Monte Dei Paschi Research Articles

Fast Spatiotemporal Correlation Spectroscopy to Determine Protein Lateral Diffusion Laws in Live Cell Membranes

Fast Spatiotemporal Correlation Spectroscopy to Determine Protein Lateral Diffusion Laws in Live Cell Membranes

THE SIENESE LIBRARY FUND “PICHI-SERMOLLI”

The private library of the botanist Rodolfo Pichi Sermolli (b. Florence, 1912 - d. there 2005) was acquired in 2008 by the Accademia dei Fisiocritici with the support of the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, thus adding 900 volumes and 9000 miscellaneous items of scientific and cultural value to the library of the Accademia (specialized in scientific matters), which already vanted about 35,000 volumes published since XVI century, 160 current journals, 1000 defunct journals, and 21 private collections donated in the XX century. After getting his degree in Natural Sciences at the Università di Firenze, Rodolfo E.G. Pichi Sermolli had a brilliant career as scientist, explorer, and university professor at various italian universities including that of Siena and the Università di Perugia, from which he retired as Professor Emeritus. He became one of the leading world experts in pteridology (the study of ferns) and on the tropics, a topic to which he made memorable contributions including the book, Missione di Studio al Lago Tana (Investigations of Lake Tana) published by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in 1951. He was also the recipient of national and international awards and posts. Aside from his scientific papers published in international journals, he left a 25,000 - sample fern herbarium with its associ- ated library (bought by the Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Università di Firenze) and a personal library, which, with its ample collection of books, maps, atlases and assorted documents, is what now makes up the Fondo Pichi Sermolli in the Academia’s Library. Just to mention a few items it contains, there are books describing daring explorations and important discoveries in tropical lands by O. Beccari, G. Dainelli, R. Jeannel, A. Auberville, and R. Pichi Sermolli himself. Another important group are books regarding Linnaeus by V.B. Wittrock, B. Soulsby et al., D.F.L. Von Schelektendal, among many others. Special mention should be made of the in folio The Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland, by Thomas Moore, published by Brad- bury and Evans, London, 1855, valuable not only for its scientific merit but especially for its vivid plates made by impressions of ferns obtained by technique of “Nature Printing” and then hand painted.

Painted for the ear: Ambrogio Lorenzetti's “Fraud” and political oratory

Painted for the ear: Ambrogio Lorenzetti's “Fraud” and political oratory

The role of water in the restoration of paintings

Cleaning old paintings has always been a major problem, because aqueous solutions may dissolve pigments. We succeeded in cleaning some precious old paintings of Siena using aqueous products. This success encour- ages us to clean a Lorenzetti masterpiece in the near future. The techniques used and a possible explanation of the surprising result are discussed in the light of recent insights into the physics of water. In the present paper we discuss the cleaning of some old paintings of the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena (Museum of Sienese Paintings). The present study is part of the project 'Ricerca Applicata alle Pellicole Pittoriche delle Opere Policrome della Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena', carried out in col- laboration with Siena University and the Superintendent of Historical, Artistic and Ethnoanthropological Heritage of the Provinces of Siena and Grosseto (National Art Gallery), financed by the Monte dei Paschi (MPS) Foundation (2006-2008), having the objective of interdis- ciplinary study of recent noninvasive methods of cleaning surfaces painted with protein-based materials. An advantage of these methods is their low toxicity for restorers. The first work cleaned was a tempera on wood attributed to Niccolo di Buonaccorso (Fig. 1). It is an altar piece, probably made for private use, measuring 110 × 75 cm and depicting scenes from the New Testament around a central crucifixion. It is crowned by a lozenge showing the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and completed by a false predella depicting various saints (1-4). The painting was restored in the 1930s and the painted surface was in good condition, except for sporadic areas of colour sealed with beeswax. The support was also in good condition, except for a crack running the whole length on the left side. Near the main gaps in the surface and the gilt frame, there were many touch ups and patches of false gold (porporina).

Optical Aberrations in Pseudophakic Eyes After 2.5-mm Nd:YAG Laser Capsulotomy for Posterior Capsule Opacification

To evaluate aberrometric outcomes in eyes with posterior capsule opacification after 2.5-mm Nd: YAG laser capsulotomy compared to pseudophakic eyes without posterior capsule opacification. Photographic image analysis of posterior capsule opacification was performed on 36 eyes that showed advanced posterior capsule opacification (case group) and on 36 eyes which showed absence of posterior capsule opacification (control group). Best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) and wavefront analysis were performed in the control group and in the case group after 2.5-mm capsulotomy. Mean BSCVA in the case group after treatment was significantly higher than before treatment (P < .05) and similar to the BSCVA in the control group (P > .1). Aberrometric analysis was performed on the control group, but light scattering prevented the analysis in posterior capsule opacification before capsulotomy, which was then performed after the intervention in 18 (50%) eyes. Mean total high order aberrations and 3rd order aberrations were significantly higher in the case group than in the control group (P < .05). Fourth and 5th order aberration values were similar between the case and control groups (P > .06). Our wavefront results can detect a deterioration of visual quality in patients that underwent a 2.5-mm Nd:YAG capsulotomy compared to pseudophakic patients not affected by posterior capsule opacification. This difference cannot be detected by standard visual acuity examination. Further study is needed to clarify whether our high order aberration findings were related to small, 2.5-mm capsulotomies and whether aberrometry may be indicative for mild to moderate posterior capsule opacification.

