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Endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) has emerged as a promising, less invasive alternative to conventional open surgery for the treatment of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). In the last 20 years, the application rate of EVAR and its clinical results have significantly improved thanks to the evolution of stent-grafts and endovascular delivery systems. However, further development is still needed to reduce the incidence of complications and secondary re-interventions. The Treovance abdominal aortic stent-graft (Bolton Medical, Barcelona, Spain) is a new-generation endovascular device, developed to increase flexibility, lower profile, improve deployment and sealing mechanisms. In particular, it is provided with some innovative features as a double layer of proximal barbs (suprarenal and infrarenal) for supplemental fixation, dull barbs between modules to avoid potential leg disconnections, detachable outer sheath provided with a new-design hemostatic valve, and a double improved mechanism (slow motion and "pin and pull") for precise stent-graft deployment. A European prospective, non-randomized, multi-institutional, "first-in-human" trial (the ADVANCE trial) was conducted from March to December 2011 to assess the safety and performance of the Treovance stent-graft system before commercialization. Thirty patients with anatomically suitable non-ruptured AAAs were enrolled at five clinical sites in Italy, Spain, and Germany. EVAR was completed successfully in all patients. The stent-graft was delivered and deployed safely even in heavily angulated or calcified anatomies. No 30-day device-related complications nor deaths were observed. Preliminary experience with the Treovance abdominal stent-graft within the ADVANCE trial was satisfactory with regard to technical success and perioperative clinical results. Follow-up data are needed to assess mid- and long-term clinical outcomes, along with durability of this new-generation endovascular device.

Southern European studies of migrants’ spatial distribution within metropolitan cities (MCs) are increasingly relevant to understanding residential segregation and marginalisation, particularly of foreign nationals. This paper leverages original and partially unpublished data to examine overall and foreign national specific segregation over two decades in Rome MC and Milan MC, the two largest Italian MCs. We introduce a 5-class concentric ring typology to describe and uncover geographical patterns within the MCs and focus on the spatial and temporal distribution of four selected foreign nationalities: Romanian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Filipino. Results reveal heterogeneity in overall and foreign national specific distributions over time both within and between Rome MC and Milan MC. Comparing across groups and MCs we identify similarities but also unique patterns. These results shed light on the peculiarity of the urban demographic Italian landscape and raise questions regarding recent theories about residential segregation in the urban contexts of Southern Europe.

Background: To assess early and late mortality in patients with isolated acute tricuspid valve infective endocarditis (TVIE) using data from a multicenter registry.Methods: From 1983 to 2018, isolated acute TVIE was surgically treated in 157 (3.8%) patients [mean age 47 +/- 16 years (range 15-86 years), 25% females]. Of these, 142 (90%) had native tricuspid regurgitation, 7 (5%) native tricuspid valve (TV) steno-regurgitation, and 8 (5%) prosthetic TVIE. Intravenous drug use (IVDU) was recorded in 38% of patients, infection involved cardiac implantable electronic device leads in 21%, and vascular catheters for dialysis in 1%; in the remaining cases, the cause was unknown. The primary endpoint was in-hospital outcome, long-term freedom from recurrence and overall survival.Results: Overall, 77 (49%) patients underwent TV repair, 72 (46%) TV replacement, and 8 (5%) prosthetic TV replacement. Early mortality was 11% (n = 17). Expected early mortality according to EndoSCORE was 12%, with age (odds ratio 1.06) and redo (odds ratio 6.64) as risk factors. Late deaths occurred in 31 patients and TVIE recurrences in 4. Survival rates at 10, 20, and 25 years were 66%, 60%, and 44%, respectively. Risk factors were age [hazard ratio (HR) 1.06], mycotic TVIE (HR 4.2), IVDU (HR 4.90), infected prosthesis replacement (HR 4.4), and presence of cardiac implantable electronic device leads (HR 3.0). No significant difference was found in valve repair vs. replacement and in IVDUs vs. non-IVDUs.Conclusions: Patients with isolated acute TVIE undergoing surgical treatment show acceptable early and late outcomes. TVIE recurrence was low, and repair of the affected valve does not seem to confer any advantage either at early or long term up to 25 years. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Studies on fertility determinants have frequently pointed to the role that socio-economic, cultural and institutional factors play in shaping reproductive behaviours. Yet, little is known about these determinants at an ecological level, although it is widely recognised that demographic dynamics strongly interact with ecosystems. This research responds to the need to enhance the knowledge on variations in fertility across space with an analysis of the relationship between fertility and population density of Italians and foreigners in Italy at the municipal level for the period 2002–2018. Using global and local autocorrelation measures and a spatial Durbin model, we show that there is a negative association between the fertility and population density of the Italian population, while the density of foreigners is correlated with higher fertility. This second result poses new insights on the relationship between space and fertility. Moreover, we find that the features of neighbouring areas, measured by population density, contribute significantly to explaining spatial fertility variation, confirming the importance of the study of spatial diffusion in demographic processes.

