bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hair mercury levels and dietary exposure of mercury in relation to fish consumption among coastal population in Negombo, Sri Lanka
Authors: Rathnasuriya M. Ishara , Jinadasa B.K. Kolita K. , Madhujith Terrence
Published: October 2018

Consumption of contaminated fish is the major source of the human exposure to total mercury (T-Hg) and methyl mercury. This study reports the fish consumption habits of three groups based on the age category and their occupation; “Children” (age 9-20 years) and two groups of “Adults” (age above 21 years) based on their occupation; “Adults-Fishermen” (fishermen) and “Adults-Other”. Hair T-Hg levels were measured from 30 individuals (age 9-48 years) from Negombo area in Sri Lanka. All individuals in this survey consumed fish at least six servings per week, which belongs to the high fish consumer category (> 3 servings/week) according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The main fish groups consumed by the respondents were mainly yellow-fin tuna (YFT), skipjack tuna (SKT), kawakawa and frigate tuna and small fish such as sardines (spotted sardines, goldstripe sardine, other sardines, scads and trevallies). The majority consumed an equal amount of big fish and small fish. The average weekly fish consumption per individual varied depending on the test group (Children; 1270 g/week per person, Adults-other; 1078 g/week per person and Adults-fishermen 1852 g/week per person) which exceeded United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) recommended level of 340 g/ week of seafood containing low concentration of Hg. The mean hair T-Hg of respondents of Negombo population was 4.89±3.23 µg/g (range 1.60-13.38 µg/g), which exceeded the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) reference dose (1 µg/g) for T-Hg level of hair. The total hair mercury in three respondent groups (Children 3.33±1.36 µg/g, Adults-other 2.89±1.26 µg/g and Adults-Fishermen 6.08±3.62 µg/g), were not significantly different (p>0.05) from each other. Real exposure value of three respondent groups were not significantly different (p>0.05). There was a low strength positive correlation (r=0.353, p>0.05) between hair T-Hg levels with the weekly large fish consumption.
Influence of hydraulic retention time and amplitude of water level fluctuations on water quality in irrigation reservoirs of the Kala Oya river basin, Sri Lanka
Authors: Nadarajah Sareeha , Wijenayake W.M.H. Kelum , Gunawardane Nuwan D.P. , Amarasinghe Upali S.
Published: October 2018

Management of reservoir water quality is a global challenge due to the natural process of eutrophication and anthropogenic aggravation. In Sri Lanka, irrigation reservoirs support several secondary uses such as fish production, livestock farming, and many communal uses including drinking water supply. In the present study, basic limnological parameters of ten irrigation reservoirs of Sri Lanka were investigated from June 2013 to February 2016, with a view to identifying influence of hydrological regimes on reservoir water quality. Spatio-temporal similarities of water quality parameters were studied employing the self-organizing map (SOM) routine of the artificial neural network application. The sample vectors, classified on the SOM lattice, indicated 6 clusters at 50% similarity level. When reservoir that were categorized according to hydraulic retention time (HRT) and relative reservoir level fluctuation (RRWL; defined as the ratio of the mean reservoir level amplitude to mean depth), were compared with dominant water quality parameters in SOM lattice, it was evident that some productivity-related water quality parameters were influenced HRT and RRWL. The results of the study revealed that HRT and RRWL can essentially be controlled through management of hydrological regimes in irrigation reservoirs, thus, close dialogue between irrigation authorities and other users of reservoir water resources are needed to ensure desired water quality of the reservoirs.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN ASSISTED SURGERY
Authors: Ferrigno Giancarlo , Pedotti Antonio
Published: October 2018

Computer Aided Surgery is opening new scenarios in medicine aimed to improve the patient’s care by advancing the utilisation of computer into surgical practice which have already provided practical application particularly in orthopaedics and neurosurgery. The recent developments in multimodal 3D medical imaging techniques which are providing with great accuracy and the necessary resolution a clear representation on a multiscale basis of the morphological and functional features of the internal organs and tissues constitute the necessary basis. The interdisciplinary collaboration between engineers and physicians provide new concepts and applications in this field derived from digital modelling and simulation methods for the analysis of complex systems, sensors and motion capture technologies, robotics and mechatronics. Three main phases are described in this paper. The preoperative phase where the information derived from multimodal imaging of each patient is processed by proper mathematical models and simulation techniques to identify the best way to operate (surgical planning). The intraoperative phase where the surgeon is assisted by a “virtual fusion” of the preoperative images of the internal organs of the patients with the effective position of operative instruments recorded by proper trackers. Finally the postoperative phase to evaluate the efficacy of the treatments and the patient’s follow up.
COULD THE FULLY IMPLANTABLE LIONHEARTTM BE A FUTURE SOLUTION CONSIDERING THE LIMITED NUMBER OF DONORS FOR CARDIAC TRANSPLANT?
Authors: Viganò Mario , D'Armini Andrea Maria , Pellegrini Carlo , Alloni Alessia
Published: October 2018

