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Food demand and food supply have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand changes in households’ behavior related to the pandemic, we investigated the willingness to pay for local organic apples before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We assessed the changes that occurred within families, estimating separate models for the two members of a couple. Our findings show that respondents have a positive price premium for local organic apples, whose consumption helps reduce the environmental costs associated with food production. The median estimated values during the pandemic ranged from 34% to 250%. Overall, respondents show a positive mean willingness to pay, which increased with the pandemic. The socio-economic variables are the most important in explaining the willingness to pay, while the behavioral variables have more heterogeneous results, even if lifestyle and the request for information through the label are also important variables. The pandemic tended to narrow the gaps in preferences between members of a couple. In conclusion, the local and organic dimensions are embodied in the short chain, in which knowledge and trust in the producer are crucial elements in the consumer’s choices.

Food demand and food supply have been heavily affected by Covid-19 pandemic. To understand changes in households’ behavior related to the pandemic, we investigate the willingness to pay for local organic apples pre- and during Covid-19. Besides, we assess whether the changes occurred within the family, estimating also separate models for the two members of the couple. Our findings show that respondents show a positive price premium for local organic apples whose consumption helps reducing the environmental costs associated with food production. The median estimated values during the pandemic range from 34% to 250%. Overall, respondents show a positive mean willingness to pay which increase with the pandemic. The socio-economic variables are the most important in explaining the willingness to pay, while the behavioral variables have more heterogeneous results even if the lifestyle and the request for information through the label are important variables. The pandemic tends to narrow the gaps in preferences between members of the couple. In conclusion, the local and organic dimension is embodied in the short chain in which knowledge and trust in the producer are crucial elements in the consumer's choices.

This paper examines the diachrony of two neoclassical prefixes in Italian, namely semi- (from Latin sēmi- ‘half’) and para- (from Ancient Greek parà close to’), based on data extracted from corpora. The diachronic analysis reveals that until the 20th century, both the prefixes semi- and para- were mostly used in scientific terminology, where they conveyed their original meanings: degree and spatial proximity respectively. A cursory synchronic analysis based on data extracted from two newspaper corpora shows that in the last decades, semi- and para- have been productively used to express evaluative values (i.e., attenuation and approximation). The present study enriches the literature on the sources of approximating morphological markers and the relationship between attenuation and approximation, considered here as two distinct values placed along a continuum.

The present paper deals with the synchronic variation of plosive phonemes in the national varieties of German in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Our research task was to describe the full range of modifications of the plosives in the national varieties under investigation and to determine two conditional factors: 1) which modifications are due to positional and combinatorial conditions of sound realization; 2) which modifications can be taken to be typical of these national varieties of German. The data collected are based on the acoustic analysis of reproductive speech (a reading of a word list and short stories by Leonhard Thoma) of 12 German teachers (4 for each national variety) from Northern Germany, from the Vienna area and from the cantons of Aargau and Lucerne. Our results showed that national-specific modifications of the plosive phonemes are the frequent loss of tone by the lax plosives [b̥], [d̥], [g̊] in the speech of the German Swiss and Austrians, and a weakening until the complete loss of aspiration by the plosives [p] and [t] in the speech of Austrians.

When Italian architect Enrico Taglietti landed in Sydney for the first time in 1955, he had no idea he would become one of the most acclaimed architects of Australia. The reason for his first trip ...

This paper deals with, in a diachronic perspective, the Italian verb-noun compounds of the type portalettere and covers the time span that goes from the Origins well into the beginnings of the Twentieth century. On the basis of a rich dataset drawn from diachronic corpora and lexicographic sources, the article presents the history of this word-formation process, emphasizing the semantic and categorial nature of these compounds. The main claim is that the current semantic variability (person, instrument, event, period of time etc.) has always been available in the linguistic history of Italian as well as, to a minor extent, the categorial ambiguity by which VN compounds also function as adjectival modifiers. It is shown that this last function is much of a diachronic innovation. This paper, which stems from the theoretical premises of Construction Morphology, reveals that the productivity of the Construction [V-N]A|N is due to both the semantic and formal flexibility shown from the earliest attestations of the language, and to the productivity of some semi-specified subschemas, which have served as models for the creation of new VN compounds, especially over the past few decades.