Sri Lankans constitute one of Italy's oldest foreign communities. A comparative geographic study of Sri Lankans’ settlement patterns in three main municipalities of South Italy (Naples, Palermo, and Catania) is performed in the present work. The uniqueness of the analysis relies on the fact that, to the authors’ knowledge, no other existing studies comparatively examine the spatial segregation of Sri Lankan communities in different southern European municipalities. Moreover, implementing a single geographic reference grid allowed the homogenisation of different areal unit arrangements and the comparison between urban contexts. Original results have emerged from the empirical analysis, detecting peculiar and similar residential behaviour in Sri Lankans’ settlement patterns across the three municipalities analysed, jointly influenced by work specialisation and variations in the local cost of living. In particular, the high levels of Sri Lankan concentration detected in the wealthiest neighbourhoods revealed complex dynamics underlying the urban spatial segregation, beyond the mere centre-periphery dichotomy.

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm is currently highly demanded in multiple scenarios and in particular plays an important role in solving medical-related challenges. RF and microwave technologies, coupled with wireless energy transfer, are interesting candidates because of their inherent contactless spectrometric capabilities and for the wireless transmission of sensing data. This article reviews some recent achievements in the field of wearable sensors, highlighting the benefits that these solutions introduce in operative contexts, such as indoor localization and microwave sensing. Wireless power transfer is an essential requirement to be fulfilled to allow these sensors to be not only wearable but also compact and lightweight while avoiding bulky batteries. Flexible materials and 3D printing polymers, as well as daily garments, are widely exploited within the presented solutions, allowing comfort and wearability without renouncing the robustness and reliability of the built-in wearable sensor.

This work proposes the design and implementation of a wearable rectifying filtenna (filtering antenna) which is activated and powered wirelessly, to detect the presence of ethanol solutions. The system is implemented on a Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 substrate ( $\varepsilon _{r} =2.2$ and thickness: 0.508 mm), whose flexibility facilitates the system wearability. The fluid detection is performed by a resonant stub embedding a microfluidic channel on its end, which resonates as an open circuit at 2.45 GHz when the channel is filled with the ethanol solution and undergoes a dramatic shift on its input impedance behavior when the channel is filled with water or when it is empty. The system is powered wirelessly by means of a 2.45-GHz narrowband antenna, and the frequency selection is performed by a second-order open-end coupled-line filter whose one end is loaded with the resonant stub. The filtenna RF signal is transduced by a full-wave rectifier exploiting low-threshold voltage diodes, and fluid detection is read out through different values of dc-output voltages, allowing an immediate response. The system is designed and optimized by means of full-wave/nonlinear co-simulations and the realized prototype is measured to confirm a safe detection of the tested solution.

This paper investigates the meso dimension of the Italian territorial capital. Multivariate explorative analysis was carried out on Italian municipalities using several original statistical indicators. We detected two latent dimensions on which three clusters of municipalities were identified: the prevalence of cultural endowments and typicality, the prevalence of environmental and natural endowments, and the prevalence of other endowments. These clusters were then used for analytical purposes, crossing demographic and socio-economic variables. The results showed that some elements of “‘disadvantage,” such as poor accessibility, can, in reality, represent strengths, provided that such an endowment is exploited in sectors that can benefit from it, such as, for example, culture and tourism.

Since the early 1990s, persistently low fertility in Mediterranean countries has attracted the interest of empirical research aimed at identifying factors associated with demographic change in what were traditionally high-fertility contexts. Most of these studies have been carried out at the national scale, while spatial analyses of sub-national patterns remain mostly absent. The present study aims to fill this gap, investigating the spatio-temporal changes in local fertility in Spanish municipalities over a 16-year period that covers consecutive waves of economic expansion (2002–2009) and recession (2010–2017). The analytical framework is grounded on descriptive statistics, spatial statistics (that is, Global Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association) and non-parametric inference testing the pair-wise correlations between fertility levels and contextual variables (including population density, topography, accessibility and distance from central locations). Results of this study reveal a fertility decline in most areas of the country—especially in depopulated districts. The highest fertility is observed in Southern Spain, along the Mediterranean coast, and around the main cities. With recession, spatial heterogeneity emerges as the main trend characterizing regional fertility—a finding in line with research from other Mediterranean countries. Local fertility rates were less spatially clustered in the recession than in the expansion period, with a progressive shrinkage of high-fertility districts. A persistent decline in local fertility may be considered an early-warning indicator of depopulation in Spain’s rural districts and can be used to delineate demographically fragile areas.