Cardiac failure constitutes one of the main health problems in western countries. Despite the recent outstanding progress the pharmaceutical treatment of this condition is not suitable to overcome a great percentage of failures and an insufficient quality of life for many patients. The heart transplantation today is considered the most suitable therapeutic option. However, the limited number of donors compared to the great number of patients on the waiting list constitute a major limitation of this solution. The initial experience on the development of cardiac assist devices conceived as a “bridge to the transplantation” based on mechanical circulatory support has provided encouraging results to use such devices (ventricular assist devices) for a long period which could be considered as an acceptable therapeutic solution. The recent technological developments have made available the necessary miniaturization of the various mechanical components of the system for ventricular assistance and the proper solution for energy supply and control. On the light of the positive results obtained the ventricular assist devices can be considered today a permanent solution for a significant number of patients. This chapter illustrates the first Italian experience on the clinical application of the LionHeart, a totally implantable system for ventricular assistance. A concise description of the system and the surgical technique for implantation are provided and the preliminary results on the short term are discussed. Even considering the limited period of observation, this therapeutic option appears to be safe and suitable for a selected population of patients which cannot be considered proper candidates for heart transplantation.
REGENERATIVE MEDICINE AND TISSUE ENGINEERING
Authors: Cancedda Ranieri
Published: October 2018

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine constitute an emerging multidisciplinary field involving biology, medicine and engineering which is supposed to provide an outstanding contribution to improve the health and quality of life for million of people by restoring, maintaining or enhancing tissue and organ function. In regenerative medicine stem cells are playing a fundamental role: they are characterised by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and differentiating into a diverse range of specialized cell types. The two broad types of mammalian stem cells are embryonic stem cells that are found in blastocysts, and adult stem cells that are found in adult tissues. In the last few years, the use of stem cells has been proposed for tissue engineering. In conjunction with regenerative medicine it represents a new area of research aimed to restore tissues and organs which have been damaged by traumas, tumors, infective or degenerated pathologies. In the present paper, starting from the outstanding improvement of the basic knowledge recently obtained, the perspectives in this field are illustrated considering also the involved ethical issues and particular attention is paid to the financial and organizational problems which stay at the basis of the industrial development of such technologies.
CONCLUSIONS
Authors: Pedotti Antonio
Published: October 2018

Taken all together the papers here presented, behind the specific topic, clearly show how the convergence of medicine and technology represent an highly developing pervasive field of research with relevant implications on our society at different levels. Relevant results can be obtained only by a unique combination of skills and in-depth knowledge in medicine/biology and engineering that enables researchers to identify emerging problems, to define research and development goals and to solve them in a unique way requiring equal expertise in engineering and biomedicine and a true integration of both. There is also a strong shift of focus to the cellular and molecular levels and their integration into the complex systems of higher level structural and functional organization. This emerging scientific paradigm will provide new knowledge as well as a new generation of diagnostics and therapeutics enabling the innovation needed to meet the growing demand for accessible and sustainable health care. Finally the exiting scientific goals combined with the practical applications oriented to fight diseases and to improve human condition make this field particularly attractive to young researchers to whom this initiative is mainly devoted.
GOR’KIJ: UNA CONFESSIONE ALCUNE OSSERVAZIONI
Authors: Bazzarelli Eridano
Published: October 2018

“Una confessione” (“Ispoved”) è il titolo di impronta tolstojana che Gor’kij ha voluto dare a un suo “romanzo breve”, scritto nel 1908. L’opera ha suscitato le critiche di Lenin e dei bolscevichi, perché è la storia di un “cercatore” e “costruttore di Dio”. Secondo l’ideologia di Lenin un bolscevico, come era Gor’kij, non doveva interessarsi alla ricerca di Dio, ma essere ateo e basta. In realtà il movimento dei “cercatori di Dio” fu una vera e propria corrente, che si diffuse proprio nel movimento socialdemocratico negli anni 1907-1910, forse anche come reazione alla sconfitta della rivoluzione del 1905. Del movimento fecero parte personalità che divennero poi importanti nel movimento bolscevico, come Lunačarskij e filosofi come Bogdanov. Il romanzo di Gor’kij, che ha anche una forte impronta anticlericale, è la storia spirituale, tormentata e complessa, di un giovane monaco, o ex-monaco, alla ricerca della verità, e dei suoi molti incontri, positivi e negativi. Fra gli incontri positivi, lona e legudiil. Matvej, il protagonista, diverrà un costruttore di Dio, nella sua autentica fusione col popolo, e con la fede del popolo, che renderà possibile il “miracolo”: una giovane paralizzata riprenderà a camminare.
PERSONAGGI E PODPOL’E SOCIALE NELL’OPERA PRIMA DI GOR’KIJ
Authors: Cazzola Piero
Published: October 2018

Pur coi precedenti di Dostoevskij (Umiliati e offesi, Memorie del sottosuolo), di Leskov (Il viaggiatore incantato, Odnodum, Šeramur) e di Korolenko (L’evaso di Sachalin, In cattiva compagnia), Gor’kij presenta, coi suoi stranniki, brodjagi e bosjaki, il mondo dei primi racconti e bozzetti: da Makar Čudra (1892) a Čelkaš (1895), sino ai personaggi di Na dne (1902) e ai byvšie ljudi (I coniugi Orlov). In questi derelitti, assetati di libertà, che vivono nel podpol’e della società, si ritrovano oltre gli uomini (Konovalov, Vasilij, Emel’jan Piljaj, ecc.), almeno due figure femminili, Mal’va (1897) e la ragazza di Ventisei e una (1899), magistralmente sbozzate. Nei vocaboli podpol’e e dno, citati in vari dizionari antichi e recenti (Dal’, Makarov, Accademia delle Scienze), si cerca l’origine dell’uso fattone in letteratura.
SALUTO DEL PRESIDENTE DELL'ISTITUTO LOMBARDO
Authors: Padoa Schioppa Antonio
Published: October 2018

