Italian Region Of Veneto Research Articles

Pedagogical documentation in the era of digital platforms: Early childhood educators’ professionalism in a dilemma

The so-called logic of datafication and platformisation, as a consolidated business model for the BigTech industry with applications to education (van Dijck et al., 2018), can also reach (and affect) early education and care. In a kid’s culture that values documenting and sharing with parents, social media and instant messaging are widely used. Educators feel overloaded with the challenges posed by digital platforms, but contextual issues are relevant to finding ways for resistance and engagement in political actions to transform the edtech platforms’ dominance. Investigating the specific discourses and approaches to platformisation from early education professionals appears relevant to promoting not only awareness but also ways to rethink professional and political agency. Our preliminary study is based on 14 individual interviews and one group interview with educators in the Italian region of Veneto. The results of our thematic analysis indicate that achieving a balance between technology-based documentation and children’s privacy is not straightforward. Also, educators are calling for policies and further support for technology-driven services and activities that make thoughtful and conscious use of technology to avoid harming children. On these bases, we advance recommendations to deepen early childhood educators’ professional development requirements in a data-driven and post-digital society.

First report of Eocene echinoids from the Sylhet Limestone, Mikir Hills of Assam, India: palaeontological, palaeogeography and palaeoenvironmental significance

This article reports two echinoid taxa viz. Ilarionia sindensis Duncan and Sladen (1884) and Porocidaris schmidelii Münster in Goldfus (1830) from the middle Eocene Sylhet Limestone of Mikir Hills, Assam. P. schmidelii is found from the Lutetian (middle Eocene) to the Priabonian (upper Eocene) in the following regions: NE of Spain, Biarritz (Southwestern France), Angoumé (Southern Aquitaine, France), Carinthia (Southern Austria), Venetian region of Italy Provence, Southern Alps of French, Istria (Croatia), Persian Gulf, Oman and Egypt. I. sindensis was first reported from the Eocene of Sindh province from the Khirthar Series (Pakistan) and Madagascar. It is also recorded from the Bartonian–Priabonian in the following regions: NE Spain, Biarritz in Southwestern France, Angoumé in Southern Aquitaine-France, Carinthia in Southern Austria, Italian region of Veneto, Provence and southern French Alps, Persian Gulf, Oman, Egypt and Istria. They are systematically described to know their stratigraphic, palaeoenvironment and palaeogeographic distribution. The material studied herein represents the first report from the middle Eocene of India, and it significantly expands the geographical extension of Eocene marine echinoids in the northeastern part of India.

Synchronous and metachronous multiple primary cancers in melanoma survivors: a gender perspective.

Long-term survivors of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) risk subsequent malignancies due to both host-related and environmental risk factors. This retrospective population-based study differentially assesses the risk of synchronous and metachronous cancers in a cohort of CMM survivors stratified by sex. The cohort study (1999-2018) included 9,726 CMM survivors (M = 4,873, F = 4,853) recorded by the cancer registry of all 5,000,000 residents in the Italian Veneto Region. By excluding subsequent CMM and non-CMM skin cancers, the incidence of synchronous and metachronous malignancies was calculated according to sex and tumor site, standardizing for age and calendar year. The Standardized Incidence Ratio (SIR) was calculated as the ratio between the number of subsequent cancers among CMM survivors and the expected number of malignancies among the regional population. Irrespective of the site, the SIR for synchronous cancers increased in both sexes (SIR = 1.90 in males and 1.73 in females). Both sexes also demonstrated an excess risk for synchronous kidney/urinary tract malignancies (SIR = 6.99 in males and 12.11 in females), and women had an increased risk of synchronous breast cancer (SIR = 1.69). CMM male survivors featured a higher risk of metachronous thyroid (SIR = 3.51, 95% CI [1.87, 6.01]), and prostate (SIR = 1.35, 95% CI [1.12, 1.61]) malignancies. Among females, metachronous cancers featured higher SIR values than expected: kidney/urinary tract (SIR = 2.27, 95% CI [1.29, 3.68]), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (SIR = 2.06, 95% CI [1.24, 3.21]), and breast (SIR = 1.46, 95% CI [1.22, 1.74]). Females had an overall increased risk of metachronous cancers in the first 5 years after CMM diagnosis (SIR = 1.54 at 6-11 months and 1.37 at 1-5 years). Among CMM survivors, the risk of metachronous non-skin cancers is higher than in the general population and differs significantly by sex. These results encourage sex-tailored interventions for metachronous secondary cancer prevention.