Taylor’s law states that the variance of population density in a given set of areas is a power function of its mean. When the exponent is equal to 2, the distribution of population densities between areas remains unchanged; when it is less than 2, the distribution converges toward the uniform distribution; when it is greater than 2, the densities become increasingly different from each other over time. The exponent takes the value 2 for East Asia, the Pacific, and South Asia. It takes a value greater than 2 for sub-Saharan Africa because the ongoing demographic transition and intense urbanization are redistributing the population over the territories. The exponent is lower than 2 for the other regions of the world, which have completed their demographic transition and where the rural exodus has been completed.

Immigration flows and social inequalities reflect increased social and multi-ethnic segregation in contemporary urban Europe. For a better understanding of these processes, the present study investigates the main strengths of the multi-group residential indices, testing sensitivity and reliability under different metropolitan contexts in five European countries. These indices focus on different research dimensions and approach multi-group residential segregation conceptually and mathematically in a different way. A multivariate exploratory data analysis was adopted to classify the observed segregation patterns into a few homogeneous types and to delineate the multivariate relationship between the indices. The results of principal component analysis demonstrate that the indices assessing uniformity and disproportionality of the social groups analysed (H and D) contribute largely to the diversification in today's multi-ethnic communities, clarifying the importance of the dimension of evenness. Our results highlight how segregation is more evident in economically disadvantaged metropolitan regions with high levels of social vulnerability.

An original approach to spatial economic analysis is here proposed with reference to Italy. A granularity approach is applied on microdata related to a panel of firms that have been active during 2007–2017. At each firm is therefore associated a coefficient of exposure to the economic cycle of four major foreign economies: Germany, UK, USA, and China. This information is then linked to territorial level and analyzed at two geographical scales: regional and sub-regional. The autocorrelation spatial analysis carried out lead us to appreciate geography of exposure to positive or negative shocks coming from each of the four foreign economies. This geography is very different from the administrative one and can represent a tool for planning future strategies of economic investments and territorial planning.

This paper offers an analysis of the supply of Airbnb accommodation in Rome, one of the main tourist destinations in the world, the third-largest city in Europe, by the number of Airbnb listings. The aim is to focus on the recent spatial trend of Airbnb listings, including the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlight the main housing and socioeconomic characteristics of the neighbourhoods associated with a strong presence of Airbnb listings. The study is developed with quantitative methods and spatial regression (spatial lag and spatial error using OLS as a benchmark), based on data collected from the Inside Airbnb and Tomslee websites. In the period 2014–2019, the listing trend in Rome has been increasing in absolute numbers. After the start of the pandemic, the trend became negative, and the decline of Airbnb offerings is more substantial for shared accommodation. Airbnb supply is related to the distance from the city centre, the average income of the area, empty apartments, singles and the share of foreign residents coming from high-income countries. A signal of spatial diffusion of Airbnb listings emerges in the coastal area, even if they are increasingly concentrated in the historic centre, where there is a monoculture of short-term renting.

This study presents a spatial analysis of suburban inequalities (residential concentration and income inequalities) among the main foreign-born population groups resident in Spain (Italians, Britons, Chinese, Moroccans and Romanians) in Madrid and Barcelona. Through a local spatial approach at census tract level, a number of relevant issues are highlighted, including the existence, both in Madrid and in Barcelona, of a divided space that shows a marked contrast between the city of the rich and that of the poor. The former includes the foreign-born population from more developed countries, while the latter contains Moroccans and Romanians. The Chinese population seem to follow their own pattern, which cannot be compared to that of the other population groups. It therefore seems that country of birth determines the outcome of spatial distributions and the degree of integration in spatially divided, and therefore more fragile, contexts. The emergent theme of divided cities, especially in its ethnic and spatial dimension, is gaining increased importance in ‘old Europe’.

This paper presents the latest works that have been carried on at the University of Bologna, Italy, in the last years related to radiofrequency identification (RFID) and wireless power transfer (WPT) topics. The main themes that have been touched are related to custom systems having practical applications in the biomedical and the industrial sectors. In particular, the focus has been put on an RFID indoor localization system exploiting the monopulse radar technique, a microfluidic sensor for biological fluids detection, and a WPT system for predictive maintenance in industrial applications, in particular in the automotive field.

This essay considers the rural-to-urban transition and correlates it with urban energy demands. Three distinct themes are inspected and interrelated to develop awareness for an urbanizing world: internal urban design and innovation, technical transition, and geopolitical change. Data were collected on the use of energy in cities and, by extension, nation states over the last 30 years. The\ud urban population boom continues to pressure the energy dimension with heavily weighted impacts\ud on less developed regions. Sustainable urban energy will need to reduce resource inputs and environmental impacts and decouple economic growth from energy consumption. Fossil fuels continue to\ud be the preferred method of energy for cities; however, an increased understanding is emerging that\ud sustainable energy forms can be implemented as alternatives. Key to this transition will be the will to\ud invest in renewables (i.e., solar, wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, and biomass), efficient infrastructure,\ud and smart eco-city designs. This essay elucidates how the technical transition of energy-friendly technologies focuses on understanding the changes in the energy mix from non-renewable to renewable.\ud Smart electricity storage grids with artificial intelligence can operate internationally and alleviate\ud some geopolitical barriers. Energy politics is shown to be a problematic hurdle with case research\ud examples specific to Central and Eastern Europe. The energy re-shift stressed is a philosophical\ud re-thinking of modern cities as well as a new approach to the human-energy relationship.