Non disponibile.
ASPETTI DEL DIBATTITO OTTOCENTESCO PER LA NUOVA FACCIATA DEL DUOMO
Authors: Bellini Amedeo
Published: October 2018

Riassunto. – Nel 1886 venne bandito un concorso internazionale per il progetto di una fronte del Duomo di Milano che diede luogo ad un vivace dibattito sui caratteri stilistici che essa avrebbe dovuto avere. Si contrappongono due gruppi: coloro che giudicano l’edificio opera gotica la cui architettura risente di influenze straniere e ritengono quindi che la nuova fronte dovrà ispirarsi alle grandi cattedrali francesi e tedesche, in particolare avere torri laterali; coloro che invece ritengono l’opera strutturalmente romanico lombardesca, con forme esteriori gotiche, e sostengono una fronte a capanna. Fra questi Luca Beltrami che interpreta e spiega le forme del Duomo utilizzando le teorie di Charles Darwin.***Abstract. – In 1886 was announced the holding of an international competitive examination concerning the design of the front of the Cathedral in Milan, which aroused a lively debate over its stylistic characteristics. Two groups were opposed: those who considered the building a Gothic architecture featuring foreign influences, thus believing that the new front would have to be inspired by the great French and German cathedrals – in particular it would have to have side towers; those, on the contrary, who considered the building structurally a Lombardy Romanesque one with Gothic exterior forms advocated a hut-shaped front. Among these there was Luca Beltrami, who interpreted and explained the Cathedral shapes by employing Charles Darwin’s theories.
SU UNA MALEDIZIONE OSCA: TEONIMO O MATRONIMICO?
Authors: Lazzeroni Romano
Published: October 2018

The “formula” osca. Maternal filiation or identification of the son? The formula matronimica in an oscan defixio (the so-called “curse of Vibia”: Vetter 6) it is not, as Lejeune sustained, an insult addressed to the subject of the curse (“child of demoniessa” or something similar), but it is the indication of the real filiation. The matronimico in the curses is a use present in a very huge area, from the Mediterranean to the Ancient India. The purpose is the right identification of the execrated person.
IN MARGINE AD ALCUNI NUOVI TESTI FALISCHI
Authors: Giacomelli Roberto
Published: October 2018

In three new Faliscan epigraphical texts we find some features of ancient vernacular Latin.
BILINGUES BRUTTACES. IL PLURILINGUISMO DI UNA CITTÀ DELLA MAGNA GRECIA ATTRAVERSO I SUOI TESTI: IL CASO DI PETELIA
Authors: Poccetti Paolo
Published: October 2018

The osco-greek bilingualism in a Bruzio town: Petelia. In the light of both epigraphic and literary texts. A new tabella defixionis from Bruzio suggests new points of reflection on the phenomena of the osco-Greek bilingualism in ancient Calabria. Basing on this very problematic text, we’ll try to analyze how much it can be ascribed to the specific context that has produced him, how much it is referable to the regional environment and, finally, how much it has reverted in a larger network in the circle of Greek and Latin up to the romance development.
SALUTO INIZIALE AL CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE
Authors: Padoa Schioppa Antonio
Published: October 2018

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VERS LA CONSTRUCTION D’UNE SCIENCE ADMINISTRATIVE AU XVIIIE SIÈCLE. L’EXEMPLE DU CADASTRE DE MILAN
Authors: Lebeau Christine
Published: October 2018

Towards the formation of an administrative science in the eighteenth century. The case of the Milan cadaster. The Milan cadaster is the expression of a philosophy and the cornerstone of a theory of taxation that developed through Europe from the mid-18th century. But its significance goes well beyond that. Through Pompeo Neri’s Relazione on the 1750 Milanese Census, the Milanese experience became the benchmark for a proper evaluation on the effectiveness of reforms and a fundamental platform for the new administrative science. The Milanese reforms are a masterpiece of institutional design and ‘virtuous’ incentives. The aim of this essay is to show that the roots of those reforms involve a wide array of intellectual and practical influences.
IL CONTESTO SOCIALE E POLITICO DELL’ILLUMINISMO LOMBARDO
Authors: Capra Carlo
Published: October 2018