Impact of antigen test target failure and testing strategies on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variants

Population testing remains central to COVID-19 control and surveillance, with countries increasingly using antigen tests rather than molecular tests. Here we describe a SARS-CoV-2 variant that escapes N antigen tests due to multiple disruptive amino-acid substitutions in the N protein. By fitting a multistrain compartmental model to genomic and epidemiological data, we show that widespread antigen testing in the Italian region of Veneto favored the undetected spread of the antigen-escape variant compared to the rest of Italy. We highlight novel limitations of widespread antigen testing in the absence of molecular testing for diagnostic or confirmatory purposes. Notably, we find that genomic surveillance systems which rely on antigen population testing to identify samples for sequencing will bias detection of escape antigen test variants. Together, these findings highlight the importance of retaining molecular testing for surveillance purposes, including in contexts where the use of antigen tests is widespread.

Strategic mapping of cultural and creative industries. The case of the Veneto region

Issue and Argument: What are the real and potential boundaries of cultural enterprise? How can we restore economic value and, at the same time, cultural value through the definition of a sector that seems to have no fixed borders? This paper intends to open up a reflection on the boundaries of the cultural industry, the nature of the chosen business and how the sector can become the hub in the dynamics of local development, innovation and competitiveness within the territory of reference. The concentric circles model will be the basis for a strategic mapping of the cultural and creative sector, realized starting from the funding calls for the sector in the Italian Veneto region. The Throsby’s model is derived from the principle that cultural content is free from incorporating creative ideas into the production of goods, and that such ideas arise from the primary arts (music, theatre, dance, visual arts and literature). These make up the heart of the cultural industries, while the surrounding circles represent the ideas and influences that these creative activities radiate. The results of the strategic mapping will be put into dialogue with a new idea of entrepreneurship, which in part excludes the Core creative arts, i.e. the primary arts.

SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Italian Veneto region: adverse outcomes in patients with cancer.

In 84,246 consecutive Italians tested for SARS-CoV-2, we examined the prevalence of cancer and clinical outcomes of viral infection. Overall, 5.7% (4,789/84,246) had previously been diagnosed with cancer and, among the SARS-CoV-2-positive (CV2+ve) patients, 7.8% had a cancer diagnosis (723/9,275). Prevalence of cancer was not associated with risk of infection (odds ratio of 0.97; 95% confidence interval of 0.89-1.06). The proportion of CV2+ve people hospitalized was higher among patients with cancer (56.6 versus 34.4% among other people), and so was the proportion of deaths (14.7% versus 4.5%). The risk of adverse outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection was significantly higher for patients with cancer versus those without, particularly for males and older people.

The Construction of the Territorial Image in Tourism Websites: The Case of the Veneto Provinces

Websites are popular platforms for institutional Tourist Boards that want to promote their territories to visitors from all over the world. When tourism promotion is directly conducted by local institutions it entails greater responsibilities for the promoters since they are the real, actual territory introducing itself to prospective tourists. Therefore, the construction of the territorial image is fundamental to convey the aspects that best symbolize the land and that, eventually, will be the reason why tourists will choose to visit the area. This study investigates how local institutions in the Italian region of Veneto promote their districts (a.k.a. ‘provinces’) both in English and in Italian. To do so, the official tourism websites of the seven Veneto provinces are considered. The corpora, composed of texts taken from the websites, are examined quantitatively and qualitatively to identify the most recurrent keywords used in the texts. The aim is to identify the most representative aspects chosen by the seven territories as their symbolic markers, i.e. elements typical of a destination that are selected to provide an iconic, but also stereotypical, image of the local culture they are promoting.

Insights into the genetic epidemiology of spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy: prevalence estimation and multiple founder haplotypes in the Veneto Italian region.

