Search

"In Redeeming "The Prince," one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars puts forth a startling new interpretation of arguably the most influential but widely misunderstood book in the Western political tradition. Overturning popular misconceptions and challenging scholarly consensus, Maurizio Viroli also provides a fresh introduction to the work. Seen from this original perspective, five centuries after its composition, The Prince offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of political liberation.Rather than a bible of unscrupulous politics, The Prince, Viroli argues, is actually about political redemption--a book motivated by Machiavelli's patriotic desire to see a new founding for Italy. Written in the form of an oration, following the rules of classical rhetoric, the book condenses its main message in the final section, "Exhortation to liberate Italy from the Barbarians." There Machiavelli creates the myth of a redeemer, an ideal ruler who ushers in an era of peace, freedom, and unity. Contrary to scholars who maintain that the exhortation was added later, Viroli proves that Machiavelli composed it along with the rest of the text, completing the whole by December 1513 or early 1514.Only if we read The Prince as a theory of political redemption, Viroli contends, can we at last understand, and properly evaluate, the book's most controversial pages on political morality, as well as put to rest the cliche of Machiavelli as a "Machiavellian."Bold, clear, and provocative, Redeeming "The Prince" should permanently change how Machiavelli and his masterpiece are understood"--

Abstract: GTPases of the Rho family are components of signaling pathways linking extracellular signals to the control of cytoskeleton dynamics. Among these, RAC1 plays key roles during brain development, ranging from neuronal migration to neuritogenesis, synaptogenesis, and plasticity. RAC1 activity is positively and negatively controlled by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), guanosine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors (GDIs), and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs), but the specific role of each regulator in vivo is poorly known. ARHGAP15 is a RAC1-specific GAP expressed during development in a fraction of migrating cortical interneurons (CINs) and in the majority of adult CINs. During development, loss of ARHGAP15 causes altered directionality of the leading process of tangentially migrating CINs, along with altered morphology in vitro. Likewise, time-lapse imaging of embryonic CINs revealed a poorly coordinated directional control during radial migration, possibly due to a hyper-exploratory behavior. In the adult cortex, the observed defects lead to subtle alteration in the distribution of CALB2-, SST-, and VIP-positive interneurons. Adult Arhgap15-knock-out mice also show reduced CINs intrinsic excitability, spontaneous subclinical seizures, and increased susceptibility to the pro-epileptic drug pilocarpine. These results indicate that ARHGAP15 imposes a fine negative regulation on RAC1 that is required for morphological maturation and directional control during CIN migration, with consequences on their laminar distribution and inhibitory function

As the pandemic urged further investigations on the prediction of firms' financial distress, this study develops and tests an alternative measure to the alert system elaborated by the NCCAAE which combines the benefits of the Z-score's multivariate discriminant model with the background employed to develop the NCCAAE' predictors. Using a sample of 43 viable and 43 non-viable Italian SMEs, we first compare the financial distress predictive accuracy of the NCCAAE's alert system to that of the traditional Z-score over the period 2015-2019. On the basis of the results, we elaborate and compare the revised versions of both approaches which align the traditional Z-score to the current socio-economic conditions and provide an alternative measure to the NCCAAE's alert system which embeds a Z-score calculated using the ratios elaborated by the NCCAAE for the alert system. The analysis of the two baseline approaches showed complementary results as the Z-score overperformed the alert system when predicting the status of non-viable firms whereas the opposite emerged as regards viable firms. The revised version of both approaches pointed out an enhanced predictive accuracy with respect to baseline models. In particular, the complementary role of the Z-score has been integrated into the new alert system as major contribute to its enhancement which pointed it out as the best measure employed. We, therefore, contribute to the literature studying the financial distress prediction developments by elaborating an alternative measure to the alert system developed by the NCCAAE which combines the benefits of the Z-score's multivariate discriminant function with the background employed to develop the NCCAAE' predictors. Our analysis enriches the post-pandemic debate on refined financial distressed prediction methods by pointing out the limits of the alert system as designed by the NCCAAE and suggests an alternative and better performing measure that may be used by third-party bodies to predict financial distress.

This paper examines how knowledge is created and transferred among firms within a geographical bounded industrial cluster. Using patent data from the automatic packaging machinery industrial district in the region Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy, we first provide an empirical test of the widely diffused (and rarely measured) assumption that knowledge generated by cluster-based firms more easily flows within the cluster than outside it. Then, we advance that leading firms within the cluster assume the role of "gatekeepers" in driving the processes of new knowledge creation and diffusion. They introduce external technological novelties in the cluster and enact new useful knowledge production locally, thus enhancing international competitive capabilities of all firms in the cluster.