Territory Of Italy Research Articles

Italian Organized Crime since 1950

Italian mafias—Cosa Nostra, Camorra, and ‘Ndrangheta—are long-lived, resilient organizations that have evolved to adapt to environmental changes. They have different organizational models. While Cosa Nostra (in the past) and ‘Ndrangheta are characterized by a unitary, vertical structure and higher-level coordination bodies, Camorra has a plurality of organizational models; the majority of clans maintain a structure that is fluid, polycentric, and conflictual. In general, mafias with a vertical organizational order have greater control over conflict, and greater capacity to resist state power. The ‘Ndrangheta has become the richest and most powerful of the three, replacing Cosa Nostra in international drug trafficking. It is able to reproduce its organizational structures and business model in new territories in Italy and elsewhere. In contrast, owing to unprecedented law enforcement efforts in recent decades, Cosa Nostra is weaker, down but not out. Camorra continues to be the most violent mafia, committing more homicides than the other two combined. Consistent with their adaptive capacity, mafias in new areas of expansion are treated as novel agents that can provide extralegal services and business opportunities. They are sought out by entrepreneurs, white-collar professionals, and local politicians to solve problems such as debt collection, labor unrest, and disputes with suppliers.

Impact of Xylella fastidiosa subspecies pauca in European olives

Xylella fastidiosa is the causal agent of plant diseases that cause massive economic damage. In 2013, a strain of the bacterium was, for the first time, detected in the European territory (Italy), causing the Olive Quick Decline Syndrome. We simulate future spread of the disease based on climatic-suitability modeling and radial expansion of the invaded territory. An economic model is developed to compute impact based on discounted foregone profits and losses in investment. The model projects impact for Italy, Greece, and Spain, as these countries account for around 95% of the European olive oil production. Climatic suitability modeling indicates that, depending on the suitability threshold, 95.5 to 98.9%, 99.2 to 99.8%, and 84.6 to 99.1% of the national areas of production fall into suitable territory in Italy, Greece, and Spain, respectively. For Italy, across the considered rates of radial range expansion the potential economic impact over 50 y ranges from 1.9 billion to 5.2 billion Euros for the economic worst-case scenario, in which production ceases after orchards die off. If replanting with resistant varieties is feasible, the impact ranges from 0.6 billion to 1.6 billion Euros. Depending on whether replanting is feasible, between 0.5 billion and 1.3 billion Euros can be saved over the course of 50 y if disease spread is reduced from 5.18 to 1.1 km per year. The analysis stresses the necessity to strengthen the ongoing research on cultivar resistance traits and application of phytosanitary measures, including vector control and inoculum suppression, by removing host plants.

From sewers to stars

Phase 2 can be monitored, following the viral load dosing curves in urban waste water, as the SARS-COV2 virus can be traced into the fecal material. This low-cost method can be moved upstream for a strict control of smaller areas. The city of Naples has a capillary network of sewers, which allow a much finer tracing. The method could be expanded to all the territory of Italy and also to other countries.

«How I portrayed it as natural». The Southern Italy between Sketches and Descriptive Notes in the Chronicle of Journey by Jérome Maurand (1544)

In 1544 the Provencal priest Jerome Maurand traveled on French galleys following the Ottoman fleet commanded by Khair-ad-din known as Barbarossa. Of this trip, which lasted about six months, he wrote an accurate manuscript account, containing the narration of events, including the assaults of the Ottoman army to the Spanish territories in Italy, but also the description of lands and cities observed during the voyage. Maurand produces for many of these natural views, among which are significant those related to the southern Italy. In fact, for these regions, compared to a few cities for which there is a very large figurative and descriptive repertoire, there are almost unknown places. These sites are far from the usual itinerary and routes, for which the view - at least until the explosion of interest in the Grand Tour - is rare or even nonexistent, so that every new contribution proves significant in terms of documentary testimony.