The paper describes the creation of a manually validated dataset of Italian multiword expressions, building on candidates automatically extracted from corpora of written Italian. The main features of the resource, such as POS-pattern and lemma distribution, are also discussed, together with possible applications.

This paper provides a corpus-based analysis of compounding in Old Italian. The semantic and formal properties of compound words attested in Old Italian are described and discussed through the theoretical tools provided by Construction Morphology. The analysis confirms that compounding is exploited since the earliest attestations of the language. It reveals that Old Italian compounds are mostly right-headed endocentric or exocentric: particularly, endocentric [ADV-Y]Y, [A-N]N|A and exocentric [V-N]N are the most productive schemas. Moreover, this study highlights a significant influence of Latin on Italian compounding, whereby many Old Italian compounds are Latin loanwords and calques which served as a model for the creation of new native compounds.

The 4th industrial revolution (4IR) is in its early stage, and the exploitation of all its potential benefits is the challenge of the future. This revolution involves product information for consumers, which is relevant for addressing circular economy (CE) principles. The consumer is crucial for CE development, buying or not buying new, sustainable products designed according to CE principles and 4IR technologies. This is especially true for the new generations who will be the future consumers. We analyze the importance of younger generations in supporting these new products. In particular, the aim is to evaluate to what extent the market is able to sustain durability and repairability of CE characteristics of products included in the 4IR. Using a contingent valuation approach according to the theory of planned behavior, we investigate the willingness of university students to pay for smartphones produced with ecolabels that indicate such characteristics, attested by either paper-based scheme or blockchain technology. Results reveal that some variables, such as parental education, household income, and age, positively affect both participation and willingness to pay (WTP) the stated amount. Durability is always preferred to repairability, and paper-based scheme is preferred to blockchain technology. Interestingly, a good percentage of respondents are willing to support blockchain transition. Other results contribute to several strategic suggestions for developing sustainable products attaining CE and 4IR technologies.

WFL is a word formation based resource for Latin where words are analysed in their formative components and connected to each other on the basis of word formation rules. It represents a wide lexical resource for the study of Latin word formation. This paper describes how compounding is treated in the Word Formation Latin lexicon: the methodology and workflow employed to insert compound lemmas into the resource are described, as well as the reasons behind some methodological choices that have been taken during the process. Through the analysis of some types of Latin compounds, the theoretical contribution of this resource is highlighted and outlined.

Addressing environmental problems requires large-scale transition efforts in the transport sector. Many governments, encouraging sustainable mobility, see alternative fuel vehicles as an important part of a technology portfolio targeted at reducing polluting emissions. However, consumers' adoption of alternative fuel vehicles is hindered by complex technical and socio-economic aspects. The novelty of this study is to explicitly explore the impact of age on consumers' attitudes towards alternative fuel vehicles with an original questionnaire survey, targeting a sample of high-educated Italian consumers. We identify the main concerns related to alternative fuel vehicles and suggest measures to overcome these concerns. A better understanding of the effects of different ages on attitude processes is crucial for designing more effective private and public strategies for alternative fuel vehicles' development across a variety of consumers.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the main determinants of the economic acceptability of four Green Technologies (GTs): alternative fuel vehicles, energy savings in residential buildings, smart meters and renewable electricity, using a meta-analysis on a sample of 35 selected papers, which provided 245 primary data. This approach allows detecting relationships across heterogeneous studies, avoiding the subjectivity of qualitative surveys. We implement a new two-step procedure. First, we compute a measure of the implicit price for a kilogram of CO2 avoided (PCO2), homogenizing the usable information for the GTs considered. Second, we conduct a meta-regression using the computed PCO2 values to estimate the socio-economic determinants' impact. In general, our results show a wide degree of acceptability for GTs which is stronger among European citizens. In particular, it emerges that, on average, the estimated PCO2 is positive for the GTs considered, and additional positive effects exist when respondents are confronted with an explicit reference to quantitative targets in terms of CO2 abatement, a clear proposal for payment timing, and a specific renewable electricity mix. These results indicate that information and transparency are crucial to spur GTs deployment. Therefore, to support GTs’ market penetration, public and private institutional stakeholders, have to provide “ad hoc” information to the end users, setting a clear and suitable system of prices to increase the economic value end users place on GTs.