Literature data on spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) epidemiology are limited and restricted to specific populations. The aim of our study was to accurately collect information about SBMA patients living in the Veneto region in Italy to compute reliable epidemiological data. Androgen receptor (AR) lineages were genotyped to evaluate the presence of a founder effect. A prevalence survey considering all SBMA patients diagnosed in the Italian Veneto region on 31 January 2018 was carried out. The presence of different haplotypes obtained genotyping 15 polymorphic markers (single nucleotide polymorphisms and short tandem repeats) around the AR gene was evaluated. Based on 68 patients, the punctual prevalence of the disease on 31 January 2018 was 2.58/100000 (95% confidence interval 1.65-3.35) in the male population. Five different haplotypes were identified, confirming the existence of multiple founder effects. It was also observed that, within the same haplotype, patients had a similar CAG repeat number (P-value<0.001). A reliable estimation of SBMA prevalence in the Italian Veneto region was calculated which does not seem to be affected by a strong founder effect. Moreover, our data suggest that the length of the CAG expansion could be preserved in patients harbouring the same haplotype.

“NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!” IDENTIFYING POSITIONALITIES ANDBOUNDARY SHIFTING IN ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK

In the field of migration studies there has been significant debate around the advantages associated with sharing a national or ethnic belonging with research participants. This article joins the recent contributions of female migrant investigators who have opted for what I here refer to as positional reflexivity, questioning the aprioristic conditions of insiderness or outsiderness and advocating for a constant revision of the positionalities and negotiations of power that come into play in the field. I describe the considerations generated by the implementation of this approach in a qualitative study I carried out in the Italian region of Veneto, in which I examined the complex and shifting boundaries that were explicitly mentioned during my encounters with key informants in institutional and associational environments, as well as during interviews with first and second generation Argentinian migrants. I observe that multiple positionalities such as legal status, university position, national and provincial origin, ethnic origin,migratory generation, gender and age conditioned my interactions with research participants.

SCREENING OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF POLLUTION WITH THE QGIS PLUGIN ENVIFATE

Abstract. Public and academic interest in environmental pollution caused by toxic substances and other sources, like noise, is constantly raising. To protect public health and ecosystems it is necessary to maintain the concentrations of pollutants below a safety threshold. In this context the development of models able to assess environmental pollution impact has been identified as a priority for future research. Scientific community has therefore produced many predictive models in the field. The vast majority of them needs to be run by specialists with a deep technical knowledge of the modeled phenomena in order to process the data and understand the results and it is not feasible to use this models for simple prescreening activities. Planners, evaluators and technical operators need reliable, usable and simple tools in order to carry out screening analysis of impact assessment. The ENVIFATE software is currently under development by the Department of Civil, environmental and mechanical engineering of the University of Trento, Italy, in the frame of a project funded by the Italian Veneto Region with the aim to make available to nonspecialists screening analysis to assess the risks of a set of possible environmental pollution sources in protected areas. The development of ENVIFATE follows these basic requirements: i) Open-Source ii) multiplatform iii) user friendly iv) GIS oriented. In order to respect these principles we have chosen to develop a plugin of QGIS, using python as a development language and creating a module for each environmental compartment analyzed: rivers, lakes, atmospheric dispersion, dispersion in groundwater and noise. The plugin architecture is composed of a series of core functions characterized by command line interfaces that can be called from third-party applications (such as Grass GIS), connectable in custom data flows and with a high level of modularity and scalability. The base of the different models are highly tested and reliable algorithms adopted by the Italian Institute for Protection and Environmental Research (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale – ISPRA). Due to their simplicity, and for safety reasons, the structure of these models is constrained to provide conservative results, so to overestimate actual risk. This approach allows to provide statistically validated instruments to be used in different environmental contexts. All modules of the plugin provide numerical and cartographical results: in particular the command-line interface provides "static" results, or linked to a particular spatial and temporal state, while the Qgis plugins iterate the single analysis along space and time in order to provide georeferenced maps and time distributed results.