Irredentist Actions of the Slovenian Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists (ORJUNA) in Italy and Austria (1922-1930)

This paper aims to examine and analyse the documentation available in the Slovenian Historical Archives and the Croatian State Archives as well as the strategic plans and projects described on the pages of the ORJUNA printed pamphlets and bulletins in order to determine the ideological tenets that formed the basis of the foreign policy as conceived by the Organisation of Yugoslav Nationalists (the ORJUNA). The focus of this paper will be on the irredentist actions taken by the Slovenian branch of the ORJUNA, carried out in the territories of Italy (Trieste, Gorizia, and Istria) and Austria (Carinthia). Special attention will be paid to the ORJUNAVIT (Organisation of Yugoslav Nationalists in Italy) and Fantovska zveza (Slovenian Boys Union) organisations, which were effectively the instruments of the ORJUNA, carrying out its activities in the territories of Italy and Austria. The expansionist ideas that were part of the ORJUNA ideological constructs and their implementation, as manifested through irredentist actions carried out in the territory of Yugoslavia’s neighbouring countries, were firmly rooted in the fundamental ideological foundations of this movement and the specific historical circumstances in which it emerged. The ORJUNA ideologists presented their expansionist agenda to create a Greater Yugoslavia, extending over a vast territory from Varna to Trieste and from Szeged to Thessaloniki, as the ultimate result of the struggle to create a unified and all-encompassing ethnic body of South Slavs. Guided by the imperative of preserving the ethnic identity of the Slovenian population in the provinces bordering on Italy and Austria, the ORJUNA leadership promoted the systematic use of organised violence as the basic tool in the struggle to achieve its goals. Due to the restrained and legitimately-oriented official foreign policy of the Yugoslav governments, as well as in light of the armed resistance of the Italian and Austrian official security forces and paramilitaries, the leadership of the ORJUNA failed to achieve its foreign-political goals through the use of terror. On the other hand, the expansionist ideas that were one of the essential tenets of the ORJUNA’s ideology remained a part of the ideological concepts embraced by all far-right movements for the Yugoslav integralism in the interwar period, which, with slight modifications, adopted the ideological constructs advocated by the ORJUNA.

Serum uric acid and fatal myocardial infarction: detection of prognostic cut-off values: The URRAH (Uric Acid Right for Heart Health) study.

The Working Group on Uric Acid and Cardiovascular Risk of the Italian Society of Hypertension conceived and designed an ad-hoc study aimed at searching for prognostic cut-off values of serum uric acid (SUA) in predicting fatal myocardial infaction (MI) in women and men. The URic acid Right for heArt Health study is a nationwide, multicentre, observational cohort study involving data on individuals aged 18-95 years recruited on a regional community basis from all the territory of Italy under the patronage of the Italian Society of Hypertension with a mean follow-up period of 122.3 ± 66.9 months. A total of 23 467 individuals were included in the analysis. Cut-off values of SUA able to discriminate MI status were identified by mean of receiver operating characteristic curves in the whole database (>5.70 mg/dl), in women (>5.26 mg/dl) and in men (>5.49 mg/dl). Multivariate Cox regression analyses adjusted for confounders (age, arterial hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, smoking habit, ethanol intake, BMI, haematocrit, LDL cholesterol and use of diuretics) identified an independent association between SUA and fatal MI in the whole database (hazard ratio 1.381, 95% confidence intervals, 1.096-1.758, P = 0.006) and in women (hazard ratio 1.514, confidence intervals 1.105-2.075, P < 0.01), but not in men. The results of the current study confirm that SUA is an independent risk factor for fatal MI after adjusting for potential confounding variables, and demonstrate that a prognostic cut-off value associated to fatal MI can be identified at least in women.

One day is not as good as another\u2026at least not across the entire territory of Italy: an analysis of the differences in the daily distribution of births across Italian macro-regions, 1999\u20132016

The concentration of births on working days compared to a relative lack of events at weekends or during public holidays has been interpreted in literature as evidence of an excessive appeal to elective delivery. The World Health Organization has repeatedly expressed concerns about the abuse of this practice. We investigate the daily distribution of births in Italy in the period 1999–2016 to answer the following question: In addition to the weekend effects found in other countries, do popular beliefs about “unlucky” days also influence the calendar of births?We assume that without the effects exerted by the working calendar and/or by popular beliefs, the births should be equally distributed between the days of a month. We interpret the equal distribution as the expected one. This allows us to calculate a daily excess of births with respect to the expected number. We evaluate, by the means of multivariate regression, the impact of public holidays and of popular beliefs on the daily excess of births. In addition to working calendar effects, we found a depressing effect exerted by the 17th day of each month in all Italian territories. Indeed, the number 17 is considered extremely unlucky by popular tradition in Italy. We believe that these findings are indicative of a systemic abuse of elective delivery, especially in Southern Italy. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to analyze the effect of irrational beliefs on the calendar of births.