In 2014, the European Commission proposed a new renewable energy sources (RES) target in energy consumption by 2030 “to be delivered collectively” by the European Union as a whole, leaving unresolved the question of allocation among member countries. The aim of this paper is to propose and simulate a model of coordinated action among member countries based on two pillars, RES national binding targets and a quantitative cost minimization procedure based on a general translog function. We have considered RES national targets in three sectors: electricity, heating and cooling, transport. RES costs are differentiated according to learning-by-doing and RES productivity diffusion processes at the various RES production sites in the European Union. Three different scenarios are simulated and compared with the baseline case constituted by the 2020 cumulative RES target. The results show that, compared with the baseline, the costs of achieving RES binding targets, with the proposed decision process, can be reduced by up to 13% by 2030. These cost evaluations indicate that it is more efficient to produce RES in those countries that face lower technology costs, according to the comparative advantages of their territorial localization and the importance of the initial RES policy efforts.

The relationship between tourism development and environmental degradation is one of the policy agenda for sustainable tourism. Tourism in protected areas is a complex phenomenon, which brings both positive and negative effects on the environment and local communities. The transition toward forms of sustainable mobility, such as electric boats, allows to reconcile tourist activities with preservation of protected areas, strengthening the links between land use and transport. The aim of this paper has been the investigation tourists’ preferences to elicit their willingness to pay for the introduction of electric boat fleet in the Regional Park of Trasimeno Lake, a protected area in Italy, in order to reduce CO2 emissions. Data were collected by means of questionnaires. The impact of uncertainty on contingent valuation responses using three different approaches has been used. Also the effects of pricing CO2 emissions from boating activities have been investigated. The research results show that variables such as sex, age and visits’ duration of stay have an impact on the respondents’ willingness to pay and the related uncertainty. Considering two electrification options of the fleet, simulation results indicate that both price premiums and a subsidy policy are needed for electric boats deployment. This paper showed the need for public and private authorities to implement instruments including an important role for education to achieve a new tourism model based on natural features and sustainability.

Sustainable mobility has received increasing attention in recent years. The transport sector contributes to almost a quarter of Europe&rsquo, s greenhouse gas emissions. The development of electric vehicles (EVs) may help the shift toward sustainable mobility, reducing oil vulnerability and greenhouse gas emissions in road transport. Poor penetration of EVs might be explained, moreover, by consumer resistance to EVs. The aim of our paper is to determine consumers&rsquo, attitude and preferences for EVs, investigating which conditions influence consumer decision-making to purchase an EV. Using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis of 421 highly-educated individuals, involving students and faculty members, we identify several configurations of conditions of the variables which lead to the outcomes, supporting their equifinality and asymmetric nature. Our findings indicate attitudes related to EVs differ across age and groups. Our paper offers public decision makers new useful insights for understanding the importance of specific determinants, and for designing effective strategies for EVs&rsquo, development worldwide.

