Rizal Sebastian, Christina Claeson-Jonsson and Roberto Di Giulio
This paper aims to introduce a method of performance-based procurement, based on the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT), for low-disturbance bridge construction projects…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce a method of performance-based procurement, based on the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT), for low-disturbance bridge construction projects in urban environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The first part of this paper reviews the key performance indicators (KPIs) of low-disturbance construction and the procurement procedure based on the MEAT principles. The second part reflects on two actual bridge projects (the Rotebro bridge in Sweden and the Arno river bridge in Italy) as observatory case studies to analyse how clients and contractors can implement the KPIs in MEAT.
Findings
The research findings demonstrate the possible inclusion of the KPIs of low-disturbance construction into the MEAT criteria. The MEAT principles can then be used in combination with either a traditional or an integrated procurement strategy.
Research limitations/implications
The implementation of MEAT to achieve low-disturbance construction projects is considerably new and still requires an empirical validation. A further elaboration of the procurement strategy within the EU regulatory framework is strongly recommended in order to assure the broader impacts of sustainable construction.
Practical implications
The findings and recommendations support the practical development and the use of MEAT in construction projects in the EU.
Originality/value
This paper presents on-going investigation within the FP7 collaborative research project “PANTURA”, which addresses the actual research agenda of the European Commission on low-disturbance and urban-friendly civil infrastructure projects.
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Emanuele Pontali, Roberto Ranieri, Elena Rastrelli, Maria Donata Iannece, Anna Maria Ialungo, Serena Dell’Isola, Alfonso Liberti, Pietro Rosario, Rodolfo Casati, Giulio Starnini and Sergio Babudieri
The purpose of this paper is to give a description of the clinical conditions and patient demographics of inpatient admissions of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give a description of the clinical conditions and patient demographics of inpatient admissions of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected inmates in three hospital wards that provide hospital care for inmates in Italy.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a retrospective review of hospital medical admissions of patients living with HIV from January 1 to December 31, 2014, in three Italian referral centers for hospitalization of inmates.
Findings
A total of 85 admissions for 85 different HIV-infected inmates occurred in 2014 in the three centers participating to the study. Most patients (54.1 percent) were co-infected with hepatitis C. Discharge diagnosis largely varied ranging from common HIV-related co-morbidities to completely independent diagnosis. The most commonly observed discharge diagnoses were chronic hepatitis C, liver cirrhosis, opiate dependence and thrombocytopenia.
Originality/value
Discharge diagnosis between HIV-infected inmates and HIV-infected patients in freedom are strikingly and significantly different. A large number of hospitalized HIV-infected inmates were affected by chronic viral hepatitis and liver cirrhosis; this is probably a direct consequence of the high prevalence of HCV and/or HBV co-infections in the inmate population in Italy. In addition, a significantly lower proportion of cancer diagnosis was observed among inmates; this is possibly justified by the fact that in our Italian settings when HIV infection is at advanced stages or if cancer treatment is started those affected are released from prison and can continue their diagnostic and treatment follow-up in freedom.
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Looks at the first 100 years of Italian cinema examining its role in Italy’s recent history. Provides a bibliography of major film directors, Italian cinema sources, reference…
Abstract
Looks at the first 100 years of Italian cinema examining its role in Italy’s recent history. Provides a bibliography of major film directors, Italian cinema sources, reference works, histories, themes, theory and criticism and articles in journals.
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Gianluca Spina, Roberto Verganti and Giulio Zotteri
As customers ask for increasing levels of performance, functionality and customisation, firms rely on suppliers not only as a source of components, but also as a source of…
Abstract
As customers ask for increasing levels of performance, functionality and customisation, firms rely on suppliers not only as a source of components, but also as a source of innovation. Several researchers have investigated the adoption of co‐design, its potential benefits and its costs. Recently, scholars have increasingly underlined the need for bringing this rich stream of studies within a contingency framework, taking into account context variables and internal characteristics of the firm. This paper contributes to this contingency theory of co‐design adoption. We investigate the role of three factors that might influence the intensity of supplier involvement in product development: structural characteristics (industry, size and degree of vertical integration), strategic priorities (strategic fit) and internal consistency with purchasing and new product development practices. An empirical analysis of 67 Italian manufacturers demonstrates that co‐design adoption is actually related to most of these factors.