Endophytic fungal communities of ancient wheat varieties

The fungal community composition and structure of two ancient tetraploid wheat varieties, native to the Sicilian territory of Italy, Perciasacchi (winter wheat) and Tumminia (spring wheat) were investigated using High Throughput Sequencing (HTS). This showed a predominance of Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes including Alternaria , Fusarium , Mycosphaerella, Filobasidium, Cystofilobasidium, Cryptococcus , Leucosporidium , Dioszegia, Puccinia , Sporobolomyces, Aureobasidium, Cladosporium, Holtermanniella and Gibberella . Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) and Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) showed that Aureobasidium, Leucosporidium and Puccinia differentiated between the two wheat varieties. In addition, the microbial association analysis suggested that some endophytic taxa play important roles within the wheat fungal community. Genera such as Cryptococcus and Cystofilobasidium were shown to have consistent antagonistic activity against Gibberella spp., while, Acremonium and a group of unidentified ascomycetes had mutual exclusion relationships with Puccinia. Since both Gibberella and Puccinia contain several economically important pathogens of wheat, the detected fungal interactions may indicate microbial-mediated resistance in these wheat varieties.

Urban inequalities in Italy: a comparison between Rome, Milan and Naples

The aim of this paper is to examine the spatial distribution of socioeconomic inequalities in the municipal territories of Italy’s three most populous metropolitan cities, Roma, Milan and Napoli, by means of economic and social indicators and with data aggregated at the sub-municipal subdivisions of the cities and the municipalities in their provinces. These metropolitan areas are coming out of the worst crisis Italy has ever experienced, with a new class of poor people found not only in the outskirts and in the less well-off social groups but also among the middle class. Local and national governments cannot ignore this situation; the weakest sections of society have been unable to reap the benefits of the growth in the quaternary sector that has characterized Milan, Rome and Naples after the last decade, albeit to differing degrees.

Geographical discrimination of red garlic (Allium sativum L.) produced in Italy by means of multivariate statistical analysis of ICP-OES data

Sixty-five samples of red garlic (Allium sativum L.) coming from four different production territories of Italy were analysed by means of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The garlic samples were discriminated according to the geographical origin using the content of seven elements (Ba, Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na and Sr). Both classification and class modelling methods by using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and soft independent model class analogy (SIMCA), respectively, were applied. Classification ability and modelling efficiency were evaluated on an external prediction set (21 garlic samples) designed by application of duplex Kennard-Stone algorithm. All the calibration and prediction samples were correctly classified by means of LDA. The class models developed using SIMCA exhibited high sensitivity (almost all the calibration and external samples were accepted by the respective classes) and good specificity (the majority of extraneous samples were refused by each class model).

Investments projects in natural gas distribution in Italy: A model of social cost-benefit analysis

The territory of Italy is divided into 177 distribution areas each of them will be auctioned. The regulation of these tenders requires to integrate the economic and technical offers with specific social cost-benefit analyses (CBA) proving the benefits of the different proposed investments in natural gas distribution facilities. This paper proposes an original method to carry out such a social cost-benefit analysis taking into account the different typologies of investments and namely projects to connect new customers, projects to increase security of supply, projects to improve service quality and finally investments to reduce the risk of severe accidents. An overall formula is also proposed in order to account for the possible combinations of the projects mentioned above.

Enabling Factors in Firms Adoption of New Digital Technologies. An Empirical Inquiry on a Manufacturing Region

This paper provides an analysis on the diffusion of the last generation digital technologies (Industry 4.0) in the Veneto region, one of the main manufacturing territory in Italy. Our attention focuses on factors that enable firms to adopt these technologies, with attention to three main aspects: the human capital endowment, the international openness, and the financial structure. Empirical analysis is based on a sample of firms that operate in manufacturing, construction and business services. Our analysis shows a heterogeneous diffusion of Industry 4.0 technologies across different industries, allowing the identification of distinct technologies frontiers among sectors. The logit regression shows a positive relation between the adoption of digital technologies and the openness to international markets, as well as with a highly skilled and highly educated human capital. The digital users show better productivity indexes than other firms, but at the same time financial performances are less clear. Hence, the firms that adopt new digital technologies have a more balanced financial structure, but they do not show higher profitability ratios than non-users. This result depends on a longer run return on investment and in a different distributive policy inside the firm.