The political and social context of the Lombard enlightenment. The dawn of the Lombard enlightenment in the 1760’s was coincidental with the second and more radical wave of Habsburg reforms in the State of Milan, beginning with the adoption on 1st January 1760 of the new fiscal system based on the cadastral survey. In the following decade, new foundations were laid for the relationships between Church and State, a thorough overhaul of legislation and the judiciary was envisaged, new government agencies were established (prominent among them the Supreme Economic Council, chaired by Gian Rinaldo Carli and including Pietro Verri as a councillor), a new and competent bureaucracy replaced patrician rule, and State control was introduced over education, public health, and welfare. Earlier reforms, under Gianluca Pallavicini as plenipotentiary minister, had been largely confined to finance and administration; now the declared goal was public happiness, as described in Lodovico Muratori’s last work. At the same time, political power was decisively shifted from the Milan government to Vienna, where an Italian Department under chancellor Kaunitz’s supervision replaced the old and lethargic Italian Council. Another factor for change was the Seven Years’ War, which proved a hard test for the Austrian Monarchy and thus opened the way to further adjustments of the State machinery both at the centre and in the periphery. Moreover, the diplomatic revolution leading to a rapprochement with Bourbon France had the effect of neutralizing the Italian peninsula, thus making governments more confident and secure in adopting long-range reform policies. Compared with Naples or Florence, Milan was slower in opening itself to the currents of thought radiating from France and to a lesser extent from Britain in the age between Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois and Rousseau’s Contrat social and Nouvelle Éloise. But when it did, it immediately established itself as one of the foremost European centres of the enlightenment, especially in the fields of criminal law and economic science. A peculiar feature of the Milanese experience, which lasted throughout Maria Theresa’s reign, was the close collaboration of leading intellectuals, such as Pietro Verri, Cesare Beccaria and Giuseppe Parini, with the Habsburg government.
GIACINTO DRAGONETTI: LA CENTRALITÀ DELLE VIRTÙ CIVILI E DEI PREMI NELL’ILLUMINISMO NAPOLETANO ED EUROPEO
Authors: Bruni Luigino
Published: October 2018

Giacinto Dragonetti: the central role of civil virtues and rewards in the Neapolitan and European enlightenments. Giacinto Dragonetti, a contemporary of Cesare Beccaria, published in 1766 an anonymous pamphlet on virtues and prizes. He moved from the observation that human beings made countless laws to punish villainies and vices, but not a single one to reward virtues. His proposal was to have, alongside the criminal code, a kind of code for rewards. The pamphlet was a tremendous success, but, differently from Beccaria’s work on crimes and punishments, it ended up being completely forgotten. Attempts by later scholars to revive its fame (such as the one by Melchiorre Gioja in the early nineteenth century) were not successful. Dragonetti is being rediscovered nowadays in the context of the drive towards a new understanding of the relationship between law and economics, a field to which he rightly belongs alongside Beccaria.
SALUTO DEL PRESIDENTE DELL’ISTITUTO LOMBARDO
Authors: Sironi Gianpiero
Published: October 2018

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«MA INFINE NELLA VITA TUTTO È MORTE!» COSA CI RACCONTA IL TROVATORE?
Authors: Della Seta Fabrizio
Published: October 2018

One of the best loved of Verdi’s operas, Il trovatore has accumulated a considerable critical literature, and yet commentators have rarely enquired into its ‘meaning’, apparently out of the conviction that, precisely because it is a pre-eminently ‘popular’ work, it has no particular ideological, social or indeed human message to convey. One received opinion concerning the opera is that it has an obscure libretto: much of the story refers to a prior event that is not presented on stage. We know that Manrico and the Conte di Luna have clashed, but we don’t know how often, or anything about the dynamic of this confrontation, while Manrico’s true identity remains elusive. However, rather than condemning the intrinsic absurdity of Il Trovatore, we would do better to view this as a structural characteristic. The evocation of facts from the past and the lack of clarity concerning their chronological order allude to a temporal structure typical of traditional narrations in which the distinction between before and after and the relationship of cause and effect are ignored. Personal identity is not a problem for the logic of the emotions, which has no knowledge of the principle of non-contradiction, according to Freud’s theory of the unconscious as developed by Ignacio Matte Blanco. In applying this principle to the theory of literature, Francesco Orlando revealed the formal procedures by which the work of art achieves the reinstatement of contents that have been repressed on account of social censorship, attenuating them and disguising them to make them acceptable. This essay argues that in Il Trovatore poet and musician have given scenic and musical form to an idea that is central in Western, and particularly Romantic, imagination, one which Freud reformulated in his maturity: the presence, in human nature, of an inextricable alliance of the urge to live and the death drive (in mythological terms, of Eros and Thanatos). These two impulses are incarnated in variable proportions in all four protagonists, with a progression that culminates in the absolute predominance of the death wish in Leonora. This thesis is verified by means of an analysis focusing on both the verbal components of the drama’s message – including a comparison with the Spanish play on which the opera is based – and the function of the musical components, in particular the virtuoso vocal writing assigned to Leonora. This interpretation requires a revision of the position usually attributed to Il Trovatore in Verdi’s creative development as a retrospective work. Precisely the systematic use of old-fashioned vocal forms and styles denotes a new phase in the composer’s parabola, as the tenacious adhesion to life and love of the heroes of the youthful operas, even when defeated, gives way to the disillusionment and quest for «peace» and «forgetfulness» that characterise Verdi’s mature and last works.
IL SIGNIFICATO DEL BICENTENARIO. COME UNA CONCLUSIONE
Authors: Pestelli Giorgio
Published: October 2018

The meaning of the bicentenary that solemnizes Verdi and Wagner two hundred years after their birth essentially derives from the emotion of facing two personalities extraordinary for their creative energy and inventive continuity. In all fields of art and culture, the late Nineteenth century image is conditioned by their presence. Born the very same year, they both looked for and created by themselves the accomplishments that musicians of the previous generation already possessed when they were barely twenty years old. They reached almost at the same time both the revelation of their personality (Der fliegende Holländer 1841, Nabucco 1842), and the fullness of their artistic means (Rigoletto 1851, Der Rheingold 1853), before attaining the acme of their trajectory with the astonishing operosity of their final years.While the analogy of this parallel course is impressive, the individuality of their creative patrimony is no less strong. This dissimilarity – more than on aesthetic or dramaturgic reasons, such as the distinction between naif and sentimental, or between “melodrama” and “musical drama” – rests on the different environments where it took root, each of them with its own alternative ideas of bourgeois society, of relationship with the public, the contemporary theatre and literature: that’s why it is important today to engage to enlighten the cultural and social contexts in which the genius of the two masters developed.
ORAZIO, O DELLâ€™ARTE DI MANGIAR BENE
Authors: Fedeli Paolo
Published: October 2018