This work presents the theoretical and numerical design of a novel radiative near-field wireless power transfer (WPT) system at millimeter waves (mm-waves), based on one TX and one RX resonant Bessel-beam launcher, with the aim of providing superior performance in terms of energy focusing capabilities. To evaluate the achievable rectified power, for several TX-RX distances, the wireless link is accurately and efficiently accounted for, by combining the EM analysis of the launchers with EM theory. A single-diode rectifier is designed to operate at 37.5 GHz: for a received power of 0dBm the expected rectifier efficiency exceeds 30%. Radiative near-field wireless power transfer (WPT) promises several benefits over both nonradiative near-field and radiative far-field wireless links. The compact size of the proposed system makes it particularly attractive for future mm-wave wearable WPT systems.

Aging, European Union consolidation, and human mobility across countries are three entangled processes making the Mediterranean region of Europe an attractive retirement place thanks to mild climate and lower costs of living. Residential mobility of retired workers in Europe has grown rapidly since the 1980s because of increased wealth, transportation improvements, and flexibility of working lives. However, residential mobility after retirement was occasionally investigated in relation with economic cycles; recession was hypothesized to negatively impact residential mobility from Northern/Western/Central Europe to Mediterranean countries. Considering economic and population dynamics over the last three decades, the present work documents the drastic reduction in the number of European immigrants in Greece after the 2007 recession, with the exception of retirees. Job shortage and worse socioeconomic conditions were demonstrated to alter settlement patterns and location preferences of migrants at both younger and older ages. Results of our study suggest a rethinking of the role of spatial planning and developmental measures in local communities less organized to host increasing flows of retirees from Northern Europe. Being increasingly required to provide services for aging population, social policies should reconcile retirement migration with internal demographic dynamics and the specificity of local contexts, promoting finely tuned taxation systems and appropriate spatial infrastructures.

Fertility is a key process shaping long-term population dynamics. Distinctive fertility trends have characterized demographic transitions, exhibiting sequential periods of spatial convergence and divergence. This descriptive study investigates the spatiotemporal evolution of Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR) at different geographical scales in Italy between 2002 and 2018. Descriptive statistics of the TFR and CBR values across geographical scales were computed and the associated maps were prepared for the most detailed spatial levels available; specifically, down to the municipality level. Spatial analysis at the provincial and municipality level was based on both global and local Moran's indexes. Southern Italy, a mostly disadvantaged region, was characterized by relatively stable fertility patterns; fertility then decreased following an opposite trend with respect to economic conditions. The reverse relationship was observed in Northern Italy. As such, economic expansion and recession impacted fertility more intensively in Northern Italy.

This work proposes the design of a Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) system in the 2.4 GHz band, suitable for remotely energizing low-power wireless sensors located in highly complex environments from the electromagnetic propagation point of view. This is the case of many industrial scenarios such as industrial machineries or automotive engines, to enable remote monitoring, predictive maintenance and components diagnosis. A co-designing method was used to obtain a system of independent RF sources embedded in the complex environment, with the aim of being at the same time miniaturized for easy integration into the environment, and of having the ability for providing energy wirelessly in a pervasive way. The validation of the project shows that even wireless sensors located in critical and NLOS (Non-line-of-sight) positions, placed in key points of the engine compartment and in contact with parts that need to be monitored, can be successfully energized by the proposed approach. This enables battery-less sensors to be powered and to simultaneously communicate with a gateway in order to monitor vital engine parameters. A communication among the gateway and a number of battery-less sensor nodes is demonstrated exploiting low-power LoRa (Long Range) nodes working in the same frequency band of the RF powering system.

Although still needing a definite theoretical status, spatial justice represents an inspiring framework for geographical analysis and for planning. In this paper we try to operationalize the concept through a geo-demographic approach. By using demographic and social differences as proxy of the concept at the urban level we define five socio-territorial clusters based on the characteristics of the population residing in the enumeration area of 14 Italian local labour market areas (LLMAs) whose capital is also the capital of a metropolitan city. The first results of the analysis show a high level of heterogeneity and the absence of compact and segregated peripheries. At the same time the analysis highlights the need for further methodological investigations to attain a better representation of social justice in its spatial dimension.