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Matteo Kalchschmidt, Roberto Verganti and Giulio Zotteri
In many industrial contexts, firms are encountering increasingly uncertain demand. Numerous factors are driving this phenomenon; however, a major change that is spreading among…
Abstract
Purpose
In many industrial contexts, firms are encountering increasingly uncertain demand. Numerous factors are driving this phenomenon; however, a major change that is spreading among different sectors is the ever‐growing attention to customers. Companies have identified that customers are critical not only because they directly influence the success of specific products or firms, but also because they play a fundamental role in many internal processes. Although the role of customers in business processes has been deeply analysed, the issue of demand forecasting and the role of customers has not been fully explored. The present study aims to examine the impact of heterogeneity of customer requests on demand forecasting approaches, based on three action research cases. Based on the analysis of customer behaviour, an appropriate methodology for each case is designed based on clustering customers according to their demand patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
Objectives are achieved by means of three action research case studies, developed in cooperation with three different companies. The paper structures a general methodology based on these three experiences to help managers in better dealing with uncertain demand.
Findings
By means of proper analysis of customers' heterogeneity and by using simple statistical techniques such as cluster analysis, forecasting performance can significantly improve. In these terms, this work claims that focusing on customers' heterogeneity is a relevant topic both for practitioners and researchers.
Originality/value
The paper proposes some specific guidelines to forecast demand where customers' differences impact significantly on demand variability. In these terms, results are relevant for practitioners. Moreover, the paper claims that this issue should be better analysed in future researches and proposes some guidelines for future works.
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Raffaella Cagliano, Gianluca Spina, Roberto Verganti and Giulio Zotteri
Notes that supporting small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in their process towards the adoption of business process re‐engineering (BPR) may be essential as the tools and…
Abstract
Notes that supporting small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in their process towards the adoption of business process re‐engineering (BPR) may be essential as the tools and methodologies of BPR were designed for larger companies. Presents a methodology for the design of support services, developed within the context of a European Union (EU) project. The methodology consists of four major steps. The first step consists of an analysis of users’ needs. Since BPR support needs are differentiated and often implicit, an “ad hoc” methodology was developed to make demand explicit and split the potential market into homogeneous segments. The second step identifies the proper services to meet the needs of SMEs. The third step explores current supply of services and the critical success factors of a BPR support centre. Finally, the fourth step defines guidelines for the design of both the support centre and the specific support services. The methodology was developed also on the basis of the case of the Lombard machinery industry. Finally, the paper discusses the transferability of the methodology to other regions and industries.
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Giulio Zecca, Paul Couderc, Michel Banâtre and Roberto Beraldi
The purpose of this paper is to show how a swarm of robots can cooperate to achieve a common task, in a totally distributed and autonomous way, by exploiting powerful clues…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how a swarm of robots can cooperate to achieve a common task, in a totally distributed and autonomous way, by exploiting powerful clues contained in some devices that are distributed in the environment. This system exploits a coordination mechanism that is twofold, using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for spatial coordination, and wireless robot‐to‐robot communication for the temporal and semantic synchronization.