Dans les Satires dâ€™Horace on trouve le tÃ©moignage des diffÃ©rentes typologies du repas des Romains: le poÃ¨te nous dÃ©crit soit le repas frugal (Ofellus: Sat. II 2) soit les raffinements gastronomiques (Catius: Sat. II 4) soit le banquet grandiose (NasidiÃ©nus: Sat. II 8). Quant Ã  Horace, il ne dissimule pas sa prÃ©fÃ©rence pour la nourriture simple et son refus des mets trop soignÃ©s.
Concluding remarks
Authors: Lauria Antonio
Published: October 2018

Not available
VIRTÃ™ E VIZI DELLE BANCHE E DEI BANCHIERI. UNA NOTA INTRODUTTIVA
Authors: Beretta Silvio
Published: October 2018

Banks and bankers are often the subject of controversial appreciations: politicians, economists, biographers and commentators have put it out the potentially negative consequences of their behavior on the welfare of the people and the prosperity of the economies. The consequences of the failures of Florentine bankers in the fourteenth century on the real economy are a significant example of such a negative connection. The ideas of Marx, Schumpeter and Keynes on the function of banks and bankers are then examined. The arguments developed by Keynes in its "Treatise on Money" appear, in this regard, of particular significance. At the present time, finally, and with reference to the Italian economy, the European Unionâ€™s regulatory arrangements give rise to further problems, owing to the differences that still exist among the financial systems of the EU countries and their institutional settings.
FUNZIONI, RISCHI E REGOLAMENTAZIONE DELLâ€™ATTIVITÃ€ BANCARIA
Authors: Mottura Paolo
Published: October 2018

Functions traditionally provided by banks are public utilities: they produce credit, liquidity and money on a large scale. Being central to the financing of the real economy and the functioning of the payments system, they are an essential financial infrastructure of the market economy. Their financial structure is inherently unstable and their equilibrium fragile since the value of their debts reflects the quality of their assets. Their equilibrium depends on owned capital adequacy (absorbing capacity of asset devaluations) and on liquidity reserve adequacy (payment capacity of outstanding obligations). Owned capital and liquidity are mere fractions respectively of risky assets and exigible debt). Adequacy is never absolute and it depends also on market conditions (borrowersâ€™ risks, creditorsâ€™ propensities and exchangeable liquidity) and bankersâ€™ propensity to risk. In fact bankers are entrepreneurs, behave with a sight to profit within a competitive context, and hence try to increase capital and liquidity (costly factors) productivity, exploiting leverage on them. Bankers choices and actions reflect incentives which take financial stability as a mere condition of sustainable equilibrium. Hence the superior need of a banking regulation aimed at stability, now defined prudential, inherently congruent with the assumption that bankersâ€™ conducts might deflect from sound and safe management practices and policies. Up to now bank crises have been resolved by public bail-outs. The recent political choice to insulate public finances from banking failures by promptly bailingin shareholders and creditors of distressed banks should resolve the intrinsic agencymoral hazard problem and prevent that bankers exploit implicit public guarantees and subsidies. However the solution â€“ based also on a substantial strengthening of bank capitalization and liquidity â€“ could substantially hinder factorsâ€™ productivity and banksâ€™ profitability, hence fundamentally the efficiency and functionality of the aforementioned financial infrastructure. The problem of a wise, correct and contingent equilibrium among banks, markets, regulation and public intervention is still as open as ever. Moreover, the deepening interconnectedness among banks, including other financial intermediaries, reveals that risk has become systemic, structural and endemic, which is a matter of further concern.
SALUTO DEL RETTORE DEL POLITECNICO
Authors: Azzone Giovanni
Published: October 2018

Non disponibile
MODELLISTICA NUMERICA: IL PARADIGMA E LE ESPERIENZE AL POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Authors: Quarteroni Alfio
Published: October 2018

Questa presentazione intende fornire una sintetica rassegna dellâ€™attivitÃ  svolta nel Dipartimento di Matematica del Politecnico e nellâ€™Istituto Lombardo in un quarto di secolo in ricerca nellâ€™ambito dei modelli matematici e nelle loro applicazioni in seguito alla fondazione del MOX, Laboratorio di modellistica e calcolo scientifico. Inoltre illustro la collaborazione realizzata con diversi colleghi di altri Dipartimenti del Politecnico, con riferimento ad applicazioni in differenti campi della matematica computazionale. Infine accenno ad alcuni progetti sviluppati dal MOX a livello nazionale ed internazionale in questi ultimi 10 anni.
IL RESTAURO ARCHITETTONICO AL POLITECNICO DI MILANO: Lâ€™APPORTO DI LILIANA GRASSI
Authors: Bellini Amedeo
Published: October 2018