Studies on residential segregation of foreign population in Southern Europe usually focus on capital cities, omitting the metropolitan dimension and paying less attention to use of comparable analysis’ spatial scales. These issues, together with the dominant use of two-group segregation indexes, prevent identification and classification of metropolitan patterns of residential segregation in such contexts. To overcome these key issues, the spatial segregation of foreign population in 16 Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) was investigated in Italy and Spain using global and local multi-group segregation indexes based on a regular geometry (100 m grid) and confronted with socioeconomic indicators profiling the local context. Results of this study reveal the absence of common metropolitan patterns of residential segregation in both countries. In turn, a greater level of residential segregation is correlated with a lower presence of immigrant population and depressed socioeconomic conditions of each FUA, suggesting the existence of a downward spiral toward social vulnerability in the most disadvantaged cities. These results finally indicate the increasing difficulties faced by foreigners in order to access the real estate market in Southern European cities.

In 1885, Ravenstein formulated his “laws” of migration, based on the experience of the British Isles. In a further 1889 paper, he extended his analysis as a tour d’horizon of migration and population changes in other nations, including Italy. Even if social and economic processes including globalisation and rising mobility have changed the world since then, Ravenstein’s “laws” remain a point of reference today. Harnessing theoretical and methodological advances made since the 19th century, this paper describes and seeks to explain the role of international and internal migration in regional population change in Italy from 2002-2017. This paper provides the first geographically detailed migration analysis for the country’s 611 Local Labour Market Areas (LLMAs), using register-based migration and population data. Our contribution focuses on several of Ravenstein’s “laws” relating to gender (differences between men and women), natives and non-natives (differences between the Italian and the foreign population), distance migrated from origin to destination, and the role of the economy in shaping push and pull factors of migration. The results show that international migration is more prominent among men than women. In the case of internal moves, the rates of migration among men and women are similar, and internal migration is more prominent among the foreign than the native Italian population. Overall, international migration gains contribute substantially more to population change than internal migration gains and losses do. In Italy, the effects of persistent economic imbalances and of distance on migration patterns are not in line with Ravenstein’s hypotheses: not all areas with high unemployment show an effect of dispersion, nor does distance always act as a deterrent to migration. The geographically detailed analysis presented here illustrates the temporal and spatial coexistence of diverse international and internal migration processes depending on local characteristics, as well as the importance of the economic or administrative centres as the driving force behind national patterns. Our results show that, even 130 years after their formulation, Ravenstein’s migration “laws” (more accurately called “hypotheses” today) are still a valuable starting point in assessing and understanding migration processes and their role in regional population change. * This article belongs to a special issue on “Internal Migration as a Driver of Regional Population Change in Europe: Updating Ravenstein”.

Density-dependent population growth regulates long-term urban expansion and shapes distinctive socioeconomic trends. Despite a marked heterogeneity in the spatial distribution of the resident population, Mediterranean European countries are considered more homogeneous than countries in other European regions as far as settlement structure and processes of metropolitan growth are concerned. However, rising socioeconomic inequalities among Southern European regions reflect latent demographic and territorial transformations that require further investigation. An integrated assessment of the spatio-temporal distribution of resident populations in more than 1,000 municipalities (1961&ndash, 2011) was carried out in this study to characterize density-dependent processes of metropolitan growth in Greece. Using geographically weighted regressions, the results of our study identified distinctive local relationships between population density and growth rates over time. Our results demonstrate that demographic growth rates were non-linearly correlated with other variables, such as population density, with positive and negative impacts during the first (1961&ndash, 1971) and the last (2001&ndash, 2011) observation decade, respectively. These findings outline a progressive shift over time from density-dependent processes of population growth, reflecting a rapid development of large metropolitan regions (Athens, Thessaloniki) in the 1960s, to density-dependent processes more evident in medium-sized cities and accessible rural regions in the 2000s. Density-independent processes of population growth have been detected in the intermediate study period (1971&ndash, 2001). This work finally discusses how a long-term analysis of demographic growth, testing for density-dependent mechanisms, may clarify the intrinsic role of population concentration and dispersion in different phases of the metropolitan cycle in Mediterranean Europe.

Metropolitan regions in Europe experienced intense demographic change from accelerated population expansion sustained by high fertility and immigration to zero (or negative) growth and aging. Such transformations are particularly complex in Southern Europe and lead to a shift from the impressive urban growth driven by industrialization to a more recent de-concentration of inner cities and scattered metropolitan expansion. Based on long-term population data, the present study assumes that urban expansion and demographic trends in Southern Europe no longer follow sequential phases of growth and decline, being characterized by non-linear urban expansion and distinctive demographic trends. Such hypothesis was tested considering a complete urban cycle and the associated population trends over a sufficiently long time interval (1848–2011) in metropolitan Athens, Greece. Population increase was assessed through the analysis of long-term census data made available on a district scale. Such analysis provided information on the spatial distribution of resident population and allowed identification of multiple expansion waves only partly aligned with predictions of the urban cycle model. The complex interplay between long-term fertility-mortality dynamics and short-term migration trends in Athens justifies deviations from model’s predictions. A long-term analysis of population trends at local scale contributes to re-contextualize urban cycles within the (more general) debate on demographic transitions, evidencing together the multi-scalar influence of population dynamics on metropolitan expansion and the importance of a historical analysis of population growth from the beginning of the modern urban experience.

