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The text presents reflections on activities carried out in Italy as part of an international project (RISE) aimed at the inclusion of Roma and Sinti children. The project took place in two different areas, one in the North (Emilia Romagna - Bologna) and one in the South (Apulia- Bari), chosen to broaden the study’s perspectives. The two cities involved (Bologna and Bari) differ in terms of the degree of inclusion of Roma children and existing social policies. The Roma communities in each location are also different. The main action of the project was an action-research involving teachers. This research method can implement a planning-reflexive process that proceeds via exploration and discussion, continuously questioning the knowledge, expertise and competencies of those involved. The educational activities and the school experiences of the Rise Project were carried out according to the action research approach, sharing the goals of the study, its contexts and the activities implemented with the heads and teachers of the schools involved from day one. The actions proposed by the Project, presented and discussed in this paper are : - a training programme for teachers, social workers and ATA staff on inclusive educational methods and on discrimination, intercultural pedagogy and the history of the Roma and Sinti communities; - the participation of local services that oversee actions geared towards Roma children and adolescents facing particular challenges, and their families, in meetings; - the promotion of educational workshops for all students in the classes involved, aimed at social skills, participation or know-how; - the implementation of storytelling workshops for all students in the classes involved, aimed at creating a story that deals with the topics of interculturalism, prejudice, or gender discrimination through the use of animation techniques; - the organisation of a workshop called “Rise English: Connecting with the World”

This chapter is about the co-evolution of technology and markets. Since our goal is to understand the way these forces impact the advancement of industry, these cannot effectively be independently analyzed. Classical economists recognized that the link between technological evolution and market forces is the trigger of industrial revolution, as well as the consequential tumultuous process of economic growth: ‘In turning from the smaller instruments in frequent use to the larger and more important machines, the economy arising from the increase of velocity becomes more striking’ (Babbage, 1832, pp. 4–36). However, Adam Smith noted that the use of ‘more important machines’ is limited by the extent of the market. He described the combined effect of innovation, which creates new markets, and of new markets, which creates incentives for innovation. Karl Marx highlighted the role of machines as the main source of productivity increases as well. Marx also recognized that low wages lead to demand shortages. Despite the awareness of the classical economists, the analysis of the co-evolution of technology and markets as the principal determinants of industrial dynamics is abandoned in traditional neoclassical theory. A certain extension of this approach is found only in the search for incentives responsible for the direction and nature of technological progress.

In this manuscript, the problem of detecting multiple targets and estimating their spatial coordinates (namely, their range and the direction of arrival of their electromagnetic echoes) in a colocated multiple-input multiple-output radar system operating in a static or slowly changing two-dimensional or three-dimensional propagation scenario is investigated. Various solutions, collectively called range & angle serial cancellation algorithms, are developed for both frequency modulated continuous wave radars and stepped frequency continuous wave radars. Moreover, specific technical problems experienced in their implementation are discussed. Finally, the accuracy achieved by these algorithms in the presence of multiple targets is assessed on the basis of both synthetically generated data and of the measurements acquired through three different multiple-input multiple-output radars and is compared with that provided by other methods based on multidimensional Fourier analysis and multiple signal classification.

Radars are expected to become the main sensors in various civilian applications, ranging from health-care monitoring to autonomous driving. Their success is mainly due to the availability of both low cost integrated devices, equipped with compact antenna arrays, and computationally efficient signal processing techniques. An increasingly important role in the field of radar signal processing is played by machine learning and deep learning techniques. Their use has been first taken into consideration in human gesture and motion recognition, and in various healthcare applications. More recently, their exploitation in object detection and localization has been also investigated. The research work accomplished in these areas has raised various technical problems that need to be carefully addressed before adopting the above mentioned techniques in real world radar systems. In this manuscript, a comprehensive overview of the machine learning and deep learning techniques currently being considered for their use in radar systems is provided. Moreover, some relevant open problems and current trends in this research area are analysed. Finally, various numerical results, based on both synthetically generated and experimental datasets, and referring to two different applications are illustrated. These allow readers to assess the efficacy of specific methods and to compare them in terms of accuracy and computational effort.

Alla crisi della nozione di “sviluppo” – propria al pensiero della modernità – che appariva riservata ai soli paesi cosiddetti “del Terzo Mondo”, è subentrata una crisi economico-finanziaria di portata globale che viene da molti considerata una crisi dello stesso stile di vita globalizzato, in grado cioè di investire dimensioni sociali e culturali degli stessi paesi ricchi e post-industriali. Nell’ambito di questa ennesima “crisi della rappresentazione” del pensiero occidentale si è rinnovato l’interesse per esperienze alternative di cooperazione internazionale e di lotta alla povertà (sia nei paesi “in via di sviluppo” che in quelli “ricchi” dove, specie negli ultimi anni, emergono nuove forme di vulnerabilità socio-economica), come le esperienze di microcredito. Il successo riscosso da Muhammad Yunus (premio Nobel 2006) in Bangladesh, ha favorito negli ultimi decenni la moltiplicazione delle esperienze di microcredito in tutto il mondo. A partire dagli anni Novanta, il microcredito è stato adottato dalle organizzazioni internazionali di sviluppo quale strategia privilegiata non solo nella lotta contro la povertà, ma anche nella promozione dei processi di empowerment delle donne, considerate come facilitatrici dello sviluppo delle comunità locali. Il testo esplora le retoriche utilizzate nel momento in cui si riflette sulla sostenibilità del microcredito e sul suo impatto sulle comunità locali. Nello specifico, particolare attenzione è dedicata agli studi di caso riguardanti la relazione fra accesso al credito da parte delle donne e processi di empowerment.