Design/methodology/approach
Progress in the pervasive computing field has led to the distribution of knowledge and computational power in the environment, rather than condensing it in a single, powerful entity. This vision of ambient intelligence is supported by the interchange of information between physically sparse agents cooperating to achieve a common goal. An emerging method for this kind of collaboration considers the agents as insects in a swarm, having the possibility of communicating directly or indirectly with each other. The goal is to fulfill a common task, showing that a collaborative behavior can be useful in the real world. The paper focuses on a technique for the coordination of swarm‐robots with low capabilities, driven by instructions learned from RFID tags used as distributed pervasive memories. These robots exploit ubiquitous computing to regroup in a synchronization area, make a formation in space, coordinate with team‐mates in the same zone, and finally complete a cooperative task. The algorithm is validated through a simulation environment, showing its applicability and performance, before the real implementation on Roomba‐like robots.
Findings
The goal of the research is to prove the feasibility of such a novel approach. It is observed that a swarm of robots can achieve a good degree of autonomous cooperation without a central infrastructure or global network, carrying out a goal in a fair time.
Originality/value
The value is given by the benefits of splitting the synchronization semantics into two levels: space, by exploiting RFID landmarks; and time, by exploiting wireless short‐range communication. RFID tags are used to distribute computational power and actively interact with the surrounding areas, allowing to learn and modify the state of the environment. Robot‐to‐robot communication, instead, is used for providing timing and semantic information. In the proposal, this augmented environment is used to allow a good level of coordination among robots, both in time and space, with the aim of building a cooperative system.
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This essay aims at retracing the intellectual and biographical events of the economist Gino Arias (1879–1940), examining more in detail the two seasons at the opposite ends of his…
Abstract
This essay aims at retracing the intellectual and biographical events of the economist Gino Arias (1879–1940), examining more in detail the two seasons at the opposite ends of his life: the early one that saw him considerably committed to the Zionist cause and the one that, thirty years later, would force him to confront the racial laws of the Fascist regime.
Despite the seeming tragic continuity of these two phases, Arias’s case is a real historiographical paradox since, over the long span between the opposite ends of his biography, not only did he distance himself from the Zionist movement, but he also gradually laid the foundations for his upcoming and immediate dedication to Fascism; indeed, within the Fascist regime he would stand out as an authoritative and influential theorist of corporatism, the institutional solution Mussolini tried to exploit to organize the national economic life.
After carefully examining Arias’s early contributions to the Zionist cause (that include the establishment of the Florentine Zionist Group and that led him toward strongly nationalistic stances), this essay sums up Arias’s intellectual biography during the next years and then, thanks to unprecedented documents from the Italian Ministry of Interior, closely looks into his fate after his conversion to Catholicism in 1932 and up against the racial laws of 1938, as well as into his attempts to escape persecution. A few final observations will then try to highlight the dramatic exemplarity of his case.
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Angelo Jonas Imperiale and Frank Vanclay
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on what can be learned about disaster risk reduction (DRR) from the L’Aquila trial of scientists. The court case was initiated because of a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on what can be learned about disaster risk reduction (DRR) from the L’Aquila trial of scientists. The court case was initiated because of a controversial meeting on 31 March 2009 of the Major Risks Committee (MRC), held under the auspices of the Italian Department of Civil Protection. The purpose of the meeting was to consider (prior to the fatal earthquake of 6 April 2009) disaster risk in the L’Aquila area, which was being affected by an earthquake swarm since October 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors undertook a document analysis of trial materials, and a review of academic and media commentary about the trial.
Findings
The legal process revealed that disaster governance was inadequate and not informed by the DRR paradigm or international guidelines. Risk assessment was carried out only in a techno-scientific manner, with little acknowledgement of the social issues influencing risks at the local community level. There was no inclusion of local knowledge or engagement of local people in transformative DRR strategies.
Originality/value
Most previous commentary is inadequate in terms of not considering the institutional, scientific and social responsibilities for DRR as exposed by the trial. This paper is unique in that it considers the contents of the MRC meeting as well as all trial documents. It provides a comprehensive reflection on the implications of this case for DRR and the resilience of peoples and places at risk. It highlights that a switch from civil protection to community empowerment is needed to achieve sustainable outcomes at the local level.
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Riccardo Bellofiore and Scott Carter
Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some…
Abstract
Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.