The foreign population has become a structural trait of Italian society, and its territorial integration a key factor in social sustainability. Mixed couples, an emerging phenomenon in the Italian context, are leading to a change in social space and residential geography of the local environment. Encouraging an improvement in the level of territorial integration of the foreign population, by the host, plays an important role in understanding demographic changes. This chapter proposes a theoretical reflection on the importance of territorial integration of foreigners and an assessment of the dimensional effects it presents to the host societies’ social cohesion, and an empirical application to examine the relationships between foreigner residential integration and mixed couples. Results indicate that the increase in mixed couples leads to a weakening of residential segregation and therefore to greater territorial integration of the foreign population in the host society. Taking level of segregation of other ethnic groups under control, the effect of mixed couples on the level of residential segregation remains negative, while at the same time, the level of residential segregation of a given foreign community is positively correlated with other foreign community’s level of residential segregation. The territorial integration of foreigners is, thus, strongly linked to the local, social environment in context of multi-segregation. From this perspective, the growth of mixed-race couples, at least within a territorial dimension, can represent an agent of change in the social space modifying the majority and minority groups’ residential geography.

Population decline is a major issue impacting environmental sustainability, economic growth and social well-being. Although earlier studies evaluated demographic factors, social forces and economic aspects associated with population decline in Europe, the role of territorial factors was less considered when investigating the spatial linkages between rural depopulation and the local context. As demographic patterns are the result of past dynamics depending on place-specific factors, this study hypothesizes that (time-invariant) territorial characteristics (altitude, geographical area, proximity to the sea, and urban hierarchy) are important drivers of the spatial variability in depopulation rates on a local scale. To verify this assumption, changes over time (1981–2011) in resident populations of Italian municipalities were investigated and a regression model aimed at identifying the relevant factors shaping the population decline in Italy was run separately for three decades (1981–1991, 1991–2001, 2001–2011) with depopulation rate as the dependent variable. Model estimation was based on a system of simultaneous equations where the dependent variable at time t is an explanatory variable of the model at a subsequent time (t + 1). Results show that basic territorial factors – and especially altitude - impacted significantly on local-scale depopulation rates. North-south differences in population decline emerged more clearly in the last decade. Municipalities with a declining population at a given time were more likely to experience depopulation also in the subsequent decade. These findings highlight the relevant role of territorial factors in shaping depopulation across Italy and the importance of a spatially explicit analysis of demographic dynamics for local development research and policy.

This paper proposes the design of an engineered Wireless Power Transfer circuit for a 13.56 MHz miniaturized Inductive Resonant Wireless Power Transfer (IR-WPT) link for medical applications. The IR-WPT system is composed of a miniaturized receiver realized through three orthogonal coils winded up around a 3D-printed spherical structure. In order to create a compact system and maximize the EM coupling all the rectification circuitry needs to be placed inside the geometrical sphere. Thus, the PCB dimensions and arrangement are limited by the small volume available inside the plastic structure, less then $1 cm^{3}$, and by the 3D shape of the system, which forces the PCB layout to exploit an orthogonal arrangement with separated blocks. The circuitry component packages are chosen in order to minimize the encumbrance and ease the connection with each orthogonal coil. The equivalent circuit model is optimized with respect to the Power Transfer Efficiency (PTE) at a 5 cm Tx-Rx distance. To investigate the effect of the human body on the system performance, simulations are carried out exploiting an equivalent model of the human body tissues inside which the receiver is placed, at the same reference distance. The system performance is comparable for both cases: a 15 % average PTE and dc-output voltage exceeding 1.5 V are calculated for a 10 V input source.

Starting from the description of sample surveys and research on spatial mobility (migration and daily mobility) and on other dimensions strictly connected with this topic (local identity and housing projects) organized and conducted by the University of Pisa over the last fifteen years, this article presents an extensive and in-depth overview of methods that can to be used for analysing this type of statistical information and the type of results that can be achieved, with particular focus on the biographical approach.

Reflecting a broader form of neo-liberal urban policy underlying the progressive return of capital investment, gentrification is a key issue in urban studies. Although earlier definitions of “gentrification” focused mostly on socio-cultural processes, recent works have qualified gentrification as a mixed political–economic issue. Clarifying whether inner city gentrification should be supported, controlled, constricted, or prevented is a key debate in urban sustainability and metabolism, contributing to managing and, possibly, enhancing metropolitan resilience. To define the causes and consequences of gentrification, understanding the intrinsic linkage with different social contexts is crucial. There are no universal and comprehensive gentrification processes, displaying similarities and differences at the same time. A comparative analysis of different forms of gentrification and urban change provides basic knowledge to delineate complex, non-linear paths of socioeconomic development in cities, shedding light on the increased socioeconomic complexity and the most appropriate policies to fuel metropolitan sustainability in a broader context of global change. From this perspective, our commentary focuses on the main issues at the base of gentrification in Europe, starting from basic definitions and providing a regional vision distinguishing three “gentrification ideal-types” (northern, eastern, and Mediterranean). The implications of these different socioeconomic processes for the policy and governance of sustainable and resilient cities were discussed, evidencing new lines of investigation to frame (or re-frame) the increasing complexity of urbanization patterns and processes.