Banks and Development: Jewish Communities in the Italian Renaissance and Current Economic Performance

Are dierences in local banking development long-lasting? Do they aect long-term economic performance? I answer these questions by relying on an historical development that occurred in Italian cities during the 15th century. A sudden change in the Catholic doctrine had driven the Jews toward money lending. Cities that were hosting Jewish communities developed complex banking institutions for two reasons: …rst, the Jews were the only people in Italy who were allowed to lend for a pro…t and, second, the Franciscan reaction to Jewish usury led to the creation of charity lending institutions, the Monti di Pieta, that have survived until today and have become the basis of the Italian banking system. Using Jewish demography in 1500 as an instrument, I provide evidence of (1) an extraordinary persistence in the level of banking development across Italian cities (2) large eects of current local banking development on per-capita income. Additional …rm-level analyses suggest that well-functioning local banks exert large eects on aggregate productivity by reallocating resources toward more e¢ cient …rms. I exploit the expulsion of the Jews from the Spanish territories in Italy in 1541 to argue that my results are not driven by omitted institutional, cultural and geographical characteristics. In particular, I show that, in Central Italy, the dierence in current income between cities that hosted Jewish communities and cities that did not exists only in those regions that were not Spanish territories in the 16th century.

Different approaches to the pursuit of internationalization by Italian SMEs

Purpose– The aim of this paper is to analyse why Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) pursue internationalization (current and future entry modes, motivations, advantages and difficulties) and how they go about it, with reference to four key areas: innovation and technology, networking, environmental approach and human resource (HR) competences.Design/methodology/approach– A questionnaire was distributed to 792 enterprises with a response rate of 24.37 per cent. Data were collected using the computer assisted web interviewing (CAWI) method and processed with Rasch analysis, Principal Components Analysis and Cluster analysis methods.Findings– The paper presents the results of a quantitative research on SMEs located in the Province of Monza and Brianza – one of the most productive territories in Italy. Four different clusters emerged with specific approaches. Briefly, this paper points out that: innovation is mostly linked to the product and is incremental; HR and their competences are crucial for facing complex markets; the green issue is not dominant (it is considered only for saving energy and reducing cost production); and networking is not a key issue (except informal relations, contractual agreements and strategic alliances).Research limitations/implications– The research could be extended: through a longitudinal survey on the same sample; by covering different territories on the same topics. The cluster analysis identifies potential guidelines for entrepreneurial behaviour in respect to key factors for exiting from the economic and financial crisis: innovation and technology, formal and informal networks, the “green” approach, HR training.Originality/value– This paper presents a new interdisciplinary approach that may work beyond country boundaries, providing a new basis to the debate on the internationalization of SMEs.

Urbanism and Elites – Rome and the Cities of Italy (2nd Century BC – 1st Century AD): an Overview

This article brings up for discussion the urban manifestation in the Italian Peninsula, during the end of the Republic and beginning of the Principate, as well as the importance of the rural space in the definition and the evolution of urban planning. Local elites play a defining role as regards urban space because they are involved, to a lesser or higher extent (depending on the time and area), in the construction of public buildings. Also, urban development directly affects the elites causing changes in terms of their way of referring to the urban space. The degree of building development throughout the territory of Italy is not uniform. As a matter of fact, a different level and pace of public buildings constructions is observed between the regions in Italy. Furthermore, the article presents and briefly discusses the most important ideas and work assumptions which have marked the research at the end of the twentieth-century, with regard to urbanity in the Roman antiquity.

Observational Study on Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors: A Real-Life Analysis on 360 Patients from the ASL VCO Territory in Italy

Diabetes mellitus is a complex, progressive disease that can lead to complications if it is not strictly controlled. The literature suggests that only 50 % of Italian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) achieve guideline-recommended levels of glycaemic control, suggesting that treatment regimens need to be improved. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors in terms of glycaemic control, body weight and lipid profile in a series of patients with T2DM attending a diabetes outpatient facility. This was an observational retrospective study performed on a series of patients with T2DM attending our three outpatient clinics. The study included 360 patients with T2DM of both sexes, aged between 30 and 85 years, with a body mass index (BMI) of 22-45 kg/m(2) who were uncontrolled [glycated haemoglobin (HbA(1c)) 7.1-10 %] despite dietary restrictions or treatment with pharmacological therapy. Patients included in the analysis received therapy with a DPP-4 inhibitor (sitagliptin, n = 244; vildagliptin, n = 97; saxagliptin, n = 19). Vildagliptin reduced HbA(1c) by 1.2 % compared with sitagliptin and saxagliptin (-0.9 %) from a baseline of 8 % (similar in all groups). The greatest decrease in fasting plasma glucose was seen with vildagliptin (-37 mg/dL) compared with sitagliptin and saxagliptin (-20 and -29 mg/dL, respectively). A greater reduction in total cholesterol was achieved with vildagliptin (-24 mg/dL) than with sitagliptin (-11 mg/dL) and saxagliptin (-3.6 mg/dL). Effectiveness was maintained in all age groups, provided disease duration was short (~5 to 6 years). Adverse effects were mild and transient and did not require treatment discontinuation. DPP-4 inhibitors are a viable option in patients with T2DM not adequately controlled by existing therapy. They demonstrate comparable efficacy to other antidiabetic medicines with regard to HbA(1c) reduction. The positive changes in the lipid profile make DPP-4 inhibitors a particularly interesting class of drugs; however, further studies are needed to confirm their true impact on cardiovascular risk in a real-world setting.

