The SWOT of Damocles: challenges in shaping inclusive place marketing audits

This paper extends existing research on inclusive place marketing by advancing methodological reflections on how to rework research instruments toward greater inclusivity. Our methodological reflections intend to encourage the dialogue between place marketing theory and practice, as well as reflections on the role that academic researchers take on while co-creating territorial development and promotion projects with a variety of non-academic stakeholders. This is done in the form of a self-reflective account of the multi-disciplinary tourism research team engaged in "RECOLOR" (Reviving and EnhanCing artwOrks and Landscapes Of the adRiatic). This is an INTERREG project funded by the European Commission that aims to enhance the tourist potential of secondary urban and natural resources in Croatia and Italy, with a view to generating sustainable development. Academics and consultants can replicate the research methods suggested in this paper when conducting participatory audits in other destinations

Mice with reduced DAT levels recreate seasonal-induced switching between states in bipolar disorder.

Developing novel therapeutics for bipolar disorder (BD) has been hampered by limited mechanistic knowledge how sufferers switch between mania and depression-how the same brain can switch between extreme states-described as the "holy grail" of BD research. Strong evidence implicates seasonally-induced switching between states, with mania associated with summer-onset, depression with winter-onset. Determining mechanisms of and sensitivity to such switching is required. C57BL/6J and dopamine transporter hypomorphic (DAT-HY 50% expression) mice performed a battery of psychiatry-relevant behavioral tasks following 2-week housing in chambers under seasonally relevant photoperiod extremes. Summer-like and winter-like photoperiod exposure induced mania-relevant and depression-relevant behaviors respectively in mice. This behavioral switch paralleled neurotransmitter switching from dopamine to somatostatin in hypothalamic neurons (receiving direct input from the photoperiod-processing center, the suprachiasmatic nucleus). Mice with reduced DAT expression exhibited hypersensitivity to these summer-like and winter-like photoperiods, including more extreme mania-relevant (including reward sensitivity during reinforcement learning), and depression-relevant (including punishment-sensitivity and loss-sensitivity during reinforcement learning) behaviors. DAT mRNA levels switched in wildtype littermate mice across photoperiods, an effect not replicated in DAT hypomorphic mice. This inability to adjust DAT levels to match photoperiod-induced neurotransmitter switching as a homeostatic control likely contributes to the susceptibility of DAT hypormophic mice to these switching photoperiods. These data reveal the potential contribution of photoperiod-induced neuroplasticity within an identified circuit of the hypothalamus, linked with reduced DAT function, underlying switching between states in BD. Further investigations of the circuit will likely identify novel therapeutic targets to block switching between states

Digital strategies to a local cultural tourism development: Project e-Carnide

Digital humanities and smart economy strategies are being seen as an important link between tourism and cultural heritage, as they may contribute to differentiate the audiences and to provide different approaches. Carnide is a peripheral neighbourhood of Lisbon with an elderly population, visible traces of rurality, and strong cultural and religious traditions. The academic project e-Carnide concerns its tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the data dissemination through a website and a mobile app, with textual and visual information. The project aims to analyse the impact of technological solutions on cultural tourism development in a sub-region, involving interdisciplinary research in heritage, history of art, ethnography, design communication and software engineering and the collaboration between the university and local residents in a dynamic and innovative way. Framed by a theoretical approach about the role of smart economy for the cultural tourism development in peripheral areas, this paper focuses on a case study, dealing with documents, interviews and observations, in order to understand how the e-Carnide project evolves. The study comprises an analysis about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) of the project in view to realize its social and cultural implications and to appreciate how it can be applied in other similar and enlarged projects. Results of the research indicates that the new technological strategies can promote the involvement of the population in the knowledge of its own heritage as a factor of cultural and creative tourism development centred on an authentic and immersive experience of the places

Which Risk Approach to Protect Occupational Health and Safety? Evidence from Italian Regulations

Occupational accidents are one of the greatest causes of death and injury. Each year, more than 2.3 million people die from accidents at work, and approximately 317 million people are victims of non-fatal occupational diseases. The magnitude of the problem has inspired the introduction, at both international and national levels, of legal rules to protect health and safety at work. This paper proposes an organizational discourse on the approach to risk prevention proposed by these norms and the methodological issues related to the development of operational guidelines. We then discuss the consistency of the approach to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risk prevention promoted by the Italian OHS regulation with respect to its objectives, i.e., to avoid the occurrence of accidents and occupational diseases

Method and system for fetal weight estimation

A method for fetal weight estimation wherein fetal biometric parameters are ultrasonically measured and further physiological and phenomenological pregnancy parameters are determined for a plurality of sample cases. The fetal weight for each of the sample cases is then determined by precision weighing at birth. A database is then created based on the known sample cases and mathematical prediction models are generated from the database. For the case under examination for which fetal weight is to be predicted, the fetal biometric parameters are ultrasonically measured and further physiological and phenomenological pregnancy parameters are determined. The fetal weight of the case under examination is predicted by using a mathematical prediction model and a multinormal probabilistic model is used as a mathematical model

A new methodological approach for ultrasound estimation of fetal weight

Abstract n.71