The promotion of renewable energy sources (RES) by governments is one way of helping countries to meet their energy needs while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, we examine the role of energy policy in RES promotion, based on a carbon tax and RES price subsidy, at a time of technological and demand shocks in the European Union (E.U.) 15 countries, the United States (U.S.) and China, focusing on the macroeconomic implications. Using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model for RES and fossil fuels, our results suggest that, in the presence of a total factor productivity shock in the fossil fuel sector, such an energy policy can also be a driving force for smoothing the reduction of RES in the energy market (and vice versa). Additionally, we show that the E.U.15 grouping has a comparative advantage in terms of reaching grid parity compared with the other countries we considered which are more fossil fuel dependent.

Over the last years the European Union (EU) has implemented ambitious climate and energy targets for 2020, i.e. the 2020 Climate and Energy Package (Package), to become a highly efficient, low carbon economy. The Package assigns binding renewable energy sources (RES) target for each EU member countries. Indeed costs to reach Package's targets vary among EU countries, given heterogeneity among regions and different instruments implemented to spur RES deployment. The aim of our paper is to provide a policy tool for EU policy makers in the negotiation process that assigns achievable quantitative targets according to which countries are not inclined to deviate from the agreement. We compute potential extra costs that may arise when some EU countries fail to reach the assigned objective within the Package with reference to RES target. More generally, our simulation model is an instrument that allows EU policy makers to assess incentives that countries might have to participate or not to the environmental agreements. Our analysis shows that partial participation to the Package produces inefficiencies by rising costs for other participating countries to the environmental agreement. Finally, we propose a new policy mechanism based on progressive sanctions for countries that do not meet their national targets, which are proportional to the monetary value of the penalty they impose to the rest of the EU countries with their opportunistic behavior.

Milan, the economic capital of Italy, has experienced radical transformations throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Recent publications have looked with interest at the impressive ur...

“Narrate, uomini, la vostra storia” [Narrate, men, your story] is the title of the oral history component of the major research project Italia 60/70: Una Stagione dell'Architettura [Italy 60/70: A Time of Architecture] led by Polytechnic of Milan between 2005 and 2010. Thirteen architects, belonging to the groups “La Tendenza” and “I Radicals”, were selected and invited to publically provide their accounts of the period; a sort of “call for confession”. All were asked to talk individually about their experience as designers and/or university professors, according to a precise set of questions, including their activity at university, the books and journals they read, their international references and key projects. The result was an extraordinary network of subjective histories, converging on the same cultural ground. The talks, understood as both rich sources of information and partial interpretations of the time, were turned into firsthand documents, published and recognised as indicative sources for pro...

WFL is a word formation based resource for Latin where words are analysed in their formative components and connected to each other on the basis of word formation rules. It represents a wide lexical resource for the study of Latin word formation. This paper describes how compounding is treated in the Word Formation Latin lexicon: the methodology and workflow employed to insert compound lemmas into the resource are described, as well as the reasons behind some methodological choices that have been taken during the process. Through the analysis of some types of Latin compounds, the theoretical contribution of this resource is highlighted and outlined.

This study analyzes the attitude of Italian youngsters toward the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. An internet and face-to face questionnaire survey collects the intensity of knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes toward alternative fuel vehicles of Italian university students. A survey among youngster allows understanding the view of the future generation regarding alternative fuel vehicles technologies. The findings from the survey (n = 330) indicate the relevant determinants that spur the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles, the type of technology preferred among such vehicles, the specific related environmental benefits and the related barriers that youngsters perceive. Consumers' acceptance is crucial in the development of AFVs. This article also includes practical implications for both policymakers and manufacturers.

The electrical system is experiencing many challenges, including the increasing use of renewable energy sources characterized by high variability, the need to take action to mitigate climate change, the need to restructure the aged infrastructure, and then the development of smart grids. New ways of interplay between consumers and producers have emerged, but their implications have not been fully analyzed. This article analyzes the most relevant barriers that are perceived by consumers as obstacles to the development of smart grids, using a literature review. Our findings indicate that there are four relevant barriers: costs, privacy, cyber security, and regulatory aspects. Consumers must be informed in a transparent and convincing way. Indeed, electricity consumers play a key role in the development of smart grid technologies, since they will play the crucial role in the future electricity market.