The relationship between population dynamics and desertification risk in advanced economies is increasingly dependent on the mutual interplay of socioeconomic forces at regional and local scales. Assuming that specific, long-term demographic dynamics are associated with a given level of desertification risk, the present study investigates population trends between 1861 and 2017 and the spatial linkage with the level of desertification risk in Southern Italy, a European region where more than 20 % of land is exposed to degradation processes. Areas classified at the highest risk of desertification experienced intense population growth between 1951 and 1981. Reflecting the latest stage of the first demographic transition in Italy, such dynamics have caused an increasing human pressure on coastal districts, peri-urban areas and flat rural land. Since the early 1980s, population growth was less intense and more heterogeneous over space. Such dynamics led to a discontinuous urban expansion and the formation of a ‘third space’ – neither urban nor rural – with a consequent increase in the rate of land take. These outcomes, typical of the early stage of the second demographic transition, were mostly uncorrelated with the level of desertification risk. The spatial association between population dynamics and desertification risk characteristic of the first demographic transition in Southern Italy outlines the importance of regional developmental policies aimed at rebalancing territorial disparities for land degradation mitigation in the Mediterranean region.

What are the spatial residential patterns of the main foreign groups residing in some large Italian cities? Using data from the last Italian demographic census (2011) at sub-municipality level, the study investigates on this research question. A spatial approach is applied to analyze the geographical distribution of the main foreign groups enumerated in the cities of Milan, Rome, Naples and Palermo. The results provide some interesting insights: the distribution of foreign groups coming from central and eastern European countries is quite scattered and shows a comparative low level of dissimilarity to the spatial distribution of Italians. Conversely, foreign groups coming from more distant countries (like China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) show spatial distributions characterized by a comparative low level of dispersion and a comparative high level of dissimilarity to the spatial distribution of Italians.

Taylor’s power law (Tpl) is applied to the human population density of Italian regions and provinces for the period 1971–2011. Three different weighting systems are used to estimate Tpl at the national and subnational levels in which seemingly unrelated regression models are adopted. The following results were found: Tpl is suitable for human populations and sensitive to the adopted weighting system; Tpl’s slope is positive and, at a subnational level, has an inverse behaviour with respect to the spatial variability of the weighting variables; and Tpl’s slope can be viewed as an indicator of a population’s spatial distribution homogeneity.

Population movements (international and internal migration) and changing fertility and mortality patterns have significantly affected demographic structures. Investigation of the relationship between (evolving) population structures and economic downturns is a key issue in economic demography. Analysis of compositional changes in regional population structures over a sufficiently long time interval may provide an informed knowledge to better understanding of this relationship and the underlying socioeconomic context in European countries. Based on these premises, Greece was considered a paradigmatic case of sequential economic expansions and recessions, impacting the structure of resident population in the last four decades. In this work, changes over time in population structures by age in Greek regions were explored (1981–2017) using a multi-temporal principal component analysis. A diachronic analysis of compositional effects of economic downturns on regional population structures indicates spatially-heterogeneous demographic processes in Greece. The subsequent recession has represented a turning point in Greek demography, consolidating changes in traditional family structures, while stimulating out-migration at younger ages to Northern and Western European regions and containing immigration from developing countries. Metropolitan areas and coastal districts had more rapid population dynamics, while peripheral rural regions experienced more rapid changes towards aging. Population aging had a short-term impact on regional population structures in Greece, with possibly negative consequences for the ability of the country’s economy to recover from crisis.

Using census data on work commuting in Albania – collected for the first time in 2011 – this study examines the spatial adjustment processes between demand and supply of labour across the country. The first part focuses on the spatial adjustment of labour forces that occur within and between Albanian’s prefectures. Several statistical indicators, derived using origin-destination matrices, measure the differential levels of attraction and expulsion of each prefecture. Results show a high level of heterogeneity and emphasise the crucial role of spatial contiguity among prefectures on this spatial dynamic. The second part examines the role of the municipality of Tirana. This is first investigated within a three-territorial-units system (the municipality of Tirana, rest of the prefecture and rest of Albania) and then within the prefecture as a closed system. Interestingly, 71.5% of all the commuting flows directed to the Municipality originate from municipalities located very close to Tirana (less than 10 km). We conclude that the spatial structure of the prefecture, reasonably extendable to the whole country, can be defined as monocentric. Further studies should focus on the implied costs of this system to the society and environment of Albania.