MONITORING OF LANDSLIDES WITH MASS MARKET GPS: AN ALTERNATIVE LOW COST SOLUTION

Abstract. The territory of Italy is seriously afflicted by hydrological risk, with 82% of its area affected by this phenomenon. In recent years, technologies and advanced research have played an important role in realizing complex automatic systems devoted to landslide monitoring and to alerting the population. Sometimes, the cost of these systems (communications network, sensors, software, technologies) prevents their use, and in particular the cost of sensors has a large impact on the final investment. For example, geodetic GNSS receivers are usually employed to conduct landslide monitoring, but they are costly. Nowadays, new technologies make it possible to use small and efficient low cost single frequency GPS receivers, which are able to achieve a centimetric or better level of accuracy, in static positioning. The rapid development and diffusion of the GNSS network to provide a positioning service has made it possible to use single frequency receivers, thanks to the use of virtual RINEX. This product is generated by a network of permanent stations. In this research, the actual performance of a mass market GPS receiver was tested, with the purpose of verifying if these sensors can be used for landslide monitoring. A special slide was realized, in order to conduct a dedicated test of the detection of displacements. Tests were carried out considering two factors: acquisition time and distance from the Virtual Station. The accuracy and precision of movement determination were evaluated and compared, for each test, considering the different factors. The tests and results are described in this contribution.

Social innovation in living labs: the micro-level process model of public-private partnerships

Social innovation can be studied within living labs, where learning between organisations and users is supported through the use of technology. Living labs are considered innovation intermediaries in enabling the co-creation of solutions to cope with the user’s needs. The fields of organisational innovation and user innovation can build an understanding about living labs and the process of introducing social innovation. The empirical field of this research is based on five living labs that are managed by public-private partnerships in the Trentino territory in Italy. This research proposes a micro-level process model for the development of social innovation within living labs. The model suggests that the interaction between organisations and users can be guaranteed through ambidexterity, learning, collaboration and empowerment. This research defines that social innovation in living labs (SILL) is an organisational form which is managed by public-private partnerships in order to conceive solutions that would address specific needs of citizens.

The comparison of the NDSHA, PSHA seismic hazard maps and real seismicity for the Italian territory

Rigorous and objective testing of seismic hazard assessments against the real seismic activity must become the necessary precondition for any responsible seismic risk estimation. Because seismic hazard maps seek to predict the shaking that would actually occur, the reference hazard maps for the Italian seismic code, obtained by probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA), and the alternative ground shaking maps based on the neo-deterministic approach (NDSHA), are cross-compared and tested against the real seismicity for the territory of Italy. The comparison between predicted intensities and those reported for past earthquakes shows that models generally provide rather conservative estimates, except for PGA with 10 % probability of being exceeded in 50 years, which underestimates the largest earthquakes. In terms of efficiency in predicting ground shaking, measured accounting for the rate of underestimated events and for the territorial extent of areas characterized by high seismic hazard, the NDSHA maps appear to outscore the PSHA ones.

Analysis of Italian Earthquake catalogs in the context of intermediate-term prediction problem

We perform a comparative analysis of regional and global earthquake catalogs currently available for the territory of Italy. We consider: (a) instrumental seismic catalogs provided by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Roma (INGV) for earthquake forecasting experiment in Italy within the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP); (b) Global Hypocenters’ Data provided by the USGS/NEIC, which is currently used in the real-time earthquake prediction experiment by CN and M8S algorithms in Italy, and (c) seismological Bulletin provided by the International Seismological Centre (ISC). We discuss advantages and shortcomings of these catalogs in the context of intermediate-term middle-range earthquake prediction problem in Italy, including the possibility of the catalog’s combined or integrated use. Magnitude errors in the catalog can distort statistics of success-to-failure scoring and eventually falsify testing results. Therefore, the analysis of systematic and random errors in magnitude presented in Appendixes can be of significance in its own right.