Advances in the ecology of serpentine soils

UltramaWc rocks (typically known as ‘serpentines’ in the botanical and ecological literature), and the soils derived from them, are widely distributed throughout the globe across all climatic zones. They produce specialised habitats with extreme edaphic conditions and frequently host unique plant communities and ‘islands’ of biodiversity with many restricted and endemic taxa, the most famous of which are the nickel hyperaccumulator plants. Because of these characteristics, serpentines continue to attract the interests of plant ecologists, evolutionaty biologists and environmental physiologists. In 1991, scientists studying ultramaWc sites Wrst gathered together on an international scale to share their research Wndings at a conference at the University of California, Davis, USA. The success of that Wrst conference, along with its attendant Weld trip to local ultramaWc sites, inspired the group to continue with successive international conferences. The following were subsequently hosted in widely separated sites with nearby ultramaWc locales: Noumea, New Caledonia (1995), Kruger National Park in South Africa (1999) and at the National Botanical Garden in Havana, Cuba in 2003. The 2006 conference was held in Europe for the Wrst time, at the University of Siena, Italy. This conference attracted 110 delegates and oVered the opportunity to discuss developments in the many diVerent aspects of the ecological investigation of serpentine soils, from the ecophysiological to the community and biogeographical levels. In this Special Issue of Plant and Soil, 17 papers carefully selected from among the oral presentations and the posters oVered at this conference under its main themes, are brought together to provide an insight into recent advances in the ecology of serpentine soils. As Guest Editors of this Special Issue, we would like to thank all the institutions and companies that supported the organisation of the conference. Among them, in particular we would like to acknowledge the Regional Administration of Tuscany, notably its President, Claudio Martini and its delegate for the Environment, Marino Artusa; the University of Siena, especially Rector Silvano Focardi and all colleagues and friends who assisted with the organisation of the conference and Weld visits; the Bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena; the Provinces of Arezzo, Parma and Prato; the municipalities of Siena, Fornovo Taro and A. Chiarucci (&) Department of Environmental Science, University of Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli, 4, Siena, 53100, Italy e-mail: chiarucci@unisi.it

Integrating methods for the environmental sustainability: The SPIn-Eco Project in the Province of Siena (Italy)

This paper shows how different methods can be integrated in order to provide an organic evaluation of the environmental sustainability at the territorial level. A territory is a complex, dynamic and open system where a population develops, uses resources, produces goods and services, consumes, depletes and finally obtains economic results. All these elements characterise human behaviour, which can be monitored, measured and compared to the capacity of the environment to sustain it in the long run. The SPIn-Eco Project for the Province of Siena (Italy) is described as an example of an environmental sustainability assessment of an area, and its methods (Ecological Footprint, Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Extended Exergy Analysis, Emergy Evaluation, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Remote Sensing) are briefly introduced. This Project has been proposed and funded by the most important provincial administrative and financial institutions in the territory (the Administration of the Province of Siena and the Monte dei Paschi Foundation, respectively), and was designed and realised in 4 years (2001–2004) by a research team coordinated by the University of Siena.

Risk Mapping and Key Risk Indicators in Operational Risk Management

In this article I describe a methodology for the mapping of Operational Risk with the objective of identifying the risks inherent in the different steps of a business process, selecting a set of variables providing an estimate for the likelihood and the severity of operational risk (Key Risk Indicators - KRIs) and designing the most appropriate control activities. I then present two examples of how the methodology described can be applied to map risks and of how a set of relevant KRIs can be identified in the front office of a trading business and in the back office of a lending business. Finally, I discuss how the information conveyed by the KRIs can be organised and summarised in order to provide a comprehensive look at the risk profile of the various business lines. The structured presentation of KRIs covering the business processes of a bank is what we call an Operational Risk Scorecard. Copyright Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, 2005

Modelling Operational Losses: A Bayesian Approach

AbstractThe exposure of banks to operational risk has increased in recent years. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (known as Basel II) has established a capital charge to cover operational risks other than credit and market risk. According to the advanced methods defined in ‘The New Basel Capital Accord’ to quantify the capital charge, in this paper we present an advanced measurement approach based on a Bayesian network model that estimates an internal measure of risk of the bank. One of the main problems faced when measuring the operational risk is the scarcity of loss data. The methodology proposed solves this critical point because it allows a coherent integration, via Bayes' theorem, of different sources of information, such as internal and external data, and the opinions of ‘experts’ (process owners) about the frequency and the severity of each loss event. Furthermore, the model corrects the losses distribution by considering the eventual relations between different nodes of the network that represent the losses of each combination of business line/event type/bank/process and the effectiveness of the corresponding internal and external controls. The operational risk capital charge is quantified by multiplying the value at risk (VaR) per event, a percentile of the losses distribution determined, by an estimate of the number of losses that may occur in a given period. Furthermore, it becomes possible to monitor the effectiveness of the internal and external system controls in place at the bank. The methodology we present has been experimented as a pilot project in one of the most important Italian banking groups, Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Preventing Systemic Crises through Bank Transparency

The banking system is known to be vulnerable to self‐fulfilling crises that are caused by depositors’ co‐ordination failure. We show that transparency regulation may prevent certain types of systemic crisis by eliminating the possibility of coordination failure. (J.E.L.: G21, G28).

On Studying Public Budgets

Editors' Note: The articles included in this section of the journal are revised versions of the papers presented at the conference on “Major Budgetary Problems in the Eighties” held in Siena, Italy, November 4–5, 1981, under the auspices of the Centro Studi Fondazione Adriano Olivetti, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Gruppo Monte dei Paschi di Siena.