Liliana Grassi, who works since the crucial moment of the post-war reconstruction, in the architectural restoration has to tackle the problem of the use of the language of Modernism, whose conceptual foundations are based on anti-historical authenticity, moving both from the acceptance of the new language and from the refusal to consider it a sort of â€œultimate formal styleâ€, separating it from the social and existential contents on which it was based. Liliana Grassi stays inside the tradition that links restoration to the historical interpretation of architecture from which she infers selective parameters, but in a view that goes beyond the old positivist stand: she shuns the tricky definitions of art and â€œnot artâ€ of the neo-idealistic culture. With great planning sensibility she carries out restorations of cultural and formal excellence, she succeeds in making the old, recuperated with high technical skill, discuss with the new, as it occurs in the old Ospedale Maggiore in Milan.
LAMPI DI LUCE: DAI MILLISECONDI AGLI ATTO SECONDI
Authors: Svelto Orazio
Published: October 2018

Mankind has always been interested in studying the movement of ever faster objects upon using ever shorter light pulses. As a first example of a study of macroscopic samples, mention will be made about the study of a horse, while galloping, as obtained by the photographer Eadweard Muybridge around the end of years â€˜800. He was in fact able to obtain a complete recording of the horse movement upon using an ingenious system of several cameras, placed along the horse racing, equipped with shutters with a record opening time of about 2 millisecond (1 ms=10â€“3 s). About 50 years later (1930) the introduction of flashlamps allowed the achievement of light pulses with duration of about one microsecond (1 Î¼s=10â€“6 s). Upon using flashlamps in a repetitive mode, it was then possible to record the movement of much smaller and hence much faster objects (e.g. a bullet while crossing an apple or the fast movement of a golf player while hitting the golf ball). It was, however, only after the invention of the laser (T.H. Maiman, 1960) that people became able to generate much shorter light pulses. From initial pulse durations (middle of years â€˜60) of about 10 picosecond (1 ps= 10â€“12 s), one could then generate (during years â€™90) laser light pulses of a few femtoseconds (1 fs=10â€“15 s) down the present values of about 70 attoseconds (1 as=10â€“18 s). During all these years after laser invention, the research group at the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano, leaded by the author of the present paper, has always been at the forefront of the international research to generate and utilize laser pulses of ever shorter duration. After the introduction of the first laser at the Politecnico di Milano at the beginning of 1963 (more than 50 years ago!), the research group was able to obtain light pulses of about 5 picoseconnds in 1969, a record value for that time. The same group then obtained record values of light pulses of about 4,5 femtoseconds, at the end of years â€™90, and of only 130 attoseconds around the middle of years 2000. Ultrashort laser pulses have been used, throughout all these years, by a large number of international groups to investigate the ultrafast dynamic behavior of molecules, molecular complexes, and solid state nanoscopic materials (such as quantum wells and quantum dots). As a representative example, some discussion will be presented about a recent work made by the research group of Politecnico about the retinal contained in the rodospin protein, a basic element for human vision.
UMANESIMO MODERNO E CULTURA PRODUTTIVA
Authors: Spinazzola Vittorio
Published: October 2018

Thanks to its wealth and to its proactive role in the modernization of book culture, Milan has been the main hub in processes of cultural integration as well as the undisputed capital of the Italian publishing industry. In fact, it was in the metropolis of Lombardy that major transformations in consumption and production of literary works took place, which led to the predominance of the prose fiction over poetry within the Italian literary system. A key event in this perspective was the 1827 publication of the very bourgeois novel I promessi sposi. In recent times, Milan has been reasserting its hegemonic role as the main site for the production of literary and audio-visual entertainment.
LA â€œCITTÃ€ PIÃ™ CITTÃ€ Dâ€™ITALIAâ€ E Lâ€™ESPOSIZIONE DEL 1881
Authors: Rosa Giovanna
Published: October 2018

Considered within the long process through which Milan has become a â€œcity of exhibitionsâ€, the â€œMostra nazionale delle Arti e dellâ€™Industriaâ€ 1881 is of crucial relevance. On that occasion, twenty years after the countryâ€™s unification, the roaring Excelsior Ball in the background, Milan displayed its self-portrait in the pavilions under the motto â€œLabor vincit omniaâ€, standing as â€œmoral capital of Italyâ€. Such an ambitious project relied on a series of volumes â€“ Mediolanum (Vallardi), Milano 1881 (Ottino), Milano e i suoi dintorni (Civelli), â€“ offering the radiant image of a close and hard-working community. In this perspective, such a close collaboration between the ruling class and Milan-based intellectuals during the exhibition represented a model: promoted by a state-of-the-art publishing industry, the initiative fostered a synergy between the educated members of society, be them Milan-born or adoptive, who gathered in institutional venues as well as within the â€œrepubblica della carta sporcaâ€. Writers and journalists, engineers and economists, technicians and scientists, engravers and artists were all committed to sketch the portrait of the â€œcittÃ  piÃ¹ cittÃ  dâ€™Italiaâ€ (Verga). They all stood on the common ground provided by a sound value system, never giving way to bombastic statements, and by the shared interests of a modern civil society: a common ground made firmer by the Enlightenment and Romantic tradition and a Smilesian confidence in positivist culture. Milanâ€™s hard-working ethics is well summarized in the slogans of Milanese pride: initiative, inter-class solidarity, lay tolerance and charitable philanthropy; a strong tie to â€œcose serie, cose sodeâ€; an idea of progress meant as cautious evolution; the promotion of a wide-ranging knowledge able to combine the humanities with â€œutili cognizioniâ€, strongly suspicious of any kind of abstraction. Common sense, intended as the combination of balance and integrity, was considered as the rule of daily life, while the public sphere was governed by an efficient local government priding itself on being miles away from the idle talk of the political capital. Recovering Cattaneoâ€™s motto - â€œconvertire il mondo moderno in mondo nostroâ€ - the â€œmoral capitalâ€ rose to the challenge of industrial progress within the European context, against any form of short-sighted and regressive entrenchment.
RISORGIMENTO E MODERNITÀ DAI CONGRESSI DEGLI SCIENZIATI ALLE ESPOSIZIONI POSTUNITARIE
Authors: Lacaita Carlo G.
Published: October 2018