Midline congenital abnormalities of the skin may be related to subjacent visceral developmental defects. We report on three unrelated children presenting a small midline pit on the bridge of the nose from which a small tuft of hair was emerging. This presentation is the hallmark of a nasal dermoid sinus cyst. In one of the patients the sinus tract was connected to the anterior cerebral fossa and required neurosurgical management. Although midline cutaneous abnormalities may look trivial, dermatologists should keep a high index of suspicion for possible association with more severe underlying defect. The diagnosis of nasal dermoid sinus cyst requires appropriate imaging studies to determine the extension of the sinus tract thus allowing proper management.

We report the hematological, biochemical, and molecular characteristics of a new defective adenylate kinase (AK) variant associated with chronic hemolytic anemia. The propositus was a 3-year-old girl of southern Italian origin with a history of severe anemia and occasional need for blood transfusion. The study of the most important red cell enzymes revealed low AK activity (22% of normal) in the propositus and intermediate values in the parents. The sequence of erythrocyte AK-1 gene showed a new homozygous mutation (delG138) determining a frameshift and a premature stop at codon 91.

In recent years, the renewable energy sources (RES) have grown in importance in the energy system of the EU and in the world; it is expected they will grow more and more in importance in the near future. Since the costs of RES technologies are still higher than the technologies derived from fossil fuels, RES are in need of regulatory intervention. There is still uncertainty on the part of political authorities in relation to the type of policy to better manage the evolution of technologies in the RES market. The support mechanism for RES can be divided into price oriented and market oriented. The focus of this chapter is to analyze the RES support mechanisms among the new EU guidelines on state aid for environmental protection and energy 2014–2020 and in particular the transition from some tools (i.e., feed-in tariffs) to others (i.e., feed-in premium) in order to spur the development of RES. We evaluate the “success” of such instruments in relation to adaptation to the times: while feed-in tariffs can fulfill a variety of policy goals, feed-in premium can reach other objectives. We evaluate the effect of RES support mechanisms in relation to the market structure.

Today, the supply of electricity still comes mainly from large power plants fueled primarily by fossil fuels that operate through established distribution and transmission systems. Although these systems provide an efficient service worldwide for many years, times are changing. Modern societies have understood that in order to mitigate climate change, it is needed to reduce polluting emissions. The optimum use of traditional sources must be accompanied by an ever-increasing use of renewable energy sources (RES). There is therefore the spread of a wide range of energy sources that involve a number of complexities in terms of improvements in RES’ technologies and design of electrical networks. The EU has launched several initiatives to increase the use of RES in all EU countries. With the climate and energy package, energy policy becomes a unilateral commitment in Europe. The achievement of macro-objectives outlined in the package is entrusted to the synergistic effects of different proposals closely linked. With regard to the RES Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from RES, it sets the overall policy framework in order to ensure coverage of 20 % of the energy demand of the EU through RES to the electricity, transport (biofuels), and heating–cooling sectors. The objectives of mandatory coverage with RES are implemented at the national level and they vary from one country to another; they are between 10 and 49 % of final consumption by 2020.

The evolution of energy consumption in Europe is going through a profound change in recent years: the incidence of traditional fuels is diminishing gradually in the face of an increase in renewable energy sources (RES). In 2013, the consumption of electricity from RES amounts to 14 % of the total with respect to 6 % in 1997.This chapter provides a quantitative analysis of RES in the EU and the prospect of development of RES under different scenarios. The analysis begins with a description of the technical characteristics of RES and the quantity produced by each source at world level. In Sect. 2.2, the distribution of the three major RES that are wind, solar, and biomass throughout the EU context is analyzed. Section 2.3 provides an analysis of the development of RES in the coming years by different scenarios, both according to the 2014 edition of future scenarios of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the WEO-2014 and the current EU Climate and Energy Package. Conclusions are drawn in Sect. 2.4.