Exclusionary intimacies: Racialized language in Veneto, Northern Italy

While Italy has been a country of emigrants, since the 1970s, it has become a receiver of migrants. These recent, reverse direction migratory flows have triggered strong reactions, such as nativist discourses about national culture and identity and the aggressive anti-immigration politics of the Lega Nord (‘Northern League’). This article examines how racialized language in the Northern Italian region of Veneto is at times performed in ways that totally or partially exclude certain migrant groups, while at the same time creating intimate spaces of inclusion for Italians. By codeswitching from Standard Italian to Venetan, speech participants address audiences who are presumed to “share” this code, but when the topics of their conversations are migrants, such shifts can also enact exclusionary stances vis-a-vis the latter. This article demonstrates that familiar analytic dichotomies such as exclusion/inclusion and insider/outsider are inadequate, and it proposes more processual and gradient approaches to participation.

High wage workers and high wage peers

This paper investigates the effect of coworker characteristics on wages, measured by the average person effect of coworkers in a wage regression. The effect of interest is identified from within-firm changes in workforce composition, controlling for person effects, firm effects, and sector-specific time trends. My estimates are based on a linked employer employee dataset for the population of workers and firms of the Italian region of Veneto for years 1982-2001. I find that a 0.1 increase in the average labour market value of coworkers’ skills (which is around one within-person standard deviation) is associated with a 3.6 percent wage premium. I also find that a sizeable share of the wage variation previously explained by unobserved individual and firm heterogeneity may be due to variation in coworker skills. An event-type study, a Placebo exercise and a series of heterogeneity analyses lend credibility to the baseline results. I also evaluate the role of the spillover effects for wage differentials between specific groups of workers. I find that around 12 percent of the gender wage gap and 10 to 16 percent of the immigrant wage gap can be explained by differences in coworker characteristics.

Research on the meaning of the enzymatic systems (GPI and PGM) as parameters for the definition of varieties ( Vitis sp.): The Italian case of Cabernet franc

Several studies carried out at Davis and Conegliano showed that isozyme analysis of the GPI and PGM enzymatic systems agrees with the conventional definition of the variety in ampelography. Differences were reported among varieties but not among biotypes of the same varieties. The only exception recorded was in the population of Cabernet franc in which GPI and PGM reveal two different types (A - the traditional type encountered in France and B - type encountered in the Italian region of Veneto). Further ampelographic, ampelometric, phenological and chemical studies on the polyphenolic and aromatic substances in fruits have shown considerable differences between the two types. Such differences demonstrate that the type B is a different variety and not a clone of Cabernet franc. Preliminary ampelographic analysis and the equality in GPI and PGM patterns lead to the conclusion that the type B very probably is Carmenere. Therefore, the hypothesis of variety discrimination based on the analysis of GPI and PGM is valid and this method is useful to help to characterize the varieties.

A performance evaluation of the CAMx air quality model to forecast ozone and PM10 over the Italian region of Veneto

A performance evaluation of the CAMx air quality model to forecast ozone and PM10 over the Italian region of Veneto

Final Bronze Age and social change in Veneto

This contribution proposes a theoretical framework for the investigation of ethnicity, group membership and socio-political change in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (approximately 12th – 9th centuries BC). By drawing on research in the humanities and social science emphasising the multi-faceted, culturally variable and blurred nature of ethnicity, this article will suggest that a review of current approaches to ethnic formation in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy is needed. In particular, I will propose a shift in the focus of research from the grand-scale of ethnogenesis as discussed in relation to macro-entities such as the Etruscans, the Veneti and the Latins – to the more subtle practices of interaction and identity negotiation that took place among social agents at the micro-scale. In doing so, I will tackle the issue of whether specific forms of social inclusion and construction of group membership that are attested in Veneto during the 1st-millennium BC might have started to develop before the Final Bronze Age/ Iron Age transition.

Cost overrun and auction format in small size public works

We study the effect on cost overruns of two different auction formats, the first price sealed bid and the average bid, conditional on whether entry is open or restricted. The first price format awards the contract to the lowest bid, while the average bid format awards the contract to the bid closest to the average of all the bids. This latter format is supposed to prevent an unreliable low bidder from winning the auction; as a consequence cost overruns should be lower under the average bid than under the first price format. We test this hypothesis with a panel data set of auctions held in the Italian Veneto region between 2004 and 2006, including small size public projects in sectors such as road works and building maintenance. We find that cost overruns are lower under the average bid format, but only when the entry is restricted. We then speculate on possible explanations for this result.