In this essay, we tackle the issue of the international mobility of young Italians in relation to regional disparities. Our intention is to determine if and to what extent a relationship exists between regional development and the international mobility of young people. We analyze the international migration of Italian citizens aged 15-34 who left the country in the period 2010-2017 using several variables that reflect the varying conditions found in different NUTS 3-level regions in terms of economic dynamism, labor-market efficiency, social fragility, educational underdevelopment and spatial peripherality. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) models show that the international mobility of young Italians is very much dependent on local conditions and affected by spatial differences. It is greatest in the most economically dynamic areas of the country, in border regions and in metropolitan areas, with factors relating to spatial proximity and peripherality, imbalances in local labor markets, and paucity of human capital proving particularly significant.

Over the last decades there have been important methodological advances in measuring residential segregation, especially concerning spatial indices. After a discussion of the fundamental concepts and approaches some of the numerous indices are introduced. We focus in particular on the most known aspatial and spatial indices in the dimension of evenness namely segregation and dissimilarity indices. The contribution is based on data of the geographic distribution of selected foreign groups resident in the census enumeration areas that form the Local Labour Market Area (LLMA) of Rome. Data refer to the population censuses 2001 and 2011. Applying the indices to the LLMA of Rome serves as a test of the practical and potential usefulness of the proposed measures and their possible interpretation.

Family and young children interaction constitutes an intricate piece of the reconstructed human behaviors and relations that dominate the current sociodemographic transition in Albania. We argue here that the recent macro demographic and social changes, which indicate an entry into the second demographic transition, are also articulated in the family micro-level relationships. In particular, our interest has led us to explore whether the divergences in family behaviour and attitudes concerning inequalities expressed in the wealth position and empowerment status of mothers have implications for the well-being of young children. Micro-level data from the 2008–2009 Albanian Demographic and Health Survey (ADHS) for children under five were used for this analysis. The sub-sample of 541 children from 3 to 5 years of age is examined related to achievements in several aspects of well-being. We put forward that the Albanian families who are still distant from the second demographic-transition model in terms of living arrangements pose a burden on the quality of life for the young children.

Animal ecology has devoted a great deal of effort to the study of the relations between the variance (V) and the average (M) of the density of a group of sub-populations (pi) belonging to the same territorial system, and thus, it has been possible to develop several ‘laws’. Among these laws, one of the best known is Taylor’s power law (TL), which provides that between V and M, there is a power law. Several studies have appeared on this topic only recently in the field of human demography, mainly those of Cohen and colleagues. This is quite surprising given the extreme importance of the population density indicator in population studies. This paper, for the first time, tests the relations between V and M at the world level by working on the sub-populations (pi) resident in each country belonging to five continents and following a long-term perspective (1950–2017). To estimate the unknown parameters of the relation we make use a simultaneous equation system (SUR). The results show that TL is verified in two out of five cases (Asia, and America), while in three cases (Africa, Europe and Oceania), a quadratic relationship shows better results.

OBJECTIVES: We described clinical-epidemiological features of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) and assessed the determinants of early surgical outcomes in multicentre design.METHODS: Data regarding 2823 patients undergoing surgery for endocarditis at 19 Italian Centers between 1979 and 2015 were collected in a database. Of them, 582 had PVE: in this group, the determinants of early mortality and complications were assessed, also taking into account the different chronological eras encompassed by the study.RESULTS: Overall hospital (30-day) mortality was 19.2% (112 patients). Postoperative complications of any type occurred in 256 patients (44%). Across 3 eras (1980-2000, 2001-08 and 2009-14), early mortality did not significantly change (20.4%, 17.1%, 20.5%, respectively, P = 0.60), whereas complication rate increased (18.5%, 38.2%, 52.8%, P -2 mg/dl, chronic pulmonary disease, low ejection fraction, non-streptococcal aetiology, active endocarditis, preoperative intubation, preoperative shock and triple valve surgery were significantly associated with mortality. In multivariable analysis, age (OR = 1.02; P = 0.03), renal insufficiency (OR = 2.1; P = 0.05), triple valve surgery (OR = 6.9; P = 0.004) and shock (OR = 4.5; P CONCLUSIONS: PVE surgery remains a high-risk one. The strongest predictors of early outcome of PVE surgery are related to patient's haemodynamic status and microbiological factors.

The potential economic distress of households is a phenomenon bound up with a very broad set of economic, demographic and social factors. This paper is concerned with the identification of these factors and of how their spatial variability influences the spatial variability of the Share of Households in Potential Economic Distress (SHED). To this end, a model of geographically weighted regression (GWR) is calculated for the SHED observed in the 110 Italian provinces at the time of the last two censuses (2001 and 2011). The results show that the SHED and its determinants present a sharply defined geographical pattern that varies over the ten-year interval.