UNPark, Milan. A social innovation experiment beneath the Serra Monte Ceneri Flyover

Urban infrastructure in high-density metropolitan contexts constitutes an experimental frontier for improving the citizens’ quality of life and also represents a still undervalued resource in producing economic, energy, environmental and social value. Infrastructure such as the Serra Monte Ceneri Flyover in Milan, a source of distress and degradation associable with the idea of “wasted architecture”, can only be transformed into resource through a process of enhancement and a circular, multi-layer and multi-functional design vision. UNPark research is configured as an urban innovation hub by which to trigger reflection on the transition potential towards infrastructure multifunctionality.

Two sides of the same coin? The Energy Transition Potential in Global North and Global South Countries

Climatic changes have made transition to renewable energy essential. However, energy transition in the globalized world is challenged with diversification in culture, economic prowess, social development, and state structure. The global negotiations are always tough, among others, due to the split between the Global North (GN) and Global South (GS) countries. At the same time, the debates on how to deal with the inequalities in climate mitigation potential veils a thus far hardly acknowledged difference in energy transition potential and impact in the GN and GS countries. This paper, therefore, aims to contribute to bridging this knowledge gap by making a systematic comparative assessment of energy transition potential in the GN and GS with two regions as example cases. We analysed and compared energy scenarios in two regions in the world: Overijssel representing the GN countries and Matura representing the GS south countries. Both regions are similar in economic activities, but differ in demography and economic development. We analysed and compared the current energy system in both regions and two development scenarios towards 2050: the BAU scenario and the zero emission scenario. Despite the differences in starting position, the energy systems in both regions move towards each other in the longer term, but change pattern and costs differ. In both regions bioresources are the dominant renewable resource in an locally determined energy resource portfolio. However, the costs of getting into this longer term position are significantly higher in Matura than in Overijssel, whereas the general economic potential, as it looks in 2020, is worse in Matura. Our analysis therefore indicates that a renewable energy transition in the longer term can result in zero emission systems in both GN and GS countries, but with substantial differences in costs.

Cross sections for 2-to-1 meson–meson scattering

We study the processes $$K{\bar{K}} \rightarrow \phi $$ K K ¯ → ϕ , $$\pi D \rightarrow D^*$$ π D → D ∗ , $$\pi {\bar{D}} \rightarrow {\bar{D}}^*$$ π D ¯ → D ¯ ∗ , and the production of $$\psi (3770)$$ ψ ( 3770 ) , $$\psi (4040)$$ ψ ( 4040 ) , $$\psi (4160)$$ ψ ( 4160 ) , and $$\psi (4415)$$ ψ ( 4415 ) mesons in collisions of charmed mesons or charmed strange mesons. The process of 2-to-1 meson–meson scattering involves a quark and an antiquark from the two initial mesons annihilating into a gluon and subsequently the gluon being absorbed by the spectator quark or antiquark. Transition amplitudes for the scattering process derive from the transition potential in conjunction with mesonic quark–antiquark wave functions and the relative-motion wave function of the two initial mesons. We derive these transition amplitudes in the partial wave expansion of the relative-motion wave function of the two initial mesons so that parity and total-angular-momentum conservation are maintained. We calculate flavor and spin matrix elements in accordance with the transition potential and unpolarized cross sections for the reactions using the transition amplitudes. Cross sections for the production of $$\psi (4040)$$ ψ ( 4040 ) , $$\psi (4160)$$ ψ ( 4160 ) , and $$\psi (4415)$$ ψ ( 4415 ) relate to nodes in their radial wave functions. We suggest the production of $$\psi (4040)$$ ψ ( 4040 ) , $$\psi (4160)$$ ψ ( 4160 ) , and $$\psi (4415)$$ ψ ( 4415 ) as probes of hadronic matter that results from the quark–gluon plasma created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions.