URBAN CENTER. Una casa di vetro per le politiche urbane.

Nella cultura di governo della città, il termine "Urban Center" (o "Casa della città") designa una serie di strutture il cui denominatore comune risiede nello svolgimento di attività di servizio per le comunità urbane ai fini di soddisfare la crescente domenda di democrazia partecipativa e deliberativa nei processi di trasformazione degli insediamenti. Traendo spunto dalla storicizzazione del fenomeno e dal confronto tra i consolidati modelli statunitensi e le recenti esperienze in Italia, il volume si interroga sulla maturazione delle missioni dell' "Urban Center" nel passaggio da asettico spazio di informazione a luogo provilegiato per la costruzione trasparente di politiche urbane condivise. Il percorso logico del volume si sviluppa seguendo un fil rouge articolato in quattro parti. Il primo blocco si apre con due tematiche che costituiscono dialetticamente la cornice di riferimento entro cui può essere correttamente collocata la questione degli UC: l’urbanistica partecipata e il marketing urbano. Nella seconda parte attraverso lo studio di casi si ricostruisce il quadro delle articolate declinazioni statunitensi di Urban Center, consolidatesi in diversi decenni di storia. Sono strutture fortemente caratterizzate e autonome per stile, missioni, obiettivi, priorità, modalità operative, ma allo stesso tempo accomunate da un equilibrato mix di passione civile e pragmatismo professionale. Il terzo gruppo di saggi è dedicato alla condizione attuale e di prospettiva degli UC in Italia, delineando criticamente una sorta di “mappa dinamica” delle diverse strutture attivate e in divenire, caratterizzate per soggetti ispiratori, missioni “stili” e protagonismo degli attori coinvolti. Il cerchio delle riflessioni si chiude nella quarta parte discutendo la questione dell’innovazione di metodo per la costruzione di un UC sia attraverso la dimensione teoretica che le potenzialità operative. Testi in italiano e inglese di B. Monardo (curatore), M.C. Bizzarri, E. Carmagnani, M. Carta, F. Ceci, P. Colarossi, L. De Bonis, A. Dina, A. De Rossi, D. Filippi, A. Giorgi, P. Laconte, F. Lovato, L. J. Osmond, R. Shiffman, O Tommasi, A. Uttaro; postfazione di M. Ricci

Use of Cefiderocol in Adult Patients: Descriptive Analysis from a Prospective, Multicenter, Cohort Study

IntroductionCefiderocol is a siderophore cephalosporin showing activity against various carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CR-GNB). No data currently exist about real-world use of cefiderocol in terms of types of therapy (e.g., empirical or targeted, monotherapy or combined regimens), indications, and patient characteristics.MethodsIn this multicenter, prospective study, we aimed at describing the use of cefiderocol in terms of types of therapy, indications, and patient characteristics.ResultsCefiderocol was administered as empirical and targeted therapy in 27.5% (55/200) and 72.5% (145/200) of cases, respectively. Overall, it was administered as monotherapy in 101/200 cases (50.5%) and as part of a combined regimen for CR-GNB infections in the remaining 99/200 cases (49.5%). In multivariable analysis, previous isolation of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii odds ratio (OR) 2.56, with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.01-6.46, p = 0.047] and previous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (OR 8.73, 95% CI 1.05-72.54, p = 0.045) were associated with administration of cefiderocol as part of a combined regimen, whereas chronic kidney disease was associated with cefiderocol monotherapy (OR 0.38 for combined regimen, 95% CI 0.16-0.91, p = 0.029). Cumulative 30-day mortality was 19.8%, 45.0%, 20.7%, and 22.7% in patients receiving targeted cefiderocol for infections by Enterobacterales, A. baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and any metallo-beta-lactamase producers, respectively.ConclusionsCefiderocol is mainly used for targeted treatment, although empirical therapies account for more than 25% of prescriptions, thus requiring dedicated standardization and guidance. The almost equal distribution of cefiderocol monotherapy and cefiderocol-based combination therapies underlines the need for further study to ascertain possible differences in efficacy between the two approaches

Influence of Losartan Therapy on Tubular Sodium Kinetics in Mild to Moderate Hypertension

Losartan is a selective antagonist of angiotensin II and it is useful in the therapy of tubular sodium kinetics in mild to moderate hypertension. In this study 30 subjects with mild to moderate hypertension were treated for 2 months with Losartan and were compared to control group of 30 normotensive subjects. Inulin and para aminohippuric acid (PAH) were administered intravenously to both groups, and blood and urine samples were collected every 30 minutes to determine baseline levels of inulin, PAH, lithium, sodium and potassium. A protein meal was given without salt, cereals nor vegetables. After 4 clearance periods were determined. Glomerular filtration rate data from treated and control subjects were not statistically significant. However, lithium clearance, fractional excretion, absolute distal reabsorption of sodium, as well as filtration fraction from Losartan treated and untreated subjects were highly significant at all minutes studied (30-60-90-120, and 180). In this paper we confirm that Losartan can be identified as a drug with high tollerability compared to other compounds of the same class that act on receptor inhibition for the managment of hypertension. </jats:p

Feeding the City. Foodsheds and Urban Agriculture in San Diego

‘Urban Agriculture’ (UA) in its multifaceted forms can give new perspectives to urban revitalization strategies, particularly for fostering social inclusion in contemporary, fragmented communities. The paper aims to explore the most recent general policies in United States and particularly in California both on research and planning practice. Plans, programs and local projects within the general context of ‘healthy food access’, are exploring new strategies to pursue a valuable framework for agricultural re-use and rezoning of vacant and derelict urban areas. The experience within the distressed neighborhood of City Heights in San Diego, CA, shows intriguing potential, matching social inclusion and physical-economic redevelopment

Commercial Local Urban Districts

The CLUDs project intends to explore the potential of a new tool for renovating degraded public spaces improving the attractiveness and accessibility of deprived urban areas by focusing on the high potential of local commercial activities. The implementation is based on a networking of EU universities (Reggio Calabria, Salford, Aalto, Rome) and US universities (Boston, San Diego). The core of this network activity regards Joint research and training activities on two main topics: public/private partnership and urban regeneration. Thanks to the CLUDs project, it has been possible to activate a specific measure of the Operational Program 2007-2013 of the Calabria Region financed by the European Social Fund concerning the empowerment of international research network through the international doctorate “Urban regeneration and Economic development”

A distributed system for two-dimensional gel analysis

The Quest II system is a new two-dimensional (2D) gel analysis software system for the construction and analysis of 2D gel protein databases. A new architectural approach to 2D gel software systems has been utilized. This architecture is based on a tightly coupled client/server model. There are three layers to the system architecture: (i) a database layer consisting of three database servers, (ii) a compute layer consisting of three compute servers and (iii) an extensible user interface layer currently consisting of user interface tools for linearization and merging of scanned images, the segmentation and detection of protein spots on the images, matching, editing, and analysis of gels. The ability to store and retrieve the large volume of spot data inherent in 2D gel analysis while utilizing database technology is demonstrated