Secondary contact and admixture between independently invading populations of the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera in Europe.

The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is one of the most destructive pests of corn in North America and is currently invading Europe. The two major invasive outbreaks of rootworm in Europe have occurred, in North-West Italy and in Central and South-Eastern Europe. These two outbreaks originated from independent introductions from North America. Secondary contact probably occurred in North Italy between these two outbreaks, in 2008. We used 13 microsatellite markers to conduct a population genetics study, to demonstrate that this geographic contact resulted in a zone of admixture in the Italian region of Veneto. We show that i) genetic variation is greater in the contact zone than in the parental outbreaks; ii) several signs of admixture were detected in some Venetian samples, in a Bayesian analysis of the population structure and in an approximate Bayesian computation analysis of historical scenarios and, finally, iii) allelic frequency clines were observed at microsatellite loci. The contact between the invasive outbreaks in North-West Italy and Central and South-Eastern Europe resulted in a zone of admixture, with particular characteristics. The evolutionary implications of the existence of a zone of admixture in Northern Italy and their possible impact on the invasion success of the western corn rootworm are discussed.

Tacit Consent: The Church and Birth Control in Northern Italy

This article employs novel documentation to examine ways in which the Church's moral rules on contraception were (or were not) communicated to parishioners in a predominantly Catholic context in a period of rapid fertility decline: the diocese of Padua, in the northeastern Italian region of Veneto, during the first half of the twentieth century. The account is based on documents that have until now been overlooked: the moral cases discussed during the periodic meetings among Padua priests in the years 1916–58, and the written answers provided by priests in response to a question asked of them concerning their efforts to combat the limiting of births. This documentation reveals the limited effect on the reproductive behavior of the position of the Catholic Church against birth control.

Stressful Life Events and Social Health Factors in Women Using Anxiolytics and Antidepressants: An Italian Observational Study in Community Pharmacies

In Italy, as in all of Europe, women differ from men in that they are somewhat more sensitive to the depressogenic effects of stressful life events related to their social networks and emotional sphere. Women are more likely than men to have experienced poverty, gender discrimination, and physical and sexual abuse. The purpose of this study was to expand the knowledge about the occurrence of stressful life events in women exposed and not exposed to anxiolytics and antidepressants in a community pharmacy setting. Women attending 100 community pharmacies in the Italian Veneto region were surveyed by pharmacists with regard to a number of general features of their current pharmacologic treatment. Women independently completed a written self-assessment questionnaire that focused on stressful life events. Unconditional logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between anxiolytics and antidepressants use and potential factors, including stressful life events. The study population comprised 11,357 women. One or more stressful life events occurred in 90% of the women treated with anxiolytics and/or antidepressants (users [n = 3848]) and in 74% of the women not treated with these drugs (nonusers [n = 7509]) (odds ratio = 3.19; 95% CI, 2.83-3.60). On average, the life events occurred during the previous 6 months and the women considered the influence of these events on their well-being to be severe. After the unconditional logistic regression analysis, the association between anxiolytics and/or antidepressants use remained positive for most of the stressful life events studied as well as for other factors: separation/divorce, living alone or with others (family or friends), unemployment, whether currently being seen by a psychologist/psychiatrist, and treatment with drugs for the alimentary tract and metabolism, cardiovascular system, or nervous system. A significant association between stressful life events and anxiolytics and/or antidepressants use was observed. Further efforts are needed to increase our knowledge of the use of anxiolytics or antidepressants in relation to the occurrence of life events.

Cost Overrun and Auction Format in Public Works

We provide an empirical investigation of cost overruns in small public procurement projects, using a panel dataset of auctions held in the Italian Veneto region between 2004 and 2006. We use this sample to study the effect on cost overruns of auction formats (average bid as opposed to first price rule) conditional on the entry mechanisms (free as opposed to limited access). It is commonly believed that cost overruns are lower under average bid auctions telative to first price auctions. We find support to this believe only when access to the auction is limited. We interpret this findings as evidence that winner's adverse selection is an important problem in auctions for small size public works, and the lack of a significant effect of the average bid format in free entry auctions may reflect collusion.