Ricerc@Sapienza

Extracting and consolidating knowledge from past projects can help managers in selecting projects with the correct level of riskiness, while market analysis gives directions for reaching the objective of a balanced project portfolio. To this extent, the chapter discusses strategic importance of project selection and the role of risks and uncertainties in project portfolio management and presents some fundamental and innovative frameworks and project selection methodologies for balancing risks.

Quantitative measures of supposed scientific ‘quality’ (or ‘impact’) based on bibliometric indicators are used as the primary or exclusive tools of research evaluation in a growing number of countries. The negative impact of this method of evaluation on pluralism in economic teaching and research has been documented in Italy, France, Australia and the United Kingdom. We provide new evidence for Italy by investigating the CVs and publications of all candidates for the ‘national scientific qualification’, which is needed to access all tenured Italian academic positions.

More than a decade since the global financial crisis, economics does not exhibit signs of significant change. Mainstream economists act on an idealized image of science, which includes the convergence of all perspectives into a single supposed scientific truth. Democratizing the Economics Debate shows that this idealized image both provides an inadequate description of what science should be and misrepresents the recent past and current state of economics.

Purpose: The decisions taken today relating to urban renewal interventions are rarely supported by logical and operational methodologies capable of effectively rationalising selection processes. For this purpose, it is necessary to propose and implement analysis models with the aim of promoting the sustainable development of the territory. The purpose of this paper is to define a model for the optimal allocation of scarce resources.

Contrary to many expectations, the development of smart (mini-)grids is slow, notwithstanding drastic improvements in innovative technologies, and the reasons for this are not strictly technical. The problem lies in regulatory barriers. Moreover, the current business models accommodate utilities more so than customers. Net metering is a key enabling factor for smart (mini-)grids. This article addresses the economic benefits of net metering for residential customers.

We axiomatize, in the multidimensional case, a social evaluation function that can accommodate a natural Pigou–Dalton principle and correlation increasing majorization. This is performed by building upon a simple class of inframodular functions proposed by Müller and Scarsini under risk.

The development of an electrochemical cell based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel as polymer electrolyte for electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis (EIS) is discussed. PVA hydrogel is prepared with different cycles of freeze/thawing (F/T) employing distillated and mineral water as solutions. The PVA-disks obtained are compared for their conductivities in order to employ it in an appropriate cell for diagnostic purposes, reducing the invasiveness of the analysis on the sample.