Search results for "Impact."
showing 10 items of 1677 documents
Indirect Discrimination and School Segregation of Roma Children in the Czech Republic
2018
In DH v. Czech Republic (2007), the Czech government argued that Roma parents consented to the assignment of their children to ‘special’ schools. According to the government, parental consent undermined the claim that the disproportionate assignment of Roma children to inferior schools amounted to discrimination. The court rejected the argument, finding as a matter of law that parents could not choose to subject their children to discriminatory education, and as a matter of fact that the parents’ consent was not informed. Since the judgment, the Czech government continues to disproportionately assign Roma children to inferior schools, but it has revised the procedure they use to obtain pare…
Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates
2012
In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquee were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneur…
Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy in the treatment of pain and other symptoms in fibromyalgia : a randomized controlled study
2018
Low-energy pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy has been suggested as a promising therapy to increase microcirculation, which is of great concern in patients with fibromyalgia. This study evaluated the effectiveness of PEMF therapy on the treatment of fibromyalgia. A group of 108 women with fibromyalgia were allocated to a 12-week treatment period with an active Bio-Electro-Magnetic-Energy-Regulation (BEMER) device and a similar treatment period with an inactive device. Each patient received active and sham treatments in a random order. Pain and stiffness were assessed on a visual analog scale (VAS, scale 0-100mm), and functional status was assessed by the Fibromyalgia Impact Questio…
The 15 March 2007 explosive crisis at Stromboli Volcano, Italy: assessing physical parameters through a multidisciplinary approach
2011
Basaltic volcanoes are dominated by lava emission and mild explosive activity. Nevertheless, many basaltic systems exhibit, from time to time, poorly documented and little-understood violent explosions. A short-lived, multiblast explosive crisis (paroxysmal explosion) occurred on 15 March 2007 during an effusive eruptive crisis at Stromboli (Italy). The explosive crisis, which started at 20:38:14 UT, had a total duration of ∼5 min. The combined use of multiparametric data collected by the permanent instrumental networks (seismic, acoustic, and thermal records) and a field survey carried out immediately after the event enabled us to constrain the eruptive dynamics and quantify physical param…
Computational Models That Matter During a Global Pandemic Outbreak
2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a dramatic loss of lives worldwide, challenging the sustainability of our health care systems, threatening economic meltdown, and putting pressure on the mental health of individuals (due to social distancing and lock-down measures). The pandemic is also posing severe challenges to the scientific community, with scholars under pressure to respond to policymakers’ demands for advice despite the absence of adequate, trusted data. Understanding the pandemic requires fine-grained data representing specific local conditions and the social reactions of individuals. While experts have built simulation models to estimate disease trajectories that may be enough to gu…
Tourism and terrorism: conflicts and commonalities
2012
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore why tourists continue to visit troubled and often violent nations, even when there is perceived risk. Tourism and terrorism reflect very different philosophies, but there are also some disturbing commonalities. Both need modern technology to be effective, both rely heavily on media management and both require the manipulation of perceptions and attitudes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses historical evidence to examine the rise and fall in world travel and tourism demand related to acts of terrorism.Findings – The paper observes that the Caribbean experienced a 13.5 percent decline in US visitors after the 9/11 terrorist attack in …
A decision support system to compare different strategies for achieving the Italian Kyoto Protocol commitment
2008
Abstract: In order to meet the Italian Kyoto Protocol commitment, in 2002 the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning (CIPE) approved the national allocation plan for the reduction of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), envisioning various alternative scenarios. In this paper an extended impact assessment of the plan is accomplished and some further options are conceived and analysed in order to find an optimal trade-off among the different economic, environmental and social items at stake. After the selection of a set of independent indicators, nine different scenarios for the GHG reductions were evaluated and they were sorted according to the principles of the multicriteria analysis. The re…
Un nuovo approccio per l’integrazione dell’analisi di rischio nella valutazione degli impatti ambientali connessi alle operazioni di smantellamento d…
2018
La disattivazione e lo smantellamento delle installazioni nucleari a seguito della loro cessazione di esercizio è uno dei problemi che molti paesi si trovano ad affrontare avendo come vincolo la garanzia della sostenibilità ambientale e la sicurezza della popolazione e dei lavoratori coinvolti nelle varie procedure operative. Tuttavia, non esiste allo stato attuale una metodologia capace di classificare la rilevanza dei vari tipi di impatto, ma piuttosto una varietà di strategie che dipendono fortemente dalla normativa vigente nel paese di appartenenza. Ciò ha portato a trascurare la definizione di una procedura capace di individuare proattivamente le condizioni di rischio connesse alle att…
The effects of anthropogenic organic matter inputs on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in organisms from different trophic levels in a southern Me…
2005
Stable isotope ratios were used to determine the impact of anthropogenically derived organic matter from onshore and offshore fish farming and a sewage outfall on organisms at different trophic levels (primary producers and consumers) on the south-east coast of Sicily (Italy, Mediterranean). Representative macroalgae and consumers were collected in three sampling locations: "Impact" and two putative "Controls" sited to the north of the impacted location. While delta(13)C values of both organic matter sources and consumers varied little between locations, delta(15)N spatial variability was higher and delta(15)N was shown to be a good descriptor of organic enrichment and uptake of anthropogen…
Ecology of Denitrifying Prokaryotes in Agricultural Soil
2007
Denitrification is a microbial respiratory process during which soluble nitrogen oxides are used as an alternative electron acceptor when oxygen is limiting. It results in considerable loss of nitrogen, which is the most limiting nutrient for crop production in agriculture. Denitrification is also of environmental concern, since it is the main biological process responsible for emissions of nitrous oxide, one of the six greenhouse gases considered by the Kyoto protocol. In addition to natural variations, agroecosystems are characterized by the use of numerous practices, such as fertilization and pesticide application, which can influence denitrification rates. This has been widely documente…