During the 19. Century both the scientific congresses and the industrial exhibitions contributed to the collective consciousness-raising of the changes due to the technical-scientific progress and the diffusion of the industrialization and modernization in wider terms. This paper analyzes the connection, both before than after 1861, between these aspects of modernity and the Risorgimento movement, and highlights how, together with the unity and political indipendence of the country, the men of Risorgimento pursued the integration of Italy in the “modern civilization” and its active participation to the big “progresses of the century”.
LE ARTI DECORATIVE ALLE GRANDI ESPOSIZIONI MILANESI, 1881, 1894, 1906: UNO SGUARDO CRITICO
Authors: Selvafolta Ornella
Published: October 2018

Purpose of the essay is to highlight the role of the decorative arts in nineteenth-century design culture using the “looking glass” of the great Milan exhibitions held in the decades between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the National and Artistic Exhibition of 1881, through the United Expositions of 1894, to the Sempione International Exhibition of 1906, decorative and/or applied arts, in their variety of products, materials and techniques, have represented substantial parts of the events, often contributing to their cultural and economic success. The above three major exhibitions are therefore significant fields of study as regards the products characteristics and their critical appraisals, enabling to consider some significant aspects of their history: such as the relationship between tradition and innovation, theory and practice, stylistic changes and the evolution of taste, during a time span that can be considered seminal for the renewal of the decorative arts and the foreshadowing of modern design.
Charts for measuring azimuth and distance and for tracing seismic rays through the Earth
Authors: Willmore P L , Hodgson J H
Published: October 2018

The paper presents two charts which are of help in seismology. With the aid of the first chart the distance between any two points on the earth and their relative azimuths can be determined with an accuracy sufficient for most seismological problems. The second
chart enables one to trace rays through the earth's mantle, and is of help in studies which involve the relationship between depth of penetration and point of emergence. It is used to exhibit a complicated cusp arrangement associated with the phase pP.
A View of Ancient Aroma Culture through Museum-Collected Aroma Utensils
Authors: Qin Hong
Published: October 2018

Aroma fumigation is one of the traditional Chinese fumigating therapies. Moreover, the aroma culture is a combination of traditional Chinese medicine culture with Confucian and folk cultures. As historical marks, medical relics such as aroma utensils, herbs, and books can reflect the development and prosperity of aroma culture in history.
Professor Jan Marian Małecki (1926-2017): In Memoriam
Authors: Gąsiorowski Stefan
Published: October 2018

Jan Małecki was a historian and rector of the the Kraków Academy of Economics. While his most important research was devoted to economic history, his achievements also included works related to the grand synthesis of Polish history, methodology, source studies, bibliography, and biography. In the 1985/1986 academic year, together with two other scholars, he began an open series of lectures in the Institute of History at the Jagiellonian University entitled ‘Jews in Polish History’. He was the author of a number of academic papers on the history of the Jewish community in Poland in both Polish and English. Of particular importance are his extensive source entries from Kraków customs registers concerning Jewish trade at the end of the 16th century and start of the 17th century, published by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Małecki also popularized Jewish issues by including them in his numerous publications on the economic history of Poland and the history of Kraków. For many years, he also promoted Jewish studies outside of the Jagiellonian University and the Kraków University of Economics and reviewed numerous works of other scholars for degrees and publishing houses. In 2016, he was granted the Father Stanisław Musiał Award for his work on the history and culture of the Jewish community in Poland.
Multi-year chemical composition of the fine-aerosol fraction in Athens, Greece, with emphasis on the contribution of residential heating in wintertime
Authors: Theodosi Christina , Tsagkaraki Maria , Zarmpas Pavlos , Grivas Georgios , Liakakou Eleni , Paraskevopoulou Despina , Lianou Maria , Gerasopoulos Evangelos , Mihalopoulos Nikolaos
Published: October 2018

