sapropels. Bioclastic beds derive from the nearby Lessini Shelf, the Paleogene paleogeographic unit rising east of the Lombardian Basin, where the Varignano section was deposited. The study section spans the planktic foraminiferal Zones E12 to lower E14 of Wade et al. (2011), the calcareous nannoplankton Zones MNP16Bc to MNP18 of Fornaciari et al. (2010) and the Chron 18n to 17n.2n. All primary and secondary calcareous plankton bioevents are recorded at Varignano in the same order and stratigraphic position as in Alano. Our results demonstrate that the Varignano section spans the upper part of SBZ 17 and the lower part of SBZ 18, with the boundary marked by the first occurrence of the genus Pellatispira. It occurs ca. 2 m below the extinction of morozovellids and large acarininids, one of the criteria proposed to correlate the base of the Priabonian. This is in contrast with the base Priabonian corresponding to the base of SBZ 19 as traditionally agreed by shallow-water biostratigraphers. Furthermore, biomagnetostratigraphic data allow us to correlate a prominent crystal-tuff layer outcropping at Varignano with the Tiziano bed, the tuff layer which base has been proposed to designate the GSSP of Priabonian in the Alano section (Agnini et al. 2011, 2014). The direct correlation of SBZ, calcareous nannofossil zones and planktonic foraminiferal zones together with magnetostratigraphy gives the chance to verify the current biostratigraphic correlation schemes. We here reaffirm the substantial validity of the calcareous plankton correlation, whereas the correlations with SBZ need to be revised. References Agnini, C., Fornaciari, E., Giusberti, L., Grandesso, P., Lanci, L., Luciani, V., et al. (2011). Integrated biomagnetostratigraphy of the Alano section (NE Italy): A proposal for defining the middle-late Eocene boundary. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 123(5–6), 841–872. Agnini, C., Backman, J., Fornaciari, E., Galeotti, S., Giusberti, L., Grandesso, P., Lanci, L., Monechi, S., Muttoni, G., Pälike, H., Pampaloni, M.L., Pignatti, J., Premoli Silva, I., Raffi, I., Rio, D., Rook, L. & Stefani, C. (2014). The Alano Section: The Candidate GSSP for the Priabonian Stage. In: Rocha, R., Pais, J., Kullberg, J.C. and Finney, S. (Eds.) STRATI 2013. Springer Geology. Springer International Publishing, 55-59. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-04364-7_11 Fornaciari, E., Agnini, C., Catanzariti, R., Rio, D., Bolla, E. M., & Valvasoni, E. (2010). Mid latitude calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and biochronology across the middle to late Eocene transition. Stratigraphy, 7, 229–264. Serra-Kiel, J., Hottinger, L., Caus, E., Drobne, K., Ferràndez, C., Jauhri, A. K., et al. (1998). Larger foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the Tethyan Paleocene and Eocene. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France, 169(2), 281–299. Wade, B. S., Pearson, P. N., Berggren, W. A., & Pälike, H. (2011). Review and revision of Cenozoic tropical planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy and calibration to the geomagnetic polarity and astronomical time scale. Earth-Science Reviews, 104, 111–142

MAINTENANCE OF ROCKFALL NET FENCES

The efficiency of rockfall protection net fences is affected during their lifetime by damages and ageing phenomena. To identify the main issues that can affect the durability of rockfall protection net fences a site survey campaign has been performed in the North-west of Italy. This campaign aims to point out to the main aspects to focus on for maintenance management

Efficacy and safety of niacin/laropiprant therapy in familial hypercholesterolemic patients with coronary artery disease

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the principal cause of premature mortality and morbidity in Europe. Patients with familial hypercholesterolemia are at particularly increased risk and, despite lipid-lowering therapy, continue to experience cardiovascular events. Currently, for these patients a new treatment option is represented by extended-release niacin/laropiprant (ERN/LRPN). Material and Methods: We followed-up for 16 weeks a group of 23 familial hypercholesterolemic patients (mean age 61?7 years, 74% male) with chronic coronary artery disease and ERN/LRPN added on top of maximally tolerated lipid-lowering therapy. ERN/LRPN was administered at the dose of 1 gr/day for the first 4 weeks and then at 2 gr/day for the remaining period. Clinical examination and blood sampling (including lipid profile, renal and hepatic function) were performed at baseline, after 4 weeks, at the end of follow-up, and in the case of eventual clinical manifestations. Results: During follow-up, 14 patients discontinued therapy due to side effects (headache, asthenia, and gastrointestinal disorders in 4 patients, muscle aches and CK increase in 3 patients, eruptive skin rash in 2 patients, onset of diabetes mellitus in 2 patients, dizziness associated with inability to drive in 1 patient, acute hepatitis in 1 patient and palpitations in 1 patient) and 2 patients voluntarily interrupted the therapy. In the remaining 7 patients, an improvement in lipid profile was observed (total cholesterol -14%, HDL cholesterol +7%, LDL cholesterol -16%, Triglycerides -53%, Apolipoprotein A1 +8%, Apolipoprotein B -21%, Apolipoprotein E -31%) in the absence of substantial changes in other laboratory analyses (with the exception of a non-significant increase in uric acid). Intolerable skin flushing was not observed in any patient. In addition, among patients who did report flushing, a reduction in the incidence of the episodes was observed after the first month of therapy

Maintenance and risk management of rockfall protection net fences through numerical study of damage influence

Rockfall protection net fences are key protection systems in mountainous areas worldwide to ensure the safety of infrastructures, roads and urban areas. Maintenance of these products is fundamental for public administrations in order to guarantee risk mitigation. This paper deals with the assessment of the installation problems and damages induced by ageing of rockfall protection net fences, using numerical modelling in order to evaluate the influence of these issues on their behavior. A percentage of the residual efficiency is assessed as a useful tool for risk analysis and maintenance planning