Abstract. In an attempt to take effective action towards mitigating pollution episodes
in Athens, precise knowledge of PM2.5 composition and its sources is a
prerequisite. Thus, a 2-year chemical composition dataset from aerosol
samples collected in an urban background site in central Athens from
December 2013 to March 2016 has been obtained and a positive matrix
factorization (PMF) was applied in order to identify and apportion fine
aerosols to their sources. A total of 850 aerosol samples were collected on
a 12 to 24 h basis and analyzed for major ions, trace elements, and organic and
elemental carbon, allowing us to further assess the impact of residential
heating as a source of air pollution over Athens. The ionic and carbonaceous components were found to constitute the major
fraction of the PM2.5 aerosol mass. The annual contribution of the ion
mass (IM), particulate organic mass (POM), dust, elemental carbon (EC), and
sea salt (SS) was calculated at 31 %, 38 %, 18 %, 8 %, and
3 %, respectively, and exhibited considerable seasonal variation. In
winter, the share of IM was estimated down to 23 %, with POM + EC being the dominant component accounting for 52 % of the PM2.5 mass,
while in summer, IM (42 %) and carbonaceous aerosols (41 %)
contributed almost equally. Results from samples collected on a 12 h basis (day and night) during the
three intensive winter campaigns indicated the impact of heating on the
levels of a series of compounds. Indeed, PM2.5, EC, POM,
NO3-, C2O42-, non sea salt (nss) K+ and selected trace metals
including Cd and Pb were increased by up to a factor of 4 in the night
compared to the day, highlighting the importance of heating on air quality in
Athens. Furthermore, in order to better characterize wintertime aerosol
sources and quantify the impact of biomass burning on PM2.5 levels,
source apportionment was performed. The data can be interpreted on the basis
of six sources, namely biomass burning (31 %), vehicular emissions
(19 %), heavy oil combustion (7 %), regional secondary (21 %),
marine aerosols (9 %), and dust particles (8 %). Regarding
night-to-day patterns their contributions shifted from 19 %, 19 %,
8 %, 31 %, 12 %, and 10 % of the PM2.5 mass during day
to 39 %, 19 %, 6 %, 14 %, 7 %, and 7 % during the
night, underlining the significance of biomass burning as the main
contributor to fine particle levels during nighttime in winter.
Polyols and glucose particulate species as tracers of primary biogenic organic aerosols at 28 french sites
Authors: Samake Abdoulaye , Jaffrezo Jean-Luc , Favez Olivier , Weber Samuël , Jacob Véronique , Albinet Alexandre , Riffault Véronique , Perdrix Esperanza , Waked Antoine , Golly Benjamin , Salameh Dalia , Chevrier Florie , Oliveira Diogo Miguel , Besombes Jean-Luc , Martins Jean M. F. , Conil Sébastien , Guillaud Géraldine , Meshba Boualem , Rocq Benoit , Robic Pierre-Yves , Hulin Agnès , Le Meur Sébastien , Descheemaecker Maxence , Chretien Eve , Uzu Gaëlle
Published: October 2018

Abstract. A growing number of studies are using specific primary sugar species, such as sugar alcohols or primary saccharides, as marker compounds to characterize and apportion primary biogenic organic aerosols (PBOA) in the atmosphere. To better understand their annual cycles, as well as their spatio-temporal abundance in terms of concentrations and sources, we conducted a large study focusing on three major atmospheric primary sugar compounds (i.e. arabitol, mannitol and glucose) measured in various environmental conditions on about 5,300 filter samples collected at 28 sites in France. Our results show significant atmospheric concentrations of polyols (defined here as the sum of arabitol and mannitol) and glucose at each sampling location, highlighting their ubiquity. Results also confirm that polyols and glucose are mainly associated with the coarse rather than the fine aerosol mode. At nearly all sites, atmospheric concentrations of polyols and glucose display a well-marked seasonal pattern, with maximum concentrations from late spring to early autumn, followed by an abrupt decrease in late autumn, and a minimum concentration during wintertime. Such seasonal patterns support biogenic emissions associated with higher biological metabolic activities (e.g. sporulation, growth, etc.) during warmer periods. Results from a previous comprehensive study using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) based on an extended aerosol chemical composition dataset of up to 130 species for 16 of the same sample series has also been used in the present work. Results show that PBOA are significant sources of total OM in PM10 (13 ± 4 % on a yearly average, and up to 40 % in some environments in summer) at most of the investigated sites. The mean PBOA chemical profile is clearly dominated by OM (78 ± 9 % of the mass of the PBOA PMF factor on average), suggesting that ambient polyols are most likely associated with biological particle emissions (e.g. active spore discharge) rather than soil dust resuspension.
The interference of tetrachloromethane in the measurement of benzene in air by Gas Chromatography - Photoionization Detector (GC-PID)
Authors: Romero Cristina , González María Esther , Doval Marta , González Enrique
Published: October 2018

Abstract. The European Union requires that the benzene in air is measured due to its toxic characteristics and widespread presence in the population nuclei, motivated by vehicle emissions. The reference measuring technique is by gas chromatography (GC). For practical and safety reasons it is recommended that a photometric ionisation detector (PID) is used. The automatic chromatographs used in the monitoring stations must verify the operating conditions in the standard EN 14662:2005 part 3, which describes the Type Approval Tests. One of the tests determines possible interferences, including by tetrachloromethane (TCM). Part 3 of the cited standard was modified in 2015, eliminating TCM as a possible interferer. Given that some studies ensure the presence of said product in air, there has been considerable interest in testing different mixtures of benzene and TCM. This study has shown that the simultaneous presence of benzene and TCM causes a significant decrease in the first GC-PID readings. For TCM concentrations of 0.7 μg/m3 (typical of urban areas) and 4.5 μg/m3 (detected in the vicinity of landfills), the relative errors in benzene concentration were 34 and 70 %, respectively, which are of unacceptable quality for the measurement of benzene. Possible mechanisms have been proposed to qualitatively and quantitatively explain what happens in the PID with benzene alone and in the presence of TCM. Given the significant impact of the interferer, it is important to open a discussion forum to address this issue.